Deeptide Vents . . . of Fire by Donald Ray Schwartz & Steven Evans

Author:Donald Ray Schwartz & Steven Evans [Schwartz, Donald Ray & Evans, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781524587154
Publisher: Xlibris US
Published: 2017-04-11T04:00:00+00:00

Jennifer remembered those windmills at old miniature golf courses; one had to plan ahead some seconds to ensure the sufficient opening for her ball to roll through and not be blocked. Jennifer liked miniature golf. She had not played in a long time. The new courses did not seem to have the windmills any more …

Then, the flashes of red and yellow sparks illuminated their window panes against the lightening strikes now close but still beyond.

They felt the ship shudder. Suddenly, they found themselves roiling beneath the high waves of the ocean. In haste, to prevent her being buffeted about, they adjusted their ballast as any crew would adjust that of any submarine. Considerably smaller they, they sank beneath the waves much sooner.

Soon enough, they entered the deep calm joy of drifting silence.

“We’ll go slow,” Susan said. “We need to make sure everything operates OK. This storm may be a blessing in disguise. We can use this as a dry run check. Pardon the pun.”

Trapped fathoms beneath the sea, Jennifer had to tolerate not only the old cliché, but that damn girlish, nerd-scientist giggle. She glanced at Hodges. Incredibly, he seemed almost besotted. Music to his ears. In silent retaliation, she made up her own bad pun, keeping it to herself. Water on the brain.

“Monitor all warning lights and gauges,” Susan said.

They gazed at the various panels and consoles. The indicator lights lit in their appropriate sequences as they had trained to regard them, as Barnstone’s engineers (or the Navy’s engineers) had designed them, following the concept of Susan’s and Jennifer’s overall design schematics.

“Operations array.”

“Navigational array.”

“Guidance system aligned.”

“All systems normal,” Hodges said. The women noticed he had paused prior to acknowledging the weapons systems control panel. “We’re a go.”

“All normal here,” Jennifer said. There was a pause. Susan continued. Before she completed her sentence, Jennifer interrupted her mentor.

“Well, as the Commander said, ‘Steady as she goes.’ We’ll follow the high S curve, to check our pressure at each level on the sine co-efficie—.”

“Oh my God.”

“Jennifer, what is it?”

“Ms. Littleton?”

“We’re, we’re not far, 20 kilometers and 26,000 fathoms from the site.”

It took a moment for her meaning to sink in. Susan double checked the navigation data base that had been entered from the satellite data and the data from the scientists’ initial discovery.

“She’s right. You’re right. We can—”

“Wait,” Hodges said. “You’re talking five miles deep. What kind of valley rift is that? No one has ever … (here he sighed; then he continued) besides, we need to propel this vessel in the opposite direction. I have to link up with the commander at Standhope. And we need to conserve energy.”

“Just a minute,” Susan said. She calculated distances and reactor output ratios. Jennifer knew she already verified what she had figured in her head.

“At this distance, and with the storm not abated we can run a fly-by, and have plenty of energy to reach Standhope, perhaps even a few minutes before the Starr.”

The two women looked at the military man. He peered through his aft window now, turned away from them.

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