The Swarm: A Novel

by Frank Schätzing

Dolphins in particular had become the focus of a romantic way of thinking that was almost as dangerous as hatred or contempt. People tended to view them as a superior species, clinging to them as though their supposed goodness would somehow rub off.

he didn’t notice the enormous black shadow by the boat. It was only when the creature loomed vertically out of the water, towering above him, that he turned and jumped. Instantly he forgot the other humps. The whale’s head had risen almost silently. Now it was almost touching the boat’s rubber hull. Three and a half metres of whale extended upright out of the water, the drooping mouth covered with barnacles and knotty bulges. An eye as big as a human fist stared at him.

Maybe the camera was a mistake. If so, it was the first time in the history of whale-watching that humpbacks had objected to having their picture taken.

‘I’m going back to your boat, to rescue your people. I’m not afraid of the whales. They won’t hurt me.’ ‘That’s very noble of you, Jack, it really is. But from now on maybe you should keep out of it.’

His knees started to tremble. He felt exhausted and despondent. He leaned against the counter and closed his eyes. When he opened them, Alicia Delaware was in front of him.

Alicia delaware anawak stringed greywolf

The summons came as Johanson was preparing to drive out to the lake. On his return from Kiel he’d contacted Tina Lund to tell her about the experiment in the deep-sea simulation chamber. They hadn’t talked for long: Lund was up to her ears in work, and spent every spare second with Kare Sverdrup. Johanson had had the impression that her mind was elsewhere, but whatever was bothering her didn’t seem to relate to her job, so he didn’t ask questions.

‘In another story of marine tragedy, fatalities have been reported off the coast of western Canada. The exact cause of the accidents, which resulted in the sinking of several tourist vessels, is not yet known. Reports suggest that navigational errors may have caused them to collide.’

Olsen,

What the hell was that? Jérôme crouched close to it. The lobster raised its upper body and its black eyes seemed to fix on him. Then it burst.

For the Makah it’s a question of preserving their culture. They say that the art of traditional whaling will soon be forgotten.’ ‘They could always try shopping like everyone else.’ ‘I hope you’re not spoiling Leon’s noble plea for tolerance,’ said Ford, refilling his glass.

Pfiesteria piscicida.

The motors gave an agonised roar and Danny fell backwards as the plane jerked up. Anawak caught a glimpse of an enormous head covered with scars, an eye, a mouth. A powerful blow rocked the cabin. A torn mess of broken linkage replaced the right wing where Danny had been standing. Delaware screamed. The pilot was screaming. Anawak screamed. The sea rushed towards them. Something hit him in the face. Icy-cold.

There was a droning in his ears. The high-pitched screech of tearing metal. Spray. Dark green. Then nothing.

Palm gestured vaguely. ‘I’d say it was an infection. According to Fenwick, that’s what did for Genghis too. But the weird thing is that there’s something inside those whales that doesn’t belong there.’ He pointed to his temples and traced a circle with his finger. ‘Fenwick found a clot in their brain stems. And some kind of leakage between the brain and the skull.’ Anawak sat up. ‘A blood clot? In both whales?’ ‘Not a blood clot, although at first we thought it was. Fenwick and Oliviera were pretty keen on the idea that noise was behind the change in the whales’ behaviour. They weren’t going to mention it till they’d found some proof, but for a while Fenwick was convinced it had something to do with the effects of that sonar system—’ ‘Surtass LFA?’ ‘That’s it.’ ‘No way.’

‘Unfortunately it hasn’t been adequately proven,’ said Palm. ‘Past experience shows that whales and dolphins are incredibly sensitive to sonar, but no one can say for sure what effect it has on feeding patterns, reproduction or migration.’

‘That’s why Fenwick and Oliviera went for the noise theory,’ said Palm. ‘Years ago, when the navy started experimenting with sonar, there was an upsurge in beachings all over the world. Large numbers of whales and dolphins died. They all showed signs of heavy bleeding in the brain and in the inner ear - injuries consistent with noise damage. In each instance, environmentalists proved that NATO military exercises had been going on close to where the bodies were found. But tell that to the navy!’

