Energea (part 2)

Brynn sits among the lockers inside of the ship. She is sitting on a short wooden bench with her wet suit beside her. At the moment her mind had become distracted as this was the first time that she felt she could truly be alone with her thoughts before she entered into the ocean. She had taken many dives before but the circumstances surrounding this dive felt so strange. Between the behavior of the animals and the swirl of media attention around this research voyage it had left Brynn worn. The excitement around the new diving suit meant that the ship did not provide the relief that she craved. It was ground breaking and people should be excited. For Brynn it felt oddly isolating. She just couldn't get caught up in this feeling. It felt like celebrating before they had even begun.

Brynn, not wanting to linger on her thoughts to long, got up and reached for her phone in her locker. There was some small part of her that did want to call someone. Something reflexive to just call someone that was not in the place that she was at the moment. To get some perspective and in some way pull herself out of her situation if just for a moment. Since Brynn knew that there was barely any reception this far out on the ocean she did not linger on the idea. Instead, she went through the recent text conversations to various people in her life. Her parents, long time friends, a few other marine biologists, and even a few writers that had asked her for an interview at one point. She would idly thumb through these conversations until something caught her eye. Then she would look at the text or the image, sometimes with memories but most often just an idle fuzz in her mind. It was only the lapping waves on the hull of the ship that called her out of this meditative stupor.

Once the wet suit went on Brynn's mind went into a professional focus. It was as if she had already begun the dive without ever having touched the water. The walk back up to the top deck was always odd. The sounds and feel of the place changed now with the wet suit on. Just touching a wall meant that you would only feel the pressure of some object there rather than the texture or even the temperature.

The Brynn that stepped out on to the deck was more focused and the new calm that she exhibited was something akin to acceptance. She went over the procedures and was talked through how the new diving suit functioned again. The whole time she looked at this mass of wire and limbs that was hanging like some fresh catch. It was apparent where Brynn would be, due to the human shaped recess in the central pod, but the rest of the suit seemed hard to properly access in the state it was in. Multiple arms, tanks, strange fluid pipes, and the collection of wires all bundled into a thick cord rising from the top. Despite all of this she knew that this suit was her ticket to deeper depths than she had ever been and the answers that await down there.

After being helped into the pilot pod of this suit and shuffling about a bit to get comfortable Brynn the final procedures were being made. A couple of individuals who had been specifically brought on the ship as special mechanics for this suit busied themselves with wordless actions to make it so that Brynn and the suit could function together. For Brynn they were as unidentifiable as the suit that she was being placed in. Being so caught up in everything and these technicians also having to do so much preparation meant that she had no time to speak with them. They were a late addition to a group of people that Brynn knew well enough. If she had not been briefed of everything regarding this diving suit this would have felt invasive, it still didn't feel amazing.

Everything from small needles connecting to wires to strange gloves that were placed over Brynn's hands occurred with practiced precision. As the suit was lifted over the water the pod was closed with a hissing sound notifying the secure seal being made. Once this seal was made the pod immediately began to fill with a murky blue liquid. This would have distressed Brynn if not for all of the procedures she had been shown and ran through with this suit. All she did was steady her breathing, close her eyes, and let the strange pressure of this liquid surround her. The slight chill of the liquid caused an involuntary shudder down her back. She had been explained that it was meant to help with the acclimation to the deep ocean while also a side effect of the storage of the nano-fluid.

With her eyes closed all that she could hear was the gurgling of the pod filling and the deadened noises from outside. In that state Brynn's mind was left to wander. To combat the cold she remembered some childhood memory of a bathtub. The feeling of that warm water and how the concept of danger felt entirely foreign to her mind. She remembers how that tub felt massive and sticking her head under the water felt like diving into a new world. That perspective felt so strange now that she was going to entering into a far stranger world than one she could have imagined. Opening her eyes to the now hazy blue world in front of her she could feel the liquid filling her lungs and a steady breath now felt like a slowed down process.

"Brynn, can you hear me?" A voice came through the small headset she was wearing. The voice had a slightly bit of static and was somewhat piercing in comparison to the deadened noise of the liquid filled pod. Brynn looked over at the technicians and crew. Seeing them all look at her in this suit felt like being observed. For a moment she mused to herself about how now she knew what an alien in a tube at area 51 felt like. Brynn smirked, nodded, and gave a thumbs up to the crew. She saw them smile back and seemed more excited than she was for this occasion.

"Alright, we are going to be dropping you. We are only going to release the suit on your go. So tell us when." The voice came through again. Brynn could hear the anxious energy tinging the mans words. It was an odd understanding that this individual was as responsible for the dive going well as Brynn was even though Brynn was the one going in the water. For that man it could have been anyone in the suit. It was the suit that was doing the dive, at least in his mind. The more she considered it the more that she realized that the suit was the only thing allowing this to happen. For them this was purely the biggest test run yet. Despite Brynn's annoyance she took in one of those deep liquid breaths and steadied herself.

"Let's do this." Brynn said, feeling her words being muffled amongst the liquid. They were clear enough that she saw the desired reaction of the crew. Some of them clapping and cheering. Then the sudden lurch and splash that Brynn knew all too well. This was the moment that she was waiting for. The change of pressure, that pseudo weightlessness, a screen of bubbles from the sudden bursting through the surface to reveal that endless blue. Brynn took a moment and just stared out into the ocean. Without a horizon the space around her was infinitely far and close at the same time. What broke this trance was that same nameless voice from before.

"Alright, we are going to be lowering you. When we get to a suitable depth we are going to turn on all functionalities of the suit." the words sounded like more of distraction to Brynn and the person saying them, "Just sit tight until then."

Brynn brushed off the annoyance that was growing in her mind and instead looked out into the blue. She could feel herself descending and even could look up and see the hull of the ship rapidly shrinking. The vastness of the ocean, however, made it feel like nothing was happening. It was just blue, forever in all direction but up. It made Brynn consider if this is what astronauts feel when they re-enter orbit. They know where they are and what is happening but the scale of the action happening around them is beyond them. Also they only have the ability to trust that the ship around them does what it is supposed to. At least if that happened they wouldn't be alone.

The blue began to darken as the first feature of the ocean floor could be seen by Brynn. The edge of the drop off. Essentially the underwater valley that would allow the dive to be unimpeded to getting to the depths of the ocean. It dictated where the light begins and ends, like the horizon dictates sun down. Only once she entered that oceanic night there was no promise of sunrise. It was that abyss that promised answers to questions that had been on Brynn's mind since she got that email about those dolphins. Brynn looked up one more time at the blue above her as the dark slowly welcomed her into its domain.