Chapter Three
Undersea Emergency
By the time Capt. Hope had reached the bridge the ship's main lights had gone out, and they were plunged into the eerie world of the red emergency lights.
"What in the hell is going on, number two?" he screamed.
"We've got no idea, sir!" Howard Day, his executive officer screamed. "We were going along as normal when the helmsman noticed we were off course. We went to correct and the ship refused to respond! Now we've blown all our air tanks and they've been flooded. We're going down and we're slowly losing power. None of the controls are responding."
The Captain asked the question that hung in the back of the mind of every submariner. "Where's the bottom, mister?"
"Two miles below us, sir," the helmsman answered.
"Damn!" the Captain cursed. "How long before we pass beyond our crush depth?"
The helmsman made some quick calculations. "At our present rate of descent, sir," he finally answered, "we'll implode in about twenty minutes."
"Full lift on the planes," the Captain ordered. "Keep her bow up. Slow our descent.
"Trying, sir!" the helmsman answered, "but she's not responding well!"
The Captain rushed to the chart tables and studied the charts carefully. "There's a sea mount," he screamed, "right here. Can we make it?"
His second officer began to work some instruments. "It's going to be awfully close, sir!" he finally answered, "but we just might do it. Even still, sir, the plateau of that mount is twenty feet below our crush depth."
"Then we better pray, mister," the Captain snapped, "that this ship's better built than they think it is, because if we miss that mount and she keeps going down, we're history! Keep trying to pump the water out of those buoyancy tanks. I'm going down to talk with the engineer to find out what in the hell is happening. Call Pearl. Tell them we're in trouble."
The exec looked troubled. "Don't tell me," the Captain cursed, "communications is out."
"Dead, sir!" the exec answered. "We got out one distress call then everything went dead."
"Somebody doesn't like us!" the Captain moaned and headed for the hatchway. A few minutes later he was in the engineering section watching men run to and fro. The chief finally came up to him shaking his head, his deep southern drawl intensified by his obvious fear made him hard to understand. "It just makes no sense, sir! According to the instruments everything should be working fine, but everything's dead, or, dying...just shutting down! It's just not possible!"
"Possible or not," the Captain answered, "it's happening. And if we don't find out HOW it's happening, we better grow gills! Get on it, mister!"
"Yes, sir!" the engineer snapped.
As the Captain made his way back to the bridge the ship began to groan ominously. The metallic complaints grew louder and louder. As the Captain entered the bridge someone screamed, "Hold on! We're going to hit!"
The Captain grabbed something sturdy just in time, as with a loud BANG and more moans the submarine came to rest on the bottom moments after its propellers had made their last feeble rotation.
The men waited in troubled silence until the groaning stopped. The Captain let out a deep sigh. "If we get out of this," he commented aloud, "somebody remind me to send a thank you note to the shipyard that built this baby."
"Amen!" a crewman answered.
The exec was by the weapons' console. "Sir!" he snapped, "I think you'd better come take a look at this."
The Captain went over and studied the readings, then stood up. "Oh, my God!" he gasped.
"Sir!" another officer cried, "There's something on my computer screen."
The Captain went over and took a look. The exec joined him and they exchanged bewildered expressions.
"Captain," another officer cried, "the emergency communications system just came back on. I think I can reach Pearl, sir."
"Then I'd advise you DO SO!" the Captain snapped. "I don't think we're going to get out of this without help. I'm not sure we're going to get out of this at all."
The men around him knew the Captain was not one to make idle comments. If he feared for their safety it made their fears worse, a lot worse.