“Now for the dome release trigger; that’s what I looking for. It’s over here.”
He probed through another maze of wires in the box with the screwdriver and looked back.
“If I remember right the scuttle signal comes in on these two wires after the EPod blasts off and this timer here delays the pulse for the explosive bolts. Then a minute later it sends pulses out to them over these wires and breaks the dome loose sending it floating upward.”
“You sure, Dave?” I had delved through wiring mazes just like it and knew one wrong move could have devastating consequences.
“Fairly sure,” he said frowning. Then with a snort he added, “Of course I’m sure, Matt. I designed and built it.” Then pointing his screwdriver to the panel lying upside-down on the floor he chuckled, “And the schematic’s right there. I’m reading from it”
Another jolt shook the station tilting us further up. I noticed the screws in the doorway that has stopped at the doorsill bumped up from the floor and rattled into the Z-room.
“Condition Red. Condition Red,” Ivy announced. “My inclinometers show a dangerous tilt in the station. Tipping is imminent. Evacuate immediately! Evacuate immediately.”
Frowning at her announcement, he raised his head and spoke toward her console.
“Ivy, Dave Bowman. Announce on the PA across the station for the crew to lie down on the floor and hold tight to something sturdy. They may be tossed around a little as we break loose from the base and right ourselves on our way up.”
“I will do that Dave.” A moment of purring came next.
“But, Dave, if I lose my power from the base I will go dormant. Is that true?”
“I’m sorry, Ivy. Yes. Dormant but not out of existence. Your thoughts will remain in your memory until we power you back up in the future.”
“Very well, Dave. Goodbye. It has been a pleasure serving with you. Ivy signing off.”
With Ivy’s announcement beginning from the PA speakers, I queried him.
“So Dave, how is this going to work? Other than all at once I mean. I know that, but when you activate that timer what happens?”
“First I have to simulate the EPod’s release by shorting these two terminals then we run like hell through the station dodging obstacles and seal the Q4 hatch behind us. After it’s sealed we race back into mess hall and then seal the Q3 hatch. Finally we join everyone else on the floor and pray for the best.”
“Roger that, Dave. If I don’t get a chance to tell you I want you to know that way back when we were young, standing on the beach together making those sandcastles that were always gone by morning, I loved you as the younger brother I had lost… and I still do. I never said that but I assumed you knew.”
“I did, big brother. Now let’s roll.”
Chapter 24. Breakaway
Wiping his eyes, he reached down with the screwdriver and shorted the two terminals flashing a brief spark. I checked my watch as the timer he had just pointed out began to count down with one-second flashes.
“Go, go, go!” he yelled standing up waiting for me get out of his way.
Through the Z-room and vault, we raced avoiding overturned chairs and computer consoles as we stumbled toward the core room. Having cleared the vault he turned back then leaned against the heavy bulkhead door and slammed it closed and twirled its locking wheel.
All we had to do now was round the core room and enter the mess. I glanced at my watch and saw only twenty-two seconds left until the bolts would disintegrate finally releasing us from the monopole’s fury.
“Hurry Dave! Twenty seconds!”
Rushing around me, he stopped in his tracks.
“Damn! Some idiot closed the mess door,” he screamed.
He fought the hatch wheel for seconds finally freeing it and spun it until the thick door unlocked and swung forcefully on its hinges into the tilting room, crashing against the bulkhead wall and rebounding. Its unexpected force yanked him into the room and sent him sliding and rolling across the floor into the serving line’s base.
“Somebody grab him he’s not moving,” I yelled seeing my watch tick down the final seconds. “Hold him tight!”
I turned back and pulled then pushed with all might against the door forcing it closed. As I spun the locking wheel, the room shook with loud explosions and jerked upward then downward. Tables and chairs flew into the air, landed, and slid over the floor, slamming into the crew as they grasped vertical beams and pipes around the room. Then all of a sudden, the overhead lighting flickered and changed to a deep red, shadowing my vision. The blood-red darkness made it difficult for me to see across the room where Dave had stopped.
“Is Dave okay?” I yelled holding tightly on to the wheel as my eyes adjusted.
“He’s all right! Just knocked out cold by the fall,” Williams yelled back.
“How about the Admiral?”
“He’s fine. Tending to Bowman’s head wound.”
My watch continued counting up to the one-minute mark, as I waited for it, bucking the station’s undulations and worrying that Dave’s memory of the scuttle’s C4 trigger wiring might have been incorrect.
Wiping sweat from my eyes as it ticked past one minute, I breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing had happened except the water rushing past the surface of the dome had grown louder as we increased speed, rising faster and faster, still bobbling toward the surface. The crewmembers were silent staring into nothing with terrified expressions not knowing what to expect.
“We’ve passed into the safety zone,” I shouted trying to comfort them. “We’ll be topping the surface any minute now.”
Their cheers and applause made me smile and I finally accepted that we would make it.
Surfacing would have been less noticeable if it weren’t for the distant sounds of helicopters whirring over the dome and our slow rocking motion in the waves. With the crew rising, standing up for the first time since our ordeal started, wild cheers erupted at the sounds.
“What now” Briscoe asked approaching me.
I glanced down at Dave and saw he was still unconscious.
“We have to break through the wall. Dave told me how.”
“Break through this wall?” he asked. “I would think that would be very difficult. Have a Sawzall or jackhammer on you?”
“No, but I do have a hundred pounds of C4 on my side.”
“A hundred pounds!” he shouted, “That’ll blow through the whole damn deck and kill us all.”
“Well Dave told me it’s in the walls. We have to find it. Maybe we can separate the loads and fire something smaller.”
“Yeah, that would be smart, Marker. Let’s do it.”
“Oh,” I added pulling him back, “You’ll find an orange and white pair of wires leading to a blasting cap somewhere on the outer wall. The C4 should be there around the cap.”
He ran into the pantry and began throwing boxes around looking for the wires. I joined him and started to search, patting my pocket for the D-Cell. I knew this would be a very hazardous exercise after we punctured the wall. We would then have to wait for the quad to fill with water before we could finally swim out. Then we’d still have to free-dive up through ten or twenty feet of cold Pacific water to reach the surface. Extremely risky I thought.
“Do you see another way to get out Chief?” I asked pulling a pallet from the wall.
“Well the pressure’s not as dangerous out there since we’re so close to the surface. I expect we’re floating with the top decks out of the water. But if we flood this quad we’ll sink further making our upward free-dive longer.”
“So what can we do?”
“Think. Outside the box Marker. That’s what you seem to do best. Do it now.”