Site-31|COMS: Just get back down to the break. We'll explain once you're there.
D-4509: (…) Fine.
//D-4509 swims downwards, samples stowed. A growing, red cloud of liquid expands from the tree-field above. //
D-4509: I don't like this.
Site-31|COMS: Just keep-
D-4509: Don’t say it. Just don't. I’m sick of it.
Radio silence for roughly 1 hour. D-4509 reaches the break, and stops.
Site-31|COMS: Good work, Mark.
D-4509: Just tell me how to get out of here.
Site-31|COMS: Disconnect your equipment pouch with the samples. Let it float down past the break.
D-4509: Why don’t I just bring it to you?
Site-31|COMS: It doesn’t work that way, Mark. You wouldn't-
D-4509: How do I get out of here?
Site-31|COMS: First, disconnect your-
D-4509: No. I've had enough. You tell me how to get out of this fucking ocean or I’ll… I’ll-!
Site-31|COMS: Mark, please calm down. Take a deep breath.
D-4509: I’ll-… wait, what did you say?
Site-31|COMS: (…) Nothing. Please, just-
D-4509: No hold on. I remember you saying that. You told me to-
As D-4509 speaks, vine-coated humanoid figure is seen approaching in the distance, silhouetted by a massive, glowing creature behind it.
Site-31|COMS: Mark, listen to me. We'll get you out of there, but first you need to-
D-4509: No! This is important! I know it is! You… you helped me into the suit. Then you said “trust me”, and told me to take a deep breath. Then… then everything felt lighter… and you said… you said…
The camera feed is overtaken by a close-up of the humanoid figure, body hanging upside down in the water, face pressed into the clear plate of D-4509’s helmet. Human features are seen beneath the tangled, black vines.
D-4509: I’m sorry.
The figure's face is identical to that of D-4509, flesh desiccated, eyes cloudy, lips a dark blue color.
D-4509: On the shore you-…. you said “I’m sorry”, and I started feeling really, really tired…
Behind the humanoid subject, a hunchback whale swims past, causing the feed to shake. It’s skin is a luminescent green, and it’s side is rotted open. The exposed ribs and bare sinew have grown into plant-like growths - hundreds of unique varieties shaped from bone, cartilage, and bright red blood. Schools of lively, bright blue creatures swim in an out of the whale's open wound, gills, and behind it's eyes. As it swims past, the humanoid figure reaches out, running it's hand along the side.
D-4509: (…) You killed me.
Site-31|COMS: Mark, please, just listen to me.
D-4509: I stopped breathing. What was it - carbon monoxide? Some kind of neurotoxin?
Site-31|COMS: Mark-
D-4509: Why!? Why did you-
Site-31|COMS: It was necessary! Please, just try to understand. The place you’re in… it doesn’t work by normal rules! To get you there alive, we needed you-
D-4509: To be dead.
Site-31|COMS: Dying, actually. Living things can enter that place, but they end up as… well, what you sampled, we think. Dead things… they don't physically appear there, but…
Radio silence for 3 seconds. D-4509 stares silently at the vine-coated figure, suspended upside down several meters away. The whale continues swimming in circles around the pair soundlessly.
Site-31|COMS: (…) As best we understand it, there are grey areas to this "polarizing" effect - states of being where, by whatever rules govern that place, you're considered both alive and dead at the same time. If something is an instant away from certain death, but in that moment still alive, it seems to-
D-4509: I am dead though, aren't I?
Site-31|COMS: (…)
D-4509: I can't come back, can I.
3 seconds of radio silence.
Site-31|COMS: No. I’m sorry.
D-4509: You lied to me.
Site-31|COMS: I’m sorry.
5 seconds of radio silence.
D-4509: This… tree flesh; this meat or whatever… is it important?
**Site-31|COMS*: (…) Yes. It’s very important.
D-4509 disconnects and deploys their equipment pouch, allowing it to float down past the break.
Site-31|COMS: Thank you Mark.
**D-4509*: My body is still up there, right? Just like the whale.
Site-31|COMS: (…) Yes.
D-4509: Bury me in Lisburn. I think you owe me that.
D-4509 swims towards the humanoid figure until close enough to touch.
D-4509: Sorry to keep you waiting.
D-4509 uses the sampling knife to slice into the neck-seam of their suit, losing consciousness almost immediately from pressure loss. The humanoid figure cradles D-4509 for two minutes until they expire. The figure then removes D-4509's helmet, and lets it float down past the break. Camera feed begins to distort. The bright, green outline of the whale is joined by a pin-point of white light.
Camera feed cuts out.
End log.
