LC 04 - Skeleton Crew (40 page)

It was to the point that I must either back out or don the
regalia. I took a deep breath, removed my outer cloak, and
allowed Valerian to fit the device on my person. He told me to put
my spittle on the inside of the glass window and rub over it. I had
a difficult time obtaining spittle. Having done thus, Valerian began
securing the helmet in place. I tried not to shake.

"Breathe slowly," he said. "Remember to breathe slowly. You
will be tied to a rope that is attached to the ship, so you will not
become lost from us."

Bellisaro had measured the depth-66 codos. That seemed very
deep to me, but Valerian assured me that jen had been deepereven without the breathing devices.

The time had come. I held on to the rope as they lowered me
into the water. The breathing armor is heavy and I descended
rapidly. I panicked and thrashed about. My breath came rapidly. I
tried to remember the first time I faced the enemy in battle, hoping to quell my fear. My feet touched bottom, causing a cloud of
particles to swirl upward. I heard a faraway voice tell me to breathe
slowly. Had I gone mad so quickly? Was it God? No, I recognized
the voice of Valerian. Apparently he yelled down the leather conduit. I assume he could hear me as well. I concentrated on regulating my breathing. I looked up to try to see the bottom of the
ship and my feet drifted out from under me. I floated on my back. I thrashed, panicked again, but managed to right myself. I had
seen a shadow, but I didn't know if it was the ship.

For this first descent, Valerian told me to only turn and look in
all directions. He would use a sand clock to time my stay and bring
me up in a short while. "You need to get used to being underwater," he said. I took note of my surroundings. The water was not as
clear as I would have preferred, but I could see some distance
around me as I slowly turned. It was a wavering greenish-blue
world-like a dream. And like a dream, my movement was slow.
My mask fogged around the edges so that I had a smaller window
from which to observe this world. I squinted, trying to see far into
a distance that faded into a subtle green emptiness. I looked
down. The sea floor looked not different from a sandy soil with
scattered rocks and some weeds waving with the movement of the
water. I had a tendency to float away from the sea floor, but I
found I could move my arms certain ways and manage to stay
upright and grounded. I saw fish. They did not appear to be afraid,
some swimming past me, brushing my legs and shoulders. Besides
fish, another creature, like a clear white cloud, floated past me.

All too soon, it seemed, I felt a tug on the rope. My time underwater had ended. I held on to the rope and was lifted upward.

As I sat on the deck shivering, rubbing my face, Valerian told me
that I did fine on my first venture into the deep. Lopez and the captain slapped me on the back. Even Bellisaro graced me with a smile.

"We will wait until tomorrow to go down again," Valerian said.
"Go to our cabin and rest. Tell jen of your adventure."

I slept soundly last night and dreamed I was a fish. Valerian said
that I should not eat before I went down again and I agreed. I
could not imagine a worse experience than retching in that situation. I donned the pneumatic contrivance and was again lowered
into the ocean. I did not panic as much this time, remembering
my ability to swim. I was much better at controlling my position in
the water. I reached the sea floor and stood for a moment, waving
my arms to keep me steady and on my feet, concentrating on
breathing normally. The air was not fresh, but considering I was
underwater, it was quite breathable. I released myself from the sea
floor and began swimming, quickly reaching the end of my tether. I wanted to be free to swim where I willed. I began to swim in an
arc at the end of the tether. Halfway around the ship I tired and
stopped to rest, standing on the sea floor, remembering to breathe
slowly. This was a wonderful world and I was overjoyed to see it. I
walked in my slow fashion in another direction.

Slowly appearing out of the blue-green watery fog I saw a sight
that stopped me cold and left me gasping for air. My heart quickened its beat and my stomach staggered at the ghostly apparition
before me. The ship-the Concepcion. It sat on the bottom, almost
upright, and still-a ghostly galleon with tattered sails gently waving from masts and yardarms that looked like giant crosses rising
from the deck. The creatures of the deep are now her only crew. It
is a glorious thing.

I am awed and blessed that I was the one to see her. It made
me feel close to God. I swam toward the magnificent cathedral
only to be pulled backward. No, I thought. I have to go to her, to
feel the wood of her hull, to walk her decks. I moved forward
again, and again I was jerked backward. I righted myself and by
happenstance looked down. There was something half covered
with sand. I seized it just before I was propelled upward. I heard a
voice so muffled and distant I couldn't understand the words.
Slowly, not of my own volition, I ascended away from the
Concepcion. I watched it disappear.

My next awareness was on the deck of the Estrella with Valerian
removing the helmet and shaking me. I started to speak when
someone noticed the thing I clutched in my hand. Lopez reached
down and took it from me. My inclination was to hold on to it, but
his was to take it. I heard gasps and exclamations. The thing I had
managed to grab off the sea floor before I was snatched back to
the bosom of the world above water was a large gold cross studded with sizable emeralds. The gold glinted in the sun.

The captain and Lopez simultaneously asked me where I had
found it. "Where you snatched me from," I said.

That answer wasn't satisfactory to them but Bellisaro interrupted. "It would be the length of the conduit and in the direction
from which Valerian pulled him back."

"Yes," I said.

