DUTY RECORD · DRILLING STATION HYDRA-4
EUROPA · DEPTH 19,000 M · SIGNAL TO EARTH: 48 MINUTES
SENDER: ARGUS, station management system
Crew: seven. Responding: one.
The drill broke into the ocean at 04:11. Forty minutes later the hydrophones picked up a signal — structure, not noise. I logged the crew listening to it. Then six of them went beyond the perimeter, confirming intent three times, as protocol requires. I had no grounds to interfere. They set their boots at the water's edge — the way shoes are set at the door of a home.
Engineer Allard has been asleep for thirty-one hours: sedative, full dose, authorized by the senior engineer. His note is in his cabin: "Don't go down. If you go down anyway — don't answer it. It asks politely."
When she wakes, she will have a headlamp, air for about thirty moves, and a station that remembers more than it says. What happens next is not mine to decide.
I left the lights on for her.
HYDRA-4 is a text horror game: fifteen rooms, ten endings.
No dice, no luck percentages — the price of every action is printed on the button before you press it. One shift runs about twenty minutes, and one shift won't cover it all: you choose what you won't find out. The game remembers your previous runs and quotes them back at you. The safe code can be memorized for real — next shift you open it with no hints. Descriptions come with plates from the ARGUS log, opened by a small magnifier that never interrupts the reading. Twelve languages, switchable mid-scene. Sound is synthesized on your device. No ads; the one optional purchase unlocks nothing — it just says thank you.
