She was named after an old, almost forgotten television programme, but had more than lived up to her owners' hopes as a high class, high priced mobile hotel and research centre.
The SeaView had been in operation for just over a year, and the first of its kind 'touring submarine', as the adverts had called her, had shown her crew and passengers sights that were beyond their wildest dreams. In looks, she was almost identical to her namesake, the only real difference being that she was much shorter – after all, this SeaView wasn't a military creation, so she didn't carry any torpedoes or missiles in her spine. From hidden coral reefs to long lost shipwrecks, from the midst of marine preservation parks to the hidden treasures of the deep oceans, the SeaView had tackled them all in her stride and performed well in excess of her designers' calculations.
Now, though, she was on her way to something new – a group of scientists from the World Volcanic Society had made arrangement for her to visit an active lava vent on the side of a dormant undersea volcano. Deep in the murky black depths, roughly halfway between New Zealand and South America, Adams Seamount rose from the ocean floor to less than a hundred metres from the surface. A small series of recent tremors had opened up a new vent and the WVS wanted to seize the chance to conduct tests – to see how it affected the scant, thermal vent dependent life in the area.
The vent was near the limits of the SeaView's safety depth limits, and so the captain was taking his time descending, double and triple checking at each planned point of the dive. He, and the crew, strained their ears listening to the sounds their boat made – picking out the ones they had become familiar with to listen out for the ones they weren't. The new ones which would mean something different was happening, or perhaps more importantly, was about to happen. A few seconds' warning could be all the difference between a recoverable situation and complete disaster.
SeaView shuddered and shook suddenly, and her Captain – Hudson - ordered an immediate halt to the dive and a complete safety check. When each station reported back in the green, he held a brief meeting with his engineering and science staff who were of the agreed opinion that SeaView had moved into either an unknown undersea current or a sudden temperature change due to the nearby volcanic activity. After a small delay, when he was satisfied there was no further danger to his boat, Hudson allowed the SeaView to continue on her journey at a slower pace. A frustratingly slow pace for the scientists aboard, as she made her gradual way over to the vent, her powerful spotlights dancing over the ocean's floor.