After Shadow and Ocho’s amazing concert, it’s hard to drag myself out of my hammock the next morning for our second day of deep-water testing. This time Doc Iharu’s staff give Tobin, Kalli, Thom, Ree and me thicker seasuits with gloves and hoods. Doc Iharu has us descend the anchor line again to perform the usual series of computer and coordination tests every hundred feet. As we dive deeper and deeper into the cold, dark sea, I’m grateful to have good friends with me. Every time I start to get nervous, Thom makes a joke or Ree makes a face that helps me to relax.
By the time we reach six hundred feet, our target goal, the water is icy cold and blacker than midnight all around us. The extreme pressure at this depth also makes it harder to move.
:Whoa, it feels like I’m swimming through syrup or something,: Thom says as he kicks in a circle around the anchor line.
:My face is so stiff and cold,: Ree says, :I don’t think I could move my lips to talk landliver style.:
We pair up with our dive partners and begin yet another round of cognition tests. As I work, I try not to think of the vast blackness over our heads that separates us from the Sunlit Zone.
We’ve just started on our coordination tests when Tobin says suddenly, :Hey, Bria, be careful with that.:
I turn my dive light brighter to check on him. He’s staring right at me, but there’s a glassy look in his eyes that I don’t like.
:Um, Tobin, it’s me, Nere. Bria’s back at Safety Harbor.:
:I’m glad Nere’s been helping you work with the dolphins,: he says.
Hurriedly, I key a message to the testing staff. I think something weird is going on with Tobin. He’s seems to think I’m his little sister.
“He’s probably hallucinating due to the pressure or the cold. His core temperature and his blood pressure are a little low. You’d better come up now,” Doc Iharu says. “We were almost done with your tests anyway. Keep a close eye on Tobin as you ascend.”
I warn the others that Tobin is having problems. Our entire group clusters around him as we start kicking our way up the anchor chain, and I stay right by his side.
:I’m not giving up on Nere, you know,: he says suddenly, and my cheeks heat. I’m really glad he’s talking to me on a private send.
:Maybe she just doesn’t feel like she can handle a boyfriend right now,: I say. :I know she cares about you. You’re one of her best friends.:
:That’s me all right, permanently stuck in the friend zone.: I wince at the bitterness and hurt in his tone.
:You won’t be stuck in that zone forever. One of these days Nere is going to make up her mind. She knows she’s lucky you care about her so much.:
:I’d be better for her than Dai. It’s not his fault he’s so messed up, but he’ll never be normal. I’m worried he’s going to hurt her physically someday.:
I don’t know what to say. Dai is amazingly strong because of all the shark genes his father spliced into his DNA, but Dai would never knowingly hurt me. During our long trip to Safety Harbor, one time he did grip my shoulders hard enough to give me bruises, but I’ve never told anyone that happened.
We’re passing the three hundred foot flag now, and the pressure is beginning to ease. I wonder if Tobin is going to remember any of this conversation later. At two hundred feet, his eyes look more focused.
:How are you feeling?: I ask him.
:I have a whopper of a headache,: he admits, :and I feel tired.:
:Do you know who I am?:
:Of course, you’re Nere Hanson,: he says, looking puzzled, and then he gets it. :Uh-oh, did I think you were someone else?:
:You got me confused with Bria.:
:Wow, guess the pressure got to my brain,: he says and he’s quiet for a minute or two. :I don’t remember talking to you or Bria down there. Did I say anything I shouldn’t have?:
:Well, you did offer to take all my morning mess shifts for the next month,: I say, hoping to distract him from more awkward topics.
:That I don’t believe for a moment,: Tobin smiles, :but if I said it under pressure, so to speak, it doesn’t count.:
:Of course it doesn’t.: I smile back at him, but I’ll be thinking about what he said to me down there in the dark just the same.
~~~
The next day we find out that Tobin has been excused from further testing. So only Kalli, Ree, Thom and I report to the transport hub for a final day of deep-water diving. Our goal is to descend to one thousand feet below the surface, which is close to the depth of the wreck we need to salvage. This time we’re allowed to wear heating packs that circulate warm water throughout our thick seasuits.
The heating pack feels bulky and awkward on my back, but as we descend slowly through the endless dark, I’m grateful for the heat it generates. Since seawater contains so much salt, it freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water, and it feels way colder than freezing down here, the kind of cold that makes your face hurt and your bones ache. I check in with Janni topside every hundred feet because the testers want to see if my telepathy is strong enough to reach the surface from greater depths.
