Maura threaded her ponytail through the back of her Red Sox cap, checking her reflection in the elevator doors. She looked tired, even after a shower and a quick nap. On the plus side, her quarters were the nicest she’d ever stayed in at sea. Your own personal shower, a bed, a sofa, even a balcony? She’d stayed in hotel rooms with less frills. Spotless too. Of course, her luggage had already exploded all over the room and she knew, despite her best intentions, her clothes were never going to make into those dresser drawers.

  The elevator doors parted and she stepped into the lobby. There were glazed-panel walls with chairs and sofas arranged like the inside of a Hilton. There were even fake-plastic ferns here and there. In spite of this, the lobby was conspicuously empty. She passed a door leading to sizable gym with weight-machines, ehlipticals, treadmills. It too was vacant. She wondered how many men after working all day had the wherewithal to come down here and see how much they could bench. With that in mind, Maura followed the murmur of voices to the mess hall.

  It was a cavernous room with a bay of windows looking out at sea. The men clustered there, taking in the natural light. They were still dressed in their brightly colored Carhartts— orange, brown, white and green. The designations were lost on her. She guessed this must be the day shift. Maura caught snatches of words and phrases bent with a thick Aussie accent. There were even a few women mixed in. She wagered they had to have pretty thick skin to hold their own out here.

  She noticed a long table where the chatter was noticeably subdued. The men were mostly young and the mood was dour. It took her a moment to surmise they were the dive team. Certainly, a distinct breed out here. And clearly still processing the loss of their comrade from it… Some of them looked up at her, expressionless. Those weren’t the only glances she got. No matter the group, none were overly friendly.

  She scanned the room and found her group sitting at a table in the far corner, away from the windows. As she made her way over, Liam, their friendly Australian treasure-hunter, caught her eye and winked. She felt the need to give an exaggerated gag, but instead just nodded and continued past. At the table ahead, there was a tall, congenial-looking man with a North Face windbreaker, sitting next to a very tall woman with bright pink lipstick. Minato sat across from them with Lucas at his side, who carved up his meat pie like he was dining on steak tartare. The woman with neon lips spoke first.

  “You look like you’re one of ours.”

  “Definitely a ranger,” said the tall man.

  “Sorry. We were all discussing if this were Dungeons and Dragons which class we would be. I’m Lindsey, Paladin.”

  She shook the tall woman’s hand. Maura wasn’t much for make-up herself, but it seemed the bold shade of lipstick didn’t really match Lindsay’s skin tone or anything else. She may have been pretty, but she was clearly a scientist.

  “I’m Maura. I don’t know, fighter?” She glanced around, “Aren’t we missing someone?”

  Minato nodded to the buffet where Amy had just fallen in line. Maura noticed everyone else had already helped themselves.

  “Yeah, the food is… You know, palatable. Can’t wait for this to be dinner for the next… How long are we supposed to be here?” Lindsay asked, flaking the crust of her pie.

  “I’m Phil,” the man beside her extended his hand and Maura gave is a shake. He was just as tall as Lindsay and Maura thought sitting together that they made an oddly matched pair.

  “What do you do, Phil?”

  “Uh, assuming you don’t mean my D&D class, I’m a mechanical engineer, specifically field robotics.”

  “So you’re our ROV man, then.”

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  “That would be correct.”

  “I just found out Phil, here, went to Boston College, which was our crosstown rival,” Lindsey volunteered, “I received my degree in marine biology from BU. Go Sox. Now I specialize in integrated deep sea ecosystems like the one these jackasses are tearing up right under our noses and I am so excited to work with you Doctor Kates. I hope maybe we can compare notes on some of the microbes we’ve both found down there.”

  Maura nodded. She wasn't used to people being so knowledgeable about her work.

  “Sure. But if I’m not mistaken, you’ve done a lot of work on octopus nurseries.”

  “There’s nothing like seeing hundreds of octopuses right outside the window of your submersible. Truly amazing.”

