Giant Shellfish

Captain Nathaniel and his crew explore the jungles, swamps, and beaches of planet Dahk, where the days and nights are six hours each. It is hot and humid. On Dahk, the leaves are green and tree bark is orange. Most of the plants smell like pasta. Others smell like rubber, smoke, habanero peppers, garlic, fried chicken, or mud. The jungles are home to intelligent dogs with brown bodies and white tails. The swamps are home to intelligent eagles with brown plumage. The beaches are home to intelligent, “pogostick” seals that hop on their tails while on land. The sea is largely unexplored, even by the seals. In many places are small islands of turquoise topped by amethyst. There are many volcanoes strung along tectonic plate boundaries. No one knows what dwells in the deep.

While on the shore one morning, Nathaniel and his friends stack towers of small stones, challenging each other to make taller and taller towers that will not fall over. Nathaniel is careful to pick out the best stones, looking for ones with relatively flat surfaces.

Then the shellfish arrive. Haticat looks up from his work to see several large bivalves walking onto shore. They resemble both oysters and scallops along a spectrum, with some being more oyster-like and others being more scallop-like. Many tiny feet project from their hinges, allowing them to walk upright, holding their shells vertically. Five eyes poke through each shell, giving the bivalves ten eyes each. They stand about three meters tall.

Fred sees them at the same time. “What are those?”

This gets Nathaniel’s attention. “Let’s go see.” The others follow Nathaniel as he approaches the strange creatures. Looking out over the waves, he sees at least a hundred more breaching the surface. Land is being invaded by sea. They are seeing some sort of migration. Haticat takes a photo and Nathaniel turns on his scanner. “The shells are only partially mineralized. They have big brains. I wonder if we can communicate.”

One of the giant shellfish turns to face the explorers edge-on. Haticat yells at it, “Hey, can you talk?”
Suddenly, a narrow jet of seawater squirts out with such force that it knocks Doctor Bill over. He falls between two turquoise boulders into a tidal pool full of daisy corals. “Hey! Why did you do that?” Nathaniel yells.

Another jet of water hits Fred, knocking him over as well. Then Nathaniel is hit. As he stands up and dries himself off, Haticat and Mojo are hit. Some other creatures have crawled over the rocks behind them and close in. Nathaniel warily grasps his holster. “Let’s move away,” he says.

As they retreat, Doctor Bill is hit two more times and surrounded. Nathaniel shoots a warning shot at a rock. The shellfish seem not to notice and continue to close in. The one closest to Doctor Bill opens its shell slightly and what looks like a tongue sticks out towards him. Zrrrrrt! Nathaniel shoots a laser right inside the shell. A loud scream-like noise fills the beach and the injured creature immediately returns to the surf. The others seem not to notice.

Nathaniel, Haticat, and Fred shoot the other creatures around Doctor Bill, leaving several burn marks, but with their shells closed, they seem not to feel the lasers. By this time, those further down the beach in both directions have clearly started to close in on them. One shoots a water jet at Mojo, who returns fire. “Into the jungle!” Nathaniel yells.

The Pogoseals have never seen such a migration. There have been legends of seeing one or two walking shellfish before, but never so many together, and they have never engaged with land-dwellers before. As tens of thousands of creatures invade the jungles, the Pogoseals fashion wooden spears and prepare to fight.

The spears are largely ineffective. So are the teeth of the Whitetail Dogs. The shells are too tough. Lasers work better. By sustaining laserfire on one spot for five seconds, the visitors to Dahk are able to pierce the shells and force the creatures to retreat. Fifty percent of them die before walking far and their shells fall open, oozing a fluid that smells worse than anything Nathaniel has ever smelled. He vomits twice. Fred nearly faints when one falls over near him and releases its guts. Then one shellfish squirts something other than water. The Pogoseal hit literally freezes in place before falling over and shattering. “What just happened?” Nathaniel says.

As soon as he asks the question, two more Pogoseals and a Whitetail Dog are frozen. The shellfish use their tongues to lap up the slushy meat. “Retreat!” the Pogoseal leader shouts and the hordes follow him deeper into the jungle, leaving Nathaniel and his crew behind.

Captain Nathaniel looks around. They have ten laser pistols and there are ten thousand shellfish. It takes five seconds for him to kill each one of them, and only one second for them to kill him. He doesn’t like those odds. He needs more firepower. “Back to the ship!”

As they turn to run, Mojo is struck from behind by a freezing jet in mid-leap, shattering when he hits the ground. Nathaniel, Haticat, Fred, and Doctor Bill stop for a full second and just stare at the scattered mess of orange, black, and white fibers. Then they run faster.

The explorers hike for fifty kilometers all night through swamp and jungle, arriving at their ship in the middle of the next day nine hours later. Then they all sleep.

When they finally wake up, they sit together at the breakfast table while Nathaniel sips Tang. “They must have a compressor organ to liquify the air they breathe once they have left the water. That explains the cold jets,” Doctor Bill says.

“Where did they come from? Another planet?” Haticat asks.

“The ocean. I think this is an intraplanetary invasion rather than an interplanetary one,” Doctor Bill responds.

“Are we going to kill them? Or are we leaving?” Fred asks.

“Why would we leave?” Nathaniel asks.

“Well, we aren’t getting paid. This was supposed to be an exploration mission, not a rescue mission. It wasn’t supposed to be dangerous,” Fred says.

“Exploring the unknown is always dangerous, and true heroes fight bad guys even when they don’t get paid,” Nathaniel says quietly.

“Are we still heroes? Starting the company was Darryl’s idea. Buying this ship was Darryl’s idea. Now Darryl is dead and we have no one to eat bones or reach high shelves. When Mojo was alive, it was as if part of Darryl was still here. Now we have nothing left and you’ve been transformed by the smart juice into something new. What are we?” Fred asks.

Nathaniel is silent. When he does not respond, Haticat says, “You’re the captain; you have to decide.”

Finally, Nathaniel clears his throat and says, “We’re explorers and heroes. We always have been. So long as one of us lives, Darryl’s legacy continues. Power up the helicopter.”

Twenty minutes later, they are in the sky, heading for the beach. Giant shellfish are everywhere. Other animal life is nowhere to be seen, having either fled or been eaten. From their flying platform, the explorers take turns obliterating the bivalves with the giant laser cannon. They smell horrible when they die. By sunset, they are gone. “That’s it. Let’s go home and get away from this stench,” Nathaniel says. Then they fly back to the ship and blast off.

For several years, the explorers land on world after world, cataloging, measuring, photographing, and collecting. They encounter many plants, animals, minerals, and cultures. They each learn as much as they can. It is fun at times, but it is a while before they have another true adventure.

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