There aren’t too many frontiers. If you gaze up you see the stars. That’s one of three scratched off the list. The other is in your head. It is the impenetrable virgin wilderness called consciousness. Which will remain forever chaste. 

The heavens do not worry about our fiery visits. Blinking silent bemusement as ape children hop with naive sophomoric zeal, remaining flightless, as Mother Earth calls them back to nest. 

The third frontier will bury you. 

Miles of sand and water hold revelations beneath their cloak. But if you can stand the choking depths. If you can hold at bay the smothering grip in which cold and pressure have wrapped their secrets. Then there you have your greatest chance to be Columbus. 

It was an odd sensation to slip beneath the black current without the wet ghost of a single drop. 

Jack looked down. Between his headlamp and the light strewn ocean floor, there was a sizeable thick inky darkness. 

Whole phalanxes of monsters could parade in that gap. Though it was not monsters he feared.

A tear in the drysuit, or too long of a tarry, or a rapid ascent all these spelled death more painful than the jaws of any demon. 

A small dark shape flitted amongst the grid of lights, pausing every so often, at this or that quadrant. 

Leslie looked very much like a shade at the lowest circle of hell. A strange high tech shade with a pert ass hidden somewhere under all that obfuscating gear. 

Jack smirked behind his mask.

She’d been the one to lead him on this wild goose chase. Tenured professors weren’t known for humoring the whims of their students. But every man had a weakness and his happened to be women. 

His smile turned into a grimace as he remembered that his daughter at twenty-two was just a year younger than…he thought of Alice his wife…

He realized that this was no time to feel guilty as Arnaud’s midwesternesque staccato demands broke his reverie. 

“You ok Doc. Ya just been. Hanging there. Forever now. Something wrong with the equipment.” 

“Everything’s pitch-perfect Arnie. Just had to get my head straight. This is my first real dive in over a year.” 

“Copy.” 

Jack dove. 

‘I’m going to hell for a piece of ass.’ 

Well…I really, REALLY, wanted to have something completely written by today. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until a few hours ago that I actually sat down to write. Then came the old research spiral. So all I can offer is this teaser.

Hey, at least I sexed it up for Valentine’s Day. Much love to all my subscribers.

I’m not going to engage in my old shitty habit of posting snippets. I hope to have this story ready to publish right here by next Friday.

I hope you enjoy this brief little episode.

XOXO

Platonically

Unless You Buy Me A Beer or Dozen