“What then?” Sam persisted.
Veyron took the slide out of the current microscope and placed it into another one. “They were trying to reach the plankton’s next level of evolution. About a million rungs above their natural ladder of evolution. They were trying to make a weapon – one that might just destroy the world.”
Sam felt the tingling of death on his spine as he began to comprehend exactly what was happening. “Precisely what was inside that liquid you fed them?”
“A combination of several trace elements including gold, silver, platinum, and common sand or more precisely, silicone.” Veyron studied him for a reaction. “Now, have a look at it using an electron microscope.”
Sam looked through the scope. His worst fears confirmed. “You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s impossible!”
Chapter Seventy Two
Sam wanted to scream. There were nanoparticles moving inside the cell. It was impossible. The research that he’d read suggested that this sort of technology was at least thirty to forty years away. The nanoparticles were not simply moving from side to side, the particles were moving with purpose. They were performing a task.
But what task? It would take him months to properly examine the technology. He wasn’t an expert, and even Veyron would need specialist help to understand how it worked. The fact was, it did. Someone had cracked the code. It didn’t make sense, if someone could develop such technology, why would they use it to create rogue waves? If they wanted riches, they would have it. Every venture capitalist in the world would be offering to invest billions in functioning nanotechnology. Instead, it was unclaimed by the scientific community.
Running free and killing people.
He continued examining what he saw, trying to determine a reason that made it fake. A trick of the mind. Anything to discredit what was impossible. Science fiction, nothing more. He adjusted the electron microscope, searching for answers. Recalling his basic science days at MIT, his chemistry teacher once explained that one of the problems with the study of molecules was the fact that they are really, very small. Small of course being an understatement. When measuring particles and molecules, he was talking about nanometers and molecular mass. Where nanometers, written as nm for short, were one-thousand millionths of a meter in length and molecular mass referred to the amount of electrons inside an atom.
It turns out that using light, you can’t see things smaller than its wavelength – it just goes straight through. Visible light has wavelengths in the range of 400 nm for blue to 700 nm for red – so you can only see things that are this size or larger with it.
Nanoparticles are typically about 10 nm in size or so – some larger, some smaller. You can only see them with various types of electron microscopes, which use a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times shorter than visible light photons, the electron microscope has a higher resolving power than a light microscope and can reveal the structure of much smaller particles. The current agreement among the groups that set the scientific standards is that the scale from 1 – 100 nm defines the size range of a nanoparticle. Below 1 nm may be excluded in order to avoid calling clusters of atoms a particle, but the literature contains references to particles less than 1 nm.
When he looked at the single celled phytoplankton through a standard microscope Sam saw only the structures of the cell, not the nanoparticles working inside. This was because the dinoflagellates were between 1 and 4 millimeters in length, easily visible using the natural wavelength of light, while the nanoparticles were well under 100 nm in length.
Sam squinted his right eye, trying to make out what task two small movements of nanoparticles were achieving. “I don’t understand. What happens after cellular division?”
“What don’t you understand?” Veyron replied. “The dinoflagellates divide as they normally would, producing two cells out of one. Eventually, usually after eight divisions, the original cell loses its integrity and dies, while the others continue to reproduce It’s natural proliferation.”
“I get that,” Sam said. “You know I was a marine biologist at one stage, right? It’s called mitosis. During which, a parent cell duplicates all of its contents, including its chromosomes, and splits to form two identical daughter cells.”
“So what don’t you get?” Veyron asked without hiding the frustration in his voice.
“The cell I’m looking at has complex nanoparticles inside. The purpose of which, I have no idea yet, but even so, it would take weeks or months for someone to build such particles in a lab. So then, what happens to them when the cell divides?”
Veyron tapped the table. His anxiety’s returned. “The nanobots reproduce with them.”
Chapter Seventy Three
“They’ve found the holy grail!” Sam yelled. “Are you telling me whoever created these, worked out a way to self-replicate nanobots?”
“That’s precisely what I’m telling you.”
One of the main problems scientists have in making nanotechnology useable is that due to their microscopic size, it would be necessary for very large numbers of them to work together to perform any specific tasks. One theory is to make enough nanobots to work collectively to achieve a common goal, the same way bees or ants achieve a goal for their queen, which would otherwise be impossible individually.
The number of individual nanoparticles required to build nanomachines capable of functions such as sensing, communicating, navigating, manipulating other particles, locomotion, and computation, is still an unknown in the realms of theory. In fact, science and technology is still potentially hundreds of years off the level of detailed engineering required to manufacture such tiny machines. The hindrance has always been the time it would take to build the first one is substantial, but the time it takes to build the second one, and the third, and so-on, is the same. Producing millions, makes such a project impossible due to the insurmountable length of time required to do so.
Sam shook his head. “They’ve created molecular manufacturing through free-foraging replicators!”
“Free-foraging replicators?” Senator Croft was the first to interject. “You mean they’re hunting for nutrients in the wild?”
