Leap - 02 (5 page)

9

Alison was excited and propped herself on the edge of the giant tank and let her legs dangle into the warm water.  She adjusted the thick weight belt around her waist for comfort before looking up over her shoulder.

Lee and Juan stood over her, each holding one side of the vest.  When Alison nodded, they both lowered it so she could wrap her arms through the wide straps.  Once in place, Alison moved her shoulders from side to side to make sure it was comfortable enough.

She nodded and then both men hoisted the scuba gear off the ground and held it lightly against her back, allowing her to wiggle her arms through the second set of straps.  Lee and Juan had measured the dimensions of the scuba vest and designed their own vest to hug her below the BCD.  It was a perfect fit.

Alison brought the Velcro sides of the BCD in tight and overlapped one on top of the other, creating a snug fit.  She could feel the weight of the tanks pulling her back and leaned forward to compensate.

The yellow scuba shell on her back was a CCR, or “closed circuit rebreather.”  Unlike the older, traditional scuba systems, modern
rebreathers
had some distinct advantages.  Old scuba systems were “open circuit’” and disposed of the air the diver breathed out by blowing it out from the mouthpiece and into the water in the form of bubbles.  It was a very inefficient process since exhaled air still retained a large percentage of valuable oxygen.  That oxygen was then discarded, along with the carbon dioxide as bubbles, and the remaining air in the tank determined the amount of time a diver could remain underwater.  Rebreathers, however, captured that exhaled air and removed the carbon dioxide, allowing the system to reuse the valuable oxygen instead of wasting it.  This radically prolonged the diver’s time underwater.  On top of that, the efficiency grew even more dramatic as the diver descended and the pressure grew.  Just as importantly, rebreathers were virtually silent, which made the translation process easier.

Alison shifted slightly under the weight of the unit. She grabbed the full-face mask and held it briefly in place, testing the airflow.

She nodded and looked up to Lee.  “I’ve got air.”

He knelt down next to her.  “Remember, we’re only staying down for a few minutes this first time to test the unit and the wireless connection to the server.”  He took her mask and turned it around, pointing to a small rubber circle at the bottom.  “This is the microphone and camera, so you must be facing them when you speak or IMIS won’t be able to capture and translate correctly.”  He motioned to her vest.  “And I showed you where the speaker is, right here in the middle.”

“Right.”  Alison tapped the round speaker on the vest.

Juan handed the special earplugs to Lee, who passed them to Alison.  After she had inserted both, Lee brought the mask to his lips and spoke softly into its microphone.  “Can you hear me?”

Alison nodded. 

He couldn’t help but smile at her petite frame under all that equipment. 

Alison looked at the water in front of her and smiled, spotting both Dirk and Sally with their heads above the surface, watching.

“Does everything feel okay?” Lee asked.

Alison nodded again.  She pulled the mask up and over the top of her thick hair and fitted it in place.

She peered down through the water.  “Can you hear me, Chris?”

Chris was below in their observation area, standing in front of the tank and next to a large server.  “Yes,” he replied through his headset.  “I read you loud and clear.”

“Okay.  Here I go.”  She gave Lee and Juan a thumbs up and abruptly pushed forward off the ledge.

The warm salt water enveloped her as she sank below the surface, pulled gently down by her weight belt.  Dirk and Sally dipped back down below the surface and swam after her as she descended.  They slowly circled her, watching intently as she calmly pressed the small button on her scuba vest and added a touch of air to increase her buoyancy.  She kicked her fins slowly to keep herself in place.

Alison peered in at Sally through the glass mask.  “Hello, Sally.”  Inside her waterproof vest, the miniature computer recorded the sound from her mask and sent it back to IMIS over a wireless connection.  Seconds later, she could hear her own greeting through the speaker as a familiar set of clicks. 

Sally didn’t response immediately.  Instead, she drifted in for a closer look at Alison and her vest.  After getting within just inches, she excitedly shot past and around Alison in a tight circle. 
Hello Alison.

Alison heard her perfectly through the earplugs and grinned.  She kicked forward and reached out, running a hand along Sally’s slick body.  She then turned to Dirk.

“Hello, Dirk.”

Dirk was equally excited. 
Alison, you swim and talk.

“Yes.  I can swim and talk with you now.”  She looked down through the clear wall and waved to Chris.  He smiled and waved back.

Dirk spoke again. 
You make metal for swim and talk.

Alison shrugged.  “Lee and Juan made the metal for us to swim and talk.”

They make good,
Dirk answered.

They sure did
, she thought to herself.  She looked up and around the tank, raising her arms and letting her body float in place.  She could see the rough, wavy images of Lee and Juan above them, still standing at the edge and staring down into the water.   She turned back to Dirk just in time to see him speak and rush below her. 
We play now.

Alison had just begun to reply when she suddenly felt Dirk’s nose underneath her, lifting and pushing her forward along with him.

