A Merman's Tale 25

Chapter 25: Angels Without Wings



  I don't know how long I lost consiousness when I was body-slammed against the bulkhead, it probably was only a few seconds. I was immediately aware however, that Bernie was no longer holding on to my arm. After what felt like an eternity in the dimness (my headlamp had been smashed by the impact) but was probably only a few more seconds, I saw him floating several yards down the corridor, clearly unconsious. Worse, the breather was no longer in his mouth. I frantically cast my eyes about looking for it even as I swam to him as fast as I could, but to no avail. The moment I grabbed hold of Bernie again he began convulsing; I now knew I had only seconds to get him to air. I had none to give him, my lungs automatically deflated whenever I breathed water. I tried to think where the nearest compartment was that still had air, but my mental search came to an abrupt end when Bernie again went limp. What I did next was desperation, pure and simple. I couldn't be sure it would work, but I did it because I no longer had time to think of anything else. I wrapped my tail around his legs and my arms behind his back to hold him tight, then I planted my lips against his. I began inhaling to suck the water from his lungs, as I exhaled through my gills I could feel the water thus expelled buffeting against his chest. Nothing happened for several breaths and I began to get really scared 'Will I fail? Is it already too late?' Bernie started to convulse once more, then I was suddenly enveloped by a dense cloud of bubbles that hid everything from view and also tore him loose from my grip once more.



  Gizella and Yuki arrived moments later at the side of the Exuma Star with their own first rescuees in tow, they had exited the Bahama Nova just before the wave had hit. Both men were shivering and of course soaking wet, but otherwise alright and very thankful for their rescue. Strong hands swiftly helped them on board, draped warm blankets over their shoulders, and led them inside for medical check-ups. Diane and Sara had already brought out their own first survivors and had just gone back down for their next search-and-rescue dive. Only Harry was then thought to be deep within the ship, searching for possible survivors in one of the pumping rooms.

  Diane and Sara surfaced a few minutes later, with Diane clearly somewhat the worse for wear; she was bleeding from cuts on both her face and tailfin. They had just reentered the Bahama Nova's hull when the ship had suddenly lurched and a door hit her in the back, knocking her against a bulkhead and breaking her own headlamp as well as her nose (again). The same door also tore a gash in her tailfin. Trailing blood from her wounds, she and Sara high-tailed it back to the surface as quickly as they could and wasted no time hauling themselves out of the water, lest they become shark bait. Dr T'Kring and Sally quickly treated her injuries, then everyones' concerns shifted to Harry. Given Diane's brush with disaster, Mers and bipeds alike were all concerned for his safety, and the unease only intensified as more time went by.

  Five minutes went by...then ten passed with no sign of the missing merman, or further survivors. Gizella, Sara, and Yuki declared themselves ready to resume the search and rescue, and Diane was also getting restless, but the Bahamian Rescue officers in charge at the scene were very reluctant to give a go-ahead as the Bahama Nova was still rocking, albeit gently, when some of the incoming waves slapped against the overturned hull.

  The three uninjured mermaids were all set to dive over the side anyway when they beheld a sight that made them gasp in shock. As soon as the others realized what they were staring at, their faces too took on a stunned look. None of them expected to see what they were now seeing.



  It seemed to take half of another eternity for this latest cloud of bubbles to even begin to clear, then I saw a hand groping in my general direction. Frantic, I grabbed hold and asked [Bernie, is that you?! Are you alright?!] To my relief I got an immediate response.

  [I guess I am...I don't know...let's get out of here. I can't see anything with these bloody bubbles!]

  Bernie had not been born a subject of the Queen, but he had evidently learned well the fine art of British swearing. I pulled him into clearer water, and even though I had kind of expected or hoped to see what I was now seeing, I was still astounded by the sight.

  [Are you going to be OK, Bernie?] I again asked him.

  Bernie now gave himself a looking over, seemed to take what he saw in stride, then said [I think I'll be fine, but I do have a headache. I think I must have head-butted that wall...]

  [We'll go to the rescue boat so the doctor can take care of you.]

