By the time the man awoke, he was wrapped in a blanket and tilted back in a passenger seat. The hatch was closed, Kibi was slowly bringing up the temperature, and the aroma of hearty soup filled the ship.
The girl sat in another chair, playing with her doll but glancing at the man often. Boro sat across the table from them, keeping an eye on both. He and Ilika still wore mission bracelets.
The man looked around with frightened eyes but remained silent as Rini brought mugs of sweet, warm tea to the table. The girl drained her small cup quickly, but the man’s shaking hands moved more slowly, and he sipped his tea cautiously.
Just then, Mati came up from the bridge using her crutch, took the seat next to the girl, and started drinking tea. The man relaxed and began drinking his tea in earnest.
Trays with soup, crisp bread, and stewed fruit came next, and the entire crew, by prior agreement, made light conversation with simple words in the language of their kingdom, and avoided talking about the ship or the Transport Service.
After all the crew members shared their names, the girl quickly revealed that she was Risan Gor. The man was much more hesitant, but eventually mumbled his name, Timod Gor.
After lunch, Boro and Kibi began their assigned task, and seemed
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comfortable speaking slowly in their native language using plenty of gestures.
Timod Gor was reluctant to touch anything in the passenger’s toilet and bathing room, but Risan Gor quickly mastered the bathtub controls and waited, arms crossed, for the two males to leave so she could bathe.
Over the course of the next few hours, Boro and Kibi managed to get both passengers into fresh robes while Rini ran their old clothes through the laundry machine.
When, with simple words and gestures, Boro invited Timod Gor to return to the hut for anything he wanted to retrieve, the man was quite confused. As soon as the hatch opened and he saw that his hut was just paces away, he became frightened, dashed outside, and began turning circles with his mouth open, trying to comprehend the situation of a ship, without sails or rudder, sitting upon the land.
Ilika was very proud of Boro for not laughing.
Risan Gor adapted more quickly, crawling into the hut and pushing out blankets, two small barrels, and a leather shoulder bag. Timod Gor quickly grabbed the bag, and the girl lovingly gathered the blankets into her arms, leaving Boro to bring the barrels, both nearly empty, one of salted pork, the other of hard crackers.
When Ilika and his crew began to prepare for departure, Timod Gor became very anxious, attempting to make himself understood with words they didn’t know and urgent gestures. Soon he gave up and began pounding on the inside of the hull where he knew the hatch should be.
Boro opened the hatch and the man strode out, stood on the end of the ramp in his ragged socks, and motioned for the others to follow.
Boro, Ilika, and Kibi gathered on the ramp.
Timod Gor pointed toward the wrecked ship, struggled to remember a foreign word, then spoke with fire in his eyes.
“Gold!”
Fifteen seconds passed as Ilika considered the situation and made a decision.
Fifteen minutes passed as Ilika and Boro tried to coax Timod Gor back into the ship so they could go look for his gold.
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Eventually they gave up as the man defiantly put on his boots and grabbed his cloak. He spoke firmly to Risan Gor and she parked herself in a seat, pouting and clutching her doll. Timod Gor bounded down the ramp, passed the hut without a glance, and strode onto the ice shelf toward the pile of broken timbers that had once been a proud sailing ship.
Ilika sighed as he closed the hatch. “Mati and Boro, move Manessa to the wrecked ship. Hover at one meter — the ice may be thin.”
Timod Gor, only about half-way to the wreck, stopped in his tracks when the strange ship settled onto the ice next to his destination. He looked back toward the hut, then ahead again. Finally he resumed walking.
When he arrived, chest heaving as he breathed the cold air, Ilika, Boro, Kibi, and Risan Gor all sat on the ramp in boots and cloaks, while Rini and Sata watched from the open hatch.
Timod Gor looked at them for a moment, pointed at the wreck, and repeated the one relevant word he could communicate. “Gold!”
“Rini,” Ilika began, “we need three harnesses and long safety lines.”
