by E. Coulombe
After the third repetition he was finally satisfied. He threw the slides into the used glass container. It hadn't been emptied in a long time, and he needed to remind the housekeeper, but right now he was anxious to share this news with Kerri. Placing the pipettes into the washer his hand stopped in mid-air. The pipettes. That’s what had been bothering him all along.
“Kerri, listen,” he panted out of breath, when he finally found her, seated on the smaller, east-side lanai. “I just realized what's been gnawing at me, ever since Old Man Kane disappeared in Kukui Bay, there’s been something at the back of my mind but I couldn’t get a fix on it.”
“Well, good morning to you too,” she said sarcastically.
“Please Kerri, don't be upset. Honestly, this is too important for arguments.”
The urgency in his voice frightened her. “Okay,” she answered, but once again she had the nagging feeling that she was speaking as if to a child. “I'm sorry, what is it?”
“It’s about Old Man Kane. I knew there was something about that bay, but I finally remembered. When I was a kid there was a sewage leak, and we discovered that all of the sewage from the compound drained out from a pipe a mile offshore and just below Kukui Point.” He paused. He was thinking and talking at the same moment.
“Kukui, that's south of Ko`olau, the place where we camped, isn't it?”
“Yeah. They thought any leaks in the pipe wouldn’t be a problem because it would all be carried out to sea. But they figured out they were wrong, cause when a leak did occur, the current washed everything north, and eventually it ended up in Ko`olau Bay.”
“And you think that has something to do with the old man’s disappearance at Kukui? I’m sorry Andrew, but I’m not following you.”
“Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but listen to this. I just repeated the experiment…..”
“You did?” Her head jerked back in shock. “Well congratulations. You got what you wanted,” she said, standing, and closing the book she’d been reading, “But I really need to go get ready. Grant has arranged for me to leave tomorrow.”
“No, Kerri. Don't!” he shouted. “Please...I'm sorry. I know I should have waited for you....”
“You don't need to consider me. It's your experiment, not mine.”
“No, it’s yours too, and I was coming to get you. I’m not very good at this Kerri…” his voice trailed off. Both of them were silent, waiting for the other to speak. Confusion was written on his face, but still Kerri was not going to step up to the plate.
After a long silence Andrew shrugged his shoulders. “I should ask Grant,” he said, “he might know more about the sewage system. But I think I’ll try in the family library first, someone may have kept records during construction.”
Kerri remained silent as Andrew left the lanai.
Chapter Fifty
At dawn the following morning, Lono was anxious to go out again. After yesterday’s scare he was done fooling around – the island was in danger, and he needed proof. This time he wanted to enter where they’d made an abrupt exit the day before, on the southern shore of Ko`olau iki, keeping the shallow reef in sight. He didn’t think he could kill one of those scorpions with only a diving spear but he hoped to catch a smaller nautiloid, or escape if they saw the giant one.
They got an early start, and by noon they had searched the entire bay of Ko`olau iki. But this time they found nothing. Neither the sea scorpion nor the trilobite. Not even the nautiloid. Only another empty shell.
Without stopping for lunch Lono kept swimming, heading south leaving Ko`olau iki, and moving towards Waimea - leaving behind any hope of emergency beach access as the semi-accessible shoreline became a precipitous cliff. Michael stayed close behind.
They kept away from the breaking waves while trying to stay in as close as possible. Without a fringing reef the water dropped quickly, sixty feet or more, to the ocean floor, making it hard to see any bottom dwelling creatures which may have been hiding below.
Lono noticed unusual, fragile net-like plants floating past with the current but when he grabbed one to look more closely, he realized it wasn’t even a plant but a colony of small barnacles of some type drifting near the surface. He’d never seen it before. Several more drifted by and he put one in the catch bag for George.
“We’re going to have to do a night dive George,” Lono informed him when they returned nearly empty handed after a full day of diving. “I know there’s more.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’re not seeing what’s going on. There’s something else out there.”
