To rescue a 12,000 year old ghost, you have to learn to breathe water.
Our next mystery to solve was the toughest yet. We thought ourselves prepared to deal with being submerged several hundred feet below the surface.
My question was how to communicate with something who was older than all civilization as we knew it. What did it have in common with our modern culture? How to talk through an energy shield built to withstand the pressures of that depth?
I didn't have long to wait after we arrived.
Because something pulled me out of that shield and wanted to talk with meright now - deep underwater, ready or not...
(Part 1 of 3: contains cliffhanger ending...)
Excerpt:
I woke soaking wet. Putting my tongue to my lips tasted - salt water.
That made sense to the dream I woke up from, but the nearest ocean was thousands of miles away.
So I did the next best thing I could think of. Reaching up for the turquoise stone around my neck, I called for Sal and Jude.
And they arrived. Also soaking wet, dripping on my tiny cabin floor.
Good thing I stayed in bed to give them room to move. At least my bed was keeping my own third puddle contained.
I had to smile, though. Both of those girls were usually so neat and tidy. Now their hair hung down in long, soggy strands. Their blouses were plastered to their skin. And they were not amused.
"What the hell, John?" Jude was first to vent, as expected. "I was nice and asleep, and then you had to have an underwater dream and put us two into it?!?"
"What Jude is trying to understand is how you pulled us out of bed, fully dressed, underwater - only to have a nightmare where we can't do anything to save you?"
I just had to smile. We were all just too ridiculous standing or laying in our salt water pools. "Sorry. But I didn't think I could do that. Are you sure it was me?"
"Well who else could it be?" Jude put her head to the side and bumped her head, trying to get the water out of her ears.
Sal smiled back at me, and then looked over at Jude's wet black leather outfit and down to her own soggy off-white business suit with gold pin-stripe. And the growing puddle beneath her squishy tan dress pumps.
That made her smile turn into a grin.
A simple gesture and we were all three dry again, as if we'd never been in water at all. Which meant was was wearing my work clothes, including boots, while still in bed. A dry bed, now.
"Thanks, Sal."
She just nodded.
Jude stopped bumping her head and straightened up, tugging her leathers into position again, the way she liked them - tight and revealing.
Sal just adjusted her cuffs and made sure her hair was in a blond bun with two carved ivory hair pins, as usual. "What do you remember of that nightmare, John?"
"We were somewhere deep, really deep underwater inside one of your force shields. An ancient set of columns showed up. We had some glow lights showing or something - when it looked like a girl or mermaid came right toward us. She wasn't swimming, but more like walking as if the water wasn't there. Straight ahead, right to the side of the force shield and then reached right through it to grab my arm and pull me out of it - right into the water. That's when I woke up."
Jude looked over at Sal. "That scans. Same thing I remembered."
Sal frowned. "Definitely got a mystery on our hands. Time to see Ben. Stand up, John."
I just got to my feet when we shimmered off to somewhere else...