by E. Coulombe
“Heavier than last year!” Keikoa shouted to Kalani.
“C’mon guys - pull!” Kalani encouraged the men, “it’s so full we gonna have a feast!” His massive brown biceps bulged as he pulled with his oversized hands.
The lead canoes dragged the nets behind, and, straining against the weight, they headed towards the center. The outside paddlers brought the ‘gate’ canoes around, to quickly bring the nets above the surface and prevent and fish from escaping. “The net is way heavier than before,” Lono told his crew, “we never had to work like this at Huikilau,” he laughed.
“Pull you pansies,” Kalani goaded. “Do I have to get my mother out here to show you how it’s done? We get this in, we got smoked meat for six months. Give it everything you got!”
But at that moment something pinched Kalani’s leg. “Yowww! What the fuck? Was that a sand shark? That’s all we need right now.”
“Sand sharks are in,” Keikoa warned. “Whatever you do, don’t drop the net!”
Kalani kicked his legs to lessen the pain. “Damn sharks are such a nuisance,” he said to the men standing nearby, “they always come at Huikilaus, and just when the pullin’ in. Scavengers, trying to get a free meal.”
“I’ll give ‘em a free meal that’ll really fill their bellies,” one of the younger men jabbed his fist through the air, pretending to throw a spear. “Oh shit! That really hurt man!”
The others laughed at the mighty warrior.
“You’re dead you little fuck. You not supposed to be outside the net biting my leg. You gonna get inside so I can cook you on the fire tonight.” Holding the net high with one hand he leaned over, and jabbed the water with his free hand.
“Shit” he shouted again as he was bitten on the other leg. “Damn man that really hurts! I cannot pull with sand shark on both legs!”
They were all straining at the net, and Kalani could hear shouting, many others were getting bit. “Hell of alot of sand sharks,” he frowned, “something not right. We don’t usually get this many sharks.”
“Anybody see the shark?” Kalani shouted down the beach.
“I can’t see it,” one of the older men answered, “but I don’t think it a sand shark cause it’s not biting my leg. Biting my ankle instead.”
Now all the men are hopping mad in the water and forgetting to pull, just trying to hold onto the net, and get away from whatever was surrounding their feet.
“Hey Lono! What you think this is?” Kalani hollered at Lono who had maneuvered the lead canoe in quickly, before the men in the water gave up. “I don’t know. Sand shark?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Do you see any blood in the water?”
“Not much, but sure to be some. Too much biting, blood not good.” Kalani answered straining against the net. “Come on everybody, let’s get this in and get the hell out of the water!”
Chapter Thirty Two
“Where did you say this came from?” Sam asked the man who entered the room.
“Well then,” the man laughed, “and you must be Dr. Sam Le.”
“Yes, sorry” Sam stood to shake hands, “please, call me Sam. And you are … ?”
“Dr. Kaneshiro. This is my lab.”
“Of course. Forgive my rudeness,” Sam gently nodded, “Honestly, I’m a bit overexcited. But please, tell me, where did you find this?”
“It was sent over from Nakoa.”
“Do you know the depth at which it was found?”
“Sorry, no.”
“Who discovered it?”
“A friend of mine, Dr. George Carver. He’s a paleontologist from Harvard.”
“What’s he doing on Nakoa?”
“I don’t know. I’m sure there’s a story behind it.” Dr. Kaneshiro’s clipped speech showed his annoyance with Sam’s rude behavior.
“Please, forgive my manner. I’m not usually so direct. I am just extremely excited.”
“So what do you think it is?”
“Well, but for the fact that they are extinct, I’d say it’s a trilobite.”
Dr. Kaneshiro raised his eyebrows and quickly crossed the room to peer into the tank.
“It’s a juvenile, at mid-larval stage. At least one more molt before it would be the adult form.” Sam looked back into the tank. “And from the size of it now, I’d say this is going to be a really big tril.”
“I didn’t think trils ever got more than a few inches long?”
