The voyage north to Alaska went like clockwork and Seaview arrived at the eastern most tip of the trench right on schedule. Kendal had easily adapted to submarine life and had been more or less adopted as an honorary member of the crew. Even Cookie had taken to brewing a special pot of coffee just for her since she really wasn't all that enthralled with the high octane version preferred by the rest of the crew. In the course of the trip she and Harri completed the calibration and testing of all the sensors and uploaded and tested the software programs for the AUVs and ROVs by the time they arrived at their first deployment location. As they completed the last of their tests the captain hailed Nelson over the intercom.
"Admiral this is Crane."
"Nelson here, what is it Lee?"
"We've just arrived at our destination and are ready to proceed with sensor deployment at your earliest convenience."
"Thank you; please have FS-1prepped for immediate launch."
"Aye sir, she'll be ready to sail in 15 minutes, Crane out."
"Looks like we're ready to start dropping sensors," Harri said with a smile, excited at finally being able to start gathering data. "Kendal I'd like you to monitor the data receivers and let me know how things are going."
"I'd be happy to Harri. Have a good trip and be careful out there," Kendal replied.
Harri smiled in response and headed towards the nose to get aboard FS-1. When he arrived he found the hatch open and heard Lee working through the preflight below. As he prepared to enter he spotted Chip coming down the staircase. "Good luck deploying the sensors sir. Everything from this end looks good to go."
"Thanks Chip. Keep a wary eye on the seismic activity once we're away and let us know if you detect so much as a twitch, wouldn't want to get trapped down there so early into the mission," Harri said with a wink.
"Aye sir," Chip replied with a nod.
As the admiral disappeared down the ladder a crewman lowered the hatch and secured it. A couple of minutes later Lee notified the control room he was ready to launch and FS-1 was away. The little submarine immediately began her dive down near her crush depth to begin the process of deploying sensors on the leading edge of the rift.
()()()()()
"We are looking good and ready to go, where to sir?" Lee asked as he directed FS-1 down along the trench.
"I'll drop the first sensor near here and then you can head west along this ridge. Since activity is relatively sparse in this section of the trench we won't need to deploy more than a couple of units about 250 miles apart. I also need to deploy the ROV and send it down to grab a couple of soil samples on the bottom in the area where the sensors touch down," Harri replied.
"I think I can accommodate you there sir," Lee replied with a smile. "Just let me know where and when you want to stop."
"Okay why don't you go west 20 miles and I'll drop the first sensor then deploy the ROV. This shouldn't take much more than an hour assuming all goes right."
Lee guided the small sub forward and down to a few hundred feet above crush depth. As they made their way through the dark and frigid water, Harri unstowed the first sensor, activated the transmitter and staged it on the deck next to the moon pool. Next he untied the ROV from the deck and moved it into position alongside the sensor and readied it for action.
"We're on location Admiral, you may proceed when ready," Lee reported as he recorded the exact coordinates in his logbook.
Harri quickly pulled open the hatch on the dive well and dropped the first of their sensors into the water. It disappeared immediately as it sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Harri then activated the mic around his neck. "FS-1 to Seaview."
"Seaview here sir," Chip replied.
"Chip, patch me through to Dr. Ferguson," Nelson requested.
"Aye sir, hold on just a minute."
"Kendal here Admiral."
"Kendal the first sensor is away, please check all readouts and let me know how things are going," Harri directed.
There were a few minutes of silence then Kendal replied. "Everything is green across the board Harri. The sensor is reporting a depth of 6500' approximately 800 meters from the center of the trench. It is transmitting readings on all established channels."
"Excellent," Nelson replied. "I'm going to deploy the ROV now and send it down to collect soil, water, dissolved oxygen, and background radiation samples along with some video. Please let me know when you start receiving data from the drone."
"Will do Harri."
With Lee's assistance Harri eased the ROV into the water. He grabbed the control pad and put the drone through a couple of basic maneuvers to ensure it was working properly. He then directed it to rise up in front of FS-1 and activated its video camera. "Smile and wave to the camera, Lee," Harri said as he watched the small monitor. Lee willingly complied waving and mugging for the camera. Harri laughed out loud. "Well everything appears to be operational though the sea life in this area seems a little odd." Lee stuck his tongue out at the drone causing Harri to chuckle again.
"FS-1 this is Kendal, data is coming in loud and clear. Tell Lee he looks just darling," she teased.
"Copy that Seaview," Harri replied chuckling as he took in Lee's slight blush and embarrassed smile.
Finding all systems go he dispatched the little machine down towards the area where the sensor had settled to collect the required samples. As they watched the lights of the drone disappear into the darkness below they got an urgent call from Seaview.
"Seaview to FS-1, come in FS-1."
"FS-1 here, go ahead Seaview, what's wrong Chip?" Lee asked.
"There's been a large magnitude quake, initial reading 7.6, 800 miles west of our position, turbulence expected in 5 minutes, recommend you shallow up a bit Lee," Chip replied.
"Copy that Seaview. We're paying out line to the ROV now and decreasing our depth to 3,000'."
