The Deep Range Part 7

Franklin sometimes wondered if Don resented his own rapid rise in the service. Five years ago, Don had been a first warden; Franklin, a completely inexperienced trainee. Now they were both first wardens, and before long Franklin would probably be promoted again. He did not altogether welcome this, for, though he was ambitious enough, he knew that the higher he rose in the bureau the less time he would spend at sea. Perhaps Don knew what he was doing; it was very hard to picture him settling down in an office....

"Better try your lights," said Don's voice from the speaker. "Doc Roberts wants me to get a photograph of you."

"Right," Franklin replied. "Here goes."

"My-you do do look pretty! If I was another squid, I'm sure I'd find you irresistible. Swing broadside a minute. Thanks. Talk about a Christmas tree! It's the first time I've ever seen one making ten knots at six hundred fathoms." look pretty! If I was another squid, I'm sure I'd find you irresistible. Swing broadside a minute. Thanks. Talk about a Christmas tree! It's the first time I've ever seen one making ten knots at six hundred fathoms."

Franklin grinned and switched off the illuminations. This idea of Dr. Roberts' was simple enough, but it remained to be seen if it would work. In the lightless abyss, many creatures carry constellations of luminous organs which they can switch on or off at will, and the giant squid, with its enormous eyes, is particularly sensitive to such lights. It uses them not only to lure its prey into its clutches, but also to attract its mates. If squids were as intelligent as they were supposed to be, thought Franklin, Percy would soon see through his disguise. It would be ironic, however, if a deep-diving sperm whale was deceived and he had an unwanted fight on his hands.

The rocky bottom was now only five hundred feet below, every detail of it clearly traced on the short-range sonar scanner. It looked like an unpromising place for a search; there might be countless caves here in which Percy could hide beyond all hope of detection. On the other hand, the whales had detected him-to their cost. And anything that Physeter Physeter can do, Franklin told himself, my sub can do just as well. can do, Franklin told himself, my sub can do just as well.

"We're in luck," said Don. "The water's as clear as I've ever seen it down here. As long as we don't stir up any mud, we'll be able to see a couple of hundred feet."

That was important; Franklin's luminous lures would be useless if the water was too turbid for them to be visible. He switched on the external TV camera, and quickly located the faint glow of Don's starboard light, two hundred feet away. Yes, this was extremely good luck; it should simplify their task enormously.

Franklin tuned in to the nearest beacon and fixed his position with the utmost accuracy. To make doubly sure, he got Don to do the same, and they split the difference between them. Then, cruising slowly on parallel courses, they began their careful search of the sea bed.

It was unusual to find bare rock at such a depth, for the ocean bed is normally covered with a layer of mud and sediment hundreds or even thousands of feet thick. There must, Franklin decided, be powerful currents scouring this area clear-but there was certainly no current now, as his drift meter a.s.sured him. It was probably seasonal, and a.s.sociated with the ten-thousand-foot-deeper cleft of the Miller Canyon, only five miles away.

Every few seconds, Franklin switched on his pattern of colored lights, then watched the screen eagerly to see if there was any response. Before long he had half a dozen fantastic deep-sea fish following him-nightmare creatures, two or three feet long, with enormous jaws and ridiculously attenuated feelers and tendrils trailing from their bodies. The lure of his lights apparently overcame their fear of his engine vibration, which was an encouraging sign. Though his speed quickly left them behind, they were continually replaced by new monsters, no two of which appeared to be exactly the same.

Franklin paid relatively little attention to the TV screen; the longer-range senses of the sonar, warning him of what lay in the thousand feet ahead of him, were more important. Not only had he to keep a lookout for his quarry, but he had to avoid rocks and hillocks which might suddenly rear up in the track of the sub. He was doing only ten knots, which was slow enough, but it required all his concentration. Sometimes he felt as if he was flying at treetop height over hilly country in a thick fog.

