The engineers were bustling around, going in and out of the manned submersible as they checked something. The moment the two of them disappeared from the area, I grabbed an oil-soaked rag hanging in the corner and draped it over the mining team leader’s half-open eyes. It was because I’d had the terrifying thought that Raphael’s half-open pupils, which had been staring up at the ceiling, might suddenly roll over toward me. Damn ghost stories. I can’t live like this. Seriously.
Being left alone with the corpse made tension coil around my entire body. Raphael was, at least, in relatively decent condition compared to the corpses I’d seen so far. It was much better than seeing the horrific states of people I’d grown emotionally close to. Instead, it felt like the corpse might suddenly sit bolt upright at any moment. ······Ah. Damn it. My imagination is going to give me a heart attack. On top of that, I was so scared that the longer time passed, the more my body trembled.
I thought I was shaking from fear because there was a corpse beside me, but it turned out I was shivering because it was genuinely cold. The inside of the submersible port seemed to be more than ten degrees colder than the warm outside. Rather than stay here with Raphael, I wanted to help Kim Jae-hui and Sin Haeryang somehow, even if they looked frantic. But if I, knowing nothing, went over there, I’d only get in the way and be no help at all, so I waited, trembling.
As I waited without doing anything, I grew increasingly anxious. The walls of the submersible port were plastered with all sorts of warning notices. Looking at the biggest words, [Authorized Personnel Only], made the thought that I needed to get out of here immediately boil up inside me.
[Let’s follow the principles of submersible inspection standards.]
[Do not board a manned submersible that has not undergone a test run. Confirming performance through a test run is essential!]
[High-pressure gas cylinder check required]
[Gas hazard! Oxygen gas! Nitrogen gas! Air gas! Helium gas! Oxygen-helium mixed gas! Check the color carefully when filling!]
[Move in teams of at least two!]
[Fuel cell charge check required]
[Have you checked the life-support system?]
[Tether cable check required]
[Manual shutoff valves close clockwise! Clockwise to close! Clockwise closed!]
[If someone is caught smoking, killing them is legal]
[When installing gas pipes and electrical cable conduits, they must be placed as far apart as possible and installed one at a time.]
[Safety check, Cross check, Double-check]
I hadn’t thought much about it when sending other people off in them, but now that I had to ride one out myself, all sorts of thoughts came to mind. Why are there so many things to check? What happens if something goes wrong while we’re going out in the submersible? Have people died after getting into submersibles? ······They must have. Were there a lot? ······Please. Let there be none today.
Thinking of the escape craft I’d ridden for the first time made me feel sick. I really hadn’t wanted to know that if you swallow seawater over and over and over, it feels like your stomach is going to burst.
To forget Raphael lying beside me and the warning notices stuck to the wall, I started looking at the opposite wall. On that wall, posters of deep-sea manned submersibles each country took pride in were plastered everywhere. America’s Alvin, Japan’s Shinkai, China’s Jiaolong, Russia’s Mir, and Korea’s Sim Cheong were lined up in order.
At the very end of the wall was Gravity, which looked like a turtle, and the turtle was grinning with a crown made of pearls set atop its head. Right, this place was Hyeonmudong. Now I get why that lunatic Team Leader Raphael was so obsessed with turtles.
The engineers who had gone into the submersible maintenance area were talking. Sin Haeryang was expressionless, and Kim Jae-hui was smiling, so it didn’t look too serious. Is it okay? Is there something the three of us can all ride out in? When Kim Jae-hui’s eyes met mine, he waved once in my direction.
Taking advantage of the engineers being busy, I looked around the inside of the submersible port, but I only skimmed things with my eyes in case I broke something by touching it wrong. There was a small staff lounge in the middle of the submersible port, and after hesitating, I couldn’t stand the cold anymore and went inside.
The staff lounge seemed to have only just started heating up, and the cold air was slowly warming. I exhaled the cold air that had filled my lungs with a sigh, then drew the ambiguously warm lounge air into my lungs. As soon as I entered the lounge, the first things I saw were a staff refrigerator and a wine refrigerator.
Why is there a wine refrigerator here? Dumbfounded, I opened it, only to be surprised that what was inside really was champagne and red wine. More than half of it was champagne, in particular. As soon as I opened the wine refrigerator door, a bright red warning notice was posted right where it could be seen, and when I read it, it threatened that the champagne was for the launch ceremonies of unmanned and manned submersibles, and if even a single bottle disappeared, they would smash your head instead of the champagne.
They say people break champagne against ships at launch ceremonies to pray for safe voyages, but do they break champagne before putting submersibles into the water too? I thought launch ceremonies were only done on the sea surface, but it seemed they also assembled parts here and launched submersibles from this place.
In the lounge, there was a coffee machine brewing coffee and unopened snacks. I didn’t know who had brewed the pitch-black coffee, but the aroma was strong and it was hot. ······Good. Even if I die today, I’m drinking a cup of coffee first.
