Colt dropped into his seat at the helm of the Water Bear. “Think it’ll work?”
Gideon shot back, “It’ll take a miracle.”
“Enough with the Princess Bride quotes. I’ve never seen two guys so—”
“Comfortable with their masculinity?” Colt punched up the main systems. “Pilot ready?”
Maddox rolled her eyes. “Ready pilot.”
Colt sped through the rest of the launch sequence. “Big Jeb is going to flash burn the dock with us in here if we don’t clear out in the next couple of minutes.”
“He’ll do it too. I’ve no doubt.”
Gideon switched through his systems check. “Of course the external camera is still out. But everything else looks good.”
“Course to the surface has been charted.” Shasta offered.
“Ready?” Colt asked the crew.
They exchanged glances and Maddox shrugged. “I have to admit, I’m curious to check out the surface.”
“Good enough.” Colt flipped open an external microphone. “We’re good to go, Mr. Love.”
Instantly, the chamber flooded with water. Within seconds, the Water Bear crew found themselves piloting out of the docking bay and into the dark upper regions of the Sigsbee Deep. There hadn’t been time to discuss their current predicament while carrying out repairs on the sub. Each member had to work quickly and individually to finish patching the Water Bear together during the fifty-three minute window.
Everyone held their breath for the first minute in the water—anxious to see if they had remembered their nautical shop class as well as they hoped. After they rose past the ledge where they had crash-landed an hour earlier, Colt let out a sigh of relief. “I suppose we would have sprung a leak by now if we were going to.”
“Yeah, hull pressure is dropping steadily and the welds are holding fine.”
Colt laced his fingers behind his head and spun his captain’s chair around to face the others. “Gideon? Shasta? What do you guys make of the whole Oleg theory?”
Shasta hemmed and hawed before answering. “Well, microbiology and xenology fall within his fields of expertise.”
“A pandemic precision-tuned to severely impact petroleum-based economies? I’d be shocked if Oleg wasn’t behind it, or trying to control it at the very least. It sounds like a movie-tailored plot line to bring down the Texicas Oligarchy that supposedly burned him a hundred years ago.”
“Yeah,” Colt nodded, “those were sorta my thoughts as well. It seems a little too much on the nose.” He spun his chair toward the helm and pretended to fiddle with trim and ballast gauges in order to mask his emotions. He’d lost his older brother in the mission Big Jeb had led against Oleg two years earlier. Or at least, that’s what he had always thought. With Big Jeb alive, along with half the team…
But if the news had been good, would Jeb have withheld it? And why would the team have let everyone in Everlast assume they were dead? Who were they hiding from? The freshness of the wound surprised Colt. He had steadily progressed to the point where he didn’t think of his brother, Randal, every day. Recently, he only dwelled on the loss a couple times a week. But the fact remained, if Randal could die, anyone in Colt’s life could be gone in the blink of an eye—even Maddox.
He had to distract himself before he lost containment of his feelings. “Time to the surface?”
“Forty-eight seconds and counting.”
“What does it look like up there?”
Gideon flung a satellite image of the ocean surface, along with a current weather overlay, onto the holoscreen. Clearly, the hurricane had hit land north of Galveston and was already dissipating into heavy rains. But the surface above them remained obscured by thick cloud cover.
Maddox changed the subject. “Does anyone else find it odd that my dad would send us topside by ourselves if he suspected Oleg’s involvement? I mean, I know the SOB can be heartless at times—”
“That’s totally been bothering me.” Shasta interrupted. “I know you guys weren’t the warmest and all, but something wasn’t right. He did seem scared. But it was like Jeb seemed scared to have us on the station.”
“Any signs of Odysseus 1 following our course?” Colt asked.
Shasta shook her head. “Nope, and Jeb said he’d send them right after they charged their oxygen.”
“Maybe their having issues with decontamination?” Gideon offered.
“Assuming that whole bit wasn’t a load of crap just to get us off his precious station.” Maddox thumped the dash with her fist.
“Hey,” Colt put a hand on her shoulder, “either way, the surface should give us some answers. Alright?”
“Yeah, I’m good.” She put her hand on his and smiled. “Thanks for putting up with my moodiness.”
Colt shrugged. “You’re the only one who can put up with all this.” He indicated his own chest.
Maddox made of show of feigning over his manliness.
Colt slapped away her hands and wagged a finger at her. “This is hardly the time or place.” He winked. “I think the storm would be more appropriate.”
Gideon interrupted their banter. “Breaching surface in three…two…one…breach.”
Instantly the Water Bear started pitching in the turbulent waters. It wasn’t the worst Colt had been in, but several minutes of tossing like this would cause him to toss his lunch. Thinking of his stomach reminded him that it was nearly time for dinner. Thinking of dinner reminded him that he was starving. “Do you think they’ve got a Whataburger on that oil platform?”
Maddox slugged him in the shoulder. “Shut up and pop the hatch so we can take a look around.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Colt braced himself against the walls and ceiling of the sub while working his way to the hatch.
“The sonographic is picking up plenty of debris still on the surface. Nothing too close to us, but some of it seems to be caught in some pretty quick moving currents,” Gideon said.
“I suppose that’s not unusual for stormy seas.” Maddox followed Colt to the hatch.
“And I’m getting some weird feedback from the platform.”
“What sort of weird feedback?”
“Well, I switched to heat signature in order to scan the debris for potential survivors.”
“And?”
“I didn’t find any in the water. But I found a bunch on the platform.”
“What’s so weird about that? It’s an active platform right?”
“It’s supposed to be an unmanned platform. You know, fully automated. No humans.”
Maddox rolled her eyes. “Yes, I understand what unmanned means.”
Colt finished the sequence and popped the hatch. The smells of salt wind and burning oil rushed into the sub. “Mmmm, delightful.” Colt wrinkled his nose and stuck his head out of the hatch. A choppy wave broke over the top of the sub and slapped the side of his face. “Hey, watch it.”
“Stop talking to the waves and tell us what you see.” Maddox called up to him.
“Keep you pants on.” Colt attempted to wipe the water out of his eyes. “Or take them off. What do I care.”
Maddox pinched his leg.
Colt finally blinked his vision clear. “What in the name of high school football?”
“What? What is it?” Maddox tugged at his leg.
Colt couldn’t be sure what he was looking at. But the word apocalyptic came to mind.
What does Colt see on the surface?
Okay, I decided to shake things up this week...ART/DESIGN CONTEST!!!!
The story took a bit of an unexpected twist as I was writing it. I think a plot twist is in the works. But for this episode, I wanted to see what kind of cards you guys can create! I didn't want to foce people to sign up for a sight like flicker or photobucket, if they aren't signed up already. So, I will let you choose where you want to post your card.
Just follow these steps:
1.) create a card that depicts what you think Colt sees on the surface. (Any dimensions are fine.)
2.) cut and paste the link to your card image in the comments so everyone can go look at it!
3.) go look at everyone elses and vote for your favorites!