The Sting Ray was placed carefully into the airlock, where it splashed into the meltwater, and then was sealed in by Theo’s manual control. The sub came down through the bottom end of the valve lock and extended its own more powerful nuclear powered melt plate.
After getting the sub down past the flare, Sara signaled Gabe to continue his work at the surface. Out of a large military style duffle bag he began scooping handfuls of tiny mechanical gadgets. For a few minutes Gabe piled the machines into the airlock, then sent them through into the tunnel.
Pia had been briefed on the nanotech by Zee, but it was still a marvel watching them begin their work through the chip feeds. With so much of the landscape around the ship emitting no electronic signals, the tiny workers shined like fireflies, even deep within the ice.
They were attaching themselves to any ice wall surface they could find and flattening out to form a tube. Starting out no more than a centimeter in diameter, they were capable of expanding several times that width, anchoring into the ice like vines on a tree trunk. As the sub melted through the ice pack, the nanomachines created a permanent tube in its wake. This would ease future access to the ocean considerably.
Sara elbowed Pia in the ribs, snapping her out of the distracting feed and back to the mission at hand.
“Sorry, what?”
“We’re almost to the end of the ice pack, you ready?”
“Of course, I’m with you.”
'Still regret coming up to this rock?' Zee teased. Pia’s body tightened involuntarily at his voice, but recovered quickly.
'Regret is for girls, I’m a goddamn Princess. Now build a nice strong tunnel so you boys can follow our lead.'
'That’s my princesse.'
'Not yet I’m not. Now leave me be, the women are busy making history here.'
Chapter 5
Sara eased up on the controls as the last of the ice began cracking loudly around the sub. With that a full meter of surrounding walls broke apart leaving the Sting Ray floating free in the ocean. All system checks came back healthy, so Pia commenced with her top priority for the mission. A tube protruded out from the top of the sub, taking a sample of water back into the craft for analysis.
“It’s going to take some time to run the necessary tests. Let’s get going Sara.”
“Finally. Let’s see what this baby can do. Diving her now, 30 degree down bubble.”
So they wouldn’t end up too far away from the entry point, Sara took it down in a slow arcing corkscrew path. The ship maneuvered surprisingly well considering they had designed it from scratch not long ago. The initial kilometer was uneventful except for the constant flickering particles dancing across the headlight beams. Depth soundings were still coming back off scale high, despite the upgrades put in place for this journey. Not until after passing the 3 kilometer mark did Sara hear the loud ping she had been anxiously expecting.
'Holy shit,' is all she managed to say.
'Do we have a problem, ladies?' Miller asked sharply.
'No, no problem,' Pia answered for her friend. 'Do you want to tell him? Or should I?'
'Ten kilometers at least! It’s an abyss down there, deeper than most trenches back on Earth.'
The corkscrew grew steeper and wider as Sara’s excitement translated into more speed. The only noticeable feature change as they hit five kilometers was a rather large increase in the amount of light streaks flitting away from their path.
'Getting some preliminary readings from the sample,' Pia announced on the main comm. 'There’s a bit of everything in this water. It looks a lot like the makeup of Ahuna Mons. There’s no way this should be here. All of these metals should be ten kilometers down collecting mud.'
'That’s exactly what I’m hoping for.'
'Diamond mountain not good enough for you, Commander?' Pia asked.
'The fact that you have to ask disappoints me.'
'Heaven forbid, I just thought that a diamond mountain---right turn, now Sara!'
The ride had become monotonous, but Sara’s trick flying experience came in handy as she responded with lightning reflexes. Coming in from the left of the sub’s sphere of light was a rapidly flashing object which blinded everyone for a moment before chips compensated their fields of vision. The Sting Ray managed to turn in time to pull up even with what appeared to be a rotating torus of enormous crystals.
