(A Watery Science Fiction Fantasy in Three Parts)
"Listen," he said, "you are not going to drown. You are going on an underwater adventure that is going to require that you learn a new skill in the next two minutes." The water was over her mouth and just starting to cover her nose! She could still here the captain talking to her as the water deepened.
"Here it is... you are going to learn to breathe water."
With that ringing in her ears the water covered her face as she was still crying out! Captain Chris could see her head vanishing under the water and rising toward his compartment. Bubbles rose from her open mouth to the small air gap near the top of her canopy. Her hands thrashed above her and she kicked at the instrument panel with her naked long legs.
He cranked a knob and increased the flooding of the cockpit. Captain Chris wanted to get underwater as quickly as possible to make his transition before she did.
The people on the dock could see her long blond hair swirling in the water as the sub continued to nose over. The captain was still head above water but it was almost up to his mid chest.
The announcer said to the camera and the crowd, "This girl is now in an oxygen rich water cocoon and as soon as she runs out of air in her lungs she will be required breath the water."
Inside the sub the captain was just going underwater but instead of holding his breath like the girl was, he put his lips together and blew out all of the air in his lungs. Within seconds, he was desperate to breath and he did.
The warm tingly water coursed down his throat and then into his lungs. He fought to inhale to the fullest before letting his body relax and the water flow out of his nose. Bubbles were expelled from his sinuses and they swirled around before being swept out of the sub through hidden vents in the canopy.
Barbie was in shock as she looked over her shoulder and saw the Captain exhaling his air into the water. She held her breath with even greater determination!
On the surface the crowd watched as the sub drove deeper and deeper with the struggling girl submerged in the front seat. One of the girls asked how long she had been underwater.
The girl's friend had glanced at her diving watch and said, "I think that she has been underwater for 20 seconds now and I know that when we snorkel together, she can stay under for a little less that I can -- and I can hold my breath for just about 60 seconds."
The monitor showed that the interior lights were on in the cockpit and the camera unmistakably showed that the captain was in control of the sub and leveling it off at 200 feet. Barbie was still twisting back and forth trying to reach the seatbelt buckles. Her hair was floating around her face and her terror was obscured from the camera but her body language was not! Barbie could see the depth gage passing through 240 feet and in the back of her mind she knew that if she got free -- she would never be able to get to the surface.
Her friend pleaded with the announcer to end her torture and bring her up. He said that if he asked the captain to come back to the surface it would take over 60 seconds and it looked like she had been underwater for 45 or 50 seconds now. If she could only hold her breath for 60 seconds total, she was way out of time.