Chapter Text
The water in the beaker looks slightly pink when he holds it up to the florescent lights of the lab. He gives it a little shake and squints his eyes, awkwardly trying to adjust his glasses through the biohazard suit. Compared to the clear blue he's seen off the side of the ship, this water looks more like some rose scented perfume his ex would have. "And you said you're getting samples from deeper areas?" He turns to Eva Stratt, standing outside the lab window. Her orange-blonde hair stands out against the stark white wall behind her.
"They are working on it. Should be topside soon." She sighs, taking a sip of her third (maybe fourth?) cup of coffee. "Rocky's crew radioed about an hour ago that they were done and bringing the ROV back up."
"Could you ask them to also get a sample of the sediment at the bottom?" Who knows where the source of this anomaly is? Better to check everything.
Temporarily living on an oceanic research vessel off the coast of Guam was not on his to do list for summer vacation. Going to the beach with a good book? Maybe. But Rocky just had to mention his best friend's name and doctoral degree in marine biology to Stratt while he's helping build her a fancy new submarine, and suddenly he's being whisked away before they can even tell him what was going on. He's outwardly complained, but he can't help but also be a little excited. In all his years of study, he's never spent a quality amount of time on a ship like this. The Hail Mary is equipped with state of the art mapping systems, a wet lab, and ROV built and piloted by Rocky's crew. He has to hold himself back from asking to control it sometime.
According to Stratt and her cobbled together team of other scientists, military officials and god knows who else, the ocean in and around the Mariana Trench is quickly becoming contaminated. There's been a handful of expeditions before that found that some of the sea creatures down there were contaminated with toxic chemicals that are usually found in industrial electronics and microplastics. They've even found a candy wrapper and a beer bottle down there before. It's unfortunately not surprising to find out how far manmade pollution has gone, which is why when Stratt introduced herself and asked (told) him specifically that her team wanted him, he was confused. He could have named a dozen or so more qualified researchers than him. It's been so long since he properly studied anything marine biology. He thinks the last closest thing was helping a fellow teacher with her class pet fish dying. But Stratt reassured him that this was a different situation than 'normal'.
Grace returns to his task, taking a pipette to the container and breaking the sample up into several petri dishes with agar and putting two in the fridge in the corner. He also fills some small bottles to put into the automated water testing machine. The auto machine will take an hour or so, but the petri dishes have to incubate for several days. As he turns the machine on, he meets Stratt at the window. The lab is small, only a few people can comfortably fit in it at a time, so Eva has been electing to stay outside of it as to not get in his way. "So, you still wont tell me what's so special about this pollution? It's not just gross chemicals or… just some new hydrothermal vent opening around there and spewing out gunk?"
Stratt looks like she has to hold back an eye roll. "I'm sure you will find all of that in there as well, but I want you to tell me what else you find without me telling you what to look for."
Fair. Annoying, but fair. He goes back to the single chair in the room, slowly spinning around as his brain goes through a list of all the things to check. Ph balance, salinity, the usual elements, and all the little critters that will be swimming around in it. Maybe there's some new bioorganism in the water that's turning it pink? If so, he calls dibs on what to call it.
He starts to prep a microscope slide as Stratt looks at her phone. "The ROV is almost at the surface. I'm going to meet them on deck so I can bring you the new samples right away." She turns and leaves without even a wave.
Grace shrugs and peers into the microscope. Alright, let's see what we have. At first, all of the regular critters are there: piezophiles, actinomycetes, protists, etc. All the microoganisms that can withstand the almost freezing cold, pitch darkness and extreme pressure. He would have guessed there's be a higher population, though.
He hums to himself, slowly scanning the slide section by section until he sees something familiar, but definitely out of place. He sits up, blinks hard a few times, then looks again. Erythrocytes? Red blood cells. Many of them. Sure, maybe there could have been an injured creature down there and some of their blood got mixed into the sample, but… He's 99% sure this is human blood. The subtle differences in color, shape and size make him positive. This amount of human blood in this small of sample size? His head starts to wander towards what natural disaster or maritime accident could have possibly killed enough people in order to have this ratio. Did Eva have a different expedition that died down there? He shutters, continuing to scan the slide for something to tell him he's wrong, but he's only given more proof.
And lymphocytes... White blood cells, also human looking. Eva should get a hematologist on the ship. Going off of his basic knowledge and what he can count, there are way too many white blood cells to red blood cells. The normal ratio is about 1 in 600. By his rough estimate, this sample is more like 1 in 200. However, it looks like only half of them are actually alive. He spots a few more, drifting slowly along until an alive one gets close to an actinomycete. Upon contact, the lymphocyte curls itself around the actinomycete and absorbs it. He watches, breath held, as another white blood cell bumps into a protist this time, sucking the organism into itself until it dissolves. Well, Eva was right about this not being normal.
He leans back in his chair, brain stuttering through what the chain reaction of what he just witnessed could mean. There are human blood cells in the bottom of the ocean that have determined that the natural microorganisms in the area are harmful bacteria. Technically, bacteria are microbes, but not all microbes are bacteria. This blood, human or otherwise, is attacking the microbe biome in the Mariana Trench. If left alone, it could undo the ocean's self cleaning process, upset the food chain balance, reduce marine population…
A knock on the window startles him out of his spiral of panic. Eva is holding a glass box containing several containers sealed with biohazard tape. "Lucky for you, the team did scoop up some sediment with these samples." She sets the box down on a table just outside the laboratory window, looking at him properly now and pausing. "Dr. Grace? What did you find?"
