Encounter at Oriskany
Posted on July 4th, 2012 by Jorvan Tav and Kuari

Tav and Kuari were slowly descending into the water, feeling the pressure build in their ears and on their bodies. Tav loved the feeling of the greater pressure, it made him feel more alive. Tav felt his wet suit against his skin, already noticing the places that were not protected from the cool water. For all that technology had increased in the universe, it was amazing how little these neoprene suits had changed since they had been invented over four hundred years ago. It was a good thing they were in the relatively warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, instead of the Pacific near San Francisco, the last place Tav had dove on Earth during his time at the Academy.

Kuari beat her wings in a slow and steady rhythm, careful not to rush downwards too quickly in her excitement to see the sunken USS Oriskany. She matched her breaths through the rebreather to every dozen strokes, holding her breath for extended periods, which felt more natural when underwater.

It wasn’t really anything like flying. Each movement of her wings, both up and down, pulled her forward through the water, not upwards as if airborne. Kuari tracked Tav next to her with one large eye, keeping his pace. She knew they had to descend slowly but wondered if they could pick up speed just a little.

Shifting direction, Kuari shot quickly towards and over Tav, causing him to pause and watch her. She took hold of his upper arms with her hands and clamped her feet to either side of his hips before resuming her slow pull forward, this time taking Tav with her.

Understandably, Tav was surprised at first, and then relaxed into being carried down toward the Oriskany Reef. “Now this is a nice way to go!” Tav exclaimed through his mask. He felt like he was flying, truly flying. He thought he could make out the top of the bridge tower looming below and ahead. He pointed ahead to it, and soon could make out the flight deck. Tav looked at the readout in his mask and saw that they had descended another ten meters in the time it would normally take him to descend three had he been swimming. He saw that the temperature of the water was down to twenty degrees, and he wondered how Kuari was faring without a wetsuit.

Although she was feeling the cold just as Tav was, her densely-packed fur acted as her own natural barrier. Without conditioning herself, Kuari would have a hard time adapting to the temperature if she had to stay at this depth for long. They were just down for a visit, however, and the looming shape of the sunken ship in the distance excited her enough that the cold was only a mere annoyance.

Tav took a deep breath in, his artificial gills and full face mask making the breathing feel almost as normal as aboard the Atlantis. Passing the vertical wall of the bridge and bridge tower, Tav was amazed at how well it had been preserved for hundreds of years under the water, even with the currents and hurricanes. It had also experienced a healthy coral growth everywhere the coral could find a place to grab ahold of the wall. The broad, flat surface of the flight deck loomed below and grew larger and larger, and they could see just how massive it really was. As they got close, they could see it was half covered in brightly-colored corals and teeming with schools of tiny fish. They made their way to one of the air domes right in the middle of the runway so that Kuari could have a break and breathe normally. Tav’s head broke through the surface just below and in front of Kuari’s. “Well, what do you think?”

Kuari spit out her regulator and took a moment to test the air within the bubble and look around. There was a soft hissing sound as the air within was cycled. Through the clear dome, they had a breathtaking view of the bridge tower. At the base of the dome was a small plaque:

Welcome to the Flight Deck of the Oriskany,
41 Meters Below the Surface.

Curious fish of different shapes and colors peeked in before darting away. “It’s beautiful!”

Tav smiled through his mask. “I knew you’d like it! If you think this is nice, you should see the reefs on Trill. But this is one of my favorite places to dive on Earth.” Tav took a moment and looked around. It had been years since he had stood on the flight deck of the Oriskany. The Oriskany was a ship that had been used in Earth’s Vietnam War and Korean War, and in the early years of the Twenty First Century had been sunk to be an artificial reef 35 kilometers off the coast of Florida. This was Tav’s favorite air dome, on the centerline of the landing runway, right next to the bridge tower. From here, you could just make out both ends of the ship on a clear day, and today was exceptionally clear. The coral was growing beautifully on the flight deck; so much of it now covered. The coral had had almost half a century to grow and expand, and in that time it had added so much color. This was one of the few areas that you could actually see the deck plating. Tav turned to Kuari. “You want to take a visit to the bridge? It’s a little bit different from anything we have in Starfleet.”

“I would love to!” Kuari said a little too loudly for inside a bubble.

Tav noted the ringing from the clear aluminum dome and some nearby fish fleeing at the loudness of her remark, and was glad that his dive mask covered all the way back to his ears. “Well,” he smiled, “let’s go.” With that, Tav grabbed Kuari’s regulator out of the water and handed it to her just above the water line.

Kuari grabbed it with her mouth, shifting it with her tongue and jaw until it was in position. Drawing a deep breath through her nose out of habit, she submerged without hesitation out of the air dome.

Tav followed her down, turned away from her toward the bridge and before he could start swimming, felt himself being grabbed once again and carried upward. Tav was glad he wasn’t diving with traditional tanks, or this would be very dangerous, the speed with which they were ascending. Eventually, he would have to train Kuari to take it slow on the way up or down, but this time, thankfully, they had the right equipment for her excited style.

