Wharfinger Yarns

INVASIVE
by: Ralph E. Ahseln  10/2012

Part Three…..

It was just barely dawn when the Wharfinger woke. He hadn't slept much that night.
Between waking with the cold shakes and nightmares, it had been a rough night for the old man.

Quickly he dressed and before making his morning pot of coffee, he rushed out of the office door. He was heading for the boat on slip "A" and whatever he'd seen there last night. As he neared the boat, he slowed and carefully looked around and down into the water alongside the hull. He was going to check to make sure what he'd experienced the night before was real. Creeping to the edge of the dock, the old man peeked over the edge.
Nothing! He didn't see a thing.

The water alongside the boat was its normal dirty green. He could barely see more than 6 inches below the painted waterline. Then he realized that last night his flashlight penetrated deeper. The light was a strong beam then. This morning the cloudy sky reflected in the water making it hard to see below the surface.
If there WAS something under the boat, he'd have to find out what it was.
Then it came to him. The only way he could think of checking below now was to try to scrape the underside with a tool of some kind. If he could get some of the stuff, he'd call that Government fellow. He and his bunch of experts might be able to figure out what the stuff was.

He left the boat and walked back to the office trying to think of something he could use to dislodge a bit of the thing that was under the boat.
Then he spotted his old minnow net hanging on the wall of the office. He used it to catch bait to use for catching big fish. It had a long handle and the net was about a foot across.
He'd use it to scoop off some of that stuff, If it was really there.
He grabbed it off of the wall and hurried back to the boat and whatever might be under it.

Shoving the net under the bow and pulling it back out, yielded nothing but green algae.
He moved farther along until he was about where he stood last night.
He pushed the net down alongside the hull as far as he could, and pulled back.
It seemed to be stuck on something. He pulled harder. Finally, it gave and came up quickly.
As soon as the net broke water, the old man gasped.
There, caught in the net, were a few lengths of the same Redish-Brown "ropes" he'd seen the night before. Each length was moving. Writhing like a bunch of snakes.
He laid the net down on the dock and before he had a chance to look at it closely, carefully,
the "ropes" began to turn black and shrivel. Within a minute, they had shrunk to a small pile of greasy goo. Then the old man was astounded as he watched that mess then began to quickly dry and finally turn to a smudge of dust.
Several tries later, the same thing happened each time. He would pull up a few strands, that would shrivel and become a spot of greasy stuff. Once the process slowed a little when he accidently pushed some of the strands under a tarp lying close by. He wondered if he covered it with something, it might not shrivel. He remembered a black plastic shopping bag he had in office.

With the black bag lying next him, he tried again. This time when he dumped the net into the plastic container, The strands moved, but didn't shrink. He quickly twisted the top of the bag shut.
Taking a moment to collect his courage, he made another pass at pulling more of those "strands" from the boat. He made several scoops, each time unwinding the neck of the bag and quickly dumping the contents of the net into the it.
The collection inside was moving, wiggling, sliding back and forth.
The old man twisted the neck of the bag as tight as he could, wrapped a wire around the top and carried it back to the office.

8 A.M. the next morning, he called the phone number the Director had given him. He had to "wade" through a bunch of recorded voices to get the Department of the Special Committee on Tsunami Debris Control. After several tries he managed to get a real person who connected him to the Director. A short explanation of what had happened and what the old man had found, the Director got very excited and told him to keep the bag closed and he'd send someone to pick it up as soon as they could.

"Oh, by the way." the Director said quietly.
" Have you seen my assistant Loren around there today?"
The Wharfinger replied that he hadn't.

"He and the diver we sent there last night, haven't shown up for work today. I guess they worked late last night and should be coming in anytime. They have the samples from last night and we need to examine them too. If they should drop by, ask them to check in here as soon as they can. Thanks for your help. Good bye". The old man heard the phone being hung up.