“Most didn’t, but a few, the more predatory ones, they got up to two feet in length. And this may be one of those. Pull up my website and I’ll show you.” Sam touched the water with his fingertips. “What temperature are you maintaining?”
“Right now I’ve got it at 70 degrees, comparable to Hawaiian waters. Why? Do you think it should be warmer?”
“I don’t know. It doesn’t look well.”
“Could be because of the way it was shipped. George sent it in the only container available, a small, air tight, black plastic tank, on the Nakoan helicopter which they generally only use when there’s an emergency. Knowing the Colliers by reputation, they would hardly consider this an emergency. So, who knows how long it took for it to get here. Honestly, I’m surprised it survived at all.”
They both stared at the black blob like creature. “It doesn’t look like a textbook trilobite,” Dr. Kaneshiro continued, “but for that classic pattern on its back I wouldn’t have guessed that in the first place.”
“I know. But I’d swear it’s the second larval stage of a trilobite, preparing for its final molt.”
Sam paused for a moment, overwhelmed by his own words. “Whatever it is, it’s not healthy and we damn well better make sure it survives.” He started towards the door. “I’m going over to my lab. I need to get some info on water temperature and chemistry for this species. Stuff I didn’t put on the site.”
Turning in the doorway he hesitated. “I don’t think you should tell anyone about this right now. I’m not certain.”
“But you’re pretty damn sure?”
Sam shook his head back and forth. “It is the nearest likeness to a tril I’ve seen in the flesh, and over 700 species of trilobites did dominate the seas for over 200 million years. I’ve always believed that, theoretically, they could have survived unnoticed. But Hawaii? A five million year old isolated mountain peak with no continental shelf or connection to anywhere? That just doesn’t make sense.”
Chapter Thirty Three
Gaining courage, Ku`ulei decided to try again. Placing her hand inside the primitive cage, she touched it’s back. The growl again. But this time she didn’t pull away. “I never hear crab make that sound,” she spoke to the creature as she gently stroked it’s hard shell. She now noticed it’s shell had many fine lines like…like…like what she thought. Nothin got those kinda marks. Like you whole bunch of little pieces all fit together.
Using her thumb and index finger she just managed to spread her hand across and pick it up. When she tried to turn it over, it squirmed, so she stopped. “Okay, you don’t like to be on other side. Instead, she held it up above her head and peered underneath. “You kinda cute. Lots a little legs, like one for each one of the little parts on top.” She had seen a picture of a horseshoe crab, this kinda looked like one of those, “but for all these lines,” she told it.
She called to one of her aunties who was passing by, “come auntie, come see what I got. This thing not same, really different, come see hurry.” Auntie started over.
“Mano!” someone shouted.
“Out of the water!” Lono ordered, “Drop the net! Swim!”
Water sprayed like a geyser as the men kicked and stroked, trying to swim in ahead of the shark. The younger boys on shore ran to help pull them in, and the tutus followed, hollering for the boys to get out.
Forgetting about the animal in her hand Ku`ulei looked up, for just a moment, and didn’t see the large pincer extrude from the front.
“Ahhhhhhh!” It dug into her skin with wha
t felt like a million teeth. She shook her hand to free it. “Help!” she began to cry. Kalani ran towards her.
“Paddle!” Lono called to the men in his canoe. He steered a course back and forth across the bay, creating a line of defense as the swimmers worked to reach dry land. Several fins circled at the reef’s outside edge, but suddenly, two sharks found the channel and headed in. Lono headed toward the closest fin, and Kimo, his front paddler, picked up the spear from the bottom of the canoe.
“Swim guys, get the hell away from here!” Over twenty men were swimming in, arms knifing through the water, legs kicking up a wall of sea foam. “Get ready Kimo. We’ll take the closest one. His blood will draw the others away from our guys.”
“But could start a feeding frenzy,” said Ka`au, the center paddler.
“I think we’re going to have that anyway, if that shark gets any closer to Alani.”
