There was an uneasiness on the Horizon.

Logan was in the film lab developing film that was in my camera when something came to hover above Bill, me, and the reef. I don't know what Bill saw. I didn't see anything. I saw some motion after I fell over my tripod, knocking the camera over.

For the second time in three days, the professor asked me to remain silent about what I'd seen, or in this case, didn't see. Fortunately, Dolf heard enough to figure we'd seen something that had us returning to the Horizon with thirty minutes of air in our tanks.

As we waited for the film to be developed, I did my best to put the events of the last three days in perspective. Two days before, when Bill had Dolf ready the Scorpion, the university's submersible, for a dive, I didn't wait to be asked to go along. As Bill did a systems check, I slipped into the second beside him.

Bill glanced at me once I was sitting next to him.

"Is Logan coming? We'll need Dolf to take the air tanks out to make room for him," was all the professor had to say.

"No, he's working on the film we took this morning. It's just you and me, Professor," I said delighted.

There was nothing I liked more than getting into the water, and going in the water in the Scorpion was totally rad. The view was spectacular and there was no breathing apparatus to fool with.

While Bill was the least likely to do something out of the ordinary, my hope was that we'd go behind the reef and spend some time exploring the ruins.

So far, it had been extremely murky at the ruins behind the reef. This kept the ruins partially hidden by the sediment. If conditions improved, we might see something we hadn't been able to see before.

As Bill moved away from the Horizon, the clear canopy came down to establish the airtight seal. When I looked back at the ship, Dolf was heading up the ladder. He turned to watch us once he was on deck.

Captain Hertzog stood on the catwalk outside of the bridge. He always came out to watch the Scorpion's departure. He might, or might not, come out upon our return.

This was our first trip in the submersible this summer. Sidney Peacock spent time checking her systems before it went into the water on its first dive on the summer research trip. It hadn't been in the water for almost a year.

I might have been a little more thrilled than usual on the first dive of that summer in the Scorpion. My expectations were high. You never knew what might come up to the Scorpion's clear top to look in at the strange creatures inside.

The weather was perfect. It was warm but not hot. The sun was bright, but not too bright, and the seas were calm. There was plenty of humidity, but a breeze kept it pleasant except during the heat of the day.

There were no storms on the radar that morning. The good weather held since we'd arrived on site the week before. This made our daily activities more enjoyable. Before the dive started, the sun was over my right shoulder. Its heat dissipated quickly as we started to dive.

The water was clear and visibility was good.

As Bill took the Scorpion down, the sounds she made changed as air blew out and the batteries powered up to take us to the bottom. The water coming up to cover the canopy was like totally kewl. On brighter days I could see the tiny particles of sea life almost immediately.

That morning the three of us went diving on the reef. Logan and I set up in front of the reef. I watched everything Logan did. I tried to duplicate it. He set his equipment up twenty feet from where Bill was working. I placed my tripod a few feet from his.

I watched how he set the scene before zooming in on the section of reef Bill was most interested in. He let me look in his viewfinder to see his establishing shot and then again once he zoomed in on Bill's hands. I knew what to do and he said that I needed to keep doing it until it became automatic.

I still had to think about each move I made. I wasn't lame. I needed to take my time and not rush the things I did. I tended to rush if I didn't keep myself under control. You could do twice as much if you rushed, but the results sucked.

Logan broke off as I was zooming back in on Bill's busy hands. I watched the filmmaker move into the breach in the reef. He was going back to the ruins. He did not signal me to follow him. The idea he couldn't stay away from the mysterious spot came as no surprise. I felt its presence any time we were at the reef.

As time was running out on that morning's dive, I was running low on air and getting ready to surface. Logan appeared over top of the reef above Bill. It got Bill's attention, and he watched him settle down beside me.

Logan gave me the signal that he was about to surface. I indicated I'd be following him. I had, maybe, enough minutes of air left, and it took a few minutes to get my equipment attached.

I followed Logan. Bill stayed to wrap up that morning's work. He surfaced five minutes after we did. Both of us were climbing onto the dive platform by the time he did.

Logan was giving me a report on the ruins as Bill joined us. Dolf listened and he handed our equipment up to us once we got on deck. I knew we were going out on the Scorpion that afternoon, and the talk of the ruins didn't hurt our chances of going back to take a look see. That was my hope.

