Read Cold is the Sea for Free Online

Toolboxes, workbenches, storage lockers, equipment bins and boxes were everywhere. Mark One was festooned with steel ladders, catwalks, wire cables, steam piping and waterlines, the ordered confusion of the paraphernalia of many functions and many workers.
    And, of course, Mark One itself, a horizontal cylindrical section of a huge submarine’s pressure hull projecting through the side of a tremendous circular steel tank the size of a big swimming pool and filled with light green seawater, instantly captured Rich’s attention. He had already read of the pool and seen a photograph of it, but the reality of the beige-colored pool walls, green seawater and dark gray hull cylinder was breathtaking. The purpose of the salt water, he knew, was to duplicate the radioactive shielding effect of the sea around the simulated submarine’s reactor compartment. The submarine hull section was identical to the Nautilus ’ reactor and engine compartments, except that, for economy, only a single turbine and propeller shaft had been installed. The water level in the pool surrounding the reactor compartment was the same as it would be with Nautilus fully surfaced, since that was the condition of least shielding.
    â€œThere she is, sir—Rich. You’re to be here fourteen weeks and learn all about it. Then we’ll give you an examination, and if you pass it you’ll be a qualified reactor operator.” Dusty Rhodes was looking with proprietary satisfaction at the surrealistic monster. It was humming softly. Richardson thought he could detect the noise of ventilation blowers buried amid the other sounds, but the rest meant nothing to him. Rhodes answered his unspoken question. “We’ve been keeping her self-sustaining for the pastcouple of weeks. What you’re hearing are the electric turbo-generator sets, one of them, that is, and the main coolant pumps in slow speed. The main turbine isn’t running.”
    Rich nodded his acknowledgment, though he was far from clear as to the information imparted. But it was then that Rhodes, his guard let down perhaps because of his companion’s ready acceptance of his role as a student, forgot himself. “You’ll have two days’ head start on the others,” he said. “The class won’t really begin until the other students get here Monday morning.” The moment he spoke the words Rhodes realized they were beyond recall, and the consternation he felt reproduced itself on his face. Richardson struggled to keep his sudden anger from showing.
    Dusty Rhodes’ slip regarding the other students made little difference, Rich assured him. He would have known soon anyway, and he was too grateful for Admiral Brighting’s change of heart, whatever the cause, to quibble over his pettiness. Rich kept a second reason for silence to himself: whatever or whoever had changed Brighting’s mind—Joan maybe—was owed something too. But the internal anger remained until it was replaced on Monday by the pleasure of welcoming Keith Leone and Buck Williams. It had been years since they had been in the same duty area as Rich. Despite occasional correspondence, the closeness brought on by wartime service together had begun to dim. Now, magically, it was all restored. All three felt it, and Rich was forced a few times to emphasize that, as students under Brighting’s control, the old official relationship had no place on the site. Not until Richardson had spent several hours guiding his newly arrived friends in a thorough inspection of Mark One did he realize that there were no other new students. Keith, Buck and he were the entire class. It must have been organized and scheduled just for them.
    â€œYou’re here to participate in the actual operation of a submarine nuclear reactor,” Dusty Rhodes told them that first day. “The whole function of all this machinery is to turn that propeller shaft.” The four were standing on