Into the Abyss (Tom Swift, Young Inventor) Read Online Free PDF

to get the last word in somehow.
    Lunch was served at noon, but none of us wanted to eat. I wasn’t totally immune to the boat’s rocking and swaying, even if I didn’t show it as much as Yo. As for Bud, he showed no signs of slowing down, but I noticed he didn’t go to the galley either.
    The waves just kept coming. At about three in the afternoon, Captain Walters came below to check up on us. “Everybody okay down here?” he asked.
    “I’m dying …,” Yo moaned. From the way she looked, it wasn’t that hard to believe.
    “Gee, I’m sorry,” the captain said. “You boys okay?”
    “We’re fine,” Bud said, smiling broadly and saluting. “Just perfect. Great day for sailing.”
    “I should have warned you about the swells.”
    “Swells?” Yo repeated. “Swells? This is like a hurricane or something!”
    The captain smiled and shook his head. “It’s just the effect of that storm down south that I told you about. It’s a big one, and it’s picking up speed, so the wind and waves are reaching all the way up here. But don’t worry—it’s still plenty far away. If it ever catches up with us—then you’ll see some waves.”
    “Could … could that really happen?” Yo asked, in a pleading voice.
    He looked at Yo and rubbed his chin. “It’s weather, so you never can tell.” He shrugged. “Sorry about that. I’d offer you a pill for seasickness, but it wouldn’t do any good. You have to take it beforehand.”
    “
Now
you tell me.” Yo wiped the cold sweat from her forehead. “Where’s that bucket?”
    My dad arrived by helicopter at four thirty that afternoon. The big black chopper had a hard time landing on the ship’s tiny helipad, because it kept heaving up and down with the waves.
    Finally, my dad emerged from the chopper’s cabin and came down onto the deck to greet all of us.
    “Sorry I’m late!” he shouted over the noise of thechopper blades. He turned back and waved to the pilot, who quickly took off again. Within ten seconds, the helicopter had practically disappeared from view.
    “Let me take your bags for you, Mr. Swift,” the captain said.
    “Thanks, Mark. If you wouldn’t mind bringing it into the lab and getting everyone together, I’d like to speak with them all about our mission.”
    “Very good, Mr. Swift.”
    My dad is a pretty imposing guy. He’s big and tall, and stands straight as a rod. If he wore a uniform, believe me, you’d salute.
    “Hello, Bud. Yo, good to see you.” He gave me a quick squeeze on the shoulder. “Everything going well, son?”
    “Oh, yeah.”
    “Good. Then let’s get started.”
    He led us down into the ship’s lab, the largest space on board. The captain hadn’t shown it to us on our little tour, and now I could see why the rest of the ship had seemed so quiet—everyone and his brother was crammed in here.
    The whole place was bustling with activity. Therewere banks of monitors on every wall. Below them sat a huge set of servers.
    In the middle of the room were several computers on desks arranged in a circle. Sitting at each desk were intense-looking scientists, examining charts, videos, maps, and statistics. They dropped what they were doing as soon as my dad walked in.
    “All right, everyone,” he said, not wasting a single moment. “Bill, could you lower the lights and start the slide show going?”
    The scientist named Bill jumped up and hit the light switch. A screen lowered slowly from the ceiling, lit by the glow of the projector.
    My dad plugged his laptop into the system, pushed a few keys, and a map of the North Atlantic Ocean lit up the screen.
    “This,” my dad said, pointing to a spot off the East Coast of the United States, “is where we are right now. This,” he moved his hand to the right about a foot, “is where we are headed. It’s called ‘the abyssal plain.’ On one side of it is the continental shelf—shallow water. On the other side, the mid-ocean ridge begins.”
    “The ‘abyssal