An Interesting Find

Writers: Kaysea, Vanessa T Sommerfeld
Date Posted: 11th February 2008

Characters: Supaka, Kateena
Description: The Dolphineers salvage a Captain's Log and find something interesting
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 8, day 10 of Turn 4

The two dolphineers made their way east along the coast in the small boat, Kateena with her charting implements and Supaka with her salvage gear. Civi and the rest of the pod swam easily beside them.

The day before, a trading vessel had sunk in an unexpected storm. Luckily, the crew had all survived. It nearly hadn't been so. The Captain had almost lost his life trying to save some important records in his office. Supaka shook her head at the thought, hoping that Kessel wouldn't be so stupid as to die trying to save something that might be salvaged later. The Dolphineer on board the ship had his hands full with survivors and wasn't able to retrieve the precious items, so Supaka was assigned the job. She hoped it wasn't all for naught and that the water hadn't damaged the hides and papers beyond repair. Still, it was a nice break from her normal teaching routine.

"It's just up ahead, if his directions were correct." Kateena said, shielding her eyes against the morning sun. "We've had a couple of wrecks along here, but never so far out, there must have been a shift beneath the waves that we hadn't seen, or the dolphins missed." she shook her head, it wasn't often that it happened, but it wasn't unknown. "The only other explanation is, Captain Forwell was in closer to the shore than he told us."

Supaka nodded. "Are we close enough to send out the dolphins to find it?" "Plenty close enough." Kateena nodded, "I'd like to see what exactly he has in his log myself." She watched as they neared the shoreline. "See," she pointed into the distance, "there's no way they were driven onto rocks this far off shore. Even with the storm, the troughs of the waves wouldn't have sunk low enough." she dropped the anchor over the front of the boat, and pulled out the map she had been reading from. "Want to go over and see if we can find anything close by?"

"Yea, this is not making any sense," she said, slipping her salvage bag across her chest. She then carefully climbed over the side of the boat, slid into the water and waited for Kateena to join her.

Making the small skiff safe, Kat slipped over the side and took hold of Civi's convenient dorsal as he swam past. With a hand-signal to the remainder of the pod, they slipped below the waves.

It didn't take the pair long to find the damaged hull. Not where the Captain had declared they had gone down, but more than three dragonlengths further in to shore. The jagged teeth of rock must have made a huge hole in the hull, sinking the boat too quickly for the Captain or mate to make it to the Captains cabin to retrieve the log.

Surfacing again, Kat scanned the shoreline, wreckage was still in evidence along the waterline, but not as much as had been there the day before. Runnels could be seen leading up into the bush further up the beach. "Think we can find it quickly?" Kat asked Supaka, breathlessly.

"Well, if the log is in the Captain's quarters where Forwell said it was, it shouldn't be a problem. But it's not likely he didn't know how close to shore they were, so I'm wondering what else he lied about. Let's go." Supaka took Pim's dorsal and nodded to Kateena. Taking a deep breath, they dove below the surface to the wreckage below. The dolphineers easily guided their partners to the place where Forwell had said they would find the log. Supaka and Pim moved to the Captain's desk and began to carefully move soggy papers and hides into her bag. After a few handfuls, she looked up at Kateena and held up the bound book they were looking for. She resisted the urge to open it as they would need to surface soon. She looked around quickly to see if there was anything else of value that should be collected on this trip. Just under the Captain's Log was another book that looked very similar to the Log they had been assigned to salvage.
She put it into her bag as well and signaled the return to the surface.

"Wasn't hard to find, but what was the second book I saw you pick up?" Kat asked, as they surfaced once more and swam slowly towards their skiff a few lengths away.

Supaka wiped the water out of her eyes. "I don't know. There was no title, but it was similar enough to the Log that I thought it might be important. Let's get it aboard and see." She swam slowly to the boat and lifted her sack over the side. Balancing herself carefully, she kicked hard to propel herself inside. She then held the sides for Kat to do the same.

"Good boy, Civi. Go play!" Kat patted her podmate and then hauled herself over the side of the skiff, to flopped into the hull. "I could do with a drink." Kateena said, reaching for a flask of fruit juice and two mugs that lay in a basket in the bottom of the boat. "I'll pour, you read." she grinned at Supaka.

"Deal." Supaka placed the wet book on her knees and flipped it open. "Let's see. There are dates, probably for voyages, and under the dates are names and numbers." She took the mug of juice Kat had offered her and took a large gulp. "So, what do you think? Are they trades made with different vendors?" "Let's see?" Kat peered over the book, "Looks like a log book to me, but why have two?" she asked puzzled. "Let's look at the other one." she picked it up from the seat next to Supaka, and ran her finger down the columns. "What dates do you have there?" she asked, her finger stopping at the last dates that had been entered.

"Hmm. The latest dates are the second of this month, Day 4 of last month and day 3 of the Month 6, so it looks like they're sailing about once a month. Strange, though that none of the names are repeated. You know, I grew up in a fishing hold, and the traders typically dealt with the same contacts each time they put in." "And mention of crew should be the same on each trip." Kateena nodded her head in agreement. "I think the Hallmaster may need to see these. I don't know about you, but it all sounds a little suspicious to me." She gave the log book back to Supaka, "I didn't see any difference in the landscape above or below the waterline, so I don't think my skills were really needed on this trip - except..." she leaned forward and peered towards the beach. "I think we may need to come back with more authority than just you and I."

Following Kateena's line of sight, she frowned. The footprints from the rescue the day before should have been smoothed by the tides, but the beach showed evidence of human traffic. "I agree. Let's get this to Master Mosler." She tucked the logs away for the ride back to Dolphin Hall and began to help get the skiff ready to sail.

With a nod Kateena followed suit. Between the two of them, it shouldn't take too long to get back to the Hall. The sooner they returned to these shores, the better to sort out the puzzle - and Kateena was beginning to figure this one out.

Last updated on the February 14th 2008

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An Interesting Find