SHANGHAI, CHINA
_
FIVE YEARS LATER
Loud, rotating movements of helicopter blades slicing through the air was enough to alert someone of a chopper departing its helipad as it sailed over the people's heads, slowly but surely making its way towards the research lab located 200 miles off the Chinese coast.
Mana One Research Station.
The aerial vehicle neared the lab, slowing down to a quick stop as it landed on the helipad located outside, considering the fact the only two methods of getting to the base were either by air or water. The blades stopped rotating as the flight crew came to assist the newcomer out of the helicopter, while grabbing his bag at the last second.
"Are we living a dream here or what?" The passenger asked enthusiastically as he walked towards the person who was responsible for all of this, all while abruptly shoving his bag towards one of the members of the crew while he was passing.
"Welcome to Mana One, Mr. Morris," Zhang greeted him while reaching out for a hand shake. Jack paused, looking at his hand with disgust written on his face, then faced the other male.
"Get that thing away from me," he remarked snarkily, "what are you doing?" He pulled Zhang in for a bear hug, fondly patting each other's backs, "come on, bring it in. There we go."
"Good to see you again, Mr. Morris," Zhang pulled away, having the latter agree with him, "this way please."
"Hey, you always smell so nice," the latter commented on the other's appearance, "what is that? Sandalwood?"
They walked down the metal stairs as the man complimented Zhang for all of his work, "it's impressive so far, I'll say."
Zhang then sighed out in relief as his daughter and his granddaughter came to meet them halfway, turning to Morris as he asked, "do you remember my daughter, Suyin? Our chief marine biologist."
"Hi," greeted the woman, sporting a pleasant smile on her face as she, like her father had done, reached out for a hand shake. Jack took of his glasses, accepting her hand as he spouted out some questionable words in Chinese.
Suyin nervously looked over towards her father as she tried to make sense of what he was saying. "Did you understand a word of that?" She asked her father, who had an equally puzzled expression. "Sorry, what was that?" Jack said, now looking puzzled, "I didn't catch it."
Both Suyin and Zhang pondered for an answer, but her daughter, a girl of age eight called Meiying intervened, "she says she likes your hat." She seemed like she didn't want to attack the man's feelings for his poor knowledge about the language, and instead sugarcoated Suyin's exact words.
The other two seemed to agree almost instantly, not wanting to get Jack suspicious of them. Morris looked at the girl with a cocked eyebrow, earning an innocent like smile from the child. "Let's go," Zhang suddenly suggested to break through the awkward silence they had created. Jack had concurred to the proposition, following the others as they lead him towards the lab itself.
Zhang ran his keycard on the scanner outside the elevator, and stepped into the already diverging doors, Jack, Suyin and Meiying following in pursuit.
"Your granddaughter's a pistol," Jack said, then took a look at the interior of the elevator, which was quite bland for his tastes and he had never missed the chance to express it. "What have we here? This is uhm...really ugly. You know what, I realised that we're under construction and everything, but I really think that a world-class research institute deserves a world-class entrance."
"Yeah," Zhang's words were dry as the ground they walked on, "I couldn't agree more."
A female robotic voice announced, 'O Level' just as the doors opened, revealing a high tech lab with giant glass windows for looking out into the waters.
"Welcome to the O level," Zhang introduced him, gesturing around. He showed him around, showcasing the various things the facility had, explaining that researchers will soon have access to all five labs at the base once it's all finished. Jack was blown away by the view, spotting two Humpback whales of different sizes as they glided through the water in some sort of alluring dance, having him captivated by their movements.
"Did you have those whales here on cue?" Jack wondered out loud. "I might have lured them with some whale songs," Suyin explained, "this is Lucy, and her daughter Gracie." She pointed to the bigger of the two to differentiate them from each other.
The whales swam about, singing their songs as they entertained the three since Meiying as taken halfway to be babysat, next moving onto the elevator to make their way towards the dive control level. They hurried out, moving as fast as they could towards the main control center, where people were already there and working.
"I'd like you to meet our engineer and sub designer, Jaxx." Zhang walked down the short staircase and went to the first person, who had clipped short black hair and tattoos. They exchanged greetings and moved onto the next person when she didn't return his hand shake.
"Doctor Heller. Our medical officer."
After the two shook hands, Jack joked, "you're like Bones, huh?"
"DJ here pilots our remote explorer," Zhang continued while giving him a pat on the back. "How's it going?" Jack complied with a hand shake. "You're my first billionaire," the male commented.
"And of course, Mac, our station chief," Zhang finalized the introductions. "Mr. Morris, just in time," the latter greeted him, handing the two males an earpiece.
"Just in time for what?" Jack questioned, until a voice answered his question.
'Good morning Mr. Morris.'
