Abduction

“Somebody tell me what’s going on,” Perry demanded. The euphoria he’d felt a few moments earlier had dissipated. They obviously were not on the surface.

“We don’t know what is happening,” Suza

“There’s no resistance to the propeller,” Donald reported. He turned the propulsion system off. The whirring died away for a second time. Now the only sound was the ventilation fan. “I think we are in air.”

“How can we be in air?” Suza

“But it’s the only explanation for the sonar not working and the lack of resistance to the propeller,” Donald said. “And look. The outside temperature has risen to seventy degrees. We’ve got to be in air.”

“If this is the next life, I’m not ready for it,” Perry said.

“You mean we’re out of the water entirely?” Suza

“I know it sounds crazy,” Donald admitted. “But it’s the only way I can explain everything, including the fact that the underwater phone doesn’t work.” Donald next tried the radio and had no luck with that either.

“If we’re sitting on dry land,” Suza

“You’re right!” Donald admitted. “That I can’t explain.”

Suza

“At least we know why we didn’t tip over,” Suza

“Explain!” Perry said. He’d leaned forward to see for himself.

“Globigerina ooze is the most common sediment on the ocean floor,” Suza

“How can we be sitting in ocean sediment and be in air?” Perry asked.

“That’s the question,” Donald agreed. “We can’t, at least not in any way that I know of.”

“It’s also impossible for globigerina ooze to be this close to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge,” Suza

“This is absurd!” Donald snapped. “And I don’t like it at all. Wherever we are, we’re stuck!”

“Could we be completely buried in the ooze?” Perry asked hesitantly. If he was right, he did not want to hear the answer.

“No! Not a chance,” Donald said. “If that were the case there would be more resistance to the propeller, not less.”

For a few minutes no one spoke.

“Is there any chance we could be inside the seamount?” Perry asked, finally breaking the silence.

Donald and Suza

“How could we be inside a mountain?” Donald asked angrily.

“Hey, I’m only making a suggestion,” Perry said. “Mark told me this morning he had some radar data that suggested the mountain might contain gas, not molten lava.”

“He never mentioned that to me,” Suza

“He didn’t mention it to anyone,” Perry said. “He wasn’t sure of the data since it was coming from a shallow study of the hard layer we were trying to drill through. It was an extrapolation, and he only mentioned it to me in passing.”

“What kind of gas?” Suza

“He had no idea,” Perry said. “I guess he thought the most promising candidate was steam held in by the extra-hard layer that was giving us so much trouble.”

“Well, it can’t be steam,” Donald said. “Not at a temperature of almost seventy degrees.”

“What about natural gas?” Perry suggested.

“I can’t imagine,” Suza

“Then maybe it is air,” Perry said.

“How could it get here?” Suza

“You tell me,” Perry said. “You’re the geophysical oceanographer. Not me.”

“If it is air, there is not a natural explanation that I know of,” Suza

The three people stared at each other for a beat.

“I guess we’ll have to crack the hatch and see,” Suza

“Open the hatch?” Donald questioned. “What if the gas is not breathable or it’s even toxic?”

“Seems to me we have little choice,” Suza

“Let’s not ask that question,” Perry said nervously. “I say we crack the hatch.”

“All right!” Donald said with resignation. “As captain I’ll do it.” He stood up from his pilot’s seat and took a giant step over the central console. Perry leaned out of the way so that Donald could pass.

Donald climbed up inside the sail. He paused while Suza

“Why don’t you just undog it but not open it,” Suza

“Good idea,” Donald said. He took Suza

“Well?” Suza

“Just some dampness,” Donald said. “I guess I’ll go for it.”

Donald cracked the hatch for a brief moment and sniffed.

“What do you think?” Suza

“Seems okay,” Donald said with relief. He opened the hatch about an inch and smelled the damp air that flowed in. When he was satisfied it was as safe as he could determine, he pushed the hatch all the way up and poked his head out the top. The air had the salty dampness of a beach at low tide.

Donald slowly rotated his head through 360 degrees, straining his eyes in the darkness. He saw absolutely nothing but intuitively he knew that it was a big space. He was staring into a silent, alien blackness as frightening as it was vast.

Poking his head back inside the submersible, he asked for the flashlight.

Suza

“A whole lot of nothing,” he replied.

Reemerging from the hatch, Donald shined the flashlight in the distance. The mud stretched away in all directions as far as the light could penetrate. A few isolated mirrorlike puddles of water reflected back at him.

“Hello!” Donald called after cupping his hands around his mouth. He waited. A slight echo seemed to come from the direction of the Oceanus’s bow. Donald yelled again; a distinct echo came back in what he estimated to be around three or four seconds.

Donald climbed back down into the submersible after lowering the hatch. The others looked at him expectantly.

“This is the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.

“We’re in some kind of cavern that apparently was recently filled with water.”

“But now it’s filled with air,” Suza

“It’s definitely air,” Donald said. “Beyond that, I don’t know what to think. Maybe Mr. Bergman is right. Maybe we’ve somehow been pulled inside the seamount.”

“The name is Perry, for chrissake,” Perry said. “Give me the light! I’m going to take a look.” He took the flashlight from Donald and clumsily climbed the ladder up through the sub’s sail. He had to hook one elbow around the top rung and jam the flashlight into his pocket to raise the heavy, wedged-shaped hatch.

“My god!” Perry exclaimed after he had imitated Donald’s actions, including testing for echoes. He climbed back down but left the hatch ajar. He handed the flashlight to Suza

When Suza