07-12-2014, 08:51 AM
Elias was motionless in the doorway to Tony's home. Four men gazed back at him. There was nothing particularly outstanding about any one individual, and neither could Eli sense anything from them. It seemed his kind were wont to hide until they revealed themselves: sharks swimming in deep waters until it was too late. He assumed that likewise Eli was hidden from them as well. If they were sharks, he was the Great White lazily surveying his kingdom. He entered and greeted each man.
They were all older than he, but Eli met each handshake confidently. He was taller than both Veso and Hans, whom as Eli greeted the latter, stirred the waters of the shark's lair with power. Eli did not react but to move on. Dan was gritty, his affect serious. Eli immediately liked him. Eli studied the final man's scarred face, Yuri, and could not help but wonder how a man of such pleasant nature was once so badly wounded.
"Thank you,"
Elias said to the group for their help. "I'm Elias. Or you can call me Eli if you wish."
They immediately took to his American accent, for which Eli explained his origins in Utah. This of course led to the conversation about his time in Wellington and the disappearance of his uncle. He pulled out his Uncle's Wallet, which likely by some oversight was still active and the account still paid in full by the University.
With it, Eli threw multiple images to the air. The guys gathered around.
"This is my uncle, Paul. A scientist and marine biologist, on the team's vessel,"
Eli said, pausing to look at his uncle's smiling, warm expression. He moved on.
"This was their destination, north of Antarctica, well within arctic waters. My uncle said they were tracking a subthreshold heat and energy signature that some members of the team argued as volcanic, but he disagreed."
Eli then swiped to a radar-like grid of the ocean that upon spinning turned into a 3d cube of the sea viewed from the side. The floor of the ocean was positioned below, the surface above. The waters pulsed with a color coded signature that Elias had to enhance the settings just to make them visible to the naked eye. Once done, the waters rippled from oceanic blue to a deathly red. "'The signature was wide, but the source was focal', he said."
To demonstrate, Eli zoomed in on a small part of the sea floor. "His calculations couldn't determine the exact size, but he argued the signature originated from an area no larger than the rug under the couch over there."
Eli pointed at Tony's living room.
Dan, frowning, or perhaps thoughtful, spoke up. "What could do that? Was it radioactive? Or was it a fissure of a volcano as assumed?"
Eli shook his head. "If Paul had a guess, he didn't tell me, but he was very excited. This is the extent of my knowledge. Their destination, the time they left, and these particle signatures. The rest was classified and the data files were removed from his account. I can't access any of it from his Wallet. The Dean at Victoria University claims it was a volcano. He even showed me seismograph activity taking place the day they lost contact with the team, but I think it was forged."
Veso snorted. "Why would a volcano thousands of meters under the sea have anything to do with a science vessel suddenly disappearing?"
Hans swung around to answer him. "Maybe they found a new Bermuda Triangle?"
Despite his snide remark, Eli grew grim. Perhaps they had.
"There's an old man in the Guardian that I went to visit. There was a similar experience almost fifty years ago. They thought there was something radioactive in the waters. They went to investigate. He was the only survivor. He claims there was an earthquake that opened a cavern."
The men looked confused, so Eli lifted a finger while he pulled up a map of the world's oceans.
With it he highlighted the warmest waters, those latitudes above and below the equator. "The greatest abundance of sea life exists in this region, where there is warmth, sunlight and abundant food."
With a few deft movements, the area of the sea shifted to highlight the waters around the Antarctic continent. "What you may not realize is that the Deep Antarctic Waters is the cradle of marine life of the marine species on the planet. This is the Macquarie Ridge,"
Eli traced his finger along an 870-mile-long underwater mountain range that stretched from New Zealand to the Antarctic Circle. "The peak of the mountain range stretches so close to the surface that it creates massive underwater currents that constantly circulate food for larger predators to flourish."
Finally, he did a quick image search to demonstrate his final point. "And deep sea octopuses trace their origins back to relatives that swam in the waters around Antarctica. The closest known descendant of those species is called the Megaleledone setebos, which feeds by drilling small holes through mollusk shells and then injects its poisonous saliva."
The men's expressions were slowly turning into shock while Hans' approached horror. With everything they'd seen in their days, the idea of the existence a giant sea monster was within the realm of possibility.
"The old man in the Guardian was locked away because he claimed a giant, Cthulhu-like creature emerged from the open cavern and capsized their vessel."
Eli shrugged.
"The Antarctic sea is largely unexplored and still boasts the capacity for giant sea life to thrive. I might have believed him, until Tony and I met the Chancellor. This is a larger conspiracy, boys. One involving governments and institutions across the globe."
Finally, he showed them the Chancellor's river map. His uncle's Wallet was of course configured to portray any large body of water in the world, and the Moscow River was one such body. This was the first chance Eli had to study the river in 3d view. With the Wallet on the table, the golden city of Moscow, and the blue river plunging through its heart, hovered above.
He chipped away with knife-like swipes of his hands at the city until only the river remained, a streak of pale blue. He turned it on its side like a Rubik's cube, twisting it this way and that until it was a straight line. All the various depths and canals breaking in and out of it were displayed. When he punched in the GPS coordinates from the Chancellor's map, a red target pointed out the location.
"And this location is our only lead. I would be willing to bet that if we had the software that could detect the subthreshold particle signature, we'd find a striking similarity to what my uncle was after."
