Miles out into the Australian ocean a boat rests on the waves. Along it's green painted hull in white block letters is the name "The Oregon". The white crest of the waves idly lap against the boat like the beckoning touch of a lover. The sun rests close to the horizon line, promising the eventual night that is to come. The crew of this ship hurriedly moved around the thing on the deck held up by a large crane. As people calibrated, checked, and re-check this multi-limbed mechanical form there was one who looked at it with a dismayed curiosity. Her slim form stood straight as her head gently nodded while she took in the new technology that she was going to be trusting to keep her alive. A man walked up towards her causing her to look over and unconsciously stiffen. She pushed the stray hairs from her ponytail out of her face before he could walk up to her. The man had shoulder length dirty blonde hair and held himself with an easy going nature, he smiled excitedly. The smile dipped once he got close enough to see the woman's demeanor. He took a sip from his thermos mug before speaking.
"You okay, Brynn?" The man asked the woman, "We've been testing the suit front and back, up and down. Everything looks great, might I even say perfect!"
Brynn had known Ben Kusuma for a while but it was only through mutual acquaintances or bumping into one another at a conference. It had never been long conversations but Brynn had always left with a smile on her face. That was the type of person that Ben was, he was always able to find something to say to get a smile. Behind Ben's easy going demeanor was a sharp analytical mind. Ben had made it a point to try and get to know people before we headed off to sea for this study. It meant that he was sort of the social glue of the ship.
"Yeah, I know Ben. I just get butterflies in my stomach whenever I am going to do a deep dive." Brynn says to Ben without taking her eyes of the diving suit, "And this is going to be the deepest one yet. There is a lot going on here too. Like, being on the news and getting this cutting edge diving suit and funding from Talbot. They practically bank rolled all of this research. I just... I just wanted to do some dives. I didn't want to be a celebrity."
Ben has a sympathetic smile as he listens. Brynn finally lets out a sigh and looks over at Ben with a small forced smile and she shrugs.
"I mean, when you end up rubbing elbows with corporate execs and movie stars I have this cousin who writes scripts. They are pretty good, if you could put a word in." Ben jokes to Brynn which seems to lighten her mood a little, "Brynn, being on the front page of a small town paper and being on some local access news "being a celebrity. If you didn't get that attention then we might have never gotten this suit and the funding from Talbot."
"Yeah, I just wish that we got the funding because of the importance of the research than the weird mystery that the media is making this out to be." Brynn sighs.
"I wouldn't get in your head about it. You still get to do your dives all the same, just now when you get back to land people are actually going to listen to you." Ben gives her a small nudge to Brynn with his shoulder.
"Yeah, I'll try to not let people listening to me go to my head." Brynn jokes back, "You're right. This is such a big opportunity to survey an ocean trench, and one that really hasn't been looked into. Being able to physically go down there and directly interact with things too... its just, crazy." Brynn explains trying to voice her thoughts hoping that it might quell some of the nerves she has. Ben just nods, takes a sip of his tea.
"Yeah, I mean, there is also a lot of stuff happening out here. Basically just a southern Bermuda triangle or something." Ben chuckles a bit, "I mean, got abandoned boats floating out here and mysterious creatures getting pulled up. It's wild that there hasn't been more attention given to this place."
"I'll make sure to keep my eyes open for any UFOs or Atlantis down there." Brynn rolls her eyes at Ben's interest in these sort of "supernatural" phenomena, "For now I am just going to get into my wet suit. I think we are going to be good to get the dive going."
Brynn leaves Ben on the deck, watching as the various limbs of the diving suit are being tested. Heading below the deck Brynn already felt more comfortable. Not hearing the various technicians talk about all of the tests that they were running and seeing that suit. It just felt like so much more effort to put in for a deep dive. She knew that it would come to this, that people would dive to the bottom of the oceans, but just not that it would be her. As she thought she walked past the living areas where she could hear idle chatter of other crew mates and some rooms with various monitors surveying bellow the water.
"Oh, Brynn. Come in here and check this out." A woman's voice calls from the room with the monitors. Brynn's turns in her tracks and peaks around the door. There is an younger woman who is looking over at her as she is sitting cross legged on her spinning office chair. She gestures Brynn into the room with her head as her hands are occupied holding a bowl of soup.
"What's up Vikki?" Brynn asks as she comes in to the room and leans in beside her to get a look at what Vikki was looking at.
Vikki Brook had basically made the monitor room her base of operations since they got the floating cameras out into the ocean. Being a student it wasn't a surprise that she would be regulated to these roles but she really seemed to enjoy it. When she did leave the monitors she was nice but direct. Wasn't the sort for idle banter but if given a subject she cared about could talk about it for hours. Brynn had managed to bond with her over a mutual interest in football.
"I was checking out the video footage from the cameras we left out over night. I just wanted to see if there was any more dolphin activity or anything that might be useful with your dive. There wasn't much, as expected. Then, over night, I saw this croc hanging out." Vikki nods towards the monitor that Brynn was now entirely focused on. On the monitor was a saltwater crocodile idly floating among the open ocean.
"Huh, alright. Saltwater crocs aren't unheard of to come out into the open ocean." Brynn side eyes Vikki, slightly confused about the point of interest.
"Just keep watching." Vikki says taking a sip of her soup as she is transfixed on the screen. As they both watch the saltwater crocodile it eventually seems to sort of jerk around its head, like something was agitating it. After doing this a few times it suddenly starts swimming in a burst of movement directly down further into the depths.
"Huh..." Brynn unconsciously leans in slightly further as her curiosity was piqued even further, "Did you catch it on any other cameras?"
"Yup, just one and it was just swimming down in that one too. Never saw it come back up." Vikki eats another spoonful of her soup before continuing, "Kinda similar to what was going on with those dolphins, huh?"
"That was just the working theory that we had going. Still, it seems very similar but those are two totally different animals. They aren't even on the same taxonomic branch. I mean, at least we know that there is still something affecting the fauna out here. I just... there isn't anything to go on and it is strange that it is this exact place too." Brynn is entirely focused on her thought process as she rolls the information over and over again in her mind.
"Yeah, it is weird. Guess we just got lucky on our diving spot." Vikki says as she puts her soup on the desk counter and pulls herself in closer, "Do you want to see any other footage? There were some tuna and herring schools that came through. Not much other than that I think. Let me check though." Vikki grabs a few documents and a small green notebook that was resting on top of them. It was obvious by the intricate design inlaid into the cover that it was a personal notebook. Vikki flipped it open to the page that she had marked with a folded napkin and began checking it.
"Umm, no. That is alright." Brynn said as she stood up from her leaning down to look at the monitor, "I think you should show Dane that though. I need to get ready for the dive."
"Oh, definitely. I was just going to go through the rest of the footage to make sure that there wasn't anything else before I do a proper write up." Vikki says looking up from her notebook but not closing it, "Be safe down there."
Brynn smiles and nods at Vikki before leaving. As she went through the process of getting in her wet suit and the other required gear for this new suit her mind was going through the footage of that crocodile. It at the very least confirmed what the dolphin dissections showed her. Still, the reason had been elusive. Eventually, Brynn pushed the questions out of her mind by assuring herself that she would look at the data after the dive.