“How do you know?”
“At first, I noticed there weren’t any of the usual reef fish, the manini, uku, and na`ena`e. They should be here, in abundance. We used to fish this side from the canoes, catch plenty in the nets, but today we saw nothing. They’re all gone.”
“Gone where?”
“Eaten I suppose.”
“By what?”
“Probably by that sea scorpion. But then too we’re not even seeing the larger fish, the thirty pound uhu and akala. We’d always get at least one a day out here. Not now. None there. And they’re too big even for that squid thing. And that thing’s gone too.”
“What would eat that?!”
“I don’t know George,” Lono looked hard into his face. “You’re the expert on ancient seas. You tell me. What would eat an eight-foot squid hefting a twenty foot cone on its back?”
Chapter Fifty One
The sun was already heading towards the sea when Kerri decided to look for Andrew in the library. The faint pink glow from the sunset filtered through the large room ringed with books, and she found him standing in the middle of the room, books, papers, and maps scattered around him on the polished wooden floor. Librarians must hate guys like this, she thought, ‘the chaos makers’. Holding a large coastal atlas, he thumbed through the pages, scratching his dusty blond curls as he read. She walked up to him but did not speak. He looked down at her blue eyes and returned her smile. He reached out and touched her shoulder length hair, and twisted a curl between his long fingers. Instinctively she stiffened. Andrew stopped, and turned to look at the open book. Kerri looked back towards the door. “So what are we doing here Andrew?” she asked gently.
“I wanted to confirm my suspicions. Come here, I'll show you.” He picked up the map which had fallen to the floor and spread it across an empty table. He located the village for her.
“See, I was right. The waste from the village flows to this collecting tank, and from there out to sea. Here.” He pointed to a line drawn out through Kukui bay.
“So?”
“So, same for the waste from my lab.”
She looked more closely at the map, tracing the pipe out to sea. He sighed heavily. “The first time, when the experiment worked, I put the slides in the discard box, and the pipettes in the washer. That wouldn’t be a problem, normally, because I would add a bactericide to the pipette washer. But I remember now, I never washed those pipettes. I got so excited, I left the lab in a hurry, and the housekeeper came in she cleaned them and without knowing what she was doing she rinsed the pipettes, and I guess—”
“Oh my God! She released the Mutator into the sea,” Kerri whispered, the implications beginning to dawn on her. “Andrew. This is scary shit. But it wouldn’t have been….I mean it had….please,” she held up her hand to stop him from speaking. “I know I’m a bit slow, compared to you, so may I just think out loud for a moment?” He nodded assent and she went on. “The Mutator was inserted into the bacteria, and the bacteria quickly evolved under the scope to the point of developing a compound eye. They then imploded into nothing, and were washed down the drain. Right?”
“Maybe, but, remember, it was only the bacteria under the hot light that died. Other bacteria in the tube, they may have been transformed as well, but not stressed to change so rapidly, those bacteria may have been released into the ocean still alive.”
“Look at this map.”
He handed her a large, color, GIS map from the floor. “This looks like it’s made from a recent satellite image of the islands.”
“Where’d you find that?”
“Here, on the table.”
“Andrew!” she snapped, torn between complete bewilderment and total exasperation. “That’s a little odd don’t you think, who here would have a NASA satellite map?”
“Grant probably. He used to do some work for the Navy. Awhile ago, I thought. But maybe he still does. “
“What are you talking about? How could he work for the Navy here?”
“Well, it’s not hard, considering there’s a naval missile testing facility just seventeen miles away across the channel.” Andrew answered shortly. “I can tell you all about it sometime, but for now can we get on with the problem at hand?”
Kerri bit her tongue. This place was getting stranger by the minute. She was glad to be leaving on the next boat out.
