In the depths of the abyss, in waters so deep that not even light itself could not dream of casting its rays.
ẞ-Seven moved carefully through the dark, its floodlights stretching ahead in a narrow cone. The hull creaked every now and then, long metallic groans that carried through the small cockpit.
Inside, two people were seated at its terminal.
Behind them, the generator hummed in a steady and dull rhythm.
A notification blinked onto the main screen.
<[Warning: Entering Uncharted Sector. Proceed With Extreme Caution.]>
John eased the throttle down a notch.
"Pressure spike?" he asked, his eyes still glued to the monitor.
Wilson leaned over his diagnostics panel, fidgeting with his fingers,
"Negative. Hull integrity is fine. Pressure's stable."
He paused,
"Might just be interference. Or we crossed some old boundary marker."
"Well I'll be dammed."
Wilson leaned back in his chair. "You're the one who wanted to find the 'next big thing' after Elisia and signed up for deep grid scavenge."
a
"Yeah." John said. "Didn't realize "uncharted sector" meant actually uncharted."
"No shit, sherlock."
The floodlights pushed forward through the water, carving a narrow tunnel through the empty abyss.
Beyond that cone of light?
Nothing.
The sub drifted slowly past the remains of ancient seabed life, or, at least their fossilized structures. Clusters of dim bioluminescent seaweed swaying like ghostly curtains.
Wilson tapped the glass beside the viewport.
"You ever think about how much pressure is on this thing right now?"
John didn't look up.
"Nope."
"Like… twenty two thousand psi?" He let out a little laugh. "Imagine if it imploded. Shame we're not billionaires. At least then someone would remember us."
"Wilson."
"Yeah?"
"Stop thinking about random bullshit."
Every so often, the ruins of something appeared in the distance. Broken arches. Collapsed pillars. Wilson glanced at one of the monitors.
"You ever wonder how half this stuff even got down here?"
John shrugged.
"Same way everything else ends up down on the ground."
Wilson raised an eyebrow.
"And that is?"
"Gravity."
Wilson rolled his eyes.
"Real fancy answer there."
The pod drifted a little farther. Then John leaned forward suddenly. "Hold on."
Wilson looked up.
"What?"
John adjusted the external feed, zooming in slightly. "There." he said, circling his cursor on something in the dark.
Wilson leaned over from the copilot console. At first it looked like a glitch in the camera. A perfectly spherical patch of darkness hung in the middle of the waters.
The beam of light struck it....and failed to bounce back?
"Those suckers are gonna love this." John muttered.
"No kidding."
Wilson said as he tapped the comms panel.
"This is ẞ-Seven. We've got an unidentifiable object in an unmarked grid. Estimated coordinates J-23-B, Level 3. Object appears spherical… roughly the size of a soccer ball. Requesting instructions."
Wilson tilted his head slightly, still staring at the screen. The reply came through after a faint delay.
<[ẞ-Seven, secure and retrieve. Minimize contact time and avoid external damage.]>
"Roger that.''
John said as he eased the sub closer. A mechanical arm unfolded slowly from the pod's underside.
Wilson watched the feed carefully.
"Easy…....easy…...."
The claw closed around the sphere.
For a moment the metal joints trembled slightly, as if the object resisted the grip. Then the arm retracted smoothly and locked into its cradle.
"Well...That was surprisingly easy." Said Wilson.
"Don't you fucking dare jinx it."
John turned the pod slowly.
<[Beginning ascent.]>
The engines hummed louder as the sub angled upward. Wilson leaned back and checked the readouts.
"That's weird."
"What?"
"It doesn't weigh anything."
"wha, what do you mean it doesn't weigh anything?"
Wilson turned the monitor toward him.
"Analysis reports zero load."
John lets out a sigh, "Just let those nerds figure it out, our only job is to get out of here."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
For a while, neither of them spoke. The path upward felt longer than before.
Wilson glanced at the rear monitor.
Then again. Then a third time.
Five minutes into the ascent.
"You seeing that?"
A dot appeared in the radar.
"Sonars detecting something moving."
[Calculating Distance From Hull]
[60 meters]
...
...
...
...
[46 meters]
"What is it?"
Wilson squinted.
"Somethings moving."
"Should we be worried?" Wilson said quietly. "It's getting closer."
"Probably just some fish." John muttered, his hand already moving closer to the auxiliary controls.
