by Divya Singh
I said: “How beautiful!” Devon looked at me with raised eyebrows in disbelief. “Get ready Dev! We are going for another dive.”
Devon: “Now? Really?” I nodded and put the fins and swimsuit back on preparing for the next dive.
I stopped and said: “But we need to go somewhere else, there is nothing in this place, you see. I will drive now.”
I caught hold of the wheel and embarked on a long journey away from the ship. In fact I had forgotten about the ship being in sight because the facts before my eyes were more disturbing than any other intimidation.
Devon looked at me with some questions in his eyes.
I replied: “I am going to find any present land forms, Marshall Islands, any rock, where any life forms thrive and flourish.” He knew he couldn’t stop me, didn’t he know me better?
After a lot of searching, I failed to find even a rock above the ocean’s water. I shook my head in disbelief. I left the wheel handing it over to Devon.
I murmured: “There is no land Dev! I am disappointed. Take me anywhere near the ship where we go for the next dive.”
Devon: “I wonder if we lost all the island country to increasing ocean level from melted polar ice caps, an aftermath of the global warming.”
He drove and soon found out the stern of the ship. Meaning we had reached the other face of the ship which now read ‘Perpetua’. So we had two names written on the ship now.
Anyway, we did not see the green kelp on the surface here, so I decided to stop here for dive number two.
I jumped into water first and carefully swam down looking at every nook and corner in each direction for jelly fish. I had to be prepared should there be another smack. But here it was clear except for some sea grass some 20 feet away from me. I descended towards the sea bed where light was too little to be able to see a thing. I was reminded of night vision; it adjusted my goggles for it. Finding it less useful I turned it off. Then I turned the lights on the frames of my goggles. Now I could see the ocean floor almost clearly, I stayed where I was for a moment. I pointed my goggles and zoomed in at places on the ocean bed. There was no movement at all. It was not lively and colorful as I had expected.
It was and expanded desert, a barren seabed without a single life form. I was disappointed and struck with inhibitions of whether the marine ecosystems were extinct for once and all? Devon had found me and joined me by now; he came over to me and grabbed the sample container from me, trying to help me reduce my burden. But I only noticed and was left indifferent of what he did because the barren seabed ahead of me was causing me sorrow, fear and frustration all at the same time. I kept moving my eyes to every square inch of the seabed. There were rocks at my right big enough to hide some significant thing below them. I swam across them to find something which gave me the first reason to be happy about in this probe.
There was a tiny coral reef. I know corals are a part of an interdependent ecosystem. So if there was coral reel not all fish should be dead. If there were fish, phytoplankton and zooplankton and larger fish dependent on them must have been there. It was for sure that they must be difficult to spot because of being too less in numbers. I swam up to the reef and touched it with my bare hands. My right index finger got a little bruised from touching it. I even saw some blood oozing out from it so I wiped it by rubbing against Devon’s backpack.
I smiled at him and pointed towards the coral reef I had discovered. He smiled back. We both felt a sense of having accomplished some impossible task successfully. He went ahead and touched it himself and was trying to break a little with the help of the tools he took out of his backpack and tried to collect it for sample. While I got busy in looking around the rocks, as I was getting closer to the bigger rough rocks twice my size before me and away from Devon, in my own pursuit and happiness, I felt that something big, of really big size, swam right from my behind, I sensed it coming from my right and swam away to my left.
I looked where I sensed it must have headed, but it was a kelp jungle ahead and although it seemed to have moved the grass, there were no other signs visible to my eyes of its presence. I looked back, as I thought it could have been Devon, only to find Devon also surprised, looking back at me. He did not waste a moment and swam up to me.
I knew he must have also felt the large movement made by some other bigger body in the sea other than us two and probably bigger than both of us combined. Soon enough, something swiftly leapt towards us again from the murky waters. This time it went through the place Devon stood a little while ago. In the dark I noticed its movement, but the light of my shades were illuminating the murky water before us. It did the same with the big mouth wide opened facing us.
Those big jaws, which I will never ever forget. Jaws covered with teeth and teeth further covered by more teeth. Its face was a nightmare in itself. Though the structure of the snout resembled that of a great white shark, it was much more complicated to describe and more horrifying than a poor neat shark.
Like it swam, it gave a hint of some water serpent. It slithered the water. It just easily cut through it skillfully. We both stood statued for a while. Devon must have also got terrified with this dreadful presence of a horrifying creature coming straight from hell. I saw him almost gaping and awed by this creature. It must have vanished in 5 seconds but something told us, that it will come back. We were foreigners in its hunting ground. It was well equipped and accustomed and ruled these murky waters, while we were new, new to this ocean, not just ocean but to this life, these bodies and this era.
We found ourselves as preys in its hunting grounds. Seeing never ending strong jaws that it had, it made us feel that we were surely ill-equipped in case it attacked us.
