by Greig Beck
Jack thought for a moment. “Hold off for now, but keep an eye on that temperature gauge. If it gets above eighty-five in here, we’ll cool it down. Otherwise we’ll be losing too much fluid.” Jack spoke over his shoulder. “Make sure everyone is drinking water.”
“Got it,” Cate said, sipping again.
“Big canyon coming up; deep,” Yegor intoned. “Also ceiling is dropping down – we need to go deeper.”
“I see it.” Jack swung back to the screen. “Let’s take it down slow.” He stared hard out the window at the darkness, occasionally sprinkled with pinpoint blue lights like distant stars, in the fathomless dark. “How deep does it go?”
“Very deep here; eight thousand two hundred feet.” Yegor half turned to Jack. “We are at four thousand feet – we can go to five thousand, but not deeper – is not just the pressure, but also the heat. Must be volcanic vents down there.”
Jack checked the computer projections – the heat was just under a hundred degrees outside now, and climbing to two hundred deeper down. “You’re probably right. Let’s stay close to the canyon wall, and drop down just enough to clear the ceiling. We pass under it, and then take her back to shallower water. Hopefully, we can find another air pocket once we pass through.”
Yegor grunted his assent, and eased the wheel forward.
“Cate, can you come up here.” Jack nodded her forward.
Cate left her seat and bent towards his face. “What is it?”
Jack momentarily smelled her perfume. He lowered his voice. “Getting damned hot – inside and out. Not sure how hot it’s going to get, and we need to dive even deeper under the ceiling.” His eyes flicked to Greg and Abby. “Things are getting a little tight, and I don’t want claustrophobia starting to crowd us.”
Cate nodded. “Don’t worry; I’ve got some of my best travelling songs set to go.”
“That’s the spirit.” Jack grinned. “But no dancing.”
She crouched. “But this answers a few questions though. The main one being why there’s so much life in this sunless water –the heat, and the minerals from whatever geothermal activity below are the basis of a food chain.”
“I know, I’ve dived to thermal vents that support abundant hydrothermic communities miles down in the deep. The extremophile bacteria form huge mats near the hot vents, which attracts organisms such as amphipods and copepods that graze upon it. Larger organisms, feed on them, and so on, until you have a fully-functioning food chain. The things down here don’t need sunlight; they just need warmth.”
“There’s something else that bothered me,” Cate said. “Most everything we’ve seen has pigmentation, and eyes. Why would you still need eyes after so many millions of years if you lived in total darkness?”
“Yeah, I wondered that. The bioluminescent guys need them, but everything else?” He nodded. “Good question; either these things get exposed to sunlight, or there’s another light source we haven’t seen yet.”
“At five thousand feet – maximum depth,” Yegor said. “Also, we are at cave ceiling depths, and can pass under the overhang.”
“Good; steady as she goes.” Jack flexed his fingers for a moment. “We’re still on silent running folks.”
He switched on the spotlight beam, and angled it upwards. He couldn’t help grinning in awe – it gave him a weird sensation, seeing what looked like a rocky sea floor hanging over their heads. Crags, ravines and jagged rock teeth reached downwards, some for a hundred feet, and Yegor deftly maneuvered in and amongst them. Dots of small, spindly crustaceans clung on tight, and ribbons of kelp-like plants hung like drab streamers. Jack momentarily angled the light downwards, but below, there was nothing but an endless dark void.
“How deep here?” Mironov’s soft words floated from the back of the cabin.
Jack looked at his panel. “Here, this canyon falls to about eight and a half thousand feet.”
“Oh no, Captain… is something,” Dmitry whispered.
“Huh?” Jack switched off the powerful beam. “What is it, Dmitry?”
Dmitry stared hard at his glowing green screen. “Coming up, big, but moving very slowly. Still at sixty-two hundred feet, but drifting up.”
“Towards us?” Abby’s voice sounded little more than a squeak.
“Maybe,” Dmitry said. “But it is like it is just drifting or floating up towards us. Maybe it is floating debris.” He looked again at the screen, and then held a hand to one of the cups over his ear. “Fifty-eight hundred feet now; I think definitely coming up at us.” He looked up. “Intersecting course.”
