Fathomless

by Greig Beck

  Jack turned in his seat again. “Dmitry, I want a full sonar scan – three hundred and sixty degrees.”

  Dmitry sat straighter. “You want to look out for columns of stone even from behind us?”

  Jack seemed to think for a minute. “No, just, anything at all out there. Your ghosts, maybe.”

  “Okay, you got it, Captain.” Dmitry adjusted his headphones, made some adjustments on his control panel, and then hunched over his phosphor-green screen.

  “Holding at twelve fathoms.” Yegor’s voice was deep and calm.

  Abby leaned around Cate to Greg. “A fathom is about six feet.”

  “Duh.” Greg rolled his eyes.

  “Read it off in feet, Yegor.” Jack laughed softly. “Don’t want our land lubbers having to mentally convert the depth bands we are passing through every time you call it.”

  Yegor groaned, but then nodded. “Okay. We are steady at seventy feet.” He half turned to look at Greg. “Oh, yes, and one knot is one nautical mile per hour, okay?”

  “Yes, yes, thank you, and by the way, I’m no land lubber,” Greg scoffed.

  “Land lubber?” Abby chuckled. “What the hell is a lubber anyway?”

  “Contact.” Dmitry’s voice was loud in the small craft, and made Cate jump in her seat.

  “Shit, what is it?” Cate swung around, leaping from her seat to look over Dmitry’s shoulder. “Is it the thing you saw before?”

  “Cate, back to your seat.” Jack’s voice overrode her curiosity, but she remained on her feet. After all, she was in charge.

  “Sit down, Professor Granger.” His voice had an edge.

  Professor Granger? She snorted, and sat, but only because she wanted to. She continued to face the Russian engineer.

  “No, smaller signature.” He listened and calibrated his sonar scope. “Maybe six feet long, moving fast, bearing forty-five degrees… still at a distance of five hundred feet.” He listened some more. “Closing.”

  Greg leant back, trying to see over Jack and Yegor’s shoulders. “Which way?” he whispered to Abby.

  Cate turned to see Abby holding up her hands, pointing.

  “Zero degrees is dead ahead.” She swiveled. “One-eighty is behind, ninety degrees was right-side starboard, and two-seventy degrees left was port side. Okay? And everything else is varying degrees on that. You get it?”

  “I think so. That way?” Greg pointed out into the darkness, between the front and the right side starboard.

  Abby nodded. “Bingo.”

  “Only a hundred feet out now – I think is coming in for a look at us.” Dmitry looked up and out the front window.

  “Too small to worry us,” Jack said. “Turning three degrees to face it. Yegor, switch off the spot and window lights and we’ll see if we can draw it in close for a look-see.”

  Yegor flicked switches and immediately the blinding spotlight followed by the ring of halogen lights surrounding the convex window went out.

  The sonar pinged, and something else ticked softly above them as the group sat and waited. Cate saw that Dmitry sat hunched over his sonar, his face ghoulishly lit by the phosphor green of his screen as he calmly read out data.

  “Fifty feet, thirty, twenty, ten…” he looked up. “It’s here.”

  “Lights up,” Jack said.

  The big fish was framed in the glaring lights outside the window. The skin of the creature was pink and wrinkled, like that of a newborn baby. It had a shark-like shape but an elongated, flattened snout above protruding jaws that were filled with nail-like teeth.

  “Now that is one ugly mother,” Greg said

  “Yech; looks sorta boneless… ancient,” Abby said.

  The thing swam more like a snake than a shark, its long sinuous body sliding up and over the underwater cliff.

  “Looks ancient, because it is.” Greg leaned towards Abby, looking delighted for the opportunity to impress her with his knowledge. “Been around for over one hundred and twenty million years. But if we went deep diving to about three hundred feet into one of the Atlantic sea canyons, we might just run across one today. It’s called a goblin shark.” He looked back at the sinuous shark’s face. “For a very obvious reason; it’s damn ugly.”

  “Incoming!” Dmitry’s yell made them all cringe.

  In the glare of the halogen light ring, the goblin shark was struck by something fast, and big enough to completely block the window. Once their vision cleared, they were left with a maelstrom of flesh fragments, blood, and the remaining front third of the goblin shark, severed from the rest of its body.

