This past week, our science class have been learning all about the layers of the Earth such as the chemical and physical layers as well as the heat, pressure, and material of composition. This topic interests me, and so I took some of my free time to write a short science-fiction and draw a picture for it.

Drilling Deep

By: Tingjun (Grace) Li

Part One: The Rusty Book in the Library

In a dim-lit library, I grab a rusty book off the shelf. Dusty rays of golden light slip through tall, narrow windows, settling gently on green plants in front of me. The air smells of aged paper, and quiet secrets. I snuggle in the blue bean bag and open the book. The title, scribbled in scrappy letters, read “Beyond the Earth’s Surface”. Probably some weird non-fiction. Somewhere in the distance, a page turns— a small, delicate sound in the silence, and I turn the page to the book of my own.

Part Two: The Scientist Who Lives in the Ocean

From the book: Morgan was a scientist. She was in fact a nerdy walking encyclopedia, with blue eyes, thick glasses and unstylish outfits. But she had bold, dangerous ideas. Ideas so fascinating and bizarre that could change the world. However, no one cared about her plans, and whenever she brought it up, even her closest friends would laugh at her. Hurt firsthandedly by the society, Morgan chose to anchor her laboratory in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean— 125 miles off the coast of New York, where she would be secluded from all the negative comments about her project.

The view in the ocean was truly amazing. Morgan woke up everyday to the colorful fishes surrounding her giant glass window laboratory, and slept with the hymn of the waves. But she couldn’t speak fish language, and seeing all the schools of animals swimming around exaggerates her loneliness.

When she felt alone, Morgan often remembered Dorothy. Dorothy was a massive drilling machine created by Morgan, dressed in shimmering pink and gold, coated in a layer of glitter that made her shine even in the darkest depths. She had a glass cockpit, surrounded by glowing control buttons and a huge screen. Morgan built this machine two years ago, when she was still a young scientist, passionate about discovering what’s under the surface of the Earth. But as she got older, Morgan couldn’t help but give up as she thought of all the comments about how crazy and delusional she was. Now, the machine lay in a deep part of the laboratory, covered in dust and mold.

Days passed, and nothing changed… Until one night, while Morgan was sleeping, something incredible happened. A strange, glowing ocean dust had seeped into her laboratory and slowly surrounded Dorothy. The glitter on the machine began to swirl, and Dorothy’s monitors flickered back to life. 

She was brand new again, with a hard shining drill and perfectly transparent clean windows. Whether it’s simply magic, or a sign from God, motivation struck Morgan once more, and she set out to finish her goals of digging into the Earth with Dorothy. 

Part Three: “Eww. It’s so… squishy”

From the Book (cont’d) They began their descent right beside the laboratory. Morgan had spent weeks pouring over geological maps and decided to start in a thin sand hole. It was in the oceanic crust, the perfect place to break through the crust since the oceanic crust was much thinner than the continental crust. She scrambled into the cockpit, cramming the small space with necessary items such as canned fruit, liters of spring water, and some heat protective suits before buckling into the pink seat. She pressed the light blue button to seal the windows with a satisfying hiss, and guided Dorothy’s drill toward the seabed.

“Buzzzzzzz! Buzzzzzzzzz!!!!!” The sound of the massive drill hitting the ocean floor was deafening. Schools of fish scattered, scared out of their minds, but Morgan couldn’t help but clap and cheer. “It’s working! Omigosh! It’s actually working!”

Dorothy’s drill was a blur of motion, roaring triumphantly as it dug downwards at an astonishing speed of 3 kilometers per minute. For the first few minutes, the view through the glass was dark dirt and gray basalt stones. Then, the darkness was interrupted by a flash of blinding light.

“Dorothy, stop! Stop!” Morgan cried.

They had reached the lithosphere in less than 30 minutes. The lithosphere was about 100 km deep from the Earth’s crust. Morgan recognized it immediately, because she could see a massive pocket of pink and green diamonds. Morgan pressed a bright orange button, and a mechanical claw popped out of Dorothy’s left side. As the claw scooped the gemstones into the souvenir bin, Morgan noticed the thermometer. It was already getting warmer, with the temperature set at 1400 Celsius. 

After a quick celebratory drink of water, and a brief daydream of how much she would make if she sold the diamonds, Morgan pushed the lever forward. As they left the rigid rock of the lithosphere behind, she noticed that the vibrations changed. The rhythmic sound suddenly turned into a dull, heavy thud. The floor of the cockpit felt different too.

“Eww. It’s so… squishy,” Morgan muttered, watching the monitor.

The ground outside had turned into the asthenosphere. The asthenosphere’s temperature was about 1500 Celsius and it’s around 180 km thick. It wasn’t solid rock anymore, but it wasn’t quite liquid either; it was a hot, plastic-similar substance that felt like it’s about to melt on Dorothy in any minute. The sound of the drill struggling against the thick sponge like material was also starting to give Morgan a headache. 

Soon, Dorothy began to accelerate, as if she found a strategy to navigate through the squishy ground. Hitting 10 kilometers per minute, she glided easily through the upper mantle.

