Jessica Turner
Jessica sat up slowly on the examination table and swung her legs over the side. “I feel so big and clumsy, Jane. And heavy.” She unconsciously rubbed her rounded abdomen.
“Compared to how active you always were before, it’s natural that you would feel that way,” said Dr. Jane Wu, her obstetrician. “But your pregnancy’s going well. The baby’s fine. Only six more weeks to go. Are you still planning to work right up to the time you go into labor?”
“As long as everything is going well,” replied Jessie. “The work’s not physically demanding . . . . and it helps to keep my mind occupied.”
“Yes, I think I know what you mean.” Dr. Wu paused. “I don’t know if I said this to you before, but when you first came to see me and I heard the story first hand from you of what happened, I thought you made an incredibly courageous decision to continue with your pregnancy.”
“She’s Greg’s baby. I had to go on.”
“The two of you were really in love.”
“Yes. We were.”
There was another long pause.
Finally Dr. Wu said, “I’ll see you again next week. Okay Jessie?”
“Wait Jane, before I go, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you,” said Jessie. “I mean if you have the time now.”
“Of course I do.”
“You’re Chinese.”
“Yes.”
“Well, so was Greg. His parents are in Hong Kong. They didn’t approve of Greg and me. They don’t know I’m carrying his child. Their granddaughter. I haven’t told them and I don’t know if I should. My mother thinks I should. I don’t want them to think that I’m trying to get something from them because I’m not. As a Chinese, what do you think?”
“I’m fourth generation, and I don’t even speak Chinese well. So how Chinese in China would think, I really couldn’t say. In general though, I think being open and truthful is best in the long run, no matter what the culture. Think about it some more. See you next week, okay?”
Jessica’s Visiphone chimed as she was entering her home, and her mother’s face appeared. “How did it go at the doctor’s, Jessie? Everything going well? Baby’s fine? Weight gain is okay”
“Slow up, Mom,” Jessie laughed. “Yes, baby’s growing well and everything looks fine. Jane let me watch the sono and she is really active, but I already knew that from her kicks.”
“You decided to stick with Cecilia as her name? The same name as Greg’s sister?”
“Yes. Even if I don’t ever meet Greg’s family, I like to think that this will keep a connection. At least for me.”
“You’ve never met Cecilia?”
“Unfortunately not. She’s five years younger than Greg, and she’s been studying in Britain at Oxford.”
There was a pause and finally Elizabeth Turner said, “Well, I’ll plan to come down two weeks before you’re due if that’s all right. That way, if you go into labor a little early, I’ll be around to help.”
“Mom, you don’t need to ask; I told you, you’re welcome anytime.
“Okay, that’s what I’ll plan on, then. But if you need me earlier, just let me know.”
Sears Institute
“My top secret clearance finally came through today, Wili,” said Carlos Vierra, “Now are you going to tell me what this is all about?”
“The good Captain Mellon called me also to let me know,” replied Wilhelm Octavian. “It’s easier to explain if I just let you read the original DOD memo. Here, I’ll bring it up.”
Carlos leaned closer to read the tablet screen and whistled. “USO’s—Unidentified Submerged Objects. An advanced foreign submarine, or the new Loch Ness monster at sea. And they want us to help sort it out. This is huge! You mentioned squids once in passing. You think…?”
“I keep thinking back to that girl’s description of the squid that attacked her boat and killed her companion. To go by her estimate of its eye size, that creature would be gigantic. Squids go deep and a large one could go fast. So if USO’s are not man-made, they would be my first choice for zoologic.”
“But how did it grow so large?”
“That’s for us to find out. If indeed they are squids. I told you this could be a fascinating piece of research.”
“So how much of a budget do we have to work with?”
Wili shifted the screen, “Is that enough?”
Carlos whistled again, “They really want to know….And now that you have funding, where do we begin?”
“For starters, I don’t think we have to go too far. We know there is or was one very large squid right off San Diego,” said Dr. Octavian.
“It’s a big ocean and the navy memo said, ‘sporadic sonar contacts’ by our submarines. It doesn’t sound like the USOs are exactly common, since navy subs are always out on patrol and you would think there would be more frequent contact if they were all around.”
“Rather than blindly searching after them, perhaps we should think about how we might attract them to us,” said Dr. Octavian. “That is, if the USOs really are something like giant squids.”
“We also will need some way of getting down to the depths where the sonar contacts have been made,” said Carlos. “Do you think the Institute’s unmanned deep sea submersible could be used?”
“Possibly,” said Dr. Octavian, “But there’s a waiting list for its use. And we still need to figure out a way to attract the squids. Also, perhaps at some point we should contact that girl to see if she remembers anything more about the attack that could help us.”
The Long and The Short of It 