Mac pointed towards the screens which were on display and introduced the billionaire to the new acquaintance, "Lori Taylor, our mission pilot."
'Hi, Mr. Morris, welcome on board, it's great to have you,' Lori said, looking directly at the camera. "Hey," the billionaire spoke sheepishly, "how's it going down there? Where'd you learn how to pilot a sub?"
'I spent ten years with a certain whale-saving environmental group that shall remain unnamed for legal reasons.'
A new voice spoke from behind her, 'Yeah, ask her if she ever blew up a whaling ship with a homemade torpedo.' With a comical tone. The billionaire commented a 'No' as an expression of shock.
'Eleven in two,' another masculine voice spoke up, this one belonging to a man named Toshi.
'Water temperature is at six degrees.'
'Mac, we are through the thermocline," Lori reported, 'we are approaching 11,000 meters.'
'One hundred metres from the bottom,' Toshi reported, before adding a, 'maybe.'
"Maybe?" Jack looked between Zhang and Mac, "What does he mean 'maybe'?"
"Come on, look at this," Mac drew his attention away from the screens and guided him towards a different set of screens while Zhang explained, "since 1875, we've all believed the Mariana Trench was the deepest place on earth. I've had a theory that what we think is the bottom might actually be a layer of hydrogen sulfide. Beneath that cloud and a freezing cold thermocline, there could be a completely new world."
"The Origin is about to see if my father is right," Suyin inputted, "if there is warm water below, that means we're going to be the first to see it." "And what if you're wrong?" Jack asked skeptically.
"Then you have wasted $1.3 billion dollars," Zhang answered instead.
Jack laughed, and added, "You're kidding."
Zhang shook his head ever so slightly, showing he really wasn't. He then turned to Mac, "he's kidding, right?"
"Copy that," was his response after a brief moment of silence, as well as him running away from the question.
'Ten metres, approaching boundary.'
'Hovering at five metres. Full stop.'
"Final checks?" Mac asked professionally, "Jaxx?"
"Good to go."
"Doc?"
"Crew are a go."
"DJ?"
"Sub and rover are a go."
"Origin crew, we are a go for insertion."
'Insertion,' crackles of laughter emerged from the word itself, getting the crew into a good mood.
'Is everything sexual with you guys?' Lori's unamused tone cuts through. Toshi spoke, 'Sex, food, power and...'
'Money,' he and the other guy, named 'The Wall' finished. They then fist bumped, pretending to set off an explosion as they separated.
'Dive control, we are a go for...Insertion.'
Everyone then holds their breath as the Origin descends into the fog, hoping and praying that Zhang's was right.
'We're in. You guys we're in. It's a cloud, it's not the bottom.'
"Lori, be careful," Mac warned, "we don't know the depth on the other side of this. The sea floor could come right up on you."
'Copy that Mac. We're ready.'
Famous last words.
'You guys, we are through!' Lori rejoiced as she looked at her two comrades.
'I have multiple small sonar contacts. There's life down here!'
Meanwhile, everyone in the diving control unit was rejoicing because Zhang's theory was actually right. They then resumed to watch as lights were deployed to help them see their way better.
There was a lot going on in front of everyone as they looked on in complete awe at the marine life they had just discovered.
'DJ, we got positive terrain to launch the rover.'
"Copy," the man said as he began clicking away on his keyboard, granting them all access to the Rover.
They were able to see what the rover viewed, and they were all blown away by it, it shouldn't be possible.
"This ecosystem is completely cut off from the rest of the ocean by the freezing cold thermocline," Zhang explained, "we should find all sorts of species completely unknown to science."
"Sounds like a good investment," Jack remarked.
A few thrills and sirens cut through their newfound air of discovery when Toshi reported, 'Lori, I have a contact. Bearing zero eight zero.'
'Huh, it's big.'
'Oh, it's huge.'
'And it's moving fast.'
'DJ, is the rover seeing this?'
He looked at the screen and spotted nothing out of the ordinary, well, not really ordinary but still, "negative. Let me try and bring up some more lights." He tapped a button which activated the light on the starboard side, while tryng to find what Toshi had picked up.
The rover was suddenly attacked, interrupting the signal between it and the dive control center. The images the rover now portrayed were glitchy and anyone could barely make out what was being shown.
Jaxx ordered them to move, hoping that it was simply an underwater landslide, but the unknown detection was persistent and kept following them.
'Last time I checked, landslides don't make 90-degree turns.'
'It's right on us, it's right on us!'
The crew watched as something knocked the sub sideways, sending them into a spiral.
"Lori, what's going on down there?" Mac asked, his composure not cracking at the current situation.
'You guys, come look at this.'
The screen showed the rover, all banged up like it was attacked by a rather powerful set of teeth.
