The light beyond the surface continued to fade as I descended further towards the dark abyss. Very soon there would be no light at all. As I continued down, I could feel a little more pressure from the waters wrath. It was telling me that I should not go. Yet, I had to go. Far below laid the answers that all our people wanted, needed even, to know. The stories of the past, of our people, had long disappeared from the current knowledge of our kind.
A passing school of small fish swarmed around me. Taking into consideration that I was hungry, I quickly snatched one and devoured it in three bites. My teeth, razor sharp and jagged, helped with the piecing of the tiny morsel. True enough, the fish that swam near the darker water are indeed more delicious than the ones that bathed in the light's rays near the surface. Not knowing if any would be in the black water below me, I pierced two fish through the head with my claws and filled my belly.
More pressure, more darkness, and the temperature dropping the more I swam, started to effect my speed. I cleared my mind and focused. The scales on my chest, arms and legs began to resonate with an faint yellowish glow. It provided little light but warmed me just enough to press on at a decent speed.
Deeper I went. Deeper and deeper.
Something caught my eye that made me stop and cease my body of its movement. A faint glow, off in a short distance. Scared, I watched this ghostly light for a long passing of time. It remained there, unmoving. I gathered my courage and moved closer. Whatever it was stayed still but got brighter as I got closer to it. It was another of my kind.
'My kind never comes this far down,' I thought. Curious I reached out to touch him. He did the same. Shocked I recoiled my hand. He recoiled his hand. I tilted my head. He tilted his head. Soon, I realized that this was me. Somehow, it was me. I reached out with my webbed hand and put it up against his. It didn't feel like another me. Some sort of invisable wall kept us apart.
'I was trapped?' I pondered. I decided to look for a way in, to where the other me was. As I swam, I kept flashing by myself in between the smooth rock surface that blocked the other me on the other side. It was comforting that the other was trying to do the same on his side to find a way out. After circling this enigma many times, I decided to follow this cage further down. It didn't take long for me to find the base it. Once there, I looked around me. Another cage. Another me trapped inside that one. I swam in between the cages and followed the smooth rock below me that separated these cages. Cage after cage, on and on it seemed.
Along the smooth rock below me, there were strange things sitting on it I had never seen before. I took a moment to run a claw along the top of one. It made a sharp piercing screech that forced me to pull my hand away quickly. It was not made of rock like I had hoped it was. I returned to that which was the trapped me and raised my hand to gesture farewell. It seemed there was nothing I could to for him. Or myself? Not to my surprise, he did the same so I continued on.
There has to be something I can take back to my people to let them know that such a place exists. Let them know that there was once something down here that could be linked to our past. I searched for something I could return with to get more of my kind interested. Something that could tell us how we came to be.
With all these new discoveries flooding my mind I had forgotten one very important thing among our people. The smaller creatures the roam the waters. They were not there. Dangerous are areas with no creatures around. It meant something had scared them away. Or perhaps, creatures just could not live this far down. Fear, still, began to creep in. Yet, I wanted to see more. I followed the smooth rock till it split into three other directions. I decided to continue straight. It didn't matter which way I went, it was all new and fascinating. However, I was more on guard now, keeping an eye out for danger.
Suddenly, a light, seemingly as bright as the light above the surface, pierced my vision leaving me blind for a moment. While trying to block the light with my arm, I could make out that the light came from an enormous body that was moving closer. The creature made an awful noise. A loud pulsing drone of sound echoed through my head. More lights appeared on its body. I was more scared than I had ever been. I started to flee to get away from the horror that was before me. A loud booming sound came from the monster, then I found myself unable to move. I was trapped in its grip. Just like the fish I snatched earlier, and it dragged me in. Its mouth opened and light beamed from within.
Once inside this beast, the water started to disappear. This creature was draining the water from its mouth. The atmosphere became just like the surface. I moved franticly looking for a place to breath. Remaining upright was unbelievably difficult. Some strange force was pulling on me and trying to bring me down. I couldn't find any water. Suffocating and unable to maintain my posture any longer, I fell onto my back gasping for water. Another part of the beast opened up from within. I was shocked to see a creature that resembled our people appear before me. However, there was many physical differences between us. This creature had arms and legs, but no webbing of any kind. He had no scales but had a white layer that could have been an extra skin. He was also able to breath the surface atmosphere. Two more joined him, but they had blue skins and carried something in their hands. My eyes started to gloss over and it became hard to see.
The white skinned creature had a light coming from something he held in his hand. He kept moving it from one of my eyes to the next.
They spoke among themselves in sounds I did not understand, but I know how to repeat what those sounds were. One of the blue skinned people spoke first.
"So, this is what would have happened to the human race if we had stayed on Earth?"
"Three thousand years." The man in white skin muttered. "We need to get this thing to the tank. After that, tell the captain to get us back into space." He paused for a moment. "We have what we came for. We've got lots of work to do."