—the excavation of a 520 m deep pit—one key resource development of the vainglorious protoDaemone «catalysts»—is swirling downdrafts of steppen windgusts into its desolate microclimate inhaling a passing helicopter from a reasonable altitude—

—the lithosphere of the Cola Peninsula where «Cozzava Kulppper»—«the “Geometer“» is an occulting figure swaying the Daemone on dangerous caperings of dictatorial alchemy and metaphysical boondoggles—is overseeing drilling activities and infrastructural coordination of a 23 cm diameter hole tapping through the «LAB» or «Mohorovicic discontinuity» nominally «the „Moho“» into the ductile plasticity of the «weak sphere» or «Hades» also «preSpodnia»—is among the shallowest continental crust depths on the planet—although still nearly 30 km—in accordance with the data of Daemonic «CRUST 3.5» cartographic projections, the «„Baldick“ Craton» itself being among the most significant disgorgement of basement rock on the planet’s surface, projections in documentation at the console for temperatures around 100° in these superdepths—in excess of 12 km—are not in alignment with actual data of approximately 180° causing projections of nearly 1000° at the targetdepth of approximately 30 km beyond which the rock—fighting for persistent integrity against the heat—is liminally magmatic, at the control panel ADA inspectors of lipid countenance wearing dark safarijackets—in contrasting topstitching—and ties are listening with incredulity to «the “Geometer“» is fingering warm yogurt into a cup of smoky dandelion tea declaring to his team — The Imagination is Conjuring The Naive Fortitude And Masochism Of Maintaining A Vacant Passage Within A Bowl Of Hot Soup Without Using A Cofferdam — the aroma of rust and hyrdogenic vapor rehydrating in clammy perpetuation of the tepidity splashing drillmud in the quadrilateral drillrig silo, extreme temperature is softening a section of aluminum alloy pipelinks in the drillstring 5000 m in length is twisting loose, «the “Geometer“» is watching from a high window using his arms outstretchingly as dividers in relation to the coastal horizon and his innate calibrations of the subterranean drillbit with fantasies of immolation and liquid stone, thin sunlight through the vertical ribbon window of the silo is smudging thickets of dim tomography across the equipment and gantries, the autodecoupler rotating apart two pipelink sections for maintenance, a cleancut towhead «Tineas» perching in the observationdeck of the drillrig tower is aiming a longrifle at two men conversing near the shore of the lake—nominally descriptive in lieu of nominally proper—«A Gliddery Vino A Skivvy Oi», scopingly untriggeringly, his hands resting on inactive portions of the weapon, «the “Geometer“» with his young acolyte strolling to collect ripe cloudberries, crews are hoisting the flaccid section from the borehole and coiling it on an enormous spool, «Libera „screaming“ temet ex „stridency“ „screaming“ inferis „unintelligible wailing“», on the basis of «the “Geometer’s“» delineations—descriptive geometries of interlockable topological gearsets with rolling diamond teeth—an analogical transmogrification of the pillowy pate and cress of ducal headgear only possible within the generative alchemy of draughtspersonship—of a rotary drillbit—fabrication of the Uralmash 4R and Uralmash 15000 is proceeding for alleviation of the extreme torquing common in conventional drillstrings, sheen on the buttery hue of the drillwater tanks, attendants in protective suits are peering into the open orifice—the exact size of an adult male head—, the drillrig boring with full insertion is under the attendance of three folks in dark blue coveralls and smooth hemispherical faux woodgrain hardhats with chinstraps, extracting damp funereal core samples with their bare hands, dry core samples with depth markers in white ink—

—coresamples of superdeep bedrock crumbling moist glovingly behind thick safetyhoods are showing significant water of crystallization—«„primary“ water» or «„juvenile“ water»—at depths contrary to expectations of the scientific team and evidentiary of a «water quasar» or another high pressure inhuman electric molecular bondage in the dark a composition hovering on a phasal frontier indistinguishable from respiration—

—«Neriad» is reaching the observationdeck of the drillrig silo is telling «Adeinr» — You are Remaining At The Door — «Neriad» is emptying his revolver on «Tineas», is missing, and from the door «Adeinr» is hitting «Tineas» in the torso twice with his shotgun, which «Neriad» is commandeering in place of his empty revolver, firing obliteration into the right cheek of «Tineas» is lying on the pavers bleeding and shedding brainmatter through a scupper out a gargoyle and down the vertical buttery hue corrugations of the drillrig silo—

—a pit open to the sky 293 m deep, drilling 86 holes into antipodal ice between 1.5 km and 2.5 km in depth—each displacing 757,082 L of icemelt—with high temperature water in an array for the study of electrically neutral leptons—

—exploratory drilling of an oilwell to a depth 11 km—with the initial 1250 m through seawater—is blowing out its shearram belching conflagration into its drillrig murdering 11 folks on the deck—

