“Bad Water”

Directed by: Bryan Spicer

Written by: David Kemper

Summary: A French sightseeing submarine filled with children is stuck in a freshwater sinkhole, and its only hope for survival is seaQuest. But a launch looking for the sub also get caught in a sink hole, but manage to get to the surface, only to find themselves in the middle of a hurricane. Meanwhile, lightning hits the seaQuest’s communication buoy, paralyzing the ship. But Bridger manages to save everyone and his ship from the sinkholes

Guest Starring:

none

Co-Starring:

Timothy Omundson as Joshua Levin

Featuring:

Dan Hildebrand as Carlton

Karen Racicot as Teacher, Karan

Elizabeth Storm as Claire

The twenty-first century ... Mankind has colonized the last unexplored region on Earth – the ocean. As Captain of the seaQuest and its crew, we are its guardians; for beneath the surface, lies the future.

- French sightseeing sub, somewhere on the bottom of the Caribbean -

(teacher turns on second of four air tanks, then speaks French to children to calm them down, other teacher is speaking into radio in French distress call)

- 200 miles east of Jacksonville, Florida, seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Tim O’Neill: (French on radio) Got ‘em. Sir.

Nathan Bridger: (coming over) What’ve you got?

Tim O’Neill: Sounds like the pilot was killed when the sightseeing sub hit bottom. They’re trapped ... children are frightened.

Nathan Bridger: Where’s our nearest rescue launch to that French sub?

Tim O’Neill: No way to tell, I can’t zero in on their location. (flips switch and distress signal goes over speakers) Acoustic multi-paths, like they’re in a well. Greensboro tracking says the radio signal’s gonna be scrambled for at least two days.

Manilow Crocker: The weather service is reporting winds of fifty miles an hour and the seas are building.

Katie Hitchcock: We’re not getting any help from the surface vessels. They’ve all vacated the area.

Carlton: Our surge is getting worse, sir. We’re bucking a strong four-knot gulf stream current to hold our position

Nathan Bridger: Welcome to the Bermuda Triangle.

- seaQuest launch MR-7 -

Jonathan Ford: (plays with buttons then pounds screen) Engineering 101.

Ben Krieg: What do you want to do about this one?

Jonathan Ford: (knocks on display) Ah, ignore it. Probably an iron ore deposit nearby. Follow the WSKR. (gets up and goes into back of launch)

Lucas Wolenczak: (Westphalen speaks French, hears only static in return, Lucas takes radio) Submarine du Turismo. (continues in French, but hears only static)

Jonathan Ford: They can’t hear you, Lucas. And even if they did, we can’t get a fix on their position.

Kristin Westphalen: What about the WSKR?

Jonathan Ford: Between the solar flares and our crazy magnetic readings ... (shrugs) Most of the other launches have already been recalled to seaQuest.

Lucas Wolenczak: Commander, we can’t just call off the search and leave them out here to die.

Jonathan Ford: I know.

Ben Krieg: Commander.

Jonathan Ford: Yeah.

Ben Krieg: I’m getting another weird reading up here.

Jonathan Ford: What’s it look like?

Ben Krieg: We’re getting way heavy.

Jonathan Ford: (enters bridge, sees WSKR fall down into hole) All stop, hard reverse.

Ben Krieg: Going down hard.

Jonathan Ford: (over shoulder) Hold on. (ship rocks) Drop weights.

Ben Krieg: Already gone.

Jonathan Ford: Blow main ballast.

Ben Krieg: Blowing ballast. Cargo bay ruptured. We’re taking on water.

Jonathan Ford: Drop battery packs.

Ben Krieg: I drop the packs...

Jonathan Ford: Do it.

Ben Krieg: Battery packs away.

Jonathan Ford: Engaging back-up systems.

Ben Krieg: Full reverse, still negative weight.

Jonathan Ford: Drop manipulator arms.

Ben Krieg: Manipulator away.

Jonathan Ford: Trim tanks.

Ben Krieg: Away. Still falling.

Jonathan Ford: Survival pod.

Ben Krieg: (pauses, unsure) Survival pod away. (launch starts rising)

Jonathan Ford: Radio seaQuest.

