The Murky Water Syndrome

Part Five: Where Science Went Wrong

Up in Zed's office things were hectic, even more than usual, Delia had just returned with the other agents and aliens.

"That's it!" he shouted. "Quiet all of you!" He finally managed to get everyone's attention. "Now I want a status report on exactly what levels of HQ were flooded."

U looked down at the list he'd complied, "Well--- water has made it's way into sectors B12-G57."

W took off her wet jacket, rolled it into a tight rope, and smacked U with it. "OW!"

"And the lab's been flooded too." Yazmine added. "It seems everything's been destroyed."

"The lab? Destroyed?" Jay spun around. "YES!" he quietly said.

He turned back towards the scientists and cleared his throat "Uh I mean... that's a shame-- all that work"

Zeeltor surveyed the damage down on the main floor with a cheery smile and shook his head. "All that damage done--- oh well! I'll jut have to rebuild everything!" he said with more joy than sadness for the destruction of what was in the lab.

"At least we don't have to worry about any of the paperwork getting wet or destroyed," U sighed, making sure that W didn't have a clear shot at him, "The filing cabinets are air and watertight."

"So what do we do now?" W asked Zed. All of the other agents looked toward him for an answer too.

Zed looked everyone in the room over for a moment, "We need to find out all we can about these sharks and how they got in here. Does anyone know anything helpful about any of this?"

"Yeah," W scoffed at U, "don't open the elevators."

"We heard something being lowered down into one of the elevator shafts," Kay called, "I think it's safe to assume it was the Great White that chased Jay and me down the hall."

Yazmine elbowed Yanei in the ribs and she reluctantly spoke up, "I think I might have the answers as to where these sharks came from and why they're here."

"And who are you?" Zed demanded.

"My name is Sergeant Yanei, I'm here on the behalf of the Hiquip Council…who've hired Dr. Opus to create genetically enhanced sharks to be used as weapons against the Egnorks."

Zed's eyes narrowed on the female, "I thought they'd asked for our assistance in resolving the matter peacefully, are my negotiations agents wasting their time?"

"No," Yanei replied quickly, "recently our planet has suffered massive attacks from our enemy and there's been a great deal of damage, we were desperate for an effective defense."

"I know about these sharks, I've dealt with experimental animals like these twice before." Yazmine spoke up, "Dr. Opus was on the original team of researchers that first created such monsters in an attempt to discover cures for brain disease, cancer, and memory loss."

Zed's attention was now on Yazmine, "If this experiment was such a failure, why was it repeated?"

"It happened fifteen years ago," Yazmine explained, "nine years ago another team of researchers stumbled upon a disc that had information about the experiment during a dive. They decided to 'learn' from the mistakes the first team made and repeat the experiment. They found out the hard way, just like the first team had to, not to tamper with nature. Now Dr. Opus has sold out to the Hiquips and agreed to repeat the experiment again, not for experimental results like the first two teams sought, but for the side effects."

"And what were the side effects?" Zed inquired. Yanei could sense the tension in the room building.

"The research teams enhanced the brains of the sharks through advanced gene therapy in an attempt to enlarge their brains enough to extract sufficient samples without killing them. As a side effect of this ILLEGAL genetic enhancing, the sharks got smarter, and came after the researchers." Yazmine sounded utterly disgusted as she explained, one could tell that she had been there and witnessed it all.

"So how did the researchers defeat these creatures?" Zed asked, hoping for a positive response.

"Not all of them did," Yazmine looked down at the floor. "One researcher, her assistant, a human girl, and a photographer survived, the team was originally made up of eight members. They survived by killing the sharks."

"By what means?"

"Electrocution, gas mane explosions, deadly toxins, and harpoon shots to the brain." Yazmine replied solemnly, "You can imagine how close one would have to get to use many of those methods, and that should explain why half the team didn't survive."

"And the second team?"

"A shark wrangler from Earth was called in around the same time as I was to aid the researchers in their studies. We tried to stop them, but it was too late." Yazmine shook her head. "There were nineteen researchers the second time, nine sharks devoured all but six."

"Then we're dealing with thinking predators, and they can formulate plans and form attack patterns with quick reflexes? Sounds like something you'd see in a horror film." Zed concluded.

"It was like being trapped in a horror film." Yazmine whispered. Yanei felt awful, it was her fault, she'd helped unleash this terror on these people.

"Wait," Kay spoke, "you said that there was a shark wrangler called in from Earth, who was it?"

"The same girl who was with me six years before." Yazmine sighed, she didn't want to disclose who this 'wrangler' was. X already had a pretty good idea of her identity.

"Who was that?" Jay persisted, "They might be able to help us out."

"It was me." Elle said softly.

"You?!" Jay asked, stifling a laugh, "But you were a medical examiner."

"Had to pay my way through school somehow Jay." Elle quietly explained, "Lots of students get summer jobs at beaches and stuff, I'm not the lifeguard type so I became a shark wrangler. Makes sense if you think about it. Yazmine always took me along on most of her studies of predatory creatures so I kind of learned how to handle myself around them."

