The submersible was so cramped that, when I first saw it, I thought it was about the size of four bathroom stalls. Now that I looked at it, it was no different from a three-person prison. It was the sort of place where human rights would step inside and then flee in horror.
If any one of the three of us stretched their arms wide to either side, their hands would not only touch every wall of the circular submersible, but they could also smack the other people like a windmill. To exaggerate a little, the only things you could do in this submersible were either squat on the floor with your knees pressed tight to your chest, your shins touching each other’s, or lie down in a straight line on the floor like three eels.
Shin Haeryang sat on the floor right in front of the controls, hunching his entire body and doing his best to reduce his surface area somehow. It wasn’t easy for a well-built person to ride a submersible.
“Are submersibles normally this cramped?”
“Yes.”
“Surprising, right? Everyone’s shocked the first time they ride one.”
Kim Jaehee was sitting so close that she was practically touching Shin Haeryang’s right shoulder. Was that the vice-captain’s seat? Kim Jaehee patted the bare floor next to her as she looked at me. Judging by the gesture, she was telling me to sit on the floor. I squeezed into the handspan of empty space left between Kim Jaehee and Shin Haeryang, folding myself up while trying to touch them as little as possible. It was no use. The structure made it impossible for my back and arms not to be forced against other people.
If not here, the only place I could exist was by hanging from the ladder leading up to the hatch and supporting myself in midair with arm strength.
I sat still on the floor as instructed, and it felt like my butt was freezing. This was how you normally rode a submersible? An escape pod would be much better. Kim Jaehee pointed with her hand at something like a glass window, about the size of two palms, located a short distance in front of me.
“This is the researchers’ VIP seat. See the observation window in front? You lie down on your stomach there and look outside the submersible.”
There wasn’t a single soft place inside this small submersible, whether floor or ceiling. Everything was hard and sturdy. If you banged into anything inside the submersible, you’d either bruise or crack something. The cold, chilly air was a bonus. If I lay flat on my stomach to look out the window, I felt like my whole body would turn into a frozen fish. When I breathed out, I could actually see my breath. Hahaha. Good lord.
“...You’re lying, right?”
I asked Kim Jaehee, wondering if she was teasing me, but she spoke as if she found my reaction delightful.
“It’s true. I heard that in the past, marine scientists would pay at least twenty to thirty million won out of pocket, or mobilize every connection they had, just to somehow get a chance to ride even submersibles worse than this one.”
Shin Haeryang, watching a screen that said the test run was in progress, spoke in a calm voice.
“It’s still the same now for scientists from weaker countries that don’t have manned deep-sea submersibles. They have to unilaterally match the schedules and times of the powerful nations, and even if they take three connecting flights to reach the promised time and place, they end up waiting for ages because of weather or other problems. If approval barely comes through, they’re lucky enough to ride. Otherwise, they spend the money and go back to their own countries.”
...Even the fact that I could ride this submersible right now was an enormous privilege. After today, I never want to ride a submersible again for the rest of my life. I’d rather people who could make more meaningful use of the deep-sea experience rode it instead of me.
The way scientists connected to space devoted their lives to Mars exploration and research, even though they might die, had already been revealed to the public in detail through the Planet Project. Marine scientists hadn’t been properly publicized, but the way they poured in money and time was probably similar.
Cheloni was only running a test, but inside the submersible, it was cold enough to make my teeth chatter. The internal temperature of the submersible was displayed as 2 degrees, but every time I looked at it, I doubted whether it was really 2 degrees. The floor was cold, the air was cold, the submersible was cold, and the seawater of the deep sea would be cold too. I wanted to say that only my passion to escape the undersea base was hot, but I felt like even that would soon grow cold.
Every second, I was astonished by the fact that the temperature inside this submersible wasn’t below freezing. If the water temperature of the deep sea were below zero, it would freeze. Since seawater didn’t freeze, I understood in my head that whether it was the deep sea, the Antarctic Ocean, or the Arctic Ocean, it wasn’t below zero. But my body couldn’t understand that this temperature wasn’t below freezing.
It didn’t seem like I was the only one especially cold. Shin Haeryang’s bare hands, after he had thrown his wet gloves somewhere, were bright red. The tip of Kim Jaehee’s nose had also turned red like before. Kim Jaehee let out a cold sigh and put her hand into her pants pocket. Then, after fumbling around, she handed me something. ...Looking closely, it was a hot pack.
There were four hot packs with English writing on them in both of Kim Jaehee’s pants pockets. Kim Jaehee tossed one to her team leader, then warmed up two and alternated between placing them on her knees and holding them in her hands. I rubbed the back and palms of my hands furiously against the hot pack as I said,
“Thanks to you, Jaehee, I might survive.”
“The service our team provides is far too modest. ...If only the team leader weren’t here, I’d treat you much more lavishly. I heard other teams brought whole thermoses of cocoa onboard. The Russians bring a kettle each of vodka or black tea.”
