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Finally, they broke the surface. Waves drove them toward the ladder, and hands helped pull Jud onboard. And then her.
As soon as their helmets were off, Jud recounted what’d happened. “The stage was probably about twenty feet off the bottom when the whole thing jolted and swung to probably forty-five degrees. Dumped my ass to the bottom and then fuck if the stage didn’t come down right on top of me. I almost got out from underneath it.” Tara unzipped him, and the others helped him out of his dry suit as he spoke. “Landed on my foot.”
“Let’s take a look,” George said, the medic kit at the ready.
Since Bobby was still in the water, she didn’t shed her scuba gear. Just in case. She joined Jesse at the dive computer, where he was standing watch over the other man’s dive.
His gaze cut to hers, and his eyes were dark fire. “You okay?”
“Fine,” she said. The answer was a hundred per cent rote. Because Tara was completely and utterly numb. “What’s going on with Bobby?”
He tilted the screen toward her, and she read the incoming messages.
Stage cable 2 snapped
Repairing
Standby
Before she and Jud had ascended, Tara had seen one of their welding kits resting by the shot line. Welding broken cable wasn’t a long-term solution by any means, but it would hopefully be enough for them to get the stage back onboard the GD.
“Ask him if he needs help,” Tara said, the wind blowing tendrils of hair in her face.
Jesse’s eyebrows slashed downward. “It’s too soon for you to go back in.”
“Not if he needs help it isn’t.”
Scowling, Jesse sent the query.
Repair complete
Even though that was good news, Tara frowned. Restlessness stalked her blood.
The computer dinged another incoming message: Beam me up, Scotty
This time, the silly message didn’t make her smile.
It only took another fifteen minutes before the crisis was completely resolved. Bobby ascended and the team worked to get the stage secured on the deck. They were going to have to rethread a new cable, but that would be a job for a different day.
“Told you today would be fun,” Jud said where he still sat on the deck. Under a bag of ice, the top of his foot was already turning purple. His humor was met with a low murmur of chuckles and smart-ass comebacks.
And then everything was back to their normal routine. Securing equipment. Cleaning suits. The only thing that stood between them and dry land was one last video briefing with the crew from AWE, and Boone, Jesse, and Jud were the only ones required to be in on that.
“I’ll take care of your suit,” she told Jud. “You take care of you.”
George helped their teammate to his feet, and then gave him a pair of crutches to use until they could x-ray his foot. Jud used them to come right to her. “Thank you.”
His unusual seriousness pricked at the backs of her eyes. But no way was she letting tears come in front of him—or any of them. “No big deal.”
He narrowed those dark blue eyes at her. “Big fucking deal, Tara. So thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she managed. Then she nodded her head at the closest hatch. “Go get off your feet.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Boone was the next to poke at the emotions she didn’t want to face. “You did good, Tara. Real good.”
She nodded, her throat suddenly too tight to speak.