Rini disappeared, and the equipment was delivered a minute later. Timod Gor could hear the thin ice creaking and groaning as he walked. When he saw Ilika and Boro putting on harnesses, he huffed and walked to the ramp to do the same.
While Kibi and Risan Gor watched from the ramp, the three in harnesses poked into every nook and cranny of the wrecked ship for an entire hour.
They found many odds and ends and a little more food, but no gold.
Timod Gor, completely deflated from his earlier passion, removed his harness along with the others and entered the Manessa Kwi to warm up. His spirits improved when he received a hug and kind words from Risan Gor. A hearty stew completed the task of thawing all three treasure hunters.
Ilika checked on Mati at her station, practicing a piloting simulation but keeping an eye on the hovering ship. He saw Kibi bring up the freshly-washed blankets and some toys to keep their young passenger happy. Rini was helping Sata in the galley, so Ilika caught his eye and pointed at the watch station.
“I didn’t think we’d find anything in the wooden ship,” Ilika said softly in
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the language of Nebador. “Now let’s do some real treasure hunting.”
Rini smiled with delight and sat down at his station.
A quarter hour later, Ilika had taught Rini how to scan for specific chemical elements or compounds. It didn’t take long to verify that no gold, or any compound of it, was in or near the wrecked ship.
A large amount, however, was scattered on the ocean floor three hundred meters straight down. Rini grinned up at his captain, who put a finger to his lips.
“If . . . we find . . . gold . . .” Ilika began slowly and clearly, back at the table, in the only language he and Timod Gor shared.
Timod Gor held up a finger, then symbolically chopped it in half with his other hand while struggling to think of a word.
“Half?” Ilika suggested.
“Half! I . . . half. You . . . half.”
Ilika held out his hand to seal the agreement. Timod Gor’s grip nearly brought tears to Ilika’s eyes
The man grinned.
As Ilika stood and carefully moved his bruised hand, he looked around.
“We have an opportunity to do some treasure hunting,” he said in the language of Nebador.
Rini was already smiling, and all the other crew members quickly joined.
“A little extra underwater practice would be good for some of you.”
“I promise not to zap any dolphins,” Boro assured.
“Hmm. You already have an assignment, Boro, an important one. I think
. . . Rini and Sata will be going outside.”
Suddenly, the smile fell from Sata’s face. “Is it . . . really deep . . . and . . .
dark all the time?”
“Just three hundred meters, and you’ll have Manessa lighting your way.”
“Red pressure suits,” Rini declared.
Ilika
nodded.
“The water will feel thick,” Ilika explained as he checked their suits on the lower deck, “almost like you have to dig your way through it. Take your time,
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and don’t try any acrobatics in these suits.”
“They’re too stiff for that,” Rini admitted.
“One of you is always on watch. Manessa will shine a bright light on the gold. Bag a few handfuls and come in.”
Ilika could see the fear in Sata’s eyes as he closed the airlock door and started the cycle.
Sata listened to her heart pounding as she followed Rini through the blue water that rapidly became murky as their feet stirred the thin mud. Manessa gave them plenty of light, and a bright beam marked a place not far ahead.
Pausing to look around, she saw nothing else, of any size, moving or still, living or dead, just empty blue water in all directions.
“I’m on watch,” Rini offered.
Sata swallowed. “My heart’s pounding like crazy.”
“I think I can hear it. Tell it to slow down,” Rini suggested calmly but seriously.
“I . . . never thought of that before. You mean . . . maybe I could just tell myself to get over this stupid fear?”
“You have to really want to, really mean it, or your body will know, and ignore you.”
While thinking about it, Sata went down to her knees and began feeling in the mud where Manessa was shining the light. Under a coating of ooze, she found them, as large as the great gold pieces of her kingdom, and possibly thicker. She glimpsed the yellow metal in her gloved hand a moment before the mud swirled up all around her.
