April 24, 2013
The Singapore Strait
An Hour off the coast of Bintan
Local Time/ 5:30pm
The sun had begun its descent into night as the once pure light of day started to burn into its hues of oranges and red to signal that the day was soon to end beyond the edge of the horizon. Amongst this shift of the tranquil but fiery lights and speckled darkness, a lone motorboat buzzed its way across the water, breaking the calm surface in its speedful wake. The only ones for miles, a weathered man and his young son broke the calm of the darkening water; alone in this silver of time that many would find to be a beautiful once in a lifetime moment but for these two, it was an average spectacle that signaled the end of the long and usually fruitless day.
The true spectacle though, for the father at least, would be if his son would ever just sit down properly as his eight year old child bounced high due to him being unsteady in the chop the boat propelled across.
“Be careful!” the father shouted in Malay,” I keep telling you not to lean so far off the bow? If you fall out I’m leaving you to the sharks!”
“No Dad,” the boy responded with a smile as he situated himself back to his perch, “I won’t. How much longer till home?”
“Judging from the sun,” the young child muttered and squinted playfully at the horizon, “Probably a little after sunset. Do you think we caught enough?”
The father hated to lie to his son, but their meager catch barely justified the size of their cooler. As the days have gone by, the cooler that stored their catch became less and less a way for them to afford to pay for the food on the table, let alone the mounting stacks of bills that they would have to push to the side to even put said food on the table. Sure he could go to the luxury resorts in Berakit to see if they would buy any of his catch, but he hated to be seen by the tourists who looked down on him behind their poolside cocktail glasses. Sometimes he would pick up shifts at the resort now and again, these foreigners would tell him how lucky he was to live there. However all these luxuries from the pristine hotels, world renowned golf courses and holiday packages just eroded his home. Born poor, lived poor and most likely will die poor and would never experience the luxuries The man thought would be damned if any of this life would continue for his son.
“It’s enough,” he responded with a sigh, “Tell me. What did we catch today.”
“Well, we caught-”
“In English!” the man interrupted.
“But dad!,” whined the boy, “Why? We are not at school.”
“No,” the man said, switching back to his birth language, “you need to practice.”
The boy, upset, sat silent for a moment and like the child he was, let loose an over the top moan of frustrated acceptance.
“Fish. We got fish.”
“Is that good English?”
The boy fell silent again, the man seeing the boy was going through the vocabulary that they had been practicing when at home. English would help the boy get to schools outside of Berakit. Hell, if he could get the right kind of scholarships, he could even be taught in Singapore and the man’s hard work to keep this boat afloat would be all worthwhile.
“No,” the boy continued, “we caught fish.”
“What kind?”
The boy thought for a moment, trying to craft the right words until a devilish grin shone onto his face, curling into a jester-like grin.
“Big ones.”
The man laughed. Even when frustrated, the boy had a knack for having a good sense of humor.
“How big?”
The boy, raising his arms to the length of the cooler and looking at each palm, confirming that he wasn’t going over, “This big.”
“And just fish?”
“No,” the boy said, “We also got..we also got…Dad what is sotong in English?”
“Squid.”
“We also caught,” the boy emphasized on the last word, “four squid.”
“Good job! You are so smart! Good English!” the man laughed and clapped a hand onto his knee in an effort to have the other hand remain in control of the boat’s rickety motor.
The boy smiled and then looked down at his feet.
“Something wrong?” the man asked.
“If my English is good,” the boy muttered back in Malay, “Does that mean I still have to go to school and be away from you?”
The man slowed the boat a bit to a stop. The words were true, but they didn’t get rid of the sting.
“Yes,” he replied.
“But what if I don’t want to go? What if I just want to work for you! I don’t need school to work with you right!?” the boy muttered in a solemn tone.
The man thought for a moment. His son was a smart one, but also a sensitive one. It took some getting used to. Times like this made him miss his wife. But that was a long time ago.
“Well,” the man said, “the thing is I am not a teacher. I’m a fisherman.”
The boy looked up from his saddened state at his father, “but I want to be a fisherman!”
