Part 25 (1/2)
Pressing her suit flat against the deck, she used her manipulator fingers like climbing crampons to crab sideways towards the rail. When she reached it, she hauled herself to her feet, reaching out and grabbing Skarda, pulling him toward her as he followed her.
”Still with us?”
”I'm here...” His voice was faint. ”I think I'm getting a little more air now. They must have damaged the oxygen circulator when they bled the air out. I'm woozy, though...hard to think...”
”Stay with me! I'm betting the torpedoes are still operational. The mechanisms wouldn't have decayed any in the anoxic environment. If I wrap a cable with a loop in it around the tail fins, you can grab it with your manipulator when it shoots out of the tube. It'll take you straight to the surface.”
Skarda frowned. Something didn't add up. He fought to focus on what she was saying, but the meaning seemed to evaporate into nothingness. Bright spots of light blinked at the edges of his vision. Willing his mind to focus, he dissected her words, one by one.
Then a sickening realization hit him. ”Who's going shoot a torpedo for you?”
Her emotionless reply filled him with dread. ”Better that one of us gets out than none. Somebody's got to stop them. And you're in no shape to make it into the torpedo room. Besides, I've fired a torpedo before in training exercises. Have you?”
It felt like his head was filling with blood. His senses swam. ”No...but you have the skills to stop them. I don't! You should go.”
Her voice came back to him in final, abrupt tones. ”It's up to you to save the day, Park. We don't have much air left. You're going to have to make it to the starboard bow fin by yourself. Can you do it?”
In the dark water between them the silence hung heavy.
”Park...you know I'm right. It's the best way. Can you make it to the bow fin?”
His voice came back to her, raw with reluctance and dread. ”I can do it.”
”Good. Let's get a move on.”
Helping him rotate to his feet, she raised her bulky arm, laying the claw-like manipulator against the side of his helmet. He lifted his own arm, resting his manipulator against hers. Their eyes met in silent communication.
In her black gaze he saw depths of emotion he'd never seen before.
But not a trace of fear.
”Go,” she said softly. ”Good luck.”
And then she was climbing up the planks of the deck, using the railing like a mountaineer's rope, rising up the length of the U-boat toward the opening they had cut in the bow.
For a few heartbeats, Skarda stayed rooted in place, pinning her with his light, watching her bulky shape disappear into the gloom. His heart sank. Despair flooded his mind.
But he knew she would want him to have none of that now.
Emotions could come later, when the work was done.
Finally, firmly gripping the rail, he put one foot in front of the other, heading for the bow.
___.
The exploding points of light had vanished like spent fireworks, but now the edges of Skarda's vision were turning black, like solid walls closing in on either side of him. It was getting harder and harder to concentrate. Cold claws of panic clutched the back of his neck. Blood pounded like raging surf inside his skull. Focus seemed so hard.
He'd made it to the section of the hull above the bow fins. Just below them his light picked out the black holes of the torpedo tubes, three of them stacked one atop the other. He knew he was supposed to get to the bow fin. Somehow. In his swimming vision it looked big enough to hold him, but then suddenly he wasn't sure. Suddenly the whole plan seemed absurd and it would be easier just to let go, to let the current grab him and suck him down into the black depths of the sea.
”Park! How are you doing?”
April's voice in his ear jerked him back to reality. With grim determination he narrowed his focus, straining to force his brain into coherency.
”I'm here,” he responded. ”I'm at the bow fin.” The sweep of his light showed ladder rungs affixed to the hull. ”I'm climbing down now.”
”Okay. I'm inside the torpedo room. Twenty torpedoes here. They fire with compressed air, so I'm a.s.suming they'll still work. I'm wrapping a cable around one now. I'm going to load it into the top tube. That's the top tube. Get ready, okay?”
”Okay.”
Carefully, he climbed down the rungs, placing each foot down with deliberate care and hanging on to the last one while he stretched himself out over the fin. The tube opening was just below him, just out of reach. He hauled the bulky suit forward, still holding onto the rung. By leaning over the edge of the fin and thrusting out his arm at full length, he could grab the cable when the torpedo fired.
Or try to.
”All right,” April said. ”Ready to go. I'll give you a countdown. On three I'll hit the firing b.u.t.ton. Get ready.”
”April-”
”No time, Park. Here we go. One...two...three!”
With an explosion of bubbles the torpedo erupted from the tube. Skarda reached out, seeing the steel cable whipping crazily, the makes.h.i.+ft loop flas.h.i.+ng past him- His manipulator claws clacked together, missing it.
The torpedo shot toward the surface in a stream of bubbles.
Panic seized him. His lungs labored and suddenly he realized he was gasping inside his helmet, desperately trying to suck in the nitrogen-oxygen mix.
”I missed it!” he called out. His voice seemed to come from far away, from the mouth and throat of someone who wasn't him. His arms and legs felt like they had been molded from lead.
”Park! You have to hold on! Park!”
April's voice startled him. His body jerked. He'd been dreaming of Sarah, seeing her so fresh and beautiful, sitting on the sand with the tide swirling all around her, the sunlight caressing the soft lines of her face.
”Park!”
With all the effort he could muster, he wrenched his mind back to reality, to April's insistent voice.
”I'm here.”
The relief in her voice was unmistakable. ”Okay. Let's try it again. Just concentrate and you can do it. I'm counting on you, Park.”
”Okay.”
”Same tube, okay?”
”Okay.”