Grace tries to speak, not sure how to explain. Thankfully, the water testing machine beeps, the background sound of it spinning quieting down. He holds up a finger to wait as he hurries to bring the info up on screen. He angles it towards Eva as he looks down the list. Ph balance, salinity, and elements all look relatively normal. Maybe the salinity was a little high, but nothing out of usual range. But the rest… Everything that he had seen under the lens confirmed. He sits back down, hands on his head as he tries to come up with an explanation.
"Dr. Grace, what am I looking at here?" Eva using her more commanding tone.
"There's, uh… human blood in the ocean." He finally gets out, "A lot of it. Like, a lot, a lot."
Eva shakes her head, "Ok? There has been human blood in the ocean before. What else did you find?"
"No, it's-" He taps away at the computer, bringing up the info specifically on the blood. "This blood is dense with white blood cells, as if the person or persons were very sick. And the cells… They are attacking all of the microbes in the sample. Every microbe, good or bad."
Eva looks like she's processing this info, also going over the repercussions of this. "Do you have the DNA info? Maybe we can figure out where, or rather, who this blood comes from?" A source of the blood would definitely help. Could they figure out who's it is? Where they are? If they're alive or dead?
A few more key commands and the screen brings it up. Grace frowns. There must be an error, he'll have to put the new samples in to test, because… the list just keeps on going and going. By the time he scrolls all the way to the bottom, there's about the population of a moderately sized cruise ship of DNA signatures in here. All in this few droplet sized sample.
He turns to Eva, eyes wide and asking what the heck does this mean?
That's when he hears a cracking sound from over in the corner, as the glass door of the refrigerator cracks and the door bursts open with red.
**********
The break room is quiet except for the hum of the microwave on the counter and Rocky's tapping foot. "So this… blood-ooze stuff." He begins, "You think it's eating any and all microbes in the trench. And that it's spreading?
Grace peaks between his fingers at Rocky, tipping back his chair precariously. The man has never really 'looked' like a professional engineer, nor acted like one, but Grace knows his intellect is amazing. Even since back in college he's always found pinging his ideas off of him to be beneficial. They're brains just seem to work well together. "It's kind of hard to contain stuff in the ocean. Look at every oil spill ever."
Rocky agrees, returning to his sandwich. Grace doesn't even want to contemplate what ungodly combination of ingredients he's eating today. He covers his eyes again, going over what happened as Rocky eats.
Immediately after the fridge exploded open, Grace practically jumped out of the lab and slammed the door shut. He couldn't help himself, though, as he pressed his face to the window to watch as the formation spilled out of the fridge and oozed onto the floor. The initial pop of the growth forcing the fridge open had rightly startled the both of them, but now the door stood propped open as the deep red substance continued to flow.
A few crew members came to see what the fuss was about, some trying to get a look into the lab and others talking back and forth about what to do.
"Dr. Grace," He snapped out of his trance, looking back to Eva as everyone else in the hall stopped to look at him. "What is in that refrigerator?"
"Some of the first sample you gave me." He tried to ignore the eyes on him, "That's the only thing that was in there." He was sure that the fridge had been empty except for the two petri dishes he had placed in it.
"What is happening then?" She gestured towards the fridge. "What was in that sample that is growing? I thought you said it was blood?"
"I don't-" He glanced back at the red lump, "I'd have to get a sample of it to compare, but-" He sighed, wishing he wasn't in a stupid biohazard suit so he could rub his eyes. "It should have taken days for anything to happen with the culture…"
He took another good look in the window, "Dr. Grace, what-?" He held up a finger again, a few more moments pause.
After a bit he turned to her again. "I think it stopped growing…"
More bodies pressed to the window again, some mumbling in agreement.
"Good," Eva's shoulders relaxed a fraction, "That means you can go back in and get a new sample." Grace gave her a weary look. "You can get a sample while it is still fresh, then take a break while it processes."
He sadly agreed, going back inside and slowly moving towards the refrigerator while he tried not to think of The Thing. Just the look of the chunky, crimson goo made him gag. He hated to think of what it could smell like. Maybe burning iron? He was suddenly very grateful for his stupid suit's filtration system. As the lump settled on the floor, it reminded him of the Elephant's Foot and briefly had to stop himself from backing out of the room again. He took a deep breath and started by grabbing a nearby pair of tongs. He crouched down and reached out towards the closest bit of blood lump and poked it. He waited a few seconds, making sure nothing jumped out and assimilated him, then tried grabbing off a piece. It was more solid than he thought it would be. The way it oozed out he thought it would have been more jelly, like the agar in the dishes. It was much harder, like one big coagulated scab. He retched a little again, barely holding it in. He shook his head and stood up, going over to the drawers and looking around for a scalpel. Finding one, he knelt down again and held onto a chunk with the tongs while trying to cut into the mass. Fresh liquid blood oozed out where he sliced and he for sure thought he was going to faint. He had to stop to tuck his mouth against his arm.
