Counterpoint (53 page)

“I’ll see,” he replied as Max and Carla
entered the chamber.

The thunderous rumble pounded them
again as the massive outer metal door swung open. Out they swam.
Sharing the weight of the bag they made their way to the Bow,
following the red lights on the left side. There was no sign of
Jim. The current was much stronger now and the water, hotter. As
they turned and swam back to the first device, Max looked into
Carla’s faceplate, her short blond hair drifted in the current and
in the light of his torch, could see her smile back. If they had to
die, at least they would be together. Max’s eyes drifted to her
pressure gauge on her wrist. In an instant, he grabbed her spare
mouth piece and his, pressing the centre purge button. Clouds of
bubbles streamed between them as he frantically lowered the
cylinder pressure. Carla panicked for a moment, not realising what
Max was doing with her precious life-giving gasses, but then it
dawned on her, Jim was not coming back because his cylinder must
have exploded. During the 30-second purge, the current had swept
them away from the bow of the sub, and apart from the lava glow
beneath them, now they were in total blackness. Frantically they
swept their torches around like light sabres hoping to catch a
glimpse of the hull, but nothing!

Based on their possible drift, possibly
up, possibly down, and the glow from the seabed, they headed back
towards the sub as fast as they could. The lava glow was still
below them, so Max figured they were more likely under the sub or
else it would block out the glow. Logically true, only if they had
managed to swim back to the sub! Pointing slightly upwards as they
swam, they both searched for the sub with their torches. Carla
spotted the hull first, then the nearest red device light. Max
followed her urgent gesture, within a few seconds he popped out and
replaced the first unit.

The swimming had exhausted both of
them, adrenaline was no longer being pumped into their panicking
bodies and the increasing heat was overwhelming them.

Max knew the time had run out for them.
Slipping three devices in his open suit top he gestured Carla to
take the last one, and head back to the hatch. She knew she had to
fit the unit nearest the hatch and Max would fit the other three
and catch up.

No point wasting time arguing by sign
language, she headed back.

In some respects, without Carla to
worry about, Max could focus on his task. He quickly fitted his
three devices, and although his exhausted body no longer obeyed his
brain, he struggled on towards the oval disk of bright white light.
The many accounts of near death experiences often mentioned this
phenomenon; the struggle to get to the white light. The rumble of
hells fury on the seabed seemed almost quiet now, it was more of a
distant sound like an aircraft disappearing in the distance, not
the full immersion sensation he had been swimming in. Perhaps he
was dying. Perhaps the light was not the open hatch. Why struggle
any longer, his brain still had thoughts, but where was his body?
The concept of up and down suddenly didn’t mean anything. What did
up mean? Breathing was so difficult now, the rasping sound as he
pulled air in was not as he remembered it, why the roar and bubbles
as he breathed out?

The sun kissed fair skin of Carla’s
beautiful face beamed at him as they walked in the Dukes garden, on
the plateau. He could smell the fresh air warmed by the sun and
tinged by the fragrance of her delicate perfume.

As Max and Carla left the chamber, Bill
Davis ran to sickbay and roused John Farmer from a deep drug
induced sleep. His injuries were painful, but he sustained no
broken bones or serious damage, when the rolling sub pitched him
out of the Pilot’s seat.

“John! John!” shouted Bill, “We need
you back at the controls. Two divers are in trouble and are
drifting away; you are the only one who can help!”

John stirred and tried to move, but the
pain from his neck, shoulder and lower back made him gasp loudly as
he fell back. The pain soon cleared his mind as he listened to what
Bill was telling him.

“You must get to the controls and
follow the divers before they drift too far in the rising
current.”

John slowly eased himself off the cot,
with Bill’s help they made their way back to the control room.

The Senator saw what was happening and
assumed Bill had things working again, and the Pilot was about to
get them to safety. Then, in the monitor, he saw the drifting diver
and another one clinging to the rim of the open hatch. He called
out to Bill and demanded to know what was going on, but Bill just
ignored him and helped the wincing Pilot into his seat.

