Deep Sea Chapter 17

17.

The Surface

Lady Jan looked across the room at the three persons on her bed. Lu Fong was reluctant to be in the act but the command of the Lady was not to be trivial on. He had forgotten about his shame when he saw his would-be partners. They were a set of twins with the impeccable gift of being born with the true gifts of the woman. He was soon onto the coupling acts but he did not notice the Lady had stepped in an hour ago. She was not participating in but sat down on the single leather seater. She was draped in the purple robe with the dragon emblem. Her robe was not tied down by the waist sash but left hanging on her side. She had sat there on the seater with her left leg slung over on the seater side. Her right hand was tweaking at her left nipple while her left hand sailed to between her legs. She grabbed the length of the sash there and massaged it onto her pleasure areas. She did not go further down as it will remind her of who she was. The two extended appendages were removed when soon after puberty. It was a sad moment for her parents to have the child having two sets then. She was to be to death but her plight was saved by the arrival of the Eastern Dragon Organization. The Leader had her saved for his own deviated pleasures. After she was discarded as his toy, she was sent to the Chamberlain of the Dragon Clan. The later was a cruel master but above all, he was a good master in the fighting arts.

“You must be one with us if I am to coach you.” With that Lady Jan was given a new identity. “You have the other personality in the flesh but yet you are both. You will learn in your new way.”

Lady Jan was castrated but she was rewarded with the lessons that will give her a new life. She fought hard over the others to be the Dragon Lady Soon, she was to earn the honor.

One of the twins crawled from the other two sleeping bodies towards the Lady. She looked at the young nubile body slithering towards her like the serpent. The young fleshy body was a beauty that Lady Jan could never match in looks. She stood up and reached out with her hand for the slithering beauty. She pulled the other lady up to the feet. The younger lady was then led to sit on the single-seater while Lady Jan added her own touches to new levels of pleasures. The younger lady moaned out loud with the rapture in the loins. She soon slumped into the seater and the Lady was leaving her.

“Mistress….”

“Indulge in what you had.” Lady Jan told the younger lady. The greatest pleasures of sex were doing what others think you were incapable of.

Lady Jan stepped out to the adjacent chamber. It was her personal chamber. Kosovan was there looking at the charts. She pulled her robe together and had it secured with the sash. He heard her stepping in and looked up.

“The second fleet is in place. Three of the ships will break away as planned. The four hundred warriors will take over the island. They were expecting no more than two hundred ex-military personnel but there were the dependents of a hundred with some twenty traders.” Kosovan explained the plan once more. Lady Jan moved to her place on the table. She picked up the long ruler there and pointed it at the island.

“I want the Small Jaws captured intact. I don’t care about the fortress at Big Jaws.” Lady Jan explained her main intentions. “The gunship will distract the cannons at the Big Jaws. I want the troopship to anchor on the east side. There half the warriors will capture Small Jaws while the other half goes for Big Jaws.”

“Lady Jan what about the submerged ship?” Kosovan asked. He knew that the Organization wanted that ship. They want to study its design.

“I have sent the ‘Sea Dragon One’ on that.” The Sea Dragon One was a Turtle ship in design but was different from the one that Admiral Yi Sun Sin. The new design was a submersible ship that could submerge to below a hundred and twenty feet. It has a double reinforced metallic hull interlined with the whale skin planks. It was an enclosed ship with eight cannons on each side with two each at the stern and bow. It does not fire canister or balls but harpoons. It was to hunt the serpents or the sharks. The ship’s figurehead was in the shape of a sea dragon. The ship has two decks with its upper deck covered with wood with the whale skin over it. The ship has two steam turbines with the large propellers but the steering of the ship was by its keels beneath the decks. It measured over a hundred twenty feet in length and with it, the oblong body was forty feet across. It was manned by thirty crews.

“Sea Dragon Two and Three will remain in place with the First Fleet.” Those were other submersibles in her fleet. “The Sea Dragon One will meet any resistance at the canyon. She is the older model of the two.”

“What if you are wrong on the Sea King?” Kosovan raised a valid question. “What if Andre was wrong? The canyon may be there but not the Sea King.”

Lady Jan pondered on the question. She does not have all the answers. She knew that she could only try to find the answers. Or die in the attempt. Failure was not tolerated.

Across the sea the Captain of Sea Dragon One, Liao Fen looked at the viewer that was attached to the extended pipe with the reflective mirror. He was naked from his waist up with the heat from the turbine and the air was bad from the earlier design. It was not the ship's faults’ but they have not updated the equipment here. They were towed by the bigger ships from their port with scheduled surfacing for the air renewal. He held thirty-five crews on the ship; more than the others for they have more equipment to look at. He had the ship sailed there from the fleet location soon after reaching the target.  Their task was to find the sea canyon and to lay low.

“The tiger waits with patience for its prey.” The Captain was advised by the Lady leader. It was his first task of that sort. The earlier ones were to hunt the sea serpents or the giant octopus which they were the predators on the move.  It was the sea predators that terrorized the fishing vessels but never had he envisaged such task of waiting. He was hunting different prey.

“Captain we may have to surface.” Senior sailor Wang told him. The captain shook his head. He was approaching the area marked on the map where the canyon is. He can’t risk surfacing the ship. They could be sighted if they do. He had no other choice. He dismissed the sailor with the wave of his left hand.

“Captain, we are there.” Chart Officer Luan reported to his Captain. The latter nodded and swiveled the viewer. He saw the sharks; they were huge and were too close to the ship. The outer hull lights were dimmed for this depth and spaced out to provide enough brightness. One of the sharks swam close to his pipe viewer. It bumped at it.

he ship lurched and then creaked. It was already past his deepest depth by eighty feet. He knew the ship was crying for him to re-surface. So were his crews. He had to ignore their calls. He looked to the pilot of the ship.

