by Matt Shaw
Copyright © 2021 by Matt Shaw
Matt Shaw Publications
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
The characters in this book are purely fictitious.
Any likeness to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
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THE
MARIANA
TRENCH
Matt Shaw
In Loving Memory of Billy Smith.
A giant among men.
A true friend.
One hell of a reader.
Chapter One
BEFORE
During the daylight hours, the sea looked inviting with its turquoise waters gently lapping at the beach’s golden sands of what was once - before the tsunami - considered one of the finest resorts in the country, if not the world. Despite the destruction all around - felled palm trees, seaweed scattered far and wide, debris from the half-demolished buildings, along with whatever was dragged up from the depths of the ocean and spat out - you could almost still hear what the beach would have been like before the disaster, if you really concentrated. People would have been frolicking in the waters, laughing, screaming whilst being splashed by their friends, quiet music coming from the poolside bar up on the resort itself, gulls crying overhead as they watch out for dropped food to scavenge. Now though there was an eerie silence broken only by the susurration of the sea which, with night having already fallen, looked far more sinister with waters now black and seemingly bottomless within just a few feet of the shoreline.
John Drain was standing on the beach troubled by mixed emotions. On the one hand, it was hard to ignore those who had perished here. Those poor sons of bitches had saved for months, some maybe even years, to come to this “little slice of paradise” and yet the pounds and dollars they’d paid weren’t quite enough as they then went on to pay further, with their lives. It hadn’t just been the resort that took the full brunt of the tsunami either. The giant wave had flattened everything much further inland too, taking yet more lives in what had been reported as one of the greatest catastrophes ever recorded. On the other hand though, John couldn’t help but feel a buzz of excitement because of the reason he had come out here in the first place. He had spent years, and a vast proportion of his obscene wealth, to get out here and into the waters to see the Mariana Trench for himself and, finally, he was going to do just that but there was an even greater reason to be excited. What had once meant as a trip for him, and any others willing to pay a substantial fee, had become an important field trip in which scientists could get down to the trench and investigate what was happening down there. Initially his trip was going to get in a few magazines, no doubt, with journalists taking aim at him for how he wanted to spend his money. No doubt they would call him “crazy” for wanting to see what was down there for himself and some would criticise him for wasting his money when, really, it could have gone into charities but - whatever. It was his money and he often wondered whether they would donate their fortune, should they suddenly find themselves with heavy pockets. They talked the talk in their magazines, papers and online blogs whenever they spoke of him (or any rich person) but if the shoe were on the other foot and he was the one doing the reporting, John wondered what their story would be. Besides which, he made generous charity payments and would continue to do so. He just didn’t advertise the fact because he found it crass to do so. He paid into the charities to help, not so he could get recognition. Anyway, the trip was more than his “little sight-seeing” project now that the scientists were going with him. It would still feature in magazines and such but now, given they were going down to investigate the trench and strange activity down there, it would also feature in science books where their findings would be reported. Yes, he probably wouldn’t have much to report back on but it was his money and his specially-made submarine which would allow them to go down and spend a month undersea watching and monitoring everything. That alone was surely worth a name check in the science books.
John smiled to himself. He’d always been hopeless at science, back in his school days all those years ago, and yet now look at him. He thought, Mr. Cross would be proud.
‘Beautiful isn’t it?’ Becca Ross said as she approached him. John visibly jumped at the sound of her voice. He’d been so lost in deep thought, he hadn’t heard her approaching. As far as he was aware, he was the only one on the resort with most of the workers, trying to get the place fixed up, having already left for the night. Becca laughed. ‘Sorry, I didn’t meant to startle you.’ She extended her hand and introduced herself, ‘Becca Ross. I’m one of the…’
John took her hand in his and shook. ‘I know who you are,’ he said with a smile. ‘I studied all the files ahead of coming out. I’m…’
‘John Drain,’ Becca said. ‘And I studied all of the files too.’ She asked, ‘Are we the only ones here?’
‘Other than the crew, so far.’
Becca stood next to John and looked out into the ocean. ‘It really is beautiful, isn’t it?’
John just smiled. He could see why some would find the ocean beautiful but, to him, it was just haunting at night, mainly thanks to his imagination and the fear that, really, there could be anything lurking within those waters, unseen and waiting to strike. There was also the thought of how many people had lost their lives in the sea; not just this stretch of water but all around the world. As John looked out into the vast blackness, he couldn’t help but to wonder how many lost souls were out there, in the darkness unable to find their way back? The longer he stood there, the longer he was sure he could hear their cries with each lapping of the waves against the shore. A shiver ran the length of his spine and he turned his back to the ocean, unable to look at it any longer. As he started to walk away, Becca quickly followed.
‘I just wanted to say thank you for this,’ she said.