'What could do that to the rover?'
'I don't think I wanna know.'
The sonar clicked again, the mysterious creature returning to the sub with a fast pace.
'It's coming back.'
The sub jolted due to the impact of the mysterious thing crashing into them, wracking them off course.
'Let's get out of here. Blow the tanks.'
'I'm trying; it's not working!'
'It's not starting!'
'Mac help!'
'Whole system's down!'
'Oh, my god! DJ, Mac. There's something down here! Jonas was right! Jonas and Evelyn were right, do you co...-'
The audio cuts off as the video sticks at one frame, the label 'CONNECTION ERROR' being present on the screen.
"Lori come in," Mac called into the intercom, "Origin, can you hear me? Origin, please respond."
He kept asking for the crew on the Origin to give some sort of signal to ensure they're still alive, but all they get was static.
They gathered around as Mac called them together to go to the conference room, "gather around, people. Options."
"Not great," Jaxx spoke. "We know they're alive," Heller spoke, "I've still got telemetry on their vitals."
"How long do they have?" Jack asked him. After a sharp intake of air, Heller said, "maybe 18 hours." "Ballast valves are jammed," Jaxx inputted, "which means it can't rise by itself. If we attempt to tow it, it's fifty-fifty that the tanks will explode and breach the capsule."
"Can't we go hatch to hatch?" Mac suggested. DJ shook his head, refusing with the idea with, "not a chance." Jaxx added that the external camera the sub has was showing severe hatch damage.
"We have to try something," Suyin proposed. "They're six miles down and no one has ever attempted a rescue at that depth," Jaxx shot her down.
"Well, that's not exactly true," Mac intervened, giving Heller time to realise whom he was speaking about. "No, no way."
"We can handle this," Suyin insisted. "Not at 11,000 metres, you can't," Mac argued. "We've gone 5,000 metres, 8,000 metres," DJ added, "at some point, it just becomes a number."
"Why don't you try this number?" Mac asked, "four. That's how many people have actually attempted a rescue below 10,000 metres. And the number two. That's how many are alive to talk about it. One man and one woman, Jonas Taylor and Evelyn Yearwood."
"And look what happened to that one man and one woman the last time they went to these depths," Heller argued against him. "They saved eleven people, including you Heller. That's what happened," Mac pointed at the doctor.
"They left our friends to die, because they had pressure-induced psychosis!"
"Come on Heller, that was your diagnosis. Jonas said something attacked them, Evelyn saying the same thing. Something big enough to take out a nuclear submarine."
"He's a drunk and she's on ecstasy!"
The argument between the two went back and forth until Zhang had to interrupt them.
"We all heard Lori's last transmission," he said, "we have to consider that the Origin may have encountered something similar to what Jonas Taylor and Evelyn Yearwood described. Something they were able to escape from."
Suyin spoke up, wanting to suggest something else, but he raised an arm to shut her up.
"Prep the helicopter. We must go to South Korea and Thailand."
...
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
_
She sighed to herself, watching the exterior through one of the many windows in the penthouse she had bought to live in. She sat on the window sill without a fear of possibly falling off.
Her fingers delicately gripped the tea cup she was holding by the brim, raising it up to her lips to consume the tea, while relishing in the bitter yet tangy flavour.
She was here, instead of out there. She told the base she resigned, not wanting to do with anything anymore. She told them where she would be, but there was no reason for them to come get her to do anything.
She'll refuse either way.
It had recently started to pour, the quiet pattering of raindrops lightly hammering against the rooftop, falling off to kiss and enrich the earth in all its glory. The landscape of the ocean stretched out in front of her, wrapped in a heavy and thick blanket of fog, changing the appearance from a cheery deep blue to a dismal and dull grey, while the water enhanced the already fading scent of salt, wafting it into the breeze and meeting her nose as if it phased through the glass.
This was worth it.
The silence, the calm, the serenity, everything.
The glass condensed as she exhaled, her breath leaving her lips as tiny wisps of mist. She ran a hand through her now dyed red hair, this time it being cut to shoulder length and styled in a wolf cut, casually lounging while the sky briefly lit up, following by a loud clap of thunder which rattled her.
She wasn't afraid of thunder, but she couldn't stand it either. It reminded her way too much of the rescue mission five years ago, she wanted to forget about it.
Another breath left her lips, her eyes caught slivers of rain cascading down the windows as they raced against the other for first place, absorbing each other as they go.
She got up, turning her back against the view and striding away, placing her tea cup on the coaster while her toes felt the plush feel of the blue fluffy carpet. She glided towards her wardrobe, deciding to take a small stroll through the streets.
