Sea of Green (IC)

[Electra]

Stesha looked at him, then at the suit, her eyes wide. "We're three thousand feet deep, give or take, aren't we? Thirty-three feet per atmosphere of pressure... we've got to be looking at nearly 100 times surface pressure out there. Even if we risked opening an airlock and putting someone out there, we wouldn't be able to bring you back in, or your blood would instantly boil." She looked to the window again, concentrating harder. A few tendrils of algae approached the boat, waving in front of the window. "I can do it, I just need a boost..."

[Supercape]

"A boost?" said Quentin, scratching his head. "What kind of boost... you mean getting closer to the vent?, or something else."

He was quite lost as to exactly what Stesha meant, her ability to control plants was a mystery to him. Perhaps it was the stress of the situation, perhaps the pressure (both psychological and physical) was getting to him, but he leapt to the only conclusion that presented itself to his mind...

"Young lady, I hope you are not referring to any illicit drugs!"

[Electra]

Stesha gave him a narrow eyed look, then pointed to the window. "Warm up the water, Quentin," she told him, unable to conceal a thread of exasperation in her voice. "Plants like the warm water, it helps them grow. If it helps them grow, it helps me grow them. If I can grow them easier, we'll get out of here faster. If we get out of here faster, we may avoid being squished into tiny smears of jelly, and I won't have to see whether I can still regrow a body under 100 atmospheres of pressure. You see?" Even as she spoke, the algae outside was in motion, wrapping delicate lacy tendrils around the body of the ship.

[Supercape]

"Spiffing!" smiled Quentin. "Jolly good show! Bravo!"

Adjusting his bow tie for the umpteenth time, he pressed his face against the window. Yes, he could just make out the glistening algae. Now, plot a path to the Walrus, lets have a guess at the thermal currents - damn if only some of those instruments were still working.

Anyway, to business. It wasn't perceptible to any but Quentin, but a stream of excited molecules, only a few particles wide, started to behave most peculiarly. Jumping around and reconfiguring themselves, they started to emit a low level microwave burst. The result, a line of heated up water from the Walrus to the vent.

It wasn't easy, and it took concentration. "I think that's it, Stesha, hard to calibrate, and the heat disperses quickly. Too much, and its fried algae for supper..."

[Electra]

"That's good, I can feel it getting easier," Stesha muttered, closing her eyes to concentrate on her work. "Okay, here we go, cross your fingers..." The entire submarine shuddered and tilted once more, this time returning to an even keel and beginning to rise. It was a very slow process, but gradually they left the sea floor and began to drift upwards, buoyed by a cushion of plants. The air in the sub was getting very stuffy, but it was a little better right near the plant controller. "Can you make a light?" she asked him.

[Supercape]

"Light? I think you saw that little trick at your, umm, little getaway", he winked.

He couldn't resist.

"Let there be light! And lo, there was..."

A brilliant flash of white light bathed the walrus and a few hundred feet around it for a fraction of a second. It would have been brighter still, was it not for the high level of sediment in the water.

The ship gave another ominous creak.

[Electra]

Stesha made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a whimper, looking around at the ship. "If it starts to go, I'm going to try and teleport us," she decided aloud. "I have no idea what that will do to the ship, or to us, but better to at least have a chance at surviving than getting crushed in this thing. If I only had my seeds, I could just get us all out of here and everything would be okay." A thread of despair was weaving its way under the calmness in her voice now, as she contemplated the very long ascent ahead of them.

[Supercape]

Quentin turned to Liebniz "Whats the situation with our power supply?"

For all his snideness, the current situation had brought focus to his brilliant mind.

"Fried!" he replied. "I can give a shot rebooting some of the systems. I have done a bit of hotwiring to the system, but I don't know how long it will last."

"Do we have a better option?" asked Quentin.

"Are you asking me for my opinion, Quill?" sneered Liebniz.

"Cut it out Liebniz. Just play straight and narrow Cricket. Just this once. Or otherwise, you may not get a chance to play anything ever again."

Liebniz whitened, but nodded. He disappeared under a control panel, and with a dramatic spark of electricity, the power came on, flickering at first, but then steady. It was not as bright as before but it was on. The mechanical female voice started droning, at one third speed and low pitch "Welcome to the Walrus. All systems onliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine."

[Electra]

The ventilators began to hum once agan, converting seawater into breathable air. Stesha sighed relief right along with them. "Now that we're off the bottom, can you start draining the ballast tanks, slowly?" she asked Liebinz. "If we control the ascent, we should be safe." Somewhat belatedly, she went to take a look at Green, who was just starting to blink and open his eyes on the floor. "Are you all right?" she asked him with concern. "That was quite a bump."

"Whoza?" Green asked blearily. "My ship... the vent! Did we get the readings?"

[Supercape]

Quentin sat down by Green and decided that it was best to jolly the man. Who knew what concussion may have done to him?

"Just keep still, Mr. Green. Everything's fine. Just a nasty bump to the head, you have concussion. Everything will probably be a bit fuzzy for you. "

The Walrus Chimed in "Poweeeeerrr Sysssteemmmmmmms Sub-Optimaaaaal" in the slowed down, sing song speech it had developed.

With a flash of inspiration, Quentin followed suit.

"Ooiiiilll Jussssst Get the Firrrrrst Aid Kiiiiit. Everythiiiiiiing maaaay sounnnnnd weiiiiird to youuuu becauuuuuuse of youuur concusssssssion...."

He stood up, in slow motion, and went over to Liebniz. The readings on the dials were not good. They had enough for an hour or so of life support and light, and maybe some powers to the rotors, but probably not enough to get moving. The impact of the ocean floor had damaged the exterior significantly, and the ballast was jammed.

He walked over to Stesha, grabbing the first aid box en route. "Any suggestions? a little more boost perhaps?"

