The Descent Begins
Jackie stood on the outer deck of the hover vehicle, the sea breeze whipping against her hair, eyes fixed on the island above. From this vantage, the plates appeared stable—but her ocular implant disagreed. A subtle tilt, imperceptible to the naked eye, rippled across the island, the outermost plate dipping ever so slightly. Her cybernetic eye tracked the motion, overlaying a digital grid and angles that confirmed her suspicion. The island was in distress.
She felt an inner tremor. This was what was need, but how was she supposed to do it. She looked down at the roiling waters below and BDJ answered her thoughts, as usual.
"Initiating respiration interface. Deploying ocular nano-lens."
Jackie breathed a sigh of relief, even as she rolled her eyes, of course her systems had a respiration interface, she very much doubted that this was standard equipment
Jackie felt it before she saw it: a barely perceptible extension from the side of her ocular implant, a sleek, translucent tube that curved into her nose. A faint hiss, a whisper of nanites, and her lungs adjusted, and her nasal passages were sealed away from the outside world. Saline-resistant filters activated automatically, oxygen flow calibrated to her remaining natural lung function. The lens slid over her human eye, transparent and adaptive, shielding it from saltwater while her cybernetic eye came online. The iris glowed faintly, scanning the ocean below, mapping currents, temperature gradients, and pillar vibrations.
She flexed her fingers, checking the subtle feedback from her ocular weapon system. BDJ's sensors fed her precise environmental data directly into her visual overlay. Depth, pressure, thermal resistance, material stress—all calibrated in real time.
"Pressure compensation active. Submersion depth: zero meters. Estimated depth for first set of major repairs: 200 meters."
Jackie nodded. "Understood. Let's do this."
She stepped off the outer deck and dove into the water. The initial cold shock rippled across her exposed skin, but the system adjusted instantly. Micro-pressure fields from her cybernetic suit stabilized her body, compensating for buoyancy and surface turbulence. She kicked downward, slicing through the water with ease, the nano-lens keeping her human eye safe as her cybernetic eye illuminated the deepening waters.
From the hover vehicle, Sura watched silently, her internal assessment was clear: Jackie could handle this. More than that, she trusted that Jackie would adapt to whatever the ocean threw at her. Still she worried, a knot forming in the pit of her stomach like it used to, before she was a cyborg, and she had a big test coming up.
"You and Lyra come back in one piece." Her whisper floated over the ocean, the waves swallowing it down in foam and spray.
Below, the first pillars came into view, rather quickly. Gigantic, towering structures anchoring the island to the ocean floor through sheer magnetic pull and hydraulic power. Jackie's ocular implant highlighted stress fractures and misalignments—two pillars on opposite sides leaned precariously, the grid overlay showing angles dangerously off-kilter. She focused, preparing mental calculations, ready to coordinate her actions when she reached them.
She sensed Lyra and her AI before she saw them. The darkness before her sliced in narrow band.
"What is this blue mesh I am seeing?" She asked with a frown thinking that something else was terribly wrong. Both BDJ and Tally answered her query.
"The blue mesh is the pillar system's webbing matrix. It both stabilizes and feeds the system."
"It is made of Subaqualis Ore, there seems to be a large mine of it in the domed city below us."
"There is a 98.3% chance that this is Subaqualis One below us. A secret facility for mining the ore memtioned."
"I agree with your system's assessment."
Lyra frowned within her thin breathing shield. "Her system?"
Jackie cringed, it may have been a mistake to maintain the connection with Tally.
"I'll explain later. Let's get to work."
Lyra narrowed her eyes but said nothing.
Jackie felt the weight of the descent, the pressure building around her, but her systems compensated automatically. The combination of nanite-assisted respiration and her ocular-defense-protection collaborative systems made her feel almost untouchable—yet the human part of her chest thumped with awareness that this was new, dangerous territory. She was relying on technology, yes, but she was still so new and utterly untested. Why had she argued so sternly for her own death?
"BDJ, keep me informed of all structural readings. I want updates on every micro-fracture."
"Confirmed. Real-time monitoring active. All systems optimal."
Jackie angled herself downward, watching the ocean darken. The topography blurred into shades of deep green and black. Pressure grew with each passing meter, but the adaptive systems hummed through the suit, stabilizing, calibrating, adjusting. She kicked harder, propelled by determination, eyes locked on the first misaligned pillar, ready to descend deeper, toward the unknown.
As she continued her descent toward Lyra, Tally, and Orion. Tally slowly began to compile information. Bits of data formed, broke, and reformed again, into an intricate, complicated code. She had been doing this since she had Lyra met up with Jackie. Lyra's last command to the AI, that and to send it out when it seemed like there would be no detection.
The problem had been that it seemed like Jackie was always watching, always aware.