Proteus-12 C: The Aquaticus
By: Lucas and Josh
Prologue:
In the year 2323, the known wormhole, WH-1 was found in between Earth and Mars’ orbital range. Multiple missions have been sent through WH-1. The Proteus 1 mission was made entirely of satellites. Proteus 2 had the first man to travel through the wormhole. Proteus 3 explored Proteus-12 C, a water world that had a high chance of life. The planet was found by the satellites from the Proteus 1 mission. By looking at the planet, they found that it has an ocean and a high likelihood of life. Proteus 4 will set up the first proper base. There are two parts of the Proteus 4 mission: an orbital space station and a surface base that floats on the water. On the base is a submersible that can dive deep into the ocean of Proteus-12 C. Marcus, Jordan, and Alexa will be on it.
On Proteus 4, the crew had recently awakened from cryosleep and got to work. They were in low Proteus-12 C orbit with a lander soon to be detached to touch down on the water. Marcus, Jordan, and Alexa met during the training process and have been friends since. They were on the lander and would be some of the first to touch down on the ocean planet.
“Are you excited for the landing?” Alexa asked.
“Yeah, hopefully no aliens will eat us,” Jordan chuckled.
“Hey, don’t scare her,” Marcus replied. “It’s going to be fine.”
Alexa frowned, “Let’s go for lunch,” she finished.
Food on the ship was odd; a lot of it was grown on the ship, and others were dehydrated and packaged from Earth. There was a cafe on one of the ship’s many centrifuges, a short walk from their workplace.
“Today is salad day,” Jordan said dimly, as they were walking to the cafe.
The cafe was crowded, and a long line formed to get food.
“God,” Alexa complained. “It always takes so long to get a bite to eat.”
“Well, we could have always come earlier,” Marcus replied, “If you guys had finished your work faster.”
After some time, they finally got their food and went to eat. You could feel the nervousness and the excitement in the air; Just a few more days until the landers are deployed. And then the day came.
Marcus, Jordan, and Alexa made sure to wake up early to get a good spot on the lander. They arrived 25 minutes before the launch. They were lucky, as a few minutes after they got in line, the line started wrapping around the whole room. There were multiple landers, and they were on the first.
It wasn’t a state-of-the-art craft, just with basic seats and suits that probably couldn’t last for more than a minute in space. But there was no need for them to. The whole landing would take under 20 minutes, and then they would all be transferred to a base already on the water. Each lander could hold 100 people, and all were jam-packed.
Shortly after undocking, the engines kicked in and shoved the people into their seats. Around a minute later, the engine stopped abruptly, and the lander sailed down into the atmosphere. Near Marcus, Jordan, and Alexa, there was a window that had a good outside view. The ocean stretched across the whole planet, not a square centimeter of land in sight. The window slowly filled with flames, from the wind rushing by outside.
The lander shook and groaned, and it didn't stop there. After the fire diminished, the parachutes fired up and reached nearly 5G’s of force on the ship. It felt as if the lander's weight was crunching down on the passengers inside. Finally, the deep, roaring, engine started again and they splashed down nicely a few dozen meters from the base. An inflatable bridge was filled up to let the crew walk over. Marcus, Jordan, and Alexa were closest to the door and got the first views of the ocean from the surface.
It was beautiful. Calm waves traveled through the ocean, and smooth clouds swam in the sky. Unfortunately, though, they couldn't spend long admiring, as they had work to do. They walked over and got into their separate dorms, one for boys and one for girls. Marcus and Jordan waited for their things to arrive, as they were on a separate part of the station. The crew would wheel it to them soon.
“Let's go find Alexa,” Marcus said to Jordan, “We should eat dinner with her. It’s been a long day, after all.”
Jordan agreed.
As a few days passed, everyone on the station got settled in. People were getting ready for the deployment of submarines to explore the ocean depths below. Marcus and Jordan were scheduled to launch in Sub Two, while Alexa was on Sub One, which would both reach a depth of 200 kilometers under the sea.
“Why did I have to go without you guys?” Alexa said, worried.
“It’s not going to kill you, just a few hours without us,” Marcus replied.
“Hopefully,” Alexa responded, sighing.
Subs were deployed in the number order, so Sub One with Alexa went first, but only a few minutes ahead, then Sub Two with Marcus and Jordan. It was a small sub, about 30 square meters. It came complete with a viewing area, an extremely small research lab, and a Logitech game controller to command the sub. The group sat down in seats on the wall and set sail.
A few hours later they reached their target depth. For the first few dozen kilometers, life flourished. You could see a lot of rainbow-colored creatures, all in different shapes and sizes. The crew called them “nippers,” because of their behavior to keep snapping their dark brown jaws trying to get a snack. Then, bit by bit, as the crew descended, the creatures started disappearing. And then, there was nothing. For the rest of the view, it was desolate and calm. Almost too calm.
“You guys alright?” Alexa asked over the comm.
“We’re good, how about you?” Marcus responded.
“Don’t you think it’s odd, no life at all for so long? Somethings wrong,” Alexa followed up.
