Sea of Greed

“I may have overplayed my hand,” Kurt said.

“May have?” Joe replied.

Up ahead, several crewmen had reached the hatch that led to the docking sphere. They were frantically trying to pull it open.

“Stop!” Kurt shouted.

His voice was lost in the clamor. The men at the hatch raised the lever. The door flew open with such violence that they were thrown back across the floor.

With the control sphere losing pressure and the docking sphere at full pressure, that was the only possible outcome. That and the torrent of water that came blasting through the hatchway.

The control sphere was now being flooded from two directions. It was also burning and in danger of exploding — or, more likely, imploding. It all depended on whether the storage tanks blew up before the integrity of the sphere gave way completely.

Kurt began pulling off his overalls.

Joe did the same. “What could go wrong? you said. Should be a piece of cake, you said.”

“Next time, I won’t say a thing,” Kurt promised.

“If we live to see next time.”

“How can you two speak like this?!” Millard shouted.

“We still have hope,” Kurt said.

“Not if we just stand here!”

Kurt tossed the overalls away. “Actually, that’s the only thing we can do. At least until the pressure equalizes and the water stops pouring in.”

Millard was too panicked to think. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re a scientist,” Kurt said. “What happens when the water rises above the gap in the sphere?”

Millard nodded as understanding came to him. “Equilibrium will be restored,” he said. “The air will have nowhere left to go. The water will stop rushing in.”

“And we can swim out of here once that happens,” Kurt said.

“You two can,” Millard said. “But what about me?”

“I’ll drag you with me,” Kurt said. He pulled out the backup regulator. “You hold on tight and breathe through this. Once we’re out of the ship, we’ll ascend slowly. If you panic or do anything foolish, I’ll cut you free. Understand?”

Millard stared at the water flooding in around them. “Okay, I’m with you,” he said. “All the way.”

Spray began to rush up from beneath them, swirling up over the top of the grating at their feet. The flood churned in a circular motion and the gigantic whirlpool picked up everything it touched, including Kurt, Joe and Millard.

“Hold on,” Kurt shouted.

Millard wrapped his arms around Kurt as water swept them away. Kurt held an arm across Millard’s chest in a lifeguard’s rescue hold.

They went with the current, which dragged them around the far side of the sphere, past the burning tanks and back toward the section where the hatch lay.

In the middle of their second lap, the water crested above the gap in the sphere. With nowhere for the air to escape, the pressure balance was restored.

“The bathtub’s full,” Kurt said. “Now, if the sphere will just hold together until we get out of here, all will be well.”

Joe drifted ahead of Kurt and Millard as they neared the hatchway.

“I’ll go first,” Joe shouted.

He put the regulator in his mouth and dived without waiting for an answer. Kurt made sure that Millard had the backup regulator in his mouth, then clamped down on his own.

When he was sure the oxygen was flowing, he went under. The water was murky, lit only by the flickering of the fires. An ethereal light was coming through the hatchway. It was the spotlights from the submersible.

He followed Joe’s blurry outline toward the hatch, kicking smoothly and holding on to Millard. They went lower, reached the open doorway and swam inside the pipe that connected the two spheres.

Joe was visible for an instant before he vanished through the far side of the tunnel.

Kurt kicked and stroked with his free hand. It was a tight fit with Millard attached to his side and they bumped the wall as soon as they went in. Halfway through, he felt the one sensation he’d been dreading.

The water surged, a brief push, like that of a passing wave, but it was followed by a sudden and violent undertow. Kurt knew instantly. The sphere behind them had cracked like an egg and the air was pouring out once again, drawing thousands of gallons of water a minute into the open space.

Kurt was sucked backward, Millard was ripped from his grasp and both were drawn through the tunnel and spat back out into the burning and flooding sphere they’d just left behind.

42

KURT BROKE the surface. In the light of the fire, he could see water pouring in from higher up. The gash in the wall had torn upward like a zipper and the sea was crashing down like a waterfall.

Kurt had no hope of swimming free. He was carried forward on the current to where the two streams met. There, he was pushed upward and then dragged under before being forced to the side and reaching the surface once again.

He bumped into a floating body. It was Millard. He was unresponsive and bleeding from a gash on the head. Kurt had no idea if the man was dead or alive, but he grabbed ahold of him as they were carried around the sphere and up toward the top of the dome.