“Well if that is the case,” the father said in a business-like tone, “I’d have to hire you. But you see, I only want to hire hard workers-”
“I’m a hard worker!”
“That maybe true,” the man continued, “but I need a good hard worker who has gone to school. It’s how I know that not only they know how to catch fish, but also be able to sell them to everyone and not just some people.”
“Even if I am your son?”
“Especially if you are my son.”
The boy thought for a moment and then with a hearty smile, stuck out his hand.
The man laughed and shook the extended eight year old palm, “We got a deal then?”
“We got a deal,” the boy grinned again and turned away from his father. The once sorrowful energy of the lad had changed to one of victory. The real victory was for the father as in this moment, he felt that his son may in fact have a future beyond this.
“Shall we keep going-”
“Dad!” the boy said, standing up from his seat. The sheer speed of the kid’s action rocked the boat a bit.
“Steady on,” the man shouted, “you have to sit down. I’m about to start-”
“What’s that!” the boy shouted and pointed at the horizon.
The man couldn’t see it at first, the setting sun was in his eyes. Placing a hand over his eyes to shade them and allow a better sight, he could see it. The ocean was moving, like a large unbreaking wave was heading towards them. He thought any moment the swell would break into a wave but it didn’t. Instinctively, he started to move his hands to get the motor ready to start before he saw it. The tell tale sign of silver speckles.
“Get the net,” he said.
“What?” the boy questioned.
“Ready the net!”
Just as the father and son had their casting net ready to be released into the water, they were upon them. At all sides of the boat, they were surrounded by a flurry of fish. The man in all his years on the water had never seen anything like it. It was schools of such a variety of fish that something like this was only heard of as an unlikely miracle.
“Cast it!” he shouted.
The net was thrown and it crashed into the water. The schools of fish didn’t move out of the way like they would normally do with a reactive flick of their tail fins. Both of them had to work to pull in the heavy net that contained such a mixture of fish of all colors and sizes but most importantly, their market price.
“This is unbelievable!” he shouted.
“Dad, look!” the boy said over the rapping of slapping fish hitting the deck of their boat, filling the bottom with flopping for life bodies. The man looked up and saw the familiar breaching of dolphins. There were six of them, leaping gracefully out of the water in full. Their sleek bodies didn’t crash back into the water, but slid right into the shoal of fish beneath the surface. He noticed none of the majestic sea mammals had fish in their teeth when they would come back up to breach the surface in their aerobatics. There was a small but growing inkling of confusion at this, for why were the dolphins not also taking advantage of this amazing once in a lifetime bounty.
“They have come to shepherd us to good fortune,” the man shouted with bravado to hide his creeping concerns.
“Really?” the boy questioned.
The man smiled back, trying to hid the fact that he couldn’t shake that something wasn’t adding up.
“Should we cast the net again?” the boy asked.
The feeling could wait.
“Of course,” the man cheered, “We won’t have to work for weeks with two or three more nets like this! We could even get a bigger boat if we wanted to!”
The boy, infected with the man’s delight, nodded and readied the casting net again. As the man moved to help the throw, the boy took a step back from the rim of their craft, nearly slipping on the fish that slapped the air beneath them, to scream.
“Dad!”
The man moved quickly to the edge of the boat and then saw them. Massive in their size. At first he thought it was two really girthy dolphins, but it was the gills that made him release their reality. He grabbed his boy away from the boat’s edge as the two large great white sharks moved and swam past them, their fins cutting the water’s surface to showcase their imposing presence in the school of lesser fish. These were apex predators, much like the dolphins that were swimming past them. The two species only truly feared each other in these waters. But the growing confusion in the man was metamorphosing into a more primal instinct. One that he was now starting to understand. A feeling that would make creatures like the dolphins and great white sharks brothers in arms instead of competitors.
Fear.
After one more rock of the boat from the shoal of sea creatures rushing past them signified that the strange phenomena was over, the fear had not passed.
“Dad?” the boy asked wearily, “what was that?”
“I don’t know son,” the man said looking in the direction of where the shoal came from, “I don’t know.”
There was silence between them but not within the boat. A splash came from the side as the man realized in their pause, the gasping for water fish they had caught were flopping out of the boat. They quickly grabbed one of the paddles and handed the other one to the boy.
