Ocean bottom, blackness, then shafts of light become visible, above a ridge of rock. Flatbed appears, trailing two heavy cables. Behind it, the mass of Deepcore emerges from the darkness, its forward lighting array blazing. Flatbed is towing it like a tug, aided by Deepcore's own mighty stern thrusters.
Inside Deepcore's Control Module, Bud, his feet propped up, uses joystick controls to 'fly' Deepcore, maneuvering against currents and around seafloor obstacles. He is guided by the side-scan sonar display, with Hippy assisting in the sonar shack. Through the front viewport, Flatbed can be seen out ahead. By com line, he instructs One Night to take it five degrees left.
On the ocean surface, the Benthic Explorer is swinging wildly in the wind like a human pendulum. Inside, McBride tears off a sheet of weather-fax from a printer and gets on the video line to Bud. He holds up an image of the hurricane to the camera and informs Bud they're calling it Hurricane Frederick.
Bud jokes that he thinks hurricanes should be named after women. McBride just smiles, then suddenly a blast of wind blows papers from his desk. He looks up as the bridge door opens. Lindsey enters, wet as a wharf rat and twice as pissed off. Maybe Bud is right. She takes over McBride's position in front of the video camera.
Bud is surprised to see Lindsey's face appear on the monitor screen, he thought she was in Houston. She's furious as they exchange words, but Bud is unpreturbed, almost cheerful.
She explains they were close to proving a submersible drilling platform could work and she can't believe he let them grab her rig. Her rig. She designed the damn thing. Bud interrupts it's not her rig, Benthic Petroleum paid for it. So as long as they're hold the pink slip, he goes where they tell him.
The conversation deteriates further as Lindsey accusses him of being bought by the company. He's heard enough, Bud waves bye bye as Lindsey ramps up her rage, and he hits the switch, the screen goes dead.
Hippy looks over him, trying very hard not to crack up. Bud mumble he hates that bitch. Hippy replies sarcastically that he shouldn't have married her then. Bud doesn't reply, just stares fatalistically.
On the Benthic Explorer Deck/Launch Well, ten foot waves crash through the launch-well, sending up geysers of spray. Next to the launch-well, crewman have attached a lifting cable to Cab Three, eighteen feet of ugly yellow submersible. It slams violently as the drill-ship rolls. Lindsey can be seen inside the bubble cockpit.
Cab Three is pulled up and starts to swing violently as the Benthic Explorer pitches. The submersible is then swung out to the center of the launch well. It sways and gyrates above the furious water below. The little sub is swinging like a pendulum on the cable, and the SEALs, jammed in with their equipment in the tiny space, are getting slammed into the walls. Lindsey is calmly flipping switches as she talks.
On the com line, McBride announces they're clear to launch. Lindsey reaches up and grabs a red lever. She warns the SEAL team and pulls the lever hard. Clunk-clang! The shackle-release drops the sub. It freefalls ten feet to the water with an enormous splash and keeps right on going after Lindsey floods the trim tanks. Coffey et al have been slammed hard.
Lindsey cuts on the floodlights and maneuvers the descending submersible so that the umbilical cable is a few feet ahead on her front port. Moving up through her lights, it will guide her down to the rig. Cab Three free-falls into increasing darkness. Soon it is a candle below us in the indigo.
Inside Flatbed, One Night is driving the tug one-handed, pouring coffee from a thermos and rocking out to the great truck-driving song "Willing" on the beat-box she's got propped up on the sonar rig. Fighting white-line fever in the best tradition. She yawns and eventually sings along with the beat-box.
In the Control Module, Bud and Hippy come in for a rousing chorus. Lit up like a proud Peterbilt, the rig crossed the trackless wastes. We hear them singing, carried over.
In total blackness, the Cab Three submersible descends along the rigorous line of the umbilical cable. Two hundred feet below it, the lights of Deepcore resolve out of the darkness. Now we can see the rig crawling over the ocean bottom like some monster lawnmower.
She announces on com line to Deepcore that Cab Three is on final approach. Hippy recognizes her voice. Hippy asks Lindsey if that's her. Bud stops singing and snaps around at the mention of her name. Bud's expression is nothing less than stricken.
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