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Post by Evangeline on Sept 17, 2008 17:04:34 GMT -5
"Just about." Dawn was checking her regulator. The machine shop at Ash Mountain had to be particularly careful with these. She then bent over, passing her arms through the loops of the tank straps while Manuel held them, and straightened back up, letting them fall into place. She then did the same for Manuel. After dropping the diving bouy, she and her boyfriend stood on the gunwhale, ready to do a "giant stride" entry. "OK, ready now."
<<< My sister used to dive. Had the PADI certificate and everything >>>
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Post by ebonyviper on Sept 17, 2008 17:17:36 GMT -5
(((((OOC: Cool.)))))
Delfina nodded and stepped onto the gunwale, staring down at the dark blue water. She breathed a sigh and closed her eyes. Her body glowed, shaping itself into its mermaid form, then she dove in.
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Post by Evangeline on Sept 17, 2008 18:15:57 GMT -5
Dawn and Manuel entered the water at about the same instant, holding their masks and regulators secure against the shock of entry. They were now suspended in a landscape of clear water and sun rays, and the boats' hulls were off to the side. They signalled "OK" to Delfina.
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Post by ebonyviper on Sept 17, 2008 18:38:06 GMT -5
'If something goes wrong, you two,' she sent, 'Get back to Freda.'
Delfina waved her arm for Dawn and Manuel to follow her as far down to the bottom as their tanks and regulators would allow them then dived downward herself.
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Post by Evangeline on Sept 17, 2008 18:58:20 GMT -5
The couple nodded to Delfina as they followed in her wake, trailing bubbles to the surface.
Exactly how far Dawn and Manuel could go, and how deep, depended on the pressures their bodies could cope with. At fifty to sixty feet below, they would have to stop. So far, the equipment was working as intended, it had first been tested in repeated cave dives in the underground lakes beneath the Ash Mountain complex. Not far away, the jet-wolves were making short dives themselves, feeding off crustaceans and shellfish on the ocean floor and joyously crunching them down shell and all. Their jaws were powerful, but they had never made an aggressive move towards boats or humans, which was a hopeful sign.
Manuel had an underwater camera rig, which he was using to follow Delfina down. He would be sending the video files back home later. Dawn had a "slurp gun" and sample bag, with which she would be taking specimens. Part of this was for the humans' own study, part of it was for a local university which was including the humans' findings in its annual oceanographic survey. It was much more cost-effective, for relatively shallow waters, to hire humans than to use expensive submersible equipment.
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Post by ebonyviper on Sept 17, 2008 19:26:22 GMT -5
Delfina swam down to the sandy bottom. Only shells and sea urchins were laying around and there was not a single creature no bigger down there. She reached out to pick up some of the shells and put it in her bag. She wanted to study them later.
While she was "crawling" around on the bottom, Delfina came across something strange which almost reflected a gold glow. She reached out and brushed off the sand to reveal something amazing.
It looked spherical, like a coin almost, with markings that were almost alien embossed on its surface. She had never seen anything like it before. Where did it come from and what was it doing on the bottom of the ocean, which was a part that she and Freda had explored before?
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Post by Evangeline on Sept 17, 2008 19:35:48 GMT -5
Manuel came in to get a shot of what Delfina was holding with the camera. Dawn looked up from her sample-gathering and came over as well. Their time for this dive was soon running out and they would have to return to the surface soon. It wasn't just air, but how long they could be at that level of pressure and still return to the surface in a timely fashion.
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Post by ebonyviper on Sept 17, 2008 19:42:21 GMT -5
Delfina stared at what she had just found for a moment, then looked at Dawn and Manuel. 'Let's mark this site and take this back up to Freda.'
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Post by Evangeline on Sept 17, 2008 20:00:25 GMT -5
Dawn nodded, took what looked like two brightly colored balls connected by a cord, and threw it down. One of the balls was solid, the other hollow. The latter would float in the current, secured by the weight. Above, the boats were carefully following the bubble trails so that they wouldn't lose the divers. The first dive was over. Dawn and Manuel would need to go up slowly and spend time on the surface to decompress before they went down on another dive like this.
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Post by ebonyviper on Sept 17, 2008 20:08:34 GMT -5
Delfina wrapped the "coin" in plastic and cloth and slipped it into her bag as well, then pushed herself off the sea floor to glide up to Freda's stern. She broke the surface taking a breath of air after she had taken a few minutes to shift back and climbed up on the diving platform and onto the deck.
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Post by Evangeline on Sept 17, 2008 21:42:04 GMT -5
Dawn and Manuel ascended slowly back to the surface, each with one arm up. They broke the surface about thirty seconds after Delfina did, and waited for her to board before following her.
"What'd you find?" Randy inquired. "Coin or something?"
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Post by ebonyviper on Sept 17, 2008 21:49:58 GMT -5
Delfina unwrapped her prize to reveal her find. "Well, it looks like a coin, but it has straing markings on it. They seem almost alien. It's not like the other coins I've seen in this world at all."
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Post by Evangeline on Sept 17, 2008 22:20:03 GMT -5
Randy cocked his head and squinted to see the coin close-up. "Whoah, that's some seriously weird stuff there. Never saw THAT before. Freda? Seen anything like it?"
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Post by ebonyviper on Sept 17, 2008 22:39:35 GMT -5
"No, that's something that I've never seen before either," answered Freda, "Didn't that come from the same place we were exploring earlier, Delfina?"
"Yeah," Delfina replied with a nod, "It is. Strange, we must've missed something."
"That, and maybe it was getting too dark to see," offered Freda.
"Hmm, that must've been it," Delfina said thoughtfully.
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Post by Evangeline on Sept 17, 2008 23:34:35 GMT -5
After stowing their gear, Dawn and Manuel stripped their wet suits down to the waist, revealing swimsuits underneath. They came back for another look at the artifact. Dawn leaned in as Delfina continued to examine it. "Looks really sharp and clean for being in the water all this time."
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