There were a few more mild tremors throughout the night. I wondered if they were precursors to something bigger.
My alarm went off at 5:00 AM. Looking out the portal, it wasn't all that different from the night before. Just not quite as inky black.
We pulled ourselves out of bed, got dressed, and joined the others for breakfast—rehydrated scrambled eggs, breakfast sausage patties, and flour tortillas. A little hot sauce kept it from being totally bland. At this depth with the heliox mix, food didn’t exactly taste its best. It wasn't the most extravagant breakfast, but beggars can't be choosers. The coffee was pretty bad, and that was being kind.
"You figure out which one of us is the killer?" Marston quipped.
"Not yet, but I will," I said with confidence.
"Sometimes an accident is just an accident," he muttered.
Judy hadn’t joined us for breakfast. I hadn’t seen her since I interviewed her.
Commander Wong told Ross to check on her.
Ross excused himself, left, then returned a moment later and shook his head. "She says she doesn't feel like coming to breakfast.”
Frustration tightened Wong’s face. "I'm not sure her staying down here was such a good idea.”
"She's resilient," Marston said. "Give her a minute. She’ll pull it together.”
"I hope so.”
The tension at the table was palpable. The seed of doubt and suspicion had been planted. At this rate, it wouldn’t take the group long to fragment from lack of trust. There was no cohesion when one of the group was a murderer.
After we ate, Wong said, "Alright, we've got a job to do. Let's do it. Quinn, I want a full systems diagnostic. Ross, I want a status update on the garden. Marston, Trask, I want you to take a mini-sub and do a meticulous inspection of the exterior hull.”
They both nodded.
Wong looked at me. “ Do you have any experience with submersibles?"
I nodded.
"I know you boys have a job to do, but we're short of manpower around here. Go with Flynn in the other sub and survey the habitat as well. It will go faster if we’ve got two teams inspecting.” David looked at Flynn. "You ready for this?”
Flynn grinned. "I was born ready.“
"Give them a crash course of the controls in case of emergency."
"Aye-aye, Commander."
JD quipped, “Are you sure he’s rated on that thing?”
“I’ve put so many hours in the simulator, I could pilot that craft blindfolded,” Flynn said.
26
The yellow mini-sub was part torpedo, part spaceship. An acrylic dome offered a 180° field of view. Two main electric thrusters propelled the craft, and six additional vectored thrusters helped with maneuverability. With small swept wings, navigation fins, and rudders, the craft was sleek and stylish. A lockout chamber allowed tethered EVA dives.
Inside, the craft was full of state-of-the-art tech—digital displays, gauges, levers, and a joystick for navigation. Exterior hi-def cameras provided a 360-degree field of view. Hot-swappable external battery packs could be changed on the fly or discarded for buoyancy in case of emergency. Powerful articulated arms for grasping items and probing the seafloor allowed the sub to interact with the environment.
It was a tight squeeze for three people, but I'd been in smaller.
Flynn gave us a rundown of all the controls.
After we went through all of the systems and safety checks, we launched from the moon pool and exited the habitat into the abyss.
Powerful spotlights cut the darkness.