As they approached the bridge, Tav realized that he never lost amazement at just how small it truly was, especially for the number of people who would have worked on the bridge of an aircraft carrier this size. It had been severely stripped down before the sinking to its final resting spot, but with the limited growth from the calm water created by the enclosure, you could still make out where the controls and gauges had been, even from the outside. Tav separated from Kuari, and as he swam through the ever-open doorway, Tav switched on the light at the top of his mask.

As they approached the balcony, Kuari resisted the urge to perch on its encrusted railing. She wasn’t supposed to touch any of the plant and animal life, so she glided slowly past it towards the doorway. Tucking her wings in so she could fit, she wriggled from side to side in a lizard-like fashion, her tail doing most of the work. Once inside, she occasionally corrected her direction with a limb, looking around the small space. Oh, but the entire ship must be a fascinating maze of fish and color and crevices to explore!

Tav watched Kuari glide through the doorway, making it look so easy. Tav moved his head to shine his light around so that he and Kuari could see every detail. So much color and life, so many fish. An eel popped out from under the command console less than a meter from Tav and swam out one of the empty window frames. Sensing Kuari’s wonder, Tav was able to re-experience that feeling with her, just like it was his first time down here. Truth was, Tav never got tired of doing this and always looked forward to the next time he could possibly dive. Tav continued to a doorway and turned around to Kuari. “You want to go downstairs outside the ship or inside?” He could hear and feel his voice as the small waterproof speaker on the chin of his mask amplified his voice to carry through the water.

Kuari answered Tav by swimming towards an inner corridor, her eel-like tail serpentining behind her. She found navigating the narrow channels, lit from behind her by Tav’s mask beacon, an exhilarating adventure into the unknown. Weak daylight from outside filtered through, and Kuari wondered if she could see by it if Tav turned his torch off.

Furry green railings led downward in an alternating diagonal pattern all the way down the tower into the flight deck itself. Once inside, Kuari stopped, looking down both directions of the haunted corridor, then turned to Tav.

Tav alighted alongside Kuari and took a look around. “Well,” he said, “from here we have a couple options. We could go out that hatch back to the flight deck, or we could head downstairs and see the hangar bay, or see the crew living area.”

Kuari made an unintelligible sound, then pulled her rebreather free and made another unintelligible noise sounding somewhat like whale song but more clearly what she was going for, and waited expectantly.

“Hangar deck?” Tav asked, his voice through the sound system crystal clear in the water.

The Rucara jerked her head to the side, lapsing into native expressions along with her language, then shook her head in a humanoid fashion to clarify.

“Crew quarters?” Tav guessed.

This time, Kuari got it right the first time and nodded.

“Right this way, follow me,” Tav replied as he continued down the stairs. Tav led the way down past the massive hangar deck, then down two more decks to the crew quarters. When they arrived, they found themselves in what had been the galley. For the first time, they were completely surrounded by the metal of the ship with no light coming in from outside. Tav pulled a light out of his side satchel and used it to explore the surroundings. The galley was much less stripped down than the bridge, obviously because it didn’t really need to be classified at the time the ship was sunk. Huh, Tav thought. Classified. If only they knew back then what we’re capable of today. Tav continued to search the room for anything of interest. After a bit of exploration he moved to the hatch across the room, which led to a hallway, and into the rest of the ship.

As they moved throughout the crew quarters and facilities, Tav watched Kuari’s responses and reactions to the different signs of life, still evident five centuries after the last time this ship had been used. After touring such places as some crew quarters of various ranks, sickbay, the captain’s quarters and a conference room, Tav could see that it was getting time to return to the surface.

That’s when the readout on his gills suddenly dropped to zero. “Kuari, I seem to have a problem. We need to go.”

Kuari turned from poking her head into another desolate chamber and looked at him with her large eyes. She wondered what was wrong, but she knew he wouldn’t be able to understand her question if she asked it. She considered approaching him and looking him over, but instead she acted as if he’d given her an order and began to swim towards where she assumed the exit was.

Tav saw Kuari headed that way and swam toward her to catch up. “My gills say they’ve stopped working, but I am still breathing. However, stay close in case I need your help. We’re really deep, so we need to ascend slowly and safely.” Once they were clear of the Oriskany, Tav stayed right next to Kuari and kept a hand on her side to let her know he was present. Slowly they made their way toward the surface, and Tav noticed Kuari looking back to check up on him every couple seconds.

Gaining distance at this point wasn’t important, especially since Tav needed to conserve oxygen, and exercise would only make him use it faster. Kuari paddled slowly straight upwards, resisting the urge to use her wings.

Inside Tav’s mask, the depth meter was reading twenty-nine meters when suddenly his breath felt very restricted. The gills had actually stopped working now, it wasn’t just a glitch in the readout. Tav had positioned himself at Kuari’s side for just such an event. Grabbing her spare regulator and resisting the urges to gag on the carbon dioxide that was in his mask and being drawn back down his esophagus, he ripped off his mask and allowed it to hang freely behind him, still attached by the now defunct gills. It wasn’t the most comfortable situation, and Tav kept his eyes shut to keep the salt water out, but at least he wasn’t in any real danger.