"The quicker you get the sample, the quicker you can get out of there." Eva spoke up, as if he didn't already know that. He closed his eyes and quickly sawed and pulled at the same time, finally getting a piece free as the now open wound spilled out more blood until it slowly stopped. He raced to get the chunk prepped for the various machines, taking slices, tearing chunks apart and trying to keep a clinical mind about what he was doing and not how gross it felt. Finally, finally, he made sure all of the tests were going as he raced to get out of there.
"Alright, everyone!" Eva raised her voice to the group, "Back to your work. Grace, meet me outside."
He rushed to throw off his suit and barely made it to a nearby trash can before puking. Eva joined him and waited for him to catch his breath before speaking. "What do you think happened."
He stood there, holding himself as he rocked from foot to foot. "I can confirm once the tests are done, but I think the white blood cells in the sample may have eaten the agar. It's been consuming everything else in it's path, so…"
Eva nods her head towards the doors and he follows her, happy to put more distance between him and the lab for the time being. "So, they're acting just like an immune system would, just more so." She simplifies. "But you didn't see this aggressiveness under the microscope?"
"No, but I think it was because of the refrigeration, maybe? Usually, we keep samples cold to help them last longer, but if these blood cells have been feeding off of microbes that live in the almost freezing ocean, putting them in the fridge may have accelerated their effects. No place like home, right?" He only half chuckled at his own joke. At least he knew now that putting the samples in the cold was a bad idea.
They stopped outside of the break room, Eva turning to him. "This is what science is about, yes?" She gave him a half smile, "Trial and error."
He nodded, returning the small smile. "I'll try to get the next results to you as soon as I can."
"I know you will." She gave him a single pat on the shoulder before power walking off to wherever she was needed next.
The microwave beeps and Rocky holds his hand up, getting up to fetch Grace's ramen for him. He sets it down in front of him and just the familiar smell is a small comfort. Rocky leans back in his chair again, "If refrigeration is a no go, what happens if you heat it up?"
"Well, when normal blood is heated too much it's destroyed. It messes with how it holds oxygen and coagulates weirdly." He pokes at his noodles. He needs to eat but can't.
"Hmmm," Rocky starts tidying up his stuff, "So, with this trench blood, it likes the cold, and maybe even room temperature is too warm for it? You said it hardened pretty fast, right?"
Grace sits up a bit, "Yeah, I mean, under microscope the cell count was higher than normal, but maybe even that count was reduced just from sitting in the air? That's why some were dead." He looks up at Rocky, "It liked the cold and wanted to make more white blood cells to eat everything, but once the fridge opened and it started warming up it solidified."
"So," Rocky smiles, "Let's heat it up more?"
They both look over to the microwave then back at each other. Grace stands up, grabbing his ramen and kicking his chair in as Rocky goes to unplug the microwave. "You finish eating," Rocky nags him as Grace holds the door open for him, a few people passing by giving a weird glance as Rocky walks out with the microwave in tow, "I'll meet you in the lab in ten."
**********
Grace rubs his hands together, reading over the results of the lump biopsy. As he predicted, the amount of white blood cells was roughly the same amount he had seen in the microscope, although the majority of them are dead, shrunken and misshapen compared to the alive ones before.
"Ok." Grace spins around and claps, pointing at Rocky beyond the window, who gives him a little salute. He (smartly) refused to be in the lab as the experiment was going, but promised he'd at least watch in case of 'blood explosions'. In the time between Grace finishing his ramen and getting re-suited up for the lab, Rocky had messed with the cheap microwave in order to make it get as hot as it could. He estimated about 250 - 300 °C. The rest of the waiting was scrambling around trying to find a new, clean refrigerator. Eva sacrificed the mini fridge from her office.
The plan, if everything goes well, is to take one of the new, untouched samples that Eva had brought in earlier, stick it in the fridge, wait for it to react, then put it in the microwave and see what happens. Easy enough. The samples have already been at room temperature for a while, so the faster he works the better.
He opens the sample and splits it up like before, some to save for later, and one big (like ten whole water drops) sample directly onto a petri dish full of agar. He places the dish directly in the middle of the fridge, and closes it. Now we wait. It doesn't take too long. The time between Grace putting in his first samples and the fridge busting open was a little over an hour. It sounds like a long time, but not for a process that should have taken days. In about twenty minutes, Grace can see the semi clear agar beginning to look redder and redder. He dares to get closer, the bulbous head of his suit almost touching the fridge door. He waits until the agar gets a bit deeper red and the texture looks like its starting to change to yank the door open, pick up the dish with new tongs and setting next to the microscope. He swabs it, puts it on the slide, and looks. "Holy smokes…"
"What?" Rocky yells through the glass.
"There's too many white blood cells to even count!" He shouts back in disbelief, "If I didn't know any better, I'd think the white blood cells were multiplying."
"They're not?"
"Blood cells don't replicate, your body just makes more. This is like that, but what's the source? What's making them? Hang on…" He moves the slide a bit spotting a few red blood cells. They look smaller than they should be? He zooms the camera out a bit, taking another look. "This can't be right."