Shin Haeryang looked appalled when he heard that and asked Kim Jaehee,
“What are they planning to do if they spill it inside the submersible while drinking?”
“Do people who bring things like that onboard look like they care about possible future consequences?”
Apparently you weren’t supposed to bring hot tea or things like that when riding a submersible. Shin Haeryang pressed the hot pack to his frozen ear, then said with a sigh,
“The floor here smells like alcohol.”
It couldn’t be the smell coming from the clothes I was wearing right now, could it? I gauged the mood, then shifted the blame to the floor.
“...Someone must have spilled alcohol on the floor.”
“Well, at least they didn’t smoke.”
Thinking about it, smoking inside an airplane and smoking inside a submersible seemed similar. You couldn’t open a window in a submersible either.
After Cheloni spat out record logs endlessly on the screen for quite a while, it said,
[The test run has been completed normally. As a result of the test run, no issues were found. All three test runs produced identical results. What would you like to do?]
Shin Haeryang thought for a moment, then answered.
“Navigate automatically down to 1,000 meters and notify me.”
[Understood. Beginning operation of Simcheong No. 7.]
When Shin Haeryang pulled something from a completely unexpected spot on the floor, seat belt-like straps slid out with a shrrk. Shin Haeryang put the seat belt on me first, then checked carefully that Kim Jaehee had hers on before putting on his own. Then he pointed out several recessed parts in the floor and instructed me to grip them hard with my hands. I quickly shoved the hot pack into my coat pocket and grabbed the parts he indicated.
“You’re telling me to hold on to the floor with my hands? Until when?”
“Those parts are indeed handles. Grip them as hard as you can. Hold on tight and endure until I tell you to let go.”
What? Even before I boarded, people who had ridden this submersible must have held on to those handle parts and endured, because they felt smooth to the touch. As if Kim Jaehee sensed my silent horror, she laughed quietly, her shoulder touching mine trembling lightly. Then she tried to scare me by saying something terrifying.
“It’s going to shake pretty badly. If you don’t want to bite your tongue off because of it, clench your mouth shut. Ah. Since you’re a dentist, maybe you can restore it yourself even if your tongue gets cut off.”
“...Kim Jaehee.”
At her team leader calling her name as if telling her to stop teasing me, Kim Jaehee answered as if making an excuse.
“It’s a joke, Team Leader. ...Isn’t it fun? I’m having so much fun and enjoying this. None of the people on our team ever got this surprised or scared. I wanted to put Sanghyeon on a submersible once and watch him get frightened too. But he’s uncannily sharp only when it comes to things like this.”
“...How bad is it? Can I think of it as riding an amusement park ride like a roller coaster?”
See if I ever ride a submersible again! Shin Haeryang thought for a moment, then answered.
“It will be fine. No one has died.”
What was that supposed to mean? There had been someone on the verge of death? A chill ran down the back of my neck. I couldn’t tell whether this cold was because the submersible was cold or because I was frightened. When I was asked about motion sickness before riding the submersible, I had expected it to shake to some extent, but I never thought it would really become my problem like this.
It’s not that fun riding a submersible with scientists. Their eyes are blazing as they try to somehow find the deep-sea creatures they need to study, take pictures, record videos, and collect specimens, so they don’t even care that they’re throwing up. So Savior, you should try focusing on something too. If you focus on the countless believers you have to save, something like this will feel like nothing at all—Kim Jaehee kept chattering such nonsense like background music. None of it entered my ears. Why was I here?
[Twenty seconds until entry into the water. Researcher Park Muhyeon, you have no prior record of boarding a submersible. May you obtain the research results you desire within the beautiful darkness.]
“...Yes.”
The AI seemed to be comforting me, but I answered absentmindedly, my soul half gone. I felt like I needed to find my soul first.
Five seconds, four seconds, three seconds, two seconds, one second.
Listening to Cheloni count, I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched my teeth. The submersible entered the deep sea from the submersible port. I would like to describe this process as a giant hiding underwater grabbing the submersible, shaking it like a cocktail, then throwing it into the middle of the sea like a bowling ball.
I lost my grip on the handles several times, and I learned why there were seat belts. The submersible flipped until it was almost 180 degrees upside down, then returned to its original position. An extremely severe impact jolted through my entire body. Was I going to have to get spinal surgery again? I’d rather ride a helicopter.
By the time Shin Haeryang told me it was all right now, unfastened my seat belt, and stowed it away inside the floor, I didn’t even have the strength to gather my shattered mind. Thank goodness I had barely eaten anything. ...Were the bastards who brought hot tea onboard in their right minds? If they spilled it by accident, everyone inside the submersible would get burned on the spot.
When I collapsed sideways from where I had been sitting, Kim Jaehee chuckled and slowly rubbed my back.
“You did well. Looks like you won’t need the vomit bag.”
“...This is the end, right? There isn’t any more, right?”
“There’s one more time. It’ll shake this badly again when we go out above the sea surface.”
“...”