Chapter 3: On the Keldysh-
The next day before Toph was scheduled to land on the Keldysh, Rien and Zhu started arguing about their source from the telephone and whether she's the real thing. Toph's helicopter is fast approaching their ship in the middle of nothing but ocean for miles. As the two argue, one of the subs is being prepared for another dive.
"She's a Goddamn liar! A nutcase! Like that Anastasia babe!" Mouk steps between the two shouting over Zhu's complaints. "The helicopter is coming." Rien nods and starts heading to the landing pad, Zhu and Mouk following close behind him. Zhu continues shouting over the noise of people working.
"She says she's Toph Bei Fong right? Toph Bei Fong died on the Titanic at the age of 17. If she had lived she would be over a hundred by now!" Rien looks over his shoulder at Zhu. "A hundred and one next week." Zhu just rolls his eyes and continues.
"Okay so she's a very old Goddamn liar! I traced her back to the twenties when she was working as an actress! An ACTRESS! There's your first clue Sherlock! Her name was Toph Kuruk, then she married a guy named Curtis, moved to Ceder Rapids and popped out a couple of kids. Now Curtis is dead and from what I hear Ceder Rapids is dead." The helicopter starts to land on the ship's landing pad, causing Rien to shout over the sound of the rotors.
"And everyone who knows about the diamond is supposed to be dead or on this ship, but she knows!"
As the helicopter lands on the landing pad the large down blast stifles the sound of any argument. After it lands the Keldysh and copter crew work together to unload the contents. Several suitcases are lowered before Toph herself is lowered down in a wheelchair, Miki following right behind her. The chief of the crew hands a puzzled Keldysh crewman a fishbowl full of fish. It is very apparent that Toph does not travel light. Toph looks fragile among all the high tech equipment and the strong deck crew. After everything is unpacked it is take to a stateroom aboard the ship.
Once everything is in the state room Miki starts to unpack Toph's things while Toph arranges several framed photos onto a dresser, placing them all around the fishbowl. Rien and Zhu watch them from the doorway before Rien speaks.
"Is your stateroom alright?" He asks before taking a small step into the room. Toph looks up at him then back to the photos that she is placing. "Yes. Very nice. Have you met my granddaughter Miki? She takes care of me." Toph smiles looking at Miki, who looks from Rien to her grandma. "Yes, we met just a few minutes ago, grandma. Remember, up on deck?" Toph bops her head like she now remembers. "Oh yes."
Rien glances back at Zhu and sighs as Zhu rolls his eyes at him. Toph sits back in the wheelchair now that she has finished arranging the photos. "There, I have to have my pictures when I travel." Zhu rolls his eyes again and rubs his forehead. Rien glances at him then looks back at Toph.
"Would you like anything? Anything at all?" Toph looks up at him then at her photos.
"I would like to see my drawing."
After everyone has moved into the preservation room, Toph is now looking at the drawing in the tray of water that is keeping it preserved until they can find a way to keep in permanently preserved. Toph is now facing herself in a span of 84 years as the picture ripples and sways, making it seem almost alive. Toph's mind is flashing from the present to the moment when she modeled for this drawing.
A man's hand, holding a graphite crayon carefully creating the curve of her shoulder and the shape of her hair with two gentle lines.
Toph focuses, almost transfixed by the face of the woman in the drawing.
The man's eyes are just visible from over the sketch pad he is drawing on. He looks up suddenly, his bright blue eyes soft, but direct.
Toph smiles remembering. Rien gets up and grabs his reference photo of the necklace and sits beside Toph holding it where she can see.
"King Sozin the Second wore a fabulous stone, called the Eye of the Crown, which disappeared in 1792, about the time Sozin lost everything from the neck up. The theory is that the Eye of the Crown was chopped too, re-cut into the shape of an eye. After which it became known as the Eye of the Moon because of the blue color that somehow formed in the middle of the flawless diamond. Today it would be worth more than the Hope Diamond." He explains to Toph and Miki.
"It was a dreadful heavy thing." Toph says, breaking the silence after Rien's monologue as she points to the drawing. "I only wore it this once." Miki looks at her grandmother, confused and concerned that Toph is imagining things.
"You actually believe this is you grandma?" Miki asks, a concerned tone wavering in her voice. Toph looks over her shoulder at her, smiling wide.
"It is me dear. Wasn't I one hot babe?" Miki and Rien chuckle lightly then look at each other. Rien quickly looks away back at Toph holding out the picture of the diamond again.
"I tracked it down through insurance records... an old claim that was settled under terms of absolute secrecy. Do you know what the person who filed that claim was, Toph?" Rien asks her. Toph nods.
"Someone named Kuzon, I should imagine." Rien smiles widely and nods obviously hearing the right answer.