They traveled five uneventful miles, then made a hairpin turn and came back on a parallel course. If they were doing nothing else, thought Franklin, at least they were producing a survey of this area in more detail than it had ever been mapped before. Both he and Don were operating with their recorders on, so that the profile of the sea bed beneath them was being automatically mapped.

"Whoever said this was an exciting life?" said Don when they made their fourth turn. "I've not even seen a baby octopus. Maybe we're scaring the squids away."

"Roberts said they're not very sensitive to vibrations, so I don't think that's likely. And somehow I feel that Percy isn't the sort who's easily scared."

"If he exists," said Don skeptically. he exists," said Don skeptically.

"Don't forget those six-inch sucker marks. What do you think made them-mice?"

"Hey!" said Don. "Have a look at that echo on bearing 250, range 750 feet. Looks like a rock, but I thought it moved then."

Another false alarm, Franklin told himself. No-the echo did seem a bit fuzzy. By G.o.d, it was was moving! moving!

"Cut speed to half a knot," he ordered. "Drop back behind me-I'll creep up slowly and switch on my lights."

"It's a weird-looking echo. Keeps changing size all the time."

"That sounds like our boy. Here we go."

The sub was now moving across an endless, slightly tilted plain, still accompanied by its inquisitive retinue of finned dragons. On the TV screen all objects were lost in the haze at a distance of about a hundred and fifty feet; the full power of the ultraviolet projectors could probe the water no farther than this. Franklin switched off his headlights and all external illumination, and continued his cautious approach using the sonar screen alone.

At five hundred feet the echo began to show its unmistakable structure; at four hundred feet there was no longer any doubt; at three hundred feet Franklin's escort of fish suddenly fled at high speed as if aware that this was no healthy spot. At two hundred feet he turned on his visual lures, but he waited a few seconds before switching on the searchlights and TV.

A forest was walking across the sea bed-a forest of writhing, serpentine trunks. The great squid froze for a moment as if impaled by the searchlights; probably it could see them, though they were invisible to human eyes. Then it gathered up its tentacles with incredible swiftness, folding itself into a compact, streamlined ma.s.s-and shot straight toward the sub under the full power of its own jet propulsion.

Itswervedatthelastminute,and Franklin caught a glimpse of a huge and lidless eye that must have been at least a foot in diameter. A second later there was a violent blow on the hull, followed by a sc.r.a.ping sound as of great claws being dragged across metal. Franklin remembered the scars he had so often seen on the blubbery hides of sperm whales, and was glad of the thickness of steel that protected him. He could hear the wiring of his external illumination being ripped away; no matter-it had served its purpose.

It was impossible to tell what the squid was doing; from time to time the sub rocked violently, but Franklin made no effort to escape. Unless things got a little too rough, he proposed to stay here and take it.

"Can you see what he's doing?" he asked Don, rather plaintively.

"Yes-he's got his eight arms wrapped around you, and the two big tentacles are waving hopefully at me. And he's going through the most beautiful color changes you can imagine-I can't begin to describe them. I wish I knew whether he's really trying to eat you-or whether he's just being affectionate."

"Whichever it is, it's not very comfortable. Hurry up and take your photos so that I can get out of here."

"Right-give me another couple of minutes so I can get a movie sequence as well. Then I'll try to plant my harpoon."

It seemed a long two minutes, but at last Don had finished. Percy still showed none of the shyness which Dr. Roberts had rather confidently predicted, though by this time he could hardly have imagined that Franklin's sub was another squid.

Don planted his dart with neatness and precision in the thickest part of Percy's mantle, where it would lodge securely but would do no damage. At the sudden sting, the great mollusk abruptly released its grip, and Franklin took the opportunity for going full speed ahead. He felt the h.o.r.n.y palps grating over the stern of the sub; then he was free and rising swiftly up toward the distant sky. He felt rather pleased that he had managed to escape without using any of the battery of weapons that had been provided for this very purpose.

