Black Diamond (Two)
Black Diamond
The submersible lowered slowly down the sides of the space between the entrance walls, the path that they had mapped working perfectly to guide them down the space between them.
As Much as he trusted the geniuses that put this system together, John Nolan could not help himself and kept his hands on the controls of the vessel, better to be safe than a smear on the sound of some underwater canyon wall.
The signal kept coming back and as far as the systems could tell the readings had them slap bang in the middle and descending slowly into the deep, it was quite the experience to put all your faith in the skills of men who were sat miles above them now on a science vessel.
He had signed on for this and the time to be having second thoughts was about 10 hours ago when he could have jumped overboard or stolen a lifeboat and drifted off into some sort of career obscurity.
He turned his attention to the display of monitors that the vessel's external cameras were linked into, the screen might have been switched off for all they did right now, as before not even the lights attached to the hull could not make a dent in the darkness out there, or if they could, there was nothing to see.
"Are we proceeding to the designs? Captain"
The voice of Heinrich Meuller now coming from behind him, now close enough that it was obvious that the older man has unstrapped himself and moved forward enough to now be standing behind John Nolan's captain's chair.
For a moment John considered maybe advising the scientist that perhaps he should strap himself back in, but that thought was quickly dismissed by himself as the older man leaned closer over John's left shoulder and looked at the displays.
"All looking good, Doc"
He said not turning his head and for some reason, he could not work out, his hand gripped the controls a little tighter.
"That is Excellent and we are on course for the caverns that the probes found?"
The doctor continued, the tone of his voice seeming a little more excited at the thought of exploring them.
"Yeah, might get a little tight, but we should make contact in about 27 minutes, Kraken's withstanding?"
This seemed to throw the German off for a moment, the wheels in his head seeming to spin wildly as the joke went way over his head and then came crashing back down again.
"Kraken?, I doubt we will find any such thing, this is not some B movie"
The words were delivered in an almost admonishing tone, but John did not mind, he knew that when you poked the bear, you have to expect something to happen.
"Alright, Doc, maybe you should get all your stuff ready and I will give you a nod when we are a few minutes out, no point being up this end of the aeroplane, the inflight movie is terrible"
John said gesturing towards the darkened screens that made up the cameras and the lack of anything interesting on the sonar screen.
"Yes, yes, we will prepare"
He said without the slightest trace of reaction coming from the scientist, either Germans really did have no sense of humour or John was slowly becoming the king of bad jokes
Without another word spoken between them, he heard the scientist move away and gestured for his colleague Dr Taylor to follow him and the pair of them disappeared from the cockpit into the rear of the vessel and where all of the equipment for this expedition was stowed away.
The more they descended into the passageway, the more John Nolan could not escape a strange sense of foreboding, this was new ground for anyone as far as he was aware, only the probes having been down into what they called the deep and everything they came back with, seemed to say it was safe for humans.
Albeit safe with the pressure suits, even so, nothing wrong with a little caution on his part, he doubted the two docs were going to much help in a fight, so he had to rely on his training.
Without the two other men in the cockpit with him, it now seemed eerily quiet and he could imagine that this is how someone could develop some sort of cabin fever or other such ailments, his hands tightened even hard now on the stick as he felt the craft come to a dead stop.
"Alright, caverns up ahead"
He said quietly to himself as he looked at the viewport in front of him and the vague outline of the cavern walls now illuminated by the powerful beams of the lights that dotted the exterior of their vessel.
Before him the entrance that had previously been mapped out and he felt the engines rumble into life once more and the submersible began to move forward into the opening.
"Here goes nothing"
He said to himself as he heard the door open that separated the cockpit from the cargo storage age and the two men came back in. and took their seats, the cockpit now seeming even more crowded with the bags they now carried.
"Gentlemen, we are now into the unknown"
John Nolan said and stopped himself from finishing that sentence with his joke about Mary Beth and the unknown that he got into on the night of prom. oh, glory days he thought as he felt his stomach twist a little as they accelerated into the opening.
He would take over the controls in a couple of minutes, find the landing spot that the probes had found and then see if the science was spot on or they were going to head out into some acidic science fiction nightmare, he needed to watch less late night tv.
With his hands on the controls, he flicked a switch to turn the controls over to manual and looked at the cameras and eased them further into the tunnel system and rising up into an area which was submerged in water and they could explore on foot.
Several more minutes passed and they emerged into the open area of the cavern the vessel floated atop the water as he guided them to the edge of what could best be described as dry land.
Guiding them closer, he turned around and backed the rear of their craft to the ground and looked down at the atmospheric readings once more and it all seemed to check out with the information the probe had brought back.
"Ok, gentlemen, we have arrived"
John said and unstrapped himself. his hand reached up to touch the face plate of his environmental suit's helmet and felt better that it was there. his hand reaching down to touch the trusty sidearm he wore at his hip.
He could hear the rear hatch already being lowered and he shook his head as he rushed to catch up with the two men, it was like they were a pair of kids on Christmas morning and all he could think about was, well anything but Christmas morning.
When he reached the rear of the vessel, he saw the two men already on the natural rock formation and were taking some sort of readings with their various hi-tech gizmos and things, he did not understand.
But he was not here for that part of the job, he was the driver and the on-site security, the mission was kept deliberately low-key and to the bare minimum at the urging of Dr Heinrich Meuller.
The next few hours were slow but quiet and he could not argue with, the German eventually urging his fellow scientist to go deeper into the cavern and through a single tunnel.
John rushed to get ahead of them and try to scout the tunnel, other than the slime deposits on the walls, it did not seem to pose any danger but would stay in front of the two scientists until they stopped to do more tests.
They moved a few more hundred yards with Dr Mueller urging them to keep going, even though his colleague wanted to stop to test the tunnel walls and floor, but the senior man got his way and they kept moving.
John was the first to see the strange light up ahead, it seemed bright yet with a strange dark aura to it, he could not work it out but continued to move forward, his hand reaching to touch his pistol, but making no effort to remove it from the protective holster that held it.
The tunnel opened up into a larger open cavern, the middle of it he saw what was the source of the light, a large diamond hung in the air and nothing seemed to be holding it there, the colour radiated a darkness that could be described as infinite shades of black.
His training kicking back in, he looked around the room and lifted his flashlight and could see more of the piles of slime that littered the ground, a large green and white liquid-like substance.
"it is beautiful"
The words coming from behind him and the distinct germanic tone of Dr Mueller, John wanting to warn him to stare back but his flashlight crossed against the back of the cavern wall and he could see what looked like some form of the stone structure that was built into the wall in a circular pattern
it looked like a dead end and he considered turning back to the two men for a moment and then saw movement from one of the piles of slime-like substance on the ground.
Something seemed to be forming from it, rising up out of the liquid and taking shape, he turned to look at another one of the piles and saw that two were forming into something else.
His mind now racing wildly as more of these slime substances were growing from the ground and he could now make out the humanoid goo-like form that formed from the ground as they took on shape and slowly slivered across the ground towards the three of them.
To be continued.
