Teeth

Personal Log of Dr. Gordon Leonard, Marine Biologist.

April 22, 2048, 1900 hours, 47° 9′ 0″ S, 126° 43′ 0″ W Pacific Ocean

The ocean surface, miles above Poseidon Station is apparently in the middle of a tropical cyclone. No matter how long I stay down here, there’s such a weird disconnect between reading something on a surface sensor and feeling it. Down here, storm currents sometimes reach the ocean floor, but the most we’ll ever feel of such a huge incident is a bit of minor turbulence.

I’m being melodramatic. Down here, all we have to see is the sensors. Outside the window, the ocean is just one, big, black empty mass, stretching out as far as the eye can see. Sonar and drones keep us informed of our surroundings, and sometimes a fish or slug or something provides a tiny pinprick of light, but for the most part, the sensors are our eyes down here.

The Station’s been down here a long time, but then, it’s not like we’re particularly high on anyone’s priority list. When they first discovered the ruins of Site A, people thought we’d discovered a new cradle of civilization, some old, undiscovered ruin of Pangaea that had sunk beneath the sea. Over the years, interest fades. There are newer, more impressive discoveries to capture the public’s attention, and slimy old ruins in the bottom of the ocean lose some of their appeal.

I almost wish I hadn’t taken this assignment. I haven’t seen the sun in two months. We’re just in this little bubble of light in the middle of nowhere, and even with a hundred or so scientists down here, it gets really lonely. If I didn’t have my Nudibranch samples, I think I’d go mad. It’s amazing seeing the little guys, see all the colors that no one ever would see up close. Their little bodies, not always bioluminescent, are streaked with beautiful patterns and I don’t know why they would have evolved like that in a place like this. One of God’s little secrets I suppose. I’ll update this little project if anything interesting happens. If nothing else, it’ll make for a great memoir.

May 3, 2048, 1508 hours

Darnell found a new passage today. His manner and methods are...unconventional, but I can’t deny that the man gets the job done. Going to Site A in person seems a bit much though. Maybe I’m just jealous, I don’t know if I could brave the darkness and freezing water alone.

Anyway, one of the robots blew a hole in a wall that we thought was solid. It’s opened up a whole new level, untouched for God knows how many centuries. Darnell couldn’t get that shit-eating grin off his face when he sent the feed to all of us. I have to admit, it was impressive. The robot’s nightvision made the entire place look this weird, luminescent green color, but I could still see things, carvings and stuff on the wall, all swirls and shapes. How long could they have been down there? Hopefully the linguists can come up with some answers for us. There’s a running bet on where the thing will end up coming from. My vote’s on something Assyrian, but then, I’m no historian, so I cheated and looked it up on the database.

The really interesting part though, is the samples he brought back. A bit deeper in the new passage they found, there was a nest of fossilized sea-slugs. These big, dark green gastropods, and from my examinations, they’ve got some similarity to other deep-dwelling species, Nembrotha aurea in particular, but the feeding appendages are all wrong, harder and made of some kind of calcium. I’ll need to separate the debris and stuff from the centuries of decay and buildup. I hope there’s enough of the original creature left.

May 14, 2048, 2000 hours

I’ve managed to create a simulation of the creature I’m haphazardly naming Nembrotha antiqua, which I know is tacky, but it’s the best I have right now. I bet most scientists go through a bunch of bad names before they hit gold.

The sea slug is hardly going to get me into a history book, because Darnell’s made another breakthrough, and my study on antiqua has stalled a little bit. Darnell’s done more than bring some fossilized old samples. Somehow, he found something fresh. I didn’t believe him but I saw the feed myself. The drone descended deeper, and the city just spread out like a big cavern. The nightvision was a still a bit grainy, like it couldn’t focus well on things, but when I realized what I was seeing, I couldn’t believe it. This big, organic structure, stretching from one tunnel to another. Thick as a tree trunk, and in the green light, it looked pale and ancient and dead. Its skin was basically translucent, and I could see the black veins under the flesh.

Then they fucking pulsed.

Just one small pump and then it fell still. Barely perceptible but everyone saw it. It’s ridiculous, but something is moving. Darnell is in talks now about cutting a piece off and getting it to me. Maybe some new type of.....I don’t know, some kind of symbiotic life form?

Something tells me I’m not going to be worrying about just naming a species soon enough.

