Fog Formula-Warning Book of Fog City Search Chief's Strange Talk - Chapter Thirty-Nine
“Crash—!”
There was a loud bang. The round diving bell was lowered from the tower crane on the deck and fell into the water, dangling on the undulating sea surface, setting off countless billowing white waves, and gradually sank into the water.
For a moment the whole world was silent. The moment the sea water submerged the diving bell, a huge amount of bubbles surged up, followed by a moment of silence. You can hear all kinds of sounds on the water, the conversations from the crowd on the deck, the rolling of the waves, the roar of the sea wind, all kinds of sounds will come to your ears.
However, after entering the water, all the sounds disappeared. In the closed diving bell, you can only feel the metal body of the diving bell shaking slightly under the impact of sea water. But no sound came from outside.
At that moment, human beings will subconsciously have a kind of alertness, as if they have passed through a certain door and entered another unknown world.
So even in the violent shock, Jian Shenxiu and Marchesias in the diving bell still couldn’t help but open their eyes and look at each other, and they both saw their fully armed reflections in each other’s goggles .
“We will put you in 50 meters of water. This is the first stage of the plan. After that, the diving bell will follow you all the way down to a depth of 150 meters. But this stage requires you to go outside the diving bell and lower the diving bell. This is the second stage.”
It wasn’t until Xi Wei’s familiar voice sounded beside the two of them with the intermittent rustle of electricity that the silence in the diving bell was broken. Jian Shenxiu looked up at the old camera above his head, and waved at it.
“Can you see me?”
“I can see it, but… the picture is very ordinary, a little intermittent.” The loudspeaker rang again, and the current passed through the cable connecting the top of the diving bell to the hull to bring Xi Wei’s voice, and there seemed to be a trace of hesitation in her words.
“The camera outside the diving bell is better, and can see the surroundings clearly.”
“Just let it go.” Jian Shenxiu said casually after hearing the words. “These things have been lying in storage for more than five years. Now this one is already in the best condition among the diving bells we have tested.”
“yes……”
Xi Wei’s voice in the loudspeaker paused for a while after replying, as if she was busy with something at the console, and then continued after a few seconds.
“[The umbilical cord] has started to work. Can you feel it over there?”
“I can do it here.”
Seeing that Shenxiu looked down at his diving suit, the black diving suit had built-in pipes surrounding his body. At this moment, he could feel the warm water flowing through those pipes, bringing warmth to his body. A little bit of warmth.
At his feet, he could still see a black cable as thick as sugarcane lying on the metal floor of the diving bell like a black snake. One end of the cable was connected to his body, and the other end was connected to the body of the diving bell. Seeing Shenxiu, he knew that this cable was still extending upwards where he could not see, connecting to the 10,000-ton giant wheel above.
This is the [umbilical cord].
There are many differences between deep diving and recreational diving. Recreational diving is mostly in shallow water where the sun can still shine, and the time spent in sea water is also limited. At this time, it is still possible to use human muscle heat and equipment materials to maintain body temperature. However, in the cold and vast deep sea, relying on the body’s own heat is not enough to support humans to stay in the sea for a long time. Must rely on supplies from the outside world.
This black cable plays this role, and it consists of three parts: the air pipe, the hot water pipe and the cable. In the deep sea, it can provide divers with precious heat, oxygen and electrical signals. It is an important lifeline for divers, hence the name [umbilical cord].
Saying that, seeing Shenxiu raised his head to look at Markesias opposite him, and saw that Markesas also nodded to him, and continued.
“Marksias is fine too.”
“Okay.” Xi Wei’s words came again soon.
“I’m going to start the verification process on the [umbilical cord]. Is the breathing normal now? Is the water temperature normal? Is the signal normal?”
“Everything is fine.”
Seeing Shenxiu’s straightforward answer, Markesias, who had been silent beside him, rarely spoke, and also replied hoarsely.
“everything is normal.”
“Boom!”
However, as soon as the words of the two fell, the accident happened suddenly. A violent impact suddenly hit from the outside at that second. Then there was a huge metal collision sound, and a huge shock began to vibrate in the diving bell for a moment. Even though the two people in the diving bell had already desperately grasped the handle, they were directly overturned from their original positions. A series of tumbles where the bottom of the diving bell is pulled.
“Om—!”
The metal collision brought violent tremors to the diving bell, and the deep vibrations of the metal were introduced into the bodies of the two from all directions, shaking their internal organs, and a sudden violent vomiting suddenly poured into the brain from the stomach.
“what’s the situation?”
Jian Shenxiu resisted the tremors in his internal organs, grabbed the handle with difficulty, and shouted into the communicator.
“Our department suffered an unknown impact and felt a violent collision! Please find out the cause immediately at the ship department! Report the situation!”
“I’m investigating!”
At that moment, there seemed to be some confusion on the ship, and there was a lot of noise on the other end of the communication. But soon Xi Wei’s voice sounded from the other end of the communication, covering up many noises, and shouted into the communicator.
“Suspected because of the big waves just now! The wind and waves just now caused the hanging diving bell to collide with the hull! Damn, this ship is not a platform specially prepared for deep diving. When it was designed, there was no slot for a diving bell on the ship’s side! Diving The bell was too close to the hull! So there was just a collision under the wind and waves!”
