Current Connection: Humans’ Impact on Our Seas

Due to the main theme of Oceania: The Underwater City Series being about marine conservation and a sustainable city beneath the sea, from time to time, I like to make connections between the futuristic story and our current world. In the story, our future world is one where humans have learned how to live in harmony with nature. Today, that is something some of us are striving to do, yet we still have a long way to go. So, for the last blog post for Terra Sea Merge, I will be highlighting a current issue impacting our oceans.

 

One of the largest “hidden” threats today is microplastics in the ocean. Unlike the images of the gigantic Pacific Ocean floating trash pile of plastic, microplastics are not easily seen. They range from 5mm (0.2in) at their largest to microscopic at their smallest ⁽¹⁾. Microplastics have been found all over the ocean, including at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. They have been found in the blood cells of marine animals and inside their guts. These include seafood that humans commonly eat. According to a Scientific American article, “The amount of microplastics in lakes and soils could rival the more than 15 trillion tons of particles thought to be floating in the ocean’s surface alone” ⁽¹⁾.

 

Microplastics are different than the regular plastics you can easily see floating in the ocean. There are two types of microplastics: primary and secondary. Primary microplastics are found in cosmetics, textiles, and fishing equipment and are designed to be small. Secondary microplastics come from the degradation of other larger plastics like plastic bags and water bottles. Ocean waves and radiation from the sun can cause large plastics to break down once they’ve reached the ocean ⁽²⁾.

 

One of the ways microplastics reach the ocean is through wastewater. Wastewater treatment facilities often allow the treated water back into natural systems like lakes, rivers, and the ocean. The standard procedures they use to purify the water aren’t able to remove all of the microplastics, allowing them to flow into the environment ⁽²⁾. If other chemicals are present in the ocean, some microplastics may bind to the other chemical pollutants and cause further problems for marine animals who ingest them ⁽²⁾. Due to the small size of microplastics, it makes it easy for marine animals to eat them, whether on purpose through the mistaken identity of their food or incidentally like when a whale gulps a large mouthful of plankton. Sometimes the particles of microplastic stay inside the animals and aren’t passed through their systems as a waste product. When this happens, it can kill the animal or pass on to the predator that eats the animal who originally ingested the microplastics. Another problem it tends to cause is lower reproductive numbers in fish. Some researchers have discovered that microplastics can cause damage to tissues and organs by being abrasive to organ walls ⁽¹⁾.

 

Eventually, everything works its way up the food chain. The issue of microplastics in the ocean has a direct impact on humans as microplastics have been found in both bottled and tap water, sea salt, and even beer ⁽¹⁾. In a study by Martins & Guilhermino published in Science of the Total Environment, they discovered in their research that microplastics not only lowered the reproduction of the first generation of fish exposed to it, but subsequent generations also had fewer young than the generation before it ⁽³⁾. Thus, any fish species exposed to microplastics that are commonly consumed by humans could potentially lower their reproductive rate, which lowers the availability of fish for human consumption.

 

Microplastics are literally everywhere in the ocean and they are a problem that needs a lot more research before the extent of the issue can be fully understood on an ecological level. Hopefully, one day, we can find a way to stop negatively impacting our oceans and reach a world similar to that in Terra Sea Merge.

 

 

You’ve reached the end of the final blog post for Terra Sea Merge. The posts will cease until the next (and final) Oceania novel is published. If you want updates on when the next book will be released or any news surrounding my novels, you can visit https://elizataye.com/news/.  I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you have any comments, you can leave them here on my blog or email me directly at elizataye@gmail.com. As always, I love hearing from my readers.

 

 

 

Sources and Further Reading

 (1) https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/from-fish-to-humans-a-microplastic-invasion-may-be-taking-a-toll/

 (2) https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/microplastics/?utm_source=BibblioRCM_Row

 (3) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969718308088

Martins, A. & Guilhermino, L. Transgenerational effects and recovery of microplastics exposure in model populations of the freshwater cladoceran Daphnia maga Straus. Sci. Total Environ. 631-632, 421-428 (2018).

Deleted Scenes from Terra Sea Merge

Warning! This blog post will contain spoilers for anyone who hasn’t finished reading Terra Sea Merge yet. Skip this post if you haven’t finished reading the story.

As with the previous novels, I will be sharing with you some of the deleted portions and rewrites in Terra Sea Merge. Unlike the last one for Shark Station, this one will not include an entire chapter, although Terra Sea Merge is very different from the initial storyline. In the original draft of Terra Sea Merge, Allie was even more annoyed, frustrated, and disgusted with the exchange students. After letting the story sit for a while and coming back to it, I realized she was too moody, even for Allie’s typical personality. So I revamped the entire middle of the novel, leaving her only extremely exasperated with her nemesis, Brodie, rather than the entire group. Here are a couple of snippets of what the story used to be.

 

I felt that the original storyline wasn’t as exciting as the other Oceania books had been, so to spice it up, I wrote a scene where Mariah and Teegan went AWOL and decided to explore the city on their own. Here’s part of that scene:

 

Raising my eyebrows, I asked, “Has Mayor Cho been notified of this yet?”

“No, he hasn’t,” confirmed Astrid.

“I think we need to tell him.” Ugh, I hated who I was becoming. The rant I had kept replaying over and over in my head and I realized I sounded a lot like the adults I couldn’t stand. Now I was ratting out two people my age for doing something they weren’t supposed to do. Who was I?

One of the privileges—well so far the only privilege of having to babysit the exchange students was that I had a personal direct line to Mayor Cho’s c-com. I called him and he answered on the fourth ring.

“Allie, what is wrong?” Mayor Cho’s face and upper torso appeared as a holographic projection.

“Two of the exchange students have gone missing.”

“What?” he exclaimed. “How did they go missing?”

