by Alten-Steve
"Jonas, Alphonse, get to your stations," ordered Masao. "Mac—"
"I'm leaving." Mac headed out through the pilothouse. Moments later, the helicopter lifted off the deck of the Kiku.
* * * * *
The whale watchers could now see land clearly, still a good two miles away. The tour guide sat dejectedly in her chair, her red hair soaked with salt water from the captain's steering.
"Miss, why are we going in?" asked Naomi. "Will we get a refund?"
"Ma'am, I'm not sure what's..."
WHUMPPP. The collision knocked the redhead off her stool and hard on the deck. Passengers screamed. Naomi grabbed Rick's arm and held on with both hands, her nails digging into his flesh.
The female had tasted her prey, pushing her snout hard against the hull of the moving boat. Her senses told her that this was not food. The Meg cut toward open water, circling back to the remains of her kill. The large creature was no threat.
The captain knew his boat was under attack. He grabbed the wheel and began zigzagging violently. The boat's bow slammed back and forth against the sea's three-foot swells.
The Megalodon slowed. These new vibrations were different. The creature was wounded. Instinct took over, and the female banked sharply, rising to the surface as she homed in on her prey once more.
* * * * *
"Jonas, you read me?"
"Go ahead, Mac," yelled Jonas into the walkie-talkie. He and DeMarco were positioned at the stern, ready at the deck-mounted harpoon gun.
"I'm about two hundred feet above the boat. It's difficult to see because of the reflection along the surface. Stand by, I'm changing my angle." Mac turned the airship south, hovering to the right of the boat, the thermal imager rendered useless during the day. "Oh, shit, there she is!"
"Where, Mac?"
"Right behind the whale watcher's keel. Christ, she's gotta be twice the size of that boat!"
The Kiku was now following the tourist boat's wake, bearing down on the smaller vessel.
"DeMarco," Jonas yelled into the wind, "have Barre take us alongside. I can't risk firing at this angle. I might miss and take out a passenger."
DeMarco yelled into the internal phone that connected directly with the pilothouse. The Kiku swung hard to starboard, then began overtaking the smaller boat.
Jonas spun the harpoon gun counterclockwise on its base and focused through its sight. The Kiku's draft was a good twenty-five feet higher than that of the smaller boat. He realeased the safety just as the whale watcher began zigzagging.
"Mac, where is she?" he yelled into the headset.
"She's coming up fast. Stay ready." The Kiku raced alongside the sightseeing boat, twenty feet away.
* * * * *
Rick Morton watched the former Navy frigate approach the tourist boat from his seat at the rear of the ship. The Kiku 's white bow dwarfed the smaller boat, rising high out of the sea, plowing a four-foot wake against the Captain Jack.
"Naomi, let go of my arm, I want to get a shot of that ship." Naomi released his arm and grabbed her husband's waist as the boat zigzagged again.
As he lifted the camcorder, a different object appeared in his eyepiece. At first glance, Rick thought he must have focused on the frigate's towering bow, white and triangular. The his autofocus adjusted and he dropped the camera.
Naomi screamed. Others turned and joined her cry. Rising fifteen feet above the Captain Jack, the Megalodon's head and lower jaw crashed down upon the stern. The twin propeller shafts snapped like twigs, the transom shattering into a thousand splinters of fiberglass.
Rick and his wife were tossed sideways into the Pacific, thrown in the opposite direction from the Kiku. The cold waters took their breath away and bit painfully into their flesh as the Kiku 's wake roared over their submerged heads.
Rick dragged his wife upward, their heads breaking the surface. Lacking propulsion, the tourist boat had slowed to nearly a standstill. The couple watched in horror as the monster rolled off the vessel, turning its snout toward them!
Naomi screamed. Rick hugged her tight, closing his eyes.
Jonas fired. The harpoon exploded out of the cannon, trailing smoke and steel cable. The projectile struck home, burying itself four feet deep into the Megalodon's thick hide, inches from the dorsal fin. The monster spasmed, arching its back and whipping its head sideways into the moving Kiku. The ship lurched to starboard. DeMarco, caught off-balance, felt himself flying in midair, his torso lifted out and over the rail. Jonas lunged after him, catching his right ankle with both hands just before it disappeared over the rail. He held on, feeling his own feet slide beneath him along the deck.