“So, look at this map,” he continued quickly, “it looks as though a geologist made it. They’ve charted some underground fissures, probably from data collected from Gloria, the UH research vessel. See these fissure lines,” he followed them with his fingertip, “they come from the region around the hot spot, Kilauea on the Big Island, and they branch out along the sea floor, all the way to Nakoa.”
“Yeah, that’s interesting. Did you know about these before?”
“No. But it makes sense. A hot spot would create cracks and vents in the ocean floor. Most of them were probably sealed with cooling lava, but maybe not all. Anyway, one of the largest fissures leads to Nakoa, and it looks like it ends at Ko`olau Bay.”
“Wow,” she said, tracing her finger along the map line. Her mind began to race, following his train of thought. “And that could mean a source of heat in the bay, creating warm, shallow waters, carbon dioxide rich.”
“In fact, it would create conditions similar to ancient earth, six hundred million years ago. The same seas we had during the Cambrian explosion.”
“You’re right,” Kerri started thinking out loud. “The bacteria with the Mutator in it could’ve multiplied in Ko`olau Bay. Adapted to it. Then, if the vent is active and the waters are warm enough, it could’ve been stressed at a critical moment and rapidly evolved.”
He gave her time to absorb this new understanding. “Exactly. Then using gene duplication it kept evolving, finding new uses for the same genes.”
“Right. Co-opted genes,” Kerri cut in.
“Definitely. Evolution is opportunistic and uses what’s there rather than inventing from scratch.”
“But you believe that mutations are a response to stress.”
“Yeah?”
“So in order to create the same organisms that existed millions of years ago, wouldn’t the stresses need to be identical as well?”
“Not necessarily. The stresses could be more generalized – mainly, starvation and predation. And starting with Mutator-infected bacteria released from the pipettes, everything could have moved very quickly in the warm water of Ko`olau Bay. First it could have evolved into the Ediacarans…., like the Dickensonia.”
“George’s sand casting!”
“Right. And then Old Man Kane’s death?” he asked quietly. They looked at each other for a moment, deep concern mirrored on their faces. “And then….” He leafed through the book still in his hand.
“Look. Here,” she picked up an open book from the floor. “Anomalocaris. I’ve heard of this. It’s an early Pre-Cambrian organism. Looks wicked in this picture.” She pointed out a strange lobster body with wide fins on the side and two large, grasping, spike covered claws. It was using the spikes to smash a trilobite into a circular, tooth covered disc on its underside. “This could’ve been the thing that attacked Lono in the sea cave. Wow, no wonder Dale was so damn scared.”
Andrew shook his head in sympathy. “Then, some of those might have been stressed, the Mutator was activated inside, and their offspring would have evolved through several stages and become….trilobites.” Andrew leafed through the book. “One hundred million years with each page, trilobites, and … sea scorpions?!” A picture of an underwater scorpion slicing through surgeon sized fish made him draw his breath.
“I know this sounds far fetched,” Andrew looked up as he spoke, “but I think that the past and is being repeated in the bay. These strange creatures, the weird things that they’ve been finding. Damn. George was right all along. And all of this because of the Mutator?”
“Andrew, if so, all the waters north of Kukui--”
“That entire region is transmutating through the evolutionary history of life on earth. Beginning with Pre-Cambrian, 700 million years ago, passing through terrors of the deep we’ve only seen as bones before.”
Kerri and Andrew were both silent for a moment.
“Shit,” she swore, her face reflecting fear, “what comes next Andrew?”
He opened the book to the geological time scale and quickly calculated. “Bacteria to Ediacaran, if that’s what Old Man Kane found…. then the trilobites attacking at the huikilau. That could be early Ordovician. Jesus.”
Kerri leaned in to look at the book.
“Next the Silurian,” she said. Andrew groaned as she flipped through the book. She laid it out in front of him. “Sea scorpions,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“But another week has already gone by,” he said hopefully, “that means maybe 350 million years ago…” His face grimaced.
“What is it Andrew?”
