Distributed Sensing Solutions

Wilmington NC 2029

 

“Blacks were not enslaved because they were black but because they were available. Slavery has existed in the world for thousands of years. Whites enslaved other whites in Europe for centuries before the first black was brought to the Western hemisphere. Asians enslaved Europeans. Asians enslaved other Asians. Africans enslaved other Africans, and indeed even today in North Africa, blacks continue to enslave blacks.” Thomas Sowell

 

Alex woke electrified thinking ‘I’m going to sea tomorrow.’  Joy filled his psyche since he would soon be with his life, his lover, his lady, the sea.

His bedmate gave him a little nudge. “Go answer that for me,” she asked sleepily.

The doorbell rang again. There was light in the sky, barely. Turned out to be a government courier who insisted he read the cover letter before signing the delivery receipt. Getting back to the barmaid’s bedroom, he dropped his gym shorts and crawled in quietly. He had been shacked up with her the last three weeks while the ship was in port.

She murmured, “You going back out today?”

“Yes, two back to back cruises. Gone about a month.”

The sun took this moment to flood the room with light. The girl pulled the sheet dropping it on the floor. She rolled over on her side and said, “Well, you better give me a good memory to last that long.” She kissed his tanned muscular chest, “Otherwise…”

An early lunch and an Uber ride later, Alex walked along the dock toward his true love, the oceanographic research vessel, RV Josh Stent. She was a ninety two meter beauty with an ice class hull, winches for deep-sea tows, an ROV rated to four km, a huge reel for seismic streamers, and enough instrumentation to make the NSA nervous. With tanks topped off, she could literally go halfway around the world. Alex was the Science Officer. Chief Scientists may come aboard for each cruise, but they were the renters. This was his ship… as long as he didn’t screw up.

The chief of the deck crew, Loukie Ehutu, a Māori from New Zealand’s South Island sat under a sunshade at the foot of the gangway. “Good day Alex. You look happy.”

“I am. How is she?”

“Over stocked for our little summer classes,” he shrugged. “That much less to load out for the Antarctic expedition. Would you believe that they are sending two snow cats and five snowmobiles? And pallets of Artic outerwear?”

“They didn’t want to pay storage at the warehouse. Of course, we will burn more fuel but that is on this cruise’s science budget. With the extra weight, we will ride a little smoother.”

Loukie gave a sneer, “Less scientist puke to clean up I guess, but we won’t be heavy. They loaded only enough fuel for the first leg. Listen, I have only two Able Body Seamen, and we are going to be doing over the side work. It ain’t right.”

“Budget cuts. Not my idea. I will help out as much as I can. Besides we will be back before hurricane season gets real.”

“Comes earlier every year. Anyway, if I didn’t piss and moan, I wouldn’t make a good Bosun.”

Alex nodded commiserating with his shipmate. “Another container will be arriving last minute. Looks like spook stuff,” Alex said exaggerating a look around for spies.

“Office of Naval Research?”

“No, DARPA, believe it or not.”

The bosun just raised a tattooed eyebrow and handed Alex the clipboard to sign aboard.

Ø

Captain Lamas started his last meeting before the science crew arrived, “Ok, guys settle down. This is the last night in port, and we have some issues to take care of before our mid-day shove off. We will begin standard watches immediately after this meeting. Cheng, status.”

The Chief Engineer, Arlo Mack, cleared his throat, “Fully loaded and maintenance ahead of schedule to make up for the shorthanded crewing. We can go anytime.”

The captain looked at his cook, “Hotel?”

“A delivery van of perishables is due to arrive at nine in the morning. I want the science party to be part of the work gang. After the delivery, there are victuals for both cruises.”

Alex spoke up, “Science crew is due to arrive at seven in the morning. With a one hour safety meeting, the nine o’clock work gang is good.”

“Bosun?” the captain queried next.

“I have two temporary seamen to help us undock. They will return with the pilot boat. I want to again protest the short deck crew,” Loukie insisted in his complaint.

“Noted and as before, can’t be helped. We have the minimum legal number. JoJo?”

The First Mate, JoJo Garcia, said, “Cleared with the Harbor Master. The pilot will report at mid-day.”

Captain Lamas nodded, “Ok, that’s the usuals taken care of. I have one unusual.” He turned on the overhead projector and a disheveled homely looking girl appeared on the wall. The crew gave a collective ‘OOF’. Then the captain brought up the next slide of an extremely sensual young woman in normal clothes that had been adjusted to give maximum sex appeal. “Can anyone tell me the difference between these two?”

“The ugly one is going with and the other will be far, far away,” one of the seamen cracked.

“Who are these two, captain? They seem familiar,” Cookie asked.

“They are the same person.”

Alex drew a sharp breath, “Oh shit, that’s Tris Jekyll.”

“You know of her Alex?” the captain asked.

“Yeah, she’s the Dean’s daughter also known as Dr. Jekyll and Miss Hyde. She has an extreme split personality disorder. Both personalities are brilliant in different ways.”

