Leon Egan:

What you’re about to hear is a pilot episode from a fictional show, developed from characters and events in my book, Listen Closely. If you’d like to learn more about the book, check out the links in the show notes. But for now, enjoy the episode.

Unfathomable Depths Opening Theme (By AMC) begins

Daniel Wilson:

Episode One. ‘Farewell to Golden Light.’

Opening theme ends

[SFX: Static of radio turning on.]

Fowler:

Alright, are we good to go? Seems like. Though if not, then there’s no way of knowing. Maybe I’m just talking into the void. In which case, hi void! This marks the very first log of The Anglerfish on day one of our voyage. Or as our Captain would call it, our mission. Kat — sorry, Edwards — refuses to call it a voyage, because that would require any sense of adventure, which you’d think would be a base requirement for this kind of thing, but there’s no accounting for taste I suppose.

I’m sure she’ll lighten up as we go. I completely get it, obviously. It must be stressful for her, captain of this little group of patchwork civilians. Can’t be an easy job, can it? An earthquake unveils a whole new trench that almost doubles the previously recorded deepest point of the ocean — something that people much smarter than me keep insisting shouldn’t have even been possible — and we’re the hastily trained civilian layabouts who are going to break ground on exploring it. I’m sure the absolute chaos of the last few weeks of training is still pretty fresh in her mind, so I can’t really blame her for that.

I’m grateful to her, actually. She’s the only one of us who seems to really know what she’s doing. I have no idea what your recruitment process looked like, but it’s becoming more of a mystery to me every day. I seriously cannot work out what made you think I or any of the rest of this crew would qualified for this job, but… I needed it. I really needed this. That kind of money? It’s… (trailing off) Yeah. I’m grateful to anyone with a hand in helping me survive this long enough to get back to the surface and get paid.

(becoming cheerful again) Besides, I’m hoping I’ll get through that frosty exterior soon. It’s not like we don’t have plenty of time to get to know each other down here, right? Me more than anyone, this is basically all I have to do. I mean, technically I’m supposed to spend the day gathering reports from my Captain and crewmates during the day, but these brief logs I’m sending out are pretty much it for actual work. And right now I’m barely even doing that, am I? I’m just yapping away. Come on Fowler, you have one job on this submarine. One job. To report back with actual information on the mission.

We’ve been submerged for a few hours now, and have just officially passed the furthest depth we reached during training. We’re all a bit giddy about that. Well, maybe just me. Can you blame me? It’s exciting! The others? Giddy might not be the best word for it. Joel is definitely… let’s say antsy? (Beat) Terrified. He’s terrified. He jumps a mile at every creak and groan. Bless him. We’re in a metal tin plunging towards unexplored depths of an unforgiving ocean. There’s a lot of creaking and groaning. And Nasreen’s always on her feet, in and out of random rooms and storage.

I thought she was as raring for adventure as me, pacing the energy out, but no. I think she’s been crying. And nobody says anything, because she’s obviously trying to hide it. Not like Frankie. Frankie’s just… they’re furious. I’m not sure at what, or who, but they’re certainly not holding back when it comes to lashing out at us about it. It’ll be okay, though. Like I said, plenty of time down here to get to know each other. Plenty of time to familiarise ourselves with each other’s baggage.

But I’m just gabbing away, there’s not much to report yet, really. We’re continuing to descend, though Kat — (genuinely apologetic) Oops. Sorry, no, Edwards. Captain Edwards. Edwards. I’ll get used to it, I swear. Edwards made the decision to descend a little slower than originally planned. I think it’s for our benefit, the civilian crew, I mean. With the general vibe on board the Anglerfish, I think she wants to ease us into it. Which, you know what that means, right? Maybe she is a bit of a softie, underneath it all.

Anyway, I’ll report back with another progress log tomorrow. This has been your gracious host, Fowler, now signing off.

[SFX: Radio static, brief pause, then radio turning back on]

Fowler:

Good morning! Uh, I mean… The Anglerfish Day Two? Fowler’s Log? Or something? But also, good morning! We are now at about 5,000 fathoms below the surface, which might be the coolest sentence I’ve ever said in my life, by a long-shot. Edwards says it’s just shy of Challenger Deep, the furthest point of the ocean that had previously been explored. At least until our White Whale of a trench opened up, and we all came along. We’re going to keep descending today, and I made Joel promise to tell us when we officially become the first ever people to break the previous record. Incredibly cool.

I tried to convince everyone to play cards with me last night, without much luck. Joel seems willing to find a distraction, though. I swear, he was nervous during training, but not like this. We got on pretty well, actually. But now it’s like, when I talk to him, he listens, but he’s not really hearing me. He’s just clinging to each word like he’s hoping for anything at all to think about but the blackness closing in on our little metal sanctuary. And it is blackness, by now.