  It all occurred so quickly, that the jaws of the goblin shark still worked as if the thing hadn’t realized it had been bitten in two.

  “Jesus Christ; what the hell just happened?” Jack kept a grip on his wheel, and yelled into the glass. “Talk to me, Dmitry.”

  “Sorry, could not see it. This thing came up beside the cliff wall… sonar blind spot.” His eyes remained fixed on his screen. “Big, over thirty feet, circling.” He looked to Jack. “Now coming back… fast.”

  “All right, brace everyone,” Jack yelled again, his forearms bulging as he gripped the wheel.

  Once again the viewing window was momentarily filled as something large, flannel-gray and armor plated swept by. When it had passed, the head of the shark was also gone.

  “Come back for rest of meal,” Yegor said. “Big fish.”

  “Yegor, give me the spot, follow it.” Jack flicked switches as the big Russian lit up the darkness; the glaring spotlight flared to life. Yegor swiveled the tunnel of light towards the retreating creature.

  “Holy shit. I take it all back… that mother is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.” Greg’s mouth hung open as he watched the massive fish swim away.

  At the far reach of the spotlight the fish started to turn.

  “It’s covered in something – big scales,” Yegor said. He watched the huge fish from under lowered brows. “Coming back.”

  “Placoderm,” Mironov said, with a little awe in his voice. “Should have expected it. They were very prevalent in the early seas.”

  “Placoderm,” Jack repeated. “Predator, and you’re right, Yegor, it is covered in big scales, but on this thing they weren’t just for show, they were actual interlocking armor plates. Its name means armored fish… and judging by the size, I’d say this guy is one of the biggest – dunkleosteus.”

  The armored fish passed by the front of the submersible, and one of its baseball sized eyes swiveled in the bony socket, to fix on them. They each could see it clearly now; the powerful-looking creature was about thirty-feet long, and looked to be made of overlapping sheets of steel all plated together. Even its mouth and eye sockets had plating around them.

  “The mouth,” Cate said. “The force that thing must have.” The jaws hung on the face, and resembled nothing more than a massive bear trap complete with huge shearing teeth, some over a foot across.

  “This monster hasn’t been around since the late Devonian period.” Jack turned to Cate. “Big predator.”

  Cate pushed hair off her slick forehead. “I don’t get it; these things are far older than the life forms we were expecting.”

  Greg shrugged. “C’mon Cate, we’ve theorized about this type of habitat in our research. In this ocean-sized goldfish bowl, the environment might never alter. And if there’s plenty of food, then as long as there’s a biological balance, there would be no reason for anything trapped in here to go extinct.” He pointed. “That bad boy can eat anything, and I’m sure those jaws could make fast work of those big sea scorpions… make fast work of anything.”

  They watched, spellbound, as the armor-plated fish circled them for another second or two. Its front end was like that of a tank, but its rear end was surprisingly slender, trailing away to a thin, almost whip-like tail.

  “Back us up, Yegor,” Jack said. “Let’s get out of that cloud of chum floating all around us.”

  “Question,” Abby said. “Why does i
t need all the armor? If it’s an apex predator, why does it need so much protection?”

  “Maybe it needed to protect itself from others of its kind,” Cate responded, feeling uneasy about the way the fish was staying close to them.

  “Looks like a living battering ram,” Greg said.

  “I think we should leave this area.” Mironov carefully eased back in his seat and pulled the strap over his shoulder.

  The group watched in silence for a few moments before Jack slowly looked over his shoulder at Cate; she could see the look on his face – he knew they weren’t safe.

  At the far reaches of their illumination, the huge fish turned, and started coming back at them

  “Yep,” Jack said. “I think we’ve seen enough. Twenty degree starboard, Yegor; ahead half speed.”

  Jack switched off the spotlight as the submersible eased around, and headed out over the dark water.

  Jack half turned. “Dmitry…”

  Dmitry grunted. “Yes, is still following us.”

  “Cate, get on rear camera. We need eyes on this thing.” Jack leant across to Yegor. “Let’s take it up to three-quarter speed.”