“Yes,” Sam replied. “They need materials to replicate. Like sunlight, warmth, and organic nutrients required by their host phytoplankton, the nanobots would need materials such as silicone, gold, silver, and platinum along with a number of other trace elements. For conditions to be just right for these symbiotic creatures to proliferate in the numbers required, such as an algae bloom, both the nanobots and the phytoplankton would need to match the perfect conditions.”
“It wasn’t an accident it struck the Global Star – it was after the cargo,” Veyron said.
“What do you mean? It was carrying a shipment of German cars.”
Veyron placed a piece of paper in front of Sam. “Here’s the ship’s manifest for the Global Star. It was full of high end German cars. Audis, BMW, Mercedes. What are all of these filled with?”
“Leather seats and overly priced name badges,” Senator Croft replied, without hiding the sarcasm in her voice.
“Microchips,” Elise said.
Veyron looked at Sam. “Do you remember how the steel partitions which divided the hull of the Global Star were eaten away by something? The nanobots weren’t cannibalizing the steel, they were creating openings to get through to the storage hulls, which held the vehicles, and more importantly their microchips. We need to know what the other ships were carrying.”
Sam stood up. “I’ll make a call to my dad and get you the answers.”
He reached for his cell phone in his left cargo shorts pocket and walked up the stairs onto the back deck of the Maria Helena. He needed to be alone. He could hear the increased effort in the ship’s twin diesels. Sam looked behind the aft deck. The sea was calm and the supertanker, trailing from the tow rope, glided through the water.
He then pressed the ca
ll button.
His father, James, picked up on the first ring. “Hello Sam, have you found someone to pay for my damaged cargo ships yet?”
“No. It’s a long story, but I have found what’s caused the waves and I’m still looking for who created them. You were right though – they were manufactured by someone.”
“What do you need?” his father, quick to the point, replied.
Sam paced to the other side of the deck and stared into the clear water. It was a bad habit when he was stressed. “I need to know what the other two cargo ships were carrying.”
“Nothing important. Certainly nothing anyone was going to salvage after it was sunk, if that’s what you’re implying.”
“I’m not, but I need to know what exactly they were shipping,” Sam replied.
“The Tahila was carrying a shipment of microchips and the Arkansas had about two million smartphones on board.” James paused. “Say, do you think this was all to do with industrial terrorism? They weren’t targeting me. They were trying to manipulate the release of the new smartphone or tech shares.”
“No, I don’t. I’ll tell you exactly what this is about, as soon as I’ve stopped it.”
“Okay, please do. By the way, good work saving the Mississippi. I hear you got the owners to agree to Lloyds Open Form. That must have been quite a payday. Well done.”
“Thanks Dad. I’ve got to go.”
Sam ran back down the stairs, taking three at a time.
“You were right, Veyron.” Sam slid his phone back in his pocket. “They’re foraging, in order to increase their numbers so they can colonize. Their attacks have been calculated and precise. They knew which ships had the materials they needed.”
“What were they carrying?” Senator Croft asked.
“Microchips and smartphones!”
Elise smiled. “You all think these nanobots are targeting specific ships, and planning to overthrow the world. It’s just not possible.” Elise looked at Veyron, counting on his engineering mind to back her up. “We’re talking about basic programing and mathematical equations. Things like, tighten flagella, and relax flagella. Simple actions and pathways that lead to apparent decision making. We’re not talking about artificial intelligence.”
“They sunk ships carrying cars, microchips and smartphones. And you think they’re not intelligent?”
“They’re simply following basic programing. Besides, they just tried to sink an oil tanker. Tell me one reason that would benefit them? If anything, had they succeeded, the oil would have spilt into the ocean, destroying plankton and sea life for hundreds of miles.”
The room went quiet.
Elise was by far the youngest person on board, yet her exceptionally analytical mind was the first to point out the obvious flaw in their thinking.
Sam heard the hurried footsteps of someone coming down the stairs. It was Matthew. Sam took one look at his crestfallen face. “What is it?”
“The barge was just sunk two miles out from Bimini Road. There were no survivors.”
Chapter Seventy Four
Sam smashed one of the beakers of nanobots on the floor. It was a kneejerk reaction, and he regretted destroying it almost immediately. He had commissioned the barge to move the concrete blocks. He hadn’t even told the crew why he wanted the concrete blocks dumped out on the Bimini Road. Now they were dead and it was his fault.
“That settles it. They’re much more advanced than we gave them credit for. We have to destroy the Bimini Road and then we need to find their nest.”
“You think they murdered the crew of the barge to protect the Bimini Road?” Elise asked.
“Yes,” Sam replied.
Elise clicked on a satellite icon on her laptop. She scrolled down until the present time image showed South Bimini Island. She then increased the magnification until she could see the mangled remains of the barge in approximately twenty feet of water. “How could it have possibly known you had ordered it to block the Bimini Road?”
“I have no idea, but the evidence is clear.”