The mugs inside the lounge seemed to have owners, with names written in English on the outside. I chose three mugs that had been abandoned by their owners, poured steaming coffee into them, and piled snacks onto a tray at random. Then Sin Haeryang and Kim Jae-hui entered the lounge. Kim Jae-hui’s ears and nose were bright red as he hurried in. He must have been really cold.
“How are the submersibles?”
“Almost all the intact ones have gone out.”
Kim Jae-hui briefly closed and opened his eyes at the warm indoor air, then gladly took the hot coffee cup I held out. I handed a coffee cup to Sin Haeryang as well and asked.
“Then can we not take a submersible?”
“There are two we can board immediately. One three-person submersible that I can’t tell why they moved it over to maintenance, and one two-person submersible that’s explicitly marked as defective.”
Sin Haeryang took the coffee cup, and the tip of his glove that brushed against me as I handed it over was like ice. He had gone inside the manned submersible; was the inside of the submersible that cold?
“Which submersible is safer?”
I took a sip of coffee as I asked, and for a moment, the heat and aroma made me shut my mouth. I’d only taken one sip of coffee, but that alone made me this happy. It was cheap coffee, practically just bitter water, but coffee was still coffee. ······I feel like I’m going to cry.
Sin Haeryang wrapped both hands around the coffee cup, took a sip, and slowly said,
“Cheloni, the maintenance system, didn’t detect any particular problems in the three-person submersible. We ran a temporary operation simulation, and it said there were no issues with normal function. I went inside and checked, but there were no malfunctions that could be confirmed right away. In the two-person submersible, a robot arm manipulator malfunction, battery discharge, and external camera malfunction were confirmed. The rest of the broken submersibles have pressure hull issues, so they can’t be repaired immediately.”
The battery could be charged or replaced, and it didn’t seem like the external camera would be a problem even if it was missing for now.
“What is the robot arm used for?”
Even if that malfunctions, is there no problem riding the submersible up? If a person’s arm malfunctions, that’s a big problem. Is a submersible fine?
“It’s the arm part attached to the submersible. It’s used to grab this and that.”
Kim Jae-hui took a small sip of coffee, then frowned while holding the cup. It seemed the coffee, which was just bitter and hot, was not something Kim Jae-hui could possibly endure drinking as is. Holding the coffee cup, Kim Jae-hui went over beside the coffee machine, tore open two paper packets of sugar, and poured them into the coffee. So a submersible isn’t something you just start up and drive out like a car.
“You say there’s nothing wrong with the three-person submersible. Why are you hesitating to board it?”
Sin Haeryang warmed his hands with the heat of the mug as he said,
“There must be a reason they moved an intact submersible over to maintenance.”
“You said Cheloni inspected it and found nothing wrong. Maybe the kids repairing the submersibles were drinking while doing maintenance and made a bad call.”
“······.”
Perhaps deciding that Kim Jae-hui’s statement had some basis, Sin Haeryang, holding his mug, frowned as he took a sip of coffee. Thinking of all the warning notices posted inside the submersible port, I asked Kim Jae-hui,
“The staff drink while maintaining submersibles?”
“They said if they drink a shot of vodka, they can work without feeling cold.”
Kim Jae-hui opened the freezer compartment of the staff refrigerator, took out a bottle of vodka, and shook it. ······The bottle doesn’t freeze even when you put it straight into the freezer. Is it because it’s vodka? I’ve never stored alcohol in a freezer, so I wouldn’t know. How did Kim Jae-hui know the vodka was being kept in the freezer?
“Would you like a glass?”
Hey. Your team leader is glaring harshly at both you and me.
“······I’m fine. May I ask what Cheloni is?”
“They said Cheloni is short for Chelonioidea, meaning sea turtle. It’s a submersible AI maintenance system. It’s only used for maintenance inside the submersible port.”
When Kim Jae-hui handed the vodka bottle into Sin Haeryang’s outstretched hand, Sin Haeryang fell into thought again while holding the bottle. Kim Jae-hui swirled the contents of his mug, where the sugar hadn’t fully dissolved, and took another sip of coffee. For the sake of the engineering team leader worrying over which submersible to take, I decided to keep the team member who might do who-knew-what occupied with questions.
“Jae-hui. I know absolutely nothing about submersibles. Is there anything I should keep in mind when boarding?”
All I’d heard was that submersibles were cramped as hell. I recalled the experience of riding a helicopter for the first time. I asked because if I was going to get so motion sick that I had no choice but to throw up, I needed to put the coffee down immediately, but Kim Jae-hui spoke as if it were nothing much.
“Savior. You’ll know once you ride one, but submersibles don’t have bathrooms.”
“Pardon? Then what do people who have to ride in a submersible for a long time do?”
“They control what they eat from the day before.”
······They solve it so simply. I guess the wicked scientist bastards who made submersibles never thought they should install a bathroom inside a small submersible.
“Is there anything else I should know about submersibles?”
“That you absolutely have to write a will before boarding? ······I’m kidding. There’s also having to weigh yourself before getting in. Ah. There’s no heater inside the submersible.”
“Pardon?”
“It won’t be cold enough to kill you, but you’ll probably feel like it’s extremely cold.”