DD Vol 1 Part 1.5

1. The Depths of the Ocean [5]

Response Regarding CO₂ Ocean Treatment Plan

From: Tamar Shelvey <[email protected]>

To: Han Yeonsoo <[email protected]> Date: Jan 10, 20XX, 8:00 AM

Dear Mr. Yeonsoo,

Hello, this is Shelvey. I have received your email. I think it is a problem statement that shows your sharp insight, Mr. Yeonsoo. As you pointed out, there are many environmental and ethical issues in large-scale CO₂ ocean treatment methods. According to a study conducted by Professor Shiroshima of Kyoto University in 2001, the concentration of CO₂ in seawater affects the calcification rate of sea urchins. Furthermore, many other studies have shown that the dilution rate of CO₂ in seawater is slower than expected by the academic community. To carry out large-scale CO₂ treatment in the deep sea, a thorough evaluation and verification of acute toxicity increase according to CO₂ concentration and the biological groups affected by it are necessary. Thank you for the excellent problem statement. I will share the information you sent at the conference organized by the Oceanography Society next month. Regards, Tamar Shelvey Dream   Tamar Shelvey, Ph.D. The International Association of Oceanography Email: [email protected] Phone: +1 XXX XXX XXXX

Yeonsoo received a reply from Tamar Shelvey. He had to double-check the sender several times while reading the contents of the email with both eyes. He almost let out a childish exclamation. He didn’t expect to actually receive a reply after sending an email with some doubts while looking into CO₂ ocean treatment research.

Tamar Shelvey. The father of marine biology. If you majored in marine science, you couldn’t not know him. Yeonsoo read and reread his papers published in various prestigious journals throughout his graduate program. He was the person Yeonsoo admired the most and also the person who had a significant impact on his doctoral dissertation.

“Hey, Dr. Han. Did something exciting happen? Why are your eyes sparkling like that?”

Suddenly, Alex’s voice was heard. She was standing behind Yeonsoo, but when she had approached him was unclear.

“Oh, it’s nothing. I sent an email to Dr. Tamar Shelvey and received a reply.”

“Tamar Shelvey? Do you like that person?”

“Yes, a lot. I’ve read all the papers he wrote.”

“He is our project advisor.”

Oh my goodness.

Surprise flickered on Yeonsoo’s face.

“Really? Dr. Shelvey is our project advisor? So, does he know about Beresht?”

“Yeah. We even have online meetings with him sometimes. Of course, I’ve never seen his face in person. He’s famous as a faceless scholar in the academic world.”

“Wow….”

When he was in graduate school, he was always full of enthusiasm for learning. He enjoyed studying. Deep-sea oceanography, his specialized field, became more and more fascinating the more he studied. However, after being appointed by the government and starting work at the research center, his academic enthusiasm gradually dried up. The scope of research he could do was limited, and most of the researchers were trapped in routine work.

His heart started pounding after a long time. It wasn’t just exchanging emails with Tamar Shelvey, but maybe there would be an opportunity to work with him.

“Dr. Han. It’s a good thing you went to transfer in our department, right?”

Alex said cheerfully, tapping Yeonsoo’s shoulder.

⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖ ⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖

Beresht Characteristics Report [FBSR 001]

– Name: Beresht. Named by Israeli marine biologist Dr. Tamar Shelvey, who first discovered the species. It means ‘beginning’ or ‘origin’ in Hebrew.

Yeonsoo swallowed his saliva as he read the report attentively. The person who named Beresht was none other than Tamar Shelvey. It suddenly dawned on him that he was the advisor for this ambiguous project.

– Classification: Fish. Belongs to the phylum of vertebrates. The upper body is similar to Homo sapiens, but it breathes through gills, moves with fins, and has scales covering its surface.

– Features: Consists of a head and tail section. The tail section occupies approximately 2/3 of the entire body. Sizes range from 1.7 meters to 3 meters. It is estimated to inhabit the mid-depth and deep-sea regions. It breathes through gills but can survive in environments with almost no oxygen. It is a poikilothermic cold-blooded animal, meaning its body temperature varies with the water temperature. Its skin and tail fin have luminescent capabilities. Research results have shown that it can survive for more than three hours with minimal oxygen outside of water.

* Notable information: Emits a wide range of sound waves spanning the inaudible and audible ranges. The organs and principles responsible for generating sound waves have not been identified.