“Hey, I have an idea – when it gets here, let’s all be somewhere else,” Greg hissed.
“Stay calm, Greg,” Jack said evenly. “We’re not sitting in a jet. This submersible is designed for deep-sea exploration, and has a top speed of three-point-five knots – around four miles per hour, walking speed, and we’re doing that now. So we’re not going to outrun anything.”
Jack leaned towards Yegor. “Move in a little tighter to the ceiling.”
“More closer?” The big Russian’s brows went up, but he still eased the wheel back a few degrees, moving Prusalka to within a few dozen feet of the jagged granite ceiling. “I think this close enough, there are currents from below; that might push us onto rock.”
“Currents; I knew it,” Cate said. “The hotter water in the deep thermals will rise, the cooler water will settle. It basically creates a continual current, circulating nutrients and stopping the water from stagnating. This place is a fully-functional but contained environment.”
“Drifting object now at fifty-three hundred feet.” He looked up from the instrument panel. “Coming up out of the deep; that way.” He pointed forward and slightly to the right side of the front window.
“All stop.” Jack placed a hand on the spotlight, but didn’t turn it on. “Everyone stay calm, and brace themselves.” He spoke over his shoulder. “Keep talking, Dmitry.”
“It is as big as we are. Now, just hovering in the water – when we stop, it stops. I think was waiting for us to come to it. Now at one hundred feet out.”
The ring of halogen lights surrounding the window only illuminated a few dozen feet, but now it was further hindered by the upside down forest of crags and hanging mountains from the ceiling that cast deeper shadows behind them. Jack sucked in a deep breath and then flicked on the spotlight.
“Christ!” Greg’s yell made Cate jump in her seat.
“Magnificent,” Mironov said softly.
The huge squid hung in the water like a massive parachute; its tentacles dangled beneath it, and its shroud slightly open as its jets gently sucked in and then eased out water. Huge eyes the size of basketballs watched them with an intelligent curiosity that was both mesmerizing and unsettling.
“A fucking giant squid,” Greg spluttered.
“Big one,” said Yegor. “Maybe fifty feet across.”
“Colossal or perhaps Architeuthis.” Mironov had left his seat and now stood behind Jack’s shoulder. “And why not? They’ve also been around for many millions of years. They just don’t leave obvious fossils due to their soft bodies.”
The massive umbrella glided closer, and one of the long tentacle-whips lifted towards the submersible. Jack eased the Prusalka back a dozen feet but the huge arm stretched and finally the four-foot pad gently touched the glass of the front window, tapping and caressing it.
“Probably just trying to understand what this hard-bodied creature is,” Jack said, watching it closely.
“Yeah, or maybe trying to reach inside and get to the soft-looking beings it can undoubtedly see here,” Greg countered.
The second long whip came forward to also feel along the glass.
“They can taste with their tentacle tips, you know.” Mironov’s eyes were fixed. One of the pads flattened on the glass, and they could all see the softball-sized circular suction mechanisms opening and then compressing flat on the convex glass. At the center of each was a talon-like stru
cture that arced forward to scrape at the window.
“I think we’ve seen enough.” Jack moved the stick back a few more notches. The tentacles stretched slightly, but then more of the stubbier gripping arms came forward, and the shroud enveloped the glass. The Prusalka stopped dead in the water.
Abby whimpered behind them.
Yegor turned to her. “Don’t worry, little sparrow; it can’t get in, or damage us.”
The shroud completely enveloped them, and Cate suddenly felt like a skydiver that had become fouled in their parachute.
The huge bell of the mantle closed tight over the front of a vessel, and then the beak emerged – two-feet long, parrot-like and wickedly curved. It scraped against the toughened glass, and even inside the submersible they heard the grinding, squeal that set their teeth on edge. A long white gouge appeared on the super toughened glass.
“Okay; that’s enough of that. We need that bastard off, now! If that thing gets itself caught in our prop, we’ll be dragging it all the way to the communication buoy.”
