Chapter 21
Harper spent the remainder of the afternoon at the lab filing the reports for Boston. She sighed and lay her head on folded arms on the desk as she tried to find the words to describe the octopus. There was precedent for the bioluminescence, sort of. Harper sat up and continued with the report.
… similar to Stauroteuthis syrtensis, the creature emitted a bioluminescence that encompassed its entire being, even transparent in the tips of tentacles. Unlike syrtensis, this appeared to be the resting appearance, not a trigger feature as is the case with syrtensis.
Harper sighed and rubbed her eyes. She was overexplaining, her description was inadequate and downright hard to believe, and her rambling account was not helping.
She stretched her neck and shoulders, sore from the water, and finished the report.
As she hit send, her phone immediately flashed a message from Akiel in Boston:
Got the report. We’ll review and get back to you. Send the water samples with the AM ferry.
Harper typed back:
Will do. Damage report from Murphy is forthcoming
The response was again almost immediate. Harper was suddenly glad she was here and not in what was likely a very tense workroom at Okeanos right now.
Preliminary report filed, Murphy is following up as soon as possible with potential engine damage
Harper closed the laptop and stood, feeling momentarily light-headed.
She steadied herself and flipped the lights as she exited and headed back to the house.
Over dinner she told the team what was in the report, no more articulate than she had been for Boston.
Shuri stared at her with wide eyes and her mouth ajar.
“Fuck this,” she muttered. “You saw Thalassa. You saw it and I’m out with an ankle? I could stay in the lab, I can hobble to the lookout station, I can …”
“You could.” Harper leaned forward and took her shaking hands. “You could, but you can’t because they’re getting you to where you can actually recover, which let’s face it, you’d only exacerbate it here because you’d refuse to rest.”
Shuri grimaced in frustration. Kyle sat quiet and stunned.
“Besides,” Harper continued, releasing Shuri’s hands and reaching for her mug, “the boat is trashed, the sonar is a mess, ship laptop is down, and engine is probably dead. Murphy was still tinkering with it. So, it’s very likely that we all might get grounded.”
“Isn’t this what happened with the New Brunswick team?” Kyle asked softly.
Shuri nodded. “Yes, it is, except that was a legit hurricane that affected everyone—not just one boat. My mother told me the skipper was injured and left, the storm hit, and they shut it all down a week later.”
“See?” Harper raised her mug to Shuri. “We all may very well be joining you soon in Boston.”