  Cate hunched over a secondary screen, and looked quickly to Mironov, who also leaned in close to a control panel beside his chair that delivered a feed from all external camera feeds. He also watched the armor-plated fish’s approach.

  “Will it attack us?” Abby asked.

  Cate looked back to her screen. “This thing is a hyper carnivore, but look at the tail – it’s fast and aggressively territorial. It’ll basically try and eat anything it can fit in its mouth.” She looked up. “It’s gaining on us.”

  “Do you, um, think it can bite through the hull?” Abby’s voice had gone up a few notes.

  “Ha!” Dmitry spun in his chair. “Impossible; the Prusalka is titanium hull, and can take the pressure of the deep trenches. This little fishy will just break its teeth.”

  Cate looked away from her screen. “I’m not worried about that,” she said. “The dunkleosteus’ jaws are just like a giant compacting machine. But what I’m more worried about is—”

  The impact threw Dmitry off his chair, and an alarm sounded from all around them. Sparks came from equipment panels overhead, and from beside Cate. “Shit.” She momentarily covered her face.

  “Goddamn thing just rammed us.” Jack spun, yelling to Dmitry. “Get up and put that out before it chews up our oxygen.”

  Dmitry rolled, got to his feet, and grabbed at a small extinguisher. “Hold breath.” He blasted the panels with a cloud of the white gas.

  Cate waved a hand in front of her face, trying to find her screen. “I can’t see it.”

  Mironov pursed his lips. “It’s coming around again – circling.”

  Yegor pointed out the front window, as the huge powerful fish went past them, heading out into the dark.

  “That hurt us,” Jack said. “Don’t want to take too many more of those impacts. Taking her down – full dive, Mr Gryzlov.”

  “Down?” Greg’s head snapped around. “Fuck that. We just had our bones rattled, and you want to take us down deeper? We should be surfacing.”

  Jack spoke over his shoulder. “Cool it, Greg. Placoderms usually hunt in the shallows to midwater – above a few hundred feet. There is only one place it can’t follow us, and that’s down. Yegor, increase ballast compression, angle down at ten degrees, and ahead full.”

  “Aye, Captain.” Yegor flicked switches, and turned dials, but stared straight ahead from under his shelf-like brows.

  There was a low frequency thrum coming from under their feet, and the angle of the cabin changed as they headed downwards into the dark void.

  “Still out there.” Dmitry shook his head. “Much faster than we are. I think is going to… brace!”

  The second impact came from the rear this time, and the Prusalka yawed in the water, sliding sideways for a few seconds before Jack corrected the course. From somewhere overhead there came the sound of a high pressure hissing.

  “Jesus, I hope that’s not water coming in.” Greg’s voice was several octaves higher.

  “Sonofabitch.” Jack gritted his teeth, his forearms bulging on the wheel. “Hang on everyone.” He pushed the wheel further forward, increasing their angle of descent.

  The crew gripped shelf tops, railings or anything they could hold onto as the floor dipped to forty-five degrees. Cate turned to look at Mironov, who sat gripping his armrests, and watching his view screens, his face as untroubled as if he were simply catching a movie in his private theatre.

  Jack’s voice brought her head back to him.

  “Talk to me, Dmitry.”

  “I can’t see him.” The Russian grimaced. “No sign.”

  “I don’t think we’ve lost him,” Jack yelled. “Everyone keep a lookout.”

  Cate stared at the small screen in front of her that displayed the dark starboard water, and little else. Her head hurt from concentrating, or perhaps from the lingering gas Dmitry shot from the mini fire extinguisher.

  “Nothing here.” She turned in her seat to Greg sitting opposite, and viewing the port water side. He must have felt her stare, because he shook his head. “Nothing; all clear on the left, uh, I mean port side.”

  “At two hundred feet,” Yegor intoned.

  “Clear here,” Abby said.

  “It’s nighttime in a licorice factory – anything on sonar, Dmitry?” Greg asked.

  “Not really, sure. Maybe up on shelf, or staying close to cliff wall. But not showing on sonar.” The Russian’s brows were knitted, his face bathed in the green glow of his sonar screen

  “Eyes on – everyone,” Jack said, keeping the wheel pushed forward as they dived. He leaned forward to look out and up through his curved front window. “Valery, anything back there?”

