Underwater Encounter

Su Ming shrugged.

I don't understand this field.

"So, what are some possible reasons for a five-centimeter rise in sea level?"

Xiwo thought for a moment.

"The most likely explanation is an anomaly in the ocean's warm currents."

"The least likely explanation is that the seabed topography has changed."

The old elf answered.

"Whichever it is, it indicates that the hydrological conditions beneath the sea surface have changed."

Su Ming nodded.

"It seems the decision to send the Albacore ahead to scout the way was the right one."

"Departure time remains unchanged; continue monitoring all ocean data."

"Yes, Chairman!" the Hechun replied.

****

As dawn broke, the Pansy departed from the pier.

The deck and bridge were submerged in the water one after another, and the submarine entered a shallow diving state, leaving only a thin white trail on the surface of the sea.

A few seconds later, the Mackerel also slid into the water from its side, like a cold-tailed fish, and completed the docking close to the mothership's belly.

Several hours later, the two submarines entered the North Pole ice cap region.

The sea overhead was no longer there, but a vast expanse of oppressive white.

The bottom of the ice sheet resembles an inverted mountain range, sometimes flat, sometimes with a sudden ridge.

The searchlight can only illuminate a hundred meters ahead.

Beyond that, all that remained was a darkness that swallowed up the light.

The Pansy is doing alright.

However, ice crystals had already begun to form in the gaps of the Albacore's hold.

Occasionally, tiny snowflakes would explode on the sonar screen, hissing as they did so, only to be quickly suppressed by the quail's hand.

Beianqi stood in front of the control panel, her fingers almost never stopping.

"There's a drooping ice ridge to the right front; the autopilot will brush past it." She switched off a set of autocorrects.

"I'll take over manually."

The Pansy had just veered half a degree off course when a jagged ice ridge on its left side slid past the top of the ship.

Ice shards smacked against the outer shell, like someone had scattered a handful of bone fragments on the ship's roof.

"The channel ahead is narrowing," the Hechun warned. "Raise to the right; the left is passable."

"Give me directions," Beianqi said.

A thin green line appeared on the main screen.

Pansy slowed down along that line, almost squeezing past the ice wall.

After passing through that treacherous pass, the view ahead opened up again.

Xiwo's voice also relaxed slightly. "We're starting to leave the Northern Ice Island shelf."

"Next, the water will become deeper and the sea route will widen."

Su Ming nodded.

"Maintain a distance of more than 100 meters from the seabed and begin descent," he ordered.

The Pansy slowly sank.

As they moved forward, not only did the water become deeper, but the ice above them actually thinned out after entering the ocean.

The once narrow shipping lane suddenly opened up.

Xiwo stood up and straightened his clothes.

"I'm going to the Albacore area."

"Grandpa, be careful," Su Ming instructed.

****

The cockpit of the Albacore was much smaller, housing only Miao Xin, a navigator, a mechanic, and a sonar operator.

With Xiwo's arrival, the space suddenly felt even more cramped.

"Connecting hatch closed!" the mechanic reported.

"Water tightness test passed!"

"Inject water into the ballast tanks!" Miao Xin ordered. "Start the thrusters and move forward slowly."

With a series of operations completed, all the equipment for the Albacore quickly entered working mode, and the tail propeller began to rotate.

Miao Xin switched communication channels.

"This is Albacore, requesting to leave!"

"Permission granted!" the controller of the Pansy responded immediately.

Charging connection disconnected.

The mechanical claws released each other and retracted into the interior of the ship's hull on both sides.

A series of bubbles bulged at the joint between the two boats, and then they broke apart.

After detaching from the mothership, the Albacore slowly sank.

Then it began to accelerate, approaching the Pansy and steadily increasing the distance between them.

A horizontal bar protrudes from the side of the Albacore.

The tip is equipped with a roller, from which an extremely thin copper core cable is continuously extended, the other end of which is attached to the belly of the Pansy.

"Communication cable connection is normal!"

"Signal is clear!"

About two hours later, the two ships were about ten kilometers apart.

"Albacore, maintain your current distance and proceed at the same speed."

"Received. Speed 14 knots, heading 002°."

Miao Xin set the parameters and leaned back in her chair.

Inside the cockpit, all the equipment was humming softly.

Only the sonar system occasionally emits a beep, and then the underwater terrain on the screen slowly refreshes to show a new image, moving from near to far.

The seawater hasn't changed at all along the way.