At last we reach the flag at one thousand feet. The floor of the strait is only another fifty feet below us, but the water is so dark and full of sediment, I can’t see it even when I shine my dive light around.
:Welcome to thirty atmospheres of pressure,: Kalli says.
:I feel like I’m moving in slow motion,: I say to the others. Even the simplest task like raising my hand to read my wrist computer takes more strength and energy. Slowly and carefully, we complete our tests without incident.
:Hey Janni, can you still “hear” me okay?: I ask her.
:I can hear you loud and clear,: comes her reply. :Your path rating must be crazy high. You’re the first telepath we’ve been able to communicate with consistently at this depth.:
:We’re done and we’re on our way back up,: I tell her.
:Roger that. The topside staff will have some fresh heating packs and some hot cider waiting for you.:
I relay her words to the others.
:A hot drink sounds awesome right now,: Thom says.
:I feel like I could sleep for a week,: Ree says. :This deep-water stuff takes it out of you.:
That night Ree, Kalli and I tie ourselves into our hammocks and fall sound asleep long before the rest of the girls in our dorm cave come to bed.
Sometime in the night, I begin dreaming vividly. I’m all alone inside a dark, shadowy wreck, and I’ve never been so cold. Whitey and Wasp chase me, but I can’t move quickly because of the dense water. I kick as hard and as fast as I can, but they’re getting closer. If they do catch me, Whitey will tear me apart with his great white teeth, or Wasp will sting me with the lethal sea wasp stingers on her hands. My lungs burn as I twist and turn through a maze of cabins and long passageways.
:Wait for me!: I call to my friends waiting outside.
At last, I find an open hatch and dive through it to escape the wreck. I look around for Dai, Ree and the rest. As the black sea devours the light from my dive torch, I realize there’s no one out there. I’m all alone. The weight of the water crushes me, and I’m so cold and tired, I’m not sure I can make it to the surface.
:Hey, Nere, wake up.:
I open my eyes to find Kalli’s shaking my shoulder. :You were having a nightmare. I thought you’d rather wake up.:
:Whew,: I say shakily. I’m so glad to find myself in the girls’ dorm cave at Safety Harbor. :Y-you’re right that I’d rather be awake. Thanks, and I’m sorry if I bothered you.:
:No biggie,: she says with a tired smile. :My dreams have been pretty disturbing tonight, too. I guess spending all that time in the dark and the cold does weird things to our brains.:
I lay awake trembling for a long time. I’m so terrified that my nightmare might return, I don’t want to fall asleep again. At one point I turn over and study Bria sleeping in the hammock next to mine. She’s smiling which makes me smile. She’s probably dreaming about training dolphins.
I’m so lucky to have Bria, Tobin, Kalli and Dai and the rest of my friends, the dolphins and my family. Being left behind in the freezing black sea was the scariest part of the nightmare, but my friends would never abandon me like that. Comforted by that thought, I finally doze off again.
Right after breakfast, my father calls Thom, Ree, Kalli, Rohan and me over to speak with him.
“Congratulations on your excellent results on your deep-water tests. Because you handled the pressure, cold and stress down there so well, you five have been selected for special deep-water rescue training that will begin in two days on the wreck of the Skookumaru.”
As I meet my father’s somber gaze through his scuba mask, I realize this is the team they’re planning to send to search for Idaine’s computer. They must be calling it rescue training, instead of salvage training, to keep Dai and the other kids from Atlantea from guessing its real purpose.
For the rest of the day I throw myself into my normal duties as a dolphin trainer. Mariah and I work with several of the youngest kids in the colony, teaching them the signals to ask a dolphin for a tow or to do a search. Mariah loves children and is endlessly patient with the younger ones. It’s so nice working in the bright green water of the Sunlit Zone where I can see well in every direction. I dread returning to the dark, cold deep.
The next morning at breakfast, our friends tease us mercilessly about our rescue training.
:Maybe Ree will find the guapo mer-guy of her dreams hanging out in that wreck,: Lena kids her.
:She can’t possibly find anyone down there more handsome than me,: Rad claims, his coffee eyes alight with laughter. Rad and Ree have been together ever since he came back with us from Atlantea. She fell for him after he risked his life to free us from the horrible collars that Kuron made us wear.
:Or anyone more modest, Sparkhead.: Ree rolls her eyes at him.
:You know that hanging out with me has been the most electrifying experience of your life,: Rad says with a smirk.
:Don’t even start with the shocking puns,: she groans. Rad has some electric eel DNA which means he can generate electrical fields.