Ben Krieg: (into radio) Mayday, mayday, seaQuest launch MR-7 in emergency ascent from one thousand meters, location uncertain. Mayday, mayday.

Kristin Westphalen: (coming up) Can we make it to the surface?

Jonathan Ford: If we’re lucky.

Lucas Wolenczak: Then what?

Jonathan Ford: We abandon ship.

Ben Krieg: (into radio) Mayday, mayday, seaQuest launch MR-7 in emergency ascent, heading toward the surface. Mayday, mayday, location uncertain.

- seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Jonathan Ford: (on loudspeaker) Survival pod was destroyed ... freshwater sinkhole ... seas are calm, minor injuries.

Nathan Bridger: (into radio) Do you have any idea where you are?

Jonathan Ford: (on loudspeaker) The surface, sun directly overhead....

Tim O’Neill: Lost them, sir.

Nathan Bridger: Keep trying. He said the sea was calm.

Manilow Crocker: Well not on this planet, Cap. The winds are kicking into the high sixties with major thunderheads. Ten more miles and hour and the Bermuda Triangle’s gonna give birth to a hurricane.

Nathan Bridger: What’s the Commander’s location?

Miguel Ortiz: Their radio signal’s refracted to pieces, sir. I’ve got them in multiple locations inside a sixty-kilometer radius.

Nathan Bridger: Damn! Right in the eye of the hurricane. Chief, call the Florida Coast Guard. Tell them to put in hurricane chasers, every available aircraft.

Manilow Crocker: Yes, sir.

Nathan Bridger: Attention. As difficult as it is, I want all of you to put the Commander and his party out of your minds. There’s no reason to believe that they won’t be rescued. Now, we’re on a Class Five rescue mission. There’s been a sight–seeing sub down with children aboard, there is a clock.

Miguel Ortiz: Magnetic variants makes this a guess, but Commander Ford was tracking their signal to the west-northwest quadrant.

Tim O’Neill: Before they went down – I mean up, sir – the Commander’s launch received the strongest signal from the French sub.

Nathan Bridger: One quarter ahead, bearing two niner five.

Carlton: One quarter, two nine five degrees, aye.

Nathan Bridger: Mr. O’Neill, that’s a nine million dollar communications buoy reeling out behind us, I’d like to hear something in French.

Tim O’Neill: We keep slipping out of phase sir, I – I’ve got Commander Ford.

Jonathan Ford: (on loudspeaker) MR-7 calling seaQuest, come in seaQuest.

Nathan Bridger: (into radio) MR-7, good to hear your voice. Do you have flares?

Jonathan Ford: (on radio) Affirmative, we have auxiliary raft.

Nathan Bridger: (on radio) Here’s the plan, Commander, the Coast Guard search planes will find you. We have to concentrate on the downed French submarine.

Jonathan Ford: (on radio) Understood, we’re on our own.

Nathan Bridger: (on radio) Radio check will be every fifteen minutes.

- Sargasso Sea, life raft -

Jonathan Ford: (into radio) Fifteen minute interval check in, affirmative.

Nathan Bridger: (on radio) Hang on up there. SeaQuest out.

Jonathan Ford: (into radio) MR-7 out. How’s your head, Lieutenant?

Ben Krieg: Next time I’ll let you open the hatch door.

Jonathan Ford: Lucas, what are you doing?

Lucas Wolenczak: Well, maybe we can use some of this stuff from the launch. At least it floats.

Jonathan Ford: Good idea. When you’re done, I’ve got a task assignment for you. Inventory our food and water purification tablets; develop a seven-day ration plan, just in case. Doctor Westphalen will sort life vests. Krieg, can you fish?

Ben Krieg: I had a grandfather, yes.

Jonathan Ford: Good.

Kristin Westphalen: (reaches over side of raft, picks up seaweed) This is sargassum seaweed. We’re in the Sargasso Sea, which is slightly alkaline, very deep, very clear, extremely high salt content. (throws it back) There are no fish. There’s also no wind. The Gulf Stream and other currents swirl around this place, but in the middle, nothing moves, everything remains extremely calm, which is what I think we should do.

