Chapter No. 15 Guarantee of Truth

The only light in the main instrument room comes from a computer screen. Changing light patterns dance ghost-like on two intense faces positioned in front of that screen, their eyes riveted on the displayed images as if mesmerized. They desperately search for some scrap of evidence, some positive sign that would explain the creatures they had recorded.

A shadow appears in the hatchway behind the two faces, but the source of the shadow doesn't say anything. It watches in silence.

One of the faces eventually senses the shadow and turns around.

"Oh, Dr. Wang," said Margaret, squinting. "How long have you been standing there?"

Wang came into the room and stood directly behind Eric. "Replay the section in which the creatures swim past your vessel."

"Yes, sir." Eric moved a mouse and clicked it as fast as he could. He had no idea what Wang was going to see that he and his wife hadn't spotted after several hours of playing and replaying the tape that they had recorded on their last run.

The screen soon displayed two unearthly forms shooting by the mini-sub's observation bubble too fast to make out anything.

"We've already saved the tape on the hard drive," Eric said. "We can slow the replay down."

"Advance the replay one frame at a time."

The two creatures barely crept into view in the first frame. They were already at the mid point of their trajectory past the sub in the next.

"Freeze on that frame." Wang bent over Eric's shoulder to obtain a better view.

After several seconds of study, Wang pointed at one of the creatures. "Isolate the front of this figure."

Eric used the mouse to cut out a section of the image. He clicked on a menu and selected a command that displayed the cut- out section full screen. The creature's face and arm were the predominant objects on the screen.

Wang drew an imaginary circle around a displayed hand that held a strange triangular shaped object. "Blow this section up."

With a few mouse moves and clicks, Eric made the hand holding the object fill the screen. Margaret turned to watch Wang's reaction. His eyes widened but he said nothing. He walked over to the bulkhead near the doorway and pressed the intercom's control room button.

"Captain Stubens."

Several seconds passed before a reply. "Burning some midnight oil, doctor, or just a case of indigestion?"

"We must assemble the staff--a matter of great importance."

Stubens' voice sounded strained, with a coloring of skepticism. "It had better be good, especially at this time of night."

Wang made no attempt to justify his request. The Captain had enough respect for the Institute's top scientist to give him the benefit of the doubt. Despite the fact that he was Captain, he realized that Dr. Wang was in charge of the expedition even though it had been prematurely aborted.

"I'll make the calls," said Stubens after a pause.

Wang turned to Eric. "Make hard copies of that screen and the full frames."

Eric could sense a hint of urgency in Wang's voice, and that ratcheted his own excitement up several notches. In fact, he was down right flabbergasted. Up to now, Dr. Wang had shown no detectable interest in his work. Wang's specialty was marine mammal biology, not crustaceans and mollusks. Perhaps he was drawn to the possibility of the discovery of a completely new genus, something that was rare beyond the meaning of the word.

###

If a normal staff review perturbed the Institute's scientists, this late night unscheduled meeting of Wang's was grounds for serious griping and bitching, and George Stevens is at the head of the class when it came to that.

"Why couldn't this wait until morning? I just fell asleep after two hours of tossing and turning."

Joyce Conners cracked a wry smile. "What's the matter, Stevens, miss your beauty sleep?"

"Hah! Look who's talking! You could sleep the rest of the trip and it wouldn't do any good."

"Oh, yeah. Everyone would be better off if you slept the rest of the trip."

Dr. Wang cleared his throat, effectively ending their banter before it got out of control. "I'll waste no more of your time than needed. I believe that we must go back to investigate the Hauptman's creatures."

Stubens held his hand up as if he were halting traffic. "Wait a minute here. We can't go back. We've been ordered by Dr. Anderson to return to the Institute and expressly forbidden to make further attempts to enter the Galapagos region."

"I realize that," Wang said, nodding. "But, Anderson hasn't seen the Hauptman's tape."

"Oh, no!" George said with a whiny tone. "Here we go again with the Hauptman's tape. I can't believe that you really think they've discovered mermaids."

Wang stared grimly at Stevens for a few seconds before he posed a question. "What is the classic definition of a mermaid?"

"Why it . . . it's the top half of a human female attached to the bottom half of a fish. But what difference does it make? There are no such things. They're myths."

