When the creature looked up he saw the blurred outline of a curved shape emerging from above.
'It's not a jawhead', commented a creature next to him. The words didn't come as sounds but similar to signals, which were sensed by the three antennas on the creatures head.
If a human notices this communication it will be called as telepathy, the direct communication from mind to mind. But the vast diversity of animals on earth had proved him that not all animals use sound as their main communication.
Next instance a blinding flashlight illuminated the dark valley. It was filled with astonished creatures who had gathered to observe the new stranger. The creatures didn't take notice of the blinding light because they never saw it. Basically they were blind. And vision was useless for anyone living 11,033 m under the ocean. Light rays never made it this far. And for any species living down there, the whole concept of vision was rejected by the laws of evolution. But however they had been gifted with other sense organs from which they identified the incoming stranger.
The fact that the stranger was neither a jawhead nor any living creature was beyond the creature's insight. It was a submersible, USS COYOTE 1823 and two astonished humans were gazing out of the sub's bay window.
One was a half bald man in his 60s and the other a young dark skinned young man. The old man was professor Sedgewick of the Wolfenstein, marine and oceanographic university. The young man was his best student, Adrian Huckley; who is a young scientist at the university. He was a handsome man with curly hair brushed back. But at this moment he was horror struck by the scene that lay outside the subs' window. He could utter only three words " they carry …spears".
The professor glanced at the creatures before understanding Adrian's comment. Some creatures had spear like tools grasped between their tentacles. This meant one thing; they are capable of complex behaviors. In other words they are intelligent.
The Creatures took the shape of a flying carpet. A flying carpet 3m long and 60 cm wide to which 27 tentacles were attached. So the professor didn't hesitate to name the new species as the carpet fish. They had thirteen tentacles attached to each side of their body. Actually the 27th tentacle which was attached in the front was the creature's head. It contained three antennas. They are the primary sense organs of carpetfish. They emit short pulses of high-frequency sonar in three straight lines. A sonar detector in a submarine or a battleship will identify the wave but will never know its' source. The waves spread out in front of the creature, striking any objects 400 m away. The waves bounce back and are received by the concave organ between its antennas. By interpreting the waves, the creatures are capable of creating a black-green 3D image of objects in their surroundings. By this way, they saw the sub but not the lights.
All organs inside their body lay vertically across their body. Nothing overlapped another. This prevented the organs from crushing due to the extreme high pressure in this part of the sea. Their wide flat bodies served the same purpose. Increase surface area so that the pressure spreads evenly.
Their bodies were brown in color with black stripes going across the belly. Beneath their head was a small opening from which they took in their food.
As the professor maneuvered the sub over the settlement, observing the marvels that lay below, a flat topped heap of stones visualized instantly when the spot light hit it. The humans in the sub had no second thought about the idea that the heap was artificially created.
"Oh god, these creatures had made buildings out there ,unbelievable". The professor Exclaimed.
No natural phenomena can create a mound so neat, so beautiful; all the stones on the top are at a same plane. Like an Aztec Pyramid with its flat top. And why are those two armed sentries guarding the entrance if its' not inhabited building?
The building which the humans observed was the most important building of the colony. It contained a library and an academy. In fact the library neither carried books nor any written chronicles. A set of bright scholars memorized everything and passed it to the next generation. Thanks to them the civilization had a known history of 3600 years. Although the species were much older.
The professor was distracted from his train of thoughts when an alarm and a light went on in the control panel.
"Looks like our time's up". Said Adrian with a grin.
"I almost forgot about the outside, This is going to be the greatest biological discovery of the century. Can't wait to see National Geographic and Discovery diving all the way down here to shoot a documentary, that will show this marvel to the whole world". Exclaimed the professor, while handling the throttle.
"We are the first humans to witness this, the second most intelligent life form ever found. Even the idea gives me a creep. Think of the knowledge we can gain if we can communicate with them". Said Adrian.
He fell on the seat and buckled up himself with the strap of the belt.
The carpetfish watched as the sub disappeared above them. Most of them amazed even to utter a word. The warriors who carried the spears wondered why the monster didn't attack.
The name of the creature near the entrance of the library cannot be spelled because it carried no sound. But in English it meant "the bone finder" This was to commemorate a quest undertaken in his teenage life to find a jawhead bone.