“Why do you think there’s nothing?”
“I don’t know,” Alexa said before going silent. A few moments passed with Alexa not saying anything.
“Hello, can you hear me?” Marcus asked, with worry in his voice. Marcus waited for a response for a few seconds. Then Alexa went back on.
“What the hell is that?” Alexa yelled, sirens blaring over her voice
“Are you alright?”
Screams were heard on the other side, but then there was nothing.
“John, we lost contact with Sub One,” Jordan said, visibly freaking out. John was the captain of Sub Two, an ex-marine.
“Crap,” John replied.
“Sub Two, this is the station, we lost contact with Sub One. Re-surface, now, we’re analyzing the footing currently.
“Roger,” John replied.
“Wait, check the sonar, something this big should come up,” Jordan said.
“Good idea. I’ll go and check,” John replied. He paused for a second in shock after checking it. “What the hell? It’s as if a creature has done this.” He froze and realized what had happened.
“Crap, crap, crap,” John repeated calling the station. “Guys, we think there’s a monster.”
It took a few seconds, and all they heard back was a short “Roger,” from mission control.
Hours later, in silence, they reached the surface and boarded the station.
“What the hell happened down there?” A man in charge asked, rushing to Sub Two.
“I don’t know, we reached our target and talked to Alexa for a bit, but she cut off. She said something was lurking outside the window. We heard screams, then nothing.”
“Anything else?”
“Well for the first few kilometers down, the water flourished with life. But once we got deep enough, there was nothing.”
He nodded and began to walk off, but then he turned around. “Get some rest,” he said, then he continued walking.
Marcus couldn’t sleep at all, rolling in bed thinking about what happened to Alexa and the rest of her crew. By the time the sun rose, he desperately needed caffeine, so he walked over to the cafe. He had a small breakfast with coffee and then went to work. His workplace was already filled with tons of people. With anxiety in the air, Marcus went to his area and sat down, and shortly after, Jordan came with John and another man. The man was dressed in a freshly cleaned suit with markings on it signifying his high rank.
“Marcus, you need to come with us,” the officer said.
“Okay,” Marcus asked, uneasily. “What's your name?”
“Michael Cometto. I’m a general here at the base.”
They walked to a room with noise padding on all sides; Marcus, Jordan, and John sat down on one side of the table, and Michael on the other.
“Every person on Sub One has been killed,” Michael reported.
The air in Marcus’ lungs was knocked out, He knew the chances were low, but he felt she was still alive, somewhere. Now, it’s done. She’s gone.
“You alright?” John asked both me and Jordan, who hadn’t slept either.
“Yeah, just a bit shaken.” Marcus and Jordan knew the risks of the mission.
“That’s not all; we analyzed the cameras, and there was indeed a monster, a jellyfish-like creature.”
“Just a jellyfish?” Marcus asked.
“A 200-meter jellyfish with giant tentacles that could easily crush the station we’re in. Sonar says it’s surfacing and we think it will arrive at the base soon. Now this information is just for you three, you can’t tell anyone else. We’ll try to fight it off, but we don’t think we can. Only high personnel will be saved. So you guys, me, and some other people.”
Marcus gulped.
“The problem is that the lander hasn't been fully refueled yet, so it can only carry a small payload. We’re already stripping the lander of most stuff, just the essentials. Any questions?”
“So we’re leaving them to die?” Marcus furiously confronted.
“I need to know none of you will tell anyone else.”
“Yes,” we said together.
“We’re nuking the station. A bomb in low orbit will drop it, killing the monster.” Michael said.
“What?” Jordan said, shaking. “Is there anything we can do?”
“There is nothing we can do.”
Marcus and Jordan couldn’t fall asleep, so they worked all night trying to save everyone, but Michael was right. There is nothing we can do. As they exited the workroom for brunch, soldiers in full uniforms were marching in, getting food, and leaving. Marcus got his food and met with Michael, Jordan, John, and the other people who would be on the lander. We talked for a bit, but then the floor shook.
“What the hell was that?” Marcus asked.
“We need to go now,” Michael stated.
Sirens were blaring, gunshots in the distance, but we rushed through to the lander. We got out of the station and were on the bridge to board when a giant tentacle grabbed Jordan.
“Help!” Jordan yelled, struggling to get loose. Marcus ran to grab him, but the monster was too strong and took him under.
“No!” Marcus yelled looking over, Michael grabbed him.
“We can’t do anything, I’m so sorry.”
As they got high in the air, Marcus could barely see the station or the Aquatacus. The monster was almost done with destroying the base, which was half sunken underwater. Then the nuke hit.
A ball of flame erupted, expanding high in the air. We were high enough that it couldn’t reach us, but seeing it made me barely breathe. It’s funny: Humanity can kill any beast, but at what cost? The lives of hundreds? We all signed up knowing that we could get killed but by our kind? Marcus’ eyes slowly teared up for the first time in a while. Generally, you have someone who wins and someone who loses. But not this time. This time, everyone lost.
