Songs of Thalassa

by Brian Tissot

  “Hey everyone, we have a swell alert! With only two days of data, the model is predicting a six- to eight-foot southwest swell on the southern end of the island chain tomorrow. It might be worth checking out.” Sage, Dina, and Milo ran over to view the maps and readout.

  “I’m stoked,” Sage said, “Let’s hit it.” Milo smiled and nodded in agreement.

  The next morning, Byron flew the lander above the sand-rock islands. As they moved down the chain, the islands grew progressively smaller in size while the dark-blue water of a deep-water trench veered toward the shoreline. Sage was amazed at how much bigger the waves were from the day before, and she could see swells stacked neatly all the way to the horizon.

  As they dropped in closer, she saw yellow dots in the shallow water. But as they approached the island at the end of the chain, her attention was drawn to a thin white line bending around a point. On the last island, the sandy beach disappeared onto a shallow rocky ledge jutting into deeper water where the trench intersected the island. As they flew over the surf zone, white water broke across the reef and disappeared into deep water on its southern edge. It was a textbook set-up for a good right-handed wave.

  Flying over the reef, they saw a set of waves come in, spaced far apart and moving slowly toward the shore. “Holy moly!” shouted Dina. “Look at those waves lining up on the reef.”

  Sage watched in anticipation as the first swell, perhaps four feet in height, encountered the shallow reef and slowly built to eight feet as it cascaded over the rocky edge, peeling to the right into deep water and creating a perfect surfing wave. She hooted with joy along with Milo and Dina as Georgia laughed at everyone’s frantic rush to pull on their Lycra skins, booties, and backpacks.

  Sage was so excited she struggled to put on her gear. I’ve come so far, Sage thought. Now it’s time to see if I can ride Thalassa’s waves.

  As the large, slow swells emerged from the depths, they encountered the flat, shallow rocky shelf, and the bottom of the wave slowed while the top kept moving forward until it overtook the base, cascading down in a thick slab of water that thundered onto the rock bottom lined with yellow splashes of color. Sage noticed the breaking waves unleash a torrent of water unto the shallow reef and across the shoal, which made her feel a bit uneasy.

  “It looks just like Chopes!” Dina said, referring to the famous surf spot in Tahiti. “Awesome!”

  Sage smiled at her enthusiasm. “It looks gnarlier than Teahupo’o,” using the correct Tahitian name for the surf spot. “Slower but thicker, which must be due to Thalassa’s gravity, right Georgia?”

  Georgia nodded in agreement. “Yes, these waves are building to several times the size of the incoming swell once they encounter the reef. It’s fantastic to see how physics predicted low-gravity waves. So far, everything is consistent with my model.”

  Byron landed in the middle of the small island and the three surfers, with Georgia following them, jumped out and bounded down the beach in great strides with their boards toward the end of the island. After everyone disembarked, Byron launched microdrones then positioned the lander above the waves to start filming. Georgia bounced toward the edge of the shallow reef with her backpack and camera.

  “I’ll keep an eye out for sharks!” Byron yelled at the surfers from the lander. Everyone laughed, but it had an edge to it as they realized they had no idea what might be in the water.

  After they entered the deep water at the end of the island, Dina and Sage began to paddle out, while Milo used his motoboard to power around the point. Sage was pleased to see that the water was clear and felt warm, but she barely registered that the bottom was covered with small, yellow, frond-shaped structures, swinging back and forth in the current, as she made her way to the swells.

  Behind her, knee-deep in the shallows, Georgia pointed into the water and screamed out in excitement, “Woo-hoo! Hey, you guys, I see living creatures! Holy shit, this place has plants or, er…something!”

  Sage kept paddling in the channel toward the waves on Milo’s flame-streaked surfboard. “Wow. That’s unbelievable,” she yelled back. “I’ll check it out later.” She knew there would be time, more than she could stand, to survey the water, but not before she hit her first wave. She couldn’t let Milo motor into all the glory.