As they dove deeper through the remaining kilometers of the mantle, the pressure became higher due to the weight of the layers about them. Outside, gold sparks started to fly off Dorothy’s drill. Morgan watched as they entered the 2600 km mesosphere after 18 minutes of travelling in the asthenosphere. 

As they travel on, Morgan couldn’t help but nervously fidget with her fingers, staring out at the endless, glowing orange tunnel. Hours had passed. Dorothy was getting tired, and was clearly slowing down. The laboratory in the Atlantic Ocean felt like a million miles away, and the outer core couldn’t be seen.

‘If I die here, no one would know. No one would even care,’ Morgan thought. ‘But still’, “Come on, Dorothy,” she whispered, “We can get through.”

Part Four: The Heart of the World

From the Book (cont’d) A blinding flash of red light flared across the control board, Warning. Warning. And suddenly, the squishy resistance of the mantle vanished. Dorothy made a huge plunge into a rushing, violent sea of liquid fire.

“The Outer Core! After 4 hours and 20 minutes, we finally reached it!” Morgan shouted, her eyes gleaming.

A swirling ocean of iron and nickel surrounded the machine immediately. The temperature hit 4,000°C, and the air inside the cockpit heated up. Morgan’s glasses fogged up instantly. Fumbling through the mist, she slammed her hand onto the Machine Heat Protection button. A shimmering energy shield wrapped around Dorothy’s pink-and-gold body, and the internal temperature dropped back down.

“Phew.” Morgan wiped off sweat dripping from her head and flipped a switch to Drifting Mode so Dorothy could rest for a little bit. Even machines needed break times. The great golden drill stopped spinning, and Dorothy bobbed through the liquid currents, travelling deeper and deeper. Even though the process took them 3 hours and 40 minutes, it seemed much easier since they were just drifting downwards.

After a long time, the liquid began to thicken. Morgan knew that they were in the inner core now, where it was made of iron and nickel, and so dense that everything was smushed together. It was about 1220 km thick and at a scary temperature of 6,000 Celsius. She quickly reactivated the drill. After the long break in the outer core, Dorothy roared back to life, her golden drill vibrating with renewed energy. 

After another two hours of silent digging, they had finally reached the Center of the Earth.

Morgan sat there in the absolute silence of the world’s heart. She was the lonely scientist everyone ignored, but here she was, the only human in history to ever touch the center of the earth, the center of their planet’s existence. She looked at her reflection in the glass, and then at the glittery machine of her best friend. And she laughed. A laugh of triumph to everyone who told her she couldn’t. But also a bitter laugh, since she had no human friends to share this joy with. 

Still, she leaned toward Dorothy’s control panels and finally spoke the words she had been holding in since the day she built the machine in the laboratory. “We did it, Dorothy. They said we were crazy, but the view from the heart of the world? Ya, I know, it’s beautiful.”

The End.

Part Five: Author’s Epilogue

From the Book (cont’d) Morgan and Dorothy then reversed their course and climbed back up into the Atlantic Ocean, where their laboratory was waiting for them. Except now there was a huge hole next to it that linked right into the center of the Earth. The climbing was much harder, since they were going against a lot of gravity, and spent a full day going back compared to the 11 hours when descending. 

They learned all about the temperature as well as the pressure inside the Earth, and carried out many souvenirs of gems and diamonds. They would recommend this journey to any brave soul, since the sight inside the Earth’s heart is a unique landscape.

Part Six: The Visit to the Atlantic Ocean

I close the book with a heavy thud, the “rusty” smell of the pages lingering in my nose. I blink, pulling my thoughts back to real life. “Wow,” I whisper to the now empty library. “That is a really good book. If it wasn’t just a fictional story, it would have looked so real.”

I stand up from the bean bag, stretching my stiff limbs, and go to slide the book back into its spot on the shelf. As I do, a piece of yellowed paper slides from between the pages and falls into my hands. It is a hand-drawn map of the North Atlantic, and off the New York coast, there is a spot marked in red pen:

To whoever found this, consider yourself lucky. I’ve only published this one book, hidden in a rusty library. The world didn’t believe my achievements, but come down to see for yourself. — Morgan.

I’m so curious that I immediately booked a flight to New York and rented a specialized deep-sea research submarine. The descent into the Atlantic Ocean is quiet and nerve wracking. As I get closer to the destination, the ocean turns dark and with my flashlight, I catch the look of a massive, glass-walled laboratory.

I knock politely on the laboratory door, but when I hear no answer, I climb through the window. The lab is silent, and as I explore the corridors, I gasp. On a rusty table sits a jar full of shimmering pink and green gems—the exact diamonds that are described in the book. It isn’t just a story. I realize in awe.

I search deeper into the lab and freeze. There is a giant machine resting. It is covered in a fine layer of dust, but the pink and gold glitter still shine under my flashlight. The humongous golden drill stands out abruptly. Is that Dorothy? I wonder.

“Fifty years have passed. A human has finally come to visit me.” A voice from behind startles me, and I whip my head around. My wide eyes meet the calm blue ones of an elderly lady with huge thick glasses and an unstylish outfit.

The End.

After writing this, I showed it to my science teacher, who said that I did a wonderful job by mixing scientific knowledge into my creative writing. She even said she would help print it out into a little book. I am so proud of it, and hope you liked my story.