The Sunken
Untold Stories of the people aboard the USS Kanaloa
An OxenFree FanFiction
The date is January 15, 1941. Launch day, The USS Kanaloa looking pristine on her launch ramp. The location is Edwards Island, A small island once inhabited by Indian people, now a military base. The Kanaloa is a new submarine with an experimental nuclear reactor. It is also a secret project funded by the government to probe the vast mysteries of time travel. 97 people will board today, 85 crew members, 12 passengers; though none will survive, at least not in their physical sense. For the Kanaloa, being escorted by many other subs and patrol boats, will be intentionally sunk, but not before the experimental reactor on board is pushed past maximum capacity. The explosion in theory should push the inhabitants of the sub where no one has ever gone before, beyond space and time. As the beaming young crew board the vessel, and as the final words of its christening speech are uttered, the USS Kanaloa is set out to sea. The date is October 25, 1943.
The young inexperienced crew run around the island a few times to test the engines and to see how she performs, all is well till the sub receives its command via radio transmission to begin the experiment. The reactor on board starts to increase in power, no alarms sound as those were all turned off to prevent suspicion, however a clever engineer noticed that something wasn't quite right with the reactor. He informs the captain, a distress signal is sent out but, due to the power of the reactor the transmission is garbled.
Maggie Addler a young radio operator at the time was stationed at Harden tower when the signal came through. She could confirm that it was a distress signal but not much else, she relayed the message to the patrol boats, the message was received though not as she expected, the ships fired on the Kanaloa as this was part of the experiment. The sinking shot came from USS Walter Roy. The sub explodes, the experiment was a success but not completely.
The sub was destroyed and the wreckage lay at the bottom of the water, but the crew are not on board, their bodies were shredded by the immense radiation, but their life energy, their consciousness, their souls, were displaced. They are in a place between reality and time, The Void. This is a place of emptiness, there is nothing here except darkness, and a small window, a window through space-time, though all they could see was where they just were, now a pile of wreckage at the bottom of the deep blue.
At first they thought they were dead, once they realized they weren't, the panic set in, panic led to sorrow, sorrow led to anger, this anger led to an emptiness within them. Their minds slowly deteriorating into nothing. They went from being individuals to being a collective thought, a hive mind. Over time they learned how to open other windows but only on the island. Over time they learned to manipulate things in reality, but only on the island. When you have an eternity to think, you tend to pick up a thing or two. Many have come and gone though none were right.
The year is 1965, the story of how the sub sunk went from being friendly fire to the story that it was shot and sunk by a Japanese sub chaser named Tokisada on October 28, 1943. The new story was erected to cover up the true purpose of the sub. A monument displaying a recovered propeller was erected on Main Street, Edwards Island it still stands today.
It was Maggie who was the first that tried to set them free, feeling guilty as though she caused the incident. She picked up on their signal shortly after the sub sank, though they were long gone. A few days here are a few eons for them, time is fluid and flows much differently in the void. Maggie tried to bring them back, yet failed, but through this The Sunken concocted a plan, they would posses Maggie's friend Anna. They tried, but they forced it too quickly and Anna was sucked into the void with the sunken, though in a different state than them, she never lost her sanity.
Anna didn't go crazy, she didn't succumb to the temptation of the anger, she never went red. She stayed busy, continually trying to contact Maggie on the other side. She tried sending signals through the windows, if only she would tune in. She did! Though there was not much she could do, The Sunken were the masters of this realm, they wouldn't let her go. Anna never was able to leave, just leave little glimpses of hope for Maggie, coded transmissions throughout the island "Still Here-Cannot Move-Very Cold-Love Anna". She had to let Maggie know she was okay. Sadly she couldn't maintain her sanity forever, "Getting Scared-Losing Things-Love" she faded away, but she refused to be swallowed by the sunken. Maggie never gave up though, she died in her house trying so desperately to bring back her friend.
The Sunken watched and waited, waited for the perfect individual. Someone with the right amount of curiosity. Someone with the right level of determination. Someone like Maggie. Every year a new group of teenagers would arrive on the island and live it up on the beach.They watched as the children played ridiculous pranks on each other. They watched as the children drank till they couldn't remember their own names. They watched, and waited, waited for someone to enter the cave, to tune into their signal, to set them free. None came. There were a few, they found transmissions all over the island but never the channels of The Sunken. They only ever found Anna's signals, stuck on repeat.
The Sunken never had the finesse that Anna had with sending the signals. They didn't know how to communicate like Anna did with her Morse code. Their spectral bodies had no voice of their own, although they had collected words from old radio transmissions, their voices were far from complete. If only there was someone, brave enough, to enter the cave, brave enough to tune into their signal, brave enough to set them free. Then she came, the girl with the blue hair, "Sleepy. Time. Gal.," her name was Alex. She came with her friends Ren, the class clown; Jonas, the cool as ice new step brother; Nona, the quiet and kind; Clarissa, the bitch who dated Alex's now dead brother. They don't know what it was about her, but they knew she was the one. The one with the right amount of curiosity, the right level of determination, she was like Maggie. They watched as the children talked on the beach, they watched the children played that ridiculous game. They were so close to the cave, so close to the source. Finally "Lets go check out the caves" said the one with the yellow hair. Ren, Alex, and Jonas hopped the fence and walked towards the caves. Alex pulled out her radio, entered the cave, and tuned in. "Bob Tail. Shave Tail. Sleepy. Time. Gal. Is. Leave. Possible?" They asked in their broken voice. "I guess so" she replied. A glimmer of hope rushed through The Sunken. This could be their chance. But they couldn't do it like they tried withed Anna, a different approach was required.
Suddenly the cave shook, the release of energy when the window was opened caused the cave to weaken, it was going to collapse. They couldn't leave her there, their only hope, she would get crushed, they would be stuck for another few eternities. They pulled her into the void and dropped her out quick enough so she didn't get trapped. They dropped her in front of Harden tower. The tower that Maggie was in that fateful night. It was one of the many windows they have been able to open up on the island. While they waited for her to wake they came up with a plan. They couldn't force themselves into a person, it takes time, they need to soak in. Time they have a lot of, but not enough time with the children, not enough for it to soak in. They needed to keep them there, on the island. They created the loop. The children could never leave, not until they were ready.