[Electra]

"I'm doing what I can," Stesha replied quietly, looking up towards the windows as she took the first aid box. "They're growing very quickly, but they're still just plants. Not even trees. Nothing down here has what you might call a woody stem. If we can't lighten the sub, I'm not sure we're going to make it to the surface in time." She broke the single-use cold pack open and applied it to Green's head, giving him a reassuring smile. "There we go, that'll reduce some of the swelling, and we'll see if we can't find some nice ibuprofen in here to help it feel better."

As she dug in the box, she looked back at Quentin. "Can't you and Liebinz work together on this? You've got to get the ballast pumps working before we lose power again!"

[Supercape]

Quentin scratched his head. Options. Options.

The groaning of the Walrus' hull really didn't help his concentration at all. Liebniz was too busy fighting electricity and smoke under the main control panel of the power relay.

The ballast tanks were either jammed shut, or the pumps weren't working. Or both.

What they needed was to loose some mass, loose some weight. Hold on, he thought, it dosen't really matter about the ballast tanks, they are weight-neutral. Its the compressed air that we use to pump the water out. We could pump that air anywhere.

"What we need is a balloon. I never thought I would say that at the bottom of the ocean, but there we are. "

He fingered his tweed jacket and looked at Stesha. "And I know just the cape for the job."

Removing his jacket, and making sure he was out of view, he concentrated briefly, and in its place was a giant spandex sheet of cloth.

"If we can get this to the outer airlock door, then open the door, pump compressed air into the airlock. Hey presto, a giant balloon."

[Electra]

Liebinz started at him. "You're mad!" he sputtered. "To risk opening the airlock at this depth, for... for... a child's plaything, some sort of toy? The nitrogen narcosis has got one of us after all!"

"No, no..." Green countered, sitting up with Stesha's help. "If the cloth is strong enough, if the balloon can get big enough... we could deploy it around the whole ship, and come up in the center of the balloon..." He was obviously woozy, but still enthusiastic.

"We have no way to manipulate the cloth!" Liebinz protested again. "It will drift away! The whole plan is preposterous!"

"I think it will work," Stesha said with a confident smile to Quentin. "Just explain exactly how you need it to be laid out, and I'm sure it'll work itself out."

[Supercape]

"Ok" said Quentin. "LIebniz, Green, get those compressed air cylinders."

Liebniz grumbling, and Green groggy, the two men lifted up an access panel on the floor and started to crawl to the underbelly of the submarine.

Quentin went to the airlock, and manually opened the inner door. Stepping in, he faced the outer door that stood between their oasis of oxygen and the uncompromising sea. Placing the elastic cape over the outer door, he carefully focussed his mind, increasing the tension and atomic bonds between the cape and the rim of the door.

Resisting the urge to find out if it the cape would hold (if it did, it would still bulge inwards and crush him), he stepped back out of the airlock.

Liebniz and Green appeared from the hatch, grubby and in Liebniz case, fed up.

"If we ever get out of this, Quill..." he mumbled, throwing his nemesis an evil stare.

It took several minutes to rig the compressed air canisters to the air lock. They were heavy and it took all four of them to pull them up from below deck.

Quentin took in a deep breath. "Now the moment of truth. Releasing the outer airlock..."

[Electra]

This time the ship did more than creak, it groaned as the weight of the sea attempted to rush inside the seemingly fragile shell of metal and cape. "Opening the air valves!" Green announced, his voice cracking on the last word. There was a rushing, hissing sound from outside the airlock, and suddenly, the whole ship was rolling lazily to its side! Everyone fell over, and by the time they regained their feet...

"We're lifting, we're lifting, look!" Stesha cried, pointing to the viewport. Sure enough, the sideways view showed the murky bottom receding as the makeshift balloon wrapped the ship. Stesha used her vines to secure the balloon, making sure that it would stay attached as they began to slowly ascend in the water.

[Supercape]

"I don't believe it!" exclaimed Liebniz "Your ridiculous idea actually worked!"

The angle of ascent was slow, and the balloon made the sub tilt awfully. All four passengers ended up standing with one foot on the wall of the sub. But ascending it was. Despite the groans of the hull, every minute that passed was a minute nearer the surface. A minute nearer escape. A minute when their frazzled nerves would allow just a little more hope that the crazy idea would work.

After countless minutes of waiting, they felt the sub right itself and bob violently. It could only mean one thing... surface!

A spontaneous cheer went up. Even Liebniz managed to hug Green, with tears in his eyes.

[Electra]

During the ascent, Green and Liebinz had managed to get the radio working, so it was only a few more minutes before the Coast Guard ship they'd alerted was at their position to pick them up. The sub would have to be towed in, but for all Stesha cared, it could've fallen right back to the bottom of the sea and stayed there. The Coast Guard was very confused by the nonsensical account of their narrow escape, but for the moment, they seemed to be chalking it up to adrenaline and relief.

Less than an hour after they'd surfaced, Stesha was happy curled up in a seat in the galley with a warm cup of cocoa and a blanket around her shoulders. Not that she needed it, but it was oddly reassuring. It was a lot easier, she'd discovered, being calm during a crisis than afterwards, when you realize how close you'd come to dying. It had been a trip she'd never forget, she'd give Quentin that much.

[Supercape]

Quentin and Liebniz eyed each other up back at Freedom University. It was hard to say if Liebniz was going to warm or cool towards Quentin after the day's terrors. Quentin guessed that at the end of the day, Liebniz was a creature of habit, and would just fall back to his old ways.

An hour later, in his home, the radio tuned to a classical music station and with an extremely stiff glass of port in his hand, he allowed himself a huge sigh and shudder as the fear rushed through him.

Poor Stesha. He sincerely hoped he would still be on the invite list for dinner.