The rail broke Jonas's slide abruptly. He pulled DeMarco upward, twisting the man around so the back of his knees could lock on to the rail. One of DeMarco's hands appeared, gripping the rail, pulling upward.
His face was flushed purple, his eyes bugged out. "Goddamn." He coughed. "Good catch."
WHAMMM. The Meg rammed its head into the Kiku 's port-side hull, bending steel plates. Jonas and DeMarco fell to the deck.
* * * * *
"Hard to starboard," growled Captain Barre, picking himself up off the control-room floor. "Masao, when the hell is this shark gonna fall asleep?"
"I don't know, Leon. Just get us away from that tourist boat."
"You heard the man," yelled Barre. "Take us out to sea!"
* * * * *
Rick scissor-kicked hard, dragging his wife toward the crippled tourist boat. A passenger grabbed his wrist, and Noami and he were hauled on board. Blankets were thrown over the shivering couple as they held on to each other close.
* * * * *
Three hundred feet above the Pacific, Mac watched as the Kiku raced to open waters. The Meg followed, submerging, the slack of the steel cable still floating momentarily along the surface before being dragged below. The triangular head rose once more, slamming against the frigate's bow.
"Jonas, you guys okay?"
"Yeah, Mac, but we're taking a beating."
"I radioed the Coast Guard to pick up those tourists. I suggest you continue leading the Meg out to sea."
"Okay. Can you still see her?" Jonas asked.
Silence.
"Mac, you still there?"
"Jonas, she disappeared."
Jonas ran to the control room, DeMarco staying with the winch. "Pasquale, where is she?" yelled Jonas.
The sonar man listened intently to the signal coming from his headphones. "I think she went deep."
Jonas checked the cardiac monitor that was receiving data directly from the transmitter, still implanted in the Meg's belly. "Damn, two hundred and twelve beats per minute. I think she's having a bad reaction to the drugs." He picked up the internal phone.
"DeMarco, how much cable has she taken?"
"About two thousand feet. Should I start the—"
"She's coming up!" cried the sonar man. "Hold on!"
Seconds passed in silence.
BOOM!! The Kiku was blasted from below, rising and then dropping in a sickening lurch.
"I think she's a bit pissed off," whispered Jonas.
"She's gonna tear my ship apart!" yelled Barre, picking up his phone. "Engine room—"
"Captain, we've got problems," reported his engineer. "Can you come below?"
"On my way." Barre signaled to one of his crew to take the helm, then paused to give Jonas a nasty look before disappearing down the stairwell.
"Jonas." Terry emerged from below, squeezing past the captain. "Are those drugs ever going to take effect?"
Jonas was watching the monitor. "I think they just did."
* * * * *
The Megalodon's brain was on fire, her blood boiling, her heart racing out of control. The predator's sensory system was overloaded by the madness brought on by the large dosage of pentobarbital. The female could only follow her last instinct: attack her enemy.
Plunging to a depth of fifteen hundred feet, the Meg spun and raced back toward the surface
. The crescent tail whipped back and forth, the monster a white blur streaking upward. Feeling the vibrations of the Kiku 's bow cutting the surface, the Megalodon adjusted her line of attack and rammed into her enemy, smashing the forward compartment of the ship's hull.
Had the Megalodon connected with the Kiku 's flat keel, the ship would surely have sunk within minutes. But the attack occurred near the bow and the force of the impact dispersed outward. The force of the blow knocked the giant predator senseless, slowing her pulse enough for the pentobarbital and ketamine to take effect, shutting down the creature's central nervous system.
* * * * *
"Heart rate just plummeted to eighty-three beats per minute," reported Jonas. "I can't say for certain whether that's normal, but the drugs have definitely taken effect." He stood up. "We don't have much time." He picked up the receiver of the internal phone.
"What needs to be done, Jonas?" asked DeMarco.
"Take up the slack right away. The Meg is losing consciousness. The Kiku has to tow her before she sinks and drowns. Terry, release the net along the stern. I'll take the AG I and secure it beneath the Meg."
