DEAD SPAC MARTYR PART FOUR THE DESCENT Part 36
36 “No reason to be nervous,” Hendricks said. “It’s just like any other day.” Altman got the feeling that he was saying it to try to convince himself. “No worries,” he said. “It’ll be a piece of cake.” They went down to one thousand meters, the sickly sea life at first present and then slowly dwindling. Then two thousand, the sea becoming more and more deserted, but still a few flickers of life, the photophores of a viperfish passing and spinning away into the darkness. A bony fangtooth, caught briefly in the lights, looking like a halfformed thing. A bathyscaphoid squid that resembled a disembodied head made of glass. At 2,700 meters, they could make out the lights below, no more than pinpricks in the darkness. Slowly they grew larger. Altman was still watching them when he heard a whimper behind him. He turned. Hendricks was pale and stiff faced. Tears were dripping slowly from his eyes. He didn’t seem to notice them. Oh God, thought Altman, something’s wrong. Maybe I was wrong to tell Stevens to let He…
