Songs of Thalassa

by Brian Tissot

  “That is strange,” Milo said. “Well, perhaps the sample was contaminated, or the equipment wasn’t sterilized properly. At any rate, we can analyze this in more detail back on the Duke.”

  Sage looked puzzled as she remembered the flashes of brown creatures in the water. “It could also be from something in the water here. A critter we haven’t seen yet. There’s so much we don’t know about this planet. I mean I don’t really care. but this is an interesting discovery that I need to investigate.”

  Back in the lab on the Duke, after setting up microbial cultures from the water and seafloor samples, Sage placed them in temperature- and light-controlled growth chambers. Then she pulled out a planktonic sample and pipetted a portion from the colorful mixture in the tube onto a slide under a microscope. To her surprise, she saw tiny yellow-red creatures gently moving in all directions. Switching optics, she zoomed in to observe the blobby amoeba-like animals filled with yellow, red, and green specks.

  As she watched, one of the creatures swam to the bottom of the dish, and a small head with tentacles popped out as it crawled along the bottom. “Wow!” she said aloud with a laugh. “So this is why Georgia was excited. It’s like a plant and an animal—how amazing. It’s a symbiosis that can change form. Totally cool.”

  “Now you get it,” said Georgia, startling Sage, who hadn’t known she was there.

  Sage let out a heavy sigh, turned, and smiled as she recalled her callous treatment of Georgia in the sub. “Look, I’m sorry about today. It’s not that I don’t care about this stuff. It’s fascinating, really. I’m focused on surfing because it’s my life, it’s all I have left, and I had to check out the reef. I can’t go home to my family. I didn’t mean to put you in danger.”

  Georgia’s shoulders relaxed. “Well, that giant creature was super cool. But what does surfing have to do with your family? You never talked about them before.”

  Grinning, she motioned her over. “Look at this, and I’ll tell you all about them.”

  Together, they looked through the samples late into the night, trading stories about their extended families and marveling at the diversity of Thalassa’s life as they took photos and videos and cataloged their discoveries. As they talked, one thing was obvious: the mission had discovered a unique and diverse ecosystem on Thalassa, one that evolved independently and faster than Earth. Moreover, everything was in a symbiosis with other creatures that lived inside them, like the amoebas, or in direct combination, like the marble sponges. On Thalassa, the level of symbiosis was unlike anything on Earth and everything was biologically connected.

  The science of the expedition had become hugely significant. As her excitement grew while they documented new life forms together, Sage felt conflicted about her motives. Although she wanted to revive her surfing career more than anything, she felt a growing interest in the creatures of the planet. Deep down, a tiny thread of her childhood passion from her connections to the sea remained. As she lay in bed that night, she pushed the thoughts out of her head and focused on the big waves coming her way. Remember why you’re here, Sage. No distractions, no mistakes.

  Later that night, Milo sat with Moshe in his private cabin and reviewed the preliminary results of the microbial analyses on his screen. He was pleasantly surprised that the planet had a rich diversity of microbial life. Some of the samples had responded to standard culturing techniques, but many had not and likely represented life forms with genetic sequences new to science.

  As he began to ponder the significance of the results, Milo also realized his goals on the mission had shifted. Although he didn’t want to admit it, it wasn’t entirely about surfing the biggest wave anymore. He gently grabbed Moshe’s arm and pulled him close and whispered in his ear. “There could be some microbes of great importance here, my friend. But frankly, I’m more interested in the value of those animals we saw today. They were amazing. I can’t even imagine what they might be worth back on Earth. It would be the exhibit of all time.”

  Moshe broke into a grin. “Cutten will love this planet. Should we let them know what we’ve found?”

  Milo leaned back in his chair. “Not just yet. I don’t want to just hand it over—I want to conquer it first. The thrill is in the hunt so let’s take advantage of it. The idea of capturing the first monster critter on an unexplored planet will boost my story big time.”