In less than an hour the Wharfinger heard a knock on his door. Standing outside were 2 men and a woman. They stood there in white coveralls, surgical masks, boots and rubber gloves. Taking them to where he'd dropped the bag, the old man stepped back to watch. After a short time, one of the men screwed sections of a pole together and connected a hook to its end. The woman had been carrying a box that the Wharfinger thought to be an ice chest. In a short time, the pole operator had hooked the plastic bag lifted and dropped it into the ice chest box. Slammed shut, she and the other man lifted it and started back up the ramp. The pole was quickly broken down and with a "goodbye", they all hurried up the ramp and into a nearby van. The old man watched the van drive away and wondered what would happen. "Well, I sure hope they find out what that was. I don't want to have to worry about that ever again ! " He said to himself, not really believing it.

That afternoon, the old man remembered that the young couple was still on board their boat. He hated the idea of having to go back there, but he figured that he'd better check up on how they were doing.
He didn't like walking along the dock close t0 the place he'd pulled those "things" out, but he wanted to make sure they were all right.
"Ahoy!" he shouted. "Ahoy! You folks OK ? " He wasn't sure he heard any sounds so he knocked on the hull, very loudly.
"Is that you Alf? "came the woman's voice.
"Yep, You alright in there? " .
"Yes, just a minute and we'll come up" she sounded relieved.

When the old man first saw them, he got worried. They didn't look good at all. They had dark circles under their eyes and they stood slumped over like heavy weights were wearing them down.
"You OK, kids?" the old man asked.
"Were all right, We just haven't slept all night. Come aboard. We can make coffee. We need to talk to you. We're scared. Something's really, really bad happening". She almost cried.
"Sounds kept us up all night". The young man spoke up at last.
"There's something under the boat making noise at night" he continued.

The three of them sat in the cockpit for an hour or more. Each sharing the events of the previous night. The old man, told them of the strange growths that he'd collected and sent off to the lab and that they were going to get back to him soon. The young man, Josh, said, as soon as it had gotten dark, he'd heard the diver and the man with the orange clip board argue about how to get the job done. After a few minutes he thought he'd heard both of them leave. Then shortly afterwards, he started hearing the sounds. "It was like the ocean waves hitting the shore, and at the same time a "Fingernails on a blackboard" sound. It was a "Swoosh, Screech, Swoosh, Screech" all night long". The young man sighed.
" I heard a kind of 'Grinding' sound too." the young woman interrupted.
"It sounded like those machines that butchers use to make hamburger. It was awful. " Tears ran down her face as she spoke.

The old Whafinger, trying to make them feel better, said,
" You know, Old boats have a lot of Squeaks and Groans in them. I'll bet that what you heard was this FUJI just shifting and expanding. I noticed some of the wood was a bit dry.
I'll bet when you get some oil on them, the noises will go away." he said it, but he didn't believe it himself.
"I said it before, this boat is sick". he thought.

3 days had passed since the events of that night. The young couple had moved off the boat and were staying in a motel. The old man avoided the boat on "A" row. He only went there in the daytime and hurried by as he did his rounds. At night, he thought that he heard some sounds coming from that part of the marina, but he wasn't about to check them out. Not at night!

This morning he was on his third cup of coffee when his old phone jangled. It was the Director, and he sounded nervous and had a tone of panic in his voice. He was shouting orders to someone in his office at the same time trying to talk to the old man.
"Sir, the final results of the examination has come in on those specimens you captured the other day. I NEED to come and talk to you IMMEDIATELY! " his voice was strained.
"Can I come there now ? " he continued.

"Of course. I'll be here waiting. " the old man answered.
The phone at the other end slammed down.

In less than an half hour, several official looking cars screeched to a stop in the parking lot of the marina. Groups of different colored protective suits scrambled out of them. The old man watched it all from his office. Lumbering up behind the cars, rolled a massive mobile crane. It pulled up alongside the Quay wall and men piled out of it too.
The ramp was full of people with scientific gear. Following them all was the Director.

The Wharfinger met him at the office door and they went inside. The Director's suit was rumpled, his hair uncombed and he was sweating.

"May I call you Alf ? " the Director began.