  [What about the others who were with me?]

  [We can't do anything more for them until we get more breathers.]

  [I'll gladly go back with you, then.]

  [The doctor might not want you to go, you took a real bruising from that bulkhead.]

  Just then we noticed a mirror that was still hanging on the wall, and Bernie looked his face over before turning back to face me.

  [You are probably right, and now that I think about it the guys might freak out when they see me coming back like this.]

  [The doctor who is waiting for us is very good, you might be amazed by what she can do. She even took care of me one time when I had gotten sick after I had been changed.]

  [I would like to meet her...] He looked down at himself again before continuing [Maybe I should stay topside until everybody is out. The other guys are not very superstitious for sailors, but if they were to see me like this...they might get nervous and wonder if the breather somehow did this...]

  [As soon as the doctor is sure you will be alright, I can tell your friends that you are safe on the surface and waiting to see them again...]



  Getting out again proved a bit easier said than done. Although Bernie, like me, could now see better underwater than ever before, we would have to be careful. Much of our remaining route out was virtually pitch black, and of course I no longer had my headlamp. In the darkness in a ship that was upside down we could easily swim headlong into a bulkhead, with consequences that could be very serious indeed. As things turned out, the swim itself was no problem, just slower. For most of the way I held one arm out ahead of me, feeling for possible hazards where it was darkest, all while Bernie held on to my other arm so we would not get separated as we swam toward hoped-for safety. When we exited the stairway and saw a bright light ahead, I knew we were all but home. There was one more potential trap, however.

  [Watch out for loose ropes about ten meters before the exit] I told Bernie. [One of my friends got her fin tangled when we first went in, and we had to help free her. We tried to stuff them into a closet but the door wouldn't close properly upside down!] Fortunately the ropes were still on their best behavior, and moments later we were swimming up toward the shadow that was the Exuma Star. Just before we reached the surface Bernie turned up the speed, and completely cleared the water before splashing back in. When I broke surface myself I saw that EVERYONE in sight was staring his way, mouths agape.



  "Oh my God, Bernie! What happened to you!" "Are you OK?" "What did he do to you?!" were just a few of the questions shouted our way as we swam to the stairway to haul out. Some were quite frantic, too. Most were directed at Bernie, but some were clearly intended for me. We finally each held up a hand and succeeded in shushing our more anxious questioners, all of whom were 'normal' humans.

  "This is not all that bad, really, having a tail sure beats the living daylights out of being dead. I can even breathe water now too!" Bernie told our onlookers as we thumped our way up the stairs. Everyone who could crowded the rail to get a good look at his tail. It was a dark green at his waist, then gradually changed to a medium green as it tapered down to his tailfin, which was a light green with a darker band at its trailing edge. Like most of the other mermen I had seen, he had frilly fins on both sides of his lower tail.

  As soon as we reached the Exuma Star's quarterdeck, Dr T'Kring shooed everyone back so she could scan and treat us. In addition to the bruises about his face and upper body, Bernie also turned out to have a concussion. Despite his near death-by-drowning experience, his lungs were in good shape, the Vulcan doctor gave him a hypospray injection to ward off the possibility of pneumonia. Despite having been briefly knocked unconsious myself, my only medical issues proved to be a mild concussion and a minor cut on my forehead. I was as relieved as anyone to hear that bit of news, but lost little further time telling the others I had some VERY important news to pass on.

  "There are four more crewmen still trapped in the compartment where he (Bernie) had been."

  "And the guys we just rescued think there may be more survivors closer to the bow" Yuki added. "They said they were going to try to open some hatches in case they had to swim out, just before the ship capsized."

  "I doubt they got any open," Karl, whom Gizella had recently brought out of the ship, now said. "They went forward just a couple minutes before she went on over."

  Captain Barry sucked in his breath, then spoke "they could well be alive, we did hear tapping from at least one location near the bow..."

  "We need to get going then, we may not have much time left" Gizella said.

  "How many spare breathers do we have now?" I asked. "I lost the one Bernie had been using when that wall hit us."

  "How did you turn him into a...merman?" someone in the group of onlookers asked.

