“Here goes.” Carter closed the claw around the metal sheeting and tightened the grip all the way down. Then he pressed one of the buttons on the arm’s directional pad, and the arm pulled back and downward — three separate joints working together — two arm sections plus the hand.
They couldn’t hear anything outside the sub — the acrylic and steel of its construction was too thick — so Carter had to depend on sight alone to gauge whether it was working. At first he saw no movement of the metal, so he gave the arm control a couple more bursts, attempting to pull the metal down with the claw. Still nothing. Then he held the pad down, telling the arm to constantly pull down, and he saw a piece of metal about ten feet long, five on either side of the grab claw, peel back from the ceiling a couple of feet.
“It’s working!” he said to Jayden. “We need to move to the left maybe five feet and repeat the process.” Jayden adjusted the sub’s position accordingly and Carter again utilized the grab arm to pull back the loose wall sheeting until there was a larger opening. Jayden backed the sub away a few feet and examined the newly enlarged opening with a critical pilot’s eye.
“I think it’s big enough now. You aim the spotlight ahead, I’ll drive us through nose first.”
Carter complied with his pilot’s instruction as the sub crept back toward the enlarged opening, this time at a different angle of approach. “Watch my ceiling clearance,” Jayden said. Carter glanced up through the dome above them. “You’ve got a good couple of feet until we get to the opening, where you’ll have to come down about a foot.”
“Okay, here goes.” Jayden bumped the thruster control and the submersible sliced through the water toward the rift in the wall. Carter inspected the opening with the spotlight, and the area in the new room immediately beyond. Seeing nothing in the way of immediate obstacles, he told Jayden the path was clear for him to proceed.
Jayden’s face was a mask of determination as he guided the craft that was keeping them alive through the narrow aperture in the wall and ceiling. Carter swept the spotlight up on the ceiling of the new room.
“As soon as the stern clears you’re going to have to angle the nose down so we don’t hit the ceiling.”
“Got it.” Jayden’s hands were poised over the controls while his gaze flicked back and forth between the ceiling of the new room and the side of the opening the sub was passing through. The nose of the sub just barely came into contact with the ceiling about ten feet into the Smoking Room when the actions Jayden took a few seconds earlier took effect, sending the sub’s nose down at an angle into the center of the watery space. Carter spun around in his seat to watch the tail section of their craft to make sure it would clear the opening.
“You’re right on target back there,” he told Carter. “Hold it steady.”
“That’s what she said.”
“Seriously?” Carter shook his head but couldn’t stifle a laugh. He knew from their experiences in the Navy that Jayden would find a way to crack a joke even during the most stressful times.
“I got this.” Jayden continued concentrating until the craft was well clear of the opening. Then he put it into a controlled hover, sat back in his seat and exhaled. The radio crackled.
“Topside to Deep Voyager: how we doing down there, over?”
Jayden picked up the radio transmitter. “We’re in the Smoking Lounge, taking a break, you know, having a couple of cigars and some coffee, over.” Carter shook his head while the radio reply from Johnny came back.
“You’re worrying me, Jayden. You are seriously deep inside that wreck. How are your systems, over?”
Jayden’s gaze flicked over his controls for a few seconds before replying. “All systems go, Topside. Battery power and oxygen levels where they should be for this point in the dive, over.”
“Reminder to exercise extreme caution. We’ll let you get back to it. Holler if you need anything, over and out.”
Carter pointed forward out into the room. “The good thing about this place is that I think we actually have a straight shot into a hallway, which leads to…”
“The Purser’s Room. Let’s go.” Jayden activated the sub’s thrusters and they glided across the Smoking Lounge, passing over furniture that remarkably still had some upholstery on it. Sadly, Carter pointed out another skeleton underneath an upturned circular table in a corner of the room. As they neared the far end of the rectangular room, Carter illuminated the exit, which fortunately was wide enough for the sub to pass through and featured no door.
Carter examined the diagram while Jayden brought the sub up to the room exit. “Once we’re in the hallway, it should be the second room on the left.”
Jayden allowed the sub to decelerate as it coasted up to the hallway entrance. “Plenty of room over here. How am I for clearance on your side?” he asked, while looking left out of his side.
“Good on this side as well,” Carter said. He aimed the spotlight ahead into the hallway. “At least it’s not going to be a real tight fit in there. Still, I’m not sure how the turn into a room is going to go.”
“Only one way to find out.” Jayden brought the sub forward into the hallway. They passed a room on the right with a partially crumbled doorway leading into a room of complete ruin, twisted wreckage everywhere. Then on the left, a room with an open door offering a view of machinery of some sort. “Next one on the left should be it,” Carter said.
Jayden continued to push the sub forward until they saw the doorway of what should be the Purser’s Room. “Uh-oh,” Carter said, “Problem.”
“Yeah. How are we going to get in there?” Jayden brought the sub to a hover in front of the room.
The set of double doors was closed.
Chapter 5
“Maybe if you nudge into them with the sub’s nose they’ll just swing open?” Carter suggested.
Jayden considered this, using the spotlight control to highlight the door knob, studying the area where the doors met each other, as well as the frame. The doors looked surprisingly intact. “It looks like they’re actually shut, but I can try it. Brace yourself.”
“Whoa, I said nudge, not ram!” Carter said.
“Kidding. I’ll just swing the nose into it. Here goes…” He engaged the right horizontal thruster only, sending the sub to the left, which brought the nose of it into light contact with the double doors. Both men felt the small impact as the doors remained shut and did not give way.
“No go,” Jayden summarized.
Carter exhaled deeply, studying the ship diagram. “This is the only way into that room, unless there’s extensive damage to one of the walls on the other side.”
“We could try the door knob,” Jayden suggested. Carter looked up from the diagram and stared at the round, brass colored doorknob. “With the grab arm?”
“No, Carter, with your actual arm. Of course with the grab arm!”
“Okay, wise guy. But we’ll have to use the arm on your side. Can you keep us in position while you do the arm?”
“I’m going to have to.”
Jayden made some adjustments to the ship’s thrusters and buoyancy that fine-tuned the hover. Then he turned his attention to the grab-arm controls. He brought the tip of the arm up to the door handle and opened the claw. “Let’s hope it’s not locked,” Carter said, as Jayden closed the claw grabber around the knob.
“This’ll be a little tricky, I need to bring the arm kind of up and left at first…” He trailed off as he concentrated on the remote control mechanical task. ”It’s turning!” Carter said, unable to hide the excitement in his voice. Jayden paused to think about his next move on the remote, then continued, now bringing the claw down and to the left as it turned the knob.