I only own my plot, characters and vessel names, everything else is from James Cameron's Movie Titanic. I would also like to say this is my first story so forgive me if my writing and grammar is bad. -Jack-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Opening April 3rd 2005 North Atlantic Ocean 1:43am -
We open on a cloudless black starlit sky, view comes down to see a vast shot of the Atlantic ocean..slowly beginning to zoom in on a research vessel of some kind.
The name on the stern reads "DISCOVERY IV", the hull a brilliant orange with white buildings and storage facilities, with a dark green decking.
It is equipped with satellite navigation and communication equipment, the ship has ten winches, three cranes and holds two Submersibles.
The two subs are sitting aft, people scuffling around waiting to be deployed down into the cold waters below.
A man is leaning on the starboard bowrail smoking a newly started cigarette,..Sam Maer a Bio-Analyst from New Jersey, he looks to be in his early thirties with heavy stubble, longish dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. He is dressed in overalls wearing an overcoat, adjusting it indicating the cold sea air.
Footsteps are heard as a man approaches,leaning over the rail beside him...Ken Peterson, Sam's righthand man, from Brooklyn.also in his early thirties sandy blonde hair, green eyes.
Sam - "..ya can almost hear them,...screaming for help,..freezing to death.."..he said with a sigh..offering his cigarette, Ken taking it as if he knew it would be offered..
Ken - "Yeah..all fifteen hundred of em..",he said with disgust, exhaling the smoke from his lungs..."I can't believe we have to wait for this damn interview before we can do anything.."
Sam - "maybe we'll able to get through now, they said the link would be up about quarter to.." he said glancing at his watch.
Ken nodded as he flicked the cigarette away pulling up his collar as both men head aft toward the two subs.
We join them almost at the end of the interview.
Sam - "..see we have these two subs as you can see behind us..TITAN 1 and 2, the names were not picked for anything to do with titanic thats just a freaky coincidence(he smiles) however the subs are based on the russian MIR subs but are somewhat more advanced...anyway.. we take them down to titanic at her final resting place,..twelve thousand four hundred and sixty feet below the surface, which will take us around two hours to get there and another two back to the surface.. so thats about a twelve hour dive including what we came here to do.."
NBC Newscaster Jane Marshell - "wow..that sounds pretty scary to me..so what is it you'll be doing down there?..what is your goal?.."
Ken - "well jane, we'll be focusing on taking biological data from the wreck and.. analyzing that data,..i'm sure by now those who have seen the wreck before,..will have seen the almost rock looking formations growing on the bow section and well almost the entire ship..these are organisms that are eating away at the hull of titanic, we haven't seen these organisms up close this is actually the first time either of us have been down to titanic but yeah..our goal..this expedition,.. is to see if we can pre-determine how long titanic has left in the condition as we all know her.."
Sam - "yeah, we'll be covering pretty much the entirity of the ship from bow to stern.."
NBC Newscaster Jane Marshell - "so how will that work, the two subs going to the titanic and taking samples of these organisms?.."
Sam - "well almost yeah, ya see we always keep one sub waiting to go, up on deck just incase the other sub gets into trouble.."
NBC Newscaster Jane Marshell - "what kinds of trouble?.."
Ken - "well when we release these ROV's which stands for, remote operated vehicle (he points them out) as you can see each sub has two,..uh when we release these they are attached by cable that can easily get tangled around parts of the wreck., even sometimes the sub itself, it's a really dangerous job but the rewards are worth it"
NBC - "well sadly gentlemen that's all the time we have, thankyou for taking the time to show us what it is you're doing and exactly how you'll be doing it.."
Interview comes to an end as Sam and Ken get ready, workers prepping the subs etc, making safety checks..
Cut to sub about to reach the ocean floor -
voice over radio
Sam in sub - "..this is TITAN 2, just beyond 3,700 meters..over"
Ken on deck - "yeah we read you loud and clear TITAN 2,..you're lookin' good, you see anything yet Sam?.over.."
