GG-D4 · Surveyed Destination

The Sump

A drowned, lightless cave-world under crushing pressure; fatal, not hostile. One probe lost.

Designation: GG-D4Disposition: LETHAL (ENV.)Access: GG-1 dialOwner: Destination Survey

FIG. D4 · GG-D4, the Sump. Probe lamp, final frames. Drowned basalt gallery; no air, no surface, no daylight. Something passed the lamp.

SURVEY The Sump

GG-D4 opens below the waterline of a sunless cave-world: a flooded labyrinth of basalt galleries with no surface, no air, and no light that did not arrive with the crew. Pressure at the threshold is already near the limit of our rated suits; deeper is worse. There is life — pale, slow, blind, and bioluminescent — but it does not appear to care that we exist, which is its own kind of relief.

We sent one instrumented probe through on a tether. The tether came back cut clean and warm; the probe did not, and the last fourteen seconds of telemetry recorded something large passing the lamp without disturbing the water. GG-D4 is logged LETHAL (ENV.) and dived only by exception.

This file is one record of the Destination Registry. Crossings to this destination are listed in Mission Logs.