He continued reading. “Devonian. Placoderms, armor covered fish, including a bottom feeding Bothriolepsis, and this sword fish like thing called a Doryaspis…” he showed her a picture of an eel like writhing body with a saw blade projected from a head covered with large bone plates.
“That’s downright ugly,” she frowned.
Andrew turned the page. His face turned white...
“What’s wrong Andrew?” He shoved the book into her hands.
““The Age of the Great Jawed Fish” she read out loud. “Oh my god, Andrew, have you heard of them…” She was stopped by the sight of the photo in front of her.
“An eel like tail, scale less body, and massive head covered with shields,” She read aloud. “Dunkleosteus – Hypercarnivorous Apex Predator of the Devonian World. Thirty-three feet in length!” She glanced at the picture. “Weighing over three tons, armed with bony jaws that functioned like self-sharpening meat cleavers. Meat eater… may have eaten sharks! It’s only predator may have been others of its own kind. Cannibals!”
“Oh my god, Andrew, you’ve got to warn them…” she said to an empty room.
Chapter Fifty Two
“How’s it looking to you Lono? Okay?” Michael asked nervously.
“It’s fine Michael, but are you sure you want to do this? You could stay on shore and guide me with your light, so I don’t drift too far out. That would really help.”
“No way. You’re not going out alone. Besides, I want to see what diving feels like at night. They say even the sounds are different. Don’t worry, I’ll be okay.”
“If you’re sure,” Lono said, sounding unconvinced.
George helped them suit up. They clipped on weight belts, floats, dive bags and knives. Each held an underwater light and a spear, and they slowly walked into the water. A gentle surge wrapped round their legs. They stopped and prepped their masks.
“Stay close, right next to me. Pay attention and don’t go off,” Lono told Michael before heading out further. “It won’t look the same as it did in the daylight, and you can get mixed up in the dark. I’m going to hug the reef on our left, trying not to get more than ten feet off shore. But at the end of the cove out there, we’re going to run into surf, and that’s when it’s going to get harder. We won’t be able to stay by the reef edge; we’ll have to swim out a bit to get around the break. Okay?”
Michael nodded. “Where we found that barnacle net yesterday?”
“Right. T
he reef will drop away and the blackness on your right will be as dark as anything you’ve ever seen. Be sure to stay with me there, okay?”
Again Michael nodded.
“And let me know if you’re having any trouble at all, just stop me. Got it?”
“I’ll be careful Lono, don’t worry, I won’t explore on my own this time.”
Lono could tell he meant it. He felt better, but not convinced.
Lono moved out slowly. At first everything was as expected. His battery was strong, and visibility good, nearly ten feet. Michael’s light wasn’t as good as his, so he’d occasionally sweep his light in front of Michael to give him a better view. A few manini and mullet darted in front of him as he panned the reef, but just like during the day, there were far fewer than there would be normally.
Michael paused over a coral head and pointed to the beady black eyes of a shiny, red colored shrimp crawling in, and around the crevices. Night time browsers. Lono knew Michael had probably never seen them before. Then Michael gestured towards one of the black vanna, the spine covered reef anemones, crawling on the ocean floor. That had surprised Lono too on his first night dive. They didn’t move during the day, and like everyone else, he’d thought they were glued to the reef.
The boys followed the left side of the cove, and when they reached the end they moved away from shore to swim around the break. Lono had been right, the waters became even darker.
Michael grabbed Lono’s arm. Lono jumped. Damn, that scared the hell out of me, he thought. Need to pull myself together here. They surfaced and removed their snorkels.
“What is it? Do you want to go back Michael?”
“No way! This is way cool. Can we turn off the lights for a second? I want to see just how dark it is down there.”
“Guess so.” Lono was beginning to feel better about Michael. This kid is really something, he thought. Nothing scares him. They bit down on their snorkels and looked down into the water. Lono took hold of Michael’s arm to bring them side by side. He turned off his light, and Michael followed suit.