Into the Abyss (Tom Swift, Young Inventor) (6 page)

I could tell he was serious. Bud was falling in love with the ocean. I wondered how much he’d still love it if that storm ever got really close to us.

I went out on deck with him—just long enough to get a fantastic glimpse of the Milky Way. Out at sea, you can really see it clearly—a cloud of stars spilling across the top of the sky. Most other places there’s too much light for you to make it out.

After about thirty seconds out on the heaving deck, I felt myself getting queasy again. The sky seemed to be rocking back and forth, even though I knew it was us doing the rocking. “I’m going back inside,” I said. “You’re on your own, dude.”

That’s cool. See you downstairs.”

“Below,” I corrected him. “At sea we say ‘below.’”

Oh, do we? Since when did you join the Navy?”

He had me there. I laughed and went back inside.

I could see I didn’t have to worry about Bud out on deck alone with the boat rocking like a toy in a bathtub. He was having the time of his life.

I passed through the hatch and walked down the passageway toward the lab, where I knew I’d find my
dad. Sure enough, he was seated in front of the bank of computers, working out calculations with two other people—a woman and a man, both wearing Swift Enterprises shirts.

“Dad?” I said as I poked my head in the doorway. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Tom! Come in,” he said. “Do you know Bruce and Holly? They’re going to be coming with me on the dive tomorrow.”

“Uh, that’s what I wanted to talk with you about, Dad.”

“Oh?” He seemed surprised. “Well, then?”

“Um, it’s kind of … private,” I said, embarrassed.

“I see.”

“That’s fine, Mr. Swift,” said Holly. “Come on, Bruce, how about that cup of coffee?”

They left the lab, headed for the galley.

I was grateful to Holly for her sensitivity. This was my best chance, and I needed to have Dad to myself.

“What’s up, son?” He swiveled around in his chair and looked up at me, curious.

“About the dive tomorrow,” I began. “I’d … well, I’d like to come with you.”

Oh, now, I don’t—”

“Wait, let me tell you why!” I said, and proceeded to tell him all about my diving suit and my Swift Kick Shark Zapper, and how important it was for me to take this opportunity to test them out.

My dad listened patiently, nodding slowly. “I see,” he said. “Well, Tom, it sounds like you’ve done a lot of good work, developing the suit and zapper to where you’ve gotten them.”

“Thanks!” I said happily. Praise from my dad isn’t always easy to come by.

“And I see what a great opportunity this must be in your eyes,” he went on. “But I’m afraid it’s out of the question this time.”

“What? But—”

“I’m sorry, son, but this mission is urgent. Tens of thousands of lives could be lost if we don’t deploy this warning system in time.”

“But there are only three of you going down in the
Verne-1
! It seats four! Why couldn’t I go down with you and try out the suit and zapper while you deploy the seismic sensors?”

“Because the sensors will take up all the unused space,” he said. “There are twelve of them, remember?”

He was right. I’d forgotten about the devices
they’d be carrying along with them. Each one wasn’t very big, but twelve of them together would take up as much room as a human being, if not more.

There would be no room for me on board—no chance for me to try out my latest inventions.

I was totally crushed.

“This trip won’t be a waste of time for you, Tom,” my dad said, reading my thoughts. “You’ll be able to help in the control room. You’ll be part of our vital lifeline.”

“But Dad! Couldn’t I go instead of—”

“Instead of Bruce or Holly? I’m afraid not, son. Bruce is a seismic geologist, and Holly’s a deep-ocean expert. I’ll need both of them with me down there.”

“But—”

“No buts,” he said firmly. “You know, when I first planned this dive, I did think about taking you with me. But then I decided against it—not because of Bruce or Holly, either. There was … there was another reason.”

“Huh? What reason?”

“It’s too dangerous,” he said. “
Jules Verne-1
is a brand new ship, and we’re exploring an active seismic zone. There are boiling vents down there, underwater
volcanoes—not to mention the fact that a major earthquake could happen at any time.”

“Dad … are
you
sure it’s okay for you to go down?”

“I’m sure it’s worth the risk,” he said. “Now go get some rest. We’ve all got a big day ahead of us tomorrow.”

I reached down and hugged him. “Good night, Dad.”

He patted me on the back. “Don’t worry, son. Everything will be fine.”

I went back down the passageway to our sleeping quarters, hoping my dad knew what he was doing.

But somewhere deep inside, it just didn’t feel right. I was getting that queasy feeling again, and it wasn’t just the waves.

I knew as well as he did that in our business, nine times out of ten, things didn’t go right the first time. And with this kind of dive, there was zero margin for error.

Yo was lying awake in the middle bunk, groaning softly. I felt sorry for her, and a little guilty, too, for asking her to come along. But honestly—if I’d known she’d get this sick, I never would have brought her.

Bud came up behind me. Obviously, he’d been out on deck the whole time I was with my dad. “You should see the stars,” he told Yo as he climbed up onto the top bunk—the one that was supposed to be hers.

“I’m already seeing them, with my eyes closed,” she said.

“You want some food?” Bud asked. “We brought you—”

“No thanks!” Yo said quickly. “Let’s … let’s talk about something else.”

It was dark in the hold. The only lights were along the floor, where tiny bulbs lit up the passageway using hardly any of the ship’s precious energy supply.

I lay down in my bunk, totally frustrated.

“So what time are you going down in the submersible?” Bud asked me.

“I’m … not going.”

