Gudsriki Read Online Free PDF Page A

call. Pytten spoke.
    â€œThis is Lieutenant Pytten in command of the VA Saukko. With all locks compromised, we are trapped in the boat, which is soon to be crushed. The first breach will form in deck ten aft. I am ordering all crew to that berth.”
    The crew looked to one another.
    â€œWe will remove all dangerous objects from that space and insert ourselves. When the breach forms, we will leave through it before the rest of the boat collapses on us. Your bodies were engineered for this. You will live.”
    Pytten spoke with certainty. Having none in reality, the illusion was most critical.
    â€œMove!”
    The crew started and headed aft. Pytten with them. By the time the bridge crew arrived, surviving personnel were emptying the berth of its cargo. Food supplies filled the hall, stacked along the sides and coating the floor like weak tile.
    Once the area was empty, they filed in. The bulkhead was shaking, concave to the pressure outside. The crew was afraid. Pytten had no idea how much force would enter the berth when the water broke in. A Cetacean body is made to survive the depths and the pressure. Pytten was certain of that. But of the explosive force, of the metal bulkhead soon to shatter, of the hundreds of other things that could go wrong, there was no telling. In the end the idea was more about a swift painless death than an excruciating crushing end.
    They stood in the berth, silent. The sound of the wrenching, horrible pressure on the weakening bulkhead grew louder and louder. If Pytten had anything to say, it had to happen before it grew any louder. And there was one thing left forgotten.
    â€œAll hands accounted for?”
    â€œAll hands!”
    Pytten breathed out.
    â€œSave for Lieutenant Bax,” said Ensign Hetulat.
    Pytten stopped breathing. The bulkhead burst. A jagged hole erupted in the metal and peeled open, disgorging the ocean into the room, filling it in seconds. Pytten looked around. Everyone seemed alive. Pytten shoved vocal cords aside in favor of underwater vocalization implants and called out in a series of shrieks, “Swim to the surface. I’m going back for Bax.”
    â€œThis breach has compromised the superstructure! The Saukko will be crushed in seconds!”
    â€œI’m in command. Skipper leaves last. Get out now!”
    Pytten swam back for the door and took a deep breath of dirty saltwater, then opened the hatch.
    Water carried Pytten fast back into the walls of food packaging, then down the hall away from the brig. The force was too strong to fight. Pytten could only wait until the area was flooded. The bulkhead was already twisting and crunching in on itself, space was growing thinner.
    When the area was finally flooded, the corridor was only half a meter across, jagged and broken. Pytten swam.
    Through section after section, Pytten swam as the bulkheads grew ever smaller and sharper. By the time the brig was in sight, the metal of the sub was warped and twisted beyond recognition. The hatches were all broken off their dogs. The brig was open and filled with water.
    Bax’s fist struck Pytten in their sea eye, collapsing it inward. Pytten was blind on the right side.
    â€œI came back to save you!”
    â€œYou came back to die with me!”
    â€œBax, we can both escape if you come with me now!”
    â€œI can escape without you.”
    Bax struck again, this time piercing Pytten’s right sea eye completely. Bax swam out as Pytten struggled in pain. The bulkheads took another jarring stab inward and knocked Bax on the head, rendering him unconscious.
    Pytten saw it happen. It meant only an easier tow of the belligerent bastard. Hands around Bax’s flipper, Pytten drew him out of the brig chamber and toward the collapsing corridor. It was crushed completely. The water was growing hard to breathe, now filled with noxious debris and oil. Only the corridor forward was still swimmable. Without thinking, Pytten swam toward it with Bax