Deep Sea Embers

Under Duncan's slightly rusty and cautious control, the submersible slowly adjusted its orientation.

The "pedestal" below the Frost City-State is like a vast, rough and weird cliff in the sea, slowly moving in the dark sea water outside the porthole.

The sunlight shining from the sea above has faded, and only the beams of light from the three sets of large searchlights in front of the submersible remain in the water. The beams of light cast a huge light spot on the surface of the "cliff", and beyond the light spots, there is unknown depth and darkness.

The low hum and the hiss of certain valves automatically adjusting the air pressure come to the ears from time to time, but these monotonous and lifeless sounds make people feel more... lonely.

It is the loneliness caused by the individual being far away from the group and the mind far away from the territory of civilization, and the uneasiness caused by gradually sinking into a boundless darkness and being wrapped in endless sea water.

Agatha quieted down. She stood in front of the porthole and only "stared" in one direction outside for a long time. After an unknown amount of time, she broke the silence softly: "All the light is fading...but I can still 'See' the base of the city-state, which still glows very, very faintly, the only thing I can see in the dark."

The world she observes is obviously different from the vision of ordinary people.

"Do you know what I'm thinking?" Duncan's voice suddenly came from behind her.

"What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking, maybe this is the way we observe the world," Duncan said in a low voice, as if blending in with the buzzing of the surrounding machines, "The world is like the sea, and if we regard the entire civilization as a whole, we will be like this." Snorkeling in the boundless abyss.

"The unknown darkness covers the whole world. We carefully peek at the landscapes that accidentally emerge from the darkness from the lights of civilization, and try to speculate and piece together the outline of the entire world from those flashing pictures. Yet we almost never get the chance to really know the whole truth behind those lights and shadows—

"Behind a small fallen leaf may be an entire forest, behind a stubborn rock stands an entire mountain, a vine passing by in the light may be just a tentacles extended by a mythical monster - beyond the twilight is The unknown, in the twilight, is just a one-sided impression of the truth presented to us at a specific location and at a specific time.

"But in such a careful dive, some people accidentally peeped out of the lights, so they went crazy, and some people tried to expand the light. They are called pioneers by us-in many cases, There is not even a clear boundary between these pioneers and lunatics. As for more people, they gathered inside the ark of 'civilization', gathered in the limited but enough lights to illuminate their feet, lowered their heads, and carefully restrained look down.

"They're called 'normal people'.

"The predictable and measurable world brings them a precious sense of security, and they can no longer cast their eyes on the darkness beyond the ark... But it is these weak and powerless ordinary people who occupy the largest proportion, but maintain the entire The operation of the ark even supported those pioneers and lunatics."

The sound of sea water being injected into the pressurized tank came from under the feet. The submersible adjusted its angle slowly and began to dive faster. Outside the observation window in front, within the spot range of the searchlight, the uneven cliffs continued to rise— ——In the next second, the scenery in the light spot may become an empty dark water body, but it may not.

Duncan withdrew his gaze and glanced around him.

The lighting in the cabin is sprinkled from above, and everything inside the submersible is bathed in light. After staring at the darkness outside for too long, looking back at this cozy cabin really makes people feel a sense of relaxation from the bottom of their hearts. .

But the occasional "creaking" sound from somewhere in the hull reminds the people in the crew cabin that there is only a layer of fragile balls between this comfortable and bright cabin and the hundreds of millions of tons of seawater outside. Shell steel plate.

This layer of fragile spherical shell steel plate is something that countless "ordinary people" hammered and hammered little by little. Those craftsmen who may never step out of the city-state in their entire lives use their skills and wisdom , sending this crude submersible into the endless abyss below the city-state.

Agatha was silent for a long time, then said softly: "Actually... I sometimes feel lucky that my eyes can now see more things than ordinary people, just like you said, we are all diving in the boundless darkness , with my eyes, now I can see farther where the light can't reach, but I often feel frustrated, because compared with this endless darkness, this slightly farther field of vision seems meaningless ..."

"Yes, for this boundless sea, it is insignificant to look a little farther," Duncan said softly, but then changed the topic, "but for us who are diving in the dark, even if we can only see more Going out for a meter means a lot.”

He turned off the main lighting in the cabin casually, leaving only the necessary lights on the console.

