Chapter Text
Grace stared at the water, as usual.
There wasn't much to do on the ship unless they had found something, but for now, they were waiting for rockys ROVs to return.
Some questionable marine life had been found in the area and was slowly spreading a sickness among fish that was previously unknown. And Ryland Grace just so happened to be a marine biologist chosen to join the team to investigate and solve the problem.
Other than researching, there weren't many ways to entertain himself. It's not like he had many people to call and chat to... He and his brother were a little estranged. So, he spent his time spacing off to the sound of the waves crashing against the metal.
He almost fell overboard when Eva showed up behind him. He swore she was a ghost sometimes. She was terrifying.
"Dr. Grace."
"Jeez- Stratt! Where did you come from?"
"The control room."
"It was supposed to be a rhetorical question."
"Rocky's ROVs are on their way up. I'd go ahead and prepare the lab, he said got a few samples."
Finally, something to do.
"Oh, nice! I'll uh, go get that set up."
He jogged inside and carefully made his way down the steep stairs. Seriously, there was so much room on the ship, why were the stairs pretty much a 90 degree angle?!
The samples Rocky had brought back didn't yield much information that they didn't already know. Grace was at a loss. No matter what he tried, he couldn't figure out what was causing the mutations.
Oh yeah, did he forget to mention that? The disease was mutating every form of life it touched.
Thankfully, that only included plants and marine life for now, but it was still spreading. Eventually it would infect fish caught to be eaten, therefore infecting humans, therefore causing a frightening pandemic that they couldn't stop.
So obviously they had to prevent that.
The piece of algae in front of him was... Weird. Half of it was a normal green slime while the rest was withered and had a thick red substance with white growths protruding from the thickest parts of it. It honestly looked like some kind of red mold with teeth.
What they knew about it so far: it transferred by touch, mutated it's victims, presumably acting as a parasite and draining energy from it's host to help itself grow, eventually fully consuming said host.
Thats about it. They tried testing the substance, but there was no record of part of its components. Only simple things like iron, hydrogen, oxygen, blah, blah, blah. Everything an average life-form needs. The only thing that stood out was incredibly high levels of iron, but that was apparent considering the smell and the color.
Everything Grace had tried to use to kill it, ended up as food for whatever this thing was.
He leaned back in his chair and whined loud enough for Eva to walk over and take a peek.
"Nothing?"
"Nope" he made a popping sound at the P.
Eva looked at the specimen with a concerned face.
"I'll ask Rocky if we can get a fish specimen. It may be easier to tell through animal cells than plant cells."
Grace nodded, "I hope so. Otherwise, I'm at a loss."
He stared up at the ceiling. Eva sighed and patted his shoulder before walking off, calling over her shoulder.
"Clean up for today. Dinner should be done in the cafeteria soon."
Grace held up a thumbs up in response.
He sat there for a moment before forcing himself to get up. He needed some fresh air. He headed out to the back of the ship. If that was starboard or port or something he wasn't sure. He was a biologist, not a sailor. Not part of his job description.
He leaned on the railing, looking down at the churning waves below him. This part of the ship was the most secluded, therefore, his favorite place to get away.
He'd often spend his time here reading or sketching. He wasn't the best at drawing, but he had learned a bit when learning fish anatomy. If he had to draw a person though, the best you're getting is a stick figure.
His favorite things to fill his sketchbook with were sharks. He had gotten so many comments on his autism for that, but they were interesting! And they were such misunderstood creatures, how could he not love them?!
The time he got to pet an epaulette shark was now a core memory. Those little guys were his favorite. Did you know they use their fins to waddle across sand in shallow areas or beaches? No other shark could walk on land! Plus, they were so docile and shy. Looking for them in the tide pools was always fun with the large black spot on their side. It seems like that would give them away, but it actually camouflages them a lot better than you'd expect!
Ok, focus, Ryland.
He had to think about anything he hasn't tried. There had to be something that this parasite was weak to! That was scientifically impossible! Everything had an opposite, everything had a weakness.
Take a prince Rupert's drop for example! That thing is ultimately indestructible! Exceeept for that one little weak point that will shatter the entire thing with just a small amount of force. An Achilles Heel, of sorts.
He had to find this parasites Achilles Heel.
He was so lost in thought that he almost missed the shark swim just under the water, it's fin sticking out of the waves.
It shocked him back to reality. Excitement bubbled in his chest at seeing it, only to fade into sadness. The sharks tail that was sticking out seemed to also be infected with that parasite. It's tail had turned into a sharp, scaly red with long white growths protruding from it's fins and gills.
The poor thing was dying.
Sharks tend to circle boats and their propellers since they're very curious creatures, so it may be there for a minute. He'd take the chance to run in the cafeteria and grab a fish or something to throw to it.
He got weird stared from Ilyukhina and Yao, who were sitting and chatting, but they didn't ask. They were used to him doing weird things like this.
Thankfully, the shark was still there. He could just barely see the white things sticking out from the water, still following the ship. He had a really bad hand, so he prayed as he tossed the fish in the sharks general direction. He made sure to cut a small piece of it so that it could smell the blood from the fish anyway and go check it out.
When he threw the fish, it landed right on the shark, causing it to trash for a moment. He winced.
"Oooh- Sorry, buddy..."
When the shark came up to see what had thrown the fish, he thought he had gone crazy.
A human head popped up, looking around confused before it's piercing eyes landed straight on Grace. It panicked and ducked back underwater before Grace could even react.
Grace's mouth fell agape. Was he getting seasick or something? Didn't sailors sometimes hallucinate after so long at sea? Maybe that was it.
The head that had come above water was mostly human with slightly tanned skin and shoulder length black hair. Though, the side of it's mouth had the same sharp growths as the parasite they were studying, and it's ears were huge dark red fins with white cartilage seperating them into 3 pieces. The cartilage stood out longer than the fins in between, almost looking like pure bone.
Grace needed a nap. It was official, he was going insane.