ATOMIC

Infinite Deep
Copywrite © 2004 Doc Atomic

The history of the world's Navies is an interesting one, filled with stories and legends, heroes and cowards, enemies and allies. In the history of the Navy, there are some consistent themes. The life of a sailor, of a man of sea and sail, is far different than that of his land-lubbing counterparts. The sailor, and his fellow sailors, embark alone for often months or years at a time, and they form their own community and brother- (and oftentimes sister-) hood. They form new traditions, new philosophies, and new ways of doing things. They often interact with each other in a way they would never reveal nor betray to their counterparts waiting for them back home, on shore. It is the mettle of these men and women that drive the mighty ships of a navy. They are unique in society.

Because the life they live demands it of them.

And in the history of the navy, of course, there is combat. This combat is often a small matter of long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of abject terror. The long periods of boredom are due merely to the nature of things. In the vast oceans available, there is simply a lot of ocean to hide in. In the period of early naval warfare, often the only way one fleet found another was because the vast ocean was as much a mother as it was Satan himself; it was all too easy to lose yourself in that vast blue, and so, warships tended to stick to merchant routes, guarding their charges until they ran across another fleet. In this way, early fleets found each other, and battle was waged. As time progressed, more and more advances in fleet navigation were invented. And then as time progressed more, there were advances in the eyes and ears of the fleet as well. This led to the development of a more modern warfare and to the might of the United States navy in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. The GPS satellite system they erected [Actually, that was NASA, not the Navy.] allowed themselves and their allies to travel anywhere, assured of the fact of knowing where they were; denying this same data to their enemies, the US Navy could indeed go anywhere, do anything, and perform any military operation, assured of being unmolested.

Except for that most intriguing part of naval warfare…the submarine. A ship that navigated by dead reckoning and the bottom of the sea, a ship that could travel virtually undetected and totally unmolested, the submarine community was a unique society in a unique society. Under the sea for months at a time, the submarine was the one weak point in the ultimate defense system known as accurate intelligence data. One never could be sure where a submarine was or was not, and while the US made good use of this vessel, so did her enemies.

And so there were the boomers. The most silent of a stealth line of vessels, that undefined part of a vast, huge shadow of invisibility. The Silent Service's unique and most devastating member.

Their legend would live on, even after the great fleets of the earth began to traverse into the sky.

Even in a modern age of space travel, the need for a navy has not waned. Indeed, with new potential enemies and vast unexplored areas of space, the need for a navy became greater than ever. The ships are still manned by a unique breed of men and women, people who before spent months away from their families, now spend years away and have no family but the one they have chosen to adopt. Instead of sea and spray, there is vacuum, and dust. Instead of a plank in a gale to float home on, there is a lifeboat awash in deadly radiation. Life has changed dramatically for the sailor, but the sailor has not needed to change to adapt at all. This is their life, their occupation, and their chosen walk in life. A society where they often look at each other with meaningful glances when those on planetside begin to talk. They know more than their planet-bound brethren would ever care to even dream about, and have seen things that would make Marco Polo wish to begin journey anew.

And even in this modern age of faster-than-light and depth of space, the legends of the secret service are still being made. In space, it is a feat to make a ship that cannot be detected, but it is done. These vessels traverse the infinite depths, silent, waiting, calm. Navigation is accomplished via the very weakest of signals from the hypercomm network, passively received; but that is all. These vessels go without contact for months, quietly searching for other vessels, or even each other. Sometimes they pass one another in the depth of night. Often, other vessels go by, unaware that the ship is even there.

These vessels, in homage to the old silent runners of the deep, are called Boomers.

And when a common saying is passed around between the people of ground, when they say something clever to a Boomer crewperson, the crewperson often exchanges glances with his other brothers, with a small knowing smile. A scream is many things, but most of all, it is an expression of emotion, often an outburst of pain, rage, or infinite sadness. Everyone knows this. But only the Boomer people know that not only 'in space, nobody can hear you scream', they know that no other human emotion can be heard either.