Deep Sea Chapter 7

7..

The Surface

The sight from above at the height of five hundred feet was not the cup of evening tea that the Sergeant Major would like to take on then. He stayed glued to the seat that was offered to him on the huge death bringer balloon in his exact words. He had been taken on a ghostly ride by the speed fiend and then boarded onto that balloon with a Dutch Captain that was still cursing at traveling in the twilight hours to the deep seas.

“Ze the fog will blind us.” The Captain of the dirigible had to state obvious.

Earlier they have arrived at the so-named airfield where this infernal; he did borrow that term from his Lordship were all hovering overheads. It was a dirigible airfield, and there were a few dirigibles that were about to leave on their short voyages to the other cities. It was more expensive than taking the train but these trips were for the more affluent and in the words of James, spending by their passion.

Passionate for flying was never one of the Sergeant Major’s vices but he tolerated his Lordship. Jones, however, was all eager to fly than hang around the carriage.

“Still having the jitters, Sergeant Major?” His Lordship asked of him. “I have truly enjoyed the ride except for the cut here.”

The Sergeant Major had treated the minor cut on the forehead when his Lordship had knocked on the table at the airfield. He had reprimanded the Corporal for the ride and the pains that he was inflicted but his Lordship soon the man praised for bravery and good action in face of danger.

“I never had a joyful ride since we crashed that armored vehicle over the cliff.” It was an amazing feat for his Lordship and the Sergeant Major then when they lost control of the vehicle and went downhill to land in the ditch. Thankfully, it was a short drop into the mud. They survived that fall to fight the next day.

“His Lordship, I begged you to reconsider your trip. It’s getting dark now.” The Captain of the Dirigible cautioned him. “We can sail in the wee hours of dawn if need be. Its only three hours to it.”

“No, Captain Claude. I must go there now.” His Lordship was insistent. “Urgent matter awaits me there.”

“The navigation and the low light…” Captain Claude complained.

“Use the sextant, man.” His Lordship took no more excuses then while the Captain walked away cursing in Dutch.

“Claude, I know what ‘ik laat een’ scheet in jouw richting’ means. I do have relations on my grand aunt’s side which were your grandmother’s relatives?” His Lordship hit back.

“How dare that man say he will fart in my direction? I will have him assed out if there were no better pilots than him.” Lord Henry was all worked up on the insubordination of his staff. He saw the Sergeant Master staring at him. “And that has nothing to do with his pay.”

“No, your Lordship. It’s his ancestry as a Dutch. I dislike them too.”

“Well, keep them to yourself. He is flying us high and you may not land without him.” His Lordship cautioned the other. “The Dutch can be …. Potty.”

The dirigible had lifted off an hour ago and was headed for the setting sun. It was named the Angel about the ones that lived in the clouds then. The dirigible was actually a huge balloon with a metal compartment below it that housed the passengers and pilot. The balloon was the one that stretched over a hundred and fifty feet in length with a radius of over forty feet. She was elongated in design with her twenty-five frames that formed the main rings and forty longitudinal girders that span the length. There was a triangular keel at the bottom of the stern. The dirigible covering sheet was layers of gelatine in between two sheets of cotton. The dirigible was powered by the two steam turbine engines mounted on the extended metal struts away on the rear both rear side ends. Each engine produced a fair speed of ten knots on the fair run to thirty knots in a rush.

The passenger compartment was with over thirty seats with seating capacity for no more than six persons. It was a fair arrangement with the drink bar and a long table. It also housed the pilot station with the engine compartments to the rear and below the passenger deck. The engineers could cross over to the outlaying engines via the walkway by the metal struts. Captain Claude insisted on the twin Lewis guns be positioned at both sides in the engine deck to avert any unwanted incidents.

“We need to scare the birds from roosting on her.”

Their the destination was the island lying off the boundary limits where Lord Henry have invested part of his inheritance there. It was a small island with an inert volcano and measured over two miles across and three miles in length. The island was a sanctuary for lost ships on voyages or storms. It held two large inlets that offered protection from the treacherous waves. The inlets were named Big Jaws and Small Jaws. It was told to his Lordship by Captain Arthur on one of their seafaring voyages. He had the place charted and then staked a claim on it.

