Man-In-Sea

Scene 6

LINK

I mounted a trashed fuselage on the bent bellows of a player piano. When I played the keys, I could move the body of the plane up and down to simulate the pitch and roll of real turbulence. The cockpit was covered, so the pilot could see only the lighted dashboard.  This allowed rookies to walk away from their first crashes without harm. Things started auspiciously. Amelia Earhart bought a Link Trainer for her flight school and stood by me until the day she vanished. I tried like hell for an army contract, but even after WWI, they saw no future in airborne combat. Then the Depression hit, and I had to find a new purpose for the Blue Box.

CLAYTON

Dad? Dad, can you hear me?

MARION

Something is wrong?

ED

What is it, Clay?

CLAY

Dad, Al and I have been talking.

ED

You’ll use up a lot of air that way, Clay. Just sit tight.

CLAY

We’re going to swim for it.

MARION

No!

ED

Clay, I don’t want you to try anything drastic.

CLAY

We’ll depressurize down here and exhale all the way to the surface.

ED

Clay, listen, you’re almost 400 feet down. No one has ever made a free ascent like that.

CLAY

When the Navy gets here, they still have to anchor and send divers down to us. Al and I don’t have that long.

ED

Clayton, no. Now listen to me, okay? You’re committing suicide if you try and swim up here. If you don’t get hypothermia, you’ll drown. Wait for the Navy. It’s safer that way.

LINK

The lockout chamber on the back of the sub came from an earlier design I worked with in the Mediterranean. Jacques Cousteau and I nurtured a project to study the effects of extended periods  in heavy pressure zones. We called it ‘Man-In-Sea.’

Man-In-Sea

Cast of Characters:

LINK
An inventor. Also, Ed’s father.

ED
As Link remembers himself himself.

MARION
Ed’s wife.

CLAY
Ed and Marion’s second son.

Scene 7