Submarine

"Submarine"
Seaman Nodari Bukhnikashvili checked his watch. It was almost 11 am. He was onboard the Komsomolets. The Komsomolets was a large Russian submarine. It had two nuclear reactors and could carry a mix of torpedoes and cruise missiles. In layman`s terms, she was an attack submarine. Nodari was in Compartment 7, the location of steering and the aftmost space on the ship. Unknown to him, a high-pressure air line connected to the main ballast tanks which allowed the submarine to control it`s depth had bursts its seal in the seventh compartment. A spray of oil had found its way there and hit a hot surface. There was a deafening explosion and Nodari fell to the floor, his eyes wide in horror. The fire was getting bigger and hotter and would soon reach him. He tried to reach the intercom to alarm someone, anyone, but he was blocked by the fire. Coughing, he collapsed on the floor. He wondered if this was how his life would end.
Captain Vyacheslav, the submarine`s watch engineer thought to himself, "I`m sick and tired of being in this submarine. I`ve been stuck here for over a month now. I just wish I could have some fresh air." His anxiety was forgotten when one of the dials registered a sharp rise of temperature. Using the intercom, he tried calling Nodari. There was nothing but silence on the other end. Alarmed, he asked Lieutenant Igor Molchanov to note the time in the deck lock. The Captain then went in search of the Chief Engineer and the Commanding Officer. Brushing past several people, Vyacheslav spotted the Chief engineer. Calling out to him, Vyacheslav said, "Valentin! Over here! Theres some trouble in Compartment 7! Get the commanding officer here now!" Nodding, Valentin ran off to get the Commanding Officer, Yevgeniy. After explaining the situation to Yevgeniy, the three of them ran back to the control room. Standing in the control room, Yevgeniy asked Valentin, "What are we going to do? The fire is quickly spreading to the other compartments!" His voice was filled with alarm and panic. Valentin mentally cycled through all the possible solutions in his head. Reluctantly, he suggested to Yevgeniy to smother the compartment with freon, a nonflammable gas. Upon hearing this, Yevgeniy`s eyes widened. "Are you crazy? The gas will smother Nodari as well!", Yevgeniy exclaimed. "Do you have a better idea?", Valentin argued with urgency in his voice. Sighing, Yevgeniy pressed the button on the intercom. "There is a fire in Compartment 7. Activate the freon system", he said. He then said softly to himself, "Im sorry Nodari." The high pressure air line fed the fire in Compartment 7 like a furnace. Nodari, trapped in Compartment 7, died instantly. The reactor officer, Vasili, panicked and quickly shut down the submarine's main power source. The submarine instantly went powerless. With no way on and at a depth of 500 feet, the submarine lost vital lift. Captain Yevgeniy ordered the main ballast tanks blown, and the Komsomolets rose. Repeating the procedure, Captain Yevgeniy managed to bring the sub to the surface. Yelling, he ordered an encoded SOS to be sent to his headquarters. A cheer rang out. "We`re saved!", one crewman said. Captain Yevgeniy objected. "We`re not out of danger yet. The fire is still spreading." The rubber coating on the outer hull had started to fall of in strips. Captain Yevgeniy then ordered all crewmen not involved in damage control topside. The crewmen started moving out and donned masks.
By noon, the fire had spread to the forward compartments. The crewmen in Compartment 3 & 4 were dead except for a lone seaman, Roman Filipov. He was suffering from exposure to Carbon Monoxide but tried his best to restart a diesel generator to provide the ship with power. He was succesful but he knew that he was going to die and no one was going to save him. He collapsed on the floor dead. Yevgeniy ordered a message to be sent with the submarine`s name, location, and circumstances. Three soviet ships were dispatched to help in the rescue mission. Yevgeniy, weak from the andrenaline, realised that it was impossible to salvage the ship. Shouting on the deck, he ordered all men to abandon ship. Life rafts were inflated and a rescue plane dropped a rescue pod. The panic striken crewmen climbed in. Now in the water, the crewmen on the lifeboats discovered with horror that the lifeboats were not heavy enough to support all the crewmen. One of the lifeboats overturned. The chief engineer, Valentin, were among one of the crewmen in the water. Getting numb, some of the crewmen in the water started to drown. The crewmen in the other lifeboat could not do anything but watch in horror. Valentin`s legs were getting numb. The icy cold water felt like burning acid. His clothes were dragging him towards the empty blackness of the sea. Memories from his childhood flashed through his mind. He tried to breath and gulped cold water. He felt himself drifting towards unconciousness.......then felt nothing.
Inside the submarine, six men were still alive. Captain Yevgeniy yelled at the remaining men. "Get to the escape pod. We dont have much time!" 3 crewmen brushed past him. Where were the two remaining crewmen? He heard a scream and turned to his left. Yudin, the engineer, was engulfed in flames. The captain just ran past him and into the escape pod. The 3 crewmen were inside and the Captain quickly closed the hatch. Where was the fourth crewman? The men in the escape pod heard a frantic knocking on the escape hatch door. There was nothing they could do. Suddenly, the escape pod broke free of the sinking submarine. The crewmen started to relax when the hatch to the escape pod suddenly broke. Cold water rushed in. There was a frantic struggle to get out. Yevgeniy struggled against the water and swam out of the hatch. The rest of the men in the escape pod drowned to death in a watery grave. The water was icy cold. He felt himself in death`s grip. He saw an object on the surface. A fishing boat. He swam towards it, towards the light and away from the inky blackness of the sea. He broke the surface and gulped in cold air. Yevgeniy felt strong arms haul him up onto the boat. He was exhausted. He had lost many good friends today, people who stuck with him through thick and thin. Exhausation overcame him and he decided that he was too tired to think about anything now. He closed his eyes and drifted off to unconciousness.