The captain completed the description, “And both seventeen. A doctor since she already has two PhDs, Jekyll is a savant scientist incapable of deception. She has fun telling what adventures her alter ego has. Miss Hyde is, to put it crudely, a slut. An underage slut and daughter to the Dean who oversees this ship.”

The whole crew groaned. “Exactly, Miss Hyde will tempt you. If you succumb, Dr. Jekyll will tell the tale, not in malice but because she does not have social or emotional intelligence. It is only two weeks so be careful. This person is in Alex’s group but let’s all give him a hand.” The whole crew applauded.

“Assholes,” Alex responded, and the applause changed to laughing.

The rest of his day was full of busywork necessary to get a data gathering behemoth ready to act independently. Connectivity to the outside world was constant at sea through the VSAT but the data pipeline effectively supported only small amounts of text. While tied up to the pier, a node of fiber optic bundles did a complete difference update of the world wide web. The RV Stent kept a complete copy, minus the social media of course, on a bank of diamond quantum storage devices. According to them, scientists needed this resource to function. Like, don’t we all?

The ship’s shorthanded crew was now working on a 24 hour schedule. Though the floodlights kept her bathed in light, No one walked her decks. In the wee hours of the morning, a whisper quiet drone slipped along the pier side weaving around the support legs of the dock, and placed three head sized disks at the stern, midship, and bow just above the waterline. The disks quickly integrated themselves into the steel fabric of the hull, turning invisible. Dropping into the water, the drone melted.

Ø

Dawn had broken an hour before. Alex was watching Loukie lift a twelve foot container onboard as a last minute delivery. “Where do you want it?” Loukie shouted.

“Next to the ROV van. Tell the electrician it is going to need 220 volts and forty amps. He can pull a data fiber from the ROV panel to go next to the power socket.”

Loukie gave him a thumbs up. “Will do. What is it?”

“Mini-drones in an automatic launch and recover carousel. The Dean’s office sent it with DARPA paperwork. The cover letter said it must be kept sealed while in port or spooks will come and do some probing.”

“Sounds ominous.”

“Yeah, we are supposed to be a university boat,” Alex said as he walked up the knuckle crane control stand.

“Maybe we could breakout the anti-piracy shotguns and do some skeeter shooting.”

“Silly scientists vs the evil dark state.”

Loukie finished the maneuver and set down the secret container light as a feather, “Don’t want to break our new toy targets. I’ll get more shotgun shells. This is going to be a fun trip.”

“Actually, this is Tris Jekyll’s independent study project.”

Loukie’s tattoos on his forehead got scrunched, “For a seventeen year old she leaves a hell of a wake.”

“I’ll say. A DARPA special courier served me with official papers yesterday morning and waited for me to read the cover letter and sign it. Then he recorded me on smart glasses swearing I understood. Thing is, I was at a girlfriend’s apartment for the last three weeks. No one knew where I was.”

“They tracked your cell phone, dude.”

“That’s what I figure too. Which makes it spookier.”

“Or the girlfriend was a plant,” Loukie said grinning.

“That would be cool because she was one hell of a good lay and got me free beer at the Neptune Grill,” Alex shot back. He loved this kind of trash talk with the crew. “Here comes the science crew. Talk at ya later,” he said turning to watch an airport style shuttle bus pull up at the gangway.

The Co-Chief Scientists came off first looking over their new kingdom. Alex led them up to the TV lounge where he assigned cabins and gave his standard safety lecture. Afterward, he announced, “There will be a human chain to get our perishable food carried back to the refrigeration locker.”

“Uhm, what is a human chain?” one of the students asked.

Sighing Alex said, “We form a line, and one person hands a box to the next in line. Works like a conveyor belt.” The kid still looked confused since it wasn’t a social media mail chain.

He left as Drs. Audrey Pritel and Jeff Raposa started their organizational meeting. He had already read their memos. On the way to the back deck, he suddenly had a female slip her arm around his waist and match step. Her scent immediately got Little Lex’s attention. He had been asleep.

She said, “Hi, I’m Keris, I’ll be working with Tris. Is our container on board?”

“Hi Keris, yes, it is,” Alex said as he gently removed her arm. “I’m going there now. You have your steel toe safety shoes on?”

“No,” she pouted.

“Go on back to your room and put them on. Then come back and we can go over your operation. Bring your sister Tris.”

She sighed and went to get her shoes.

Alex sighed and adjusted his junk.

Tris showed up ten minutes later.

“Ms. Jekyll, could you explain how your operation fits in with this cruise.” Alex asked, “And why does DARPA want this container sealed in port?”

“With the container doors open, the system would emit an EM signal that is detectable since the swarm stays live. As to this cruise, the drone swarm will extend the sensor sampling range of the ship in water chemistry, magnetic and relative gravity while the core barrels are being dropped and recovered. As the ship moves between core sampling points, the drones will bring along a swath five km wide of those data types.”

