Kraken - Rookie Burwick (latest ebook reader txt) 📗

heavy sigh but continued to search.

After looking for a moment longer, he gave up, and watched the waters around him for anything that might surface. But his muscles didn't agree. Pain vibrated in his shoulders and neck, along with his stomach and legs. His feet were the only fraction of his body that wasn't sore or aching, or flat out painful. He held his breath for a moment, and let everything slow down, and settle. The pain vanished within a few seconds, and his muscles relaxed from their tension.

He started breathing again after another few seconds, his body now feeling oddly recharged and fresh. His muscles didn't react as fast as they had done before, but they were definitely noticeable. He swished around and looked into the distance, but he didn't see anything.

But then he heard something. It was a low rumbling noise, and it never got louder. It stayed at the same volume, but caused an odd friction in the water. He could feel it, and it was coming from somewhere down deep. As it continued on, it seemed to grow not louder, but closer. He looked along the ocean surface, and saw the waves becoming raged and violent, and large quantities of ocean water splashed up onto the rock and himself. He spit out a good amount of salty water as the noise slowly began to die off. All he could do was listen as it finally ceased. What just happened? He wondered deeply what the noise was, and where it had come from. It was so un-usual, and sudden like an earthquake.

He slowed his breathing to a stop at the arrival of the tension in his nerves and bones, and of course, his muscles once again. He tried his best to keep his focus off the pain in his body. It was easy. He simply began thinking about the noises he'd just heard echoing up from the depths. Was it an earthquake, or something else?

The only thing he saw as water, and the small and useless rocks that the ship had sunken by, but they would have to do. He drifted towards the largest one, which only stuck up out of the water twelve feet. He ran his fingers along its rough and scratchy edge, and looked up at its tip, which stood only six inches above him. His eyes wondered up to its tip, which gleamed slightly in the late morning sun. These rocks were very interesting; they were a dark, coral-like brown color, and were definitely a rock formation that had become as it was under the water. He'd seen rocks rising up from the ocean before, but not quite this small. Another few moments passed, and he then quickly hoisted himself up against the rock, and let his legs float out in front of him, and then, he relaxed his entire body. It was the perfect spot to spend the night. It was shallow, and away from the waters where sharks would be lurking. He looked up towards the sky and began planning out his next move.

He would need to wait until morning, then he'd begin watching for passing ships. If one came along, all he had to do was signal it somehow. But, ways of doing that were limited in this particular area, Except for maybe the rocks. He wasn't sure how they could assist in that, but he knew they could somehow. There was no hope of a fire without steady ground, and wood to burn, so that option was out. His only hope was somehow attracting someone's attention, with some form of noticeable object or vision.

  But, with every second his arms clung to the hard rock, his shoulder bone began to hurt like nothing in his body had ever before. He shut his eyes tight as the pain lingered in that one area. He definitely had broken his collar bone, and it was really starting to complain. But, he fought it off, and continued to cling to the rock, where he hoped he would signal for help the following morning. He looked back down into the water and continued to watch it, and then looked up at the horizon. What better did he have to do. 

 The sight was amazing. Out of all those years he had spent fishing out on the sea, he had never seemed to notice how big it really was until now. A slight smile spread across his face as he stared out into the blue field of beauty.

But then, one again, he felt a strange tingling rising up from the depths of the ocean, followed by a low rumbling sound. Something else was happening. And it was much bigger and louder than before.

 

                                             *  *  *

 

Alton Briche walked slowly down the hallway that soon lead to the main control base that was the highest floor on the control center of the entire ship. He stopped occasionally to look over a door that stood facing his side, or watching a janitor do his stuff as he mopped rapidly back and forth on the hard, white, tiled floor.

He had been strolling through hallways and up stairways for almost an hour now, checking out this and that, and making sure certain things were happening and in order. He rounded another corner, and continued on, taking his time, checking things out. From the repulsive and almost disrespectful acts he'd seen the trainees preforming for the last two and half days, he wanted to make sure everyone was still doing their side jobs the right way. What he had seen so far was good enough. Some did their jobs better than others, but that was part of the journey. Learning how to do things better. Learning things period.

Briche at last reached the end of the hallway, where the large, pure metal door that lead into the main control base room stood. He twisted the doorknob, and the door swung open with a loud creaking sound, and then a soft bang as it tapped against the wall to its right. Everyone in the room turned and greeted him with either a smile or a quick "Good morning, Captain!” Security heads, navigators, and sonar experts all glared cheerfully at him, and all he could do was smile back. Most of them were the same rank, E-6, with some being either E-5 or E-7, they just had different positions. He entered into the room, shutting the door behind him. He walked down along the walkway that every few inches along the sides turned into a row of stations where everyone sat. They all nodded a second greeting to him as he passed, and he returned it only by nodding.

