Beacon of Light in the Dark Sea

The entire morning hours seemed to be a break for the engineering team since their team leader had left, and appointments had significantly decreased. I went ahead and confirmed all the appointments. After three days, I was finally getting the hang of working here. As I sent confirmation messages, Japanese patients came in one after another for their treatments at the appointed times.

The first five patients had common dental issues such as cavities, fallen-off ceramics from previous treatments, tartar removal, and periodontitis. However, the last patient was rather peculiar. A man named Tamaki Yuzuru had severely torn lips as if he had been biting them, but other than that, he seemed fine. However, when he opened his mouth, it was a complete mess.

I had never seen so much stomatitis¹ before. Inflammations were densely packed, including under the tongue, causing me to frown just by looking at them. What could have caused this? Was there an explosion in his mouth? He didn’t answer my question as to how this had happened.

“Did you bite a sea urchin or a hedgehog?”

“No.”

And then there was silence. He either didn’t answer or responded very slowly when asked questions. I anesthetized him and cauterized the affected areas with a laser. As I burned each inflammation one by one, I felt we might exceed the next appointment time, so I sent a message to the next patient, asking for their understanding.

I advised him to gargle and prescribed medication for the inflammation and gargling solution. I also told him to avoid rough, hard, salty, and spicy foods, and absolutely no alcohol or cigarettes. He should get at least 8 hours of sleep, and I nagged him about this. Tamaki listened blankly and slowly nodded his head. Then, I handed him a vitamin candy that I had been eating from my pocket.

“Since these contain vitamins, have one when you’re stressed. Can you take a vacation?”

“No.”

How do these people take vacations? I know that I have weekends off, but I don’t understand how people working in four-shift rotations take their vacations.

“The best thing would be to take a good rest without working, eat well, gargle, and sleep a lot. But if it’s not possible, you can’t help it. Ask your team leader if you can take a vacation based on a dentist’s opinion, and if it’s allowed, come to me. I’ll tell them that Mr. Tamaki needs a two-day break.”

Tamaki didn’t say anything as I gave him dental floss. I told him to take care of his health and see me again in three days. After finishing the mostly one-sided treatment, I called in the next patient.

While I was treating a cavity for an engineer from Team A, someone messaged me on my tablet. It was a Japanese employee who had received treatment from me, but strangely enough, he were asking about Tamaki Yuzuru’s dental condition, rather of his own medical treatment. I thought it was Team B’s team leader, Sato, but their names were different.

While the patient was rinsing their mouth, I sent a reply. [I cannot disclose another patient’s treatment records.] After that, no more messages came.

Even though it’s been more than a week since I arrived here, I still can’t believe that I’m on the ocean floor. The feeling of being trapped occasionally surfaces, even when I try not to be aware of it. It’s a strange experience.

Dentists have a profession where they work non-stop, except during lunchtime, from morning to evening if patients continuously come in. In this regard, they are similar to ordinary office workers or self-employed individuals. They must stay in one place, and apart from lunchtime, they don’t usually move far from their designated location.

I thought life on land and life in an underwater base would not be very different. However, once I actually arrived at the underwater base, there were clear differences. Even the air I breathed felt different in the underwater base. It felt as if I were treating patients inside an airplane. It was as if I had become a fish trapped in an artificially created aquarium just barely fit for human habitation.

I considered myself fortunate to be neither particularly sociable nor active. Perhaps those who dislike staying at home would go crazy after just one day in an underwater base. Despite being an introvert, I strongly felt the desire to go out, face the wind, and breathe in fresh air. It had only been three days!

Seeing some free time before my next appointment, I hesitated no more and took the central elevator. As soon as I reached the ground floor, I aimlessly walked around the artificial island. The wind blew fiercely. The white wind turbines of the wind power generators installed on the island spun wildly in the strong wind. As I walked a few steps, the intense sunlight attacked my eyes.

After enjoying the sunlight, sea breeze, and dust for five minutes, I felt a sudden urge to return to my warm, quiet, and still-empty dental clinic. It was cold, and the wind blew too much. I craved something sweet. I quickly took the central elevator and descended back to the underwater base. Then, I rushed to the coffee shop in the central building.

[Red Coral], located in the fourth underwater base, was a coffee shop run by a Japanese woman named Fumiko. Over the past few days, I had consumed at least two drinks a day, sampling most of the beverages available. The tastiest was the [Red Coral Coffee], a latte with three shots that felt like caffeine directly entering my veins. It was truly delicious, but my hands would tremble from caffeine after drinking it. Craving something sweet, I ordered an orange blended drink and waited for my next appointment.

There were quite a few chairs to sit on next to the café, and people who had ordered drinks from the café were either waiting, chatting, or arguing with one another. It seemed that a man and a woman had been arguing even before I arrived. In case they started fighting with their fists, I was prepared to intervene or call a medic, but they remained seated peacefully, baring their teeth at each other and exchanging fast, aggressive words until my drink was ready.

I sat on a chair, swallowing the well-mixed icy orange juice, pretending not to watch while keeping an eye on them. I noticed that most of the people around the café were watching the two of them just like me, and with a sigh of relief, I returned to the dental clinic where patients would be arriving.

On my way back to the clinic, I suddenly wondered how problems or conflicts would be handled here. I remembered reading something like the Underwater Artifact Protection Agreement in the underwater base guidebook. Maybe there’s something like an Underwater Base Staff Protection Agreement too? I still haven’t finished reading all my employment-related documents.

Looking at the shark’s skull in the distance, I suddenly asked myself, …Am I tired? I held the Orange Blended with both hands.

Maybe it’s because I’m a newcomer here, but working at the underwater base still felt a bit awkward. The job itself might be quite different from what I experienced on land. There was no dental hygienist, no dental technician, so I had to do everything myself, which was utterly exhausting. Thankfully, there were only a handful of patients, and everything was state-of-the-art equipment; otherwise, I might have run away on my first day. …Could I really have run away, considering how much they’re paying me?

It was clear that the laws here at the underwater base were different from those in Korea. After all, dentists can make dental prostheses here. When I asked Priya if I would be the only one using the dental clinic and if they planned on hiring more people, she said they had already posted a job announcement in Russia and New Zealand. Considering my own hiring process, it would probably take at least two months for a new person to arrive. I looked at the approaching shark’s mouth and thought. Alright. Let’s set the goal of surviving for the next two months.

D-Day 2

1. Inflammations inside the mouth, usually sore on the cheeks gums or inside of the lips.[↩]