– Reproduction method: All individuals are distinguished as males and females with testes and ovaries, respectively. Males have an organ believed to be a clasping organ. Therefore, it is speculated that reproduction occurs by inserting the organ into the female’s genital opening, unlike most fish that release reproductive cells into the external ovaries.

 

Yeonsoo tapped his forehead with his fingers. The section on reproduction, which was the most important, was filled with nothing but “speculation.” It meant that there was not much to grasp.

Even though the number of experimental subjects was extremely small, the research period lasted for several years. It was strange that there was such a lack of information about reproduction. Either the people in this department had been slacking off, or this organism was truly completely unknown. One of the two must be true.

The next report contained individual information on all the subjects that had been used for experiments, numbered from 1 to 10.

He slowly flipped through the attached photo materials, one by one.

They were all stunningly beautiful. It wasn’t for no reason that they had told him not to be surprised. They clearly looked human, but not quite. They were so beautiful that it seemed as if a computer had taken pictures to capture the perfect appearance that humans could feel the highest level of aesthetic sense.

All of them were labeled as females from 1 to 9, but based on their appearance alone, it was impossible to distinguish the gender of the organisms. Even the females who were said to have ovaries did not have breasts like Homo sapiens females. They simply looked like beautiful men or beautiful women.

He stopped at the part numbered 10.

The only individual marked as male.

It was Beresht. With deep green eyes and bronze hair.

It was the largest among all the experimental subjects. The tail was about 2 meters long, and the tail fin was also close to 1 meter. The muscles attached to the upper body were unusually thick and well-developed.

It was also the most beautiful. The deep shaded eyes with prominent eyebrows and the transparent pupils shining within. Even in photos, it is so mysterious and enchanting that it is hard to take his eyes off.

While reading the detailed explanation about 10, he came across a sentence that someone had highlighted with a highlighter.

Unlike other organisms, it has no vocal organs. There are traces that seemed to it that it have been cut off.

‘No vocal organs…?’

It meant that there was no voice. It was not a common characteristic of this species, but rather that 100,000 voices were taken away by someone or something.

Yeonsoo clenched his lower lip with his upper teeth. It was his habit to chew on his lower lip when he was stressed. With a faint scent of blood, a dull pain trembled deep in his chest. His vision momentarily darkened and gradually brightened.

He covered the report he was looking at and stood up from his seat. He took out the earpiece he had placed in the desk drawer and put it on.

I’ll take a walk around the office for a bit.

⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖ ⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖v

Leaving a message for Kei, he hurried to the lab.

While the elevator descended to the underground bunker, time seemed to stand still. Yeonsoo put his hand in his coat pocket and fidgeted with the Rubik’s Cube inside.

Finally, the elevator stopped.

The door opened.

Darkness rushed in.

He deliberately didn’t turn on the lights. He stepped hesitantly into the darkness.

The sound of water parting and a path being made could be heard.

Like a meteor falling from space to Earth, ‘it’ swam towards him. However, it couldn’t reach the atmosphere where Yeonsoo was standing. It stopped in front of a transparent glass wall.

Floating specks of light dust shimmered all over his body.

Eyes like a dense blue forest stared at Yeonsoo.

‘You shouldn’t stare at those eyes for too long. It loosens the human mind.’

That’s what he said. It might not be just a saying, but still, he couldn’t help but look. He wanted to look at those eyes and talk. He wanted to ask questions.

Why did you lose your voice?

Yeonsoo also lost his voice once. From the age of nine to eleven, he couldn’t speak. People dismissed it as one of the neurological disorders that appeared in prodigious children. But it wasn’t. His voice was just temporarily taken away by the monster that was devouring him.

Could it be that your voice was taken away too? By the sea witch who sent you here.

Slowly, Yeonsoo raised his palm and pressed it against the glass wall. The sharp gaze of ‘its’ clear eyes traced a trajectory and moved towards his palm. The gaze followed meticulously, observing every detail between the fingers stuck to the glass, the bent joints, the dense fingerprints, and even each wrinkle.

And in the next moment, it reached out its arm. Yeonsoo was taken aback but didn’t remove his hand. It opened its palm slowly, very slowly, and gently touched Yeonsoo’s palm.

Yeonsoo froze.

This is…

A mirroring that only appears to highly social beings. It sent shivers down his spine. No fish imitates human actions like this.

He looked at the palms overlapping with the glass in between.

