Spell, Crook and Handle Pt. 08

"I am happy to hear that," Midori said. "I am glad you are making progress. Is that Surisa woman still working here?"

"I never should have told you about that," I replied and she shook her head.

"I needed to know," she replied.

"Midori told me that you 'helped' her out when she discovered that cheating bastard of a husband was sleeping with that Mee Chang woman." Nao snarled.

"I have to give Tetsuo his dinner, I will be back," Midori said as she went into the university.

"I don't know why she hasn't divorced that pig," Nao said as she sat down next to me. "I hate arranged marriages. It is barbaric."

"So Midori and Tetsuo aren't in love," I asked.

"She tries her best but no," Nao replied grimacing. "His family owns quite a bit of property but is cash poor while our family is quite wealthy from business investments and the like. So a marriage seemed a good fit for both. If she divorces she will leave the marriage with what she entered into it with and of course the same is true of Tetsuo."

"I wonder why he never told me he was married until I actually came to Tokyo."

"I take it there was another woman?" Nao asked and I nodded. "He really deserves what he gets."

"That's why I won't get married," I said and she smiled. "What?"

"Midori told me all about how well you two fit together," Nao giggled. "You must be quite something, even for a round eye."

"I will only say this, I have had few complaints."

Nao raised an eyebrow and smiled brilliantly. She scooted closer and giggled even as Midori reappeared. Midori appeared quite upset and my heart went out to her. Midori plopped down on the other side and wiped tears from her eyes. Without any prompting, Midori began to puke out all the things that have been bothering her for years. Nao and I sat there and listened. She cursed, shouted and cried as the words tumbled out. Nao held her sister close and rocked her as her narrative ended. I wanted to help but I had to return to work.

"This is out of my control," I said. "I have to return but I get off of work at nine."

"Come by for dinner," Midori asked. "I could use some company."

"Alright," I agreed and smiled. "If I am going to be late I'll call. This discovery could change things."

"I understand. I am glad you took the time to explain. I appreciate that Louis-san."

I left her with her sister on the steps and returned to work. Richard met me on the steps and he was more bouncy than ever. I didn't have to prompt him he was telling me about the translation. There were tons of things yet to work on but the main inscriptions had been completed. He practically dragged me over to the holographic display which half the team was staring at. The A.I.'s had color coded the inscriptions so that we could track their progress. The green icons were completed texts, the blue were ones that were partially finished and the red ones were untouched and possessing words uncommon with the rest. There were a surprising number of red icons.

Hell, even the engineers were over staring at the writing with excitement. Normally, they are far too busy tweaking the instrument packages and software on the drone. The aggravating malfunctions with the scanners were driving them crazy. Richard walked over and began touching the display bringing up blocks of text and reading them off. Once he had shared his portion Magnus, the chief engineer, took over and he grumbled about the disparity between the visual data and the ultrasound scans. He did an overlay of the visual scan in blue and the ultrasound in yellow. They conflicted in every way possible where any angle was involved. I pointed that out and Magnus stared at the display with a fresh perspective. He was so surprised that he reverted to Norwegian.

Magnus presented a close up of one of the walk ways and stared at the queer geometry involved. It wasn't simply an optical illusion there was something more profound going on. He ranted about what he was seeing and no one but me could understand what he was saying. Magnus shook his head and his eyes widened as the realization set in.

"Gauss was right," he said at last in English.

"Who or what is Gauss," I asked and fielded other questions from those gathered around the projector.

"Carl Friedrich Gauss, he was a nineteenth century mathematician. He was brilliant and advanced not just math but astronomy and several other fields. He was one of the first to take steps in our understanding of Hyperbolic Geometry or better known as Non-Euclidean Geometry."

"So are you telling me that these angles are Non-Euclidean?" I asked before anyone else could voice that thought.

"That is exactly what I am saying. The work is mostly theoretical but here we have a concrete example of something that shouldn't exist. We need to proceed with great caution and keep this to ourselves for now at least." Magnus said his eyes never leaving the holographic display.