Terry looked worried. "Jonas, how can you be sure—?"
"Terry, we don't have much time." He held her shoulders and looked her squarely in the eye. 'I'll be fine. Come on."
Terry followed him up onto the deck."
The female was losing feeling in her tail. She slowed, barely moving, hovering almost twelve hundred feet below the Kiku.
DeMarco and his assistant, Steve Tabor, stood at the stern, watching closely as the Kiku 's winch gathered in the steel cable.
"Slow her down at one thousand feet, Tabor," instructed DeMarco. "Once we get some resistance, secure the line and we'll tow this bitch in." DeMarco looked to his right. The AG I was secured in its saddle. Jonas, in his wet suit, stood ready to climb inside.
"Jonas." Terry moved close, pulling him toward her, whispering in his ear. "Don't forget about our vacation, okay?"
Jonas smiled at her, then crawled into the submersible, lying prone in its one-man chamber. He moved forward, his head appearing within the clear Lexan nose cone. He slipped into the pilot's harness, feeling the sub lift off the deck, swing over the side, then drop into the Pacific. Jonas strapped himself in, absentmindedly thinking of Terry in her bikini.
"Snap out of it, asshole," he growled to himself.
As the AG I slipped from its saddle, Jonas pushed the joystick forward and down. The sub responded, accelerating into the vast blue world.
"Jonas, can you hear me?" Masao's voice broke into his thoughts.
"Yes, Masao, loud and clear. I'm at five hundred feet. Visibility's poor."
"Can you see the Meg?"
Jonas focused hard. Something was below. He could see a slight glow, but not as big as expected. "Nothing yet. Stand by." Jonas accelerated the submersible, descending at a forty-five-degree angle. He felt the interior temperature drop. He checked the depth gauge again. Eight hundred sixty feet. Then he saw the Meg.
She was suspended face up, tail dropping out of sight at a sharp angle, unmoving.
"Masao, the Meg's out cold. She's gonna drown if we don't get water circulating through her mouth. You've got to tow her immediately. Do you copy?"
"Yes, Jonas. Stand by." The Kiku 's engines restarted and a metallic, grinding sound reverberated all around Jonas. The line grew taut, and the Megalodon jerked upward at the sub.
Jonas momentarily panicked, having foolishly positioned the AG above the unconscious creature. He circled her quickly, watching as she leveled off. Jonas drew his submersible parallel with the Megalodon's gills and focused his attention upon the five vertical slits. They were closed, not moving. And then, as she moved forward, they gradually began to flutter, flapping gently. The Meg was breathing again, water passing through her mouth and out through the gills.
"Good job, Masao, she's breathing. I'm going to secure the harness, but the Meg's too deep to secure within the net. Have DeMarco take in another five hundred feet of line, very slowly. Let's be careful not to pull the harpoon free."
"Stand by, Jonas."
Moments passed and the Meg began rising slowly, pulled from above by the winch. Jonas followed her up, marveling at the size of the creature, her beauty, her savage grace. The paleontologist found himself appreciating the Megalodon for what she was, a product of evolution, perfected by nature over seventy million years. It was the true master of the oceans, and Jonas felt glad they were saving rather than destroying her.
The Meg stopped rising at tow hundred and thirty feet. Jonas continued to the surface, locating the net that would serve as the Meg's harness floating adjacent to the Kiku 's keel. He extended the retractable arm of the sub, catching the edge of the net with the claw. Slowly, so as not to tangle the line, he submerged, trailing the harness beneath his sub, spreading out from behind.
The harness was simply a weighted cargo net, designed to sink uniformly in order to haul in tuna. Jonas had ordered flotation buoys attached along its perimeter. The devices were designed so they could be inflated or deflated from aboard the Kiku. In this way, the Megalodon could be released safely once secured inside the lagoon, with the net simply dropping away as the devices were deflated.
Jonas brought the AG I to eight hundred feet, moving well below the dormant monster. Satisfied, he accelerated forward, moving beyond the creature's caudal fin. "Masao, I'm in position. Inflate the harness."