  "I really don't know. It seems to be one of those things that can happen when a Mer saves a human from drowning. It's risky but sometimes you have to take the chance..." Bernie nodded his head in agreement a couple times as I spoke.

  "Was it magic?"

  "Some of the old legends did say Mers are magical, so maybe there is your answer."

  A quick check by the Levys had revealed that we now had four spare breathers on hand, not counting Karyn/Aayla's that she wanted to keep in case she needed to go into the water herself. As disappointing as that news was for us Mers, perhaps it was just as well. Given my recent close call (and that of Bernie too!), Captain Outten was now emphatic that even we Mers swim in pairs. Dr T'Kring then answered the question of who would be the odd Mer out when she said she wanted to further work on Diane's nose; it was still swollen and she still could not breathe through it at all.

  Everyone quickly agreed that Captain Outten's  decision was the right one, then Gizella spoke up.

  "We (meaning Yuki and herself) can keep searching forward and they (looking toward Sara and me) can go aft again, we know the areas we have already been to the best."

  "I agree with you, that is the best way" Captain Barry spoke in his turn. Turning to face John/Kit and Karyn/Aayla, he now asked "Are those breathers now ready to go?"

  "They are ready to go, sir" Karyn answered.

  "Very good, thank you."

  A few moments later, as Gizella, Sara, Yuki, and I were buckling the watertight pouches holding the breathers to the belts around our waists, Bernie spoke up with some advice of his own for us.

  "Don't tell anyone down there about this" he said as he bounced his tailfin off the deck. "I'll tell them when they come on board."

  "What we might tell them?" Sara asked.

  "Just tell them I'm safe and waiting to see their smiling faces again!"

  The Vulcan doctor then stepped up to make sure the cut on my forehead had fully healed, then asked me "Mr Scott, am I correct in presuming that you will not trust random factors alone for your safety?"

  "You are most correct, Doctor" I replied in a very Vulcanlike manner. The Vulcan part of me could read her mind well enough I could tell she was absolutely delighted by what I had just said, although a true Vulcan such as her would never admit to feeling such an emotion...



  After splashing in, we four Mers quickly swam to the gangway door we had used before and reentered the Bahama Nova. Some of the rope had come loose again, so Yuki (the only one of us with no finger webbing) wrapped it around one shelf stanchion before tying the end into a knot around another stanchion.

  [That should do it!] she thought to the rest of us. [Getting my fin tangled in that rope once was enough!] For her it had been an annoyance, for an air-breathing human it could have been life-threatening.

  We switched on our headlamps when we reached the stairway, then we split into pairs upon reaching the corridor as we had before. Gizella and Yuki turned toward the bow once more, while Sara and I again swam toward the stern. When we reached the door for the compartment that was a watery tomb for the two men we had seen within we paused, Sara repeated her earlier prayer, then touched me on the arm.

  [We must not forget them!] she thought to me.

  [No, we shouldn't, just like the people on that plane we dove on] I thought back.

  We continued down the corridor and shortly arrived at the doorway to the room where Chet, Claude, Geraldo, and Nigel remained trapped. How might they have been affected by the jolt that could have written finis for Bernie and me? As I had before, we threaded our way past the toppled machinery (a pump, we were later told), rounded the corner and angled upward.

  "Harry, you did come back!" was the first thing Sara and I heard after surfacing.

  "I promised you I would come back, remember?"

  "Yes, you did" Chet said.

  "How is Bernie? Is he alright?" Nigel asked.

  "He is safe on the rescue boat, and waiting to see you guys again!"

  "We got shaken up a bit soon after you and Bernie left, did you have any trouble whyen it happened?"

  "We did have a brief scare" I admitted "but I got him out and now we are here to get the rest of you guys out, two at a time."

  "Who is she?" Geraldo asked.

  "This is Sara. She's a friend of mine, and she is a mermaid." I shined my headlamp her way, she then did a backflip to show her own tail and fin. When her head came back up all four seamen gave her appreciative looks.

  "That is a very beautiful tail you have, Sara."