"Put it on screen so I can see!" Rocky bosses. Grace rolls his eyes and takes a second to put it on the screen. "They look normal at least?"
"Yeah, but… white blood cells are typically twice as big as red blood cells. These look three times as big. Maybe more." He shakes his head, "When you freeze them the water expands only a little bit before they burst. These are only moderately cold but they've expanded this much and haven't burst." He looks over to Rocky, "If they react like this above freezing, I don't know what would happen if we actually put them in a freezer." The Mariana Trench gets down to about 1°C to 4°C, and normal blood cells freeze at -2 to -3°C. That's not far off. Would actually freezing them make them burst? Or have these weird blood cells somehow become so resistant to the cold that they can survive below freezing? We still haven't explored all of the Challenger Deep, who knows if it gets colder somewhere?
"Rock, I know you said you didn't want to be in here," He turns to him, giving him just a taste of puppy eyes, "But I'm gonna need you to bring me a fire extinguisher."
Rocky squints at him for half a second before throwing up his hands. The puppy eyes always work. "Ugh, fine gimme a minute." He goes to walk away but turns back, "And I get to use the extinguisher!"
**********
Grace and Rocky sit on the floor in he middle of the lab, looking at the mess they've made, being drenched in the rain of the fire suppressants system on the ceiling. The microwave is cooked, pun intended, and is just starting to stop smoking. The inside looks like a Saw trap has gone off. The fire extinguisher lays abandoned on it's side, mostly empty.
"I mean," Rocky shrugs, "Besides the mess, I'd call our experiment a success."
Technically speaking, they did get results. They found out that, yes, the trench blood (Grace still hasn't come up with a better name) very much likes the cold. Grace had held the petri dish with tongs again while Rocky aimed the extinguisher at it. On the count of three, Grace braced himself as Rocky squeezed the trigger, spraying the dish in -78°C CO2. The reaction was almost instant. The contents of the dish almost looked like it was crawling as it expanded rapidly, quickly getting heavy enough that Grace lost grip with the tongs and dropped the dish to the floor, it shattering on impact.
"Crap!" He quickly tried to grab the mass on the floor with tongs again, but it was growing too fast. "Rocky?!" They could not touch this stuff with just latex gloves. The gloves would instantly stick to the freezing surface.
"Shit, uh…" Rocky frantically looked around and spotted a stack of wire gauze next to the bunsen burner. He grabbed them and used them as makeshift pot holders as he scooped up the mass, almost the size of a basket ball by then, and shoved it all into the microwave, slammed the door, and hit the preset six minute button.
"Did you just-?" Grace begun, but already the microwave was buzzing as the wire mesh sparked and crackled inside. They backed up as the lump inside bubbled and shriveled, the wire melding into it until the microwave door burst open, a plume of smoke rising out as the mesh and what was left of the lump was on fire. The fire alarm began to wail as the sprinkler system was activated. Grace grabbed the fire extinguisher from the floor, aiming it at the now blackened heap of blood and metal. He threw caution to the wind and fired the extinguisher, hoping that the blood was officially dead and wouldn't react to the cold. Thankfully, it didn't, and the fire was out.
Grace looks at Rocky, the visor on his suit all fogged up from breathing so hard. "We learned three things. One: Yes, trench blood loves the cold. It's like the white blood cells actually thrive on it just like it's microbial food down there. Two: In case of emergency, trench blood hates the heat."
Rocky lays down on the floor now. "And three?"
Grace watches as Eva and a handful of crew members rush towards them. "Three: We are in so much trouble."
**********
Testing on the blood is paused while the lab is cleaned up and fixed. He really hopes that Rocky and him aren't given the bill for the destroyed lab equipment. The rest of the samples are stored away somewhere unknown to him, like a kid getting their toy taken away. They even get a scolding from Eva about not letting her supervise their experiments and putting themselves and the crew at risk. He does feel bad about that. He's never been the best under sudden pressure. It's unfortunately the only time his brain stops working and he doesn't think everything through. He apologized to Eva and also Rocky, for dragging him into it, but Rocky brushes it off.
After Grace is left to stew in his shame for a little while, Eva asks him to join her and Rocky at the back of the boat. This is where the vessel stores and launches it's ROV, Petrova (Rocky insists there's a joke there about it sinking like a rock, but only Grace laughs at it). Eva takes a step back as she allows Rocky to explain the results of Petrova's latest dive.
The Petrova had moved farther southwest, following the curve of the trench until it got to the ledge just before the Challenger Deep. Rocky is so animated in retelling Petrova's journey, like a proud father. He probably has dozens of photos of it on his phone. The Petrova took samples of the water at the edge as well as the pelagic sediment. Those were brought back up earlier, and while Grace and Rocky had been… busy, the team sent Petrova back down to begin it's decent into the Challenger Deep itself. However, only a few dozen meters down, the signal to the camera that allowed them to navigate became glitchy until it cut out completely. They'd brought it back up for maintenance, but couldn't find anything wrong with it, so sent it back down. Again, only a little ways over the edge, not only the camera, but it's sonar and photogrammetry systems shut down. They were flying blind and had to pull it back up by it's tether.
"With the samples we have collected," Eva interjects, "the red and white blood cell count in the water seems to increase the closer it is to the Challenger Deep."