“Which means it’s formally declaring war.” Senator Croft immediately took on an air of authority. “I’m sick of this. I’m going to make a call to the Department of Defense. By the time the Bimini Road has been the recipient of about a thousand bunker busters, there will never be a rogue wave here again.”
Sam stood up. Opened his mouth to speak. Then closed it and sat down again, having thought better of his argument.
She smiled at him. “Don’t worry, we’re not going to take ownership of it. No one will ever know we just eradicated an ancient site in foreign waters. Besides, if it starts a war with our neighbors, at least they’re an opponent we can see with the naked eye. Anyone have a problem with that?”
“No, we need to destroy this before it gets any stronger and more lives are lost,” Sam agreed.
“Good.” Senator Croft stood up. “Mr. Reilly, once the Bimini Road is destroyed and I have removed the teeth from this beast, I would be most obliged if you could help me by locating its nest, so we can destroy it completely.”
Chapter Seventy Five
The next day, the Maria Helena approached the main harbor in Florida. Three tugboats moved towards them and took over the control of the damaged Mississippi supertanker. Released from her towing duties, the Maria Helena was taken into the local harbor for refueling and provisioning. Tom returned to the Maria Helena by a local runabout, after he’d overseen the towing of the Mississippi throughout the trip from the bridge of the stricken ship.
Sam stretched his legs with a walk to a diner at the end of the dock. Tom joined him for the walk. It was a greasy twenty-four- hour diner, used to servicing needs of dock workers and guaranteeing large amounts of fresh bacon, eggs, and rich coffee at all hours. They sat down at a booth. Sam ordered something big and greasy from the menu. Ignored the pot of coffee. He began to fill Tom in on their discovery about the nanobots, their theory about the symbiotic machines having a nest and preparing to colonize. Finally he finished by telling him that Senator Croft had arranged to have the Bimini Road bombed.
At the end of it Tom filled his cup with a second round of black coffee and smiled. “So then, I guess I don’t need to worry about you making me dive Bimini Road anymore?”
“No. But we have work to do.”
“She wants you to find the nest?” Tom guessed.
“They’re still out there. And they’re evolving fast. Right now they’re harmless, but in the future they might work out a way to attack again.”
“So, how do we find them?”
“The same way as last time. Elise has been given control of a series of satellites specifically to search for it,” Sam said.
“There’s a lot of sea to cover.”
“Elise has developed a program to specifically search for fast growing plankton and phosphorescence.”
“And once we find it?”
“Veyron’s developing a plan to kill the microscopic machines.”
Chapter Seventy Six
Two weeks later they’d failed to find any signs of the nanobot hive. Samples of live plankton had been retrieved in more than forty locations throughout the Atlantic Ocean, focusing on areas along the equator where conditions were perfect for plankton proliferation. Three unusually large algae blooms were noted, but each one came back negative for nanoparticles.
At 8 a.m. Sam called his entire team to the mission room to discuss their next step. He sat down at the head of the table. It was rectangular and he sat down at the end of it. He valued everyone’s opinion on board, but his job was to receive the best information and then make a decision with it. Elise was the last person to sit down.
“Okay, is there a possibility the nanobots have simply perished?” he asked.
“Yes. It’s surprising, but not impossible.” Veyron switched on the overhead projector. He slid his hand over his laptop and opened up a document. On the wall, an image of statistics opened up. “I have four samples from our own
hive of nanobots that Mr. Bower retrieved from the Mississippi. The first is the healthiest. As you can see, I have provided it with both organic nutrients for the host plankton and building materials for the nanobots to use. The hive is multiplying rapidly and as a consequence, I’ve been able to use them regularly for further tests to see how to destroy them.”
Sam looked at the numbers. It had grown from a 1 gram hive two weeks ago to now having a mass of 4 kilograms. And that hadn’t even taken into account the fact that Veyron had been sourcing his sample nanobots to experiment on from that hive. “That’s a frightening image.”
Veyron continued. “In the second one, I have provided nutrients for the plankton only and no building blocks for the nanobots.”
“That’s more promising,” Tom said. “The plankton hasn’t multiplied at all.”
“Technically, Mr. Bower, the plankton has continued to multiply every 24-48 hours as they would in normal conditions. However, the nanobots have simply moved from older, and weaker cells to younger cells. 1 gram of nanoparticles, without further building materials, can only ever weigh 1 gram.”
Sam nodded his head. The concept made sense, although it was a bit of surprise when he first saw the results.
“Now, in the third sample, I have deprived the plankton of organic nutrients.” Veyron smiled. “This is interesting. It also shows how dangerous these machines can be. Anyone care to guess whether the number of plankton increased or decreased?”
“They decreased,” Elise replied. “The same equation as the nanobots without building materials. They can’t reproduce without the materials. There can never be more than there were to begin with. Of course, I would assume they would lose a few more cells than the opposite equation because, although the cells could cannibalize their own proteins, with each equation of mitosis, cellular waste products would be lost from the equation.”
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