by Gerry Carr (Island Breezes)
((((º.·´¯`·.Story #11 ·.¸.· ((((*¸.·´`·. ·.¸.· Rated G
"The Golden Sea"
It was the morning of their third day on Antar. Phillip and Diane Evans had gone for a walk in a nearby park and were enjoying the Antarian nature trails. Jeff Parker had been invited by Varec to go with him and look at several places that might serve as a new site for the Crashdown Café. Max and Liz were in the palace living room when Michael and Maria walked in.
"Michael… Maria! Just the two people I was thinking of!" said Max. "Liz and I were thinking of going diving today. Why don't you two come with us?"
"I never went diving before," said Maria. "I don't know if I would know how."
"Well, it's not so hard," said Max. "Just stay with me and Liz. She's never dived before either, but you're both good swimmers, so you shouldn't have any trouble learning to dive! We use rebreathers… they never run out of air, and they don't make bubbles."
"Well…"
"Come on, Maria! It'll be a lot of fun!" said Michael. "Let's go with them!"
"Well… okay."
"Get your bikinis on," said Max "-not you, Michael!"
"Aw, shucks, Maxwell! You're no fun at all!" said Michael, joking.
"Ew!" exclaimed Maria, giving Michael a playful slap on the arm. "I'd rather you didn't wear anything."
Liz turned and looked at her, smiled, and raised her eyebrows. Maria's face reddened slightly.
"I… I mean… Well, you know what I mean!"
Liz snickered and the guys both smiled a knowing smile,
"Yeah, we know, Maria!"
"Oooh… you two!"
"I'll get a car to take us down to the j'koozzeen," said Max.
Now Maria looked at Liz quizzically.
"Uh, Liz… is this like Texas or something where you fall in a swimming pool and people yell, 'Don't anyone flush?' 'Cause if these guys are expecting me to go scuba diving in a Jacuzzi…"
Everyone was laughing.
"No, no!" said Michael. "J'koozzeen means beach or shore, you know, in Antarian."
"Oh."
"Yeah, well, I kind of wondered about that myself," said Liz. "I didn't want to ask!"
"I told Kyle to take the day off, so he and Sheriff Valenti went down to the j'koozzeen a little earlier," Max said. "They wanted to get a sailboat and go sailing on the Golden Sea. Liz and Maria's Moms went with them to see if they could get a suntan on the beach. Mom and Dad went to the park over by the west end to walk on the nature trails. I think Isabel went to the j'koozzeen with the others. That leaves the four of us… so… let's go diving!"
"Let's go!" seconded Michael.
"Well, alright!" Maria agreed. Liz smiled and nodded.
----------
At the shore of the Golden Sea, the palace staff car let the four companions out, and they walked down to a little shop on the beach that rented dive equipment. Max rented a wrap-around mask, a pair of fins, a rebreather, a buoyancy control vest, a weight belt, and a depth guage for each one. Liz also rented a small underwater image device, like a camera, to capture some memories of her adventure. An assistant from the shop carried the equipment into the water for the four divers and handed it to them as they sat on the edge of a submerged platform in chest-deep water. The platform was there for the benefit of divers. Max and Michael showed Liz and Maria how to put on the rebreathers and other equipment and how to use it then rolled off the platform into the water. Liz and Maria put their mouthpieces into their mouths and followed the guys in.
As they turned over and leveled out into a swimming position beneath the water, the girls noticed that the Golden Sea was quite clear beneath the surface, not very different than the clearest waters back on Earth. The visibility was fantastic, though. They could easily see for two hundred feet or more all around them.
Max and Michael were waiting for them and motioned for them to come. Both Max and Michael had waterproof watches with built-in compasses and directional transponders. The transponders free the divers from having to pull a buoy and flag behind them as they dive. All motorized boats and most sailboats on Antar are equipped with a device that picks up dive transponder signals and notifies the boaters to watch out for surfacing divers or avoid the immediate area because divers may be present.
Max and Michael looked at their compasses and watched the direction of the sand ripples on the bottom, which told them that they were headed away from the shore. Liz and Maria were right beside them. The water, which had been ten feet deep at the end of the submerged platform, was now just over twenty feet deep and getting deeper as they swam further away from the shore.
After about ten minutes, they arrived at a reef in 65 feet of water. They found that the reef rose 30 feet off the bottom, to a depth of 35 feet on the top; but on the outside edge, the side farthest from shore, there was a drop-off that went down to 150 feet. The reef was about 300 feet across the top; its length was unknown to the four and went on for probably several miles parallel to the coast.
Liz spotted a cute lobster-like crustacean sitting below a coral outcrop. It had unusually long antennae and a pink, ringed body with a series of long, forward pointing spines in a single ridge along the center of its back. It was larger than a shrimp but smaller than a grown lobster. She took a picture of it. Maria gave her an "OK" sign; she had seen it, too.
The four companions swam over the top of the reef, following the valleys and peaks, checking out everything they saw. They heard Max making a noise to get their attention. Looking up, Liz and Maria found themselves face to face with a couple of playful bottlenose dolphins. Both Liz and Maria were surprised to see anything so much like an earth species on Antar; in fact, it seemed highly doubtful that anyone just looking at them could tell them from earth dolphins.
