Colin MacGregor

As Colin stepped dreamily through the hull of the ship, entranced by Max's unearthly draw, he emerged bobbing on the surface of the ocean. Panic seized his mind, breaking the hold the Wisp had gained over him, and he floundered desperately for several moments, trying to escape the water that now not only surrounded him but passed through his insubstantial form in cold waves, each sending a shuddering chill through his body.

As he flailed desperately, the memories of Ako holding him, drowning him, killing him - all came crashing back, and drove out conscious thought.

"Relax, Colin!" Ryan was nearby, looking at him concernedly. The others, except for Max, had already begun their descent. The banshee drew closer, without touching the younger spirit, and began humming a soft melody of calming notes and rhythm.

Colin forced his eyes open and fought down the cold hand of fear that gripped him. He looked at Ryan and nodded slowly. "I think...I'm going tae be all righ'", he said slowly.

"Good", Max said grumpily. "It's about time, now come on." Without a glance back, the wisp's form quickly descended through the water, and Colin scowled at his retreating back.

"Aye, aye", Colin said angrily. With a determined expression, he began swimming down into the depths, and was surprised to find he could still speak. "All righ', tha's kind o' odd."

Ryan grinned at the young spirit as they swam along together. "Yeah, Liz was saying the etheric waveforms aren't distorted by the water, or something." He shrugged. "Just glad we can still communicate, or this would have been even tougher."

Colin nodded, and the two descended the rest of the way in silence, following Max's glowing form.

It took nearly half an hour for Colin and Ryan to reach the others waiting on the ocean floor.

"We found the sub", Sean was saying as he pointed to the grey hulk lying on it's side in the silted bottom. "No sign of external damage from what I can see, though there may be something on the buried side."

"Why don't you take a look inside then, since your wispglow can light the way, while I stay out here and help the others look around for what may have caused it to sink?" Max turned away from Sean without waiting for an answer and began making a sweep around the inert sub.

CJ rolled her eyes, but nodded to Sean before following Max at a distance, as did Liz and Scooter.

Colin stared at the sunken sub as he swam closer to Sean. "Aye, I'll go in wi' ye, as well."

Ryan shot him a quick glance. "Are you sure? You know the crew is...well, probably still inside."

Sean obviously agreed, saying "I don't think you need to put yourself through..."

Sean and Ryan exchanged a nervous look, and Marcus frowned at his protégé. "Colin, there's no need to do this. We know what you're going through down here."

The younger skinrider managed a weak smile. "In for a penny, Marcus. I ha'e tae see this through." He nodded to Sean, nervously. "Let's do this."

Sean inclined his head slowly, and passed through the side of the sub. The flickering light of his aura disappeared with him, and the others were left in darkness before they, too, entered the Deep Harvest.

Colin emerged into what had apparently been the engine room of the sub, now lit only by the soft white glow of Sean's aura and one lone emergency light, still managing to burn an angry red in the corner.

"The entire thing is flooded", Sean groused. "Complete structural failure. Looks like even the reactor core may have been compromised."

"No idea." Sean furrowed his brow in concentration. None of the equipment down here is functional, and I didn't exactly bring a Geiger counter with me. We'll have to warn the Tethys folks to be very careful with retrieval, though."

Marcus nodded. "Let's hope they're prepared to deal with it." He smiled wanly. "At least we don't have to worry about it hurting us."

"All the more reason to finish up and let Tethys bring this wreck up", Marcus replied.

Colin just nodded. "Aye, I'm all for finishing up righ' quick." He turned to the one exit from the room. "Tha' will be the crew compartment, then?"

Ryan put out a hand in warning. "Colin, I really think you should let us go first."

Colin stopped just before pushing his way through the door. "I know wha' we're gwan tae find, Ryan", he said quietly.

"Then at least let us stand beside you", Marcus moved over to join the other spirit.

"No objection tae tha'." Colin took a deep breath and stepped through the door, as did Marcus, Sean, and Ryan.

As the Sean's nimbus illuminated the interior of the crew cabin, Colin froze in his tracks. Marcus and Ryan both turned, apparently in one mind, to see what effect the gruesome sight had had on their friend.

