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Bryan guided their descent via a joystick. This afternoon, they had all practiced inside the submersible’s simulator. Maneuvering the craft was like piloting a helicopter. Still, Adam had crashed his vehicle five times. Both Monk and Phoebe had shamed him with their own skills. Monk had explained how he had flown helicopters during his stint with the Green Berets, so he had felt comfortable with theCormorant’s systems. Likewise, Phoebe’s background in deep-sea exploration had made her a natural.
Maybe it’s best that I’m seated back here.
Bryan radioed in with theTitan X, keeping the ship abreast of their descent. The pilot also monitored a swath of switches, lights, and LCD panels and surveyed data coming in from a navigation array.
TheCormorantwas actually onlyonecomponent of the Hadal Exploration System. Besides the massive ship overhead, two DriX USVs circled the area like a pair of steel sharks. One used its multibeam echosounder to continue a bathymetric contouring of the terrain below. The other was outfitted with a communications modem, a redundant system for the one aboard theTitan X. It would allow theCormorantto stay in continual contact with the world above—though, the deeper they traveled, the longer the lag time would stretch. Once at the bottom, it would take seven seconds for an SOS to reach the surface, and another seven seconds for theTitan Xto respond with a sincerewe’ll miss you.
The final component of the Hadal Exploration System was a trio of box-like landers that had been deployed after theTitan Xhad arrived here. The heavy landers had descended in a freefall all the way to the bottom. The trio had been namedHuey,Dewey, andLouie, after the Disney ducks—because scientists considered themselves capable of humor. This proved otherwise.
The landers would aid in navigation and double as scientific platforms. They were loaded with scoops, sediment corers, and sample collection gear. They even had a deployable bait box for luring in sea life.
“Everyone settle in,” Bryan said. “It’ll take us three hours to reach the bottom.”
He demonstrated this by leaning back and twisting open a bottle of Diet Coke. Knowing the efficiencies built into every bit of the design, Adam imagined the plastic bottle would serve later as a redundant system for collecting bodily wastes—at least for those with good aim.
No one spoke during their initial descent. All remained lost in their own thoughts or perhaps they were fearful of distracting the pilot. The latter precaution seemed unnecessary as Bryan pulled out a cell phone and began watching a downloaded Netflix movie.
After several minutes, Phoebe finally broke the ice among them. She had her nose pressed to her window. “This is amazing.”
By now, they had fallen out of the brighter waters into a twilightworld. Adam failed to appreciate her sense of wonder. The landscape outside was a featureless wash of dark blue, except for swirls of snow lit by the vehicle’s lamps. He knew thesnowwas a mix of krill, micro-shrimps, and plankton. Occasionally a curious fish would burst into view, then vanish away. A few jellyfish lingered longer, until theCormorantfell past their floating bells.
Soon, twilight became night.
“We’re exiting the thermocline,” Datuk reported, staring at a colorfully lighted display of data.
“Which means what?” Monk asked.
Datuk readjusted his glasses and pointed to a screen. The information glowing there came from the vehicle’s external Niskin water sampler and CTD sensor. The screen ran with a slew of real-time readings: depth, outside pressure, temperature, conductivity, salinity, pH, and oxygen levels.
“The thermocline lies between the ocean’s sunlit layers and the colder depths,” Datuk explained. “The temperature dropped rapidly when we first descended. But now out of the thermocline, it’ll drop much slower. We’re atfourdegrees now. It’ll drop only another two or three degrees before we reach the bottom. Ending at just above freezing.”
Adam looked over Datuk’s shoulder. While the temperature reading on his screen had slowed, the depth and pressure gauges continued to rise. It was the only evidence that they were still descending. Inside the DSV, there was no sense of motion.
Phoebe was drawn into the conversation, twisting around. “We’re now entering the bathypelagic—or midnight—zone of the ocean. Between one thousand and four thousand meters. After that, we’ll drop into the abyssopelagic zone.”
Datuk nodded. “And below six thousand meters, we’ll reach the bottommost region of the ocean—the hadal zone—named after Hades, the Greek god of the underworld. These unexplored depths make up nearly half the ocean. Yet, until a short time ago, more people had walked on the moon than had visited these extreme depths. Currently, though, the score stands attwelveon the moon andtwenty-twowho reached the bottom of the ocean’s deepest trenches.”
Even in the dim light, Phoebe’s eyes shone with her excitement. “And those numbers are about to change today.”
Adam wished he could appreciate their enthusiasm. During their safety class, he had learned the two greatest dangers during a descent: a fire or a leak. At these pulverizing depths, there would be no chance of a rescue. Their best defense was early detection.
As they continued down, Bryan interrupted his movie every fifteen minutes to give their topside monitors an update. Adam listened attentively each time—not so much to the technical details, a majority of which was over his head anyway, but to the tone in their pilot’s voice. Adam strained to hear any note of distress or alarm.
Still, after another hour, it was hard to maintain that level of concentration and tension. To his surprise, Adam found himself drifting into a light drowse, his eyelids slipping closed.
Phoebe’s voice—sharp with surprise—stirred him back to full attention. “I think we’re entering a brine layer,” she said.
Adam sat straighter. Beyond the front window, the black waters were illuminated by the exterior lamps. Only now there was a distinct haziness to the view, as if they were sinking through cloudy chicken broth.
Datuk spoke up from his station. His eyes were still glued to the screen next to him. “You’re right, Dr. Reed. The salinity spiked eightfold. It’s definitely a dense layer of saltier water.”
“Is it a reason for concern?” Adam asked, leaning forward.
“Not for us,” Phoebe said. “But such spots are kill-zones for marine life. Due to the water’s hypersalinity and lack of oxygen.”
Datuk nodded. “But these brine stratifications host all manner of strange chemosynthetic organisms. Due to their unique enzymes, they’ve been studied for pharmaceutical and industrial uses. Much like the piezophiles that I study.”
Monk stared at the biochemist. “You mean those organisms that survive under high pressure?”
