human pet series short stories

The ocean symphony

(I have decided to move the short story into this book)

Cassandra stood at the ship stern, surveying the calm water beneath her, the ship titled 'Valiant' soured the water without any resistance, despite all the alien technologies, the hardest place to reach is always the oceans, as most inhabitable planets don't have a crushing atmosphere or dark areas which lights that can shine the darkest of pits couldn't pierce, most planets didn't harm their oceans this badly either, so normal ships and improved scuba diving equipment would have to do at least for the shallower areas.

Cassandra glanced back to the captain, a slimy alien, he couldn't dive as even with the suits, his body would be shrivelled by the salty water, but he did love earth's oceans, the captain pulled a lever and called out.

"Anchors!", the human beside Cassandra shuddered, he loved diving but after a close encounter with a shark, he was plenty nervous, she patted his head, his hair may have been hidden in the suit, but he still enjoyed the touch, pulling on her goggles and fixing up hers and the humans air tanks, which thanks to alien technology could contain days worth of breathable air.

Cassandra as a werewolf could swim well, but all that her human knew was the doggy paddle, and a few tricks to keep himself centred and in the direction he wanted to be in, flicking the switches on the suits, a beeping sound went off once, this was responsible for protecting them from predator fish, it would confuse all the creatures into thinking the divers as massive rocks, just floating around, so clipping on their face masks, which only covered the lower half, the dived in.

"You alright Corral?" Checked Cassandra through her radio, her human nodded, before forcing himself to pronounce "yes" correctly, she grinned and grabbed his arm, for they may be connected via a rope, but that didn't mean that she wouldn't keep him at arm's length for the downward part of the dive, the ocean itself seemed clean so far, with some dead seaweed, and even corral floating around them, the blue water darkened, the sea floor was still so far below them, but they needed to warily approach it, as the war that the humans had had hundreds of years ago left some nasty tricks in the depths, there was one, a submarine which lay rusted and forgotten, it was small, but heavily loaded, by now the explosives would be either ineffective or highly dangerous, this submarine had been a nasty trick used by one of the nations to try and sneak a victory.

The closer they got the the seabed the more that they saw, the ocean so far seemed so empty, with only the two divers moving through the water, the sandy bottom was coated in a slimy layer, that was the product of dying plants, and plastic, and most likely the petrol or gas used to power the submarine, the seabed was littered with glass and weighed down pieces of plastic, a few fish bones littered the area, a few smaller fish hung around, looking half dead, Cassandra called for the tube, a vacuum, but it spat water out and caught the gunk and rubbish, it simply did that by rejecting the components of H2O as a mass. The tube slowly descended, Cassandra dug through the thick gunk to try and find any sign of life, or even eggs, her hands tugged and tore at the black gunk before making the conclusion, that anything in there couldn't possibly survive, the dead corral was falling apart, the gunk that got loose floated around and darkened the water, Corral swam over to the small fish, they didn't react, he examined them and realized that they were in fact dying, they had caught themselves on the strands of a slowly decaying fishing net, that had twisted around some corral, pitying the creatures, Corral carefully untied them, realising that they could move, the fish began to swim away, slowly.

Cassandra turned on the tube, it began picking up the gunk, which entered it with a disgusting sound, the dead corral tore away from the sand and rocks and joined the gunk, various pieces of plastic, tyres, and metal soon joined them. Cassandra slowly moved to another spot, Corral examined the now stripped layer, it was shining as the faint glimmers of sunlight touched the sand that had been so long trapped beneath the horrible trash and gunk, a few shells poked out, they must have almost been pulled into the tube.

They kept working for hours, avoiding the area of the submarine, various artefacts zooming away to be destroyed once the boat reached land again, it was tiring work, but seeing the glowing sea bed was a great feeling, for both Cassandra and Corral, any still alive plants had part of their DNA taken so they could be reproduced through alien technology, to be placed into this area, to encourage any sea life to come back and reproduce, the oceans were sparse of life, and it was a saddening thing to see.

Finally, they approached the submarine, they would need to call a special aircraft to come and remove the hunk of metal, it was lying over a rocky area, with pits and tunnels, this would have been a favoured spot for predator and prey alike, few shadows passed overhead, it was some rather beautiful angel fish, long since evolved into something much different to their previous appearances.

Carefully, Cassandra worked around the submarine, Corral decided to investigate it, he had seen many times just how Cassandra and other divers checked for explosives and dangerous material, so he carefully looked around until he found a hatch, it was wide open and thoroughly rusted, he swam around till he got to the torpedo bay area, it seemed empty, so Corral investigated further, and then he swam as fast as he could out of there, the room he had entered was covered in torpedoes and bombs, they were scattered and luckily unexploded, Corral decided that he wasn't a weapon identifier.

A few months later, the group returned, with Corral and Cassandra diving down and gaping at the beautiful sight, as much as they saw changes in the areas they have worked in, it always baffles them, replanted corral and other sea plants dotted the sandy floor, a sea snake glided around and various small fish were dashing around, and the most important part was the eggs, they were everywhere it seemed, in tunnels, near corral, in rocky crevices, this was a completely changed area, a small species of shark swam across the ocean, picking out a fish to chomp down on. The area were the sub once was sat had already started growing plants, even some starfish sat along the rocky area, the amount of fish was miniscule compared to how it would of been hundreds of years ago, but this made all the difference, Corral happily followed some fish as they darted through the crevices, and Cassandra was quick to send out water drones to latch on and scan the health of each fish, each drone was the size of a flea, but carried a massive data base.

"Come Corral, I think it's time we left them to themselves" called Cassandra, Corral nodded and followed her up, and as they neared the surface, something huge went by, gaping, the two watched a massive whale glide past, "I thought they were extinct" gasped Cassandra, the gentle giant went to the surface and casually rested in place, floating along, the captain readied the ship to follow, other sailors quickly hoisted the two divers aboard, and the final micro drone latched onto the whale, and Cassandra whooped in pure joy, they really were making a difference, with the bulk krill and shrimp breeding programs to help feed the rising increase in fish population, and the mass effort to clean up the horrid mess the ocean was, this was a sign of hope, for the planet a lot of species called home.