by Raymond Bean
A man waved two orange light sticks at the far end of the runway, and we drove over and parked the ship.
I opened the hatch. “What happened?” I asked. “The whole place went dark right as we were about to land.”
“My apologies,” he said. “We lost power again.” He was a small man with a long white beard and dark eyes. He wore flip-flops, a T-shirt, and a bathing suit covered in brightly colored flowers.
“How did you lose power to the runway?” Dad asked. “Isn’t there a backup?”
“We were on backup power already. We lost the backup when the earthquake hit,” replied the man.
“When did you have an earthquake?” I asked.
“As you were approaching. It stopped right before you touched down,” he explained.
I suddenly felt really lucky. If I had been landing as the earth was shaking that would have been really dangerous.
“I’m thankful you landed safely. Please, let me be the first to welcome to our island, Mr. Franklin.”
“Thanks,” Dad and I said at the same time. We did that a lot lately, now that people had started calling me Mr. Franklin too.
“I’ve never seen a machine like yours before. What is it?” the man asked.
“It’s actually a spaceship,” I said. “It’s the reason we were able to get here so fast.”
“You’ll have to give me a tour of it sometime. Right now, we should get off this runway before another earthquake hits. I can drop you off at the docks and meet up with you later. In the meantime, I need to try to get the electricity back on.”
We walked over to him and shook hands.
“Are you an electrician too?” I asked.
“No, I’m the prime minister,” he said.
“If you’re the prime minister, why are you landing planes?” Dad asked.
“The airport was closed for the night, and it’s not every day that we have Benji Franklin visit our island. I’m honored to have you here. Sir Robert told me all about you. I’ve arranged for a boat to take you out to the sub you dropped in the harbor. Is there anything else you’ll need from me?”
“A place to stay, and I’d appreciate it if you’d tell me a little bit about what’s going on here,” I said.
“It’s the earthquakes. I’ve lived on this island my whole life and never experienced one. Now, we’ve had about a dozen in the last few days,” he said.
“That’s strange,” Dad said.
“Extremely,” said the prime minister. “And as much as the earthquakes have me worried, the big concern is the volcano. It’s been dormant for as long as anyone can remember, but the other day, we noticed smoke billowing from the top.”
“Do you know who called me for help?” I asked.
“Of course, the captain of the scientific vessel offshore. I gave them permission to map the seafloor a few months ago. As soon as the earthquakes and volcanic activity started up, I asked for their help.”
“Why are they mapping the seafloor?” Dad asked.
“They’re working on a study that will help preserve our beautiful underwater habitat.”
“We’d better get going,” I said.
The prime minister ferried us out to the sub. I’d only used the sub a few times, and I couldn’t wait see what it could do. We fired up the engines and cruised out to the massive cargo ship.
Chapter 3
Captain?
The cargo ship was gigantic. I tied my sub up next to it, and Dad and I climbed aboard.
A man stood on the deck. He paced back and forth, chewing on his fingernails. He wore a captain’s hat that looked like one you’d buy in a souvenir shop. His eyes were wide and wild.
“You must be Benji Franklin,” he said. “I’m the captain.” The way his eyes darted from side to side made me feel a little suspicious of him.
“Captain what?” Dad asked, shaking his hand.
“Captain is fine.” He talked in a low voice, almost like a whisper.
“I appreciate you guys coming out here on such short notice,” he said, looking at the ground. “I called my friend, Sir Robert, for help. And I’ll be honest, I was kind of surprised when they told me he was sending a kid.”
“I understand,” I said. “I’m used to it.”
“I thought they’d send a team of engineers or something,” he added.
“Benji has a supernatural ability to solve complicated problems. You wouldn’t believe some of the things he’s accomplished. I’m sure if you explain what’s happening, he’ll be able to help,” Dad said.
“You can’t tell anyone what’s happening here. If word got out, it would be very bad for my reputation,” explained the captain.
“Helping people out of bad situations is kind of my specialty,” I said. “Have you ever heard of my app, Excuse Yourself?”
He shook his head that he hadn’t.
“The sooner I know what’s going on, the sooner I can help you,” I assured him.
“We’ll have to go down for me to show you. Is your sub designed to go to three thousand meters?”
“It can go to any depth. I’ve never been down as deep as three thousand meters, though. Let’s do it.”
We climbed back in my sub. I steered us away from the dock, and we slipped under water.
“The prime minister mentioned that you’re mapping the seafloor. How many scientists are in your crew?” Dad asked.
“It’s not really important,” he said.
Dad and I gave each other a look. The captain’s behavior seemed strange, but I couldn’t figure out why. I felt more like a detective than a superhero.
“He said you and the other scientists were helping discover why they’re having earthquakes and the volcano has become active,” I said.
“Yeah, something like that,” he said, not looking at either one of us.