The doorway lead into a long row of metal flooring that stretched clear up past the rows of stations, and stopped at the base of two metal steps that lead onto one big platform, which faced the largest window on the entire ship. Briche walked along the metal flooring, eyeing certain people, and some he only glanced at, but he just wanted to make sure everything was going smoothly. He walked up the two steps and walked sternly up to the window, and stared out for a moment.

"Good morning, everyone," he turned to face them again. "How are we all this morning?"

"Most of us are fine, sir," a younger man with straight, red hair spoke up.

"Most of you?" Briche asked.

"Well, everyone I know is, sir," the man replied.

"I see." He turned to Dave who smiled nervously back at him.

"Morning, sir," Dave said.

"Good morning. What have we got?"

Dave, as always, pulled out his little yellow notebook from his pocket and flipped through the pages. Briche waited patiently for him to speak again.

"Well, first, those new graduates arrived safely this morning," Dave replied at last.

"Anything else?"

"Uh. . . nope. That's it."

"Excellent." Briche turned back to the window. "What about that cargo ship?"

"Oh, we sent a reply out, but we never got a response."

Briche nodded understandingly. After a pause, he turned to the field of people working and caught their attention.

"If any of you have anything to report, do so now."

There was silence for a few minutes. But then, someone spoke up.

"I have something, actually, sir," a woman's voice said.

Briche turned his attention right away to a young woman seated in the left row closest to him. He didn't recognize her. Her hair was black, and was put up in a neat bun. A small stream of it hung down on her cheek. Her eyes were light blue, and her face was slightly pale. He waited for her response.

"Well, go on," he told her.

"You'll have to come and look at this, sir," she said in a low and nervous tone.

He rushed down the stairs and walked up to her station at a much quicker pace then he had entered the room, and soon arrived at her desk.

"What's happening?" he asked sternly.

"I had this on my radar around twenty-six minutes ago," she replied, pointing to the radar that lit up the computer screen.

It showed a large sonar image of the area surrounding the combat ship.

"What on the earth is that?" he asked, pointing to a small dot.

"It's some kind of ship sir. It sunk just a little while ago."

"Sunk? How?"

"I don't know sir. All I know is what it shows here. This radar somehow caught the ship as it went down, around 120 feet below the surface. When it reached the ocean floor, major friction was created and it caused the ground to rise up a ways. Now the ship is sitting down there in the ocean, on this rise, and it's only 120 feet down."

Briche thought for a moment. "A human diver can survive at that depth."

"Why do you say that?"

Briche didn't answer for a moment, but walked back up onto the platform, and stared out the window.

"I say that because we need to find that ship, and try to identify it. Call up my old friend, Mr. Luchas. I'll give you the number if you need it. Have him get a few divers out in that area. I’d like to find out as much as we can about that ship."

"I know the number sir."

"Good, call him up and tell him about this."

"Yes sir."

Everything went silent, but Briche kept an ear open for any further conversation. None came, until he finally spoke.

"I never did catch your name, young lady."

"Um. . . Silvia, sir."

He only nodded in reply, and kept on staring out the window. He watched as the trainees finished up their morning rounds, and soon headed for their cabins. As usual, he didn't like the performances the commanding officers were having them preform, but he couldn't do too much about it. He could only watch them daily and hope the commands would soon get better. But he knew that was asking for an awful lot. The commanding officers often stuck to their ways, and never changed them, which irritated Briche. He sighed, and straightened out. He loosened his shoulders, and tried to relax.

"What's our current speed?" he asked suddenly.

"About thirty-eight knots, sir," replied a voice from somewhere in the room.

"Slow us down seven knots."

"Why, might I ask, sir?"

"I want us to stay in the area of that ship that went down. I'd like to keep an eye on that area down there for a little while."

"But sir, it'll throw us of course."

"I realize that, just slow us down."

The man messed with the controls for a moment, then the ship quickly slowed down. Briche watched with a smirk on his face as the commanding officers down below exchanged confused looks, but kept on giving commands. Then, the room went silent. Briche let out a deep sigh, then turned to face everyone.

"Silvia, you're now in charge of monitoring that ship. If anything moves down there, or if it moves, you let me know, understood?"

"Yes sir."

He turned to Dave. "Dave, get those new recruits down onto the main deck right away."

"Got it."

"Everyone else, remain at your post, and do what