0:00
It showed up overnight wedged into the
0:02
cove like it had been dropped from the
0:04
sky. The tide was low when the first dog
0:06
walker saw it. Black, angular, and
0:09
utterly out of place. The object looked
0:12
like a small military submarine. But
0:14
there was no distress signal, no naval
0:16
markings, just a thick coat of salt and
0:19
rust clinging to its underbelly like
0:22
barnacles. By sunrise, word had spread.
0:25
Locals gathered along the cliffs, phones
0:28
in hand, watching waves lap against the
0:30
strange vessel. Some thought it was a
0:32
training exercise gone wrong. Others
0:34
claimed it was a Cold War relic pushed
0:36
ashore by the storm last week. By midm
0:39
morning, yellow tape had gone up and the
0:41
Coast Guard arrived in an unmarked black
0:43
truck. No insignias, no interviews. But
0:47
before we start, smash the like button
0:49
and make sure to subscribe if you
0:50
haven't and hit that notification bell
0:52
so that you won't miss any new stories.
0:54
The guards wore plain dark uniforms and
0:57
didn't say much. Just took pictures,
0:59
made calls, and occasionally glanced
1:01
toward the horizon. Two divers entered
1:04
the water but resurfaced minutes later,
1:06
shaking their heads. No propellers, one
1:08
was overheard, saying, "No drive system
1:10
we can see." Julia, a reporter for the
1:13
local paper, tried to get close. They
1:15
asked her to leave the beach entirely,
1:17
but before she left, she zoomed in with
1:19
her camera and noticed something odd.
1:21
The hatch was already open. Not wide,
1:24
but just enough to suggest someone might
1:26
have exited or entered. The Coast Guard
1:29
hadn't opened it yet, or so they
1:30
claimed. Julia snapped a photo and drove
1:33
straight to the office. Something about
1:34
the vessel didn't feel military. It felt
1:37
like a prototype. The photo made it to
1:39
Twitter before noon. That's when things
1:41
really changed. A user from Spain
1:43
replied, "That's not a submarine. We had
1:46
one wash up in Galatia in 2019. The
1:49
government took it and we never heard a
1:51
word after." Another user posted
1:53
diagrams classified looking PDFs with
1:56
sections labeled experimental hull
1:58
integrity zones and uncrrewed entry
2:01
pods. Julia's inbox flooded within
2:04
hours. The Coast Guard increased their
2:06
presence the next day. More tape, more
2:09
silence. But Julia was persistent. She
2:11
requested flight logs from the nearest
2:13
military basin had flown that route in
2:16
days. She called a retired Navy engineer
2:18
who examined her photo and muttered,
2:20
"That's not ours." He asked if the
2:22
inside had been opened yet. Julia said
2:25
no. He paused. Then don't assume it's
2:28
empty. That night, a second hatch was
2:30
found, smaller, at the rear. When
2:32
opened, it revealed a metal passage no
2:35
wider than a vent. No seats, no
2:38
equipment, no tech panels, just smooth
2:41
metal and a faint chemical odor. A guard
2:44
was overheard saying, "If it's unmanned,
2:46
where's the transmitter?" No one
2:48
answered. Julia returned to the beach
2:49
early the next morning, but something
2:51
had changed. The vessel was still there,
2:53
but now its front hatch was fully open.
2:56
No announcement had been made, no public
2:59
update, and the inside was dark. Julia
3:02
wasn't the only one who noticed. A drone
3:04
operator flew in low and caught a brief
3:07
view down the corridor. What he saw made
3:09
his hands shake. He showed Julia the
3:12
footage later. Rows of smooth black
3:14
seats bolted down, but no controls.
3:17
There were 11 seats, all empty, all
3:19
facing forward. Nothing else. No lights,
3:22
no wires, no steering mechanism, just a
3:25
room made for people, but no way for
3:27
them to steer. A marine biologist from
3:30
the local university claimed the shape
3:32
of the hull was hydrodnamically
3:34
impossible. No rudders, no propulsion,
3:38
and yet it had moved somehow. And no
3:40
barnacles meant it had only recently
3:42
entered saltwater. The story exploded.
