“Against the Sea People?”
Lynn nods solemnly. “Sure looks like it.”
“Those big beasts…what were they, Mr. Lynn?”
Locke and Lynn both shrug, looking at each other. Locke speaks.
“Well, that’s the sixty-four million dollar question. “They weren’t whales. They look like the dragons my daughter Jamie’s got in her ebook at home. She draws dragons and serpents and things like that—she’s got a real talent, too—but honestly, that’s what they looked like.”
Locke thought of something. “We steered one of the Mantas toward one of those beasts but the damn thing ate our little robot…just swallowed her whole.”
Lynn acknowledged the loss of the expensive drone. “The buggers have a long, spiky tail, a head with crests and horns. They’re almost like the sea beasts sailors used to talk about centuries ago…Neptune’s revenge and all that.”
Now Radovich consults her notes. “Mr. Locke…Mr. Lynn…the evidence suggests that what you both witnessed was some kind of military operation conducted against the Sea People. In your opinion, what was the result of this operation?”
Locke snorted. “Well, you saw the beasts, same as we did. The explosions. The lights. The arms and legs torn off. I’d say they failed to achieve their mission objectives…unless their objective was to get ripped apart like dinnertime meals by these monsters.”
Lynn nodded in agreement. “Complete unmitigated disaster, that’s what I’d call it.”
Radovich stared at both men. “Gentlemen, thanks for taking the time to be with our viewers today.”
“Yeah, sure…any time.”
SOLNET Special Report Ends
Solnet Omnivision Video Post
@lucy.hiroshi.solnet.worldview
August 5, 2115
0030 hours
SOLNET Special Report
“Interview with Dr. Keko Satsuyama”
Correspondent Lucy Hiroshi reports from UNISEA Headquarters in New York, with an interview with Dr. Keko Satsuyama, Director of UNISEA, on recent developments involving the ongoing encounter with the Sea People….
The interview begins in Dr. Satsuyama’s fortieth-floor office, overlooking the East River. It’s a cloudy, drizzly day and little can be seen outside, save for ever-present aircabs buzzing across the sky, to and from destinations across Manhattan.
“Dr. Satsuyama, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to be with us today.”
Keko Satsuyama is mid-forties in age, slight of build, with a short, black unruly lock of hair over his right eye. His ears stick out like an elephant and close friends call him “Ha,” meaning the Blade. He wears thick, recent-vintage dataspec glasses and is one of the foremost marine biologists in the world, a lettered graduate from Tsukuba University.
“Of course, Ms. Hiroshi…a pleasure any time.”
“Dr. Satsuyama, are you aware of the recent news that the United States has in the last two weeks conducted some kind of military operation against the Sea People…an operation that apparently failed in its objectives?”
Satsuyama looks sad, removes his dataspecs and wipes them down. “Yes, unfortunately, I am. A regrettable incident. I’m not sure what exactly motivated this operation as the Sea People, as you call them, have evidenced little aggressive intent toward us, to my knowledge. I’m aware of the incident at Woods Hole, of course, but many of us think the Sea People were just rescuing one of their comrades…there may have been some justification for their actions.”
“Would you care to comment further on this news? Are we at war with the Sea People?”
Satsuyama chuckles. “No, no, of course not. I’m sure this is some kind of misunderstanding. Not unexpected when dealing with the unknown. We humans are not particularly empathetic when dealing with others…our own history shows that. By the way, the official name of the Sea People is Tursiops digitalis…that’s what we’re calling them.”
Hiroshi consults some notes on her slate. “My information is that they call themselves Seomish…something like that.”
“Yes, we’re still learning about their language, their communications.”
“Dr., Satsuyama, your record shows that you made a major discovery back on ’08, when you were a consultant to the Brazilian oil firm Petrobras. Isn’t that true?”
“Yes, it is. Petrobras had partnered with a company called Sea Logistics to create a research group called Trident. We were investigating indigenous marine life and fossils in the vicinity of a new oil and gas field off the coast of Brazil…the Lula Fields at Santos Basin. The company was beginning to drill in this area and wanted a good record of what was in the seabed around the boreholes.”