His Lordship had built a fortress there at the mouth of Big Jaws. Unknown by many, Small Jaws held a large water cavern that led to inside the island hills. The water in the cavern was warm from the lava heated tunnels that were beneath the island. The island was also heaven given land for growths with its rich soil from the previous eruptions of the yesteryears.

Lord Henry had built the high wall fortress with its six-pounders cannons facing the oceans. He also had a company of guards there from his old command that will not live under the truce with the authorities. They have built themselves a home there with their own independence. The island also sanctioned ships which require shelter but with the neighboring deep seas, there were little of such visitors except for the ships of his Lordship or the bigger tankers which stop over to. The ships that do stop there fished in protective convoys with the armed boats from his Lordship forming the outer defense perimeter. Their tasks are to stop the predators from attacking the fishing trawlers.

Across the surface of the water towards the solid land on the continent, execution was to take place then. Lady Jan picked up the Thompson gun. She glared at the line-up of the twelve guards against the wall of Lord Henry’s mansion. They were led to the wall by gunpoint.

“Lady, we tried but they were…” One of the guards had spoken up in defense but the lady was not keen. She raised the gun and emptied the load on the guards. She left the guard who spoke still standing.

“They were old and all of you were younger. So tell me more where the training failed.” Lady Jan aimed the gun at the living guard. “You got three seconds.”

The lady counted to three and then shot him in the legs.

“I have extended it by two more seconds.” Lady Jan looked at the man screaming in pain while writhing on the ground. She decided to end the man’s agony. She then discarded the gun after emptying the ammo clip. She turned to look at the two standing on the other side.

“Lord Ian, I do not like failures. They were retired army personnel and yet with an odd of five to one, they failed. You failed too along with them.”

“Lady Jan, I will not condone their failure but” General Clarke spoke out of turn. “You may not think that we are useless.”

“If you were any smarter, then do not have your sniper on me.” Lady Jan replied. “Well, I have taken care of that.”

General Clarke heard the body fell from the roof of the stables. He then felt the creeping fear on his spine. It was the same before he was wheeled into the operating theatre to remove the bullet from his lower back. He made through that but doubt he will live through another one. The figure joined up with the lady. He was a short man with a stout body dressed in black. He had a hoodie on and carried a curved bow with the arrow notched. Above it all, he was not Far Eastern by descent but a blond with Slavic looks.

“General Clarke, you owed me one arrow. I will take it now.” Lady Jan gave the command and her bowman released the arrow inches from the General’s feet.

“Maybe another day.” Lady Jan smiled and the walked away with the bowman. General Clarke turned to his Lordship.

“I...” General Clarke was cut off.

“Shut up, Clarke. We blunder there. You are lucky to be alive.” Lord Ian replied.

The Depth

Stacy leaned back on the wooden wagon while the Captain took a drink of milk offered by the sheep handler. It was the astounding news that the Captain had just told her.

Submerging was not new. She had heard of the research into it for centuries. In the mid-sixteenth century, it was a native of the islands who first described the concept of how submerging can be controlled by displacing its weight of water. It was then when a priest explained the submarine should be cylindrical in shape to better withstand the water pressure and pointed ends for streamlining. It was not for another hundred years before the first successful submarine was built. It looked like a turtle floating vertically. The unit worked in traveling under the sea surface but it did not serve its purpose when needed.

However, it drove the experts to put more effort into developing the unit for warfare. It worked with the different units designed and was proven successful. It was brought to fore again during the war. Both sides researched it and some more prototypes were invented until the phenomenon stopped it all.

It was too dangerous to travel in the seas and more so below the surface.

Till Captain Arthur first laid eyes on the new Sea King.