We left anything resembling daylight behind a long time ago. That’s what I’m going to miss the most, I think. I can go without internet and un-recycled air. I can live without fresh food. But going without sunlight? That feeling of closing your eyes, turning your face up to the sky and letting the golden light just wash over you? There’s nothing like it. Saying goodbye to that is the hardest part.

So I’m going to start making a list of my best jokes. I’m determined to get a smile out of Joel. Out of any of them, really. Okay how’s this? (clears throat)

Why would an anglerfish work so hard to explore the deepest part of the ocean? (beat)

Well, either she’s angling for a raise, or she’s fishing for compliments. (very long pause)

[SFX: The Anglerfish groans, in a normal mechanical kind of way, but also kind of at that joke]

Yeah, I know. I’ll work on it. Maybe I can’t live without the internet, after all. And that, I think, is my cue to call it a day. Fowler signing off, in shame and humility!

[SFX: Radio static, brief pause, then radio turning back on]

Fowler:

(exhausted) Anglerfish Day Three, Fowler’s Log. Hope you’re all having a better morning than we are. Yesterday had been going so well, at first. I swear I almost saw a glimmer of excitement in Edwards’s eye when we broke the record. Morale felt… well, if not good, then at least present. But last night was rough. For Joel, mostly. But it wasn’t exactly easy for the rest of us, either.

He kept waking up screaming. We knew he’d been nervous, and nightmares would make sense after he’d been so on edge for three days straight, but this was… this was a whole other level.

I invited myself into his bunk, in the end. Mostly to stop Frankie from killing him in his sleep. And the next time he woke up thrashing and shouting, I tried to calm him down. It did work, a little. He was aware of my presence, even half-asleep. He just lowered his voice, kept asking if I’d noticed them, too. When I asked what he’d seen, he just kept shaking his head. No, he didn’t see them, they were outside. Outside? Like, in the water? I’d asked. And he shook his head again. They were the water, he told me. (beat)

He doesn’t remember that conversation now. He can’t explain what he might have meant.

[SFX: Creaking and groaning]

Fowler:

(startling a little at the noise, then recovering himself) It’s the sleep deprivation, I think. I’m letting Joel’s fear get to me. We’re approaching our target depth later today, though. So really, it can only go up from here, right? (laughs weakly)

9,800 fathoms deep. That’s just insane. And it isn’t helping that Edwards cannot stop telling us all just how impossible this trench’s existence is. It’s certainly not helping Joel. Though I’ll be honest, it’s nice to see her getting excited about it. We’ll run all the pre-discussed tests once we reach it, then begin our exploration.

We’ll be sending off our findings later today. But for now? I’m going to see if I can sneak past Nasreen and Frankie to exceed my coffee rations for the day.(yawning) Fowler, sluggishly signing off.

[SFX: Radio static, brief pause, then radio turning back on]

Fowler:

Anglerfish Day Four, Fowler’s Log. I’d apologise for the lateness in getting that data report sent off, but honestly? (struggling to phrase this professionally) We’ve had some… concerns… with the findings.

(no longer trying) It has to be a mistake, right? There’s no way you knew. Some of the crew… they think… but you couldn’t have, right? You wouldn’t have sent us down here without warning us about this. But you’re a massive corporation. With all your resources…

(a little desperate) How could you not have known about this?

You’ve got the details. We’re calling it Anglerfish Deep. Or, I am. It’ll catch on soon, I’m sure. Kat’s losing it. From the information you gave us, we should have reached the sea-bed by now. The fact that we haven’t is unsettling enough. But if our current position was already impossible, then this cave we’ve found… the depths it reaches, we can’t even guess at its extent with the sonar.

It’s more than impossible. Kat doesn’t even seem able to wrap her head around it, and she’s the smartest person I’ve ever met. It’s incomprehensible. It’s… It’s…
(laughing, a little manic) Oh, god help me for saying this, but it’s unfathomable.

(after a long moment, pulls himself together) I really, really hope our trust in you isn’t misplaced here. But we’re going to do the jobs we’re being paid to do. We’re going to explore this impossible place. We’re going to shed light on this incomprehensible darkness. But we’ve got our work cut out for us. Fowler, with trust and hope, signing off.

Closing theme begins

Leon:

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Unfathomable Depths. It was written and produced by Leon Egan, and performed by Cloud Quinn, who also plays Aiden in the Listen Closely audiobook. Theme songs were created by AMC. All concepts and characters were inspired by the book Listen Closely by Leon Egan. Thank you for listening, and try not to stare too long into the Shadows.

Closing theme ends