Welcome to Author James J. C. Kelly's Writing Portfolio

This originally appeared in  Pole to Pole Publishing's 20,000 Leagues Remembered

It's still available for purchase on Amazon.

The rewriting of Earth’s history began with a sharp knock on Dr. Michael Chen’s Caltech office door. He’d been poring over his expedition’s planned course to the North Pole when the sound jolted him from his focus.

After a breath, he said, “Come in.”

The door swung open and a brown-skinned woman with a short-cut afro stepped inside, beaming as she pulled a large, rolling suitcase. It had been months, but the effect on him returned at full strength. Seeing her, his world fell away to only her light brown eyes and full lipped smile.

“Livvy.” He sprang from his seat, bounding around the desk to wrap her in his arms.

Dr. Olivia Johnson was an anthropologist and archeologist. He hadn’t heard from her in months, and he was too blinded by emotion to realize when trouble walked into his office. 

“Wow, CHO.” She laughed and squeezed him back. “Missed you too.”

He told himself to relax before she became aware of his true feelings for her. “I can’t believe you’re here, and you cut your dreads, rocking a mini afro. I can see your neck. I love it.” He pulled her away only to be met by her shocked, knowing gaze. His careless mouth had betrayed him.

“Oh my God, I never realized,” she mouthed.

His face warmed. He pretended to busy himself with paper on his desk. “Last time we saw each other we were back in Harvard. Over the years I’ve gotten use to talking over texts, Facebook, satellite phones, and emails. Then, you go incommunicado for months. Today, you just show up. I hope things won’t get weird.”

“Um, I mean, why would it?” She glanced back at the door. “Uh, we’re here to see you.” 

“We?”

Into his office stepped Professor Bernadetta Johnson, graciously ignoring the awkwardness. Her brilliant smile spared no teeth as she hugged him like a proud mother seeing her son after years apart. “Michael.”

“Professor,” he said, his smile born anew. 

“Oh, I’m going to strangle you. I’ve told you, call me Berna.”

“Uh oh, both of you together. So, what’s going on? Why are you two here? I’m worried.”

Berna laughed. “Smart man. Well, Liv here will do the talking. I’m just here to support my daughter.”

He was suddenly aware of their appearance. Their smiles looked forced and their eyes drooped from exhaustion. “Uh, sure. Sit. So, what’s up?”

Livvy laid the bag flat and after a long, smooth zip pulled out a relic of a book. Already intrigued, CHO leaned in. When Livvy eased open the cover, the pages weren’t typical paper, and they emanated a stale, salty odor. 

His eyes darted between the women. “What is it?”

Berna nodded to a framed poster partially concealed behind a bookcase. “It’s time to believe. Unless you’re still denying it.”

It was the X-Files poster she’d bought him after grad school. “I Want to Believe,” it read, one of a framed pair, its mate in her Harvard office. He wanted to be taken seriously as a scientist. Despite what he saw as a kid, he couldn’t admit to his belief in UFOs. She was well established in her field and could afford ridicule. He was proud to claim her as his mentor when it came to her traditional career, but had distanced himself from her eccentric theories.

CHO looked away without answering, but not before seeing her smirk with disappointment.

She turned to her daughter. “Well Liv, don’t keep him waiting.”

“Uh, okay, so this is going to sound crazy. Hear me out.” She sounded distracted.

He slumped back in his chair, cursing himself. She was avoiding his eyes. He made her uncomfortable. 

“As you know I was in East Africa on that dig. Well, the guide and I got to talking. He tells me his great grandmother had this capsule she found as a kid, on the beach. They could never get it open. Well, hell, that type of thing is right up my alley so I told him to bring it by.”

She pulled a photograph from her bag. “The capsule had these markings here. To sweeten the mystery, get this—the metal it’s made of, an unknown alloy, is stronger than anything we know about.”

Berna interjected, “The team at Harvard identified three new elements, called it the discovery of the century. I call it the tip of the iceberg.”

“Really? I haven’t heard anything,” he said.

Livvy nodded. “No one has, yet. So, on a hunch, I had a friend in the math department look at the symbols. It turns out they aren’t words. They’re a pattern, so complex he needed a super computer to assist him. There were buttons with the symbols. When I pressed them in the right order to complete the pattern, the capsule opened.”

“What was inside?”

“Captain Nemo’s autobiography.”

