Tony, Mike, and Theresa stood in the empty lab for what seemed like a long time. Commander Lewis entered the lab in a hazmat suit, but no mask. He was followed by Ted and Jessica, who were guiding a gurney. Ian’s body lay under an American flag. It had been wrapped in sheets and covered with black plastic specimen bags that had been cut open to fit around his body. The sickbay had no body bags—no one was supposed to die.
Tony looked at his crewmates and realized none of them knew exactly what to do. Having served aboard military ships for his adult life, he snapped to attention and gave the traditional order: “All hands bury the dead.” Using hand signals, Tony repositioned everyone around the gurney as pallbearers. They slowly wheeled the gurney to the nearest ACD, which happened to be ACD 2 nearest the black smoker. Tony hesitated for a second when he realized that, but then kept moving. What was the difference at this point?
When Ian’s body was in front of the large door, they stopped and faced each other, three on each side of Ian, following Tony’s lead. Tony called everyone to attention, then eyeballed Jim, who bowed his head. The commander quietly called “parade rest” and said a short prayer as best he could. When he was finished, he looked up, teary eyed, and spoke softly. “We give our brother to the deep. May he rest in peace.” Tony, who was closest to the door, opened the ACD and the six of them lifted the body into the tube. When Ian’s body was inside, Tony reached to retrieve the flag.
“Leave it. It all goes,” said Jim quietly. He wasn’t taking any chances on contamination, no matter what. Tony understood, and turned and faced the door, which he closed and sealed.
Tony’s body went rigid and he barked the command, “Uhhh-tennnnnnn-tion!” He snapped a hard salute, which was repeated by the crew. They held it there for a moment, watching Tony for guidance. Jim walked over to the console and pressed the command, which flooded the ACD. He then opened the outer door, Ian’s body floating slightly in the tube, awaiting the current to take him out. Tony slowly brought down his salute, which was repeated by the crew. Jim quietly said, “Dismissed.”
The crew looked at each other in silence, and after a moment Theresa and Mike filed out of the lab, followed by Tony. Jim told Jess and Ted to bag their suits, along with his, to be jettisoned and then they were all to scrub in the shower. Their bagged suits would also be jettisoned. As soon as that was done, there would be a team meeting on the bridge to decide the future of their mission.
**********
Theresa, Mike, and Tony sat in the bridge, sipping coffee. No one spoke—they were drained. A while later, Jim entered with Ted and Jessica, and Tony tried his best not to show his worry over Jessica’s health. He was dying inside, wanting to run over and hug her and ask her how she was. He settled for making eye contact and raising his eyebrows, as if to ask her if she was okay. She merely looked at him with sad eyes and turned away. Jim, Jessica, and Ted were each in fresh clothes, having scrubbed their skin till it glowed red.
Jim walked to his console chair and sat down, waiting for everyone else to find a chair. When everyone was seated, he rested his elbows on his knees and tried to find the right words.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we need to come to a consensus. Although I’m commander of this ship, this isn’t a warship. We’re a research vessel staffed by civilians. You don’t have to be here. You aren’t required to give your last breath to this mission.” He paused and looked each crew member in the eye. “We have issues, people. Ian is dead, the ship’s hull is stressed because of the temperature gradient, and we have the fear of possible contamination, although we’ve done everything possible to avoid that. I’m asking for a vote. We can abort right now, or we can stay and try to finish this mission. A vote to stay doesn’t mean we stay the entire year no matter what; it just means we don’t abort right now. We’ll take it day by day. A vote to abort means we drop legs and spend a week or so decompressing to the surface. Quite honestly, I’m at a loss for making the decision. This certainly hasn’t gone the way it was supposed to. If you’ve got something to say, now’s the time.”
The crew members sat in silence for what seemed like hours. Eventually, they started looking at each other, waiting for someone to start a dialogue.
Jessica took a deep breath and spoke quietly, looking mostly at the floor. “I feel like I failed. I failed Ian and I failed the mission. I’m the ship’s doctor. I didn’t know what to do . . .” She did her best to hold back her tears, but it was a losing battle.
The other crew members quietly offered words of support, telling her that it wasn’t her fault. Finally, Ted spoke up louder than the rest.
“It wasn’t Dr. Clark’s fault. I’ve been studying that bacteria for years, and no one could have predicted what happened. Quite frankly, what we’ve witnessed was tragic, yes, but scientifically speaking, it could change how we think about life on Earth.”
Tony shot him a look that had daggers. He bit his tongue not to say anything. Mike looked at Theresa, trying to gauge her reaction. The tension in the room was obvious.
Ted continued. “I know you don’t understand all the research I’ve been doing. Yes—I’m the NASA guy in a crew of sailors. I get that. But you all need to understand that a good part of this mission isn’t just about deep-sea research for the sake of the ocean. It’s about learning things down here that can take us to deep space. The bacterium is the key to all of this. We need to be careful, but I vote for staying. We’re only scratching the surface of what can be learned down here. And as far as the ship goes, I know this vessel inside and out. The materials used to build this hull could sit inside a volcano at forty thousand feet and be completely safe.”
The crew exchanged glances, wondering who would pipe up next. Theresa cleared her throat and spoke softly. “Ian was my friend and colleague. If aborting the mission could have saved him, we all would have voted to surface immediately. But he’s gone. I’m with Ted—we stay and finish the mission. Maybe we learn something so important it means Ian didn’t die in vain.”
The room stayed silent again for a moment until Tony finally said, “I’ve never been on a ship that didn’t finish its mission. I vote for staying.”
Jim looked at Mike, who merely said “Yeah.” He looked at Dr. Clark.
“Jessica?”
“One day at a time. We stay,” she said quietly.
“Okay, that’s it then. One day at a time. Take the rest of today off to sleep and try and unwind. Tomorrow we start a new day.”
Mike stood up and cleared his throat. “Um, Skipper . . . I have some unauthorized contraband aboard this vessel. If everyone wants to meet in the galley in a bit, we can have a toast to Ian and I’ll make something to eat.” He walked out before he had to see Jim’s reaction to his smuggled booze.