Current Events
Michael Gu
Introduction
Which is more important, space exploration or ocean exploration? Is it more important to find other planets to live on, or save our own? These questions can sometimes be driven by global warming. Especially since people continue to diminish the problem by pouring money towards space exploration. Shouldn't we continue to help the environment and explore the oceans? The truth is, the ocean is incredibly empty. It is hypothesized that only five percent of the ocean has been explored, but what about the other ninety-five? This curiosity of mine drove me to write about this story, which is about a team of explorers mapping the vast ocean and what lies below the surface.
Dionysus sighed, weeks had passed sailing day in and day out, east of the Australian Coast. He missed his wife, Athena, and his two children, Sparta and Athena. He couldn’t send them a letter until they arrived in Australia, he really wanted to see them again, longing for home. Sticking his nose in his journal, he wrote notes and letters even knowing he couldn’t send them. Today's entry was no different to the previous ones.
Dionysus Spirou’s Journal entry number 104, 9/15/2015.
Dear Athena, I miss you. I know this is a journal entry, but I just can’t forget about our family. Sparta had some rough times back at home before I left. He was always bullied by his classmates and Athena was not doing very well, grades wise. How I wish I could go home. This trip though, was really interesting. The other guests I am working with are very wise people. The other day I went up the viewing deck with Fabrice André. We chatted about many historical structures that could exist, and he enlightened me about some he had found. He is also French; can you believe it? What do they explore, Baguettes? The captain, Isabelle, is also French, why is everyone here French?
*
The ship began to rock from side to side frantically. Water smashed the port and
starboard in solid cuts.
“Batten down the hatches!” yelled Fabrice, instructing people here and there.
“What’s happening?” yelled another sailor from below deck. Dionysus stood beside him unmoving, shocked at the thunder-filled sky.
“Tropical storm incoming!” answered Isabelle, while putting on the storm sail.
It was as if heaven was at war. The sky was filled with purple and blue lightning that struck the ocean like spears. The Francois rode the waves, barely managing to dodge the bolts of lightning striking around them. The ship was large and had a glorious white flag mounted above the mast. The crew consisted of twenty people; Fabrice the French explorer, Dionysus the mythologist, Isabelle Lyon the captain and seventeen other crew members. The crew was exploring the Fiji sea in search of a mysterious creature sailors claim to have seen. The descriptions of the creature were vague and sounded like a myth. It was depicted as having nine heads and a huge pair of wings, its heads were of a dragon and spikes lined its back. The sightings of the creature were all in thunderous conditions like tropical storms. The Marins of the ship worked tirelessly trying to fend off the storm but they couldn’t fend off the fury of Zeus and were struck again and again. The sky was practically howling at them, sending furious strikes of thunder and rain that sent a crack throughout the wooden floor each time they jabbed. The freezing mist touched the crew’s skin and sent shivers through their bones, like a disease.
“Grab onto the sail!” screamed Fabrice pointing at the sail, which was now slowly separating from the mast. “It's the last one we’ve got!”
A few people hurried to pin the sail back to the mast with a couple nails, but were unsuccessful as one of them was struck by a bolt of lightning and the other fell back down. A spear of thunder struck the side of the ship, causing a giant hole that was quickly filling with water. The sail finally ripped off the mast like a band-aid and the hole in the side of the vessel kept filling up with water. Everyone could feel the ship starting to tip and fill. Waves
swept a few people off into the empty sea screaming cries of help while getting dragged under.
“The ship’s going down! Everyone get to the submarine!” exclaimed Isabelle, gesturing to the area below deck. Hurriedly people left their posts and scurried down the deck, straight into a corridor leading to dorm rooms. There was water leaking under the doors flooding the corridor up to their shins. The crew ran into a room which had a metal door that clearly read 'Emergency' in big yellow letters. Inside was a hatch that led down a narrow pipe to a
submarine. Screaming and running, one by one the remaining bunch ran down and hopped in the hatch without stepping on the ladder.