“Cool. What will the flight paths approaching the ship look like?”

“Not to worry, they will come and go vertically from the top of the container. Departure to the port side approach from the starboard. You have clean lines of sight like that.”

Alex smiled at the young genius. Little Lex felt confused. “Very good planning. You will have ship’s power and a data link patched within the hour. The main lab has the junction box to hook up to the network or directly to your computers.”

“Perfect. Thank you for taking this on such short notice.”

“That’s my job. You will have to bargain with the other two scientists if you want any extra help.”

“Oh, no need, my sister, Keris, and I will handle the system. We are the only ones who can in any case.”

“As you like. The ship's cell network will use the same number you use on land. We normally use people’s personal cells instead of a loudspeaker system. Download the ship’s app, please. Let me know before you start flight operations.”

“Okay, I’ll let you know before I release any of my beasties.”

“And the bridge too. Have fun,” Alex said then he felt his cell phone vibrate.

“We will,” Tris said or was it Keris.

Take No Prisoners

Alex was leaning on the rail looking downriver toward the open sea. He had been exercising deep breathing to get rid of his exasperation. Captain Lamas sidled up to him, “I want to shove off on time. Twelve straight up. OK?”

Alex shook his head, “Just got a call from the President’s office. We are going to get some last minute… uhm, students.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Apparently, non-violent offenders are going to get a second chance… with us, all girls.”

At that moment, a prison bus zoomed around the corner and came to a quick stop near the bow. Guards began hustling off prisoners in orange jumpsuits and chains. The guards then unlocked all the shackles piling them in a box. The captain made haste toward the dock. It was a race between the guards and the captain. Alex decided to get in on the fun and wander down too.

The guards won and pulled out as the captain come running up, puffing. He slapped the side of the prison transport a couple of times, but the driver accelerated away. Captain Lamas put his hands on his knees and tried to catch his breath. Running when way over two hundred pounds and forty years of sitting made his face beet red. He finally looked up to see an overly cheerful late middle aged woman and seven delinquents waiting. Some of them looked sullen, some frightened, and a couple with mirth at the fat man of authority’s distress.

Alex walked up to the social worker, “You would be Bridget Cat Lover?”

Bridget frowned a little at the hated nickname. Did he guess it? She replied in her best snooty tone, “My name is Bridget Gatlohver, I am in charge of these young ladies and an officer of the court for the duration of this cruise. The President of your fine university is being a corporate good citizen by participating in this program.”

“Yeah, his iron lady executive secretary filled me in a little. Didn’t want my opinion. Whatever, at least they can’t escape our floating prison.”

“My young ladies are not a flight risk. If they complete this with good marks, their sentences will be reduced to time served and their records expunged. We hope to show them the fun and adventure they can have in legitimate life.”

“Yeah, they were wearing chains. The program makes sense, I guess. That folder for me and the captain? And when will their luggage arrive?”

“Yes,” Bridget said and handed Alex and the captain each a plastic folder. “Poor things were wearing chains because those guards are neo-Nazis. My young ladies are incapable of violence, I assure you. They have no luggage as they are coming directly from their cells. I was told everything would be provided.”

“They don’t even have toothbrushes?” Alex asked agog.

The captain was now the one snickering, “I guess we can push back departure by an hour.” He clapped Alex on the back and headed to the gangway.

“Hey, how is this my problem?”

“Science crew,” the captain shouted without looking back.

Bridget was blissfully unaware, looking over the exciting oceanographic ship with big eyes.

“This way, please,” he said loudly to the prisoners. At the top of the gangway, he roped in an AB seaman to lead the group to the TV lounge for a safety briefing. He tracked down Loukie by the deep sea winch trying to look invisible. “I need you to go to Walmart and buy some women’s clothes, toiletries, and underwear. Take Pearl and Sonia to help. Sixty of everything.”

“Crap,” the tough bosun whined thinking about shopping for women’s stuff.

“I have to do the safety briefing and the captain only gave us one extra hour.”

“And if you sent anyone else it would be tomorrow.”

“That’s the penalty for being reliable and I have the feeling this is going to be a real nightmare.”

Loukie made a gesture to ward off the evil eye and went in search of Pearl.

Alex walked into the TV lounge, a relatively large open space it was a social focal point on the ship during off-hours. Now it would be used as a conference room. He cleared his throat loudly to get their attention, “Welcome aboard the Research Vessel Josh Stent, affectionately known as the Stent. I will be giving you information that could quite literally save your life and more importantly the lives of the ship’s normal crew.”

“Who the fuck are you?” asked a thick-waisted, sinewy armed girl with defiance in her eyes at being told what to do by yet another man.

‘Just great, a macho lesbian who is going to want to constantly challenge my authority,’ Alex thought. “My name is Alex Turs, and I am the Science Officer. You have been attached to the science crew which is my responsibility.”

“Like Spock?” she shot back eliciting a few giggles.

