Alien
Copyright© 2025 by Harry Carton
Chapter 10
Early April.Selvin reporting.Nightwing came to the surface in a spray of saltwater.Craynet gripped her seat, watching the alien torpedo streak westward on the display – a silver blur against the dark ocean.
“He’s heading for the Agulhas Current,” she murmured.
“Perfect deep-water highway straight to the Atlantic trenches.”Elliot’s fingers danced across his console.
“The data burst ... it’s incredible!It’s like he’s planning on visits from other aliens.Suzi, he’s got markers for locations near hydrothermal vents ... here, here, and here.” Holographic pins glowed off South Africa’s coast, deep in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.Nightwing banked sharply, accelerating until the Indian Ocean became a blur beneath them. Inside, the air hummed with tension and the faint scent of ozone.
“Selvin, match his speed but keep our distance,” C’Droit ordered.
“Aloo moves like he knows currents we’ve never mapped. Raoul -- prepare a full xenobiological packet for Dr. Tada. Include everything we just saw.”
“I’m preparing that report.First, I have to introduce Hakase Tada toeveryone.You know ... Commander C’Droit, and then Aloo,” Raoul replied.Craynet leaned closer to the holographic display, her eyes tracing the torpedo’s path as it plunged into the Agulhas Current deep in the ocean.”
Elliot, isolate those hydrothermal vent coordinates. Cross-reference them with known extremophile colonies – especially any with anomalous genetic markers.”A sudden shudder rocked Nightwing. Outside, the sky ignited in brilliant violet streaks as Aloo’s torpedo breached the surface and then the cloud layer, triggering atmospheric ionization. Nightwing’s console blared warnings – a massive burst of encrypted data rippled toward Earth’s communication satellites.
“He’s broadcasting to the vents and it’s hitting the satellites!” Elliot shouted.
“It’s not just navigation – it’s an activation sequence!The satellites are going nuts.” Craynet watched the torpedo vanish into cloud cover, and then dip into the ocean again. Below, the Agulhas Current churned, dark and relentless.
“Selvin, extrapolate his final destination. Those vents ... they’re not just markers. They’re receivers.” Her mind raced – what ancient biology lay buried in those lightless depths?Aloo’s transmission hit Earth’s satellites like a hammer. Global networks flickered; emergency channels flooded as garbled sonar pings and thermal blooms erupted along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. In Nightwing’s cabin, Craynet worked at decrypting the pulse: complex, detailed schematics of bioreactors, humming with coded instructions.
“Selvin, please send updates to Alister.I need more brain power.” Selvin replied with a touch of self-importance, “Of course, Dr. Craynet.He’s almost continuously updated on what’s going on here.If you need additional ‘brain power,’ I have excess cycles available.After all, I’m only flying the Nightwing and there’s little else to do over the water, it’s not like dealing with space.”
“Sorry, Selvin.I didn’t mean to imply that you were overloaded.I just don’t feel comfortable imposing on you for help so often.”Suzi struggled to deal with the idea of slighting the ship’s computer.
“He’s on a direct course to the Dead Zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico,” Helberg said, ignoring the interplay between human and the abiological entity.”If he’s going to harvest something from the vents and drop them into the murky waters off New Orleans, he’s going to have to come back and collect the extremophile creatures from the vents.””You think he’s lining up helper creatures to counteract the pollution?Won’t they be dead when the cleanup is finished?”Santiago replied.”
They are in such small quantities at the vents.”Helberg shook her head.
“Maybe he’s triggering a huge population explosion.These are extremeness engineered to consume specific toxins.Once the Dead Zone is balanced, they’ll migrate or hibernate.Aloo’s playing ecosystem architect on a planetary scale.Perhaps he doesn’t care about the vent creatures.”
Elliot traced the torpedo’s projected path across the Atlantic.
“He’s accelerating.Estimated arrival in the Gulf ... four hours.Suzi, the G12 flotilla – the US, the Brits, even Mexico –is converging there too.If they intercept him before he deploys—”C’Droit silenced the alarm klaxon with a swift gesture.
“Selvin, open a priority channel to President Ho.Also, contact the UK.Warn them:Those ships must hold position.Aloo isn’t hostile, but he won’t tolerate obstruction.He’s going to evaluate the situation in the Gulf of Mexico.I can’t project his intentions, but I assume he’s going to want an explanation about the sludge the Mississippi dumps into the Gulf. Tell them to watch the water.The change will be ... visible.”
After the torpedo had surfaced briefly off the Cape of Good Hope, a sleek shadow against the dawn, and plunged back into the Atlantic depths -- Nightwing followed, skimming the waves, its sensors locked on Aloo as the thermal signature streaked northwest.Below, the ocean churned with unnatural currents as Aloo’s passage agitated dormant seabeds, sucking the seawater behind him.”Pressure waves detected,” Selvin reported calmly.”He’s fighting the natural currents of the ocean.It’s only a temporary change.We’d better alert the fishing fleets off Angola.”Craynet watched the holographic display pulse with real-time data – temperature spikes flared along the torpedo’s wake, and the release of dissolved oxygen levels spiked in its path.
“He’s oxygenating the ocean as he travels,” she realized, her voice tinged with awe.