Blackest Blue

No Lovecraftian horrors, no merfolk or ancient aliens. Blackest Blue is a story that explores the mundane horrors of the Ocean through the lens of a researcher whose HOV submersible has lost power and is now sinking gradually into the darkness of the oceanic abyss.

It’s funny how quickly a scene of wonder can become a vision of hell.

I was alone in the little HOV submersible. It could comfortably hold three people or uncomfortably hold five, but I had gone alone this time. There wasn’t any real reason for it. Certainly not a good one. I had simply taken a chance to be alone in the depths. I was eager to try a solo expedition. I had expected it to be a serene and meditative experience apart from the occasional crackling of voices over the intercom.

I suppose I should have been careful what I wished for. 

I was hundreds of metres below the surface where little sunlight filtered down to illuminate the waters. I was observing a number of undersea worms inhabiting the slopes of a cliff, taking notes, when the crackling of the intercom abruptly went completely silent and the dim lights within the cockpit went dark. Even the little LEDs next to some of the controls ceased to emit any light.

With the lights all out, it was almost completely dark. The limited sunlight that reached from the surface did little to illuminate the interior of the submersible. With the static of the radio going quiet, it was as silent as the grave. It was with grim amusement I considered that may have become an accurate description.

“Hello? Anyone up there hearing me?” I pressed the intercom button. Sure enough, there was no response.

Nothing.

Panic started to set in. I breathed like I was already gasping for air. My heart pumped adrenaline through my veins, unknowing that no amount of adrenaline could help me flee this danger. The shadow the submersible was cloaked in was no longer that of the deep, but of death. And that shadow was getting ever darker.

It wasn’t just my imagination though. It was getting darker and darker. Whatever had caused the submersible to malfunction must have also caused its ballast tanks to take on water. Or maybe it was the other way around. In my mad panic I couldn’t quite put those thoughts together. I simply knew that I was sinking. I was getting further and further from the safety of the surface world.

I knew it was eating up my air supply, so I fought in vain to control my breathing. I couldn’t get a grip on myself. A primal voice in the back of my head screamed to run, but there was nowhere to go. Outside of the submersible there was only the deep, inky blue that was steadily becoming black.

I considered trying to force my way out of the submersible and swimming for the surface. A desperate and foolish thought. There were some people who could hold their breath for an extremely long time, a boon of their genetics. Even they surely couldn’t make the distance I was now at and I was definitely not one of those endowed with such a gift. Besides, trying to swim up now I would probably lose consciousness to the bends and drown anyway. Assuming the intense pressure of the deep ocean didn’t compress me into a fleshy lump first.

No. There was no escape. No chance of a risky, fool-hardy dash for survival. I was trapped in a world inhospitable to human life and that world had decided to claim me. I would simply descend lower and lower, slipping beyond the grasp of rescue. The only question was what would happen first. Would my air run out or would the submersible be crushed like a tin can? Like anything else built on land, it could only take so much pressure before becoming compromised.

Desperation and panic gave way to despair. There was no hope for me. I suddenly felt very tired as in an instant my body stopped trying to fight my fate. It wasn’t that I wasn’t afraid. It wasn’t calm I felt now. It was resignation. There was no amount of struggling that could save me. I would be one more foolish human who stepped out of his domain into that of the ocean, only to be claimed by the watery void and used to feed the creatures it birthed.

I wasn’t a religious person. I didn’t offer any prayers in the hopes of divine intervention. But I thought that if there was a god, that god was the ocean. An entity greater and deeper than we could imagine. An enigma that was beyond our comprehension no matter how much we tried to study it. I was to be the next sacrifice to that vast, unfeeling deity.

As those delirious thoughts came unbidden to my mind, I noticed lights. Faint but dazzling as they shimmered and glittered in the black water. A beautiful world that so few of us got to visit. A serene, quiet world that was simultaneously barren and teeming with life, gritty and pristine. It was like an out of body experience. 

Resignation finally gave way to acceptance.

I could be at peace with this. I would suffocate. The HOV’s hull would crush and break. Water would eventually seep in and so too would life eventually make its way inside. The ruined remains of both myself and the submersible would eventually come to settle among the silt of the sea floor. Creatures would feast on what remained and turn the broken shell of the vehicle into a home. 

I would forever be a part of that beautiful, serene and alien world. My life returned to whence all life came, particles floating in the abyss, everywhere and nowhere. Perhaps, one day, the ocean would claim the rest of humanity too, dragging everyone back to their old home body and soul.