The Swarm

Charlie Wagner, PhD student at the IMB in Kiel, has been relegated to the Shetland Islands by her professor, Dr. Lehmann. She soon discovers something that catches Lehmann’s attention. She finds methane ice bubbling up on the water’s surface – which is usually found on the sea floor. Meanwhile, whales off of Vancouver Island have disappeared.

On the French Atlantic coast, a mysterious string of food poisonings lead to agonising deaths in a local town – all stemming from a whitish liquid in the body of a lobster. Dr. Cécile Roche is called to the scene but, when her children appear out of the blue, supposed to be staying with her exhusband, she’s pulled between family and work.

Wagner receives the heart-breaking news that the Juno has sunk – with her friends on board. Her world is torn apart and she returns to Kiel – hoping for answers. As the Adriatic Sea experiences an extreme jellyfish plague, Roche identifies a mutant bacteria behind the food poisoning victims’ agonizing deaths.

As a myriad of crabs overrun a South African beach and Wagner returns to the Shetland Islands to say her goodbyes, Roche urges tough action to be taken to stop the spread of the mutant bacteria in France. Back on the Thorvaldson, Johanson and Lund’s feelings are growing for one another.

For Roche, it is clear that the South African crabs have the same mutation as the French lobsters. Meanwhile, Wagner is obsessively investigating the sinking of the Juno. She begins to believe that the sinking is connected to the light phenomenon and the unusual sounds. She aligns the event with the nearly wrecked Thorvaldson and the methane ice off of the Shetland coast.

In the wake of recent events, a summit is held in Geneva with the world’s greatest scientific and strategic minds convening to solve the growing crisis. The situation is worsening by the day and so urgent action is needed. Roche is reporting on invasive species whose purpose appears to be to transmit the deadly bacteria to humans.

With our team onboard, the Thorvaldson heads for the deepest point in the Arctic Ocean - where Crowe picked up signals from the yrr. While Roscovitz, a crew member, and Wagner descend to great depths in an HOV, Anawak and Crowe send a signal to the yrr – in an effort to communicate with it.

While the scientists around Johanson want to draw as much information as possible from the yrr, Wagner believes that the yrr have an interest in humans – the yrr weren’t trying to kill Delaware when they entered her body, they were trying to understand her. As the situation is worsening around the globe, Roche discovers a means to kill the yrr.