Philosophy through Science Fiction Stories: Exploring the Boundaries of the Possible by Johan De Smedt Helen De Cruz & Eric Schwitzgebel

Author:Johan De Smedt Helen De Cruz & Eric Schwitzgebel [Helen De Cruz, Johan De Smedt]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781350081246
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2020-12-16T00:00:00+00:00

The final stage of a whale fall is the longest, lasting up to fifty years or longer. During this stage, mussels, tube worms, and other organisms derive energy from the sulfophilic bacteria, breaking down the fats and oils in the bones. These creatures in turn serve as food for other animals, creating a deep-sea community with as many as 30,000 organisms inhabiting a single skeleton—one of the most richly diverse ecosystems in the world.

Odonto had been a 50-ton ten-year-old when Jemina had first met him. Soon, he’d be nothing but bone.

She felt like she was falling apart with him.

With every bit of flesh that was torn from him, her confidence waned. What had she hoped to accomplish anyway, in stealing him away in the dead of night? Had she really thought she could save him? And now what? He was dead, in the middle of nowhere, and as soon as her air ran out, she would be, too. The realization came with an edge of spite; it would serve them right to lose a top pilot along with their whale. She’d thought she was using the Federation—for stability, for survival, for life—but really, she’d been the one picked clean. The arrangement she’d thought was symbiotic was cruelly parasitic.

She was angry enough to die.

The oxygen levels dipped, and the needle shuddered downward. There was nothing to do but watch the sea around them—particles floating about like thousands of stars, and shadows passing back and forth through the gloom—and wait for the end.

Except it wasn’t just dancing starlight and the slow-moving forms of wise and ancient sea life. There was something out there, just beyond that, something barely visible, but too rigid and symmetrical to be organic. Jemina stared at the screen, adjusting the dials until its form became clearer: a shadowy outline of a dome. She pulled up her map and checked her coordinates, already knowing what she’d find. There was nothing here, or at least there wasn’t meant to be, and the dome was far too small to be a military outpost.

“Odonto,” she said with a chuckle, recalling how hard he’d pushed, how determined he’d seemed to reach this place. How long had he known what was out here?

The Federation would have been thrilled with their discovery—almost as thrilled as she was to now withhold it from them. Let the Nauts keep their little settlement, for at least they saw the whales as creatures worthy of respect, of life. As Captain Monston had always said, they’d never harm a creature of the sea.

Jemina watched the hagfish and sleeper sharks circle, watched as a crab skittered over Odonto’s skin.

Yes, the Nauts may be pompous and condescending, but at least they were trying to make things better somehow. At least they weren’t careless with the lives in their hands.

“Your siblings deserve better,” Jemina said aloud to Odonto, and with that it was settled, her mind set. She knew why he had brought her out here. Her hand flicked the controls, sending a spark of power to the short-range communication relay.

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