He left us all standing there as he cried out in Norwegian and headed off to the engineering lab. That was the beginning of the end. Things began to accelerate from there. Magnus and his team began work on a new generation of sensor package for the drone. He tore Valin apart and rebuilt it from the bottom up. The crew from Numenor watched as the crazy Norwegian worked three days without sleep, little food and only left the lab to use the restroom. On day four Magnus fell asleep standing up and four of his people carried him to the lounge. He slept twelve hours straight and the on call physician warned him to pace himself for a man in his condition. It was only then that his heart murmur was mentioned to everyone involved in the project.

It took them two full months to calibrate the new scanner. It was sheer genius and a lot of people didn't think they could do it. It was a hybrid technology that blended the principals of sonar and laser. It still had to be fine-tuned but it should be able to see these crazy angles, the key word was should. Magnus handed over rebuilding Valin to the Numenor team. A few days later, the drone was back up and running. It was running a series of diagnostics to integrate the new technology with the old. If you could call a cutting edge drone old. While Magnus had fallen back into more healthy habits he had a couch brought into the lab so he could nap while work was being done. I had to hand it to him. He was a beast when it came to getting the drone back in shape.

"It's done," one of the techs cried out. "We have telemetry and all the hardware is talking to us. We are water tight and green for a launch."

"Let's let this bitch run," Magnus said yawning and sitting up from his latest nap.

We all went this time. It took me a day to get my sea legs back but others were not so lucky. Our science vessel, the Kobayashi Maru, was a converted coast guard cutter. It was a sturdy old girl if you were to listen to her captain, Horace Van Der Loot and a thirty year veteran of six campaigns, three wars and a dozen other hostile encounters. If you think of a man that has lived a majority of his life at sea Horace fits the image perfectly. He was of average height with dark skin that had been exposed to sun, wind and water for decades. If there was a louder crasser individual I had never met them. He had even more stories than Surisa. I never saw that coming. The first night out we learned he had sailed just about every body of water that was worth navigating.

It was during our jaunt to the northern edge of the Marianas Trench that Magnus came up with the next step in our investigation of the ruins. He wanted to launch a manned expedition to the sunken city. I argued against it until we learned how safe it was. I suspected the city only slumbered and that something might still dwell in that stygian darkness and crushing depths. Let the probe do its work and see what we are facing. Tetsuo agreed to let Valin do its job and see what we came up with. That didn't stop Magnus from brain storming and sketching out a submersible.

The ship's night crew came on and we celebrated what would, in a few days' time, could be a history making find. I didn't care about history I was concerned about surviving our encounter with what could easily be an inhabited city. How would they react if their territory was continually violated? I remembered what happened to my friends when we entered the Black Cathedral. Would history repeat itself?

"You look a million miles away," Kat Shaw said as she joined me at the rail looking out over the ocean.

"Just about, I have a bad feeling about this," I said.

"Is it because this is like that site you visited," she asked and I nodded. "But that place was empty for centuries."

"Where did you get that idea," I asked and she looked at me first puzzled and then alarmed.

"It was empty right," she asked her voice shrilling in fear. I looked at her and she could see it in my eyes. "What really happened Louis?"

"If I tell you, you will never have another good night's sleep ever again. It is better that we drop the subject."

Kat gazed down at the water and shivered. She suddenly slipped her arms around my waist and clung to me. I held her close and prayed the drone would be able to perform its mission without incident. Kat kissed my cheek and went below decks. I fired off an email to her brother Nick. I asked him if he was aware of what was going on. I got a reply a few minutes later and he told me he was in the loop. I sent a second message telling him about my fears of what might be lurking in Dagon's city. He felt the pressure alone would limit the chance for anything living at that depth. Even if there was life down there it couldn't possibly survive the change of pressure. I told him I hoped he was right since his sister was on board this ship.

