The Last Airship by Christopher Cartwright Page B

was kept at the back half of the yacht. He even had an air
compressor built into the transom.
    But
the transom’s gone, what else will be missing?
    Sam’s
hands began to feel around him, searching for some of his equipment.
    To
his relief, his left hand touched something solid – something cylindrical.
    Sam
opened the bottle and then closed it again. A gush of air bubbles were
released. The bubbles were large enough that he could take a deep breath of
air. It was an immediate solution to his need, but without a regulator he was
going to be using up his air supply within minutes.
    Using
his hands to guide him through the hull, he reached for a drawer where he
normally stored a number of regulators and dive masks. Sadly, what his hands
found were a number of large pieces of splintered wood – the remnants of a
broken drawer.
    Did
the regulator fall toward the transom and then out of the yacht, or did it fall
forward towards the bow?
    He
had no choice, Sam had to assume that one of his regulators was somewhere at
the fore of the ship. If he had a mask, he might have easily been able to spot
it. As it was, he was nearly blind in the dark, turbulent water inside the
sinking ship, which was now more than twenty feet below the surface.
    He
ran his hand along the internal teak flooring. It was covered in worthless
equipment. None of which was of any use to him unless he could find the
regulator, and soon.
    Just
as he was about to turn around and swim back to the tank for another bubble of
air, his left hand grasped something that felt like a small hose. It was
rubbery, and could have just as easily been part of the yacht’s plumbing, but
luckily, it wasn’t.
    He
pulled on it and felt for the end.
    The
familiar emergency octopus valve, known as an Ochy, was in his hand.
    His
head was spinning. It might be from hypoxia, or it as a result of the sudden
increase in pressure, while the atmospheric pressure doubled for every thirty
three feet of water above him.
    Sam
flicked open the air tank four more times, releasing enough air bubbles so that
he could catch his breath. He then attached the first stage to the air tank,
and turned the tank valve so that it was completely opened.
    Depressing
the blow off valve on the primary regulator, Sam watched as a huge gush of air
bubbled out from the valve opening, as water was cleared from the piping.
    He
then placed his mouth on the primary, and inhaled.
    It
felt like coming home.
    This
was his normal environment. He was safe. He’d done this a thousand times
before.
    He
scrambled to see the depth gauge at the end of the console. Its reading was, 80
feet. Sam remembered that he’d been sitting in 110 feet of water.
    His
next concern was what was going to happen when his ship struck the seabed?
    Sam
didn’t plan on waiting to find out.
    He
carried his tank, regulator and weight belt to the back of the now-open transom
and swam outside.
    Immediately
thereafter, he watched the seabed erupt as Second Chance collided into
it.
    He
waited a minute for the debris to settle. It would have been nice to have the
luxury of giving it more time, but that wasn’t going to be possible. He was
sitting at 100 feet below the surface. His air supply was going to run out
pretty quick, and his maximum no-decompress time would be over even faster.
    Sam
checked his dive watch. He always wore it on his left wrist, a trusty companion
that was always with him. It read 100 feet. Then at the dive tank, which was at
- 210 bar. His mind rapidly made the calculations, as only someone who has
spent a life time diving could – somewhere in the vicinity of 15 minutes.
    Either
way, he needed to return to a lesser depth if he was going to remain submerged
long enough to escape his enemy.
    Whoever
he is?
    The
air was still hissing out of the end of the low pressure hose, which normally
would be attached to a buoyancy control device, known as a BCD. He needed to
get down to the wreckage and find one quickly, or his 15 minutes