Typhon by John Triptych

Author:John Triptych [Triptych, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: J Triptych Publishing
Published: 2019-02-19T05:00:00+00:00

29

B ILL LANGLEY OPENED his eyes as the shafts of morning light began filtering inside the hyperbaric lifeboat. Looking at his diving watch, he figured that he had somehow managed to sleep for a few hours.

After wiping away the accumulated scum that had formed around his eyes, he looked down at the tall, blond Norwegian lying with his back on the floor. "Haakon, are you feeling any better?"

Haakon fluttered his eyes open and groaned. Their escape from the hyperbaric chamber, and the succeeding climb through a series of winding tunnels to make it into the pressurized lifeboat along the side of the ship had been done in extreme haste. For long minutes they had waited inside the emergency vessel, hoping that Gordon and O'Keefe's diving bell had been pulled up and the remaining pair of divers would join them inside, but it was not to be.

The last thing they heard on the intercom was their supervisor Mullins ordering them to seal the hatch and prepare to be jettisoned into the water. Haakon had just managed to check and confirm the proper gas mix within the interior before the cables holding them to the davits had either been released too early or had just snapped when the Skandi Aurora 's bow began to list forward, and the lifeboat dropped from a height of close to fifteen meters before it hit the water's surface.

Langley was already strapped down in one of the crash chairs along the side, but Haakon was still standing and checking the gas gauges when the lifeboat hit the water. The fall had clearly broken the Norwegian's right arm, and Langley suspected he also suffered a spinal injury. When Langley had tried to lift him up after they landed on the water, Haakon had cried out in pain and begged to stay where he was.

Crouching down beside his injured dive partner, Langley opened one of the nearby cabinets, and took out a sealed pouch from the emergency supplies located underneath. "You want some water?"

Haakon grimaced in pain. "Not yet, maybe later. Is it morning now?"

Placing the still sealed container beside the other man, Langley stood upright and moved towards the aft section. "Yeah, the sun just went up."

"How is the gas mix?"

Langley strode over to a set of gauges and valves. "I've already adjusted them for an emergency decompression last night. We ought to be able to go out and walk into a diving chamber in about three days."

"Assuming they find us," Haakon said tersely.

Frowning, Langley turned and moved closer to the conning chair and looked at the elevated command console once again before shaking his head in disappointment. After he had given Haakon first aid the night before, Langley had looked around to try and establish communications, only to find that the radio wasn't working. When he tried to start up the lifeboat's motor, he also noticed that the fuel gauge stood at zero. It was apparent that someone had forgotten to add fuel, and they had been drifting ever since they'd been jettisoned from the ship.

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