“Quick,” the man said, “we don’t want to lose any more. Let’s make sure the fish don’t jump out before we start heading back.”
Primordial, the man and son silently hit the fish with their paddles as the smell of blood started to mix with the sea air. In an odd way, the pounding of their catch starting to cease was calming to both the father and the son. This is what fishermen did. This was something they knew. Something they comfortably knew to be the norm and nothing strange out of place out here on the waters they knew so well.
Or at least, used to know.
“I’m going to finish off the last of the jumpers,” the man said to his son, “I want you to start counting what we have.”
The boy nodded and looked back in the direction of the extraordinary shoal of marine life, “Dad?”
“Yes?”
“There is a wave coming.”
“It will pass. Focus on the counting.”
The boy counted, keeping an eye on the wave. The man continued to hit the fish with the end of the paddle, splattering the blood onto the wood and his open toe feet. A shower was much needed after today.
“Dad.”
“What?”
“Where did the wave go?”
“What?”
He looked up and saw that the swell had gone.
“It must have passed us. It happens.”
With the last of the fish, the only sound the man could hear on the boat was his son counting. He let out a sigh. He was trying to quit but the first thing he was going to do when getting back on shore was have a cigarette.
Suddenly a splash from the water came from the side. He must have missed a fish. Lucky fish.
“Dad!” the boy said alarmingly, “what is that!”
The man turned to his son and nearly slipped backward at the sudden fright of what was now crawling onto the boat. He knew it was there. He could see it with his two eyes. The man and the boy both stared in shock and awe as the unbelievable cat-size crustacean that had moved onto the deck of the boat.
“What is that?” the boy whispered in alarm.
“I don’t know,” the man said, “A lobster?”
But it was truly unlike any lobster he had ever seen. In a weird way, it looked like a mix-mash of lobster, shrimp and their much nastier look-a-like, the mantis shrimp. It was dark blue in color with faded yellow circles on its sides. It scuttled around the deck on spindly segmented legs, seemingly curious about its environment. It waved its long and almost neon pink antennae that matched its feathery tail fin. These features seemed to almost glow, much like the neon sign of one of his favorite bars back on shore. It was a stark contrast compared to the rest of the primordial looking creature’s body. The man leaned in and pulled his boy closer, lightly but with firmness. Protective. The movement made the creature suddenly turn to them and the man’s lingering fear almost knocked him like a freight train. It now was aware of them.
“Can,” the boy whispered cautiously, “can we catch it?”
“I don’t think we should,” the man said. He had never seen anything like it and a part of him shouted to grab the oddity. With a haul of fish like this and some new creature that in all of his years of being on the water, he could probably get a new house. Yet there was something off putting about this animal and that weariness of the unknown was a louder course of action to him, “It might be best to throw it overboard. Back to wherever it came from.”
Suddenly, the creature looked away from the two and down at the bottom of the boat, seeing the bloodied fish. It scurried quickly towards them and revealed two slender crab-like claws from under its body, grabbing the nearest fish and inhaling the creature into its mandibles.
“Hey,” boy shouted protectively, “that’s our catch!”
Breaking free from the man’s hold, the boy moved towards the shrimp-like thing. Alerted from the boy’s movement towards it, the crustacean went rigid and suddenly started to glow a more radiant pink from its antennae. The man, now protective of his son from the unknown thing, lunged forward and grabbed the oar, striking a defensive position in front of his son.
“Watch out!” he shouted just as the creature’s antennae flicked forward and without warning, a small shock of electricity burst out of the whip-like antennae at the man, striking him on the arm. The man howled in pain, dropping the oar and going to his knees as he rubbed his arms from the electrical pain that was erupting on them. He had been electrocuted once by accident when fixing the boat’s motor. This shock wasn’t as bad as that, but he wasn’t expecting a living animal to bring back memories like that.
“Hey!” the boy roared and grabbed the man’s fallen oar, “That’s my dad!”
Before the arthropod could react, the boy grabbed the oar and batted the angered sea creature and flung it hard back into the sea. The boy went over to the side of the boat to make sure the crustacean was gone but as the pain was residing in his arms, the man noticed the boy’s pride of protecting his pop was already retreating.