"Here we go, Jonas." The net sprang to life, rising upward, conforming to the contours of the Megalodon. The 42,000-pound monster rose, releasing most of the tension from the harpoon.
"That's good, that's enough," yelled Jonas. "Excellent, Masao. We don't want her too shallow. I'm coming aboard."
"Wait, Jonas, before you surface. Captain Barre is requesting you check the damage to the ship's hull."
"No problem. Stand by." Jonas released the claw's grip on the net, retracted the mechanical arm, then accelerated in a tight circle below and around the captive female. He was feeling giddy, extremely pleased with his plans, anxious to get back on board and talk with Terry.
And then he saw the hull.
DUSK
"It's about eight to nine feet wide," explained Jonas, describing the hole craeated by the Megalodon's collision with the Kiku. The ship had taken on a tremendous amount of water, and was now listing at a fifteen-degree angle to the starboard.
"That's only the beginning, Masao," said Leon Barre. "We sealed off the forward compartment but the damn pert screw's all bent outta shape."
"Will we sink?" asked Masao.
Barre contemplated the question. "No, watertight compartments will keep the damage isolated for now, but we don't wanna push her. Pulling that monster out there, that's a lot of drag, lots of work for one screw. The Kiku 's gonna have to crawl home."
"How long until we arrive at the lagoon, Leon?" asked DeMarco.
"Hmmm, let me see. It's just after seven. I'd say we make it back tomorrow morning, just before dawn."
DeMarco looked at Barre, then back at Jonas. "Christ, Jonas, will the Meg stay unconscious that long?"
"Honestly, I don't know. There's no way of telling. I gave her what I thought was a sufficient dose to keep her under twelve to sixteen hours."
"Can we inject her again?" asked Masao. "Maybe wait until she'd been under a good ten hours, then shoot her up?"
"She'll die," said Jonas matter-of-factly. "You can't keep an animal this size under for so long without permanent damage to her nervous system. She'll need to come around and breathe on her own or she'll never regain consciousness."
Masao scratched his head, unsure. "Not many options here. Captain, how many crew members do you need to run the ship? Maybe we can evacuate some of the men—"
"Forget it, Masao. With the damage to the screw and the sea knocking on the door, I need every man I got, plus some. We leave this ship, we're all gonna leave together."
"Masao, let me make a suggestion," offered
Jonas. "The cardiac monitor should warn us if the Meg is coming around. But just in case, let me go back down in the AG I and keep a watch on our friend. If she appears to be waking up, we'll release the line and get out of here. If we're not already in the lagoon, we'll be damn close. Without the additional weight of the Meg, we should be able to make it in fairly quickly."
"What happens when the Megalodon wakes up?" asked Masao.
"She'll have a bad hangover and she'll be pissed off. I wouldn't be surprised if she followed us right into the lagoon."
"Chased us is more like it," added DeMarco.
"And what about you?" asked Terry.
"In the AG I," Jonas said, smiling, "I'll probably be safer than you guys."
Masao thought it over. "Okay, Jonas, you'll take the Abyss Glider out in the early morning and keep an eye on our fish. DeMarco, you take the first watch on the cardiac monitor. Any changes, you call Jonas right away." Masao stopped, listening to the thunder rumbling in the distance. "Is that a storm moving in?"
Mac stepped into the CIC, his copter having just landed on deck. "No, Masao. That's the sound of helicopters. News choppers, five of 'em to be exact, with more coming. I'd say it's gonna be might crowded around her by dawn.
* * * * *
Frank Heller paused from his work, looking up at the television for the fourth time in the last hour to watch the latest news update:
"... two hundred feet below us, lying in a comatose state is the sixty-foot prehistoric Megalodon, a monster that is responsible for at least two dozen gruesome deaths over the last thirty days. From our view, one can clearly see the creature's snowy-white hide, glowing under the reflection of the full moon.
At her present speed, the heavily damaged Kiku is expected to reach the entrance of the Tanaka Lagoon sometime before dawn. Channel 9 News will be keeping a vigil all night, bringing you the latest from this breaking story. This is Tori Hess, Action News, reporting live from the..."