"Where does that creature live?" He asked his father.
His father was the chief scholar of the library and was wise compared to the others.
"They don't live in this valley, or in our world. They came from another world a world beyond the depth of the emptiness above. It was not an animal. The animals were in it. I saw two of them from a hole in it. What we saw was a vehicle used by those animals. My son, you'll lead our colony one day, I want you to be friendly with those creatures if they come again. Try to negotiate with them. Because we'll never stand a chance against their powers".
"But how will I know their language? How will I know whether they are hostile or not? Asked the anxious Bonefinder."
"You have much to learn my son; you have to drain the wisdom of the eons stored in our libraries. You will find answers to everything when you are fully learned and grown.
Five hour after the father and son went in the building for their daily lessons; the sub was hoisted above the water and was placed in the deck of HMS Luciana 12300 m above the city.
Captain O Ryan only had to see the professors' face to guess that something unexpected had happened.
Sedgewick had been curious about the world under the sea even before he was in secondary school. Jules Verne's ''20,000 Leagues under the sea'' had been his childhood inspiration. After his graduation he did researches about the creatures living in the Mariana Trench. The only Barrier to the exploration was the lack of a proper submersible vehicle. The only submersible which dived the Trench was Trieste in 1969. But its lack of a good propulsion system proved that it cannot be used to explore the depths.
Adrian became Sedgewick's best student, the day he brought a giant dead cuttlefish to the university. It was a cuttlefish living deep under the sea and had been surfaced due to an earthquake.
When Dr Danny Walker announced his new two seated underwater submersible, Sedgewick was the happiest man in the whole world. This sub used High pressure Helium propulsion system which worked event in depths as 15,000 m under water.
"Do you like to dive with Admiral MacArthur or Vise Admiral Clancy? They are the best submarine captains in the US Navy but we can't have both because the sub is a two seater". Asked Colonel Striker from professor Sedgewick, the only oceanographer who volunteered for the dangerous task of exploring the northern valleys of Mariana Trench; where many giant creatures had been spotted.
"I can drive this subs myself, I need someone with a scientific mind to accompany me". Said the professor.
But this mission is highly dangerous .It is a risk if a non military personnel drives the Coyote and….
"Nobody is going to attack us that deep we don't need the military we need someone who can observe and understand the world below".
Through series of debates and arguments the professor was allowed to accompany a non military person on his mission. His experiences in subs and underwater for the past 30 years led to this decision.
And that is why Adrian became one of the first two humans to encounter an intelligent life form other than humans themselves.
Everybody was happy about the decision except Elisabeth, Adrian's' fiancée.
"But see how dangerous it is, this is the first of the subs kind. It's just a prototype". Elisabeth Argued.
"Don't worry Beth everything is going to be all right the sub and its equipments have been tested hundreds of times". Adrian caressed her hair and consoled her.
They both studied in the same university when Adrian noticed that the blonde Elisabeth was one of the Brightest and Prettiest girls in the university.
By the time he proposed he had completed his degree and worked as a marine Scientist in Wolfenstein university and she a molecular biologist at the Private institute ''Genotech''.
Before Adrian entered the sub he kissed his fiancée and parted from her.
"Love you Beth." whispered Adrian with a smile.
"Love you too." commented Elisabeth, "I will wait to marry you when you return."
As the sub descended, Adrian watched as Elizabeth's' face blurred above the sheets of water.
Professor checked the oxygen supply and activated the propulsion system which shot high pressurized helium out of the engine.
The thought that this sub will carry them to the deepest parts of the sea gave Adrian a chill. He rested his head on the cushion of the seat and watched as the ships high powered lights penetrated the never ending pitch darkness around them. He watched the radar screen and saw it blank. He understood that the Sonar waves haven't touched the bottom yet. He knew that it will take hours when the sub reached the bottom.
It took five hour when they finally spotted the bottom.
Only after a travel of one and half minutes above the valley did the professor broke the silence. "What the hell is that?" He exclaimed.
Adrian found himself hovering above an underwater volcano, but it took a moment for him to see the piles of rocks in the valley. It didn't make much sense until…
He saw the creatures.
