Spider Legs Read Online Free

challenge of its unpredictability, from placid calm to raging storm. Since prehistoric times, humans’ personal relationship with the ocean had been unique, unlike ties with other natural surroundings. Perhaps long before scientists realized that the sea was the mother of life, humans intuitively realized that the salty solution, so much like the chemistry of their own blood, was the source of living things.

CHAPTER 4
    Spider
    T HE CREATURE WAS alert as it treaded water near heart-shaped corals that grew like mold from the sea floor. A crimson blob with light splotches rose from the mud in the wake of the pycnogonid. As the sea spider swam its large eyes fixed themselves on a brilliant red nudibrach mollusk, and then the spider crushed it with one of its gigantic legs.
    In recent years various pollutants were causing species to mutate at a rate faster than normal. Medical wastes containing growth hormones, bacterial plasmids, and mutagens were being consumed by the local sea species. Many organisms were entirely unaffected, while some of the primitive invertebrates produced offspring with deformities and strange new physical characteristics. Many animals died. Others survived but with size and shape alterations: there were lobsters the size of pigs and with dozens of legs, two-headed crabs, and a multitude of new worm species with bioluminescent throat appendages and eyes the size of almonds. Marine scientists were becoming aware of these mutations and changes, and concern was rising. But they did not yet appreciate the magnitude of what was happening, or guess that not all of it was either natural or by chance. They would have some strong hints, however, soon enough.
    As the sea spider stepped on a reef, the reef came alive: largenumbers of jelly-roll creatures fled from the crevices. Above was an iceberg. Below glided small sharks and large rays. These were routine.
    Suddenly the pycnogonid sensed vibrations emanating from somewhere near the sea's surface. Something big was approaching from above. The terminal claws on the creature's front legs quivered in unison with its huge chelicerae as it decided to climb the iceberg's shelf. Two impulses drove the sea spider: its desire to eat and its innate rage.
    It rose for another few minutes and hit the underside of the glacier with a big bump. Crash! A soft explosion of ice was set off by the sea spider. After the vibrations subsided, the pycnogonid gracefully positioned its head downward, flipped its body, and began to walk upside down on the flat underbelly of the glacier—defying gravity with the aid of buoyancy. The sea was its ceiling, the ice its floor. It didn't care. It just wanted to get where it was going, whatever way that worked. It walked along the underside of the glacier until it reached its edge.
    In just a few minutes, the body of the pycnogonid broke the water's surface and scrambled up an area of the iceberg which had a relatively gradual slope. Just like its arthropod cousins, the lobsters and crabs, the huge sea spider could live for some time in the fresh air. Its gills began to work in overdrive with what moisture they still contained, sucking in life-giving oxygen from the atmosphere. As it gazed out over the water in the direction of the sound and movement, the creature saw a moving object seemingly about its own size. The fact that the object was large, that it was alien, caused the sea spider no fear. It crept down the precipices and glacial snow-fields into a glacial valley, and then reached the edge of the iceberg which touched the sea. It prepared itself to attack.

CHAPTER 5
    Dream
    A LTHOUGH AN ICEBERG could be as big as an entire village, any sailor would have rather been shipwrecked on land than on such ice. Aside from the cold, the sides of an iceberg were often very steep. Hidden holes, crevices, and caverns added to the danger. Even if a sailor wanted to explore an iceberg's glistening surfaces and caves, it was usually too difficult for