"So, we can assume that the possible source of it all is somewhere down there." Grace surmises, "But we can't test further with Petrova's systems failing."
"Correct." Eva nods, "But we have a different submersible that could go down to even the bottom of the Challenger and get visuals on the cause of the blood." She looks at Rocky and he looks to be holding back his excitement as he gestures behind them.
What looks like an even larger, rounder ROV is half covered in a blue tarp. The front of it has what looks like a boom arm with a grabber at the end, currently retracted and curled up in front of a glass dome. Rocky goes up to it and gives it a big pat on it's side. "This baby is what I've called, Armando." He beams, "See? Cause of the arm?"
Grace pinches the bridge of his nose, but smiles. "Of course."
Eva steps forward and turns towards him, face as serious as ever. "We are going to switch Petrova out for Armando. If you look there," she points towards the dome and Rocky gestures at it like Vanna White, "This is not an ROV, it is a modern mobile bathysphere. It has all of the necessary equipment inside as well as the remote control arm in order to take samples or manipulate any obstructions that may hinder its dive."
Grace is once again blown away by Rocky's prowess. Of course, he couldn't have built the whole thing without his team, but he can tell the craft has Rocky's design all over it. "This is excellent! We can continue our research once you get someone in that thing. I can't wait!" He's really going to be at the launch of this impressive submersible? Maybe this interruption in his vacation really is worth it.
"Good," Eva smiles, "because you will be piloting it."
He waits for Eva to laugh, because that's a joke, right? "Uh, no I'm not."
"Yes, you are" Eva steps towards him again, but he takes a step back. His eyes shift between her and Rocky for an explanation, but Rocky looks just as confused."I promise you, I don't like it either. The other scientists on board will take over the research for now. The crew must stay here in order to properly sail the Hail Mary. Rocky's team must be available for maintenance as well as fixing the Petrova. That leaves you."
"I-" Was this some sort of punishment for ruining the lab and costing them money? "I can't go down there."
Rocky quickly comes over to him, somewhat standing in front as he addresses Eva. "I can pilot Armando, I made the damn thing. Leave Grace out of this."
Eva shakes her head. "We need you here to help monitor the wench, life support system and communication, as well as documenting Grace's findings."
"But-"
"We have a marine biologist we can send down into the ocean to get a firsthand view of what is corrupting it. We don't have cameras or other sensors, but we have a human who has spent their life studying this very area of expertise that can hopefully tell us what is going on."
"That doesn't matter!" Rocky raises his voice.
"It does matter. Do you want ocean life to die?"
Rocky looks like he wants to retort, but can't, hands clenching at his sides.
Grace gives a small tug on the side of Rocky's jumpsuit and he turns, eyes wide and blazing. "Grace, tell her no."
Grace looks to Eva, sees actual hurt in her eyes. He knows she's right. In the little time they've known each other, he can tell she's very practiced in doing what she needs to do, despite how she feels about it. There is humanity in her, of course, but she also knows what she has to do for humanity. He steps a little closer to Rocky, a tighter hold on his side. "When does it launch?"
"As soon as Rocky teaches you how to pilot it." She states.
A chuckle forces it's way out of Rocky. "And if I don't?"
"You will." Eva says matter-of-factly, "You would not send him down there without it."
Rocky is silent, the two of them staring each other down. Eventually, Grace's wrist is grabbed and he's pulled along as Rocky storms off. As he looks back before turning the corner, he can see Eva wipe her eyes with her sleeve.
**********
He doesn't get much sleep that night, tossing and turning with every wave that rocks the ship. The bathysphere should be pretty stable, at least, all things considered. There's drastically less water currents the deeper down in the ocean you go. That's one pro to the list in his head.
Time for a con: The Armando is a small, confined metal ball in a deep, vast ocean. The size isn't the issue here. He's shared a cramped dorm room with Rocky and has only a one bedroom apartment back home. Small is cozy, intimate. It's the confined part. He doesn't like to be trapped, held against his will. Once when he was little he'd been dared to see if he could fit inside an old tote bin with the lid fully closed. Why? He can't remember now, but at the time he thought, sure, I can do that. He'd curled up real small on his side and pulled the lid on top. That was all fine, until one of his friends actually sat on top of the lid and he couldn't push him off. One of the other kids had to go get his mom to help him stop hyperventilating and he'd spent the next day locked in his room. In the bathysphere, even if he wants out, he wont be able to. He'll be down in crushing depths, at the mercy of hydrostatic pressure from all sides. If he could open the hatch, he wouldn't have the time to feel the relief of freedom before it instantly killed him.
Another con (his brain is being so nice to him right now): The very opposite of his cramped little ball of death will be everything outside of it. The great emptiness of the ocean. For all his fascination of the contents of the ocean, most of that contents is just nothingness. Perceived nothingness, because really there's millions and millions of microbes, particles, plankton, bacteria, etc that he can't see, so he wont really be alone, but it feels like nothingness.
That's not quite right, though, is it? This trench blood (maybe he could call it Mariacytes? Because they're Erythrocytes and Leukocytes from the Mariana Trench? He's still work shopping it) is eating all of those microscopic living things in the ocean. Are there any still down there not eaten? Will he truly, fully be alone down there?