Delaware shook her red ponytail at him and walked slowly to the door.

‘Come off it. There you are, built like a tank, trying to tell me that you’ve been left so traumatised by your parents’ problems that your life is a mess?’ Anawak snorted. ‘What difference does it make if you’re Indian, half-Indian or God knows what? No one’s responsible for where you feel at home on the inside. That’s all down to you.’ Greywolf seemed taken aback. Then satisfaction crept into his eyes and Anawak knew he had lost. ‘Who are we talking about here?’ asked Greywolf, with a malicious smile. Anawak didn’t say anything.

he ate him the fuck up!

‘Nothing, you coward. You think you can lecture me on responsibility? Leon, my life might be pathetic, but you? You’re dead already.’ Anawak replayed the words in his mind. ‘Yes,’ he said slowly. ‘You’re right.’ He got up. ‘But thanks for saving my life.’

People are losing their significance. Everyone’s replaceable. There are no ideals any more, and without ideals, there’s nothing to make us more important than we are. Everyone’s trying desperately to prove that the world’s a little better with them than it would have been without them.

The hurry was over. She knew it was too late. She’d lived fast, and she’d die fast too. At least, she hoped it would be fast. At times she’d asked herself what it would be like to die, what went through a person’s mind when their fate had been sealed and they knew it was time. I’ve come for you, Death would say. You’ve got five more seconds, so have a last think, whatever you like. Look back on your life, if you wish. Didn’t they say that as your car flipped over, or you fell from great height, that somehow, your life flashed before you, images from your childhood, your first love, like a ‘best-of compilation? But the only thing Lund felt was fear that death would hurt her, and she’d suffer. She felt almost ashamed that it had had to end so pitifully. That she’d messed up.

‘Are you telling me you’ve learned three hundred names?’ ‘I’ll learn three thousand, if I have to. You’d better start shaping up.’

Li wondered whether she should give the White House a call. Not that there was anything to report, but the President liked talking to her - he admired her intellect. That was the way things stood between them, and Li knew it, but she kept it to herself. It was better that way. She was one of only a handful of female American generals,

Author fails to mention the misogyny she would encounter : DING!

‘Suppose we think of the spread of the attacks as a kind of epidemic,’ he said, ‘then the epidemic must have started in the waters off Vancouver Island. The first reported incidents took place near Tofino. It sounds incredible, I know, but in many cases, strategic alliances were obviously at work. Grey whales, humpbacks and, in some instances, fin, sperm and other large whales attacked the boats, then smaller, faster whales - orcas - took care of the survivors.’

All those mutant organisms that suddenly seemed to know what they were doing. Didn’t anyone see what was happening? They were experiencing the symptoms of a disease whose pathogens were everywhere, but always in hiding. It was an amazing piece of camouflage. Man had emptied the seas of fish, and now the few remaining shoals had learned to avoid the death traps, while armies of poison-toting soldiers took their place in the nets, holding the ailing fishing industry in a toxic embrace. The sea was killing mankind.

Pfiesteria

‘OK, then,’ Vanderbilt said cheerily. ‘So Europe’s drinking water is full of pretty little algae. What are we going to do about it? Drown them in chemicals? We could always boil the water or pump it full of poison, that might kill the little assholes, but it would take us down as well. The water’s running out. People never used to think twice about serenading themselves for hours on end in the shower, but not any more. Who knows when the first lobsters are going to explode in the States? God’s favourite country had better watch out. The Lord’s lost his patience with us.’ Vanderbilt snickered. ‘Sorry, I should have said Allah. The shape of things to come, my friends. Prepare yourselves for some sensational news. Right after the break.’ What the hell’s he talking about? thought Peak. Had Vanderbilt gone crazy? It was the only explanation.

It means the same unknown organism is driving whales crazy, helping mussels sink ships and hijacking lobsters. So you see, folks, we’re making headway! Now all we need to know is, what is this stuff, why is it there, what’s going on between the jelly and the cloud - oh, and which son-of-a-bitch cooked the whole thing up in his lab? Maybe this will give you some clues.’

