Blue Fish: The War Beneath Page 4

  "The only way is to wait for a search party," I said.

  "It will be too late for us to survive. By then we will run out of oxygen in the compartment," Kamal said in an exasperated way.

  Kamal had a plan to escape. His idea was to get into the torpedo tubes and escape through it. I said no to it. If we did so, then the possibilities of rescuing any survivors were low. Even this compartment will be filled with water. I did not want to take any chances on this. I felt that we shouldn't be thinking about our lives, but the plan should be to look for any survivors in 'S21'.

  "I will stay here and will try to check if anybody is alive out there. Do you want to leave and go? Then you all can escape through the torpedo tubes. I will pull this lever and you all can escape one by one," I said.

  "You want to stay here – for how long? Or search for survivors for how long?" Kamal said.

  "I don't know."

  Everybody was visibly angry with me. We had a chance to escape but I chose to instead stay in there and search for other survivors. I walked to the side and sat on top of one of the torpedoes.

  Prathap got angry, he rushed towards the intercom and tried to reach the other compartment but silence was the answer again because intercom needed electricity to function. So Prathap tried his luck with the telephone, but to no avail.

  Taan Singh smiled, which cheered the rest of us up as well. We were all resting and were waiting for a miracle that would get us out of this rut.

  And suddenly, the lights completely shut down. It was pitch dark and only our breathing could be heard. Taan Singh grabbed a torch.

  "Looks like we are all very tired," I said.

  "How I wish we could sleep for some time,” Prathap murmured like a tired child.

  "You can get some sleep, if you want."

  "Sir, are you sure that our accomplishment will never be acknowledged?"

  "Prathap, let’s not talk about this now.”

  "I just want to get out of here," Kamal despaired.

  We were all trying to divert our minds and were hoping to see a ray of hope.

  "How did you end up in the Navy, Prathap?" I said.

  "Nothing special, Sir. I was searching in dailies for employment and found this Navy Ad highlighted in big words ‘SERVE THE NATION’ and here I am."

  "What about you Taan Singh?"

  "Sir, my father served in Army, and I applied to the Navy," Taan Singh said.

  "I don’t see the link Taan Singh – what has your father being in army got to do with you getting into Navy?

  “It’s a long story. I used to make a lot of paper boats in my children. My father noticed my love for water, and I ended up here. But my son is in Army training school.”

  "How old is he?"

  "I am not sure Sir, I never asked him."

  "Do you miss him?" came an inquiry.

  "No Sir, my duty never gave me any time to miss my family" was an affirmative response from Taan Singh.

  "This is our 18th day inside. Now we get the time to talk about this. I wish someone in the other compartments are talking like this too.”

  "And I hope they don't forget where they are...," Kamal said in a disapproving tone.

  There was a sudden movement acted upon all of us. Our compartment shook a bit. This was apparently because of 'S21' getting buried into the seabed.

  Torch light on the walk path rolled and all of sudden, our compartment shuddered.

  "Hold tightly," I yelled out.

  Because of the impact one of the pipes burst, and this led to water flushing into our compartment.

  "Fix the pipe," I shouted.

  "We don't have the fixing tool. We need to get that from the other compartment," Taan Singh said.

  "But, where is the pipe's vault?"

  "It's behind that hatch, in the second compartment Sir."

  The water level was quickly rising up.

  "We need to escape from here and this is my final order," Kamal said. It was funny to receive ‘orders’ when each person’s designations were light years away and we were naked humans struggling in the battle stuck between life & death.

  "Let's try one last time. The compartment hatch should open now. The pressure might have changed," I said.

  I balanced myself and quickly went to the hatch to give it one last shot. Prathap also stepped in and we opened the hatch with great difficulty.

  And that led us into the second compartment.