A laugh escaped him, contemptuous. Immediately, he wanted it back. He cleared his throat. Livvy and her mom were shooting the same narrow-eyed glare. He swallowed. “I’m sorry. It’s just, for more than a century, everyone’s been looking for proof of Nemo. He’s a legend right up there with Bigfoot.”

Livvy pulled a folder from the bag, handing it to him. “Alright, you need more. Well, look at the results of tests we had done on the capsule and this book. As we said, the capsule is made of some futuristic alloy and the book’s pages are marine eelgrass, which Dr. Aronnax said Nemo used for paper.”

CHO couldn’t help but smile at Livvy’s passion.

She continued, “It gets better. It was uncertain if the Nautilus had wrecked the night Dr. Aronnax and party escaped, or was sunk at Lincoln Island before the volcano there erupted. Neither of those happened.  Truth was, Nemo made it to the North Pole.” 

CHO leaned back in his chair and groaned in understanding. “You want to come with me." Combing his hair back with his fingers, he continued, “Why me? Harvard should be funding you.”

Livvy’s brows furled and she opened her mouth to respond but her mother raised a hand to stop her. “I’m funding this one, my entire retirement savings. I just don’t have enough for transportation.”

Michael was floored. “You’re crazy.”

Livvy rested her head in her hand, her voice weary. “CHO, look, we don’t need to go all the way north with you. We have our own equipment. Give us four days. If this doesn’t pan out, drop us off whenever you resupply and we’re out of your hair.”

The Professor leaned towards him, her eyes a tired, weathered version of her daughter’s, her voice desperate. “Michael, I didn’t want to come here, but Liv reminded me to get over myself. So, here I am, hat in hand, asking you to throw your old professor a bone. What do you say? Isn’t there room on that ship for two stowaways and their equipment?”

His eyes fell to the X-Files poster. She believed in him when no one else had, used her connections to get him his professorship at Caltech. He didn’t have the audacity to make her beg. He allowed his head to drop back with a deep sigh. “So, let me guess, you got the book, now we’re all chasing after the Nautilus?”

Bernna smiled and Livvy pumped a fist. 

He took a long breath. “I can say we’re extending the expedition a few days to study currents or temperatures or something—”

“No,” Livvy snapped. “No calls, no mentioning this to anyone, okay, CHO?”

“Why not?” 

The professor smirked, “It’s simple. If we’re right, you’ll have what you’ve wanted from the first day I met you, a prestigious career and your name in history.” She nodded at the X-Files poster, “But, if we’re wrong, do you really want it known you were looking for Bigfoot?”

§

Three days later Livvy and her mother arrived at the port wearing the same clothes they wore to his office, odd for the ever-fashionable pair. He didn’t care, excited at the idea of being together with Livvy for what he hoped would be a lengthy period.

That evening, after getting underway, Livvy stood alone by the bow’s railing, and Michael seized the opportunity.

“Dr. Mona Thomson, you’re finally alone,” he said as he approached.

Livvy turned and smiled. The bags beneath her eyes had deepened further. “Hey, CHO, Try blowing anyone’s cover lately?”

“Okay, then perhaps you shouldn’t be calling me CHO.”

She smirked. “Nah, you’ll forever be CHO.”

He spoke in a hushed tone, leaning on the rail close to her. “We keep secrets now? You’re using an alias. And I had to find that out when Captain Doyle gave me a copy of the crew manifest. Livvy, what’s really going on? We’ve never lied to each other.”

Her light brown eyes caught his. He couldn’t say how much time passed. When she finally spoke, it wasn’t to answer his question. “Really bad timing, CHO. Why didn’t you ever say you had feelings for me?”

He groaned, gazing out at a lightning storm illuminating the distant horizon ahead.  His cheeks burned. “You were the professor’s daughter. The first time you met me, I was doing a keg stand.”

She laughed, nodding. “You were freaking beet red drunk. You remember anything from that night?”

He smiled wryly. “Not really, but I remember the next day you kept calling me CHO.”

“The night before, you couldn’t remember your name, so I called you CHO, as in C2H5O.”

“Ethanol,” they said together.

“I remembered waking to you standing over me with that smirk of yours, thick dreadlocks, and those beautiful eyes. Later, I found out you were Johnson’s daughter. I thought, black girl, Professor’s daughter, not a chance in hell.”

“Black girl?”

“I know. Hey, I grew up in a predominately Asian community. You were, sassy black girl and Hip-Hop.”

“Wow,” she laughed.