“Exactly, but without all the logic. What I am about to tell you is meant to make your life a little easier and safer. We can’t just walk away from the ship if there is an emergency,” Alex explained.

“Unless you’re Jesus,” a mean looking Latina quipped. She would have been scary if she wasn’t so short.

“He walked on water during a storm, even Jesus would help fight a fire on board ship in a deep ocean basin,” Alex said starting to lose patience. The mention of fire shut them up at least. He started on his well-rehearsed briefing.

Ø

Alex was nearly finished with briefing the newcomers and giving them a quick walk-around tour when he heard the crane’s hydraulics whine for a few minutes. The ship moved away from the dock as the captain applied the bow thruster then a gentle bump forward on the throttles. They were traveling at a good clip downstream when Alex led his new charges to the work deck to split up their new clothes.

Knowing the boxes were for them, the delinquents tore in and were soon stripping off orange jumpsuits and throwing them overboard. Then… they started fighting with each other for the best pieces. Bridget, the so called court officer, looked on indulgently. The Bosun and his two seamen broke it up when one of the princesses banged the head of a smaller girl on the deck. On the bottom of the pile, lingerie from Pink. Suddenly titties were flying everywhere since there were no changing booths in this shop.

The real science party had gathered on the top of the hanger deck overlooking this embarrassing scene. They hadn’t yet been informed of their new shipmates. Pearl and Sonia told their pitiful tale. Pearl was especially saddened. She had spent some real thought on trying to make these less fortunate fit in. Her family considered themselves to be black and always strived to do their best. These girls below who were mostly white, expected to be losers.

Ø

“Ok ladies and I use that term loosely, we are all going to be locked up in this floating prison for two weeks. I want… correction, I must know about you for safety’s sake. Bridget is not in the room, I don’t have your rap sheets so tell me who you are, what you want to be, and how you can contribute to the ship’s function. A ship at sea is like a living entity that you will be a part of. So do you want to be the asshole or a happy part?” Captain Lamas asked his new delinquent crewmembers. “We will go around the room, starting with you.” He pointed at the Latina at the end of the couch.

“I’m Marta, sex criminal,” she snarked.

“Functionally speaking, that is pretty mundane. What can you do that another cannot?” the captain deadpanned straight back at her.

Marta had expected a big laugh that failed to materialize. The others may have thought she was serious, so she quickly backpedaled. “Just being a smart ass. I was sent up for accessory to extortion. I’m part of the Lobos De Calle gang and know how to sniff out someone with money even when they say they’re broke.”

Alex thought, ‘So much for non-violent offenses.’

The captain pushed, “What can you do for the ship?”

“Uhm… I can cook and clean.”

“Good. Hotel services, see Cookie after. And you, young lady?”

“Hello, I’m Zora and I use drugs,” she said.

The whole room answered like an AA meeting, ‘Hello, Zora’ then laughed.

“And?”

“I got caught selling but I can also fabricate LSD. Besides synthetics, I know a lot about natural hallucinogenic compounds,” Zora replied. “What can you do with that?”

Alex jumped in, “Actually a lot. We have a complete geochemistry lab aboard. You can help with Dr. Raposa’s geology students. Maybe Dr. Pritel will have some weird fish to analyze too.” Zora beamed.

“I’m Betty,” the next girl said with a strong mountain accent. “I grow pot, like to ride motorcycles, and take care of horses.”

“And take long walks in the rain,” one girl cracked causing general laughter.

Betty stared at her and continued, “I also am a good hunter and can hit a walking chicken in the head at a hundred yards.” Everyone shut up. Hillbillies are notoriously thin skinned.

‘Yeah, incapable of violence.’ Alex thought. “You can work with Dr. Pritel’s biology group,” he said then, “Next.”

“Ethel, I ran an investment group. They called it a pyramid scheme, but no one lost any money.”

The captain spoke up, “You can work with me. The ship’s books need a little tender loving care. And you?”

“Scarlet, I hacked my way into a scholarship at Princeton. Then I needed things. You know, like things to wear since it was such an upscale school, so I sold my entrance exam service to others.”

Alex said, “You can work on science data processing for me. There is a backlog of gravity data to go through.” She looked back at him with a schoolgirl’s crush.

“I’m Louann, cat burglar and can climb anything.”

“Too bad we aren’t a sailing ship. Momentarily I’m at a loss,” Alex said.

“I don’t mind hard work. Maybe I can help the deckhands, you know, be a real sailor,” Louann offered.

The captain said, “That’s it, they do a lot of chipping and painting. You can do the high parts since you aren’t afraid of heights.”

“Purrrfect,” Louann grinned.

“I’m Beth and yes a Lizzy,” the heavy girl said next. “I worked in my father’s boat yard as a mechanic and diver. I’m a good underwater welder. We bought old supply boats and converted them to low cost yachts. To keep the cost down, Dad used stolen parts. When the police caught him, he was able to throw me under the bus since he had used my name to sell them. Thanks, Dad. I didn’t mind jail too much. A lot of pussy but it was boring.”

