Priti's scuba mask fogged with each labored breath as she finned deeper into the eerie depths off Sandy Hook. Her research team had detected bizarre bio-readings in this unexplored trench. Something pale and colossal emerged from the gloom—a gargantuan relic of a long-extinct species. She reached out to study the behemoth's barnacle-encrusted hide. Suddenly, it convulsed, and Priti's blood turned to ice as a massive eye cracked open, fixing her in its ancient, intelligent gaze. Bioluminescent markings along its flanks began pulsing in a coded pattern. First contact had been made.
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