May 19, 2048, 2310 hours

It’s bone, which means I need to change the Genus name. This thing isn’t a Gastropod, it has teeth, spirals of them, like a spiked suction cup. I’ve never seen anything like it before on a slug. Maybe a lamprey? No skeleton, not even trace bones to support the tendrils, just teeth, loads and loads of teeth.

Darnell’s been trying to cut the organic structure, but the stuff just regenerates around most cutting tools. The flesh is stringy and gets in the gears of automated sawblades, and they just kind of sink in before they jam and get stuck. He’s thinking about using a fusion cutter to cauterize the wound like Hercules and the Hydra. Best of luck to him, but I hope he doesn’t damage it too much. I’d love to see how the regeneration process works.

May 19 con’t, 0400 hours

[Heavy breathing] Well, I’m not going to be getting any sleep tonight. I just had a nightmare, that I was touching that thing and...my hand just sank into it like soup. It went straight through the white flesh and I touched its vein. Then that pulsing started and the whole thing just sort of wrapped around me in a lattice of black, veins like seaweed, growing in my skin, and my hair and eyes and...fuck I’ve been studying those slugs too hard. I think I’ll take a personal day tomorrow.

May 20, 2048, 1905 hours

Darnell got a piece of the thing off. It’s currently sitting in front of me, a little blob of white flesh, floating in a tube of water, and surrounded by robots and computers scanning every inch of it. We’ve already determined that it doesn’t match DNA with any known undersea life form, the closest being Enteroctopus dofleini (Giant Pacific Octopus for those of you in the cheap seats).

The most interesting thing about the little tissue sample is its regeneration. It doesn’t seem to know it’s disconnected from the greater whole, and it already seems like a...lattice of nerves is growing, like little probing tendrils from the blob. We haven’t given it any food or changed the temperature of the test tube, so I have no idea where the extra mass is coming from. Maybe proteins in the water or something like that. Obviously we’re going to need further tests, but I’m so excited I almost can’t concentrate.

I just met Darnell for drinks before my sleep cycle, and he offhandedly mentioned he was having nightmares as well. We had a few drinks and he was telling me about being down there, how it felt to be the only human to have ever been in that place in what must have been millenia. After his confident demeanor kind of wore off, he was saying how it did get eerie. It’s so wide and open and dark, and you only have your radar and nightvision that extends like three meters. Apparently even he sees things at the corner of his eye. I’m glad to know I’m not the only wuss, but I guess he’s the only one with the guts to actually go down there. When we figure out what’s in here, we’re going to be famous. We’ve already sent some samples to the surface, both of the slugs and the tissue. We had a whiskey and watched the light of the drone disappear into the blackness.

I need to get some sleep now, tomorrow, he’s going in and seeing how long the organic structure extends into the depths.

May 21, 2048, 0000 hours

[Monotone] I can see him, going further and further in. The walls around me are alive, the carvings moving, re-enacting scenes of worship and bloody, painful sacrifice. Those slugs are all around me, like a shoal of fish, and in their green eyes, I can see they are watching me, leading me deeper into the blackness.

My friends try to contact me, but I am beyond their sensors. The robots abandoned me half an hour ago, and I’m going deeper than I ever thought possible. Air supply is running out but I’m not afraid. In the deep black, there’s only these sea slugs to light my way.

It’s calling me, in the world at the center of the city [indecipherable] is it a temple? People like me haven’t bled here in a long time. I’m starting to feel light headed as the air supply dwindles. I’ll make it to the center. [indecipherable] sings out to me and I answer.

May 21, 2048, 0714 hours
 
Darnell is gone. He’s just fucking gone. At about 2330, they lost him his signal. He was babbling something but with all the feedback and static, it just didn’t come through. He’s been gone for seven hours or so now. The robots are searching every inch of the place but it’s bigger....way bigger than we thought. There’s tunnels and passages down there that stretch for fucking miles. The place should have caved it long ago, and we’re even trying to dig into one of the caverns from the ocean floor where our projections say he would’ve run out of air. Robots are out there right now, little pinpricks of fusion cutter light as they burrow through the rock

I....I didn’t make that recording last night. It was sleep-talk or something, but...I can’t remember...I had such a fucked up dream last night. I’ve always been a bit afraid of drowning, but going that way, covered in those slugs....I woke up soaking my sheets in sweat. Didn’t think much of it ‘till I heard Darnell was missing.