Astrid appeared close behind me and answered, “They disappeared when I went to use the restroom. When I returned, they were both missing.”

Sighing, the mayor closed his eyes and breathed in out for several breaths before responding, “Which two are missing?”

“Teegan Cole and Mariah Cooper.”

“I’ll look up their images from what Guamanian Governor sent me and put out a digital all points bulletin for them with Oceanian Security. Hopefully, the surveillance cameras will pick them up in little time. Standby, I’ll call you once they’ve been found and the two of you can retrieve them.”

The video call ended and I plopped down onto a nearby bench. “I can’t believe they’re doing this! This is such a juvenile move.”

Astrid stood beside the bench I was on. “It does seem that way. I can understand their frustration, but this seems to be a little drastic. I wonder if they behaved like this on land.”

Puffing out a breath of air, I responded, “if they did, then the governor purposely gave us some troublemakers.”

“Perhaps the best way to keep this from happening is if you took over their instruction, Allie.”

I gawked at Astrid. “No way! I’m already missing out on my classes enough because of having to babysit them. I don’t want to have to instruct them too. It’s too much. I have my own life to live here that doesn’t involve them.”

“But if this exchange system is to work, then we have to make the best effort at it.”

A buzz came from my pocket and I was confused since my c-com didn’t buzz. When I realized what it was, I dove my hand into my pocket and pulled out the com-stone. Quickly, I waved my hand across it to answer the incoming call.

Samantha’s grinning face appeared and I couldn’t have been happier to see her. “Allie! It’s so great to see you. We just arrived in Guam and have been placed with our host families here.”

“That’s great, Samantha.”

Either the tone of my voice or my face gave me away.

“Did something happen, Allie? You seem off?”

Seeing Samantha made me almost want to burst out into tears of frustration and explain everything to her, but I kept my composure since I was in public and Astrid was standing right next to me. “I’m having issues with the new exchange students, that’s all. It’s been a lot harder than I anticipated it to be.”

“Well, tell me what’s going on and maybe I can help.”

I doubted she could, but I figured I had nothing to lose if I told her. “Two of them have gone missing and we can’t find out where they are.”

“Are they girls or boys?” wondered Samantha.

“Two girls, they’re our age.”

“Hmm, I’d say they’re in one of two places, either Central or the Entertainment District. I’m leaning towards the Entertainment District because if I was in a foreign city that had an amazing amount of different technology than my home, I would head for the place of fun.”

My c-com began pinging with an incoming call.

“I’m so sorry, Samantha, but I have to go. I’ll call you back later.” I reluctantly hung up on my friend and answered the Mayor’s call.

“Allie, we found them. They’re in the Entertainment District inside one of the old-timey arcades. I’m sending you the location now, but I would take the train and get over there as soon as possible before you lose them.”

“We’re on our way now,” I assured him.

Well, Samantha was right; they were in the Entertainment District.

When we arrived at the arcade, the bustle of the gaming stations that I’d seen when I was here before was almost entirely absent. Teegan and Mariah weren’t being very smart about going to a place where mostly students hang out in a city where homeschooling was a non-existent practice. It meant that no other students would be in the arcade at this time of the day.

They were easy to find at the back of the arcade playing some retro games. So focused on their games, they didn’t even notice Astrid and I approach.

“Teegan,” I said in a firm voice.

Her long dark brown hair with blonde highlights whipped me in the face as she spun around, her caramel eyes wide. “Allie?”

“What are you two doing here,” wondered Mariah, her arms folded, her eyes focused on us in an accusatory stare.

“We are here to ask you the same question,” calmly explained Astrid, an edge of diminishing patience in her tone. “Why did you run away from the dormitory?”

“It was boring and we wanted to have some fun. What’s wrong with that?” Mariah tucked a stubborn lock of her chin-length hair behind her ear.

I let out an incredulous sound. “Are you being serious? We need to take you back to the dormitory now. Clearly, everything both Astrid and I have said to you about the precautions you need to take as you are unfamiliar with Oceania yet have meant nothing to you. Stop arguing and come with us now!”

I let Astrid ensure the both of them followed as I led the way back to the nearest train station. We wound up waiting almost an hour due to few trains going to the Entertainment District this time of day.

Teegan and Mariah sat next to us quietly, but I could tell that both of them were fuming on the inside. For someone who’s broken many rules myself, I still can’t figure out why they thought it was okay for them to just run off and do what they wanted. If this was the way the exchange students were going to be acting for the duration of their stay here, I wouldn’t be surprised if nearly every Oceanian hated them.

 

 

Due to Allie’s frustration with the exchange students, I had a passage where she went to Katrina for advice. Katrina is one of my favorite side characters because I love how unapologetically herself she is. She’s not afraid to speak her mind regardless of what others think. Unfortunately, for me to go another direction with the story, I had to cut her blatant advice out of the story.  Here is her advice to Allie on how to handle the exchange students:

 

By the time I got back to school, my class had already ended and the school was like a ghost town. Needing a friend, I decided to go down to the sublevels where the labs were. Although I didn’t have a specimen at the moment, I knew Katrina would be studying her newest one.

Just as I’d expected, I found her sitting at the stool in front of the tank, taking down observations on her digipad. She didn’t notice me until I was almost right up on her.

“Oh hey, Allie, what’s up?” Katrina returned to writing.

“What’s up? My blood pressure,” I leaned against the corner of the tank, still fuming from my outburst.

Katrina spun on the stool to face me, crossing her arms. “What happened?”

“These stupid exchange students! It’s like just because they were chosen out of however many people to be the ones to come to Oceania, they think everyone should bow down to them. They think that just because they’re here, that they should be allowed to go wherever and do whatever they want when they want to!”

“Isn’t that what Land Dwellers do in their own cities and towns?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but my jaw just hung agape.

Katrina cocked an eyebrow, “well?”

