Cedar Sanderson is doing N'inktober, so I'm going to follow along and do what I've been trained to do by the Raconteur Press Postcard books: come up with a story to match her visual prompts. I can't guarantee that I'll have a complete story for every image, but I'm going to at least try to come up with a scene, a start, or an idea!
Reunion Seapen
The Captain stirred. Were I speaking of a lesser man, I would have used a term like “restlessly” to characterize his motion. Perhaps sensing the his own movement as inappropriate for a man of his station, he stilled and inquired, “Depth?”
Mkandwire’s hands were far from still as he monitored the gauges and dials of his duty station. Within moments, he had the information the Captain desired. “Approaching six thousand fathoms, sir.”
The hull creaked. The three of us froze for half a heartbeat, long enough to realize we were still alive. Foolish. If the Captain’s engineering genius failed us at this depth, the implosion would destroy us all instantly.
“Monsieur Lavigne.” His voice was soft, his accent - as always - almost familiar, yet strangely dissonant. “An acoustic pulse, s’il vous plait. Twenty thousand units of radial flux.”
“Twenty thousand acoustic, aye.” I sound the dials as he had taught me, then closed the knife switch. The hum of the electric system deepened slightly, the lights dimming as the acoustic generator made use of the entire hull to send a lazy sound wave through the unforgiving pressure of the deeps.
Almost as soon as the lights retuned to normal, the phosphorescent display at my station lit up. “Sir!” I could not hide the surprise in my voice. “Echo return from bearing… oh four two!”
The Captain’s expression was inscrutable. “Excellent. Mister Mkandwire, come right to bearing oh four two. Monsieur Lavigne, kill the lights and direct all power to external illumination.”
We performed as instructed. I opened the relay controlling the internal lights, plunging us immediately into a darkness so complete that I have never since experienced the like. I had only the briefest moment to contemplate our state, however, as my hands were already moving to obey the Captain’s orders. I closed the switch, directing power to the external lights. With a mighty thrum from the batteries, the external lanterns sputtered and ignited.
A beam of pure white light speared out into the darkness. Strange forms writhed and scuttled in the beam, making haste to remove themselves from the unknown energies that exploded into their world. The Captain - normally one to take an interest in all such things under the sea - uncharacteristically ignored the creatures. Instead he leaned forward in his chair, peering through the thick plate of transparent metal, eyes wide.
“There!” The excitement in his voice was a mirror of my own, just moments before. “Tamika. Steady! Jean Paul, note our location and bearing!”
Mkandwire and I glanced at each other. The Captain was, above all else, consistent in his form and manners. While we were his closest confidants, for him to forget his own assumed protocols and address us by our first names was as unnerving to us as the sudden explosion of light had been to the creatures of the deep.
“Aye, sir,” Mkandwire replied. I attempted to focus on my own station, but could not help turning my head slightly to try and catch a glimpse of what had caught the Captain’s attention. Ever vigilant, the Captain noticed our attentions. He gestured at the two of us, his lone crewmen here, at the greatest depth man had even ventured to.
“Gentlemen. Please. Stabilize your stations, by all means. After you have seen to our safety, though, I desire your attention. This moment is one that I have dreamed of, and it will be all the sweeter if I share it with such stalwart companions.”
Mkandwire and I secured out stations, as instructed. There was not enough room to actually join him in front of the port. Given leave by him now, though, we were able to turn ourselves, craning to peer at the shape our lights revealed in the darkness.
There, on the seabed floor, lay a strange, metallic tube. Thick around the center and dulled by age, there was no obvious damage to it; yet it appeared to me as if it were dead, something that had drifted down through the interminable fathoms until it finally found a resting place in the foul mud of the benthic depths. There was a sadness about it, as if it were a great thing that had served its purpose and been discarded.
Next to it rose something both similar, and yet entirely unlike, the first object. Also a tube, it was very obviously embedded in the ocean floor. Its structure was such that there was no question it had intentionally be placed thus. While my opinion of the first tube was that it was a dead thing, stripped of all vitality, its companion gave the opposite impression: that it was fresh and new, hidden here in the depths to wait for the opportunity to start an unimaginable adventure.
“Do you see it?” The Captain asked. He reached out, finger hovering just short of the port. “There. Midway up the port side.”
I could not spy what he meant at first. Then a minute shift in the water turned us slightly, and the light picked out indisputable lettering on the side of the structure.
“VSS Seapen.” My words were barely a whisper, and even then I felt as if I were rudely disturbing the solemnity of an unknown cathedral.
“Yes. My father’s final design. Hidden here from the prying eyes and grasping hands of those who would inevitably abuse it. Named after the cnidarians - the seapens - those creatures that first inhabited the seas. Strange creatures, they are; so he imagined it an entirely fitting name for a novel vessel, intended to explore strange new worlds.”
Mkandwire cocked his head, and asked the question a moment before it escaped my mouth. “Vessel? My Captain - this looks nothing like anything I have ever seen before! What in this world could you father have intended it for?”
To see the Captain smile was a rare thing indeed. Pearly-white teeth flashed for a moment from under his well-kept beard.
“Nothing in this world, Mister Mkandwire. Nothing in this world. Man your stations, gentlemen. We shall ascend, and return in force to lay claim my inheritance. Not just the Seapen, but the universe. While Nemo claimed the ocean, his son shall claim the stars.”
That VSS on the side? Venusian Submersible Ship... Submarine, and Rocketship. And I didn't even tell you, you figured it out on your own :D