night of the scavenger

thursday july 14. galapagos islands. area 278-c.
'the scavenger' rocked slowly on the rolling swells
as the sun rays danced on the rippling surface of the azure waters. dr. barbara crane stood on the aft deck pulling up a string from the deep that held a glass beaker. she held the small tube of water up to the light, "well, let's see what we have here gentlemen." the two deck hands flashed nervous looks at each other as the doctor carefully poured the saltwater into a small electronic device. a few moments later the machine began to beep and a series of numbers appeared on the screen. "8.44444." the doctor tapped a rapid sequence of buttons on the keypad, "this reading can't be right...it just can't be!" her voice trembling and confused. the levels were alarmingly high and she couldn't make sense of it.
"beep beep beep beep..."
the young marine biology student awoke from her dream and sat up in the small dorm room. the alarm was going off and it was 8:50 am, she was late for class. she reached over between the empty beer bottles and picked up the pregnancy test and shook it feverishly. "son-of-a-bitch!"