Sighing, I admitted. “Yes, Land Dwellers are used to a lot of freedom to do anything they want to do. At least, that’s the way it is in the United States. I can’t say much about other countries since I’ve never been there.”

“Didn’t you once tell me that to keep infection down that every entrance to a public place has a scanner that scans for diseases?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, so then that is a bit of the freedom taken away. Are there any other rules or laws that are similar to the way things are here in Oceania?”

A thought for a while, but couldn’t come up with anything else. “I don’t know.”

“Look, Allie, human beings don’t like change. Some people pretend to, but most really don’t. There may be a few people who delight in it, but I don’t believe them.” Katrina stood up. “These students are coming from a world that is very different from ours. Compared to where these guys are from, Oceania is going to feel very restrictive and unforgiving to them. Getting them to adapt to that isn’t going to be easy.”

“Then what do you think I should do?”

“Have you tried knocking them senseless and then rebooting their brains?” Katrina smirked.

“Katrina, you know I can’t do that…even though sometimes I want to.”

“Well, the only other option is to try to explain to them why our society is different and how it works for us. I’m not entirely sure about the Land Dwelling nations, but I doubt they’re all the same. See if you can find examples of how other nations have laws similar to ours and use it as a case for showing that Oceania in essence isn’t that different from their world. Maybe then they will calm down a bit.”

Katrina returned to her stool. “But if that fails, I highly suggest striking them on the head and leaving them outside the city for the six-gills.”

“Katrina!” I complained.

“Fine, fine, fine, do what you please.”

 

I hope you enjoyed these deleted scenes from Terra Sea Merge. There will be one last blog post for this book later this month. Stay tuned to read that one!

 

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you have any comments, you can leave them here on my blog or email me directly at elizataye@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you, especially if you think either of these passages should have stayed in the novel or that you’re glad they were omitted.

 

Allie’s Guide to Surviving Deep-Sea Dives with the SCUBAPS

 Introduction

 

As the most experienced user of Dr. Samuel Wilcox’s ingenious device the SCUBAPS: Self-Contained Underwater Breathing and Anti-Pressure Suit, he has asked me to write a guide on how to use the SCUBAPS. In this brief tutorial, you’ll learn how to use the SCUBAPS to dive at any depth and how to maintain your safety while wearing one.

 

Before Entering the Water

When donning the SCUBAPS, it will at first seem too large to fit, but once it reaches up to your neckline, it will snap tight. The SCUBAPS has been altered to work with underwear or even very thin clothing worn beneath it. The zipper will merge with the front of the suit, making it seamless. A pull-tab at the neckline can be used to cause the zipper to reappear and will also loosen the suit.

 

Upon Entering the Water

First, you will want to activate the A.I. inside the suit. Simply say, “Activate A.I.” or “Turn on A.I.” or any similar variation and the A.I will respond. Once she [I use she here because the voice is feminine] responds, you will know she is activated and can be used to initiate the jet propulsion device. In addition, you can instruct her to activate any of the suit’s features like the headlamp, Sea-Vision, anti-predation measures, and more. The A.I. will be your constant companion but can be turned off as easily as it is activated. Even with the A.I. off, you can still use vocal commands to turn on the headlamp or change the field of vision within the helmet. If swimming in a location where predation is likely, maintain the anti-predation feature at all times.

 

Special Features of the SCUBAPS

In addition to keeping the wearer protected from the crushing pressure of the deep, the SCUBAPS has several internal features that aid the user. A map can be instructed to appear in the lower right-hand corner of the screen or extended to encompass the window of the helmet. At all times depth, location, pressure, oxygen permeability levels, and outside temperature are displayed in the upper left-hand corner. However, it can be turned off by asking the A.I. Sea-Vision allows the user to tint the field of vision to allow the user to see in the dark. Any creatures within view will become visible under the use of Sea-Vision. The SCUBAPS also allows the user to take photographs of anything viewed through the window. Fully compatible with the c-com, the photos can be sent to the c-com device upon returning to Oceania via a quick instruction to the A.I. Although not part of the suit itself, the SCUBAPS can integrate with a jet propulsion pack to aid in movement. The A.I. is fully integrated with the jet propulsion pack and can increase or decrease the speed based on vocal instruction. The jet propulsion pack has three speeds: low, medium, and high. High speed is intense and can only be maintained for a short period of time due to stress on the body. Low speed is good to aid in swimming, while medium speed is good to use for traveling at distance. To protect against predation of the user, the SCUBAPS has an anti-predation feature that nullifies echolocation and masks the electrical signature of the user, making them invisible to sharks, whales, and dolphins. The outer skin of the suit can mask the user to photosensitive hunters as well.

 

Removing the Suit

Taking off the suit is easy. Once out of the water, first remove the helmet by tugging forcefully upwards and the helmet will unseal from the suit. The helmet can sense water pressure and the amount of water surrounding the suit when underwater. If the helmet senses that the user is still submerged, no amount of tugging will remove the helmet as a safety measure. Once the helmet is off, then the user can access the pull-tab at the neckline. One tug and the zipper will reappear on the suit. The zipper can be pulled down and the suit removed.

 

Basic Care of the Suit

The SCUBAPS is designed to be indestructible. Still, a very sharp object could damage the integrity of the suit, so never cut or allow the suit to be cut on anything sharp. Underwater, a slight tear of the suit could cause an implosion, so better not to risk it. Each suit should be allowed to dry before the next use and (officially) the suit is not to be worn for more than 12 hours at a time.

You’ve reached the end of the blog post for this week. The next blog post will be released soon. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you have any comments, you can leave them here on my blog or email me directly at elizataye@gmail.com. As always, I love hearing from my readers.

