5 Deep, dark waters

Chapter Five DEEP, DARK WATERS. The rest of the pod was already moving on. Connor wished he could call out to them. Turn around! You've left a calf behind! "We'll have to backtrack," he said. "Maybe the calf is swimming behind the rest of the pod."

He steered the Beagle back the way they had come. Meanwhile, Roshni carefully watched the sonar screen for any sign of the lost calf. Connor kept the Beagle just under the water's surface, so they could use the periscope. The calf might come up to breathe, and then they'd spot it. "Poor little thing," Roshni murmured. "Don't worry, baby whale. We're coming to find you." Connor said, "It may be a baby, but it's about 20 feet long! We ought to see it soon."

Roshni bent over the sonar screen. Connor peered out through the Beagle's windows. He saw darting fish and scraps of seaweed tumbling past, but no whale calf. To make matters worse, the sun was setting and the sea was growing darker. Soon it would be too dark to see without lights. Suddenly, the Beagle pitched sideways and a horrific sound of scraping metal ripped through the cabin. Then came a sharp snapping noise. Something fell through the water past the window, trailing bubbles. The Beagle let out a babble of panicked bleeps. Roshni yelled and looked up from the screen. "What happened?" "We've hit something!" Connor grabbed the controls and brought the Beagle down, away from the surface. He smacked his forehead with his palm. "I was looking out of

the window, you were checking the sonar— and neither of us was steering! Sorry, Beagle." The Beagle made a mournful noise, like a whining dog. Connor felt terrible. He looked up at the hull of the boat they'd clipped, dreading what he might see. To his relief, it wasn't holed. That could have been a total disaster. Imagine sinking a boat and losing a whale calf… "I think we might be okay," he said. "We took a nasty knock, but nothing's broken, right?"

Roshni winced and showed him the sonar screen. It was completely blank. With growing alarm, Connor checked the rest of the Beagle's instruments. The screens had gone dark on a whole row of panels. "We've lost all our navigation systems," he said. "But how?" Roshni said, "Remember that snapping noise? And the thing that fell past the window? I think that was the navigation module. It must have broken off completely when we hit the boat." Connor felt cold horror creeping through his whole body. Without the Beagle's special navigation module, they couldn't work the sonar or the satnav system. He was counting on that to find the missing calf. And even if they found the calf without it, how on earth

would they find the rest of the pod? "We've got to get it back!" he said. He tilted the Beagle's nose until it was pointing downward, then fired the engines. They churned up the water and the Beagle shot down into the darkness. The controls vibrated in Connor's hands, but he held the sub steady. No more collisions, he promised himself.