“Dad? Where are we? Is it shallow here?”
“What?” the man responded, gritting his teeth as the shearing pain started to fade into more of a stinging discomfort. He hobbled over to where the boy stood, looking over the rim of the boat. Below the surface, he could see the creature swimming down below them towards a large patch of brown. It looked almost like sea grass but the man knew seagrass. This wasn’t it. They had yet made it to the shallow waters. There was something wrong here. Something is not right. How did a lobster get out here in the middle of the ocean? Nothing seemed to make sense. The shoal. The dolphins. The sharks. This electrical monster and now suddenly they were in the shallow waters. He knew of no sand bars in this area. He knew these waters for it was all he truly did have in this world.
Their catch be damned.
Whatever they were involved with they had to leave. Every instinct that the sooner they were
home, the safer they would be.
“We are leaving. Now.” the man said and moved towards the engine, pulling its start up cord and letting the old motor rip out a roar as it tired to start up. The man pulled it two more times before the coughing roars of the motor were suddenly answered by a new sound. A sound that was unlike anything he had heard before. A sound that was like thunder. A sound that alerted him that they had to leave.
Now.
Frantic, the man started to continue to pull the engine of the boat and once again the roars were answered by something much louder.
“What is that,” the boy screamed his his hands over his ears, “Dad! I’m scared!”
“Me too,” the man said and with another pull of the old motor “But we will be home soon just one more-”
The water shook.
The ocean around them vibrated as the sound boomed all around them. As if something was just as frustrated about the engine’s failure as him. The waters rocked the boat from all sides as it seemed the ocean began to split apart, giving away to sight that only stupefied this man of the sea.
“Dad!”
“What in Allah’s name…” the man whispered in shock to the spectacle before him.
Rising from the ocean were jagged features that jutted out, placing the boat stranded out of the water and amongst the spiny and bizarre terrain. To add more confusion to the terrifying occurrence, to either side of them, beautiful blue plumes that seemed to be like gigantic feathers slowly pushed themselves out of the ocean like mighty sails that towered over them. These great and lofty spectacles loomed dangerously but beautifully above them. It was something alien to the man and he was way beyond his knowledge, or anyone’s knowledge for that matter. The air started to become thick and charged as a humming noise seemed to echo around them. The man realized that the odd spiked terrain they were stranded on were rattling together and rocked their little boat from the vibrations. The sound of breaking wood of the hull signaled something was happening and they were in the wrong place to experience it. He looked at his son, lunging towards him. He must protect him. He must protect his child. He must protect his world.
“Dad,” the boy said, reaching out to him.
But the man and son would never be in each other’s arms, for in an instant they were gone. A sudden burst of greenish lighting erupted from the spines, making the blue feathers flash a brilliant cerulean light that caught the boat and its occupants in its deadly embrace. The titanic length of feathers began to lower, closing around the body of what lay below the water’s surface. There was nothing left of the boat that once held the occupants. Only charred debris and lifeless bodies bobbed the water, never to know of the gigantic lifeform that was truly oblivious to them. To this immense creature, the sound of the motor boat’s failure to start grumbles were simply the calls of some unknown creature that foolishly challenged this great leviathan. The display it had responded with was only just for show. The creature waited to see if the unknown garbled screeches would respond and to the animalistic mind that resided in it, it had done its job. It had scared off whatever had thought it could challenge it. Feeling slightly drained from using its bio-electrical display to ward off its unseen but not unheard “rival”, the creature knew it had to find more electricity. Having followed a call similar to what had disturbed it from the depths a few nights before, its senses were picking up what it thought to be a massively large but oddly centralized storm on the horizon. There it would be able to recharge itself. It felt weary of the waters around it. The small roars were not the only strange and alien sounds of these unfamiliar surface waters. The creature needed to be ready for any and all challenges. Despite its gargantuan size, it quietly moved back into the twilight depths and away from the now setting sun to what it believed to be a powerful electrical storm ahead that luckily was in the same direction of the odd and irritating sound that brought it up to the surface in the first place. The creature though would soon learn that what lay ahead of it was no tempest; powered and towering structures the likes it never knew possible would soon loom before it, built by the very unnoticeable beings that it had forever taken away from this world in its very wake.