  I quickly closed the vault and the gust of water raged against the closed vault on the other side. I could feel its rage ready to eat us alive. Silence prevailed. I saw Ramana collapse; I went to him, picked him up and placed him flat on the dining table. It’s tragic that the dining table was now a life bearer. It once helped the doctor treat the crew. It now bore a collapsed person. It had been a surgery bed in an operation theatre. He was alive but was unconscious. He had severe injuries on his head. On seeing Ramana alive, it gave me hope that there might be other officers and crew alive in the other compartments too.

  Ramana opened his eyes; he looked joyful to see us alive.

  "Don't worry, you will be fine." I assured him with a hopefully.

  I went up to Kamal; he was inspecting the sonar log form and wave sheet. He also looked up at the notes written by Ramana.

  "We are stuck in the hill. It will be difficult for the rescue team to find us," he said.

  "What shall we do now?" Prathap asked

  "We are nearly 500 meters deep. We need protective life suit gear to swim up or else we wouldn’t survive. It will take us at least 4-5 minutes to get to the water surface and to do that holding our breath is one task in itself.”

  Prathap inspected the second compartment for any life suits, but couldn’t find any.

  It was normal practice for everybody onboard to keep their respective life suits with them, but the crew considering this to be training, hadn’t bothered.

  We all were still searching for the life suits, but Prathap gave up on his pursuit. He trudged towards the sonar room, picked up a pen and paper, and began writing something which I noticed.

  "I got married quite recently, and I promised my wife that I would write a letter whenever I could," he said with a grief stricken face.

  It dawned on us that we weren’t going to get out of this alive. Taan Singh found a couple of torches and turned them on. The compartment suddenly lit up.

  Kamal too was unable to find any life suits.

  "There are no life suits here!" he said.

  "I think, they should be in fourth Compartment under the emergency gear," I said.

  "Why aren’t they placed here?"

  "I don't know Sir."

  "Now we need to go to the fourth compartment!"

  "Let's open the third Compartment hatch and make our way into the other compartments. First let’s look for survivors," I said.

  "No Sir. It's not a good idea," Prathap said.

  "What do you mean by ‘not a good idea’?"

  "We are safe here and we know that nobody is alive there in the control room and it will be very risky for all of us."

  "Why do you say that it is risky? Haven’t we all signed up for this? If that’s the case, it won’t be right on our part to leave them here, and find our way back like cowards."

  "We can help the trapped officers by bringing in the rescue teams and for that we should first escape through the torpedo tubes."

  "You are acting like a coward." I walked towards the hatch to open it.

  Nobody was interested in supporting me. They were all standing at their places. I guess everybody was scared of lying there in insipidity and welcoming death.

  "I agree with Prathap. If you open that hatch Arjun, even this compartment will be filled with water and there will be no scope for us to escape," Kamal said.

  I looked up at Kamal; I was not expecting such callous behavior from a responsible political bureaucrat like Kamal.

  "If you all are worried about your lives, then get yourself into the fir
st compartment and close the hatch safely and remain safe in there. I will be doing this. We have to protect the remaining crew and if you all are feeling scared then I will alone go ahead with it," I declared.

  I looked back at Prathap and Taan Singh. Prathap remained silent but Taan sing stepped forward saying "Sir, I am with you."

  I knew that whatever I was doing was right, so I just went ahead with my plan. I stood in front of the hatch and as I was just about to open it, Prathap pulled me back. It made me angry. I forced myself not to hit him. But Prathap was adamant in stopping me to open up the hatch. I had no other option but to hit him and push him back.

  Kamal and Taan Singh interfered to stop the fight. They both held Prathap and the fight was stopped midway. I had no intention of punishing Prathap for his foolish behaviour. I realized that it was his fear that was forcing him to do so.

  I still went ahead with my plan; I went to the hatch to open it.

  Before I could open it, suddenly there was a big explosion in the other compartments; we were all thrown back. None of us could figure out the cause behind the explosion. There was a loud sound and the resultant quivers in the compartment threw us up in the air. We found ourselves from a distance of 3 to 4 feet from the hatch.