  "Why thank you" Sara said as she blushed just a bit.

  "Where were you before?"

  "One of our friends and I were rescueing two of your friends who were trapped in another compartment."

  That clearly made an impression on the men. All four were silent for a few moments, then one of the asked "How many mermaids and mermen are there of you?"

  I spoke "There are five of us here on search and rescue. Your captain told us there were about twenty of you unaccounted for when we arrived late this morning."

  "And there are a lot more of us where we came from!" Sara added.

  "Who is going to come out next?" I now said, changing the subject.

  The four crewmen looked at one another for a few moments, then Nigel said "You can pick whoever you want, it's OK by us."

  "No problem, I'll take you" I said as I looked toward Chet.

  "And I'll take you" Sara waved her hand at Geraldo, both of us then readied the breathers we had brought with us and handed them up to their intended recipients.

  We gave Chet and Geraldo some last-moment advice, then they put the little devices into their mouths before jumping into the water. Geraldo held on to Sara's waist, while Chet took hold of my arm as Bernie had done earlier. We swam with our charges out of the room and forward along the corridor; Chet was just as amazed and impressed to learn of my contact telepathy as Bernie had been.

  We soon reached the spot where Bernie and I had nearly met with disaster, nothing happened this time and I made no mention of that incident. Before much longer we four were headed down the stairway and on our way out of the ship. Another minute, thereabouts, and Sara, Geraldo, Chet, and I were on the surface next to the Exuma Star's stairway. Strong arms quickly helped our latest rescuees out of the water and up the steps, while John/Kit took the breathers to check how much 'air time' they had left. A few moments later he came back with word that they had over an hour and a half of time left in them. Right then and there Sara and I decided we would waste no time going back for Claude and Nigel and bring them out. We didn't see or hear Bernie from where we were in the water, we assumed he was inside somewhere. Gizella and Yuki were not there either; no one seemed worried, so we were not worried either.

  Just before Sara and I reentered the Bahama Nova we met Gizella and Yuki swimming out with their own latest rescuees in tow. All of us paused, submerged, and had a quick exchange of information on how our search-and-rescue mission was progressing. We learned that our two teams each had at least two more trapped survivors still to rescue, and more compartments still to check. The two survivors were as impressed to learn of my ability as a telepath as any of the others had been - and by the shells Gizella, Sara, and Yuki were wearing.

  It didn't take Sara and me very long to swim back to the compartment where Claude and Nigel were eagerly waiting for us. Following some back and forth on how their shipmates were doing, they got themselves ready and plunged into the water. When we surfaced alongside the Exuma Star Captain Outten was standing on the stairway to personally greet us, and to give us an update on the missing.

  "You and your friends are doing fantastic...much more than we could ever have imagined...or asked for" He sounded almost in awe of us.

  "Thank you!" Sara and I answered as one. If we blushed as we spoke the captain made no mention of it.

  "Captain Barry wants you to wait until your friends come back up, he is checking to see who is still missing...he should be done shortly."

  Diane crawled up just then, her nose looked much better than it had right before Sara and I had dived under for Claude and Nigel, barely half an hour ago.

  "You look a lot better than you did when we last saw you!" Sara said.

  "Thank you. And I can breathe through my nose again too!" Not for the first time Diane was impressed with Star Trek medicine - Bones McCoy (I still don't know how many TOS Dr McCoys there are now!) had fixed her nose after she had done a face-plant at the moment of the Change.

  "Have you seen Bernie, the first guy I brought out?" I asked.

  "No, I was still inside, talking with Kit and Aayla, after the doctor finished working on my nose."

  "We -" I began but got no further because just then Gizella and Yuki surfaced with another pair of rescued crewmen. As before they were quickly helped on board and inside for their medical checkups by the Vulcan doctor. As soon as they were gone Captain Barry stepped forward to speak with us five Mers.

  "I have some interesting news for you..."

  What kind of news? I found myself thinking.

  "...everyone is now accounted for..."

  Mission accomplished?

  Not quite. Indeed, what could be the most challenging part of our mission was yet to come...