The next morning, the team received a new coded message and they opened the hatch to re-enter the submarine.
The scientists have interpreted the control that will activate the basic life system in the submarine and the activation of the lights in the submarine interior. Sergeant R felt that they must have left something in the captain’s quarters. He wondered what happened to the submarine’s logs as they have searched for it and they have not found anything similar to it. He messaged back U X on this and asked the scientists to check on this from the artefacts that they are checking on. As he waiting for this, one of his men called him. They have found the engine room and another room called nuclear reactor room. They were unable to enter the nuclear reactor room as it was locked by some kind of electronic key. The submarine life support system was switched on and the men were able to breathe slightly easier and with additional lights switched on, it was easier for them to move around.
They tried to enter the nuclear reactor room but failing to open the locks after several attempts. It was clear that certain codes need to be inputted before the door can be opened. They tried to open the engine and it opened without much problem. When they entered the room, they were greeted by one huge turbine system and two generators driving a long propulsion system. They could not locate the engine for this turbine but noticed that several huge pipes were connected to the nuclear reactor room.
Another coded message received from the U X – the scientists have cracked another piece of information. According to the manuals, the captain’s log books in kept at the main control room. It is kept in a locked compartment called ships logs. Sergeant R found the compartment but true, it was indeed locked. He took one of the main hammer and tried several times to break it. On the final stroke the compartment locks were broken. Inside it, the found several key logs books including titled missile launch sequence. The captain’s log was found among the thick logs books. Once again the log books were sealed in a water tight compartment and that night, two of Sergeant R’s men took it to the U Boat for further investigation.
The log books were eagerly inspected by Professor Z’s team. Captain Franz noticing how important the log books have become for future research has assigned several of his men to assist the scientists. Although the scientists took Captain Franz’s offer as something to do with their research, the actual reason for Captain Franz’s deployment of his men to be with the scientists was to keep an eye on the scientists and make sure that the log books are not compromised. Kriegsmarine certainly want to have a look at the content of the log books.
It was several hours after the log books were delivered to the scientists to be interpreted. As with the earlier books and manuals, these log books was also fragile and was easily damaged. Luckily the restoration works have been going well and with the extra help from Captain Franz’s men, the results was obtained at a faster pace.
“Captain, you better call Sergeant R and his men back to U X. I am sure they want to hear about this as well. I think we discovered a submarine from the future. I will tell you the details once we have assembled in the briefing room” said Professor Z unable to contain his excitement. The night was still dark and it was almost three in the morning when Sergeant R and his team returned to U X. They got cleaned up and took their meals – their first hot meals in the last few days. They were tired but they did not say anything about it.
The captain and his senior officers, the scientists and the extraction team took their place in the briefing room. The U Boat’s chef made sure that strong coffee was served as most of them was already feeling tired. Professor walked to the front and he had a book in his hands.
“Gentlemen, this is the captain log book which we managed to copy over and it was a big surprise indeed when we read what was written. Listen to this” said the professor as he started to read the captain’s log
“Captain’s log dated twenty fifth November 2008…” started the professor and immediately some of those who attended the briefing stood up and said that it was impossible. The year 2008 was almost 80 years into the future and it was impossible to get that date from a submarine that was mentioned in ancient books several hundreds years. The professor waited for the discussion to stop before he started to read again.
“Captain’s log dated 25 November 2008. We are presently have finished testing the new cruise missiles off the South China Sea and we are now in the midst of preparation for naval exercise with our counterparts from the Japanese Maritime Force. We have been instructed by Washington to head to the island off Tokyo for the exercise from our current base in the Philippines. We will join up with the Enterprise task force. Weather has been reported as bad in our presence sector and all ships travel has been grounded for the next few days. It looks like we will be stuck in the Philippines until the weather gets better”
“Captain’s log dated 26 November 2008. We have left the naval port in the Philippines as the weather cleared and all station reports better weather as we get nearer to Japan.”