Don followed him at once, and they circled five hundred feet above the sea bed-far beyond visual range. On the sonar screen the rocky bottom was a sharply defined plane, but now at its center pulsed a tiny, brilliant star. The little beacon -less than six inches long and barely an inch wide-that had been anch.o.r.ed in Percy was already doing its job. It would continue to operate for more than a week before its batteries failed.

"We've tagged him!" cried Don gleefully. "Now he can't hide."

"As long as he doesn't get rid of that dart," said Franklin cautiously. "If he works it out, we'll have to start looking for him all over again."

"I aimed it," pointed out Don severely. "Bet you ten to one it stays put." aimed it," pointed out Don severely. "Bet you ten to one it stays put."

"If I've learned one thing in this game," said Franklin, "it's not to accept your bets." He brought the drive up to maximum cruising power, and pointed the sub's nose to the surface, still more than half a mile away. "Let's not keep Doc Roberts waiting-the poor man will be crazy with impatience. Besides, I want to see those pictures myself. It's the first time I've ever played a starring role with a giant squid."

And this, he reminded himself, was only the curtain raiser. The main feature had still to begin.

Fifteen.

HOW NICE IT is," said Franklin, as he relaxed lazily in the contour-form chair on the porch, "to have a wife who's not scared stiff of the job I'm doing."

"There are times when I am," admitted Indra. "I don't like these deep-water operations. If anything goes wrong down there, you don't have a chance."

"You can drown just as easily in ten feet of water as ten thousand."

"That's silly, and you know it. Besides, no warden has ever been killed by drowning, as far as I've ever heard. The things that happen to them are never as nice and simple as that."

"I'm sorry I started this conversation," said Franklin ruefully, glancing around to see if Peter was safely out of earshot. "Anyway, you're not worried about Operation Percy, are you?"

"No, I don't think so. I'm as anxious as everybody else to see you catch him-and I'm still more interested to see if Dr. Roberts can keep him alive." She rose to her feet and walked over to the bookshelf recessed into the wall. Plowing through the usual pile of papers and magazines that had acc.u.mulated there, she finally unearthed the volume for which she was looking.

"Listen to this," she continued, "and remember that it was written almost two hundred years ago." She began to read in her best lecture-room voice, while Franklin listened at first with mild reluctance, and then with complete absorption. "In the distance, a great white ma.s.s lazily rose, and rising higher and higher, and disentangling itself from the azure, at last gleamed before our prow like a snow-slide, new slid from the hills. Thus glistening for a moment, as slowly it subsided, and sank. Then once more arose, and slightly gleamed. It seemed not a whale; and yet is this Moby d.i.c.k? thought Daggoo. Again the phantom went down, but on reappearing once more, like a stiletto-like cry that startled every man from his nod, the negro yelled out-'There! There again! There she breaches! Right ahead! The White Whale! The White Whale!' "

"The four boats were soon on the water; Ahab's in advance, and all swiftly pulling towards their prey. Soon it went down, and while, with oars suspended, we were awaiting its appearance, lo! in the same spot where it sank, once more it slowly rose. Almost forgetting for the moment all thoughts of Moby d.i.c.k, we now gazed at the most wondrous phenomenon which the secret seas have hitherto revealed to mankind. A vast pulpy ma.s.s, furlongs in length and breadth, of a glancing cream-colour, lay floating on the water, innumerable long arms radiating from its centre, and curling and twisting like a nest of anacondas, as if blindly to catch at any hapless object within reach. No perceptible face or front did it have; no conceivable token of either sensation or instinct; but undulated there on the billows, an unearthly, formless, chance-like apparition of life.

"As with a low sucking sound it slowly disappeared again, Starbuck still gazing at the agitated waters where it had sunk, with a wild voice exclaimed-'Almost rather had I seen Moby d.i.c.k and fought him, then to have seen thee, thou white ghost!'

" 'What was it, Sir?' said Flask.

" 'The great live squid, which, they say, few whale-s.h.i.+ps ever beheld, and returned to their ports to tell of it.'