Lucas Wolenczak: Columbus got lost in the Sargasso Sea on his way to America.

Jonathan Ford: Noted. Axe the fishing, but I want the rest of my orders carried out.

Ben Krieg: Excuse me, Gilligan to Skipper, but are you planning on staying out here any longer than we are?

Jonathan Ford: Listen, knock it off, Krieg, you’re a Lieutenant in the UEO navy and I need you to act like one. Look, anything’s possible, we prepare for anything.

- seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Joshua Levin: We are dealing with karstification: terrain pockmarked by sinkholes. Millions of years ago the continental shelf was above sea level; over the eons, an extensive series of caves eroded into the limestone bedrock. Now water levels have risen and we live on the ceiling of the entire system. And when a cavern ceiling collapses, a sinkhole is formed.

Miguel Ortiz: I remember reading about a lake getting sucked dry into one of them. Small boats were almost pulled into the whirlpool.

Joshua Levin: Now that’s what happens when a cavern beneath is filled with air. But sometimes they reach down so deep they pierce an underground aquifer and they fill with water. With fresh water.

Nathan Bridger: As you all know, seawater is more buoyant than fresh water. That’s why a submarine carries ballasts and makes itself heavy in the ocean. Now, should it run into a fresh water column, it instantly becomes overweight and sinks to the bottom. That’s probably why our French submarine doesn’t show on our scans; it’s probably down a fresh water sinkhole somewhere running out of air. Anything else?

Joshua Levin: Well, they can get big enough to swallow seaQuest. (crew looks nervous)

Nathan Bridger: Be alert, be cautious, and find me some fresh water. Carry on.

Manilow Crocker: Triangle never runs out of stuff to throw at you, does it, Cap?

- French sightseeing submarine -

Claire: (in French) Karan, our air supply is low.

Karan: (in French) How are the kids?

Claire: (in French) Not so good.

Karan: (in French) I’ll keep trying.

- Sargasso Sea, life raft -

Ben Krieg: We’re not that far from the coast, you'd think they would have found us by now.

Kristin Westphalen: Is anyone else having trouble with their ears?

Lucas Wolenczak: Yeah.

Kristin Westphalen: The barometric pressure’s falling, a storm’s building.

Jonathan Ford: Our last position had us near a nasty tropical depression.

Ben Krieg: How nasty?

Jonathan Ford: Probably a hurricane by now.

Lucas Wolenczak: Guys, I don’t see it.

Jonathan Ford: That’s because we’re probably in its eye.

- seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Katie Hitchcock: It’s got a name now, Captain, Hurricane Sheila. Coast Guard’s flying the eye, but it’s huge. Once she starts heading westward, all bets are off.

Miguel Ortiz: WSKRS tethered and redeployed, sir. Sniffing for fresh water and our downed WSKR. All clear on heading two seven eight degrees for six hundred meters.

Nathan Bridger: Thank you. We can take that heading.

Manilow Crocker: Heading two seven eight degrees.

Tim O’Neill: (speaking in French, Bridger comes over, O’Neill talks to Bridger in French) Excuse me, sir, it’s been almost two hours since I’ve had any contact with the French sub. I don’t know if they’re still ... with us.

Nathan Bridger: Well, don’t jump to any conclusions, their radio may be dead.

Tim O’Neill: What about Commander Ford’s party?

Nathan Bridger: Our obligation is to those kids down there with no hope of rescue. Someone else will find the Commander’s party. But for the record, I’m just as concerned as you are. Now, about the Commander...

Tim O’Neill: They’re due to check in any minute.

- Sargasso Sea, life raft -

Jonathan Ford: (into radio) This is MR-7 to seaQuest, come in seaQuest. Lucas, is there any way we can increase our signature?

Lucas Wolenczak: If I had some wire.

Ben Krieg: There’s a steel thread running through this fishing line, maybe we could use that.

Lucas Wolenczak: Yes, I can magnetize it against the radio’s battery pack.

Jonathan Ford: Here, do it.

