Part 8 (2/2)
Almost at once Franklin gave a cry of satisfaction.
”We've made it!” he shouted. ”He's knocked cold again! How long do you think it will keep him under this time?”
”We can't rely on more than twenty minutes, so plan your ascent accordingly. We're right above you-and remember what I said about taking at least ten minutes over that last two hundred feet. I don't want any pressure damage after all the trouble we've been to.”
”Just a minute,” put in Don. ”I've been looking at those whales. They've put on speed and they're coming straight toward us. I think they've detected Percy-or the beacon we put in him.”
”So what?” said Franklin. ”We can frighten them with- oh.”
”Yes-I thought you'd forgotten that. These aren't patrol subs, Walt. No sirens on them. And you can't scare sperm whales just by revving your engines.”
That was true enough, though it would not have been fifty years ago, when the great beasts had been hunted almost to extinction. But a dozen generations had lived and died since then; now they recognized the subs as harmless, and certainly no obstacle to the meal they were antic.i.p.ating. There was a real danger that the helpless Percy might be eaten before he could be safely caged.
”I think we'll make it,” said Franklin, as he anxiously calculated the speed of the approaching whales. This was a hazard that no one could have antic.i.p.ated; it was typical of the way in which underwater operations developed unexpected snags and complications.
”I'm going straight up to the two-hundred-foot level,” Don told him. ”We'll wait there just as long as it's safe, and then run for the s.h.i.+p. What do you think of that, Doc?”
”It's the only thing to do. But remember that those whales can make fifteen knots if they have to.”
”Yes, but they can't keep it up for long, even if they see their dinner slipping away. Here we go.”
The subs increased their rate of ascent, while the water brightened around them and the enormous pressure slowly relaxed. At last they were back in the narrow zone where an unprotected man could safely dive. The mother s.h.i.+p was less than a hundred yards away, but this final stage in the climb back to the surface was the most critical of all. In this last two hundred feet, the pressure would drop swiftly from eight atmospheres to only one-as great a change in ratio as had occurred in the previous quarter of a mile. There were no enclosed air s.p.a.ces in Percy which might cause him to explode if the ascent was too swift, but no one could be certain what other internal damage might occur.
”Whales only half a mile away,” reported Franklin. ”Who said they couldn't keep up that speed? They'll be here in two minutes.”
”You'll have to hold them off somehow,” said Dr. Roberts, a note of desperation in his voice.
”Any suggestions?” asked Franklin, a little sarcastically.
”Suppose you pretend to attack; that might make them break off.”
This, Franklin told himself, was not his idea of fun. But there seemed no alternative; with a last glance at Percy, who was now beginning to stir again, he started off at half-speed to meet the advancing whales.
There were three echoes dead ahead of him-not very large ones, but he did not let that encourage him. Even if those were the relatively diminutive females, each one was as big as ten elephants and they were coming toward him at a combined speed of forty miles an hour. He was making all the noise he could, but so far it seemed to be having no effect.
Then he heard Don shouting: ”Percy's waking up fast! I can feel him starting to move.”
”Come straight in,” ordered Dr. Roberts. ”We've got the doors open.”
”And get ready to close the back door as soon as I've slipped the cable. I'm going straight through-I don't want to share your swimming pool with Percy when he finds what's happened to him.”
Franklin heard all this chattering with only half an ear. Those three approaching echoes were ominously close. Were they going to call his bluff? Sperm whales were among the most pugnacious animals in the sea, as different from their vegetarian cousins as wild buffaloes from a herd of prize Guernseys. It was a sperm whale that had rammed and sunk the Ess.e.x Ess.e.x and thus inspired the closing chapter of and thus inspired the closing chapter of Moby d.i.c.k; Moby d.i.c.k; he had no desire to figure in a submarine sequel. he had no desire to figure in a submarine sequel.
Yet he held stubbornly to his course, though now the racing echoes were less than fifteen seconds away. Then he saw that they were beginning to separate; even if they were not scared, the whales had become confused. Probably the noise of his motors had made them lose contact with their target. He cut his speed to zero, and the three whales began to circle him inquisitively, at a range of about a hundred feet. Sometimes he caught a shadowy glimpse of them on the TV screen. As he had thought, they were young females, and he felt a little sorry to have robbed them of what should have been their rightful food.
He had broken the momentum of their charge; now it was up to Don to finish his side of the mission. From the brief and occasionally lurid comments from the loud-speaker, it was obvious that this was no easy task. Percy was not yet fully conscious, but he knew that something was wrong and he was beginning to object.
The men on the floating dock had the best view of the final stages. Don surfaced about fifty yards away-and the sea behind him became covered with an undulating ma.s.s of jelly, twisting and rolling on the waves. At the greatest speed he dared to risk, Don headed for the open end of the dock. One of Percy's tentacles made a halfhearted grab at the entrance, as if in a somnambulistic effort to avoid captivity, but the speed at which he was being hurried through the water broke his grip. As soon as he was safely inside, the ma.s.sive steel gates began to close like horizontally operating jaws, and Don jettisoned the towrope fastened around the squid's flukes. He wasted no time in leaving from the other exit, and the second set of lock gates started to close even before he was through. The caging of Percy had taken less than a quarter of a minute.
