Terminal Run

But the next compartment was the special operations compartment, which was no good to him, because it didn’t have an escape trunk. But it had a deep submergence vehicle inside. He could get into the DSV and seal the hatch against the pressure of the deep. It was not as good a solution as a complete escape, but it would keep him alive until he could get the attention of someone on the surface. The water was rising toward the hatch, and he had to open it. It occurred to him that if the spec-op compartment was at atmospheric pressure, opening the hatch would be like depressurizing an airplane. He would get blown through the opening and smashed against the opposite bulkhead. If the space were flooded, he would not be able to open the hatch at all. The weight of the water above it would make it weigh several tons. He had to try to find the equalization valve and open it, but though he knew there was such a valve, he couldn’t remember its exact location well enough to find it in the dark, in a half-submerged compartment filled with thick smoke and damaged by a severe explosion. He searched in the smoky vicinity of the hatch, feeling with one hand and holding the battle lantern with the other, perched on a small ledge of decking that remained near the hatch lip. He felt a valve handle, with the characteristic shape of a salvage valve, and was about to crack it open to equalize the pressure between compartments when he heard two screams, one male and one female.

He turned and saw four heads floating in the black water. One was Catardi’s, one was Schultz’s, one face was turned away from him, and the last was Carrie Alameda’s. The faces he could see were all black, probably from the soot of the fires and explosions. They must have been standing aft of the escape trunk — waiting for Pacino to get out safely and for Chief Keating to return and report on the transfer — when the torpedo hit and the torpedo room warheads detonated, blowing them aft. The remaining crew in the control room had to be dead, since they were directly over the torpedo warheads. Pacino cranked the salvage valve handle, and a hissing noise came from the bulkhead. The spec-op compartment hadn’t been pressurized after all, which was the only good sign so far.

While he waited for the pressure to equalize, Pacino pulled the bodies close to the deck ledge. The first, Catardi, was unconscious. The second was Lieutenant Commander Schultz, whose eyes were open but glazed over. Pacino tried to see if she was still breathing, but it was impossible with his hearing damaged. He had to swim out to the next body, Wcs Cross field, but when he tried to pull the navigator toward the hatch the man seemed much too light. His eyes were also open but unmoving. Pacino reached down into the water, flinching when he found that Crossfield’s body ended at the last ribs, his body ripped in half. Pacino set him adrift and swam to the last body, that of Carrie Alameda. Carrie was conscious and staring at him in terror. He reached for her and she screamed. He tried again and she fought him off. He ducked under the water and grabbed her belt and hauled her to the hatch. She screamed and kicked him, the blow landing in his crotch, but he kept swimming, fighting off the pain. At the hatch opening she grabbed Catardi, forcing his head underwater. Pacino pulled the captain back up, cursing the insanity surrounding him. Alameda found something on the bulkhead to hold, clutching it in a death grip still staring at Pacino as if he were a ghost.

He couldn’t wait any longer, he decided, as the ship’s angle inclined further downward. He had to open the hatch and get the three suffocating wounded to the deep submergence vehicle. He couldn’t wait for the compartments to equalize completely, because with the down angle, the half-ton hatch would be too heavy to lift. He’d have to use the pressure difference to blow it open. The salvage connection still whistled, and the pressure gauge was smashed. Pacino decided it was better to risk being catapulted into the spec-op tunnel than have a hatch he could not open.

He reached out for the latch, the salvage valve still whistling in his ears. The hatch dogging mechanism was not engaged. The latch alone was keeping the hatch shut as the reg for dive specified. Pacino pushed down hard on the latch lever, and the hatch exploded into the space and sucked him through the opening and threw him down the narrow passageway. He bounced off the bulkheads twenty times, the impacts slowing his trip but bruising and injuring him. He smashed into the hatch to the reactor compartment tunnel, far uphill from the forward compartment hatch, then rolled the ninety feet back downhill to the forward end of the tunnel, swearing in pain all the way down.