Meg: Origins Read Free Page B

another descent before the brunt of Typhoon Marian arrived by noon tomorrow. Rough weather, a subterranean current, even a school of fish could cause their bounty to drift to another location, making it impossible for a returning mission to locate the same patch of volcanic rock.
    Danielson essentially gave Heller little choice. As long as Jonas Taylor appeared reasonably coherent, he would be cleared for one more dive.
    · · ·
    The forty-four-year-old physician with the graying crewcut removed the blood pressure cuff from Jonas Taylor’s left bicep. “One-thirty-seven over eighty. Slightly elevated, nothing to write home about.”
    I’m normally one-ten over sixty.”
    “You’re anticipating this morning’s dive. Arms out to the side, eyes closed. Now touch your nose with your right index finger.”
    “Whoa!” The vertigo washed over him, causing Jonas to lose his balance. He reopened his eyes, struggling to stop the room from spinning.
    “Vertigo?”
    “No thanks, I have enough.”
    “It’ll pass.”
    “As reassuring as that is, Frank, I’m pretty sure my brain is milk toast.”
    Captain Danielson entered. “How’s our boy?”
    “Grumpy. I’m prescribing Antivert for his vertigo and a shot of B-12 to alleviate the fatigue, otherwise he’s good to go.”
    “Wait, what?”
    “Excellent. Commander, I’m sure the good doctor will have you feeling ship-shape in no time.”
    “The good doctor must have fallen off the wagon. My brain’s in a fog, my dexterity’s off-kilter, and I’m working on three hours sleep.”
    “Navy SEALs do it all the time. Man up, Taylor. Get some caffeine in you, a few calisthenics. You’ll be right as rain.”
    “Right as rain? I’m not driving Aunt Bea in the squad car to deliver apple pies to Mayberry’s church picnic, Dick. This is the Mariana Trench! I need to think clearly down there. And don’t get any ideas about Royston. He’s nowhere near ready.”
    “The Navy obviously disagrees or he wouldn’t be your back-up.”
    “Regulations demanded a back-up. Royston was the only pilot available who had dived beyond 15,000 feet.”
    “Technically, he’s qualified.”
    “Technically, Frank here is a doctor, but I wouldn’t recommend him performing surgery on a brain tumor or lancing a boil on your ass, which in your case is probably the same thing.”
    Danielson’s face turned red. “Dr. Heller, have you certified Commander Taylor fit to dive?”
    Frank avoided Jonas’s eyes. “Yes, sir.”
    “Commander Taylor, I am ordering you to pilot the DSV at oh-nine-hundred hours. If you fail to do so you will be subject to a court marshall and Mr. Royston shall take your place. Is that clear?”
    Jonas stood. For a long moment he and Danielson stared at one another, then the DSV pilot unbuckled his pants and ceremoniously dropped his boxer shorts, exposing his bare buttocks. “You can plant your B-12 shot right there.”
    Forty minutes later, Jonas Taylor was in the DSV Sea Cliff going through his pre-dive checklist—his life about to change forever.

2
    Guam Naval Base
    LOCATED IN THE REGION of the western Pacific known as Micronesia, the Marianas Island chain is an arc-shaped archipelago consisting of fifteen volcanic mountains. The islands were birthed millions of years ago when lava was released along the Philippine Sea floor as a result of the western edge of the Pacific Plate subducting beneath the Mariana Plate. This region, the most volcanically active convergent plate boundary on Earth, forms the deepest point on the planet—the Mariana Trench. Water trapped in the fault line, heated by the subduction process, is the source of the hydrothermal activity that proliferates throughout this seven-mile-deep, 1,550-mile-long crevasse.
    The largest and southernmost island in the Mariana chain is Guam. Home to the Chamorro, a seafaring people whose heritage dates back over four thousand years, Guam’s identity underwent a drastic change when it became part of the