‘Still, Fenwick’s right,’ said Ford. ‘That’s all well and good if you’ve got an ape on your operating-table and you can tinker around in its head. But the jelly must have entered through the ears or the jaw, and for that it would have to change shape. Even if you managed to get the stuff inside the brain, how could you be sure that it would redistribute itself correctly and then, um, press the right buttons?’

‘Their job is to get the bacteria to land, just as the worms’ mission was to import it into the ice,’ said Johanson. ‘After that, they perish. Jellyfish, mussels, even the jelly - none of these organisms live long, but they all fulfil their function.’ ‘Harming us at all cost.’ ‘Absolutely. Even the whales have become suicidal,’ said Fenwick. ‘Aggressive behaviour is normally part of a survival strategy, like flight, but there’s no evidence of it here.’ Johanson smiled. His dark eyes flashed. ‘I’m not so sure about that. I’d say there’s a clear survival strategy at the heart of all this.’ Fenwick stared at him. ‘You’re starting to sound like Vanderbilt.’ ‘Actually, no. Vanderbilt’s right in some respects, but fundamentally I don’t agree with him.’ Johanson paused. ‘But before too long, he’ll be sounding like me.’

The navy likes to show reporters video clips of dolphins: the dolphin swims off with a live mine, but instead of dumping it on the Russians and blowing the hell out of them, it comes back smiling with the mine between its teeth. The footage is designed to dispel any rumours that killer dolphins exist. Dolphins have been known to return with live mines, but it’s practically unheard of. Besides, if it all goes wrong, it only costs the navy one vessel and three men, and that’s a risk they’re willing to take. They kept experimenting.

‘I’m not a scientist like you,’ Greywolf said softly, ‘I understand a bit about dolphins and how to handle them, but neurology means nothing to me. I can’t stand to see anyone getting too interested in whales or dolphins. It winds me up just to see them taking photos. I can’t help it.’

‘Just before I quit, I heard the nuclear whale programme had taken a big leap forward. They mentioned a name. It was something to do with neurology and neural network computers. They said that to exercise full control over the animals you needed to know about Professor Kurzweil. Maybe it’s nothing, but I just thought I’d tell you.’

‘It’s very simple, really. Dealing with the implications will be tricky, but the basic principle is logical and straightforward. We’re not dealing with a series of natural disasters. And we’re not doing battle with any terrorist organisation or rogue state. Not even evolution is to blame.’ He paused. ‘No. What we’re experiencing is the fabled war of the worlds - a war between two worlds that we’ve always thought of as one because they’re bound together. All this time we’ve been gazing upwards in anticipation of an alien species arriving from space, when intelligent life-forms have been with us all along, inhabiting part of the planet that we’ve never seriously attempted to explore. Two radically different systems of intelligent life coexist on the Earth, and they’ve done so peacefully until now. While one has been observing the development of the other since time immemorial, the other has no concept of the complexity of the underwater world - or, if you like, the alien universe sharing our globe. Outer space is on Earth, in the oceans. We’ve found our extra-terrestrials, and they don’t come from faraway galaxies. They evolved at the bottom of the sea. Life in the water existed long before the first organisms appeared on land, and this species is likely to be far, far older than humanity. I can’t tell you what these creatures look like, or how they live, think or communicate. But we’re going to have to get used to the notion that we’re not the only smart species on this pla...

‘Our main problem over the past few days and weeks,’ he said, ‘has lain in trying to connect the various phenomena. In fact, there wasn’t any obvious connection until a jelly-like substance started to crop up. Sometimes it appeared in small quantities, sometimes in larger amounts, but always with the distinguishing characteristic that it disintegrated rapidly on contact with air. Unfortunately the discovery of the jelly only added to the mystery, given its presence in crustaceans, mussels and whales - three types of organism that could hardly be more different. Of course, it might have been some kind of fungus, a jellified version of rabies, an infectious disease like BSE or swine fever. But, if so, why would ships be disappearing or crabs transporting killer algae? There was no sign of the jelly on the worms that infested the slope. They were carrying a different kind of cargo - bacteria that break down hydrates and cause methane gas to rise. Hence the landslide and the tsunami. And what about the mutated species that have been emerging all over the world? Even fish have been behaving oddly. None of it adds up. In that respect, Jack Vanderbilt was right to discern an intelligent mind behind the chaos. But he overestimated our ability - no scientist knows anything like enough about marine ecology to be capable of manipulating it to that extent. People are fond of saying that we know more about space than we do about the oceans. It’s perfectly true, but there’s a simple rea...

