Marvin had said that this was an excellent sign.
The commander wouldn’t give Blackmore a second chance unless he was certain that Lance could handle the job. Once again the spirited ensign had advised the Marlin’s newest officer to lighten up. Everyone who dove deep beneath the seas felt such apprehensions at first, it was only natural. Thus, Blackmore had to quit being so tough on himself. He had to learn to relax and let things take care of themselves.
Never one to take life lightly. Lance took in this advice, yet knew it would be difficult to follow. He had always been tough on himself, even in school.
Raised by a pair of college-educated parents, he had been expected to live up to their high ideals. This included the attaining of a 4.0 grade-point average.
As it turned out, Lance had made the grade. Yet in return, he had had to sacrifice much. His one great passion had been swimming, and his high school coach had even promised him a spot on the varsity team if he’d only take the time out for practice.
Because his full schedule of studies had made such free time rare, he had reluctantly turned the coach down. This had been fine with his parents, who had promoted grades as his number-one priority.
His position on the Dean’s List had allowed him his choice of colleges. Like his father, in college he had immediately enrolled in Naval ROTC. Though this had originally been intended only to provide him with financial assistance. Lance had found himself genuinely enjoying his military studies. Since oceanography had been his minor, he had been particularly fascinated with submarines. Though his parents would have preferred that he seek a desk job, he had graduated with the full expectation of receiving his commission as a submariner.
A year later, he was plunging into the icy waters of the Pacific. Conscious of the long road that had led him there, he sighed in sudden awareness. His greatest challenge wouldn’t be in scholarship after all, but in conquering his own inner fears. Only in this way would he be able to stand on his own two feet and be a true man.
The clatter of the bathymeter began on his right, and Blackmore shifted his attention to study the pattern the instrument’s stylus was recording. The laser printer showed the outline of a jagged underwater canyon passing four hundred feet beneath them.
This subterranean valley was formed from walls approximately fifty feet high and three hundred yards apart. It would be into this void that their sonar would soon be penetrating.
A quick check of the depth gauge showed them to be under 1200 feet. It was evident that Commander Pierce was set on guiding the Marlin as close to the canyon’s floor as possible. Considering the inhospitable composition of this geological formation. Blackmore shuddered to think what would happen if they encountered any unusual turbulance. With a minimum amount of space in which to maneuver, the Marlin would be hard-pressed to survive any unexpected change of lateral course. Knowing that any sudden collision at this great depth would be instantly fatal, Blackmore attempted to wipe any such thoughts from his consciousness. Worrying about such a thing would certainly give him nothing but an ulcer.
To divert his attention, he sat forward and peered into the viewing scope. Even with the help of a pair of powerful, hull-mounted searchlights, he could pick out nothing but the black liquid void of inner space.
Yet merely being aware of the alien medium around him served to ease his nervousness, for here was the fascinating world that had always called to him.
Covering three-quarters of the planet, the oceans were man’s last frontier. Unbelievable as it may seem, man knew more about the landscape of the moon than that of the ocean’s floor. Plunging to depths over three times Mt. Everest’s height, portions of the sea were completely unexplored. Only recently had man been able to actively operate at the Marlin’s current depth. Even with this advance, this still left almost ninety-nine percent of the ocean’s floor virtually unexplored.
Lance stirred when a small jellyfish suddenly became visible in the viewing lens. This opaque marine coelenterate sported a flat, saucer-shaped body and a myriad of free-flapping tentacles. Though it was only visible for a matter of seconds, the young officer already felt more at one with the surrounding environment.
When a long, tapered squid shot beneath them, he felt almost at home. Any thoughts about the rather innocent nature of his past college studies came to an abrupt halt when the wavering sound of a returning sonar ping emanated from the speaker mounted above him. He looked up to determine just what their sound waves had detected.
With the commander’s expert assistance. Blackmore was able to determine the exact spot where the suspected object apparently lay. Beneath them, the canyon floor stretched in a ribbon of sandy silt. Yet somewhere in this flat muddy bed, at a depth of over 1800 feet below the surface, was what appeared to be a rectangular-sized, sharply edged object.
“Well, that certainly looks interesting,” observed Pierce coolly.
“What do you say about going down and taking a look close up?”
Not waiting for a response, the Marlin’s pilot began guiding the vessel downward, ever conscious that they were rapidly approaching their own depth threshold. With practiced ease, he initiated the tricky task of angling the DSRV in between the valley’s jagged walls. The job of then getting the thirty-six ton vessel to hover only a few precious feet above the canyon’s floor was not easy in itself, yet the veteran officer accomplished it with a minimum of delay. Only then did he issue a sigh of relief.
Blackmore needed no invitation to join Pierce for a look through the viewing scope. The first thing that met his eyes was the silty composition of the sea floor.
Clearly visible beneath them, the patch of muddy ocean bottom appeared as if it belonged to a huge fish less aquarium. It only began to come to life when their continued forward progress took them over a pair of bright-yellow starfish. Next, their lights illuminated a colony of sea urchins. Scattered among those spiny creatures were a number of elongated worms and dozens of tiny, darkly colored fish.
When their video camera set its lens on an advancing shelf of sharp rock. Pierce hit the Marlin’s thrusters and the vehicle jumped upward. Most aware that they had missed colliding with his object by a matter of inches, Blackmore found his pulse fluttering and his mouth dry. He had even begun to believe that this rock was the source of the suspected sonar return when he realized that the commander was once again maneuvering the Marlin downward.
He couldn’t help but feel that they would all be better off if the Marlin were headed instead in the opposite direction. The great depth and geological instability of the canyon made working there much too risky. Surely no piece of wreckage was worth losing the Marlin for. A crewless, remotely powered vehicle would be much better suited to operate in these dangerous waters. Not certain if he’d have the nerve to share his opinion with Pierce, Blackmore felt the familiar tension return. Once this took command of his nerves, he knew that he would be powerless to express himself. Deciding to fight it at all costs, Lance bent over to re-examine the viewing scope. The object his eyes locked onto there quickly brought him back to normalcy.
Beside him, Pierce had also set his startled gaze on the same object. There could be no question of its source, for protruding from the sea floor there was a torn, rectangular segment of thick silver metal, with a bright blue circle and a white, five-pointed star painted clearly on its side. Upon viewing this, he found himself smiling.