Deep Current

第9話 Legacy for the Future

However…, on the surface.

When they opened the hatch of the submarine, they found unexpected guests.

“Thank you for your good job.”

“Miss Katuragi? Why are you here?”

“Oh, it’s my words. Why is the USA exploring submarine in such place?”

They finally noticed that they had been too late. During their diving the mother ship was captured by the Japanese Coast Guard.

“Please hand over the sample you have got.”

Akane brought her hand back to protect the cylinder.

“No, I can’t. It’s a treasure for all human being. Miss Katuragi, do you really understand what this means?”

“Yes, off course. Therefore I ask you to hand over it. We can maximize its value.”

Then the Captain Picard step ahead.

“I am sorry but it’s our mission. We should bring it back to our home country by no means.”

“Oh, it’s strange. This place is in Japanese EEZ. Your action is a kind of poaching. We have a right to arrest you.”

“There is no room for the negotiation. We will do that by force.”

“Do you mean that is a declaration of war? But you have no chance to win. We are surrounded by not only Japanese but Chinese Coast Guards.”

For the first time they noticed they were surrounded by more than 50 guardianships.

“Then please hand over the cylinder, Miss Akane Mizushima.”

Miss Katuragi step ahead and others followed. No room for escape.

At that moment Akane run away and hit the cylinder onto the iron balustrade with lightning speed.

“What, what are you doing?”

Everyone shouted all at once.

Akane throw away the broken cylinder into the sea. The cylinder had disappeared into the wave. Afterwards her blood dropped one by one from her injured finger.

All of them were disappointed with missing the precious treasure.

“Now, please escort them to the open sea. After that it is my job.”

Miss Katuragi directed quietly.

Eventually the incident was closed by making the US exploring ship straying into the Japanese EEZ by accident. No further diplomatic argument.

Half a year passed.

There had been no news another Archaea was discovered in spite of the repeating exploration.

China had eventually returned to the COP26 because of the domestic widespread floods and droughts. It was apparent that the Global Warming influenced to change the Chinese climate. Nobody knew whether the Chinese Government had given up manipulating the global climate or not.

One day Akane invited Youichi to her Laboratory.

“Look at this.”

Akane urged Youichi to look into the microscope.

“What’s this?”

“It is granulated solid methane synthesized by bacteria.”

Akane grinned.

“Really? But the Archaea had been thrown away into the sea at that time.”

“Yes. It is not the Archaea exactly but an artificially produced bacteria by using the gene-recombination. At that time one drop of mud had been attached to my finger. I found the Archaea in it. Miss Katuragi could not notice a drop of mud. But when I checked, all the Archaea had already been dead. Too fast reduction of the pressure had caused the burst of the cell membrane. But the cell nucleus remained. I had transplanted the Archaea’s gene into the Cyanobacteria which is the most related species. Then the Cyanobacteria got an ability to produce the granulated solid methane directly from CO2. Its conversion efficiency is almost 1 thousand times as much as that of normal photosynthesis.”

“G, great. It’s the Novel Prize level discovery. Let’s open it immediately.”

“No, I won’t.”

“Why?”

“I think the Human Race has still a lot to do. We need much more efforts. If we open this now, people in the world will start utilizing this bacteria to reduce the CO2 gas without any effort. It’s not an ultimate solution but the postponement of the problem.”

“Ok, I understood. Let’s make it only our secret. The Legacy for the future. Until the Human Race will have a wisdom to use them correctly.”

Akane and Youichi smiled each other. Only the Cyanobacteria was synthesizing the solid methane under the microscope quietly.

The End