April 24, 2013
The Fullerton Hotel, Singapore
Local Time/ 8:00pm
“Man,” Rick said cheerfully before taking another bite, “This is rad tofu.”
Rick sat across from Jen all dressed up in a newly bought green button up with brown pants while Jen wore her classic white formal top and black pants. The pristine and well tailored restaurant Jade wafted with idle chatter and the smell of world renown Cantonese cooking as the two sat amongst other patrons in the Singapore’s monument of a hotel, the Fullerton Hotel. The historic hotel was an icon of Singapore’s waterfront, which Jade had fantastic views of and was a must whenever Rick visited the city. Which was only once as a kid, but the mouth watering memories of food were at the moment overpowering the memories of being here with his dad.
“I’m still pretty impressed, “Jenn smirked as she took another sip from her soup, “that after all this time you’ve stuck with that diet. I almost didn’t recognize you at the airport. Hardly recognize you now.”
“Amazing what a shower and new clothes can do,” Rick grinned back, “And diet wise, it’s pretty amazing what can happen to your life when you listen to a monk in the mountains of Chang Mai.”
“You were so bent out of shape about it though,” Jenn laughed, “Even the monk was surprised by your reaction.”
“Well what else does someone do when someone asks you the big questions like ‘if the way you eat matches your beliefs?’”
“Most people probably say ‘well shit’ quietly in their heads when major life changing thoughts hit them. Not screaming “oh fuck” over and over in a Buddisht temple.”
“Well,” Rick mused, “where is the fun in that? Besides, if I remember correctly, it was your idea to take me there so long story short, it’s your fault.”
“If that is your way of thanking me for a healthier lifestyle, then you’re welcome,” Jenn smiled and raised her glass of wine, “To taking credit for your health.”
Rick smiled back and raised his glass of water, “to taking credit for my health.”
“Though granted,” Rick said as he looked over the menu one more time, “I could also blame you for instead of eating this wonderful Mapo tofu when I could be eating their signature lamb dish. But the Amazon is still on fire so I guess I gotta stick to this environmentally aware and healthy diet I’ve put myself through.”
“Well,” Jenn said, “It’s just nice to see you are still “Ricking” around. All things considered.”
“Wait. You verbed my name?”
“Don’t look into it. Focus on that. I’m complimenting that you’re holding up relatively well, as I said, all things considered.”
“Relatively?”
Jenn looked over Rick and then looked back at her glass of wine in her hand. She took a breath and put the wine down and straightened herself a bit.
“I mean,” she muttered, “I don’t know how you are coping with all that is going on right now.”
“Easy. I got us wine,” Rick smirked.
“Correction. You got me wine. You haven’t had a drop of it.”
“Well, I have to hydrate first you know before drinking,” Rick said and raised his cup of water and then the other cup that he had with an amber liquid, “water and oolong. Can’t get yourself more hydrated for a bottle of wine.”
“Rick.”
“This is just the start. Remember I put that order for both of us to have the crispy lobster dumplings. It’s a signature dish here. Absolutely-”
“Rick.”
“Wonderful,” Rick continued, “but what else do you expect at a restaurant with Michlean stars? Honestly we could be here all night trying this menu. I am in the mood for a foodies night. We should be celebrating your success as well about that job opportunity of yours!”
“Oh,” Jenn said with surprise, “I didn’t realize you knew.”
“I’ve been following the story about what’s going on in Slovenia with that new cave system that opened up due to the World Quake. You’re on the new exploratory team right?”
“Right. I’m going to help document the recovery efforts and see if we can find the Oliver Casperi expedition.”
“Isn’t this the third expedition? Whatever happened to the second one?”
“They didn’t find anything but they had to turn back due to realizing the cave system goes deeper than they thought.”
“It’s an amazing discovery regardless. They call it the Proteus Gate right?”
“Yeah. It’s because of all the olms they found in the first cavern.”
