The three of them could only look on in stunned silence as the display revealed a possible sunken vessel one hundred fifty meters below. A sickening feeling began to form at the bottom of Chloe’s stomach; it was a pang of dread as her worst fears began to materialize on the luminous monitor screen right in front of her.
Ethan noticed the change in her demeanor. “We’ll need to identify her first, then take stock of any surviving crewmembers still around. Modern ships just can’t sink like a rock, and I’m sure there’ll be lifeboats somewhere in the vicinity.”
Owens began moving towards the radio room. “I’ll coordinate with Rob to see if we picked up any mayday signals coming from the lifeboats.”
Chloe blinked rapidly to stave away the tears forming in her eyes. Her knees soon began to wobble. Placing her hands on the edge of the countertop, she pressed down with her palms, using the extra support to remain standing.
Ethan placed a comforting hand on top of hers. His voiced lowered to a near whisper so that the other crewmembers wouldn’t hear him. “We just got here. I’m sure the lifeboats are somewhere close by, so we can’t jump to any conclusions yet, okay?”
Chloe gave a slow nod. “Y-you’re right.”
Leaning over to his left, Ethan picked up the intercom microphone and switched the channel selector to the ROV control room, located two decks below the ship’s bridge. “Blain, how soon could your team deploy an ROV?”
Blain Milburn was a veteran submersible operator, having worked in deep sea oil and gas construction for over two decades before Ethan snapped him up. The control room was his personal fiefdom, and he ran his small team like a well-oiled machine. “Give us about fifteen minutes to prep one of my kids up, Ethan,” he answered. Blain always referred to his ROV submersibles as his children. “Where do you want her?”
Ethan glanced back towards the monitor screen. “We’ll maneuver the Wanderer just above the suspected wreck site. It should take about half an hour, and then we could bring down the ROV for a closer look.”
“Sounds good to me, Ethan. We’ll be ready.”
“Okay, out,” Ethan said as he placed the microphone back on its holder before turning to face Chloe. “Let’s take this slow and easy, it’s better to be methodical than rush things like—”
His words were interrupted when the intercom squawked to life once again. This time it was Blain who was calling them.
Ethan turned the loudspeakers on before acknowledging him. “Go ahead.”
“I think one of our forward deployed drones just found a survivor,” Blain said over the speakers. “Switch your monitor to channel eight.”
Chloe quickly used the remote to change the display over to the designated channel. As the image of the nearby floating debris was shown on the monitor, she let out a gasp. “Over there, someone’s alive.”
Lying on the top canopy of a half-submerged life raft was Izzy Kozlowski, her fully clothed body still wearing a red life vest. Izzy’s eyes were closed, and it seemed she didn’t even notice the small aerial drone as it hovered less than five meters above her.
36
AFTER PICKING UP IZZY using one of the Wanderer’s inflatable rubber dinghies and bringing her into the vessel’s sickbay for treatment, Chloe and Ethan boarded the Sedna. The crew then placed the submersible into the water via an A-frame winch. One of the ROVs was already deployed and busily searching around the depths below them, and Blain had confirmed the recently sunken ship was indeed the Skandi Aurora.
Ethan sat in the cockpit’s forward seat and stole a glance back at Chloe before settling down and beginning a status check of the controls in front of him.
Chloe sealed the bubble canopy shut before sitting directly behind him in the pilot’s chair. “What is it?”
“Nothing, just wanted to check if you’re alright.”
“I’m fine,” Chloe said tersely. She had expected him to suggest that she sit out the search and allow somebody else to pilot the Sedna due to the obvious conflict of interest, so she continued to act as professionally as she could, and was ultimately glad that he didn’t even mention it.
Ethan nodded. “Alright, we’re good to go.”
After giving an okay sign towards the watching crew on the Wanderer’s aft deck, Chloe activated the controls. A torrent of air blew out from the rear module and the ballast tanks filled with seawater. In less than a minute, the Sedna began her descent into the blue depths just behind the Wanderer’s stern.
Blain’s voice crackled over the radio. The Sedna had deployed a trailing wire antenna in order to communicate with anyone in range. “The live video feed is working at my end, over.”
“Okay, so far so good,” Ethan said as he flipped open several palm-sized flat screen monitors in front of him. In addition to the Sedna’s onboard cameras, he could also access the video monitors that were built into the deployed ROV to provide a clearer picture of what was happening all around them.
“Just to let you guys know,” Blain said. “That lady we picked up. I know her.”
“Who is she?” Chloe asked.
“Her name is Isabel Kozlowski, but everyone in the industry calls her Izzy,” Blain said. “I think she was the one in charge of the Aurora’s ROVs. She’s got a pretty good rep—I think her touch on the controls is a wee bit better than mine.”
“You sound jealous,” Ethan quipped. “Maybe I’ll hire her to take over your job.”
“Nah,” Blain said. “I’ve got a contract—signed by your dad, so I’ve got job security.”
Ethan chuckled. “Okay, okay.”
Chloe’s tone remained businesslike. “How’s she doing?”
“She’s still unconscious,” Blain answered. “Doc says she’s got severe dehydration, hypernatremia, and hypothermia, but he says she’s got a good chance of pulling through.”
“That’s great,” Chloe said. “Let me know when she wakes up. I’ve got a lot of questions to ask her.”
“Will do, Chloe. Over and out.”
Placing her hands on the right joystick control, Chloe began to pilot the Sedna into a steep descent, the light blue waters quickly turning dark. There were numerous bits of floating debris all around them, each item having attained neutral buoyancy that made it seem as if they were trapped by an invisible net underwater.
Ethan activated the onboard sonar module as the Sedna dived down past the ocean’s thermocline layer and into the mesopelagic zone. The submersible’s external lights now switched to full power as the murky blue waters quickly turned jet black.
Using the downloaded location map from the Wanderer’s sonar readings as a guide, Chloe revved the throttle, boosting the Sedna’s speed to over seven knots. Unlike the other competing submersibles in the market that used generic parts, the Sedna’s heavy duty, omni-directional thrusters were specifically custom built for both speed and power.
Ethan could only stare in wonderment as the submersible dove past a near endless school of shrimp that swarmed all around the clear bubble canopy, apparently attracted to their lights. “There’s a ton of sea life down here, moreso than usual.”
“What makes you say that?” Chloe asked.
“You normally don’t see much active krill at this depth, and not in huge batches like this,” Ethan said. “Either the baleen whales that feed on them are taking a few months off and moved on to greener pastures, or something else happened that we don’t know about.”