The carpet fish were a type of Mollusks. They had existed even in the times when great reptiles roamed above. But they were much intelligent than any other marine animal in the world. This was not much shocking because recent discoveries had found that Octopuses use equipments as empty sea shell s to build their houses. Their only disadvantage over man was their habitat. They were prevented from inventing fire, which had been a turning point in the history of mankind.
In the carpetfish society there were five professions. Citizens were assigned to jobs according to their family linage and number of stripes in the belly.(Similar to reading the future according to the palm) The four leading rulers of the city were chosen in a fight in which the winner pushes the opponent out of the arena.
Hunters hunted giant fish for daily consumption and protected the city from jawheads, a giant fish who liked to chew carpetfish and suck their juice.
As mentioned earlier the job of the scholars were to memorize and carry out investigations about the things happening around them.
The ordinary creatures stored and maintained the food stocks.
Seven years after the encounter with the stranger, Bonefinder passed as a full scholar in front of his proud father. He had to wear the ring made of shells in his fifth tentacle in the right to show his position.
12,000 m above, a group of scientists examined the dead body of a carpetfish lying on an operation table. This creature was abducted secretly as possible to avoid hostilities with the new race. Soon after the creature was surfaced the pressure difference killed it instantly. But the scientists could learn fully about their life processes by examining its body.
Three years later a group of twenty scientists and marines descended to the valleys below and made the historic first contact with the species. Luckily Bonefinder, inspired by his dead father avoided the warriors from attacking the fleet of four submersibles. A picture of a human was embossed in a board attached to the hull of the first sub. Other subs carried portraits which gestured non hostile peaceful relationship within the two species. The embossed feature of the portraits enabled the creatures to see them. The crew was delighted to see that the creatures were intelligent enough to understand the message. The creatures lowered their spears and waved four tentacles as a sign of friendship.
"This is the happiest day in my life" said the overjoyed professor Sedgewick. Due to his old age this journey was a big risk. But his strong will was greater than any other thing.
Three years after the encounter a team of carpetfish and some human cryptographers managed to decipher the two languages. The first carpetfish-English dictionary was released.
After the designing of an apparatus to communicate with the creatures, humans gifted them technology rapidly. Although some politicians regarded the species as a threat to the entire human race, many of the intelligent minds around the world found out new ways of passing the technology to the species.
After the introduction of the oxyacetylene flame the creatures were able to make tools out of metal and cuts neat stone building out of mountains.
A Japanese company designed a computer which can be used by the species. Its screen was designed so that some sonar rays were absorbed while some were bounced back, So that the carpetfish could see an image in the screen. It took a long time to train the species to use the keyboard.
Ten years later Adrian and his wife hand in hand watched the mound in the soil outside the station where Professor Sedgewick's body was buried. It was stated in his last will that his dead body should be buried in Zion (As the city was called) facing the library. The library contained high tech computer terminals which were put in a protective casing to protect the circuits from water and pressure.
The station was built 200 m away from the city. 150 humans could stay and carry out researches in it at a time. It was made in a way to sustain heavy pressure. Sedgewick had spent most of his days in this station.
Adrian and Beth heard a voice communication from the screen. It was a translation of the speech of Bonefinder. "Hello Adrian"
"Hi Bonefinder"
"Can't believe we are developing this fast, Thanks Adrian, thanks for the everything you people had done for us"
"Yeah Yeah save the speech for the UN conference. Don't waste it here".
Adrian identified the sound which came from the speaker as laughter.
"So how are your children? I hope they are as cute as in the videos" told Bonefinder.
"They are really fine, isn't it Betty? My second son learned to walk only last month"
"Oh I forgot that you guys had to walk not swim, well my kids swim from the day they were born"
Adrian had seen Bonefinder's children from videos. The fact that he was now talking to a fish made him chuckle.
"Bye Adrian, the book guy is calling me to teach him about whales. I'll call later". The screen went blank and silent.
Adrian held his wife closer to him. "So much for civilizing a new species."
"Yeah that is your job, Mariner."
"Only a marine scientist. "Chuckled Adrian.
"Come on, lets go to bed it's nearly 12"
"Time is not as it is in the surface."
