solar shadow <working title>
an excerpt

“That doesn’t matter. Pull out the extraction tubes; we’re leaving, now.”

Linus complied, moving as if in a daze. He pulled down the lever, and with a grating, whirring sound, the tubes began to travel up from the chasm and roll up into the submarine itself. Quivering clumps of viscous, glowing crystal fell back downwards from the pipes as they left the deposit. The submarine began to move upwards at a maddeningly slow rate, as Linus grabbed the extension to the radio link. “All units withdraw from the deposit immediately!”

The figures were on the other submarine now, swimming around it; then, one of them made a motion with his arms. The others swam toward him. He raised his blade high above his head, and struck—hard. The blade cracked the hull of the submarine where it had hit. The man yanked out the blade, then struck again. By now, the other figures were swarming thickly about that one spot, jabbing and slashing. Their blades flashed about, forming almost contiguous blue arcs in the dim water. Arrius watched in fascinated horror.

Abruptly, the figures dispersed; large pockets of air began to bubble and explode from the interior of the submarine, then the steel frame of the submarine itself began to shake. Pulses of electricity appeared to crackle out of the breach and over the surface; then—the submarine began to collapse inwards, almost as if in slow motion. The pressure of the water crushed the metal hull mercilessly. The glass shattered, floated about the ongoing wreck; and finally, through the cracks and gashes and fragments, the already-harvested crystal poured out.

The sight suddenly grew farther and then vanished into the black murk; the submarine was now ascending at top speed. Arrius let out the breath he had not even known he was holding. He looked at Linus, whose face had taken on an ashen hue. “Who else… made it out?”