Something immensely exciting has happened! Even now, the ship is reeling with the impact of it! A new species of Sea Serpent has been discovered. Not only that, but they seem to be on some sort of migration route! The Leviathan has been following them for the past week and... Ah. Let me get a minute to organize my thoughts and write this entry in an organized manner.
While docked in the Japan, we took aboard a number of dignitaries and other guests in an attempt to spread information about the Sea Serpents. We expect to find much of our resistance in Asia. With China behind us through Meiying's contacts we have also received some gestures of approval from Korea and Taiwan. However there is little goodwill between China and Japan for Meiying's contacts to lean on and the Japanese goverment has long been unable to balance its peoples' needs and its enviromental needs. It is, after all, one of the few countries left where whaling is a profitable and corporate buisness. But I digress.
Our tour of the Japanese coastline started out very smoothly. We had a good number of guests about and particpating in several of the crew-planned activities. Cypher and I fielded questions in the Research Lab and I feel we made a good impression on our guests.
However, we started having problems a hour into the voyage. Initial reports of rocky seas brought on by possible storms began to become more and more alarming as the seas grew more rocky and the skies stayed beautiful and clear. We were mystified and I admit rather alarmed, when the frightening news came through the radio. The violent seas we were experiencing weren't from far-away storms, they were from what appeared to be undersea earthquakes. Our radio lines lit up as the mainland began attempting to find the source of the tremors and to calculate what risk there was if any of a tsunami. For a tsunami to come upon the USS Leviathan while we were so close to shore... for it to come upon Japan at all... it would spell disaster for millions of people, as the world has learned.
I admit there was some panic on the Leviathan as we tried to figure out what to do. Some wanted to take our guests back to the mainland in an attempt to get to high ground while others thought that was too extreme as there was no actual sign of a tsunami. Others wanted to go deeper out in the ocean to where the Leviathan would have less of a chance of striking the shore or the coral reefs around Japan. The fact that the other boats has long since cleared out of the area only made the situation feel more urgent. And I? I was preoccupied with what to do with Cypher. Selfish, I admit, that in the middle of debates about how best to protect the lives of dozens of people, I was obsessed with how to protect one wild creature.
Thankfully, we never had to make any of the decisions we were debating.
As the phenomina grew closer, Cypher reacted with a flurry of frantic movements and squeaks. It was almost exactly the same reaction he had to the Everblue pod we discovered, so many weeks past. My reaction was half hunch and half adrenaline and running on the memory of that pod I set off to the Observation Deck. Alan tried to stop me but I am faster. My formal shoes are also quite pointy, as he now knows. I can't regret that though. My well-placed kick allowed me to see an amazing sight.
As I emerged onto the deck of the Levithan, an enormous head emerged from the water and drew almost parallel to the deck. The creatures eye was perhaps as large as I myself am. The behemoth was immense, perhaps forty feet or more as it slipped past the ship like a snake. I clung to the rail as the ship was tossed like a toy in the the wake of this new Serpent. For a moment the sea was full of these true Leviathans, creatures so like the deadly Sea Serpents in a hundred sailors' imaginations. Then every head sank into the water and the great vibrations began to move on.
Alan had emerged behind me in time to catch sight of these new Serpents. Quickly, the two of raced back down to tell the others of our discovery. While the guests were distracted by crew games (thankfully we shut down the Observation Deck when the seas became rocky and new species went amazingly unseen) we released Cypher into the ocean. I was certain he would follow the pod and we in turn would follow the trail of his radio collar.
We have returned our guests to Japan and are now hot on the trail of these creatures. Judging by our readings on Cypher, we are getting near them. I cannot wait to see them again. I cannot wait to see where they are going.
These are the discoveries the USS Leviathan was created and launched for.
All old journal entries can be read in the USS Leviathan's journal.