Above was ice, below was the seabed, and to the left and right was complete darkness.

The fluctuations in the hydrological data are barely noticeable, only jumping around to two decimal places.

It was so quiet that one wondered if this sea had been asleep for millennia.

Seeing her like this, Xiwo smiled slightly.

"In the ocean, one must not be impatient."

"It's not that I'm impatient, it's just that there's nothing here," Miao Xin said. "Except for water, there's just water."

"That's because you don't know how to listen," Xiwo said. "Just because the sea is quiet doesn't mean there's nothing in it."

The sonar operator's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Lots of fish ahead!"

"A big fish!"

Xiwo switched the forward-facing camera to the main screen and turned on the high-powered spotlight.

The light beams shone out, illuminating an area of nearly 100 meters.

There are very few floating objects in the clear waters of the North Pole.

But further away, everything was swallowed up again into darkness.

Soon, a dark silhouette appeared.

Then came the second, the third, and more and more.

They are six or seven meters long and move slowly in the sea, gradually passing by the sides of the submarine.

Xiwo was somewhat surprised.

"How can these sharks swim so fast?"

Miao Xin stared at the group of sharks outside, their movements seemingly in slow motion, her face full of confusion.

They seemed to be standing still, as the Albacore simply swam right past them.

And the Albacore isn't exactly fast to begin with.

These sleeping sharks, however, are less than one-tenth the speed of the main shark.

"This can be called fast?" Miao Xin pointed at the shark outside.

"You think they're called 'sleeping sharks' for nothing?" Xiwo laughed.

Sleeping sharks have a lifespan of four to five hundred years and an extremely low metabolism.

"Moving is usually slower than it is now."

"They're swimming so fast, I suspect something's chasing them."

The further you go, the more sharks you'll encounter.

In large groups.

Miao Xin was initially quite interested, counting the passing shadows.

But eventually, she became trapped by the sea.

"Ugh!" She finally couldn't help but grab the communicator and complain to Su Ming.

"Let me do something else instead."

"I can fly the plane non-stop."

"Driving a submarine is such an ordeal!"

"I have good news, Miao." Su Ming's voice came from the other end.

"We need four days to get under this ice."

"Su Ming, prepare a body for me on the Pansy," Miao Xin said through gritted teeth, "I want to switch over and bite you!"

"No way."

****

Approximately eight hours later, the Albacore's battery level had dropped to 40%.

"Albacore, 40% battery," the mechanic reported. "Requesting a charge."

"Slow down your speed to 7 knots, and we'll catch up with you."

"Clear!"

Everything on the seabed is quiet and slow.

The command is issued, the equipment is adjusted, and then all that's left is to wait.

There were no unusual sounds, only the point constantly approaching on the sonar screen.

Xiwo's eyes suddenly narrowed.

In the lower right corner of the sonar main screen, a few gray dots, which were originally flat and almost dead silent, began to emerge from the background of noise, about to sink back down.

That thing was too faint, so faint it didn't even sound like an echo.

It was more like the entire body of water had been gently stirred by something.

He raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, then picked up his headphones, put them on, and listened carefully.

It's not a school of fish.

It's not crushed ice.

Unlike seabed reflections.

Something is moving on the seabed ahead.

Very slowly, very gently.

Yet there's an absurdly large sense of sluggishness.

A few seconds later, Xiwo reported in a low voice, "Pansy, there's something ahead of the Albacore."

Su Ming looked at the sonar operator of the Pansy.

The latter shook his head.

"What is it?" Su Ming asked.

Xiwo paused for a moment before whispering, "—Listen, it sounds like the seabed—is moving—"

"Ha?"

Beianqi and Hechun exchanged a glance.

The area they are in now is not a geological fault zone, nor is there an underwater volcano.

The sonar operator on the Pansy immediately increased the gain and reduced noise.

Only then were a few faint gray dots finally spotted.

The head of that thing was located twelve kilometers ahead, almost touching the seabed.

The Pansy and the Albacore are both in the middle layer of water, but it moves slowly from deeper below like a shadow.

With each movement, the surrounding water would leave a sluggish echo.

"What is this?" the Quail frowned. "What could be moving like that?"

However, the target suddenly became more active, and the sonar signal rapidly increased.

"No, it's not seabed strata, it's a sheet-like creature!" Xiwo said in a deep voice.

On the sonar screen of the Albacore, the gray shadow was no longer a speck of noise, but a shadow that was constantly rising and expanding.

