...............The Romanche Gap
                                               1.00 LT   18.42 LN


    Picture a world without light and heat. . .five miles beneath 
the  ocean's  surface where pressures exist capable  of  crushing 
your  body  instantly.  . .where life thrives  in  the  darkness, 
gathered around volcanic vents in the earth's crust. . .
          You are about to enter the Romanche Gap.
 
    The  Romanche Gap is a crevasse in the sea 25,354 feet  deep, 
the  third deepest point in the Atlantic.  Scientists  who  first 
photographed this and other trenches were surprised to find  life 
at  the bottom:  deep-sea urchins, cucumbers,  brittle  starfish, 
crabs,  mollusks. . .hatchet fish, vampire squid, armored  worms, 
giant  sea spiders.  Many of these animals feed on the muddy  sea 
floor, which resembles the surface of the moon.  Others thrive on 
the sediments stirred by underground "vents" in the ocean floor.
 
    Yours  is  a follow-up mission to a dive  undertaken  a  year 
earlier  by  Dr. Forrest Crane, a colleague  at  Manatee  Harbor.  
Crane  and his team documented and photographed the life  at  the 
bottom  of the Gap, but were unable to complete their  work.   In 
particular,  they could not identify a life form they got only  a 
brief  glimpse of (and a blurred photograph, which you will  find 
in the mission folder).
 
    Funding  for  the  mission has  been  established  to  finish 
Crane's work, but the financial backers are extremely  interested 
in  the unidentified life form.  It is larger than  anything  yet 
encountered  at  those  depths and could prove  to  be  something 
entirely unknown.
