Splashdown

Chapter 5

Three hours later, Dane fully activated the sub’s technology in preparation for reaching the bottom. Bones flipped on the external lights. A white, disc-like deep sea fish, trailing bioluminescent tendrils passed close by their viewing dome. The unearthly pressures at these depths weighed heavily on the minds of both men.

“Five hundred twelve feet to bottom.” Bones eyed his instrument displays.

“We should be in the neighborhood of the capsule.” Dane pulled back slightly on the joystick, adjusting their angle of descent. Although they began the dive a quarter-mile from the Ocean Explorer they had by now closed that distance due to the slight angle of descent that Dane had maintained by setting the craft’s rudder against the prevailing currents and keeping a close eye on the compass.

“Two hundred two feet,” Bones warned. Were the sub to actually hit the seafloor, in addition to suffering possible damage to the craft, they also ran the risk of stirring up the fine silt on the bottom that would ruin their visibility for hours — all the time they had on this dive. Dane was well aware of the fact that even several feet above the bottom, the prop wash from Deep Black’s thrusters alone could stir up that silt. He slowed their rate of descent and leveled out the craft.

Although pitch-black, the water clarity at this tremendous depth was impressive. Dane had no trouble discerning in crisp detail whatever fell within the path of Bones’ floodlights and searchlight. He peered down on a featureless mud plain, dotted with a few starfish and simple creatures that were unknown to him.

“They were right about the seafloor topography in the briefing,” Dane said.

“Doesn’t get any flatter than this,” Bones agreed. “But I don’t see any capsule, do you?”

Dane consulted the compass and made a slight course correction. “We’re heading toward the expedition ship’s position. We’ll find it.”

Yet an hour passed and still they had encountered nothing man-made. Dane warned Bones that they had another hour of bottom time before they would need to begin their return trip to the surface. The sub’s power and oxygen supply would only last so long, and neither of them even wanted to entertain the notion of being stuck on the bottom three miles underwater with no power, completely in the dark.

Bones continued sweeping his search beam out past the swath of light cast by the floodlights while Dane took them closer to the Ocean Explorer.

“Dude, do you see that?” Bones cried.

Dane’s head was suddenly on a swivel and his heart raced. “What is it?”

“An old Bud can. Like, from the 1950s. Mint condition too!”

The sudden rush of tension drained from Dane’s neck and shoulders. “Low oxygen content down here, so the oxidation process is super-slow.”

“You can’t help it, can you?”

“What’s that?” Dane cocked his head.

“You take something cool and turn it into a science lesson. No wonder your game is so weak with the ladies.” Before Dane could reply, Bones continued. “It bodes well for us. Maybe the capsule is in good shape, including the nuke inside.”

Dane nodded. “The few promo pics from the expedition they showed us in the briefing looked like the outside of the capsule, at least, was very well preserved. Hopefully, we’ll find out soon.”

Ten more minutes elapsed without sighting anything noteworthy.

“You sure that compass is accurate?” Bones glanced down at the display, a trace of nervousness in his voice. The featureless seafloor, in blackness beyond the radius of the sub’s light arrays, would be an easy place to get lost, like wandering an endless expanse of desert sand.

“It’s accurate.” Dane tapped the navigation aid with a finger. “I think we’ve passed underneath the salvage ship and are now on the other side of it relative to our boat. The capsule is probably…” Just then, something caught his eye. “I see it!”

“Dude. Turn it down.” Bones rubbed his ears and grimaced in mock pain.

Dane chuckled. The extra volume was completely unnecessary in the confined space, but after the monotony of the muddy bottom, the protuberance at the edge of his illumination field was worthy of emphasis.

There, resting on the bottom like some forgotten child’s toy, lay the Liberty Bell 7.

“Adjusting course.” Dane maneuvered their agile craft toward the object of interest, careful to maintain a safe distance above the bottom. The only sound was the whir of the sub’s electric thrusters while both operators contemplated the significance of this sighting. If they were in fact coming up on the sunken spacecraft, then things were looking good for their mission timetable.

They neared the hazy form. It loomed out of the flatness, shaped like a bell but canted to one side. Then Bones shone the search beam directly on the thing and they saw it: a white zig-zag of a line painted on the object.

“Hello Liberty Bell 7!” Dane said.

Bones stared at the lopsided cone. “Honestly, I was more impressed by the beer can.”

Dane slowed the sub and hovered ten feet above the fallen spacecraft. “Let’s get to work. Let me know when you’re ready for me to move in.”

“I’ll take a radioactivity measurement to confirm the nuke is still on board and still active.” The sub was outfitted with an external Geiger counter, and Captain Epson had given Bones a crash course in its use. Bones’ practiced button pushing translated to smooth movements of the articulated arm outside the sub, and in short order he received a reading.