“You discovered a previously unknown species of fish…something thought to have become extinct millions of years ago?”
“We did.” Satsuyama smiles broadly, glad to recall the times. “We found a living example of a prehistoric fish we named Mesocanth, a direct descendant of the Triassic Period saurichthys. It was supposed to have been extinct for 250 million years. Its closest modern relative was a sturgeon. This was unprecedented.”
“It changed your career, Dr. Satsuyama.”
“Indeed.”
“Dr. Satsuyama, what do you think of recent studies showing up on Solnet that seem to ‘show’ the Seomish…the Sea Peoples…are actually descendants of the original Atlantis?”
Now the UNISEA Director turns serious. His forehead shines with beads of sweat, even though the office is a comfortable seventy-two degrees.
“Ms. Hiroshi, I’m afraid I must label such so-called studies as little more than fiction. In Japan, we have a word…lyarashi…it means bullshit…poppycock. That’s what these stories and studies are. Atlantis is a great myth from the classical era, but it’s a myth. I deal in facts. The Sea People are most definitely not from Atlantis.”
“How would you describe the current state of relations between the nations of Earth, humans in general, and the Seomish?”
Satsuyama chooses his words carefully. “Ms. Hiroshi, in all honesty, I would have to characterize such relations as strained. There have been significant misunderstandings between humans and Seomish and a regrettable number of, shall we say, ‘incidents’ around the world recently. Your viewers undoubtedly know of some of these already: Woods Hole, the South China Sea, the recent military actions near Bermuda. The whole purpose of UNISEA is to develop good relations with the Sea People, relations based on mutual respect, confidence-building measures, we have a whole panoply of diplomatic measures we can and should use. We have an extraordinary opportunity here to learn from a wholly new species, a completely new culture and that can only enrich Humanity if we do this properly. The most important thing we can do right now is to continue to meet regularly with these people…and we have to remind ourselves that they are indeed intelligent people, albeit quite different from you and me…and explore our differences and work out accommodations in this way. This really is the best way.”
“Dr. Satsuyama, do you actually think the Sea People came from another world through some kind of gateway to Earth? Many people…and polls consistently show this…many think this actually happened.”
Satsuyama sucks in a deep breath. “Lucy, I will have to defer comment on those polls until we have better information. Let me say this: the odds of an extraterrestrial origin for Tursiops digitalis are extremely remote. Nature and Evolution have given us wonderous and amazing things right here on Earth, over the billions of years of time they’ve had to operate. We should look to the simplest, most likely explanations first, before indulging in wilder forms of speculation...Occam’s razor and all that.”
“One final question, sir…Solnet has received information from highly placed sources in the U.S. government that there is an on-going process of intelligence swapping and strategic coordination developing between the U.S, China and Russia for the purpose of dealing with the Sea People. Our sources say that President Kendrick has in fact overtly authorized such coo
peration and that the U.S. is taking the lead in this effort. Could you comment on these allegations?”
“No, I am not a party to any such discussions but I would say this: if these rumors are true, then talking and negotiating has to be a good thing…much better than trying to force our ideas and laws and traditions on the Sea People by military means. There’s no question in my mind that the Sea People are an intelligent people, however they came to be here, with a history, a culture and a technology that we have just barely begun to understand. I would hate to see the possibility that we could learn from each other and enrich each other destroyed by suspicion and misunderstanding and just plain paranoia and fear of the unknown, fear of the Other. We can do better than this. Ms. Hiroshi, we have to do better than this.”
“Thank you, Dr. Satsuyama, for taking time to be with our viewers today.”
“My pleasure. Any time.”
SOLNET Special Report Ends
Chapter 10
South China Sea
Reed Banks
August 10, 2115
0650 hours
As the combined task force of Russian and Chinese surface ships and submarines descended on the growing Ponkti settlement, nearly twenty ships in all, the fog bank thickened and lowered to the sea surface, making safe navigation that much harder, causing the task force to slow to less than ten knots and spread out to avoid collision.