“But I’ve grown. We’ve grown. Now we’re friends, and you’re so much more than thick dreads and Hip-Hop.” 

“And you’re more than keg stands and almond eyes.”

“I’m glad we got to know each other. I’d like to believe I’ve earned your trust and proven myself a friend. So, Dr. Mona, what’s really going on here? Why are you off grid?”

She turned her gaze to the wake churning off the side of the ship. She closed her eyes and breathed. “Look, some of this is pretty out there.”

“Listening.”

“I got the capsule open and found the book. It had several pages of Cuneiform written in the back so I took it home to translate. Before that, I brought the capsule to the mass spectrometer at the university—a mistake. Next day, my university office was ransacked.”

“What?”

“It was obvious they were looking for it. I found out the techs running the mass spectrometer sent the numbers out to a national lab, accessing a bigger pool of data. I think, and this is going to sound more like something my mother would say, but I think it was the government.” 

She wasn’t joking, he could tell by her furled eyebrows and the way she bit her plump bottom lip—she was serious. And scared.

“I told Mom, reluctantly. She made me stay in a hotel. A day later, when she went to my place to get me some clothes, it was all in shambles too.”

“Holy shit.”

She nodded. “Well that was it. If theywanted it so bad, I’d stumbled onto something big. Being my mother’s daughter, I immediately went into conspiracy mode, pulled out all my cash, ditched my cell, went totally off grid, until we came to you.”

“Something doesn’t make sense. Why would the government be coming for you if all you found was Nemo’s ship? And, I’m sorry about how this sounds, but the evidence you do have isn’t rock solid.”

“You’re wrong. The stuff in the back of the book proves a lot of my mom’s theories.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Stuff like, UFOs?”

She nodded. “Dr. Aronnax quoted Nemo, ‘The earth does not need new continents, but new men.’ Well, Nemo found both. How familiar are you with the Hollow Earth Theory?”

His cheeks wanted to pull into a smile. The implication of the question was insane. He managed to subdue it with a simple clearing of his throat. “Basically, it claims the center of the earth is hollow, but Charles Hutton’s Schiehallion experiment disproves it. That’s first year geology. Are you about to tell me that’s wrong? Because, UFOs, okay, but I can’t accept the world is hollow.”

“I’m saying if what Nemo wrote in his book is true, when we find his sub, first year geology is going to be rewritten.”

“Doctors Thomson, Chen, calm waters this evening, beautiful night,” Captain Doyle said approaching, carrying a tablet. He was a pepper-haired man with grey eyes.

“Good evening, Captain,” Livvy replied.

“We should be at your coordinates by dawn.” Doyle’s eyes went to the distant lightning flashing along the horizon. “Supposed to miss us. We’re keeping an eye on it, but I’m not too confident in the forecasts. Here’s the projected track.” He handed the tablet to Michael. “My apologies, Dr. Thomson, I know you’re anxious to get down there. Hey, there’s always the next day, right?”

She lowered her eyes and nodded, “Right.”

Doyle placed his hands behind his back. “You know, I’m a bit of a fan of Dr. Johnson. Curious, what is it you’re looking for, exactly? Dr. Johnson is often on those shows that talk about aliens.” He leaned in conspiratorially, “Thirty-eight years I’ve been out here. I’ve seen things. Did something crash?”

Michael laughed, handing back the tablet. “We’re not out here hunting aliens. The professor might have eccentric theories, but she’s still a geologist and her day job pays the bills. Harvard is doing a study on global warming’s effect on ice algae.”

Livvy must have realized her angry demeanor, turning her frown into a warm smile. “See, the amount of algae in an ice core can tell us the extent of sea ice, giving us historical data on climate change over centuries.”

“I see. So, no UFOs then?” Doyle asked.

Livvy shrugged. “Sorry.” 

Doyle nodded and waggled the tablet. “Dr. Chen, we should discuss contingencies. I’ll be on the bridge.”

“Be right up.” Once Doyle was out of earshot, Michael turned to Livvy. “That reminds me of college, how we would get into and talk ourselves out of trouble.”

Livvy looked to the sky and cursed. “Come on Mama Nature, you’re supposed to be my girl. Don’t do this.” She took a calming breath with a hand to her temple. “You should get up there, find out what’s up,” she urged.

He sighed. Doyle had killed his moment. “Right, so what are you going to do?”

“Well, if the weather holds out, I need my sleep to dive. I’m going to knock out.” 

After an awkward moment of silence, Michael nodded and began to walk away. Livvy grabbed his hand.