His last solace, the only proactive thing about this situation that is keeping him from having a full blown panic attack, is his faith in Rocky. Rocky designed and built Armando. His blood, sweat, tears and curse words are in that vessel. He spent the whole day going over every single instrument panel, switch and lever. They took notes together so if anything goes wrong he'll still have a point of reference to help him through in case Rocky isn't there. He trusts Rocky's engineering and forethought for whatever may happen. He trusts Rocky to be his lifeline to the surface. He can't imagine Rocky making anything less than outstanding. Maybe it's foolish of him to have so much faith in one person, but it's what's keeping him together right now, and what will get him through tomorrow.
**********
Armando is set, all systems and equipment checked sixfold. The atmosphere of the launch bay is somehow stuffy despite it being open air. Rocky's team knows things are tense. When Rocky is in a sour mood, they know something is up, and they do their best to dot every i and cross every t. Grace can't put any blame on them, though. They're doing their job. They have their orders.
Rocky joins Grace on the deck, wiping his hands of grease on a rag but still managing to get some on his face. "How are you doing?" He asks, watching as Armando is finally hooked up to the wench cable, the tether and umbilical snaking beside it.
"Oh," Grace breaks his gaze away, "you know, just… questioning my choice in degree." He tries to joke, to break the tension, but it comes out too flat.
Rocky turns to him. "Grace-"
"Nope!" He interrupts, a little louder than he meant to. "Don't you dare apologize."
Rocky scoffs. "I can't help it!" The crew around them try their best to mind their business, but Grace can feel the eyes again. "I'm the one that stupidly mentioned you to Eva in the first place. She was telling me about the purpose of the trip and that she needed an expert in the field, and of course I had to go and say 'Hey, I know a guy! He's only trying to enjoy his summer vacation right now from his job, but he wont mind spending time here cause I'll be able to hang out with him, too!' Adrian had second guessed me when I mentioned it, but I was like, 'Nah, It'll be fine, babe!' And now-"
Grace walks in front of him and grabs him by the face, squeezing just a little too hard for emphasis. "Stop. It'll be ok" He tries to smile as genuinely as possible. How am I being the comforting one right now? "Are you doubting your own work?"
"No, of course not." He waves off, "Armando is perfect."
"Then everything will be ok." Grace states. He doesn't want to waste time on going over what could have been different or what could happen. He's going to get in Armando, do the dang thing, then cry it all out afterwards.
Everything gets the all clear to go, and Grace is helped into the bathysphere. It's tight. He can't fully stretch out his arms and he knows his knees are going to hate him later, but it could be worse. He tries to imagine himself in the cockpit of some cool sci-fi spaceship, ready to launch into the vast unknown of the universe. It isn't too far off, he supposes, he's just going down instead of up. He takes one more big gulp of air before the hatch is closed.
The launch is slow, the heavy duty wench jostling Armando a little as it's actually lifted off the deck and slowly moved to over the water. He counts his breaths, listening to the air being pumped in, the rattle of the chains, the shouts of the crew giving directions outside. Not one sound of metal groaning or bending. Armando is solid, just like he knew it'd be.
He's gently settled on the surface of the water, the craft buoying. "Doing ok?" He hears Rocky through his headset.
"Yeah, just… taking it all in."
"Good, good." Rocky repeats, "Everything looks good on our end. Are you ready?"
"No, but yeah." Grace sits up straighter, gripping the sides of his small seat. Let's do this. "I promise to not freak out so you don't freak out?"
"Deal." The wench starts moving again, and Grace watches as the waterline goes up the glass dome until he's fully submerged.
As he goes farther down, the muffled quietness of the ocean gives him a false sense of calm. He's left with his own thoughts, periodically being told his depth. The light from the morning sun fades, light blue turning navy then to black as at 1000 meters down, he's officially in the Bathypelagic zone. The Midnight Zone.
"Still doing ok?" Rocky's static voice brings him back to awareness. He was starting to zone out a little in all the silence.
"Y-yeah, um." Focus. You have a job to do. "Let me hit the lights." The front facing lights turn on, illuminating… nothing. "This is odd."
"What's up?"
"There should at least be marine snow at these depths, but there's literally nothing." He leans forward, trying to look farther out of the dome. "Yeah no marine snow, no fish, cephalopods, isopods, eels…" I was even hoping to maybe see a blobfish. "Just nothing."
"You're going to pass into the Abyssal Zone in another half an hour." Rocky informs him, "Eva says keep an eye out."
"Aye aye."
The decent continues past Midnight into Abyssal, still not a visible creature in sight. One thing is changing, though. The lights that illuminate the nothingness in front of him are starting to take on a pinkish hue.
"Ready to not freak out with me?" Rocky asks.
"Absolutely."
"You are officially at the beginning of the Trenches." The Hadalpelagic Zone. The Hadal Zone. Named after Hades, the Greek god of the Underworld. Darn my brain for knowing too many fun facts, this isn't fun at all!
"Ok, ok, ok. We're breathing nice and steady now." He says it out loud like it will make it more so.
Down, down deeper still. The lights outside his window are redder now.