"Sure, What's up Mr.... Ahhh, Bob, if that's alright ? "

The Director smiled for the first time , then his face turned white.
"Alf, We've got a big problem. We're going to have to lift that big FUJI out of the water and do some serious and dangerous work. We need you help and the help of those kids who own it. Are you willing ? " The Director was pleading now.

"Bob, I figured there might be trouble with that boat. I'll do all I can to pitch it. What ya want me to do?

"First, we need to get those kids off of that boat, then we need help moving it over to the Quay so we can get straps under it to lift it. You can help by giving us directions as to how to move it over there. OK ? "
Huge drops of sweat began dripping off the end of his nose.

"Bob, the kids are gone, they're in a motel not too far away. I'll call them and tell them to stay away. I don't think that'll be a problem. They don't want the boat anymore. They want me to help sell it. They said they're going back to Ashland and never want to think about sailing again."
"I'll stand by ready to help move the damned thing over to the wall."
'Bob, can you give me any idea of what's going on and why ? "

Alf, Yes, I can tell you now. It's a story that's hard even for me to understand".

"As you know by now, that boat came from Japan and is part of what we've been calling Tsunami Debris. Most of that stuff will be just bits and pieces of material that was washed away by flood waters. Harmless clutter. We and other agencies, State and Federal, will gather it up and destroy it.
There is, however, some items that weren't just washed away from houses and other shore based areas. There are some objects that were moored or fixed in Japan's local waters that could cause problems. Those items will have to be carefully examined to see if they carry any of what we call "Invasive Species".
Animal or plants that don't live and survive here on our coasts. Creatures or plants that could endanger local marine life. We've already found some examples of invasive species on floating docks and pilings that are beginning to show up. When we find those critters, we'll destroy them quickly."

"Now we come to the FUJI sitting out there on your dock.
The samples you collected were brought to the lab and for the last few days have been under close observation and testing. We wanted to find out what the hell they are. You were correct about those thing's sensitivity to Light and that information was critically important to us. You save us a lot of work.
By the way, the samples our diver took haven't shown up yet. Neither has the diver or my assistant , Loren. They will be fired as soon as they report for work."

"OK, back to the FUJI."

"We began testing those creatures as quickly as we could. We didn't want them to die before we found out what they were.
Are you ready for this ?
They die in any sun light. They can only survive in the dark and cold such as under a boat.
Any light and they quickly die.
They grow large and fast under the right conditions, but here's the strange part. They sort of "Hibernate" in Salt water. They need brackish or fresh water to spring into rapid growth. While they were in the Pacific, they sort of went to sleep. As soon as they got to Astoria and then here in this estuary, they began to grow and multiply. We estimate that they can grow to be very large colonies and ...this one is really scary.... They appear to be a kind of a Carnivorous plant.
As soon as they come out of Hibernation, they begin to feed. Small fish, crustaceans and shellfish are their primary source of food. We estimate they could wipe out a waterway of animal life in only a few months.

They capture their prey by wrapping those things we're calling Tentacles, around any animal and squeeze it. It's a kind of Embrace of Death. Each tentacle has a row of tiny teeth that Rasp the victim's flesh, shredding it until they've cleaned it to the bone.
They are nasty creatures and we must stop them before they spread. "

The old Wharfinger set there taking it all in. He'd seen and heard a lot of strange things all these years around the oceans and waters of the world, but this one had him frightened.

He dragged his chair closer to where the Director was sitting and said,
"OK, now that you've scared the crap out of me, I have some questions for you. If these critters are so damned awful, how come no one has heard of them before? How come the folks in Japan didn't do something about them Long Ago?. Where the hell have they been all this time? "
He leaned closer to the Director, looking into his eyes.

"Alf, were not positive, yet, but we have a couple of scientists who have a pretty good idea. They are confirming it as we speak. They're saying 99 percent sure.

Ok, what I'm going to tell you is strictly Top Secret. If the press ever got word of this, there would be a panic. A lot of people might get hurt. You have to swear that you'll not speak of this outside of this office. Deal ? "

"You got my word on it Bob! "

"OK, You know that the FUJI was moored at a private dock in Japan, right? Well what we didn't tell you was WHERE that dock was.
The Sailing Yacht was the property of one of the top men at a major power plant.