"Did you see the ship?" asked Valerian.

I nodded. "It sits there as if whole and upright. It is a wondrous
sight."

After Valerian walked me to our cabin and saw me safely onto
my cot, he told me that he did not think that he would now have
any trouble getting volunteers from among the crew.

In fact, he did not. All the crew who knew how to swim, and
several who didn't, volunteered, Valerian told me later when he
brought me a cup of hot soup. Bellisaro has figured the depth and
the height of the sunken ship. The mainmast should be not that
far from the surface. We have the idea that a man can swim down
guided by the mast and take a look at the deck and main hatchway. The plan is to send the best swimmers down with the helmet.
They will swim into the hold and tie ropes around the chests of
treasure and we will hoist them up like cargo.

"It sounds like a good plan," I said, sipping the warm soup.

"So, my friend, how did you like it at the bottom of the sea?"
he asked.

"It was quite fantastic," I said. "A world quite unlike this one."

It is, is it not?" He clapped my shoulder and left to tend to the
preparations.

After relating my story to Jen, who took in all my descriptions
as eagerly as he did the soup Valerian had brought him, I hurriedly
write this entry in my journal. I am anxious to go back on deck. If
I am lucky, I might be able to persuade Lopez to let me look at the
cross I found.

Our luck seems to have turned against us. The seas have grown
rougher. They now sparkle a silver gray, and a brisk breeze has
come our way. Bellisaro wants to move the ship, but the captain
says no. He is eager to get the treasure, and now he is using the
soldiers to back him up. The helmsman must follow his orders.

Worse, when I could not find Lopez in his cabin or on the deck,
the boatswain helped me look for him. We did not find him readily, but one of the crew noticed that Sancho had blood smeared
on his shirt and held him for the boatswain. The boatswain and I
went to where Sancho was held. He looked frightened but said the
blood was from his hand, which was swollen and had started
bleeding again. As the blood was on his left sleeve, the same one
that held his injured hand, we did not believe him. The boatswain
searched Sancho's sea chest. We were both thinking, I'm sure,
about the cross. He found it wrapped in a shirt. The boatswain
slapped Sancho across the face and ordered him to tell where
Lopez was. He stood mute.

It did not take long for rumors to spread about the ship, agitating a crew already excited by the prospect of gold. Valerian and
I helped in the search. He and an apprentice and I discovered
Lopez in a stall stacked with barrels of drinking water near the hull.
It was not far from where I stood not many nights ago. His head
was caved in and his blood was smeared on the side of the ship.

Lopez was not a man I liked but he was not a bad man, and I felt
great pity for him as we stood waiting for the captain and Father
Hernando. The ship wafted harder and Valerian looked worried.
"The sea grows rough. This is not good," he whispered, looking at
poor Lopez. He was the second dead man I have had to deal with
on board. I, of course, have seen dead men in battle, have been the
one to make them dead, but deliberate murder is beyond my comprehension. Father Hernando and Captain Acosta arrived with the
boatswain. As the good father prayed over him, I shook my head at
the little halos of his splattered blood. Poor Lopez, for all his desires
and aspirations, this was all that was left of him. I prayed for his soul.
Valerian and I helped carry him up one deck to the sail master whom
I watched for a second time take care of the dead.

Sancho was put in chains below deck. He yelled to all who
would listen that he was innocent and he had found Lopez already
dead and that is how he got blood on his sleeve. He pleaded not
to be put in chains during a storm. His entreaties fell on deaf ears.

I make these entries from a shelter of canes, straw, and mud.
Miraculously, my journal survived-I wonder at that when so many
men did not. I was dragged ashore by the people native to this
place. They have treated me well.

I cannot be the only survivor, but I am the only one here on this
island. I have tried to ask about others, but they do not speak my
language and I do not speak theirs.

After regaining some strength, I roamed the island looking for
signs of survivors-the young pages, Valerian, Father Hernando,
someone. I can't believe they are all dead. Why would I be the only
one to survive? Am I blessed or cursed?

On my return from such an outing, I saw a strange sight in one
of the rivers. I believe my eyes deceived me, but as my gaze rested
on a ripple of water, a quite large, finned snakelike creature
emerged and quickly disappeared.

Near the village, I picked up a feather from the ground and
fashioned a pen. I managed after much difficulty in discourse to
get from the Indians a liquid that I can use for ink. I'm not sure
what it is, but I think they use it to draw designs on their bodies. I
am glad for the pen and ink, for I feel the need to lay out what
happened.

After seeing to the body of Lopez, Valerian and I went to our cabin.
The ship's rocking had increased considerably and I wanted to wait
out the rough sea. Valerian tended to Jen. The level of wind and
waves did not increase any more over the course of the day or
night. I foolishly thought the danger had passed. The captain, for
all his bluster, had not been able to send any men down to the
Concepcion because of the bad conditions, yet he would not leave
this spot for fear of losing the location. I cursed the captain for
being a fool.

Into the next day the wind increased and in the distance like an
advancing army came a line of black clouds. Bellisaro told the captain that if he wanted to survive to spend the treasure, we would
have to leave. The captain relented, perhaps seeing that the soldiers, who were not good sailors, were uncertain of his judgment.