“Captain’s log dated 27 November 2008. We have run into a vortex in the middle of ocean. We have lost control of most of our equipments and we are trying to establish communication with the base in Philippines and it has been unsuccessful”
“Captain’s log dated 27 November 2008 supplementary. We have tried to regain control of the equipments but it still not working. The nuclear reactor has been shut down to avoid possible meltdown. We are drifting towards a land – based on the navigation maps, it appears to be the country of Malaysia. We have sent distress signals to our bases and also the naval authorities in Malaysia but there has not been any response till now”
“Captain’s log dated 28 November 2008. We have tried and managed to get some power up from the reserve batteries and managed to get some movements and some life support system back on line. But we are unable to travel far and the weather was getting back. It looks like a typhoon was heading our direction. Due to system failures, we are unable to dive to avoid this typhoon. We have found a river opening at the coastal waters which will provide the submarine some protection. We have planned to wait out here until the Malaysian rescue team are able to reach us. There is still no news from our Pacific fleet. Our supply is getting lower but the men managed to get some food from the dense jungle near the river”
“Captain’s log dated 15 February 2009. It has been several months since we have encountered the vortex and landed ourselves on the East Coast of Malaysia. There has not been any response to our distress signals. We could not get any signals from any frequencies. Our batteries had died out. We have sealed the nuclear reactor so that there is no leakages should this submarine remains undiscovered for a very long time. Several of the men were hit with jungle sickness and are in serious conditions. The medic officer has tried his best to cure the men but without the right medicines, it was nearly impossible to get the cure for these men. All we could do is to pray for a miracle.”
“Captain’s log dated 10 June 2009. There is less than half of the crew still alive and the need to keep ourselves alive has been lost. We are home sick. We have tried to repair our submarine several times but without a more advance tools, we could not get the systems to be online back. We also feared that restarting the nuclear reactor may cause widespread radiation leakage. A small team of men has left the place to look for the nearest town and get the rescue team in. They returned after a month – they said that they must have walked for miles but there is nothing but dense jungle as far as the eyes could see”
“Captain’s log dated 18 June 2009. We spotted a ship far away in the horizon. It was the first time we have encountered anything from the civilisation for months. The men managed to build a large smoke signal and we have managed to attract its attention. Our spirits arte high now – we are going back home – the salvage of the submarine need to be done later.”
“That was the last entry by the captain of the submarine” informed the professor to a much silenced briefing room. Many of those who were in the room were in deep thoughts. Many had questions in the mind. The professor then continued and said that there were more entries in the ships logs but it appear to be written by someone else and the logs written was quite scary. The professor was about to continue with the second part of the log entries.
“Communication Officer’s log dated 19 June 2009. The captain is dead! The ship that we spotted yesterday was actually a pirate ship. The moment they came ashore and the captain went to greet them, they acted violently. They struck down the captain with a large sword. We managed to fight back the pirates with our automatic rifles. They fled leaving the captain in serious wounds. The medic officer managed to stitch some of the wounds but the captain’s wounds was so severe that he died couple of hours later due to lost of blood. It was the darkest day for the crew. We have lost the best leader.”
“Communication Officer’s log dated 20 June 2009. The sentry on shore spotted more ships and we knew that the pirates were back for revenge. We have set up several traps for the pirates. The pirates landed in a very large numbers and despite we were able to kill many of them but they continued to press on. We managed to beat them back to their ships once more but we knew they will return. Our ammunitions are running low. We cannot afford to hold another round of attack. We already lost a few good men in the hand to hand combat”
“Communication Officer’s log dated 21 June 2009. The pirates were back. We have depleted our last supply of ammunitions. We have retreated back to the submarine and locked the hatch. The pirates tried to break into the main hatch but they failed. We were trapped and we knew if we open the hatch, it will be certain death to the surviving crew. Supplies were running low and we did not know how long we can remain trapped.”
“Communication Officer’s log dated 22 June 2009. The pirates have set up a big camp next to the submarine. They were waiting for us to come out. Thankfully they are not aware the periscope. We were able to see whether they are still around or not. The life support system have stopped working but we have opened up the torpedo tubes to let fresh air in but certainly it was getting more desperate”
“Communication Officer’s log dated 23 June 2009. Today we had our last meals. We have run out of water and food. We are going to die for sure. It is hoped that anyone finds this log will tell our stories to our families. The pirates was still waiting for us and they are now in larger number than before. They have brought some ironsmith to break open the submarine. Thankfully it has failed. The hull is simply too thick for them.”
“Communication Officer’s log dated 24 June 2009. More of the men have died last night. We have stacked up the corpses in one of the water tight rooms. There are only two of us still alive”
The professor stopped.
“That was the last entry in the log. We presumed that on 25 June 2009, all the crew men have died” informed the professor.
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