I went to my cabin, okay it was our cabin. I shared it with Magnus, Richard and Jacob one of the junior engineers. Getting laid was going to be a challenge but if anyone could pull it off it would be Surisa. I stripped down to my boxers and plopped down in my bunk. The gentle rocking of the ship lulled me to sleep. It didn't last long though. There was a sound and it didn't belong. I opened my eyes and looked around but there was nothing out of sorts. I sat up and looked at the door. There was a light illuminating the bottom of the door but there was something else also. There was a puddle of water forming under the door. There was that sound again.

"Leeeewwwwiiiisssss," it came again.

I got up, pulled on my jeans and went to the door. I heard a soft wet slapping sound moving away as I opened the door. There on the deck were wet footprints. Was this some kind of joke? That's when I noticed the scratches on the side of the wall. Etched into the metal were builder runes. The message was clear, turn back or there will be repercussions. The light from the full moon illuminated the path the intruder took. It had climbed on board and walked to my room and then reversed its course and returned to the ocean from where it had come. I rushed to the edge and looked down. I could see marks where the things claws had penetrated the ships armored shell. It had climbed up with ease and delivered it message.

I returned to my room and woke the others; they had to see the evidence for themselves. Soon most of the crew was awake and gawking at the runes carved into the wall as well as the holes in the ship's hull. It was Shauna, our resident marine biologist that raced away and returned with a cotton swab and a zip lock bag. She swabbed the runes for DNA and intended on debunking what she felt was a prank. It was Magnus that did the math and worked out how strong the thing had to be to be able to puncture the ship's armor. Feng displayed the ship's security footage to me and I went pale when I saw the invader.

Feng took the footage and created a detailed holographic representation of our visitor. When she was done I got everyone's attention and held up my watch. There hovering in the air was the thing from the depths that had left such a dire warning. It was tall, possessing a bloated body perfect for surviving the crushing depths of the ocean. Its head was octopoid like the Dreamer in the Depths. We watched as the thing's facial tentacles moved and twitched. It reminded me of a cat's tail except there were eight of them. It was roughly humanoid with arms and legs but the dorsal fin, gills and clawed hands were distinctly inhuman. It was the watery unblinking blue eyes that were most disturbing. There was a malicious intelligence there and no one denied it. The city we had discovered was occupied.

"Just because this thing showed up doesn't infer a large population," Magnus argued. "If there was, someone would have noticed them before now."

"Just like the sunken city," Kat offered with a frown. "Who's to say that this is the only one?" The last part was said as she looked at me.

"Louis-san is there something you'd like to add," Tetsuo asked.

"We should turn around and leave now," I said and walked away.

The others began to argue and I didn't want any part of it. In the end they would contact Nick and he would give the go ahead to continue. They would finish Valin's last mission and only then decide on whether a manned mission was advisable. My thought on the matter, they were insane. It was as if the warning meant nothing to them and the appearance of this... this Deep One was completely disregarded. I would continue my work on translating the artifact but I was done with the dig. I knew when to quit.

I stood on the bow and watched our inexorable forward movement and fought down the urge to scream. This is why wars start because people have no respect for other individual's desires to be left the fuck alone. Oh god what more could go wrong?

"Oh hey," Kat said as she slid her arms around my waist. "I got great news."

"Fantastic, I could use some good news right about now," I told her.

"My mother is going to visit, she wants to meet you," she said giggling. "Is that great or what?"

"Doomed... I'm doomed," I said as I laughed.

"I got a naughty idea," she purred in my ear. "Would you like to 'Titanic' me?"

"Are you suggesting that we...?" I asked looking over my shoulder at her and she smiled. "Don't you need a little encouragement?"

"Nope, I've been thinking about this since I climbed on board. I am fucking soaked. Now I am going to move in front of you. You are going to unzip, take that monster out and plunge it into my dripping pussy. Then we are going to let the ship do all the work, got it?"

"How can I say no to something like that?"

Kat was wearing a bright light blue blouse and a short skirt. I suspected she was going commando since she never mentioned anything about removing her panties. I watched as she ducked under my arms and gripped the V-shaped railing. I moved closer and had to one hand the rest. I followed her directions to the letter. I unzipped my jeans, took out the erection she had inspired, I flipped her skirt over that delicious ass of hers and eased inside of her. The wind off the ocean buffeted her skirt back into place while I buried my cock to her core. I grabbed the railing with my free hand and held on. She was right; the movement of the ship did all the work.

