“Too bad we didn't check before he came on board,” the ensign said, with a shake of his head. “In any event, the mission was an unqualified success. We retrieved some artifacts with our manipulator capacity. We were preparing to surface, when Pulaski pulled a gun. Most of the crew was aft of the control room and didn't see it happen. The captain in- formed us over the intercom. He ordered us to stay put.or Pulaski would shoot us. The sub went up a few hundred feet and hovered.”

“For how long?” Austin said.

“About twenty-five minutes. Then a huge shadow appeared in the monitors. It looked like a whale or shark coming up under the sub, and then there was a horrendous clang. The sub shook so hard, anyone who wasn't holding on was thrown to the floor. Next we heard a scraping and clawing, as if big metal beetles were crawling around on the outside of the hull. Divers. We could see them on the monitors. One clown even waved at the camera! Next thing we knew, the divers were gone and we were flying through the ocean.”

Where were the captain and pilot and the other scientist during all of this?" Austin asked.

“In the control room.”

“Did the captain say anything more?”

“Yes, sir. He said to send coffee and sandwiches forward.”

“What was the support ship doing at this time?”

“We heard them calling on the radio until Pulaski ordered all communications shut down. I assume they tracked us until we were out of range.”

“How long did you travel underwater?” Austin asked.

“A matter of hours. When we surfaced, it was as dark as Hades. Not a light to be seen anywhere. Then armed men came down the hatch into the NR-1.”

“Russians?”

“We couldn't tell, although 1 think they were carrying AK-47s. They were wearing cami and acted like professional soldiers. Not like those jerks on horseback that you saved us from. They kept their mouths shut. Pulaski did all the talking. He told us to get out of the NR-1. We climbed out onto the deck of a big sub.”

“Any idea on the sub's length?” Gunn said.

Kreisman looked around the room. “Anyone want to take a stab at a guess?”

Another seaman spoke up. “I served on a boomer when I first joined the navy. Judging from its beam, around thirty feet, I’d estimate this baby was as long as a Los Angeles class. About three hundred sixty feet.”

“The NR-1 is only one hundred fifty feet long. They could easily piggyback you with more than two hundred feet to spare,” Austin said.

The sailor nodded. “That sub was bigger than our support vessel.”

Austin glanced around the room. “Anyone see markings?”

Nobody responded. “Too dark and no moon,” Kreisman explained.

“So they moved you into the big sub?”