A Taste of Earth

A Taste of Earth - Scene 2

Research Ship James Cook II
Atlantic Ocean, 240 km east of Cape Cod

Seven years ago, Oceanographer Juan Gonzales had adopted the thirty-seven meter-long research vessel James Cook II as his home. He knew the quirks of all the lab equipment as if they were his own children. He loved the North Atlantic, the taste of salt in the air, the cold spray on his face, the gentle rocking of the ship ... well, not always gentle. Most of all he loved the life teeming within the ocean. To most people the oceans were barriers, voids where land ceased, interruptions of life. Juan knew better. If anything it was the other way around, but the moment his sensors indicated the nature of the meteor impact, he knew his ocean had changed forever.

"As far as I can tell," he reported his findings to JPL via satellite phone, "we're dealing with diseased plankton."

"Diseased?" John asked. "What, like a virus or something?"

"It's not like the plankton has an immune system, you know? They're just not acting right." Two of Juan's curious college interns, who should have been busy taking samples had it remained a normal day, stood listening behind him.

"Then how do you know it's diseased?"

Juan glanced over his shoulder at the interns, who shook their heads, dumbfounded. "They're converting oxygen into carbon monoxide at an accelerated rate. Don't ask me how. I won't know until I look at them under a transmission electron microscope, but we don't have much time to waste."

"What do you mean?" Dipesh asked.

"We got a real problem here. The fish, they're dying. We're reading oxygen depletion down to 300 meters, and it's spreading."

"Any growth rate estimates?"

"Eh." Juan rubbed his forehead. "Based upon the initial contamination size, I'd say fourteen square kilometers since impact. Madre de Dios, I haven't seen anything like this before in my life."

"Were you able to get close enough to ground zero to collect trace elements?"

"No, and I wouldn't be able to now. I've called the Coast Guard and they said they're going to widen the quarantine area." He heard a sigh on the other end. "They're sending helicopters to evacuate our ship."

"Helicopters?" Irene asked.

"Yes, they say we might spread the organism. It might be on our hull." He thought of all the memories he would be leaving behind and the possibility of never seeing his ship again. How could this happen so quickly? "Hey, what was on that rock, anyway?"

"We don't know."