Nigel Thompson - Pheia

He surfaced slowly until his head was clear of the water. He saw Kate standing above him with her hand out towards him.

Morrison held up his index finger in the now familiar, “Wait a second” sign used universally by cell phone users. Kate dropped her hand. He reached down and pulled off his fins, which he threw up onto the deck. Kate put out her hand again and he accepted it this time and climbed out onto the deck of the ops room.

It took him a minute to remove his helmet.

Kate waited until he had it off. “Sorry about the hug.” she said.

Morrison grinned. “No problem. A first time for everything. You OK?”

“Yes, I’m fine.” She resisted the urge to hug Morrison again.

“We need to shut off the drive system so we can adjust the lifting cables. Can you handle that?”

“Sure. I’m quite the expert now.” she grinned.

“OK, then I’m going back out to secure the lifting cables. Once that’s done we have some gear and food to bring in, and then I guess we’ll do the introductions.”

Kate smiled at him. It was hard to stop smiling. “Sure.” she said.

Morrison nodded and put his helmet back on. A few seconds later he was gone.

Kate watched his bubbles until they stopped then went to the control console and sent a message on the ELF radio. “Divers arrived. Securing lift cables. Stopping drive now.”

Once the message was on its way, she shut down the drive system. The noise of the motors stopped, and the Pheia was silent again. It hadn’t been this quiet ever. On the way down, the barge had been lowering them so they didn’t need the drives but the entire crew was on board and often talking. Now it was eerily quiet.

A few minutes later Kate felt the Pheia jump up slightly as the lifting cables took up the tension.

She checked the depth. They were at about 750 feet. Another two days or so and she would be on the surface. But she had to spend that time with the three divers that were outside. “I hope they aren’t jerks.”

(600 Feet)

Williams was ecstatic when he got Kate’s message from the Pheia. It felt good to know that the cable was attached. That should mean that they would have voice comms any time now. The barge was now in control of the Pheia’s ascent. So long as the gas mix held out, it would all be over in two days.

Morrison and his crew finished adjusting the lifting harness cables in short order. They had been set to almost exactly the right length and took very little adjustment to get the tensions even. He keyed the comm system. “We’re done here. Time to get the rest of the gear and go inside.”

The other divers followed his lead down the side of the hab, past the ops room portal and the weight stack to where the cage was hanging. On the floor of the cage were a couple of large plastic bins and what looked like a large kit bag. The three divers each grabbed one item and followed Morrison’s lead to the moon pool entrance. Morrison didn’t bother to tell them the moon pool room was flooded. They saw it for themselves as they swam up into it.

Morrison dropped the bag he was carrying and pulled off his fins at the bottom of the ladder and spun around to make sure the other two were with him. They had gotten the message. No need to explain. He floated up the ladder and climbed into the ops room.

Kate had seen the bubbles and was waiting for him. As Morrison stepped onto the deck he pulled off his helmet. “Wipe your feet.” Kate said.

Morrison looked at her as water ran off his suit over the deck plates. He wasn’t sure what to say. He was fairly sure she was joking but the look on her face was dead serious. He shuffled his feet a bit and that made Kate laugh. A head appeared behind him.

Kate looked around him as the diver climbed up the ladder.

“That’s Washington” Morrison said looking at the dark face inside the mask. “Stephens is behind him.” He nodded to Washington who disappeared back below the surface. A moment later a plastic storage bin appeared in his place. Morrison grabbed it and pulled it out of the water. He did the same for the other bin and the dry-bag. Then Washington came out of the water. Morrison grabbed Washington’s gear and steadied him as he climbed out. Washington pulled off his helmet. “Thanks boss.” He looked at Kate. “Miss,” was all he said and gave a nod.

Stephens appeared in the hole and also climbed out.

When all three were in the ops room, Morrison turned to Kate. “So. How do you want to work this?”

“What do you mean?” Kate asked him.

“We brought some food.” He pointed at the bins. “And we also brought a few medical supplies, and some clothing for you. It’s all bagged up. I hope it’s still dry.”

“I have no idea.” Kate said. She was feeling a bit overwhelmed.

“OK, well, we’ll get out of these suits and you can dig through what we brought down if you like.”

Kate looked at the divers. “I’m Kate,” she said and held out her hand to Washington.

“John.” he said and shook her hand.

Stephens took a step forward with his own hand out. “Stephens,” he said and then added “Just Stephens”.

Kate shook his hand.

It all felt very weird. She had been alone in the Pheia for quite a while now and had got used to her own company and her limited set of supplies. She looked at the mattress. “I’m not sure how we’re going to share the mattress.”

Stephens laughed. “We brought our own couch,” he said as he pulled off his suit and pointed to the kit bag.

“We’ve got some inflatable pads and blankets,” Morrison added.

When all the divers were out of their suits, they hung them up next to Kate’s. Nobody gave orders. They just worked quietly and got organized. The inflatable mats went over on one side of the room and the food was unpacked and stacked next to Kate’s small supply.

“Just like camping.” Washington said.

“You backpack?” Kate asked him.

“Hell no. Too primitive for me, but I’ve done some car camping with my folks in the past. Didn’t like that much either.”

“John likes his creature comforts,” Stephens added.

Kate noticed a bottle of wine in the food pile.

“Who brought the wine?” she asked.

“That is a gift from the Indian guy.” Morrison added. “I can’t pronounce his name. Submarine or something like that. I think he’s some kind of shrink. He said he thought you deserved it. And I have to say based on what I’ve seen so far, I agree with him.”

“So what do we all do now?” Kate asked.

“Not much,” Morrison replied. “The surface has us hooked up and will control the ascent. I need to do a systems check but unless we have a gas problem, we eat, talk, play cards and wait.”

He nodded to the other two. “We’ve had our fair share of long decompression dives. The deco is usually boring and in a tight space so we have learned to adapt.”

He pulled a plastic box from one of the storage bins and unsnapped its catches. He pulled out a cardboard box. Kate saw it was a set of trivial pursuit cards. “We don’t use the board.” Morrison explained. “Just do the questions. This is a new set. Stephens memorized the last, set and kept winning, and we can’t have that.”

Stephens stepped closer and took the box. “Bastard. These are all rock music questions. That’s pretty underhanded.”

Morrison laughed. “Stephens only likes the two kinds of music. I’m not going to give them any credence by naming them.”

Kate decided that the divers were probably OK. She’d reserve judgment until they had been together for a day, but she knew she could at least kick some butt at trivial pursuit. She found a plastic bag of sandwiches in the food pile. “Cheese sandwiches! May I?”