Deadly Whiteness

Tuccert looked at the smiling Christian.

– Get our aqualungs and camera! You must have remembered at what distance from the ship they rose to the surface?

One may not have asked. He had long ago stopped to be surprised at the fantastic eyesight and ability of his assistant to judge by eye.

They came back after quite some time.

When the boat moored to the ship the faces of both of them expressed deliberation.

– First of all, – announced the professor climbing up the deck, – I congratulate you on not having recognized the skeleton of a cachalot.

But the reproach, not like usual, did not sound aggressive at all.

– And, secondly, the case is very funny in itself. That’s why I am inviting everybody to the crew’s quarters.

In a few minutes, when the four students were sitting around in polite expectation, Tuccert, having exchanged glances with his assistant, instead of words scratched his bushy wiry beard.

– Well, – after some silence he began at last, – haven’t I said already that the case is quite unusual?

– No, – answered the little trouble-maker who had already tried to be rude in the boat.

– And what have I said?

– Just: “A sort of a cachalot and you are simply making fun!”

– Yes, thank you for being exact. – He again scratched his beard. – Really, it is very funny, because I and Christian don’t understand at all what happened to this gigantic cachalot.

– Gigantic?

– Not less than twenty meters long, – said the assistant. – It is a huge, and that means a very strong male.

– He died of old age and has been lying here for many years? – supposed someone.

– No. – Professor let go of his beard and spoke quickly and energetically. – The skeleton has been picked, and picked, as they say, to bone. This in itself is amazing, and I am going to tell you why. But now about something else: we have examined cartilage chords and interbone ligaments. I can bet that the cachalot was alive at least thirty six hours ago. And besides, cartilages and ligaments show that this animal was in the prime of life.

– What of that? Somebody treated himself to him, – the little rebel interfered again and looked at his watch. – We should also get food regularly. It’s time for lunch, by the way.

– Treated oneself? And won’t you tell me who is capable of treating himself to cachalots?

– From your impressive lectures I remembered, respected Professor, that cachalots mainly hunt squids, and very large squids can resist and wound a cachalot mortally.

– You are a clever guy, – Chris smiled approvingly. – Only when I was a student of our Professor I remembered also the jaw structure and digestion characteristics of squids.

– Not you alone! I also know that the powerful hook of the squid has the same strong jaw apparatus with which it beats and tears its victim at the same time. And of course it devoured not the whole cachalot but a small part. The rest was eaten by sharks, and what remained on bones – by other fish.

– And all this within one day? – somebody else interfered.

– What of that, I eat my beefsteak in five minutes.

– Well, if a hundred gluttons like you worked there…

– Be quiet, be quiet! Let us better speak about the sizes, and many things will become clear. Sizes are the main thing here.

– Excuse me, Professor, – one of the students politely asked for a word. – You were yourself telling that judging by the two feet traces of squid’s suckers which could be found on the bodies of cachalots in the depths supersquids of the size of two hundred feet are sure to live. Two thirds of this are tentacles. Why couldn’t such a giant win over the cachalot?

– It could, moreover we have all the reasons to believe that there are squids in the ocean even of larger sizes. But recollect, where do such giants live? In the depths. Even not the largest specimen forty-fifty feet length rarely come to shallow waters. That’s why cachalots hunt them even at the depth of three quarters of a mile. And there he can really himself become the victim of the supergiant.

Professor cast a look at the young people and continued:

– My friends, you have missed the main thing: the fight which takes place in this case. A seventy-tons cachalote is very mobile, and gigantic super-squid – still more so. Their deadly fight lasts not for a minute. During it they move up and down for hundreds of feet. It is especially important for the victory of the squid.

– And our skeleton is lying just at two hundred, – finished Christian, in the tone which is used with small children, – now you understand, don’t you? Such a squid simply has no place for movement here.

– That’s clear! – the little rebel cast a contemptuous glance at him and gave the same glance to the professor as well. – It means I am alone among you who remembers the oceanic map of the place. Not far from here there is a two-mile hollow. Isn’it so? It is there that the fight of the cachalot and the squid took place. Then the deadly wounded cachalot dragged his ass here and kicked the bucket for the joy of sharks… Haven’t I deserved my beefsteak, Professor?

– You may even take half of mine.

The happy young people rushed to the deck and somebody asked the clever impudent fellow:

– And what will you do if the squid attacks our ship?

– I will spit in its eyes, that’s what I will do!

– Marc, do his words seem truthful to you?

– About spitting in his eyes? I don’t doubt. And the cachalot could have really sailed here after the fight, but only in case he himself had wounded the squid very seriously. In other case it would not have let it go. But the skeleton, Chris…

– It’s too clean, isn’t it? I also can’t understand it. Of course the sharks would have come together and teared off the meat in two or three hours but small remnants on the bones are not for their teeth. So small fish could be feeding here for another week.

– That is what is strange!

In the middle of the day they saw the flag cruiser.

Even at the distance of many miles from here, just when the eye could take in its contour, one could understand that something big and very powerful was moving. There is no, and there can be no obstacle in the ocean to this movement, and that even the strongest storm waves will break and disperse in small drops colliding with its sharply curved front.

And in another half-an-hour Professor, having climbed a ladder put just near water, was in the arms of his junior brother.

– My congratulations again, my boy! Very happy for you!

Then he shook hands with a dozen of handsome sun-tanned officers in such elegant and perfectly ironed uniform that one could think that they were getting ready to take part in an expensive television show. And the cruiser itself over which they had a half-an-hour excursion appeared to be a fantastic work of technology.

His brother was showing and explaining…

Invisible under the middle of the stern part defense rocket complex was ready to destroy anything flying in the air in the radius of a few hundred miles.

– Two such cruisers can close the access from air on all Atlantic or Pacific coast of the country, – said Pete contentedly.

– And how many such cruisers are there all in all?