The Oasis

Chapter 10

Ch 10

Jake was back in the submarine. He stood behind the cockpit, watching the man in the seat. Before he even turned around, Jake somehow knew it was himself. He watched as his other self tapped away at the controls. The depth meter ticked to 900 meters and the alarms went off.

                  “No.” The other Jake said. “This depth…….that pressure……can’t be.”

                  The HUD displayed a set of equations. Jake immediately recognized them. A crack shot across the display.

                  “Ten million Pascals.” The other Jake said, rambling away at the computing math on the screen. “P naught……atmospheric pressure………internal pressure should compensate.” He continued.

                  “Ascend!” Jake called to himself. “Get out of here!”

                  His yells went unheeded as the other Jake continued to ramble.

                  “Density of water is unchanged……..Martian gravity………it can’t be.”

                  Numbers flashed across the screen.

                  “Pull up!” Jake yelled. “You’re going to kill us!”

                  Water burst in from the side, and sprayed across the cockpit. The other Jake took no notice.

                  “Maximum depth of 2000 meters. It has to be.” He mumbled. The sides of the sub buckled in, shuddering the craft violently. Jake pounded against the sides, screaming for help. His counterpart merely sat in the rising water, repeating a single phrase.

                  “Mars gravity……..it’s too much……..it’s too much.”

                  The sub continued to collapse. Jake pressed against the walls as they closed in, the water rising further. He beat his fists against anything and everything within range, hoping to fight back the crushing advance of the external pressure.

                  A beetle scurried across the surface of the walls and squeezed through a gap by the hatch. Jake grabbed the turn wheel, and pulled in desperation. The exit tube closed in around his hands. A final image of a control officer appeared on the holo-screen. “It is imperative that you do not look directly at the sun.” He said.

                  Jake tried to pull his arms from the crushing metal, but the vice of the hull bit in further. Jake cried out in pain as the sharp metal shards sliced into him. The water rose higher, past his neck.

                  “It’s too much.” The other Jake said. The water swallowed him completely and the holo-image distorted through the ripples over the surface of the rising level. Jake raised his head, taking his last gulp of air, and the water over took him.

                  He awoke with a start, seeing nothing but black.

                  “Am I dead?” He asked. His voice sounded close, and suppressed. Like he was in a space no larger than a coffin. His hear rate spiked and he flailed his arms in panic. The sounds of scattering rubble echoed around the empty cavern. Jake suddenly realized where he was. He slumped in the junk, realizing he was not in fact lying in a casket.

                  The images of his dream raced through his mind. By the nature of dreams, he didn’t expect it to make much sense, but something struck him about it. The math was all correct. Jake rose to his feet and clicked on the lights to his helmet. He faced one of the mysterious, grime covered plaques. Tracing a finger across the surface, he pulled some of the grime away, leaving a clear line. Jake shrugged. Without a whiteboard, this was the next best thing.

                  He traced his fingers over the plaque, writing out the equation from his dream. He had to stop and laugh at himself.

                  “Here I am, a fugitive from the law, with no food, water, or means of escape, and my first priority is to do math.”

                  Such was the mind of an engineer.

                  Jake let his arms drop, and turned around. Maybe he should look for a way to the surface. Of course, once he got there, he had no further plan. What he really needed to do was find out what was really going on around here. Solving that mystery would go a long way in raising his chances of survival. After all, what was so important that Control would kill to keep it a secret? The last remembrance of Jake’s dream flashed through is mind again, and Jake’s heart nearly stopped. His shoulders slumped in realization.

                  “No.” He said. “It can’t be.”

                  Jake rushed back to the plaque and scribbled through the grime in a fervor, going through the equation again. But this time, he didn’t try to find a maximum depth. Putting in what he knew, and crunching through the numbers, Jake furiously ran through the steps, hoping above hope he was wrong.

                  He rearranged the equation, flicking variables back and forth until his last unknown was isolated. When all was said and done, he stepped back from his work, staring in horror at the final result. The last line glared back at him in the reflected light

                  g = 9.8

                  Jake backed up, stepping on an object from the junk pile. He spun around, glancing at the uneven ground, and stooped to pick up the small object. There in his hands, with a tattered green bow on top, was a little girl’s shoe.