Nick sat at the tiny desk in his quarters. The glow of the holographic display of his computer illuminated his features as well as the towel that was draped over his shoulders. His hair was still slightly damp from his recent shower even though the rest of his body was dry due to the fact that this was the same position he'd been in for the last fifteen minutes. In that time he'd tried multiple times to contact Nathan in the "research ship" at the surface, but so far his calls had gone unanswered.
While Nathan's lack of response had Nick a little concerned, the thought he was really struggling with was how he was going to report back to the Admiral that his multibillion dollar ship was now tattooed with a large blast mark, a destroyed robotic arm, a scuffed up wing tip, not to mention being peppered with crystal fragments that remain embedded in the outer skin -- if not deeper.
He was trying to find a way to present all that information, without having to include the bit about picking up an unknown element from the bottom of the ocean.
So far, he was failing -- horribly as minute sixteen ticked by.
"Screw it.", he thought to himself hitting the record button.
"Begin report. 3.6.2065, Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Sheppard reporting from the Deep Blue station following the initial Cavitation test dive."
First the good news. It always helps to start off with good news.
"The initial extreme depth test of the M.A.N.T.A. was a success -- mostly. I successfully took the M.A.N.T.A. to a depth of...let's see...thirty four thousand, nine hundred and thirty nine feet. I believe that would be a new world record."
Nick paused for a moment to let that sink in.
Then he took a deep breath and continued, "The initial test of the Cavitation Drive was mostly successful. The drive fired up perfectly with acceleration that I've never experienced in any submersible. However, while the Cavitation Drive was active there was a severe decrease in maneuverability. The controls became very stiff and sluggish."
Now came the first slice of bad news.
"The sluggish controls, combined with the dramatic increase in speed resulted in a -- minor collision with, well -- with the surrounding landscape."
Yeah, that really didn't sound all that much better in his head either. He was supposed to be this awesome test pilot, but awesome test pilots don't usually go around running into things with the vehicles they are testing.
"Damage to the M.A.N.T.A. seems to be superficial with only minor scrapes along the tip of the left wing."
Oh, and let's not forget the vibrations.
"Also, as the speed increased there was a low level vibration coming from the drive. I was able to run the drive at approximately ten percent of it's full capacity before the vibration became a larger concern which resulted in my decision to shut down the drive. This brings up the biggest problem, it was non-responsive to the shutdown command. I was required to power down the entire ship in order to stop the drive."
Nick was sure that statement was going to go over well with the engineers. He can hear them now, "Doesn't he know there's a proper procedure for powering down the M.A.N.T.A.?! He can't just go around shutting down the vehicle whenever he wants to!"
Engineers. They're always so good at flying their vehicles -- on a computer, and have no idea what it's like to get behind the stick.
"It's probably worth noting that there were no problems with performing a cold start at depth with the vehicle."
Oh, how he wanted the report to end right there, wishing that's all there was left to say. He'd like very much to just sign off now. Problem was, he knew that with the amount of damage the M.A.N.T.A. sustained from that point blank explosion it wasn't going to be a good idea to set her back in the water without a much closer examination. That, and he hadn't thought of any way to explain the char pattern or demolished robotic arm. It was around this moment that Nick had the realization of the very long, awkward pause that he was now leaving in the report. He had to say something, and now.
"And, there's also been -- um, there was an -- incident."
Oh yeah, that was smooth.
So, how to you summarize that the ground was glowing, so you decided to go down and pick up a foreign, unknown object; because that sounds like a brilliant idea; so that you can bring it back to the station?
"God, it sounds like I'm bringing back a souvenir.", Nick thought rolling his eyes.
The Doc. It was his idea.
"After completing the test of the Cavitation Drive, at the request of Doctor Marshall, I attempted to acquire a sample of a -- an unidentified rock, or crystal specimen from the ocean bottom."
Now, if he could just get through this last part as quick as possible.
"Unknown to us, at the time, the crystal apparently had --properties which, when exposed to oxygen, triggered a -- well an explosion resulting in damage to the nose of the M.A.N.T.A. and the surrounding area..."
"At this point, I'm not sure if the M.A.N.T.A. is stable enough to handle the pressure at our current depth. Until I can get some confirmation about the integrity of the ship and run some tests, I'd like to postpone the primary weapons test, or any dives at all. I'm also open for some suggestions on what our next step is. Right now I don't have high confidence that I can take her to the surface from this depth."
There wasn't much more to say accept to wrap things up.
"This is Lieutenant Commander Sheppard signing off and calling it a night. Data and video logs from the M.A.N.T.A. will be uploaded following this message.", Nick said as he pressed the button, sending the message on it's way.
He leaned back in the small chair and covered his head with the towel.
"Perfect.", he said, with the word being muffled by the towel.
He yanked the towel off with a firm tug.