Lucas Wolenczak: (Lucas puts radio on side of raft, and begins speaking) SeaQuest – (lightning strikes, scaring Lucas, who pushes radio over the side, then jumps in after it)

Jonathan Ford: Lucas! (Lucas appears triumphantly holding cord, falls under again) Lucas!

Kristin Westphalen: The cord, it’s pulling him down. (Ford jumps in, appears with Lucas, all help Lucas climb back into raft) You OK?

Lucas Wolenczak: Yeah, yeah.

Kristin Westphalen: Good going.

Jonathan Ford: Uh huh.

- seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Tim O’Neill: Miguel, subsurface tracking.

Miguel Ortiz: An implosion near the surface, another at a hundred feet, two hundred feet, s-something’s falling.

Tim O’Neill: Commander Ford’s radio.

Nathan Bridger: All right, it’s only their radio. The raft floats, they float. We’ve got to believe they’re alive on the surface. Mr. Ortiz, make something good of this.

Miguel Ortiz: I’ve got a longitudinal fix on the radio’s implosions.

Nathan Bridger: What about the UEO’s satellites?

Tim O’Neill: Flares are still disrupting.

Nathan Bridger: Chief?

Manilow Crocker: All the surface ships have evacuated the area, Cap. Coast Guard’s down to four planes and those are gonna be recalled once the winds hit one ten.

Nathan Bridger: Direct them to Mr. Ortiz’s coordinates. Our people have to be along that line somewhere.

Manilow Crocker: Aye, sir.

Miguel Ortiz: It’s still just an educated guess, sir. There’s an iron ore deposit somewhere beneath us that’s corrupting all our data. And since all our acoustic functions are geared for seawater, we can’t trust any sounds traveling through fresh water.

Nathan Bridger: Suspect everything except the electrogyros. Triple check all calculations, do the math by long hand. Focus on the children, we’ve got to find them.

Tim O’Neill: Yes, sir.

- Sargasso Sea, life raft -

Ben Krieg: (looking at cord from radio) This is not good.

Jonathan Ford: Definitely not good. The winds are picking up and the seas are getting higher.

Kristin Westphalen: I think we should all have something to eat. (takes out box of food) Here you go. (hands food to Lucas)

Lucas Wolenczak: Thank you. Thanks. (Krieg looks at wrapper, rips it out of Lucas’s hands)

Kristin Westphalen: There’s one for you.

Ben Krieg: Will radar bounce off this?

Jonathan Ford: Absolutely. Tear ‘em all open.

Kristin Westphalen: Save the food.

Jonathan Ford: Get the fishing pole. We’re gonna need some tape.

Ben Krieg: Check the fist aid kit. This dried beef ain't bad.

- seaQuest DSV, sea deck -

Nathan Bridger: Darwin, Lucas and the others are in a small boat on the surface.

Darwin: Darwin find Lucas.

Nathan Bridger: Yes, I need you to find Lucas. Now listen to me, do you know the difference between salt water and fresh water?

Darwin: Water is water.

Nathan Bridger: Yes, but this is fresh water. Open up. (pours bucket of water on Darwin, Darwin spits it back)

Darwin: Bad water.

Nathan Bridger: Yes, bad water. You don’t want to swim in bad water, it’ll make you heavy, it’ll make you tired. Stay away from bad water.

Darwin: Darwin find Lucas.

Nathan Bridger: Good, good.

- Sargasso Sea, life raft -

Ben Krieg: Come on baby, pick me up a little radar. (large metal sheet flies away)

Kristin Westphalen: Oh no! (all look dejected)

- French sightseeing submarine -

(Karan still sending mayday in French, Claire comforts kids, then turns on third tank of oxygen)

- seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Tim O’Neill: (Ortiz looks at O’Neill, who signals four) Anything on your end?

Miguel Ortiz: Zip, all my readings are cockamamie.

Tim O’Neill: I’m looking at the same weird signals. I can’t help but think of those French kids slowly suffocating.

Miguel Ortiz: Don’t, Tim, concentrate on finding them.

Tim O’Neill: I never was any good at math.

Miguel Ortiz: I was and I still can’t keep up. It’s the triangle.

