“We’ve got some inflatable pads and blankets,” Morrison added.
When all the divers were out of their suits, they hung them up next to Kate’s. Nobody gave orders. They just worked quietly and got organized. The inflatable mats went over on one side of the room and the food was unpacked and stacked next to Kate’s small supply.
“Just like camping.” Washington said.
“You backpack?” Kate asked him.
“Hell no. Too primitive for me, but I’ve done some car camping with my folks in the past. Didn’t like that much either.”
“John likes his creature comforts,” Stephens added.
Kate noticed a bottle of wine in the food pile.
“Who brought the wine?” she asked.
“That is a gift from the Indian guy.” Morrison added. “I can’t pronounce his name. Submarine or something like that. I think he’s some kind of shrink. He said he thought you deserved it. And I have to say based on what I’ve seen so far, I agree with him.”
“So what do we all do now?” Kate asked.
“Not much,” Morrison replied. “The surface has us hooked up and will control the ascent. I need to do a systems check but unless we have a gas problem, we eat, talk, play cards and wait.”
He nodded to the other two. “We’ve had our fair share of long decompression dives. The deco is usually boring and in a tight space so we have learned to adapt.”
He pulled a plastic box from one of the storage bins and unsnapped its catches. He pulled out a cardboard box. Kate saw it was a set of trivial pursuit cards. “We don’t use the board.” Morrison explained. “Just do the questions. This is a new set. Stephens memorized the last, set and kept winning, and we can’t have that.”
Stephens stepped closer and took the box. “Bastard. These are all rock music questions. That’s pretty underhanded.”
Morrison laughed. “Stephens only likes the two kinds of music. I’m not going to give them any credence by naming them.”
Kate decided that the divers were probably OK. She’d reserve judgment until they had been together for a day, but she knew she could at least kick some butt at trivial pursuit. She found a plastic bag of sandwiches in the food pile. “Cheese sandwiches! May I?”
“Help yourself,” Morrison said.
Kate pulled open the bag and took one out. “You guys want any?”
“Nope. We had breakfast before the dive.”
She took a large bite. It tasted wonderful after the dried food. “Mmmm. Yes.” She was about to say something when the speaker in the console surprised her.
It was Williams talking from the surface.
Kate looked at Morrison.
“We hooked up a comms line,” he explained. “I guess your boss wants to chat.”
“I’ve got it,” Kate said through a mouthful of sandwich, and pushed the talk button. “This is Kate.”
“Are you OK?” came Williams voice. It was like he was in the room.
“I’m fine. We just unpacked the food. Thanks for the sandwiches. I think I’ll open the wine next.”
There was a pause.
“Wine?” Williams asked
“I think Dr. Subramanian sent it. At least that’s what Morrison told me.”
“I see. I will ask him. Perhaps it’s not a good idea to drink it until you get to the surface.”
Kate raised her eyebrows. “Really? You send down wine but I’m not expected to drink it? I don’t think so. Tell Dr. S thank you from me.”
Williams didn’t respond. Evidently he’d decided not to argue.
It seemed an odd way to end the conversation but Kate was more interested in finishing her sandwich.
Stephens had found some plastic cups and had poured wine into four of them. He gave one each to Kate, Morrison and Washington. “Up the rebels!” he said.
They touched cups and drank the wine.
The divers inflated their mats and sat on them. Kate sat cross-legged on her mattress recounting the events of the past few days.
“So how did you know how to build the antenna? I saw it on the way down and wondered what the hell it was,” Stephens asked.
“I just took a guess really. I knew that lower frequencies needed longer antennas so I made it as long as I could.”
Morrison watched Kate. This woman was really something. She didn’t seem affected by the experience at all. In fact, he got the impression when they arrived that she was a bit resentful of having to share her space with his crew. She seemed OK now though. In fact, she seemed to fit well with the group’s humor, which was a little unusual. They had worked together a long time and had many inside jokes. Those didn’t faze Kate at all. If she didn’t get it, she came right out and asked; and the explanations didn’t embarrass her. At one point Kate had said: “I’m a biologist. I know all about sex.” That had caused a loud burst of laughter from everyone.
The wine had definitely helped. Morrison thought that he should send the Indian shrink a thank you note. Or maybe he’d just do that in person when they got back to the top.
As the day passed, they moved from Kate’s tale of the past days to playing trivial pursuit. She turned out to be good at that too. Morrison could not figure out how someone her age could possibly know so much about rock music from decades ago.
“My parents subjected me to it as a kid. It was almost the only music I ever heard in our house. We had a server with a lot of music on it. This was before Pandora and apps like that. So I listened to what was there and got to like it. I’ve moved on a bit since then, but rock still has a special place for me.” She picked up Dr. Ford’s iPod. “It turns out that Dr. Ford had the same passions.” She laughed. “I was really grateful for this a few days ago.” And then she went quiet.
Nobody spoke. Morrison’s team knew only too well what it was like to lose someone you worked with. They all knew she was thinking about the accident.
Washington stood up. “I need to take a leak.” He walked over to the ladder and facing away from the group, peed in the water.
Stephens had opened a bag of trail mix and was about to hand it to Kate when the Pheia lurched upwards. The trial mix flew out of his hand and spilled over the mats. Williams fell over as he was trying to zip his pants up. “What the hell was that?” he shouted.
Morrison got up and went to the control console, but before he could hit the talk button, the surface beat him to it.
“Pheia, be aware we have some swell up here.”
Morrison hit the talk button. “Thanks for the notice.” he said just as the Pheia lurched up again.
“This is Williams. The captain says that there is some rough weather heading our way again. We had thought it was all passed but it seems there is a second system on track for us.” There was a pause, then “Over.”
“So how bad is it going to get?” Morrison asked.
“We don’t know. This swell caught us by surprise too. The weather is still good up here except for the sea condition. If it gets worse we may pay out some slack and ask you to re-engage the drive system until it calms down. Over”
“You want us to do that now? Over.”
“No, not yet” Williams responded. “The captain says the swells don’t look like they are going to get any worse for a while and he says the servos on the winch is coping with the smaller waves. Over.”
The deck pulled up under Morrison again.
“It’s a little rough down here. Are you folks sure the habitat can handle the stress? Over.”
“The engineers are discussing that now. I’ll let you know what we are going to do in five to ten minutes. Over”
“Roger. Out”
Morrison looked at the others. “Well, this is nice.”
Williams had got up off the floor. “You think this tub can handle this?” he asked Morrison.