Somewhere in the Sea

Chapter 04

After a few hours, the team returned from the exploration with boxes full of samples from the reef. Zaid looked at them with anger as they were chatting about how clear the sea was and how beautiful everything looked. "I must say, this dive went better than my expectations. The sea was clear, the corals were thriving and we managed to see new shoals of fish in the area. Shehzad, write back to the department at once and inform them about the latest development. Nadia, put the new samples in the tank. And Zaid", he said turning towards him, "I hope you learnt your lesson". "Yes", Zaid pouted. "Good! Now be a good boy and help Nadia with the samples. Nadir, set up lunch. We are starving!", the Professor called out. "Ok sir, coming right up!" 

Zaid helped Nadia with the new samples. The new samples looked more of less the same from the previous expedition. "Was the trip really that good?", Zain asked Nadia. "Nothing out of the ordinary though", Nadia shrugged. "The reefs looked the same as last time. JB is just doing that to make you feel bad." Zaid sighed. "Right!", "And besides, we'll be coming back in a couple of weeks as well" Nadia replied. "The staghorns were bigger than before, other than that, nothing new. We did saw a new shoal of fish though. They didn't look like there's from around here. About the size of a parrotfish, purple in colour with white stripes on the sides." "Huh, never read about them before." Zain said. "Maybe they migrated from Oman." "Yeah maybe", Nadia said. "Let's just hope they're there the next time too. I wanted to take some pictures but the camera stopped working." She then called out to Shehzad and asked him to have a look. Shehzad came and check up the camera. "Well it's not any issue with the lens. Probably the motion. You were scared too much from that eel", "No I wasn't" Nadia replied back. Shehzad smirked, "Yeah you were. You basically flapped back to us when you saw it and it was just sleeping." Nadia then retorted, "Well atleast I didn't get scared of a plastic bag and thought it was a jellyfish". "It looked like it has stingers. One of them attacked me in the last trip", Shehzad said embarrassingly. "Attacked you?", Nadia laughed. "It just floated by. I couldn't tell who didn't have a brain, you or the jellyfish!". This went on for a while. "Will you two lovebirds cut it out?", Zaid saying annoyingly. "As you wish, Your Royal 'Lateness' sir", Shehzad said while taking a bow. "Very funny, now help me with these staghorns". "Sorry dude, can't help you. JB said you have to do it yourself and hurry up. Its lunch time!" Shehzad replied and then they both left fighting along the way. 

"JB said you have to do it yourself!", mimicked Zain as he began to put the samples in the tank. "At least help me with some of them but nope.", he complained to Nino who was doing a somersault in the tank. "Now where do I start? Menella in Tank 3, Echinogorgia in Tanks 7 and 8, Clathraria in Tank 9, oh wait, sorry Tank 12, Favites complenata in Tank 16 and Favites pentagona in Tank 23. Ugh!" It took him about an hour or so to assemble them in each of their respective tanks as he had to re-do the assembling because he mixed up the Favites species. He noted the initial observations of the corals and made notes about the nomenclature, shape, size, number of new specimens. But something else caught his eye in the Favites aquarium. 

It was a strange looking seashell lodged in the stony coral. He took it out and examined it. It was a black spiral shell with alternating white lines, about the size of a pendant. It looked like it died but that's not right. Shells are the non-living structure of the organism, how can it die? He pocketed it and thought to work on it later. He wrote down all the observations and headed down.

They all sat down and had lunch. The professor had calmed down a bit after lunch and everybody was talking freely. He decided to let Zaid in on the next dive which was to happen in two weeks. They began to pack up the stuff and gave instructions to Nadir about the water adjustments. They will be back in two weeks for further observations. 

They drove back to Karachi on the coastal highway. By that time, the sun was beginning to set and the sky was a magnificent orange and the salty air made the scene all the more great. Zain stared out the window while thinking about the day. At least the day didn't completely go to waste. With the thought that they'll return next week, he smiled and anticipated their next dive.