  “Maura, you may want to get something before…” Minato gestured to the buffet again, crowded with mechanics. Maura took heed and wandered over. She ended up just a few spots behind Amy. Maura snagged a tray and started piling it with food. Her father would always say she had a hollow leg, something she realized at a young age was a compliment, at least coming from him. A bearish Aussie waited behind Amy, while she pondered the very limited vegan options. The Aussie seemed to grow exasperated.

  “What’s the hold-up? Some of us would like to have our din-din.”

  Amy gave him one of her patented withering stares and shuffled ahead. He slid his tray so it butted up against hers.

  “If you’re in a hurry, why don't you just go around?” She snapped.

  “Who says I was in a hurry?”

  Amy rolled her eyes and just kept moving. Finally, she took some cabbage rolls and plopped them on her plate. Before she could go the man stepped in front of her.

  “That’s all you’re gonna eat?”

  “I’m not that hungry.”

  “You gotta keep your strength up. Here.”

  Without asking, he plopped a sausage roll on her plate.

  “Now that’s a proper tucker.”

  Amy glared at him, then walked away.

  “Keep your shirt on, mate. I’m just tryin’ to make sure you don’t go hungry.”

  Maura loaded-up her tray and returned to their table. Amy quietly dug into her food.

  “So that guy was a big horses ass,” Lindsay said, breaking the silence.

  “Does anyone else get the feeling we’re not so welcome?” Lucas wondered.

  “What makes you say that?” Maura said dryly.

  Amy picked at her cabbage roll.

  “Well, we’re not going to get much more popular once we start digging around down there.” Lindsay said with a mouthful.

  “I don’t know. I sort of feel like these guys might not care that much about deep-sea ecosystem degradation,” Phil mused.

  Lindsay smirked at him, “They will once we start providing regulatory recommendations.”

  “I think perhaps,” Minato interjected, “We should keep our research to ourselves, just as a precaution. No sense poking the bush for a snake.”

  Lindsay plowed ahead. “I went through ten years of data studies on deep sea trawling just to start to understand what the effects of deep sea mining might be. Now I get to see it up close and personal. You bet I’m going to get those results.”

  Amy finally spoke.

  “I understand promises were made to each of you to further your own research. That’s fine. But just so everyone understands, the scientific objective of this mission is to ensure the extraction process continues without further complication.”

  Maura could tell that the others weren’t catching on.

  “What exactly did they tell you before you signed on?” Maura asked.

  “That we’d be studying the trench with a world-renowned team of scientists,” Lindsay piped up, “I mean, frankly they had me at Doctor Maura Kates.”

  Maura blushed.

  Phil joined in. “They offered me double my usual scale and they said I could pilot a SRV-8. I was like, sign me up.”

  Lucas exchanged a look with Minato, “Minato and I… We were under the impression we were here to produce a neutralizing antivenom.”

  “Neutralizing antivenom? I thought they just wanted us to make sure there weren’t any box jellyfish around.”

  “It wasn’t a box jelly,” Amy answered flatly.

  It was Maura’s turn again, “We don’t even know for certain if it is a jelly. Lindsay, the fact that they approached you with your research in cephalopod life cycles, tells me they want us to cover our bases.”

  “Some octopuses do have extremely potent venom,” Lucas added.

  “Guys. What are we dealing with here?” A trace of excitement played on Lindsay’s lips.

  Maura felt the need to drive home the seriousness of their situation, “Whatever they told you, the truth is we’re here to study an as yet undiscovered species with an envenomation rate that’s at least three times faster than the box jellyfish. The damage that it causes at the cellular level is so catastrophic that it will kill a person in less than a minute. I know. I’ve seen it. We both have…”

  The table fell silent.

  “You’ll be able to conduct your own field studies, but your findings will be considered the property of The Chinese Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association,” Amy forced down a forkful of rice, “They‘re not paying us to study the trench. They’re paying us to make sure nothing down there gets in their way.”