Aquamarine (novel)

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Andreas Eschbach at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2015, reading and question time about aquamarine .

Aquamarin is a youth novel by Andreas Eschbach . The novel was published by Arena Verlag in 2015 . The introverted 16-year-old orphan Saha Leeds, who lives with her deaf and mute aunt Mildred in Seahaven, the capital of Australia's largest neo-traditionalist zone, in 2151 discovers by chance that she is a hybrid of human and fish.

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Pushed into a fish tank by bullying classmates, Saha threatens to drown. Pigrot Bonner, a slender younger classmate, observes and films the situation and tries to pull the already lifeless Saha out of the pool. Unable to get her body out of the water by herself, he makes an emergency call with a tablet PC called a “blackboard” in the course of the action and is able to rescue Saha from the water with the help of the caretaker Alvarez. The school doctor Dr. Walsh notes that Saha has slits that run diagonally from her back and slide forward under her chest. From a certificate in the student's file, he learns that Saha closed these openings, known as "wounds", when she was a baby when she was run over by a gardening robot. Since this robot supposedly had blades made of cobalt steel, these wounds practically do not heal and must be protected from invading bacteria with a spray bandage . Saha is therefore exempt from all school sports events.

Pigrot notices that Saha could not possibly have survived because she was under water for more than 15 minutes, but only passed out but did not drown. In another conversation with Dr. Walsh informed her that he had investigated and found no evidence for the theory of the cobalt steel injuries. He wants to examine Saha in more detail, but she refuses, unsettled.

At home, Saha removes her spray bandage and examines her "wounds" in front of the mirror, recognizing the external similarity to gills, as they are common in fish, so she decides to check in the sea whether the openings are actually gills. Saha realizes that she can breathe underwater. The reason for her unconsciousness in the school's fish tank was apparently that her gills were stuck shut with the spray bandage, but when she fell from the tank, the bandage must have come loose enough that the water supply was enough to stay alive. While diving, she instinctively realizes that she can create air bubbles in her chest and collect them in her mouth, making her buoyancy easier. Since genetic manipulations that go beyond the correction of hereditary diseases are forbidden in the neo-traditionalist zone, it is threatened with banishment .

Saha succeeds in deciphering the handwritten diaries of her mother, who died young. She finds out that she as an infant webbed had between the fingers that you have been removed however, but about their origin or their father does not find information.

Saha decides to go diving again. While diving back to the shipwreck, she is attacked by a reef shark , but is rescued by a man who also has gills. He asks in sign language where Saha is from. When she explains to him that she is coming from the city over the water, he takes flight in panic.

Back at home, Saha finally wants to know what her mother is all about. Aunt Mildred fetches a box of handwritten letters from Saha's mother. In these she learns that Saha's father is a “submarine” whom she met while diving in Malaysia. When Saha was born and found that she could breathe normally despite her gills, her mother obtained a fake certificate regarding the garden robot accident, which looked like a normal baby, shortly before Saha's mother died of a heart condition.

Meanwhile, Pigrot discovers that the first experiments with such chimeras were successful as early as the 21st century and were bred by a Korean professor to populate the ocean floor. However, since these experiments were banned, he released the chimeras shortly before the illegal gene experiments were exposed.

Freediving competitions are traditionally held at Seahaven's annual founding festival. When Jon Brenshaw has an accident on his dive, Saha decides to save Jon. Since he is caught in a net, she only has the option of using her oxygen extraction technology to ventilate him until the rescue team arrives. Panicked to drown, Jon clings to Saha even as the rescue team finally arrives and takes them upstairs. Now that all can see Saha's gills, her secret is revealed. She is placed under house arrest and is supposed to appear before a city ​​tribunal in which a decision will be made about her exile.

Saha will be examined by doctors and professors in the coming days, and the genome of the Korean professor will also be discovered. During the hearing, Saha is defended by Professor Bonner. Through his plea, he managed to postpone the verdict, as the city tribunal will hand the matter over to the zone council, which will not meet for a year.

Jon Brenshaw appears at the Leeds and wants to thank Saha. They leave the house and take a few steps when they are attacked by two men. However, you can break free and escape to the Brenshaw mansion thanks to Jon's brother Steve. Once there, mother Brenshaw thanks for saving her son and declares that they belong to a secret organization to protect the submarines. It turns out that this secret organization has existed since the beginning of the gene experiments and ensures that the submarines get tools and medicines.

As it turns out, James Thawte is behind the attack on Saha because, in addition to his neo-traditionalist attitude, he also has an economic interest in the genocide of the submarines, as he fears that they could dispute the seabed, the economic development of which his company has driven for years . When it turns out that James Thawte is holding a submarine captive and testing pathogens on it that is supposed to exterminate the species, Saha, Jon and Nora McKinney decide another employee of the organization to break into their house for a rescue operation, because the Thawte family is one thinks out of town.

In the house, the group finds the submarine trapped in an oversized aquarium. They are surprised by James and Carilja's return and are informed of Thawte's plan to breed a genetically modified virus to wipe out the submarines. Saha pulls Carilja into the aquarium and threatens Carilja's father to drown her. Saha tells Thawte to call the police. He lets fire at the aquarium, but the bullets ricochet off the bulletproof glass. Also pumping out the water would take too long to save Carilja, so he gives up. The police free the submarine and arrest James Thawte. The zone tribunal has banished him and his family for serious violations of the principles of neo-traditionalism.

Saha joins the Submarines as a mediator between the worlds foretold by prophecy .

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The novel is written in the first person from the protagonist's point of view. The events stretch over a period of several months, beginning with the last week of school in September 2151, and ending just before Christmas of the same year.

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