I was so focused on the captain that I stopped paying attention to what I was doing. The sub was so easy to use that I had already descended almost two thousand meters below the surface. Outside, everything had gone completely black.
We descended to twenty-five hundred meters, and I noticed lights flickering in the distance. At first I thought it might be another sub, but then I realized what it was. “Bioluminescence?” I asked.
“Smart kid,” the captain replied. “Yes, that light is bioluminescence. It’s so dark down here that many of the creatures generate their own light.”
“Now turn on your lights,” the captain said.
Dad turned on the lights to reveal an underwater alien world. Massive columns rose up, chugging out black-ish water like chimneys. Crabs and other wriggling creatures covered the columns.
“Unbelievable!” Dad and I said in unison.
I cruised past a towering column. “It’s a hydrothermal tube,” the captain said. “There are thousands of them down here around these islands.”
We cruised by a few more, each one more amazing than the next. There were sea creatures I had never seen before. Long white and red sea worms swayed in the water like they were dancing. Some of them were as tall as me!
We traveled along the seafloor for a while. It was like being inside the most amazing aquarium I’d ever seen. We went around one of the vents and something caught my eye. At first, I thought it was another sub, but as we got closer I realized it looked more like a giant tractor. Then I saw another, and then another. There were three of them.
“What are those?” I asked.
Each machine rolled along the seafloor, kicking up sand. They went around like giant vacuums, sucking up everything in their path. They each had a long tube that climbed up into the dark abyss.
“Is this how you map the seafloor?” I asked.
“That’s a complicated question,” said the captain.
Chapter 4
The Situation
/> We resurfaced and climbed back onto the captain’s ship. We walked along the deck, and I saw a bunch of equipment I hadn’t noticed before. The machine moved massive amounts of sand and rocks along a mechanical belt. Huge hoses sprayed the materials and then dumped them back over the side. It seemed like a mining operation, but I’d never heard of mining in the ocean.
“This is a pretty amazing setup you have here,” Dad said.
“Follow me,” the captain said.
Dad and I followed him through a doorway and into a filthy, rundown kitchen. Mom would not have approved. We wound through room after room and finally down a long spiral staircase. Halfway down the stairs, I saw it: gold!
Containers full of the metal lined the walls. It glowed in the dimly lit room like, well, gold!
“Did all this gold come from the seafloor?” I asked, picking up a jar.
All of a sudden the captain got excited and talked very fast. “It did. And that’s not all. There are metal deposits down on the bottom that would blow your mind! Out there is a fortune waiting to be had. I’ve mined gold all over the world, and I’ve never seen anything this rich.” He handed me a large container full of gold nuggets. “We may very well be floating on top of the best deposit of gold in the world. And if that isn’t amazing enough, there are also massive deposits of silver, copper, zinc, and other rare metals down there. It’s a miner’s paradise.”
“That doesn’t seem like a problem,” I said.
“It wasn’t until a few days ago that the ground started shaking and smoke started to puff from the volcano on shore. The prime minister asked me to help determine the cause.”
“Do your scientists know what has caused the earthquakes?” Dad asked.
“I’ll let you in on a secret, since you’re Sir Robert’s friends. There are no scientists. There isn’t another person on this entire ship other than you and me.”
“But the prime minister said you had a team of scientists working out here,” I said.
“I knew that if I told him I was miner he wouldn’t let me work out here,” he explained. “I said I was part of a team of scientists trying to save the environment. Who’d say no to that?””
“So you’re not a scientist?” I asked.
“Failed biology in high school,” he said.
“And you’re all alone out here? There are no other scientists?” Dad asked.
“Not a soul. It’s just me and the equipment. It’s the perfect operation. My mining equipment is programmed to work around the clock. There is no crew, so no one ever gets tired, and the operation never stops. This has the potential to be the most profitable mine in all the world.”
“Wait, so you’re saying you lied to the prime minister?” I asked.
“Technically, yes.” He nodded. “But once I start sharing the profits from my mine with the island, he’ll get over it.”
“Have you given him any money yet?”
“Well, not exactly,” he continued. “I, um . . . meant to, but I’ve been kind of busy.”
It was clear that the captain was being dishonest.
“I still don’t know what you need from me,” I said. I thought it was pretty weird that he had lied to the prime minister. He didn’t seem to think it was a big deal.
“I need you to get the prime minister off my back, so I can focus on mining. I don’t know what’s causing the earthquakes, but I can’t be bothered with the problems they’re having on the island.”
I thought for a moment about what he’d just said. He wasn’t concerned about the danger to the people on the island at all. I wanted to confront him more about the fact that he had lied to the prime minister but decided my time was better spent trying to figure out what was causing the earthquakes.
“I’m going to need a little time to figure it out,” I said. “We’ll have to work fast, because I have to be back at school in a few days.”
He laughed. “If you can figure out a way to solve this problem in a few days, you can have all the gold I’ve mined so far.”
“How much have you mined?”
