Nigel Thompson - Pheia

I write my stories for fun. Most of my books have been written in the early morning at Starbucks before going to work (in the days before I retired). The cost of my coffee and a croissant or bagel ran to about $6.50 a day. When you add that up over a year or so it costs a lot to write a book.

I produce my books as Kindle books because the process is simple and free. I sell my books on Amazon for $0.99 because that is the lowest price Amazon allows for a Kindle book. I make them free for five days out of every 90, which is as often as Amazon allows me to. At the rate my books sell, which is around one a day on a good week, I’ll have paid off the cost of writing them in about five years. So, in case you were wondering, I don’t make any money at this. That’s OK with me. It’s a hobby not a living.

I edit my work myself which, as any writer can tell you, is a terrible idea, but it is cheaper that way. Hiring someone else to do an edit pass would cost me thousands of dollars. I make half a dozen or so full editing passes over a book which means that I’ve read it an awful lot before you get to see it. I take all the feedback I can get from beta readers during the writing and after publication. It is because of that feedback that I update the text to fix spelling and grammar occasionally. If you buy the book from Amazon, you automatically get the update. I do not alter the story line (although I have been tempted in some cases.)

Most readers don’t write reviews unless there is something about the book they don’t like. This means that reviews are often either bad or terrible, which is why I mostly do not look at them. Having said that, please take a few minutes to write a review for every book you read whether you like it or not. Not just for my books but all the books you read. Authors appreciate the feedback, and a few decent reviews make it all seem worthwhile.

Colorado Springs, July 2016

(Sea Level)

Dr. Paul Martin stood in the biggest auditorium the Maine Institute of Undersea Research had to offer in front of a large projection screen. The screen showed a water color picture of a small Greek town. The auditorium was about half full. The audience was a mix of scientists, engineers and members of the press.

Martin was a little disappointed by the turnout. He had worked hard to juggle the class schedules to get this room, expecting it to be jammed. This was after all a very exciting expedition. At least he was excited.

He glanced up at the clock. It was two minutes after the official start time. “I guess this is it.” he muttered to himself.

“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming.” Martin started in his Boston accent. “What you see on the screen behind me is an artist’s rendering of the city of Pheia in Greece which disappeared into the sea after an earthquake somewhere towards the end of the fifth century. As some of you know, I was involved in an archaeological expedition in the 70’s to explore what remained of the city under the sea. And as you can see from the picture, it was a very beautiful city and the artifacts we recovered from it revealed that it was home to some talented artists.“

He pushed a button on the remote in his hand and the picture changed.

“I am pleased to introduce you to the institute’s new deep sea exploration habitat — the Pheia. As you can see from this picture taken while she was being manufactured, this is a large habitat capable of housing a team of twelve scientists and support crew.”

Dr. Kate Moss sat in the audience a few rows from the front watching Martin. She and the people sitting with her were very familiar with the Pheia. They had spent the last year planning the expedition Martin was about to describe. They had visited the boat yard where the Pheia had been built and spent time in a 3D simulator getting used to what living inside the habitat would look like. Sitting here now, waiting for Martin to describe the expedition to the press, Kate still couldn’t quite see the attraction of the name. The city of Pheia had met with a rather dramatic end and sunk below the water. She was sure Martin had named it because of his own expedition to recover remains from the sunken city, but she felt it was a poor choice all the same. In any case, none of the team called it the Pheia. The official name had only been applied in the last few months. Throughout design and construction is was just known as the new habitat or hab for short.

Martin had changed the image on the screen again.

“What you see here are tube worms living near a hydrothermal vent. This particular group was photographed in the Pacific ocean. Our expedition will visit a new series of hydrothermal vents discovered deep in the Cayman trench just over a year ago.”

He switched to a map of Grand Cayman which had a red cross drawn by hand in the sea just off the West coast.

“This site is the deepest hydrothermal vent site yet discovered. It is approximately three miles down. The Pheia has been designed and built specifically to visit this site. And not just to visit briefly and take a few pictures, but to stay on site and allow our team of scientists and support divers to visit and explore for several days.”

He paused for a second and looked to his right to make sure the other speakers were ready.

“As you may know, sending divers to extreme depths requires either that they be in a pressurized submarine or that they use saturation diving techniques and breathe special gas mixtures. The Pheia is a saturated diving system with a twist. Our next speaker has spent most of her research career working on ways to improve saturated diving systems. Please welcome Dr. Nicole Ford.”

There was some polite applause as Ford walked onto the stage.

“Thank you. I have prepared a short paper on the systems the Pheia will use. You will find a copy in the press packet. The essence of the problem is that at great depths, high pressure nervous syndrome or HPNS causes detrimental effects to divers such as tremors, nausea, dizziness and reduced mental performance. The specific effects and depths at which they happen varies with each diver but at the depth the Pheia will be going, HPNS is a factor for everyone. My research centers around chemical stabilizers which prevent the onset of HPNS when used with hydreliox gas mixtures. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, hydreliox is a mixture of oxygen, helium and a little hydrogen. It is the hydrogen which is important to the suppression of HPNS. Our lab has conducted several tests with the U.S. Navy and we are satisfied that this expedition is both practical and safe. The expedition members have been fully briefed on HPNS and my team’s work, and have all volunteered to be part of my own experiment as part of this mission.”

Ford reached into the pocket of her pant suit and pulled out a small plastic box. She opened the box and took out what looked like a horse pill. She held it up in front of her. A close up of her hand appeared in a corner of the screen. It wavered around slightly as the camera tried to track her movements.

“This is a self contained bio lab with a short range radio transmitter. It is capable of doing a full analysis of the dissolved gasses in the body. It is also described in the paper you have. This device has been a major factor in the success of our research. Never before have we been able to observe the effects of tissue gas saturation in real time with such accuracy. We will use these pills to track the state of every member of the hab’s crew for the duration of the expedition.”

Ford added more details about the operation of the device but kept it brief. Most of the audience were either fully familiar with her work or members of the press who were unlikely to grasp the details in one sitting. She moved on.