Deep Blue - The Descent

29: A New Guest

Nick stormed into his quarters agitated enough that the M.A.N.T.A. suit glowed a deep violet -- slightly more red than blue.

"And seriously,", Nick said talking aloud to himself. "Of all the systems to disable on the ship, you pick the weapons?! The weapons system."

Nick tried to grasp the logic behind that decision.

"Let's see, he's going to an unknown part of the ocean that has potentially hostile, giant sea creatures -- which system should I disable?", Nick mocked. "Oh, I know -- the weapons system. He won't need those."

Nick threw himself into the tiny chair at the small table in his room and turned on his computer.

"Begin report. 3.8.2065, Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Sheppard. Mark this report as 'Urgent'. I just completed the second extreme depth test of the M.A.N.T.A. and the Cavitation Drive, I have some very interesting discoveries to report. You're not going to believe this, but I'm pretty sure I just made first contact with an alien species."

Nick paused, then tapped the keyboard hard.

"Oh yeah, that's good. That doesn't make me sound crazy at all. Computer, delete log. If I start off with that, I know exactly what they'll think."

"Aliens?! You seriously think these things could be from another planet?", Jordan asked incredulously, as she walked rapidly through the hallway beside the doctor, still trying to wrap her head around the situation.

The bright lights inside lab 2 flickered to life as the doctor and Jordan entered the room.

Doctor Marshall shook his head, "I don't know what to think right now Commander, but no, 'E.T.' isn't at the top of my list.", the doctor replied. "At this point we don't even know what it looks like yet."

"They were mainly humanoid in nature, but it looked a little larger than your average human.", Nick continued his report. "I performed several flyby's within ten feet of their craft and can tell you without a doubt that there were alien creatures piloting them. Their ships could out maneuver and outrun the M.A.N.T.A., that is, until I engaged the Cavitation Drive. With the Cav Drive I was able to outrun them with, but just barely. In fact, one followed me back to Deep Blue. It showed up outside the station but had some sort of malfunction and crashed right outside. And now, get this, the Commander and the doctor are attempting, against my recommendation, at this very moment, to retrieve the alien pilot."

Nick paused the recording momentarily and sat back in the chair, "I mean seriously, what do they plan on doing with him once they have him?"

"This should hold it long enough for us to figure out what to do with it.", the doctor said as he tapped on a tabletop console, the nearby monitors flashed to their default screens. The doctor punched a few more strokes on the virtual keyboard causing lights to illuminate inside a tall vertical column on the exterior wall of the lab. The cylinder was large, approximately 5 feet in diameter and extended from floor to ceiling. It could comfortably fit a full grown man. The front of the column was made of a thick clear acrylic or glass. Various bits of data were projected on the exterior surface of the tube, displaying information about the contents of the tube, water temperature, water pressure, oxygen and acidic levels, etc.

"Nice aquarium doc.", Jordan remarked.

"Thanks. Most of the time I use this to observe and monitor small fish and other marine life that are scurrying about outside.", the doctor stated. "It cycles water directly from outside -- so it's more of a containment tank, than an aquarium. Technically speaking, whatever we're watching is still outside; It's just confined to this space. However, the tube can be sealed and pressurized -- if needed."