“Try and catch up with the drifting
diver and bring him within reach of the hatch. I hope the girl at
the rim can pull him in. We can’t get out to help, because the
hatch is open, we can’t close it with her in the way.”

John Farmer nodded and focused on the
tricky manoeuvre. It should have been simple in theory, to
accelerate gently forward sliding the enormous hull under Max until
he was just above the open hatch, then pull him in. The moment the
computer control was disengaged, the sub started to move. It
drifted with the current, but the rear started to swing around, and
the bow was no longer aligned with Max. The thrusters easily
corrected the sub’s attitude, but their turbulence and eddy
currents from the tunnel wall swept Max around like a tea leaf in a
stirred cup. John could see the diver clearly; he was not
responding in any way, he was either dead or drowning. A burst of
forward thrust from the main engine, just as the diver became
aligned over the hull regained control. John saw the girl was
reaching up and had grabbed the man, pulling him down into the
chamber as he slammed into the open door. Seconds later, the large
steel chamber hatch swung closed.

As soon as the inner chamber door
opened, crew stripped Max’s diving equipment from his lifeless
body, feeling for a pulse and breathing as soon as they could.
There were no signs except Max had a good colour, no tinge of blue
on his lips so there might still be a chance.

Carla looked on, stifling back the
tears while the crew worked frantically, one pumping his chest
while the other squeezed air into him through an inserted airway.
Moments later, Kate Winslow appeared with vital equipment.

Senator Joe Buck quizzed Bill Davis
about what had happened. Buck realised now how dangerous the
situation had been and why the electronic systems had stopped
working. He also realised that when he was so preoccupied with
seizing control, Max had done the only thing possible to save all
of them by attempting to steer out of trouble. Now the man was
probably lying dead on the hard, wet steel floor, after trying to
find a missing diver and completing the repairs. Even from the
safety and comfort of the control room monitor, Joe Buck shuddered
at the thought of going out there in the infinite blackness.

“How is he Bill?” Buck asked, concerned
for someone else for a change. Bill shook his head and looked down
at the floor. “A goner, I think, probably heat exhaustion and his
heart packed up. The girl who pulled him in is in a terrible
emotional state, tough little thing, an FBI agent by all accounts.
Can’t think why she is so upset though, surely she doesn’t think
she could have done more to save him?”

The pain of electrocution shot through
Max’s arching body as it convulsed. Sounds of raised voices and
commands penetrated the lifting blackness, bright light and
movement assaulted his senses as Max regained consciousness. The
defibrillator Kate Winslow used had worked.

Carla burst into tears of joy as she
fell on him and hugged him. The crew were surprised at her
outburst, unaware of her relationship, and asked her to move back
to give Max air. As she started to move away, Max pulled her head
down and whispered in her ear. “So angels do wear wet rubber after
all, I think I will like it here!”

Saying nothing in reply, she got up and
went to sickbay to wait for him.

As Max was carried through the control
room, Joe Buck thanked Max for what he had done. All over me now
thought Max, didn’t want to know me when you had me carted off to
the storeroom. Max replied offhandedly, but with a sting, “just
saving my own ass Joe, don’t take it personally!”

Joe laughed until the penny dropped,
but Max was gone.

In the sick bay, Bill Davis asked Max
what to do next, the current had risen to eight knots already, he
advised.

“Better see what the Senator wants to
do,” Max replied sarcastically. Max was grateful for all Bill had
just done for him, but still felt he let him down when the Senator
ordered Max to be locked up.

“The Senator is just a puff-bag
politician, I want to get out of this mess alive, and that won’t
happen with Buck talking about it. He can go to hell for all I
care.”

“Well, if we do get out of here, I hope
you won’t hate yourself for this decision,” warned Max. Bill was
resolute, Max was a winner, and Bill wanted to be part of his
team.

