“Good.” Jack exhaled and straightened in his chair. “All stop. Dmitry, give me a damage report.” He swiveled his chair to face back into the cabin. “Let me know if there’s any structural impact on hull integrity. I’d prefer not to find we had a hairline crack when we are travelling down into the high pressure layers.”

Jack looked up at Cate again. “Okay, we can stretch our legs, but keep the noise to a minimum. That rock-headed bastard’s fossils were found in fairly shallow water so it doesn’t usually hunt this deep – which is only a guess, as everything we know about Placoderms is from fossils. But...” he grimaced. “…we need to decide, as a group, about our next course of action. We could have been incapacitated, or worse, holed. Regardless of the toughness of the Prusalka, it was never built to sustain that type of attack.”

Jack gave Cate a tight smile. “Sorry; you wanted a responsible captain, and unfortunately, like it or not, that’s exactly what you got.”

Cate’s jaw jutted. She couldn’t believe what he was doing. “You know, what I wanted, and what I expected was a captain who would navigate the risks – expected and unexpected. I never wanted some sort of millpond boating enthusiast, but someone with fortitude. We’ll be fine.”

Jack held her eyes for a moment. “Wow.”

“Hold it together, Jack.” She gave him a tight smile, then turned on her heel and sat heavily.

“That’s what I intend to do.” Jack swiveled in his seat, facing back towards Cate, Greg, Abby, Dmitry and Valery Mironov. Yegor continued to monitor the sensors as the submersible hovered in the water, dark and silent, as glowing life forms moved around them. But the others watched him, sensing some sort of growing conflict. Only Valery Mironov looked amused.

“Listen up, people. We need a vote on whether we proceed or return to base. The attack we sustained was unexpected.” His eyes slid to Cate. “And I mean so far out of expectations that it creates exceptional risk. It immediately calls into question all our other expectations on risk management.” Jack raised his chin. “Dmitry, report?”

“There is no damage,” the Russian responded proudly. “Hard-head fish, not as hard as Prusalka’s hull; no fishy is going to break in. So, no problem.”

“There you are.” Cate turned back to her console.

Yegor grunted from beside Jack. “Yes, no problem… maybe, this time.”

Jack half turned. “You have something to add, Mr Gryzlov? Everyone gets a say here.”

The big Russian shrugged. “Prusalka is able to take crush-depth pressure.” He looked briefly at Dmitry. “But is designed to accept pressure in a contiguous form along the entire superstructure, not just in any one place.” He glared at Dmitry.

Dmitry’s eyes were steady, and his grinning persona had vanished.

Jack looked from Dmitry to Yegor. “Yep, that’s what I thought.”