"What else can go wrong?", he asked aloud as he put on a white t-shirt and collapsed on the tiny bed.
Nick's question was answered a moment later by the sound of an incoming call signal from his computer. His initial unbelievable thought was that there was no way command had received his report and responded that quickly. As Nick raised his head from the bed he saw the text: << Incoming communication from Cdr. Nathan Strong. >>.
"Sure, now he answers the comm.", Nick said, rolling his eyes as he made his way to the computer to tap the << Answer >> button projected onto the tabletop.
"You couldn't have returned my call like, 60 seconds earlier?"
The holographic projection of Nathan gave a tense smile, "Yeah well, sorry, I was in an emergency briefing."
"An emergency about the Admiral's golf course?", Nick joked.
"No.", Nathan forced a quick laugh, "Actually, about the UN. They're back at the negotiating table and redrawing borders again. They seem to have tossed out any kind of measurement rule from national coastlines and are instead just trying to divide up the oceans."
"Oh, that's going to go well."
Nathan nodded, "That's command's thoughts as well. In an attempt to vie for squatters rights we're deploying the fleet all over the globe. They've got everyone spread so thin I don't know what they're going to do if they run into any opposition."
"That's the Admirals best defense, 'we were here first?' ."
"That seems to be everyone's preferred tactic. China's trying to grab half the Pacific. It's crazy. Anyhow,", Nathan said changing the topic, "how did the test dive go? What was the Cav Drive like?"
"The Cav Drive was amazing.", Nick answered with a grin.
"What was your top speed?"
Nick smiled and paused a moment to let Nathan's anticipation build. "365 kts.", Nick said slowly, emphasizing each number, "and get this -- that was only 10% throttle."
"10%?", Nathan repeated with more than a little disappointment. "Why only 10%?"
"There was a increasing low level vibration coming from the drive.", Nick replied with a shrug. "And we had some trouble shutting down the drive."
"No way! You had trouble shutting down an engine?", Nathan chuckled with an obvious reference to the F-38 incident.
"Ha -- sure, make jokes.", Nick said dismissively. "You weren't the one going 365 kts at the bottom of the ocean breaking every speed and depth record at the same time."
"Fair enough.", Nathan conceded.
"The speed on the cav is unbelievable, but there is a downside.", Nick reported. "Once the Cav Drive engages, the M.A.N.T.A. handles like a tank. The controls are sluggish and maneuverability is shot. It's clearly not something we're going to able to use in a combat situation."
"Unless you're using it to avoid combat.", Nathan added.
"Yeah, it'll do that just fine."
"Well the admiral won't enjoy hearing that."
Nick laughed uncomfortably realizing he hadn't passed on the best news about the dive yet.
"Yeah well, he'll like that better than the end of the trip."
"What do you mean?", Nathan inquired. Only getting 10% out of the Cavitation Drive sounded less than perfect.
Nick ran through a few proposed explanations of the events in his mind, none of which made the outcome sound any better.
"The doctor had me pick up this crystal thing we found at the bottom. It looked harmless enough."
"It really just looked like a pile of baseball sized, spiky crystals. What's the harm in that?", Nick said, talking more to himself than to Nathan.
Then he snapped his attention back to his friend, "Anyhow, everything was all fine and good until we tried to take it out of the water. That's when it sort of -- exploded."
"It did what?", Nathan asked, sure that he had heard the wrong word.
"It exploded.", Nick repeated slightly more definitively than the first time. "It left a pretty decent sized blast mark on the starboard side of the nose of the M.A.N.T.A."
"Oh God. What type of damage are we talking about?"
Nick shook his head, "I don't know right now. She hasn't been submerged since the explosion, but sitting on the surface, there doesn't appear to be any signs of a leak."
Then Nick remembered the shambled remains of the robotic arm, "But the extendible arm is shot, which means I can't even close that starboard portal."
"So you're not sure what's going to happen if you just take her outside?", Nathan inquired.
"No idea.", Nick answered.
"So you're stuck there?"
Nick shook his head, "No. The station has a bathysphere it uses for supplies. That's how the Doc gets to and from the surface, if he ever left. I can take that to the top if needed."
"Do you think the mission is scrubbed?"
That thought had crossed Nick's mind many times in the past couple of hours. It was a definite possibility, and one he wasn't looking forward to.
"I don't know.", Nick replied after a moment. "I sent my report to command right before you called. Hopefully they'll have some ideas."
"Ideas that don't involve a court-~marshall.", Nick thought to himself.
"See if you can throw in a good word for me up there would you?", Nick added.
Nathan nodded, "Yeah, okay. I'll see what I can do. Try to get some sleep."
"That was the plan."
Nathan smiled, "So I guess this means you're out for this weekend?"
"What?! No way.", Nick fired back with a roguish grin. "You get it set up. I'll be there."
Nathan gave him a nod and smile, "We'll see if the Admiral has anything to say about that."