Ted returned to the sickbay to find Jessica sitting curled up in a chair. She was mentally exhausted—helpless, depressed, and shaken to her core. He walked in briskly and ignored her. Jim was still on the table, frozen in his horrific pose, an expression of terror and pain on his grotesque face.
“Hello, Commander,” said Ted cheerfully. Jess’s face showed her dismay at his casual attitude.
Ted proceeded to examine Jim wearing only gloves. He ignored Jess when she told him to put on a hazmat suit. He spoke calmly to Jim as he looked over his body from head to toe. Jess fought back tears as she listened to Ted’s comments to himself about how the transformation was coming along. When he wheeled Jim out of the sickbay to the elevator, she didn’t protest. Ted was the new commander and would do whatever he wanted anyway. When the two of them had disappeared down the hall, Jess stripped off her hazmat suit and stood under a hot shower until her skin glowed pink.
Once down in the lab, Ted began photographing Jim and taking notes about the transformation process. He had missed all of these details with Ian, since Ian had been outside of the ship for most of his “rebirth.” Ted was busy studying Jim’s belly under a fluoroscope the first time Jim shot a wad of mucous at him. The goo hit him on the arm, drenching his shirtsleeve. The slurping sounds from Jim’s throat as he tried to retract the gob back to his mouth were unnerving. Ted used his gloved hand to wipe the nasty slime off his shirt, but then spooned some of the mess into a beaker for further examination under the microscope.
As soon as he had collected his sample, Ted stepped away and pulled off his gloves and shirt. The skin under the wet shirt was blistering and red, like a chemical burn. Ted leered at Jim but fought off the urge to hit him. He washed off his injured arm and treated it with iodine, then bandaged it. He put on a fresh shirt, a lab apron, gloves, and full shield for his face.
“I wasn’t going to do this yet because I didn’t want to cause you any pain, Jim, but since you have decided I look like a food source, all bets are off.” He grabbed a large surgical knife and placed it against Jim’s pinky at the second knuckle. “Many sea animals have remarkable regenerative powers. Let’s see how you do.” He pushed down on the knife until he heard an audible pop, and the finger rolled across the table. Jim made a slight grunt noise but didn’t move.
Ted wrapped the stump of the pinky tightly with a bandage and tape and dropped the finger into a beaker of seawater, where he would watch it for a few days.
“Time to go look in on your little fish friend,” said Ted quietly as he threw a sheet over Jim’s grotesque face and headed up to the power plant.
***********
The sound came from nowhere, and then everywhere.
“OOOOooooooooOOOOOOoooo…MMMMooooooooooooooo……tucktucktuck…..OOOOooooooooooOOOOOOOOooooo…EEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.”
Mike and Theresa were still in his cabin, but sprinted up to the bridge. They found Tony glued to the largest monitor, where he had used the sonar-guided cameras to locate a pod of whales.
Tony spun around as the pair ran into the bridge. “Hey—I was just getting ready to call you guys. Looks like a school of whales is coming down for dinner on that carcass.”
Mike watched the pod come into view. They, like the carcass, were blue whales. They circled slowly as a group, calling out so loudly it echoed throughout the entire ship. The whale song seemed to vibrate right through their bodies.
“OOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooo…”
Mike’s expression showed his sudden understanding and deep sadness. “They aren’t here to eat the carcass, Tony. They found their family member. They’re mourning his death.”
They listened in silence for a while.
“That singing? Are they talking to each other? I mean, like—you think they can have something like a conversation?”
“OOOOooooooooOOOOOooooo…..click…click…click….MMMMmmoooooooooOOOOOooo…..click…click….MMooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...”
Mike nodded, looking gloomy. “Yeah. They know what they’re saying to each other. Just because we don’t understand doesn’t mean anything. I’ve listened to a million hours of these songs over the years. They each have their own voice, their own calls, and they recognize each other from miles away. Maybe even hundreds of miles away. Hell, their conversations may be more interesting than most of ours.”
“Mmmmmmmmmuuuuuuuuuuu. Mmmmmuuuuuuuuuu. Eeeeek…Eeeek….EEEEeeeeeeeeeek…..UUUuuuuuunnnnnnnnnoooooooooaaaaaa…”
The long, low song punctuated Mike’s statement. All three of them got goose bumps. It was suddenly very lonely and sad at the bottom of the ocean.
***********
Ted was standing in front of Ian when the whale songs started. He smiled as he watched Ian react to the noise. Ian seemed excited by the long, deep moans of the ocean giants, and he moved up and down in the glass tube like an excited goldfish in a bowl that was too small.
“Hear your friends outside, Ian? Maybe I should bring Jim up here and you two could try and talk to each other.” Ted tapped on the glass and Ian stopped moving and put his face closer to the glass, apparently trying to look through. Ian’s fingers pressed against the glass, revealing tiny suction cups on the pads of his fingertips.
Ted leaned in and looked closer at the pads of Ian’s fingers. “A new adaption. Very clever, Ian. Are you going to anchor yourself in, like the worms on the smoker? You must be enjoying your new home.”
Ian extended his huge crimson tongue and licked the glass, rasping the algae from the surface of the tube.
“Hungry again? Lots of metabolic processes going on, eh? Working up an appetite? You’re a growing boy . . .” Ted walked out and headed to the lab to find some bluefish.