Seafarer

Chapter 3

While waiting for Fiona’s call back, Leo took to his make shift workshop. In what was suppose to be the birth in the bow, Leo had it refitted into a workshop. Equipped with dozens of small drawers filled with wire, solder and various electronic parts. He wanted it incase he had to repair on board electronics but also it allowed Leo was able to tinker and create useful tools. Also in the workshop was a 3D printer on a special stabilizer table so it could be used while they were abroad, a desktop computer with three 30 inch displays which arched around him as it curved with the shape of the boat. When Claire called him for lunch he emerged with a huge triumphant grin on his face. “Say hello to Dolly”

“Who?” Claire turned around to see Leo caring one of his inventions “What is it?”

“Its a HROV. A diving robot that we can drive over and maybe even into the U-Boat. We’d be perfectly safe from over here and we can watch what it sees and control it via the iPad” Leo watched has Claire’s face lit up with a sense of wonder.

“Nice job, lets see if it works!” Clair said. As Leo passed her she stole a quick kiss on his cheek, then she followed him up the ladder.

The sun was in full blaze, with not a cloud in the sky. All traces of the storm the night before were all gone. The water was clear, with schools of fish visible as they darted about. Leo pulled up the software onto the iPad that controlled HROV and passed it to Claire, then placed Dolly into water. Its propellors started to spin and started to make a controlled decent for a few feat. Leo looked over onto the screen of the iPad and could see from Dolly’s point of view. Claire took it through some tests before declaring the test a success.

While having lunch the phone started to ring, “It must be Fiona” Claire said reaching for the phone. “Hey baby, find anything?”

“Oh sorry, I was expecting a call from my daughter.” Claire’s face started to redden. “How can I help you?” After a few minutes she continued “Yes, of course. Our coordinates are 18.355747, -64.573517. How long till someone will be by?” after a short pause “Thank you, good bye” and then she hit the end button. Claire turned to Leo who had a puzzled look on his face “That was the the minister for foreign affairs of the British government. He’s sending someone from his office here to meet us and see what we’ve found”

“How did he know? did Fiona talk to him?” Leo’s worried look was still visible on his face.

“I don't know, he didn’t mention that she talked to him at all. But he knew we found a World War II Nazi submarine. Congratulated us on our find and said someone would be coming over to meet us soon. He didn’t say how long soon was though, it could be an hour from now or tomorrow.” Leo nodded to all this “I’m going to call Fiona and see if she talked to anyone that might have tipped them off”

As Claire called Fiona back, Leo took Dolly back topside with the iPad. As he was putting it back in the water, Claire came up to join him “She didn’t talk to anyone, only was doing some online searches for us to find out what our options were”

“Really?” looking up, he continued “I wonder how they knew then?”

“I do not know, I wish I knew.” She replied, clearing agitated by the turn of events. “Are you going to take Dolly over?”

“Yeah, I want to learn as much as I can before they make us stop” Dolly started to spin and then dive down as Leo tapped the on screen controls on the iPad. As Dolly moved closer to the submarine, it was clear how it sunk, it had a three meter gash down the side near the stern. Thankfully the scar was also wide enough for Dolly to slip right through and the HVOV was inside. Leo tapped another button on the side control panel on the iPad and Dolly’s light came on illuminating the space within. “I think we’re in the engine compartment” Leo tapped the controls and came to the hatch doorway which looked like had been blown open by the pressure of the rushing water. Leo was able to navigate to the point where the water stopped then turned back to attempt to explore the rooms on either side of the corridor.

There were three rooms on either side, but only two doors on the port side were open enough for Dolly to enter. The first room looked like it was the mess hall, where the soldiers ate. Leo was about to turn Dolly around when Claire said “Stop! Over there” and pointed to an area on the screen that looked like a book” Leo drove Dolly over “Yup, its a book. 1 second” he tapped another button and the view point changed to view from Dolly’s  retractable arm and Leo started to navigate it towards the book to pick it up. He moved slowly as he nudged the book over to the edge of the table where he could then use the pinchers to grab hold. One he did, he retracted the arm. After a quick look around the second room which turned out to be a storage area he turned the HROV back to the Serenity.

“Hello Dolly!” Leo exclaimed as it hit the surface on the port side of the bow and reached down with a hook to pick it up. “What do you have for me?” Leo released the book from the pinchers grip. It had been in the water for decades and survived, but if he tried to open it now then all would be lost. He carefully took the book down to his workshop. “I read about this once” Leo said as he was searching for something.

 “Ah! Here it is.” He grabbed a Liquid CO2 canister, a funnel, and a plastic zip lock back and headed back outside. He placed the nozzle of the CO2 canister into the funnel which was then put inside the plastic bag. Using a few short bursts from the canister, dry ice started to form inside the plastic bag. “This should do” Then he placed the book and the dry ice into a small cooler bag. “The dry ice should help wick away moisture from the book and stabilize the pages” Leo’s face start to scrunch up “Or so I hope…”

Claire wasn’t surprised by any of what just happened, once she dropped her book into the bath while reading and had looked up that if you put the book into a freezer it would save it. It had worked and was able to read the story. The dry ice should work just as well, if not better. The onboard fridge was just not cold enough for the task. “What we going to do when the British authorities show up? I don’t think they’ll like the fact we removed an artifact from the boat”

“Good point, its too late to put it back so I guess we’ll have to hide it.” He replied with a mischievous look on his face

“Uh-oh! I know that look” but her smile was just as mischievous as his.

Returning down to the workshop he used the printer to create a stool with a hidden compartment that he could put the cooler bag into while it worked its magic but remain hidden. He then placed the stool in a compartment outside used for storing cleaning supplies and seat cushions. Afterwards he took Dolly apart and deleted the software that controlled her, making sure there was no trace of what they had done left.

Once Leo was all done he started to prepare dinner, Claire had done some spear fishing while he was in the workshop and had caught two lobsters.