Tim O’Neill: You don’t really believe that hokum, do you?

Miguel Ortiz: Superstitions get started for a reason. People disappear here, Tim.

Katie Hitchcock: (on headset) Knock it off you guys.

Nathan Bridger: (enters, walks over to Hitchcock) You called about the communication buoy?

Katie Hitchcock: The electrical storm is well past regulation limits. Buoy’s on a five-mile wire, it should be recalled.

Nathan Bridger: It’s the Commander’s only chance to contact us.

Katie Hitchcock: It’s a risk, sir, the buoy’s one hell of a lightning rod.

Nathan Bridger: Leave it out there, but monitor the storm and keep me informed.

Katie Hitchcock: Yes, sir.

- Sargasso Sea, life raft -

Lucas Wolenczak: (looking through binoculars) I thought I saw lights. I swear it was lights.

Ben Krieg: Could’ve been lightning inside the storm.

Lucas Wolenczak: They’ve forgotten about us.

Ben Krieg: This is one of those “character builders,” my friend. You hang on tight, you take the whipping, and you come out stronger on the other side.

Lucas Wolenczak: Oh cut the crap, Krieg, I’m not a kid. You don’t have to do that morale officer stuff for me.

Ben Krieg: This is who I am. “Glass half full” – that kinda thing.

Lucas Wolenczak: Glass half full of what, Ben? How can you just sit here and make jokes when a hurricane is about to kill us?

Ben Krieg: Well what do you want me to do? Give up? I say as long as we’re laughin’ we’re movin’ forward. And it’s important to me, it’s important.

Lucas Wolenczak: I don’t wanna move forward, I wanna get the hell outta here.

Ben Krieg: Wait, would you look at that, look. You’re in the eye. How many people ever get this close to an actual hurricane? Bet you didn’t think that was gonna happen when you woke up this morning. There’s your lights!

Lucas Wolenczak: The seaQuest communications buoy!

Ben Krieg: And your dolphin.

Lucas Wolenczak: Darwin, I can’t believe you found us.

Jonathan Ford: Darwin, go to Bridger, tell him where we are. Do you think he understands?

Kristin Westphalen: I’m sure he does, that’s why he’s out here in the first place.

Ben Krieg: (lightning strikes) Woah!

Kristin Westphalen: Oh my God! What if it hits the buoy?

Jonathan Ford: Everybody get down. Put as much of your bodies against the rubber as you can.

Lucas Wolenczak: Darwin, go, seaQuest, go.

Ben Krieg: Come on, we gotta go. (lightning hits buoy, electricity rocks seaQuest)

- seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Manilow Crocker: Power’s still out in every department, Captain.

Nathan Bridger: You all right?

Tim O’Neill: Fine, sir, thank you.

Nathan Bridger: Navigation report.

Seaman #1: Fried, sir, no response.

Nathan Bridger: How’s he doing?

Joshua Levin: I think he'll be all right.

Nathan Bridger: Helm, any control?

Carlton: The system’s fused, master gyros erratic. It’s a fight to hold manual.

Nathan Bridger: Do the best you can. How are you son?

Seaman #2: Fine, sir, OK.

Nathan Bridger: Hang in there. Sonar, what have you got?

Miguel Ortiz: Cooked sir, electronic toast.

Nathan Bridger: Oh, beautiful. Commander?

Katie Hitchcock: No joy here.

Nathan Bridger: Chief?

Manilow Crocker: Same, Cap, I got nothing working here at all.

Nathan Bridger: Communications?

Tim O’Neill: Communications buoy completely destroyed. We’re dark.

Nathan Bridger: How long for repairs?

Katie Hitchcock: We may need to dry-dock, sir.

Nathan Bridger: How are the WSKRS?

Miguel Ortiz: Well, can’t be certain, but they’re grounded against this sorta thing.

Nathan Bridger: Leave one on point, bring the other inside.

Katie Hitchcock: Inside?

Nathan Bridger: Yes, put it right here. (points to navigation table) Right here. Bring a steel saw, some carpenter’s levels. Open up those sea doors, Darwin’s still outside. Got it?