I questioned Logan on what he'd found behind the reef that day, but he told me it was still too murky to see clearly. He thought the trench, a few hundred yards away, had something to do with the unsettled bottom. He told me there was an odd pressure he felt on the trench side of the ruins.

It was a difficult spot to ignore. I'd gone back there twice with Logan. I paid more attention to Logan than to the blocks of stone scattered around. That's why I wanted to go back there in the Scorpion. By staying above it, we wouldn't stir up more sediment, which might give us a better look.

The summer before, after my father discovered the ruins, Logan couldn't wait to get back there to examine the site. I wanted to go with him. My father forbid it.

As was typical of last summer, I waited for my father to get busy with Bill, as they worked on the front of the reef, Logan and I were diving on the ruins. By the time our air was running out, we were back in front of the reef and no one was any the wiser until they saw the documentary I created out of last summer's footage.

The excitement over finding the ruins the summer before made careful conclusions impossible. Too much wild speculation was the order of the day. Bill played it down. My father was made uneasy by a mystery he wasn't likely to solve. I was drawn to the ruins like a bee to honey, but I was careful not to admit it to my father.

This afternoon, Logan stayed in the lab to process the film that was building up. I didn't bring my camera this time, because I didn't want the distraction. I wanted to look at the things we could see from the Scorpion.

We came down a short distance from the reef. We went along the face of the reef until we reached the other end. He moved along the floor on the return trip. We went slowly. Once we reached the breach in the reef, I was pleased when Bill moved the craft into the opening.

We were going behind the reef and that meant we were going to visit the ruins.

"What causes a break like that in a reef?" I asked.

"Hard to say. A seismic event perhaps. I don't know an underwater disturbance could do that to a healthy reef, but perhaps."

"Is a seismic event an earthquake?" I asked.

"The bedrock shifts rapidly, which causes cracks and possibly a break in a reef close to the event. We don't know if the same forces are at work underwater as on dry land, where plates shift. It would seem that the forces would be consistent on land or under the sea, but water pressure can account for some odd reactions."

It was on the return trip along the face of the reef that Bill turned the submersible into the break and let it settle on the floor on the far side of the reef.

Sea creatures scattered. Once we'd settled down for a minute or two, the strange shaped and brightly colored sea life began coming back to investigate.

They gathered around the clear top. There were a million tiny things to see, and it tickled me to have little fish kissing the clear top. They were watching us watch them.

Was that kewl, or what? I felt a little giddy.

We were facing the ruins once the Scorpion went silent.

"Too murky to even see the stones clearly. You formed any opinions on when and how those ruins got here?" Bill asked, knowing I had no idea.

"No, Sir," I confessed.

The Scorpion lifted off the floor and moved just above the floor until we'd gone completely around the ruins. I'd never seen it like we saw it that day. I'd been around it with my camera, and it was just swim and shoot, but in the Scorpion we got a remarkable view.

Bill changed how high we moved around the ruins. He went from one corner laterally across the ruins to the far corner. He lifted the craft to go to the center of the ruins. We stopped and looked down.

"This structure dates back before any recorded history I'm aware of," Bill said. "I find it amazing that these people could build something this sophisticated thousands of years ago."

"The Inca and Aztec structures?" I asked.

"Very good, Dylan. The Inca certainly did some amazing construction three, four, and maybe five thousand years ago. The Aztec are more modern than the Inca."

We turned in the direction of the trench my father warned me to stay away from because of erratic currents and pressure.

I reached for something to hold onto as we approached the trench. I looked toward Bill.

He isn't going to do what I think he's going to do. He isn't going to do what I think he's going to do, is he?

It surprised me when he nosed the Scorpion down, letting it drop into the trench. I felt like I was at the top of a roller coaster.

There was an immediate change in the handling of the Scorpion I felt from my seat. At first the submersible nosed down before abruptly jerking up. That's not how the professor did things.

"Oops! Didn't expect that. Let's see what we can see in here," Bill said, letting the Scorpion settle into the trench. It felt like something was pulling us toward the bottom. Dad said the trench was over 10,000 feet deep.