“CHO… You’re right. We are a great pair.” She looked deep into his eyes. “Outside of, you know, all of this, sunken ships and hollow earths, we have a lot to talk about. And I’m looking forward to it, long overdue. Good night, CHO.”

§

Next morning, he went topside to be met by a sky that was a miserable twist of greys soaking the deck with a fine mist. 

The professor was chatting with a ship’s officer. Michael waved. She glowered back.

He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Already?”

He started over but she was already striding towards him, growling before he could speak.

“Just what the hell were you two thinking last night, speaking to the captain?” She demanded in a whisper.

“What are you talking about?”

“He had it in him that we’re out here hunting for a downed UFO, saw right through your idiotic ice algae story. It’s all over social media. Now, the Coast Guard ordered him to hold position and wait to be boarded.”

Michael cursed. “Seriously? How’d he know?”

“Come on Michael. You and I are geologists, Liv, aka Mona, is an archeologist. Algae research without a marine biologist?”

He winced. 

She shook her head, exasperated. “I told him what we’re really out here looking for. It’s better he’s on board with it, anyway. We’re in a bad place. Doyle says the Coast Guard is two hours out.”

“This is all your fault. You know she’s only out here for you, and you just let her ruin her career.”

With that, her eyes narrowed.

He didn’t mean to say it. Through the silence, he could feel the bonds between them severing further. “Look, I’m sorry. I— ”

I’m glad you finally found the balls to say it,” she snapped. “But she’s an adult. You want a prestigious career? It’s served with a side of risk. Eat up. Liv understands that. Unlike you, she’s not scaredto admit what she believes.”

“I’m not scared—”

“Aren’t you?" She raised her voice to be heard by everyone in the area. “Did you see a UFO, as a child, visiting your grandmother in China?” 

Several of his grad students turned to look at them.

Michael glowered at her and responded matching her volume, “Yes.”

She smirked. “Attaboy. Now, we’re at the coordinates. Nemo’s ship is somewhere below. If we’re going to help Liv, we need to get going. The Coast Guard is coming to shut us down. You love Liv? Give her your support. Light a fire beneath those grad students of yours and let’s get her in the water.” 

§

Thirty minutes later, a palpable buzz of excitement filled the air as the mixed crew of sailors and scientists hustled about the deck to start the dive. They had an hour before the Coast Guard arrived. 

Michael still simmered over the professor’s words as he made his way to Livvy, donning her diving gear. He had to establish himself in his field before doing anything to jeopardize it. He wasn’t scared, he was calculated. Why didn’t she understand that?

When he reached Livvy, she was shrugging on her breathing rig, only her face visible through the hood of her bulky dry suit. She acknowledged him without looking, fastening her rig’s buckles.

“I spoke to Mom.” She glared at him. “No big deal, we’ll make a believer out of you, too.” There was hurt in her voice, slight, but there.

“In a single stroke, it seems I pissed off the only two women I love.” CHO reached for her hand.

She knocked it away, her eyes warning him not to try it again, then began testing her regulators.

He whispered, “Come on Livvy. I’m not allowed to have doubts? How many people looked for that ship, and now you’re dropping this Hollow Earth thing on me? I mean, it’s a lot to take in.”

He combed his hair back with his fingers. “Look, I don’t want you mad at me, not you. Okay, I can honestly say I want to believe the Nautilus is down there. But, come on, you really believe the earth is hollow, or are you risking your credibility to prove Berna’s theories?”

She snapped, “You think I’m doing this for— So, I can’t think for myself?”

“That’s not—” 

She cut him short, placing a hand to his cheek, tapping her chest with the other. “I feel it in here. I’m right on this.” She pulled him into a kiss that left him breathless. When she released, she stared into his eyes. “Tell me, should I stop listening to my heart?”

His words were breathy. “Livvy, that’s not fair.”

“Yes, it’s hard to believe, but I’m more certain now than ever. I stayed up last night completing the translation of Nemo’s journal.”

“And?”

“And, I know exactly what I need to do.” She patted a bag she wore at her hip. “When I’m done, the world will be changed forever.”

Her eyes went to the distant storm firing snaps of lightening. She cursed. “It’s not going to miss us, maybe thirty minutes. I’m racing Mama Nature and the Coast Guard. We can talk later. I got to get down there. I won’t have a second chance.”

Less than five minutes later, she was in the water. She and a companion diver, his grad student, Henry, disappeared beneath the waves.