:Maybe we’ll see some of those bioluminescent fish that hang out in the Twilight Zone,: Kalli suggests, returning to the topic of our mission today. :Angler fish sound so cool. They dangle a glowing fishing lure from their foreheads to trap other fish down there in the dark.:
:You’re more apt to find a bunch of muck on the bottom and some giant clams,: Dai mutters.
He still seems to be in a grumpy mood as we leave the mess together. :I don’t understand why they have you practicing rescues on a wreck in Beware Passage,: he says to me. :The currents there are crazy dangerous.:
:Maybe it’s because there are crazy dangerous currents all over these waters and we need to learn how to deal with them.: Because of the huge tidal ranges and many narrow inlets and passages in this region, currents are incredibly strong around here.
:I also don’t understand why they didn’t choose me to come, too.: When Dai frowns, he looks like an angry teen archangel with his high cheekbones and striking black brows. :Your dad must know I’m more comfortable in the deep than anyone at Safety Harbor.:
:Maybe he’s too happy with the work you’re doing on your deep-water corals to take you off that project. Have you and Roni decided yet if that gorgonian you found is a new subspecies?:
Dai lights up at the question. I feel guilty about distracting him, but he’s off and talking about the latest gorgonian he’s discovered. I think I like Dai best when he’s being a total dweeb about his corals.
After a two-hour tow ride out to Beware Passage, our salvage team gathers for our dive briefing. My dad is here today and he introduces us to the Carly Sue’s captain, an older man with a weathered face and shrewd brown eyes.
“Captain Gonzalez could write a book based on his years of experience with deep-water rescue and salvage operations,” Dad says.
“The Skookumaru, the wreck you’ll dive today, was a big fishing trawler,” Captain Gonzalez explains to us. “She went down in this pass twenty years ago, so her hull and bulkheads should still be in pretty good shape. We want you to practice setting a penetration line that will help keep you from getting lost once you enter the wreck. I know you kids can breathe water, but most trouble in wreck dives starts when divers lose their bearings and can’t find their way out fast enough.”
“The water in the pass is moving fairly strongly right now,” Dad tells us, “but our sensors along the anchor chain aren’t reporting anything over six knots.” He holds up something that looks like a climbing harness. “We’re going to send you down in these current rigs. You’ll clip yourselves to the anchor chain which should keep you from being swept away by the powerful currents you may encounter at deeper depths.”
Captain Gonzalez hands each of us a current rig. Made from webbing that crosses our shoulders and hips, they fit much like climbing harnesses. After checking each other’s rigs and plugging in our heating packs, we line up to dive in off the stern.
“You sure you want to do that?” Captain Gonzalez asks us with a quizzical smile.
“Do what?” Thom asks, already poised to jump in.
“Go on then.”
We splash off the back of the Carly Sue, and within moments I realize why Captain Gonzalez is laughing at us. To reach the anchor chain off the bow, we have to swim hard against the current. We would have saved ourselves a ton of effort if we’d gone off the front of the boat.
After everyone reaches the anchor chain, we clip our harnesses to it with carabiners and begin our descent. Fifty feet down, the current strengthens. By a hundred feet we’ve lost all light, and I’m glad we have the harnesses. The black water shoves at our bodies, pushing us horizontal while we use our hands on the anchor line to steady ourselves.
The current peters out around two hundred feet, and we descend more rapidly into the dark, cold depths. At four hundred feet, it returns stronger than ever. But the current sensor attached to the anchor line is reporting only four knots of current.
:Gee, this is fun,: Thom says, his big hands wrapped around the anchor line. :I feel like the current is trying to push my eyeballs in.:
:It does feel like we’re being dragged behind a boat going at least ten knots,: I say.
:Then there’s got to be something wrong with this current sensor,: Kalli decides. :You’d better report it topside.:
:Hey, Janni,: I call out to her. :We’re pretty sure the sensor at four hundred feet is malfunctioning. It’s reading four knots, but the current down here feels closer to twelve. We’re hanging on by our fingernails.:
:Roger that,: she replies, and then a minute later she says, :Captain Gonzalez wants you to try descending another twenty feet, and if the current doesn’t ease up, we’ll scrub the testing for today.:
:Roger, over and out,: I reply.
I start pulling my way down the anchor line again, but the current just gets stronger. I feel like I’m getting blasted by a fire hose. I let go of the anchor line to key into my wrist computer our official decision to scrub today’s practice dive.
A heartbeat later, the metal clip holding my harness to the anchor line snaps.