Chapter 28: The Gyre Part 2
"I'd expect them to be too tough and strong flavoured for eating, but you're welcome to try." Sir Shillingsworth pulled his spyglass from his coat and put it to his eye. "There's no shortage of specimens." He handed the glass to Lahdin. "I'll ask the Captain to hold us steady relative to the ships. Take what observations you can from the deck. I don't want to try going into the seaweed with the rowboat until we know a lot more about it."
When the spyglass made its way to Cal, she alternated between peering through it at the ships and sketching madly. Halfway through the morning she had to go to her equipment locker to get more sketchbooks. She was a long way from running out. Lots of bigger sheets too. Cal put the full books in and took out fresh ones. On impulse, she grabbed a couple of the largest sheets.
Sam and Henrichs found a folding table they set up on the deck. Cal spread out the paper and worked on a panorama of the weed, the ships and the crabs scuttling about, with birds soaring over it all.
***
Pentam set up his camera, but even in the dead calm the ship moved too much to get a photo. He put the equipment away before his frustration made him do something stupid.
Cal sat at a table drawing with her usual grace and speed. The camera couldn't compete with her. Pentam rubbed his stomach. Since she'd decided to ignore his advice and work in the engine room they'd hardly talked.
Nothing had happened to her, thank God, but she didn't seem to realize how dangerous it was. She certainly didn't care that he lay up nights worried about her, waiting for the screams which would tell him the engine room had claimed another victim. He couldn't understand how Sir Shillingsworth allowed it.
Fortunately, since they'd arrived in the Sargasso, Cal had been mostly on deck. He'd seen her sneak down to the engine room now and again, but he kept his peace. She'd made her feelings clear.
Without anything to do, Pentam wandered into the lab. The chemistry set-up mocked him. He didn't know how to use half the equipment. It would be the end of his career.
"Could you use a hand with the chemistry?" Pentam turned to see Matt standing at the door.
"You know chemistry?"
"It was my major until I switched to fish." Matt came in and looked at the chemistry lab. "I'm not sure about this." He pointed to a complex of beakers and coiled copper tubing. "Unless it's meant to concentrate the sample to make testing easier. These are reagents for testing for specific compounds." He went through the equipment identifying what he knew and shrugging over the mysteries. "Do I pass? You're the only one without an assistant and Prof Orthin gave me permission."
"I'll be honest with you." Pentam ran his hand along the table. Gritty, I should clean it. "I'm not supposed to be the chemist on the team. The man Sir Shillingsworth hired insulted Cal, then demanded she be left on shore. I've worked for Sir Shillingsworth a few years now, and I've never seen him so angry. He didn't have time to hire another man, so he dumped it on me."
"Oh man. I wondered why you weren't fussing at it the way the others were at their equipment."
"Yeah, we might as well have no chemist at all. I don't have much more background than you." Pentam's hand clenched. He couldn't blame Sir Shillingsworth; he should have argued.
"How about we approach it as a team? If we run into something we don't know I'm sure the others would help."
"You think so? At the university, someone in my position would be eaten alive."
"We aren't at university; we're on a science vessel in the middle of the ocean. Besides what have we got to lose?"
Pentam grinned suddenly and put his hand out.
"Welcome to the chemistry department. Let's start with something simple. What about pH values?"
"Sounds good to me. We have enough samples of the seaweed to run tests. I can ask Dr. Franklyn what reagents might be worth trying too."
"You go do that, I'm going to get this cleaned up and ready for work."
Pentam worked all morning, and by the time he had everything sparkling and free of contaminants, Matt returned with a list of suggestions. He put it on a cork board beside the table.
"Let's get going."
Pentam stood and stretched after noting the pH of a green variety of seaweed. Like the others it was slightly more acidic than the water around them. If he'd been on the ball he'd have taken tests at each stop where they picked up the samples. He'd just have to acknowledge the gap and live with it.
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