The White Singularity: A Choose Your Own Adventure

Chapter 6. Into The Deep

It's a month later. You've taken the time to retrofit the White Singularity for your marine adventure.  

It's nine in the morning, and you and Zell are strapped inside the main chamber. Your company's modified trawler, the Penance, is towing the submersible. Steadily but rapidly, you near the spot right above where the Marinas was mapped to be deepest, off the coast of Guam.

You and your wife spend the time double-checking the Singularity's systems.

"Life support," you say.

"Check."

"Engines."

"Check."

"Communications."

"Check."

You run through several more systems. All are optimal and functioning perfectly. By the time you finish your checklist, the Penance has already idled at your target spot for nearly an hour.

"Captain." It's NESCA with her sultry voice. Because she knows the ship inside-out and you've installed a duplicate of her processors in the Singularity, you decided to make her team leader of ground control. Your fellow scientists were initially insulted at being superseded by a "mere machine." Still, when they saw how efficiently she ran operations, they gave way with grudging good grace. "We are good to go."

You look over at Zell beside you. She gives you a thumbs-up sign.

"So are we, NESCA. Engage."

There is a short pause, and then you feel the tow cable releasing. There is a brief sensation of falling, and the Singularity splashes heavily into the water. You're free!

Zell gives a delirious whoop. You grin at her, then push a few buttons.

"Opening ports." The ship's interior is flooded with sunlight as the shields of your plexiglass observation ports retract. This ambient illumination is all you need to observe the ocean around you for the first few hundred feet.

"Activating stabilizers." The submersible stops bobbing to and fro like a cork and becomes almost perfectly still. You nod in approval.

"Descending...now."

The White Singularity vanishes from the surface in a froth of bubbles.

The realm of the ocean is divided into four great domains. Proceeding seaward from the beach, there's the continental shelf, a life-crammed platform under shallow seas, then the continental slope, the true edge of the continents. At the bottom, there's the continental rise, a gently sloping apron of sediment leading to the last of the domains, the deep sea.

It's here in the last domain that you intend to make your mark.

You sit in the main chamber of the submersible, humming to yourself as your ship falls silently through the water. You're in charge of the main systems. There's life-support, which adjusts all the parameters necessary to keep you alive; communications, employing your tachyon emitters to communicate with ground control; sensors, which give you all the vital information about the ship and your environment, including depth and pressure; engines, which controls your four propellers, as well as your air tanks and iron ballast; and the forcefield generator controls, which would activate your reverse singularity if necessary.

Zell is seated next to you, enjoying the view through the main porthole. She's also well-versed in all the ship's controls and could take over if necessary. For now, though, her main role is as the science and medical officer. 

"I took a sample of the seawater outside!" She calls out. "Wanna take a look?"

Smiling, you saunter over at the viewscreen she's pointing to, which displays a fascinating and beautiful array of microscopic creatures.