Kate thought he was kidding. “Right.” She said sarcastically and handed him a mug of black coffee.
Stephens prodded Washington then Morrison with his socked foot. “Chow time.”
He continued: “No, really. You push the bag up to what you need to see, and look through it. The plastic is almost completely transparent in the water and you have a few inches of clear water inside it. It really works. When they told me about it the first time and handed me a bag to fill with water, I thought this was like being sent to the nurses office the first day.”
“I don’t get it. What’s the deal with the nurse’s office?”
“There isn’t one. An office I mean. When someone new joins the team they get sent to do all sorts of stupid stuff until they wise up.”
“So it’s kind of like being in grade school then?”
Washington laughed. He was standing now, drinking his coffee. Morrison had apparently gone back to sleep.
“Mr. Stephens here is our practical joker. To be honest with you, we are all a bit childish when we are together on the surface. It helps to pass the time. Thanks for the coffee by the way.” He waved the mug in salute.
Kate looked at the depth indicator on the console again. Stephens watched her but kept quiet. He was impressed with Kate. From what she’d told them, she’d done a remarkable job of keeping herself and the hab together for the last few days. But he could tell she was nervous. It showed in the way she was talking and the way she moved.
“It’ll be OK.” He said.
She looked at him. “Yeah, I know. Only one more day. Then we get to face the relatives.”
Stephens understood why she looked stressed now. She was the sole survivor. He had enough military friends that had been in that situation to know that her next few months would be tough on her.
“We all understand where you are right now.” He said. “When this happens to one of us we tend to close ranks. Nobody needs or wants to talk. In fact, a quiet group of close friends is probably best. I came back alone from a mission one time. I didn’t know I was the only one to make it until I was back on the sub. When I got back to base a few days later, Morrison was one of the guys who hung out with me. He never spoke of the mission. In fact, he didn’t say a whole lot about anything. He was just there with one or two other guys from other teams. We drank a lot at night, and went running during the day along the beach. I ran so hard sometimes I puked.”
Kate’s eyes were misting up.
“He’s full of shit,” Morrison said from his pad.
“I thought you were still asleep.”
“Nope. Just lying here enjoying this tale you’ve made up.”
Kate laughed and wiped her eyes. “I need more coffee.”
Washington was already on his second cup. “When we get topside, I’ll buy you a proper drink.”
“And take me running?” she asked.
He patted his belly. “Sure. I could lose a few pounds.” He laughed.
On the surface, Williams stood on deck watching the winch line that led down to the Pheia. As the barge rose and fell over the mild swell, the servo system in the winch kept the tension in the wire constant. The mechanism was designed to compensate for up to a couple of feet of movement. The last time they had big waves it had been overcome by the huge change in height of the barge and yanked the Pheia apart.
Williams watched the wire where it entered the water. It didn’t move at all as the barge rose and fell. He wondered how it worked. Some sort of electric or hydraulic control system he supposed. So long as it kept working, he didn’t really care.
He glanced at his watch and sighed. They were expecting a TV crew and some reporters later in the morning. He had done his best to keep them away over the last few days so the barge crew could work uninterrupted. A few boats had come out to look. He’d seen cameras and given a few interviews over the phone but managed to avoid having any of the reporters on the vessel. Talking over the phone let him use notes to keep track of what he wanted to say. He wasn’t sure how he’d stand up to questioning in person.
He’d made the mistake of mentioning this to Subramanian who had talked to him like one of his stress test subjects. The man was incorrigible. He had eventually offered some advice which Williams now thought might actually make sense. He had reminded Williams that the reporters were coming out for information, not to see him specifically. And if the source of their information was a bit nervous, they would either not notice, or simply understand. This was what reporters did.
He watched the steel cable supporting the Pheia for a few more seconds then turned away and walked off to the galley. He wanted an update on the procedures for the decompression stops and the recovery of the Pheia’s crew.
The day passed slowly in the Pheia. Kate and the divers played trivial pursuit. They taught her some card games and she tried to be a good sport about losing. She knew they were trying to keep her occupied. No one said very much unless there was obvious cheating which usually resulted in the cheater having something thrown at him.
Kate enjoyed their company, and appreciated the help in passing the time. She tried very hard not to keep looking at the depth indicator. Without the wall passing the portal there was no indication they were moving up at all. Occasionally they could feel a slight change in the Pheia’s position as the tension in the winch line varied a bit. They all knew that meant waves on the surface but nobody said what they were all thinking: the last big waves had caused a lot of damage.
The slight variation in the cable tension caused by the surface barge moving over the waves was transmitted down to the Pheia. The compensator on the barge’s winch combined with the slight elasticity in the very long cable reduced the variation in tension to almost nothing by the time the cable reached the Pheia. But it was just enough to cause a slight harmonic resonance in the structure. As the tension in the cable increased, the Pheia’s two cylinders were pulled together slightly as they rose. When the cable tension dropped again, the cylinders floated back down again. It was almost impossible to see the motion of the large cylinders in the water but it was enough to apply some torque to the gas lines connecting the two cylinders together.
Most of the gas lines were small diameter, high pressure stainless steel connections that had been bent, but were not otherwise damaged. They flexed with the slight motion of the cylinders. Below the thinner gas lines were two large diameter steel pipes which were part of the gas recirculation system. They helped keep the gas mix constant between the two cylinders and ensure that the pressure in each one was the same. These large diameter pipes had folded in on themselves when the crew hab was wrenched up. Both pipes were crimped almost closed but had not yet developed any leaks.
Unfortunately, one of the larger pipes had been pressing against an electrical cable for a long time now and the slight motion of the cylinders had caused the crushed part of the pipe to wear through the plastic covering of the power cable. The cable was an underwater design with a steel and copper shield around the conductors. The pipe had worked through the steel shield in one small patch and was now resting against the inner copper shield.
The galvanic action of the dissimilar metals in the salt water caused the steel pipe to start corroding very fast. The corrosion worked though the zinc covering and exposed the bare steel underneath. The pipe was under considerable tension from the cylinders at its ends and once the corrosion ate through the thicker part of the steel there was nothing left to prevent the pipe from being forced open.
Inside the hab, Kate was digging through the food pile when the alarm on the console went off. There had been occasional alarms over the past few days and she didn’t react at first.