Short Tales of Abominations

Depths

"Lowering the cage."

The static layered voice of the captain filled my headset, hardly audible as the pressure of the water around me increased and bubbled in my ears. He seemed calm enough for my situation. A father to his men, I know that as long he isn't panicking, I shouldn't be.

"Current depth; 15 Meters."

I was being lowered approximately ninety meters, where I was to weld together a puzzle of structures that made up a habit of sorts. Really this "habitat" I was working on was an undersea base being assembled next to a drop off into the unforgiving depths.

This base would be used to study various creatures that called the ocean their home, as well as a few other things that I wasn't allowed to know about because I lacked clearance. I didn't care. I was only there for construction.

"Current Depth; 30 meters. How are you holding up, Eric?"

"It's a bit drafty," I joked, "All is well, though."

"Good. Once you get the corridor welded and riveted, we'll start decompression and call it a day."

It was strange to me, and strange to the others, that we were never allowed to work longer than an hour. We questioned why, because we had the equipment necessary to work longer, but the answers we always received were "It's Classified" or "So as not to disturb the wildlife." Both excuses were bullshit.

There was nothing down there but a sandy sea bed. You couldn't even see a reef anywhere nearby on the way down. The cliff wasn't close enough to be a danger either. There was something they were hiding from us.

As the pressure built around me, I no longer cared about the potential dangers that they decided needed to be far removed from our awareness. All i knew in that moment was to control my breathing, and maneuver in such a way that my tether would not be caught and, god forbid, I be stuck in the blue hue of a barren undersea landscape.

I have two canisters of trimixed gas in the event of an emergency. So being cut off is only a secondary worry. My buoyancy tool was thoroughly checked. My main fear is that I drift in my ascent whilst waiting at checkpoint depths for decompression. All in all, my focus should be on the work I'm about to do and not the what ifs.

"Current Depth; 50 meters."

It's amazing how one would expect it to be dark at these depths, but under the noon sunlight, I can see plenty. Plenty of sand, that is. It's rather boring on this cliff under on the surface. Though the open ocean forty-five meters from the site can be a bit unnerving.

It's black haze looms at the back of my mind. There has got to be so much swimming in it that we don't know about. Life that teases it's discovery by man, hovering slightly out of sight and swiftly disappearing once our eyes have a chance at coming into contact with them. The coelacanth remained hidden after it was thought to be extinct for millions of years, but they still live. Such is indiscernible determination.

"Target depth reached, get to work."

I relayed my acknowledgment and swam to the pre-assembled structure. Everything had been moved and interlocked. It was my job to reinforce and seal it. I found my equipment and got to work.

The sea around me became so much darker when compared to the welders bright flashes. My eyes constantly adjusted for the brilliant metal searing radiance that fused the pieces of the base together, and the dim natural light around me. My mask automatically dimmed to accommodate for the arcs that worked the steel, but still my eyes shrunk and expanded the pupils.

It was in these bright arcs that I had confused the a spark or piece of slag for a fin. I stopped momentarily to scan my surroundings, wondering if a traveling fish had come to investigate my task. In my optimism, I had also hoped to be discovered by, and discover, a previously unknown species.