“See, I told you all along,” Juarez said to Leighter. “You just can’t count on these bungling fools.”
“Kevin, is there any diving gear on the platform?” Seven asked, his mind working furiously as he looked to the red sky on the eastern horizon.
“Yes, sir, three rigs.”
“Okay, folks, this is very easy, no problem,” Seven stated calmly. “There are seven of us and three rigs. It’s just a very simple matter of teaming up two to a rig, one on main air and one on octopus, and we just slide down the winch cable and catch an ROV ride to the docking bay. No problem. Piece of cake!”
“Aaron, what about the seventh person?” Serea queried.
“That’s me. I’m seven. Been Seven all my life.”
“And?” she pressed. “What’s your plan?”
“It’s you and me and Leighthouser. I’ll buddy breathe off your octopus.”
“Three to a tank? Three sharing an 80 cubic foot tank down over 200 feet?”
“We go fast,” Seven responded.
“We’ll have to!” Serea remarked with a wink.
“No freakin’ way! No way!” Juarez replied in anger. “You can just count me out of this deal,” she said her face pasted with fear as she looked down at the black ocean. “I’ll just take my chances up here and wait for the sub.”
Seven looked at his watch. They only had minutes to spare as Leighthouser began dumping the equipment onto the deck.
“Frank, get on the line and have the Command Center call up Striker. Have him get as many of his bots up here as he can, on the double. We need them, fast!”
Without a word, Spencer complied, racing down the metal steps.
“I’m sorry, I can’t … I can’t…” Juarez said, now enfolded in Leighter’s arms.
“I’m not goin’ without you, baby. I’ll wait with you if you really can’t go,” he said tenderly.
Serea walked over and put her hand on Juarez’s shoulder. “Can’t swim?” she whispered.
Juarez shook her head dejectedly as if it were a shameful thing.
“Well, you don’t have to. Do you trust me?” Serea asked quietly.
Juarez just stared back at Serea, trembling.
“All you have to do is slip the full face mask over your head, breathe normally and just hang on to me. All you have to do is hang on. I’ll be on one side and Aaron on the other. We won’t turn loose of you, even for one second. It’s just a ride down, okay? No swimming needed. Swimming is for the top of the water. Down under you just hang on and breathe, that’s all. Okay?”
“The bots are on the way, all of them,” Spencer announced springing up the ladder. “Every single damn one of Pacifica’s Engineering bots are underway – making way, right now!”
Serea stepped quickly over to him and whispered into his ear. Spencer nodded, and then raced back down the passageway.
“Gear up! We’ve got three minutes or less!” Seven said, his eyes glancing toward the half disk of the sun just now rising over the horizon as they watched.
Serea calmly showed Juarez how to fit the mask over her face. Then she led her down to the ladder. “Let’s be first, okay? We can float around for a minute and get used to the water while the guys jump in behind us.
“I can’t do this… I can’t do this!” Juarez said, shaking her head, looking down at the black water and pulling back.
“Yes you can!” Leighter said, far too loudly.
“Get in the water, ace,” Seven whispered nudging Leighter over the side with a splash and then he followed, gripping a handful of equipment including a tank, fins, masks and regulators.
“Come on Juanita, it’s better than sex,” Serea said. It was a magic line, one that broke Juarez’s concentration. She smiled an embarrassed smile then gently lowered herself down into the water.
Seven swooped down under water and gently attempted to strap Juarez’s fins onto her feet, but at the first touch Juarez screamed and began to panic.
“It’s just Aaron,” Serea said placing her hand onto her shoulder. “It’s not jaws, I promise! Just let him strap them on for you. He’s doing mine now. Not bad service, don’t you think?”
Juarez began to shiver in the cool water as Leighter moved in beside her and gripped her arm. She responded by latching onto him with the grip of death.
Seven surfaced and began to strap the tank onto Serea’s back. By this time all seven people were in the water with all the gear in hand.
