A Rambling Cephalopod Narrative:

[atticus_finch]

The men were silent, separate individuals averting their eyes
from the other in attempt to conceal separate thoughts over
separate observations. Their reactions were identical: fear.

Eric was first to succumb to the pressure of this silence.
"Dan..I..I..um..I think I saw.." "Speak up, Eric! What is it?"
"Well..um..a moment ago..I thought I saw a large tentacle."
"Dear god. I saw a large eye! T'is a ceph, I'm sure of it!"
"You, too?" Eric sighed, grateful to no longer to be separate.
Separate observations of an identical entity: identical fear.

Just at that moment the minisub began to rock...

 

[cthulhu77]

...and roll too, as Eric, backpedaling from the starboard porthole tripped, and fell into Dan's way...the right thruster went to full power for a second, and the sub spiraled violently.
"Eric!" Dan shouted, "Calm down...whatever it is, stop falling down all the time !" The sub slowly came back under control, and both resumed their places, scanning the dials and controls.

Eric was a bit shamefaced, but still stared out of the thick plexiglass with wide eyes, searching for what he thought he had seen...that brilliant red flash of colour, a quick view of horned tentacles...

"Hey Squarepants," the captain snorted, "where is your toothbrush? Your nose is all bloody again."

 

[Steve O'Shea]

As he wiped the blood from his chin, Eric's eyes froze on those of Dan's, and a bead of water ran from his eye. He raised his arm, outstretched his finger, and pointed straight ahead. You could see it, or was it them, just; something huge.

Time froze. Hung by little more than a prayer and a congealed thread, a drop of blood swang from the tip of Eric's nose. The tear reached his cheek. The congealed thread quivered. The tear reached his chin. The congealed thread broke. Both drops suspended mid air, then careered to the floor. But they never made it.

 

[cthulhu77]

With a tremendous crash, the minisub spun around in every direction...the fluke of the Cachalot was visible for a brief second, and another shock wave of water hit them, knocking Eric unconcious !
Dan wrestled with the miniature control pegs to try to regain control of the small vessel as pulse after pulse of pressure came from the diving whale's fins and violent passage...

 

[Jean]

Dans last view before his head crashed against the control yoke was the catchalots tail fluke which appeared to be artistically decorated with a SQ2132XP AQuaPro Deluxe sub.

Then darkness decended.

The sub hit the bottom with a THUD, sediment billowed obscuring all viewports. As the silt settled several writhing tentacles like pythons on steroids appeared out of the gloom and wrapped around the sub and lifted..........

 

[Steve O'Shea]

... but was then no more. The SQ2132XP AQuaPro Deluxe sub, a little worse for wear, had dislodged itself from the whale's fluke and landed square on the head of the squid. Brain, blue blood, stomach, gonad, arms, tentacle and pulsating chromatophore exploded in every direction.

The two subs sunk to the seafloor, settling in the mud, their two plexiglass domes facing each other. Dan extricated the throttle lever from Eric's nose, and moved his unconcious body aside. He kicked the battered sub into gear and gently nudged it closer to the dome of his friend's battered sub.

 

[ArchyNorth]

Getting the sub to move forward though was proving to be difficult, as something seemed to be jammed in one of the propellers and was refusing to work it's way out.

Dan wrestled with the yoke and controls, sweating and cursing the whole time, but he was slowly working his way forward. With one last burst of power the sub settled down just close enough to look into the dome of the opposite sub.

All seemed dark and quiet, with no movement to be seen. Straining to peer deeper into the damaged sub, his left arm brushed the floodlight switch and the water around the sub was suddenly bathed in brilliant light.

Throwing up his hads to shade his eyes, Dan cursed and turned away. After minute or two and half blind, he turned rubbing his eyes and peered out towards his friends sub.....

 

[Jean]

......and to his utter astonishment, as his lights shone in through the dome of the SQ2132XP AQuaPro Deluxe sub he saw Greg weakly waving back at him. He'd survived on mouldy marmite sandwiches,brussels sprouts, speights beer and..........

J

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Darn! Not again!

Jack awoke, irritated that once again he'd missed the ending. It always started the same way, an element of truth, perhaps premonition, but then became increasingly bizarre! As lame as it all was, he'd like to know if they made it back. And what was with this idiot Eric!! Shit, he didn't even know anyone named Eric!

He lit a smoke, glanced at the alarm, 4AM, and staggered out for a pee.

"Ya BLO*DY MONGREL CAT!!!" He flicked his foot to dislodge the thrown-up cat biscuit-and-bile mushed between his toes. Wet pellets bound with slime and hair lodged on the wall.

 

[atticus_finch]

Slipping on the cat biscuit*, he cut his head on a couch corner, rendering him unconscious. He awoke, relieved at first to think his sea adventure was but a dream. Once fully conscious, he realised he WAS on the sub. He was but a dream. He then...

*(the most common cause of coma in the carpetless, according to the BMA)

 

[cthulhu77]

...realized his name was Eric...it seemed that the blow that rendered him unconscious also reactivated his split personality...Jack/Eric moaned in the bright light.

"Why do you keep going on about cats?" asked Dan, as he waved at Greg and looked for a rag to staunch the bleeding from Erics head and nose. "Only thing they're good for is stir fry with noodles!"

Eric was able to sit up now, and the sub had righted itself well enough on the floor of the trench to where they could use the seats again. "Strap yourself in next time, lad."

 

[atticus_finch]

Dan's reference to stir fried cat made Eric drool..so much Dan yelled,
"Close your mouth or you'll drown without need of the sea to do it!"
But Eric's thoughts were elsewhere; he hoped Taco was the chef..

 

[chrono_war01]

back on the boat, Alberto was having fun with a small crab he has find on a piece of floating seaweed. Dan was being looking out wehn he saw a strange bubbles and a wake 100m from the boat. He judged that it would be a large sperm whale or some sort of sea creature that often goes muching on small wooden boats. He took out the crate under all the supplies, he opened it and and took out the only item on the boat that was proud of, the 3 shiny modified AQUA STORM. The AQUA STORM was under water assualt rifle the best there ever was, the 2 foot beuty ran on compressed gas, firing small caliber bullets that can penetrate almost anything. These modified ones were equipped with short range laser sights and the barrel was refitted to fire the LANCE 4 harpoon. Sharp enough to slice through sharks like it was butter. Dan looked through his laser sights and the familer 'ting' was heard as he compressed the trigger and the harpoon went soarling into the air, striking its target with military precscion. The wake suddenly stopped and a large cloud of ink could be seen emerging from the sea. Dan smiled to himself and siad', yep that was ol Archie alright...'

 

[cthulhu77]

Through the cloud of ink they could see Greg frantically waving his arms and gesturing to the communications console. Dan flipped on a switch (why hadn't he done that earlier?) and a tinny voice came blaring through, "You idiot! What are you trying to do, irritate it?"
Dan and Eric/Jack/Stephen peered out at the darkness beyond the lights...nothing was moving.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

A deafening silence ensued.

Too much silence.

"Dan? Are you ok?"

DAN?

DAN!!!!

The voices were gone. He was alone. But who was he?

He'd been like this for almost a year. A year and a day to be precise. Six months in an institution, and brain-numbing medication had helped, but there'd been too much pain, too much trauma.