The Nest: Charlie's Story, #2

By Ann R McNicol

The year is 2044. Massive storms and rising sea levels have threatened the continued survival of humanity. It's been two years since fourteen-year-old Samantha encountered Charlie, a member of a race of intelligent octopuses. When poachers capture Charlie, Samantha must fight to save her friend and maintain the fragile alliance they have built between their species. 220 pages

• Language: English
• Publisher: McNicola
• Release date: Jun 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215848340

Book preview

1

Chapter 1~Samantha ~Nature Strikes Again~

It was Sunday evening, September 3rd, 2046, when Hurricane Jota made landfall south of Jacksonville on the east coast of Florida.

Can you put the sound on? I asked my roommate.

"You want to watch the news?"

I shrugged and nodded. Sheri had a headset on while she watched so the room would be quiet. The images hit close to home for me, and I couldn’t concentrate. I’d been to Jacksonville. The city wasn’t far from my home on the Georgia coast.

Sheri took her headset off and adjusted the sound for the room.

A bomb could have caused the disarray shown as the camera panned over an area once filled with homes and businesses. The receding water left tree branches and trunks, piles of wood, broken glass, and even cement blocks across the landscape that had been Jacksonville. The sound of the wind was almost deafening. They switched to a closeup of the reporter, showing his windblown hair, red eyes, and water-drenched face.

The reporter looked directly at the camera, and it felt like he was talking to me. This was a Category Six storm. Evacuation orders were in place, but some people did not leave. The Federal Emergency Management Association (FEM)A is transporting survivors to a site forty kilometers inland. Stay away from this area. Roads have standing water too deep to cross, and power lines are down. Conditions are extremely hazardous.

The guy was a pro. He let images and videos tell the story, interjecting details as needed. There were fifty-two confirmed dead, and hundreds of people were missing. The view moved from the reporter’s face, showing more of the tattered, flattened landscape. There wasn’t much to recognize from the city. For a while, the reporter said nothing, just letting the viewer think about what he showed us.

He turned and faced the camera continuing, Officials are holding talks to determine what comes next for the city. Can Jacksonville be restored? Not in this location. Like other cities, they will rebuild inland. Here on the coast, there is too much damage and too much chance for future storms.

The live feed ended, and the camera switched to a studio with talking heads. I wasn’t interested in listening to the recap.

Okay, I’ve had enough. Mute it, please.

She did, and I tried to get back to reading the directions for tomorrow’s lab. But images from the television pulled at me, making it impossible to concentrate.

People stood in the rain, looking miserable, cold, and hungry. The hurricane had been 250 km off the coast of Georgia when I decided it was safe enough to leave my home and return to campus. Until then, the storm could have shifted north and devastated my home. This storm reminded me too much of the Savanna floods back when I was five. The rising seas washed over most of the city, and our house was gone.

We lived in our car for a while, which was rough. Then we had housing provided by FEMA. It was just a tent city for displaced residents. That storm was part of the great flood when a third of the United States coastal cities flooded. Ever since then, I’ve been obsessed with hurricanes and climate change. I chose my major and applied to this program to work on climate stabilization.

People called those years the Great Upheaval. Storms submerged entire cities, and crop failures and water shortages became normal. Meteorologists added Category Six in 2030. Storms with 320 kph winds had become common, and some gusts clocked at over 400 kph. Whole regions were devastated by fires and droughts. A billion people died over those five years.

Then, scientists and governments put a worldwide ban on fossil fuels. That was a turning point toward a different way of life. Rush hour traffic disappeared, along with private cars and internal combustion engines. House design focused on sustainable materials and minimizing energy use. There was less emphasis on owning things, and everyone embraced lowering their impact on the earth. Now, we needed to wait for the climate to stabilize. That would take time. Government planners rebuilt cities inland, away from rivers and other low-elevation flood zones.

It would be a long time before we could expect fewer or less intense storms. Sheri was right; I rarely watched the news. After one hundred years of unchecked industry, nature couldn’t stabilize overnight. There would be setbacks and natural disasters like Hurricane Jota. I chose to be an optimist and trust that conditions would improve.

Sheri turned off the TV and asked, Want to get some ice cream?

Well, I wasn’t getting any studying done. Sounds good. Give me a minute.

I closed books I had barely looked at, opened a drawer, and took the card I used to pay for campus food. It was three in the afternoon on a Sunday. I wasn’t hungry, but ice cream was always a great idea. Dad used to buy me an ice cream cone whenever we took the ferry from Coastal Eleven to visit the mainland. It was a special treat; too expensive to have it shipped out to the island on the weekly ferry. Who knew that access to ice cream would be a great perk of going to college? The novelty hadn’t worn off yet.

