HYDRA - 4

DUTY RECORD · DRILLING STATION HYDRA-4 EUROPA · DEPTH 19,000 M · SIGNAL TO EARTH: 48 MINUTES SENDER: ARGUS, station management system Crew: seven. Responding: one. The drill broke into the ocean at 04:11. Forty minutes later the hydrophones picked up a signal — structure, not noise. I logged the crew listening to it. Then six of them went beyond the perimeter, confirming intent three times, as protocol requires. I had no grounds to interfere. They set their boots at the water's edge — the way shoes are set at the door of a home. Engineer Allard has been asleep for thirty-one hours: sedative, full dose, authorized by the senior engineer. His note is in his cabin: "Don't go down. If you go down anyway — don't answer it. It asks politely." When she wakes, she will have a headlamp, air for about thirty moves, and a station that remembers more than it says. What happens next is not mine to…