X was silent, he didn't want to think of Elle swimming with sharks or handling poisonous creatures. He didn't get a kick out of contemplating her old life as a medical examiner but this was worse. Much worse.

Zed broke the silence, "So, Agent Elle, do you think you can help us handle these creatures."

Elle nodded, Yazmine interjected, "Zed! There's only one way to handle these creatures and that's to kill them! And it's entirely too dangerous to send Elle down there alone!"

"Are you volunteering?" he asked.

"I can't swim," Yazmine admitted.

"I'll volunteer," Kay offered.

"Me too," X called, surprising everyone, especially himself.

R looked up at Zed, this was his chance to impress Delia, "I'm a good swimmer Sir, I'll go!"

"Please," a voice from the back laughed, "never send a man to do a woman's job, eh Elle?"

Elle turned with a smile as Agent Val emerged from the crowd, "Besides, I'm not about to let you boys have all the fun."

Jay was quietly staring at Val, he didn't like the idea of her swimming around down there with all those sharks. He knew she was strong, but just in case…"Count me in Z-Man!"

"Great, we've got the volunteers, now how do we stop these things?" Zed announced, the question specifically aimed at Yazmine.

She reached inside her lab coat and pulled out a small navy case that she'd taken from the lab before it was evacuated. Opening the case she explained, "This is Utuxyasinic, one of the most lethal and fast acting alien poisons in the universe. Once it enters the bloodstream of the sharks it will almost instantly shut down the metabolic and respiratory systems. They'll die."

"Why do I sense a 'but' coming up?" Val murmured to Jay.

"BUT---" Yazmine continued, holding up one of the poisoned darts, "---as you can see these needle tips aren't very long, and they're not that sharp. The skin of a shark is very thick, if we want to penetrate their bodies and get this into their systems, we're gonna have to manually insert these darts into a softer, more vulnerable part of their bodies."

"And where would that be?" X demanded, not liking where this was going.

"Ideally, it would be their jaws." she replied.

"JAWS?!" Jay shouted.

"Yes jaws, their gums, anywhere inside their mouths!" Yazmine replied sternly, "We need to get close enough to these creatures to make them open their mouths and allow us to insert the darts otherwise the poison won't enter their bloodstreams and won't take effect."

"You expect us to hop into that shark infested water, swim up to a huge shark, and say 'Open wide'?!?" Jay gasped.

"In a word---yes." Yazmine replied hotly, "So you see why I'm so dead set against sending anyone out there."

"Could you refrain from using the word 'dead' right now?" he pleaded, he already regretted volunteering.

"Alright now," Zed called to Yanei, "we need to know how many sharks we're dealing with and any specifics you can give us about them."

"There are five sharks, all around 9,000 pounds each and ranging from thirty-five to forty-eight feet in length." she replied, "There's a Great White, a Tiger shark, a blue shark, a bull shark, and a hammerhead."

"Why not make them all of one species?" Val inquired.

"It was one of the 'improvements' the second team made. They used sharks of several different species instead of the same species thinking that maybe it would prevent them from becoming synchronized and hunting in a pack. It wasn't very successful." Yazmine responded, recalling the horror she'd faced when the sharks gained up on the researchers and hunted them down, one by one.

"I think that's about all we need to know about these things for now," Zed concluded, "It's time to go down there and reclaim our headquarters!"

Turning and facing the two agents nearest to him he issued instructions, "Agent U, Agent W, while the volunteers are out shark hunting I want you two to find a way up to the roof and bring in the spineless madman responsible for this mess."

U and W looked at each other and reluctantly nodded to Zed.

"Zeeltor, are there any more of those wetsuits in your lab?"

"Oh yes indeedy!" Zeeltor replied.

"Good, I'm going to need to send you and the volunteers down there to retrieve them, once you each have one on I want you to go after those sharks and show 'em that they've bit off more than they can chew!"

"Yes Sir!" he turned to the volunteers, "Shall we?"

Yazmine and Yanei started towards the door, "Where are you two going?" Zed asked.

Yazmine turned and sighed, "These volunteers are going to need all the help they can get if they're going to make it out of this alive. I know how to handle these creatures, that makes it my responsibility to help the volunteers."

"But you said you can't swim," he reminded her.

"The water's not that deep on the main floor yet, hopefully I'll learn before we reach the base level."

"But that's just a short walk down the stairs?!" Jay exclaimed.

Zipping the wetsuit up all the way to the nape of her neck she turned to him, "I'm a fast learner."

"And why are you going?" Zed asked Yanei, still not fully sure whether she was trustworthy.

"This is my mess Zed," she answered, "I should've alerted you to the Council's defense plans, one of those sharks killed a girl in the tank tonight, I won't stand by and let someone else die."

With that the volunteers and aliens left the office and headed down the flooded hallway towards the lab. Agents W and U trailing behind, looking around in a paranoid way for whatever could be swimming under the surface of the murky salt water.

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