Katie Hitchcock: Yes, sir.

Nathan Bridger: All right. (stands be moon pool, looks dejected)

Manilow Crocker: (singing) What shall we do with the drunken sailor? What shall we do with the drunken sailor? What shall we do with the drunken sailor? (O’Neill joins in) Early in the mornin’ (others join in) God speed, the whales are runnin’ God speed, the whales are runnin’ God speed, the whales are runnin’ Early in the mornin’ Hooray, and up she rises Hooray, and up she rises Hooray, and up she rises Early in the mornin’ (Bridger looks happier)

- Sargasso Sea, life raft -

Jonathan Ford: Lucas, Lucas.

Lucas Wolenczak: Darwin’s dead.

Jonathan Ford: Lucas, you don’t know that. Look, Lucas, I need your help.

Lucas Wolenczak: What can I do?

Jonathan Ford: Can you fix this, (holds up camera) so it'll wind continuously?

Lucas Wolenczak: Do you, do you care about the film inside?

Jonathan Ford: No. (turns back to Westphalen and Krieg)

Kristin Westphalen: Commander, if any of us are tossed overboard, we’ll never get back. So I was thought a fisherman’s bend to the raft, and then a slip bowline here. It will hold fast, but look, it releases in a pinch, OK. Here. Here. (Krieg and Ford take the rope, look at it confused) Don’t tell me.

Ben Krieg: Knot tying is not a big submariner skill.

Kristin Westphalen: Oh, don’t I love this.

- seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Katie Hitchcock: OK guys, pull it up. Chief?

Manilow Crocker: OK, let’s strip off six inches of, uh, clean wire, bypass the ship’s computer, and run connections from all the stations down to here. No splices, continuous lengths only.

Katie Hitchcock: This guy isn’t strong enough to power all the work stations we need, though I can give you all stations at once at a fraction of their capacities, or one station up full.

Nathan Bridger: One station fully operational.

Katie Hitchcock: OK, which one?

Nathan Bridger: All of them. Just one at a time.

Katie Hitchcock: (smiles) Hook everything into the guidance timer. We’ll give each station thirty seconds of on-line, in sequence.

Manilow Crocker: Round and round she goes, huh?

Miguel Ortiz: Great idea, Captain.

Joshua Levin: (entering) Captain, it’s Darwin, sea deck.

Nathan Bridger: You know what to do. I’ll be back. (leaves with Levin)

- seaQuest DSV, sea deck -

Nathan Bridger: (enters) What happened?

Darwin: Loud light.

Nathan Bridger: The lightning.

Joshua Levin: It would have been like being inside a bass drum. The concussion would have been deafening.

Darwin: Lucas.

Nathan Bridger: You found Lucas.

Darwin: Yes.

Nathan Bridger: They’re alive. He’s blistering, he must have been in the fresh water.

Darwin: Bad water, deep hole, people, lights.

Nathan Bridger: You found the French submarine? Where? Where are they? Oooh.

- Sargasso Sea, life raft -

Kristin Westphalen: How’re you doing? I’m pretty scared myself. I think it’s OK to be afraid.

Lucas Wolenczak: Well, they’re not.

Kristin Westphalen: Is that what you think?

Lucas Wolenczak: My hands are shaking.

Kristin Westphalen: How can you tell? (hugs Lucas) All right, you’d better get back on with that camera.

Lucas Wolenczak: Yeah.

- French sightseeing submarine -

Claire: (Karan still sending mayday in French, Claire comes over, in French) I can’t keep them calm much longer.

Karan: (in French) You have to, no one knows we’re here. Have courage. (returns to mayday in French)

- seaQuest DSV, hallway, just outside the bridge -

Manilow Crocker: WSKR’ll be ready to test in a few minutes, Cap.

Nathan Bridger: I’ll be there. How’s the bridge crew?

Manilow Crocker: Well, I, uh, I taught them every sea shanty I know. Did any of the conduit system survive the lightning strike?

Nathan Bridger: They’ve all melted and fused together. Two million volts. It’s a mess – my mess.

Manilow Crocker: Permission to talk freely, sir?