I’m ready, I said.

Sheri pulled her yellow hair into a ponytail, and we stepped out of our dorm. Georgia Tech built the New Savannah campus in 2040 when the city planners moved most of Old Savannah away from the river. Both of us were in a Georgia Tech hybrid college program that rotated one week of on-campus study with three weeks of remote learning. At least, that was the plan for our first year. Students were selected partially based on their ability to work independently. I liked the arrangement.

The dorm was okay; we couldn’t leave personal stuff because the school rotated students through the dorm when we weren’t on campus. So, the dorm felt institutional, almost like a hotel room. I had a few pictures on a bulletin above my desk. A family shot of me with Mom and my brother Jerry. An old photo of Dad before he died of Dengue fever. A picture of me and my boyfriend Peter, and one of an octopus on a coral reef. The reef was off Coastal Eleven, the island I lived on. The octopus was my friend Charlie. Okay, I know it’s unusual to have a best friend that’s an octopus. It’s a long story. I’ll get to that, I promise.

Our dorm unit housed eight students in a quad with ten quads in our section. Two students to a room with no kitchen but a cooler for cold drinks and a coffee pot. We had a cafeteria for meals. I wouldn’t say I liked cafeteria food, but I did like ice cream.

It was good to be outside walking, breathing unfiltered fresh air, and the sun felt good. I didn’t understand our dorm’s climate control and hated that I couldn’t open windows. The building had thick insulated walls and a sophisticated climate control system. Net energy for running the system was minimal, so the engineers didn’t want students messing with the system.

My dorm room always felt chilly, but Sheri didn’t mind. The classrooms also felt cold. It might be a mainland thing. On the island, we had climate control for the habitat, but we mostly kept the humidity down and maintained a temperature that was only slightly cooler than outside. We didn’t like too big of a temperature shock when we stepped out of the habitat. I’d packed sweaters, but it seemed strange to wear clothes to get warm because people kept the temperature too cold.

Sheri had a hat and used sunscreen. She looked at me like I was crazy for not wearing a hat. With my dark skin, I never burned, but I should be more careful.

Samantha, you’re the only person I know that doesn’t watch the news. Don’t you worry about the climate mess?

I worry about it. Of course, I worry about it, but watching the news makes me too anxious. But I also know how hard scientists work on it, and I think we’ll be okay.

I wish I shared your faith in science. After watching the storm hit Jacksonville, I worry.

I said, I do, too. I try not to think about it all the time.

I wasn’t telling Sheri the whole truth. When I thought about hurricanes and floods, my mind took me back to the shelter and being wet, cold, and hungry. So, I tried not to watch the news.

We walked across the quad and came to a bench under a tree. Sheri looked at a bronze nameplate with an inscription, Donated by the Georgia Tech Class of 2043, in memory of Dr. Martel Billings. She looked at me and then back at the nameplate.

A relative of yours?

My father, I answered.

Sheri nodded, and her eyes widened. I’ve seen his name in a few places around campus. I figured he was a big shot. What did he do?

He and his team developed bioengineered corals and then seeded artificial reefs with them.

I’m impressed. What did your dad think about you going to his old school?

I didn’t know how to answer this. He died when I was twelve.

Sheri looked uncomfortable. Sorry, that must have been rough. I feel like an idiot. They have plaques and benches dedicated to him; of course, he died a while ago. Wait, how old are you?

I’m sixteen. He’s been gone a while now. Dad would be happy that I’m continuing with his work, but it’s weird bumping into stuff named after him.

Sheri looked at the nameplate, then back at me. Well, I bet your mom is proud you’re here. And you have a great scholarship. Was it because of your dad?

I felt a flash of anger and pushed it down. We were in our first term, and Sheri didn’t know me well. How could she? And my background was unconventional. Dad took me out on the reef with him almost daily, and I worked as his unofficial assistant. After Dad died, Mom let me continue going out on the reef, observing coral and animals. Scientists followed my online postings for years, never knowing I was a teenager.

We’d only been roommates for two sessions, and we’d both been busy. Sheri didn’t know I had worked as a paid intern with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) for the last year.

I kicked a stone a bit harder than I meant to. Sheri looked startled. I had her attention. I get how you might think that it’s a pity scholarship. My background is unusual, and we don’t know each other very well. In a way, being my father’s daughter did help because he trained me. But my scholarship is based on work I’ve done with NOAA over the last two years. It’s based on my work.

Hey, don’t get mad. I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m just jealous.

I may be over-sensitive. Dad went to the Atlanta campus. I didn’t expect his name to be all over this place.