“About two thousand ounces,” he answered.
I knew gold sold for about $1,500 per ounce. I did the math in my head. It was about three million dollars in gold! “If I can figure out a way to solve this problem, I’ll consider it your deposit,” I said.
Chapter 5
The Bottom
Later that night, Dad and I took the sub back to the bottom of the sea to get a better understanding of what was going on down there. We descended without the lights on and let the sub fall into the abyss. I held my hand in front of my face and couldn’t make it out at all.
It wasn’t long before we started spotting the bioluminescent creatures. If I wasn’t so worried about the volcano blowing the island to bits, I would have been able to enjoy the view. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the island out of my mind, so it was hard to relax and enjoy the experience.
My phone buzzed. It was Sir Robert. I answered and his face appeared on the sub’s computer screen.
“Hello, Benji!” he said. “Enjoying the wonders of the seafloor?”
“Well, yeah,” I answered. “It’s amazing down here, but we’ve got a real mess on our hands.”
“I’m sure you’ll straighten things out soon enough,” he said calmly.
“Did you know the captain is illegally mining the seafloor? He’s a pretty sneaky guy.”
“I knew he was mining,” he began, “but I didn’t know he was illegally mining. I’m not surprised, though. He’s not exactly a rule follower.”
“I think this might be a bit over Benji’s head,” Dad said. “People could be killed if the earthquakes continue or the volcano erupts.”
“I understand your concerns, Mr. Franklin, but I wouldn’t place Benji in a situation I didn’t think he could handle,” Sir Robert said. “You’ve had a little time to get to know the situation. Do you have any ideas yet, Benji?”
“I need to spend a little more time on the bottom and then go check out the island. I’m sure something will come to me.” As impossible as it seemed, there was a part of me that knew if I focused on the problem long enough, something would come.
“Very well then. The fate of the island rests in your hands. Over and out,” he said and the screen went black.
“Well, that was helpful,” Dad joked.
The depth gauges showed that we were nearing the bottom, so I clicked the lights on. I noticed a few creatures scatter out of sight and retreat back to the safety of the darkness. The vents seemed to be everywhere. Some were only a few feet high, and others soared up into the darkness, and I couldn’t tell where they ended. It was nicer without the captain down here with us. Everything seemed to hum like a beehive. It was all connected and alive in a way that I’d never seen before.
The hydrothermal vents were covered in life. Everything looked like it belonged, everything but the mining bots.
The area they had mined looked like the life had been sucked from it.
I closed my eyes and tried to visualize a solution, and something hit the sub like a freight train. For a moment, I thought we’d crashed into the bottom.
“Benji! Something is staring at me!” Dad yelled.
Through the window right in front of Dad was the biggest eyeball I’d ever seen. “Hold still,” I said and took a picture with my camera. I know it wasn’t the safest first reaction, but how often do you get to see an eyeball the size of your father’s head?
I hit the booster on the sub, and we took off like a bolt. Dad cried out like a baby. The sub didn’t seem to have the force it usually had. I didn’t fully understand what was going on until I saw the suckers stuck to my side of the sub. We were being attacked by a giant squid!
“You have an incoming call,” Saunders said.
“We have our hands full right now,” I
said.
“It’s your school,” added Saunders.
I should have ignored the call, but I put it through. Cindy’s face appeared on the screen. “Why aren’t you back at school yet, Benji?” she asked.
“Hello to you too, Cindy. I’m kind of in a sticky situation right now!” I shouted.
“Looks to me like you’re on some kind of adventure ride. Are you on vacation at Sea World?”
“I’m in my sub being attacked by a giant squid!”
“Sure,” she said, “and I’m orbiting Mars on a pink unicorn.”
The squid had completely wrapped itself around the sub. I knew that they sometimes battle with whales and thought we might be gonners.
“I’m serious!” I exclaimed. “We’re in my submarine, and there’s a giant squid attacking us!”
The squid turned the sub over, trying to find a way to pry it open. It was a good thing Dad and I were strapped in, or we’d have been knocked out.
“You’re serious! I’m stuck here at school, and you’re off having the most amazing adventure ever!”
“Maybe you don’t understand the meaning of the word attacked!” I shouted.
“I’d give anything to be attacked by a giant squid,” Cindy groaned. “I did my animal report on them last quarter. Do you remember it?”
“No,” I said. “But if you’re such an expert on them, why don’t you help me out a little?”
She looked annoyed that I didn’t remember her project, and I thought she was going to hang up, but then she said, “They’re creatures of the deep and live in total darkness. Try turning on every light you have. Shine some directly into its eyes if you can.”
Dad reached for the emergency kit and pulled out two powerful flashlights.
He turned them both on and shined them in the giant eye on the other side of the glass. Nothing happened for a moment, and then I felt the grip on the ship slip away and the power in the engine return. As quickly as it had appeared, it vanished.