They waited, and then there came a crazed jostling from the screen images.

“I think we’ve hit something, or landed,” Freddie said.

The image stabilized, and then they could make out the black water, washing up over the camera lens. Cate hurriedly read off some of the details.

“Salt water, I knew it.” She turned and high-fived Greg before turning back to her screen.

“Holy shit, look at that sonar readout.” Cate whooped again. “The cavern above is only about a mile wide, but this body of water is not even returning a signal on two of its sides – it’s off the goddamned charts… and it’s deep. A few hundred feet deep here, but drops down thousands farther in.”

The water level that had been half way up the lens, and the only indication of something visual on their screen, bubbled for a moment, and things went dark – not solid black like last time, as there were still tiny flecks illuminated in the beams of the halogen lights.

“Dammit, we’re sinking,” Freddie groaned.

The rest of the readouts disappeared, and just the camera’s signal continued to send images that were strong enough to be received by the relay buoys high above it. But mostly there was silence and darkness with the occasional tiny glowing fleck scudding by.

“Look!” Cate’s loud voice was so sudden, it made Greg and Abby jump in their seats.

Her fists balled at her chest as she lunged forward, grinning madly. A tiny krill-like organism flicked itself past the screen. It looked like a striped slater bug, but its tiny arms rowed like a set of oars past them and continued on past their line of sight.

“Life,” Cate whispered.

“No big deal,” Greg said softly. “Many cave pools and underground lakes have some sort of albino shrimp or water nymphs. If we’re lucky, we might come across some tiny blind eelettes as well.”

“Yes, I know, but many of my esteemed colleagues who agreed there could be giant bodies of water hidden deep below the earth thought they’d be some sort of thick chemical sludge, and way too toxic to support life. But there it is, and notice something? That small creature has fully functional eyes, and is color banded. Means it can see and is subject to some sort of light source. We have no idea what the environment is like down here yet.” Cate turned. “Buzz’s sonar said there wasn’t even a return signal on some sections of the submerged cavern – do you know how big something has got to be, to not return a sonar ping?”

Greg rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, miles, I know.”

“Sixty thousand feet give or take.” Abby put her pencil down. “About twelve miles, before horizon drop.”