  If he had heard Georgia at all, he clearly didn’t care. Sage was paddling toward the line-up and could barely see the small swell he had targeted as it moved onto the reef. But it came into view as the wave began building in the shallow water from three to six feet, then eight feet high. Milo powered into the wave using his motoboard and was standing before the wave began to break. He used his momentum to snake back and forth on the slow wave’s face, setting himself up for a tube ride under the thick, slab-like lip. Seconds later, as the wave began to keel over in front of him, he pulled into the tube and disappeared from view.

  Everyone, including Byron, erupted in cheers, hoots, and screams as he rode the first wave on Thalassa. Despite being envious of Milo, Sage stopped and raised her arms over her head in celebration. “We’ve done it! We surfed Thalassa! Yahoo!”

  Not to be outdone, Dina moved into the line-up and tried paddling into an approaching wave. But she wasn’t going fast enough and got stuck on the upper part of the wave. Sage watched with concern as it appeared her friend was going to get pitched onto the reef, not a great way to start surfing a new planet. But at the last second, Dina touched the power on her motoboard and zipped down the wave’s steep face. The rail of her surfboard dug into the hollow but slowly moving swell, the lip of the wave keeled over, enclosing her deep in a tube. Sage began to worry Dina had been knocked off when she came flying out the end, hollering and screaming then flew off the lip of the wave, 30 feet into the air, and landed with a big splash.

  Sage shook with excitement and paddled hard into the line-up, using a tiny spurt of power from her board to shoot down the top of a wave’s face. While the wave stood up on the reef, she faded deep into the peak, slowly carving a graceful bottom turn that positioned her directly under the thick falling lip and into a large tube. She arched her back in the heart of the wave, and its curling edge encircled her in a liquid vortex with the glare of the sun reflecting off the wave’s face. It was a sublime experience and reminded her of her early days surfing in Hawaii. Despite being on an alien world, it felt like home. Eventually, the wave collapsed on the shallow reef, and she emerged from the tube and blasted onto the shoulder.

  Paddling back out, she heard hollers from Dina and Milo celebrating her wave. “I want another one of those!” Sage said.

  Milo raised his arms and erupted in joyful hoots as Dina pointed out a school of tiny fish-like animals passing beneath him on the reef. “Unbelievable,” he said. “What a rush! It’s only our second day on the planet, and we’ve found excellent waves and complex life. Who would have guessed? We’ll be so famous!”

  The more they surfed, they discovered that the slow wave speed from the low gravity allowed maneuvers that weren’t possible on Earth. Dina and Sage quickly took advantage of the situation, while Milo was content to ride the tube. Becoming accustomed to the waves, they pushed each other deeper and deeper into the peak of the waves, leaping into high-flying aerials and multiple 360-degree off-the-lip maneuvers. On one wave, Sage flew 30 feet off the wave’s lip, landed back on the wave, and rode it to the beach.

  Milo powered back out on his faster board after each wave and had surfed twice as many waves as anyone else. Sage tried not to let his annoying behavior cramp her style, but he was hard to ignore and kept stealing all the best waves.

  In the afternoon, when the tide dropped and the reef became shallower, Milo positioned himself behind the peak on what appeared to be the biggest wave of the day. He powered over to get in position, but Sage had had enough of his showboating. She jammed in and took off in front of him as he dropped down the wave’s face. While the massive lip peeled over on the 1
0-foot wave, Milo tucked into the large tube. But Sage was in his way, and they collided. While Milo managed to keep going, she fell off and was sucked over the falls then thrown onto the shallow rocky reef.

  Dina rushed over to help in the knee-deep water. Rolling in the surf among the fronds, Sage yelled, “Damn you, Milo! I took off at the same time as you. That was my wave.”

  “Sage, you cut him off,” Dina said. “There’s just three of us out here. What were you thinking?”

  Floating on her back, Sage’s face flushed at the rebuke. “I’m just doing what he does to me. I’m practicing for the big waves, like you told me to. I have to win.”

  Dina rolled her eyes. “I said be aggressive. Don’t be an asshole.”