  “But,” Moshe said, rubbing his hands through his hair. “That giant mantis squid looked too tough to tackle. Plus, our hold is not quite big—”

  Milo grinned while cutting him off, “Well, we’ll just have to find something else then, won’t we.”

  Chapter 11.

  Colossus

  During the night, visions of giant dark waves flashed through Sage’s mind. Shaking, she awoke with memories of the deep, jagged Bulge reef. Walking into the main cabin, she found Georgia sitting in front of her oceanographic panel, which was filled was blinking red and white lights. Sage eagerly watched as she pulled up a few orbital scans, looked at the swell report, and examined data from the buoys deployed across the ocean. Georgia then ran over to the updated holoscreen projection of Thalassa, which included the most recent integrated data from her swell model.

  As Dina and Milo joined the group, Georgia touched a swirling mass of clouds in the ocean 500 miles southwest of their first surf break, and text appeared. “OK, this storm generated the waves we surfed two days ago. Based on new buoy data, that southwest swell has peaked and will be declining over the next few days as it moves to the north.” She touched a larger group of clouds. “But here, northwest and 1,100 miles offshore of the islands, is a significantly larger storm that is creating a new swell on the Bulge. We didn’t see the full extent of the storm earlier because the buoys recently updated that part of the planet’s data model. Remember, the model is still being developed and hasn’t been validated. Based on the size of the swell, the storm’s probably been heading toward the Bulge for at least a week. Based on my preliminary model, the northwest storm will create a perfect swell for the central part of the Bulge. It’s predicting 20- to 30-foot swells with wave periods of 18 to 22 seconds. That should create 60- to 80-foot waves that may grow later today to 100-foot waves. And light, offshore winds are in the forecast, so it should be clean conditions. Of course, with two storms going off at once we could get some cross swells.”

  Milo was ecstatic and threw up his arms. “This is it. Let’s surf the Bulge!”

  Sage felt her heart race and fear grow in the pit of her stomach as she thought about riding waves on the Bulge. Regardless she knew she had to beat Milo. “I’m up for it.”

  But Georgia and Dina stood staring at the projection, ignoring their enthusiasm.

  After a pause, Dina spoke in a quiet voice. “Hey, Milo, I’m stoked, too, but aren’t we rushing into this? I mean we’ve only been here a few days and surfed once. Did you take a good look at those waves at the Slab? Sure, they were slow, but they were also massive, and that was a small swell. We just got here, and you already want to tackle 100-foot waves? It just doesn’t make sense. Let’s slow down, get some more experience surfing—say weeks or months—before we go heading out into uncharted territory. In the meantime, we can continue to watch the waves, work our way up by surfing progressively larger waves, and explore the planet. Even Georgia admits her wave model is incomplete.”

  Sage was annoyed at Georgia’s backpaddling. “Yesterday you said you had enough data, now you don’t. Which is it?”

  Georgia ignored her and turned to Milo. “Dina’s right. The model is incomplete and isn’t validated, so I can’t predict exactly how these two swells will break on the Bulge or how they will interact. We also don’t know how those submarine canyons will influence the conditions. In another week or two, I’ll have enough data for a more accurate model.”

  Sage saw how the comments caught Milo off guard, and he was tensing up with his face covered in sweat. Surp
rising herself, and still rattled by her dreams, she stood next to him. “Milo and I may not agree about much, but we should surf the Bulge. We checked out those canyons yesterday, remember?”

  Dina shook her head, but Sage continued, “I understand your concerns, both of you. But the Slab was perfect, and we mastered the spot within minutes. The wave speed allowed us to position early, and the low-g environment gave us huge maneuverability. There was plenty of time to react. I felt like Superman out there! We all ripped! And don’t forget why we’re here: to be the first to surf giant off-world waves. To set new records.” She pointed to the blue globe. “And this swell is only 100 feet high! We gotta start somewhere.”

  Milo grinned at Sage’s comments, clearly relishing their brief agreement. “Look, I’m in charge, and we’re going out, and that’s it. If you’re too scared, Dina, then stay here and watch the big boys surf.”

