The Tokkatanic:
Chapter 1: The Sunken Ship:
Faint lights pierced the blackness of the ocean as two submersibles descended. Inside one, called MIR One, there were three man huddled in the cramped space. The young man sitting at the controls of the submersible is named Yuen Muchilo, who was singing softly in Russian. On one side of him is Rien Boulds, a man in his early thirties is fast asleep against a carbon dioxide scrubber. He wears a light green shirt, the top buttons undone. He is a treasure hunter and historian. The third man, who sits on the other side of the sub of Yuen is Zhu Bovine, the pilot of the remote operated vehicle and the Titanic expert on the expedition, his quiet snores filling the cabin.
After two hours of free fall the submersible and its partner came close to the sea floor. The sub jerked as it hit the bottom of the ocean causing Rien and Zhu to snap awake. Yuen turned in his seat to look at his two team-mates, speaking in a heavy Russian accent, "We are here."
After five minutes the subs were slowly moving forward, skimming the bottom of the sea floor. The only sounds filling the sub now was the soft hum of the thrusters. Yuen steered the sub alone the gray, featureless seafloor, as Rien watched the sonar display over his shoulder. "Come on, a little to the left. She's right in front of us. Eighteen meters... fifteen... thirteen... you should see it." Rien counted down the distances as they crept closer to their target. Yuen leaned forward to get a better view from his view port to try and see through the black water. "Do you see it? I don't see it. Oh wait... There!"
Rien quickly pushed past to look through the porthole, watching as through the darkness the bow of a ship appeared into view. It stood tall from the seafloor, sitting as it did when if fell almost 84 years before, what was left of it that is. Through the porthole the ships rusticle covered bow sides is now clearly visible.
Rien turns on a camcorder turning it towards himself. A black and white version of his face is visible on the screen of the view finder. "It still gets me every time..." He said turning the camera towards the porthole, only to be interrupted. "It's just your guilt because of stealing from the dead." Rien sighed and turned the camera back to show his face. "Thanks Yuen, work with me here." He scowled before turning the camera back to view out the porthole, his expression returning back to a serious one. "It still gets me every time... to see the sad ruin of the great ship sitting here, where she landed at 2:30 in the morning, April 15th, 1912, after her long fall from the world above." Hearing him Yuen sighed in disgust at the rude comment and mutters in Russian. Zhu on the other hand, chuckles with amusement. "You are so full of shit boss."
As MIR two moves past the huge anchor on the starboard side of the ship, MIR one moves over the deck, on which anchor chains are still laid out in two neat rows. The small 22 foot long subs look like bugs moving along the large wreck. Rien continues to talk to the camera, making a sort of video log. "Dive nine. Here we are at the deck of the Titanic... Two and a half miles down. The pressure is three tons per square inch, enough to crush us like a freight train going over an ant if our hull fails. These windows are nine inches thick, and if they go... it's signorina in two microseconds."
Mir one lands on the roof of the deck house nearby. Rien claps his hands and looks at his crew, excited to get started knowing he's so close to his prize. "Right, lets go to work." Hearing this his companions moved into their positions. Zhu grabbed a pair of 3-D electronic glasses and put them on over his eyes before grabbing the controls of the R.O.V.
Outside the sub, a small black and orange robot called Snoop Dog lifts from its locks and moves forward. "Walkin' the dog." Zhu informed Rien, looking through the 3-D glasses. Snoop Dog floats away from the sub, a cord still attaching it to the ship like a robot yo-yo. Its twin video cameras swivel like insect eyes. It slowly starts to descend through an open shaft that was once the first class grand staircase. It moves down several decks then shifts into the first class reception room. It moves through the cavernous interior. The remains of the orate hand-carved woodwork which gave the ship its elegance move through the floodlights, the lines blurred by the descending rusticle formations. Stalactites of rust hang down so that at times it look like a natural grotto. Then it looks like a ghostly undersea mansion. Snoop's lights soon reveal a grand piano in amazing shape, crashed on it's side against the wall. Then a chandelier still hanging from the ceiling by it's thick wire. The lights start to play across the floor revealing a champagne bottle, then some china, a woman's high top shoe. Then the lights pass over something eerie: what looks like a child's scull but turns out to be the porcelain head of a doll. The robot then enters a corridor that looks much more preserved. Every few doorways a door hangs by its hinges.
The ROV turns and goes through a black doorway, entering room B-52, the sitting room of a promenade suite, one of the most luxurious state rooms on the Titanic. "I'm in the sitting room, heading for bedroom B-54." Zhu says, his eyes glued to the video images in his glasses, his excitement growing from the taste of treasure. "Stay off the floor. Don't stir it up like you did yesterday." Rien warns, his voice stern. "I'm trying boss." Zhu said as he went back to his controls.
Glinting in the lights are brass fixtures of a near-perfectly preserved fireplace. A crab crawls over it. Nearby are the remains of a divian and a writing desk. The dog crosses the remains of a once elegant room towards another door. It squeezes through the door frame, scraping rust and wood chunks loose on both sides. It moves out of a cloud of rust and keeps on going. "I'm crossing the bedroom" Zhu announces, raising the excitement level in the cabin. What is left of the bedroom is the remains of a pillared canopy bed, broken chairs, and a dresser. Through the collapsed wall of the bathroom, the porcelain commode and bathtub that look almost new, gleaming in the dark.
"Okay, I want to see what's under the wardrobe door." Rien says, beads of sweat running down the bridge of his nose. Zhu presses a button on his controls and the ROV deploys its manipulative arms and starts moving debris aside. A lamp is lifted, its ceramic colors as bright as they were in 1912. "Easy Zhu, take it slow." Zhu grips the wardrobe door, lying at an angle in a corner and pulls it with Snoop's gripper. As it moves a cloud of silt appears. Under the door is a dark object, and as the silt clears and Snoop's camera's show them what was under the door. "Oh baby baby. Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Zhu says, licking his lips at the sight of the treasure. "It's payday boys!" On the screen of the monitors, lit by Snoop's lights is a small combination safe.