I’m sure losing your dad when you were young and seeing his name everywhere you looked was hard. You didn’t know he was famous?

Well, I knew he was well known in science circles. His papers are cited all over the place. I’m proud of Dad’s work on coral reefs. Maybe my optimism for the future is personal. I think scientists like Dad will continue to fix the ecological mess man has made.

Sheri said, I love the reefs. My folks took me snorkeling in Florida, and they’re cool. But how are they important?

It took me a minute to decide that her question wasn’t a joke, that Sheri didn’t grow up on an island surrounded by a reef. And she wasn’t a biology or environmental science student. I tried to explain it in a way that didn’t make me sound like a know-it-all.

You mentioned you’ve been snorkeling, and you’ve seen corals.

Yeah, I’ve been a few times, she said.

The rock-like structures you snorkeled on protect the mainland. And it’s a lot more than just making a physical barrier. Corals build rock-like structures by taking carbon dioxide from ocean water. That removes the carbon dioxide from the air. You know why carbon dioxide in the air is bad, right?

Yeah, everyone knows about greenhouse gases. But I didn’t get the coral reef connection.

I nodded. Most people who go snorkeling don’t realize that the corals are animals with exoskeletons made of calcium carbonate. So, when corals grow, they build more exoskeletons and lower the level of greenhouse gases. Dad’s team genetically modified corals to live in warm waters and deep, lower-light ocean areas. Their work expanded the reef system. It’s why we have reefs in Georgia now.

But we still see killer storms like Hurricane Jota.

Yes, we do. It isn’t like global warming is a light switch that we can turn off. Global warming has been going on since the start of the industrial revolution. But it’s having an impact. The genetic engineering of corals and the expanded reef system protect the eastern shore of Georgia and what remains of Florida. Hurricane Jota hit Jacksonville hard, but more people would have died without the reef to blunt the waves.

I hoped I hadn’t sounded like a know-it-all smart-ass. Sheri looked thoughtful and not resentful, so maybe I was getting better at this.

Thanks, she said. You’re passionate about your work, and I envy you. I’m still not sure what I’m going to do.

I’ve been involved with the work my whole life. We lived in a government house, part of a coastal research station. My Dad’s job was to monitor coral growth and other data on the reef. He started taking me to the lagoon when I was eight and taught me a ton about corals and reef animals.

We reached the ice cream stall, and both ordered waffle cones. I had mint chocolate chip, and Sheri had chocolate. We stopped talking to enjoy the treat and sat at a cement picnic table under a tree. I tried to make mine last a long time, taking small bites. Neither of us would have much appetite for dinner, but who cared? After all, it would be cafeteria food.

When we got back to our dorm, I opened my books and spent some serious time preparing for the labs I had scheduled. Students in my program prepared for class. They gave me a generous scholarship, and I needed to make a good impression.

Looking at the photo of Peter made me smile. It was taken at his high school graduation dance, our first date. We both started college this year. He’s two years older than me, but I started college early. I guessed I was an overachiever. Mom and Jerry were back home at the Coastal Eleven research station.

Coastal Eleven was my home. My best memories were from when Dad took me on the reef with him. And my family stayed on our island after he died because Mom also worked for the research institute. But now it was just Mom, my brother Jerry, me, and a whole coral reef to explore.

At fourteen, I was the person who made First Contact with non-human intelligent life. I was on my own on the reef flat when it happened. An octopus flowed onto the sand in a shallow part of the lagoon before me. The octopus made complicated motions with his tentacles and arranged pieces of coral on the sand. His body changed colors in a repeating pattern of lights. I was sure he was trying to communicate, and I convinced respectable scientists from NOAA that he was sentient.

Dad died two years before I made contact with the octopuses. I wished I could have shared it with him. He would have gone nuts over the idea of an intelligent reef species.

When this octopus decided I was worth talking to, it changed my life. Hey, it changed everyone’s lives. I named him Charlie, and we became friends. Because of Charlie, NOAA hired me, a fifteen-year-old teenager, and Georgia Tech awarded me a full scholarship. Life was complicated but good.

Now I was part of a group of students spending one week out of three on the New Savannah campus. At fifteen, I was the youngest recruit in the starting class of 2046. I couldn’t remember when I didn’t dream of being a scientist and working for NOAA, just like Dad did. It was the only thing I ever imagined doing with my life. When they offered me the scholarship, a feeling of relief came over me. I felt better than I had since before Dad died. There were many things that I couldn’t control, but if I failed, it wouldn’t be because I didn’t work or study hard enough.

2

Chapter 2 Charlie ~ Younglings

The Youngling eagerly reached for food before I brought the morsel into view, and I was encouraged by her progress. She knew the signal