"But Ahab said nothing; turning his boat, he sailed back to the vessel; the rest as silently following."

Indra paused, closed the book, and waited for her husband's response. Franklin stirred himself in the too-comfortable couch and said thoughtfully: "I'd forgotten that bit-if I ever read as far. It rings true to life, but what was a squid doing on the surface?"

"It was probably dying. They sometimes surface at night, but never in the daytime, and Melville says this was on 'one transparent blue morning.' "

"Anyway, what's a furlong? I'd like to know if Melville's squid was as big as Percy. The photos make him a hundred and thirty feet from his flukes to the tips of his feelers." "So he beats the largest blue whale ever recorded."

"Yes, by a couple of feet. But of course he doesn't weigh a tenth as much."

Franklin heaved himself from his couch and went in search of a dictionary. Presently Indra heard indignant noises coming from the living room, and called out: "What's the matter?"

"It says here that a furlong is an obsolete measure of length equal to an eighth of a mile. Melville was talking through his hat."

"He's usually very accurate, at least as far as whales are concerned. But 'furlong' is obviously ridiculous-I'm surprised no one's spotted it before. He must have meant fathoms, or else the printer got it wrong."

Slightly mollified, Franklin put down the dictionary and came back to the porch. He was just in time to see Don Burley arrive, sweep Indra off her feet, plant a large but brotherly kiss on her forehead, and dump her back in her chair.

"Come along, Walt!" he said. "Got your things packed? I'll give you a lift to the airport."

"Where's Peter hiding?" said Franklin. "Peter! Come and say good-by-Daddy's off to work."

A four-year-old bundle of uncontrollable energy came flying into the room, almost capsizing his father as he jumped into his arms.

"Daddy's going to bring me back a "quid?" he asked.

"Hey-how did you know about all this?"

"It was on the news this morning, while you were still asleep," explained Indra. "They showed a few seconds of Don's film, too."

"I was afraid of that. Now we'll have to work with a crowd of cameramen and reporters looking over our shoulders. That means that something's sure to go wrong."

"They can't follow us down to the bottom, anyway," said Burley.

"I hope you're right-but don't forget we're not the only people with deep-sea subs."

"I don't know how you put up with him," Don protested to Indra. "Does he always always look on the black side of things?" look on the black side of things?"

"Not always," smiled Indra, as she unraveled Peter from his father. "He's cheerful at least twice a week."

Her smile faded as she watched the sleek sportster go whispering down the hill. She was very fond of Don, who was practically a member of the family, and there were times when she worried about him. It seemed a pity that he had never married and settled down; the nomadic, promiscuous life he led could hardly be very satisfying. Since they had known him, he had spent almost all his time on or under the sea, apart from hectic leaves when he had used their home as a base-at their invitation but often to their embarra.s.sment when there were unexpected lady guests to entertain at breakfast.

Their own life, by many standards, had been nomadic enough, but at least they had always had a place they could call home. That apartment in Brisbane, where her brief but happy career as a lecturer at the University of Queensland had ended with the birth of Peter; that bungalow in Fiji, with the roof that had a mobile leak which the builders could never find; the married quarters at the South Georgia whaling station (she could still smell the mountains of offal, and see the gulls wheeling over the flensing yards); and finally, this house looking out across the sea to the other islands of Hawaii. Four homes in five years might seem excessive to many people, but for a warden's wife Indra knew she had done well.

She had few regrets for the career that had been temporarily interrupted. When Peter was old enough, she told herself, she would go back to her research; even now she read all the literature and kept in touch with current work. Only a few months ago the Journal of Selachians Journal of Selachians had published her letter "On the possible evolution of the Goblin Shark had published her letter "On the possible evolution of the Goblin Shark (Scapanorhynchus owstoni)," (Scapanorhynchus owstoni)," and she had since been involved in an enjoyable controversy with all five of the scientists qualified to discuss the subject. and she had since been involved in an enjoyable controversy with all five of the scientists qualified to discuss the subject.