“What?” Yo sat up, forgetting for the moment how sick she felt. “How come?”

“No room in the submersible. My dad wants me to help out in the control room.”

“Man,” Bud said. “What a letdown.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “The control room’s an important
job. There’ll be other chances to test out the suit and the zapper.”

“What about
us
?” Yo asked. “Can we at least watch you in the control room?”

“I think there’s plenty of seating in there,” I said.

“Cool,” she said. “And no more waves tomorrow, right?”

“That’s what the captain said,” I replied.

“Thank goodness!” She lay back down and closed her eyes again.

Bud leaned over the edge of his bunk, so that his head was only a foot or so from Yo’s. “You know,” he said, “I was reading up on this part of the ocean before we left. And it said that in choppy weather, gigantic eels sometimes rise to the surface and slither onto ships to eat people.”

“Quit it!” Yo said, sitting up in a hurry. “They do not. You’re just making that up, fool.”

“That’s what the book said,” Bud insisted, rolling back up and into his bunk.

“What book?” Yo demanded.

“The book of … slithery sea creatures!”

As he said it, Bud dangled something down onto
Yo’s face. It took me a second to figure out that it was just a belt.

Yo screamed, and batted it away. “AAAHHH!! Get it away from me!”

Then she realized Bud was just messing around. She reached up, hoisting herself high enough to punch him in the arm.

“OW!” he said, laughing. “What? What’d I do?”

“Cut that out!” Yo yelled, totally forgetting she was seasick.

“Hey, both of you,” I said. “Calm down, okay? We can’t afford to be goofing around on this trip.”

I was thinking of my dad and what he’d said at the end of our conversation. I wasn’t much in the mood for fun.

We settled back into our bunks. The waves seemed to be calming down now. The gentle rocking motion was enough to make me sleepy, but not enough to trouble my stomach any more.

“What do you think they’ll find down there?” Bud wondered. “Are there any fish that far down?”

“Oh, man,” I said. “There are some really weird monsters down there. You ever hear of the
Alvin
?
That submersible from Woods Hole Institution that got written up in
National Geographic
years ago? Well, when the
Alvin
went down to eleven thousand feet, they found all kinds of weird stuff—huge tube worms, giant sea stars—”

“What, is everything giant down there?” Yo asked.

“Not everything,” I said. “But I left out the biggest thing of all—the giant sea squid.”

“There are giant squids down there?” Bud asked. “I thought those were just a myth.”

“They used to think so,” I said. “Up till a year ago all they’d seen were pieces that washed up on beaches or got hauled up in fishermen’s nets. Then this team of researchers came out with a video, proving giant squids are real.”

“How big are they?” Yo asked.

“Even bigger than whale sharks?” Bud asked. Of course, he
would
know what the biggest animal on Earth is.

“Even bigger. More than fifty feet long, with twenty-foot tentacles! They may get even bigger—they’ve only captured one specimen on videotape so far.”

“Really?”

There was a funny, wavering tone in Bud’s voice. At first I didn’t recognize it, but it sounded a little like—fear!

Yo sensed it right away. “
Now
who’s scared?”

I couldn’t see well enough in the dark to be sure, but I could have sworn she was smiling—for the first time since we’d set sail.

“I’m not scared,” Bud said. They don’t … attack ships, do they?”

“Mmmm … possibly,” I said. They’ve found whales with gigantic sucker marks. If our ship looked enough like a whale—”

“It might, to a giant squid,” Yo pointed out.

Bud was silent.

“Bud, you okay, dude?” I asked.

“Uh-h-h-huh.”

“Oh,
he’s
not scared,” Yo mocked. “Whassa-madda, did the sea monster eat you all up?”

“I’m
not
scared,” Bud muttered.

Yo and I had a good laugh. I was glad she was over her seasickness.

The ship’s rocking was gentler now. Pretty soon it got really quiet down in the dark hold. We were all
exhausted. Trying to keep your balance—and your lunch—on a boat that’s being tossed around in high seas, takes a lot of energy.

Pretty soon I heard Yo snoring softly. Then Bud chimed in too. He … well, he sounded a lot like a raging hippo, to tell you the truth.

I lay awake in my bunk for a long time, thinking. In the morning my dad would be going down to the bottom of the sea, on a mission so dangerous he refused to let me come along.

I couldn’t stop worrying about him. If something bad happened down there, what would I do—what
could
I do—to save him?

Aw, cut it out, I told myself. Nothing bad is going to happen. Of course it won’t. Dad will be just fine.

The
Jules Verne-1
was a precision-built machine, after all. It would do exactly what it was supposed to do.

I was
sure
of it.

But if I was so sure, then why couldn’t I fall asleep?

5
 
 
The Big Dive

Finally, I did drift off to sleep—only to dream I was being strangled by a horrendously ugly giant squid!

Or was it my
dad
who was being strangled?

No, it was me …. The squid had me in its clutches, and it was shaking me ….

“Tom, wake up.”

My dad’s voice.

I sat up so fast, I nearly hit my head on the bunk above me. The giant squid vanished, and there was my dad, standing by the side of the bunk.

“Is it time?” I asked him, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

“Almost. Go ahead and get washed up, and I’ll see you on deck.” He turned to go.

“Dad?”

“Yes, son?”

I hesitated. I wanted to tell him not to go ahead with the dive, but I couldn’t figure out a good reason—other than my bad feelings and my nightmare. “Um … how’s the weather?” I finally asked.