Stealth Journeys with the Steam Mapper

Chapter 95: Searching for a Rational Explanation

MYKA had shared with StLF the fossil evidence that suggested that huge squid of prehistoric times had consumed larger animals.  The soft mollusk bodies had not fossilized but the harder beak material had fossilized and the groupings of species told the story of predator and prey. The prehistoric record clearly shows that incredibly large species roamed the earth, and sightings of monstrous sized creatures, mostly aquatic ones, have reports crop up from time to time.   What brought them into contact with humans was hard to say with certainty.   Why they were back, larger than ever, and extremely aggressive could be the result of human activity.

It made sense.   Mutations in aquatic creatures have been studied for a long time.    Many triggers can stimulate abnormal growth and/or rapid growth.   Tumors can grow very rapidly and interfere with glands that regulate growth.   Eggs, fetuses, and juvenile stages of animal life cycles can result in all sorts unexpected outcomes, when they are exposed to dangerous chemical compounds, heavy metals, and radiation.   Humans have been dumping toxic wastes such old medicines, paints, plastics, batteries, petroleum products, dry cleaning solvents, industrial wastes, corrosive materials, pesticides, and radioactive weaponry into the watersheds of our seas and oceans.   Animals become aggressive whenever they have limited resources in their habitats.   This is true of humans, and it is true of other species, too.

The earth's surface is more than 70 percent water.   The climate change is affecting sea level. Scientists continue to find new species and old civilizations whenever they seek out the most hidden places on earth.   Viruses mutate and reappear and cause untold misery to mankind.   The oceans are still a greater mystery to earthlings, than are some of the other planets in our solar system.   How is it that humans are so ignorant and so arrogant?

StLF and MYKA  had been having a lot of philosophical discussions onboard this vessel,  but now was not the time to think of anything but survival mode.  The crew had sent distress signals, realizing that their secret expedition was going to have many questions to answer.  Life rafts and the latest flotation devices and protective gear to ward off sharks and offer protection from poisonous stings, nematocysts and barbs, were distributed to everyone on board.   Flares and advanced cell phones and I pads were put into water tight, flotation boxes, along with fresh water and protein bars.  Everyone knew how important this gear would become if they were stranded in the big ocean.   Everyone had read the book or watched the movie or both: "Unbroken".

The ship had been in a very remote area, but had been traveling fast towards Australia after the first encounter left its crew uneasy.  The research vessel was now waiting for responses from other ships and from government air bases.  The crew was now watching and listening, and wondering when the creature would become active once more.   As long as the ship remained upright and watertight, they could wait for their rescue.  Some onboard were wishing that they could have brought along the explosives their own national research ships routinely carried, just in case a monster surfaced.  The waiting was tedious.  Staying on deck but far from the railings, and huddling with the others provided a slim degree of comfort.

MYKA  thought of the giant tentacles most of the crew had witnessed and how frightful it was to see one of those slithery appendages covered with giant suckers reach over the deck and attempt to grab up a victim.

MBER had announced that she had also been close to a tentacle.   What if she had been pulled overboard?   Would there have been time to pull her from the waters?   Would a braver person proceeded to chop her free, just as Captain Nemo and Ned Land struggled with the beast?   When she heard of Stef's attack to save Robin, she was clearly impressed.

Hearing one witness claim to have been nearly tangled into one of the massive tentacles, reminded Stef of another David Cassidy song that had come to mind while imaging Sir Steven's untimely death.   David Cassidy had written this one with some woman named Sue Shifrin and they called it "Message to the World".   Later in private Stef had written the words to this one, too, in the back of the journal now possessed by MBER.    It seemed more appropriate now than when Stef had written it down one evening weeks ago.

"Tonight, no words are spoken. . . There's no one here to blame.  Somewhere a life is frozen. . . Just a dying flame. . . Somewhere a life is frozen. . . Just a dying flame.  (Yeah, an ember, thought Stef.)  Some place in the dark, lies a beating heart.  We all have that cross to bear. . .  And I just can't hide my shame.  Send a message to the world . . . Everybody say yes.  Send an SOS.   Send a message to the world.  Everybody come on.  Everybody say yeah.  Somebody's life is missing. Someone's hope is gone.  Is anybody listening?   Can they hear this song?"

 And, the very last stanza had included the phrase,  "Can you feel it comin'?   Something's in the air."    True.   Oh, so true, thought Stef.   Would the research vessel actually lose victims in the coming days?   Would the entire crew disappear in the icy waters?   A chilling thought.

As a child watching  Jurassic Park, and then many more creature movies, MYKA  thought of how, what was then imaginary, is now too real for comfort.    MYKA and StLF agreed to be inseparable until they were safe at last and rescued by a ship prepared to do battle with this creature.   The creature must die.   But, what if it was one of many?   How would scientists ever know for sure?

LiDAR and other satellite enhanced means of taking a closer look beneath the surface might be an answer in finding monsters.  But ultimately the sea monsters must all die, or mankind will no longer be able to travel the seas safely.   If mankind could no longer search the seas seeking solutions for saving planet Earth, Oceanography would no longer be the important science it is today.   Then, gone would be the search for promising solutions for safe affordable energy, for medical advances, for restoring Earth by reversing the Greenhouse Effect, for repairing the Ozone Hole, for finding new ways to provide good nutrition for all the species of the Earth.  

"Kraken 3rd Millennium", this creature must be that very species.   A legendary sized squid.   Now, Stef realized why the black void had been so very empty of creatures swimming by the porthole and smoker vents.   The deep sea creatures able to swim away or go into hiding had done so to save themselves from the colossal beast with the voracious appetite.   If only their ship had a place to hide!