The dolphins came right up to the girls and put their noses playfully against them, prodding them to play. Maria ran her hand over one of the dolphins, caressing it on the head and back. Liz took a picture. Then Maria held onto its dorsal fin and the dolphin gave her a ride around the top of the reef. Liz held onto the other dolphin and followed, trying to get a picture of Maria and Maria's new friend as she held onto hers at the same time. Max and Michael were swimming furiously trying unsuccessfully to keep up. Fortunately, the dolphins simply circled around and brought Liz and Maria back together with Max and Michael.
Max ran his hand over the head of Liz's newfound friend and smiled. Michael held onto the other side of Maria's dolphin, and he and Maria got a ride around the reef top together. Liz was wondering how many pictures she could get on this camera without reloading or downloading or whatever one had to do with it when it was full, because she was taking pictures of Michael and Maria, of Max, of the dolphins… She hoped it would not run out! There were so many memories to record.
After a while, the dolphins nudged the girls as if to say, "goodbye, we've had fun!" Maria removed her mouthpiece from her mouth and kissed her new friend on the nose. Liz took a picture, then handed the camera to Maria and kissed her newfound friend on the nose, too. Maria snapped the picture for Liz. Then the dolphins turned and sped toward the surface, leaping out of the water and doing several somersaults each before falling back into the water nose first and speeding off in the direction from which they had first appeared, leaving the girls -and the guys- in awe.
After the dolphins, everyone felt that everything else would be rather anticlimactic; but in fact, they had many other enjoyable experiences while on the reef.
Michael wanted to go over the far side of the reef to the bottom, which was 150 feet deep. The others followed. They didn't go all the way to the bottom. At a depth of 110 feet, they found a large cave opening and swam into it. It angled upward and got narrower, eventually coming out on the other side of the reef, the side nearest to the shore, in 50 feet of water.
Max looked at his watch and decided that they had been down long enough. He motioned for the others to follow and headed back toward the shore, using his compass to get a bearing then watching the direction that the ripples in the sand took and swimming perpendicular to them. About half way back to the shore, in 25 feet of water, the group was engulfed by a large school of small, shiny, silvery fish and a few larger fish that the girls did not recognize. Michael reached out with his hand and made a swishing motion through the dense school of little fish all around them; the school parted as the fish swam around his hand and continued on their endless journey. All too soon, it seemed, they were at the shore again, climbing back onto the platform from which they had departed, removing their gear and handing it back to the helpful attendant, who had waded out to help them in. He also took Liz's camera and opened it then gave her a disc, which he removed from a slot in the bottom.
Liz and Maria walked up the beach with Max and Michael by the hand, picking up seashells along the way. They found Isabel with Nancy Parker and Amy DeLuca sunning themselves on the beach. Liz and Maria sat down beside them, pulling Max and Michael down with them.
"We have just had the most amazing… awesome… incredible… unbelievable dive!" Liz said to her mother and the others.
"You wouldn't believe it!" seconded Maria. "It was the coolest, most amazing thing that ever happened to me! …well, almost…" She looked at Michael and smiled. Michael smiled back.
"Have you 'girls' had fun up here on the beach?" Liz asked.
Their Moms and Isabel all indicated that it had been very relaxing and enjoyable. Isabel pointed toward the water… A sailboat was cruising along the coast about a mile out.
"Jim and Kyle seem to be having a pretty good time, too!" said Isabel. "I think I'd like to go sailing, too, next time we come. Looks like they're having a lot of fun out there!"
Liz and Maria told the girls they would see them back at the palace, and they asked Max and Michael to take them to the café across from the j'koozzeen for a drink. The guys agreed; everyone was thirsty after the dive. It seems that the Golden Sea was as salty as the seas back on Earth.
The little shop across the street had drinks that tasted a little like root beer… and a place to sit. The four sat at a table and downed a couple of drinks apiece. Unfortunately, this shop didn't sell snacks or food and only had the one root beer-like beverage to drink. It mainly sold beachwear, towels, and souvenirs. Max suggested that they go to a restaurant together on the other side of town. Liz and Maria agreed. They all went back to the palace, bathed and changed. Max left instructions with his staff to feed anyone who returned who hadn't eaten, but he expected that most of the guests would be gone for the rest of the day. No one had seemed ready to return too soon.
Max and Liz enjoyed a nice candlelight dinner with Michael and Maria at one of Antar's premier restaurants on the west side of town. It was almost impossible to believe that just a few hours earlier, they had been swimming 60 feet down underneath the Golden Sea… and riding and playing with dolphins! Liz couldn't wait to see the pictures she had taken… indeed, it had been a wonderful and most amazing day!
[center]-The End-[/center]
This story was adapted and revised from the chapter titled, "The Golden Sea" (Chapter 27), which can be found in the novel-length Roswell fic, "Altered Time – Destiny in the Stars" by Gerry Carr (Island Breezes).
