Nigel Thompson - Pheia

Kate was sitting on the floor with her back to the console. She had been listening to the comm circuit on the headphones. She looked up at the portal and saw the wall was moving again. A great wave of relief swept over her. She was going home.

(400 Feet)

The surface barge had changed position overnight so that it was several hundred feet further from the edge of the wall. Nobody wanted any chance that the hab could hit the wall again in its fragile state. The sun was shining brightly and the sea was a glassy green with a slight swell on it.

400 feet below the surface, Kate had woken up and been surprised to see the portal looked black. For so long, it had provided a dull glow from the reflected floodlights.

She looked at the divers. They were all still asleep. Morrison had told her that life in the Navy had taught him to sleep whenever and wherever he could. Evidently the training worked because she had seen him fall asleep as soon as his head went down.

Kate got up and walked to the portal. The floodlights were still on and in the distance she could just make out the wall but there was no detail and no sign they were ascending. She walked over to the console and tapped on the screen. The depth read 400 feet. That meant they had about a day to kill and then they could get out. She wasn’t looking forward to that last dive. They had talked this over with Williams and the engineers and everyone agreed that the Pheia should be held somewhere between 50 and 100 feet and the divers should swim to the surface from there. They would need to take their time and for safety there would be two decompression stops. The first was to be at 50 feet and the second at 20 feet. The surface crew had already arranged for four sets of scuba equipment to be lowered to 50 feet for the first stop and a set of hookah lines connected to tanks on the surface barge to be lowered to 20 feet for the second, longer stop. Williams had also checked with the Caymanians to make sure that the decompression chamber on the island would be available if they needed it.

Kate had done a lot of sport diving, and most of those dives had included a three-minute safety stop at 15 to 20 feet. But these were not decompression dives. The stops were just a precaution. She always found them relaxing. There was usually a line or bar under the boat to hold on to and she could just float there looking down at the fish below her.

Tomorrow’s stops would be different. For one thing they were necessary, not just a precaution, and for some reason that made her more nervous. The bio pills they had all taken were reporting the expected gas saturation figures, so at least she knew they were in the right place on the curve. This was science, not just guessing, but all the same it held some mystery. You couldn’t tell if bubbles were forming in your blood until later when the damage had already started and the joints in your arms started aching. You had to follow the rules, take the decompression stops, and be sure to maintain a slow rate of ascent at all times.

Kate knew all this and had even done a lot of reading before the expedition to try to understand what she was going to experience. But still she was nervous. Whether that was because of the decompression stops or just the excitement of getting back to the surface she didn’t know.

The other aspect about the stops the next day that would certainly be different is that they would both be blue water stops. The wall was too far away to be a visual reference so they would essentially be just floating in the ocean on the end of a line from the barge. Around her would be miles and miles of open sea. And perhaps some fish, although most of the small fish tended to hang out near the wall.

She heard movement behind her and turned around to see Stephens digging through the food pile. “Morning,” she said to him.

“Hmmm. Morning,” he replied. “What I want are two eggs sunny side up with some bacon and hash browns. And coffee.”

“Try the other boxes,” Kate said with a smile.

“Right. Protein bars it is then.”

Kate walked over and filled the kettle with water. “I’ll get the coffee going.”

Stephens walked over to the portal. “I see they have moved us away from the wall. It’s amazing how clear the water is down here. Way better than many of the dives we’ve done in harbors and river estuaries.”

Kate spooned coffee crystals into mugs. “What is that like?”

Stephens turned around to face her. “Crappy. Some of the water is so murky that you literally cannot see you hand if you push it out in front of you.”

“So what’s the point of being down there if you can’t see?”

“We are usually doing inspections. Looking at welds and fittings. So long as you can find your way down there, once you are up close you can see well enough. And if it’s really bad you can take down a plastic bag full of clear water to look through.”

Kate thought he was kidding. “Right.” She said sarcastically and handed him a mug of black coffee.

Stephens prodded Washington then Morrison with his socked foot. “Chow time.”

He continued: “No, really. You push the bag up to what you need to see, and look through it. The plastic is almost completely transparent in the water and you have a few inches of clear water inside it. It really works. When they told me about it the first time and handed me a bag to fill with water, I thought this was like being sent to the nurses office the first day.”

“I don’t get it. What’s the deal with the nurse’s office?”

“There isn’t one. An office I mean. When someone new joins the team they get sent to do all sorts of stupid stuff until they wise up.”

“So it’s kind of like being in grade school then?”

Washington laughed. He was standing now, drinking his coffee. Morrison had apparently gone back to sleep.

“Mr. Stephens here is our practical joker. To be honest with you, we are all a bit childish when we are together on the surface. It helps to pass the time. Thanks for the coffee by the way.” He waved the mug in salute.

Kate looked at the depth indicator on the console again. Stephens watched her but kept quiet. He was impressed with Kate. From what she’d told them, she’d done a remarkable job of keeping herself and the hab together for the last few days. But he could tell she was nervous. It showed in the way she was talking and the way she moved.

“It’ll be OK.” He said.

She looked at him. “Yeah, I know. Only one more day. Then we get to face the relatives.”

Stephens understood why she looked stressed now. She was the sole survivor. He had enough military friends that had been in that situation to know that her next few months would be tough on her.

“We all understand where you are right now.” He said. “When this happens to one of us we tend to close ranks. Nobody needs or wants to talk. In fact, a quiet group of close friends is probably best. I came back alone from a mission one time. I didn’t know I was the only one to make it until I was back on the sub. When I got back to base a few days later, Morrison was one of the guys who hung out with me. He never spoke of the mission. In fact, he didn’t say a whole lot about anything. He was just there with one or two other guys from other teams. We drank a lot at night, and went running during the day along the beach. I ran so hard sometimes I puked.”

Kate’s eyes were misting up.

“He’s full of shit,” Morrison said from his pad.

“I thought you were still asleep.”

“Nope. Just lying here enjoying this tale you’ve made up.”

Kate laughed and wiped her eyes. “I need more coffee.”

Washington was already on his second cup. “When we get topside, I’ll buy you a proper drink.”