Imagine an alien spaceship lowering cameras to Earth. Each captures only a few square metres at a time. The first zooms in on the Kalahari desert. The second takes a snap of the Mongolian steppes. A third is lowered over Antarctica, and the fourth hovers over a city and films just a few square metres of grass and a dog peeing up against a tree. What impression would the aliens have? No sign of intelligent life, though primitive life-forms are sporadically present.’

Take the jelly-like tissue. It’s a highly versatile biological product, but it certainly wasn’t arrived at via standard evolution. Like the worms, it’s there for a purpose - to control other living creatures by invading their neural networks. It’s somehow affecting the behaviour of live whales. The crabs and lobsters are a slightly different story. The jelly steers their movements, but they’re not actually alive. They’re empty shells with incomplete nervous systems - organic spacesuits for the journey on to land.’

‘Actually, no. In The Abyss the alien creatures come from space. The film makes them out to be a nicer version of humans. They’re supposed to have a moral message. The main difference, though, is that those aliens aren’t interested in toppling us from our throne at the top of terrestrial evolution, which is what any intelligent species that had developed in parallel to us and that shared our planet would want to do.’

Just as there are fundamental principles underlying mathematics, I am convinced that a code of universal rights and values, most notably the right to life itself, exists independently of human ethics. The dilemma is where to find it. Who could establish it, if not humanity? Even if we accept that rights and values exist beyond the limits of our perception, we ourselves are limited to what we can perceive. It is as futile as asking a cat to decide whether the consumption of mice can be ethically justified.

Dr Frost and Dr Bohrmann

Dr Samantha Crowe.’

Then she caught Jack O’Bannon and Alicia Delaware exchanging glances, and knew that they were more than friends.

Weaver

Oliviera

We’re so obsessed with assuring our own perpetuity that our goals seldom coincide with what would be good for humankind.

‘They’re telling us is that this is their planet - which they’ve been ruling for a hundred and eighty million years, maybe more. They’re telling us they’ve got genetic memory, the magnetic field is their compass, and they’re everywhere where there’s water. They want us to know that we’re in the here and now, whereas they’re everywhere and for ever. Those are the facts. It’s all in the message, and it says a lot.’

He saw a dark shadow flit through the water above him. Then another. The whales paid him no attention. That’s right, thought Greywolf, I’m your friend. You won’t hurt me. He knew, of course, that the real explanation was more prosaic. They hadn’t noticed him. Orcas like those had no friends. They weren’t even orcas any more. They had been subjugated by a species that was as ruthless as mankind. But some day it would be OK again. The time would come. And the Grey Wolf would become an orca. He breathed out.

are you serious

Ruefully she thought of the cigarette she’d lit only seconds before the explosion. It was still smouldering in the CIC. What a waste. She’d have given anything for a cigarette now. Just one before she died. Instinct told her that no one on the ship was likely to survive. But no, she thought suddenly. Of course. They weren’t reliant on lifeboats. They had helicopters. Relief flooded through her. Shankar had reached the top of the companionway. Hands stretched down to haul him out. As Crowe followed, it struck her that what they were experiencing might be the kind of contact humans knew best - aggressive, ruthless and murderous. Soldiers pulled her into the island. Well, Ms Alien, she thought, what do you think now about finding intelligent life in space? ‘You wouldn’t happen to have a cigarette, would you?’ she asked a soldier. He stared at her. ‘You’ve got to be kidding, lady. Just get the hell out of here.’