Sharon hoped that her laughter passed for a dolphin's call, and decided to lay flat on top of the seaweed till the boat was out of sight. Looking at the metallic shape above her, she couldn't help thinking about it as an intruder in the otherwise untouched landscape. After about fifty minutes (Sharon could clearly tell that she was going to need to breathe pretty soon anyway) Sharon decided to resurface. She restrained from jumping right out of the water as she really felt like to do and kept a low profile, taking a deep breath and then diving again. The encounter reminded Sharon that she wasn't only a mermaid -- she was a mermaid on a mission. Find that submarine and disable it for good. They told her to try to do something only if she was sure that the Leviathan -- and a sea monster it was, nuclear weapons and all -- was a product of chronally illicit technology. Sharon had agreed, but by now she was determined to fry the thing no matter what.
To figure out her position and heading was a matter of no more than a glance at the sun and a pass above the rare corals who had so far managed to survive depth charges and industrial byproducts. War showed its marks everywhere -- from the metallic shreds she found at a time, to the shiny trail-clouds left in the sky by the leaks of Fleury gas left by the giant zeppelin-carriers. And she could tell she was on the right path: the signs of environmental damage, sporadic at first, were now clearly visible.
At a point she even spotted a relic of a ship -- a cargo ship, she could see immediately after having quickly inspected it. She only saw three corpses, but those skeletons with bits and pieces of flesh still attached to the bone made her literally puke against the wind -- er, against the current. Sharon left in disgust, thinking that she couldn't even cry for those people.
It took the better part of the day to reach her destination, but she could tell clearly when she reached it -- the same moment her initial enthusiasm and feeling of carefreeness finished to fade away. Sharon touched the casing of the Soviet depth mine, mindful not to even go near the triggers coming out of the big black ball like stumps from a mutilated starfish. Depth mines all around the area. Unlike every other object she saw so far, they were clean as new.
The minefield extended as deep as she could go without having her ears hurt terribly. It was also
obvious that no ship could pass through the thick minefield. The Leviathan was specially built to be able to go deeper than any other sub, or so Antoine told her, but everything else would have been blown to pieces in less than thirty meters.
Except her.
Mindful to stay clear of mines, Sharon entered the dangerous zone, looking at the barren depths below her. Most forms of animal life had learned the hard way to avoid this place, and she could tell very well that Allied forces must have given up the island after a series of bloody skirmishes. She didn't really find another relic -- just pieces. Sharon was definitely back to civilization: a drydock couldn't have looked more artificial than this expense of polluted, mine-ridden water.
"Damn war" Sharon thought "Soviets, Allies, I don't know. Damn crazy HUMANS!"
Suddenly her sonar told her that something was approaching.
Fri Jul 9 17:35:47 1999