She was right. A moment after she was under, Doyle reported the storm’s change in direction, cutting the dive short by half, from ninety minutes to forty-five.

§

Twenty-three minutes later, despite the threatening storm and the shortened dive window, the ship erupted into cheers when Livvy reported, “It’s here! We found it! It’s just where Nemo said it would be! We found the Nautilus!”

Michael and Berna rocked each other in a glee-filled embrace among the cheers and hoots. Berna’s eyes burst with tears of pride. Doyle blew the ship’s horn. History was made. Everyone aboard would have their name memorialized.

***

Twenty-eight minutes later, a defiant Livvy was still searching the wreck, sixteen minutes beyond their cutoff.

“Dr. Thomson, I’m not asking. Start your ascent, now,” a crewman demanded over the underwater telephone. A growing group including Michael, Berna, and a red-faced Doyle were gathered around the small submersible command center set up near the ship’s stern.

Doyle’s brows were furled, his tolerance of Livvy’s defiance nearing its end. 

“I told you, five minutes,” Livvy persisted.

Michael stood with his arms crossed. He turned and whispered to Berna. “She’s making it worse on herself. Doyle is never going to let her dive after this. Sometimes she’s so…bull-headed.”

Cracking a wry smile, Berna whispered back. “Well, you know, I hear it’s not entirely her fault. She gets it honest from that damn mother of hers. Good thing you’re not in love with her or anything.”

The crewman cursed. 

Doyle placed a hand on the crewman’s shoulder and took the microphone. His voice was level, yet commanding. “Dr. Thomson, Captain Doyle. I’ll allow you five. But, one second longer and there’s a cozy spot in my brig waiting just for you. Understood, Doctor?”

After a short silence, Livvy responded, “Thank you Captain, I—” She screamed, “Oh my God, what is—” 

Everyone jumped at the electrical snap of the phone going dead. At the same moment, something beneath the ocean pulsed a brilliant electric blue. The deck lights went dark. Radars and antennas whirling above crept to a halt and engine vibrations faded. The sounds of a living ship gave way to the distant rumble of thunder and waves crashing. 

“Livvy,” Michael gasped, his panicked eyes meeting Berna’s.

Doyle scanned the state of his ship, his face stoic. “Everyone, stay calm. General Quarters! Command Staff to the bridge.” He turned and growled at the phone operators. “Get those divers up here, if you got to cast a damn net.” He stepped out.

§

Michael gripped the deck railing, fixated on the swells slamming the powerless ship. His watch useless, he estimated it’d been approximately thirty minutes since anyone heard from the divers.  The storm was threatening, almost atop the research vessel. The helpless crew were in a frenzy to restore power, still having no clue what killed all shipboard electronics. 

Michael turned to the professor to see how she was faring. Livvy and she had found the Nautilus, but at what cost?

The professor sat on a small folding stool, leaning forward on her knees, gazing into the storm bearing down. A proud woman, her true feelings were guarded behind a confident smile. Her eyes betrayed her. In trying times, they’d cry her true emotions in encrypted whispers Michael learned to decode after years under her mentorship.

She was human after all, and nervous.

A cheer from the phone operators pulled his attention. They were monitoring the guideline dropped in the water, now their only way of communicating with the divers. A series of tugs from the divers communicated their status. They counted five tugs.

“Divers in distress,” a crewman called, translating the tugs. “They’re at their last safety stop. Get medical ready.”

“What type of distress? Which diver?” Michael asked trying to hide his panic.

The crewman’s response was grim, “You know what I know.” 

“There they are!” 

The cry sent Michael and Berna bolting to the starboard railing.

Livvy struggled to stay atop twenty-foot swells, clutching an unconscious Henry in one arm, waving frantically with the other. They’d surfaced right as the storm began to intensify, ship and divers at the mercy of gale force wind and waves. Adding to the danger, lightning struck the water about a mile out.

“Two ships to port!”

The announcement whipped Michael around and he saw two large cutters, clearly labeled US Coast Guard.

Once the divers were on board, Henry was rushed away. Michael and Berna were immediately at Livvy’s side. 

Livvy was all teeth, a flashing blue light emanating from her bag.

Doyle ran over, demanding, “What happened down there? We’re dead in the water.”

“I found the homing beacon! It works!” Livvy exclaimed. 

“My God, you found it,” the professor gasped. “What happened? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Livvy assured

“Tech on Nemo’s ship did this?” Doyle asked.

