Into the Trench
Declan Cosson
Into the Trench tells the story of a naval expedition from an advanced underwater Francophonic nation named Atlantica. The Atlanticans explore the Mariana Trench only to find monsters believed to mythical turn out to be real.
An endless darkness swept through the abyssal depths of the ocean as the Triton made its journey deep below the Pacific. It was a cold and desolate place filled with unknown horrors. All the more so was the vast chasm of the Mariana Trench, an abyss that plunged even deeper into the fathomless ocean. One of the few creatures to venture into these inhospitable waters—a sperm whale hunting its prey—suddenly swam away as out of the pitch-black darkness came the vast, sleek and angular submarine known as the ANS: Triton. It had triangle shaped wings and a conning tower extending up its stern, a tower that gave the bridge full view of the area around the vessel. The submarine was brightly lit by spotlights and decorated with torpedo turrets. This vessel was big enough to make the sperm whales it occasionally encountered look like little fish in comparison. The machine was in the service of the proud ocean-dwelling nation of Atlantica, a society produced by colonization of the Atlantic Ocean during the last years of the 21st century.
Descended from Scandinavian and Northern European peoples, the Atlanticans—like their ancestors—were great explorers, and so were not intimidated by the desolation and pitch-black darkness of the Mariana Trench. Within the security of one of the Triton’s cabins, a studious-looking man with nut-brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard adjusted his glasses as he scrutinized his notes of aquatic life in the Abyssal Zone. The Abyssal Zone was the one territory still left unexplored by men, even the Atlanticans. Suddenly a youth with chalk white skin, black hair and blue eyes—features that revealed his merfolk heritage—burst into the cabin. He was dressed in a dark blue uniform.
“Uncle Aubert, are you really certain about heading into the Mariana Trench?”
Looking up at the young man, Aubert seemed shocked.
“Are you having doubts about this enterprise at this stage of the journey, Lucian?”
“But what are we going to gain from this? I mean, even with our technology and equipment, you don’t think we can truly settle the Mariana Trench, do you? Do we know what resources lie down there?”
Taking off his glasses to rub his nose, Aubert took a moment to think. An academic from a military lineage, Aubert was torn between the glory of exploring the unknown and the pragmatic goal of colonising new areas of the globe.
“Lucian? Do we really need to reduce everything to mere resources and real estate?? Don’t you realize that there is glory to be had in the discovery of new species within the Marianna Trench? The chance to expand our knowledge of the unknown?”
Lucian suppressed a sharp retort, for the brute truth was that he was trying to hide his fear of the Abyssal zone. Normally courageous and determined, he secretly believed that it was a chaotic maw not meant for humanity to travel in. Who knew what horrors lurked in the ocean at this depth?
Puzzled by his nephew’s lack of response, Aubert continued. “What we do on this journey is in the name of science, not politics or economics…the most noble goal of mankind is the pursuit of knowledge. That is the greatest bounty to be gained from the seas, Lucian!”
“To go where none has gone before?”
“Exactly.”
They both smiled. A knock on the door interrupted them.
“Come in,” Aubert called.
A crewman came into the cabin and saluted. “Doctor Aubert, Captain Surcouf has requested that you come to the bridge. We have arrived at the Mariana Trench.”
“Wonderful! Trust me, my good man, you are part of a most noble endeavour. You will gain a prestige that no amount of wars will earn for you, not even the machine wars…”
The crewman looked oddly at Aubert, then led the way for him and Lucian towards the bridge of the Triton.
***
Up on the bridge, a tense atmosphere prevailed as the clean-cut crewmen, dressed in sophisticated dark blue uniforms, operated the controls. Their work was overseen by more uniformed men with visored peaked caps, who walked across the balconies that overlooked rows of control panels. Some of the officers stood looking outside the window of the control tower, but all they could see was the surrounding blackness, even with the spotlights on. Thanks to their radars and sonar equipment, the Atlanticans knew they had arrived at the Mariana Trench.
