Under Strange Seas

It was either incredible luck (good or bad) or a the hand of fate which led Emilia Sforza and her friend Sydney Scott to the Enoteca Decanter that day in February.  In either case, they ran into the unfortunate Randolph Pecker and his film crew.  The crew was running into serious difficulty in filming their documentary on the ‘Real’ Atlantis.  The two of them listened sympathetically (and perhaps with some amusement) to Randy’s tale of woe, and the difficulty they were having in getting to the Azores where, coincidentally, Sydney also wanted to go.

So it was that when Emilia’s boyfriend, Gian Visconti (the self-proclaimed last duke of Milan), wanted to whisk her away for Valentines day she knew exactly where she wanted to go.  Gian was more than amenable to finance the film making and giving Sydney a lift as well, so he hired the luxury yacht RS Medicci, made a few phone calls, and they were underway in just a few days time.

The ship had been at sea for over a day, when the First Mate, Hassan Jababbi spotted a boat which seemed to be following them.  He notified Fernando Margarite, the captain, who was not particularly perturbed.   The next day and a half was uneventful and pleasant.  The passengers grew to appreciate the skills of Birdie (the ships cook).   By the time they passed through the Straits of Gibraltar Priscilla Garcia, the young ‘research assistant’ who was to add a bit of scenery to the documentary made sure that the photographer, Jason Steel, knew which was their best side.

On afternoon of the seventeenth they ran into a patch of bad weather.  At the same time, the communications were disrupted by some environmental condition, and the strange craft Hassan had noticed earlier drew closer.  Jason was on deck filming the choppy seas when the first shot was fired.  The crew scrambled, with the Captain Margarite taking the helm and every armed man scrambling to the deck to defend the Medecci from these mysterious attackers.  They were apparently armed with a grenade launcher, and the largest weapon on the yacht was John Morgan’s rifle.  They exchanged a few volleys, while Fernando  madly steered into the heart of the storm.

Suddenly, the ship was caught in a waterspout.  Those on deck grabbed for something solid, but Birdie lost his footing and was pitched overboard.  He grabbed onto the railing in desperation, and held on for dear life as the ship pitched madly.  Fernando  managed to keep the boat from capsizing as the waterspout subsided, then became a whirlpool, but the crewman Luigi was swept from the deck and also grabbed hold of the railing.  This entire time Jason kept filming.  Randy, perhaps conscious that the camera was upon him, made a mad dash across the deck and managed to heave Birdie up to the ship.  John grabbed hold of Luigi, and for a brief moment it looked as though he might pull him to safety, but, in the end, he lost his grip and watched the crewman plummet into the heart of the maelstrom.  Later, he said that it looked as though he had fallen through the sea and up to clear blue skies.

The Medecci was tossed and spun and drawn down the whirlpool, and there was a great deal of confusion which ended with a sudden drop, and suddenly they were sailing on smooth seas under a clear blue sky.  There were some minor injuries, the most serious being Hassan, who suffered a nasty crack on the head, and Emilia, who broke her arm.  The ships doctor, Gabriel Smythe, (not to be confused with Dr. Mandrake Smith, the marine biologist  and geologist who was part of the documentary crew) patched them up as well as he could.  Hassan refused to allow himself to be confined to the sickbay, and insisted on going back to his post.

The communications and navigation equipment was still out, but he and  Captain Margrite decided their best course was to head East and reach Portugal.  They traveled until sunset, when it became obvious that they were very, very far from home.  There were too few stars, for one thing, and Hassan was convinced that the ones there were were completely wrong.  He got his telescope out, and was even more convinced, wherever they were, they were not on Earth (he was not so sure they were not within it).  He tried to explain this to Gian, who asked to borrow some of his books on astronomy.

Later in the evening Randy took it upon himself to go fishing (and drinking beer).  He managed to play in a very strange catch, and called for Dr. Smith (not Smythe) to take a look at it.  It was six feet long and reptilian.

In the morning, as Randy was being fortified by one of Birdie’s hangover cures,  Dr. Smith dissected the creature, assisted by Ms. Scott, watched by Dr. Smythe and filmed by Mr. Steel, dissected the creature.  He thought it some sort of primitive pliesiosaur, very similar to creatures known from fossils of the Triassic period.

At this point the Fernando, Hassan and Gian thought their best course of action was to loop back and try to retrace their path (as best they could) to the point where the storm had dropped them out, as none of them could think of any better ideas.

The voyage was peaceful. Priscilla, catching a bit of air on the deck spotted a pod of whales which was pacing the ship at a distance. Jason took advantage of this time to film interviews with everyone who wasn’t involved in other work about the events of the previous day.

The whales swam in cautious circles around the boat (which was operating on battery power to conserve fuel, so traveled fairly slowly) and gradually drew closer.  Priscilla was eventually able to see that there were dolphins swimming with the pod, and some creature smaller still.  Eventually she declared that they were swimming with mermaids.  As the other passengers took turns looking at the approaching pod through Hassan’s telescope and the binoculars.

Someone suggested that this would be a good time to use the mini-sub and take a closer look.

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