—the excavation of a 520 m deep pit is half full of rainwater leeching highly acidic heavy metals from the rock is murdering hundreds of geese resting in migration are floating on its surface swelling deflating rotting amidst feathery flotsam sinking, a 3900 m deep cavernous construction—

—aspirational drilling of five holes to «the „Moho“» from an initial depth of 3550 m below the sea are only reaching a maximum depth of 183 m into the topmost layer of oceanic crust, in the Durtal Basin «per me „screeching“ si va tra la perduta gente „horrendous accents wailing“» at the piedmont of the 90th Circle Ridge—an area where the oceanic crust is only 3.5 km thick—the scientific vessel «Renida» hydrostationary on saccades of six azimuth thrusters perpendicular over its drillstring is penetrating a total of 6960 m «per me „loudly sighing“ si va ne la città „whirling whirlwind“ dolente» into the mantle «per me si va ne „resounding lamentations through benthic starlessness“ l’etterno „black stingingfly stridently screaming“ dolore» on a column of steam, a pit open to the sky 1200 m deep—

—the drillrig is plummeting into a chamber of conflagratory emptiness into boiling hydrogen the rigspool unspooling through the long shed warehouse racing down into the hole beneath the silo with raucous clattering is drawing allhands out from the various accessory structures and «the “Geometer“» himself is watching pensively gazingly following pipelinks from the spool as they are disappearing into the borehole the drill rig halting and silent all across the permafrost he is announcing on the basis of consumption of the number of pipelinks by the borehole — The Chamber has A Volume Of 462,686.4 Cubic Meters — where vibrations telegraphing through the aboveground pipelinks from below are in such naturally erratic patterns it is impossible they are emanating from the rhythmic chewing of the limp rotary drillbit, «libera „screaming“ temet ex „stridency“ „screaming“ inferis „unintelligible wailing“», the more experimental and freethinking of the scientific committee are lowering a microphone down the borehole—where temperatures are in excess of 1100°—and recording dire lamentations through the cacophanous striking of palms of flesh and shrieking of millionfold shadewretches in desperation and agony, many prime investigators on the science team are hearing the recordings and raucously and newly affirming their devotion to the Daemone racing from the speakers to the administrative quonset filling out the more extensive paperwork that in definition is securing their deeper devotion to the Daemone, «sto „guttural oscillation with acute shrieking“ conquistando», the microphone is melting, others—from all ranks and levels of commitment to the inquiry—are fleeing the remote drillsite on foot screaming and tearing at their hair, regional radiostations are broadcasting the short recording loopingly, in total the Daemone rolls are showing 2000 folks are increasing their Daemonic vestings in light of the discovery, the shearram is lying engagingly just below the mouth of the wellhead under the steel cap with the inscription «12,226 meters»—lustrous with a crystalline encrustation of salty rust chewing at the boltheads—lying silent and coplanar with the bald soil aclutter with corrosions of pipelinks and shelfstandards and boltthreads and fragmentation of concrete and plasterspalls and discorporations of fingernails, winterscape camouflage of mold and efflorescence on a lone masonry wall, the bureaucratic explanation in ADA documentation is reprioritization of expenditures—

—the dehydration of coresamples from superdeep bedrock—over 7000 m—is revealing physiognomically intact microfossils—including relatively soft lunular keratinous slivers—showing no evidence of the extreme compression that is a necessity for their presence therein, are within a sheathing or plating of nitrogen or carbon bearing signatures discrepant from their native—native to their discovery—hostrocks and perpetuating the wild assertions of fringe elements of the scientific team about flashfossilization—

—corrugations of steel panels are shearing from the silo is lying in crinkly heaps amidst the snow in scatterings of puddles, refuse of ruinous masonry and woodsplinters in overcoming drifts of dry soil, the sky is showing through the skeleton of the long overrun shed, «the “Geometer“» in intimate conversation with the nightwatchman—his posture is changing from pride to despondency—on the lakeshore, smooth and flat stones in tiny cairns trembling beside their footfalls, silence exploding the stone shore in flinty oblongs of fragmentation, «„argute ejaculating“ liberatevi dal „unintelligible wailing“ inferno» in vibrations on the rusty boltheads clamping down the wellhead, in the desolation and saltbreeze of white night the nightwatchman is loading his few silty appurtenances onto the pumpcar with his partner on the upstream leverage of the walkingbeam and «the “Geometer“» is joysticking away from the rusting and groaning wellhead with gentle—yet overly wavering—meanderings forming the image of a wireframe sphere with binocular scanning of the tundral horizon, gales of snow pleating across the long drillstring overrun shed, the insertion of a funnel taperingly into the slack end of a length of plastictubing is threading into an exhaustpipe projecting just above the soil is receiving the devotional urine of curious exiles—

John Trefry is an architect and writer living in Lawrence, Kansas. He is the author of Plats, Thy Decay Thou Seest By Thy Desire, and the forthcoming Apparitions of the Living. He can be found on Twitter @trefryesque and on www.jhtrefry.org.