David Golemon - Legend

"Clear," Jack said as he turned to Sarah and the two professors.

"A little out of my element here," Sarah commented.

"Nonsense, little lieutenant; it's just wet, otherwise it's like one of your caves," Jenks said as he adjusted her wetsuit. "Now climb aboard and take a seat. There's absolutely nothing for you to do but take in your soundings and snap your pictures and observe." He looked at Keating and Ellenshaw, who cowered back a step at his intense glare. "And I do mean observe , no turning of switches and no pushing of buttons, asking what's this, what's that. The little officer here is in charge down there, got it?"

"Yes, Chief, by all means, no buttons or switches," Ellenshaw said as he nodded his head slightly to the left toward Keating, indicating on the sly that it would be Keating who would indeed push buttons and turn switches, not him.

Jenks turned his glare exclusively on Keating for a moment, who flinched back another step. He didn't understand why he got the extra "chief" treatment because he hadn't seen the white-haired man indicate he was the troublemaker.

"All right, your chariot awaits, ladies." Jenks gestured and half bowed toward the open hatch.

Sarah and Jack exchanged a look, then she took the three steps up the small ladder and entered the bell. She was quickly followed by Keating and Ellenshaw, who were mumbling something about being called ladies . Jenks closed the hatch and turned a small wheel that tightened its seals. The passengers were out of sight below the collar that held Yoyo in place. Jenks slapped the rounded hull twice and then pulled a lever that freed the bell from its collar. Then he used a small hand pump to hydraulically open the large hatch below Yoyo , which when opened allowed a small rush of water into the space. It quickly drained and he used the winch controller to start lowering the bell. He stopped when the bell was completely awash, and put on his headphones.

"How are you reading, Yoyo ?" he called.

"Loud and clear," Sarah called back.

"You'll remain there until Turtle is in the water, clear?"

"Clear."

The master chief removed the headphones and gave them to Carl and turned to a nervous-looking Mendenhall. "Okay, Sergeant, let's get into this highly experimental, uncertified, and probably the most dangerous submersible ever built, shall we?"

Mendenhall didn't respond; he just looked at Jack and Carl and then slowly followed Jenks toward the raised acrylic cockpit of the Turtle .

Yoyo was lowered at fifteen feet per minute while Turtle zoomed around it in a spiral pattern, watching for telltale signs of leaking, which would be noticeable by small bubbles emanating from her titanium hull. Mendenhall momentarily felt dizzy as the fifteen-foot-long Turtle circled around the diving bell.

Sarah took active sonar soundings of the walls as they were lowered. The two professors watched out of their individual six-inch-thick portholes. They saw numerous fish, and took notes as to their species and the depth at which they were seen.

Sarah was writing down anomalies on her paper graph when she saw the sonar had picked up a large body of fish heading their way. She adjusted her headphones and placed the microphone close to her lips.

"Yoyo to Turtle , we have a large school of fish coming up on our starboard side, keep your eyes open," she said as she leaned back and pointed out Ellenshaw's window. She placed her hand over her mic. "Right out there," she whispered.

"Right, Yoyo , maybe we can bring back supper to fry up," Jenks called back.

Sarah didn't respond. She reached out and placed her sonar on active to track the school continuously. Suddenly Ellenshaw gasped out loudly and even the reserved Keating let out his breath.

"Those ain't no fish, they look like little scuba men," Jenks called over the radio.

Sarah leaned forward and saw the water around the bell was being inundated by the small, amphibious monkeys. There were close to a hundred as they darted in and out of the exterior lights. Sarah laughed as she watched them play. Keating jumped back when one came close to the window, held onto the frame for a moment, and then quickly darted away. Ellenshaw observed with utter fascination while writing frantically in his notebook. His mouth was wide open as he found himself in a world of his dreams.

"Jack, Carl, are you picking this up?"

"We are, we just piped your camera shots through to the labs," Jack called back.

"Should we snag one?" Jenks asked.

"NO!" Sarah and Jack said at the same time, almost cutting each other off.

"Chief, we're not here to antagonize anything, you're to observe only, are we clear on that?" Jack said.

"Clear, Major," the master chief answered sadly.

As he watched, a large group of the amphibians broke away from the main group and circled the Turtle . They kept pace easily by using their webbed hands and feet. Their tails were in constant motion as they whipped back and forth, supplying them with tremendous speed. Jenks laughed as one cut in front of the submersible and was bumped softly by the hull, then grasped the edge of the cockpit and stared inside at the two men. Mendenhall had to smile at the comical expression of the animal that clearly said it didn't know what had hit it. The monkey jabbered even while underwater, allowing a large flow of bubbles to escape its small mouth.

At the diving bell, the small creatures were hanging on in thick batches, trying to peer inside at the strangers to their underwater world. Sarah kept smiling and tapping on the glass, and the amphibians mimicked her action, in return tapping on the glass with their small claws.

A loud buzz sounded from her laptop. On the sonar graph she saw that it had picked up an anomaly on the far wall of the lagoon far below the opening behind the falls. She quickly noted the cave on the graph and marked its coordinates. Then, as she was about to turn back to her porthole, the computer chirped again. The sweep of sonar revealed a red blip coming at them from about five hundred yards. At that exact moment the small amphibians broke ranks and scattered in all directions. She looked at the sonar again; it was awash with tiny blips as the creatures fled. Their hasty retreat covered the red blip that had been there.

"Hey, what did Ellenshaw do, let them see his hair?" Jenks called jokingly over the radio.

Sarah didn't answer, she had picked up the blip again at a hundred yards closer than it had been before. Whatever it was, it was fast.

"Chief, we have company coming, and coming fast from the northern part of the lagoon. I think it came from the area of the falls."

Jenks didn't respond as he stopped Turtle 's gentle spiral and turned her toward the possible threat.

Sarah continued to watch as the target blip suddenly plunged below them. It was coming upon them at over twenty-five knots, she calculated quickly.

"Jack, we may have the landlord coming at us here," she said nervously into her microphone. "Whatever it is, it just went deep on us, it's down below both vessels at three hundred feet and still diving. It's not large enough for one of the plesiosaurs."

The two professors unsnapped their lap belts and tried to peer though the portholes at what was below them, beyond the exterior floodlights.

"You two, strap yourselves back in!" she said louder than she'd intended.

"Major, start winching the bell back up," Jenks called as he swung Turtle around a hundred degrees. He brought her airplanelike flaps up and applied thrust. Her water jet engine responded immediately.

"Roger, bringing her up," Jack responded.

Sarah felt the winch engage. The depth of the bell started to decline, as indicated on her depth gauges. She saw the target was only a hundred yards away and now coming shallow. Jenks wouldn't possibly get into position in time.