"We read you Skipper, hold on tight it's going to be a bumpy ride."
Lee sprang into action moving FS-1 closer to the surface while Harri quickly stowed any loose equipment lying about. Just has he finished shutting the storage locker and belting back into his seat the shockwave hit tossing the little sub about like someone shaking a matchbox. Both men tightly gripped the armrests and held on for the ride. After about 30 seconds the action tapered off and the ocean returned to its previous state.
Lee quickly completed a scan of all his systems and found everything to be operational. Meanwhile Harri was running through the diagnostics on the ROV and found that it was still intact and had nearly completed its programmed tasks.
Lee looked over at Harri let out a sigh of relief and smiled. "You okay sir?" Nelson nodded. "Well that was a fun and thrilling way to start the day. Everything checks out here as operational how about our little friend on the bottom?"
"It seems to have withstood the shake just fine. It still needs to collect the soil sample and then we can retrieve the unit and move on to the next site," Harri answered.
Lee nodded then activated his throat mic. "Seaview this is FS-1, come in."
"Seaview here, Lee. How are you two doing out there?" Chip asked.
"A tad shaken but we're still green across the board, how about you there on Seaview?"
"We've got a couple bruised egos but aside from that we came through the turbulence just fine. The seat belts really came in handy, far fewer flying bodies when we met with the brunt of that wave," Chip replied. "Great way to start off the mission don't you think?"
"Well that's what we came to study," Lee replied with a chuckle. "The admiral is retrieving the ROV right now. Once that's aboard we'll move on to our next site about 240 miles west southwest of our current position. When we get on site I'll radio in and you can bring Seaview towards us."
"Copy that Skipper," Chip acknowledged. "Oh Kendal says to pass on that data is streaming in from the ROV and the sensor so all appears to be good."
"Excellent," Harri chimed in. "Chip keep an eye out for any aftershocks following that jolt, a shake that big should generate some sizeable temblors as everything adjusts to the change."
"Roger that Admiral, we've already got our eyes and ears peeled for so much as a halibut sneeze."
Harri and Lee laughed. "Alright Chip, we appreciate that," Lee replied as he rose from his seat to help Harri haul the ROV back aboard.
()()()()()
As it planned its escape and plotted its revenge, something small and submerged in the ocean above the trench drew its attention. It quickly scanned the object finding a metal hulled vessel hovering below the surface directly over the trench at the eastern most point. It had noticed these vessels before but had not paid them much mind. In its scan of the object it found there were a number of them aboard and something else, something unexpected and most needed in its bid for freedom. It detected the nuclear reactions that occurred in the vessel's power plant and something even more remarkable and desirable in the area called the missile room.
Weapons, thermonuclear weapons were housed there, large ones, powerful ones. Detonated in unison just above the weakest point in the rift they had the capability to wrench open the seam at the bottom of the sea floor releasing it from its prison sooner than planned. It was incapable of physically manipulating complex objects beyond its prison cell so it would need to influence or coerce them into doing its bidding. It would speak to them in their dreams; convince them that to solve the problems they were sent to study they need only detonate their missiles at the deepest point along the trench and all would be right with their world.
They had been sent by their kind to investigate the reason for the increased seismic activity in this part of their world. Its efforts to escape its prison were the cause of that activity, the earthquakes a byproduct of its attempts to separate the plates sealing it in. It had their attention but needed to draw them in, draw them nearer to the target. It had to be careful now to not overwhelm the small craft, destroying it before it arrived at the epicenter or cause them to abandon their quest because the region became too dangerous in which to operate. Patience and restraint must become its watchwords; it had to keep working at its bonds enough to keep them engaged in determining the cause but not too vigorously that the earthquakes became so violent that they fled in fear.
()()()()()
Deployment of the sensors proceeded as scheduled even given the occasional turbulence generated following the earthquakes along the trench. The quakes had increased in frequency yet had declined in magnitude from their first sensor deployment, making their task easier but the change in the seismic pattern confounded Nelson and his fellow scientists studying the data generated by their equipment. At the moment there was no logical reason for the shift and no indications as to why things had changed.
They had conducted numerous sorties deploying nearly half of their sensors and many of those trips had included Kendal allowing her to deploy the NASA remote vehicles and sensors. As she collected her readings and processed them through her computer programs a disturbing picture was beginning to emerge. It seemed as though the resulting changes in magnetic north had accelerated once again shifting miles in a day as opposed to a few miles over a year and the earthquakes seemed to her, to have taken on a timed frequency and regimented magnitude as though being intentionally controlled.
Another unusual development she noticed was the appearance of a dead zone for certain parameters they were monitoring as they drew nearer to the epicenter of the seismic activity. There was nothing Kendal had encountered in the past that could explain this odd anomaly; it simply didn't make sense. She reprogrammed certain sensors to try and penetrate the zone but after an initial scan where data was received, the subsequent scans were immediately blocked. As improbable as it seemed, there appeared to be an intelligence involved here that was desperately trying to hide certain aspects of its activity deep within core of the planet. The mere thought of that sent a shiver down her spine.