  Sage looked around her, avoiding eye contact with Dina. Although the fronds had cushioned her fall, Sage had ripped dozens of fronds off the reef, and they were falling apart, mixed with crushed fish caught in the turmoil. Other schools of the fish-like creatures erratically darted around, looking helpless as they sought shelter on the otherwise featureless reef. She grimaced at the carnage, however small it was.

  Dina must have noticed at the same time and yelled at Sage, “Hey, look out! You’re killing those fish things.”

  Sage snapped back, “It’s not my fault. Milo hit me. Besides, I don’t have time to deal with this. There are probably billions of these things, whatever they are, all over the place. We need to find some bigger waves. This spot is fun, but I’m not going to set any records here.”

  Dina shook her head and shuffled through the water as Sage stood among the crushed creatures. Although Dina’s warning irritated her, the significance of her actions sank in as the day progressed. Sage knew it was wrong, and worse, she didn’t take responsibility for it. As a Hawaiian, it was not pono to waste fish, and she could see her tutu’s eyes lowered in shame. But her career was at stake, and she just had to win. Beating Milo was the only way. I’ll worry about the fish later.

  After they’d surfed all day, Byron blasted them back to the Duke. Milo didn’t want to publicize anything yet about their discoveries, preferring to wait for a mega-press release announcing big waves and extraterrestrial life. Evidence from Georgia’s buoys indicated a growing offshore storm that would produce waves in a few days, so Milo said the next day would be dedicated to exploring underwater with the submersible in the hopes of better understanding the life forms on the planet.

  Back in her bunk, Sage wanted to focus on the bigger waves on the horizon, but kept thinking back on her reef encounter. She remarked to Dina, “You know, I used to care so much about marine life as a kid, but I’ve lost that respect.”

  “You also seem to have lost your respect for surfers,” Dina replied.

  Sage ruffled her pillow. “That’s different. I’m just doing what I need to win. You’ve seen him do it to me hundreds of times.”

  Dina sat up on her bed. “You can’t beat Milo at his own game. He’s reckless. That’s not who you are.”

  “Look, I’m going to do whatever it takes,” she replied, touching the torn photo of her father. “I have to show the world I’m the ultimate big-wave surfer.”

  Dina turned off her light. “Good luck with that one. I’ve always found worldly adoration to be ephemeral. Here today, gone tomorrow; it’s not deep like real physical and emotional connections. Like family. Plus, you’re going up against Milo, one of the most competitive and cunning surfers in the world.”

  Sage took a deep breath, then exhaled. “Well, I’ll have to find a way. I have to. No matter the costs.”

  Chapter 9.

  Sea of Dreams

  Early the next morning, they flew over the water in the lander with the submersible snuggled in the small rear bay. As they approached the Bulge, they saw swells mounding up on the shoal in several places, but they weren’t large enough to break. From the initial maps, they knew the middle of the Bulge was a flat reef over 30 miles wide. Milo narrated to the camera. “I don’t see any life on the surface. But wow, the Bulge is massive and showing signs of a small swell.”

  As they approached the offshore edge of the Bulge, Georgia pointed to two dark fissures cut into the edges of a giant thumb projecting into deep purple-blue water. “That’s it,” she said. “That’s the surf break. See the shallow reef between those two submarine canyons? In a week or so, I’ll have enough data from the probes to map the bottom topography. Then we can predict exactly how the waves will break.”

  Sage was staring intensely at the long reef in the light-blue water, shimmering in the morning sun. “This reef looks awesome. Milo, why don’t we dive there? I mean, what happens if the swell gets big before we have enough data? If it’s like Nazaré, we should check it out so we know how it’ll break.”

  Georgia didn’t look pleased. “No, look at those swells moving across the reef. We’ll get thrown around down there.”

  “So what?” Sage replied. “Isn’t that why we’re here? To explore? There are always risks, right, Milo?”

  Byron cleared his throat. “Georgia has a good point. We should wait until—”

  Milo interrupted, “Let’s proceed as planned and start in the middle of the Bulge. We can check out the reef another time.”