"That's right, Kuzon. Pittsburgh steel tycoon. For a diamond necklace his son Zuko Kuzon bought in France for his fiancee... you... a week before he sailed on the Titanic. And the claim was filed right after the sinking. So the diamond must have gone down with the ship." He explains further than looks at Miki pointing to the date at the bottom of the drawing, "See the date?"
"April 14... 1912." Miki answers as she reads the date, then looks at Rien not getting why that has anything to do with why she and her grandmother are there.
"If your grandma is who she says she is, then she was wearing the necklace the day the Titanic sank." He says then leans on the table looking at Toph smiling. "Which makes you my new best friend." As Toph smiles Rien moves over to a table where some of the other recovered artifacts are sitting. "These are some of the things we recovered from your stateroom."
Lying on the table are several objects, from normal for valuable. Rose is pushed over to the table, sitting up from the wheelchair to see over the edge of the table. Her trembling hand lifts up a tortoise shell hand mirror that has pearls laid into it.
"This was mine. How extraordinary! It looks the same as the last time I saw it." She says then turns the mirror over and looks at herself in the cracked glass. "The reflection has changed a bit." She says as she sets the mirror back down and picks up a ornate hair comb. A jade butterfly takes flight on the ebony handle of the comb. She turns it slowly remembering a rush of images and emotions that have lain dormant for eight decades as she handles the comb. Rien slowly approaches her, being careful not to upset her.
"Are you ready to go back to Titanic Toph?"
After leaving the preservation room, everyone moved to the screening room full of television monitors. On them are images from the MIR subs and the two ROVs. Toph is looking at the screens, particularly enjoying one of the bow railing. Rien guesses that it obviously means something to her, and goes to say something but is cut off as Zhu pulls up his simulation onto a monitor. Miki turns Toph's chair so she can see the monitor.
"We've put together the world's largest database on the Titanic. Okay, here..." Zhu explains. Rien looks at Toph then looks at Zhu.
"Toph might not want to see this Zhu..." He warns but Toph raises a hand and shakes her head. "No, no. It's fine. I'm curious."
Zhu smiles with an 'I told you so' look on his face and starts a computer simulation on the screen, which he narrates as it plays.
"She hits the berg on the starboard side and it sort of bumps along... punching holes like a Morse code... dit dit dit, down the side. Now she's flooding in the forward compartments.. and the water spills over the bulk heads, which sadly don't go any higher than E deck. As her bow is going down, her stern goes up... slow at first and then faster and faster until it's lifting all that weight, maybe 20 to 30 thousand tons... out of the water and the hull can't take that kind of pressure. So what happens next? SKRTTT! It splits. Right down to the keel, which acts like a big hinge. Now the bow swings down and the stern falls back level. But the weight of the bow pulls the stern up vertical, and the bow section detaches, heading for the bottom. The stern bobs like a cork, floods and goes under at around 2:20 a.m. Two hours and forty minutes after the collision.
"The bow pulls out of its dive and planes away, almost half a mile, before it hits the bottom going maybe 12 miles an hour. KABOOM! The stern implodes as it sinks, from the pressure, and rips apart from the force of the current as it falls, landing like a big pile of junk. Cool huh?"
"Thank you for that... fine forensic analysis Mr. Bovine. Of course... the experience of it was somewhat less clinical." Toph says solemnly. Rien looks at Zhu annoyed then back at Toph.
"Will you share it with us?"
Toph's eyes go back to the screens, looking at the sad ruins that are right under the ship they now sit on. Toph can hear ghostly waltz music in her head, followed by faint and echoing voices of officers shouting "Women and children ONLY!"
She looks around a crowd of screaming faces. Pandemonium and terror filling the deck. People are crying, praying, kneeling on the deck. Just impressions... flashes in the dark...
Toph looks at another monitor, where the camera on SNOOP DOG is feeding video from a rusted debris-filled corridor. She looks at the endless row of doorways sliding past, like open screaming mouths.
Rose sees the image of a child, three years old at most, standing ankle deep in water in the middle of an endless corridor. The child is lost, alone and crying.
Toph seems shaken by the flood of memories and emotions that fill her mind. Her green eyes well up with tears and she puts her head in her hands, sobbing silently. Miki takes the handles of the wheelchair and starts to push Toph out. "I'm taking her to rest."
"NO!" Toph shouts, her voice surprisingly strong. The happy old lady that once was sitting in the chair is now gone, replaced with a woman with eyes of green steel. Rien signals for everyone to stay quiet. "Tell us Toph."
Toph looks up at the monitors, staring at the images of the ruined ship. "It's been 84 years..." As she goes to continue Rien interrupts her.
"Just try to remember." He says softly, but Toph holds up a hand to silence him.
"It's been 84 years... And I can still smell the fresh paint. The china had never been used... The sheets had never been slept in. Titanic was a new ship." Just as she finishes this sentence Rien flips on a mini-recorder and sets it on the table near her.
"Titanic was called the ship of dreams. And it was... It really was..."