Hitting the water was without much fanfare. It wasn’t my first dive and the motions came to me like muscle memory as corrected by orientation underwater. Slow and lethargic paddles held me in suspension as Lucas fumbled with the lamp. It wasn’t that dark but visibility could get a little murky where we were going. The water was too cold either, if anything staying above water with nothing but a wet-suit had warmed me considerably; the transition from the upper depth zone was as noticeable as dunking oneself into a shower at room temperature.

Lucas signaled that we were ready by pinching his thumb and index finger for an okay as he led the way. Drawing steady breaths from my respirator I followed close behind as I panned around the water for things of interest. We had at most 45 minutes before we had to come up for air, more if we did not get into any aerobic shenanigans underwater― Something our dear muscle-head was only so kind to refute by starting a game of tag.

Show off―he was an athlete and he loved to rub it in my face. But for swimming? I was anything if not competitive. No one said I had to take my advice, besides, the sooner we poked at the unmistakable chunk of basalt, the sooner I would get back to finish my book. Also, I would hate to keep Cassandra waiting because this was supposed to be their baecation or whatever hip things zoomers call it these days.

The leftover chunk of runaway glacier known as the Baltic Sea Anomaly loomed ahead as we continued to descend. The pressure of several tonnes of water pressing on my skin was palpable but not to the point of encumbrance, my ears did pop a little too. From afar, disc, 60 metres across had an uncanny resemblance to a well known faster than light craft from pop culture.

I had seen it in pictures, some taken by enthusiasts with a penchant for the alien. Some of them were merely clickbait while again others had been the fabrications of people with too much time in their hands. At one time, I’d caught a render of the thing on one of my Pins; the artist’s interpretation of the purported alien craft had been so believable that I had to give them an A for credibility.

However, if you asked me, visiting the actual thing was one of Lucas’ flights of fancy, not mine. He held the belief that our corner of the universe was way too big for one race, quoting Fermi’s paradox like the name of his breakfast cereal. I wonder if he read the other half of the paradox but eh, he was always one for the sunny side of life.

Soon enough we were hovering over the anomaly. I had no idea what was so anomalous about a basaltic rock from the Ice Age. I was very sure the glow around some of the recesses was a colony of bioluminescent algae―unless of course you told me that the alien spacecraft was made of an impossibly resilient material that could survive 140,000 years. Or perhaps, the rock was merely its exterior shell as it went into hibernation. Maybe its occupant had cryosleep technology.

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If that was the case then, they must have seen us as beneath their notice. I too would slumber for 140 millenia, I mean, I wouldn’t have wanted to meet someone with a prominent brow ridge and a garb of furs. We must have looked like the most down-and-out drifters who ever hoboed―sue me.

Wanting to take his own pictures, Lucas handed over the dive light so he could retrieve his phone. 100 feet of water resistance thanks to the external casing, smartphones were in the up and up for sure. It wasn’t that hard to find glass that could withstand a gorilla’s pounding these days; they’d even found a way to make it thinner for some camera lenses. However, we were not yet in the era of see through technology or quantum processing on a wrist. We were getting there; maybe if we―

I rolled my eyes as Lucas beckoned me to stand somewhere he could snap a picture of me. He Insisted by signaling that we would soon be on our way above water. Time sure flew when you lived on the inside of your head― At least I humored him by standing at the most alien-looking spot that did not definitely look like an airlock. Pointing the glare of the divelight away from the aquatic shutterbug, I threw up a victory sign with my free hand.

Did I say it was not an airlock? Color me surprised when something suddenly lurched underfoot. I suppose, at that moment in time, I should have cursed something as I bit on my tongue. You know that feeling that you get when you miss a step on a stair? That was me then. I would have bitten my tongue outright if the respirator were not in the way as the ground suddenly went out from my feet. Why didn’t I swim away? How would anyone when a vortex of suction suddenly blossomed around you? Though I thought the goggles and respirator were in the way, the shock in Lucas’ eyes was unmistakable as a whirlpool swallowed me.

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I would have said that I was knocked out from shock but that would be a lie.. When I came to, the fast thing I experienced was the feeling of drowning because I could not find the respirator on my person. Caught in the midst of the last thing I remembered and what my body was actually experiencing, my cognitive faculties were caught in a deadlock as I gasped for air and tried to draw breath but to no avail. I don’t know what happened but somehow, I found myself encumbered by a weight on my chest, pins and needles were crawling in my legs, a siren was blaring close to my ear. The light was too bright―I was suffering a cognitive overload.

Worse, it was akin to waking from a nightmare of strangulation and staying with the phantom ache of an eldritch tentacle down your throat, or an actual drowning nightmare that left you feeling like you’d taken in water. Somewhere in my awareness someone was shouting, then came the sound that you would associate with the squealing or rubber on linoleum tiles as rustling and shuffling was heard. I had barely caught my bearings when for an instant,

Someone manhandled me; I felt like the paralysis demon had been out to get me so I struggled even further. In response, resistance mounted― I didn’t know what was happening but the last thing I heard was the tail end of someone yelling something propranolol before I felt a prick somewhere on my person. There, my limbic system decided to show me who was truly the proprietor of this flesh bag I called a body―

“ Ow!” was all I croaked before the world tilted and light blurred. Once again, I found myself knocked out.