The crew did not share Aubert’s romantic ideas of the pursuit of knowledge. They expected something terrible to happen. Up at the centre of the balcony, Captain Denis Surcouf glared ominously as an officer reported to him.
“Captain, we have arrived at the Trench, but I warn you, even with our pressure control devices, we could risk losing the submarine if we dive any further.”
The smartly uniformed and clean-cut Captain turned to face this officer.
“I understand, XO Klaus, keep the submarine on a security code yellow…be ready for anything.”
The captain looked forbidding as Lucian and Aubert entered the bridge.
“You requested to see us, Denis?”
“Yes, it is my duty to inform you that we are here at the Mariana Trench. But the Triton can’t go beyond this depth, the pressures of the Trench will just snap it in two like a stick!”
Aubert noted the severity of the captain’s expression.
“I understand your position, but you don’t intend turning back, do you? Have we encountered anything?”
“This is the Abyssal Zone, Aubert. Who knows what sort of monsters lurk down here? Back in the year 2345, a Terran submarine known as the Iliad was taken out by what was later revealed to our authorities by a Terran diplomat to be some form of giant octopus.”
“Denis, I know the risks, but if we worry too much about risks, we’d go nowhere. We must not let danger blur the great opportunities that await our noble species!”
“Listen to me, Aubert, if you weren’t my older brother, I would not have risked any of our lives for this scientific venture! Now come along, we must head for the hangar!”
***
Denis led his son, Lucian and brother, Aubert to the hangar where all sorts of vehicles and machines were docked. These ranged from amphibious rovers and submarine fighters to other forms of vessels which were perched within hangers. Elevators would position the chosen vehicle above a trapdoor pool which served as a gate between the clean and secure space of the submarine and the chaotic ocean outside. Engineers tended to these vessels, ensuring that they were in good shape. Eventually, the three arrived at a hangar and looked up at a rather chunky cylindrical vehicle shaped like a small airship with small wing tips. It had a sphere underneath it that had a small circular window on either side. Equipped with torpedoes, electric shock projectors and depth charges, it was capable of containing at least four men in its sphere.
“Well, Aubert, Lucian, this “nautilus” class bathyscaphe will be our vessel of choice for going down into the trench.”
Aubert inspected the bathyscaphe carefully.
“Perfect, tell me, Denis, are there any men that you can spare for this endeavour? You must understand that we are little more than scientists and not experienced with military hardware.”
“If we are to explore the Trench then I’ll go myself…”
Both Lucian and Aubert looked shocked at this decision.
“But Father? You’re coming with us…but your men…”, Lucian stuttered.
“Listen to me, well, Lucian, my men can handle themselves very well without me. But you and Aubert? Lucian, you must know that when your eldest brother perished in battle during the robot wars that waged on the surface, your mother made me promise that I would keep you alive. If I am to properly achieve that goal, I will need to escort you and Aubert into the Mariana Trench.”
Lucian swallowed nervously, but he nodded to signal that he understood.
***
A little later, as the great battle submarine ANS: Triton hovered over the Mariana Trench, the crew formed an honour guard for the three men, who were geared up in armoured diving suits as they made their way through the dimly lit corridors of the Triton. While the majority of the crew looked on with a sense of pride, some of the men furtively made the sign of the Cross as if they were calling upon God to protect them from whatever terrors might be lurking in the depths below. XO Klaus waited beside the Bathyscaphe and a crewman stood beside him, holding onto Denis’s helmet.
“You sure about this, Captain? There were many men who volunteered to go in your place.”
“I understand the risks, Officer Klaus, but these two scientists are my kin. For that reason alone, I must protect them. I won’t risk the lives of anyone on the ship over this trip into the Trench.”
“Very well, we shall provide support when you need it, Captain! God be with you!”
The crewman handed Denis his helmet. Fitting it on, Denis followed Lucian and Aubert up the steps into the bathyscaphe, receiving one final salute from the crew before climbing into the sphere and closing the hatch. As the bathyscaphe was lowered into a pool, a voice over the intercom could be heard.
“Clear the area! Clear the area! Vessel preparing to launch!”