‘Not a problem. I’m glad you came.’
‘Are you kidding? I feel like Dr. Alan Grant when he was invited to go and visit Jurassic Park.’
‘Does that make me John Hammond?’
‘You do share the same name.’
‘Hopefully this expedition will go slightly better than Jurassic Park.’
‘Well there’s less velociraptors for one, so that’s a good start.’ Becca laughed at the thought of dinosaurs running around down there.
‘I’m surprised you made a Jurassic Park reference,’ John said as he thought back to what she originally said.
‘Well I mean I was going to make a Deep Blue Sea reference but I couldn’t remember the names of the characters in it and not as many people have seen that film so… Jurassic Park it was!’
John laughed. ‘I’ve seen it. Hopefully this little trip won’t go the same way as that film either.’
‘You don’t happen to know if any of the crew are coming onboard with a parrot, do you?’ Becca was making reference to LL Cool J’s “chef” character in the film Deep Blue Sea who, for reasons known only to the writers, had brought an irritating parrot with him.
John just smiled. ‘Come, I’ll introduce you to the crew.’
*
NOW
The captain of the submarine, Commander Chris Combs, had gone deathly pale as he turned to those who’d gathered. The faces of both crew and scientists
looked at him with hope in their eyes. Solemnly he shook his head.
‘Whatever it is, it has got us and it isn’t in a hurry to let go. At this moment in time, we’re trapped and unless it decides to just release us there’s only two ways this is going to go.’ They waited for him to explain further. He continued, ‘One; it crushes the submarine. I don’t need to explain what happens then. Two; it just holds us here until the oxygen supplies run out.’ He stopped talking. A few people - already on the verge of tears - broke down and openly wept. Others just stood there with a shocked expression on their faces as they processed everything they’d heard, and all that had happened.
John turned away from the group and walked to the viewing window; an eighteen inch thick screen which allowed people to look out to the mysterious world beyond. This trip was supposed to be a once in a lifetime experience, the chance to see things that no other living person had seen before. An expedition into the unknown and, due to the nature of the voyage, no weapon systems had been built into the submarine he designed. In hindsight… John let out a quiet sigh. That oversight looked like it was going to cost everyone on board their lives and whilst he could not have predicted any of this, he was still responsible. He wanted to apologise to each and every person but he knew the words he’d say would mean nothing. At the end of the day, they’d all still die and it would still be his fault.
Victoria Hill, the medical officer, entered the room with an unsettling quickness in her pace. Commander Chris Combs knew from the way she moved there was a problem without her needing to say anything.
‘What is it?’ he asked, almost fearful for the answer.
‘It’s Becca,’ Victoria said. ‘You need to come and see this.’
Chapter Two
BEFORE
A tender had been laid on to transport those going on the expedition across to where the submarine - their home for the next month - floated in the deeper water. Before the tsunami there’d been options where the sub could dock and they could have boarded but, now, most of those docks had been entirely destroyed without a trace of them remaining. The Mariana Islands were just a ruin; a shadow of the paradise isles they once had been.
‘And there she is,’ John said with the same excitement as a new father showing off his baby. ‘I won’t tell you the costs involved in creating her, but there she most definitely is…’
The submarine he had created, Deep-sea Challenger IV, didn’t look much different to a normal submarine but the workings were entirely more advanced. So much so, in fact, that the U.S army had approached John with a contract for him to build another just as soon as he was finished with his expedition. Although, not a fan of warfare, the contract was currently sitting on his office desk, back in New Zealand.
‘The fourth Deep-sea Challenger? If I’m not mistaken there was only one before this which was used for the film director James Cameron’s expedition?’ Nate Stephenson said. Nate, one of the world’s leading seismologists, had come along to witness the many quakes taking place undersea with his own eyes. He wasn’t an expert on the Mariana Trench but had looked at a few websites before heading out and the one he spent the most amount of time on, happened to be the one which spoke about the Deep-sea Challenger’s expedition.
John smiled at him. ‘That’s right. You’ve done your research, I see. Good for you.’
‘Well surely that makes this the Deep-sea Challenger II?’
John laughed. ‘Unfortunately not.’ He downed the last of his Coke, straight from the can, and then held the can out towards Nate. With a squeeze of his hand, he crushed it flat. The can crumpled with ease and, once done, John opened his hand again to show off the can. ‘That’s what happened to numbers II and III.’ He added, ‘There’s a lot of pressure down there…’
Nate’s face dropped. He looked towards the submarine as it seamlessly floated on the water’s surface. ‘You thoroughly tested this one, right?’
‘Well we went to about half the depth we’re actually going to and it creaked a few times but, yeah, it seemed to hold up just fine so we’re pretty confident,’ John said. Of course he was just teasing; the submarine had been tested, tested, tested and tested again before they’d got to this stage - and not just to the pressure they were going to experience at the bottom of the ocean but almost double that too.
