From the Ocean from teh Stars by Arthur C. Clarke Read Free Book Online

stairs at the end of the jetty and passed through the double doors of a large air lock. Franklin's ears gave the disconcert ing internal "click" as they adjusted themselves to the increased pressure; he guessed that he was now about twenty feet below the water line. Around him was a brightly lighted chamber crammed with various types of underwater equipment, from simple lungs to elaborate propulsion devices. The two torpedoes that Don had requisitioned were lying in their cradles on a sloping ramp leading down into the still water at the far end of the chamber. They were painted the bright yellow reserved for training equipment, and Don looked at them with some distaste.
    "It's a couple of years since I used one of these things," he said to Franklin. "You'll probably be better at it than I am. When I get myself wet, I like to be under my own power."
    They stripped to swim trunks and pull-overs, then fastened on the harness of their breathing equipment. Don picked up one of the small but surprisingly heavy plastic cylinders and handed it to Franklin.
    "These are the high-pressure jobs that I told you about," he said. "They're pumped to a thousand atmospheres, so the air in them is denser than water. Hence these buoyancy tanks at either end to keep them in neutral. The automatic adjustment is pretty good; as you use up your air the tanks slowly flood so that the cylinder stays just about weightless. Otherwise you'd come up to the surface like a cork whether you wanted to or not."
    He looked at the pressure gauges on the tanks and gave a satisfied nod.
    "They're nearly half charged," he said. "That's far more than we need. You can stay down for a day on one of these tanks when it's really pumped up, and we won't be gone more than an hour."
    They adjusted the new, full-face masks that had already been checked for leaks and comfortable fitting. These would be as much their personal property as their toothbrushes while they were on the station, for no two people's faces were exactly the same shape, and even the slightest leak could be disastrous.
    When they had checked the air supply and the short-range under water radio sets, they lay almost flat along the slim torpedoes, heads down behind the low, transparent shields which would protect them from the rush of water sweeping past at speeds of up to thirty knots. Franklin settled his feet comfortably in the stirrups, feeling for the throttle and
    jet reversal controls with his toes. The little joy stick which allowed him to "fly" the torpedo like a plane was just in front of his face, in the center of the instrument board. Apart from a few switches, the compass, and the meters giving speed, depth, and battery charge, there were no other controls.
    Don gave Franklin his final instructions, ending with the words: "Keep about twenty feet away on my right, so that I can see you all the time. // anything goes wrong and you do have to dump the torp, for heaven's sake remember to cut the motor. We don't want it charging all over the reef. All set?"
    "Yes—I'm ready," Franklin answered into his little microphone.
    "Right—here we go."
    The torpedoes slid easily down the ramps, and the water rose above their heads. This was no new experience to Franklin; like most other people in the world, he had occasionally tried his hand at underwater swimming and had sometimes used a lung just to see what it was like. He felt nothing but a pleasant sense of anticipation as the little turbine started to whir beneath him and the walls of the submerged chamber slid slowly past.
    The light strengthened around them as they emerged into the open and pulled away from the piles of the jetty. Visibility was not very good— thirty feet at the most—but it would improve as they came to deeper water. Don swung his torpedo at right angles to the edge of the reef and headed out to sea at a leisurely five knots.
    "The biggest danger with these toys," said Don's voice from the tiny loudspeaker by Franklin's ear, "is