"Oh shit, you are huge tonight," Kat gasped as the front of the ship dipped. "Oh fuck... you are going to break me, again!"

"Damn, you are squeezing me like crazy," I howled but my words were lost beneath the crashing of the waves against the ship.

It was maddening being at the mercy of the ocean but it didn't disappoint. The rolling motion of the ship drove me in and out of her with an unrelenting ferocity and I loved it. Kat's voice faded as she realized the futility of crying out any longer. The dark magic rose up in answer to the fury of the waves. It enveloped us and it dipped and crested as our pleasure did. I was still learning the mercurial nature of this power of mine. It grew as I did and it adapted as much as my shape shifting allowed me to change with any given situation. Kat's body bucked as she climaxed and my cock impaled her keeping her from falling.

"Can they see us," she whimpered. "Do you think the crew on the bridge can see us?"

"I am sure they can," I told her. "But I do not know if they suspect what is going on."

"MMMMMMM I love your cock Louis," she growled. "And I love you too."

"I will never hurt you Kat," I said as my own climax drew near. "I am close..."

"I know... your prick is getting bigger inside of me. I want to feel you shoot into my womb."

The bow rose now as a large wave lifted us up. We both cried out as the ship plunged downward and I was slammed against her. I screamed as my load poured inside of her. We stood there was a little longer before I withdrew the dark magic and I pulled out of her. I tucked it in and zipped up as Kat frowned.

"I hate that part the most," she whimpered. "I love being filled up."

We were both soaked to the bone from the sea spray. I led her back to the girl's cabin. Kat opened the door and Surisa, Sora and Shauna awaited her return. They had that look of expectation on their faces. Kat smiled and began to go into graphic detail about our little encounter at the front of the ship. I bid them a good night and left them giggling as the busty redhead continued her story. I returned to my own room, stripped down and toweled off. I sat on the edge of my bed wrapped in my towel and thought about alternate strategies. There were plenty of spells I could use to influence everyone on this ship. The problem with ordering the ship back is that I had no way of influencing Nick Shaw in any way, shape or form. I was powerless.

No matter how I thought about it, we were going to launch Valin. Two sides of every coin that was the only viable option. I had to speak with Dagon. I shuddered at the thought of facing another of the Nameless. I had to appeal to that antediluvian race that was madness incarnate in order to avoid a disaster. I didn't much find this course of action very attractive but if I didn't try there would be a world of regret. I slipped under the sheets and closed my eyes. I drifted free of my body and sought out the sunken city and its demonic master.

"Dagon," I called out in the language of the builders. "I request an audience."

"You are Yog-Sothoth's pet," a voice called from the perfect darkness below me. "What do you want?"

"A human ship is approaching your city," I said and chose my words very carefully. "They are curious and are planning on mapping your glorious handiwork."

"I see. They wish to see and stand in awe of the Dreamer's city. How are they going to do this?"

"They have built a metal device which can measure and send images to the surface." I told him. "They mean no disrespect. They do not understand as I do."

"I sent them a warning and yet their burning curiosity drives them on." Dagon laughed. "I love humans, they never change. I will grant your boon pawn of Yog-Sothoth. If they only want to map the city I will stay my hand but impress upon them the dire consequences of attempting to set foot upon its sacred grounds. If they trespass I will lash out and many will perish. Do not test me on this!"

He was gone and I was grateful that my interaction was limited to his voice only. Perhaps Dagon felt I was unworthy of a face to face. I was fine with that. I opened my eyes and made the decision to speak with Kat and tell her not to visit the city no matter what they found. I had to get her promise on that, I just had to. That was my last thought before I fell asleep. I awoke with the others the next morning. I got dressed and had breakfast with Kat, Sora and Surisa. Kat looked at me and made that face of hers, the one that screamed just say it already.

"I need a promise from you," I said and she placed her hand on mine.