Ryan M. Patrick

Older posts can be found on the main Crush Depth page.

Last post, the mosasaurs attacked the other submersible Seaquest in the cave system and forced the protagonist and other main characters on the Nautilus to retreat.

Chapter Thirty-Three: Continue from where the last scene ends. Parkowski demands an explanation for what happened. The Navy team (Vasco, Carmano) comes clean – the Seaquest, on Vasco’s orders, had tried to set off the torpedoes which provoked the attack from the creatures. Armstrong speculates on how the creatures knew what they were triyng to do. The remaining four survivors brainstorm on what to do next. They decide to try again to reach the surface via the communications umbillical, but there’s a lot of work to get them to that point. End the chapter on this note – they aren’t able to get a hold of anyone on the surface.

Yeah, it’s pretty brutal, but so is Sphere and Deep Storm.

Truth comes out. Like all of my books, don’t trust the government!

No good options!

They’re really, really screwed.

Chapter Thirty-Four: Inside, the five continue to restore communications inside of the command center – the only sphere other than the moon pool that they have access to. Lots of failed attempts and the creatures gear up for their final push – they see them moving on sonar, massive numbers of creatures into the hundreds. They believe that the creatures may be jamming them through quantum means and disrupting the link. Parkowski experiments with the core to disrupt the creatures’ approach. But what worked before doesn’t this time and the creatures come in close, but do not attack yet.

We’re in bad shape here. And the big ones have showed up.

And there aren’t really any good options.

We’re trying to talk to them, but we’re not really getting a good response.

But again, they hold back.

Chapter Thirty-Five: Surrounded, Parkowski gets a clear view: the creatures are mosasaurs, and of a variety known to Armstrong, defying extinction. She believes that they let her see them for an inscrutable purpose. Shock ripples through the crew. Armstrong hypothesizes further. Lots of discussion and conversation.

We finally get a good look at the creatures!

And we know they’re mosasaurs now. This is something I picked up with Jaws – hold your creature reveal for as long as possible.

Lots of speculation as to what’s happened.

And now we’re going to try to have a conversation.

Chapter Thirty-Six: The mosasaurs stop communicating. Debating options, Parkowski hypothesizes the quantum signals mimic communication, triggering aggression. She proposes signaling them directly, connecting the quantum core to the habitat’s remaining antenna array, and try to establish a voice or text communication line with them using some postprocessing equipment that they don’t have in the command center. Lots of engineering discussions. End when they decide that they have to go back outside using the submersible to get to the lab.

But they stop talking.

But we have some options for getting them back in a conversation.

So it looks like we’re going back out to get some of the gear from the flooded lab to make that happen. Ramping up the tension!