The last person to enter the submarine was the captain, who shut the open hatch as she hopped in. The sub was quite cramped and had two small glass windows on both sides while buttons lined the walls which flashed different colors throughout the space.
“They’re dead!”A crew member whispered repeatedly, obviously shaken from the horrific event.
The remaining marines were shaking with fear and shivering from the cold, unable to speak.
The hatch shook and cracked with the ship until the hatch connecting the sub and the ship snapped, and the Francois sunk deeper and deeper into the raging sea.
“We can’t go up right now because of the storm. We can only go down to safely avoid the thunder.” declared Isabelle, powerfully. “We had a loss, and it's okay to be sad about it, but events like this always happen so we just have to get through it.” Everyone nodded to this and stayed quiet as they descended into the dark abyss.
Fifty fathoms, one-hundred fathoms. The sub descended while moving forward towards land as it swam. It was lucky for them to have access still to a GPS even in this storm showing them their proximity to a land mass. The closest piece of land to them was the continent of Australia which was still kilometers away. The vessel shook and lights began violently shining. The sea started to twist and turn, forming a whirlpool that sucked the submarine down. Yells were muffled by the sound of beeping from alarms, which
halted as the vessel crashed abruptly at the bottom of the sea with a thud. Just when everyone let out a sigh of relief, red lights began flashing once again and the ground started to crumble. The marines were sucked below and fell into a deep dark cavern. They had landed in a pool of water that saved them from being heavily damaged from the fall. The smell of salt filled the air as the sailors opened the hatch and climbed out into the clearing.
“Shouldn’t we be more cautious? I mean- we can- we just crashed here, are you sure we should explore here?” Fabrice asked. Dionysus peeked his head out only to see darkness and a pool of water, though he could slightly see a small ember near them emitting a warm glow. The collapsed roof from which they came seemed to have not collapsed at all, no water was pouring in, no signs of destruction were present, there was only a dark empty stalactite filled roof.
“It’s safe!” Dionysus called out as he climbed out of the hatch and landed on solid ground. The bunch hesitantly climbed out and began to venture deep into the cave towards the small flickering flames. There was a small torch-lit path which curved around debris of wood and iron, evident of civilization though the tools and technology were definitely old. Around the corner of a huge crevice, a building came into sight, it had walls of sandstoneand vibrant inscriptions painted all around the walls. Dionysus gasped as he ran towards the structure inspecting the architecture while the rest of the group passed huge stone pillars which had ancient writings and pictures inscribed on them. The crew were amazed to find the underground temple-like structure standing around fifty-foot tall and sixty-feet wide, almost perfect in condition. Smooth sandstone glinted with the light like mirrors
reflecting the amazed expressions on their faces. As they entered the main steel gate, they could see that the walls of the temple mounted small torches that were still lit. Atop the pillars were inscriptions of what seemed to be Hercules, the Greek beast slayer, combatting the Nemean Lion. This story about Hercules has always fascinated Dionysus, but he always loved the story with the Lernaean Hydra more. They continued to look around and found hieroglyphs depicting exactly that story; Hercules battling a nine-headed dragon with three tails and a devilish stare. Dionysus gasped, soon followed by the others, who had realized that this was the beast they had heard about; The Lernaean Hydra. Their footsteps and whispers echoed through the dark hollow rooms as they continued down in fear. When they reached the back wall, they could see bunches of fish bones scattered
across the decaying floor around a sort of shrine. Suddenly, a deafening roar echoed through the hall behind, followed by a burst of bright blue flame. Dionysus spun around in time to dodge the flame, but his comrades were not as lucky as he was. Falling down on the floor on his back and looking across the hall, a Dragon was galloping towards him on four legs, nine-headed and ferociously roaring. He looked into the very eyes of the creature
he admired.
Author's notes:
This short story will connect to other future stories and a potential sequel via easter eggs.
The Hydra in this story was inspired by similar creatures and my own creativity.
I love Egyptian and Greek mythology, so I hope to incorporate them into my own writing.
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