He wishes that this was a 'normal' dive. Not every marine biologist or oceanographer has the chance or privilege to take this deep a journey. He's been distracting himself by listing off all the entities he should be seeing in each zone. Living creatures with translucent skin, enticing bioluminescence, or straight up looking extraterrestrial. He'd studied so many, dreaming while watching documentaries that maybe one day he'd see just one in person.
But there is absolutely nothing.
And it scares him.
"Rock," He swallows, "I may actually be starting to freak out just a little."
"I'm right here, bud." Rocky's voice is low, the microphone must be right up to his mouth. "Everything looks ok on our end. You're nice and safe. Tell me what's wrong."
"There's supposed to be so much here, but…" He pauses, refusing to acknowledge the waver. "Nothing. The sea outside is so red I feel like I'm looking through red jello."
"You're doing great, Grace. Can I tell you where you are?"
"Yes, please." Something, tell him anything about his situation right now.
"You are just above Challenger Deep." The deepest known part of the worlds oceans, and he's being suspended above it. "This is the lowest point we could send Petrova until we started having issues. So far, everything looks good. How about on your end?"
Grace takes a moment to look at all the screens and gauges, everything looking ok. "I'm ok."
"Can you see anything outside?"
"Nothing yet, just the red." It's so deep in color, he wishes knew the density. "I think I'm going to try taking a sample."
"Alright, keep me posted." Rocky leaves him to the quiet work of trying to direct Armando's to the little canisters just outside the window. He feels like he's playing a crane game, the arm gently grabbing a canister out of its fitted slot. He gives the plastic container a little squeeze and the top pops open on its hinge. He feels like he should make a little scoop motion, but the surrounding water has already entered the container. He places the container back into it's designated slot and maneuvers the arm to press the lid back closed. He extends one of the little grippers of the 'hand' and pushes a button next to the container, a cover sliding over the container that Rocky says will seal that section water tight. There. One sample done. Easy.
"Ok, Rock." He closes his eyes, "What's next?"
A moment passes. "Grace, this next part you're going to be super calm and cool about, ok?" Rocky doesn't sound cool at all.
"Yup, sure, uh huh." Totally.
"We're going to dip you down into the actual Deep. The cameras and sensors haven't liked this bit, but as far as we can tell, anything with the umbilical is ok. Life support, power, radio." Rocky tells him all of this clearly, emphasizing the last bit. "We want you to give us a play-by-play of everything you see or hear. I'll be right here documenting everything. You think you're good?"
"So, good." He has never sounded less confident. "Just give me a second."
Just think of it like this: You may be about to make a huge scientific discovery. A world changing discovery! How neat is that? Dr. Ryland Grace, discoverer of… whatever he's about to possibly find. His name in textbooks will be worth it, right?
"Ok," he breathes, "Be gentle."
"Always."
The Challenger Deep is only a mile wide, minuscule compared to everything else, but it's still a whole mile. Yet he swears he feels the walls go up around him as he's dipped downward. Creeping down, the lights somehow still get redder, as if the whole ocean down here has just become blood. How on Earth is this happening? Were there some unknown creatures down here that absolutely decimated each other? Even then, there should be some… viscera. "Still nothing, Rock. I'm worried the water's going to get too thick to see even if there is-"
There! "I see something! Uh, a little in front of me." A bit of darker red something just in the range of the lights.
"What is it?" Rocky has instantly perked up as well, that came in a little louder than before.
"Give me a second, where's uh-" He grabs the joystick just in front of his legs. He's supposed to have a little bit of horizontal mobility in this thing. He barely pushes the vessel forward, the lights revealing more of the darker red. "Ugh," His nose scrunches up, "It looks like what happened with the fridge. There's some congealed Mariacyte down here."
"There's what now?" Rocky deadpans.
"Uh, it's what I'm calling the gooey, solidified trench blood." Grace explains.
"I think I'll put in the notes that that's a temporary name, but continue."
Grace rolls his eyes. He continues forward a bit more. "Oh, jeez, yeah that makes sense." He gets a little closer, seeing some tiny bubbles of gas peak between the bumps. "I think it found a cold seep down here and is definitely loving it." Cold seeps are chock full of nutrients that tube worms, mussels and all sorts of yummy creatures feed on. This one looks like it may be leaking methane. It would be an absolute buffet for the Mariacytes.
"Anyth- -se interesti- -wn there?" The static is beginning to interrupt the radio.
"Uh, not sure yet." He clears his throat. Don't start to panic already. You just got down here. "The congealed mass continues on a bit, I think I'm going to follow it down a bit more if that's ok?"
"You're br-king up, but I thi- you said - more?" Rocky's voice is a little more garbled now, "Conti- but please be care-."
"I will." Grace hopes Rocky hears him as he continues forward, the solid Mariacyte continuing in almost a zig-zag. It's like the blood slithered along over rocks and dead coral, seeking out its food. Grace suppresses a shiver.
The trail leads him into even thicker waters. Thicker bloods? Blood flows? Ugh, he's reminded of just how disgusting this all is. He wonders though if he could also find some hydrothermal vents around here to see how much the Mariacyte dislikes-
A large mass appears in the headlights of the craft and even at his slow speeds, he just barely bumps into it with a dull thud before he's able to stop. "Oh god!" Please don't get a crack and implode on me! His whole body stiffens, Armando settling it's lights on the mound and stopping. No cracking. No creaking. No imploding. He seems to be ok for now. "Uh, had a little fender bender, but I'm ok! Uh, and Armando is ok."