“Then put down the cable immediately!”
The shaking in the diving bell continued, and Shenxiu grabbed the handle and yelled at the communicator.
“Asahina’s boat has a draft of 10 meters, so let’s put it 15 meters underwater! Make it impossible to hit!”
“Boom!”
Before his words fell, the huge collision sounded again, and the violent shock hit the two people in the cabin again. Turn the two over.
“immediately!!”
“yes!”
So Xi Wei stopped hesitating immediately, the sound of the steel cable rotating was transmitted along the metal, the shaking of the diving bell became more violent, and it continued to sink under the pull of the counterweight. Finally reached the predetermined depth after more than ten seconds.
“Crack.”
There was another click and lock sound.
This time there was no collision and it continued to come, and even the impact of the waves was less after getting away from the water. After a few minutes, the shaking finally calmed down, and only the slow water flow slowly pushed the body of the diving bell, suspended in the water layer under the influence of the counterweight.
“Huh…are you okay?”
Seeing that Shenxiu climbed up from the bottom of the diving bell panting heavily, he looked at Markesias who was doing the same movement beside him, and asked with concern.
“It’s okay. Lord…” Markesias got up nimbly, and his movements were even lighter than Jian Shenxiu next to him. When he just hit the impact, he curled up in the corner like a cat, perfectly avoiding his own injuries.
He opened his mouth first, and then quickly realized that he was not alone with Jian Shenxiu at the moment, so he immediately changed his words.
“Mr. Xiu.”
“Long, sir.”
At this time, Xi Wei’s worried voice also came from the loudspeaker.
“Your side?”
“No one was injured.” Jian Shenxiu replied decisively, while speaking, he turned on the system next to him, and started the self-test procedure of the diving bell according to the instructions in the operation manual in his memory.
“The self-test status of the diving bell is normal, and the system is normal, but the shell…is slightly deformed. Where are you?”
He looked up at the place where the top of his head had just collided, and frowned slightly.
Obviously, this is not a great start.
…
“The hull part is slightly damaged, and a watertight compartment shows signs of deformation, but it is not serious. It is not a big problem on our side. In terms of monitoring, we have a camera on the outside of the diving certificate that was tilted during the collision just now .Others are fine.”
On the boat, Xi Wei looked around to confirm the situation, looked at the monitoring results reported by the person next to her on the monitor, and quickly replied, but she couldn’t help but paused and hesitated for a moment before continuing to ask.
“Sir, next…”
“Um?”
Seeing Shenxiu’s questioning humming sound coming from the communicator, even after the current conduction, the questioning meaning in the voice is still undiminished, as if asking Xi Wei why she stopped.
“you……”
So Xi Wei immediately understood what he meant. Her eyes were fixed on the monitor screen in the diving bell, and she couldn’t help but speak silently and slowly.
“Are you going to continue diving?”
“It’s not a big surprise.”
Through the communicator, I saw that Shenxiu had calmed down, and his voice came out calmly.
“I see.”
Indeed, Jian Shenxiu’s judgment was correct, and Xi Wei was clear about it. It’s just that such a change happened at the beginning of the dive, which inevitably cast a layer of gloom on people’s hearts.
As if stimulated by that voice, Xi Wei simply nodded and continued.
“Then let’s continue the process. Please check the status of the spare gas cylinders, diving lights and underwater weapons one last time. Including checking whether they were damaged in the collision just now.”
“…everything is in order.”
Half a minute later, there was another reply. Obviously, this check took a little longer because of the collision.
“Okay, then we will slowly lower the diving bell. It will stop every 10 meters until it is unknown at 50 meters. If there is any abnormality, please feel free to report here.”
“clear.”
So for a while, no one spoke in the channel, and Xi Wei pressed the button on the table. With the rotation of the wheel, the steel cable on the side of the ship made a metal friction sound again, and slowly sank downward.
On the monitor on the ship, the monitoring screen on the outside of the dive also began to sink slowly into the deep sea following this press. The sea water in the rainstorm presents a deep green color in the camera. Staring at the sinking picture on the screen, there will be a hazy sense of weightlessness, and I feel as if I am slowly falling into the abyss.
“Really, nothing goes well…”
She heard someone in the command room sigh with emotion. The sound was not loud, but it was inexplicably clear for a moment in the gap between the thunder and rainstorm outside the cabin. Xi Wei turned her head subconsciously, trying to find the person who spoke, but the person who spoke was actually just a cleaner next to her. The cleaner was stunned when he saw her gaze, and then hurriedly covered his mouth.
But this is indeed the voice of everyone. Xi Wei withdrew her gaze a little irritatedly, and turned her head to look out the window. Under the torrential rain, the glass of the cabin seemed blurred and distorted, and the storm and dark clouds outside against it became more gloomy and terrifying, telling the truth of nature. ruthless.
No matter how you look at it, this is not the weather suitable for diving. Can this forced rescue really achieve results?
This kind of thought popped up in Xi Wei’s heart uncontrollably. She looked at the figures of Shenxiu and Marchesias on the screen, full of doubts.
Chief Inspector, Chief Inspector, this dive you insisted on…
What is it for?