“A swarm of fish?” John laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous, my boy. How could a swarm of fish possibly be any danger to us? My base is the finest piece of technology constructed since the international space station. If you really think that a bunch of slimy creatures from the depths could damage us, then you must be seriously deluded.”
“You’d be surprised how dangerous a group of animals can be when working together,” Yvonne muttered. “Mr Baker.”
John glared at the doctor, his mouth quivering as if a torrential froth of anger were to spew from it if he weren’t careful. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and smiled.
“Perhaps you’re right, Miss Harding,” he said calmly. “But again, my base is state of the art. You’ll find that we can deal with a few-”
“They’re in the moon pool,” Wayne interrupted. “All of them. Just flying inside and taking it over.”
“Taking it over?” John said. “Well, I… it can’t be that bad. We’ve had a couple fish here and there end up inside it. Nice to do a bit of fishing, wouldn’t you agree?”
He chuckled awkwardly, deflecting any possible chance that something were going wrong. Because if that were the case, then they would actually be in trouble. And he couldn’t allow that. Not while he was in charge.
Angela Davidson moved to the console, inspecting it for herself. Her face flickered as she saw the camera view of the moon pools.
“Mr Baker,” she said quietly. “When Wayne says swarm, he doesn’t mean ten or twenty fish. He means thousands.”
John glared at Angela, before pushing her out of the way to view the damage for himself. Yvonne caught Angela as she flew back, holding her up before she could hit the ground. Yvonne glanced up to Mr Baker, though his attention was focused on the screen. He only cared about his base, not the people inside it.
Colour drained from his face, realising that everything he had built up may soon be no more real than Atlantis. He took control of a phone next to the screen and quickly dialled in an active science division, demanding answers in a tone that matched closely to the way he had threatened Yvonne earlier.
Dr Harding, meanwhile, was comforting Dr Davidson as she began to cry.
“It’s okay, Angela,” she said calmly. “This isn’t your fault. It’s his. He went all crazy with wanting to control fish for his own sick plans. You were just his tool in this. It’s not your fault.”
Angela shook her head, muttering that it wasn’t true. Yvonne smiled and kept trying to let her knew it was, but the doctor wouldn’t believe her. By the time she had managed to calm her down, John was finished with his call, staring angrily at his chief scientist.
“They tell me that something has happened to the prototype Trident, Miss Davidson,” he said sternly. “They tell me that it has activated and they can’t shut it off.”
His eyes pierced hers, staring through to her soul. She looked up, adjusting her glasses to make herself more presentable again.
“Fix. It.”
“I don’t know what happened,” she said. “It shouldn’t have done this. Even in the event of a power outage, there are safeties in place to prevent this from happening.”
“Well, it is happening,” he said. “And it’s your machine. You should fix it. Wayne? How are the moon pools?”
“Bad, sir,” he replied. “Estimates say that in ten minutes it will be completely filled with fish. Like a tuna can. Doors are sealed and should hold it back, but that’s not the main worry. If the moon pools are filled, there’s no way to get out of here.”
“There, you see?” John said, turning back to Angela. “We will have no means of escape unless you turn your machine off. Come on, girl, it can’t be that hard.”
“Sir,” Angela started. “I… I may be able to try.”
“That’s the spirit!” he exclaimed. “Just a bit of gusto is all you women need. Now, let’s hurry on along and fix this. Then we can prove to Miss Harding here that our base is safe, and we can continue running as normal.”
Angela nodded slightly and stood up, helped by Yvonne. She began to run to her work station. Yvonne stayed close by her. She wanted to be close. Letting her know that she had someone to fall back on in this whole meltdown.
“We’ll get out of here,” Yvonne said. “Just you wait.”
“Are you sure about that?” Angela asked. “Are you really sure about that?”
Yvonne smiled. “With you at the helm? No doubt about it.”
Angela smiled, but only in a way that said she appreciated the gesture, before turning back to the hallway. Yvonne frowned. There was something Angela was hiding, too. Something she didn’t want even her to know.
A couple of minutes of running later, they had made it to Angela’s office. It was very utilitarian. Hardly an office plant in sight. Bookshelves were encased in waterproof glass to prevent any damage, making the room feel less inviting. And unlike her bosses room, there were no windows or couches or hints of the outside world. This place was for work, and work alone.
Angela made it to her computer and activated it, scanning the quick firing lines of error messages and texts she was receiving. Yvonne was impressed. She had never been too great at dealing with computer. Yet this young woman was reading and understanding things in half a second. She must have been a genius.
The doctor, reading through all the notes, frowned further. She looked up to the three of them.
“It’s worse than I thought,” she began. “The system has been completely compromised due to the power outage. It’s sending out a massive wave of information to all the animals around us to attack the base.”
“Can’t you switch it off?” Wayne asked. “Send out a ‘stop’ signal or just turn it off?”
“I…” Angela struggled, looking to the three of them. “I can’t.”
“Why not?” John demanded.
“Well… we haven’t figured that part out yet.”
“What?”