Even if nothing came of these dreams, it was pleasant to have them and to know you might make the best of both worlds. So Indra Franklin, housewife and ichthyologist, told herself as she went back into the kitchen to prepare lunch for her ever-hungry son.

The floating dock had been modified in many ways that would have baffled its original designers. A thick steel mesh, supported on st.u.r.dy insulators, extended its entire length, and above this mesh was a canvas awning to cut out the sunlight which would injure Percy's sensitive eyes and skin. The only illumination inside the dock came from a battery of amber-tinted bulbs; at the moment, however, the great doors at either end of the huge concrete box were open, letting in both sunlight and water.

The two subs, barely awash, lay tied up beside the crowded catwalk as Dr. Roberts gave his final instructions.

"I'll try not to bother you too much when you're down there," he said, "but for heaven's sake tell me what's going on."

"We'll be too busy to give a running commentary," answered Don with a grin, "but we'll do our best. And if any- thing goes wrong, trust us to yell right away. All set, Walt?"

"O.K.," said Franklin, climbing down into the hatch. "See you in five hours, with Percy-I hope."

They wasted no time in diving to the sea bed; less than ten minutes later there was four thousand feet of water overhead, and the familiar rocky terrain was imaged on TV and sonar screen. But there was no sign of the pulsing star that should have indicated the presence of Percy.

"Hope the beacon hasn't packed up," said Franklin as he reported this news to the hopefully waiting scientists. "If it has, it may take us days to locate him again."

"Do you suppose he's left the area? I wouldn't blame him," added Don.

Dr. Roberts' voice, still confident and a.s.sured, came down to them from the distant world of sun and light almost a mile above.

"He's probably hiding in a cleft, or s.h.i.+elded by rock. I suggest you rise five hundred feet so that you're well clear of all the sea-bed irregularities, and start a high-speed search. That beacon has a range of more than a mile, so you'll pick him up pretty quickly."

An hour later even the doctor sounded less confident, and from the comments that leaked down to them over the sonar communicator it appeared that the reporters and TV networks were getting impatient.

"There's only one place he can be," said Roberts at last. "If he's there at all, and the beacon's still working, he must have gone down into the Miller Canyon."

"That's fifteen thousand feet deep," protested Don. "These subs are only cleared for twelve."

"I know-I know. But he won't have gone to the bottom. He's probably hunting somewhere down the slope. You'll see him easily if he's there."

"Right," replied Franklin, not very optimistically. "We'll go and have a look. But if he's more than twelve thousand feet down, he'll have to stay there."

On the sonar screen, the canyon was clearly visible as a sudden gap in the luminous image of the sea bed. It came rapidly closer as the two subs raced toward it at forty knots -the fastest creatures, Franklin mused, anywhere beneath the surface of the sea. He had once flown low toward the Grand Canyon, and seen the land below suddenly whipped away as the enormous cavity gaped beneath him. And now, though he must rely for vision solely on the pattern of echoes brought back by his probing sound waves, he felt exactly that same sensation as he swept across the edge of this still mightier chasm in the ocean floor.

He had scarcely finished the thought when Don's voice, high-pitched with excitement, came yelling from the speaker, "There he is! A thousand feet down!"

"No need to break my eardrums," grumbled Franklin. "I can see him."

The precipitous slope of the canyon wall was etched like an almost vertical line down the center of the sonar screen. Creeping along the face of that wall was the tiny, twinkling star for which they had been searching. The patient beacon had betrayed Percy to his hunters.

They reported the situation to Dr. Roberts; Franklin could picture the jubilation and excitement up above, some hints of which trickled down through the open microphone. Presently Dr. Roberts, a little breathless, asked: "Do you think you can still carry out our plan?"

"I'll try," he answered. "It won't be easy with this cliff face right beside us, and I hope there aren't any caves Percy can crawl into. You ready, Don?"

"All set to follow you down."