From The Deep

Chapter 1

Raleigh Clarke opened her eyes to the metal bottom of the bunk above her. She glanced to her right out the circular port hole to the view of the deep blue sea all around them. It was a view she knew well, the same thing she saw every single morning when she got up.

Her all-in-one started going off, the little bleep, bleep, bleep signaling a call. She sat up, putting her bare feet on the hard metal ground, reaching forward to grab the handheld device from her nightstand. The screen said, 'URGENT CALL: S. BARNES'.

"Oh, crap." She pressed the small green button on the digital display, and the call went through. A series of small bars in the top left corner measured the connection, a timer in the bottom right displayed the length of the call, and Barnes' name was in the bottom left.

"Barnes, what is it?" He wouldn't have made the call urgent if this wasn't something important. Something bad had happened, she knew, and she was bracing herself for it.

"Clarke, you in your bunk?" Barnes' voice was clear on her end, she could tell even through the radio that he sounded stressed. "Yeah, I just got up."

"You need to get to B Level."

"What happened?"

"Some of the eggheads were working on a prototype weapon when the thing went off, launched off the table and plowed right into the hull."

Barnes always told the geniuses up above they needed to be more careful with that stuff, unfortunately they hadn't heeded his warning. Now it was up to them to deal with it, "Christ, how bad is it?"

"The whole room is flooded, the bulkhead is sealed, so it's contained, but we need to patch the breach so we can drain the water out."

"Alright, I'm on my way, give me five."

"Make it three. Don't bother checking in, just head straight up and meet me outside 4A."

Barnes hung up abruptly. Raleigh put her all-in-one aside and leapt to her feet, she padded over to her locker. On it, a little placard: R. Clarke. She opened it and shuddered slightly, feeling cold in only a pair of shorts and a thin tank top; the bottom of the ocean was not a warm place, even with the heat dispersed throughout.

She got her jumpsuit on as quick as she could; the dull gray suit was marked with green on the shoulders, zipper lining, and down the legs, indicating the standard outfit of an engineer, with thick layers and plenty of pockets for tools. On the left breast was a patch that restated her first initial and last name, as well as another patch below that simply read Systems Engineer.

She grabbed her all-in-one, the little clip on the bottom of the handle magnetizing itself to the spot on her belt. She grabbed her long, copper colored hair and tied it back behind her head. She slapped the button next to the door to unlock it and rushed out.

Just as usual, Dalteri Station was bustling. Many people had already been up for a while, but many more were just now getting up, people leaving their quarters to head for the bathrooms. Some wore their uniforms, others just underwear. She pushed her way past them, apologizing when one of them grumbled drowsily at her for shoving through.

She walked down a squared metallic hallway through several open bulkheads. The facility, being underwater, was well-prepared for the event of catastrophic damage that would, with it, bring severe flooding. The entire station was split up into halls, rooms, and airlocks, all of which were separated with heavy duty bulkheads that could be sealed in a moment's notice to confine flooding and prevent the demise of the entire station. The only rooms to not have bulkheads were sub rooms like crew quarters, storage closets and the like; small rooms which had simple electronic doors, the plan being that if flooding occurred, the bulkheads in the outer halls would seal and keep water out.