Sara matched speeds and turned every available light in the direction of the anomaly. The side nearest to them reminded Pia of a wood chipper’s blades, with the crystal shards whirling in an interlocking pattern too fast to follow but never grinding against one another. Every surface was shining with mysterious iridescents in endless cycles, and so far the creature seemed oblivious to their presence. It stretched out of view both above and below them, causing Sara to back them away slowly.
'I really hope the rest of you are seeing this, because your silence is less than reassuring for my sanity,' Sara said.
For a long moment there were no answers, as the entire crew watched slack jawed.
Vineland finally broke the reverie. 'Alright, good job Barton, back her up a bit more so we can get a better look.'
When they were ten meters away, the scope of their find began to sink in. Stretching thirty meters across, the crystal torus traveled slowly through the shimmering water. It moved like a vortex, with thousands of gemstone teeth pushing the water inwards. The overall movement was powered by a hydrojet effect as the torus opening narrowed towards the back.
'Still want to study those bugs, Princesse?' Zee asked.
'It’s alive, that’s a living...something,' was all she could manage.
'Doughnut?' offered Theo, only half joking.
'Plenty of time to go sightseeing ladies, keep going to the bottom.'
'Is he serious right now?' Pia private linked Zee.
'You just want us to keep going?' Sara asked. She looked sideways at Pia to see if she was onboard for a fight, but was disappointed to see her shake her head in dismissal.
"Pisser dans un violon," Pia whispered to Sara in the next chair.
“You know I don’t speak French, right?” But then her chip must have come through with a translation, “piss in a violin?”
“It’s useless to argue with men like him, let’s just press on and send more drone subs in after us.”
'We just discovered alien life, right there, on camera! Anybody else freaking out?' Sara continued.
The crew with the exception of Miller were all flooding the main comm with protests. Even Coburn made a case for a prolonged observation period of the torus. Suddenly the comm was cut off, before Miller came back on in a measured tone.
'Let's all take a moment and reflect on what we've just witnessed.' The chatter in STEM bay halted momentarily. 'I don't have any idea what that is down there, or whether it's alive.' A new flood of exasperated crosstalk never made it onto the main feed.
'But whatever it is, it looks to be made of similar composition to Ahuna. Which begs the question, what else is down there? I intend for us to find out, and I want it to happen now. If this thing is alive, and we found it accidentally less than an hour into our first dive, then it stands to reason it shouldn't be too difficult to track one down later. Barton, dive now, or you'll be relieved by Colonel Vineland. Let's get down as far as we can before getting our sketch pads out, shall we?'
The massive gem doughnut kept trudging along through the water, as oblivious to the sub's departure as it was to its arrival. The headlights slowly turned down and away, leaving the strobing light flashes to blink out into the vast darkness once again.
Pia kept quiet as Sara chipped off and let loose with a stream of curses that few outside of the military could appreciate. As momentous as the crystal torus had been, Pia found herself agreeing with Miller. If that creature was so easy to find, imagine what else could be waiting below.
‘Do me a favor and get started on some mini botcams with Gabe, will you please?’ she asked Zee.
�
�As you wish, Princesse.’
'How is the Sting Ray holding up, Barton?' As always, Vineland got the crew back on track with a simple but necessary question. They were passing the six kilometer mark by then, and the ship had only limited testing. One loose joint or poorly printed piece of equipment could end the mission in a hurry.
Theo took the lead on this question. 'Shouldn’t be a problem, boss. We aren’t in Kansas anymore, if you know what I mean.'
'No, Theo, I’m afraid I’m going to need a little bit more from you.'
Zee came to his friend’s defense. 'He may look like a caveman, but Theo’s right again. Gravity, Colonel.'
'Ahhh, so what kind of range are we anticipating for the craft?'
'Well, give me a moment.' Zee began. 'Pressure is gonna depend on a number of factors including temperature, density, gravity…'
'Fifty kilometers or so,' Theo beat him to an answer.
'Our caveman savant, ladies and gentleman.'
'All else being equal,' Theo explained, 'only difference is gravity being thirty times weaker. Figure a sub like that would last maybe two kilometers deep back home, so yeah, fifty kilometers or so.'
