Chapter Text
Carter couldn’t help but find the whole situation funny. Beyond fucked perhaps, but still funny. A simple commission they said. Just scout out the area they said. Its not even your deepest dive, what could go wrong. Bullshit.
He adjusted himself to a sitting position against the metal wall of the now lightless vessel, biting his tongue to stop himself screaming from the pain of his broken leg. At least now he had some time to breathe, and take stock of the situation.
He was nearly a quarter mile under the ocean, about 6 miles off New Eridu’s coast, his leg was broken and he had no way to contact the outside. Honestly, could be worse. He reached out and gently brushed his damaged leg, wincing when he felt a shard of bone poking through the skin.
Could be a lot better, he thought. But he wasn’t dead and that was something.
He jolted when a sudden humming ran through the sunken ship, nearly crying out from the pain the movement caused. It was a low, deep sound. The walls rattled, his teeth chattered, he could swear he smelled ozone in the air. Covering his ears did nothing, he could feel the vibration of it everywhere. It ran through the entire ship, vibrating metal and iron, vibrating his bones. He nearly passed out from the pain in his broken leg. Just as started it stopped, and the silence returned.
Carter rested his head against the wall. This is what he gets for taking the most dangerous jobs. Fantastic pay, high risk of accident. Though this didn’t feel like an accident.
It had started as any salvage run should have. A NEPS ship had detected a vessel under the water on SONAR, thought it was an old military ship, and wanted it checked out. Simple. Get in the submersible, check out the ship, take some pictures, see what the surrounding area looked like, report back, and then PubSec or whoever the fuck could handle the actual dredging. Easy, Easy.
Too bad the brass failed to mention anything about the radiation his sub picked up 2 hours in, or the fact that there was some power source in the ship’s hold. Oh, and that power source, whatever it was, would periodically pulse and shut down any electronics in its vicinity. Pretty sure that was the hum. Not enough to hit the surface ship, Carter hoped, but certainly enough to fry the sub and send it crashing through ship’s deck. The impact had shattered his left tibula, and left him in complete darkness.
He let out a breath, trying to resettle himself. What could he do now? His supplies were meagre but could keep him alive for a few days at least. He had access to tools, though they were a painful twenty feet away at the rear of the sub. If he could get there he may able to get some semblance of power to radio for help, assuming the Hum didn’t come back and fry everything mid process.
He felt around for the medkit, thankfully stored just under the pilot’s seat. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make a splint and stop the bleeding. Painkillers? Later, he needed to focus right now.
He reached out to a small compartment in the floor just under the pilot seat and unlatched it. It took some struggling, but he managed to drag the medkit out and set it beside himself. There was a flashlight in there.
Good. Set that to the side.
Glowsticks. Better. Save batteries.
He cracked one of the sticks, allowing the dim green light to gently illuminate his steel coffin. The first thing visible was the dark stain over his grey wetsuit and on the sub’s floor.
Fuck. That’s a lot of blood.
He moved the glowstick over to inspect the damage. His left forleg was mangled, the bone sticking out of the side. The injury was still gushing. First, set the bone. This was going to hurt. Carter leaned forward, taking his leg in his hands. He counted to himself.
One. Two.
Carter couldn’t process the cracking sound of the bone setting, or the way that his eyes nearly rolled back. The only thing in his world was pain.
It was a full minute before he could process any thought or sensation beyond the hurt. Shaking, he glanced over the injury, before turning back to the medkit for bandages. He could barely hold the gauze steady enough to cut it with the kit’s scissors, nearly slicing open a finger in the process. Wrapping the leg wasn’t as bad, though that wasn’t saying much.
Maybe painkillers aren’t such a bad idea.
Finally done, he sat back and took several deep breaths. Step two, stop the bleeding, done. Now, just rest. The splint could wait a bit. He sucked in air, desperate to steady his heartrate, before a grim thought came to mind.
How much air do I even have?
The pulse had fried everything else, for all he knew the life support was down. Sure, the sub had backup air, but who’s to say that didn’t go down too? That wasn’t even factoring in the following pulses. Shit.
Carter huffed a laugh. A salvage run for the feds is what would kill him. Not the dozens of illegal jobs he did dodging underwater ethereals and hostile divers. No, no. A legal job, with a license, for NEPS. Gods he wished he could spit in that captain’s face. What was her name? Zhu Yuan? On and on she went about his past, his illegal activities. How could he take from others? How could he do what he did? Like she knew what it was like to scrabble for a living.
He huffed again. And now she was likely his best hope. She was the one who insisted on all that secondary security and extra safety procedures. Backup power, extra crew on standby, officers and medical personnel on call with extra supplies (including some additions to his medkit), contingency plans, oxygen tanks….
Oxygen tanks.
He had more air. It was at the rear of the sub with the tools. He just had to get to it. Okay, the safety shit was irritating at the time, but if he lived through this, he’d thank the captain for it. She seemed to care about her people, he’d give her that.
Better than the admiral who sent you here, Carter.
The admiral was some defense force fucker. Involved with military R&D from what Carter could gather. Arrogant fuck. Carter was only here because he didn’t want to send his own people.
“You independents will take any job, correct?” He had said. The way he’d said “independents,” like he knew Carter’s previous jobs and judged him purely on that. Arrogant fuck. The admiral had said there were “No anomalous readings.” Carter suspected that was a lie, those military ships could read ether and radiation for miles underwater if they needed to.
He took a breath and steadied himself. It wouldn’t do any good to speculate right now. Right now, the goal was survive. If that captain was half the woman she acted like, she’d get him out of here. He gets out, he gets answers. And maybe that Admiral gets one to the face.
Carter looked up at the ceiling, as if he could see through the steel and water to the surface vessel. He’d make it as long as he could, if only out of spite.
Alright captain. What have you got?