Character Profile and Interview: Chang

 Introduction

When I’ve written character profiles and interviews before, I’ve always put them on one page along with a spoiler alert. However, in order to ask the best questions of each character, I had to reveal key plot points in either the questions or the answers, so for the character profiles and interviews for Terra Sea Merge, they will be split between here and my website. At the end, you’ll find a link to a private post page on my website with the interview portion of the post that you’ll need a password to access. The password will come from a line in the book. At the bottom of each post, I’ll specify where it can be found.

 

Character Profile

Name: Chang Lee

Age: 16

Height: 6’0

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Deep Brown

GPA: 4.0

Marine Interest: Deep-Sea Engineering

 

Personality Description:

Chang Lee is a quiet, pensive teen who only speaks when he has something important to say. Highly intelligent, he prefers to spend most of his time in solitude tinkering with various gadgets and exploring the principles of engineering. Although a loner, at times he can switch to being an ambivert to survive necessary social interactions before returning to his normal introverted state. Constantly striving for perfection, Chang will take any amount of time necessary to excel in everything he does. He takes the same attitude with his friendships, going above and beyond to be the most supportive, loyal, perfect friend he can be.

 

Chang has the ISTJ-A or Logistician personality type. If you want to read more about this personality type, you can visit https://www.16personalities.com/istj-personality.

 

To read Chang’s interview, click here, and for the password, enter the fifth word in Chapter 33 of Terra Sea Merge.  

Character Profile and Interview: Tessa

 

Introduction

When I’ve written character profiles and interviews before, I’ve always put them on one page along with a spoiler alert. However, in order to ask the best questions of each character, I had to reveal key plot points in either the questions or the answers, so for the character profiles and interviews for Terra Sea Merge, they will be split between here and my website. At the end, you’ll find a link to a private post page on my website with the interview portion of the post that you’ll need a password to access. The password will come from a line in the book. At the bottom of each post, I’ll specify where it can be found.

 

Character Profile

Name: Tessa Abbott

Age: 17

Height: 5’9

Hair Color: Blue-Black Ombre (Natural hair color dark brown)

 Eye Color: Sky Blue

GPA: 3.6

Marine Interest: Medicinal Properties of Enzymes in Deep-Sea Fish Digestive Systems

 

Personality Description:

Tessa Abbott is a die-hard adrenaline junkie. Fearless, she goes after any opportunity to participate in heart-pounding experiences that would paralyze most other people with fear. On the surface, people often dismiss her as reckless, but in reality, she’s a studious individual. Confident, she quickly makes a decision and sticks to it without any reservations. Both her curiosity and fearlessness led her to an interest in all things deep sea and the desire to dive into the abyss one day. Although she enjoys furthering her knowledge, if given the choice between staying indoors and doing extra studying or practicing an extreme sport, she’d chose the latter.

 

Tessa has the Entertainer or ESFP-A personality type. If you want to read more about this personality type, you can visit https://www.16personalities.com/esfp-personality.

 

To read Tessa’s interview, click here, and for the password, enter the fourth word in Chapter 26 of Terra Sea Merge.

Character Profile and Interview: Thamina

 Introduction

When I’ve written character profiles and interviews before, I’ve always put them on one page along with a spoiler alert. However, in order to ask the best questions of each character, I had to reveal key plot points in either the questions or the answers, so for the character profiles and interviews for Terra Sea Merge, they will be split between here and my website. At the end, you’ll find a link to a private post page on my website with the interview portion of the post that you’ll need a password to access. The password will come from a line in the book. At the bottom of each post, I’ll specify where it can be found.

 

Character Profile

Name: Thamina Barnes

Age: 17

Height: 5'6

Hair Color:  Medium Brown

Eye Color: Brown

GPA: 4.0

Marine Interest: Coral Reefs

 

Personality Description:

Thamina Barnes is your typical go-getter. She doesn’t allow anything to stand in the way of her success. A quick learner, she easily picks up new languages and skills, making it easy for her to adapt to the shifting lifestyle of her ever-on-the-move family. With her life experience and outgoingness, she easily makes friends wherever she goes. As a loyal friend, she’ll stick up for others but always tries to see both sides of an argument in true diplomatic fashion. Fascinated with gaining new knowledge in every possible subject, Thamina is always eager to learn something new.

 

Thamina has the Protagonist or ENFJ-A personality type. If you want to read more about this personality type, you can visit https://www.16personalities.com/enfj-personality.

 

 To read Thamina’s interview, click here, and for the password, enter the second word in Chapter 18 of Terra Sea Merge.

Character Profile and Interview: Brodie

 Introduction

When I’ve written character profiles and interviews before, I’ve always put them on one page along with a spoiler alert. However, in order to ask the best questions of each character, I had to reveal key plot points in either the questions or the answers, so for the character profiles and interviews for Terra Sea Merge, they will be split between here and my website. At the end, you’ll find a link to a private post page on my website with the interview portion of the post that you’ll need a password to access. The password will come from a line in the book. At the bottom of each post, I will specify where it can be found.

 

Character Profile

 

Name: Brodie Thompson

Age: 16

Height: 5’11

Hair Color:  Dirty-Blond

Eye Color:  Gray-Green

GPA: 3.7

Marine Interest:  Hydrothermal Vents

 

Personality Description:

Brodie Thompson is a focused, determined individual who will do anything to pursue his dreams. He thinks he always knows what’s right or better over others and is quick to dismiss another’s ideas, which makes him come off as judgmental and sometimes offensive. Often suspicious of others, he’s convinced most people have an agenda when in reality, he’s usually the one with an agenda. Very inquisitive about his environment, Brodie often spends time learning about the ecology of his home in Guam. Interested in all sorts of water sports, whenever he isn’t studying the natural world, he’s enjoying water skiing, surfing, kayaking, wakeboarding, and sailing.

  

 

Brodie has the Entrepreneur or ESTP-A personality type. If you want to read more about this personality type, you can visit https://www.16personalities.com/estp-personality.