The captain scooped her up, “Engine room, see the Chief Engineer afterward.”

Alex finished up, “Thank you, ladies. You will fit in far better than I feared.”

“And you should have been very afraid,” Zora said in a falsetto voice.

Alex smiled at her. He was getting to like this bunch of high strung delinquents. “I will post the jobs and your cabin assignments in the corridor outside in an hour.” The delinquents trooped out no doubt on the prowl for trouble even before they left the harbor mouth.

The captain had stayed behind with Alex. He had a thoughtful look, “Captain, I have the feeling that we won’t have much trouble from them. What about this Bridget when she starts supervising and messing up the works?”

“Yeah, she will probably be creating problems where there aren’t any.”

“Could you stand having her on the bridge?”

“What did you have in mind?”

“She could be a Marine Mammal Observer.”

The captain pursed his lips, “Good, but we aren’t shooting seismic.”

“We are running bottom mapping sonar. She wouldn’t know the difference.”

“Right…If she sees a pod of whales or porpoises, then she could have a little knob to turn down the volume. Doesn’t have to be connected to anything,” the captain completed.

“You know we are going to hell?” Alex grinned.

“Worth it for the story we can tell in the bar after the cruise.”

Alex quickly got his tool kit and installed a rheostat knob with positions for single and multiple whales. There was some discretion for distance. She was told porpoises always needed the lower setting. At night the settings were always lower and left there since the ocean was quieter then.

Lazy Days of Summer

The breeze created by the ship’s forward way was as soft as a mother’s kiss to the face. Alex leaned against the rail looking out over the intense blue of the Gulf Stream. The choppy, chaotic waves close to shore had been replaced with long ocean swells. He felt contradictorily an excitement of the coming work and a calmness the sea always brought. His thoughts turned to the disparate group he had aboard. Young people with little regard to society’s rules tangled up with students invested in doing the right things and following the rules. The best way to bring them together was adversity or a common victory. He hoped for some nice science discovery where all could share the glory. Adversity usually sucked.

Loukie walked up to lean on the rail alongside. “All the landlubbers are still puking,” he said.

Alex shrugged, “Good weather ahead. They’ll snap out of it soon enough. Always nice to get a slow start. Helps me to get a grip on them as individuals.”

“You think these criminals are going to be a problem?”

“Actually, no. I didn’t get any sense of evil from any of them, not even the gangbanger, Marta. That alpha lesbian, Beth, may be an irritation but underneath she seems reasonable enough. What’s your take?”

“Yeah, Arlo is already singing the praises of Beth. She really knows her shit. Louann will be a big help especially since I am shorthanded. Then there is Zora. That minx has been giving me the eye. I’ll fuck her if she lets me. She’ll probably fuck me if I stand still long enough.”

Alex laughed, “Careful, they are officially still prisoners. The Cat Lady might object.”

“Fine, I won’t fuck the Cat Lady.”

“Licking that cat could give you furballs, anyway,” Alex snickered.

“Yuck,” Loukie agreed then pointed to a kid lying in the shade. “And do you believe that kid wants to be a Marine Biologist?”

Theo was sitting on a coil of heavy mooring rope in a quiet corner of the back work deck. He wasn’t puking anymore and if he kept his eyes closed, his brain stayed close to sleep. The fresh air off the water certainly helped. A hand pressed against his chest, and someone kissed his neck. He jerked wide awake. “Tris, you startled me. Did you just kiss me?”

“Yes, I did. You looked so cute and comfortable on this pile of rope. We haven’t met yet. I’m Keris, Tris’ twin sister.”

Theo was confused. He had seen Tris in these same clothes an hour ago in the main lab. “Do American girls have the habit of kissing instead of shaking hands?” he asked.

“Some do. I do. You have a nice accent,” Keris said and crowded him on the rope pile.

“I’m from Armenia. I just transferred and want to study Marine Biology.”

“From a land locked country?” Keris giggled.

“Exactly, as a Marine Biologist, I have an excuse to work far from my family. It is complicated.”

“I’m sorry. You don’t like your family?”

“I love them, but I took my second cousin’s virginity and now the whole family expects me to marry her.”

“She’s pregnant?”

“Oh no, not that, or I would have married her.”

“I see, your family is very conservative then?” Keris interrogated.

“My uncle is an orthodox priest and the girl’s grandfather.”

“It does sound complicated… Want to take my virginity?” she offered coitally.

“Somehow, I don’t think you are a virgin,” Theo said trying to think of a way out of this situation.

“I’m not but we could pretend.”

“Stop messing with my head, Keris, or I’ll get seasick again.”

“Close your eyes. That helps. We can just snuggle for now.”

“Whatever,” Theo said and closed his eyes. A female pressing up against him did feel nice.

An hour later, Theo awoke feeling refreshed and more himself. His head was clear of the dullness of the seasickness. Keris was nowhere to be seen. Hungry, he headed up to the mess deck.

