Umi no Hi: Day of the Sea

Prologue; Chapter log .02

"Hello! Are you here for the STEM high school club, or for the lithium?" The teacher asked.

"I'm here for lithium... My teacher recommended me." Jen said. She pulled out the sticky note and handed it to the teacher. Mrs Farquaad checked over the sticky note and set it aside, grabbing a key from the front of her desk. She unlocked the cabinet and took out a cardboard box, flipping open the flaps and taking out a flat sheet of lithium. She wrapped the metal sheet in wax paper and handed the package to Jen.

"Alright, Max! Come on up." the teacher called. The other student that was there came up to the desk. He was the one that had suggested Jen light the lithium, she realized, but she didn't say anything and just waved. Jen walked out of the door, lithium tucked to her chest. She ran out of the school, hurrying to her car and driving quickly home. She sped through the streets and parked in her parking lot, locking the car and running into the dorm building on campus. Jen took her keys out of her backpack while running up the shallow stairs. She unlocked the apartment door, opening it quickly and shutting it behind her. The backpack was dropped onto the floor as soon as she stepped through the door and she ran to the living room. The boxes were still sitting stacked on the floor, and she grabbed the top box. The lid snapped off after a push, and Jen grabbed the husk on the bottom of the box almost carelessly.

She flipped open the compartment and got to work rewiring the brain area, the muscles, and all of the body for the testing tomorrow. She planned out the testing before the competition, early in the morning, and got to work rewiring for the new power source. Jen knew that she had no time to run multiple tests, and instead focused on the mechanical body, the moving joints that had needed such a large power source in the first place. As the night passed, the husk started to take shape until it actually looked like a Harp Seal, with the white fur, the thick flippers, and the dark eyes that were camera lenses in disguise. She stayed up almost the whole night, plying wires into place and soldering wires as needed, drilling holes through plastic caps for keeping the wires together in a bundle throughout the control box.

Morning came too quick, and Jen was passed out on the floor. She didn't wake up for quite a while, having fallen asleep not long before the sun came up. The seal husk laid finished on the ground beside her, completely wired and ready to go. The time passed until there was only four hours left before the scholarship showcase, and Jen woke up suddenly. As soon as she saw the clock, she rushed and cleaned herself up and grabbed her chosen husks, the harp seal and an unwired moon jellyfish as an example. She took the boxes and loaded them into her car after running downstairs the best she could.

Jen buckled in the boxes to the passenger seat in her car and drove as quickly as she could towards the campus presentation. She carefully drove, though, to keep the boxes from moving around and messing with any of the wiring. The parking lot was almost completely full when she parked, and she took out the boxes to set up. She ran into the building, carrying her project in her arms. The halls were crowded with proud or crying parents and students carrying projects of all sizes.

Multiple times, people bumped into the large boxes in Jen's arms and she had to dodge others. She found her booth number and set down the bins. While unloading the husks, she looked at the form for her invention. Her heart started to pound as she realized that one of the areas was "dangerous substances" with the subnote, some substances may disqualify. She didn't know wether to fill out lithium or not, knowing that it was incredibly dangerous and new. She eventually just filled out the form and left it blank, worrying about disqualification the whole time. She decided to fill out that area later and went to the husk, pumping water through the neurons and lit the major power core. It burned bright crimson, and she shut the husk.

She turned around, and realized that the form wasn't there. "Wait!" Jen called out, to no one in particular. She sighed, as the power burned in the background. A judge, or volunteer, walked up to the booth after a while. He shook Jen's hand, and explained that he was just there to see the invention in action, and another would be by to actually judge it and take notes. Jen took the seal husk and turned it on, the control box lighting up. She slipped it into the water and it filled out into a seal shape. She moved a few of its flippers, then set down the control box. It started swimming quite well, then smoke started rising from the husk. The whole thing caught fire, the water just fueling it on as the air broke down into carbon dioxide and oxygen to fan the flames.

Jen pressed herself up against the table, and the judge ran to get a fire extinguisher. Several people from other booths screamed as they saw the massive red flame and ran, while some moved their projects away. All Jen could do was stand and stare at her creation in flames. She finally reacted and threw water onto the flame. Another person from the booth beside her started helping her throw water onto the flame, but it seemed to eat up the water itself and just grew in size and heat, burning down the entire booth at that point. Jen backed away and so did everyone else. The judge sprinted back with a fire extinguisher and sprayed the foam around the fire to keep it controlled. The fire just grew higher instead of spreading farther and caught onto the ceiling. At that point, almost the whole of the building was evacuated and the sprinklers turned on suddenly.

The fire just grew, and Jen finally gave up, running out of the building with the judge and the only other student in the building still. The whole lecture building was heated up, fire even on the roof. Firefighter sirens sounded near the building, and the red emergency car drove up to the building. Water did nothing but fan the flames and the fire trucks could do nothing but wait for a backup team and watch the flames die down to glowing, strong embers in the wreckage of the building. The backup team came in with their sirens wailing and a blue spray was administered to the remains of the building. Jen waited outside with the rest of the students, right next to the student who had tried to help put the fire out. It was Max again, who was going to get lithium.

"Hey." She said, holding out her hand. "Did you use the lithium too?" She asked.

He nodded softly. "It seems I shouldn't have." They stood in silence as the fire was cleaned up, the burning pieces picked up and trucked away.

"I used it too, but I think that the water reacted wrong with it." Jen said quietly. The students and parents slowly started trickling into the other buildings, and weeks passed as the building was cleaned up and a winner of the scholarship was announced. No one except for Jen and the other student knew how the fire started, and both of them confessed to the principle until they told him how the lithium fire had started, and they were banned from working with lithium for the unsafe conduct. Both of them graduated a week later with barely a glimpse of a future plan.

Thanks for reading this far! I really appreciate this. Further updates will come soon.

--Path