Nigel Thompson - Pheia

Unperturbed, Kate continued. “We’re somewhere around 750 feet from the surface. Maybe a bit more since we sank down some. Let’s say it falls at a leisurely one foot per second. That’s…… Bueller…… anyone? That’s 750 seconds. Divide by 60 gives us about 12 minutes and change. We’ve been talking about it for longer than that. It’s either up there on the roof or it’s not coming.”

Nobody spoke. The divers just got up and started putting their suits on.

“I suppose you think you’re pretty smart?” Washington asked with a big smile on his face.

“Damn right I am,” Kate said grinning at him.

Kate watched them disappear down into the water then moved to the portal and waited for them to come past. She saw bubbles and a fin off to the side. With nothing to do she wandered over to the console and tapped the screen a few times to go through the system status pages.

It all looked horrible. There were so many things wrong but the gas system was OK. And so long as it stayed that way they should be on the surface in a couple of days.

It was unfortunate, she thought, that the Pheia had sunk at least 150 feet below where it had been at its high point. That was half a day right there if they were going by the book.

And that made her wonder about exactly how much gas was in her body. They had this guideline of 300 feet per day that she had been following but did they really need to go that slow?

Kate tapped on the console some more until she found the bio-medical pages that Dr. Ford had added to the system. There were the names of all the crew members who might go into the water as part of the expedition. It was yet another reminder that they were dead and she almost moved off the page but something kept her looking.

“Oh, what an idiot.”

Next to each name was a link labeled “Bio.”

Kate found her own name and tapped on the link.

A box popped up: “No signal”

She had totally forgotten about the bio pills. If she had some of those she might be able to measure her gas saturation level directly. That would tell her if she could go up faster.

Where were the pills? Almost certainly in the storage room somewhere. But what if they had gotten wet?

“They are designed to be swallowed,” she thought. “Some seawater isn’t going to affect them. I hope.”

She decided that the pills might give her a way to get to the surface faster and that was worth another dive.

Kate walked over to her gear, checked she had enough gas, and started to suit up.

As Morrison swam up above the top of the Pheia he moved over to the wall and started following the pinnacle up. Fifty feet below the top he saw the loop of wire and the clamps.

“Target in sight,” he said over the comm system.

As he swam closer, he saw the wrench Leclerc had attached. “Thoughtful,” he said to himself.

Morrison decided to deal with the rigging of all the support lines first. There was no point in detaching the Pheia from the pinnacle until the crew cylinder was secured.

The collection of coils of wire and clamps that Babin had sent down looked confusing until Morrison noticed the dive slates. Each cable set had a slate tied to it and on the slate was a diagram of where that wire went. That made Morrison smile. He thought he would be buying Babin and Leclerc some beers when this was over.

Rigging the support wires between the cylinders went quickly. They were simple to attach and adjust. The lengths were about right but they couldn’t tension them until the lift cables were re-set and the Pheia was hanging from the winch line.

When all three support cables were in place they moved back to the pinnacle to set up the cable that would suspend the Pheia when they cut it free from the wall.

Between them they carefully removed the first clamp. They used that to attach one end of the coil of wire to the main lift cable above the pinnacle. Then they removed the rest of the clamps one at a time putting them into a gear bag. Washington held the cable as Morrison and Stephens removed the last clamp. The cable dropped loose over the pinnacle.

“Let’s do the top first.” Morrison said.

Washington replied “Rog,” and pulled the lose end of the cable up a few feet. They attached it to the uphaul with three clamps.

When the clamps were tight, Morrison removed their safety clamp and bagged it. Stephens pulled the cable loop and swam away from the wall unrolling the cable as he went.

Williams cut the cable ties that held the comms line to the winch cable and maneuvered the comm line so that it wouldn’t get pulled apart when they cut the hab free. When Stephens got to the end, he let go and the cable drifted down slowly in the clear water towards the Pheia.

The three divers followed it down towards the Pheia making sure it had no kinks in it.

The cable had fallen straight down the side of the pinnacle. Morrison judged it’s end was right about the same level as the top of the Pheia.

When they got to the end of the cable it was obvious they had a problem.

“Morrison to surface.”

“Go ahead Morrison. Over” came a voice over the comm link.

“The cable is too short by about five feet. Over”

“Roger. I’ll tell the engineers. Over.”

“Like that’ll help.” Morrison thought to himself.

Stephens gave Morrison the WTF signal. Morrison shook his head. “How much slack do we have at the top?” he asked.

“Maybe two feet. Not enough.” Stephens answered.

“Fuck. Anyone got three feet of cable?”

Morrison let go of the end of the cable.

“Let’s get back in and discuss this. We’re just wasting gas.”

Washington was first above the water level in the ops room. He climbed out and started to pull off his gear. Stephens appeared right behind him. He pulled off his helmet. “Hey, where’s Kate?” he asked.

Washington turned around. “Not here. That’s for sure.”

Stephens felt Morrison tap him on the leg and climbed up out of the way.

When Morrison pulled his own helmet off he said, “Where’s Kate?”

“Question of the day.” Washington replied.

Morrison looked around. There was nowhere to hide. Then he noticed her suit was not on its usual pipe. “She’s in the water. Did either of you see her when you came back in?”

They both said no.

“Wait or search?” Morrison asked.

Stephens said: ‘Wait,” and Washington nodded in agreement.

“OK. We wait five then search. Damn tourists.”

As they were hanging their suits up, Kate’s face appeared above the water. She pulled her mask off. “Miss me?”

Stephens was fastest. “Nope.” he said.

Morrison and Washington both laughed but Morrison wasn’t amused.

“Mind telling us where you were?” he asked.

“I had an idea. Turns out I was right.”

“Perhaps we’ll judge that later.” Morrison said. “Care to share?”

Kate got out of the water. Washington held her tank as she slipped out of her gear.

“Thanks,” she said and walked over to the console still in her suit.

The page with the “No signal” message was till on the screen.

“Come over here and watch this,” she said.

Kate had a plastic box in her hand. She opened it, took out one of the pills looked at the number printed on the side and swallowed it.

“What was that?” Morrison asked.

“Look here and you’ll see.” Kate said. Then added, “Hopefully.” as she typed in the ID number for the pill.

As the acid in her stomach contacted the pill, it activated itself and the message on the screen disappeared and was replaced by a page of data.

“What’s all that?” Stephens asked.

“My bio info.” Kate answered him.

“OK, I’m lost.” Morrison said. “Interesting, I suppose, but what’s the point?”