Most of the swimmers were able to stand and were running through the small surf, their arms chopping at the waves to propel themselves forward. When they made the beach they dropped, out of breath and exhausted.
Chapter Thirty Four
“I think this might help.” Sam said to Dr. Kaneshiro when he returned to the lab. “We need to get this water temp up to 75 at least, and the ocean in the Cambrian era may have been more carbonated. We should reduce the oxygen level.”
“As for food,” Sam said “I’m not exactly sure what the juveniles ate. The adults probably ate other trils.”
“They ate their own kind?”
“Most abundant food source. But in the larval stage, it’s hard to guess. Do you have any worms? I would try that first. We know the filter feeder trils lived off small ground dwelling organisms, but this probably isn’t that type. This is probably a benthic feeder.”
“Probably the best thing to do would be to put it in this tank over here.” Dr. Kaneshiro dipped a net down into a nearby tank and removed several brightly colored fish. “It has a new pump and we can control the oxygen levels better. Do you think you could pour off the water and move the trilobite into this one?”
“I don’t think we should call it a trilobite just yet.”
“Okay, the creature then.” Dr. Kaneshiro shook his head. He checked to make sure the water temperature was at least 70. “I think it’s okay.”
Sam gently tilted the tank onto its side and drained off most of the water. Dr. Kaneshiro handed him the net and he coaxed the creature to move inside. Carefully he lifted it out of the first tank and transferred it into the second, taking only a moment to examine it’s underside.
“You know, it could be that it’s scared. Do you have a couple of coral pieces we could use? Maybe it just needs a hiding place.”
“Better yet, I’ve got some pieces we found off shore of Nakoa. Could be what it’s used to.”
Submerging the length of his arm in the water, Sam put the first piece on the bottom of the tank. The black thing moved slightly in response to the change in water pressure. More slowly this time, he carried the second, and larger piece of coral, and placed it alongside the first.
With surprisingly swift motion the creature crossed the bottom and latched onto Sam’s hand. An agonizing pain shot through Sam as the creature’s claw pierced the skin of his hand directly between the thumb and forefinger. Instinctively he wanted to pull his hand out of the tank but the scientist in him held steady, and he shook his hand underwater trying to rid it of the pain, but the claws dug deeper. “Shit that hurts,” he hissed through clenched teeth, “I gotta get this off but I don’t want to kill it. Get me a scraper, or a tong or something. I’ll have to pry it off. Hurry! Oh my god, I don’t think I can take this any longer.”
The tank became increasingly murky as Sam’s blood drained into it. Dr. Kaneshiro grabbed the tongs and tried to scrape off the trilobite but it wouldn’t let go, until finally he just had to grab it with the tongs and pull. He could feel Sam’s skin tearing underneath. He hesitated. Sam couldn’t take it any longer, and reached into the tank with his free hand and barehanded the damn thing. But suddenly two other creatures came out from under the coral and latched onto his left arm. “Oh shit!” He screamed. “There are more, where in the hell did they come from?”
He pulled his hands out. Dr. Kaneshiro threw down the tongs and grabbed the things with his fingers. Together he and Sam yanked all three off of his arms and threw them back into the tank. Sam collapsed on the floor.
“Jees, this cut is deep,” Sam said, sitting on the floor examining the cut on his hand, “and where in the hell did those other ones come from? I only moved one.” He gingerly touched the bites on his upper arm. Using the lab emergency kit, Dr. Kaneshiro sprayed an antibiotic over the wounds, wrapped the wounds with gauze, and led Sam to his car for a trip to the emergency room.
“Where in the hell did the other ones come from?” Sam asked again when they were settled in the car.
“Hell, I don’t know. There was only one in the tank when it arrived from Nakoa. At least I thought so. The must have been stacked, hiding underneath each other.”
“Maybe. Could have been in first larval stage, and only four cm long. We think trils were hatched from eggs, but we don’t really know.”
“You think that could have been a female and those were her spawn?”