 

To read Brodie’s interview, click here to go to my website and for the password, enter the first word in Chapter 9 of Terra Sea Merge.

Samantha’s Land Log

Introduction

 

The entire series Oceania: The Underwater City is written from Allie’s perspective. Everything is seen from her eyes and tinted by her own beliefs and worldviews. When she first sees the city of Oceania, it’s through the eyes of a Land Dweller. In Terra Sea Merge, we hardly get to interact with or read about Samantha, someone who has become a major character in both Allie’s Return and Shark Station. So, for this blog post, I wanted to switch things up and tell a bit of the story from Samantha’s point of view. In the book, we only get a small glimpse of what she’s experiencing on land in her part of the exchange program. So to go with the theme of switching things up, this post will be told from an Oceanian’s viewpoint on the Land Dweller world. It focuses on Samantha’s first entry into what she calls her “land log.” It’s essentially a diary, but she doesn’t want to call it that. Keep reading below to find out what Samantha thinks of our world. 

Land Log: Day 1

Saturday, August 9^th, 2279

 

I once learned that sailors of old would keep a daily log of their adventures on the high seas. Okay, maybe it was just the captains and it was a daily log of weather, events, and other important occurrences upon a ship, but I think it’s a good idea to keep my own log of my daily adventures in the Above World. I’m calling it my Land Log. So for this first entry, I will detail what has occurred since we landed on Guam.

We first arrived at a port which I can’t remember the exact name of. I was so overwhelmed by the people who greeted us at the dock and all the gifts and welcome we received. Everyone here is so nice and welcoming. They’ve given us big smiles and warm words of welcome. They started by taking us to a huge feast being presented in our honor. A few of the typical Land Dweller foods I recognized like pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, and salads. Others were different foods local to the Guamanian region such as (which I of course had to ask the names of) kelaguen, kadon pika, and red rice. Regardless of how anything looked, I tried everything and felt so full by the end of the feast that I felt like my stomach would burst wide open. It was worth it though, everything tasted absolutely delicious.

Afterward, we were taken to the capital of the island, Hagåtña. There I met my host family, which consists of a married couple and their twelve-year-old daughter. She’s already asked me a million questions; throwing them out at a mile a minute until her parents told her to calm down and take a breath. I didn’t mind though, I loved answering her questions and knew I’d soon be asking her several of my own. When I arrived at their home, I realized that here on the island, it was very common for people to have individual houses of their own. It was weird to see and even weirder to go from the outdoors straight into a home without having to walk through a corridor or take an elevator. It was nice and I kind of wish we had homes like that in Oceania, no matter how impractical it might be.

After they gave me time to settle in, we joined the other host families and my fellow exchange students and went shopping at the local supermarket—a place I remember hearing about last time I was on land. It’s basically one store that has everything. My host family was nice enough to allow me to pick out foods I liked to enjoy while there. However, I was confused by signs that said “organic” on them for fruits and vegetables. This greatly confused me because for something to be organic it has to have carbon in it—which every living thing has. I asked and discovered that it is food grown without any pesticides or genetic engineering. Odd.

When we’d completed shopping, I had time to once again gather with my fellow exchange students. They seem to be adjusting just as well as I am. Most of them are looking to me for guidance because they know I’ve been here before, but there isn’t much I can counsel them on. Allie, Devon, Max, and I spent most of our time at Talia’s house if we weren’t at the hospital. I hadn’t gotten to experience that much of Guam the first time. The last time, it took some getting used to seeing the different clothing styles of the Land Dwellers. But now that we’ve been given clothes like them, I have to say wearing such short shorts feels kind of awkward. At the same time, I’m a little grateful for it because it is hot here…very hot compared to Oceania. I’d forgotten about that.

Next week, we will attend high school just like the regular Guamanian students. I’m so excited that I can hardly wait. Unlike most of the world, the islands of Oceania weren’t hit as hard during the Second Great Plague. Governor Atao ensured that every citizen infected with the plague had been given the cure well before we arrived. The island is essentially a safe haven away from the plague, which is good news for us because we won’t have to wear any personal protective equipment while in the school. We’ll get to experience everything just as it should be. We haven’t been given our class schedules yet, so I don’t know what kind of courses I should expect. Based on what Allie’s told me, schools on land are much easier than in Oceania, but I hope they aren’t too easy. I do like a challenge. But then again, maybe it’ll be a good thing if they’re super easy. It’ll give me more time to explore this amazing, wonderful new world I’ve found myself in.

 

            Well, this log has gotten long enough. I’ll have to resume with my musings and thoughts next time.

 

You’ve reached the end of the blog post for this week. The next blog post will be released next month. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you have any comments, you can leave them here on my blog or email me directly at elizataye@gmail.com. As always, I love hearing from my readers.

Special Inventions in Terra Sea Merge

 Introduction

 

As Terra Sea Merge takes place mainly in the city of Oceania, there were few new inventions for this novel as most of the ones pertaining to the city have already been highlighted in the Oceania: The Underwater City and Allie’s Return novels. The one invention created specifically for this novel was briefly mentioned in chapter thirteen.

 

“She pointed to a machine called WQAD, short for Water Quality Analysis Device. It was like a spectrometer, except that it was more detailed in analyzing the chemical components of water down to the specific makeups of each particle.”

-Allie, Terra Sea Merge

 

Water Quality Analysis Device (WQAD)

Being surrounded by water, much of the science conducted in Oceania relates to water. Having a device that can analyze the chemical composition of the water and identify any impurities or the chemical makeup of any contaminants is essential. Enter the Water Quality Analysis Device (WQAD). The WQAD is used by marine scientists, chemical scientists, and even marine microbiologists. The use of it is so widespread that you’ll find it in any middle school or high school in Oceania located beside the typical microscopes. As an essential piece of technology, every laboratory in Oceania has a WQAD.

