David Golemon - Legend

"Capitan, I have received a ping from three miles ahead of us," his radio/sonar man said from his small desk in the back of the wheelhouse.

"Senor Farbeaux, a signal from the Americans: someone has pinged us with an active sonar search."

Farbeaux was amazed the captain had any notion as to what an active sonar search involved.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, my equipment, while not state-of-the-art for the U.S. Navy, senor , is quite adequate for us South American rum runners," he said, smiling through his cigar smoke.

"I meant no disrespect, Captain. How far ahead would you say the search originated from?"

"My operator says three miles upriver, senor ," he said as he turned the large wheel and started for the bank in anticipation of the Frenchman's order.

"We'd better delay a while; they may have stopped for some reason, maybe an accidental ping? Nonetheless, we better anchor for a while, would you agree, Captain?"

" Si, senor , we are currently doing just that," the captain replied as he straightened the wheel and pulled the Rio Madonna alongside the south bank of the tributary.

Santos ordered the bow and stern anchors out and shut down his twin engines. Several men rushed aft and, with long poles, arrested the momentum of the large tow-barge that contained the Frenchman's equipment. When he was satisfied, he watched the sly Farbeaux as he went to the afterdeck to inform his majesty, Senor Mendez, of the delay. The shouting and tantrum at the unexpected layover would begin momentarily. The captain smiled as he wondered how long it would take for Farbeaux to put a bullet into that idiot's brain.

As he thought this, he wondered just who it had been to accidentally hit the active sonar button on the American boat, an accident that warned them the strange boat was stopped up ahead. Convenient , he thought and then laughed, happy that the Frenchman was on his side. But as he looked upriver his smile faded. Somewhere up ahead was a lagoon that was uncaring of laughter of any kind, rumored to be a place of sheer sorrow, and he was blindly following this Frenchman into the heart of that dark place. The captain removed a strange medal from inside the collar of his shirt, and kissed and replaced it. Then he turned off the overhead light and sat in the darkness, listening for the familiar sounds he had heard since his childhood. Ahead on the river, legends waited, as they had for thousands of years, to greet the greedy hands of man. Again, the captain reached for the medallion under his shirt and then crossed himself.

When Teacher slowly rounded a large bend, the calm waters suddenly angered and turned white with foam rapids. Jenks cursed and threw the two diesels into reverse. The crew, half on duty, half off and asleep in their bunks, were tossed forward. The ones on watch mostly lost their footing and fell to the deck, while the others cursed as they had heads slammed into overheads. A few even fell out of their tight bunks.

Jenks found he was fighting a losing battle as the river took hold of Teacher and thrust her forward as if she were on a wave. Whitewater was thrown over her bow glass as if she was submerging beneath the river. He cursed again when he felt a sudden blow underneath the hull and the boat rose two feet into the darkened space under the impenetrable canopy of trees. He found the emergency switches that controlled the underwater shields for the view ports and hit all as fast as he could. He couldn't hear the hydraulic whine that told him the steel shields were sliding into place.

Jack pulled himself along the sections until he reached the cockpit, and threw himself into the copilot's seat.

"What've we got here, Chief?" he asked as he placed his chair harness over his shoulders and tightened it down.

"Rapids out of nowhere, no warning at all; there wasn't a change in current indicating we had rough water ahead."

As they watched, Teacher slammed herself into a large rock outcropping and bounced back into the center of the now crazy tributary. She rocked twenty degrees to starboard and he could hear curses from the back as more people were slammed to the deck. Jack reached out, keyed the 1MC mic, and addressed those in the back.

"Everyone strap in," he shouted over the noise of the rapids.

Jenks pulled the joystick all the way to the right, trying to right Teacher as she again slammed into the far left bank. He could hear the twin jets at the stern as they caught mud and sand on the bank and shot it high into the air. Alarms started sounding on the console. There was a fire warning in the engineering section, and several hatch openings were reported. A damage alarm rang from section five, indicating she was taking on water.

"Son of a bitch! I hope those boys are standing by on that fire alarm," Jenks said as he throttled the engines into full reverse.

Teacher didn't respond as she ran for the center of the tributary.

"We're on a steep incline," Jack called out after looking at the level gauge.

"Impossible. There wasn't any current to speak of, unless we're falling into some sort of a damned hole," Jenks called back.

Other alarms sounded as Teacher was gouged somewhere in section eight.

"Chief, we have a major hole to the aft of section seven, between it and section eight," Carl called over the intercom.

"Handle it, Toad, we're a tad busy up here," Jenks said as the huge boat slammed into a rock in the center of the tributary and careened up into the air again before slamming back down into the white water with a giant splash, sending the cockpit ten feet beneath the swirling water. Again Teacher struck the right bank, this time encountering mostly rock. They all heard the sickening crunch of buckling composite material as she righted herself and rolled hard to port.

As suddenly as the white water had appeared it vanished, and Teacher was left spinning in a slow circle in the center of a much broader tributary. The floodlights picked out the twin banks as they spun toward the shoreline and then as they faced the river. Jenks hit the starboard jets and Teacher slowed her spin, but one of the jets must have sustained damage because she didn't slow fast enough. Finally the huge boat hit the sandy bank and that stopped her from spinning. He did the same on the aft-section jets and she stopped her spin off the rebound of the bank that would have sent her in the opposite direction. Jenks flipped the switch for automatic station keeping and hoped the system still functioned after the roller-coaster ride she had taken. Teacher was never designed for whitewater rafting. All was calm as he heard the jets engage in alternating blasts of water. Finally Teacher was at a complete standstill. The lights in all the aft sections had gone out and the crew was navigating by dull battery-driven emergency lighting only.

"Major, just aft of this section you'll find her lighting and instrumentation fuse box. Get that breaker back in so we can see how badly she's hurt, will ya?"

Jack unstrapped his safety harness and made his way aft. He quickly found the glass-covered panel and opened it. Three large breakers had popped. He pushed the first one and then the other two. The overheads came back on, and he could sense all hands breathed a sigh of relief. He heard Jenks on the intercom.

"Engineering, what's your status?" he asked.

"Give us a minute, Chief, we're still putting back some of the pieces here," Mendenhall called to him.