Pearls of Atlantis

Into the Atlantic

  "3... 2... 1... LAUNCH!"

  At that, Dream tensed just as the pod blasted at full force into the water. Through the splash of water and bubbles, he could see the ocean beneath.

  It's odd how the underside of the station looks. The huge anti-rust metal pillions that sink into the ocean floor like the legs of a giant octopus. He couldn't even see the ends of the pillions from there.

  Carefully steering the pod away from the pillions and along the LED lined path down the sloping  sand, he increased the turbo power slightly. The pod's head lights are working but that didn't mean he could see more than a hundred meters away, and it'll only get worst the deeper he goes.

  Watching a couple colorful exotic fishes swim by, he took a moment to snap a picture. He's never seen those fishes around here before, and he isn't sure if that's bad news or good news.

  After some time along the path, the lights stopped and the sandy slope had dropped into a steep ravine. There was still seafloor in sight but it still made Dream's heart drop. He keeps getting tricked into thinking this is a car and that if he drove off a cliff, he'll fall to his death.

  Descending further down, heaps of corals and seashells started appearing. They formed colorful little hills  carpeted by sea grass and algae. Fishes seemed to like it at least and minded their own business swimming around the pod's glass. Occasionally bonking their snout onto the glass for no apparent reason.

  Continuing forward, Dream kept taking picture and collected his earth samples. And things were looking pretty good for him when he noticed another dip in the terrain. From the edge of the dip, you could tell that this led to the the deepest part of the seafloor.

  "That must be my final stop." Dream mused as he steered the pod down. 

  This part of the ocean was devoid of any vegetation. Just lumps of grey coral. The corals are so startlingly dead that it looks like a barren wasteland of nothingness. Dream could have gotten the sample right then and there and left, but curiosity got the better of him. What could be happening to those corals that made them die completely?

  Gliding across the coral graveyard, Dream almost scratched the pod several times. The corals are sharp and if they scrape or dent the pod, the repair fee is coming out of his paycheck. 

  Suddenly, a bright red flash caught his eyes and he immediately spun the pod around. What was that? The red was gone but he could have sworn he saw it. Gunning towards the spot where he saw the flash, he had to slam on the breaks to avoid crashing.

  There was a cloud of dust here. Not even the headlights could cut through it. He had thought it was a normal ocean effect at first, but now that the pod is physically in the dust, he isn't sure anymore.

  Pressing the comms button, he continued steering at a slow pace through the dust.

  "Hello? Control tower speaking. You are in contact with Officer Moore, please state your problem." The radio said and Dream frowned when he noticed the radio was cutting out slightly. The sonar system, which had been showing absolutely nothing for the past thirty minutes was acting up. Glitches of red kept appearing all over the place, one second it was right next to the pod and the next it was at the edge of the detection lines.

  "Hello? This is uhmm... Dream speaking. I am in the CSB 259, at the seabed of the Atlantic ocean. There is a dust cloud over parts of the sea floor, and something is interfering with the sonar system."

  "Hello Dream. I am tracking your capsule submarine, and it appears that you are over an algae grove. Could you please explain the problem again for me?"

  At that, Dream's eyebrows shot up. He was definitely not in an algae grove. The CSB's underside is scraping sand and not even a strand of algae is in sight so who is he kidding. "Sir, I am NOT, in fact, in an algae grove. I am on the the empty seabed, and there is something in the dust cloud that is interfering with the sonar waves. The sonar is detecting an unknown moving organism."

  "Uhhh.. okay. You are absolutely certain you are not in an algae grove?"

  "Yes, officer."

  "Okayyyyy.... ummm... Your CSB may have been installed with a malfunctioning tracker. It is completely possible that the pod's motherboard is faulty and thus affecting both the tracker and the sonar system. Umm... is there anything in sight that may prove to be helpful or dangerous?"

  "The dust is clouding everything. The pod's visibility is not even a meter away, and ummm... you're cutting out." He said just as the pod collided with a stone wall. Dream cursed and hurried pulled the pod in reverse. That definitely left a dent.

  "Wh-a-re-you---Dre-m--" The radio cut and he repeatedly pressed the comms button. This has never happened to him before and it's definitely not normal. From the top of the pod, he could tell that there were spikes of stalagmite overhead, meaning that he is in a cave. And caves are bad when you have no idea where you are going.

  The radio's dead. He can't backtrack now considering that he has no idea where he came from. He was avoiding corals and making random turns trying to find the thing the sonar was detecting but he had to try.

  Following along the walls of the cave, he has no idea where he was going when something suddenly shook the pod. It was so violent, in fact, that if he hadn't been seated, he would have fallen down. 

   The pod had struck something. Or more accurately, something had struck it. The sonar is really going bazonkers now, blaring it's alarm and flashing red lights. It would have been wiser to have not involved the red lights because, now , the creature was pissed.

  Repeatedly striking the pod, Dream scrambled to unbuckle his sea belt and grab for supplies. He is thousands of meters underwater. If the thing out there didn't kill him, and the water pressure would. The pod's glass, which had been repeatedly slammed against the wall of the cave was cracking and that's not good. So many things could go wrong here. He's panicking.

  Glancing over the controls, Dream noticed the few buttons everyone warned him to not use. Time to go American... slamming down on the levers to release firearm, two miniature rockets fired into the water, not a bad idea but seeing the circumstance, it's not the best idea either. The blast probably did chase the thing away, but it also blew up on the cave wall.

  The shower of rocks and falling stalagmite did what it needed to do on the glass. The crack broke through and water was seeping into the vessel fast.

  As the water submerge him, he held his breath, but he could feel his breath running thin. Looking around in panic, he noticed the speed gear in front of him. As a last resorted effort, he pushed up to max. Surprisingly, the pod, although badly damaged still wound up it's one working engine and blasted forward.

  He didn't get to appreciate his moment of hard work, however, because he blacked out immediately after.

___

End. <3

- Ghost