'Good enough for me,' Vineland replied. 'Take her down slowly. Full sensor array at the ready.'
The floating streaks grew larger by the minute, darting away from the sub in all directions like a shock wave. By seven kilometers the streaks were pencil thin crystals, and they no longer floated passively waiting for the Sting Ray to come scare them out of the way. Now the little needles of light seemed to be traveling fast and dodging their craft at the last moment. No obvious form of propulsion could be seen, and they only moved the bare minimum necessary to avoid a collision.
'We’re officially surrounded down there,' Pia remarked.
Sara had begun slowing their speed once the fly bys increased, afraid of getting pierced by them. No impacts had been registered on the sensor array yet, but their field of view was narrowing by the second as the number of crystals grew.
'The spaghetti are all swimming parallel, none from above or below,' Zee offered. 'How is that possible? We’ve been seeing some form of them since the surface. When we get that ocean sample to Cerex, I bet we’ll see microscopic versions of the same shape.'
'Spaghetti?' Pia laughed. 'So where are they coming from?'
Vineland cut in, 'Wrong question. Not where from, but towards what?'
'You think they’re attacking us?' Miller got concerned all of a sudden.
'Not attacking, there’s been no contact as of yet. But definitely doesn’t seem random either. Sara, you up for some evasive maneuvers?'
A mischievous grin split the young pilot’s face, but she was calm over the comm. 'At your direction, Colonel.'
'Pull up hard and put her on her tail in 3, 2, 1, now…' he directed.
The spaghetti swerved in closer to the sub on the turn, but immediately resumed their familiar pattern. This time however, they were moving vertically along with the sub.
'Parallel with us still,' Pia confirmed.
'Now dive, straight at the floor.'
'10-4.'
The same brief adjustment from the bogies, then parallel straight down with the sub. Vineland paused for a couple seconds, then asked, 'the magnetohydr-...the engine, can we restart it remotely?'
This time it was Zee who paused. 'I don’t see why not, the antennae can be put into standby and receive any signal we send.'
'Commander Miller, with your permission,' Vineland asked, 'I’d like to shut down the sub briefly.'
'Is this really necessary, Colonel?' Miller responded tersely, but even he must have known Vineland never asked anything on a whim.
'Not sure we’ll make it intact much further down with this much company. Have to see what options we have.'
'It’s your ass if we can’t get it going again.'
'All due respect, Commander, but there’s no need for that. And if the time ever comes when you have a problem with my judgement, you and I can have a nice little chat about it.' Pia and everyone else onboard could hear from his tone exactly what kind of a chat Vineland had in mind.
'Zee, you ready to help with the reboot?' Sara intervened, eager to get on with the action.
'Ready when you are.'
'Let’s shut her down then, on my mark...engine off.' The sub slowed to a halt quickly, and everyone held their breath as the sub’s systems began blinking off. As they watched in amazement, the streaks halted course. They began retreating from the Sting Ray, and were almost completely out of sight by the time the feed went black.
'Did we lose them?' Pia asked anxiously.
Vineland was as unflappable as always. 'Let's not get ahead of ourselves, people. Zee, let's try to light her up again.'
'Already in the process, Colonel.' Pia couldn't help noticing how Zee and Vineland seemed to command immediate respect, and made a mental note to give Zee a hard time about it later so he didn't get a big head. Even in the most tense situations, her thoughts kept wandering to that wiry little genius, and not always in the most professional of ways.
'Onboard computer is restarted...just a moment. There.'
The video flicked back on to a black screen that rapidly filled back up as the spaghetti returned to their original behavior.
'We’ve got fleas again, boss,' Theo snickered.
Vineland responded before Miller, not intending any offense. 'The engine, its EM pulses must be attracting the buggers, but repulsing them once they get within the engine's direct magnetic field.'
Pia jumped in, 'Can we keep the sensors on battery power of some kind but keep the engine off?'
