Miles of Aldonia

Chapter 16 : Its getting fishy

Jack led Miles inside the building towards the sound in a cordoned off section that led to a locked door. As they turned the final corner to the section, they heard growling sounds and excited little yelps. Jack recognised the dog that was creating all the ruckus. It was the hound puppy that he had found the night before.

As the hound puppy sensed there was someone there apart from him, it ran towards them with his tail wagging almost to the point of breaking off from his back. Jack picked him up and patted him while it tried very hard to lick Jack's face while still wagging his tail very hard so Jack put it down again.

Miles was excited to see how the puppy was behaving towards Jack.

"The puppy seems to remember you, Jack" as Miles was telling Jack when he was interrupted by the puppy who seemed to want to play with Miles as he ran circles around him and under him and jumped near Miles

"But then, I stand to be corrected. It's just excited to see anyone actually it looks like." Corrected Miles as they went towards the doors to the Biolumin section that seemed to have the handles smashed and badly damaged.

Jack and Miles looked at each other, getting very concerned and bit hesitant about whether to enter through the broken door. Jack, finally gathered up his courage and pushed the door open. The lab that formed a part of the Biolumin section seemed untouched mostly as a few papers lay scattered on the floor amongst a couple of over-turned chairs. Jack made his way past the few tables and counters that had flasks, beakers and test tubes with varying colors of liquid in them. As he put one of the chairs upright, he saw something on the floor beside it looking very vibrant and bright like jewels in a lost treasure chest.

Jack looked taken aback while looking at it while Miles began to closely inspect it. It was very small in size and numerous in quantity. Some were blue in color and while others were more golden in appearance. It looked almost like rice grains, had it not been for its very colorful appearance. Jack had never seen anything as fascinating as this before. Miles on the other hand, was becoming very interested at the spill.

Miles finally spoke up "These are mixed species from the genus Sapphirina of  Parasitic Copepod more commonly called Sea Sapphires. These are bioluminescent marine life. However, my sensors are picking up an anamoly to their genetic makeup. It seems that they have been drained of their bioluminescense and they have remained at that state since. I am also picking up some familiar signals that indicate that Faliginox may have something to do with this. This signal however, is much stronger from the other end of the room than it is here." As Miles headed towards the source of the stronger signal that he was picking up.

Jack quickly joined him and as they opened the door that led to the other section of the lab, Jack and Miles stood there is awe of what was in front of them. They stepped onto the metal platform that was protected with iron railings as they exited the lab doors. To the far left was a huge body of water that was held in by a very thick glass walls, that they could walk up to if they walked to the end of the platform as it continued over the other tanks that were housed in the unit. To the right, they saw a flight of stairs leading down, possibly a few levels considering the size of the tanks and its surface and openings that stood in front of them was still at their level from a distance of about 90 feet. Jack and Miles climbed down the stairs cautiously, looking around as if expecting someone to jump at them at any moment. Miles quickly read out the notice that was placed on the wall to their right just as they stepped off the steps

"Paludarium area is restricted to Shelter Personnel only at all times."

"General Vivarium visits under strict Shelter Personnel supervision at all times."

"Do not put anything into the aquariums unless authorised."

Once they reached the bottom of the stairs, Jack looked up at the tanks in front of them that were glowing in the lights that seemed to have been placed inside them and illuminated from the above as well.

Then they saw that they had marine life in the tanks. However, these animals were barely visible. Almost transparent except a faint outline remained on them as they swam about the tanks. Jack pointed out to Miles what looked a like fish skeleton swimming about in one of the tanks to the right. It did have proper lights over it but even then it was a bit difficult for them to clearly see what it contained. Jack strained his eyes to see clearly. He was startled to see out of the depth of the tank swimming towards them was a what appeared like a silhouette of a fish that from a distance just looked like a fish skeleton drifting about in the water.

Miles saw Jack straining to see clearly what was in the tank and he did a virtual projection in front of Jack that illustrated what they were looking at. "Jack, that is a Isistius brasiliensis commonly known as the Cookie Cutter shark."

"No way that is a shark" said Jack. "It is just a small fish that looks more like a fish skeleton that anything, and that too even that is barely visible, unless you look hard at it."

"Oh that is a shark alright" said Miles as he sweeped a beam of light into the tank onto the fish that was swimming there "That fish, has been manipulated according to my readings. This fish has its photophoric cells that formed the photophores on its body reconfigured to absorb light around it. That is why the tank appears so dark."

"Do you think that the Faliginox had anything to do with it?" asked Jack.

"My analysis does show that there are traces of Faliginox's signature embedded into the fish. It is also acting like a beacon for the Faliginox. However, rather than emitting anything to it, this fish has only been altered to an extent where it will just absorb the surrounding light. Looking at the water composition, I can say that this fish will survive in fresh water as well as saline water. This fish is acting like a reservoir for the Darkness that Faliginox is spreading whereever he goes."

"I don't know if you have been able to pick the other marine life that are present in the tank apart from that shark." As Miles lit up the tank with multiple beams of light.

Then it was visible that there must have been at least a few hundred other marine life very actively existing in the same tank.

"Oh wow, I did not see those" said Jack

"You would not be able to see that on your own, as that is the reason of this interaction with the fish. All those marine life that you see have been infected with the Darkness as you can see that most of them have small circular bites on them looking like cookie cutter has been used on them. The cookie cutter fish as been infecting anything which it comes in contact with spreading the darkness into as many life forms as possible. Once the darkness has very well integrated into the life form, is will replace the essential requirements that is needed to sustain life. At that stage, the Faliginox will be capable of controlling everything since he is able to control darkness. With a flick of thought, he would be able to wipe out species, and it will be intentional this time I assure you. I think he is trying to prove a point by doing this, but we can not very accurately predict as being a occupant of the Darkest field, he is invalid and inanimate to our systems."

Jack began looking very troubled "Maybe we should get help from Dr Taylor or my parents and Mr Smith perhaps. Maybe they can help us with this." Jack confided in Miles with his troubles.

"Well we could do that and you will have to explain to them why you are listening to a dog. And what you are listening to since dogs do not talk. Then explain to them what and where Aldonia is. I believe you had told them about Jacob as being from a place that was way out of town and even out of the country perhaps. Then you would have to go and correct those things. And you can forget about any other possibility of a outing that you may ever have for the rest of you life as they will never send you on one. No parent would send a delusion kid away to be with their friends.."

"Ok ok, I get it, bad idea. Jeez you could just say that.." said Jack getting flusttered. "How are we going to get out of this mess now?"

"Now that you see what I see, both in the tank and the circumstances that Faliginox has created we have to do a full thorough check of the perimeter and see if these were the only life that has been affected by his interference."