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Chapter 18

DEATH IN THE OCEAN

The thick blanket of reddish-brown algae spread steadily over the South Pacific Ocean. Towards the east, it encountered shallow open seas rich in oxygen – ideal for the growth of hyperactive algae.

It engulfed the sea surrounding Easter Island, and soon reached the western shores of South America. Towards the west, the algae had now spread across to French Polynesia, and onwards to the Cook and Solomon Islands. It reached Papua New Guinea and the east coast of Australia early on the same morning that Anna was setting out in the Submarine Explorer.

The slick of algae quickly disturbed the delicate balance of the oxygen in the water, causing a dense shadow that blotted out the sunlight. Zooplankton, that invisible soup of microscopic animals and plants drifting in the great currents of the ocean, was the first to suffer – the tiny life forms soon suffocated and died. The bacteria feeding on the dead algae and plankton rapidly multiplied and depleted the oxygen that was normally dissolved in the water.

Before the fish and other creatures feeding on the plankton could begin to miss their food source, the lack of oxygen caught up with them and they too started dying in large numbers.

Underneath the blanket of spreading algae, the sea became a dead zone.

Meanwhile, the gulls and other sea birds patrolling the shores were having a field day, with dead creatures washing up on the beach with every wave. They didn’t know that there would eventually be nothing left to scavenge and that they too would then begin to starve.

The Pacific Ocean was rapidly turning into a dark and lifeless place.

From her seat hovering over the Environator, Professor Sabatina was watching in desperation. It was night-time now over the stricken parts of the globe. The Pacific Ocean was in shadow, as if Earth wanted to hide its expanding sorrow from the sun’s light. The figures on the datascriber told her that the damage to the ecosystem was probably permanent already, and that the algae would soon reach across to Patagonia on the southernmost tip of South America. From there it would be a small step to reach the Atlantic Ocean. It had already invaded the Indian Ocean from the direction of Indonesia, and in Tasmania, dusk began settling against an unnatural dull-red sea.

Humans have been destroying their environment for centuries, but the effect of deforestation and the poisonous gases released by their cars and factories had been easy to ignore. This destruction of a large part of the world’s oceans was immediate.

And panic was spreading.

Tons of dead creatures had started washing up on the shores of California. People were beginning to evacuate their homes because of the overwhelming smell of rotting fish. The global news networks were running reports on nothing else. Even in the remotest outposts of the world, people were listening to transistor radios aware that a catastrophe was threatening the earth. They shouted the news to their neighbours, and drums of warning were beating in the furthest forests.

Many people seemed to believe that the end of the earth had come. There was a mad rush in the world’s supermarkets, as families tried to stockpile as much food as possible. The price of canned sardines tripled in an instant.

Mr Amsterdam was so caught up in trying to manage the crisis that he didn’t have a moment to check in on Sabatina.

That’s something to be grateful for, the professor thought.

“I has now worked out the exact frequency, wave amplitude and duration of a counter-wave that will signals the algae to stops growings,” Max suddenly announced.

The datascriber in front of Professor Sabatina beeped as its display revealed these calculations.

“Are you sure this will work, Max?” she asked.

The supercomputer groaned. If Max had had eyes to roll, he would have.

“I’m sorry,” Sabatina said. “I trust you. Where would we need to generate the wave from, Max?”

“Anywhere in an ocean where the algae be growings,” Max replied. “Acoustic waves can travels great distances without losing their essential characteristics.”

“Still no results of your search to locate a suitable instrument to generate the wave?”

“I do not understands,” the computer stated in a worried voice, “why U6 be not answerings me. I hopes she can helps. She be well connected to Uranus Drake’s oceanic facilities.”

“And my husband?”

“We has no contact with him since last night.”

Sabatina punched in a code on the keyboard in front of her. This connected her to the personal communicator the admiral wore on his wrist.

High above Earth, orbiting in his Space Ark, the red light was flickering on the limp wrist of the admiral as he drifted around in Sector 16. He’d been unconscious for nearly an hour. His wife’s urgent voice slowly began to penetrate the fog surrounding his brain.

“Abraham! Abraham! Can you hear me?”

The admiral slowly opened his eyes and looked around at his unfamiliar surroundings. He was in the Space Ark, yes, but he didn’t recognise this room. Slowly events returned to him, and he realised he was now floating in the forbidden Sector 16.

He turned around, and as he drifted towards the door, he heard it lock with a firm click.

“Great!” he mumbled to himself. “The effects of the molecular scrambler have now worn off and the stupid person identifier is again recognising my brainwave patterns. I’m now trapped! How am I ever going to get out of here?”

“Abraham, where are you?”

He activated his personal communicator, his fingers still clumsy. “Here I am, darling. I’m okay. What is happening?”

“Where on earth have you been, Abraham? I was worried sick about you!”

“Now, now, my darling,” the admiral said, trying his best to sound like his usual self. “As you know, I am not on Earth at all. And I’m sorry that you were worried.” He was still feeling woozy himself, but it would be of no use to make his wife worry more.

Sabatina quickly filled him in about the rapid spread of algae that would soon encircle the globe. As she talked, the admiral studied the instruments surrounding him. Sector 16 was certainly no storeroom! It was a sophisticated control centre or something. And as the admiral flicked through the menus on the computer screens, it quickly became apparent what this section was all about.

Sabatina’s explanation of the urgent need to find a device that could create a counter-wave was suddenly interrupted by the smooth voice of U6.

“Good day, Dr Drake,” U6 said in her most charming voice.

The supercomputer was mistaking him for Uranus Drake! It was a natural assumption for an artificial intelligence, as only Uranus had access to that part of the Space Ark. Admiral Atom immediately switched off his communicator, cutting off the connection to his wife.

Then he panicked. If he answered her, U6 will recognise his voice pattern. Luckily, he had an idea. He turned to a keyboard at the nearest computer terminal and began to type.

Hello, U6. I have laryngitis. I cannot speak.

He was taking his chances. There was no visual connection inside of Space Ark because U6 simply hadn’t required that type of data. She was voice activated, and she got all the information she needed from her many other sensors.

“Poor Dr Drake!” U6 replied.

The admiral was surprised by the sympathetic tone of her voice. She never spoke to him like that! She’d always been brisk and businesslike. Uranus must have programmed her to speak differently to him. She even sounded flirtatious! The admiral chuckled.

“What’s that, Dr Drake?”

The admiral quickly typed: I just coughed.

“Oh, you poor thing!” U6 crooned.

Why would U6 believe he was Uranus Drake when the famous scientist was clearly not on board the Space Ark? Abraham Atom wondered. After all, U6 controlled access via the station’s docking port, and she would surely know that his space shuttle hadn’t docked recently.

Or had it? He didn’t relish an unexpected visit from his old friend while he was meddling in the secret Sector 16.

But there could be another explanation. He had noted before that despite her incredible intelligence, the supercomputer had no perception of real time – maybe because she was involved in so many things at the same time, U6 wasn’t programmed to link her activities in a timeline. So, as long as Uranus didn’t contact U6 from somewhere else, the admiral thought, he may just get away with his deception.

“Anything special today, dear doctor?” U6 asked politely.

Just doing some checks, the admiral typed. Give me a summary of Sector 16’s activity over the past week, please.

Another benefit of artificial intelligence is that they never question orders. A long stream of figures and graphs began to roll over the screens in Sector 16.

It didn’t take long before the admiral had accessed all of its secrets.