“Whoa, it’s hot down there! Showing a lot of millisieverts. Way above normal background levels.”

Dane took an extra moment to make sure the sub was under complete control. This was the real deal. The bomb was in there, all he had to do was keep the sub steady for Bones to pluck it out. “All right. You ready, Bones?”

Bones took a minute to test his grab-arms. “Ready. Work your magic, Ice Man.”

“So does that make you Maverick?” Dane peered intently over the sub’s control console as he spoke, finessing the joystick in order to bring the sub smoothly alongside the space capsule.

“No, I hate Tom Cruise. Should we drop in on it now?”

“Negative Ghostrider, the pattern is full.”

“Now you’re just making it weird, Maddock.”

“Whatever,” Dane said. “Keep an eye out for the hatch with the blown cover. That’s most likely the only opening in the craft’s hull.”

Bones directed the high intensity beam along Liberty Bell 7 as they circled it from a short distance above. “There it is!”

They looked down on a smallish rectangular opening in the spaceship. Dane guided the submersible through a series of incremental maneuvers until they were at eye level with the open hatch. Pillows of silt wafted from the bottom.

“Can you see in there?” Dane asked.

Bones pressed a rocker switch to move the search beam so that its light was cast inside the capsule.

“There’s some crap scattered on the floor, but everything looks to be in pretty good shape.”

“Crap? Can you elaborate?”

“There’s a bar of soap. You know, like one of those little motel soaps that I always steal. Or take with me, it’s really not stealing, right, if you’re staying…”

“Bones! Stay focused.”

“Okay, but there’s something else…something shiny… Looks like a small metal square thing on the floor of it.”

“Equipment that broke off?”

“It sort of looks like a box. If I can scoop it up we'll know for sure.”

“If you can do it quick. We need to get a move on.” Dane tapped their battery gauges.

“I see the nuke! Cylinder shape, maybe a foot long, just like they said.”

“Why not just grab it so we can scoot?” For Dane, keeping the sub perfectly positioned above the capsule, battling the micro-currents, was a stressful task.

“It’s a really small opening. I think I should practice with something non-critical first. I’ll use the magnet attachment on the small manipulator arm so that I can snatch up that box. Once I do that I’ll have the feel for it and go back in for the nuke.”

Bones pressed a button to retract a metal cover that exposed a magnetic surface on the end of the grab arm. Then he operated the videogame-like controls that extended the arm in through the hatch opening to the interior of the space capsule.

“I’m in…” He positioned the arm over the box and lowered the magnet-containing claw to the capsule floor. A puff of silt billowed around the mechanical arm. Then he raised the arm, box attached, and retracted it back through the open hatch, ensconcing it safely inside the sub’s tool bay.

“I was always good at those claw grabber games.”

“Yeah, yeah, you just won the little cheap toy. Now go for the big stuffed animal to make your date really happy.”

“We haven’t been at sea long enough for you to start looking good.” Like a dentist requesting drills from an assistant, Bones brought out the manipulator with the largest claw.

“This looks like it’ll do.” In the briefing, no one knew the exact dimensions of the nuke. That data had been lost to the ravages of time. “Too bad they couldn’t make a specially fitted claw for this thing.”

“You’re a SEAL. Improvise.”

“How do I make this thing flip you off?”

“Hold on,” Dane said. An upwelling of water lifted their craft, and he took a moment to correct their position. “Okay, resume operations.”

“Going in.” Bones extended the manipulator arm to full length until it passed through the craft’s open hatch. Dane’s hand rested on the sub’s control joystick, positioning the craft over the capsule like a hummingbird on a flower. Bones rotated the claw arm.

“I’m over the nuke. Making a grab for it.”

Dane realized he was holding his breath as Bones brought the grasping tool over the cylindrical device and pressed the button that retracted its claws. They closed around the cylinder and Dane clenched his fists, as if in support. Bones gave the arm a tentative lift, saw that it held.

“I have it. Are we steady, Maddock?”

There was a two second pause while Dane confirmed his position relative to the capsule.

“Yeah.” The word came in an exhale of breath and draining adrenaline.

“Withdrawing the arm with the package…here it comes… I’m just inside the hatch…”

Suddenly a brilliant light appeared out of nowhere in the darkness above and in front of them.

“We’ve got company! What is that?” Dane asked. “Not one of your contraptions, right?”

“Negative.” As they watched, the light expanded through their bubble window, homing in on them.

“Another sub?” Dane queried.

“No, it’s an ROV. Autonomous, too, since it’s got no tether. They sent a robot down here.” Bones sat up straight, the usual glimmer of mischief gone from his eyes. He was all business. “And it’s heading our way.”