  Water was flushing from the broken pipes continuously. It was not possible for any of us to stop it. In fact, we were unable to hold ourselves straight against the incoming gush of water. The hatch of the third compartment blew open as the water from the third compartment flooded into the second compartment and subsequently into the first.

  "Get back - Let's close the first compartment hatch before it breaks loose and drowns us," Kamal said.

  It became increasingly difficult for all of us to stand in the gush of water. I tried to attend to Ramana who was lying dormant on that dining table, but was unable to get any closer to him. I pushed myself harder towards him and as I was about to get to him, a metal box hit me on my head and that made me lose consciousness for a second. Bells of our struggle rang loud enough in my brains so that I hung there in resolve to get myself through this. Vision inside the compartment was distorted. Even the intensity of our voices dropped and this I learnt when I couldn’t hear anything being said by Kamal.

  I was chest level deep in the gushing water. The water slowly took over the first compartment too as Taan Singh valiantly made his way in. Kamal held tight onto the latch to let us both us so that the hatch could be closed without further delay.

  We were engulfed in the freezing water. It was so cold that it became difficult for us to breathe. Prathap was struggling in there. Ramana was underwater & he was not breathing. I felt pity for him. I had to let him go, I felt that there was no point in dragging the dead body.

  I looked up at Prathap; he managed to come closer to me. But all of a sudden, he stops and he doesn't move. His eyes were wide open. I realized that something went terribly wrong. Blood started gushing out. A broken pipe had jammed into Prathap’s stomach. Kamal and I stared at him, stunned.

  "Arjun, come back, before it's too late. Come back... Come back..." Kamal implored.

  Kamal was repeatedly saying my name. I just stood there appalled at what happened to Prathap. Kamal pulled me back towards him, into the first compartment and the hatch immediately closed behind me.

  LOST IN OBLIVION

  2 hours later

  The water was rising above our chest level imperceptibly. There was still 2 feet of distance between the water level and the compartment’s roof. This was the line that separated us from death.

  I was feeling miserable for Prathap. I couldn't believe that he was no more.

  Kamal sighed, helplessly.

  "Sir, is there a way out now? Can we come out from this? The torpedo tubes are crushed, but we could still fit into them," Taan Singh said.

  "We need oxygen apparatus. Getting out naked will kill us. We are down half kilometer now," Kamal said.

  Kamal and Taan Singh were inspecting the torpedo tubes; they were not looking at me. I set my body free and was gradually sinking in. It was not that I was trying to die, but it was just that I was starkly dismayed by my fellow officers dying in front of my eyes.

  Kamal and Taan Singh immediately pulled me up. I inhaled a long breath of air into my lungs.

  "You have lost your senses, now tell us how to get out from here," Kamal said.

  "OK, we go to the control room - third compartment, pass to the fourth compartment and get the life suits - this should be our first step", I said as the responsible officer in me woke up.

  "But again, where do we leave from?" he asked in a tone of urgency.

  "We will find some way," I answered.

  "There is a water leak in this compartment too and it's slowly rising," Taan Singh said worryingly.

  I felt the urge to hurry up now.

  "Before this water rises up fully, we need to get our life suits," I said.

  "How shall we go there leaving this place? We open the hatch and the water will fill this compartment. And the hatch is broken from outside we cannot open or lock it from the other side," Kamal said.

  "Yes, we can do it from here inside but we need to be real quick before water fills this compartment too. We don't have any timer, so we count numbers- 1...2...3...4..."

  "How many counts?"

  "It will take around 100 counts I guess."

  "You want to hold your breath for nearly one and a half minutes?"

  "Now we don't have any option. How much time will it take to go to fourth compartment exactly?"

  "If we start from where we are, it should ideally take 30-40 counts to reach the fourth compartment hatch.”

  "What if the hatch doesn't open? What if it's jammed?" Taan Singh raised a valid doubt.

