The Monster Missions by Laura Martin

Author:Laura Martin [Martin, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2021-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

10

It was another week before we were allowed back in the water on a diving mission. After what had to be the most exciting first day in the history of first days, I was thankful for the normalcy of our new routine. Mr. Weaver returned to the classroom the next day, well-bandaged and a bit pale but none the worse for his near-death experience. Two days after the meg attack, we found a grower ship that was large enough to pull the Britannica out of the water to repair the hatch, and it was a relief to walk around in the air and the sunshine again, even if only for a few hours.

Grower ships were some of the most prized on the ocean, as they were the only source of non-ocean-supplied food. Thanks to their previous life as aircraft carriers for the military, they had large, flat decks perfect for cultivating most of the things that had made up the diet of the human race before the tide rose. Even though we weren’t allowed to touch the tomatoes, peppers, kale, and potatoes that covered every available surface of the ship, being around all that green was comforting somehow, and I found myself wishing the hatch would take longer to be repaired. As it was, we were back in the water within hours, and I was once again saying goodbye to the sun. This time was easier, though, especially since the ship had sent us a basket of fresh produce that our cook, Brenda, promised to make last for the entire week.

The Britannica certainly didn’t feel like home yet, but it was getting there. I discovered that I actually liked my morning chores with Hector. The old man was a bit of a jack-of-all-trades, and we made our way over most of the sub, fixing this, cleaning that, organizing, and generally keeping the submarine up and running. He had a gruff, no-nonsense personality, but he also told some really fantastic stories about the monsters he’d encountered during his time aboard the Britannica.

Sometimes I felt like I learned more from Hector than I did during Weaver’s classes, although those were eye-opening as well. However, I quickly discovered that the two men had very different views about how monsters should be handled. Hector was of the opinion that every monster should be exterminated—he called it “nipping the problem in the bud”—a viewpoint that Weaver condemned in a thirty-minute monologue when I made the mistake of bringing it up in class. He called Hector’s views “old school” and “closed-minded” and went on to explain that while that had been the original intent of submarines like the Britannica, the Coalition had quickly realized that they’d make much more progress toward protecting ships if they focused on researching monsters instead of killing them on sight. “We only attack a monster once it has attacked a ship,” Weaver had said, mopping at a forehead that had broken out in sweat, something that happened often when he got overexcited about something.

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