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eBook Category: Fantasy
eBook Description: Deep in the ocean, a race of sub-aquatic humans flourish in the life-giving warmth and free oxygen emitted by the underwater volcanoes of the Pacific. When an eccentric scientist ventures out into the Dark Cold looking for the mythical Kraken--and doesn't return--her son sets out for the deep ravine where she claims to have seen it. He doesn't know if a Kraken is a giant squid or some other predator, but does know that the large hollow sphere he finds there will finally prove his mother's theories about what lies in the world above their heads.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: F&SF, 1990
Fictionwise Release Date: May 2001

37 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [34 KB] , ePub (EPUB) [30 KB] , Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [20 KB] , Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [207 KB] , Palm Doc (PDB) [21 KB] , Microsoft Reader (LIT) [41 KB] , Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [91 KB] , hiebook (KML) [80 KB] , Sony Reader (LRF) [47 KB] , iSilo (PDB) [17 KB] , Mobipocket (PRC) [22 KB] , Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [50 KB] , OEBFF Format (IMP) [33 KB]
Words: 6195
Reading time: 17-24 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

His mother's second-best map crinkled in his hand as he read the way. Even without his lamp, he could feel the embossed features. And he was soon in total darkness, swimming fast away from town through water so cold it numbed his skin.

The towns all lay in a line, along a ridge near the string of black smokers. To swim far from that ridge was deadly, unless you were equipped for ocean voyaging. The story was that Picotin Vrai, one of Ariste's great-grandfathers (on his mother's side, of course), had swum clear round the earth.

A true story? He had asked Calice. Yes, she said, possibly the world was round. But maybe Picotin Vrai had merely swum in a big circle. The explorer had heard clicks in a strange accent and had crossed a ridge where there were many black smokers. But he had never found a town. Where had the clicks come from?

He brought no proof back, and he was considered a loony, just like his great-granddaughter.

Ariste did not plan to circumnavigate the globe. His grandfather had used complex oxygenating equipment that Calice could not duplicate today.

Ariste swam for the place Calice called Kraken's Nest. She had been fascinated with something she saw there. Ariste was almost sure that was where she had gone.

It was a deep ravine, formed by seismic activity, with cliffs overhanging its bottom. A slow current had widened the deep, cold bottom like a cave. He and Calice had explored the place. Recently, she had begun to call it Kraken's Nest. Following the map, he swam to the place where Calice claimed to have seen the Kraken.

Kraken? What was a kraken? A gigantic squid? A fabulous creature big enough to eat the oxygen factory? That was what a kraken was in legend, but Calice said she had found a real kraken in this place. She had not been close enough to know exactly what it was. She was secretive about it. Be fair, Mom. Haven't I been your faithful assistant? Take me to see it. She had promised. Soon, she said.