Kuari turned her head as soon as she felt the secondary regulator being removed and saw Tav was now using it instead of his mask. She hadn’t even known it was there. Wasn’t it drawing from her oxygen supply, too? Could both regulators be used at the same time, or was the spare one for if the primary one stopped working?

Tav could no longer communicate with her, and she began to panic. Her reflex was to reach out with her mind, but of course the Trill couldn’t understand, and there was nothing there. She could… no, it would never work, not in such a rush.

Kuari had been this deep free-diving without gear, she knew. She drew in a large lungful and held it, hoping to give him what he needed from the tank, and began to beat her wings for the surface, and in so doing forced Tav in front of her where she naturally took hold of him with her limbs.

Tav felt Kuari’s panic through her motions, and knew this was not going to be good. He felt her arms and legs close securely around him, with his arms pinned to his sides. Before now, he could have had some form or communication with hand signs, but now he was effectively mute. Tav felt the quick and steady reduction in water pressure and opened his eyes to see the surface rushing toward them. This was not good, not good at all. If only… Tav felt a thought cross his mind, but not in a way he would ever think it. In fact, the thought felt feral. He shook his head. The surface was coming too fast.

As soon as Kuari’s head broke the surface, she spit out the regulator and exhaled a shrill cry. Tav didn’t seem to notice they were at the surface, so she picked him up so he could breathe. He was limp in her arms.

“No! Tav, wake up!” Kuari pulled the regulator out of his mouth and kept his head above water. He was breathing, but he was unconscious. His dark hair was plastered to his head, dripping water down his face, so she smoothed it back. “Tav?”

He didn’t respond.

Kuari looked around for the boat and was startled to see just how far away it was. She called to it as loudly as she could. If it were a Rucara at that distance, she knew she would be heard. Could they hear her, see her?

She felt unusually heavy, struggling to stay on the surface, and remembered that she was wearing weights. Scrabbling for the clip on her belly, she released the belt and immediately bobbed to the surface. Using her wings, Kuari loaded Tav’s limp, slippery wetsuited form onto her back and began swimming towards the boat. It was so far away, and it didn’t seem to be getting any closer.

Tav began to slip off, so she stopped and grabbed for him, finally pulling his arms over her shoulders and held his wrists in front of her. Once he was secured, the Rucara began to flap her wings, splashing water and attempting to gain air and propel them forward. She knew if she could glide, she could carry him, but having nothing but upwards to go meant very little leverage. She beat her wings harder, her lungs now laboring with her strained efforts, and managed to get high enough to run on the surface, but she couldn’t get any higher than that.

* * *

Kuari sat nervously, her tail thrashing from side to side. She had finally been told to sit or leave, as apparently her standing and pacing made people upset.

Tav had been put into a hyperbaric chamber, and she waited impatiently for him to get out. Three men and a woman worked at the controls, alternating between them and a panel and a small circular window on the side of the long sideways cylinder. They told her they had to increase pressure on him then slowly release it to the current pressure of sea level.

“How long?” Kuari asked.

The nurse turned from the small window into the tank and looked Kuari in the eye.“It all depends on the nitrogen bubbles in his system,” replied a nurse, stationed outside the chamber to fetch any supplies or drugs needed by the nurse inside tending to Tav. “It could be today, it could be a couple days. It all depends on how he responds to treatment. Usually we only set these chambers to simulate eighteen meters. For Jorvan, we had to take him down to twenty-five.”

* * *

Tav felt. He wasn’t sure what he felt, but he felt… something. Something slowly became… a pounding headache. But a headache was something. When he had blacked out at some point during their ascent to the surface of the Gulf, he had wondered what he would ever feel again. But he could feel. Somewhere in the distance he heard a voice, discussing… something. And there was that brightness. Unnngh, this was horrible. It had to be…

Tav attempted to open his eyes, but they weren’t responding. All he had was sound, and the sounds around him were becoming closer.

Tav? Tav? Jorvan. Doctor Tav?

The voice was still so far away, but it was apparent the voice was concerned… and no one he knew.

Tav!

He wanted to respond, but it seemed like it would be so painful.

Jorvan!

Please, thought Tav. Just let me be. It hurts. Please let me be.

Jorvan!

He tried his eyelids. No luck.

“Jorvan! Jorvan Tav! Open your eyes!”

“Mmmmmmmmmmph…”

Jorvan! Open your eyes, Jorvan!”

“Mmmnnnmmuungh…”

“Open your eyes, Jorvan!”

Finally, Jorvan felt the energy in his eyes, and while it wasn’t much, he was able to open those eyes enough to see that he was on the inside of a hyperbaric chamber. Good, Tav thought. I think I may be able to make it.

Jorvan was finally able to open his eyes further, and looked up to see a nurse standing over him with a Tricorder. The nurse turned, knocked on the side of the tank and took a look out the window, gesturing back toward him.

The nurse on the outside of the chamber, who had been looking in the small window, saw what was happening inside and turned to Kuari. “He’s awake.”

Kuari was on her feet in an instant, springing forward and peering into the window. When she saw that Tav was awake, she grinned.