Dave Freedman - Natural Selection

As Phil trotted off, Jason was mystified. “A major problem with GDV-4 in the Pacific ?”

“Yeah. And that’s not all. I think GDV-4’s affecting this species of yours—maybe catastrophically.”

“What?”

“Jason, I don’t think these rays are from Mexico, Hawaii, the Marquesas, or anywhere else.” Craig gave him a measured look. “I don’t think they’re surface animals at all.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Every known species of manta lives exclusively at or near the surface. “Craig, that’s not possib—”

“It is possible. I’ll prove it—all of it.” He eyed him ominously. “Jason, I think this species of yours is from the depths.”

CRAIG EXHALED, gathering his thoughts. Jason, Monique, and Darryl had just fired fifty questions at him and were waiting for answers. Standing in front of the three-person inquisition, he was ready.

“The first thing you should know is that a number of critical beliefs we had about GDV-4 are apparently… all wrong.”

Jason looked at him blankly. “You’re joking.”

“This is straight from Tom York, the head of the Woods Hole Oceanic Virus Group and the number one expert on GDV-4 in the world. Turns out his group’s been running tests in every major ocean on the globe for more than a year. They officially released their findings two hours ago.” Another exhale. “Here’s the deal. GDV-4 isn’t a surface virus at all. It spread to the surface, it was discovered at the surface, but it originated in the depths. And we’re talking the real depths. Ten, twenty, thirty thousand feet down. That’s why I think your species is from there, Jason.”

Darryl was flabbergasted. “GDV-4 originated there?”

“And it’s spreading like wildfire. This thing’s algae-based, guys.”

“Holy cow.”

Phil returned, handing Craig ninety sheets of tiny print. “What’s the significance of it being algae-based?”

“Phil, algae are near the very bottom of the food chain so a virus that infects algae has the potential to destroy entire oceans. ” Craig nodded to the others. “It gets worse. They’re now saying GDV-4 is considerably more devastating than AIDS. Not only does it attack immune systems, it also causes severe brain damage, destroys the musculoskeletal system, and spreads with extraordinary speed within the body. And it is everywhere. York’s guys have found it in every ocean on Earth. Lisa was onto something with her plankton findings. Plankton are surface organisms, but somehow they detected GDV-4 rising up from below and adapted preemptively to fight off an attack.”

Jason shook his head. “Craig, is York sure about all this? I mean, how could GDV-4 have spread this far this fast? Especially before anybody even knew it?”

“Because viruses can hide, Jason. They can hide for decades.”

The public knew nothing about GDV-4 and that wouldn’t change anytime soon. It usually happens that way. The bottom line is that major news organizations become interested in viruses only when they caused human deaths, preferably on a large scale. The mad cow virus in Europe, for example, decimated European cattle herds for years but only garnered real attention after people began dying from it.

The long and storied history of viruses hiding from the public has been well documented. None is more infamous than AIDS. AIDS didn’t become part of the international consciousness until the mid-eighties but had existed much earlier. And not just in remote jungles in Africa, but in major American cities. In New York, a sailor died in 1959 of what medical records at the time called “complications caused by immune deficiency and pneumonia.” Blood samples analyzed decades later tested positive for HIV and AIDS.

Craig continued soberly. “We have unambiguous proof GDV-4’s been in the Pacific for a very long time. I assume you’ve all heard of that terramouth specimen that turned up in 1976?”

It was a famous discovery from back before any of them even knew what marine biology was. In November 1976, a naval research vessel, the AFB-14, was conducting experiments offshore of Oahu, sending probes to the ocean floor fifteen thousand feet below to perform sediment analysis. But when the AFB-14 retrieved the probes, something came up with them and it wasn’t sediment. It was the corpse of a giant fish no one had ever seen before: a previously unknown shark species, a strange-looking animal with dark brown skin, a massive mouth, unusually shaped teeth, and a weight of two tons. Dubbed terramouth, it was an astonishing find. It proved what many in the seagoing community had assumed for years: that there were entire species living in the depths that man knew absolutely nothing about. And these weren’t small animals, but enormous ones, and they hadn’t evolved recently, but had always been there. Fossil analysis determined that terramouth had been evolving for as long as some of the oldest sharks. It had been in the depths for more than 450 million years, but before 1976, man had no clue it even existed.

Jason went to the stern, his mind racing. “Are you saying that terramouth died of GDV-4?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. York personally flew to the National Oceanographic Institute at Waikiki seven weeks ago to check old tissue samples.”

“Then that means… that virus has been down there for thirty years ?”

“At least.”

“How could that be? If it’s been down there that long, how could we not have known? How could the fishing industry not have been affected?”

“Because the fishing industry doesn’t fish the depths, Jason. Do you understand how deep we’re talking here? Three, five, even six miles down.”

“So we’re supposed to believe this virus has just stayed down there all this time without climbing to the mid and upper waters?”

“You know how big the damn oceans are, big guy. It would take decades even for a fast-moving virus to cover that much ground.”

Jason hesitated. The world’s oceans were indeed enormous, triple the surface area of dry land and that didn’t account for depth. The seas were two miles deep on average with many trenches more than six miles down. Craig was right. Even a fast-moving virus could take decades to form a meaningful presence in the higher waters. Until then, it might show itself only in dribs and drabs, which, of course, was exactly what had happened. It explained why GDV-4 had been so challenging to locate up to this point.

Monique turned. “Did York say anything about it going airborne?”

“What?” Darryl eyed his wife. “They’re worried about GDV-4 going airborne ?”

Craig cleared his throat. “They were. The Audubon Society’s been crowing about some missing seagulls, but those rumors were gibberish. GDV-4 had nothing to do with it. But it has everything to do with these rays of yours, Jason. It’s driving them out of the depths, and they’re migrating to escape it.”

Jason turned to Monique. “Does a migration from the depths make sense here?”

“It makes perfect sense. If there really is serious devastation down there, these rays would have to go into higher waters to find food.” She shrugged. “Lack of food is the single biggest reason for off-season migrations.”

“A new food source.” Jason loved the simplicity of it. “So what was their old food source? I mean plankton doesn’t exist down there, right?”

“I couldn’t say what exists down there, Jason.”

No one could. The depths are an enigma, not just to them but also to human society; the only place on earth that truly is. There is no light at all in the depths, literally none, an entire world bathed in constant darkness. There is also the pressure. Pressure in the depths is so powerful it can literally crush a dump truck. The most sophisticated subs ever made can get nowhere near the depths, barely capable of diving more than nine hundred feet when the world’s oceans average more than ten thousand. And that’s just the average. While unmanned probes can be sent down, the devices are usually ineffective. The reality is that as advanced as human society is, the depths are still a mystery. Like deep space, they totally defy exploration. Man can attempt to visit but only for the briefest of moments, and even then, with very limited access.