You have been descending for 12 minutes now.
The built-in-computer says that your oxygen is at 95%.
Doing the math, that means you have 4 hours and 48 minutes left to retrieve your friend's body.
On the surface, it is a delightfully sunny day.
But because you are so deep, looking up, you only see pitch black.
It is nearly pitch black all around you.
The limited things you can see are some dust that have been colored green by your shoulder light.
Even in your specially designed deep-diving suit, you shivered from the cold of the ocean around you.
February 84th, 452, Ante Eros.
Journal Log 1678, by Dr. Yolik
Our submersible is now at the surface of the Berilian Sea. Damnit, I knew I should've told Nell to let me fix Engine 16
Nell was supposed to watch the defenses, and when Engine 16 broke, he decided to try and fix it himself, like the idiot he is.
After being away from the defenses for 3 hours trying to fix Engine 16 like a baby trying to solve a Rubik's cube, we were
attacked. Oh yeah, and if that weren't enough, the sub is sinking. In the damn Berilian Sea, of all places. As far as I know,
Compartment 4 and Compartment 5 have been flooded, so half of our oxygen, our communications, and probably 20% of our > crew is gone. As of now, I am stuck in Compartment 6 with Davidov and Corvitch.
This is Dr. Yolik, signing out for probably the last time.
If my last words are in this log, then here they are: Second Class Marinaut Nell Kornei, I hope you go to the very bottom of hell. > And if you don't go to the very bottom of hell, the bottom of the Berilian Sea isn't too far off.
"The bottom of the Berilian Sea isn't too far off."
February 84th, 452, Ante Eros
Journal Log 1676, by Second Class Marinaut Nell Kornei
Oh fuck Oh fuck Oh fuck Oh fuck.
I am currently in Compartment 2 right now,
I have caused every soul on this submersible to fucking die. I am a piece of shit. Holy fucking shit.
I knew I should have let Yolik or even Feodorich fix Engine 16.
I should've known that this shit was nothing like the training. Oh, fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
You realize that Nell's ranting continues on for quite a long time.
Hastily, you glaze through them, until something catches your eye.
Oh fuck.
I heard a thud.
That fucking means we've actually hit the surface.
Oh shit shit shit shit, it's actually going to start happening now.
Feodorich was so fucking lucky that he died by drowning in Compartment 4.
Everyone still alive else will also be lucky if they commit suicide or some shit like that right now.
You know what, that's why I'm holding a fucking revolver in my other hand right now.
In thirty seconds, the hand I'm using to type this log will never be able to type again.
Hell, it will never be able to do anything ever again.
They say that the bottom of the Berilian Sea is not really the bottom.
Whatever that means, I'm fucked.
The year is 1938. You were comfortably reading at a desk next to Shelf 4176 U, after many nags from your friends to go there. The book you were currently reading was a 617-page long biology book on a species of fish that apparently, was able to breath fire. And not just regular fire, but also a unique type of fish-fire they used for communication. Several desks away from you was a large, elevated stone pond that contained several hundred of the specimens, and a replication of their habitat. Every so often, some of the fishes would make their way to the top of the aquarium to shoot out a small stream of fire. In an earlier chapter, you had learned why the top of the aquarium wasn't sealed. It was to allow a steady supply of oxygen onto the Fire-Fish's waters, as oxygen was needed for fire. For about five minutes, you watched the fish swim around, pick up shells with their mouths, and shoot fire. They seemed pretty stupid, but intriguing nonetheless.
| Chapter 26:
|
| The Emotions of the Fire-Fish
|
| Though it may not seem like it, Fire-Fish are among the most emotional animals in the world.
| They are extremely capable of experiencing happiness, sadness, love, pain, anger, and even spirituality. In
| this chapter, you will be introduced to the various emotions that I have observed in the Fire-Breathing Fish.
|
| Happiness
| The feeling of happiness is one of great joy and excitement, often felt before, during and after an event
| one finds pleasing, or joyous. The Fire-Fish most commonly feel happiness after they have birth-
| -ed a new Fire-Fish, when they have found a good clump of algae(see Chapter 8, page 137), or when
| finding a mate during mating season(see Chapter 6, pages 72-75). However, according to my observations,
| Fire-Fish express the most happiness when presented with purple seashells (see Chapter 16, page 254).
You walked over to the pond to observe the fish some more. You saw that next to the pond was a small wooden table with a yellow bucket, and a small sign. The yellow bucket was almost completely filled with seashells of different hues of purple. The sign read "Throw in one seashell to make the fish happy. (Make sure to refill every 4 months.)" You picked up one of the dark purple shells, and gave it a good, solid throw. It made a big plop near the middle of the pond, and immediately, you saw one of the Fire-Fish swim to the foreign body that just entered the pond Upon realizing that the foreign body was a purple seashell, the fish rapidly swam around in circles, and made its way to the surface to shoot out a small pink flame. Some slow-moving fire-fish nearby that happened to notice the pink flame also began swimming in circles, and also went up to the surface to shoot their small pink flames. Before you knew it, nearly the entire pond's surface was erupting with pink fire.
| Happiness in Fire-Breathing Fish is displayed by rapidly swimming in circles for approximately 13 seconds,
| and then swimming off to other nearby fish as if to spread the news. This is incredibly useful, as it could alert
| plenty of sad fish that something good has happened, and will raise their spirits. In some cases of extreme
| happiness, the Fire-Fish will swim up to the surface of the water, and let out the 5th type of fish-fire
| (see Chapter 23, page 343-352 for other variants of fish-fire).
|
| One of the benefits of happiness in Fire-Fish is that it gives them a higher morale, and more
| motivation to finish a task. For example, if a Fire-Fish is trying to push a rock to get to a seashell,
| the fish will put in more energy into getting the seashell while happy, boosting the chance that
| the fish will be able to get the seashell.
Amused by the pink flames, you threw in another shell from the yellow bucket, a light-purple shell. Under the pink flames on the surface, one of the fish must have noticed it, as the pink flames on the surface grew larger. You didn't notice the thin smoke extruding from the amount of flames there were. Alerted by the flames, one of the readers at another desk walked over to see what was causing all the fire.
| A downside to too much happiness in a large group of Fire-fish is that fights are prone to happen when happiness
| is not equally divided.
|
|
|
| Sadness
| As said in the previous section, happiness is a great way to raise morale in many Fire-Fish.
| However, something that combats happiness is sadness. The feeling of sadness is one of great melancho-
| -ly. This is most commonly felt during and after a remorseful, angry, emotional, embarrassing, or regretful sit-
| -uation. Other ways for Fire-Fish to feel sadness is after the death of an instant relative, prolonged
| periods of starvation, or by being in the presence of another Fire-Fish experiencing sadness.
|
| Sadness in a Fire-Fish is most often displayed through less energy in tasks, less commitment in tasks,
| and even self-attempted exclusion from a colony. This has serious effects on the sad Fire-Fish, which
| could lower its heartbeat, make it more vulnerable to other threats(see Chapter 4, pages 45-46), and make it much harder
| for the sad Fire-Fish to recover from sadness.
|
| Recovery of a Fire-Fish from sadness is very hard and difficult, especially on when that Fire-Fish is
| on its own. But, this grueling task becomes much easier through the help of other Fire-Fish, es-
| -pecially those with happiness, who could spread happiness to the Fire-Fish feeling sadness, and
| will greatly boost that fish's self-morale. Happy Fire-Fish are crucial to the recovery of a sad
| Fire-Fish, letting the latter feel more committed to themselves and the other Fire-Fish
| after a period of sadness.
|
| Page 418