Cookie had anticipated the flat calm seas would bring out the hungry horde. He laid out a full spread for sandwiches even though it was only three in the afternoon. Theo walked into a busy, animated mess. He made himself a thick dagwood sandwich from a dark multigrain bread, then carried it over to sit with Carl and Max.

“How is our mountain man marine biologist today?” Carl joked.

“Very good, thank you. My stomach has finally settled down,” Theo replied before taking an enormous bite out of his sandwich.

“Mine too except my belly is meeting my backbone,” Max said and attacked his sandwich. His was made of white bread. Matched his bone white skin. Two more quick big bites of his soggy sandwich and he was looking back at the serving line.

“I have a question about American girls,” Theo said after finally swallowing. “Is it normal for them to kiss you as a way of saying hello?”

Carl nodded, “Doing little cheek kisses seems to be catching on. You know, like the French custom. Why?”

“A new girl, Keris, kissed me on the neck while I was almost asleep.”

The two Americans laughed. “Careful with that, she is underage,” Max replied. “Keris and Tris are the same girl. Split personality disorder. An extremely high IQ did something weird to her brain. To answer your question, no that is not the social norm.”

“Too bad, because I really liked Tris when I met her,” Theo complained.

Carl said, “Don’t worry about it. Keris is fun to bullshit with. She can tell some good dirty jokes and doesn’t get upset when you turn her down for sex. I just hope she doesn’t degrade herself after turning eighteen.”

“Why eighteen?”

“Legal age of consent. If you touch her the day before, you can be sent to prison,” Max explained.

Theo looked serious when he said, “That is so fucked.”

They were all laughing hard until Tris sat down with them. All three boys immediately took huge bites of their sandwiches.

Tris said cheerily, “Hey y’all, get your sea legs yet?”

“I feel much better, thanks,” Max said a little red faced. “Never expected that a geology major would get me a sea trip. This little cruise will set me up to graduate in December.”

“Serves me too. Being onboard, I get twelve hours per day of pay from Dr. Jeff. He has money to burn,” Carl agreed.

Tris nodded, “His chair is well endowed, and he would rather pay someone like you than work himself. Frees up his play time.”

“Looks like Pearl is this cruise’s playmate,” Carl said.

Max’s face turned red with anger. “Doesn’t seem right if she is a student.”

“Her course is with Dr. Audrey Pritel. So, no conflict of interest. My Dad is Dean of Research and he said that if it weren’t for the young sex partners, most of the good professors wouldn’t be at the university,” Tris said. “As long as everyone follows the rules, there is no problem. The biggest problem comes from professors trading favors. And that is a hard one to prove.”

 “Same thing in the Army. As long as the partners are not in the same chain of command or an officer with an enlisted person, no worries,” Carl added. He got a mischievous expression and said, “I heard Keris met our new friend Theo this afternoon.”

Tris grinned broadly, “My sister likes him. They had a nice cuddle this afternoon.”

Theo turned a bright red before saying, “Uhm, I like her too. It will have to remain platonic for now. The guys just explained the eighteen year old thing here in America. It’s different in my country.”

Irritation flashed across her face as Tris briefly became Keris, “Yeah, that legal bullshit sucks balls.” Then Tris was back.

Theo was in anguish. He really liked the nerdy Tris and now lusted after her alter ego Keris. “I hope she can be patient,” he managed to say.

Tris patted his hand, “Time can be extremely unpredictable. I’m thinking about starting a new Ph.D. in Physics to study the properties of space/time.”

The main lab was getting busy after the late lunch. Dr. Raposa showed Carl and Max how to turn on the bottom mapping sonar and tune the sub-bottom profiler, so they didn’t interfere with each other. Tris/Keris were mounting a small wall of monitors working with blazingly fast hands. Sometimes, she was cross-eyed and occasionally her eyes looked in separate directions as she typed on the keyboard and snaked cables around at the same time. Dr. Pritel was with her students in the bio lab giving a lecture on sample preparation with Sonia holding up items like a flight attendant’s preflight show.

Alex had just shown Scarlet the batch program used to transform the stream of raw data from the gravimeter into absolute values and absolute values to relative values. She picked up the procedures even without knowledge of physics. Computers were her thing.

“I think you will clear out our backlog nicely. We run the gravimeter constantly whether there is a request or not. It goes into the university’s overall database. Every once in a while, someone will have a project using old data. Then we scoop up some of the researcher’s grant money. Not a lot but every little bit helps,” Alex said sitting back. “Gravimeters must be left running in any case. They die if they remain still just like sharks.”

Scarlet was looking at him again with puppy dog eyes, “I’m just glad to be doing something useful. Jail made me afraid for my future, that I might become a loser or worse, a criminal.”

“After you get your record expunged, I’m sure you will get into a good school. You’re what nineteen? Plenty of time to begin over.”

“You’re so nice to me,” she cooed.