He waits for a reply. "Rock?" Silence. "Rocky, please respond?" More silence.
Ok, he promised he wouldn't freak out but Rocky also promised he'd be there for him the whole time and now he's not so he thinks he's allowed to panic a little.
"Please, stop."
He freezes. That wasn't Rocky. "Hello?"
The same voice again, quieter, deep. "Please, stop." What sounds to Grace like a rattled breath, "I don't want to hear anymore."
Did something happen to Rocky and this is one of his crew members? He was introduced here and there to people, but he doesn't recognize this voice. "Who is this?"
"I said STOP!" A series of hacks and coughs puncture through the radio.
Grace isn't sure what to do or what's going on. As he tries to listen more intently to the new voice, his eyes absently scan over the large Mariacyte mound in front of him until he spots something sticking out of it. Is that a piece of metal? He ever so gently nudges Armando forward until the whole radius of its headlights illuminates the mound. There are pieces of what looks like very rusted metal jutting out of one side of the mound, towards the bottom he can actually make out the shape of a cylinder with a sort of corkscrew on it, and… is that a ladder rung? This is a manmade object of some sort, in the bottom of the Challenger Deep, and there may possibly be someone inside it.
"Uh, h-hello?" Grace tries to stay calm, but he'd really like Rocky to get back to him and tell him that it's ok to freak out now. "I- don't know if I'm right about this, but uh, are you the one in this metal… thing I'm looking at right now? Is this a type of prototype sub?" Eva didn't mention any other subs coming down here, just Petrova and him.
A sad chuckle crackles over the radio. "Where else would I be?"
"I don't know, I… sorry, this is really weird. I was sent down here in a bathysphere and I just a moment ago bumped into this… submarine? Did you hear that before? When I bumped into you?"
There's a few moments of silence before he hears a reply, a soft, "Yes?"
"Great! I mean, not great. Your ship looks terrible! Um," Grace isn't sure what to do, the other voice isn't giving him much, but he has to confirm. "I can use Arma- uh, my sample collector arm. I'm going to tap it on the metal again and you tell me if you hear it, ok?" He doesn't get a reply, but he takes hold of Armando's controls and after making a little fist, he does a little tap tap tap on the bar of what he presumes is a ladder rung. "Did you hear that?"
"Yes…" The voice is a little louder now, though still ragged sounding.
"Really?" Grace is astonished, "So, you're really in there? How-"
"Are you real?"
He's taken aback. "Y-yes, I'm real." He thinks a moment, "Are… you?" This is… He's not sure what this is. This does feel a little unreal, but hey, he's scooting around in a blood ocean right now, so who knows what else could happen?
"I… don't know…"
Well, that's very comforting. Maybe those methane bubbles from earlier somehow got in and effected his brain? For now, he's going to roll with it. "Well, in either case, my name is Dr. Ryland Grace. I'm in my small bathysphere and we're at the bottom of the ocean. I came down here to study this blood substance spreading around. Were you also-?"
"I was dead."
What? "Um, say that again?"
"I-" A very long choked out breath, "The blood ocean, the eel, it bit me and- I was dead."
This person has clearly been through a lot. Something happened to them to make them be down here, stuck under all this solidified Mariacyte. How long would it take for it to form? Hard to tell. "Are you injured?"
Audible breathing on the radio now, coming in fast. "I don't know. I don't feel right. I can't move."
"Ok, it's ok." Deep breaths. "What's your name?"
The breathing continues, but it sounds like they're trying to slow it down. "Simon."
"Simon, listen ok?" Grace doesn't know what's happening, what any of this blood ocean stuff is or what it means, but he does know this: There is a very scared person in the literal bottom of the ocean that needs his help. "I'm going to get you out of there, ok?"
A sob, a stuttered breath. "I don't know if I can leave."
"We'll figure it out, ok?" Grace looks at his watch, he's been underwater for almost four hours now. He's been out of contact with Rocky for about a half hour? He has to get back to Rocky and tell him what he's found, who he's found. "Here's what's going to happen, ok? Listen to me. I have to go get help-"
"No, please!" Grace is startled, the voice desperate, strained. "Please don't leave."
Hold it together. "I know, I'm sorry, I don't want to leave you here, but I can't get you out on my own. I need to go back up and get more people to help."
A long pause, Grace wondering if he really did imagine the voice, until, "I don't want to be alone again."
God, his heart. He doesn't think he's ever heard a more solemn sound in his life. "I know, Simon, I know. I promise you, you are getting out of there." He shouldn't make that promise. He has no clue how they'll get them out, if that's even possible. But he wants this voice to believe that. Maybe even if they do try to rescue them and everything goes wrong, they'll still have that glimmer of hope before they're sudden end. It's a dark thought, but it's better than abandoning them here. "I promise you, Simon. We're going to try. I'll talk to you again, ok?"
A single broken, "Ok."
It hurts to leave them down in the depths, but as Grace angles Armando upwards he holds that hurt in his chest. An oath of hope, real or not, is better than nothingness.