“Yeah, and I for one, do not want to damn well surface with the Kraken still hanging onto us.” Greg’s eyes were round and his mouth remained open.
Yegor half turned to Dmitry, speaking ponderously in Russian. Dmitry nodded and rubbed his hands together. He then flicked up a clear cover over an array of switches which he set on, and then calibrated a dial. “Priming charge – half voltage.” He then looked towards the window. “Five-four-three-two-one…” He pressed a single flat button.
The cabin’s lights flickered and then like a magician’s trick, the glass immediately cleared, except for a swirling cloud of dark ink that was quickly left behind as the submersible powered backwards.
“Now that was cool.” Greg clapped his hands, and then rubbed them.
Dmitry smiled. “You see? Even though big one; nothing to worry about. We have encountered squid before in the depths. Like big puppy dog; they are very inquisitive and smart, and more than likely it was curiosity that drove it to cling to us.”
“That was big enough for me,” Cate said. “I’d hate to be anywhere near one of those that was any bigger.”
“They used to grow a lot bigger. Maybe they still do, in the depths.” Mironov returned to his seat. “But like I said, nothing much exists in the fossil record; there are traces – big traces. Battle scars on fossilized whale skin indicate creatures potentially hundreds of feet across.” He turned to Greg. “They’d be your original Kraken.”
“And this place is a living fossil record,” Abby said quietly. “It came from below, so maybe we not go any deeper.”
“I second that,” Greg said.
“We shouldn’t need to go any further down; we’re under the ceiling now,” Jack said.
They glided on, just a gentle thrum beneath their feet, and a slick humidity growing around them. Their own moisture hung in the air, but Cate knew Jack was loathe to use any more cooling power until they knew how much longer they needed to travel.
She was now constantly aware of Dmitry’s body odor – raw and acrid, like old gym clothes that had been left in a bag with a cabbage on a hot day. She ignored it, guessing she wasn’t exactly a rose herself right now.
“We have passed under shelf,” Yegor said. “We can rise now.”
“Good, take her up to one thousand feet. Nice and slow. Dmitry let me know the instant anything decides to take an interest in us,” Jack said.
“How much longer until we get to the Hobart Bay silo?” Cate asked, licking her dry lips.
“Three miles, give or take – we’re nearly there.” He smiled at her. “We’ll find out what happened and make a plan.”
Cate sank back into her chair, and turned to the small screen. Her seat on the starboard side of Prusalka meant she stared out into the abyssal deep of the dark trench. Once again indistinct stars floated in the distance, and could have been specks just hanging a few feet from her camera, or they could have been colossal beasts half a mile away in the darkness.
She discretely let her eyes slide to her crewmembers: Abby was scratching notes into a small book – a journal or diary perhaps. Her face was slick and she had her hair pulled back from a shining forehead. Behind her, Greg sat fidgeting, drumming his fingers, and trying to engage Dmitry in a conversation. The Russian waved him away or shushed him as he tried to concentrate on the small green screen, and sonar pulses bouncing back to him and relayed to his earphones. She turned to Valery Mironov, who was staring at her. He smiled and nodded, and went back to his own bank of screens, his lips pursed in contemplation.
“Coming up on Hobart Bay, people,” Jack said, turning to flash them a smile.
Cate immediately smiled back, before she could check herself. Involuntary action, she thought. It was probably just the relief at getting safely to their destination, but there was always something about his voice that instilled calm and confidence in those around him.
“Blow tanks, Yegor, nice and slow.”
The submersible slowed, and then with the hiss of compressed gasses rushing to the ballast tanks, the Prusalka began to rise.
“Coming up on the shelf,” Dmitry said. “The communication silo’s buoy should be three hundred feet directly ahead.”
As they rose the last few feet, Yegor eased the vessel ahead slowly. They broke the surface, and Cate could just make out the splash of liquid against the front glass.
“We’re up,” Greg said, rising to his feet.
“Sit down.” Jack’s voice was low, but the authoritative tone, pushed Greg straight back into his seat. “We’re going to need to locate the buoy – could be anywhere, so might take us a while.”