The announcement was repeated in French, German and Danish as alarms sounded and red lights flashed. Crewmen retreated from the hangar as the bathyscaphe was lowered via a crane till it became fully submerged in a pool. A trapdoor closed above the vessel while another opened below it. The three descended further and further into the Mariana Trench. Their bathyscaphe, already small compared to the battle submarine it deployed from, soon looked like a little speck, its spotlights barely illuminating the darkness around them as it dived deeper and deeper into the Trench.
Lucian looked through the window. While the Trench gave him an unsettling feeling, it also gave him a strange sense of beauty. Aside from creatures he was familiar with such as angler fish, Lucian pondered on what sort of life would really want to live in such a desolate place. Even his distant relations, the merfolk, with whom Atlanticans often had a rocky relationship, would rarely go near the Abyssal Zone of the Trench. Denis didn’t have such curiosity; he just gripped an assault rifle in his gloved hands. Doctor Aubert carried out his studies, documenting and scanning the Trench to get a better insight into its environment. So far, the journey into the Mariana Trench was uneventful. At one point, there was a jolt, as if something had just bumped into their vessel. The three men froze as their sense of foreboding grew. Then the vessel continued its descent. Denis’ eyes flicked to a screen beside him. Their oxygen supplies remained plentiful for the time being.
The bathyscaphe gave a final bump. They had reached the bottom of the Trench. When he looked out the window, Aubert was startled to see a bright light in the distance.
“Look gentlemen, look at that luminescence. Isn’t it beautiful? It is bigger and brighter than anything we have seen at this point!” he shouted excitedly. “Denis, let’s go and take a closer look.”
“What? You mean go out there into the Mariana Trench? How do we not know that some sort of horror isn’t waiting out there to eat us?”
“But what if this luminescence is the sign of a civilization that we have yet to encounter? We came to finish the work that August Picard had begun…we could be the first men to walk on the surface of the Mariana Trench! We would be immortalized in history for that.”
Denis and Lucian looked at each other in mild exasperation; they did not share Aubert’s dream of being immortalised but nevertheless, their rational thought was overpowered by a thirst for adventure. Their bodies safely shielded by armoured diving suits, powered by a generator to give them extra mobility and with in-built microphones that allowed them to talk, they left the bathyscaphe and stepped into the black depths. Their magnetic boots allowed them to walk across the ocean floor and the spotlights on their suits and guns illuminated the area around them. They kept their guns at the ready, but the men, especially Lucian and even Denis, were overcome with pure awe as they saw all of the strange little—and often luminescent—creatures, swimming around them. Lucian even reached his hand out to try and feel one, but it flickered and darted away from him. Aubert tried to document the creatures along the journey but Denis simply looked around him, too keyed up to admire the scenery.
As the men continued onwards, an ominous feeling crept down their spines. Lucian realised that the surface he was walking on felt somehow different. No longer rocky or hard, it felt soft and almost scaly. Suddenly, there was nothing at all beneath his feet and he fell forward, floundering until Denis steadied him.
“You okay, Lucian?” Denis patted him on the back.
“Father, is it me or does the surface we are walking on feel organic?”
“Now that you mention it, it does feel strange. I’m sure your uncle will have something to say. Denis? I believe we might have discovered a new species…given the size of the creature, we might have vindicated the B…”
Suddenly, Denis gasped in shock as he realised that the hole resembled some sort of nostril in an enormous head.
“Aubert!! Get down here!! Viens, we need to get back to the bathyscape, while we are all still in good shape!!”
Aubert paid no attention, too busy exploring another part of this strange surface. The luminescence was extending like the light of an angler fish from the forehead of the creature. Lucian and Denis maneuvered their way off the head of the monster, wondering if what they had encountered was the Biblical Leviathan. Comprehension finally hit Denis like a physical blow.
“Aubert? Aubert, get away from those eyes!”