  Dina gave Sage a disappointed look as Georgia walked back to her instrument in silence. Sage and Milo rushed down the hall to the gear room, opened the hatch, and pulled boards and backpacks off the wall before heading to the lander. After a minute, Dina appeared with her board and reluctantly followed Sage into the lander.

  Everyone was aboard as Byron navigated the lander through thick cloud cover. Because Milo thought this could be the “big event,” the Duke was left unoccupied in orbit so Moshe could assist with handling the extra cameras for a holoscreen broadcast. Sage was a bit alarmed that the ship was being left unattended, but Byron assured her the AI could easily maintain the orbit. He showed her a small remote that could summon the Duke’s surface vessel if needed.

  Sage laughed as Milo gushed with enthusiasm while Moshe interviewed him on the way down. It was his moment of fame, she realized, and there was no stopping him now. As they descended toward the edge of the Bulge, her heart skipped a beat as she saw white water from massive waves covering the reef. Overnight, the calm blue waters of the Bulge had been transformed into a jumble of swells, crashing waves, and walls of foam.

  Over the last few hours, the northwest storm had moved closer to the Bulge and started to merge with the southwest storm, creating west-trending swells with different periods.

  The large waves caused Georgia’s mouth to fall open. She looked at the updated wave model on Da Bull’s screens. “The buoys near the Bulge are reporting a smaller western swell, 15 to 25 feet high and at 15- to 18-second periods. It’s dropped a bit from what I predicted, not too big but nicely spaced. But conditions may change quickly.” For the first time, Georgia seemed unsure about the foundational assumptions of her wave model.

  Approaching the thumb-shaped reef, Sage saw a break in the surf line on each side of the shoal where the reef disappeared into the two submarine canyons. As she watched, a large set of swells approached the reef, while Milo described the surf spot to the cameras. “I’m here at Colossus Bank with the world’s best surfers to ride the biggest waves in the universe. This is a historic day!”

  Sage snickered. “Yeah, Colossus, just like the Roman Colosseum.”

  “Right,” Dina muttered under her breath, “where everyone dies for the crowd.”

  There was silence in the cabin as Sage watched the first of several swells move in and hit the edge of the reef. It was a wave unlike any she had seen before: as the swell hit the shallow shoal, it almost stopped and began jacking up until the wave face grew to several times the height of the swell. Then the swell broke, not hollow like the Slab, but crashing at the top and slowly rolling down the face of the wave until it became an enormous wall of white water crashing to the left and right. From the lander, it was difficult to gauge the size of the wave, but that didn’t stop Milo from guessing.

  “That’s gotta be at least a 100-foot wave!” he shouted.

  Moshe pulled out a small hand-held laser, pointed it at the wave, and looked at the readout. “113 feet.” Before Dina could ask about the technical details, he said, “Yes, it corrects for altitude and measures actual wave height, not slope.”

  Milo broke into a wide grin, then looked at Dina, who had grown serious watching the waves break on the reef. “What do you think, Dina?”

  She responded in a soft voice. “It’s hard to tell for sure, but it looks rideable. It’s breaking a lot like Cortes Bank right now, but I’m surprised it isn’t more like Nazaré with those canyons.”

  Georgia said, “I don’t think the wave period is long enough for the swell to feel those deep canyons. At least not yet.”

  “But the water is calm,” Dina said. “So the waves should be easy to ride as long as you get down that large face before it breaks. I wouldn’t want to get hit by that white water or get stuck in all the foam on the reef. It looks good, Milo, but we should be careful and surf conservatively.”

  “OK, got it.” He frantically scrambled for his gear, smeared sunblock on his face, pulled on his Lycra skin, popped in his radio earpiece, and strapped on his backpack. Moshe had affixed two cameras on either side of his head as well as two more on his board, one on the nose and the tail.

  Sage started to put on her gear, but saw Kekoa in the back of the lander. She turned to Dina. “Why did you bring that thing?”

