Nigel Thompson - Pheia

As he was thinking about the future of the program, the cage lifted from the deck. He gave the divers a wave but none of them waved back. It made him feel foolish. Like a kid waving at a passing train. Diving excited him. Much more than space ever could. He had wanted to be on the Pheia’s crew for this expedition but he had no useful role to play, and there really wasn’t any justification for him to go as a tourist. It had also occurred to him that he might be dead now if he had gone. He was trying not to feel guilty about that. He felt a hand on his shoulder and it made him jump.

Dr. Subramanian was behind him. “Worried, Dr. Williams?” Subramanian asked.

“Yes. And no. Mostly yes.”

“I watched the divers yesterday. They seem to have everything in hand.”

The cage was now being lowered into the water. Williams resisted the urge to wave again. He wanted to go down with them. Not specifically to help, but to enjoy the silence of the deep. To escape his responsibilities and just float and observe.

“What is it that concerns you?” Subramanian asked.

Babin answered for him. “He’s just pissed that he can’t go with them.”

“Is that so Dr. Williams?”

Williams nodded, and watched as the cage disappeared below the calm surface of the sea.

The group of three moved to the railings and watched as the shiny metal cage descended into the deep blue water. The surface was still almost flat, and visibility was over 200 feet, so the cage was easy to see as it descended.

The deck speaker came to life. “Morrison here. All checks complete. Continue descent. Out.”

The voice of the crane operator followed him. “Roger.”

Williams watched the winch cable slowly feeding down into the water. The cage was hard to see now. Someone was talking to him but he’d missed what they had said. “Excuse me. I was thinking about the divers,” he said.

Subramanian touched his shoulder. “Perhaps some breakfast?”

“I’m in,” Babin said. “And here comes Leclerc. He’s always late, and always in need of coffee.”

Williams let go of the railing with one hand and turned to face Subramanian. “I can’t. I need to stay here.”

“And do what exactly Dr. Williams? The divers have control now. We can monitor their progress over the communications circuit. There is little you can do by watching the surface of the sea.”

Williams let his other hand drop off the railing. “Very well then. Breakfast it is.” He followed them to the galley glancing over his shoulder twice at the winch cable. He really didn’t like the feeling of being powerless to help.

In the water outside the Pheia, Kate was humming a song from Florence and the Machine about coffins. In one hand she had a collection of cable ties and in the other was the half bed sheet. She was finalizing its attachment to the top of the Pheia. She latched up the final cable tie and inhaled deeply so that she rose up several feet. “That’ll do.” she thought as she looked at her handwork, and went back to humming the tune.

Kate hung stationary in the water about ten feet above the top of the hab. She rotated slowly around taking in the dark of the sea as she looked out past the Pheia into the distance. Then the wall came into view. It was still only really lit by the Pheia’s lights and mostly just loomed there very dark except for the one bright spot. The appearance hadn’t changed much at all during the entire ascent. She thought about the shear size of it. It was much taller than El Capitan in Yosemite. She had visited the park several times and climbed part way up the wall on a guided trip with friends. She had found it exhilarating to be hundreds of feet above the ground on the side of a vertical cliff. Some other members of the small group had been less excited. They were all decent climbers but most of them had only done single pitch climbs on bolted routes. The incredible exposure on El Cap had freaked a few of them out. One of their guides had taken two of them down leaving Kate with the other guide alone on the wall. They had reached the anchors at a small ledge that was the upper end of the guided route. Kate had asked to go further but the guide told her that the route change to 5.11 quickly and although 5.11 might be OK in the gym, out on the wall, the holds were small and sharp, often causing cuts to the finger tips. Kate wasn’t disappointed. She had not expected the guide to agree. But she did convince him to stay for a while on the ledge. They had talked about climbing for a while. Other routes they had done. Then Kate had told him about her work, and about the expedition they were planning for the Cayman trench. The guide had been horrified when Kate told him the depth and explained the water pressure and the need for a complex gas mix. She thought his response was very funny as they sat on the small rock ledge with their feet dangling over the edge. “Really.” She said. “It’s no more dangerous that this.”

“This isn’t dangerous at all. I’ve free-soloed this route a couple of times.” The guide replied. “But man. Being that far down in the sea. That just feels wrong. I don’t even really like being in the deep end of the pool.”

Kate had laughed again. It was funny how different things freaked people out.

Her thoughts came back to the present. She had rotated back around so she was looking at the black sea out away from the wall. She tucked a leg back and flicked her fin so she rotated onto her back and looked up. The surface was visible now. It still wasn’t very bright but it was there. And up there were a hot shower, clean clothes and a lot of sunshine.

Kate studied the surface and thought she could just make out the shadow of the surface barge. It was an incredibly small dot. Then the dot swam away and she realized it must have been a fish. Maybe a shark. “Dummy.”

She checked her dive watch. The dive team should be about half way down by now. She looked up again but there was no sign of them yet. Her gas gauges showed that she had plenty of gas left. This was her last dive on this trip and being in the water right now felt better than sitting inside the hab waiting for their arrival. She decided to wait for them in the water.

Kate rolled over so that she was facing down again, then kicked towards the wall. “Might as well explore a bit.” she thought.

Morrison was floating exactly in the center of the cage with his eyes closed. He was going over the capture procedure in his mind.

“Hey boss. Wake up.” A voice said in his ear.

He opened his eyes. Both the other divers were hanging out of the cage door looking down.

“What’s up?”

“Bubbles.” Came the reply.

“What? A leak?”

“No. Don’t think so. Looks like a stream from an open circuit dive set. Someone is in the water.”

Morrison thought about what Williams had told him about Kate. Although the background was a little sketchy, Morrison had gotten the picture. Kate was the adventurous type with a healthy lack of respect for those in authority. He was sure that Kate was out in the water now. Perhaps waiting for their arrival. Not necessarily the brightest move perhaps, but probably what he’d do himself. “I think that Dr. Moss is looking for us,” he said over the comm system.

Morrison floated over the top of the other two divers and held the side of the cage door with one hand. “There are the lights from the Pheia. You can see them on the wall.”

“Roger that boss.”

Morrison checked the depth. They were at about 600 feet now. The Pheia was about a hundred yards below them. He looked directly at where the Pheia was and turned his helmet lights off and on slowly several times.

Kate was hanging in front of the wall looking for signs of life. She didn’t see Morrison’s signal. She had been looking up every few minutes in anticipation of seeing the divers. This time, when she looked, she saw the lights. She could just make out the bulk of the cage against the faint blue light from the surface. Her next thought was to hide. Her heart rate went up. It was like when she was out hiking alone and heard voices. She would step off the trail and stand very still allowing the other hikers to pass by. They seldom saw her, being too wrapped up in their conversation to notice the animal lurking in the trees. If someone did see her, she’d give a short wave and walked back to the trail as though she’d just had to stop to pee.