Turning around, I waved back at the black form in the box that was Dr. Wilcox, and then began swimming towards the black void I knew was the ocean. Kicking my feet and spreading out my arms to part the water before me, I headed straight for the gate. Slowly, the black expanse seemed to loom ever closer until I had passed the bay of shining blue lights behind me—I was in the open ocean.
All I saw ahead was blackness.
“Headlight on,” I thought to say, and a 180-degree field-of-view spreading out to about ten feet ahead of me was bathed in yellow-white light.
The GPS crackled on and instructed in a feminine voice, “Continue to go straight. Do not activate the Jet Propulsion 500 yet.”
I followed the directions and continued to swim forward. The dim light of the city preparing for the simulation of night glowed in the water behind me, but ahead still remained a mystery. Thankfully, the helmet allowed me ample peripheral vision, but everything outside my 180-degree radius of ten feet was as black as a moonless night.
As the city lights faded to black behind me and I was alone with my solitary light, an absolute loneliness enveloped me like I was the only one in the entire universe drifting in deep space instead of the deep sea. Keeping my calm, I remembered what Dr. Wilcox had said about an A.I. “Um, hello?”
“Yes, what is it?” the A.I. calmly inquired.
I didn’t know what to say at first. All I wanted was another voice, another semblance of a human being in this darkness. “When can I turn on my propulsion device?”
“You may turn on your Jet Propulsion 500 in another fifty meters.”
Oh, great! My suit was on the metric system. I tried to remember the quick conversion in my head. Fifty meters times three point three feet was…165 feet. I could make that. Once I was there, I commanded, “Turn Jet Propulsion 500 on at medium speed please.”
“Turning on at medium speed.”
Medium speed was much faster than I had anticipated. I propelled through the water so fast I could feel the water stream as I created my own current. Curiosity overtook me. I couldn’t help but wonder what was out there just beyond the reaches of my headlamps, possibly being pushed away by my speed. Which creatures that science still had yet to discover, could I be the first person to see?
Sweeping my headlight around, all I saw was marine snow. Frustrated, I asked the A.I., “Why can’t I see any fish or anything living around here?”
“Some may be afraid of your light. Others stay away from this area because of Oceania. The farther we go out, the more creatures you’ll see. Some will come towards you because of your light, searching for a meal.”
My heart leapt and did a somersault—that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. To maintain my calm, I figured I’d ask the A.I. some questions to take my mind off of possibly being eaten. “Could you tell me some interesting facts about the city of Oceania?”
“Most definitely, I could talk about Oceania for a long time. The city was founded in 2130. Its initial residents were comprised of the brightest minds from all over the world. Each inhabitant was at the top of their respective fields. Residents included equal numbers of individuals from all the various countries around the world. Oceania has residents representing nearly every language, culture, and ethnicity. At the beginning, the total population consisted of one million residents.”
My former inner serenity had returned, until a gigantic dark object loomed into view, completely obscuring my vision. I swallowed hard. I had no idea what it was. All I felt was a supreme, primordial fear for my life.
Chapter 12
I gasped when I recognized what was floating in front of me. The enormous underwater vessel that I had curiously inspected from inside the docking bay now glided in front of me. The massive bay had dwarfed the true size of it. Outside in the unrestricted black waters of the abyss, it clearly was an underwater titan. More spherical in shape than I had realized before, it was easily larger than a double-decker 747 jet plane. Viewports the sizes of small cars ran along the side of the vessel, with one large continuous viewport wrapping around the front area.
Without further hesitation, I realized how fast it was moving in my direction.
“All external lights off,” I commanded to my suit.
Instantly, my command was obeyed and the water around me went dark. I watched cautiously as it came ever closer, hoping no one inside had seen me out here.
Fearing part of the vessel I couldn’t see in the dark might collide into me, I began swimming backward away from it, constantly keeping a close eye on the behemoth.
The vessel continued on at a steady pace, passing by me close enough that everything through the view ports was crystal clear. Through the porthole on the left side of the ship, which faced me, I saw tons of people walking around. Most of the men were dressed in black and white suits with decorative ties. The women donned elegant clothes of all different styles sporting brilliant shades of color. The room in which they stood appeared to take up the entire front end of the ship. Tables and chairs were scattered around the center, with servers clearing up what appeared to be leftover food. Several of the people were crowded around the windows drinking from wine glasses and chatting to one another.
Grateful that I was too far into the darkness of the sea that even the dazzling lights of the room couldn’t touch me, I wondered at the occasion. Obviously, it was some type of luxurious event, perhaps a gala. A gala beneath