My hands reached for something more substantial to hold onto. I looked at Bill. I looked out in front of us. I looked down as we seemed to be plunging faster and faster toward the bottom of the ocean.

I did not like being here doing what we were doing.

The pressure inside the trench became more obvious. When Bill looked my way, he saw that the bottom had dropped out of my cast iron stomach. We'd gotten way out of my comfort zone.

I looked up to see that I couldn't see the top of the trench. I couldn't see the bottom either, but I knew where it was, and I wasn't thrilled with the speed in which we were going that way.

Being inside the trench and sinking fast hadn't disturbed the professor, until he realized Clay's kid was with him and he was white as a sheet.

The rate of downward trajectory slowed once we dropped several hundred feet into the abyss. I wasn't afraid, not exactly. I did not like that trench. The scientist beside me wanted to go even deeper.

What was he expecting to find? I knew when submersibles went too deep, they crumpled like an aluminum can.

I looked at Bill. He seemed oblivious to my alarm. The Scorpion turned hard right before being forced upward. Bill fought the controls as I wondered how deep he intended to go.

"Dad said the currents are tricky," I said, stating what had become obvious.

I didn't know whether to watch Bill or follow our downward trajectory. I kept hoping he'd call the dive off.

Bill looked at my face. He saw the blood draining from it.

My knuckles were white from holding on so tightly.

"This is a space age craft. It can withstand incredible forces."

I was not the least bit soothed by his faith in the Scorpion. I didn't want to find out what Scorpion's limits were, and my trust in the professor's good judgment was sinking fast.

He fought the steering mechanism for another few minutes before the craft began to rise.

"Probably don't want to push it any further," the professor said.

I couldn't say anything. I wanted out of there. I thought of saying, "Let's go back to the boat."

I couldn't say that. I couldn't admit my fear to Bill. I had difficulty admitting it to myself. I wasn't sure it was fear exactly.

I knew the trench was there. It made me curious about trenches, but I knew better than to go near it. My father said, 'Don't go near it. Water pressures are unpredictable, and I don't know what's in there.'

I'd been here before. I knew what was there. I had no fear of being underwater. I was curious about all mysterious stuff, but as we went down in the trench, I heard my father say, 'I don't know what's in there. Don't go near it.'

My father's worries were seldom enough to deter me, until now. Nothing he'd said concerning safety seemed more cogent than his warning about going near that trench.

I realized when the submersible was moving upward. It was slow and easy going with several jerks that rocked us back and forth. When I saw the light of day above us, I realized we were at the surface, and Bill motored toward the platform without speaking.

"We shouldn't talk about the trench in front of Captain Hertzog," Bill reminded me as we bumped the dive platform. As quick as the canopy opened, I was up and out of there before Dolf could attach the tether to hold the Scorpion in place.

I was on my way up the ladder without a word.

"What's wrong with him?" I heard Dolf ask.

"He has to go," Bill said.

I went to my cabin to calm down.

I never gave any thought to dying doing the things I did until that day. I was shaking worse once I got out of the Scorpion, than while we were heading toward the bottom of the trench. I could swear I heard the Scorpion starting to grown from the pressures on its hull.

When I looked at the submersible from that day forward, I saw a coffin. I continued to dive. I continued going with Logan to the ruins, but I got no closer to the trench than that.

The professor shook my world in a way no other experience did. It had all been good clean fun up until then. Whenever I went anywhere with my father, I felt invincible. I'd lost that feeling. I couldn't be sure I'd ever feel completely safe.

Two days later we ran into 'the thing,' which became how the unknown creature that hovered over us was referred to.

We were waiting for Logan to develop the film that was in my camera at the time we encountered the thing. We'd see if there was any evidence that might identify what the creature was.

I didn't like being scared and for the second time in three days, I had been scared out of my wits. I couldn't be sure what was going on or what was happening to me. I didn't think anything was on the film, but everyone was waiting to be sure.

Even before the film was developed, Logan had come to a conclusion about 'the thing' that got everyone's attention.

"It came out of that trench," Logan calculated.

It came out of the trench I wasn't going anywhere near again. A question came to mind. Had the thing followed us out of the trench?

By the time the seas got rough, as we waited for Logan, Greek put dinner on hold.