“You are doing something useful, why wouldn’t I be?” Alex replied. Lil Lex was tugging at his balls saying, ‘You can do it. She isn’t a student.’ He smiled and agreed with his little friend.

Ø

After scouring the broad outer continental shelf of Florida, the Gulf Stream makes a sharp turn to the right at Georgia and narrows its attitude at North Caroline’s outer banks. This large change in the flow creates an eddy current that piles up the Blake Spur onto the Atlantic Abyss and scoops out the Blake Spiral deep.

The bosun, Loukie, was instructing Max whose hands were on the winch controls, “Watch your weight, you are going a little too fast. Spool out faster than your core barrel drops, and you will backlash the cable. A backlash is one helluva mess.”

Carl who was standing behind them added, “The depth increase on the measure wheels should match the depth increase shown by the pinger. One measures cable length the other where the core barrel is at in the water column.”

They had screwed on a pinger at the end of the wireline just above the suspended core barrel and triggered it by conductors running down the inside of the cable. A screen from the main lab displayed the sound waterfall next to the mechanical depth wheels.

“That’s right, the pinger is not just to find the bottom,” the bosun agreed.

Twenty minutes later the bottom return was getting close to the direct arrival from the pinger. The bosun continued his instructions, “Stop smoothly and we will see where we are.”

Max eased off the hydraulics and slowly pulled on the hand brake. The bottom returns and pinger oscillated only a couple of minutes before stabilizing at fifty meters difference.

The bosun directed, “Lower it to thirty meters above the bottom and stop again.”

Max did as instructed.

“Now kick the brake off and as soon as you see the weight bounce, yank the brake back on full.”

He executed it perfectly.

“Good job son. You handle heavy machinery before?”

“Coal miner’s family. It’s what we do,” Max grinned.

Loukie chuckled, and asked Carl, “You’re old for a student. What did you do before?”

“Army Rangers. Uncle Sam paid for my first four years of school now I’m working through a graduate degree doing, Dr. Jeff’s bidding.”

“Where is he by the way. These are his samples.”

“Sniffing undergrad butt, I imagine,” Carl said with disgust.

The bosun shook his head, “I thought he hooked up with Pearl.”

“Yeah, but he is an equal opportunity scumbag,” Carl said and spat over the side.

Max just looked sad.

Loukie shrugged. These professors are always like that when they go to sea with a group of underlings. Not his business. “Ok, Max let’s pull up slowly to the surface, fifteen hundred meters per hour. Don’t want to go too fast and wash out our sample.”

“Yes, sir.”

Down in the main lab, Tris sat behind a small wall of monitors in the corner near the data junction box. The Stent had more computing power outside of Fort Meade than any moveable entity. Most of it was intended for seismic data processing but since none of that would be happening, She slurped it all up for her clandestine project feeling like a kid in a candy shop. Her little beasties individually created a large stream of data but when functioning as a swarm and cross referencing, the data quantity multiplied geometrically. The engineers had to turn on extra air conditioners in the labs to deal with the heat her processing created.

Tris picked up her cell phone and called the bridge, “I want to release my drone swarm. The geologists said we should be stationary for the next five hours. Nobody flying kites?”

“Air is clear above. You may release your school of piranha,” the duty seaman replied.

“Ha, that’s better than ‘release the Kraken’.” She typed commands and a panel slid open on her container. The first of her combo laser spectrometer/magnetometer/gravity meters flew out followed by thirty four of its buddies in as many seconds.

Alex and Captain Lamas walked back to the work deck’s overlook. The drones made a line with fifty meters spacing and started a path spiraling away from the ship.

“Alex, do we have a mad scientist aboard?”

“I don’t know how angry she is but definitely mentally unbalanced. On the other hand, you can’t argue with her raw scientific abilities. That swarm will create a more accurate gravity and magnetic gradient survey than the Stent’s high quality instruments one thousand times faster. Mind you that is the swarm’s secondary function. Those things are doing complete chemical composition measurements of the seawater with lasers.”

“Crazy smart and crazy.”

Alex shook his head, “A mad scientist and a kid. This may be one of our more memorable cruises.”

“As long as she doesn’t build battle droids, I won’t worry.”

At that same moment, Tris was rubbing her hands with glee. All the raw computing power of the Stent was allowing her to process in real time. She had a god’s eye view around the ship.

Pearl looked up to watch the swarm launch. She held herself completely still since her arms were deep in the ROV’s control module. Regaining concentration, she expertly turned the four fasteners of the thruster’s power controller a quarter turn to release the board. Snaking it out she carried it into the ROV’s pilot van.

“I’ve got thruster five’s board,” she said to Dr. Audrey and laid it on the anti-static mat.

Audrey looked over her shoulder as Pearl moved the magnifier glass into position. Pearl said, “Yeap, that was the right board. See the discoloration on the power FET?”

“I see it,” Audrey replied and went to the spares locker to get a replacement. “Thanks for helping me. I know the systems but I’m all thumbs with the practical.”

