The Deep Submergence Vehicle descent took almost three hours. They followed the last known coordinates of the Challenger and dropped slowly into the black, cold void. Unlike the first voyage, Jessica didn’t feel excitement and enthusiasm. She felt only dread and sorrow.
“Hey. See that?” asked Master Chief Wilson.
It took a moment for Jessica to see what he was pointing at. It was so faint it was barely there, but a yellow glow was visible at the edge of her eyesight. The pilot maneuvered his DSV to follow the light, which proceeded to get brighter.
“Master Chief, the Challenger…”
“Jack,” he said.
It took her a second, then she understood he wanted to do away with formalities. It was fine with her.
“Jack. The Challenger had lots of emergency lights that ran on backup batteries. In this pitch black, even faint light would show up. That’s not photo-luminescent fish. Keep heading that way.”
“Roger. I’m already on it.”
He steered for the lights until the dark outline of the destroyed ship became more evident. It was massive in scale.
“Whoa,” he said quietly, without even meaning to speak.
“She was immense,” said Jessica quietly.
Jack flipped a switch and extremely strong LED flood lights came on, illuminating the broken white hull of the Challenger. Jessica said a silent prayer for her dead shipmates.
“Looks eerie like this,” said Jack, breaking the silence. “A ghost ship this big. Seems unbelievable.”
Jessica felt sick to her stomach, but clenched her teeth and forced herself to stay focused. “Take us in close and video the wreck all the way around. I need to record as much as we can. How many minutes of recording time do you have?”
He looked at her and then straight ahead, hesitating.
“What?” she asked.
“It’s classified ma’am. Almost everything about this vessel is classified. But I can tell you that if you want a lot of video, we can do it. We can video for as long as we can stay down.”
“Which is how long?” She made a face. “Let me guess…”
They both said “classified” at the same time.
“But you’ll know anyway, when I tell you we have to surface.” He looked at her. “In four hours and thirteen minutes.” He made a fake smile.
“Yeah, well, I’m not interested in selling your secrets to the Russians or Chinese. This giant wreck in front of you was classified, too, remember? Make sure you video the sea floor in a circular search pattern around the wreck for a hundred yards or so. When you get to the thermal vent, stop and get close if you can.”
“Roger that. We’ll have to be careful at the thermal vent, though. The maximum temperature is, uh…”
“Classified,” she said, finally smiling.
“Yes, ma’am. But a thermal vent will exceed it. We’re already getting close to our crush depth. I don’t want to heat this little lady up and screw with our pressure seals.”
“I can see how a leak might not be so great,” she joked.
“No leak at this depth. A small bolt would become a bullet. We’d both be crushed smaller than a can of tuna inside of half a second.”
“Thanks. That’s so comforting. Don’t forget I was on that ship for what was supposed to be a year-long mission. Evidently, I work better under pressure.”
He smiled. Submariner humor.
Jack turned on the video camera and descended to the base of the broken ship. He began his “tour of the ship,” slowly recording the exterior of the hull. Half way around the wreck, they came to a giant opening where the ship had imploded. He stopped and used the joystick to video the opening and zoom in on the hole in the ship that was five times larger than their own vessel.
“I can get closer if you like,” he said quietly.
“Do it.”
Jack moved very slowly, until the DSV was almost inside the crevasse. He shone the LED flood lights around and they both scanned the inside of the dead submarine. Jessica felt her skin get goosebumps, and not because she was cold. There wasn’t much to see in the ship other than twisted honeycomb metal and wire. A few strange sea creatures moved about, but nothing out of the ordinary for the depth. Jessica’s mouth was dry. She kept picturing the faces of her lost shipmates.
Jack recorded in silence and then maneuvered out of the crevasse. A light started flashing on his control panel.
“Getting sharp increase in temperature. Must be near the vent,” he said. He moved slowly around the sphere until he could see the vent pouring superheated water and toxic heavy metals into the thirty-four degree ocean. Jack used the joystick to realign the lights and scan the tall tower near the sub.
Jessica leaned forward in her seat, when she spotted the colony of tube worms attached to the side of the vent, their feathery lungs bright red in the light. The water was visibly different by the vent, the way hot air on an asphalt road made heat roils. It was as if the water was shimmering and bending the objects around it. They both leaned forward and peered at the colony of giant red tube worms. An alarm beeped a warning.
“Four hundred degrees. I can’t go closer,” said Jack quietly.
“It’s okay,” Jessica replied, peering into the colony of tube worms and strange fuzzy crabs and shrimp.
“What the fuck?” blurted Jack.