"Explorer, Houston. This is Discovery. We've found something I think you might be interested in." For a quiet moment the radio silence situation was quite uncomfortable. Alfred was hard at work trying to build a creative framework for the strange and unusual phenomenon he was seeing. He had seen enough anomalies and strange situations to know when something was different.
Suddenly, the silence ended. "Houston, Explorer, this is Discovery," this time a little more nervously, "The readings are all over the board, Houston. I'm getting Sienna levels that are way off the charts and beta's that are as high as they get. I'm even getting beta's above normal. The readings are off the charts and I'm not certain what I'm reading."
This was the crew's first solo exploration of a new unknown deep crevice. The rift was first photographed by satellite and Alfred's team had been assigned the difficult task of creating an accurate sketch. Each of the two crew members were more familiar with their specific areas of expertise and Alfred had been the one to notice that things were "off the chart." What Alfred could not know was that on the other end of the radio, the Houston team was going crazy trying to figure out why an explorer crew was reporting high Sienna levels. High Sienna levels meant they were in the zone that had long been called "too hot to handle" and their radio silence situation had slowly turned into an actual radio blackout.
Alfred brought his hand up to cover his microphone and cleared his throat. "What? I can't hear you," he said in a low whisper and readjusted the dial. "Houston, this is Discovery. We're going to have to set up a time to meet and we're going to need to use the sea-going station. It is our current plan to minimize visual and auditory contact."
"Discovery, Houston," was replied, sounding completely out of sorts. "We will be moving the Explorer back to the coast station.
Alfred was eager to know more, but he was also quite cautious. "Okay, Houston. I will send a message to you in the morning after we confirm that the coast station is up and running. Listen, I have some things I need you to do and I am going to follow you up there. We need to minimize visual and auditory contact as much as possible."
"Discovery, Houston. What do you mean by 'we'? Are you coming to the Explorer?"
Alfred did not want to give anything away. "Listen Houston, I'm going to need all the help that I can get, but I have to have my own people down there. I'm not sure what I'm seeing, but it's very strange and I need some experts with me. I will send you all the details and our current map once we finish, but I need to know when I can expect to see the Explorer."
Again silence, then, "Discovery, Houston. If we don't figure out what is going on I may have to send a chopper out to meet you, but this is all highly unusual and we're going to follow protocol. Okay?"
"Houston, of course. I wish I could confirm what is going on, but I'm as at a loss for answers as you are. I will get back to you as soon as I have something to report. Will you be sending a helicopter out to meet us?"
"Discovery, look, this is Houston again. I really don't know what is happening. We're not sending a helicopter and we're going to get to the Explorer as quickly as we can. Okay? What the hell is going on? I don't have any answers, but we're going to get the Explorer back to the coast station. We'll figure this out. Okay?"
Alfred sighed. "Houston, that's no problem. I have everything planned out and I am sending a message to the coast station to confirm it. It is perfect. Agreed? Thank you."
"Okay, Houston, okay. Listen, Roarke, this is wild. You gotta talk to me."
He pulled himself up over the side of the sub and waited while he waited for Houston to calm down.
"I'm listening," he said and he went back to work.
"Houston, this is Discovery, I have a plan. I need to get the Explorer off the ocean floor and back to the coast sub. We have problems and they are not normal. If we are to have any hope of finding out what is going on, I need to have some experts down there. Once there, we can start looking around and identify the problem. Do you agree?"
"Discovery, Houston again. Just get the Explorer back to the coast station. We will figure it out. We can figure this out. Do you agree?"
Alfred shook his head. He was not going to get much easier as long as Houston kept on saying "we." "Okay, Houston. I will get back to you in the morning. I will send a message when we can take the Explorer to the coast station."
"Discovery, Houston," said, "We will send a chopper out to meet you."
Alfred pulled out the small listening device and adjusted the dials. "Houston, I am clear. I love you. I need to call my team to make sure they are not listening. I will talk to you in the morning. I will send you all the details and I will send you a message when we can get you all the location information. By the way, I want to know what's going on here. This is crazy. We were cleared when we were under, and we've been down a long time. We've been down a long time. Well, we were supposed to be, anyway. This is beyond strange."
"Okay, Discovery, Houston. Be careful, will you?"
Alfred was quite surprised to hear that. "What? Okay, Houston. I'll talk to you later."
"Discovery, Houston. Do you know what's going on down there? You're the only one who has any answers and I've got a chopper. I don't know what to do about this. I think the Explorer should stay where it is. I don't like this."
Alfred was already pulling off the communication device. He got up, walked to the small table by the engine room and pulled the chart out of the base. "Houston, this is Discovery and I'm heading for the coast station. I'm getting some strange readings, but I don't know what the hell is going on. We're going to talk. I will check in tomorrow and I will report the location. If I can't report, that's okay. You will send a chopper out there. This is pretty much off the charts. I don't know what's going on and I don't want to talk about it over the radio. I want to talk about it with my team. They know what to do. Talk to you tomorrow."
He slipped the radio back into his pocket and turned off the comm. He got up and started moving down the halls, taking them as much as necessary to get to his quarters. It didn't feel safe, but it was the safest thing to do.
Helen was in her bunk, staring at the ceiling, thinking her own thoughts. They'd been down there a nearly six months.
