Lifts boat

As he reached the ship he realized that there was
no time for decompression stops or anything similar.
Without air, these men were going to die.

Hopefully, the water inside wasn't pressurized.
Clark's greatest fear was that by moving the ship
he was going to somehow break a delicate seal and
force icy cold water to flood into the hold, killing the
men inside almost instantly.

He closed his eyes for a moment as he touched the
hull and did something he hadn't done since he was a
child. He prayed.

***

The voices on the other end of the line had gone
silent at last, and even the people in the newsroom
were somber.

After no explosion had occurred, there had been
conflicting reports by crews of the different ships, but
even those seemed to have died down by this point.

As drama, it was every newscaster's dream. Lois
had no doubt that the ratings were going to be
enormous. Yet the people in the newsroom looked
stunned.

Kendall had been one of their own, someone
they'd known personally.

Lois frowned and reached for the telephone. She'd
send flowers to the studio as a gesture of respect.
Kendall had struck her as a good man, and she knew
he'd been well liked by his peers.

She didn't know any of the camera crew who had
been with him, but the MSNBC people likely would
know them.

She couldn't find the telephone book in the mess
the agents had left. She spared a thought for Clark
Kent, who still hadn't returned, and she wondered if
he'd made his way into an outside hall.

It was the shouting by the Alaskan reporter that
alerted her that something unusual was happening.
The camera rushed to the edge of the boat, where
crew were standing and staring over the port bow.
Below, through the darkened water, could be seen
a massive shape. Borne along on what looked like a
massive bubble of air was the form of the Celeste
Marie.

It exploded out of the water and somehow
managed to flip before coming to float on the choppy
seas.

The crews on all of the ships rushed into action,
leaving the Alaskan reporter slack jawed in
amazement. He recovered quickly however, and
turned to the camera. This was going to be his moment
to shine.

"I ... don't have any explanation for all this," he
said. "But seeing is believing. What we are seeing now
is a rescue operation in action. There is no way to tell
what condition the men inside the Celeste Marie may
be in, but they are likely to be suffering from hypoxia,
hypothermia, and possible injuries relating both to the
initial accident, and to this recent miraculous
reemergence."

He was silent for a moment as his cameraman got
footage of men scrambling down into rescue boats that
were even now racing toward the newly righted ship.

"All we know right now is that somebody's
prayers were answered."

***

Gasping for breath, Clark broke the surface of the
water. It had taken all the air in his lungs and more to
move the entire boat without putting too much
pressure on any one part.

Pgs. 39-40