Eli paused, studying the area, and wishing he had a greater education to draw upon than his mere semester at Victoria University, but with the six of them, he had every confidence they could discover the truth together.
Edited by Elias Donovan, Jul 12 2014, 09:31 AM.
They were all older than he, but Eli met each handshake confidently. He was taller than both Veso and Hans, whom as Eli greeted the latter, stirred the waters of the shark's lair with power. Eli did not react but to move on. Dan was gritty, his affect serious. Eli immediately liked him. Eli studied the final man's scarred face, Yuri, and could not help but wonder how a man of such pleasant nature was once so badly wounded.
"Thank you,"
Elias said to the group for their help. "I'm Elias. Or you can call me Eli if you wish."
They immediately took to his American accent, for which Eli explained his origins in Utah. This of course led to the conversation about his time in Wellington and the disappearance of his uncle. He pulled out his Uncle's Wallet, which likely by some oversight was still active and the account still paid in full by the University.
With it, Eli threw multiple images to the air. The guys gathered around.
"This is my uncle, Paul. A scientist and marine biologist, on the team's vessel,"
Eli said, pausing to look at his uncle's smiling, warm expression. He moved on.
"This was their destination, north of Antarctica, well within arctic waters. My uncle said they were tracking a subthreshold heat and energy signature that some members of the team argued as volcanic, but he disagreed."
Eli then swiped to a radar-like grid of the ocean that upon spinning turned into a 3d cube of the sea viewed from the side. The floor of the ocean was positioned below, the surface above. The waters pulsed with a color coded signature that Elias had to enhance the settings just to make them visible to the naked eye. Once done, the waters rippled from oceanic blue to a deathly red. "'The signature was wide, but the source was focal', he said."
To demonstrate, Eli zoomed in on a small part of the sea floor. "His calculations couldn't determine the exact size, but he argued the signature originated from an area no larger than the rug under the couch over there."
Eli pointed at Tony's living room.
Dan, frowning, or perhaps thoughtful, spoke up. "What could do that? Was it radioactive? Or was it a fissure of a volcano as assumed?"
Eli shook his head. "If Paul had a guess, he didn't tell me, but he was very excited. This is the extent of my knowledge. Their destination, the time they left, and these particle signatures. The rest was classified and the data files were removed from his account. I can't access any of it from his Wallet. The Dean at Victoria University claims it was a volcano. He even showed me seismograph activity taking place the day they lost contact with the team, but I think it was forged."
Veso snorted. "Why would a volcano thousands of meters under the sea have anything to do with a science vessel suddenly disappearing?"
Hans swung around to answer him. "Maybe they found a new Bermuda Triangle?"
Despite his snide remark, Eli grew grim. Perhaps they had.
"There's an old man in the Guardian that I went to visit. There was a similar experience almost fifty years ago. They thought there was something radioactive in the waters. They went to investigate. He was the only survivor. He claims there was an earthquake that opened a cavern."
The men looked confused, so Eli lifted a finger while he pulled up a map of the world's oceans.
With it he highlighted the warmest waters, those latitudes above and below the equator. "The greatest abundance of sea life exists in this region, where there is warmth, sunlight and abundant food."
With a few deft movements, the area of the sea shifted to highlight the waters around the Antarctic continent. "What you may not realize is that the Deep Antarctic Waters is the cradle of marine life of the marine species on the planet. This is the Macquarie Ridge,"
Eli traced his finger along an 870-mile-long underwater mountain range that stretched from New Zealand to the Antarctic Circle. "The peak of the mountain range stretches so close to the surface that it creates massive underwater currents that constantly circulate food for larger predators to flourish."
Finally, he did a quick image search to demonstrate his final point. "And deep sea octopuses trace their origins back to relatives that swam in the waters around Antarctica. The closest known descendant of those species is called the Megaleledone setebos, which feeds by drilling small holes through mollusk shells and then injects its poisonous saliva."
The men's expressions were slowly turning into shock while Hans' approached horror. With everything they'd seen in their days, the idea of the existence a giant sea monster was within the realm of possibility.
"The old man in the Guardian was locked away because he claimed a giant, Cthulhu-like creature emerged from the open cavern and capsized their vessel."
Eli shrugged.
"The Antarctic sea is largely unexplored and still boasts the capacity for giant sea life to thrive. I might have believed him, until Tony and I met the Chancellor. This is a larger conspiracy, boys. One involving governments and institutions across the globe."
Finally, he showed them the Chancellor's river map. His uncle's Wallet was of course configured to portray any large body of water in the world, and the Moscow River was one such body. This was the first chance Eli had to study the river in 3d view. With the Wallet on the table, the golden city of Moscow, and the blue river plunging through its heart, hovered above.
He chipped away with knife-like swipes of his hands at the city until only the river remained, a streak of pale blue. He turned it on its side like a Rubik's cube, twisting it this way and that until it was a straight line. All the various depths and canals breaking in and out of it were displayed. When he punched in the GPS coordinates from the Chancellor's map, a red target pointed out the location.
"And this location is our only lead. I would be willing to bet that if we had the software that could detect the subthreshold particle signature, we'd find a striking similarity to what my uncle was after."
Eli paused, studying the area, and wishing he had a greater education to draw upon than his mere semester at Victoria University, but with the six of them, he had every confidence they could discover the truth together.
Edited by Elias Donovan, Jul 12 2014, 09:31 AM.