Just as we were thinking about our Achilles' heel we felt the horror coming back to us, our side from the side of the kelp jungle. It opened its mouth wide open as if trying to eat something from in the water; it retracted its mouth to reveal large canines hidden in them. The skin folded back and it seemed like a shark’s jaws were enclosed inside a serpent’s mouth having fangs in both up and down jaws.
We trembled in fear as it was passing us by, then it rolled its eyes towards me as if my scent was inviting it to hunt us down somehow. Those eyes looked like that of a predator, a mythical creature that must dwell in the abyss of Lava Rivers in the Hell. They were muddy green, and resembled more like that of serpent or alligator.
Now I believed that my blue blood which oozed from the cut created by the coral reef could have attracted it, so I hid the right index finger pressing the little wound against the glass containers that were now in Devon’s hand. But I knew the quantity was so little that the molecular traces of it dissolved in the water is only confusing this beast rather than showing it the way it was coming from. But I assumed the creature could be so low on diet and preys would be so little in numbers that he must have gotten excessively sensitive out of the hunger.
It was passing us by now and the body that swiftly moved across in front of our eyes was nowhere near that of a traditional shark’s. But I knew sharks behaved similarly. They wouldn’t attack strangers, but would taste them biting out of curiosity. As the large heavy fleshy body slithered past us, I noticed that it was not a bony structure anymore; it was like that of a snake which could swim. It had excessive fins and scales all over. The color pattern was different; it was nothing like that of a shark’s. It was dark brown, with elongated greens patches, rib like structure. It was definitely not a shark although similar size and behavior. But its body was too different from that of a shark; it looked like a crossbred species. 400 years is too short span of time for such a mammoth evolution.
Anyways it was gone away now, and Devon elbowed me in gesture to swim out of this dangerous scenario. It was a perfect time to leave and drop the pondering for later times. It was survival one o one. We sped up to the surface, soon to our horror we saw that the beast has sensed our departure and chased us at fastest pace it could. We had to outrun it at the cost of our lives.
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br /> We were not just preys; we were cryo secured expensive human beings from past. Our death shouldn’t be happening like that. We didn’t stop till we reached out motorboat. Devon already had climbed and pulled me up in a tick, while being pulled out to safety I observed the creature’s retreat. It was like it didn’t prefer evening the sun, and just as a perfect monster would like it, preferred night to come over to the surface.
Devon had started the engine and pulled out the anchor instantly. We didn’t stop until we made it safely to the aperture on the level zero which we had stepped out from while embarking. We pulled up our boat and placed it right there.
Chapter 23: The scientific explanation
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We wanted our many questions to be answered, so we decided to start with the marine department itself. We reached Dr. Parker, who as usual was busy with his computer and data. This time he looked up.
Dr. Parker: “So how did it go miss?” Curiosity was visible in his eyes this time. It simply meant not very many people went out for such probe from the ship.
I asked: “What has happened to all the marine life forms in all these centuries? All I saw was kelp and jellyfish all over, just a tiny coral reef and a big unidentifiable beast in the water. There was no land either.”
Dr. Parker: “A beast? Please explain. We have got no record of any beast.”
Devon took the chance: “Yes doctor! Its teeth, jaws and snout resembled that of a shark. I must have weighed not less than an adult male great white shark. But it had different green hued eyes. It had an outer retracting covering which had a long canine tooth at each side on each jaw. But it had lesser bony frame than the shark. It had numerous fins and slender body and moved like a water snake.”
“We have never been reported of such a description ever! It seems like you have met some creature cross bred or hybrid.” A skinny young doctor entered the room from the tank end. He wore spectacles. He came over to us taking long and quick strides and said-
Young doctor: “I am Doctor Amit Jain, a marine biologist, and an assistant to Dr. Allen.”
Dr. Parker: “Dr. Amit is a young brilliant head on our team. He is our department’s most renowned doctor. Why don’t you guys ask things of him?”
Dr. Amit: “The description of this new marine species is unprecedented to me. I am surprised that such an enormous creature existed and we did not know of it. It is not obviously a shark. There was not much time for the evolution of this enormous extent. It could be some new species. But how could it have hidden itself from the eyes of the humans? That too for such a long time? Its size couldn’t hide itself. After an ocean acidification of such a high level it is nearly impossible for vertebrates to exist and continue sustenance. Unless until they accumulate bicarbonate to counteract acidification from harming their bones and shells. From my point of view it is a cross bred species. An unusual mix of a large ocean snake and a shark. It must most probably have been a result of some bizarre cloning experiment. It must be a case study for research. But, honestly there is no scientific explanation to its existence.”
I asked: “So what is the scientific explanation behind the absence of marine life forms and overgrown colonies of jellies and kelp jungles?”