'We’ll drop like a stone, sir,' Sara said. 'Takes all my fun out of it, but I’m game.'
'Make it happen, Zee.'
'We didn’t plan for this, Colonel,' Zee protested. 'I can’t guarantee how long the sensors will operate on the limited system we installed. Pia, you ok with shutting off everything but the lights and camera?'
'If it means I get to see some action,' she joked.
'Going silent now,' Zee said.
As the sound of the water jet ceased, the sub coasted to a standstill. Its alien chaperones also stopped rushing past, and appeared to just drift in a cloud surrounding the Sting Ray. The camera view tilted downwards as the sub began sinking head first into the abyss.
Less than a minute later the view cleared suddenly as the sub dropped out the bottom of the swarm of visitors. For the first time since they were near the surface, the cameras were able to see beyond the immediate surroundings, and the sight was beautiful. In every direction they saw lights in the distance. Blue, yellow, green, and purple flashes kept drawing the eyes of Pia.
'Are those torus...es, tori...oh hell, crystal doughnuts?' she asked.
'Can't tell how far the lights are, no idea how big they are without distances,' Barton answered.
The sub sank quickly now, wings tucked in as it went. As it passed ten kilometers, a strange new glow began to build up from underneath. Unlike the multicolored flashes, this was a deep red spreading out in all directions.
Theo read out depth markers. 'Eleven kilometers, showing signs of a bottom finally, maybe at twelve.'
As the red brightened, Pia squinted to make out what appeared to be columns of bubbles rising up nearby. With the sub's engine offline, they couldn't move any closer to investigate. As more columns reached out of the crimson fog beneath them, the sub sank less than five meters away from one of the smaller bubble tendrils.
'What are those?' Pia wondered out loud. 'Can we zoom with this thing?' Zee began punching up the camera subsystems, but Pia beat him to it. 'Nevermind, here we are.' She allowed herself a prideful grin before slipping back into intense curiosity.
The view raced forwards towards the nearest column. As the bubbles grew closer, they appeared to glimmer and waver. Trailing under each one was a huge gossamer fan of impossibly delicate fibers. These iridescent jellyfish creatures floated up out the top of their red haz
e conveyor belt, to drift steadily away in various directions. The sub passed several more jelly columns before the light from below grew so intense that it overwhelmed the hazy columns.
Theo alerted them all to what was already apparent. 'Seabed, or whatever is down there, approaching in less than two hundred meters.'
What emerged out of the blinding red depths was a titanic archway, easily twenty meters wide and twisted into braids of different colored crystalline structures. It formed an uncanny rainbow lifting fifty meters up off a ground alive with countless creatures of every size and shape imaginable. From their distance all they could discern was constant motion and the unmistakable hallmarks of life. The archway stretched in either direction so far that the ends were swallowed up by the fog of color. The sub fell directly onto this crystal bridge, slamming down with enough force to crunch its way through a meter of unknown alien terrain.
Not a whisper could be heard throughout all of Cerex, and even the comm channels were silent with the reverence and shock of what they were witnessing. Pia felt Zee open a private link, but no words were exchanged. Just the connection was enough.
The sub was scuffed and battered, but largely intact. The camera watched as dozens of tiny emerald insects rolled like spiked wheels over the damaged area. As the went, each of their crystal spikes seemed to plant itself and break off. Within seconds a glowing green grass emerged, and at its center sprouted a gorgeous diamond flower ten centimeters in diameter. It swayed in the gentle current, a curious mix of soft inner structures and incredibly strong exterior.
Miller cut through the reverie like a drunk stumbling into church. 'Jesus, will you look at THAT! Sara, we still have access to that engine?'
Sara grimaced at his request, but answered. 'Yeah, should be able to fire them up.'
'Get me that diamond. Gabe, please tell me you installed a sample retrieval method of some kind.'
'Yes, the tail actually. It can wrap up and secure something that size I think.'
'Now, do it now, and then bring it back up, Sara.'
Mission Cerex Boxset Page 11