She had only worn an oversized T-shirt with her favourite band on the front and grey sweatpants, not a good combination considering the current weather conditions outside. She pulled out a blue raincoat, one with a hood, and draped it onto her body. Wanting to be extra safe, she pulled out her platform boots and slipped her feet into them, securing then tightly.
She left the penthouse, carrying her house keys and cellphone with her, gently humming along to the timely lilt the tears of the clouds above had fallen into. Her eyes wandered into the small puddles of water as she passed, watching as they collect the free flying water droplets with miniscule splashes.
She stopped to crouch down to peer into one of them, viewing her reflection rippling as each harmless bullet tore through the tranquil surface. She smiled contentedly to herself, watching her reflection smile back at her.
She disembarked once more, observing people hurrying to get out of the downpour, all while covered by jackets, umbrellas or decided to just fuck it and straight up run through it, all while getting doused like they're having a second shower.
She didn't mind, until she stopped in her tracks, witnessing a group of people as they peered upwards into the clouds, pointing towards a chopper that landed on a nearby helipad.
She backed away, her legs acted on their own. She didn't know why but that helicopter had looked vaguely familiar. Instead of going to find out what it was, she just stood there, shoving her hands into her raincoat's pockets as she looked at the thing expectantly.
The doors to the helicopter slid open as two people emerged from it, the rain making it very difficult to distinguish some of their features. That was until she heard a faint 'Evelyn'. The voice was something she had heard before, but had dreaded she'll hear it again. Panicking a bit, she turned on the balls of her heels and jogged away, only for the two unknown figures to reach her when a hand grabbed her shoulder, yanking her back.
"You think you could escape me?" One of the men grinned at her, while the other just glanced between the two with confusion.
"Mac," she forced a somewhat genuine smile on her lips, pulling his arm away as she turned to face him, "great way to make a grand entrance." "I learnt from the best now, didn't I?" He retorted back, matching the smile as they wrapped their arms around each other in a bone crushing hug.
"It's good to see you, Eve. Even after five years," he pulled back, "but we have business to discuss."
"Yeah, but not out here where we can possibly get sick and die," she said, "come on, we can talk in my penthouse."
She led the way back, ignoring the judgemental stares people were giving her because of the two uninvited guests in their town.
Upon reaching the penthouse, she pulled out her keys and unlocked the door, pushing it inward and allowed the two to step inside first before she did. She took off her raincoat and hung it up, unlaced her shoes and placed it back in her wardrobe. Next, she motioned for the two to have a seat on the chairs provided. "Nice place," Mac commented, taking a look around.
"Thank you. Now, what did you want to talk about?" The question rolled off her tongue easily, the curiosity building up inside her. "Firstly, I don't think you two have met," Mac started, "But this is Mr. Minway Zhang, head of the Mana One Research Station." He motioned to the unidentified man whom had accompanied him.
'It's a pleasure to meet you. Sir,' she shook his outstretched hand and spoke in his first language, 'I've heard a lot about you. All good things, really. I must say, I am impressed by your work ethic.'
'You speak Chinese?' The man himself appeared shocked, 'my, my. Your pronunciation sounds like a native, it could have fooled me.' Mac watched as the two exchanged words before continuing, "I have no idea what you had just said but I'm going to continue."
She nodded him for go on to the point of his sudden visit.
"To cut a long story short, we need you and Jonas back with us. We have a deep sea rescue on our hands," Mac explained. "Oh no," she laughed airly, shaking her head at the news, "no, no. You're not getting me in that water again. You called me fucking crazy the last time. Why would I want to go back down there and who would need the saving?"
She emitted a scoff at the end, standing up and paced away, "if that's all you've come for, I'm sorry but you're wasting your time with me." The two male's exchanged glances before Mac spoke again, "it's Lori, Evelyn. Your former best friend? Ex-wife of Jonas?"
"Ex-wife...? What...?" Her head tried to process the new information, "they divorced?" "Yes, but that's not the issue right now," Mac continued, "you and him are the only two who has done a rescue at below 10,000 metres in the ocean and live to tell the tale. We need you both, but in order to convince him, you need to be on board. Please, Eve. If you won't do it for us, at least do it for Lori and her crew."
He then pulled out his phone, "listen. This happened today." He pressed the play button, playing the audio loud enough for her to hear.
'Let's get out of here. Blow the tanks.'
'I'm trying; it's not working!'
'It's not starting!'
'Mac help!'
'Whole system's down!'
'Oh, my god! DJ, Mac. There's something down here! Jonas was right! Jonas and Evelyn were right, do you co...-'
She pondered on the thought for a while, then looked up to the two, "how long do they have left?" "Less than 16 hours," Zhang answered.
She nodded in understanding, bitting the inner of her cheek as she made her decision, "alright. I'm in."
...