“I like this sort of work. Besides you give the grades out.”

“Why are you taking this course anyway?”

“It’s quick and fills exactly a breadth of study credit I needed. Besides, I went to sea last summer on a work-study job program as an electronic tech and really liked it. This year, ROVs are the new thing for me.”

“New things huh? Why are you hanging with that old thing, Jeff?”

Pearl shrugged, “He convinced me people couple up fast on cruises which I know to be true since I spent all last summer doing without. He is ok and it’s only a couple of weeks.”

“As long as you don’t get emotional. He is a real dog.”

“I’ve already figured that out. No biggie.”

“Tell you what, if Alex allows it, I’ll let you operate the ROV when we dive.”

“I’d love that. Maybe I’ll apply for a job as Marine Science Technician after I graduate.”

“Doesn’t pay much but we have a lot of adventures!”

“I’m young. That suits me,” Pearl said picking up the new board at the edges. “I’ll get this installed in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.”

Sandra, Betty, and Zora were laying out on lounge chairs of the Steel Beach on top of the bridge getting a tan. Betty and Zora didn’t have proper bikinis, so they were making do with carefully adjusted lingerie.

Zora, with her gypsy complexion, was turning a nut brown. She turned languidly, “So Sandra, what’s your story?”

“Oh, it makes the summer shorter, and I don’t have to do a juggling act with my divorced parents. Besides this will keep me on time to finish next year. My daddy said he would only pay four years, then I would have to borrow. What got you arrested?”

“A high school kid had a bad trip, so they tracked me down. He wasn’t hurt or anything, but his father was a cop and hated hippies.”

“You make LSD?”

“Yes, and I know I should be studying chemistry. The thing is, I don’t see a future for anybody. I’m going to have fun before the end of the world.”

Betty spoke without opening her eyes, “You should move up into the mountains. We have great parties and there are a ton of survivalists. We aren’t all right wing hermits.”

“I already stay summers and falls in the Smoky Mountains. Winters and springs have miserable weather, so I stay down near the coast. How did you get caught anyway?”

“Big eradication raid. I was out in the field, and they tracked me with a helicopter.”

Sandra said, “Doesn’t seem fair to use a helicopter. Got your eye on any boys or girls yet Betty?”

“Strictly boys for me. I do like the looks of Carl. Auburn hair, green eyes and a tight little butt is my type.”

“Ex-special forces. He has a pretty hot bod but a bit too serious for me,” Zora opined. “Mainly, I go for boys but occasionally get together with a girl. On this little excursion, I like the Māori warrior. I think his tats are rad.”

Sandra answered her own question, “Boys or girls equally for me. That butch Beth has been eyeing me a lot. Not enough boys for a plain girl like me on this trip so I might hook up a time or two with her.”

“You’re a strawberry blond full of freckles, have a fit body, and no big warts on your face, Sandra. You don’t show up because you don’t think about it. Take Tris-Keris for example. Tris never thinks about sex because she is so deep into the science. Keris, on the other hand, only thinks about sex and keeps the boys torn up. I’m telling you, it’s all in your head,” Zora declared.

“Wow, that is a great example,” Betty agreed. “I am going to purposefully think about it when I am near Carl. Just to see if it helps.”

“Go for it girl,” Zora said as she closed her eyes to the brilliant blue sky.

An hour later, Sandra woke with a start, “Crap, I forgot my feet.” Her white feet were now cherry red.

“Sunscreen works if you put it on,” snickered Betty. “I never use the stuff. My mix of escaped slave, wild Indian, and lost Portuguese makes me nice and chocolate in the sun.” She pulled her bra to the side.

“Wow, that is a nice crisp tan line,” Zora said in admiration. “Gives a good contrast with your pink nipples.”

“Sure does,” Jeff said from behind them.

‘Eek,’ Betty squeaked and pulled the bra back in place. “When did you get here?”

“About half an hour ago. You three were asleep. Sorry Sandra, I didn’t notice your feet.”

“How is the coring going? Will there be any lab work soon?” Zora asked.

“Coring is going fine. We will have samples to work up tomorrow. By the way,” Jeff pointed to a sign welded to the faux smokestack. It read, ‘On the Beach, Topside optional. Bottoms please.’

“Didn’t see that,” Zora said and pulled off her lacy bra. She didn’t go for tan lines herself.

Jeff grinned. Mission accomplished. Looking at Zora’s young well-formed breasts made his balls thirsty. He waited fifteen minutes to be polite then went hunting for Pearl’s.

He found her killing time in the TV lounge watching some uninteresting arctic wildlife show. Jeff flopped down on the couch next to her. He gave her a couple of shoulder bumps. She grinned at the good timing.

“Let’s go to my cabin,” he whispered.

“I’ll meet you there in two minutes.” She passed by her cabin and grabbed a trusty vibrator before going to meet up with a dick. She was bringing backup, just in case.