  “Just in case,” Dina said with a weak smile. Sage shook her head and walked toward the lander door with Milo’s 10-foot yellow-and-red gun.

  As Milo and Sage prepared to exit the lander, Dina spoke up. “Don’t you guys want to watch for a while? We’re not in California, you know, and we don’t know this break at all.”

  Milo continued to exit. “That’s why we have Georgia, right?” He shot a look at Georgia, who was staring intently at the oceanographic console. “How’s it looking?”

  Flipping her pencil up and down without looking up, she said, “I’ll keep you updated, but we don’t have enough data to make an accurate prediction, and conditions could change.”

  Milo pointed to his earpiece. “Let me know if anything comes up.” Then he turned to Sage and Dina. “Ready?”

  Sage beamed at him while holding up a shaka sign. “Yeah, brah. Let’s hit it.”

  Dina weakly nodded, still staring at the water swirling around on the reef. Although she didn’t say anything, Sage could easily read the concern on her mentor’s face and understood that it was for good reason. Although the southwest swells predominated, as Georgia had predicted, some of the small surges on the bank appeared to have very long periods, which looked like forerunner waves on Earth. Forerunners moved superfast and often arrived hours or days before a larger storm. Although small in height, with their long periods, they were often a warning of a large incoming swell. But, Sage thought, Georgia said this was both the southwest and northwest storm swells. What was generating the forerunners?

  Milo motioned to Byron to hold position, and everyone leaped from the lander into the water near the line-up. Moshe lowered their fully charged motoboards, and they all powered into the large incoming swells. Sage could see the bottom 60 feet below her through the crystal-clear water. Immense fronds reached up from the rugged bottom with schools of pika corkscrewing through the swaying yellow forests. Don’t think about the reef. Just surf.

  Much to Byron’s displeasure, Moshe was hanging out of the door filming. Everything was streaming in real time back up to the Duke for archiving, editing, and the eventual holoscreen broadcast. The stage was set. Moshe flew by the surfers in the lander with a rare grin.

  Sage watched as Milo turned and began powering into a 25-foot swell, the first wave ridden on Colossus Bank. He jumped up and pulled out in front of the large mound of water and began carving back and forth as the swell slowly jacked up on the reef.

  Due to the low gravity of the planet, the wave stalled on the reef edge then began to build in height as Milo positioned himself at the wave’s top, then waited for the face to steepen while using his pulse motor to stay on the swell. Sage watched with wonder as it built to 40 feet, then 60, then 8
0, and kept building. Finally, at what Sage guessed was about 100 feet, the top of the wave keeled over and began to roll down the face. At that point, the top of the wave was higher than the lander, and Sage saw Byron pulling on the controls to climb higher.

  Milo waited until the wave was as steep as possible, then he careened down the wave’s face to the bottom and turned right at the base, knowing this was the best way to show how big the wave was. He then shot onto the shoulder and went flying off the back and into the air. Sage was giddy as she hooted and screamed with Dina at Milo’s ride.

  “105 feet,” yelled Moshe.

  “Wow, he did it!” Sage said. “He surfed a 100-foot wave on Thalassa!”

  As Milo powered back out for another wave, Sage watched as Dina paddled into a late takeoff as the wave keeled over. After navigating the steep drop, she jammed back up to the top of the wave and pulled into the small tube as it broke around her. As the wave collapsed, she touched the power on her board and blasted out in front of the white water, then onto the shoulder where she flew high into the air. “112 feet,” yelled Moshe.

  “Awoooh, Dina,” Sage hooted.

  Sage, who had been anxiously waiting for a bigger wave, paddled into a large wave. She hit the board’s throttle briefly and jammed down the wave’s face, reaching the bottom as the top of the wave began to keel over, this time with the upper 20 feet forming a tube. She turned hard at the bottom and arched her back as she slid onto the massive wave’s shoulder, to the hoots and hollers of everyone in the water and the lander.

  “134 feet,” Moshe yelled.

  Bigger than anything ridden on Earth—a new record, Sage thought in triumph. Take that, Milo!