  Mironov looked from screen to screen, and then slowly shook his head. “Looks clear on all quadrants, Jack.”

  “Three hundred feet,” Yegor said mechanically.

  “Yes, coming now,” Dmitry yelled. “Straight down on us.”

  The impact was like being in a huge bell that was being rung. Greg was thrown into his console, and for one terrifying moment, there came the sound of popping and complaining steel.

  Yegor snorted, his bristled top lip turning up in a smile. “Prusalka, she doesn’t like it, but she will hold. We okay, unless…”

  “Unless?” Jack turned to him.

  “Unless, bonehead fish hits our propeller, and make deformed. And then…” He shrugged.

  “Ah fuck.” Jack leant back in his seat. “Then, we row home.”

  Dmitry groaned. “Bad news; very bad. It is coming again, too fast for us.”

  He then spoke rapidly in Russian to Yegor, who half turned and yelled back in the same fashion. The two men argued for several seconds.

  “That’s enough!” Jack yelled.

  Yegor spoke softly. “Dmitry say, maybe we should go back up.”

  “And what do you say?” Jack turned to the big man.

  He bobbed his huge head for a moment. “Don’t want to be hit in propeller. But, I think if fish can’t go deep, then we should go deep.”

  “I agree; we keep going down.”

  “Jack, switch all external lighting off. Our glow could be attracting it.” Cate gripped her console top even harder, but felt her fingers slipping due to the perspiration on her hands.

  “Good idea; we run dark.” Jack and Yegor flicked switches, and the external lights blinked out. “Ladies and gentlemen, rig for silent running. No one even breathes until I say.”

  “No, no, no.” Dmitry went to get to his feet, but Cate turned and used two hands to shove him back into his seat.

  “Stay still and stay silent.” She held a finger to her lips.

  Jack turned slowly, only the dim red glow of the Prusalka’s interior on his face as he whispered. “Just read the sonar, Dmitry. Don’t want to run into anything, now do we?”

  Dmitry nodded and turne
d back to his control panel. His own face was green-lit, making him seem goblin-like. “Okay, okay… our friend is dropping in and out of the scope – still out there, looking for us, maybe.”

  “Four hundred and fifty feet,” Yegor intoned softly.

  Jack nodded and gestured with a flat hand – keep going down.

  “Svoloch!” Dmitry hissed the Russian curse and gripped his console. “Something else now, big, very big – coming up from deeper water.”

  “What is it?” Abby whispered. “Is it something… worse?”

  Dmitry’s eyes bulged, but then he forcefully blew air from his lips. “Going past us… heading for hard-head fish.”

  “This is it,” Cate said. “I know it.” She turned to Mironov who smiled briefly, and then turned back to his monitors

  The small Russian stared hard at the screen, and he held a hand to the cup over his ear. “Is strange, the signatures came together – then merged as one.” He frowned listening, looking like he was trying to tease more meaning from the sonar pulses. He finally sat back. “Nothing – gone – both gone.”

  “Five hundred feet,” Yegor said.

  “Leveling off at five hundred,” Jack said. “Everyone remain in their seat and stay quiet until we’ve put another mile on the dial.”

  “Still clear,” Dmitry whispered.

  “What the hell just happened?” Greg’s forehead was creased with anger.

  “Big fish get eaten by even bigger fish, I’d say.” Mironov’s brows were raised.

  “Very big fish, I think,” Dmitry said, nodding. “Maybe something big down here after all, yes?”

  “Lights back on?” Yegor asked.

  Cate nodded. “I think we can—”

  “No, not yet,” Mironov said quietly. “Let’s just wait a while, and see what happens.”

  Cate’s lips compressed, but Mironov simply nodded towards the front.

  A luminous ribbon snaked out of the darkness and passed by the curved window. It was dotted with green and blue lights, and two antenna hung over disc-like eyes that each held a glowing bulb of yellow. The thing looked to be about twenty feet long, and only an inch wide. Further out, other creatures pulsed and blazed.