“Whoa!” Alison gasped and tried to steady herself against the powerful surge of water.  Dirk effortlessly began to circle the tank, but Alison leaned and rolled herself to one side and off his nose.  “No, no, Dirk!”  She almost chuckled.  “I’m not a
ball!
”

Dirk made a strange sound, which Alison knew well, but never translated.  He was laughing.

Very funny
, she thought and kicked her legs hard, propelling herself toward Sally, who was watching quietly.

Dirk like play,
Sally said, as Alison neared.

“Yes, he does.”

Alison, you like us.

This time Alison did chuckle.  “Well, for a little while.”  She began to say something else when she heard the familiar buzzer in her ear, signifying that something did not translate correctly.  She turned to find Dirk closing his mouth, having just spoken.  She realized the camera in her mask had not been facing him. 

“Did you say something, Dirk?”

Yes, we like you swim and talk.
  Dirk floated forward again, this time more slowly, and held out one of his flippers.  Alison reached down and gave it a playful tug before he kicked forward with his powerful tail and circled under her.

You come now
, Sally said.

Alison knew that was a question.  “Not yet, we must test the metal more.”  The buzzer went off again in her ears.  “We use metal more,” she rephrased.

How more long use metal.

“Just a few more days.”

10

It was a huge success!  The new system worked, and it worked well.  Lee and Juan huddled around the custom vest, running diagnostics to see if there were any problems.  The unit’s processor in the waterproof compartment didn’t have enough power to do faster live translation, but it had no problem offloading that piece to the IMIS supercomputer.

The diagnostics looked clean.  No glitches, no wireless drops, no sign of voltage issues or leaks.  It was better than they had hoped for.  But it didn’t mean those problems
wouldn’t
happen.  They still had a few more days of testing before they could do what everyone was so eagerly waiting for: to take the vest out into the open ocean.

Downstairs, Alison and Chris stood in front of the tank, grinning from ear to ear.  It was a marine biologist’s dream come true.  To really communicate with another species was incredible enough.  Now to be able to do it “out there,” in their native habitat, was a huge leap in oceanography research.  They couldn’t imagine what they were going to learn outside of the tank.

They stood in a daze, gleefully watching Dirk and Sally being fed by Kelly up above, when someone spoke up behind them.  “Are we too late for the big event?”

Alison recognized the voice immediately and turned breathlessly with a grin that managed to get even wider. 

John Clay was standing behind her, along with Steve Caesare.  Clay was smiling back at her.

“I thought you were in Brazil?”

Clay gave her a hug.  “We left early, and Borger is working on something at the moment.”  He glanced at his watch regretfully.  “We’re due back in D.C. in five hours.”

Alison tried to hide her disappointment.  “Well, I’m glad you made a stopover.”

“It’s the least I could do.”  Clay squeezed her tight and looked up over her shoulder.  “Hi, Chris.”

“Hello, John.  How are you?”

“A little tired, but good, thank you.”

Chris was closest to Caesare and he reached out a hand to him.  “Mr. Caesare. It’s nice to see you again.”

Caesare shook Chris’ hand and almost scoffed.  “Come on Chris, I’m not that old yet.”  He winked.  “Clay makes me seem older.”

“Well, well, look what the cat dragged in.”  They all turned to see DeeAnn looking at Caesare as she entered the room.  She had met him several times before.  The two had instantly fallen into a friendly but rather sarcastic relationship.  “How did we get so
lucky
?”

Caesare raised an eyebrow at her.  “Ah, Dr. Draper.  What a pleasure.  You’re looking…
older
.”

After what seemed like a long moment, they smiled at each other playfully and laughed.  DeeAnn flicked his thick, muscular arm as she passed.  She turned warmly to Clay.  “Nice to see you again, John.” 

“Good morning, DeeAnn,” Clay said.  “How are things going with Dulce?”

“We’re making excellent progress, thank you.  In fact, the translations are coming faster and faster.  Your girl here,” she said, with a wink at Alison, “runs quite a ship.”

Clay didn’t see the nervous look Alison gave DeeAnn after being referred to as John’s “girl.” 

“So,” Clay said.  “I take it the test went well, judging by the look on everyone’s face.”

“It was flawless,” Alison beamed.  “Lee and Juan are upstairs checking things out.  It was only for about five minutes, but it worked perfectly.”

“I’m not surprised,” Clay nodded.  “I guess that means it’s a “go” for your big trip.”

“Hopefully.  We still have more testing to do, but assuming we don’t have any major problems, we’re set to leave in a few days.  So cross your fingers.  I think Dirk and Sally are getting impatient.”

“This is very cool, Alison,” Caesare said, folding his arms.  “Translation out in open water is exciting stuff.”  He flashed her a devilish grin.  “Come to think of it, maybe you could use some help from a couple old ‘sea dogs.’”

Clay laughed.  He could imagine Langford’s reaction.

