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nervous guy. He was obviously not her type in addition to being short enough for her to look directly in the eye in her tennis shoes. Yet despite having little in common with him especially since he was an engineer-cum-entrepreneur and she a scientist, she trusted that he'd be receptive to her arguments. After all, he'd already responded positively to her request to bring the Benthic Explorer back to Sea Mount Olympus even if it was only to drill into the supposed magma
chamber.
Sea Mount Olympus had been Suzanne's main preoccupation for almost a year, since she'd stumbled on its existence by switching on the side-scan sonar on the Benthic Explorer out of boredom when the ship was heading back to port. Initially, her curiosity only involved her inability to explain why such a massive, apparently extinct volcano had not been detected by Geosat. But now, after making four dives in the submersible, she was equally fascinated by the geological formations on its flat crown, especially since she'd only been afforded the opportunity to explore in the immediate vicinity of the well head. But then the most intriguing fact emerged when she took it on herself to date the rock that had been brought up with the broken drill bit.
To Suzanne the results were startling and a lot more intriguing than the rock's apparent hardness. From the seamount's position near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, she expected the rock sample's age to register in the seven-hundred-thousand-year range. Instead it had tested to be around four billion years old! Knowing that the oldest rocks ever found on earth's surface or on the ocean floor were significantly less ancient than this figure, Suzanne had thought that either the dating instrument was out of whack, or she'd made some stupid procedural error. Unwilling to risk ridicule, she decided to keep the results to herself. With painstaking care she spent hours recalibrating the equipment, and then running additional samples over and over. To her disbelief, the results were all within three or four hundred million years of each

other. Still believing there had to be a dating instrument malfunction involved, Suzanne had Tad
Messenger, the head lab tech, recalibrate it. When she ran the sample again, the result was within a few million years of the previous one. Still in doubt, Suzanne reconciled herself to waiting until she got back to L.A. so she could use the university lab's equipment. Meanwhile the results were hidden away in her ship's locker. She tried to reserve judgment, but her interest in Sea Mount Olympus soared. "We have hot coffee in a Thermos aft if you'd like some," Suzanne said. "I'd be happy to get it for you." "I think I'd be happier if you stay at the controls," Perry said. "Donald, how about turning on the outside lights for a moment," Suzanne suggested. "We're only passing through five hundred feet," Donald said. "There's nothing to see." "It's Mr. Bergman's first open ocean dive," Suzanne said. "He should see the plankton." "Call me Perry," Perry said. "I mean, why be formal while we're packed in here together like so many sardines in a can?"
Suzanne acknowledged Perry's offer of informality with a smile. She was only sorry he so clearly was not enjoying the trip.
"Donald, as a favor to me, turn on the lights," Suzanne said. Donald complied without further comment. He reached forward and snapped on the external halogen lamps on the port side. Perry turned his head and glanced out. "Looks like snow," he said.
"It's trillions of individual plankton organisms," Suzanne explained. "Since we're still in an epipelagic zone, it's probably mostly phytoplankton, or plant plankton that can carry on photosynthesis. Along with the blue-green algae, those are the guys who are at the bottom of the entire oceanic food chain." "I'm glad," Perry said.
Donald switched the lights off. "No sense in using up valuable battery power with that type of reaction," he explained to Suzanne sotto voce.
In the ensuing darkness,