Searching Science - An Octonauts Story Book 3 (complete)

Chapter Seven - Mission

"Creature ... report! Creeeature... report!" Dashi hummed softly to herself as she wandered around the lab, placing things back in their places and sorting through a variety of books strewn all over the lab, only half of which were probably prompted by the quiz. She doubted Shellington had ever tidied this place in his life; his experiments tended to just appear in layers on the lab desks. She was fairly sure she remembered him doing the purple seashell experiment six weeks ago, and the central table was pretty much covered with them. She laughed fondly to herself as she collected them up. What would he do without her tidying hobby sometimes?

The Octopod was quiet, a usual occurrence around late morning when some of the louder crew members (ie. Kwazii) were out on mission. It was peaceful, she always enjoyed this downtime, when the HQ hadn't much need of her and she could just wander around saying hi to people and getting some stuff done. 

Dashi piled all the books she could manage between two paws, once the lab was looking a little less like a tornado had hit it, and headed up to Inkling's library to return them. She doubted the scientist would even miss them; they'd be replaced within a couple of days anyway.

She bumped briefly into Peso and exchanged a few words, and wondered whether or not to pop into Tweak's workshop on her way, but figured the rabbit would be busy at work drawing out new blueprints for one of the new suit designs she was planning. Completely secret, of course, but because of that fact, everyone knew about it.

Inkling wasn't there when she called out a hello into the large library, but Dashi was familiar enough with the marine biology section from programming all the creature profiles into the Octopod database to know vaguely where all the books belonged, and she spent another fifteen minutes climbing the ladders and slotting the books back where they belonged. It was quite therapeutic, in a way. She borrowed another mystery novel in the series she was working her way through in the process, and headed back to the lab to finish off her spring clean.

Considering it as she lined up another collection of brightly coloured shells along the shelf below the radio, she might even be able to get that album finished to send off to National Seaographic, which she hadn't anticipated to finish until at least the end of the week.

"Dashi?"

The voice over the radio was familiar, and Dashi looked up from her shell organisation to see Shellington. To her surprise and slight concern, his face wasn't filled with his usual smile as he looked at her, and a tiny worried frown creased his forehead as he tried his best to smile at her. "What's up, Shel?" she asked. "Did you find the sea urchin you were looking for? Or did you crash the Gup again? I would have come with you if you needed a driver."

"No, the Gup's still in one piece," he grinned ruefully. "This time, at least."

"That's good. I wouldn't want to explain that to Tweak again."

"I agree completely."

The dachshund placed the rest of the shells down on the surface and gave her full attention to the screen, crossing her arms in a businesslike manner. "So, what is up?"

"Well, it's kind of difficult to explain..."

Shellington looked up from where he had been making his voice heard down his collar radio, to where the entrance to the cave looked relatively small, since the mission team had retreated deep into it. It was dark this far away from the open ocean, and the only light revealed a shadowy silhouette, around a hundred metres away.

Dashi's sunny expression grew graver as Shellington relayed this description to her, moving his helmet camera so she can get the same view. "Are your torches working? Can you see what species it is?"

"Left them in the Gup," he responded at a whisper. "The Captain asked whether I could identify it, but I don't recognise any species that is this big, and in this geographical location."

Dashi squinted, but from this distance it was difficult 

"The Captain's trying to figure out whether or not to talk to it, but it's blocking our exit to the Gups. And we're trying to convince Kwazii it's not a sea monster."

Shellington didn't sound too sure himself, Dashi noted. "So, you want me to help identify it?"

The camera returned to his face. His eyes, still so trusting, blinked solemnly at her. "We're relying on you, sunshine."

From the Octopod, Dashi could hear Barnacles and Kwazii conversing in the background as the three Octonauts backed away from the shadowy figure, seeming to loom ever closer towards them. The cave was growing darker by the minute, the giant creature blocking out more of the light intake and trapping them in.

"Already on it," Dashi replied quickly.