Kendal worked for NASA and was a highly regarded astrophysicist in the international community. Her entire field of work and personal focus was to investigate the universe in hopes of understanding the processes in effect and to hopefully one day encounter beings from some other planet. She long held the belief that there had to be billions, if not trillions of intelligent civilizations across the vast expanse of the universe, but the thought of one already being here on earth and involved in what was occurring on this planet frightened her.
She desperately needed to share her findings and discuss the implications with someone to get a gauge on how reasonable her theories were but was hesitant to say them out loud for rather obvious reasons. Here she had access to one of the greatest scientific minds on the planet and yet she was reluctant to share them with Harri on the off chance that he would label her a kook and arrange an immediate flight on FS-1 to dump her butt unceremoniously on shore. He and in fact all those working on Seaview, especially the captain and XO, were startlingly open minded and willing to listen to what didn't necessarily adhere to common beliefs. Having been so easily accepted by the men on Seaview she dearly hoped that they would fully hear her out as she presented her rather startling theory before they shipped her off.
After much internal debate Kendal finally made the decision to bring her findings to Harri and let the chips fall where they may. Steeling her resolve she exited her cabin and walked down the corridor to the admiral's cabin and knocked. She was immediately beckoned in.
"Kendal, what can I do for you?" Harri asked as he watched her walk in somewhat hesitantly.
"Admiral Nelson I need to show you the results of my last few scans and then give you my theory on what I think those results mean. Do you have a few minutes to review this data?"
Nelson looked at her startled by the sudden degree of formality in her manner of address. "By all means Dr. Ferguson, please pull up a chair and show me what you have."
Kendal opened up her laptop and set it down in front of the admiral then began displaying the scans taken over the last week and a half. She pointed out the anomalies and the troublesome dead zone she had encountered starting 6 days ago. She described her attempts to adjust the probe's sensors to penetrate the dead zone to obtain readings and identified the sweep where she was able to get readings and then in the subsequent sweeps the signals were suddenly blocked due to another shift in frequency.
Harri sat there quietly reviewing the data asking the occasional question to clarify some of the results. Kendal tried desperately to gauge his response to this information but had found the man suddenly inscrutable. Unable to determine whether he believed her data or not, she finally decided to go for broke and offer her theory that there was an intelligence influencing what was going on down at the earth's core and it was trying desperately to obscure their attempts to monitor those actions.
Having provided the entire package she sat back in her chair and watched quietly as Harri mentally processed all she had said. The longer the silence went on the surer she was that she needed to head to her cabin and start packing her bags before Jamie showed up with the long sleeved jacket that buttoned in the back.
After a full ten minutes of agonizing silence Harri shifted in his chair and focused his gaze on the young woman sitting next to him. "Wow, you never fail to astound me Kendal. Looking at everything you've brought me, I'm inclined to agree with your theories and conclusions."
Kendal released a highly audible sigh of relief at Harri's pronouncement. He looked at her and smiled amused by the sense of relief that seemed to wash over her body. "I take it that was not the response you were anticipating?"
"In all honesty Harri, no it was not. I was more than 90% sure you were going to call Jamie down here to sedate me, pour me into FS-1 and leave me onshore at one of the local psychiatric hospitals," she replied with a laugh.
"No my dear lady, that didn't even enter my mind. Actually what you've discovered provides the most logical answer to the events we've observed and I can't say I'm all that surprised," Harri replied. Kendal shot him an astonished look that demanded an explanation of his comment.
"This is not common knowledge beyond the crew on Seaview and a select few within NIMR, and I would request that you keep this to yourself, but in our journeys we have encountered more than one extraterrestrial entity that has been bent on destroying or enslaving life on this planet. In fact Chip, Lee and I have all been transported to the planet Venus by one of those marauding entities. Luckily thus far we've been able to thwart their attacks and driven them from the planet to try their nefarious plans on some other poor undeserving world."
Kendal sat there stunned by Harri's disclosure. "You've really been to Venus? You've met honest to goodness ETs and done battle with them to save the earth?"
"Yes. I won't lie to you and say that it was easily done; in fact the price of those victories was quite high, especially for Lee. I'm not sure why he's been chosen to bear the brunt of their tests and attacks, whether it's because of his position as captain or if there is something else about him that draws their attention but he has been toyed with and tortured by these extraterrestrial visitors in defense of our world. Luckily for us all he's stood the tests and emerged victorious saving us from slavery or worse. The one thing that seems to be in our favor is that all who've come to take us on have seriously underestimated our capabilities and resolve. I think a lot of that stems from not broadcasting our encounters so anyone watching from a distance can't glean any information regarding our strengths or weaknesses and use that against us."
Kendal sat there just shaking her head in wonder and awe. "Geez Harri you sure know how to turn the tables. Here I thought I was coming in to astound you and test your willingness to consider things well beyond the bounds of current reason and belief and I now find me the one left wondering if all this is possible. Maybe I do want Jamie to come on down with something to readjust my reality."
Harri laughed. "Not on your life. Now we need to pull Lee and Chip into this and start working on a means to verify your theories and determine who or what is trying to shake this planet to pieces and why."