“Okay, Frank, you take the first tank and the octopus,” Seven ordered loudly. “Raylond, use the full face mask attached to his tank. Leighthouser, you take the second tank and octopus and Leighter, you can have the full face mask. Serea will wear the third tank and split the octopus with me while Juanita will take the full mask.
“As soon as you’re geared up, head down. Make sure you have a firm grip on the cable. We’ll be too buoyant, so you’ll have to pull yourselves down the cable. Do not - I repeat - do not let go of the cable! When the ROVs arrive, get a firm grip on the bot’s forward arm before you turn lose of the cable, then relax and let the little robot take you on in. Get as deep as you can as fast as you can, but make sure to clear your ears. If you have a pain, stop and ascend until you can clear!”
“What’s he saying?” Juarez asked frantically through chattering teeth.
“Juanita, look at me!” Serea said firmly. “Ignore him and pay attention to me!”
Juarez just nodded as Serea reached over her own head and turned the valve on her air tank. “Move your mouth like you’re chewing a huge piece of gum.”
“Huh?”
“Like this,” Serea said, moving her jaw from side to side.
“Why?”
“You have to pop your ears when the pressure changes,” Serea explained. “Now I’m going to slip this mask over your face; just breathe normally. Keep breathing. Never hold your breath.”
Juarez nodded, then immediately began to hyperventilate.
“Slow down! Breathe normally! It’s okay, no need to breathe heavily.”
Seven positioned himself in front of her face, looking right at her. Leighter held her left arm and Serea held her right arm. The other team had already submerged.
“Ready?” Serea asked.
Juarez shook her head violently as the first rays of the full disc of the morning sun blasted the ocean’s surface.
“Got to go now,” Seven said impatiently.
Serea shot him a narrow look through her dive mask, then smiled sweetly at Juarez. “I need to let you in on a little secret,” she said directly to Juarez. “I want you to just lower your mask into the water and look straight down. Just a peek, okay?”
Juarez nodded and carefully and slowly lowered her mask underwater breathing heavily. In an instant she popped her head back out of the water, her eyes wide with astonishment.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Serea replied, her face beaming. “Ready to go there now?”
Juarez smiled brightly and returned a confident thumb’s up.
Seven, Leighthouser and Leighter looked at one another with quizzical expressions, then lowered their faces into the water at once.
What Seven saw was a scene of startling and unexpected beauty. There below them was the magnificent underwater city of Pacifica, a view he had never seen from this angle before. Obviously, Serea had instructed Spencer on his last run down inside LP1 to instruct the Command Center to turn on every external light they had. And the result was the most astonishing and beautiful sight Seven had ever seen.
Immediately he tugged the ladies down underwater, pushed them toward the cable and began to pull them down together toward the almost inconceivable and magnificent sight of the city of Pacifica below them, framed by the deep, velvety and total blackness of the ocean beneath.
Seven looked at Juarez and could see the lights of the colony reflected off her faceplate. Her face was frozen in an awestruck smile and there was no residual trace of fear or panic remaining. Occasionally, she moved her jaw
to equalize the pressure, but she did not take her eyes off the city as they descended slowly toward it.
Seven looked into the face of Serea as they passed the regulator back and forth between them. “I love you,” she clearly mouthed with a proud smile.
Seven glanced down beneath his feet and saw that Spencer and Desmond had descended much faster and were at least 40 feet ahead of them. Then he saw the magnificent and looming structure of the Phoenix suddenly appear from behind Pacifica, slowly orbiting around behind the city’s massive structure. From beneath the towering mass, a tight constellation of tiny lights appeared as a dozen ROVs with their beams shining began to soar gracefully in perfect unison through the void up toward them.
If the sight of Pacifica was amazing, the slow movement of the Phoenix circling around behind it, preceded by the fleet of underwater robots was even more astonishing. Seven carefully looked into Juarez’s eyes to detect any impending panic, but there was none – just a totally absorbed fascination at the incredible scene unfolding in the darkness around them.