Another large shape materialised right beside them. The eyes of the leviathan suddenly opened. Both Denis and Lucian could only look on in pure horror as the enormous crocodilian-shaped beast suddenly lurched up, easily shrugging off Aubert as it lunged towards another enormous creature, which turned out to be a gigantic octopus. The octopus spewed a cloud of thick black ink, but the leviathan simply grabbed the octopus in its huge jaws, trashing the creature around and bashing it from either side of the Trench, killing it in the process. Denis didn’t hesitate.
“Back to the bathyscaphe, if we waste time, that monster will turn on us!”
“But what about Uncle Aubert? We can’t leave him to die!!”
“I said back to the bathyscaphe, Lucian, I’ll search for Aubert!”
Terrified, Lucian made his way back to the bathyscaphe. As he climbed back in, he could see his father shoot up via his propellor pack to grab the now floating and unconscious Aubert in his arms. But the force of the leviathan’s thrashing blew Denis against the rocks, smashing his propellor pack beyond repair.
Denis’s instincts kicked in, and he tried to swim but the heavy suit was too cumbersome for limbs alone to propel and the boots began to drag him down to the sea floor like a magnet. Pushing down his feelings of panic, Lucian reached for the controls of the bathyscaphe, activating it and steering it towards his father and uncle. Trying to scare off the leviathan, Lucian even managed to fire off a depth charge to wound the beast. He then opened the hatch.
Denis mustered all the strength he had to push the unconscious Aubert towards Lucian who grabbed onto his uncle and heaved him back into the bathyscaphe. Lucian then hauled Denis back into the vessel, finally sealing the hatch. Denis pulled off his helmet, revealing his head wet with sweat. He reached down to Aubert and removed his helmet. Then he grasped Lucian’s shoulder in a heartfelt gesture.
“Smart move, you saved our necks…”
“Thanks, father.”
Aubert, having regained consciousness, looked around him, thoroughly confused.
“Oh, Mon Dieu, what just happened?”
Denis snapped an answer over his shoulder as he settled before the controls of the bathyscape.
“The result of your grand adventure for science, my good brother. We just provoked a sea monster…”
“We did? Is that where all that vibration and blowback was coming from? How big was it?”
Denis never managed to reply to this question. They all fell silent as they heard the hull creaking, a sound that only ratcheted up the tension gripping them. Suddenly, there was an impact and the bathyscape began to spin around. Outside, the leviathan had focused its attention on the vessel, its yellow eyes glowing and its mouth shaped in a toothed smile as it bopped the vessel like an Orca would bop a ball. Feeling sick and dizzy, Lucian cried out in terror.
“Father? Uncle? What do we do now? The kraken was clearly not enough to feed this beast’s belly!”
“Buckle up, gentlemen!! This is going to be tight!!”
Without a second thought, Aubert and Lucian buckled themselves into their seats as Denis operated the controls of the bathyscaphe, driving it up through the trench towards the chasm. But the mighty leviathan simply followed, heaving its giant limbs to propel itself upwards and continue the pursuit. Every time the leviathan opened its wide mouth to envelop the vessel, Denis fired off electric shocks to stun the monster, keeping the bathyscape just ahead of the monstrous jaws.
Meanwhile up at the Triton, the crew were picking up the frightened radio signals of the bathyscape. XO Klaus was in a furious panic as he spoke through the radio.
“Captain Surcouf? What in God’s name is going on down there!”
“We’re on our way back, but I need you to put our vessel on security code red! I repeat!! Security code red!!”
Suddenly, there was a shout from a terrified crewman.
“Sir, we’ve detected a hostile biosignature coming up from the Mariana Trench! It is the largest on record!!”
XO Klaus’s eyes widened as he saw the enormous crocodilian shape emerge on the radar, just below the Triton.
“Himmel!! All hands to battle stations!! All hands to battle stations!! Some sort of monstrous vermin is heading straight for us!!”
The alarms flashed blood red as sailors and marines suited up in their armoured diving suits, manning and operating the torpedo turrets while some of them boarded armoured bathyscapes which plunged into the ocean. Already, the Triton was firing torpedoes down at the leviathan as the enormous monster came into view.