The new Sea King was a three hundred feet squid design oblong-shaped contraption with a dimension of over twenty feet in radius. That extends to over two hundred feet before it flared up to the tail encasing the four rear compartments. The top right was at the length of fifty feet with circular surface held the main three harpoons with each measuring over twelve feet in length lined outside the hull like nasty darts. It was to be fired by the air pressure generated from the main steamer's engine below which burned using gas instead of coal. The holding area held fifteen harpoons there stacked to the side. To the aft of the Sea King, were three more harpoons slot which was designed to deter any rear attacks. The harpoons were manned by the Boatswain II Ian Mackay.

On the left top was the hanger for the explorer mini-submarine named Nemo for the pet fish that Lord Nemo once reared. It measured twenty-four feet in length with a radius of eight feet with a seating capacity for four. It was cramped inside with the electrical consoles that ringed the sides of the mini craft. The electrical generator set at the rear of the craft powered the twin-propeller to a maximum speed of five knots. Its only weapon against any predators was the dark ink that is released from the nozzle at the bottom of the craft. The dark ink contains toxins that could incapacitate a large predator but it was never tested on the larger serpents.

At the bottom half there were the two engine compartments which powered the massive ten feet in radius propeller which will move the Sea King at a maximum speed of twenty-five knots. It was powered by the coal-fired turbine. The engines were under the supervision of Engineer II Andre Dupre. He was a mad man when he had one too few vodka or when his engines start coughing or rattles. No one approached the Engineer then.

In the center section of the Sea King were the three decks; the top deck housing the main consoles and equipment to sustain the ship workings. It was all powered by the twin electrical generators. The deck below was the crew quarters and storage. It was under the control of Boatswain I Abigail Conlay.

The Boatswain may be a lady in the looks but she held a stronger personality when it comes to her responsibility after serving in the Army for over twelve years. Everyone calls her Ma’am except his Lordship and the Captain.  She guarded her ship with the twin Webley holstered under her armpit. She once told the curious chap caught staring at her guns.

“You are staring at my tits.” The other denied it and said he was admiring her guns.

“Those are my tits.” She left the man with a broken jaw.

On the hull top and bottom were two ‘sponson’ units each that could swivel at fifty degrees with the twin three-footer length harpoon guns that were facing the stern and portside. Its range was for the close proximity battles and the twin harpoons have a deadly range of fifty yards. There was one sponson at the bottom hull with the same design.

Then we arrived at the final fifty feet at the bow of the ship which housed the bridge and observation deck, and also the forward compartment. Unlike the squid body shape, it flared up there like a hammer shark head. It shaped to streamline to the front with its menacing eight mini three-footer harpoons that will impact across a target area of thirty feet across. Below its mouthpiece was the twin pincers to pick on any samples. It was able to rotate to the rear and land the samples into the storage compartment. The bridge housed the communications and also the wheelhouse. The wheel was situated in the front of the bridge facing a triple layer glass window to the scenery of the depths. Behind the pilot was the Captain’s seat mounted on the elevated flooring to have an overview of the bridge and the window. There are two seats to his right which were reserved for the guests. Further to the left is the navigator’s set with the extended table to the left side. At the rear were the consoles linked to the other compartments. 

The ballast of the ship was attached to the side of the center hull like a set of baby squids suckling milk from the mother. The hull of the ship was double-layered to withstand the lower depths pressure.

The Sea King was compartmentalized to be able to isolate any breach in the hull. It four rear compartment were also designed to disengaged during emergencies. The total crews for the ship were fifty in the numbers and they were all experienced sailors.

“So where is the fishing part?” Stacy was ever curious.

“Fishing? Who said anything about fishing? We are going to protect the boats by swimming with sharks and serpents. We will stop them from harassing the boats. The boats are not adequately protected by being on the surface. We need to go under to see where they are hiding.”

“Have you submerged in it into the sea?” Stacy asked.

“Nope. I was just telling you the schematics. The Sea King had not been fully tested. It had done trial runs in the shallow waters but she is waiting for her Captain to break into her first voyage to the deep.”

“Don’t you think that is risky?” Stacy was just being nosy with her queries.

“We are always taking a risk every moment of our life. Right now, the train could crash or go over some bad tracks.” The Captain’s words never rang more true than that moment.