telerib | Terror from the Deep

Phineas Long, with utmost charm, persuasive hypotheses, and just enough knowledge of the system, managed to wrangle funding for an expedition to find "lost civilizations" in Greenland. Reg was somewhat baffled, insisting that he'd have ponied up the money in a heartbeat.

Two ships set out: one with Phineas and his expeditionary force of thirty or so undergraduate and graduate students, the rest with the rest of the crew (minus The Scorpion, who'd stayed behind in NYC to foil any further bank robberies). They picked up a native Innuit guide in Greenland and headed to the dig site.

A week of exploration, excavation, and research turned up... ice. And more ice. Adam continually consulted his occult tomes, but could find no hint, no suggestion of the Lost People of Greenland. Realizing the ice-pack on top of Greenland was kilometers thick, some of the students got to wondering if they'd have to dig halfway to China to find anything. But Dr. Olsson reassured them that, since the Lost Culture they were looking for was from the Ice Age, and so was the glacier, it shouldn't be frozen all that deeply beneath the surface.[1]

It was at about this time that another ship, flying no flag, approached! The group spotted the ship, and the ship spotted the group, and halted. Eventually, a radio call came through for Phineas. Vinnie the Foot, a strongman with just enough knowledge of excavations to make his a sometimes-useful assistant, was on the air. He was here with a crew to work for "Dr. Amasis," and would it be all right for them to come in to land? He lied - badly - when Phineas asked what they were there for, babbling about a telescope or something.

The crew - who looked more like a bunch of ex-cons than archaeologists or astronomers - was allowed to put in, and Phineas and Vinnie caught up. All they needed, Vinnie said, was access to the top of the nearby ice mountain. Phineas insisted that he, too, needed to check out the mountain. He offered to escort Vinnie and his men up tomorrow.

Reg, Greta, and Dr. Olsson, wondering what might be at the top of the mountain, took a climb. There was... ice. And a nice view of the surrounding terrain! In fact, Greta spotted an odd golden glimmer in the water offshore. The group took a gander, then headed back down the mountain, with the intention of doing some underwater exploration!

Reg donned the dive suit and descended where Dr. Olsson reckoned the golden object - which had by now disappeared from sight - had been. Suddenly, hanging before him in the dark water was - a red-gold submarine ship! Curious, Reg let some air out of his suit and landed - clang - on the vessel, then started clomping around to look for a door. He even found one! - and then a light on the door started to flash. Not entirely sure what this might portend, Reg signaled to be hauled up.

Discussions later with Phineas confirmed: That was a Lemurian submarine! A later trip out found that it had moved.

Vinnie and his boys hauled a large box - which no one had seen unloaded the day before - up the mountain, and set up a few tents there. They didn't open the box, nor leave it unguarded - for a few days.

The ex-con-looking fellows were getting pretty twitchy by Day Three of the standoff. Vinnie negotiated with Adam to get 24 hours of uninterrupted access to the mountain. Seemingly on a lark, Adam hit the guy up for a bribe. Vinnie was nonplussed for a moment, then dug something out a pocket to palm to Adam. It was heavy - quite heavy. It was, in fact, a gold coin.

Adam suggested that, since there was little or no evidence to support the "lost Atlantean city" theory, the Lemurians must be here for some other reason. Not knowing what that reason might be, the undergraduates were packed up onto the ship and sent safely - or hopefully safely, as Greta pointed out that the Lemurian sub might pose a seaborne threat - out of the way. The others retreated a fair distance from the mountain to watch.

The crate was opened to reveal a shining golden contraption of some sort - with the Smithsonian's missing ruby held in its windings! Then, appearing from the opposite side of the mountain, came a being dressed in a Lemurian land-suit. The group watched as he pressed buttons and pulled levers until... a reddish beam of light flared out of the thing! It... well, it struck the ground some distance inland. And the ice there began to melt.

Adam and Corina did the math in their heads simultaneously. Up to 3 kilometers of ice, over the entire surface of Greenland, if melted... "Could raise the world's sea level over twenty feet!" The sinister Lemurians were trying to submerge more of the world, taking it for their budding empire beneath the waves!

Dr. Olsson began a mad footrace toward the thing, eager to stop, then examine this artifact. After a moment's hesitation, Greta joined her. Alas, they would be too late!

The boys had opened fire. Obviously, the men on the mountain thought they were too far away to be hit by the Long Expedition. But Reg's Marine marksmanship training put him in good stead! His first shot hit the ruby, cracking it.

This had the net effect of splintering the one beam into dozens of smaller ones! As if in revenge, one actually struck Reg, burning him and lighting his clothes on fire. He had to roll about on the ground to put it out.

Adam tried firing at the machine itself, but was unused to the rifle. It took him several shots to finally hear one connect solidly, rather than go spanging off or go -thwip!- into the snow. Phineas, more comfortable with knives than guns, took his time in aiming, again targeting the ruby. Reg, not so sure hitting the ruby had been a good idea, also fired at the main mechanism. The guards for the thing fired back, but their aim was not so good as our heroes! There was no way they could shoot accurately as these distances.

The machine was looking a little distressed - sparking and whatnot - and the Lemurian operator moreso. One errant beam of energy speared into the mountaintop itself, instantly melting a large piece of ice and sending five goons tumbling down the slopes to their doom! Phineas put two rounds into the ruby, utterly shattering it. The focusing agent gone, the heat ray's power had no where to go - but into itself! It crackled, it snapped, until finally KABOOM! the power source blew in a small but impressive explosion, killing the remaining goons and the Lemurian. It also had the side effect of melting the top of the mountain. The water cascaded down, freezing as it went. The remains of the device settled down into the caldera-ish hole thusly created.

The wrap-up: Greta documented the scene, including taking some pictures of the dead Lemurian for her own records. (She assured the team the pictures and the negatives would go to a safety deposit box, not the NY Times.) The students wondered what the heck had happened, but their team leaders weren't talking. Vinnie's five surviving men (they'd been left in their camp as guards) were cautioned to silence, which they were only too happy to uphold. They'd known their boss was crooked and was testing out some sort of weapon, but had no idea that he was planning on flooding the coastal cities of the world! Most of them were actually friends of Vinnie's from New York, and they certainly didn't want to see the Big Apple underwater. Silence - and a ride back, since five wasn't enough to run their ship - in exchange for the matter being dropped was a deal.

Dr. Olsson had the remains of the heat ray taken on-board Reg's ship (where the undergrads couldn't get at it), and Dr. Long spent the trip home thinking up ways to spin this to his sponsors...

[1] Trained geologists who might be reading this should remember that this is a world where enough water was frozen during the Ice Age to permit two giant empires to live on what is now the bottom of the ocean. Don't take it too seriously. :-)