Sea of Greed

“In this suit, you’ll be twice as fast as the world record holder,” Joe said. “It’s strong, too. We tested it against a four-knot current and the diver made it two miles without even breaking a sweat.”

“Two miles against a strong current,” Kurt said. “Who was dumb enough to volunteer for that job?”

Joe pointed to himself. “That’s the problem with being a visionary designer, no one believes in you till you prove it.”

“You’re starting to sound like Tessa,” Kurt said, taking the dive helmet from Joe. “Now, what’s the deal with these helmets? They look like a cross between Buck Rogers and a VW Bug.”

Joe feigned distress at the comment. “Form follows function. With these helmets, you can see in the darkest, murkiest water like a dolphin.”

Kurt studied the helmet a second time. He noticed the appendage on the right side was slightly different than the one on the left. “One for emitting the sound burst, the other for hearing what bounces back.”

Joe nodded. “What’s the one problem with a night dive? Aside from the creepy feeling that something might be sneaking up on you.”

“Visibility.”

“Exactly. Without powerful lights, you can’t see much at all. Even with them, you often attract sea creatures like moths to a campfire. And on a dive like tonight’s, we’re not going to be using lights at all unless we want to attract an entirely different kind of attention.”

“Too true,” Kurt said. “But I hope you don’t expect me to interpret pings and clicking noises the way dolphins do.”

“I’m aware of the limitations of your puny brain,” Joe said. “The system uses a scanning sound beam to continuously paint the area in front of you. The emitter uses ten different frequencies simultaneously. The receiver picks up the reflected sound waves, runs them through a program Hiram and Priya developed and then projects a 3-D image against the glass of the helmet. It’s monochrome for now, so it’ll feel like you’re swimming in a world of black and gray, but it’s pretty amazing, if I do say so myself.”

“Can’t wait to try it,” Kurt said. “And the rebreathers?”

“I simply miniaturized everything, added a powered filter and included a small reserve air tank in case the filters get corrupted or the pump breaks down.”

Kurt began pulling on the gear. “You’ve outdone yourself this time. Let’s give this stuff a try.”

As soon as they entered the water, Kurt began playing around with the sonar system. He swam under the wake boat, flipping over onto his back and kicking deeper. The sonar buzzed softly in his ear, but was not obtrusive. The detail on the glass in front of him was incredible. He saw seams and welds, even a notch in the propeller where it had obviously hit something — all from twenty feet away.

The only real issues were shadows and loss of definition whenever something blocked the sonar wave, causing a delay in response and video projection.

With the human mind used to perceiving life in the all-but-instantaneous fashion of vision through light waves, the delay in response from the sonar system was obvious and mildly disorienting when one moved one’s head from side to side. “That lag is going to take some getting used to.”

Joe’s voice responded over the intercom. “It’s the one thing we can’t engineer out. Best not to move your head too often or too suddenly. One of the test divers got really queasy doing that.”

“Was that you?” Kurt asked.

“Like I said, it’s hard to find good help. Ready?”

Kurt nodded.

“Use the internal navigation system and set your course zero-two-five. That will take us right toward the freighter.”

Kurt looked at the forearm-mounted display, hit the navigation button and typed in 025 [SET]. A compass indicator appeared, projected on the glass of the helmet.

Submerging, Kurt turned until 025 was directly in front of him, then began the long swim, activating the power-assisted modules early in the journey.

The boost was sudden and unexpected, like stepping onto a moving walkway that was traveling faster than one realized. This sensation also took some getting used to. The wetsuit squeezed and released his legs rhythmically and, before too long, it felt natural, even soothing.

“This is like a compression massage,” Kurt said. “I cannot believe someone didn’t think of this before.”

“Not everyone has the mind of a genius,” Joe replied. “Keep an eye on your battery level. The power pack will give you an hour of full assist, with a reserve of ten minutes at half strength.”

Kurt glanced at the arm-mounted display and saw that his power level was ninety-seven percent. The rest of the journey was conducted in silence until the helmet-mounted GPS told them they were nearing the freighter’s location.

“Setting the sonar to maximum range,” Kurt said. The change brought the hull of a midsized freighter into view. “Let’s go under the ship and come up on the far side. Keep toward the bow in case they start those props.”

“Sounds like a reasonable plan,” Joe said.