The Journal

Chapter Eleven

The college crew, Paul, Rodrigo, and Tomas enjoyed their dinner, which Adam had correctly identified as 'leftovers stew.' Despite culminating thoughts of disgust, this meal had its own individual appeal, thanks to the amalgamation of nearly a week worth of savory flavors. The crew members carried on and entertained Adam and Mr. Collins with stories of other trips they had taken among the oceans of the southern hemisphere. All were happy and celebrating their early departure on the voyage home, all beside Grace, that is. She ate slowly, bite by bite, while ruminating over the events throughout the day. The day had now led into the night, and Grace's agitation had only grown as the darkness overtook the light.

After the first group had finished eating, the crew went their separate ways. Paul loaded up a heaping bowl to bring down to Mathias in the mechanical room, while Rodrigo and Tomas went to relieve the Captain and Martin in the bridge, giving them a chance to eat dinner as well. Mr. Collins, Grace, and Adam returned to the research room. Grace didn't waste a second, getting right to work collecting a sample from the oldest ice core, knowing it would house the bacteria she had stumbled upon accidentally.

"Wait just a minute, Grace. We need to go about this the right way. Set that sample aside in a sterile beaker, and we'll look at that last. First off, let's do a process of elimination and look at the remaining slides." Mr. Collins retrieved the slides and carefully inspected each one, taking well over an hour to ensure they were clean. "Hmm, interesting." Collins finally spoke many minutes later after his thorough investigation. "Well, I couldn't locate any contaminants on these slides at all."

"So, do you think I found them in the ice then?" Grace burst out excitedly.

"Perhaps, but maybe not in the way you would imagine. Let's take a look at your samples before we go any further. Prepare a slide for me, please." Grace quickly followed her professor's commands, delicately placing a ready to inspect slide into the stage clips. Mr. Collins examined the sample for several minutes. The tension of the room picked up like the pressure in a steam engine stoked by a roaring fire.

"Well, do you see anything?" Grace blurted out. "Is anything there?"

"Absolutely, and you could be spot on regarding the bacterium nature of it as well." Collins admitted.

"See, I told you I found them in the ice!" Grace was preparing self-congratulations for her scientific prowess when Mr. Collins extinguished her ambition.

"Highly unlikely, I'm afraid. Although not impossible, the odds are still astronomical. I'm not questioning that this wasn't found in the core samples because it obviously was. I don't believe these organisms are as old as the samples themselves, though. I'm leaning toward the drill itself having the contamination on it when we began our work and was deposited into the samples whilst drilling. We won't be able to tell anything definitive from this small sample, I'm afraid. If you like, you can try to incubate it and expand the colony. We might be able to identify it then, although I'm sure you know that equipment is back at school, so we'll have to wait for our return. Collect some samples to test in the lab. They might prove interesting." Mr. Collins finished his most plausible explanation hoping it would settle Grace's recognizable worry.

"Well, what about Paul?" Grace demanded. "He still drank it! He might get sick."

"There's nothing we can do but keep an eye on him. This boat has extensive medical supplies, and Mathias is a very talented physician. There's enough medicine and know-how on this boat to cure any ailment we're likely to run into. Do not worry about Paul." Collins reassured Grace. "Now," Collins began saying as he stood. "I'm going to head back to bed, and I suggest you two do the same. We've all had a long day. Don't forget, we're due in port tomorrow night, and I expect that paper completed by then." Collins then turned and escaped out the door on a beeline to his bunk, leaving the two young students in the research room.