  “Damn it, Milo!” Sage said, slumping in her seat. “We might miss a great opportunity.”

  Milo shrugged and leaned toward Byron. “Can you take us to a good starting spot? Right there.” He pointed to a shallow mound. “What do you think Georgia, is that about 100 to 200 feet?”

  Georgia nodded, looking at the maps on her console generated by the preliminary probes. “Yeah, that’s about right. For our first dive, we should be careful and test the sub. Stay shallow and keep away from the deep edges of those canyons. Those submarine canyons run a hundred miles offshore and drop quickly into very deep water.”

  “Wait,” Sage said. “The reef is over there. Can’t we check it out?”

  Georgia gripped her console and glared at Sage. “No, we need to test the sub first. We have sufficient data on the reef to know how it will generally break.”

  “Why don’t you let me, the surfer, be the judge of that?” Sage asked and squared off against Georgia, whose face grew red.

  “OK, you two,” Milo replied. “Knock it off.”

  Milo nodded at Byron who pushed on the controls and said, “OK, coming about.” He pulled the lander into a steep turn and brought it down near the surface, hovering 30 feet above the light-blue water.

  Once in position, Milo, Sage, and Georgia climbed into the small, cramped submersible attached to the rear of the lander, closed the hatch, and radioed to Byron. “Good to go,” Milo said. “Lower us down, and I’ll tell you when we disengage.”

  Byron responded, “Roger that.”

  The yellow submersible, which was a 20-foot-long tube with large viewports at the front and along the sides, slowly descended below the surface. Milo pulled the release and radioed back, “OK, we’re away. Wish us luck!”

  The lander pulled away. Sage knew Byron and Dina were following their progress on an array of instruments, including a video feed showing three views inside and outside the submersible. They could also monitor the sub’s depth, distance from the bottom, direction, and a suite of environmental variables. Must be fascinating for them, Sage thought with a sarcastic bite.

  As the submersible descended, the instruments detected the seafloor 100 feet below. Sage watched as the water streamed by her porthole. It was crystal clear at first until they encountered a misty soup halfway down. She saw small bubbles spinning in the water, but on closer inspection, she noticed they were tiny objects, and some were twitching and jerking around while others were drifting passively within a swirling stream of plankton.

  “Oh, hey, these aren’t just air bubbles—they’re alive,” Sage said. “But let’s keep moving. I want to see the bottom.”

  Georgia shook her
head. “You’re the biologist, for Christ’s sake, and it’s like you don’t even care.”

  “This planet is full of life,” Milo said before Sage could get a word out. “We’ll be famous, and Cutten will be very happy.”

  Sage watched Georgia, her nose glued to the porthole, as a white object the size of a marble spun by her window, driven through the water by thin tails that lined the entire surface of the creature. Georgia said, “Wow, these look like ctenophores but with long flagella.” A cloud of red drifted by the window. “I also see microscopic red-orange blobs. They could be photosynthetic, I think. Wait, no. One of the blobs just changed shape and darted through the water. Not plants—not like on Earth anyway. Heck, I don’t know what these are. What do you think, Sage?”

  Sage glanced at the white marbles drifting by her window and shrugged. “Nothing to get excited about.” She reached over and flipped a switch on the console, which created a whirling sound “Taking a water sample,” she said, looking at Georgia with a sly grin. “Maybe we’ll suck up a few of those suckers and get them out of our way.”

  As they approached the bottom, the water cleared, and in the reduced light Sage could barely see the seafloor at 200 feet. As the sub touched down, she turned on the outside lights. To everyone’s disappointment, it was bare. The seafloor was simple yellow rock, flat, and featureless, just like they’d seen on land. Well, that’s surprising, she thought. I expected to see more marine life.

  Looking closer at the bottom near the submarine, she spotted several of the small frond-like creatures she had seen in the surf the day before. But here, they were less than an inch in height and formed small patches on the seafloor. Off in the distance, she noticed a few guppy-sized fish-like creatures spiraling through fronds. “It’s pretty barren out there,” Sage said.