“Level at one hundred feet. And maintain the course.” The pilot there responded to the command. The ship creaked on the new diving depth. It started spurting more seawater into the interior of the ship from the leakages in the hull. The other crews were patching up the leakages with their patches of whale skin with the tar mixture. They reinforced it with the nails it was wooden surfacing. The ship stopped its moaning when it knew it was not going to turn the Captain’s mind. It was a mutual understanding between the Captain and the ship.

They were in love with each other.

The Depth

Captain Arthur had his orders. He was to take new Sea King out to sea. That was the orders of Lord Henry.

“Captain I can’t risk the Sea King damaged in the battle.” Captain Arthur called for Stacy to join him. The Sergeant Major and Corporal had joined his Lordship. The Captain took to the cavern and there he was joined by another officer.

“Captain Arthur, I am Major Keane of the island defenses. I am to escort you out. Our boats are ready.” It was the metal built boat with the dorsal and fins named Doreen. It was about fifteen feet in length and five feet across the beam with a three feet draft line. She was operated by the electrical generator powered by the mini turbine which was fed by the water currents during her voyage. The two men crew survived by the air provided ballast or in the case of dive, they will switch to the portable units. They have the breathing air for one hour. The submarine was designed to go down to below fifty feet in the water and its speed was a maximum of three knots. It, however, has a periscope to see above the water surface or in the depths. It held a double harpoon on its side and three mini charges.

“She was the Doreen but with my command, she was named Shark One and that is Shark Two.” The other model was moored next to it. “Shark Two is commanded by Lieutenant Ketch. He is an arsehole. Always creeping up my back. He thinks himself a stud and I am the bitch.”

“We will take you out past the canyon and then detoured to Big Jaws. We got a war coming up.” That was the words from the Major. Shark One and Two took the fore with the Sea King in its rear. It was underway by the time the Sea Dragon One reached the sea canyon.

Major Keane held the wheel while the antiquated boat took to the depths. It was diving at an angle of ten degrees with the Major keen eyes looking through the modified glass view. The fishes there were swimming away from the submersibles. It was their instinct to avoid anything that resembled larger fish.

Shark One had cleared the cavern entrance and was making its way out to the bay. It then sailed on for a short distance before it reached the canyon. There were no communication lines between the three ships but they will use the dimmed visuals as a guide. Shark One leveled its aft at fifty feet and sailed on at five knots. The Sea King followed behind dived lower to eighty feet but it kept its visual on Shark One.

“Eighty feet.” Boatswain I Conlay called out. She was steering the wheel. Stacy stepped up to her and looked. She saw the markers on the canyon walls. It was illuminated with the red paint. Boatswain told her of the canyon wall marks that she could use as markers.

“Dive two degrees and leveled at a hundred feet.” Captain Arthur gave the order. Boatswain I Conlay did as she was told. She then saw the large predator then. It was a sea serpent with part of its jaws torn off the flesh. It was sixty feet in length with a sleek scaled body that breathes over four feet across and the head was a snakehead the blue slits for eyes with a wide jaw that could have swallowed a man.

“It’s a Medusa.” Captain Arthur called out. “She was recovering here.”

On the other side of the canyon, Captain Liao blinked his eyes twice when he spied on the sea serpent. She was a beauty to him than with her sleek scaled body.

“She is like Hsi Shih”, the beauty that once lived in the ancient Far East and was renowned as one of the Four Beauties of Ancient China. Her beauty was said to be when it was reflected on the pond water, the dazzling image of her made the fishes stop swimming and sank to the bottom.

“All hands alert. We have a …serpent on the aft.” Captain Liao called out. His crews all scrambled to their assigned positions.

“There may be another nearby.” The crews knew of the serpents always travel in pairs. More glass viewers were opened up on the ship hulls to look at the dark depths. They were just movable partitions that allowed the crews to peek out. Each partition was no wider than an inch and no length beyond six inches.

Bang!

The other serpent had swiped it body across the hull of the Sea Dragon. It may have viewed the ship as its rival for the bigger serpent. It swept its main body across the hull and then with its tail fins to slap against the hull.

“We have leaks.” Senior Sailor Wang grabbed the wooden box with the whale skins and nails. He was placing the patches of whale skin on the leaking areas. He spat it while he hammered in the nails. His rage with the profanity was condoned by the Captain. The man had single-handed kept his love alive.

“Captain, we have to …” The words of the Senior Sailor were cut off when the Captain heard the whooshing sound from the stern. It only meant one thing; someone had fired the harpoons.

“I got the slippery eel.” The sailor jumped in joy at his shooting. He was smacked on the face by Captain who had rushed to his shooting position.

“That was a sea serpent, you fool.” Captain Liao was about to kill the sailor. “If it’s hurt, it’s more d….”

The Sea Dragon One has slammed on the hull again. That time it was harder than before.

“Now you have brought of the wrath of the serpents on us.” Captain Liao cursed at the sailor. He then turned to the crews. “Full reverse speed. We need to clear out.”

Captain Arthur saw the huge serpent called out in the screeching sound. It was like the violin strings pulled by the cat. The huge serpent coiled up and then swam to the rear. It was running according to Boatswain I Conlay.

“No, love. It’s been called for.”  Captain Arthur replied. He knew more on the serpents than them. “Follow it.”

“All ahead.” Boatswain I Conlay called out. She then hit the lever to call for Red Alert on the ship. “We are going to …battle, Captain?”

Captain Arthur nodded but his eyes were on the glass viewer at the departing serpent.