Ryan M. Patrick

Older posts can be found at the bottom of the main Crush Depth page.

In the last post, the mosasaurs attacked in waves and the crew of the habitat fought them off. This is somewhat different than the first two Crush Depth drafts where there was one big attack that the submarine wasn’t able to fight off. This is better – they’re more reactive! – yet still terrifying. Now we have to recover from it.

Chapter Twenty-Four: The team repairs the habitat amid aftershocks. Discussions reveal historical data on similar deep-sea attacks, linking to ancient anomalies – lots of connections back to earlier talks of submarine implosions and underwater disasters including the Titanic. And some that go back even further to ancient Vikings and Greek sagas including the Odyssey, not to mention the biblical Leviathan.

After what the protagonist and rest of the team went through, we need a bit of a breather. And I want an opportunity to show off my research!

Lots of weird stuff happen at the bottom of the sea!

And here we are. I had to do a ton of research for this and I’m using it. This is Armstrong’s 4th appearance in a draft, each time as a completely different character. I like this (hopefully final) one as a young DARPA biologist.

And I end on this note.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Planning next steps, they detect the creatures massing nearby for a final push.  Parkowski suggests using the quantum core to analyze their patterns. Her request is denied. They watch as a diver – Vasco – goes outside to try and repair the umbilical but it’s gone and Vasco returns safely. They are totally cut off and that realization sinks in. However the creatures don’t attack – they stay in a pack just beyond visual range. They still will not communicate with them.

Time to reconstitute and repair.

It’s obvious now that they’re smart. And this is where (at least I think) it’s a great move to focus on the mosasaurs. Everyone’s read a “first contact” scenario book – Contact, Voyagers, Rama – but most of those are with aliens. Why not have a first contact scenario under the water? Yes, this was present in past drafts, but as a side. Now it’s front and center.

But they’re in a pickle. I really went fast through these while drafting and I know there’s some continuity errors (to be fixed in edits) with regards to how much air/food/etc is left and how long they have but I need the umbilical cut. And they have no contact with the surface.

But…the mosasaurs, while they move in again, apparently want to talk.

Yet they don’t…

Chapter Twenty-Six: Parkowski consults Armstrong back in the lab, who shares theories on the creatures’ intelligence based on coordinated behaviors observed. He wonders how long they’ve been this intelligent – potentially longer than we have. Very long discussion, touching on human evolution and possible interactions with early humanity. Both of them speculate wildly.

Another slower chapter, and without some of the external tension the last two had now that the initial shock of the attack has worn off. But it’s Chapter 26 out of 44 so I think I’ve earned it.

There’s an expert here…let’s talk with him!

And let’s throw out some theories. Yes, I borrowed my eight-year-old’s dinosaur book for some of these names, how could you tell?

And she’s starting to figure out it out. This is a weird book in terms of character development – Parkowski doesn’t change that much externally, but internally she’s putting the pieces together more quickly than she had before.

And we get a cryptic response.

Hope you’re enjoying these – it’s fun to document my process, and I hope it helps someone else writing or editing out there!