Inside the engine room, the small disk, sensing the arrival of the precise moment it was set for, erupted, burning itself into oblivion in the blink of an eye, and creating a spark that would have blinded anyone that had been looking at it. It burned with the intense heat of phosphor, enough to flash-melt a small patch of the military grade steel it had been stuck to.

More importantly, it also burned so hot that, even though the flash only lasted a moment, it ignited the grease on the port engine’s driveshaft, starting a grease fire, one of the most dangerous things a ship can face.

The flames surged, immediately searingly hot. At the door, Julian started shouting into the engine room for the men inside to get out. But the explosion had been so fierce that it had knocked out the sensors on the ceiling, so the sprinkler system had not activated as it was supposed to.

Julian’s orders were clear: seal the room. The lack of oxygen would extinguish the fire, but it would also seal the fate of anyone left inside. However, clear orders and endless drills were one thing, to actually press the large red button by the door with three friends still inside was easier said than done.

Seeing Julian’s hesitation, John stepped forward, slamming his fist into the clear plastic that covered the alarm button. To the astonishment of Petty Officer Julian Billman, the lieutenant then pushed the frantic sailor away from the sealing bulkhead, and stepped through it into the burning engine room as the bulkhead sealed behind him.

As the steel door’s pressure seals hissed, the bewildered junior enlisted man was left standing on the outside, wondering why the lieutenant had just committed suicide.

Inside the room John had already leapfrogged over the gantry railing, landing on the floor twenty feet below.

The three men that had been inside the engine room were using small and ineffectual fire extinguishers to try to fight back. There was a manual sprinkler control that would quickly extinguish the fire, and maybe even save their lives, but it was down the side of the very engine shaft that was ablaze.

The fire was quickly consuming the oxygen in the now sealed room, and would, in theory, burn itself out in a minute or two. But by then the men inside would, by definition, have suffocated as well.

As they started to flag, oxygen deprivation slowing their brains, they watched as the lieutenant lined himself up with the side of the engine down which the manual controls were located, and then, at a surprisingly fast sprint, ran and jumped directly into the flames.

* * *

“REPORT!” shouted Captain Bhade running toward the now distraught engine room guard.

Julian stood to attention, “Yes, sir, err, there was an explosion … sir, in the engine room. Lieutenant Hunt, sir, he, err…”

“What, sailor? What did he do?” exclaimed the captain.