Day 1

1521 Hours

Dr Jennifer Hayes looks up at the clock on the wall, trying to forget the smell of the man's foot as he slips his sock back on. He grimaces through his stubble at the sight of one toe sticking out of a hole before thrusting the foot back into the work boot.

"Jason, I'm serious, apply it twice a day, even after the itching stops. If you don't, it's just going to come right back."

Jennifer looks back at the him as she speaks, her dark eyes centering on him even as he clearly checks her out. She does her best to ignore it, wondering in the back of her mind if the pimple she found near her hair line this morning can be seen against her reddish skin.

"Tell the other guys on your crew too. Keep your feet clean and dry. I've got more important things to do than treat your athletes foot."

Jason grins, looking sure of himself.

"Like letting me buy you a drink over at the pub?"

For the first time, the hint of a smile touches Jennifer's lips.

"No firewater for me."

While her delivery is flat, there's unmistakable humor in her eyes as she says the words.

Jason's expression sobers as he finishes buckling the straps on his heavy boots.

"Thanks for everything Doc."

He holds up the container of cream she had given him minutes earlier as if that's somehow a promise to actually use it.

"I should get going. Need to be suited up in about half an hour. They want, . . . . "

Jason trails off as he sees her interest waning.

"I've got work to do."

One final nod and he's exiting the Medical pod.

Seven minutes later, Jason is just entering Dive Room 1.

"Noah!"

Jason raises a hand in greeting as he sees the barrel of a man. Noah's head comes up from the computer he's hunched over. As soon as his eyes find Jason through his thick glasses, he grins, causing his bushy blond beard to bristle.

"We just picking up where the last shift left off? Or we got some real work to do?"

Noah reaches up and scratches at his beard, his dirty fingers vanishing into the tangle of hair as he does so.

"Archaeology put in a request to check out their pod. They say they're getting a bunch of weird sounds from the hull and it's making people nervous. We're supposed to check and figure out what's causing it."

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Jason nods.

"Starting there then?"

Looking back at the computer, Noah looks over the screen for a second.

"Might as well."

The next half hour takes place in relative silence, both of the men suiting up, double checking their own gear, then checking each other's gear. Only once both men are absolutely certain that everything looks good do they move to the dive platform that will lower them to the sea floor.

"Always freaks me the hell out."

Noah speaks through their shared channel as the water slowly rises to engulf them.

"Out near the twilight zone, always feels like something is watching from just past the lights reach."

Jason shakes his head, a little smile on his face as the water passes his face.

"Ain't nothing out there. We're down in the black, ain't nothing watching us."

Slowly, Noah turns toward Jason, his expression dead serious.

"If there isn't anything down here, then who, or what, built this city?"

Those words are more than enough to sober both men's thoughts.

When the dive platform reaches the sea floor, both men move to double check their gear one final time before starting their slow trek across the seafloor to the Archaeology pod.

Upon arrival, their inspection of the pod begins, each man following the pod around in an opposite direction. Jason nearly reaches the half way point when he sees something.

"Uh, Noah? You might want to come take a look at this. Looks like a crease in the steel." His eyes taken in the area. "Counting seven of them."

Jason reaches out, touching the nearest mark.

"Must be a loose piece of equipment somewhere. Looks like claw marks, would take a pretty sturdy bit of steel to leave a mark like this."

He half smiles, a smile that quickly fades. "Noah?"

Jason takes a deep breath. "Everything ok man?"

A soft sound, saturated with fear, comes through their channel.

"Oh fuck." The words are followed by a deep thump that reverberates a second later through the water.

Heart suddenly racing, Jason takes another step, then stops dead in his tracks as he catches movement from the corner of his eye.

Frozen in place, his eyes try to search everywhere at once. "Noah, this isn't funny."

Just then there's movement to his other side. He turns trying to make sense of what he is seeing as what appears to be a glove bouncing along the seafloor.

As the implications sink in, there's a sound. A sound so deep that he feels it in his chest more than he actually hears it.

Fumbling to switch over to the public channel, he stammers as he whispers. "This is Jason Phil outside of Archaeology. There's something out here."

More movement at the edge of his vision, leaving him wide eyed as he pivots toward it.

He doesn't even have time to draw the breath to scream before it hits him, slamming him against the Archaeology dome with bone breaking force. Before he can even begin to recover, he feels something grip him, followed by the sound of his suit starting to rupture.

There isn't time to consciously realize he's dead before his dive suit implodes.

Inside of the Archaeology dome, two of the archaeologists look up from their work as a faint shiver goes through the dome they are in. After a few seconds, both return their attention to the sphere in front of them, their eyes drawn to the luminescent green glow of the engravings along its surface.

The woman on the right suddenly frowns, her brow creasing as she reaches for her forehead where a single drop of water is running downward toward her nose. A second strikes an inch lower, causing her to flinch.

Her fingers don't have time to touch it before sirens begin to blare, red lights beginning to strobe. Over the sound system, an emergency message begins to play.

"Please evac-"

Over 5500 pounds per square inch of pressure rips through the Archaeology dome, shredding the dome itself and turning every living thing inside to pulp in a heartbeat.

Emergency bulkheads begin to slam closed, sealing off the dome from the rest of the research station before the hull breach can destroy the entire underwater station.

A ripple goes through the Leviathan setting off a series of emergency protocols even as the Captain Nunez raises her voice to demand answers about what just happened.

Outside of the Leviathan, something moves in the eternal darkness that surrounds the research station, and a small round sphere glows where it rests on the sea floor, surrounded by mangled steel and gore.