Atlantic Ocean, 39.25 degrees N, 72 degrees W

"SOSUS sensor 2011-23-Delta, launch."

The ship shivered a bit, and the crew in the CIC could here a muted "THOOMP!" as the canister contained the Mk 16AD sensor was fired.

"23-Echo. Set depth to 1500 meters."

"23-Echo, 1500 meters, aye."

"23-Echo, launch."

"23-Delta, systems check green. Sensors reporting 1198 meters. Ping check. Clear."

"Advance to launch point 24, ahead slow."

"Ahead slow, aye."

"23-Echo, systems check green. Sensors reporting 1512 meters. Ping check. Cl... Contact. I have contact."

Every sailor stiffened, and held their breath, waiting for the sonarman's next report.

"Bearing. 23 degrees port. Depth. 2200. Biological. Length. 225 meters. Speed. 240 knots."

The atmosphere in the CIC changed from a tense anticipation to a more puzzled one. The sonar-man's drone continued. "Re-querying sensor. Contact lost. Re-initiating systems check.

System reports green. Querying for detail. All systems green. Ping check. Clear. Repeating checks. Green. Ping check. Clear. Sensor stable at 1512 meters."

"Midshipman Harrington. What does the PRT report for Leviathan's location?"

"EBLOC reports no change. Leviathan remains at 43 South, 109 East. Simurgh holding in LEO at 40 North, 40 West."

"Very well, record the event as Boot Error, Corrected."

"Aye."

"Helm, time to point 24?"

"10 minutes, Captain."

"Ears? What the hell?"

"I don't know Captain. To big and fast to be a whale. It had to be a sensor glitch."

The electronics and sensor technician interrupted. "No way. The 16's are all Dragontech. They don't break. Or glitch."

As the Captain, the sensor tech, and the sonar-man huddled together trying to analyze what went wrong with the sensor, the midshipman came to a nervous attention near the huddle, remaining silent.

"Yes, midshipman Harrington?"

"Sir, I might know what the contact was."

"Continue."

"Well, Captain, my Uncle Erwin is a fisherman up in Brockton Bay."

"Brockton Bay... Brockton Bay... Why..." The Captain stopped and focused on the young embryonic officer. "Kaiju is too small."

"Yes sir. But my uncle mentioned there is another, bigger, one. Named Umihebi. It's apparently strictly aquatic, only been seen a few times. It's supposedly big enough."

"I'm not sure I'm reassured by the fact that there's a Family member bigger than Kaiju or not. At least, she'll be friendly if she's anything like the others."

"My uncle says they get friendlier and politer the bigger they are."

"All right. Update the log entry to read Possible Family Contact, Umihebi?"

"Aye."

"All engines at station keeping. At launch point 24. 39.5 degrees North, 72 degrees West."

"Prepare SOSUS sensor 24-Alpha. Set Depth to 1500 meters."

"24-Alpha, 1500 meters, aye."

"24-Alpha, launch."

"24-Bravo, 1800 meters."

"24-Bravo, 1800 meters, aye."

"Since we know the Family's in the area, hold off on active ping until all passive sensors report clear. No need to give them a headache."

"Aye, aye, sir!"

"Also, Ears, give me a descent check on passive for 24-Bravo and 24-Charlie."

"24-Alpha, systems check green, reported depth 1503 meters. Passive sensors only. No contacts at this time."

"24-Beta, launch."

"24-Charlie, 2100 meters."

"24-Charlie, 2100 meters, aye."

"24-Alpha reporting Beta's descent. Beta passing 1600 meters. Beta reporting stationary at 1799 meters. Alpha confirms. Beta, systems check green." The sonarman paused in his report. "24-Beta, no passive contacts at this time."

"24-Charlie, launch."

"Alpha reports Charlie entry. Alpha reports Charlie passing 500 meters. Beta confirms entry. Alpha reports Charlie at 1000 meters. Beta confirms 500. Alpha reports Charlie at 1500 meters. Bravo confirms 1500. Bravo confirms 1000. Bravo confirms 1500. Bravo reports Charlie at 1800 meters. Alpha confirms. Charlie reports stationary at 2100 meters. Bravo confirms. Alpha confirms. Charlie, systems check green. No ... correction, passive contact on Charlie. 14 degrees port. Range 1800 meters. Sounds like it might be a landslide, but there's a high-frequency component as well. Filtering for high-frequency. Huh. Sir, please listen. I've got something strange here."

"Hmmmm. Low. High. Low. High. Medium. High. Low. My god! It's a conversation! Well, now we know for certain the Family's here."

"Sir. The landslide is behaving oddly. I think I'm hearing multiple distinct landslides, all at the same range and position. Volume is increasing. New sources, appear to be more slides. Sir, there's something really big and really odd going on down there. Permission to map with active?"

The captain was still listening to the filtered sonar. "Sir?"

"Hold on. I think... yes, I'm hearing 6 voices... now they're chanting... "

"Sir, more slides. Louder slides. Some of them seem to be merging..."

"Hold on... now they're repeating something in unison... what's that word? I can almost... leh...leh... Yileh... Oh shit! Map it now! All sensors!"

"Mapping all!"

The sensor tech spoke up... "Processing signal..."

There was a bright flash from the bridge repeater display. They all looked up to see a perfectly straight lightning bolt lancing up into the sky from in front of the ship's bow, and then disappearing. Almost immediately three things happened at once - the ship lurched a little to port, the sonar operator ripped off his ear phones screaming in pain, and they heard the loudest thunderclap of their lives. At about the same time that the sensor tech was saying "I've lost all signals from 24-Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie.", the intercom spoke. "Umm...Captain... I think you need to report to the bow deck..."

Wondering what other strange things were happening, the Captain stepped through the CIC hatch and took the few steps down the passageway to the starboard side deck hatch, then turned towards the bow as soon as he stepped outside. He instantly saw why Midshipman Theisman had called from the bridge. He could see one of the sensors, and as he walked forward of the superstructure, he could see that all three of the sensors were laying on the deck. As he got closer, he saw that the middle one, 24-Bravo, had a bright red Post-It note stuck to its side. He grabbed the dry note and read it.

He blanched. And clutching the note in his hand, charged aloft to the bridge. As he burst onto the bridge, he looked over at the helmsman, and gave a shout. "Return to port! Best possible speed!"

"Aye, aye, sir! One-quarter speed. Coming about." The ship made an 180-degree arc. "Ahead Full."

As the captain stood there, he forced himself to remain still, and re-read the note.

"Naughty, naughty, naughty! It's not nice to interrupt our barn-raising and give us all headaches! In fact, its polite to ask before you visit someone's home. So please do so, the next time you want to come here." Then there was a knock at one of the bridge's ports behind him. He turned around to see another red Post-It. "You're moving kind of slow. Umihebi wants to know if you need a tow to port?"

"Aaaaahhhh! Helmsman! Ahead max! And don't slow down until I tell you!"