Between the Pillars
The water thickened around Jackie as she passed the 200-meter mark. Her ocular implant adjusted automatically, illuminating her path while filtering the salt and particulate that would have otherwise obscured her human eye. BDJ and Tally monitored every movement, their digital voices calm but precise in her ear.
"Depth: 205 meters. Currents stabilizing. Pillar lean: 5.7 degrees. Micro-fractures: unchanged," BDJ reported.
"Lyra, are you in position?"
Lyra's ruby eyes hummed behind her mask, compensating for the silicon barrier between then and the salty water. Data from Tally streamed across her vision as she searched, for the best place on her side of the pillar, to start.
"I'm ready. Let's get this started." As she spoke her plasma gun ignited and began to seal the closest break.
Jackie adjusted her trajectory, micro-thrusters pulsing lightly. The first pillar loomed beside her, its massive frame etched with stress lines that glowed faintly in red. Her fingers brushed over the surface, the haptic feedback from her ocular interface sending vibrations through her arms. Every micro-adjustment she made transferred through the water and into the pillar itself, stabilizing it just enough to prevent it from worsening.
Above her, the hover vehicle was a faint speck of light—Patrick's reach ended here. Below, the ocean opened into deeper darkness, a void that seemed endless. Tally's voice intruded gently, "Detecting significant structures below your current depth. Large population density. Not within visual range for ocular sensors."
Jackie froze thoughts gliding through her neural net. She knew her ocular implant could see almost everything, yet this remained beyond her direct perception. She focused the lens anyway, attempting to view the city beneath the pressure.
Subaqualis One
Her ocular system flickered, then activated a secondary interface. Tiny, worm-like programs she had never consciously summoned—her data-worm detection ability—traced streams of information, flowing through the enormous city like luminous threads. Buildings, streets, even human movement: none of that appeared visually. Instead, she saw the digital arteries of life pulsing through the city, cascading streams of raw, unfiltered data, connecting everything to everything else.
BDJ's voice broke in, calm as ever. "Analysis: massive domed metropolitan. 98.5% chance this is the ancient cyborg city of Subaqualis One."
"Ancient?"
Tally added, "It's enormous… thousands of simultaneous processes. Highly integrated. It is said have been built just after the terraforming disaster of 2438. The first underwater city of its kind."
Jackie's eyes widened behind the protective lens of her ocular implant. She couldn't see the structures directly, only the hum of activity flowing through circuits, machinery, and information pathways. It was beautiful and overwhelming all at once. Her cybernetic eye highlighted patterns she could manipulate: areas of high strain, energy consumption, and operational anomalies.
She turned her focus back to the pillar. There was no time to dwell on the city now—her job was to stabilize the structure above. The second pillar waited, angled precariously on the opposite side. Every move had to be precise.
"Depth: 215 meters. Currents increasing slightly," BDJ reported.
Jackie felt the slight push of water, heavier here, colder. She adjusted her thrusters, letting the ocular interface map the microcurrents. Her human lung drew a controlled breath, assisted by the respiration system. The small nasal interface extended seamlessly from her ocular implant, feeding her oxygenated air from her inner tanks while simultaneously adjusting pressure to prevent strain on her chest cavity.
Tally's voice softened slightly, almost as if amazed, "Data flow… shifting. The city is active—responding to presence. Unknown triggers detected. Behavior consistent with autonomous systems and human activity."
Jackie's mind cataloged this new layer of data, even as her hands worked to stabilize the pillar. For a moment, she allowed herself to feel it—the city's pulse, the rhythm of a place she could not yet see but could somehow perceive. Streams of data swirled around her ocular field, lines bending and twisting like living circuits.
BDJ interjected, "Recommendation: Maintain focus on immediate pillar stabilization. City observation is secondary and potentially distracting."
Jackie exhaled through her human lung, the nanite-assisted respiration keeping her oxygen levels optimal. Her fingers adjusted again, haptic feedback guiding each subtle movement, each calculated micro-thrust. She could feel the pillar lean slightly less now, a small victory, but there was still work to do.
"Lyra. How is your side? This side is filled with cracks."
"It's the same over here. You know I can't work as fast as you but I will keep somehow."
"Don't worry about that let's just get this sorted out. I can come around to you if need be."
"No. Tally said it was best for me to be on this side and you on the other. This side's damage is considerably less. I just don't understand why these are bigger and my parent's apartment building."
Jackie smiled, the plasma laser streaming from her ocular implant lighting up the immediate area.
"All six are huge. It is to help with the stability of the island and maybe even the city below. They have to be huge."
"Hmm. Well it is a pain for a hacker, like me."
That made Jackie laugh out loud.
Depth: 220 meters. The second pillar loomed, mirrored in scale and risk. Jackie paused, scanning its stress points. The city's streams pulsed faintly in the background of her ocular display, but she ignored them, committing herself to the immediate task.
As she and Lyra worked in tandem they were watched. She had studied the second pillar, but Jackie was too focused on the work at hand, being so deep under water, and using systems so new to her, she had not registered the data that her peripheral sensors picked up.
More than just the cracks and the spotty cybernetic current, there was a signature next to the second pillar.
Orion. And he watched Jackie as he fixed the second pillar, trying to maintain the same speed of descent as she.
It seemed they were now on the same side, a begrudging trust on his part.
As the three worked, even from hundreds of meters below, the ocean seemed alive—pressurized, endless, and indifferent to their struggles. Jackie descended further, tracking the second pillar, ready to intervene, while BDJ and Tally observed, noting the strange anomaly of the city beneath and the data streams that hinted at something far larger than anyone above the waves could imagine.
And in that darkness, Jackie felt the first real brush of awe—not at the danger above, but at the intricate, living network that stretched unseen beneath her.
And with that unseen, closer than she knew, she was watched, with an even greater sense of awe.