***** Vol.1 Chap.16 Babysitting the sunken yacht *****

For two long years, Kristin anticipated this moment when she could be down in the ocean in her sub exploring the unknown. But for now, she had babysitting duties watching this sunken yacht sinking inch by inch towards the raving. What a great start! Instead of frolicking with her dolphins, she just sat still. Instead of taking pictures and discovering new species, she was stalled into inaction.

She was just plain bored.

To pass the time, she played with the controls for the cameras and with the manipulators. She took out her coffee mug and sat back to enjoy this rare opportunity to be inside a gigantic aquarium. Such a change in perspective looking from inside the ocean at the fish rather than from the outside of her aquarium. She wondered what the fish thought, looking at her in this contraption. Would they be laughing at her?

Boredom.

She remembered while she was in fifth grade, her parents bought her an aquarium with a few guppies. That became her life from that point on. Right there and then, she decided her career would be a marine biologist when she grew up. She would save up all her allowance and buy things for the aquarium. First, it was a few strands of artificial seaweed, then real seaweeds. For more decorations, she added a bridge and a few white rocks. She completed the underwater scene with a sunken ship and a miniature diver.

By that time, she began investing in more exotic fish. The goldfish with bright red and white fins was her favorite. Later, for six entire months, she saved up all her allowance to get a 10-gallon tank, then a 30-gallon tank. For show and tell, she would bring her entire class to her home just to show them the aquarium. One time, there were white spots on her favorite goldfish. She panicked near desperation. She went to the library and dug up all the books about fish diseases. At the store, she got some medicine for the fish. When the white spots disappeared, she was so proud of herself that she told everyone about the incident for several weeks.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Now she was inside an enormous aquarium. Certainly, this was quite a change in position and perspective. Yet, despite her initial excitement and exhilaration, she ended up being frustrated and cheated by her inactivity.

This was supposed to be the maiden voyage of the sub, the crowning moment of all her hard work and the fulfillment of her dream. But… There was no testing of her sub, not having fun with her sub, but just being stuck at the bottom of the ocean sitting motionlessly babysitting a sunken yacht. What a disappointment! Nothing meaningful, nothing of fun, just sitting. She wanted so badly to play with her controls and use the external tools built into the sub for something; but the only thing she could do was to move the camera control to pan around and look.

She was extremely bored. The frustration level within her rose to a feverish pitch.

After fiddling all her controls for the third time, she downed the rest of the coffee because there was nothing else to do. With her imagination running wild, she felt imprisoned, claustrophobic, like a caged animal. The sub was not built for rescue or salvage operations. There was a nobler cause. This sub was built to realize her dreams of studying the dolphins, fathoming the depth of the knowledge in the ocean, and learning from the dolphins and all the sea creatures in the ocean.

She was mad now. Enraged by the minute, she held her fists and pounded on the dashboard.

“I did not build this sub to rescue some poor souls who did not know any better.” She shouted out loud after muted her microphone.

Being stuck with this babysitting job was a rotten thing. The time could be spent for better, nobler, and more important things.

She was utterly and hopelessly bored and mad, and getting frustrated by the minute.

With her rear cameras towards the reef, she noticed a lot of spiny lobsters hiding in the inside holes of the reef. The antennas of each lobster were swinging back and forth as if to advertise to any potential intruders that the hole in that rock belonged to an owner. Or were they saying “hi” to her? Perhaps they were gathered here because of the sunken yacht. The yacht must be a strange and exciting sight to them. Or perhaps they came because of all the racket and noise of the sub while she descended.

Just to be sociable and courteous, she waved back at them and said ‘hi’ inside the sub cabin, even though she did not know whether they saw her at all. To make the point clear, she took control of one of the small claws and waved back at them in the same circular motion. They seemed to understand. Perhaps they thought they had a visit from a distant relative with extra strong and grayish skin and lots of clumsy appendages. After a few more minutes, they retreated to their holes and became part of the background of the ocean floor again.