When Franklin surfaced, in company with three disappointed but not hostile sperm whales, it was some time before he could attract any attention. The entire personnel of the dock were busy staring, with awe, triumph, scientific curiosity, and even downright disbelief, at the monstrous captive now swiftly reviving in his great concrete tank. The water was being thoroughly aerated by the streams of bubbles from a score of pipes, and the last traces of the drugs that had paralyzed him were being flushed out of Percy's system. Beneath the dim amber light that was now the sole illumination inside the dock, the giant squid began to investigate its prison.
First it swam slowly from end to end of the rectangular concrete box, exploring the sides with its tentacles. Then the two immense palps started to climb into the air, waving toward the breathless watchers gathered round the edge of the dock. They touched the electrified netting-and flicked away with a speed that almost eluded the eye. Twice again Percy repeated the experiment before he had convinced himself that there was no way out in this direction, all the while staring up at the puny spectators with a gaze that seemed to betoken an intelligence every wit as great as theirs.
By the time Don and Franklin came aboard, the squid appeared to have settled down in captivity, and was showing a mild interest in a number of fish that had been dropped into its tank. As the two wardens joined Dr. Roberts behind the wire mes.h.i.+ng, they had their first clear and complete view of the monster they had hauled up from the ocean depths.
Their eyes ran along the hundred and more feet of flexible, sinewy strength, the countless claw-ringed suckers, the slowly pulsing jet, and the huge staring eyes of the most superbly equipped beast of prey the world had ever seen. Then Don summed up the thoughts that they were both feeling.
”He's all yours, Doc. I hope you know how to handle him.”
Dr. Roberts smiled confidently enough. He was a very happy man, though a small worry was beginning to invade his mind. He had no doubt at all that he could handle Percy, and he was perfectly right. But he was not so sure that he could handle the director when the bills came in for the research equipment he was going to order-and for the mountains of fish that Percy was going to eat.
Sixteen.
THE SECRETARY OF the Department of Scientific Research had listened to him attentively enough-and not merely with attention, Franklin told himself, but with a flattering interest. When he had finished the sales talk which had taken such long and careful preparation, he felt a sudden and unexpected emotional letdown. He knew that he had done his best; what happened now was largely out of his hands.
”There are a few points I would like to clear up,” said the secretary. ”The first is a rather obvious one. Why didn't you go to the Marine Division's own research department instead of coming all the way up to World Secretariat level and contacting D.S.R.?”
It was, Franklin admitted, a rather obvious point-and a somewhat delicate one. But he knew that it would be raised, and he had come prepared.
”Naturally, Mr. Parian,” he answered, ”I did my best to get support in the division. There was a good deal of interest, especially after we'd captured that squid. But Operation Percy turned out to be much more expensive than anyone had calculated, and there were a lot of awkward questions about it. The whole affair ended with several of our scientists transferring to other divisions.”
”I know,” interjected the secretary with a smile. ”We've got some of them.”
”So any research that isn't of direct practical importance is now frowned on in the division, which is one reason why I came to you. And, frankly, it hasn't the authority to do the sort of thing I propose. The cost of running even two deep-sea subs is considerable, and would have to be approved at higher than divisional level.”
”But if it was approved, you are confident that the staff could be made available?”
”Yes, at the right time of the year. Now that the fence is practically one hundred per cent reliable-there's been no major breakdown for three years-we wardens have a fairly slack time except at the annual roundups and slaughterings. That's why it seemed a good idea-”
”To utilize the wasted talents of the wardens?”
”Well, that's putting it a little bluntly. I don't want to give the idea that there is any inefficiency in the bureau.”
”I wouldn't dream of suggesting such a thing,” smiled the secretary. ”The other point is a more personal one. Why are you so keen on this project? You have obviously spent a lot of time and trouble on it-and, if I may say so, risked the disapproval of your superiors by coming directly to me.”
That question was not so easy to answer, even to someone you knew well, still less to a stranger. Would this man, who had risen so high in the service of the state, understand the fascination of a mysterious echo on a sonar screen, glimpsed only once, and that years ago? Yes, he would, for he was at least partly a scientist.
”As a chief warden,” explained Franklin, ”I probably won't be on sea duty much longer. I'm thirty-eight, and getting old for this kind of work. And I've an inquisitive type of mind; perhaps I should have been a scientist myself. This is a problem I'd like to see settled, though I know the odds against it are pretty high.”
”I can appreciate that. This chart of confirmed sightings covers about half the world's oceans.”
”Yes, I know it looks hopeless, but with the new sonar sets we can scan a volume three times as great as we used to, and an echo that size is easy to pick up. It's only a matter of time before somebody detects it.”
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