taking ethier side of the stairway, Tristina and Jack walked down the stairs looking around at the pale gray flagstones. At the bottom of the stairway, where the two rejoined, a contrete platform lead into a slime green and clay brown orb.
"A bathosphere?" Jack asked, looking around. "Whats a bathosphere?" Tristina asked, her silver eyes scanning the strange object. "its sort of like a personal submarine pre programmed to take you to a set destination." said Jack, looking around them once again.
"Okay, with that in mind..." said Tristina, staring at the handle inside the bathosphere. "where does this one go?" Tristina looked at Jack and was surprised to see his brown eyes glinting with excitement behind his scruffy brown hair.
"Only one way to find out." said Jack, walking briskly into the machine. "Hey, wait up!" said Tristina, reaching out a hand to Jack as she scrambled to catch up to him. Immidately, Jacks hand wrapped around the lever and pulled it.
there was clank behind them as the metal and thick glass door sealed shut behind them. Tristina stumbled onto a bench behind her as the bathosphere began to sink into the icy waters below them. "So where do you think..." Tristina began, but was interrupted as a golden bronze metal plate popped up infront of them.
a screen seemed to flicker to life, and the image of a man courting a woman by lighting her cigarette appeared. However, the fire seemed to be coming not from a lighter, but from the mans very finger. 'Fire at your fingertips' said the caption above the happy couple. 'Incinerate. Plasmids by Ryan Industries.' Tristina arched a eyebrow at Jack, but turned her attention back to the screen as another image appeared. this one of a important looking man sitting behind a desk smoking a cigarette.
In the upper right hand corner of the screen were the words 'from the desk of Andrew Ryan'. "Hello." said a cheerful voice from the video. "I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat from his brow? No, says the man in washington, it belongs to the poor. No, says the man in the Vatican, it belongs to God. No, says the man in Moscow, it belongs to everyone. I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose, the impossible. I chose..."
with that note, the screen dissapeared into the roof and tall towering buildings and flashing lights greeted them. "Rapture." finished Ryans voice as Tristina and Jack gaped open mouthed at the scene before them.
Tall, majestic buildings stood in small clumps, thier windows blazing with yellow light as clear walkway tubes stretched between them. "A city where the artist would not fear the censor. where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality. Where the great would not be constrained by the small. With the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well." Finished Ryan.
Tristina looked to Jack, mouth agape. "Can you believe this place?" she asked, staring out the window again. Before Jack could answer, another voice interrupted her from a radio against the wall. "But the lighthouse is all lit up like hellfire. looks like some kind of plane crash." Tristina and Jack looked to one another.
Meanwhile, the bathosphere was turning again to what looked like a dead end. "But we're in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, how could it-" a second voice began. The dead end turned out to be a underground docking bay. "Dunno," said the first voice. "But you best get over there, and be quick about it. The Splicers are coming."
'Splicers?' Tristina mouthed, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion. Jack shrugged and shook his head, his face reflecting the same confusion. The bathosphere, meanwhile, had began to travel down a long narrow pipeway. along the pipeway were words grouped together in threes.
"You've got to be kidding! how do you know someones even coming?" the second man asked. The words 'all good things' passed them, followed by 'of this earth' "'Cause we got a bathysphere on its way down..." the voice continued as the word 'flow' passed above them.
Finally, the words 'Into the city' passed them as the second male voice said. "That means we've got company." Tristina swallowed hard as she sat back in her seat, her body trembling beneath her yellow tunic and matching skirt.