While the Chosin wasn’t designed for rescue operations, it was the closest ship when the call came in, and was dispatched immediately to link up with the DSRV. The DSRV was brought alongside the missile cruiser USS Chosin and secured. The hatches were opened, and four very exhausted sailors climbed out of the sub, and then up ladders to the ship. From the forward hatch, the two pilots of the DSRV emerged and climbed up to the deck of the Chosin, then jogged back to see their crew and question Ethan in greater detail about their two lost submariners.
Captain Miles, pilot of the DSRV, was the first to reach Ethan and he grabbed him by the arm. “What the hell happened down there? Why did we leave without our sailors?”
The executive officer of the Chosin, Commander Kiley, stood with his Command Master Chief to greet the survivors as they emerged from the DSRV. Several sailors from medical stood nearby with blankets and thermoses of hot coffee. When Captain Miles saw the XO, he let go of Ethan and snapped a salute.
“There was a problem during the rescue, commander. We lost two of our crew,” he said stoically.
The XO’s face fell. “Let’s get these people to sick bay and debrief with the skipper in the ward room.” The commander brushed the hair off of his eyebrows. As usual, his long brown hair was over regulation length. On more than one occasion, the captain had told “Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome” to see the ship’s barber, but generally left him alone because he was a fine officer.
The medical crew descended upon the three rescued sailors and wrapped them in blankets, offered them hot coffee, and escorted them off the deck to sick bay. Ethan followed Commander Kiley, the co-pilot and the XO to the captain’s ward room.
By the time the four of them arrived at the ward room, the skipper, Captain Jeff Krekeler, was right behind them.
“Attention on deck!” snapped the XO as the skipper entered the room.
“Be seated,” replied the captain quietly. “You lost two crew?” he asked the group.
The XO looked at the DSRV’s captain, Captain Miles, who looked at Ethan.
After an impatient silence, Ethan cleared his throat and tried to find the right words. “Sir, we linked up with the Challenger and executed the sub entry. The crew inside were in a state of total panic, and were screaming at us to disengage. There were only three of them, not seven as expected from our briefing. I assisted the three of them up into the DSRV. One of their crew, Tony, who seemed to be the one in charge, ordered us to leave their hatch open, disengage, and surface.”
“Leave their hatch open—as in scuttle their sub?” asked Captain Miles.
“Yes, sir. Captain Lawes insisted on going down into their sub after the three of them came up. He was attacked by something on the sub, and then Petty Officer Whitney went to try and help, and he was also attacked. I tried to help him back up into the DSRV, but he was, uh…”
The commander stared hard at the sailor.
“Sir, he was torn apart right in front of me.” Ethan extended his own hand, staring at it, as he pictured holding the man’s hand, no longer attached to his body, when he tried to pull him up the ladder.
“Torn apart? By what?” asked the skeptical commander.
“Sir, it wasn’t human. I mean, the crew down there were doing some kind of experiments. Some of them got infected. But it wasn’t like anything you’ve ever seen before. It wasn’t human. It tore our guys to pieces. I saw it.”
The commander sat back and folded his arms. “Continue.”
Ethan looked around at the officers in the room. “Look, I know it sounds crazy. But I know what I saw. They were being attacked and were screaming to get off that sub. Captain Lawes wasn’t going to sink a billion dollar sub, so he went to down to check it out…”
“Six billion, sailor. You’re damn right you don’t sink it.”
“He didn’t last a minute, sir.”
“And you saw Captain Lawes attacked by something on the sub?”
“Not him, no. But then Whit went down to get him, and I was hanging down the ladder, I saw it get Whit. I saw it…”
“Saw what?” asked the commander of the missile cruiser.
“It was a monster, sir. I know I sound crazy, but it was a sea monster. Sir.”
“And so you saw something, panicked, and intentionally sank a six billion dollar research submarine?” asked Captain Miles.
Ethan screamed and fell back in his chair, grabbing his ankle. The other sailors hopped up out of their chairs and moved around the table to try and help their screaming comrade.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” asked the commander of the cruiser.
“Cramping up?” asked Captain Miles, worrying about decompression sickness.
Ethan pulled up the ankle of his pants and saw what looked like a thick slug stuck to his skin. There was a little blood running down his ankle. “It’s biting me! Get it off!”
The skipper saw the thing on his skin, maybe three inches long at the most and got annoyed. “Come on, sailor! Relax, it’s just a…a…what the hell is that?” He stared at it. His brain was recognizing the shape as a human finger with a mouth at one end, but it wasn’t computing in his head.
“It’s one of those things from the sub! Get it off of me!” screamed Ethan. He was rocking back and forth on the floor holding his leg.
Captain Miles grabbed one end of it and pulled, but the thing flattened itself against the skin of the ankle and sucked against the flesh even harder. Digestive enzymes leaked from the mouthparts and burned Ethan’s skin, which blistered up around the wound. “Shit. Whatever it is, it doesn’t want to come off. Let’s get you to sickbay and let the doc get it off.”
Ethan was helped to his feet. “Get Tony!” he said with a groan. “He knows how to kill these things. He said they used alcohol!”
“Alcohol?” asked the commander of the Chosin. “Hang on.” He walked to a cabinet in the ward room and grabbed a bottle of hundred proof rum. “This should do the trick.” He unscrewed the bottle, and one of the men helped hold up Ethan’s leg. The commander poured a little bit on the slug-looking creature, and waited.
Ethan began screaming and shaking his head in pain. “Get it off! Get it off!” The creature shrank in size as Ethan screamed, and then dropped off onto the carpet.
“Get that thing!” snapped the commander. “Wait—put it in a bag or something. Don’t touch it!” The men began opening drawers and cabinets, looking for something to put the small creature in securely. One of them found a small cigar box and placed it on the ground sideways, then used his shoe to kick it into the box. “Got it!”
Ethan was holding his lower leg and rocking back and forth in pain.
“Seriously? It hurts that much?” asked Captain Miles.
“Yes!” screamed Ethan. He looked at his ankle. It was already changing to a dark blue color and swelling, as if he had been bitten by a rattlesnake. “Look! Something’s wrong!” he shouted, sounding scared.
“All right! Let’s get you to sickbay. Just relax!” said the XO, getting Ethan’s arm up over his shoulder and helping him out of the room.
The commander of the cruiser looked very alarmed. “Somebody call the folks you took off that sub! I want to know what we’re dealing with!”