 

The WQAD works by placing a water sample as small as 5ml (0.17 ounces) into a container and placing it inside the WQAD. The WQAD will then analyze everything present in the sample down to each atom. A digital readout displays the chemical composition of the sample, including the most present element in the sample. The WQAD can be programmed to further analyze the sample, including suggesting the probable source of an unknown sample. Versatile, it can also be programmed to analyze any aqueous or liquid solution beyond water.

 

You’ve reached the end of the blog post for this week. The next blog post will be released next month. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you have any comments, you can leave them here on my blog or email me directly at elizataye@gmail.com. As always, I love hearing from my readers.

Sea Creatures –Terra Sea Merge

 

Introduction

I’ve mentioned several times before how research on the deep sea is still lacking in many areas. Each Oceania: The Underwater City book, I try to incorporate new, rare species of the deep. However, by book four, I am running out of deep-sea creatures native to the Pacific Ocean to include in the newer novels that haven’t been featured before. Thus, for Terra Sea Merge, I had only one new species: Deepstaria enigmatica. You may remember that it was briefly mentioned and seen in Shark Station, but it wasn’t in the wild so I did not include it in previous sea creature features. So, now, Deepstaria enigmatica will have one all dedicated to itself. The other sea creatures in the novel have all had been featured in one of the previous sea creature blog posts. At the bottom of this post, I’ll link to all the others in case you missed them or would like to read them again. Also, I could not find any public domain photos for this species, but my list of references (particularly #3) have great photos of one. Clickhere if you want to see a photo before reading.

 

Deepstaria enigmatica

Deepstaria enigmatica is a rarely seen jellyfish lacking tentacles. Instead, it consists solely of a net of interconnected canals making up their digestive system and other bodily functions. The main part of the jellyfish is its bell⁽¹⁾, which has been observed to be as wide as a meter across⁽²⁾. The bell is so thin and fragile that it can easily be torn, even by something as simple as water movement. Most of what we know about Deepstaria enigmatica comes from a specimen collected in 1966. It was named and described by F. S. Russell in 1967. There are only two known species in the genus Deepstaria: Deepstaria enigmatica and Deepstaria reticulum. Neither species has tentacles, but both possess a similar membranous umbrella⁽³⁾.

 

Little is known about Deepstaria enigmatica; their biology, behavior, maximum depth, reproductive biology, and full distribution are still mysteries to science. What is known for sure about their distribution is that they are found in the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, and Southern Oceans⁽²⁾⁽³⁾. Predators are unknown, but shrimps and crabs have been observed feeding on the carcass of Deepstaria enigmatica. As for feeding, researchers believe they may use close their bell to trap their prey. During a deep-sea research dive in 2017, scientists observed the jellyfish close its bell in less than three seconds. Once closed, a small hole remained open that they noticed didn’t increase or decrease upon the jellyfish being disturbed. They hypothesized that it may use this closing of the bell for locomotion in addition to feeding⁽³⁾.

 

References

(1) https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/05/rare-jellfish-filmed-mexico-animals-spd/

(2) https://www.sciencealert.com/rare-jellyfish-deepstaria-enigmatica-caught-on-film-rov-hercules

(3) http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/handle/2246/6874

 

 Links to Other Sea Creature Features Blog Posts in the Oceania: The Underwater City Series:

Oceania: The Underwater City

Sea Creatures Part 1— Marine Life

Sea Creatures Part 2—Intertidal Life

Sea Creatures Part 3—Deep-Sea Life

Allie's Return

Sea Creatures Part 1 – Sunlit Marine Life

Sea Creatures Part 2 – Marine Deep-Sea Life in Allie’s Return

Shark Station

Sea Creatures Part 1 - Sharks

Sea Creatures Part 2 – Animals of the Pelagic

Sea Creatures Part 3 – Animals of the Abyss

 

This concludes the sea creatures feature for Terra Sea Merge. Unlike the other novels, this is the only one. The next blog post will be about my research for the novel. I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post even though it was short. If you have any questions or comments, you can leave them directly on my blog or email me at elizataye@gmail.com. I love hearing from my readers!

Inspiration for the Story: Terra Sea Merge

 For me, Terra Sea Merge was different than any of the previous Oceania novels. For one, there was no specific inspirational moment that directed the development of this novel. Instead, I focused on my desire to tell a different sort of Oceania: The Underwater City story. After Shark Station, I wanted to return the main setting of the novel to Oceania. However, I also needed to address the events that occurred in the last few chapters of Shark Station since they led into the story of Terra Sea Merge. More than anything, Terra Sea Merge came out of necessity. The events at the end of Shark Station led to Allie agreeing to have an exchange program between Land Dwellers and Oceanians. This gave me the chance to explore how other Land Dwellers who think and act differently from Allie might view the city. It allowed for interesting and comical moments throughout the story, but also allowed me to reintroduce some characters from Allie’s Return who didn’t make an appearance in Shark Station.

 

As I wrote this story, I tried to think of the districts of Oceania and its society that the reader hadn’t been exposed to in the previous novels. So Terra Sea Merge has a couple of new districts that Allie and the exchange students visit along with other cultural explorations you’ll read about in the novel. If anything, this novel inspired me to write differently. As usual, everything is through Allie’s eyes, but she’s seeing things in a different light and is forced to handle problems she’s never faced before.

 

I know this inspiration for the story was shorter than the others, but there’s really not much else to say. I hope you enjoy reading Terra Sea Merge!

 

You’ve reached the end of the blog post for this week. Subscribe to be notified of the next blog post. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you have any comments, you can leave them here on my blog or email me directly at elizataye@gmail.com. As always, I love hearing from my readers.