Seven began to watch the fleet of Pacifica’s remarkable Engineering ROV’s which all had the appearance of metallic sharks - ROVs controlled remotely by Striker Legend from his Command Center. They were approaching with an amazing speed, each of them growing larger in their field of vision as they drew closer. Seven silently hoped that once they transferred their grip to the little underwater robots, that Legend would have enough presence of mind to remember they had to descend slowly to keep from blowing their ears drums. He prayed for a gentle ride down and no antics on the part of his biker buddy and savior.
Seven looked down to see an ROV break off from the formation and maneuver toward the pair below them. It reached Desmond and Spencer, hovering just in front of them as the pair grasped the robot’s steel arm. They then released the cable and the little robot began to sweep them slowly down and away toward the underside of Pacifica.
Seven could see six of the ROVs approach their position, each of them breaking off to begin to encircle them. As they did so, Seven stopped the laborious pulling downward against the cable and rested as the first ROV made its closest approach. As he swapped regulators with Serea, he glanced over to Juarez to ensure that she was not about to panic at the advance of the steel, bug-eyed machine. When he looked into her mask, he could see a broad smile creep across her face, and Seven could see the reflection of the ROV in her faceplate.
Turning around, he could see the ROV’s end effector, or metallic gripping hand, rise in the water and begin to wave at them. Then, amazingly, the ROVs right, large disk eye, made up of hundreds of individual LED lights, began to wink at them. He turned around to see Juanita smiling and waving back.
The Engineering bot’s two arms reached out toward them, but passed up over their heads and actually touched Juarez’s upper scalp as well as Seven’s. Before he could recoil, Seven clearly heard the voice of Striker Legend in the center of his brain, just as though he were standing in between them in a large room.
“Hello young lady! What a gorgeous creature you are. Where did my friend Aaron Seven find the likes of you?”
Juarez looked totally surprised, her eyes sweeping the water all about her. “How are you doing this?” she asked. “Where is that voice coming from?”
“It’s all in your head, sweetheart!” Legend said. “I’m acoustically vibrating the bones of your inner ear through your skull.”
Seven wanted desperately to say something, but he could not with his head more than a hundred feet below the surface and not having the advantage of a full face mask as did Juarez.
“What’s your name?” Juarez asked the ROV directly.
Seven could hear muted laughter in the background. “My name’s D. Arth V. Ader,” Legend replied for the bot, followed by clear laughter behind the voice.
Juarez then returned the laughter. “So I’d just guess that that black tower is your very own D. Eath S. Tar then, eh?”
“Hey Seven, I really like this woman!”
Seven turned and looked into the robot’s camera and pointed down.
“Ah, so you want to come in out of the rain, huh?”
Seven nodded, then made a motion with his hands in a plane across his face, then lifted his fingers together indicating small.
“What’s the mute moron tryin’ to say, darlin’?”
“I think he says take me home, but slowly so you don’t pop our ears,” Juarez replied expertly.
The robot removed his metal claw from Seven’s head and placed it on Serea’s head, removing the capacity of Seven to hear what was being said. In a few seconds she began to choke with laughter, looking at Seven with sparking eyes.
Then the robot winked at Serea as she reached out and grasped its arm, followed by Juarez. Seven let go of the cable and he could immediately feel the powerful motors of the ROV began to sweep them down and away from the tether. The three of them gripped the robot’s arms with both hands and felt the rush of water against their faces. Seven turned to assure that Leighter and Leighthouser were also descending with the assistance of another bot.
Just as they began to significantly alter their sweep toward Pacifica’s main dome, he could see two one-man submarines slide from underneath and head toward them at high speed. The two small submersibles swept by them, then turned around and slowed, pacing their descent. Inside were two of Pacifica’s young crewmembers, each smiling and waving at them, their faces lit by the colored consoles before them, speaking into lip mics as they waved.
Juarez carefully lifted one arm and waved in return to both submersibles as one of them held up a sign which read: WELCOME TO PACIFICA.
