Sea Titan's Queen

Chapter Three: Part III

I stared at the news footage, wide-eyed and open mouthed for many moments. A billion questions racing through my head, but I unable to articulate a single one. What I was seeing should be impossible. Was it fake? Was I a part of some unethical psychological experiment or something?

"How do I know this is real?" I asked, finally getting some words out.

Dr. Florence glanced at the NSA and Navy guys. "It's real alright. Why else do you think we'd be doing shit like this with a civilian? But I suppose it doesn't really matter if you believe or not. You will have proof soon enough," Admiral Firth said.

"I'm guessing as a marine biologist and the only person awake who encountered this thing first, you want my opinion on identifying it and figuring out where it came from?" I asked, sincerely hoping that was the case, but having a gut feeling that it wasn't. I didn't even have my doctorate yet, surely, they would have assembled a whole team of the finest marine biologists and the like around, and not rely on me.

"Actually no, that is not why we need you. I think it best if we have Dr. Zafeiriou Pappas explain," NSA guy Shaffer said.

"That's an excellent idea. Sania? Why don't you start at the beginning for Constance?" Dr. Florence Taylor declared. She turned off the TV before moving it out of the way and gesturing for Sania to step forward. The young scholar did so, her arms clutched around a stack of books as she bit her lip nervously, looking at me, and then darting her gaze away before repeating the action.

"Yes, please do," I said. "And maybe you could also explain what an expert on Ancient Greek language and mythology has to do with this?" I tried to keep the tone of my voice amiable. Sania seemed nice enough, and I needed allies in this situation. For all I knew, she may have been dragged into this against her will the same as me.

Dr. Zafeiriou Pappas nudged her glasses up the bridge of her nose again, a nervous habit it seemed, before speaking in a gentle but clear voice, her English excellent with a hint of a Greek accent, "Of course. I have devoted my life to the study of the folklore and myth of my country, as well as the old language. Do you know the stories of the Titans, and their battle with the Gods for supremacy over the world?" she asked me, brown eyes meeting mine before darting away.

"You mean the Greek myths about the titan Kronos who ate his own children, and his son Zeus who finally killed him and freed his siblings who then became the Gods of Olympus, and all their escapades thereafter?" I asked, incredulous. What did this have to do with anything?

Sania gave a slight smile and nodded. "Yes, those ones. Of course, there's so much more to them than that. But what you need to know, is that during that battle, the surviving Titans were exiled or imprisoned in Tartarus, basically Hell, and the Gods of Olympus have ruled earth ever since. However, Tartarus is not impenetrable, and there always existed the possibility that the Titans would rise again."

My eyebrows crept higher into my hairline. "Ok, but why do I need to know these myths? They're ancient stories. Fantasy --- not real life," I explained, just a little bit of panic creeping out as I began to connect the dots as to what Sania was trying to say.

"Maybe. But what if they aren't? Fantasy, that is. What if there was some, or a lot, of truth in those myths? Because in all my research on Gods and Titans, when I saw that footage on the news of the creature you encountered in the ocean, I was pretty sure I knew what I was looking at. And even more sure when I heard him speak," Sania declared.

My mind swirled. I couldn't believe the others in the room were staying silent. Were clearly in on this line of thinking as well. Surely this was nuts! But how else to explain what I saw down there? What I felt...