Captain Steel had reached the bridge and was receiving damage reports. Surprisingly, hardly any water damage had occurred, and what had got in was easily drained, so no cabins had been affected.
He kept the engines at full power for their operational maximum time of 30 minutes. He wanted to be as far from the event as possible and they had just reached 20 miles.
The moment control over the ship was restored, Captain Steel reported the terrifying event to The Organization, and then he made a ship-wide announcement to crew and guests.
In his opinion, they had experienced a massive release of gas from the seabed and to his knowledge, they were the only people to have ever survived, to tell the tale.
“The huge column of fine bubbles provides no buoyancy and ships drop down the column as though it was a hole in the ocean; it is over in seconds, leaving no trace on the surface. When items that eventually float free of the wreck reach the surface, they are so widely spread that they are outside the reasonable boundaries of the search area.”
Captain Steel also reported to the authorities, the tragic loss of the pilot of the seaplane.
Everyone on board loudly voiced their thanks to the Captain for his quick thinking, and the crew for their devotion to duty. That night, they held a party to beat all parties, as everyone celebrated their good fortune.
James said “I have read about these gas releases in science magazines, and the tests that proved the theory of the bubble column being able to sink ships. I can only speculate that there might have been a mudslide down the side of an undersea mountain. That would account for the massive gas release in one spot, compared with the constant flow of minute bubbles of gas over the whole ocean floor.
“Only one thing doesn’t add up, there was no corresponding wave action. There are always reactions of a similar magnitude on the surface of the sea, to events below it. Something is making the seabed unstable and it would be wise to investigate that particular spot.”
Max considered what James had said, and mentioned it in his report to Sam Leighton, about the investigation so far; after all, this is the exact spot where the cruise ship and tanker went down. He also asked Sam if his scientific advisors could offer any insight.
Perhaps there were known fault lines in the immediate region or as James hinted, underwater mountains or other seismic possibilities.
The reply from Sam later that day was interesting. He confirmed there were potential fault lines close by and a deep valley, enclosed on all sides by small mountains, directly under the coordinates. Seismic records showed a small shock wave at the time the tanker and cruise ship went down, and also at the time of their event.
There had been several other shocks as well, about 500 miles north and 400 miles northeast. Sam also noted that the shock wave 500 miles north, occurred about two hours before the gas tanker explosion, that destroyed the other tanker and two aircraft.
A pattern was emerging and it looked like some sort of seabed breakup was taking place, but why?
US1 was heading out from its base in the Gulf of Mexico, and Sam had requested that it take a look at the areas, when it was on site in five days’ time.