The task force commander, Russian Admiral Aleksandr Neverin, sucked hard on the foul-smelling cigarette as he stood in stiff, stinging winds on the weather deck of his command ship, the missile cruiser Irkutsk, and watched the shadowy outlines of nearby ships struggling to keep station and make way toward their target. Operation Pobeda (Victory) was about to commence, a rather contrived affair to Neverin’s way of thinking. The operation involved several dozen surface ships and several submarines, both Chinese and Russian.
Morskoi Flot is more than capable of handling this entire mission itself, he muttered to himself. But the Chinese had insisted on participating and the target was in their waters anyway.
In less than five minutes, if all went well, the target…the illegal settlement of the Sea Peoples off Reed Banks in the South China Sea…would be so much rubble and debris.
The door to the bridge opened. It was Irkutsk’s skipper, Captain First Rank Sokolov.
“Target acquired, Admiral. Dead ahead, ten thousand meters. Depth is two hundred forty meters.”
“Inform Admiral Hu we are ready. Are they at position Red yet?”
“Last position check showed they were about five minutes away. There is something else, Admiral…from the Komsomolsk.”
“What is it?”
“Sonar contact, sir…of an unusual nature. There is no strong evidence of any defenses being mustered by the Sea Peoples. But Komsomolsk sonar is reporting an unusual return on their passive low-frequency net.”
Neverin stubbed out his cigarette and began lighting another one. Sokolov helped with the light, cupping his hands around the lighter, a difficult task in the prevailing twenty-knot wind.
“What kind of return?”
“They’re not sure, sir. It seems to be a large swarm-like mass, diffuse and dispersing slowly. Could be some kind of small explosion, but there’s no sound signature of any explosion.”
Neverin thought a moment. Previous engagements with the Sea Peoples had shown them to be clever, resourceful and full of surprises. Prudence and tactical sense dictated caution, but Neverin knew Moscow was seven thousand kilometers away and the apparatchiks weren’t known for prudence or common sense anyway.
“Tell Komsomolsk to proceed as planned. Execute Phase A. Send a message on Raduga-Net that we are engaging.”
“At once, Admiral.” Sokolov ducked back inside the bridge.
A kilometer ahead of the cruiser, at a depth of two hundred meters, Komsomolsk eased forward at eight knots, ready to prosecute Phase A per Neverin’s command. Captain Second Rank Leonid Barzin was nervous, checking and re-checking with Sonar for any evidence the Sea Peoples were responding, or even knew they were there. Barzin’s eyes darted about the Conn…the helm and planes station were operating normally, their depth was steady, speed eight knots on heading one two five degrees. Diving Officer Borodin glanced anxiously back at Barzin, ready to execute any maneuvers required to prosecute the target. Komsomolsk’s twin 21-inch forward tubes were already loaded with warshot, two Shkval rocket-assisted torpedoes…safeties off and presets loaded. Her outer doors were open and the boat was ready to shoot.
Barzin was both pleased and a little edgy that the Admiral had chosen his boat to be the tip of the spear. If all went according to plan, Komsomolsk would fire her first load at the target in less than a minute…assuming the solutions held up…and her Chinese counterpart Xichang, two thousand meters abeam of her, would follow up one minute later.
And the Sea Peoples’ illegal camp would be vaporized into atoms and dirt clods.
“Ten seconds to position Red, sir,” came a voice. It was Komsomolsk’s XO, Sidorov, standing by the periscope well, reading off the count. “We’re ready, sir.”
“Very well. Plot the solution and give me the count.”
“Five…four…three…two…one…Mark!”
“Fire one!” Barzin said.
Komsomolsk rocked slightly as the torpedo shot out of its tube in a slug of high-pressure air and lit off her rocket motor.
“One away, sir. Good launch.”
“Fire two!”
Another whoosh and a slight rocking in the boat.