The vessel was moored a few meters away from the...
Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant !"

"The boat and the water around it was subjected to extremely high doses of Radiation.
It was captured by tidal action and held close by for several days.
We checked to see if the boat had any residual radiation on board. It had virtually none.
The high level of radiation apparently caused some electromagnetic pulse damage to some of its electronics, but the boat was undamaged in any other way.
EXCEPT !"

"Our scientists think, NO, they're pretty damned sure, that the marine growth on the bottom of that boat was .... Genetically altered when exposed to that massive amount of Nuclear Radiation.
Some of the naturally growing marine life.. Changed !
Mutated!
They've been transformed into.. we're calling them... Assassin Weeds..."

"We're going to lift the boat, expose them to the Sun and Kill the bastards !"

The Director wiped his forehead and smiled. It was the second time the Old Wharfinger had seen him smile since they first met.

The office door creaked open and a yellow hazard suited woman stuck her head in.
"Director, the crane is ready and the crew are all in place. " she announced.
"OK, Lynn, We're on our way. Tell everyone to be extra cautious. We don't know what we'll find when we lift the boat."
"Yes sir, we're all ready". The woman quickly jogged away.
"Alf, are you set to go?"
"Yep, Bob. Let's get it over" The Wharfinger shouted.

It didn't take long to get the 45 footer out of the slip and secured against the quay.
The Wharfinger had taken charge of the two utility craft that acted as tow boats, and had jockeyed the big vessel under the crane with little effort.
"little effort" wasn't the case when they tried getting the Lifting Straps under the boat.
There was something blocking the straps when they tried to slip them along the length of the FUJI. With some back and forth movement, they managed to finally slide the straps to their proper place.
Then the Lifting began.

The lift had brought the boat to about a foot out of the water when they began to see THEM !
Higher and higher the crane strained and groaned to get the boat out of the water.
As the boat came totally out of the water, the crowd of technicians and scientists all scrambled to get away.
Under the boat was a mass of Reddish Brown tubes. Looking like hundreds of monstrous snakes.
They were MOVING.
Not moving, they were Whipping about in a wild and lethal way. If someone had gotten close, the things would have cut them in half like a snapped cable.
Higher the crane lifted. With the boat almost 15 feet out of the water, the ends of the tentacles could be seen. The smallest of them about 3 or 4 feet long. the largest 8 or 10 feet with a circumference of a half foot. They covered the bottom of the boat from a few feet from the bow going aft to the prop. Hundreds of the things.
On the side facing the sun, those tubes closest to the upper part of the hull began to turn black and fall off. The remaining tentacles began to stop moving and started to PULL up into themselves.
As the things began to wither or pull inward, the crowd of onlookers moved in for a closer look. The Old Wharfinger left his office and rushed up to be as close as he could get.
More and more of the Things began to shrivel, turn black and fall off. Making a pool of goo under the boat.
The old man got close enough to see what looked like bones of fishes.
As more of the stuff withered and fell, more bones and shells could be seen.
At the place where the tubes had been thickest, larger bones began to protrude.
He recognized the skull of a Harbor seal. Then its rib bones began showing.
The Tube creature had wrapped strands of itself around the whole carcass of the seal and had stripped the flesh completely clean.

A woman's screamed.
Everyone stopped looking at the seal to turn in her direction.
Close to where she stood, as more of the monster fell away, HUMAN bones were beginning to be seen.

You could see the skull and rib cage.
Around the skull was a diving mask. Then leg bones came. a foot with one swim flipper. Only One. And yet, another skull came out of the rotting mass of tentacles.
Clutched in its bony hand was an Orange clipboard.

The crowd stood frozen with the horror of it all.

Then the Old Wharfinger saw tiny bones. A small animal head.
Around its neck.....

A PINK leather strap with rhinestones glittering, spelling out "Biffy-Poo"

End:

r. ahseln
october 2012

Part 1

Part 2