The inside of the submersible became dark, but with the contrast of the lights, the beams of light from the high-power searchlights appeared brighter in the darkness outside the portholes, and within the range of the spot of light, the details on the surface of the "cliff" became more and more vivid. clear up.

"The world you describe is almost hopeless, but your attitude seems to be eternally optimistic," Agatha said. "This surprised me... a little bit."

"I described a hopeless world to you, that's because the world is so bad, my attitude is optimistic, that's because I'm an optimistic person," Duncan said casually, "We can't change this world, but The 'attitude' is our own."

"I didn't expect you to have such a personality, and I didn't expect you to be so sentimental." Agatha seemed to have a smile on her face, "Yes, I always accidentally forget that you were originally the greatest person in the world. explorer."

Duncan just smiled and didn't respond. His eyes fell outside the porthole, carefully observing the gradually rising "cliff" with the beam of light from the searchlight.

The texture looks like a stone, and some parasites similar to seaweed and coral are clinging to the surface.

But such a vertical structure and such a regular "pedestal" do not seem to be something naturally formed.

He steered the submersible forward cautiously, hovered at a very close distance, and then found a certain control lever on the console with a little rustiness, and released the mechanical arm located directly in front of the submersible.

In the light, the mechanical arm slowly unfolded, and the sharp structure at the end touched the "cliff" in front of it, tapping and scraping lightly.

Some debris fell slowly in the water.

But inside the debris appears to be a more rigid structure.

"I've always been curious about one thing," Duncan suddenly broke the silence, "over the years, in so many city-states, there has never been a lack of digging deep into the ground—whether it's mining, building underground facilities, or simply doing research. Well... so no one has ever dug through the 'pedestal'?"

Agatha was stunned for a moment, this question seemed a bit out of the way to her, but after thinking for a while, she shook her head: "As far as I know... there has never been such a 'digging through' situation. Because the underground is dangerous. Yes, the lower the place is than the sea level, the higher the probability of mutations in the dark. Even with the protection of steam and flames, mental pollution and weird accidents occur every year in the mine, not to mention the possibility of "puncturing" The city-state's crazy idea dug deep, and..."

She paused, sorted out her memories, and then said: "And even if you really dig deep with this crazy idea, it seems that no one has ever succeeded. I heard that the Academy of Truth has tried this. , and their conclusion is that... when the excavation reaches a certain depth, the drill bit will not be able to drill down, and it will become harder and harder until the hardest and most advanced drill bits are broken."

"It gets harder as you go down?" Duncan frowned, and turned his head to look at the mechanical arm that was knocking on the "cliff" outside the porthole. It has now knocked off some attachments. After the loose debris fell off, the inner layer of the cliff was exposed. A darker, denser structure was formed.

Can't tell if it's rock or metal.

But its surface seems to have relatively regular lines, just like... the ravines on the surface of some kind of creature.

Duncan manipulated the mechanical arm, trying to scrape some samples from the dense black structure, but in vain.

The power of the mechanical arm is insufficient, and the layer of black matter is harder than imagined... Some kind of "bottom shell"?

Various speculations arose in Duncan's mind, and even some bold detection plans emerged, but in the end he tried his best to suppress this curiosity, and began to control the submersible to continue moving into the deep sea.

After all, exploring the "huge unknown entity" directly below the frost is the primary goal of his trip. Under the premise of not being sure whether there is a second chance for deep diving, the precious endurance time of the submersible cannot be wasted on the way .

With the noise from the pressurized tank, the submersible continued to dive.

After a while, they finally crossed the "fault" under the base of the city-state.

Very suddenly, the "cliff" within the range of the searchlight stopped abruptly, and the huge spot of light seemed to be swallowed by darkness suddenly, and the boundless dark water rushed towards us.

No matter how powerful the searchlight is, it is impossible to find the target in such an empty and boundless sea——Duncan can only see the hazy boundary of light and shadow extending outside the porthole, but he cannot see it whether it is inside or outside the light. to the slightest reference.

This sense of oppression of being trapped in the huge darkness and constantly sinking is far better than facing that weird big hole in the depths of the boiling gold mine.

Agatha also clenched the armrest in front of her a little nervously.

The last gleam of her "vision" faded.