...And We Will Have Snow

Chapter 6-4: In The Water

Sitting by the window near the sea floor, the visitors could see Shell dwellers coming and going through an air lock. Xayna was particularly intrigued by this. Like most people, her diving experience was mainly limited to snorkeling and diving from the surface, rarely swimming down as far as thirty feet, and only a few minutes at a time. She had tried diving with an aqualung, which had allowed her to stay under longer, but still had not gone very deep.

Here she was observing people leaving the air locks wearing a thin wet suit with only a mask and swim fins, many with not even a snorkel. She watched some of them putter around the bottom inside the shell for several minutes, apparently inspecting particular patches of sea-bottom life that were visible in the light from the windows, before turning on their hand lanterns and going out through a nearby portal. She had not seen many of them return to the air lock. Finally she realized what was puzzling her and exclaimed, "They're not breathing!"

Zeke smiled at her and looked at Rosita, who said, "Remember how deep we are. People normally have little trouble adjusting to air pressure equalized to deep water, even the ten atmospheres of pressure experienced at a hundred meters. An equalized breath at this level contains ten times the air of a breath taken at the surface. So it's convenient for swimmers to leave the Shell here at the bottom level, swim around the bottom for awhile and then go slowly upward."

"Don't they have to worry about their lungs exploding? Whenever I went scuba diving I was warned to keep breathing."

"That's the easiest way for a scuba diver to stay safe. But if you take a normal breath down here before you leave the air lock, and then start to swim up, you'll feel your lungs inflate more as you rise and it's totally natural to exhale a bit and stay comfortable. There's not much danger, as long as you rise slowly enough to not get the bends."

"So most of them go up to the surface to breathe?"

"Some do. But there are a lot of marine biologists here whose interests are mostly in what they're finding on the bottom. At a hundred meters, we're right in the middle of the zone where most marine life is concentrated, at a depth that's hard to reach in a dive from the surface but easy from here. New discoveries are made almost daily. In short, they're in heaven. A lungful of air at a hundred meters is good for almost half an hour if you're not too active. They take their pictures, collect their samples, and come back to the Shell. Sometimes here, sometimes at the surface, but often at the lock closest to their apartment, so they can go home, strip off the wetsuit, shower and then take their samples to the lab."

Bear said, "Heaven. Can't wait to see it."

"Will you show us the way?" Xayna asked Rosita.

Rosita looked to Zeke, who smiled and said, "By all means, show our guests this little piece of heaven."

Ryan asked, "Can your drones handle the pressure?"

"Not a problem," Sedna assured him.

"Then follow us." Ryan stood, and everyone else did likewise. Zeke positioned himself where he would be able to see them when they left the airlock.

The lock had an anteroom where Ryan and Rosita put on wetsuits. Bear cocked an eyebrow and Ryan grinned at him. "We try to keep up appearances. The water temperature here is bearable even in human form, but half an hour of exposure is not fun. Wetsuits are preferred."

When they were all in the airlock Rosita flipped a waterproof switch and the air pressure started to rise. The drones of course were not affected but Rosita explained that the rate of pressurization was programmed to remain comfortable. There was a "panic button" in case someone had trouble equalizing their ear pressure. Then the rate could be adjusted as needed.

Once the air pressure matched the water outside, the outer panel of the airlock started to rise, letting water in at the bottom. When the opening was big enough to allow easy exit, Ryan and Rosita took one last breath and ducked through the opening. The others followed. Ryan and Rosita had left their lenses behind, but they were both able to see the ghostly avatars of their friends overlaid on the drones through their shaman dream.

Sedna had learned to fly her drone underwater. Bear tried swimming, but soon decided to do it Sedna's way. Xayna followed their lead. After a casual look at the marine garden inside the Shell, they all went out through the nearest portal. Sedna turned and waved to Zeke, who waved back through the lounge window.

The little group explored the sea bottom for a few minutes, seeing an abundant variety of anemones and other marine animals. At this depth red light was all but filtered out, so the color palette was mostly a range of blues, greens and yellows, even for the drones' enhanced video. But the variety was still remarkable.

Before long Ryan and Rosita began to rise and moved out of sight of the other Shell dwellers in the area. Then they shifted to sea lion form. Trailing streams of air bubbles, they rose slowly to the surface, where they could breathe naturally. The three drones followed at a distance, watching from below. Presently the couple were joined by several native sea lions. After an exchange of greetings they dove as a group down to where the drones were waiting.

Bear opened his own sea lion dream, and shared it with Xayna and Sedna, who soon were able to pick up and share the dream of the sea lions themselves. The sea lions at first seemed puzzled and wary of the drones, but soon began cavorting around them playfully.