Captain Hertzog said, "we were going to experience the very outer edge of a fast moving storm coming from the southwest. At most it will be a modest blow, but tie everything down of value."

By the time the ship was rocking and rolling, I'd reached another milestone in my childhood development. I was homesick and I wanted to go home. I hadn't told anyone, but that's what I felt.

I hadn't thought much about home. I thought about Dad because we did so much of the same stuff together that we did on the Horizon. It felt like it was a lot more fun back at the cove. I'd almost shaken off my fear from the ride in the Scorpion when 'the thing' popped up. It gave an entirely new meaning to scared shitless.

"Why are you so antsy, Dylan," Logan asked, as he was trying to get me to watch him use one of the new functions on the editor. "You're usually cool as a cucumber, but not the last few days."

"Bill took the Scorpion into that trench," I said, not knowing if I should say anything to anyone.

What was Bill going to do, throw me off his boat? That would suit me just fine.

"That trench has some strange vibes connected to it if you ask me. Did the professor give you a rough ride?"

"I thought we were going to the bottom of that trench," I said.

Logan stopped what he was doing to touching my forearm.

"That's what scared you. I was wondering. You never said anything the day you went with Bill in the Scorpion."

"Wasn't much to say. I didn't like it. I won't go in the Scorpion again," I said.

"The professor should have his head examined. He knows better than to expose you to a danger there is no way to estimate."

"It's over. I'd feel a lot better if we hadn't had another scary incident so soon after he took me into that trench," I said.

"Stay out of the water a few days. We'll be going to Guam next week. If you don't feel any better, we'll get you a flight home. I'm going to give Mr. Payne a piece of my mind in the meantime."

"Don't do that, Logan. He's oblivious. I don't think he knows why he did what he did. He keeps telling me to keep stuff secret. I never lied to anyone in my life. I've never had to lie. I don't like it."

"The professor doesn't want to lose Captain Hertzog. He's a man of the sea. Men of the sea belief some weird stuff," Logan said.

"I am not going to lie for him," I said, putting my foot down.

"I went with a research voyage to the Marianas Trench. They don't know how deep that sucker is, but they came back from dives into it and they looked like you look now. A couple refused to go back into the trench."

"Really? I didn't think I was going to make it back. I've never been that afraid of anything."

"I can't believe he took you into that trench. Not a place I'm going. Being back at the ruins, that trench gives me the willies."

"Really?"

"I watch you, Dylan. You're way bolder than I am. You jump right into things, and I need to give some thought to doing things I'm not acquainted with."

"Not any more," I said.

"It passes. Fear is something you process. Don't go back in the Scorpion. It's not required. Don't let that fear cripple you. It's not a good idea. You're doing important work. Don't lose sight of that."

"You think so?" I asked, wanting to be a believer.

"You've never been in serious danger. Processing the prospect of dying can upset a lot of men's applecart. We live a life of danger. It's what we do, Dylan."

"You've been in life threatening situation?"

"A couple of times and I didn't like it a little bit. I'm not a big risk taker. Fear, the adrenalin rush. Not my cup of tea. I want to be calm, cool, and collected when I'm sticking my neck out."

"I didn't like it. I almost peed myself," I said. "I can't believe I almost peed myself. I can't believe I'm telling you that."

"Nothing you can say will make me think any less of you, Dylan. I think we can be honest with each other. I don't think of you as my student. We're more like friends working together."

Logan patted my arm.

The ship rocked and the sound of the wind increased. The Captain started the engines and turned the Horizon into the wind. The ship immediately became more stable.

"What about the film?" I asked.

"I can't take it out of the chemicals with rough seas. I'll have chemicals all over me. It can wait. Whatever is on that film isn't going anywhere," he said. "Greek was supposed to put out cold cuts. You could go see what he has and bring me a sandwich."

I could do that. I didn't think I'd eat again, after this afternoon, but my stomach is empty. I think I could use something to eat."

"Told you. It'll pass. You've never had to deal with this kind of scary uncertainty before. You never get to like it but you adapt to it."

Maybe he was right. I felt better after talking to Logan. I did feel like he was more my friend than anything else. We had a lot in common and he wasn't that much older than me.

*****


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