Good as his word, Dirk's guys had strapped several anti-corrosion hull zincs together into 200- pound weights, attached short lengths of cable to each, with a set of straps that would reach around the pod. It was one slick fifteen-minute solution. The Bat Cave spooks passed the weights through the Aquarium to Ski and Bill. They attached the lift bags, and twenty minutes after they left, were back, attaching the straps around the front and back of the pod. I had them adjust the short strap to each weight so the weights were just six inches off the bottom with the pod level.
During the half hour the entire operation took, the swells increased from one every five or so minutes to continuously passing swells that were moving everything about, including the silt from the bottom. Visibility was decreasing. The divers inflated the pod bags until the belly weight just remained on the bottom. With the next big swell, they reported to me that the pod commenced a seesaw, but that the fore and aft weights apparently absorbed the momentum when they landed on the bottom, and the seesaw rocking stopped immediately.
Great! The problem was solved and we were good to go.
Visibility made it difficult for the two divers at either end to see each other. In effect, each diver was now isolated in his own cocoon, without the bottom for reference, forced to coordinate his actions by voice alone. I placed two divers on each lift cable, but with the pod visible. Whitey and Ski each had a dump lanyard that would quickly vent helium in the event that end started up. Obviously, the idea was to maintain control, since it would not help to crash one end into the bottom. It would take some finesse, but I had faith in my guys.
Bobby did his best to give us an overall view, but all we really got was a set of snapshots that were difficult to paste into a complete live picture. We had to move the pod only about sixty feet, but it seemed like forever. Whitey announced finally that he could see the cable. Bobby flitted over and showed it to me. As he did, a larger-than-average swell passed overhead.
"Whoa…," Ski shouted, as the back end of the pod lifted sharply, Ski with it.
Bobby quickly moved the Basketball so I could observe the action. By the time he got there, Ski had already gotten control of his own ascent, and had pulled the dump lanyard. The pod's steep up angle quickly diminished, and as the weight crashed into the bottom, the bag automatically inflated under Ski's watchful eye, and kept the pod itself from hitting the bottom.
Although I couldn't see the other end, Whitey reported that the system was working. As their end weight came off the bottom, the bag vented without their having to pull the lanyard, and everything settled down. The divers got themselves organized again, waiting for a short break in the up-and-down moving water. At the peak rise, they injected more helium into the bags, and moved the pod so that it was exactly parallel to the cable and just to the south so that when it bottomed, it would be touching the cable.
"Shit," Whitey said. "We gotta move the weights."
This was going to require more finesse than we had initially figured.
I was about to give some direction when Whitey said, "Let's move the pod south three feet, remove the belly weight, and bring it back to here. Then we can bottom Ski's end, stretch the pod past Ski's weight and bottom his end, and then swing my weight forward by hand and bottom this end."
"Let's do it so the wave bottom'll help us," Jer added.
"Jer, get ready to drop the belly weight," Whitey said. "And Bill, get ready to swing this weight."
I took the mike. "Hold it, guys. Take a moment to make sure your umbilicals are clear of everything. Report back to me before you commence."
It took about a minute.
"Red clear."
"Green clear."
"Blue clear… now," Jer added sheepishly. "Ski's and me's umbilicals got tangled."
"Yellow clear."
"Okay, do your thing, guys. Luck," I said.
Since we were virtually blind by now, Bobby hung off to the side and kept out of the way. The divers talked back and forth, coordinating the move to the swell motion. Within five minutes they had dropped the belly weight. In two more minutes Ski's end was grounded, and then Bill swung his weight out of the way and the pod was in place. The divers collapsed the lift bags and set them off to one side. Then they strapped the cable securely against the pod, so that it was directly against a line painted the length of the pod. This was the designated signal pickup strip, especially designed to intercept the cable transmissions by induction.
The final step was to test the rig. While Whitey and Ski were strapping the cable to the pod, Bill and Jer returned to the sub and retrieved the communication cable from the pod bay we had used in our first trip. This time it contained no pod, just the connecting cable with a special fitting designed to make a waterproof connection underwater, and to extrude any water trapped inside when the pins were pushed into the pod socket.
As Whitey and Ski completed their task, Bill and Jer returned with the cable. The water was beginning to show turbulence, even at this depth. I was becoming concerned, and urged the guys to hurry with the systems check and get back aboard the sub.
At their fastest, it was still a slow task. Moving water made it more difficult to hold the connecting cable steady, and the divers had to be extra careful not to bend any of the pins. They ended up putting Ski and Jer on the cable, holding as still as possible, while Whitey inserted it into the pod socket carefully, and screwed the connection tight. While they did this, Bill took the lift bags back to the sub and loaded them into the Aquarium.
Once the connector was attached, the spooks were able to get an immediate signal on all channels. "Loud and clear," Chief Blunt announced.
Removing the test cable was a short, two-minute exercise. Replacing the connector cover likewise. Since it was designed to extrude all water when it closed, and then to open any connection between the connector and the rest of the pod, we didn't have to be concerned about a short between any of the internal elements. Put the cap on and go. That was it.
Meanwhile, we were beginning to feel the surges pass through the entire sub. It looked like we had become the victims of another doozy of an Arctic storm. Josh reported that the surface waves were as big as last week; it was at least as bad as the one a week earlier. And in these enclosed waters, it was much more chaotic and jumbled.
Just as Whitey tightened the cap, we actually felt the sub give a lift off the bottom. Not a big lift, but we all noticed it.
Immediately after the swell swept over the sub, Bill gave a frantic call, "Help me guys! Get over here quick. I'm in trouble!"
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
I'm not sure who got to Bill first, the Basketball or the other divers. What I do know is that suddenly, the monitor was filled with Bill trapped at his thighs under the forward starboard skid. Right next to him his umbilical passed under the skid as well.
"Green Diver, what's your condition?" Jack was right on it.
"I'm pinned under the skid. I can move my toes. Don't think nothin's broke, but I can't move."
"That's good news." It was the Skipper. "We'll get the sub up off him. Get him onboard ASAP."
"Right, Sir," I said as he left for the Conn. I reached for the mike. "Listen, you guys," I said, "Blue Diver back to the Can right now. Get yourself rigged to get Green into the Can. We're gonna lift the sub gently. You guys get him out, and free his umbilical. Then carry him back — don't let him swim. As soon as you get him in the Can, Red Diver, you go to the pod bay and retrieve the cable. Stow it securely with no rattles, and then return to the Can."