It slowly "grew" out of the darkness.

Like part of the seabed topography itself, it is tilting towards them.

"Albacore, launch the probe!" Su Ming quickly ordered, "And retreat immediately!"

"Receive!"

Miao Xin immediately filled the No. 1 torpedo compartment with water, and an unmanned probe was quickly launched, trailing an ultra-thin cable at its tail.

Immediately afterwards, she abruptly turned the Albacore around and approached the Pansy.

Meanwhile, on the Pansy's side, Su Ming issued a series of orders.

"All vessels are on high alert."

"Wide-area scan!"

The sonar operator did as instructed, emitting powerful, omnidirectional sound waves into the water.

Seventeen seconds later, the echo appeared.

"Sonar contact!"

The outline on the home screen gradually closed.

It's very long.

It's so long that it almost doesn't fit on the entire screen.

No one spoke in the bridge; only the machines hummed continuously.

After a few seconds, the Hechun finally spoke, its voice already trembling slightly.

"The target is approximately 21 kilometers long and has a maximum width exceeding 3 kilometers."

"Thickness, two hundred meters!"

Twenty-one kilometers?!

It took more than twenty seconds to receive the signal, simply by using sonar to scan the screen from beginning to end.

And the silence of the entire bridge.

"If the torpedo hits—would it be able to create a crater in something like this?" Beianqi murmured.

Zijin stared intently at the target data.

This is a flat and elongated shape.

The next moment, she remembered the description mentioned by the members of the Plundering Clock during their confessions.

"This—is Charybdis!"

Su Ming was also stunned.

He also recalled the description of "a ribbonfish lying down".

"Twenty-one kilometers long----"

Su Ming couldn't believe his eyes.

They call this ribbonfish!

****

Ahead, the sonar echo suddenly changed.

Charybdis's speed began to increase.

A large amount of sound noise instantly surged from the surrounding sea.

The detector emitted by the Albacore was destroyed instantly, and the signal disappeared on the spot.

The speed of sound at sea is only about 1,400 meters per second.

Su Ming instantly realized that this was actually a scene from more than ten seconds ago.

In other words, he is currently closer than he appears to be on the screen.

Yes, "him".

Such a phenomenal life form is why the Plundering Clock refers to it as "He".

And this Charybdis is heading Pansy!

"Full speed turn, leave at top speed!" Su Ming made a decisive decision.

"The Pansy turned, leading him away from the Albacore."

"Miao Xin, move upwards. Abandon the vessel if necessary!"

"Clear!"

Miao Xin quickly took control.

"Empty the ballast tanks!"

"The bow has been raised."

"Maximum thruster speed!"

The Albacore quickly reduced its weight, causing the boat to rise rapidly.

During the violent movement, the communication cable connecting Pansy and Albacore was snapped.

The Pansy, meanwhile, made the sharpest possible turn in the mid-waters.

The thrusters then pulled up at full power, and the engine began to accelerate.

In terms of sonar signals, Charybdis resembled a massive, inverted tidal wave, sweeping in from below.

He ignored the Albacore and went straight after the Pansy.

But as Charybdis passed through from below, the surging current immediately enveloped the Albacore.

It was as if the entire sea was collapsing towards the submarine.

Everyone strapped themselves into their positions, letting the ship shudder violently in the water.

Xiwo forcefully reached out and turned all the active and passive sonar and various types of detection equipment on the Albacore to their maximum settings.

Including searchlights.

On the main screen, the massive outline at the front unfolds seemingly slowly but actually very quickly.

Not the mouth.

It's more like a gray canyon, split open in the deep sea.

The nearby water kept sliding towards it, and all the floating objects in the sea were dragged into winding trails by that invisible force.

The head passed by.

His body walls were rough and grayish-white, with deep folds like rock strata, and his surface was covered with mottled ice marks and ancient wounds.

The Albacore in front of the sleeve looked like a piece of chaff in a storm.

It kept swaying in the wind.

In this way, it took the enormous body of the Deep Sea Abyssal Devourer, which is 21 kilometers long, a full 15 minutes to pass completely beneath the submarine.

It's not about "swimming across".

It looked more like a living mountain range, slowly passing beneath the submarine.

Xiwo quickly did the mental calculations.

Charybdis's speed was approximately forty knots.

As everything finally calmed down, the Albacore had already been swept away by the current for dozens of kilometers.

It's much faster than its maximum speed!