3:45
News vans arrived. A few officials gave
3:47
brief unsatisfying statements. Under
3:50
investigation, "No radiation, not a
3:53
threat." But one off-record comment
3:56
stuck with Julia. It sealed in ways we
3:58
can't explain. Not welded, no bolts,
4:01
just pressure. On the fourth day, the
4:04
Coast Guard cleared everyone from the
4:06
site, citing a chemical leak. Locals
4:10
were skeptical. The beach was blocked,
4:11
but the ocean was not. That night, Julia
4:14
received an email from a burner account.
4:16
It included coordinates, a timestamp
4:19
from 3 months ago, and a satellite
4:21
photo. The photo showed a small object
4:24
dark angular drifting in international
4:26
waters off the coast of Moritania. The
4:28
object shape was unmistakable. It had
4:30
drifted nearly 3,000 mi with no known
4:33
power. They've been tracking it for
4:35
weeks. The message read, "Don't believe
4:37
the leak story." The next morning, the
4:39
object was gone. New waves, new crane
4:42
marks, new cleanup crew, just sand,
4:45
rock, and questions. Julia reviewed her
4:47
photos over and over. Something still
4:51
didn't add up. She enlarged the shot of
4:53
the rear panel just before the Coast
4:55
Guard sealed it. A small marking was
4:57
faintly visible, not painted, not in
5:00
English, just two symbols. One resembled
5:03
a triangle, the other a spiral. Julia
5:06
took the image to a linguist at the
5:08
university. He didn't recognize it, but
5:10
pulled out a binder of pre-language
5:12
glyphs found in caves, stone tablets,
5:15
and one alleged artifact recovered from
5:17
the Tangusa region in 1,98.
5:21
This symbol, he said, pointing to the
5:24
spiral, is tied to theories of time and
5:27
displacement. Julia asked what kind. He
5:30
didn't answer right away. It could be a
5:32
warning or a return address. Later that
5:35
week, a freelance diver came forward.
5:38
He'd snuck in at night before the object
5:40
vanished. He claimed there were
5:42
footprints in the sand bear,
5:43
human-sized, leading away from the
5:45
vessel and stopping 15 ft inland. No
5:48
return tracks, no debris, just one-way
5:51
prints. He said he filmed it, but the
5:53
footage was corrupted. Julia didn't
5:56
believe him until he showed her the
5:57
audio. Faint rhythmic tapping coming
6:00
from underwater. The divers's watch had
6:02
synced to the sound two taps every 6
6:04
seconds. The same rhythm looped for 8
6:07
minutes, then stopped. Julia overlaid
6:10
the sound against Moore's code. It
6:12
wasn't random. It repeated two letters,
6:15
S and R. She shared the info with the
6:17
linguist. He went pale. That's the same
6:19
sequence found carved on a 14th century
6:22
shipwreck off the Azors. But that wreck
6:24
had no known country of origin. 2 weeks
6:27
later, Julia was approached by someone
6:29
claiming to be from a maritime salvage
6:31
firm. He offered to buy her footage,
6:33
everything. No names, no NDA, just
6:37
$75,000 in cash. She refused. He left
6:41
her a card with a number. The next day,
6:43
the number was disconnected. She kept
6:45
the footage. She also kept the drone
6:47
pilot's footage, which was later deleted
6:49
from every cloud backup. Somehow, the
6:52
cove was quiet now. No visitors, no
6:56
press. Locals moved on. Some chocked it
6:59
up to experimental tech. Others called
7:01
it a hoax. Julia didn't publish
7:03
everything, just enough to keep it
7:06
alive. She still hikes to the cliffs
7:08
once a week, still looks down at the
7:10
rocks, still wonders how something so
7:12
obviously made for people could show up
7:14
without anyone admitting they built it.
7:16
She still doesn't know if the symbols
7:18
were a signature, a destination, or
7:20
something else entirely. But she often
7:22
thinks about the spiral, the divers's
7:25
audio, the empty seats, the sand without
7:27
return prints. And she wonders if it
7:30
wasn't meant to arrive. Maybe it was
7:32
meant to pick someone up.