Sam - "..No..nothing yet Ken.."
Just as he finished his sentence the eery unmistakable bow of titanic loomed out of the darkness
Sam - "..wait a second..oh my god there it is.." he said in awe of this beautiful ship, even in its current form..
Ken - watching a monitor on deck.."wow.. she looks amazing even from here, Sam.."
Sam - .."she's beautiful..you can get a kinda almost real sense of the size from images and movies but..my god she's huge.."
Ken - "..ok uh..head over to the stern and we'll pick it up from there over.."
-
We cut to an eery image of the stern being lit up by the rays powering from the TITAN 2 -
Sam begins to document with a handheld videocamera..
Sam - "..Here we have the stern of titanic..which is a powerful reminder of what happened here on the morning of April 15th 1912 at 2:20am, it reminds us that this was a violent, tragic sinking..I mean the bow sits looking graceful as ever..looking as if still riding the waves on her way to new york..but the stern...is ripped apart,almost unrecognisable.. some say it actually imploded."..he takes a look at the word "T I T A N I C" across the stern,..being lit by the only light titanic will ever see, man made..."it just makes you realise since 85' when bob ballard found her, the amount of people who have had the opportunity to dive down to this great ship, I mean we're so use to seeing her laying here, she wasnt built here...titanic wasn't just taken from southampton pier on April 10th 1912 at twelve noon..and laid to rest here so we could all take a look,..she had four glorious days sailing to where she struck the iceberg and sank down 13.7miles southeast of her last transmitted position,..which is right here..taking almost fifteen hundred souls with her..you can almost see them clinging to the rail even now...nowhere else to go..but to their deaths.
he shuts the camera off
Time passes and TITAN 2 has collected enough data to be sent back tonight from both the stern and the bow.
Sam - "..this is TITAN 2 we're coming up..over"
Ken - "roger that TITAN 2.."
The sub comes up over the bow..passing the forward well deck..as Sam looks out he see's something...then it vanishes..the driver of the sub notices he's acting wierd.."you ok boss?"..
Sam - "..what?.oh yeah yeah i'm fine,..didnt get much sleep last night makin' me see things.." he laughs alittle as he didnt know who he was trying to convince more, the driver or himself. Sam takes another look as we cut to the deck of the "DISCOVERY IV".
2:58pm
Ken - "..we'll send these samples back tomorrow,..there's a chopper coming in at around nine am..should get the results maybe tuesday night, wednesday morning.."..
Sam - "Sounds good.., you got a cigarette?.."
Ken - "yeah"..he takes one from his pack and lights it for him..."you ok?.."
Sam - Takes a drag and exhales.."..i dunno...I think i saw something down there"..
Ken - Looks confused and intrigued "..like what?.."
Sam - "I dunno..i cant explain it, it was like.. it was there but it wasn't",..he takes another drag from his by now half way cigarette.."it was like i didnt see something but my mind is telling me that i did,..ya know?.."
Ken - laughs alittle.."no..look Sam come on seriously i mean it's titanic..you knew it would get like this for you..for us..we've been dreaming about this for almost 15years..sure yeah it was tragic..all those people dying...but ghosts?..come on Sam..you said it yourself you havent had much sleep lately.."
Sam - nodding his head..."yeah i guess,.. you're right"..puts his cigarette out.."i'm going to bed for a few hours..wake me up around six or seven.."
Cut to a POV of a passenger on Titanic, all you can hear is his breath fast and shivering indicating the cold water,the blackness of the lightless corridor as the water is rushing into the E-Deck corridor,..overwhelming us pulling us under, we cant see anything except for dead bodies two or three passing us by as the sparks from the lights go off..we are hurled toward a black gate,slamming into it, trying to pull it open but it's locked the water is coming up nowhere to go only centimeters of air left then suddenly Sam's eyes startle open and we are in his stateroom aboard the "DISCOVERY IV"..sweat pouring from his face, neck,.shoulders..