“Two away, sir. Ballast compensating…maintaining depth…maintaining trim.”
“All stop! Load shots three and four. Prepare countermeasures for my command. Now we wait.”
Komsomolsk drifted to a halt, two thousand meters from the Ponkti settlement off Reed Banks.
“Conn, Sonar…the Chinese are firing now. I make two shots…twin jets…on their way.”
They didn’t have long to wait.
The first sound was a near double blast explosion as Komsomolsk’s shots detonated over the settlement. The Xichang’s shots detonated less than thirty seconds later.
The Shkval torpedoes held within their warhead an explosive compound known as Vzryvnoy-1, a TNT-derivative, some forty kilos of it. Along with the effect of the Chinese Flying Dragon torpedoes, the combined blast forces generated shock waves that rolled like a magnitude-7 tremor across the sandy soils of Reed Banks.
The Seomish settlement, composed of both Ponkti and Skortish contingents and now known to all as Ponkel’te, was flattened and swept away as if made of paper. One Ponkti engineer, Kasmik tu kel: Ponk’et, immediately recognized what had happened. The inhabitants of Ponkel’te had heard the approach of the Chinese and Russian submarines, and their surface task force, and had already begun evacuating the tu’kelke from the settlement as fast as they could. Most of the residents—there were less than a hundred in all—took cover in a series of hollows south of the main settlement, itself a compact campground of tented and sheltered huts and weirs. When the torpedoes detonated and the ak’loosh waves rolled across the seabed, all of the structures erected were quickly ripped away and scattered in a roiling cloud of silt and debris. Kasmik and Telspo, a fellow Ponkti settler, both hunkered down in their protective hollow, while chaos and destruction rained down on top of them, shock waves hammering them from all directions.
“What about the enclosure?’ Telspo asked. “Nobody else knows what we’ve found…the m’jeete will escape…the things will be everywhere.”
Kasmik was furious. “The Tailless don’t know what they’re doing, the bastards. Even the Metah doesn’t know. We’ll have to wait until it’s clear, then check the enclosure. I doubt if it’ll hold in these shocks…contact Potop… see if he can tell what the Tailless are doing.”
Telspo scooted out from their burrow and shot off into the dense fog of silt, sliding and slithering as best he could in the chaos of the shock waves.
At least, the
waves seem to be dying off, Kasmik told himself. After watching Telspo fight with the currents, he decided to try it himself. He listened carefully for a few moments, heard the faint whine of the Tailless submarines, now moving off, it seemed, and pushed off into the maelstrom, more anxious than ever to find out whether the strange creatures they had encountered south of the settlement a week before, creatures they had tried to contain in a fiber net enclosure, had gotten loose.
The Ponkti had labelled them m’jeete, a contraction of the word mah’jeet, though they were not like the toxic plankton-like creatures that had infested so much of Seome and from whose seasonal migrations, the kels had been keeping time for countless eons.
No, the m’jeete were quite different. Almost mechanical. Small machines, smaller than silt particles, that swarmed in huge clouds and seemed to be issuing from a narrow rift in the seabed that was perpetually thick with clouds of them.
Not only that, but the m’jeete seemed to have a corporate mind of their own, a sort of swarm intelligence, for not long after their presence had been discovered, Telspo himself had noted the things seemed to be constructing an odd, conical structure above the rift from which they were issuing. It was Telspo who had found that the structure affected the waters nearby in much the same way as the great Tailless wavemaker back on Seome. The cone generated and spun off dozens of funnels, whirlpools and vortexes in its vicinity and when Telspo dropped some rocks into one of the vortexes as an experiment, the rocks disappeared in a flash and were gone.
Telspo reported this and the Ponkti and Skortish roamed about Ponkel’te in puzzlement, trying out various theories to explain the phenomena.
It was Kasmik who remembered the words of eekoti Chase, long ago recorded in an echopod somewhere, as he explained how the Tailless wavemaker worked and what the Tailless did with the infernal device.
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