. . .
“The Sirens have a more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence… someone might possibly have escaped from their singing; but from their silence, certainly never.”
–Franz Kafka
. . .
If any of what we were doing somehow reaches the light of the day, I don’t think it’s really going to be a surprise if people these days were to find out that at the heart of it all, the government actually lies to its citizens on a regular basis.
And it was most likely about something (I’d like to replace that word with ‘anything’) that could potentially cause mass hysteria.
For the greater good, they say.
Because after what happened, after everything that my partner and I have seen… and have been through, I’ve been thinking more and more lately about the fact that I am now a part of one of those lies–a lie that could never make me look upon the ocean the same way ever again even though I was once a respected marine biologist.
They say that we never discovered anything new beneath the depths of the Mariana’s Trench, aside from harmless new types of sea life (or trash), that it was supposedly just nothing but an empty expanse of darkness.
For goodness’s sake, some people didn’t even believe that we ever went down there–that the place itself doesn’t even exist!
But the truth is that I actually have descended at least more than once far beneath the uncharted depths of the sea… and while my records may have led anyone who has read it to inform that I’ve only descended two times, that most certainly isn’t true.
Even though as far as everyone is concerned, the Submerged had never made that ill-fated descent–that said submarine wasn’t even real.
. . .
I don’t remember much after what happened (and neither did the captain) but I can still remember the song, the melody… like a parasite just festering in the back of my mind.
When I came to, the darkness was fading and the waters was gradually becoming lighter, the usual shade of blue that illuminated more and more life around us. And never in my entire life have I ever felt so glad to see the light.
I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I wept.
The next thing we know, we’re out of the water.
For a moment, the captain and I sat there in silence, listening to the sounds of the crashing waves, to the sounds of the seagulls calling. And somewhere, in the distance, we can hear the horns of a passing cargo ship.
They have no idea just how much danger we were in.
How so near we were to death’s door.
“We should head back,” Captain Tomes sighed.
“I’ll keep an eye on the sonar screen,” I volunteered.
“Y-Yeah… you do that, doc,”
As we made our way back to HQ, not even once did I take my eyes off of the screen. I want to make sure that thing hadn’t followed us all the way up to the surface.
. . .
Explaining to our commanding officers what the fuck just happened was a nightmare. As we have failed to retrieve the blue baby (a blue light that was reportedly being on their sight for some time now), the mission was considered a total failure.
Recounting to the others about what we just went through, what we just witnessed sounded so outrageous, like a madman’s rambling, even to my own ears–for what seemed to be like hours, we reported about the Submerged crew’s fate over and over again to the higher-ups until men in black suits from ‘another department’ (or so they claimed) came to the office to take our official statement.
The location was apparently being sealed (with what or how, I have no idea) at the moment. Any sort of activity or investigation regarding the incident was shut down.
As soon as we’re done recounting, the captain and I were coerced to sign papers about not speaking to anyone what we saw, what we found out during the mission in exchange of a hefty sum of money to compensate–the same goes to the lost crew’s loved ones. In paper, the Submerged crew died not on the submarine, but on a fallen, nondescript submarine.
We were going to be forbidden to ask questions and know more about the incident as well but the captain and I (after everything we just went through) aren’t taking any of their shit.
We deserved answers here.
We owe it to the crew. And our sanity.
“Screw you!” the Captain raged as he slammed his hand on the desk, “You were so willing to send our asses to that thing. You owe us a goddamn explanation!”
The commander in chief levelled us with a look that spoke of weariness before sighing as he leaned back on his chair.
I crossed my arms, “Sir, with all due respect, we are not going to sign any those damn papers until you tell us what the Submerged was really looking for all the way down there and what the hell that… that thing was!”
“They’re looking for the same thing as you, Doctor,”
The captain frowned, “What?”
“The blue baby. The bluish light you have mentioned seeing at least more than once during the entire mission,” he clarified, “…that was the mission.”
“But… but what about that thing we just saw?”
He shook his head, “We are just as lost as you are…”
“There’s a ‘but’ coming there, isn’t it?” Captain Tomes snarked.
The commander in chief frowned as he stood up, hands clasping behind his back as he levelled us both with his gaze alone, “There are theories since as to what could that thing possibly be. But as of now, it has been settled to be referred to be an eldritch god.”
“Wait, what.”
I blinked owlishly.
A… god?
“Yes, according to some surviving historical passages we have in our custody, that thing was supposedly an eldritch god worshipped by the first recorded humans,” he continued, “some evidence also pointed out that it was the sire of the mythical beings that thrived in the water such as the kraken and mermaids.”
Captain Tomes suddenly bursted out in a fit of laughter. When the commander simply stared at him, his laughter immediately died down, “W-Wait. You’re serious?”
“Captain, do I look like I’m joking?” to me, he said: “Yes, Doctor. Mermaids, krakens–as in, the legendary sea monster of enormous size that was said to appear off the coasts of Norway. I’m talking about the stuff of sailors’ superstitions, things that had been sighted by seafarers all these centuries… they are real.”
“But… but then,” I frowned, “What about the blue baby? What’s so special about it that you were so willing to risk so many lives for it?”
He sighed, turning to look over the large window next to him, showing off the view of the sea outside the clear glass wall, “The Submerged has a mission to investigate, as well as to gather intel–and if possible, to retrieve the blue baby in order to conduct further study about it. While Captain Riley was speaking during their descent, he had described it as moving, drifting further and further away to the sound of someone… something singing.”
I flinched.
Here, he turned to glance at us, “The Submerged had descended further than planned. They were relentless to complete the mission–and so, they have disturbed something else.”
“The eldritch…” I murmured.
The commander nodded, his face solemn, “It has always been claimed to be territorial. The trench was most likely its resting place… it did not want us there.”
“R… resting place?” the Captain spluttered, his eyes wide, “What the hell are you talking about? That thing was alive!”
“History has claimed that it should have fallen into a death-like slumber… so we were just as stumped as you are as of why it suddenly showed itself to attack. Its spawns were said to be usually the ones interacting with the humans.”
I gaped, “Spawns?”
The commander pursed his lips, clearly weighing if he should say more, “Creations, if you will. The higher-ups had unanimously agreed that engaging them would be too dangerous. Our orders are to avoid them especially the locations they were found to be in at all costs.”
“Wait, that’s it? That’s all you have to fucking say?!” the Captain snapped, “Isn’t there something else you people should be doing about this?”
“Captain Tomes, all I know is that these creatures have been in this world far longer than the dawn of humanity. There is no need to antagonize it even further. Now… if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting to attend to. Sign the papers before the day ends or we wouldn’t be considered responsible for your safety.”
My blood ran cold, “But sir, I–”
“Good day, gentlemen.”
That was the last time I’ve seen the commander.
. . .
Sometimes, I often wake up screaming from my sleep.
In dreams, I found myself in that fateful moment when the monster’s humming came not from the depths of sea but within the communications.
Had we imagined that?
And sometimes, I cannot help but wonder what could have happened to us had it caught on that we were tricking it. Would we end up as a mutilated corpse like poor Jacobi, aimlessly drifting and rotting beneath the heart of the sea?
But something else keeps me up at night, something else keep me from sleeping in fear of finding myself in the depths again.
What if it decides to rise from the sea?