Seeing Nate’s concerned look, marine biologist Becca leaned closer to him and whispered, ‘I’m guessing you didn’t read the reports about the Deep-Sea Challenger IV?’ She shook her head, playfully disappointed with Nate. ‘It was impressive stuff.’ She added, ‘You don’t want to know how many years it took to develop and the costs involved. All I’ll say is, you probably don’t want to accidentally break anything in there.’ Her words brought little comfort to Nate who was still imagining what it would be like to be inside a crushed can.
The tender pulled up to the side of the submarine, close to where the hatch was which would take those boarding down into the depths of the impressive submarine. Commander Chris Combs, whom some had met the previous night before he and the rest of the crew came over, was there to greet them and help them onboard. Despite most of the scientists being highly trained, and skilled, in their fields of expertise - this was the first time most of them had even seen a submarine, let alone boarded one.
Today was all about getting settled onboard the sub. Everyone would find their cabins, they would be shown around the submarine and given as many of the safety procedures as they needed to know at that particular moment. They would then be given the night to get comfortable and be sure they were happy with being so confined and - by morning - when everything was ready, they would begin the dive. Most were keen just to get going so as to see what the Trench offered but, a few were grateful for that last minute opportunity to pull out, if they weren’t happy to continue further given, apart from in the case of an emergency, there would be no return to the surface until after the thirty days they’d been paid upfront for.
*
NOW
Becca tossed and turned on her bunk bed. Her once brown eyes had turned almost black, the same colour as the deep-waters. Her hair was matted together in damp knots and her skin was clammy to the touch with little beads of sweat here and there. She cried out in pain as she crawled her nails down the side of cabin.
Victoria came back in. She’d brought Chris down with her, along with John. Both men stopped in the cabin’s doorway when they saw the state of Becca. They’d both known she had been unwell, ever since being exposed to it but this was the worst they’d seen her.
Victoria turned to them gravely and said, ‘And I’ve given her the maximum dose of morphine I can give and…’ Becca was still screaming in pain despite the drugs. ‘But then there is this…’ Victoria sat on the edge of the bunk bed and raised Becca’s top to expose her belly. Both the men stepped back in shock. Becca’s skin was pulsing up and down as though there were things wriggling around just beneath the surface.
‘What the hell is that?’ Chris asked.
Victoria pulled Becca’s top back down, covering her stomach once again. ‘I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like this before.’
John panicked. ‘We can’t just leave her like this. We need to do something. We need to get her out of here!’ He knew his words were fruitless. He’d heard what the commander had only just said about them being trapped there until they were released, crushed or suffocated to death and no matter how desperate he was to help the poor girl, there was nothing they could do in getting her up to the surface and away to a hospital.
‘The drugs aren’t working. She’s in a lot of pain… I mean, I don’t know what I am dealing with here but…’ Victoria hesitated a moment before she continued with her suggestion, ‘I can take a look…’
‘Cut her open?’ Chris looked at her, concerned as Becca continued screaming through the pain.
‘It might be something I can remove…’
‘We don’t know what it is!’ Chris continued.
‘No, we don’t, but if we leave her like this then it will kill her. Honestly as loathed as I am to say it, I firmly believe this is her only chance.’
‘Do it, for God’s sake do it,’ John said.
It was John’s money funding everything but that didn’t make him the one in charge. Victoria turned to the commander of the submarine and looked to him for the go ahead. There was a slight delay as he watched Becca squirm and scream. Without looking directly to Victoria, he nodded for the go ahead.
Chapter Three
BEFORE
Jennifer Brooks dragged her case through to one of the cabins. Yolanda Lamas was already in there with her own case on the lower bunk, open and in the process of being unpacked into one of the sets of drawers available. When she noticed Jennifer there, she glanced up and smiled warmly. The pair had been introduced, along with everyone else, the night before but - until now - didn’t know they were going to be sharing a room.
‘I wondered who I’d be sharing with,’ Yolanda said.
Jennifer noticed Yolanda’s bag on the lower bunk. ‘I’m top?’
‘If that’s okay with you.’
Jennifer would have preferred the lower, if only for if she felt poorly during the night, but she wasn’t about to start fighting over a bed, especially when Yolanda had got there first. She answered, ‘Sure.’
‘I’ll just get my bag sorted and then you can put yours here while you unpack, if you want.’ There wasn’t much space in the cabin; certainly not enough for them to both unpack their belongings at the same time. Jennifer didn’t mind waiting though. In fact, she preferred to wait as - now she was here - she wasn’t sure whether she could go through with the expedition, even if it was the chance of a life-time.