"You're correct, Dr. Stevens. There are no such things. The Hauptman's creatures are neither human nor fish."

Stevens' face twisted with frustration. "I don't understand . . . what kind of animals are they?"

Wang's eyes glistened with a hint of emotion, a demeanor extremely rare for him. "They are not animals; they are sentient beings."

Silence reigned for several moments. If anyone else had proposed that the planet Earth held a second sentient species, the scientists gathered there would have laughed. But this was the Nobel-Prize-winning biologist Dr. James Wang, noted for his uncompromising scientific thoroughness and attention to detail. His brilliant work had resulted in the discovery of several new species of clear water dolphins in the rivers of the Indonesian Lowlands. He was not known for making frivolous claims.

"How . . . What evidence do you have for this conclusion?" Stevens asked without his usual arrogant tone.

Wang gestured to Eric. Without hesitation, Eric placed the printouts on the mess table. Stevens picked up the close-up of the creature's hand. Conners and the rest studied the full frame prints.

"I don't understand," Stevens said. "What are we supposed to be seeing here?"

"This creature is holding a weapon," Wang explained. "Animals don't use weapons."

"But, how do you know that this is not a human wearing a suit?"

"No human can swim that fast. There is no way that this is a human."

Conners' face twisted with confusion. "Then what is it?"

"It's one of the Hauptman's mermaids," Stevens said in a sarcastic voice. "What else could it be?"

Eric waved his hand as if he were dismissing Stevens' statement. "Let's not jump to any conclusions. We don't really know what these creatures are . . . except to say that they're unlike anything we've ever seen before."

"How could this . . . this whatever-it-is have evaded detection?" Conners asked. "Even more important: how could something like this have evolved?"

Wang's eyes narrowed. "I don't know. But if we don't go back, we'll never find out."

"This is all well and good," the Captain said. "But Anderson ordered us not to return to the Galapagos. He said that the Ecuadorian government revoked our permits and our State Department has ruled the Galapagos Islands off limits."

"That doesn't make any sense," Conners said, shaking her head. "Is the United States in some sort of tiff with Ecuador?"

Stubens turned to Carl. "Have you heard any scuttlebutt on the airwaves?"

"Nothing. Not a hint of trouble. In fact, I caught a transmission between a flight out of Los Angeles and Quito air traffic control. Nothing was said that indicated a problem. If there is some diplomatic brouhaha, the news hounds aren't saying anything about it. If you want my opinion, I think there's something fishy--no pun intended--about this Ecuadorian business."

"I agree," Stubens said with a confident tensing of his jaw. "Someone is trying to keep us away from the Galapagos region, enough so to attack us. I for one would like to find out why."

He paused and scanned his eyes around the assembled group before he said in a stern voice: "However, we all must agree before this ship turns around and heads back. Before you decide, recall that we were nearly sunk there and we still have some systems off line."

"What about the rest of your crew?" Eric asked.

"Don't worry about them. They're all thoroughly pissed off by the attack."

Eric started to smile, but thought better of it. No need to appear eager. He turned to Margaret and she immediately nodded.

"My wife and I wish to go back to Fernandina."

Stevens slapped his hand on the table in frustration. "If we're not at war with Ecuador, then what the hell's Anderson's problem?"

"Dr. Anderson has abandoned his scientific principles," Wang said. "He's just a bureaucrat following the orders of other bureaucrats. We must follow our own consciences on this. It's too important to just ignore. We are scientists dedicated to the search for truth. We have no other choice."

Another period of silence transpired before the scientists exchanged reassuring stares, nods, and confident smiles. Words were not necessary.

Well, not in Stevens' case.

"If you all think it's that important, then I guess we must go back. I just hope that we don't get our asses kicked in the process."

Conners fought back a smile. "That's as close to a yes vote that you'll get from Stevens here."

Stevens rewarded her with a scorching glare.

"Very well," Captain Stubens said, "We will turn around as soon as possible, but I warn you; be prepared for a rough time of it."

The Captain returned to the control room.

Eric turned to his wife and flashed a brief smile. He realized the seriousness of the situation but he wanted to reassure her.

She gritted her teeth andtensed her jaw. She knew that the real test was yet to come. It was everythingthat she and her husband wanted, but she was concerned that their lives couldbe in serious jeopardy.