In the bathyscaphe’s desperate ascent to the battleship, the terrified occupants could still the leviathan’s eyes glowing bright yellow. Its mouth opened wide again in an attempt to swallow the bathyscaphe, but this time it’s jaws were battered by torpedoes from the other bathyscaphes. Furious, the leviathan turned its attention to this new threat, grabbing two of them with its giant claws and slamming them together. Aubert and Lucian looked on, sick with horror as they watched the bathyscaphes get smashed apart. Denis started up and reached towards the hatch as if he thought that he could somehow save his men. Aubert had to restrain him while Lucian grabbed the controls and drove the bathyscaphe further up towards the chasm of the Trench.
***
Back up at the Triton, the terrible news was announced to Klaus.
“Sir, we’ve just lost two armoured bathyscaphes, not a single survivor detected from either of them!”
“What? Order all remaining bathyscaphes to retreat back into the submarine! Once we have retrieved the captain, we will send this monster back into the trench! Prepare a plutonium depth charge!”
The bathyscaphe, now a battered wreck sparkling with electricity, arrived in the hangar.
Crewmen rushed to get Aubert, Lucian and Denis out of there. As soon as the other bathyscaphes had returned to the hangar, a large depth charge was maneuvered via a magnetic crane above a trapdoor. On the depth charge was a radiation symbol and the crewmen preparing it all wore hazmat suits. In the control room a crewman made the sign of the Cross as he pressed the button to release the charge and send it barrelling towards the leviathan. The entire crew watched in horrified fascination as the enormous monster opened its mouth to gulp it down. An ominous silence was followed by a muted explosion from deep within the monstrous beast. In a whirling mass of blood and gore, it sank out of sight, descending back into the Trench from whence it came.
***
In spite of the obvious relief at recovering their captain, the atmosphere among the crew was dark. In the hangar, the crew circled around the three as they were each given a shot of rum. Klaus addressed Aubert sternly.
“Well doctor, what new knowledge did you gain in the Abyssal Zone?”
“New…knowledge?”
“Ya, Herr professor, we have just undergone a trip to the strategically useless Abyssal Zone and we have two bathyscaphes worth of men dead to show for it.”
Aware of the unfriendly looks from many of the crew, Doctor Aubert mustered his courage to reply.
“Well, we are the first men to walk in the Mariana Trench, literally walking where no man has walked previously. In this trip, we gained new knowledge about what lived down there…”
He hesitated before resuming.
“And in doing so, we discovered that both the Kraken and the Leviathan are real creatures. That the Leviathan preys on Krakens for lunch…”
The men looked shocked and they all muttered with horror as Aubert continued enthusiastically.
“And with this discovery, we have found that the Abyssal Zone potentially houses a whole new ecosystem full of undiscovered life forms!! If they can live there, then potentially so can man with the right equipment. If anyone can claim such territory, then let it be us Atlanticans, the sons of ocean dwellers…”
Klaus recoiled in shock.
“Claim? Try to populate a territory brimming with enormous monstrosities? We had to waste a plutonium charge just to save your neck from that Leviathan. A creature predicted by the Bible to be a force of the apocalypse is what we just encountered down there. Captain Surcouf! I know this scientist is your brother but we’ve had enough.”
Denis paused to collect his thoughts.
“Well, gentlemen, one fact is for certain. We would potentially need an armada to explore the Abyssal Zone and I doubt the political will exists to initiate such an expedition. I still remember the resistance of our politicians to this particular mission. So, let us set course for Atlantica!”
The Triton sailed away from the Abyssal Zone, its crew shaken by what they had witnessed in the Mariana Trench. The loss of their crewmates weighed heavily on everyone. Both Lucian and Denis were secretly relieved to be heading away from a place that held such beauty and such horror. Even the Atlantican thirst for adventure had its limits.
Declan Cosson
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Declan Cosson was born in Paris in 1999 but moved with his family to Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, Ireland where he has lived ever since. Declan began writing from the age of 15 and completed his first self published work in 2021. He published his first novel "Blood and Gears" in 2023 and the "Claíomh Solais" is his latest work.