Livvy shook her head slow. “Not Nemo’s ship.”

“What about the Coast Guard?” Michael asked.

Livvy’s smile dropped as she gaped at the giant ships sitting only a mile out. “Um, shit. Okay, uh, we need to buy some time. I need a satellite phone with a camera.”

“Phone,” Michael barked to one of his students who darted off. 

“That phone isn’t going to work,” Doyle said. “And, what’s coming? Are we in danger?”

“No.” She reached in her bag and snatched out the homing beacon, a black, metallic rod with a silver tip. It flashed blue, light emanating from the metal itself. “It must be doing it, disrupting everything.”

“Beacon? Who the hell is it calling?” Doyle insisted. 

“Whoever Nemo found inside the Earth. It’s letting them know we’re ready,” the professor explained. 

Michael’s impatience was bubbling. “What’s happening? Someone fill me in.”

Livvy pointed to a line where two halves of the rod came together, a faded black half that had spent many years beneath water, and a glossy onyx half. 

“This shiny half was in the capsule. Nemo wrote the two halves would connect automatically. I didn’t know how. When I pulled it from the bag, this half shot up from the wreck and smacked Henry. Shattered his arm. The halves joined and the phone went dead..”

They gaped at it, light coming right out of metal. Michael’s doubts began to falter. 

The sky opened in a blinding downpour. 

“Here’s the phone,” the student said running up.

Livvy took the phone and began punching buttons.

Berna glanced back at the ships and grabbed Livvy’s hand. “Liv, we should get in the water with the phone. The Coast Guard may not look for us there.” 

Michael was bemused, Wait, what?”

A wave slammed against the side of the ship, sending everyone stumbling. Doyle cursed. “I need control of my ship. Turn that damn thing off first.”

Livvy stared at it for a moment, grabbed it with both hands, and tried pulling it apart. It wouldn’t budge. She tried twisting, nothing. Her eyes went to the shiny piece at the tip. She pressed it. The halves split.

The ship’s deck lighting came on. A crewman yelled, “Captain! Everything is coming up! Coast Guard wants us to hold position and prepare for boarding!”

“Do what they say,” Doyle commanded. “If you two are going, now’s the time.”

Another flash of lightening streaked the sky with a boom of thunder casting chills down Michael’s spine.

Livvy and her mother locked eyes as if to ready themselves. 

Michael cursed, realizing what was about to happen.

The two women bolted aft and hurdled over the railing.

Michael darted after, went up and over the rail to splash near them.

Both women looked surprised. Livvy beamed. “CHO.”

He threw his hands up. “I might be crazy, but not scared. And, you disappeared from me once. Not again.”

“Welcome to the fold, Michael. You’re all in now,” Bernna said.

He nodded. “Now what?”

Bolts of lightning lit the sky, Livvy lifted the satellite phone, pressing buttons. “We go live. Hope the beacon was on long enough.”

“Who you calling?” Michael asked.

“Anyone willing to listen. I’m broadcasting on Facebook,” Livvy replied.

Berna said, “Give me the phone. I’ll hold, you talk, baby.”

“Okay, Mom. Get in here, Michael, you’re part of this now too.”

The professor nodded. 

Livvy began, “I am Dr. Olivia Johnson, with Doctors Bernadetta Johnson and Michael Chen. I may not have much time, so I’ll get to it. After discovering Captain Nemo’s lost journal, we found his Nautilus. There’s more. Nemo found an inner world via an underwater tunnel while trying to reach the North Pole. The inner earth is home to another race of Earthlings, responsible for UFO sightings throughout history.”

A giant wave sent them tumbling, only to yank them back in the opposite direction, choking.

The rain stopped. 

Michael rubbed frantically at his burning eyes, distantly aware of Livvy and Berna staring upward. His vision cleared to find the research vessel and distant ships veiled behind a heavy wall of rain. 

“What the…” Rain fell all around, but not on them. Something blocked it from above. He turned his gaze skyward.

A triangular craft, pitch black and larger than any aircraft he’d ever seen, hung silently above them. Blinding white lights ran along its outer edges.

“My God, just what I remembered,” Michael gasped, “

Berna handed the phone to Livvy. “Say something, baby.”

Livvy swallowed, finding her words. “Nemo left us a beacon to call them. No more secrets. No more cover ups. The aliens we’ve searched for were here all along beneath our feet. Not extra-terrestrials, but fellow earthlings. We are not alone.”