Tony and Theresa stood at the rail, staring at the ocean. The deep blue sea rolled gently beneath the ship. The “interview” had started out informally enough, but by the time Tony and Theresa were dismissed, they felt like two prisoners who had been interrogated. They were physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted.
“At least they didn’t water-board us,” said Tony quietly.
“I’m waiting for them to tell us we owe them the six billion in cash,” said Theresa. “They make it sound like we just casually scuttled her. Ridiculous.”
After a minute of staring at the ocean, Tony said, “She should never have gone back down. There’s only two possibilities—those things are still alive down there or they’re not. In either case, there’s nothing we can do about it. They’re three miles down. What’s the difference?” He was shouting.
Theresa frowned. “Tony, those few lionfish that started in Florida are now millions that are almost two thousand miles away. We have to know. The ‘what if’s’ are terrifying.”
Tony turned and faced her, his face showing his stress. “Yeah? And what if they’re still alive down there? What if there’s a hundred of them now? What the hell can we do about it, anyway?”
“Tony, we have to know…”
Their discussion was interrupted by a sailor who ran to them at full speed. “Captain wants you back in his conference room right away!”
The two of them exchanged a quick glance and ran after the man all the way back to the captain’s room. They were out of breath by the time they got there. The captain was standing and looked worried.
“Sonar buoy just popped,” he said.
Theresa didn’t understand. “What sonar buoy?”
“The emergency buoy off the DSR. It’s jettisoned only in the event of an extreme emergency. They’re too deep for our sonar. I had our sonar array deployed to full depth, but they’re still too deep to pick up. The buoy relayed their last GPS coordinates, but they were still three miles down when they deployed the buoy.”
“So what can we do? Can we get the DSRV redeployed?” asked Tony, instantly sweating.
“The DSRV that rescued you linked up when you were at six hundred feet or so. Max depth is two thousand feet. If they’re ascending and we pick them up on sonar, then yes, we can deploy the DSRV and link up. We just have to wait.”
“Wait? If they deployed the buoy, they’re in trouble,” snapped Tony.
“They’re three miles down in a very small submersible. Any real trouble at that depth is over in about half a second. They either work through the problem or they don’t. Until we pick them up on sonar, there’s nothing we can do. I’m sorry.”
Tony started pacing. The captain was right, of course, but his detached calm was vexing.
The captain was still staring at Tony. “I just though you should know, that’s all. If I get any new information, I’ll let you know. That’s all. You’re dismissed.”
Tony and Theresa grunted a quiet, “Thank you,sir,” and walked back out in to fresh salt air.
Theresa spoke quietly. “Maybe they just wanted us to know they saw those things down there.”
Tony shook his head. “They’d tell us that when they got back to the surface. If they jettisoned the emergency buoy it’s because they’re jammed up down there. We’re wasting time. We should be in the DSRV headed down there right now. It will take a few hours anyway.”
“But if they’ve moved from that original position and we can’t see them on sonar yet, we could miss them by a mile. We just have to sit tight, Tony. When they hit two thousand feet, the ship’s sonar will spot them, and we can deploy. They’re going to be fine,” said Theresa. She wanted to believe it herself.