Deep Blue - The Descent

2: Close Encounter

At that speed and size, Steve and Chase both knew they wouldn't even need to come in contact with the creatures to cause serious problems. Anything that big was going to leave one heck of a wake.

A moment later the creatures were upon them. As they soared around the Neptune and past the front window, Chase caught the faintest glimpse of a couple of the monstrous tentacles. The Neptune rocked back and forth violently. The back of the Neptune tumbled forward end over end and sent the craft rolling out of control.

Inside, Chase and Steve were rocked from side to side in their seats. A loud rush could be heard outside as the creatures passed all around the Neptune.

With a blinding flash of sparks, the internal blue lights blinked out casting the crew in complete and total darkness. The sound of breaking glass was heard as Steve's glasses impacted somewhere inside the cockpit and shattered. A deafening bang reverberated throughout the inside of the Neptune and it felt as if a giant hand grabbed the rear of the Neptune and threw it forward like a child's play toy. Metal screamed as the tiny craft twisted under the force. Pops were heard as well as a cacophony of other unrecognizable sounds as anything that wasn't bolted down, or secured in their seats, went tumbling around the cockpit like loose change in a dryer.

Then -- there was silence, broken only by sporadic pops and arcs from electrical equipment, which allowed for instant flashes of visibility.

When Chase opened her eyes, her head was still spinning with dizziness. If it wasn't for the sparks emanating from various consoles around the inside of the cockpit it would have been impossible for Chase to tell whether or not she HAD actually opened her eyes.

She called out, "Steve. Steve, are you ok?"

A slight rustling in the seat behind her told her that he was at least alive.

"What?", he mumbled incoherently. "Ok, impressing the ladies totally isn't worth this. Can we go home now?"

He joked, which Chase took as a good sign, but behind the sarcasm was a slight tremble in his voice.

Chase had already begun feeling her way around the controls in front of her, using the brief flashes of light from the sparks to guide her. It would help if she could just get the world to stop spinning for just a moment.

"I think I hit my head.", Steve reported as something wet trickled down his face. He reached up with his hand to feel where the damage had been done. He hoped the dampness he felt was blood, because the only other alternative would mean there was a leak. A leak would be worse. In the dark it was impossible to tell.

"Are you ok?", Chase asked as one-by-one she slowly found the switches she was looking for and prayed that once she had gone through the startup sequence...that the thing would start.

"Damage report. How bad is it?", she asked as she pressed the final button in the sequence which, much to her relief, caused a few of the blue interior lights to flicker back to life.

What little light they had gained was enough for Steve to confirm that is was indeed blood that was trickling down his forehead as he stared a moment at his red, blood-stained hands.

Steve began rebooting the systems one button at a time, leaving behind red fingerprints with each press. "Give me a minute and I should have a full damage report. Bringing all systems back online."

The monitor to his left was smashed pretty well. Judging by the impact, and where his forehead was bleeding, his best guess is that he smashed it himself.

"Can you at least get me some kind of external lights?", Chase asked. "It's not like they did any good being off.", she thought to herself.

She agreed with Steve, it was definitely time to go home and it would be nice to see where they were going.