Its hand was overwhelmingly large, as if it could cover his own palm. Between its long and straight fingers, there were transparent, shining thin claws spread out.

A tingling current flowed within the palms that were pressed against each other. It was unlikely, but strangely, it felt like the air trapped inside was becoming denser.

Yeonsoo took a step back.

He took out the cube from his pocket and held it in his hand. He extended his hand towards the tank and tapped the top of the cube with his finger. As if showing it off.

After a while, the mixed-up cubes started moving in all directions. Yeonsoo didn’t rush this time, even though the cubes were moving so fast that it would be difficult to follow with the naked eye.

Click, click,click.

He carefully aligned the pieces, as if demonstrating to a child who just started solving the cube.

17. Mathematically, the minimum number of rotations required to solve a Rubik’s Cube was 17. It took much more time because he moved slowly, but he calculated the fastest pattern out of habit and used it.

Tap, tap, tap.

The slow and calm but precise hand movements continued without a single unnecessary rotation.

When everything was done and he looked up, it was still looking at him without any movement, with its hand pressed against the glass wall.

Yeonsoo moved to the side. There was a large ladder installed there, and there was a space connected to the entrance of the tank above.

Although there was an iron bar in the middle, researchers could make contact with the subject through that opening.

The iron ladder was clean with almost no signs of use. There was just a little dust accumulated. Yeonsoo climbed up the pitch-black ladder and threw the cube into the tank. He didn’t forget to shuffle the aligned cube a couple of times before throwing it.

Plop.

The cube briefly disappeared below the surface of the water and quickly came back down.

As he returned to his spot, he almost jumped back in surprise.

The cube was floating. On its hand.

It felt like he had caught it before it sank.

Now Yeonsoo’s whole body was covered in sweat. Part of it was due to climbing up and down the high ladder, but the increasing tension made him sweat even more.

Yeonsoo mimicked the action of shuffling and solving the cube in the air. He even made the sound of “click, click” with his mouth. It silently watched his actions while holding the cube. There was no noticeable reaction.

“Can you do it like I did? Like this, turning it like this…”

Yeonsoo, who was moving his hands diligently, suddenly stopped. It was because the cube was raised to his nose. It was as if it was smelling something to confirm it.

Yeonsoo held his breath and watched the next action.

This time, the cube moved to his mouth. It stuck out its tongue and licked the cube. Yeonsoo’s eyes filled with astonishment.

“No! No, that’s not for eating.”

He urgently shook his head to indicate “no,” but it seemed completely unaware. Sighing, he took a step back with a puzzled expression. He scratched the back of his head.

He must be crazy. He have done something stupid as if he were possessed.

This in front of him is not a human. It’s a fish on the same level as Glow.

Interpreting animal behavior as equivalent to human behavior was a common mistake. It was not only arrogant but also foolish for a researcher studying natural organisms to make such a mistake.

He felt such a deep empathy for losing its voice. In the first place, it was ridiculous to feel any empathy.

Yeonsoo turned around. No, he tried to turn around.

He met its gaze again. He was clearly trying to turn around, but something held his whole body and his gaze moved naturally.

It licked the cube again while keeping its gaze fixed. Its tongue was red. The tongue moved very slowly. The smooth flesh scraped between the pieces. It was like persistently scratching something that was stuck.

Ah… Yeonsoo’s expression became distant for a moment.

He remembered it exactly. The pattern he used to solve the cube. 17 rotations, and which cube his finger touched within them.

And now, the spots that Beresht is licking are all places his fingers have touched.

Ha. The back of his neck felt cold.

It wasn’t trying to eat the cube. It was staring at the cube intently, very slowly, licking the faint traces of Yeonsoo’s body temperature and body scent that remained in the cube

There seemed to be a thirst in those deep blue eyes. It would be another error to interpret from a human perspective. Yet, he couldn’t shake off that intense feeling.

Yeonsoo stumbled backward.

A ringing could be heard in his ears. It felt like a voice could be heard from somewhere.

No. Not enough. This is not enough. What I want to eat is your eyes looking at me right now. Your flesh.

That kind of voice.

It’s impossible. It can’t be. His vision blurred and he felt nauseous. An unseen force kept pulling him. He staggered for a moment but managed to regain his balance.

The back of his neck was soaked in cold sweat.

Yeonsoo turned around and ran back to the elevator.