"But still we are humans born with daylight and humans sleep by nightfall" said Elisabeth.
"Whatever"
Adrian held his wife's had, they slowly walked to their room.
At the same time Bonefinder's kids were playing a ball game similar to foot ball. (Except carpet fish lacked feet) Bonefinder watched them and thought how quickly their life styles had been changed.
As the Aztecs worshiped the beings who gave them technology as gods, Carpetfish respected their strange benefactors as the "Lenders of skill"
Three hundred and forty years after the first contact, humans started to depart from the station. They explained about a great destruction of the world and the extinction of all animals. They wanted to carry a carpetfish to the surface but the pressure differences would killed them instantly. After few months humans stopped coming to the settlements and the station was abandoned. The scholars decided that their strange benefactors had returned to their own world above the sea. Most creatures believed it and recorded it in their archives.
Even after the departure of the humans the species developed gradually. New professions emerged in their society. Some jobs were Engineer, Scientist and Observers.
Five hundred and fifty years after the disappearance of humans, the first carpetfish surfaced over the waters of the Pacific Ocean. He could see the water around him and empty blankness above him (Which was called the sky) from the glass in his pod.
The pod contained no propulsion system but a cylinder filled with Helium. They went up because of the light helium filled in the tanks.(rather like a hot air balloon)After the Pod is surfaced, the creature in it had to empty the tanks and let the Pod sink. A rope attached to the floor of the valley was attached to the Pod. It guided the pods all the way to the city. The biggest challenge was to build a suitable pressure condition in the Pod. But the problem was overcome by a group of scientists who learnt Physics from human Encyclopedias.
The creature in the Pod wondered where the humans are. He couldn't see any form of life on the surface. He heard the splash of water created by other Pod of Ranger surfacing behind him.
Then far in his mind the human's explanations about the destruction of the world and the absence of life on the surface was linked. In a moment he understood it clearly. Humans are dead and no longer exists on the surface.
He and the Ranger thought the idea at the same time. They both knew that now carpetfish are the masters of the world. But they didn't understand what to do next. But as the history of life on earth proves, they will think of something. It is only a matter of time. The dawn of the carpetfish had just begun.
They watched the empty sea in amazement as the globular object described as the sun disappeared from the far west.
Meanwhile 50 light years away in the fourth planet of the sun Hyperion, 12 year old Tom Huckley finally spotted the star called the SUN from his gifted telescope. His parents told him that his ancestors once came from a planet called earth which revolved around that sun. He remembered his mother telling stories about his great great ancestor Adrian Huckley who found out a new species in the depth of the ocean. (Unfortunately there is no ocean in this planet) Ironically nobody could bring a single carpet fish here. Everybody thought that they too must have perished with the six billion people they have left on earth to die.
The asteroids couldn't be nuked because of their enormous size. They were actually fragments of a once blown moon. Humans had lost all hopes when NASA found out a planet with an atmosphere consisting of 20% oxygen. The next twenty years were spent building giant space ships and evacuating much as possible people from earth.
The last ship departed earth 12 hours before impact. It carried humans chosen from genetic variation. Its passengers watched in grief as the rain of asteroids hit earth.
The impact created a shock wave which instantly killed every one within the 1000km blast radius. This was followed by Tsunamis which engulfed the whole of American continent and half of Asia. A blanket of dust whirled to the sky and hid the sunlight for years. In fifty years all terrestrial animals bigger than a rat were killed by the lack of air and food. Even the people who survived the blast by hiding in deep bunkers couldn't survive more than 50 years.
This had happened before. It had ended the rule of the great reptiles and reset the clock for mammals. That was 60 million years ago. But this time nobody was sure who will replace mammals. Will it be Mollusks? Well… it will be proved in a matter of time.
But the humans who survived only knew that everybody on earth had died and earth will stay uninhabitable for a couple of few more years.
They kept the space ships ready so that some of them can return to the planet Earth one day. If they were lucky.
Young Tom Huckley laid down his telescope and went in his house to eat the warm meal cooked for him by his mother. He wondered what had happened to Bonefinder and his species. Whether they survived the impact or perished. Well… he soon forgot about it when he entered the dining room. Perhaps the answers will be found one day. It is only a matter of time.