“We haven’t had the time,” Angela said. “The demand to make them do something has superseded our ability to make them stop. We have only ever had success with telling them to ‘start attack’. We never had the time to tell them to ‘stop’. Besides, the whole point of this project was to make them attack ships until they break. We had no need for a stop. The animals would do it naturally.”
“You mean to tell me,” John began, “That the thing you invented doesn’t work properly?!”
“Actually,” Yvonne spoke up, “I’d say it’s working flawlessly. You want a device that makes animals attack a man-made structure? Well good job, Mr Baker. Your hubris succeeded.”
John glared at Yvonne, righteous anger boiling over. His throat twitched, his fists clenched, and his eyes continued to pierce hers.
Wayne glanced back to her, as impressed by her fearlessness as they were annoyed by her attitude. Angela grinned slightly, pleased someone else was standing up for her.
“Oh I’m sorry, Miss Harding,” John said. “Are you not having a fun time with us? Were you hoping that this would be worse? Are you hoping to write up a big ol’ op-ed about how much Aqua Trident deserves to be drowned in this so called ‘hubris’? You want us all to die? Do you?”
He backed her into a corner. His nose almost touched hers. She could feel his stinking breath against her face, filled with sweat and venom. Her face remained impassive and calm, yet inside she was squirming as this man inserted himself in her space.
“I think what Yvonne is saying, sir,” Wayne piped up. “Is that your machine is working better than intended. Look at all the damage it is doing with such tiny animals. Once we are clear of the threat, you may be able to start the production of this device on a larger scale.”
Yvonne glanced up to Wayne, surprised. Some part of his voice told her that he was lying, just trying to calm his boss down. But another part was grateful for him to distract John and get him off of her.
Mr Baker slowly backed away from Yvonne, still angry, but tempered for now. He nodded along, as if what Wayne said made perfect sense.
“Yes, yes,” he muttered. “I suppose you’re right. And how are we going on removing the fish from the moon pools, Mr Troughton?”
“I’ll ring down now,” he said, turning back to his comm and calling down orders.
John put his hand to his head and began to walk around the room. His footsteps drummed out methodically as he thought his plans through. Yvonne was sure that whatever he came up with would not work.
She looked back to Angela and her computer screen. Right now, she had a security camera of the moon pools up, showing the devastation the fish were causing. They had completely covered the submarine by now, swimming around it like flies on rotten food. The writhing black masses felt sickly to Yvonne. They weren’t meant to be in there, out of the water and in the air. They were meant to be swimming in the ocean where they belonged.
She sighed and looked over another part of her monitor. A radar, showing all the fish nearby. Most of them were heading towards the base now. She could hear a few slither their way over the hull of this station. At the moment, it appeared to only be small fish. Ones that would be on this level of the ocean.
Yvonne began to wonder if this device could summon other creatures on command. Or perhaps the base had its own experiments on nearby animals other than mind testing. Perhaps Aqua Trident had those animals kept in tanks for special testing.
Animals kept in tanks.
Yvonne darted her eyes back to Angela.
“Does Aqua Trident store creatures on it’s base?” she questioned, the words speeding out of her mouth.
Angela looked to Yvonne, realisation slowly dawning.
“Yes,” she said. “We have a few deep sea creatures on standby for testing. All very dangerous. Perfect for attacking a ship.”
“Or a base?”
Angela nodded.
“Check the tanks, then,” Yvonne said. “Make sure they are still under containment.”
Angela pulled up another screen and began to do a quick search. She started to read out the status of each of them, making sure she was getting it right.
“Right whale containment: secure. Sperm whale containment: damaged but secure. Whale shark containment: secure. Blue shark containment: damaged, leak found, but secure.”
As she listed them off, Yvonne turned back to John, furious.
“How many animals do you have locked up in this base?” she demanded. “How many innocent creatures do you want to suffer so that you can get an extra nickle and dime from your business? Do you even care about them?”
“Don’t look at me,” John said. “It was her idea. She was the one who said we needed to have these animals on standby to get all the more interesting details from them.”
The world around Yvonne stopped. Angela’s status updates and Wayne’s orders reduced to mere muffles as she processed what John said.
Angela? Dr Angela Davidson? The woman who had been diminished and taken advantage of by her boss? The quiet and reserved person who wouldn’t say anything to contradict him? She was the one who wanted all of these animals kept locked up and in these cells?
Angela?
Yvonne couldn’t believe it. There must have been something else at play. She would have been coerced. Tricked into having them here in order to get better results. There was no way that she would have accepted this.
John was lying. Making others take the blame so that he could have a clear conscious. It was the only logical conclusion. Throwing someone else under the bus to save his career.
Or was it?
John had accepted her on at a rather young age. She was clearly a genius. Did he tempt her into studying undersea life by offering her the chance to do all of this? Did he turn her dream into a nightmare? Or in a way, did Angela want this all along?
Her head kept spinning as something called out beside her. She slowly turned, bringing herself back into the world. It was Angela. She was yelling something at her.
She shook her head, clearing her thoughts. She’d talk with the doctor about this all later.
“What?” Yvonne asked.
“The modified colossal squid,” she said. “It’s escaped. And it’s making its way through the base.”
Thumbnail courtesy of Pexels Free Photos
Cheesman Chronicles 
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