“Man, my dad would kill to be on an expedition like that.”
Rick paused at his last words. He shook his head and drank his oolong hard.
“Why are we here?” Jenn asked.
“To thank you!” Rick replied, trying to find the pep in his step again, “I mean putting me up so last minute. And with everything-”
“Rick,” Jenn interrupted, “What were you doing at the marine center today.”
There was a silence between them.
“I don’t see how that’s relevant,” Rick said, breaking it, “I was just seeing an old friend.”
“Archie Best?”
“Yeah,” Rick responded, making sure eye contact was not made, “He’s in town for a lecture. Might stop by again tomorrow. He has some kind of ‘unusual specimen’ that just came in. Wants me to check it out. He’s sending me photos of it later today. Might be something fun to do while I’m here before going to the states. Get some lab work in. Unless you have plans for me. I you know I won’t say–”
“Rick,” Jenn said, “You’re rambling. I’ve known you long enough to know when you are avoiding something. You have to-”
“It was about the funeral,” Rick interrupted, “Okay? It was about the funeral.”
Rick took another drink of his oolong tea.
“Rick,” Jenn said.
“Don’t worry, you’re invited. It’s going to be at my grandfather’s ranch. You know the one in Montana? Should be a fitting service. Everyone but me now will be buried there. Speaking of, should I send an invite to ol’ what’s his name,” Rick said with a sharp tongue, “You know, your husband?”
“Ex husband,” Jenn replied strongly.
Rick’s tension started to lower, realizing that he may have spoken a bit out of turn, “Oh Jenn. I’m sorry. I thought you guys were trying to–”
“I actually sent the divorce papers a few weeks ago. Colleen helped me with them.”
“Oh,” Rick said and took another long drink of oolong to continue to avoid eye contact with Jenn, “Where are those dumplings?”
“Rick.”
“Jenn.”
“What are you doing?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve known you long enough,” Jenn said calmly. ” When you are trying to avoid the subject. I’ve been patient so far because I’m your friend and I know this is really hard. You’ve lost a parent before and it always stings whenever she was brought up. Now you’ve lost your dad and Colleen and I have to ask, are you okay?”
“Yeah I’m fine.”
“Rick,” Jenn said, “You said that the funeral will be at the ranch for them to be buried.”
“Right,” Rick said, realizing he was caught in the lie.
“Rick, there were no bodies recovered from Conan Doyle. I saw what happened. Probably half the people in this room saw what happened the other night. Your parents are dead.”
“Well,” Rick soberly said, “it happens. All great science comes with risks and they took a pretty big risk going that deep.”
Jenn reached out to Rick and grabbed his hand which he squeezed but let go, placing both his hands on his lap. She looked him over again and she herself took a swig of wine. “Hon, you just started talking to them again after what? Three years? And now they are gone. Talk to me.”
“Two and half,” Rick muttered, “But who’s counting.”
“Rick,” Jenn said sternly, “You can be honest with me. This can’t be easy for you.”
“I mean no. It’s not. But at least I was with them. At least we got things sorted.”
“Did you?” Jenn asked.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You know she was my friend too,” Jenn continued, “Colleen was there for me during all the divorce. We talked.”
“You talked with my step mom on the reg?”
“E-mailed and more recently video chat,” Jen replied, “One of her last calls was about three months ago when I started my divorce with Jason. She was so happy that you guys were talking again. She honestly started to believe that you would never talk to your dad or her about going to work for CRADLE.”
“Well,” Rick said, “It took them long enough to see for the first time in their lives that I was right about something.”
“Rick, what a fucked thing to say,” Jenn said agast, “You can’t blame them for going to work for CRADLE. They aren’t as bad as you think and your parent’s work was unorthodox as it is so of course they went to CRADLE for support. That company gives a lot of scientific research. Even this expedition to the Proteus Gate has some of their backing from them. But regardless of that, they did end up leaving CRADLE in the end. You were always more important to them than the work they were doing.”
“Their work,” Rick said, “is still what killed them though.”
The silence was thick between them now. Jenn knew that Rick was walling himself up, something that despite his carefree celebrity appearance would have, was something he would aggressively do whenever he faced unprecedented life change. He always would rather ignore something and pretend it never happened then actually talk through it. She sighed and took another big swing of her wine.