Nathan Bridger: Sure.

Manilow Crocker: You can’t blame yourself.

Nathan Bridger: I know. At the time it was an acceptable risk.

Manilow Crocker: I’m not talking about that, I mean Lucas.

Nathan Bridger: He’s only sixteen, shouldn’t have been aboard that launch.

Manilow Crocker: He wanted to help, Captain. Now it would’ve been wrong to have stopped him. There’s no way in the world you could’ve anticipated all this stuff happening.

Nathan Bridger: I can’t not think about going to find him. You know how I feel.

Manilow Crocker: Yeah, I know, you feel responsible for him. Hell, Cap, you feel responsible for everybody on this boat, but that only goes so far. We all knew the risk.

Nathan Bridger: Not Lucas, at his age you don’t see the danger.

Manilow Crocker: I’d give my life to get those people back, and I know damn well you would too. Well if we just keep our chin up, maybe the Triangle will give us that opportunity.

- seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Katie Hitchcock: We’re ready to test it out, sir.

Nathan Bridger: (walking over) Who’s first?

Katie Hitchcock: Communications.

Nathan Bridger: You might wanna stand clear, Mr. O’Neill.

Tim O’Neill: Right, sir. (stands up, screen comes on, O’Neill nods)

Nathan Bridger: (happily) Thirty seconds per station.

- seaQuest DSV, bridge, later -

Nathan Bridger: You have a weather report for me?

Tim O’Neill: Caught a fragment through the WSKRS antenna. Hurricane Sheila’s gone category three, winds topping one fourteen, moving northwest at thirty-five miles per hour.

Katie Hitchcock: Time’s up, Mr. Ortiz.

Miguel Ortiz: Wait a minute. Sinkhole profile, sir.

Nathan Bridger: Put Mr. Ortiz on the center screen.

Miguel Ortiz: WSKR tethered at six hundred yards, switching to phased-array view. Elevating WSKR.

Manilow Crocker: Look at all those sinkholes, Cap.

Nathan Bridger: Fresh water readings?

Miguel Ortiz: None, sir, but I’ve only analyzed the first two sinkholes. The others are beyond range.

Nathan Bridger: I can’t afford to cut the last WSKR loose. We’ll have to move the seaQuest from hole to hole.

Tim O’Neill: With only one screen up at a time, sir?

Katie Hitchcock: Captain, that could take days.

Nathan Bridger: No, it’s only gonna take two hours, because after that, those kids run out of air.

- Sargasso Sea, life raft -

Kristin Westphalen: (bailing water) We haven’t even had the worst of it yet.

Ben Krieg: Kristin, I’m sorry.

Kristin Westphalen: I knew it. I knew you ate those lobsters.

Ben Krieg: I didn’t know they were an experiment.

Kristin Westphalen: What else would they be for?

Ben Krieg: They were in the galley refrigerator.

Kristin Westphalen: To slow their metabolism, not to eat. Were they good?

Ben Krieg: Yeah. (Westphalen laughs)

Lucas Wolenczak: I got it. It works.

Jonathan Ford: Great. (grabs camera)

Ben Krieg: M ... R ... seven.

Kristin Westphalen: Morse code, that is brilliant.

Lucas Wolenczak: Do you think they’ll hear us?

Jonathan Ford: It’s a long shot, but it’s a shot. (puts camera in water)

- French sightseeing submarine -

(teacher opens last oxygen container, then comforts kids)

- seaQuest DSV, bridge -

Katie Hitchcock: (O‘Neill speaking French into radio) Time’s up.

Nathan Bridger: Anything?

Tim O’Neill: No, sir.

Nathan Bridger: Upstairs?

Tim O’Neill: The last search planes returned to Florida, low on fuel.

Miguel Ortiz: Another fresh water sinkhole, Captain.

Nathan Bridger: Topographical map, Mr. Ortiz.

Miguel Ortiz: Switching sonar to phased array. WSKR approaching sinkhole rim, getting heavy, reeling out tether, descending, approaching bottom. Tether locked at four hundred twelve feet. (screen shows locomotive engine on sea floor) That’s no French sub.