A sound filled her ears, a sound that made it impossible to think, impossible to do anything. She was supposed to be putting gold coins in the bag at her waist. How could she work with that stupid noise going on?
Suddenly she realized what the sound was. Someone in a pressure suit was crying . . . and it wasn’t Rini.
“Stop it!” Sata screamed at herself with all the anger she had ever poured into anything.
The entire world was suddenly silent. Rini didn’t say a word. No one in
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the ship spoke. And best of all, the crying had stopped.
Sata slowly became aware that she was okay, with air to breathe, her friend Rini kneeling in front of her, and a wonderful ship nearby giving them light.
The mud she had stirred up finding the gold coins was starting to clear.
“I . . . think I got scared for a moment . . . but . . . I’m okay now.”
“You want to watch while I dig?” Rini asked with concern.
“No. I still need to put some gold in my bag. You’re on watch.”
“Okay,” Rini agreed, standing up.
“Good work, Sata,” Ilika said from the ship.
Sata nodded, but didn’t feel like saying anything yet. After several slow breaths, she plunged her hands back into the mud, knowing what would happen, and this time not caring.
As Rini stood watch, he saw the cloud of mud swirl up around Sata again.
A few moments later, he stopped holding his breath when he realized the only sound coming from his shipmate was the sound of counting in base eight.
“. . . four, five, six. Seven, eight, eleven, twelve . . .”
Rini
smiled.
When Ilika greeted his two deep-sea divers at the airlock, he immediately knew that the Sata he had sent out to gather gold coins had not returned. The young woman who stood before him now was a different Sata, and a subtle smile of power and confidence told anyone who looked that she was in complete control of her life.
Once dressed, Sata and Rini grabbed their bags of gold and followed the captain up to the passenger area.
To Timod Gor’s complete surprise, Ilika trusted him to count the gold coins at the large table while he spoke to his crew on the bridge in the language of Nebador.
“I think we are done here. Our guests have everything they want from the hut and the wrecked ship. Our next destination would be an excellent place to celebrate our treasure hunt, and other recent accomplishments.” Ilika glanced at Sata, and she grinned back at him.
“Yeah!” everyone else agreed.
“Let’s surprise our guests when we arrive. No visuals and zero inertia. Fly
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by instruments, Mati.”
“Rini, I need real-time topographics . . .” Mati ordered, turning to her console.
“I just need to update the flight plan,” Sata declared, sliding into her chair.
“Ion three, coming up!” Boro promised.
Ilika looked toward the table. Timod Gor, under the watchful eye of Risan Gor, was still counting coins.
Deep Learning Notes
The word “gold” is a good example of how languages from nearby countries often have similar words. Just east from England, the birthplace of the English language, several Germanic countries would easily recognize the word
“gold” (“gold” in German, “goud” in Dutch, “guld” in Danish, etc.) A little farther away, in Latin-language speaking countries, they might be confused until you said “gold ore.” Suddenly, eyes would light up (“or” in French, “oro”
in Spanish and Italian, “ouro” in Portuguese, etc.) The gold from the wrecked ship was on the ocean floor because it is very dense (heavy for its size), and quickly moved downward as the ship was twisted and crushed by the ice. Other things made of metal would have done the same. Most of the wood of the ship’s structure, however, was lighter than water, and would continue to float even when the ship had been smashed into little pieces.
Why is Ilika making Sata do something uncomfortable?
Most people have no conscious control over several body functions, including heartbeat (pulse). Other body functions, like breathing, can be controlled by the body automatically (such as during sleep), but are also subject to conscious control. A few people have conscious control over body functions the rest of us don’t. They are usually disciplined meditators.
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The human body seems to be capable of many things, when there is great need or deep feelings, that it can’t usually do. That’s why Rini warned Sata that she had to really mean it, when telling her heart to slow, or it would ignore her.
What emotion did Sata tap into that allowed her to stop feeling afraid of the dark, swirling mud?
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