“And we aren’t even talking about the other elephant in the room,” she muttered under the red wine that lingered in her breath.
“What elephant?” Rick questioned, now beginning to drink more of his water as aggressively as his oolong.
“Seriously,” Jenn said with losing patience fast,”You got arrested at the airport. I know for a fact it wasn’t for the other thing. You know I was followed by black cars after I dropped you off at the Marine Institute. I even got a voicemail from the Embassy from a Mrs.Vale asking if I was who I was and if a Rick Winston was indeed staying with me. So you tell me Rick. Your parents died on an international broadcast that had one hell of an ending that myself and most everyone here kind of want and answer to. You show up randomly here in Singapore of all places and have the freaking United States government calling me, a Canadian citizen mind you, and you sit here still having a ‘grudge’ with your parents, who may I remind you once again, just died. So yeah, there is a pretty big fucking elephant in the room right now Rick.”
Rick looked at her with guilt in his eyes and took another drink. Jenn noticed a slight shaking when he brought the cup to his lips. She knew of his anxieties and probably knew better than to lay it on him so thickly, but she needed them to realize that they were not going through this loss alone. Colleen was a dear friend of hers and to see her step son act this way, was not just upsetting to see; it was heartbreaking. When Rick finished his drink, he finally made eye contact with her.
“Okay then,” he spoke in defeat, “you wanna talk? Let’s talk. What did you see?”
“Pardon?” Jenn replied.
“What,” Rick said again with his tone scratching frustration, “Did you see.”
“Well,” Jenn muttered and held her wine glass close, tracing its rim with her finger and looking into the dark liquid, thinking back to the dark waters that Colleen and Hank were surrounded by in their submersible nearly six miles down beneath the sea. “Well, they had successfully made their descent to the rim of the trench and activated their deep sea lure for deep sea creatures. Your folks started to talk about their exploits as scientists and explorers and how science and history are constantly changing in the face of new discoveries and revelations and then those lights came out of the trench and then-”
“And then the feed cut out,” Rick interrupted, “But what happened after. Did the feed come back on.”
“No,” Jenn said, “There was an announcement that the Conan Doyle was having technical difficulties. After thirty minutes, the station announced that due to the sudden storm in the area there was an emergency due to an extreme technical difficulty that resulted in the loss of your parents.”
“Hmm,” Rick said, “So they did cut the feed before it was seen.”
“What?” Jenn asked, “Before what was seen.”
Rick looked at her and then looked around the restaurant. Despite the intense emotions they
showed earlier, it seemed no one was really paying attention to them. There were some looks but nothing that deemed that they realized who exactly he was or what they were talking about. He took a deep breath and looked back at Jenn.
“That is the story. But mind you,” he said, “the story you know right now but it’s not what happened.”
“What do you mean?” Jenn asked with concern.
“Yeah, what I know is being looked over by the US government. They are still investigating what they now call an ‘ongoing investigation’ into the sinking of the Conan Doyle and the death of my parents. Despite me telling them the truth of what happened and even though they made it clear they don’t believe me, they don’t want me telling people publicly about what I truthfully saw.”
“And what did you see Rick? What was down there? Those lights? What happened?”
“My parents said that lure was for deep sea creatures. They told me it was for squid and sperm whales. But they found something. Or it found them.”
“What are you saying Rick?”
“Their lure worked. But it wasn’t what they said it was for. They called something out of those depths and it killed them. It then followed the bathscape’s tow line and destroyed Conan Doyle like the research vessel was nothing.”
“What? Something destroyed the Conan Doyle? It wasn’t a storm?”
“It,”Rick at a loss for words, “it was the storm? I don’t know. It’s just truly unbelievable. It is beyond anything I will ever know. That my parents ever knew. That anyone on this planet has ever known in this world’s natural history.”
“Rick, what are you saying?”
“I-” Rick was saying before the eruption of sound broke his words.