Dr. Amit: “Global warming was the fundamental reason behind the ocean acidification. Greenhouse gases like CO2 when excessively abundant in the atmosphere, get automatically dissolved in the ocean water causing ocean acidification to dangerous levels. When carbon dioxide (CO2) is absorbed by seawater, chemical reactions occur that reduce seawater pH, carbonate ion concentration, and saturation states of biologically important calcium carbonate minerals. These chemical reactions are termed "ocean acidification" or "OA" for short. Calcium carbonate minerals are the building blocks for the skeletons and shells of many marine organisms. In areas where most life congregated in the ocean, the seawater used to be supersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate minerals. This means there were abundant building blocks for calcifying organisms to build their skeletons and shells. However, continued ocean acidification caused many parts of the ocean to become undersaturated with these minerals, which affected the ability of some organisms to produce and maintain their shells. This had happened for centuries and thereby all the organisms with protective shell and skeletons were extinct with time. Acidic environment had a dramatic effect on some calcifying species, including oysters, clams, sea urchins, shallow water corals, deep sea corals, and calcareous plankton. When shelled organisms were at risk, so was the entire food web. Interdependent ecosystems killed each factor of the system. Thus coral reefs were lost with time, killing all the elements of the ecosystems.”
I intervened: “We found a tiny coral reef and also collected sample thereof.” I handed over the container to Dr. Amit.
Dr. Amit: “It is a wonder! Generally corals are expected to be extinct. Our team will borrow this sample to study what changes have these organisms inculcated to bring about such a resistance towards a strong acidification.”
Devon: “So what is the story of kelp jungles, overgrown sea grasses and blue green algae? Also how did jelly fish survive this?”
Dr. Amit: “Photosynthetic algae and sea grasses benefitted from higher CO2 conditions in the ocean, as they require CO2 to live just like plants on land. So they thrive overly now a days. As far as the jelly fish are concerned they flourish in the CO2 rich environments. I hope you get your answers now.”
I handed over all the samples to Dr. Amit to be put to tests and derive whatever they could from them. Dr. Amit looked at the jellyfish and said-
Dr. Amit: “Where did you get this? It is a mutated Aequorea victoria, and is a medusa. Look at the green luminescence it produces. The blue light produced is in turn transduced to green by the Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP). It is usually about 3 inches at maximum but they are evolving and it has reached about 5 inches. It is my favorite! Thanks for bringing it to me!”
“Thanks doctors!” Devon and I said in rhythmic duet. We then headed off to our rooms took bath in fresh water, had our meals and went off to a rejuvenating sleep.
Chapter 24: Confronting the Horrifying creature at the lowest level and saving Lois
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I woke up the next day, it was 4th April that day. ZA-vi was sitting at my side staring at me. I looked at him and then saw the time. I woke up early. It was 7 am. It was obvious that he knew about my trip to the ocean and every bit and trick of it. But somehow I was over it and needed to come to terms with the fact that in these four centuries the mankind has succeeded in depleting Earth’s marine life. The oceans are barren. This simply means the earth’s atmosphere must have either crossed the precipice or be on the verge of it.
ZA-vi: “It is the result of poor choices made by human race. They did not understand that they will themselves have to bear the part of the impact resulting from their choices.”
I quipped: “Can something still be done to change it?”
ZA-vi: ”I am sorry, I am not an expert, but better late than never. It is good to change. We are manmade machines, which are neither responsible nor sufferers of the aftermath.”
I said: “Yes, we should start bringing about the change. There is never any harm in trying.”
ZA-vi got up and obviously went on for some work indispensable. He is a machine which cannot be expected to understand that he was leaving the discussion midway. I saw him stepping out. I turned my face towards the ceiling and began wandering into the world of thoughts. It was just a waste of my time if I thought endlessly and baselessly. I decided to have my meal at the Green Resto. I went there sat amidst the green trees and sipped coffee and took a veg sandwich. Then I learnt from someone at the restaurant that the ship had set sail by the midnight. I was almost over this trip of going out into the ocean as time went past by.
Today I h
ad to do something else. I recalled sitting by the tree garden, that there were embryos in the last two levels in the ship. If there be any annihilation of human race they were a bank for regenerating human race. I was told that they were viable human beings, i.e. they can be made new humans with certainty of minimal risk of failure.
Chapter 25: Tour to the penultimate floor: The Quarantined floor
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I was now curious to pay a visit today to the lower floors now. So I left the restaurant then and headed straight towards the elevators. The plan was to go to the last but one floor first and then the ultimate one i.e. first ‘-17’ and then ‘-18’.
As per the information gathered by me from Larissa there were 70000 embryos stored in the last level, while the penultimate level contained people who were done away with; the people, who suffered from genetic abnormalities. The sufferers were quarantined and left alone to die, so that they do not come into direct contact with healthy humans on the ship and endangered healthy people’s lives.
In a way it was inhuman to me, but I could not be judgmental about the situation as of then. I did not know the medical gravity of the situation, it could have been like a plague or worse, so although it felt bad, I could not be sure about it, without being fully aware of the consequences of letting them live with the normal people.
Anyways, I had to go pay a visit to see the situation by myself. The elevator doors opened and I stepped onto the ‘-17’th floor. The walls, unlike on the rest of the ship were very thick and strong. The passengers of the elevator were stopped in this enclosure before entering the prison for the quarantined ones, where a board hung reading-