Taken By The Shark

“You think so?” Chelsea asked. “I mean, it’s not like I know a whole lot about what guys act like when they are really into you. Of course I like him, but he’s supposed to be our instructor. I don’t really think we should get too involved with each other or some people might get mad about it, right?”

“Some people are already mad about it,” Nancy said, glancing over at Erik.

“I never gave that guy any reason to get mad about anything,” Chelsea pointed out. “I’d rather avoid him like the plague if I was given a choice.”

“Yeah, he does seem pretty annoying,” Melissa agreed.

“He was doing that back on the first day of testing, too,” Nancy added. “He even showed up at our door looking for Chelsea while she wasn’t there. Which reminds me, weren’t you out with Mark when that happened, as a matter of fact?”

“Technically, we were both at the same place at the same time,” she agreed. “But that’s because they were honoring the top tester for each of the three days. That’s how come Erik wasn’t pestering me right that minute.”

“And while you were enjoying the afternoon with a really hot instructor,” Angel chuckled.

“Oh, you girls think he’s hot, too?” Chelsea asked, feeling a twinge of jealousy.

“You’d have to be blind not to,” Nancy pointed out. “But he’s totally not interested in any of us.”

“I don’t know, he did tell Angel to take her time suiting up,” Melissa chuckled.

“And then told Chelsea to take even longer,” Nancy reminded them. The four girls giggled like ninnies, covering their mouths in an attempt not to be overheard. “Damn, we sound like a group of high school kids over here. Aren’t we supposed to be elite scientists now?”

“Hey, whoever said elite scientists were not allowed to laugh?” Chelsea wanted to know.

“Okay, you gaggle of giggling geese, let’s suit up and get in these things,” Mark called over to them then. “Hey, Steve-o, you ready?”

Mark rapped lightly on the door to the cockpit and a guy who looked to be in his forties stepped out. “Hey, Mark-o, I thought I told you not to call me Steve-o.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Mark grinned. “Take your rig full of rookies and go away.”

“With pleasure,” he said as they walked over to the rail and looked down. “Which one are you taking?”

“You can take Betty,” Mark said. “You know how much I love my redheads.”

“Oh, really?” Angel smirked, suppressing another chuckle. All of them were busily pulling on their wet suits at the time, and just afterwards she zipped hers closed and got to her feet again, beginning to slip on her mask.

“Yeah,” he said, smirking back. “The other submersibles are Wilma here, as well as Lucy and Ethel on the other boat.”

“Oh, so you’ve got a blonde too?” Ross grinned as he donned one flipper and then the other. “That works for me.”

Melissa, who happened to be a blonde, cast him a suspicious glance, and Ross blatantly grinned at her. This made her blush bright red as she shook her head, and she was rather quick about linking arms with Nancy and heading for the other group.

“All right, everyone, choose a buddy to help check your gauges,” said Mark then. “I don’t ever want to see anyone swimming off on their own around here. Chelsea, you’re with me.” Everyone chuckled as Mark, now suited up as well, dragged Chelsea to his side using the tank she had just belted on. “Now obviously we won’t need to use this stuff while we’re in the submersibles, since we’ll have a steady supply of air. Donning the suits for this exercise is merely precautionary. However, it’s a perfect opportunity for me to observe you as you’re doing so. Today only, I will be personally double-checking every single one of you, but after that, it’s all on you”

“Just the way I like it,” said Erik. He had paired up with Dan and they had just finished checking each other, so now he was paying attention yet again. “Now let’s get this show on the road already!”

“I’ll check you first, and then toss you into the drink, if that’s what you want,” Mark told him then. “As soon as you hit the water, I want you finding the rungs and climbing up. Then we’ll send down Chelsea and Angel so you can help them get inside. Steve? Is your crew already in the water?”

“They’re all down,” he said. “We’ll see you on the flipside.”

Chelsea watched as one of the guys from the other submersible crew climbed nimbly up to the top and opened the hatch, shortly followed by all the others, with Steve being the last man aboard. Then she slid down into the water and headed for Wilma. Before she knew it, she had climbed aboard and hurried down the rungs on the inside. She found a place to sit as everyone else also boarded the vessel.

Some of the instrument panels caught Chelsea’s eye, and she leaned forward to see if they had any labels on them to make it any easier to guess what they were for. But she didn’t have a lot of time to read before Mark had sealed the hatch and dropped down into the pilot’s seat beside her. He cast her a smile as he did so.

“You’re interested in driving this thing?” he asked her.

“Just curious, I guess,” she told him.

“Come sit by me and I’ll show you what to do,” he offered. Even though it was the offer of sitting by him that she cared about most, she willingly allowed him to instruct her just so she could have the chance. “This one is built to pilot quite a bit like an airplane,” he explained as he showed her some of the controls and explained a few of the buttons. “In fact, it was built with astronaut pilots in mind as well, since the principles of three-dimensional travel are the same no matter what you are traveling through.”