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A day in the life of a research submarine

Erin woke up in the dark, as she always did. Not much light got this far down in the ocean. It didn't matter though, they wouldn't be submerged for too much longer, soon enough it would be time to surface and head back to the lab with their findings.

Erin didn't mind life on a submarine so much. Sure it was cramped and dark and she didn't have ways of getting in touch beyond emergency calls, but that was okay. The close quarters weren't so bad because she really loved her team. They had been together for a few years and she loved them like they were family. The darkness could sometimes get to her, but the team had fun pulling pranks on each other with it. Besides, she never slept so well as she did in the darkness of the deep ocean. She would, at times, get homesick and be sad she couldn't reach out to people, but she also liked getting a break from social media. Plus, if she'd had a bad date recently there was no better excuse than "Going to be submerged for a while sooooo..."

They had found some cool stuff on this trip too. After Erin finished getting ready for the day (if you could call it that with no real sense of time), she went and checked on their findings. They had been able to observe some hard-to-find species of fish and they thought they may have even discovered a new species of eel, but they'd have to get their sample back to the lab before they could be sure. They had also been able to start to track migration patterns of some deep sea creatures. Erin was proud of their work and thought they would soon be able to get another grant to fund further studies.

After checking in on their findings, Erin was sure to visit with everyone. Not everyone liked being submerged as much as she did and she felt it was part of her job as the team leader to be sure everyone was doing okay. Luckily, everyone was in good spirits. Those who liked being submerged were doing fine and those who preferred being in their lab back home were happy that they'd soon be headed there.

Before long, it was time for the crew's meal together. For Erin, it would be breakfast, but the crew kept different schedules to be sure someone was always awake to be collecting data, so it was different for everyone. They talked about what they were excited to do once they surfaced (long showers were a popular one) and possible names for the new species of eel (if it turned out to be a new species). Some proposed naming it after their submarine, which had been named for Elizabeth Blackwell. Others, of course, proposed their own names as species names. Some wanted to name it after the Beatles song "The Yellow Submarine" (Erin told them that if they hadn't convinced her to rename their submarine that, they weren't going to convince her that a new species should be named after it).

The day continued on after that, with data collecting, congenial chatting, and underwater observation. At the end of her day, Erin went back to sleep, excited to head home, but happy where she was.

(Prompt by Kimisha Cassidy)

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