“It’s getting shallower,” Yegor said. “Now at twenty feet.”
“Bingo,” Jack said, pointing. “Ten o’clock; up against that ledge.”
There was a pile of rubble; the tumbled rock debris looked fresh cut, where the pipe had been drilled down into the earth. Amongst the mound of raw stone was a mess of cables that dangled down from the roof, ending in several steel canisters that looked like huge diver’s tanks.
“Communication equipment will be in one of those pods. Yegor, bring us in close to that ledge just past the pipe. We can hold our position there.” Jack spoke over his shoulder: “Cate, Greg, you’re up.”
“Yes!” Greg pumped one of his fists. Mironov also got to his feet.
Dmitry shook his head. “We should not all go.” He bobbed his head. “Until we know is okay.”
Jack nodded. “He’s right. Sorry Valery, I need you to sit tight for the time being. We can all get out to stretch our legs once Greg and Cate have done a quick reconnoiter.”
Mironov’s face remained devoid of expression as he retook his seat, and the huge Yegor turned to look briefly at him, his shelf-like brows folded down over dark eyes. A look passed between them.
Cate turned and shrugged to the Russian billionaire then got to her feet. She saw something behind his eyes that was unreadable, and after a moment he gave her a small phlegmatic smile, and went back to his bank of tiny screens
She leant on the back of Jack’s chair, staring out at the glistening rocks. She knew there’d be a cliff wall back in the darkness, somewhere, but Prusalka’s lights barely illuminated anything beyond the first fifty feet.
Jack looked up at her. “Be careful out there, okay?”
“‘I’ll be fine,” Cate said too quickly. She looked down and saw the genuine concern on his face, and felt like a heel. She put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry.”
“Wait.” Dmitry held up a finger. He went to a storage cabinet built beneath one of the metal desks and returned with two flashlights. They were the type where the handle could be split into a circle that could be worn on the forehead like a caver’s light. He quickly tested both, and then held them out. “Very good luck.” He grinned and bobbed his head.
Jack half turned. “Dmitry, you follow them up and keep watch.”
Dmitry nodded, and then paused.
“And what do I do if I see something?”
Greg paused. “See something?”
“What do you do?” Jack asked. “Well, one, you tell them to get back to the Prusalka; and two, throw a wrench.” Jack grinned.
The submersible gently eased in beside the rock platform.
“Plenty of water – still fifteen feet beneath us.” Yegor cut the engines. He sat back, and folded his arms. “Okay.”
“You’re good to go, people.” Jack got to his feet, catching Cate’s eye. “Find out what the hell happened up there.”
Cate waited as Dmitry raced up the ladder to push open the heavy steel hatch, and then jumped back down, his boots clanging on the steel deck. Warm, peaty-smelling air swirled into the vessel, and Cate raised her chin and inhaled – foreboding and inviting. She placed one hand on the ladder, hesitated for only another second, and then was first up the steel rungs.
Cate climbed down the side of the vessel, and leaped across a two feet gap Yegor had left between them and the rock shelf. She had her flashlight on, and all around was a pervading darkness. Looking back at the Prusalka, she was taken by how alien the thing must have looked to the other creatures below the surface – the bulbous and striped submersible had a single, bulging eye that glowed a dull red from the inner lighting. From inside Jack waved at her, and beside him the huge motionless form of Yegor. Greg jumped down and joined her.
Cate lifted her light to the dark stretch of sea just past the submersible. Where it was illuminated by the sub there seemed an endless flat and oily-looking surface. Vapors of mist rose from it, testament to the warmth of the water. Even if she hadn’t already seen the weird and wonderful things below its surface, it looked primordial and threatening, and the thought of being in that water, and not surrounded by all of Prusalka’s armor plating made her stomach do a little flip.
“We’re not in Kansas anymore,” she whispered.
“Down here it feels like we’re not on Earth anymore,” Greg said floating the beam of his light back along the shelf.
She smiled. “At least not today’s Earth.” Cate closed her eyes and inhaled again. “I imagine this is what the world was like when it was young and raw.”