Deleted Scenes from Shark Station

Warning! This blog post will contain spoilers for anyone who hasn’t finished reading Shark Station yet. Skip this post if you haven’t finished reading the story.

Like with Allie’s Return, there were several chapter rewrites and extensions added on to different scenes to enhance the story in Shark Station. In this blog post, I’ll be sharing only one of them, but it is an entire chapter. I hope you enjoy!

Originally, chapter 14 was the first chapter to introduce Shark Station and it was much shorter than the one in the final version. I wanted the exploration of the station to be more gradual than it was, so I added several additional pages to chapter 14. Here was the original chapter 14:

Chapter 14

The stationed loomed ahead—all four floors of it. A mild light shone from the myriad of windows on each level. Circular, most of it jutted out from the trench wall. It appeared as if part of the wall of the trench had been carved into to anchor the station and the rest of it bulged out from it. It reminded me of a house on a hill, where some of the house resided inside the hill and the rest of it hung over it.

“Wow, that place looks amazing.”

“Let’s see how well it has stood up the pressure all this time. We won’t know what we’ll find when we get in there.”

I knew that voice. It was Dr. Avraham. Why was she here? Shouldn’t she be in the control room guiding the ship in?

As if to answer my question, she explained, “The ship will do the docking automatically from here. According to Mayor Cho, an access code is necessary to open the docking bay. I’ve entered it into the system, so we should be good to go.”

“Where is the docking bay?” wondered Samantha. Maybe she’d forgiven Dr. Avraham, but I hadn’t. I’m one to hold a grudge.

“On the bottom level of the station facing directly toward us. We should be docking in a matter of minutes.” Her voice diminished as I heard her walking away. “Best to get your stuff ready so we can go. I don’t think any of us want to be on this ship anymore.”

Or with her, I thought but didn’t say anything.

The crowd around the window broke up and the majority of us went to the sleeping quarters to gather the rest of our things.

Being eager for this day for a while, I had already packed most of my stuff earlier today. Only a few things remained outside my bag, so I quickly stuffed them inside and returned to the kitchen viewport.

By now, we’d arrived so close to the station that it took up the entire viewport. The doors of the docking bay started to slide aside. Compared to the docking bay doors of Oceania, these were tiny. I began to wonder if the Spirit of the Sea would even fit. Glad for the computer systems guiding the ship in instead of one of us, I watched as the interior of the docking bay became visible.

Just as in Oceania, a blue light lit the interior of the space. Five seacrafts already were inside. Two seamobiles, two exploration vessels that could seat two, and one mid-sized vessel. Still, there was plenty of room to dock the Spirit of the Sea on the right side of the bay where it was empty. 

A sound a whoosh pushed us forward as the docking bay doors closed. A blaringly loud sound erupted from somewhere and the blue lights began flashing red.

“Is something wrong?” I wondered aloud.

“I don’t know. It’s hard cause none of us have been here before.” Dylan came and stood beside me, his bag slung over his shoulder.

The two of us watched as the water was removed and then the lights stopped flashing and turned from red to white.

“I guess they designed things a little differently here than they did in Oceania.” Dylan shrugged and spun around. “Come on, let’s get off this ship.

Agreeing wholeheartedly, I grabbed my bag from the floor and went to the staircase. At the bottom, Dr. Gomez was already there pressing the button to open the hatch to the docking bay. With a hiss, the door released and a whirr emitted from the floor as a stairway came down from under the floor of the bottom deck.

Waiting until the stairs reached the bottom of the docking bay, we stood behind Dr. Gomez.

“I better go outside first. There’s no telling what condition the robots of the station are in. If they’ve malfunctioned, I want to be able to attend to them. You two stay behind me.” Dr. Gomez began descending down the steps.

Dylan and I followed, staying a few steps behind Dr. Gomez. When we reached the floor, I noticed it was still a little wet.

Odd, that was different than Oceania. Most of the water was always drained out. It could be described as a little damp, but wet—never.

“We should have been greeted by the robots upon entrance.” Dr. Gomez’s brown eyes searched the area, not moving a muscle. “This is weird.”

Another hiss emanated across the way to our right. All three of our heads spun towards it.

“Hello, welcome to Shark Station.”

I released the breath I hadn’t realized was stuck in my chest. An older style robot, gleaming metallic silver had come into the docking bay. He was a hover bot, meaning that he had no legs, only a torso, arms, and a head. His body appeared to be made of a bunch of different circles. His head, joints, torso, arms, and everything but his hands were made up of circular pieces of metal.

“How may I assist you? My name is Zoid.”

“Hello, Zoid. I’m Antoine, the chief engineer on this mission.”

“Hello, Antoine, nice to meet you. Who are your other mission mates.”

“This is Dylan Baker and Allie Baker. There are seven more in the ship. They could use some assistance unpacking all of our belongings. Are you the only functioning bot here?”

“Oh no, there are four of us in all. Myself, Xeta, Yeta, and Weta are all fully functional and capable of helping you along with your mission here. Should I call the others to come to help you unpack?”

“Yes, that would be helpful.”

“Very well. It is complete. They will be here momentarily.”

“Thank you, Zoid.”

“You are welcome.” Zoid headed up the stairs and inside to help.

“What should we do?” wondered Dylan.

“You two can help me check out the station and see what condition it's in.” Dr. Gomez slung his bag over his arm, holding it in place as he spoke.

“What about Max?”

“He can catch up later. If I find anything wrong, I’ll ask him to help me fix it. Now, come on.” Dr. Gomez took off in the direction from which the robot had appeared.

Following him, we jogged to keep pace. When we reached the door, it opened automatically for us and we found ourselves in a corridor wide enough for four people to stand abreast.

“Which way now?” I wondered, wishing we had the blueprints or at least a map of the station downloaded on our c-coms.

“Let’s try every door on the corridor and see where it leads.” Starting with the door across from the docking bay, Dr. Gomez peeked his head inside. “That’s the moon pool room. Let’s go inside.”