“Go and see what the Pilot has to say,
Bill. We need to move forward as fast as possible. There is no way
back now! Set the navigation computer to control the sub,
maintaining an equal distance from the channel walls and a depth
500 meters below the roof of the tunnel. I doubt we shall have a
problem with the seabed it is about 3000meters the last time I
checked.”

Bill went off to discuss the suggestion
with the Pilot and then out of courtesy, told Senator Buck.

Ingrid Goodman had made herself busy
and organised food and drinks for everyone. She was secretly glad
there was no way back, and the sub was moving forward again.
Actually, the engines were in reverse to counter the fifteen-knot
current from behind. The Pilot wanted a five-knot forward ground
speed for safety, no faster!

The tunnel had so far proved to be
remarkably straight and consistent, except for the large variation
in headroom above. Huge caverns had formed when, over time, the
rock had dropped away and eroded to sand on the seabed. The vast
amount of data Ingrid had collected so far, showed constant
subterranean volcanic activity, and many interesting veins of
minerals. Due to the interruption of the navigation system, their
precise position along the tunnel was an unknown and future
exploration of minerals from above would be practically impossible,
because of this. Still, the system might catch up if it continued
uninterrupted until they emerged at the other end.

A routine check on readings was due,
now she had finished feeding everyone. To Ingrid’s surprise,
background radiation had increased and was getting stronger. It was
in the region of 0.4Gy, almost half way to the red zone.

If she said nothing, perhaps it would
soon drop back; it was probably just a small vein of Uranium. If
the others knew about the radiation, they would panic and possibly
turn round and go back, risking the volcanic activity.

Still the level continued to rise. The
decision to tell everyone was suddenly taken out of her hands.
Alarm sounders went off in the control room. The reactor rods
actuated, and power levels dropped as the system shut down. The
system diagnosed a radiation leak of massive proportions throughout
the vessel. Without primary power from the reactor, the battery
system took over, however, there were only minutes of energy
available at the speed the motors were working, in this
current.

At first, Ingrid did not realise the
reactor had shut down due to the high background radiation.
Startled at the loss of light and power to her equipment she ran to
the control room. She passed technicians running to the reactor in
protective suits, to locate the perceived leak.

“What’s the matter, she cried?”

“Radiation leak!” someone shouted
back.

“Are you sure?” she said with a dawning
realisation in her voice.

Joe buck answered her in a quavering
voice. “The detectors have located radiation everywhere, they
believe it is a vapour from the reactor, spread by the ventilation
system.”

“No! No!” Ingrid shouted, “it is
outside the sub, not inside. There are very high levels of
radiation coming from the rock, we should pass through very soon,”
she explained.

Joe Buck announced the news over the
intercom and technicians in the control room switched out the
detectors, reset normal level to the current background radiation
and activated the system again. Within moments, the power surged
back on as the reactor came back on line.

Tony Fry was responsible for nuclear
systems and warned the safe time at this exposure was just a few
hours. Somehow, they had to get away from here extremely
quickly.

All the crew within earshot turned to
Ingrid for answers, she was the geologist, she must know how long
the danger would last?

Before she could reply, the Pilot
called Bill Davis over.

“There is a large mass up front, coming
towards us against the current, it is closing fast.”

“Are we going to hit it?” Bill
cried.

“No! It’s going to hit us.”

“Steer away, then” ordered Bill. The
Pilot tapped in the order to dive steeply, at his small navigation
console. The huge vessel dipped at the bow causing everyone
standing to grab support.

“The mass is dropping too and is on an
intercepting course,” shouted the frightened Pilot; “I am going to
full reverse!”

More commands through the console sent
a shudder of power through the hull as the massive motors
oscillated up to full speed, forcing thousands of litres per second
of sea water out through the bow jets. Bracing themselves against
the surge of acceleration, everyone near the monitors could see a
decrease in the approach speed of the mass, but it was still
closing on them.