The ROVs were now safely below the level of any quantum storm effects, headed toward the main windows of the Command Center. If Striker Legend was intent on giving them the grand tour, he was doing a remarkable job. Seven just hoped that they would make it to the docking bay before they ran out of air or had to face a long period of decompression.
But the side tour was worth it. The ROV pulled them just a few feet from the main windows as scores of Pacifica residents were lined up to wave at them as they passed by. The excited Juarez waved back and gave everyone the thumbs up as the robot whisked them down toward the bottom of the dome and under the docking bay.
Gently the ROV slowed, then rose directly into the middle of the diving lock-out beneath the city. Seven could see hands reaching down to pull them up into the small lockout cylinder. He was the last out of the water and checked his pressure gauge. They had no more than half a dozen breaths left in the tank.
“What were you doing, taking the grand tour?” Desmond asked. “We were about to get worried about you!”
At that, the robot’s steel claw lifted up inside the chamber and waved then disappeared.
Juarez pulled her mask off and said with wide eyes and a beaming smile, “That was the most incredible experience of my entire life! Can we do it again sometime?”
Seven laughed loudly as Spencer slammed the hatch door shut and began to cycle valves. “We’ve got to blow down slowly,” he said. “We took on a dose of N2 and need to bleed it off.”
“What?” Leighter asked.
“Serea, I just want to thank you for your help,” Juarez said. “I’m really sorry I nearly lost it up there. I never lost it like that before. I don’t understand what happened. That’s not my style – that’s definitely not me!”
“You did great,” Serea said with her typical sparking smile. “You have the makings of a real pro, girl,” she said slapping her palm. Then Juarez gave her a tight embrace.
Juarez then turned to Seven. “I’m sorry, Dr. Seven,” she said somberly.
“About what?”
“About misjudging you before. I was wrong all along. I thought you were a creep.”
“You aren’t the first to think that and you won’t be the last,” he said with a flat smile, stealing a glance at Frank Spencer who stood by in respectful silence.
Then Juarez
stepped up to Seven, placed both hands beside his cheeks and kissed him fully on the lips.
“Hey!” both Serea and Leighter protested together as a single voice.
When she released him, Seven remarked, “Wait till I tell D. Arth V. Ader about this. Next time I‘d guess he’ll be joining our dive party in person – black robe, black plastic dive helmet and all!”
75
Aaron Seven , Serea, the Commander, Frank Spencer, Bill Harper and five of Pacifica’s security guards were jammed together into the Chinese escape pod. They carried two weapons each, except for the four security guards, who carried compact automatic weapons as well as two handguns. They had been briefed on the general, known layout of the Jiang Zemin and had a plan for securing the sub in case there were any crew members left onboard.
Soon after the boat went down, one of Legend’s SROVs descended to its location and had been parked there permanently just to analyze the sounds emanating from the craft and to detect any human noises such as talking, walking or banging on the hull. It had detected nothing at all for many hours. Acoustically, the ROV could only hear the automated sounds of the reactor’s power plant. Yet, if there were any crew left onboard, it was assumed their mental health would not be in the best condition. Therefore, the group was armed and ready for the worst.
The pod was loaded with the personnel and a counterweight strap was attached to its side. It was then towed into the lockout bay and pulled under water by a pair of the Phoenix ’s Engineering ROVs. The pod was towed over to the area above the downed submarine, and then began to descend into the blackness of the Pacific. Assisting Pacifica’s bots were another pair of the Phoenix ’s Slave ROVs – identical to the one that had snatched Seven and Luci out of the Pacific ocean’s eternal night, so many weeks ago.
There were no windows to look outside, but they would have only seen the deep blue of Pacifica ’s water turn into total darkness. While Pacifica was suspended some 549 feet over the peak of Hancock Seamount, the mountain was never visible from the underwater city itself. Looking down into the ocean from the depth of Pacifica , only blackness appeared below as light from the sun merely illuminated the top 300 feet of the ocean on a good day.
Quantum Storms - Aaron Seven Page 69