  "I go there 40 counts - open hatch 10 counts - just open and come back within another 40 counts. If it doesn't open I will come back at the end of the count. And you open this hatch on time." I answered although I could feel my hope dwindle.

  I took the first step.

  "I will go, open the hatch in the fourth compartment and will come back; and again we will take a second trip."

  "OK... count 90 or 100?" Kamal said.

  "Count 90, ready all..."

  "Don't lose your count. Just be on count - losing the count will eventually result in losing lives."

  Kamal raised his hand, indicating that the count has begun. Taan Singh opened the hatch and I quickly got to the next compartment which was filled with water. Taan Singh immediately closed the hatch behind me.

  I kept diving slowly towards the third compartment. It was very disturbing for me to look at Prathap's body lying over there. I closed my eyes and went straight ahead.

  It was 20 counts until now.

  As I got into the third compartment, I was shocked to see Sharma, and other officers floating dead over there. It was the most terrifying thing I had seen. I wanted some air; I no longer could hold my breath.

  I lost my count. However, I focused and made my way to the fourth compartment. I turned the latch of the fourth compartment, quickly turned around, and picked up S21’s blueprint floating over there.

  While coming back I didn't dare to see any of the dead officers over there. But again, I remembered the letter written by Prathap. I went towards him, though I was not feeling comfortable, I reached his pocket - pulled the letter out and carried it with me.

  I banged on the first compartment hatch, Taan Singh immediately opened it and I quickly entered. I quickly raised my head above the water, and breathed deeply and desperately.

  "It was 87 counts," Kamal said.

  "Commanding officer, Steering Operator, Navigational officer and others are all dead," I announced.

  “That’s what I thought when we didn’t get any response. Did you open the hatch?”

  "Yes Sir."

  "Did you see anything there?"

  "No. I immediately turned back."

  I took the blueprint above the water, opened it and pointing on it "Life
suits should be somewhere in these racks," I said.

  "OK. Now I'll go and try to get those life suits from the fourth compartment," Kamal said.

  "Sir, it will be hard for you to get two more life suits. I will come with you," Taan Singh said. "No. It will be difficult for you to stay without breathing for that much long."

  "Sir, we will be wearing our suits there and we will come back."

  "Arjun, you stay here and the both of us will go find the suits, wear them where we find them and we will get one for you."

  "As you say Sir," I said.

  "What's the count?" Kamal asked.

  "Both of you going will take 50 counts. Locating the life suits, and putting them should take 50 counts and 50 more to come back.”

  "Count 150..." he said.

  We all agreed. I opened the hatch, they both quickly went out of the compartment, and closed the hatch with lightning speed. Water came up to my face by this time. There was little space left for me to breathe. Our time was running out.

  I stood there for some time. I raised my head a bit so that the water doesn't get into my mouth or nose. The count went up to 100 as time progressed heavily.

  I closed my eyes, my hands were numb, and I was just holding on to the slightest flicker of hope. Hope that I would, one day, be able to post Prathap’s letter. Count was 115.

  It was getting very difficult for me to stand in that posture. I lost my balance and fell into the water. I immediately regained my control and got back onto my feet. I was still counting, it was 140. Still 10 more counts and everything will be alright, I thought.

  Suddenly there was a different sound coming out in the compartment. It was the sound of a submerged telephone ringing. It took me a few seconds to decipher this strange sound.

  I quickly dove in to get hold of the telephone. I tried to speak but I couldn't as the water found its way into my mouth. I swam up, took a deep breath, and cleared my throat. I dove back again towards the hatch. I opened the hatch, there was nobody nearby. So, I closed it and went back towards the telephone, I dialed back to see if I could hear any response but to no avail.

  For a couple of seconds I waited underwater holding my breath and hoping I would get some response. I persevered. I went back to the hatch, drew my ear closer to the hatch, hoping to hear some noise from the other side.