To the Bottom of the Ocean
Шрифт:
Now I am going to tell you about all the planned stages of the mission, which have been prepared specifically for your group. Each of you is going to be issued with special equipment, which includes the latest cyber wetsuits, cyber fins, masks, buoyancy compensators, belts with sets of weights, scuba gear, gloves special boots and helmets, depth gauges, underwater watches, as well as underwater personal mini-multiple computers. In addition, you are going to be provided with flashlights, underwater cameras, coils, compasses, special towing vehicles, tubes. The appearance of each wetsuit is made according to your personal preference, based on the available materials. The main and additional equipment will be waiting for you in the submarine Lunniva.
Bored with Dr. Otto’s monologue, Kize asks him:
KIZE
Okay, so what about the mission itself?
Since you are so accurate at telling us about the equipment… Where are we going to sail on this submarine?
DR. OTTO
Mr. Kize, if you hadn’t interrupted me, I would have moved right on to this point… So! Your main task is to sail on the submarine Lunniva to the floating island Shunevo to study the island itself: how it floats on the water and what is in the depths of the ocean… Find the answers to the reasons for the island’s occurrence.
In the middle of Dr. Otto’s speech, Yuto asks a counter-question.
YUTO
Well, Dr. Otto, we wanted to ask you something…
We have received information that there is already a separate group of scientists on the island, and that the island itself is very unusual: three reunited and huge trees with unusual foliage and outgoing trunks compose the island’s surface. The roots of the trees go far into the depths of the ocean. Is it true?
DR. OTTO
Мr. Yuto, everything you have said is absolutely true and I know who among the staff members reported this information to you. You were called here in order to sail to the island and study the phenomenon of the origin of it, as you are the only group that can cope with this task. If you have additional questions, you can ask me now.
All six divers negotiate. The doctor hopes that the group don’t have any additional questions and are going to sign up for the project. Ten minutes later, to Dr. Otto’s disappointment, Nayu starts talking aloud emotionally.
NAYU
Supposing we have accepted your proposal, we still need to know the exact location of the island… How can we know it, since the island itself is ten thousand kilometers away from us!?
DR. OTTO
Good question, in fact, I was waiting for it… There is a person in your group, who has devoted almost his entire life to studying the seas and the oceans, as well as the ways of orienting on the water surface. Am I right, Mr. Ryux? Also, your submarine has a special beacon installed, and a detailed map of the ocean, which will help you to avoid all the possible obstacles on the way of the submarine. You will be able to get to the island without much difficulty with the help of this special equipment.
Additional questions from Ryux.
RYUX
What is the speed of this fancy submarine and what does it look like? What is it’s difference from the submarine’s of the previous centuries? I am asking because I want to clarify how long it is going to take us to arrive in the island, and learn about the advantages of the Lunniva submarine.
DR. OTTO
The normal autonomous speed of the submarine Lunniva is 37,797 knots (70km/h). With full control in the management of the submarine, the maximum speed 70, 1944 knots (130 km/h) can be achieved. Provided you sail at the maximum speed for 10 hours and on an autonomous 14 hours, then…
Ami sharply interrupts the doctor’s slander:
AMI
Then we will arrive in about four and a half days, but we will decide on our own how we are going to sail.
More important thing is what we are going to expect on the waterway during our voyage… We are aware that the moment we catch the sight of the island of the Three Trunks, we are going to endure the anomalous zones with whirlpools in different places, as well as with new types of sea creatures. Can my assumption be somehow justified?
Out of the sudden, there is a knock on the conference room door and Dr. Otto’s phone starts to ring simultaneously. The doctor hangs up the phone call, gets up from his chair and walks to the door, asking the following:
DR. OTTO
Your code word?
???????(Unknown person)
A sharp needle of Lunniva’s figurehead.
Hearing a familiar female voice and the correct answer, the doctor dials the door code: 737688556. The door opens and the doctor let’s the woman in. The woman is in her thirties. She wears a formal black-orange suit (the colors of which refer to her being the CEO of an engineering department). She has beautiful long brown hair pinned up with a large and chic silver barrette.
DR. OTTO
I want to introduce you this woman. Her name is Narva.
She is a doctor of technical sciences, the head of the engineering department, which, together with her team, were responsible for the development and the creation of the Lunniva submarine. She will accompany you and answer all of your questions. Please, accept my apologies, but I have to take my leave on some urgent business.
Before the doctor leaves, he tells to Narva the door code.
Chapter 2 – The pearl of the ocean submarine Lunniva
DR. NARVA
Greetings to the six professional divers. Since Dr. Otto has already introduced you, then I propose to proceed to the next stage of our meeting. After that I will ask everyone to leave the conference room and follow me.
Dr. Narva and six divers leave the conference room, descend from the 5th floor and go outside. Next, they head to an alley between two attached offices near the headquarters, where there is a huge metal door with a retinal authentication security system. Doctor, having brought her eye closer to the protection system, opens the door and leads everyone to the Lunniva hangar.