Three Scarlet Submarines (三艘深红潜艇)

Above the frigid seabed where the sunlight could not reach, Three Scarlet Submarines move slowly. Nothing could be seen in their windows other than the infinity of water and rocky edges. They were sent on a forgotten mission by a bureaucracy that ceased to exist shortly after the mission was given. Every aspect of their story could be debated. Except for the colour of the ships, perhaps, that’s why they were called “Three Scarlet Submarines.”

Some of them said its colour is more important than anything else. The colour, of course, resembles the merits and happiness to the supporters, while the critics believed that it was blood and iron rust. However, they all have no clue what they were discussing. Luckily, the people on the ships have barely any understanding of their actions either.

They have lost their goals long before, lost contact with their mentors, too, their officials, their governments. Deep beneath the rolling waves, the only communications are between the submarines. So, they encouraged each other, stayed on their paths together, even though the paths were also forgotten long, long ago. They all believed in causes, and the causes were what kept them moving on and on.

And very soon, they realised they would be running out of food, out of drinking water and energy used to preserve their lives. They realised that they must do something when they ultimately chose to do nothing.

“There must be something to be found still. We have to stay on the Path.” The commander of the leading ship told the other ships and suggested that the other submarines give their food and drinking water to the leading ship.

But there was no response, strangely. Still, in a silent tacit, the submarines drove in the same direction, on the same Path. Hunger haunted the second and the third submarine; the crew could do nothing but dream, remembering what they once were, in the beautiful day of light, and the sacred night of darkness. No darkness nor light could be felt inside the two Scarlet Submarines anyhow.

“There must be an end to all these on the Path. Stay Strong. And there must be a reason why we were sent down here. We must have something to achieve, which shall be finding the end of the Path.” Another word was broadcast to the other rooms. It was strong and commanding, but lacked basic sincerity. The starved dreamers were woken up, and it felt like being eaten, to be awakened on their deathbeds. The nightmarish, underwater world never stopped its interest in torture.

The ships eventually stopped at an enormous stone wall. It was somehow suggested by the scientists of the leading ship to be a maze inside, and there was only one possible path to escape the maze. Or maybe not, since nobody could fully understand something that could not be observed. Maybe the maze was not a maze at all; any route led to an exit.

“Turn left.” After a brief meeting in the Council of Underwater Commissars, the leading ship’s order arrived.

The second ship turned to the right. It did not listen to the leader. The leader decided to launch some torpedoes and underwater missiles. Their attempts to attack the ship from the gate of the maze were not successful, but the 3rd ship was very frightened. The 3rd ship really believed that the leading ship would lead them out of the valley of shadows, to the world of peace and prosperity, but when the missiles were shot, their belief was heavily shaken. Without willpower, belief or hope, the 3rd ship submitted to the reign of fear. And what does fear lead to?

“What if the leader was hiding its true power, which could easily neutralise our ship?” the crew on the 3rd ship could not help but ask, and there was no answer for this question.

Unexpectedly, though, the leading ship also decided to turn right. A more “official” reason might be that they would like to follow up on the 2nd ship and punish its betrayal, while many people supposed the reason to be that the 2nd ship was right. There might really be a Path on the right, which could lead them out of the maze. However, the 2nd ship was missing and the Path was never found…

… beneath the water at least.

It was never necessary to follow the Path beneath the water; the second ship consented so. They acknowledged that they had to return to the land. After all, they were humans; humans should live on the land. The Path could be on the land as well, too bad that the other ships might never see that. On the empty, uninhabited island, people started to gather things together, collectively. Due to the resources always being scarce, they either shared them equally or invented some sort of complicated mechanisms to deal with the complexity of reality. After quite a struggle, they reformed their own, brand-new civilisation. Out of all possible choices, this was undoubtedly the best.

As for the other two submarines, there were no known survivors on the ships. Fortunately, the highly advanced technology allowed the submarines to be driven towards their designation even after the death of their users. The daydreamers who dreamt of being on the ship had never known the fact that the submarines were stagnated from past decades, and the seats were already available long, long ago. The leading ship could not even be recognised now, as half of the submarine was dyed by the blue of the seawater, and the other half was filled with white of the bubbles and waves. The third was indeed destroyed by the leading ship, destroyed, split, consumed and dissected into meaninglessness.

Well, the Earth is a sphere as we all know, so I guess that the submarines could always travel in a cycle. And in the end, humanity would end, but the Path, before the destruction of the Earth, sarcastically has no end.

And there were these Three Scarlet Submarines…

(Dedicated to homage the late Du Ren Shi San, one of the greatest Hmong writers of all time.)

Lafcadia 氿月

16th December, 2025