Caesare held up a hand in an innocent gesture.  “Hey, let’s not forget Alison’s got some pull with the Admiral.”

Alison remained close to Clay, smiling, but said nothing.  It was true, she still had a few favors to call in, but that wasn’t something you did lightly with Admiral Langford.  No, she was saving her favors for a very rainy day.  Not one involving Caesare lounging around on her boat and soaking up the sun with a beer in his hand.  She liked Steve Caesare a lot.  He was both tough and smart, but from what she’d heard, parties had a habit of finding him.

She turned and looked up at Clay.  “So, how much time do you have before you have to leave for D.C.?”

“Probably a couple of hours.”

Caesare watched her frown with a look of mild disappointment.  He rolled his eyes.  “Oh, for crying out loud.  Why don’t you two get out of here?  I’ll hang out with my pal DeeAnn.”  He gave her a wink.  “Besides, I want to have a look at this new portable unit the boys have created.”

Clay looked down at her with raised eyebrows.  “What do you say to an early lunch?”

“I would love that.”

“Just make sure you have him back on time.”

Clay nodded to Caesare, waved to the others, and grabbed Alison’s hand.  “I’m all yours.”

Wasting no time, they headed for the outside door.  She flung it open and pulled him outside into the bright sunshine.  She paused for a few moments, letting the large metal door close behind them with a loud “click.”  Before Clay could say anything, Alison pulled him close and kissed him.

11

Caesare followed DeeAnn back through the hallway to the habitat.  She punched her code in and pushed the door open, then held it a moment for Caesare.  As the two stepped up onto a gentle mound, they spotted Dulce sitting on the ground, playing with a large wooden game board.  She promptly looked up and stared at Caesare.

“There’s my girl!” he called out.

Ecstatic, Dulce jumped up and covered the distance quickly, leaping into his big arms.

Caesare hugged her, then reached up and gently rubbed her head.  “How’s my sweetheart?”

Steve here, Steve here,
Dulce said, the words coming from DeeAnn’s computerized vest. 
Me miss you.

He matched her wide smile.  “And I missed you.”  He hugged her again and then leaned back and stared at the adorable gorilla in his arms.  “You want to race?”

An hour later, Caesare was staring down at Lee and Juan’s new toy, lying on the table.  “That’s pretty impressive, fellas.”

“Thanks,” Lee replied.  “We got a little help with production, but the design is pretty close to what we drew up.  The board is under here.”  He touched an outside section of the vest’s material.  “There’s obviously some processing needed locally but we tried to keep it to a minimum, pushing the rest to IMIS for translation.  Unfortunately, even with the barest operating system, and a load of flash memory, it still sucks up a lot of energy.  Especially with the constant, high-speed wireless connection.”  Lee reached down and peeled the thick rubber seal away, releasing the plastic door to the battery compartment.  “Less than five minutes underwater still used up quite a bit of power.  Which means usage is going to be limited in open water.”

Caesare nodded and looked curiously at the large rectangular battery.  He fingered it and gently pulled it out of its socket.  “This lithium?”

“Yep.”

Caesare turned it over, noting the connection points.  “You know, the Navy’s got a team working on a new battery prototype for some drones.  They’re using a special nickel coated polymer which gives them a much higher storage density.  I may be able to get you a few.”

“Really?”  Lee and Juan looked at each other excitedly. 

“Really.  They even have one that’s a similar size.  I might be able to get some overnighted.  You may just have time to work it in before the trip.”

“That would be amazing!”

Caesare shrugged.  “Don’t mention it.  As a matter of fact, if you print up the schematics for your board and the processor, including the frequency you’re using, Clay and I can take a look and see if there are any other areas where we can help reduce electrical draw.  Our Electronics and Signaling group back in D.C. does this all the time. Between some frequency modifications and the prototype batteries, I bet you could increase your operating time quite a bit.”

“That would be fantastic.”  Lee turned back to Juan, who was already at the computer looking for the schematics.

“So, I presume you guys are taking a server when you go out, to handle the translation.”

“Three, as a matter of fact,” Lee said.  “IMIS does the heavy lifting, but we can offload the basics onto some smaller servers.  Very much like we did last year on the Pathfinder with Mr. Clay.  Of course, the vocabulary is more advanced now and we have the wireless bit.”

“And a more reliable boat,” Caesare teased.

Lee laughed.  “Yes, definitely a more reliable boat.”

“Cool, I’m looking forward to hearing how things go.  This is pretty exciting.”

“Oh, yeah, very!  It’s too bad you can’t come with us.”

Caesare smiled, thinking of his joke earlier to Alison.  “Unfortunately we’re in the middle of something.”  He reinserted the battery and laid the corner of the vest back down, now thinking of the Forel sub and the reason they had to get back.  He hoped Borger had a little insight into the data they had sent him from Belem. 

He was about to find out that Borger had much more than that.