Chapter 46 Chapter Forty-Five

Lieutenant Colonel Rudy Gunn stood on the bridge of the Caprican and watched far to the west as a small blue speck suddenly appeared in a diamond-clear sky.It seemed to hang there for a few minutes, neither deforming nor expanding; a dark blue dot rested on the horizon, then almost suddenly grew in size, becoming a helicopter. He walked towards the aft platform on the upper deck of the ship and stood waiting.I saw the plane approaching and circling over the ship.Thirty seconds later, the plane's skid touched the flight deck, the whine of the turbines died away, and the propellers slowly stopped.

The starboard door of the plane opened and Pete stepped out as Gunn stepped forward. "Have you had a good trip?" Gunn asked. "Interesting," Pete replied. Pete saw the tension on Gunn's face.The little man's eyes were drawn tight around his eyes, and his face was grim: "You look like a child who's lost a Christmas present, Rudy. What's the problem?" "Uranus Petroleum's submarine, the Deep Sea. It's in distress." Pete was silent for a moment.He asked simply, "Where is Admiral Sandek?" "He put his headquarters on the Bumberg. Since it was the supply ship for the Depths, he thought it best to direct the rescue from the Bumberg until you got back."

"You say 'it is' as if the submarine is dead." "It looks bad. Come on top of the boat and I'll give you the details." The mood in the Capricorn's wheelhouse was tense and desperate. Giordino, who is usually sociable, just nodded at Pete's arrival and didn't say any greetings at all. Ben Drummer was speaking into the microphone to the crew of the Depths, encouraging them in an artificially upbeat tone, but his terrified eyes told it was fake. Rick Spencer, the equipment engineer for the rescue effort, stared silently at the television monitor.

Everyone else in the room quietly went about their work with gloomy faces. Gunn began to explain the situation: "Two hours before the Deep Sea Survey was about to surface to change the crew, the submarine was equipped with engineers Joe Keel, Tom Chavez and Sam Merck..." "Merck was with you on the Lorale Rapids Expedition," Pete interjected. "And Munk." Gunn nodded seriously, "It seems that our group is unlucky." "Go ahead." "They were installing the pressure relief valve on the starboard side of the Titanic's forecastle bulkhead, and their stern swept the cranes ahead. The corroded bases came loose, and the lifters fell, crushing on the sub's pontoons, breaking them More than two tons of seawater flowed into the breach, making the submarine cling to the sunken ship."

"How long has it been going on?" Pete asked. "About three and a half hours." "Then why all this worry? You people seem to think there's no hope. The Deep Sea Explorer has enough oxygen in its reserves to last a crew of three for over a week. Sapphire I and Sapphire II No. There is enough time to seal the air tank and drain the water inside." "It's not that simple," Gunn said. "We only have six hours." "How did you figure out that there is only a limit of six hours?" "I haven't said the worst yet." Gunth looked at Pete sadly. "The falling crane cracked a weld in the hull of the Depths. It's just a small pinhole, but in the It's that deep. The pressure's got sea water going in at four gallons a minute. It's a miracle the welds didn't crack and crash the hull and crush those guys to a pulp." He pointed at the computer panel. The clock on the boat shook his head: "They only have six hours in total. By then, the sea water will fill the cabin, and they will drown... But we have nothing to do."

"Why not plug the leak from the outside with 'wet steel'?" "Easier said than done. We can't reach it. The part of the hull where the weld seam is leaking is squeezed against the Titanic's foredeck bulkhead. The admiral let the remaining three subs go down, hoping they can cooperate Move the Depths as long as it can reach the breach and patch it up. It didn't work." Pete sat down in a chair, picked up a pencil, and began to make some notations in his notebook: "The Nudibranch is equipped with a cutting device. If it can cut that crane..."

"No." Gunth shook his head dejectedly. "During the tow, the Sea Slug broke its manipulator arm. It's back on the deck of the Murdoch now, and those in the Navy say it's time to It is impossible to fix the manipulator arm here." Gunn punched his fist on the chart table: "Our last hope is pinned on the winch of the Bumberger. If we can get the crane with a cable, we may have put the It was towed away from the submarine." "That's the end of the rescue," Pete said. "The Sea Slug is the only submarine we have that has a heavy manipulator arm, without which we couldn't use the cable to sling the crane."

Guns wearily pokes at the limits: "Thousands of work have been put into planning and conceiving every supporting safety system conceivable, brief emergency measures to be taken for every contingency conceivable Even though the design was carried out, an unexpected situation occurred, an absolutely impossible accident that the computer did not calculate occurred, and we were caught off guard.” "The computer is really equal to the material sent in." Pitt said. He walked over to the wireless phone and took the receiver from Dramer. "Deep Sea Explorer, this is Pete. Please call back."

"It's nice to hear your pleasant voice again." Merck's voice came from the loudspeaker, as calm as lying on the phone at home, "The bridge here happens to be three missing one, why don't you come down ?” "I don't play," Pete replied solemnly. "How long before the water touches the battery pack?" "According to the speed of the water rising, it will take another fifteen to twenty minutes." Pete turned to Gunn and said something superfluous: "Once the battery pack fails, the communication will have to be cut off." Gunn nodded. "Sypho Two stayed with them. That's all we can do."

Pete pressed the button on the microphone again: "Merke, how is your life support system?" "What life support system? It stopped working half an hour ago. We're already struggling to breathe." "I'll send you a case of brandy." "Better cover tight. Travez has halitosis." Then there was hesitation in Merk's tone, "If the worst happens and I don't see you guys again, at least there are good company around here. " Merck's sudden mention of the dead on the Titanic made everyone in the cab pale.Everyone does, except Pete.

He pressed the button on the transmitter and said, "Don't you mess up the boat. We might use it again. Pete's done talking, don't answer." The reaction to Peter's seemingly cold words was interesting from the sidelines.Giordino, Guns, Spencer, and the others just looked at him.Only Drummer looked angry. Pete touched Curley the radio operator on the shoulder. "Get me the Admiral from the Bumberg, but on a different frequency." Curley looked up. "You don't want those people on the Deep Sea Survey to hear?" "It's okay if they don't know." Pete said coldly, "Hurry up and pick it up." After a while, Sandek's voice buzzed from the loudspeaker: "Capricos, I'm Admiral Sandek. Please call back." "I'm Pete, Admiral." Sandek didn't waste time on the details: "Do you know what we're facing?" "Gunn told me briefly," Pete replied. "Then you know we've exhausted everything we can. Time is the enemy of the present, no matter how you plan to use it. If we can delay the inevitable for ten hours, we'll have a chance to fight and rescue them." "There's another way," Pete said. "The stakes are high, but it's definitely possible." "I'm open to suggestions." Pete hesitated for a moment: "First of all, let's forget about the Deep Sea Survey for a while and turn our energy to another direction." Dramer walked up to him. "What are you talking about, Pete? What's going on here? 'Forget about the Bathyscan,'" he cried, twisting his lips. "Are you crazy?" Pete smiled so that people had to calm down his anger: "This is the last resort, Drummer. You failed, and it was a disastrous failure. You may all be geniuses in the marine salvage industry, but as a rescue force, you are like a bunch of amateurs." Workers. Bad luck plus your mistakes and now you'll just sit and lament that it's all over. Well, it's not over, gentlemen. We're about to change the rules of the game, before the six hour deadline Bring the Bathyscan to the surface. If my watch is correct, there are only five hours and forty-three minutes left." Giordino looked at Pete. "Do you really think it can be done?" "I really think it can be done."