“No. No way. If that’s a third stage larva it wouldn’t reach maturity until after the final molt. Of course I’m guessing. You can only tell so much from a rock.”
“Maybe that’s it though,” Dr. Kaneshiro pursued his line of reasoning, “maybe she produced them while in the first tank, they were hidden underneath of her and they molted into third stage trils before we ever saw them.”
“And that would be the fastest molt ever witnessed.” Sam paused to think for a minute. “If that is a trilobite, and I’m not going to officially say that yet, but if it is, and if that trilobite just tried to eat my hand, which I’m pretty sure it did,” Sam nursed his bandaged hand, “I don’t think that thing was acting in self defense. Those things appeared to attack me and I’m pretty sure they were actually trying to eat me - not just stop me from eating them.”
“But you’d expect trilobites to have aggressive behaviors?”
“One thing we tend to forget as we look at bones and study trace fossils is that it’s not just an organisms shape that evolved over time. Their behavior evolved too. Scientists think that the oldest organisms had no modified behavior, nor any social ability whatsoever. They had to gain it, and then genetically pass it along. Aggression - extreme aggression – such as that unprovoked attack we just witnessed, would have been the norm.” Sam hesitated again. “And they could have been fearless as well.”
“Fearless?”
“Yea, fear is also a modified behavior. An instinct. And instincts are genetic.”
“You mean in the earliest stages of evolution, like ….”
“600 million years ago, in the Cambrian Era.”
“And even 500 million years ago – when trilobites swarmed the seas.”
“Yea,” Sam shook his head up and down, “it was too early to have learned any instinctive behaviors.” Sam stopped. They were both silent for a moment, lost in thought.
“Behavior such as . ..?”
“Fear. Fear of falling, fear of starving….fear of death.”
“Fear of attacking a creature 100 times larger than self, like that thing just did?” Dr. Kaneshiro questioned.
“Exactly. There were 400 million years of behavior modification between the trilobites and the dinosaurs. And people think the dinosaurs were mean? Wait til they meet the predecessors.”
Chapter Thirty Five
Grant heard a ringing sound as he crossed the living room lanai. Surprised at first, he then realized George had left his cell phone hooked up to charge, just in case someone cranked up the generator. Curious, he answered.
“Hello George?” he heard.
“No, this is Grant Collier. George isn’t here.”
“I
need to talk with him, now if possible.”
“I told you he isn’t here.”
“Do you know where he is?”
“No.”
The man sounded exasperated. “I’ve been trying to call all afternoon.”
“I just started up the generator. His battery must’ve been dead.”
“Listen Mr. Collier. This is Dr. Kaneshiro. I’m a professor at UH. This is really most important. Can you have him call me as soon as he gets in?”
“Yes, I’ll tell him.”
“This organism he sent over, do you know what it is?”
“No, none of us do,” Grant lied. He knew nothing about an organism that had been sent out. “Do you?”
“We can’t be certain, and I know it sounds crazy, but we really,” he hesitated, “we think it’s a trilobite.”
Without missing a beat Grant replied, “they’re extinct.”
“Apparently, they’re not. At least not on your island. I wouldn’t believe it if I weren’t looking right at it. But what’s worse is that it’s vicious. It attacked one of the grad students, and he had to get stitched up in the emergency room. You must warn George, and everyone else who may come in contact with it.”
“Of course.”
“And I’m sending a photo of a fossilized version of what we think it is, over the phone as soon as we hang up. Can you make sure that George sees it?
“Yes.”
“And please. Have him call me right away. We’ve got to find out more, we’ve got to do something. This is the find of the century!”
Without saying goodbye, Grant ended the call. Immediately it rang again, but, he didn’t answer. He picked up the ringing phone and walked across the inner courtyard and out the back door, across the large lawn skirting Kihei. Checking to make certain no one was around, he stepped into the well house. In the semi-darkness, he lifted the worn wooden lid, extended his hand, and dropped the phone into the deep dark waters.