The second alert chimed louder.
[MOTION SIGNATURE CONFIRMED]
The distance marker appeared again.
[34 meters]
Wilson's voice dropped.
"John."
"This is all your fault."
The blip didn't drift the way most abyssal life did. It was definitely moving straight toward them.
[28 meters]
"Do you think it's following the ball thingamajig john?"
"Probably but I am definitely not letting go."
He flicks a switch and nudges the throttle a little higher, "either we're both dying or we're not."
John reached over and killed the floodlights. The world outside vanished. Only the dim glow of instrument panels lit the cockpit. Wilson swallowed nervously.
"Try the decoys." John said.
Wilson triggered the first emitter.
A burst of artificial leviathan distress pulses flooded the water behind them.
They waited.
...
..?
The marker didn't change direction.
Wilson tried another one. Mana emissions rippled outward.
...
Still nothing.
Wilson looked up slowly. "John… it's..uhh.. ignoring everything."
[20 meters]
Wilson stared at the screen.
"You've gotta be kidding me."
[14 meters]
He flipped another switch. Behind them, turbulence generators activated, churning the water into violent currents. The pod rocked slightly.
"Why isn't it taking the bait?" Wilson said with intrigue, starting to slowly panic.
[8 meters]
John's jaw tightened.
"No idea and I don't intend to find out."
"You're not even a little curious as to what it is?"
John shoved the throttle forward. The engine output climbed rapidly, vibrations spreading through the floor panels.
"Nope."
[6 meters]
The number ticked down with mechanical indifference.
[4 meters]
Wilson's fingers moved across the console so fast he nearly hit the wrong switch.
"It's still accelerating‽"
John didn't answer. He flipped the safety cover off the overdrive lever. The pod wasn't meant to sustain it long.
Overdrive was strictly emergency use.
Structural strain be damned.
[2 meters]
Wilson glanced at the rear camera.
For a split second,
he thought he saw something move in the darkness.
A silhouette.
Even in the pitch black, the shape looked wrong. The abyss around it was dark. But the creature was somehow even darker. It seemed to have layers and layers of teeth and,
He didn't finish the thought, No, He couldn't.
"Send it." he said.
John pulled the lever.
[1 meter]
The engine response hit like a punch to the gut. The submarine lunged forward through the abyss, its frame shuddering violently as the engines output surged beyond 'recommended' limits. The rear camera blurring into a haze of black and white.
For half a second,
The distance marker stalled.
Then it climbed.
...
[2 meters]
...
[3 meters]
...
[5 meters]
...
The pod tore upward through the water columns. Pressure alarms flared briefly before the auto correction system kicked in.
John kept the throttle pinned longer than protocol allowed.
[10 meters]
...
[14 meters]
...
The marker flickered once. Then flickered again. Then finally, It vanished.
The only sound left was the engine's ragged hum.
Wilson leaned back slowly, staring at the empty scanner. "Tell me you recorded that."
"Every second." John said.
He didn't ease off the throttle immediately.
The submarine continued soaring upward through the dark. Only after nearly a full minute did he slowly reduce power.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
When they finally docked at the abyssal platform, both of them exhaled at the same time.
They both just stayed in their seats for a bit. Eventually John got up and unlatched the hatch and pushed it open.
The Cool station air rushed inside.
They climbed out of the submarine as technicians swarmed around it.
The unknown object was carefully transferred into a reinforced containment crate and loaded onto a transport cart.
The sphere looked exactly the same as when they found it.
Wilson pulled off his gloves, flexing his shaking hands.
"Whatever that thing chasing us was." he muttered, watching the crate roll away, "it really didn't want us taking this."
John didn't answer right away. His eyes stayed fixed on the containment unit as it disappeared down the corridor toward the core labs.
Then he said quietly,
"I wonder if this thing's cursed."
Wilson groaned,
"Oh great. Don't start saying stuff like that after we bring it aboard."
John shrugged.
"Just saying."
Wilson shook his head.
"Next thing you know, you'll be telling me we just doomed all of humanity."
John watched the corridor a moment longer.
"Yeah, I guess. Let's hope not."
"C'mon, cheer a little ya grimy bastard."
"I'm heading off, gotta snooze for a bit."
"Alright see ya later."
~~~~~~~Ze End Le~~~~~~~