This moon pool room made the one on the Spirit of the Sea look like a child’s playroom. This one was massive. A hole probably the size of half an Olympic-sized swimming pool took up the center. The cover was on it, so there was no telling what was underneath. Hanging from the ceiling were cranes and other equipment I didn’t recognize. On the right-hand side was a set of closets, hooks, and what I assumed was a changing area. A pod that resembled a submersible was off to the side of the pool. Clad in all yellow, it was hard to miss. Two ROVs rested against the wall.

“This room looks fine, let’s check the next one.”

Dr. Gomez led the way out and we followed him around the corner to a dead end with one door to the left. It led to a storage room, so we moved on from there, deciding to check it out at another time. Turning around, we weaved back to find a wet lab and the maintenance room before finding the stairs and going up them.

The second level reminded me of a space ship. It was cool. There was one corridor that appeared to wrap around the entire station. Large viewports were cut into the outside wall giving us a big black view of nothing. Still, if there was something to look at, we’d see it.

Not far from the stairs was a doorway that led into a room that took up the entire rest of the level. At the moment, it was mostly empty except for a few plants growing in small trays near the center of the room.

“This must be the Hydroponics Room,” surmised Dylan.

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” assured Dr. Gomez, walking inside and inspecting the trays. “We’ll leave the assessment of this room up to Dr. Avraham. It looks like we need to get this up and running soon so we can support ourselves.”

Dylan walked around the room and I did too, but it wasn’t long before Dr. Gomez beckoned us up to the next level. It was similar to the second level, except the central area was split into rooms. There was still a wraparound corridor that had viewports all along the corridor walls. We found the Med Bay, Kitchen, Exercise Room, Sleeping Quarters, and even an Entertainment Room on this level.

Finally, we made our way to the top level—level 4. This level reminded me of the Spirit of the Sea.  At the top, there was one large area with a wraparound window so that they could see into the corridor and the ocean through the various viewports beyond. It was mostly empty, but there were a few chairs scattered about. On the opposite side of that was the Engineering Lab and robot charging stations.

Dr. Gomez swung his bag off his arm onto the floor and stretched. “Well, I guess that’s it.”

“This place is amazing!” I said, walking forward to touch the durapane or glass or whatever the windows were made of.

“I know. It’s huge. We won’t get so sick of each other here, that’s for sure,” said Dylan, admiring the place.

“True, but we should probably get back down below. The rest are probably wondering where we went off to.”

“Do not worry about that, Zoid has told your team members of your intention to search the station,” came a voice from behind me.

This time I did squeal and spun around to see where the voice had come from.

“Hi, I’m Xeta. I’m the main cleaning robot around here. I was charging when you arrived and just finished, so I got Zoid’s message.”

“Good, thank you, Xeta. If you could send a message to Zoid to tell him to let the others know we’re coming back down, that’d be great.” Dr. Gomez picked up his bag off the floor.

“I will certainly do that. I will see you all later.”

Returning to the docking bay, we found the others were already gone. Zoid told us that they had taken their belongings to find room in the Sleeping Quarters. So the three of us ascended the stairs again, still lugging our bags with us.

Before, we’d just peaked into the sleeping quarters and not really examined it. This time, when we walked inside, I realized just how large it was. It was spread out with a corridor wrapping around, but unlike the outer corridor, it divided and branched off into two smaller ones. The bathrooms were in the center of the area with additional rooms flanking either side. Men and women had separate bathrooms unlike on the Spirit of the Sea, but at each corner was another smaller bathroom.

“Hey, Allie! Over here, you can have the bedroom next to mine.” Samantha beckoned be to her from the other side of the corridor. We took a right and went down to the rooms only a door away from the bathroom.

“The one next to the bathroom smells funny, so I chose the next one. I’m in room 17, you can be in room 16.”

“We can each have our own room?”

“Yeah, there’s plenty enough room so we don’t have to share. They’re tiny rooms, but still. It’s better than sharing bunks with nine other people.

Samantha did have a point there.

Opening the door to room 16, I noticed a twin-size bed to the left and only about one pace to the right was a small desk and chair. A shelf on the top held space for some belongings and a closest a tad larger than me was in the corner behind the door.

“I know they’re small, but you could just call it cozy.”

“True, but to have our own space to get away.”

“Yeah, it’s nice isn’t it.”

“You bet.”

“All crew members, please find your way to the corridor outside the sleeping quarters. A meeting is necessary.”

Oh, just great. Here we go again.

I threw my stuff onto the bed and left the room, not bothering to lock it. It’s not like anyone was going to steal my stuff or anything.

Samantha and I weaved our way through the corridors and out to the outer corridor by the viewport. Almost everyone else was already there.

“Hello everyone. Now that we are in Shark Station, I will be in command here. Things are going to be very different from the way that they were on the Spirit of the Sea. Now, I understand that everyone is tired and they just want to get settled in so we’ll eat some of the food from off the ship and we’ll decide what to do from there,” explained Mrs. Baker. “Now, we’ve been lucky that one of the robots has prepared a meal for us out of the remaining food, so let's go eat now and then we can talk.”

My grumbling stomach could agree with that.

I hope you enjoyed the final blog post for Shark Station. In the Oceania: The Underwater Series Boxset, there is an additional deleted scene for Shark Station you can only read there. So, if you haven’t picked up a copy and would like to, just visit my website elizataye.com. If you ever want to reach out to me, you can email me at elizataye@gmail.com. I love hearing from my readers, even if it is just casual conversation. 😊

The next blog posts will be for the next novel in the Oceania: The Underwater City series. If you want to stay updated on the book's release, cover reveals, and the title reveal, visit my website at  https://elizataye.com/news/ and subscribe to the news blog to be the first to hear about it.