Panic came first, before I had even opened my eyes I could feel it, the crushing weight of the water around me.

The darkness I opened my eyes to next didn't help matters., I flailed around trying to figure out which way was up, until a tiny female voice irritably told me that as long as I stopped twisting around like a demented Eel my natural equilibrium would point me upwards. Naturally hearing voices made me take pause, and I could feel myself slowly turn in the near-darkness until it slowly stopped, leaving me suspended. I was clearly underwater, and deep too for no light to penetrate the gloom only lit faintly by that weak blue glow.

"Where is that coming from anyway?" I thought to myself, looking for the source, before bringing a hand (so pale!) in front of my eyes. "Huh, my eyes are glowing," I said to myself, before belatedly realizing I'd just spoken underwater. In fact, other then the pressure I could feel, I really didn't feel like I was in any real danger. There were no air bubbles that traveled from my mouth when I'd spoken. Meaning my lungs were already fully engorged with water, but I didn't really feel the urge to breathe. And all it really did was move water in and out of my mouth in a small current, reminding me of filter feeders like mussels or clams. Which would be especially fitting with that big black shell near my fee- I looked at the shell below me. It was shaped almost like a mollusk, but mechanical, the blue gaze of its two forward grate-like eyes still looking off in the distance under me. Before, seemingly noticing my gaze it twisted to look me directly in the eye.

I screamed like the little girl I was, though I'm fairly certain my voice was dampened by the fact that I still was completely underwater.

"It's just your rigging, no need to panic" The voice assured me when I'd stopped to take an (unnecessary) lungful of water to continue my screeching. Instead, I paused, before finally asking:

"Who the hell are you? Where are you? " I looked at the shell-thing "Is that you?" It shook its head, though as it had no neck, that just meant it wiggled its entire body.

"I am your Captain, I am inside you right now an-

"Phrasing" I interrupted."

"-d you are an Abyssal, a submarine-Hime, to be exact." The voice finished, completely ignoring my interruption.

"So wait, I get the submarine part, intellectually but whats a Hime?" is that Japanese for something?" I asked, there seemed to be an awkward pause, before:

"Princess, you're a submarine Princess, how do you not know this?" the voice said exasperatedly, to which I only really had one reply:

"We?"

"Yes,'we'"

"Well how many of you are there? I'm not an apartment building!"

"No, you are a submarine, as for how many of us there are, why don't you tell me? Feel for us." I took the disembodied voice's advice (And wasn't that an indication of insanity?) And felt, closing my eyes to concentrate, like trying to pinpoint the location of an ache without touch. And I felt them.

310 crew, including 28 officers and 2 captains "Why are there two captains?" I thought, which was promptly answered.

"There are two shifts on-board right now, blue shift and gold shift, I'm the gold shift's captain, there's only about one hundred fifty-five of us active at a time"

"...So I'm actually a submarine, then?"

"A submarine-princess, yes"

"The fact that I may or may not be royalty is second to the fact I am a SUBMARINE, HOW DOES THAT WORK?"

"Don't ask me, I just work here, what I can tell you is that you are an abyssal, whatever that makes us. And that the little mechanical things around us are your rigging, basically armaments and equipment"

"Things?" I looked around and, sure enough, there were now THREE of those odd mollusk things drifting along with me. Though the two new arrivals looked smaller, more primitive, less mechanical and more like baby muscles. They were the size of my torso, with little glowy blue eyes, one drifted up and I noted with a small snort their adorably stubby little legs. The mouths were a bit off-putting though. I drifted in silence for a bit after that, and I couldn't help but think I had forgotten something or someone? It nagged at the back of my mind but like those little squiggly lines I sometimes saw, whenever I tried to look directly at it, it darted away. It made me feel inexplicably sad and angry though. It was odd, I vaguely remembered being human at one point, I remembered going to the Library and joking with... someone? I remembered sitting in high school and playing in the park with my...I assume my parents? But now that I thought of it couldn't for the life of me remember anyone's face. "Huh"

"What now?" my captain said.

"I can't remember my mother's name."

"The Abyss."

"What?"

"Your mother, the Abyss"

"Are you making a fat mom joke? it sounds like a fat mom joke." I said, a bit irked.

"No, you were born from the Abyss, don't ask me how, I barely know how it works, but it spat you out like you are right now," She said.

"Huh"

"Yeah"

"..."

"..."

"So what now?" I asked, watching as my eyes illuminated a plastic grocery bag drifting slowly by.

"Well, we have supplies for about a weeks travel, so we'll need to stock up soon, the fact that we have a nuclear power generator means we don't have to worry about fuel-"

"HOLD UP" I hurriedly interrupted, I have a nuclear generator? like the atom bomb nuclear?! is that safe? am I gonna blow up?! Well now at least I knew what that tickling sensation was in my midsection.

"No, you aren't, it's perfectly safe for you, it just means we are only really in need of standard supplies for repair and maintenance. We don't really need fuel for anything, though we are limited by crew consumption. We don't need food, not in the literal sense, but we do need raw materials to sustain ourselves and you."

"Ah, okay. I'll take your word for it, you are inside me, so you'd know more about it then I would. But still, where would we get supplies? We must be like, miles underwater!"

"Well, the first thing we should do is get closer to the surface, see if we can get a sonar ping off anything or maybe even breach for a look around. If we can find other abyssal's maybe we can get some spare parts from them? or at least get directions to a depot."

"Alright!" I said, and after a few moments, asked sheepishly: "How do I go up again?"