We did it! It took us far too long and far too much effort, but it’s finally done! The chemists had a breakthrough last night and developed a compound with a name too long for me remember – let alone pronounce – that could break through the plankton’s nearly impenetrable cell wall and dissolve everything inside, rendering them empty husks. We used special tubes to administer a dose directly beneath and to the sides of Hubie, and dissolved the plankton keeping us from descending. The cloud – or swarm – of plankton was only about five meters thick, so we passed through it without a problem. As soon as we were through, however, the plankton swarmed back to fill in the hole we had made. I’m sure if they were able to they would have somehow stopped the tubing connecting us to the surface from passing through their midst, but we are safe in that regard.

Still, though the plankton are behind us, I can’t help but worry slightly about them. I found in their cytoplasm a series of tiny structures, almost unnoticeable, that seem to give off electrical signals eerily similar to those found in the human nervous system. It’s not possible for such small organisms to have sentience, but still, this combined with their actions is a little odd. I suppose it’s only because of their apparent resistance to letting us pass that I am uneasy about them, though; otherwise I would be ecstatic. I’ve gathered some samples of it and have them kept in containers in my lab for future studies; they are certainly odd specimens.

The world below the plankton is a strange one indeed. Hubie has stopped its descent for now – we hope to resume it and touch bottom Saturday morning – while we take readings and sample the new environment we find ourselves in. Looking up, one can see the shimmering silk screen of the plankton, their bioluminescence giving the water a faint green hue. We’ve seen a fair few lifeforms already, but nothing major; most of them are jellyfish, glowing with the same light as the plankton. Many of them appear to be carrying rocks, and one looked to be carrying what looked like a sword of all things. Some level of intelligence is possible in jellyfish – I mean, look at the box jellyfish for an example of that – but never before have jellyfish been seen carrying things. Most of them are about the size of my head, but several have been smaller and there were two almost as large as Hubie, off in the distance. They all give Hubie a wide birth, so our glimpses of them have been fleeting. The water also is surprisingly murky and thick, and not conducive to transmitting light; it’s odd that the plankton’s light from above is so bright.

The other specimens I’ve catalogued down here include an anglerfish, two gulper eels, a black loosejaw, and several viperfish. They seem to be mostly normal, if not colored slightly oddly; green seems to be the theme here. There have also been a few small squid, and what may have been a dead crab corpse floating about. That was grabbed by a jellyfish and taken away before we could get to it.

I haven’t yet gone out in a minisub. I was about to not four hours ago when Hubie’s sonar detected something massive off to starboard; it was only there for an instant, but was several times larger than Hubie, and of an unidentifiable shape. I might go out again soon, once we are sure that the coast is clear and I shan’t be eaten.

Here’s to being at the top of the food chain! I’ll update you next when something interesting happens. Ta-ta for now!