Into the Abyss (Tom Swift, Young Inventor) by Victor Appleton Read Free Book Online Page B

thudding sound on the speaker. “We have contact with the bottom, a soft landing at 6:24 a.m. Confirmation?”
    “Confirmed,” Dr. Fletcher said, reading the monitors intently. “All systems intact.”
    “That’s great,” my dad’s voice boomed out.
    “Hey, Mr. Swift,” Bud said, “what’s it like down there?”
    “Hello, Bud. Well, what we can see from here—which isn’t very much—is a sort of cliff made of extruded volcanic matter. It’s about a hundred feet high, and doesn’t look too stable either.”
    “Shouldn’t you move to safer ground?” Yo asked.
    “No, we’re in the perfect place to deploy one of the seismic sensors. We’re going to do that right now, in fact. Signing off for a minute.”
    “Hey,” Yo asked, turning to me. “How can they do that? Doesn’t the sub have to open its door to deploy something? And how can it do that without the water rushing in?”
    “All subs have a double hatch,” I explained. “It functions as an air lock, and it’s pressurized. They enter through the inner hatch, set the seismic monitor on the robot arm, and go back inside. Then the outer door opens, and the arm extends and deploys the device. It’s simple, really.”
    “Ha,” Yo said. “If it was really that simple, anybody could do it.”
    About fifteen minutes later, my dad’s voice came on again. “First device deployed,” he said. “We are now going to skirt the sea bottom for about five miles to the northwest before deploying the second device. We’ll be skirting the edge of that ridge I was telling you about.”
    The camera!” Yo reminded me.
    “Right. Dad, can you switch on the camera so we can see what you’re seeing?” I asked him.
    “Sure thing, son.”
    Dr. Fletcher turned on the big monitor, andmoments later we were staring at the volcanic rock wall my dad had been telling us about. The
Verne-1
appeared to be moving along the wall.
    In the glow of the submersibles lights, we could see huge blue tubes with tentacles sticking out of the cliffside, waving in the current. Tube worms,” I said. “They feed off the sulfuric acid that leaks from active deep-sea vents.”
    “Awesome!” Bud whispered, staring at them in fascination.
    Suddenly the entire scene on the monitor exploded in a cloud of what seemed like dust—except it couldn’t be dust, because it was at the bottom of the ocean.
    “What the—?” I heard my dad’s voice come over the system. I heard screams from his crewmates. Then—
    “Earthquake!!” my dad yelled.
    At that very instant, sirens started blaring all over the control room, as all the readouts went haywire at once. Dr. Fletcher stared at the monitor. “Oh, my,” she said. “It’s massive … massive!”
    She leaned over and pressed a button activating the ship’s loudspeaker system. “Secure the ship! Codered! We have an under-sea quake in progress! Batten down all hatches!”
    “Wait!” I yelled. “What about the submersible? What about my dad?”
    She looked at me with panic in her eyes. I could see that she had no idea what to do—so I took matters into my own hands.
    “Dad! Dad! Do you read me?”
    There was the crackling of static. Tom … can’t … maneuver … avalan—”
    The transmission cut off abruptly.
    “Tom—the sub’s camera!” Bud said, putting a hand on my shoulder.
    He was right. While I’d been occupied, there might have been video capture of what had happened to the submersible. “Dr. Fletcher!” I said, shaking her out of her stunned condition. “Can you run back the video capture?”
    She nodded blankly, leaned over and pressed some buttons, then pointed at the big monitor. We saw the black cloud erupt from the volcanic wall, just as we had seen it live … then nothing for several seconds.
    Finally the murk began to clear …
    … and the cliff was
gone
!
    In its place was a slope of shattered rubble, reaching nearly as high as the camera itself.
    I knew the camera was mounted atop the
Jules Verne-1
,