Collapse Depth

“Now you can start working on OOD,” said Morgan. “And then…your dolphins. You are definitely on track. Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” said Duggan, a little embarrassed at the praise.

He looked up at the three panels, a final check before taking the watch from Morgan. Everything was pegged…they were still at ahead flank and you could almost sense the engine room, and the reactor, begging for mercy. There were a few yellow warning lights scattered across the panels, bearings that were hot, water levels that were low. One red light caught his attention. “The alarm?”

“Engine room upper level ambient. It’s a hundred and ten degrees up there, hotter than heck.”

“From the main engines?”

“The main engines and those high pressure drains. All that steam is really heating things up, the refrigeration units can’t keep up. Especially since we’re down to two, with all that Freon we lost.”

“And water?”

“Everything is going into the reserve feed tanks. We’re probably going to have to suspend showers on your watch. Hope you took one.”

“I didn’t.”

“Well let me get mine in before you shut the valve.”

Duggan looked behind Morgan, at the primary system status board, wondering if there was anything else he should ask.

“You’re ready,” said Morgan. He said it as a friend, not as someone just trying to get out of the box and to dinner.

“You think so?” Duggan laughed. “The watch qual book says I am, so I guess I am.”

“You know something is going to happen right?”

“I’ve heard.” It was an old superstition, one he’d heard many times in the days leading up to his board.

“It always does. Something always happens on your first qualified watch.”

“What happened on yours?”

“I remember,” said Barnes, without turning around. “That was my first watch too. Thought we had carry over. Almost shut the whole thing down.”

“That’s right!” said Morgan. “I forgot you were in here with me. They’d done SGWL maintenance on the previous watch.” He referred to the system that controlled steam generator water levels, pronouncing it as ‘squiggle.’

“They fried one of the flip flops,” said Barnett. “But we didn’t know because it was high range. Didn’t pick up till we increased power on our watch.”

“That’s right. So we get over fifty-percent reactor power, and in here, it just looks like level is going up. In both generators.”

“Doesn’t shoot up…just creeps up,” said Barnett. “Just like it really would in a casualty.”

“But we didn’t have any of the collateral indications,” said Morgan. “No noise in the engine room, nothing. But all I know is what I’m seeing here. I’m afraid water is getting ready to carry over, go right out there and shred both main engines, both turbine generators.” It was a frightening prospect — any moisture travelling into the thin, precisely engineered turbine blades at their high speeds would destroy them, obliterating both propulsion and electricity. Morgan continued.

“Tremain was the throttleman…he had his hands on the cutouts.” He pointed to the big hydraulic valve handles that should shut off all steam to the engine room. “We’d still lose power, still lose propulsion, but we’d save the turbines.”

“Jesus,” said Duggan.

“Right, I know…it would cause a scram, too, don’t forget, automatically. And we were ready to do it. I was ready to give the order. I was two hours into my first watch.”

“Then Chief Flora comes haulin’ ass in here from instrument alley,” says Barnett. “Saying, ‘don’t do it! Don’t do it! We fried the flip flop!’”

“He’d been reviewing the maintenance records and noticed a discrepancy…ran back to the engine room just as we were calling it away, put it all together and stopped us just in time,” said Morgan.

“I still think you should have called it away,” says Barnes. “If you’d been following the procedure…you had the indications. You had no way of knowing. What if Flora had just lost his mind? What if he’d decided to try to kill us all?”

“I guess Flora was right,” said Morgan, grinning. “And so was I. So…I wonder what will happen on your watch?”

“We’ll see,” said Duggan. “Hopefully nothing.” He took a deep breath. “Lieutenant Morgan, I am ready to relieve you.”

“I’m ready to be relieved. Reactor is at 100 % power, normal full power line up, reactor plant is in forced circulation, all main coolant pumps on fast. Keep an eye on the main engine bearings, and make sure someone takes McCormick some ice water in upper level, so he doesn’t pass out or puke.”

“Will do. I relieve you.”

“I stand relieved!” Morgan slapped him on the back and started to walk out.

“Ensign Duggan is the Engineering Officer of the watch,” he said. He wrote the time and same words on the EOOW’s log, his first entry as a qualified watch officer.

“Throttleman, aye.”

“Reactor operator, aye.”

“Electrical operator, aye.”

Morgan spoke from the other side of the chain. “Good luck, pal.”