{"sf1_id":1483362,"sf2_id":"Oe5wRQMn","title":"Pollution","author":"WritersCrossing","words":1121,"posted_at":"2019-08-30T20:17:00.000Z","tags":["Creative Writing","Male/Female","Oviposition","Poetry","Short Story","Telepathy","WritersCrossing","Writing prompt","aquatic","guro","reluctance","sensory deprivation","short stories"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1483362-pollution","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/Oe5wRQMn","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/6f/79/6f7972cb-294a-480c-b8a1-b1b5eda82b1d","description":"Writers Crossing writing prompt submission for the week starting 8/22/19 and ending 8/29/19 by  Blackraven2Writing prompt this week:-You are a fresh junior researcher at NASA. While out for drinks with your new boss, you jokingly ask her why NASA hasn't explored the ocean with its resources. She turns pale and leans in close, then whispers, \"We have. Why do you think we want to leave the planet so badly?\"Go fave the origional authors work at the link below if you enjoy! They deserve the credit for the work, so let them know!https://inkbunny.net/s/1962874\n\nPosted using PostyBirb","content":"Ahoi ye old mate, glad you came to this date,  \nmany years from last time it might be.  \nSo let's celebrate now, with good drink and good chow,  \nand tales from the depth of the sea.  \n  \nBut beware that this truth, that this tale of my youth,  \nthough it might sound like myth and spun yarn,  \nhas a twist to the dark - t'is no walk in the park -  \nso to secrecy, you must be sworn!  \n  \nSee, back in those days, such an innocent phase,  \nI looked up to the planets and stars,  \nwent to NASA, because they all got the applause  \nfor their ships to the moon and to mars.  \n  \nOne day almost in jest, over drinks as a guest,  \nI dared ' ask the lady in charge:  \nWhy, with oceans so deep, and riches to keep  \nin our depths, we'd still seek to the stars?  \n  \nSo she pulled me close, and my blood nearly froze,  \nas she whispered this into my ear:  \n\"Oh, we dared! We did see! This is why we now flee!\"  \nAnd her voice, it was trembling with fear.  \n  \nWell, I was still so green, and my spirit was keen.  \nYou know me, it is still in my blood,  \nso I went on this trip, on a research ship,  \nto sample some 'deep sea floor mud'.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; And I should have well known, with those warnings she'd sown,  \nbut I had to see \\*it\\* for myself:  \nI climbed into the tub of that deep-sea-sub  \nand went down past the cliff of the shelf.  \n  \nWhere the continent ends, and the earth-crust bends,  \nthere's an abyss as dark as my soul,  \nand like ethereal spears, my searchlights pierce  \ninto water as pitch black as coal.  \n  \nMy hull creaks and cracks, as the pressure attacks,  \nmetal cries, like the sirens of lore.  \nOozing water forms tears - all alone with my fears -  \nas I sink to the abysmal floor.  \n  \nYet the vessel still holds, as the scene unfolds.  \nLight fingers lastly touch ground,  \ntouching structures of lore, ruins, castles, galore,  \nas if ancient's Atlantis they'd found.  \n  \nAlthough, to my glances, as my vessel advances,  \nso alien this city is made,  \nnot for me nor for you, nor for any land crew.  \nWho might could have built this estate?  \n  \nI still drift through the scene, eerily quiet, serene,  \ncan't ever spot traces of life.  \nNot one living thing, my sensors could ping,  \ncold dead and abandoned, this hive.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Some mud I should bring, so I descent my thing  \nto fulfill both my mission and quest,  \nbut as I touch ground, there's a crunching sound.  \nI freeze! My heart hurts in my chest.  \n  \nBlind smoke and bubbles, collapsing rubble,  \nboulders crash down on my ship.  \nBury me, loud! The lights go out,  \nthen silence: I hear water drip.  \n  \nAs deep down I am trapped, how is sanity kept?  \nDarkness reclaims all its powers,  \nand my eyes play games as I whisper names.  \nThe seconds turn slowly to hours.  \n  \nAt first I deny, think my eyes betray  \nme, as some light thing, I see.  \nAn angel? A spectre? I seek a conjecture,  \nas to who might be looking for me.  \n  \nShe floats like a fish, kinda stingray-ish,  \nyet has both arms, hands, and a face.  \nAlso, she's quite thin, translucent her skin,  \nnone yet had described such a race.  \n  \nThin lines of dim light, they trace down her side,  \nand pulse-like those bright shimmers flow,  \nher feminine curve is what I observe,  \nher belly is tight filled with roe.  \n  \nTouching glass with my brow, as I climb to the bow,  \nright now, I feel oddly alive,  \nand her eyes look at me. Does she wants me to see?  \nIs there hope in this confounded dive?  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Her gaze locks with mine. Her bright eyes shine.  \nHer thoughts pour right into my brain.  \nKnow: Those of her kind, they talk mind to mind!  \nI know now, hope wasn't in vain.  \n  \nDark though, are the news, of which sharing she'll chose,  \nas we had been causing their fall.  \nWhy everything's dead on the deep sea bed?  \nPollution and waste doomed them all!  \n  \nLast of her kind, she sends to my mind,  \nshe is, but no reason to weep.  \nFor the next generation grows with her gestation  \nto carry on life in the deep.  \n  \nOf thousands eggs laid, if only one staid,  \nit'd share all her mem'ries and lore,  \nfor their egg's DNA, captures each word they say,  \neach feeling, sensation and more.  \n  \nBirth though, has a price, costs a sacrifice,  \nshe shares with my dumbdazzled brain,  \nas to set those eggs free, ripped apart she must be,  \nlest they starve and it all was in vain.  \n  \nNow her time draws near, she is stricken with fear,  \nand scared, doing \\*it\\* all alone.  \nIn exchange for the deed, she would soon have me free'd,  \ndug out from this cursed pile of stone.  \n  \nShocked and frightened I am, of her master plan,  \nyet a choice to deny I have not,  \nas I am too afraid in my liable state,  \nreluctant, I agree to her plot.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; With her shape shining bright, there is just enough light  \nso I find my way inside my ship.  \nThere's no time to get bored, power must be restored  \nin its bowels where water drops drip.  \n  \nIs she using her shoulders, to move all these boulders?  \nOr are dark unseen forces at play?  \nThe sub's systems a mess, which cable? I guess,  \nthen I curse as I short a relay.  \n  \nAtlast I succeed: The shadows recede,  \nControls! They all come back to life.  \nWhile my savior, tragic, has done her magic:  \nThe passage back out is now safe!  \n  \nBefore I can leave, as much as I grief  \nover it, the damn deed must be done,  \nand she floats in her shine and her eyes lock with mine.  \nOur thoughts for once more become one.  \n  \nSpeaking more of that part, would now break my heart.  \nLove we felt, consider that fact!  \nIt must suffice to say that I helped her lay.  \nOur minds remained linked through the act.  \n  \nThe truth which I sought, with blood it was bought:  \nFrom the sea, our waste, life bereft!  \nFrom the sea to the shore, evr'y day it kills more,  \nand numbered are our days left.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; By the stars in the sky, our hope may lie,  \nnot for me, since I must stay behind.  \nFor all the eggs spilled, as my thruster screw killed,  \nI have hope, there are more of her kind.  \n  \nAhoi such, once more, as I leave this shore,  \ntomorrow, I'll set sail again.  \nFor I cannot yet rest, until I found their nest,  \nand maybe, find happiness then.  \n  \n  \n  \n\n"}