Stealth Journeys with the Steam Mapper

Chapter 89: What to Believe, So Far Away

Even after replaying the words and music again, Stef was still questioning how authentic the Cousteau tales had sounded.

"What about all of the detailed stories MYKA told about Grandfather Jean-Michel, and his adventures in Australia with his beautiful wind-driven ship the Turbosail, named Alcyone?   It used aerodynamic design and worked six times better than classic sails.   The first Turbosail was made using a refurbished catamaran and was built and tested by Great-grandfather Jacques where twice it was destroyed in terrible storms.  The Alcyone was built with a slender prow, and it was a sight to behold, and able to travel all over Australia.   How could MYKA  be able to recall such detail so convincingly?   An impostor?  It can't be true!   Did this impostor hide my journal? Who else could have seen it?"

"What if I've been reported as an impostor?   Everyone was vetted beforehand.   What does the Chief Scientist know?"

It did not seem possible to fall asleep with so many unanswered questions.   Truthfully, Stef was more worried about getting the journal back and hoping no one read its contents.  The embarrassment of being conned by MYKA  added to Stef's misery, but there was a shadow of a doubt that it was true.   Stef desperately wanted to believe that the MKYA that had become a best friend was genuine.

Diaries and journals were a big part of gathering the details of many explorations, expeditions, and working adventures of Stef's ancestors and current family.  The missing journal was Stef's most detailed and most exciting ever written and too personal to lose.   The written information of family history had allowed Stef to feel very connected, and, to pay it forward was important.

Combining the diaries written by Eliza and Ned Land, with the brief sketches of data found within Sir Steven Payne's journal enabled Stef to capture the essence of each journey they had shared during the early 1900's.   From the journal, Stef learned of Sir Steven's first encounters with the steam mapper and submersible and his first meetings with Professor Arronax and Ned Land.   Later parts of the journal seemed quite cut and dried with coordinates and weather conditions and descriptions of vents.

Stef's favorite reading was that of Eliza's first trip, the expedition to Polynesia and Samoa after she and Ned were married.   The descriptions of the coastlines and the flora and fauna of the region created images of great natural beauty.  The widow of Robert Louis Stevenson, had returned to United States, not long after her husband "R.L." died at their Samoan home called Vailima.  However, Eliza persuaded Ned, Steven, and the professor to include a stop to visit their favorite author's home and grave site.

Thinking of the beautiful depictions within Eliza's journal, written later and inspired by "The Cruise of the Janet Nicol" helped Stef fall asleep on many nights.   Stef had hoped that the second phase of this expedition would take them into the South Seas and provide opportunities to see that beauty firsthand.   When that might happen depended on whether the itinerary had changed with the new unexpected events.

The original itinerary for this expedition did include a visit to some vents discovered a few years back by the U.S. Research Vessel Atlantis.  The Atlantis left Easter Island to work at Pito Deep. The region they searched was between Australia and Samoa, in an area between the Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate.

These were not far from the region of New Guinea that Captain Nemo had visited.   New Guinea was a strange island with many strange facts and true- life adventures.   Facts that amazed Stef included the fact that the natives of New Guinea spoke in more than one thousand languages, even though their total population accounted for less than one tenth of one percent of the world's population.  Stef had been excited at the prospect of visiting the island, so vividly described in a favorite book of Stef's: "Lost in Shangri-La" written by Mitchell Zuckoff.   The true story took place in 1945 when twenty-four servicemen and WACs went out for a plane ride over the jungle-covered mountains and crashed.   Their encounters with local tribes seemed as fierce as the ones Ned Land and Professor Aronnax met when they visited the land during a rare stop by the Nautilus back in 1867.   The story of survival and ingenuity in devising a rescue, made "Lost in Shangri-La" a real "page turner".

Stef loved books of adventure and read Nancy Horan's historical fiction Under the Wide and Starry Sky: a novel  twice, enjoying the many twists of fate encountered by the Mr. and Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson.  Their story in turn had inspired Eliza Land, and now Stef was the one interested in having a South Pacific adventure.  The scientists who seem to believe in sea monsters have a totally different agenda.  This was not the adventure Stef was seeking.  Too many thoughts were racing through Stef's mind to drift to sleep.  Time for soothing music and positive thoughts.