I checked the lab a few minutes ago, anything to get my mind of this shit. The tissue sample has grown even more, the flesh is forming something that looks like...some kind of very primitive nerve cluster? The sensors are detecting electricity moving through it, and this is starting to get crazy. I’m draining the water out in a second, and we’ll see if the growth continues-

[clattering sound as recorder is dropped. 15 seconds of silence, and then the sound of glass breaking. There is a slurping noise, and then gagging and dry heaves]
 
May 21, 2048, 2127 hours
 
I’ve been out for the past 16 hours and a bit, and I can’t remember a fucking thing. My sample is gone- I wake up in the infirmary and the doctor tells me I’ve a fever. My body feels weird...like the bones and flesh don’t sit right. From a medical standpoint there’s nothing wrong, and I’m just overworked or something. Maybe stress, suggests the doctor. I told him I’m going back to the lab and he’s asked me to keep him informed.
 
We still haven’t found Darnell. I’ve been going through the logs and the robots have cut more than a mile into the earth, well into where the chamber should be, and all they could find is solid goddamn rock. It’s...it’s impossible, like it’s bigger or something on the inside. We’ve sent a mayday to the surface. We’re prepping for evac. This situation has officially become FUBAR’d and the atmosphere in here is fucking hectic. I got together the samples of antiqua and put them in a vacuum-sealed case. I’m going to put in a request to get another tissue sample of the tentacle thing. For Darnell’s sake, they’d better not try to cover this up. Darnell’s been gone for way longer than his oxygen tank could support him. I’m not going to let them just forget him.
 
May 21, 2048, 2354 hours
 
Something is wrong with me. My head is throbbing like a heartbeat and every time I close my eyes I feel like I’m somewhere else. It’s an extreme depersonalization. I feel like my real body is outside the airlock, in that pitch black ocean. I feel like an eye-stalk that’s just looking back in.
 
I’m feeling…..very detached from this. I went to my sample case and checked the slugs were still there, laying them out and prying open their little jaws with pliers and scalpels until their fossilized flesh cracked and splintered. The teeth are placed at random looking intervals, until I compared them to my own. Nice and round, circular, and descending like a spiral. Can you imagine getting bitten by one of these things? Your flesh would come out in strings, as if someone gouged it out in neat, spiral chunks. It would be a bad way to die, and somehow, it makes me hungry.
 
Evac will be on its way soon. I’m going to try and sleep and forget about all this. I haven’t even bothered to clean up the lab. Did I eat those samples? I get flashes, and twitches, and it’s hard to think clearly. My brain feels like something is growing over it, a nice, delicate lattice of nerves and veins….
 
May 22, 2048, 0005 hours
 
I’m looking at my face in the mirror and I feel like it’s so wrong. This….mouth….lips covering my jaw? It doesn’t work. Totally useless. [Voice becomes slurred as there is a wet sound] It doesn’t even hurt when I fix it. Underneath my skin it’s become cold and white and wet, just like my real body in the ocean. I can see my black veins swimming in the sea of flesh. [more wet tearing and the voice becomes harder to understand] The Darnell [form? corpse?] swims in the city, already [adapted? advancing?] to new life. It [cracking] needs [cracking] to open [more? cracking]. [So? many? teeth? beautiful? spirals? of? teeth?]
 
After report
 
Dr. Gordon Leonard was declared missing. His quarters within Station Poseidon beside Site A were found disheveled. He appeared to have conducted crude surgery on himself in the bathroom, as it was splattered in blood and contained traces of flesh that had strangely not become subject to decomposition. The Doctor himself still hasn’t been found, and neither has Edward Darnell, an independent contractor and expert of demolitions brought in to help with the investigation into Site A.
 
Despite the logs within the voice recorder recovered with Leonard’s other personal effects, along with substantial amounts of data and witness testimony, no trace of biomatter was found within Site A, when the probes were sent to investigate. Furthermore there was no record of the tunnel that Darnell allegedly swam down when he went AWOL. The inconsistencies in Site A’s geography were chalked up to errors in mapping the place as well as the stress on the professionals responding to the emergency.
 
Suicide rates among the Poseidon Station’s former crew have been high, and many of them have had to go to counseling, reporting of violent nightmares and an urge to drown themselves.
 
The tissue samples and samples of Nembrotha antiqua have not been recovered. The drone went off course approximately 3 hours after the initial launch and then went offline. There is no record at all of the organic structure reportedly discovered within Site A.

Investigations are continuing.