"Damn", Sean muttered as he examined the first of the three bloated corpses. "I'm glad I can't smell like this."

But the skimmer was moving further into the cabin, examining the controls, apparently trying to ignore the bodies floating nearby.

Colin shook himself, then forced his gaze to the nearest bank of guages and away from the crews' remains.

"Aye", Colin managed to get out. He shuddered and quickly threw himself out through the side of the sub before wrapping his arms around his slim form and settling down on the bottom.

"You guys done in there?" He heard CJ's voice from a distance, on the other side of the sub.

Colin turned then, and saw flickering grey light, reflecting off the top of the sub. Presuming Max was over there, and not wanting to endure any more snide comments from the older wisp, Colin stayed put. His respite was short lived, however.

Sean emerged from the sunken submersible then, and grimaced. "No joy on any of the equipment, it's all shorted."

"Well, come over here then", CJ called from the other side of the submersible. "We found the United as well."

Ryan and Marcus also came out of the Harvest, then, in time to see Sean swimming over the top of wreck.

Colin managed a weak smile at them. "Well, I did i'. On the plus side, nex' tae the though' o' going back in there", he gestured at the sealed side hatch, "jus' being underwater is nay so bad."

Ryan grinned. "That's the spirit, spirit. Come on, let's see what the others have found."

Marcus led the way around to the other side of the sub while Ryan trailed just behind Colin. The other members of the crucible were standing in a tight group some distance off, their attention riveted on a much larger, and apparently older, sunken ship.

Colin slowly floated around the Deep Harvest with Sean nearby, and turned to look on the wrecked steamer. The ship was lying at an angle and crushed from its impact with the ocean floor. Streaming out from the exploded hull near the stern, though, he could see over a hundred tethers massed and pulsing. Occasionally one would flick out and slice through the water around the old shipwreck.

"That might explain what happened to the Deep Harvest", Liz continued. "That concentration of etheric activity could have caused a malfunction in the sub's instruments."

CJ nodded with a wry grin. "Of course, I was just about to say that. The question is, how do we clear up the interference so they can recover the sub?"

"We'll have to go in and investigate the United", Max said with a frown. "Hopefully we can find a quick and easy way to release those bound souls."

"They deserve rest", Ryan nodded. "Assuming those are the victims of the United shipwreck."

"I don't know", Ryan answered with a frown, "but our intel says only three people died when the ship sank."

"And there's still the three year rule", Max reminded them. "White may have been an exception, a particularly strong spirit to have held on for so long, but to believe that others managed to remain bound to the physical for ninety years?" The projector shook his head. "It seems impossible."

"Only one way to find out", Sean said with a shrug as he began swimming towards the United.

Colin nodded, then trailed after him, the others falling in behind the skimmer and the spirit.

Colin followed closely behind the wisp's projected form as Sean stepped through the hull of the United. As he passed through in turn, however, Colin felt a tug of energy that pulled him into the interior of the ship, which was now brightly lit, and full of people.

He was standing in what looked like a cargo hold, lit by oil lamps spaced evenly about the room. There were nearly a thousand people milling about, most dressed in shabby clothes, some seated on the floor, but most standing and talking in small groups. The steel decking underfoot showed no sign of having been on the bottom of the ocean for nearly a century, and there was no sign of the damage nearer the engine room that had doomed the ship.

"Feedback loop", he said as he took in the situation. Quickly scanning the crowd of immigrants, he realized that the tethers they had seen outside seemed to concentrate here. "Over a hundred drones", he said in wonder as the rest of the crucible began appearing next to him. "And all decades old."

A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and Ryan's expression mirrored his.

"Looks like the theory that took a hit when we found Regina's ghost after six years was just blown totally out of the water", the banshee said with a grin. "No pun intended."

Colin and Ryan's smiles faded and they, Max, Liz, Scooter, and Marcus all looked around.

<--PREVIOUS

DON'T LOOK BACK

NEXT-->

Last Updated: January 2, 2004 by Blake Sorensen

#0767 - The Deep Harvest

November 13, 2003