Duncan looked at the other divers. “Great. We’re in a tin can under the water and he’s talking about wrecks.”
“Mike?” asked Martin.
“Nothing Dr. Martin. Just saying how exciting it is to be doing this.”
Kate looked back at Duncan. He’d never looked excited about anything. She was sure it was sarcasm but Martin seemed unperturbed.
“At about 4,500 feet, or 50 feet above the bottom, we will anchor the hab to the wall. Once we’re fixed in place we’ll use the ROV to do an initial inspection of the bottom. If all looks well we’ll begin dive operations. We believe the vents are very close to the wall in this area so we expect to be able to either swim across the bottom to them or we’ll use the two-man tow adapter on the ROV to take divers to them. Obviously the plan will get amended once we are down there and have a better idea of the local topology.”
Martin paused and scanned the faces. He’d expected some questions, mostly because when he gave presentations there was always someone who had an issue with what he said. But the crew stood quietly waiting for him to continue. They all knew the plan of course. He’d been over it many times with them preparing for the dive. He looked around once more, then continued: “Dr. Ford would like to go over the medical aspects of the dive and then Dr. Carver will say a few words.”
Martin stepped off the Pelican case and Nicole Ford took his place.
“Stand on the case,” someone said.
“I am.” Nicole said a little defensively to some laughter.
“We have all been breathing the hydreliox mix for a while now and nobody has reported any problems. You will all be taking the sensor pills every day for the duration of the dive. The computer system has been monitoring and recording everyone’s status and so far it has not found any anomalies. I expect it to stay that way. The meds we started during pre-dive confinement will also continue to be administered every two to three days. The schedule is being set based on analysis of data from the smart pills but obviously this cannot take into account any psychological effect you may feel. So it is most important that if you feel any effect whatsoever, you let me know. I want to emphasize that. Don’t wait until you have a problem. Even if it’s just a headache, or you feel a bit off color, let me know.“
At the sound of her raised voice several heads nodded. Nobody was keen to start showing signs of HPNS, as this would mean the end of the dive. There was no way to send a single person back to the top. Either they all stayed or they all went back up.
Ford continued: “I’m not talking about seeing pink elephants, although you should certainly report that too. What I’m most interested in are the subtle precursors such as headaches, muscle tremors, visual effects such as spots in your vision and so on. You have all heard me on this topic several times now. I know that some of you will ignore a headache or other minor signs because you don’t want to jeopardize the dive but if just one of you gets really affected we’ll need to start the ascent right away because the treatment you would need is a long way from here. So let me say just one more time: any effects at all, let me know. Thanks.”
Ford stood down from the box and disappeared into the small crowd.
Martin looked around. “Dr. Carver please”
Carver stood at the front ignoring the box.
“Can you all hear me? You don’t need to see me for this.”
“Get up on the box,” came a voice from the back. “We can’t see you.”
“Very well then.” Carver got up on the black plastic case carefully.
“Obviously Dr. Ford’s interest is in biological effects of the dive. My own interest…”
Duncan whispered: “is if we go nuts”. White nodded but kept watching Carver.
Carver continued. “…is in psychological effects such as those brought on by confinement, lack of privacy, or the bad food.” He looked at Miller. “Just joking Kayla. The food is excellent.” He went on: “I’d also like to reiterate my comments during training about the contrasts you might experience between the relative quiet and boredom of the ten days of our descent, and the thrills and anxiety you may experience as we begin diving when we reach the bottom. Having ten days to anticipate what you might encounter or experience is potentially quite stressful so please let me know if you are going to bug out so I can provide the right drugs.” A few people raised eyebrows and there was some laughter. Martin shuffled his feet. He wished Carver would be more professional.
“Just joking. You don’t need to get weird to get the drugs.” He smiled at them. Someone whistled. Inwardly he was evaluating the faces. The incident with Ramirez was mild compared to what might happen if just one of the crew started hallucinating. If more than one was affected it was going to be like a loonies convention down here and he seriously doubted that anything short of knocking them out was going to be of much use until they could reduce the pressure by ascending.
“Is that all doctor?” Martin asked.
“Yes, I think so for now” and he stepped down.
Martin got back up on the box and there was a loud crack as he sunk down a few inches.
“Our podium has obviously had enough,” he said to some laughter, “So I think we’ll leave it at that for now for the scientific details. On a different note, we will of course be conducting continuous systems monitoring as we descend and Mr. Bazhanov will be conducting regular radiation monitoring of our most important power source. Do you wish to say anything about that Mr. Bazhanov?”
Segei Victorovich Bazhanov or Boris to most of the crew pushed his way to the front.
“Reactor is operating perfectly as has done for last year. This model is most reliable and has powered many Russian spacecraft. Reactor will not be problem so long as nobody hits it with hammer.”
It was hard to tell if Boris was trying to be funny or simply not communicating well. His English was generally very good thanks to him having lived in the US for most of his adult life but his attitude to Russian technology was very much that of his father who had been an innovator in the Russian space program and had been instrumental in promoting these small reactors for scientific and engineering uses. Most of the engineering community at the institute was somewhat skeptical about the safety of these reactor/generator systems but the low cost and high electrical power output made them very attractive for projects such as the Pheia. The Russian engineering companies that made the reactors were now private operations. They were now making plenty of money from foreign exports and were very keen to continue to do so.
Martin got back up on the case. “One more thing. Mr. Newell asked me to remind everyone that unless you want your dive watch crushed as we descend, you should unscrew the winder once a day to let it equalize pressure.”
He concluded the meeting and most of the crew left the operations center leaving only Martin and Newell the logistics coordinator.
“So Jason, are all our supplies in order?”
Newell raised an eyebrow. It was a bit late if they had forgotten anything. “Yes, we’re all set. We didn’t get the backup ELF system as you know, but the primary system is operational and in any case it’s unlikely we’ll need it.”