The unnatural sound was soon followed by a massive explosion and the windows shown the fiery
glow of an oncoming disaster. A variety of languages from the surrounding tables aroused them with a variety of fear, confusion and curses. Staff and customers alike moved towards the pristine window to gaze at the mariana view of Singapore’s idyllic harbor front. Rick got up from his chair quickly and Jenn followed suit as they both made their way to see through the window to try and witness the source of the explosions and the continuing drone of the unknown sound that was unlike anything that Jenn had ever heard. They moved through the thick crowd of people, joining the other restaurant onlookers who were now more preoccupied with the thunderous events outside than the dinners that still sat at their tables. Jenn could see billows of smoke and flames as the streets were now rivers of sirens and flashing emergency vehicles lights, all heading to the Mariana South, home to local attractions like the Marina Barrage and the iconic Gardens of the Bay. Well, more like were the home of them, for they now seemed to be behind a wall of smoke and flames.
And then she saw it. There was something behind the flames and smoke. Amongst the carnage of building debris and the increasing rhythmic tremors, she saw a large mass hiding in the calamity; illuminated by sparks of blue and green lights.
She turned to look at Rick and instead found him kneeling on the floor. He seemed broken. His arm shook uncontrollably at the face of whatever was across the bay.
“Rick,” she questioned cautiously, “what is that?”
Rick was silent.
“Rick,” she asked again with panic in her voice, “what is that thing?”
“It’s real,” he muttered under his manic expression.
“What?”
“It’s really here.”
“Rick,” Jenn said and crouched down to his level and pulled his face to face her, “what the hell is that thing?”
“It doesn’t have a name Jenn,” Rick started to laugh.
“What,” Jenn exclaimed, “What do you mean it doesn’t have a name!?”
“It’s what took them Jenn,” Rick manically laughed as he started to break at the face of the reality before them, “It’s what killed my parents Jenn. It’s going to change everything.”
Another loud explosion boomed across the Singapore harbor as the chaotic debris of what was
left of famous locations like the Observation Deck and Sand Expo and Convention Center crumbled beneath what was once an unimaginable thing. Jenn starred in primordial terror as from out from the destruction and into the lights of Singapore’s nightlight; starting to show its true form to the world that had all its eyes watching.
It was big.
Really big.
It moved clear of the smoke revealing that the four legged creature was a giant, bearing the familiar but truly unbelievable body shape that hadn’t been seen on this Earth for millions of years. Covered in dark brown feathering with light blue highlights, it flexed its longer and darker blue feathers that lay in a set of threes behind each shoulder of the animal. Walking on formidable feathered forelimbs which seemed to have spiked armor near the lower arm, also had a mighty display of blue plumage and ended with two massive clawed fingers and a thumb-like digit that bore mighty claws, adding to its fearsome display. The titanic animal had on its head a black and blue feathered crest that seemed remiscene of a cockatoos, as it unfurled to make its already gigantic maw seem more menacing. The creature’s full length came into view, showcasing spiny protrusions that ended with a large and unusual spike near the tip of an alligator-like tail. The beast stood tall over a metropolis that had every citizen stare in awe and disbelief at the incredible sight for this day and age: a dinosaur.
The prehistoric creature looked over thirty meters tall at its shoulder, snarled at the sight of the city that stood before it. The creature bared jagged teeth and prominent tusks at the sights of metal towers covered in lights, the sounds of modern technologies and the scents of creatures that it had no idea existed under its feet. It moved its crested head to survey the sight of the unfamiliar skyline and the long feathers on its side unfurled their length, giving the creature an almost peacock-like display that was mythically beautiful in the shine of a burning city’s lights. The beast then let loose a powerful and unthinkable cry. The bombastic cry was a sound that was not just announcing itself to Singapore. No, this creature was unleashing a roar of bygone age to the now modern world that mankind had made. A call to remind all that heard it that mankind’s belief in absolute dominion was in fact a self imposed fallacy. And as the unknowable and unbelievable prehistoric monster sounded its warcry, all Rick could do while he stared at the floor was to start accepting a truth that shook him to his core: this was the day that everything he or anyone knew about this world…was wrong.
TO READ MORE APEX, GO TO THE OFFICIAL APEX SUBSTACK PAGE
