MacGyver refused to give in. There had to be a way to salvage not only their own situation, but the one above. Think, Mac, think!

Mac bit into his bottom lip and ran a hand through the front of his hair as if it would instantly give him inspiration. “There has to be something we can do,” he vocalized. “The DSRV is beyond fixing because of the plane damage, and we don’t have wet suits, so that leaves…”

“It leaves nothing,” Laura completed the sentence dejectedly.

MacGyver shook his head. “Maybe not. Someone worked on the U-boat to move it under its own steam, so why can’t we?” He began to get excited as ideas began to flow.

Mortimer wasn’t so optimistic. “We don’t know why its sitting on its butt at the bottom of the Baltic – there has to be a reason, considering even the art is still on board. Trying to move a fifty-year-old sub is suicide!”

“So we just sit and run out of air?” Mac countered. “C’mon, work with me here. At least help me check out the U-boat’s systems and see what’s working and what we can fix up.”

Laura watched the conversation ping back and forth like a heated tennis match, but she failed to comment. Mac noticed and hoped she hadn’t already given in.

“You do realize to try and move the sub we’d need to ditch the DSRV?” Mortimer’s attitude was still negative, but his mind was obviously weighing up possibilities.

“Once the Sun Dog has gone, if the U-boat’s hull pops, it’s all over…”

“Do you have a better option?” Mac countered, but Mortimer didn’t get a chance to answer.

A huge and unexpected wave of energy rocked the DRSV so violently its metallic frame shivered, and beneath it, the U-boat actually shifted in the mud a little.

The water outside the front bubble turned a dark, cloudy brown as the sea floor was torn up by a massive impact.

As the cloud began to dissipate, Mac, Mortimer and Sand were left with the horrific sight of the Eternal Flame, its once graceful lines now turned into a wreck, just like the thing it had come to search for.

Debris filtered down from above, hitting the DSRV every few seconds and pinging off its hull.

“Oh my God…” Laura looked like she was about to burst into tears as she pointed to something hanging in the water outside DSRV.

It was a body of one of the crewmen, his eyes still wide with terror, even in death.

It was Baines, the man who had escorted her earlier.

Mortimer cleared his throat and looked to Mac. “Okay,” he conceded. “Let’s go check out the U-boat and hope we get lucky.”

* * * *

Mortimer worked faster than MacGyver had expected, jumping from the control room dials and gauges, to the motor room, and eventually the engine room. While Mac had a fundamental knowledge of how subs worked, Mortimer was very much the expert, as well as a WW2 enthusiast.

It took about fifteen minutes in total for the pilot to make his appraisal.

Standing over the new style batteries, he rubbed absently at the back of his neck and drew down a long breath. “Right, well, the batteries might be recently fitted, but they’re pretty depleted with the sub being abandoned for awhile. I think I can get emergency lighting on and a few low drain systems, but it won’t last long.”

“What about the ballast tanks?” Mac asked, hoping it was good news.

Mortimer popped in a stick of his infamous gum and grinned. “There’s still enough air in the system to blow the tanks to surface, and the bow and stern planes look in good order.”

MacGyver nodded. “I can get the engines to run and there’s fuel, although I know we can’t use the diesels while we’re submerged.”

“Not even with the oxygen scrubbers working,” Mortimer agreed, picking up a spanner and tinkering with it nervously. “So…the two big problems we have are just how good is the hull integrity, and how the heck do we get the power to pump the compressed air and blow the tanks?”

MacGyver moved to the small battery cells that had been fitted and examined them. They reminded him of something he’d seen on the Sun Dog. “What about using the batteries from the DSRV?” He asked.

“The main units are made up of two packs of twenty cells, and they’re stored in pods outside the mini-sub, no way can we get to them.” Mortimer blew a bubble, popped it and then squinted as if in thought. “There are some backups we could access inside the DSRV – two packs of four cells and one emergency unit.”

Mac added up just how much power that would give in his head and then nodded excitedly. “If I can get them out and jury rig them in here, it just might be enough to blow the ballast tanks and get us to the surface!”

* * * *

MacGyver wasn’t sure he’d ever worked so fast as he unscrewed the panel to remove the batteries with his penknife. Back on the U-boat, Mortimer was preparing the submarine for its power transplant, and Laura was busy stripping the DSRV of anything that might be of use later. So far, she’d taken life jackets, flashlights, an emergency oxygen tank and a few generic tools the mini-sub always carried.

Mac wasn’t sure most of it would be of use, but given his track record anything was possible, not to mention, it gave Sand something to do.

The last of the screws popped out and Mac was finally able to access the emergency batteries. He might need help to carry them, but for now it was just a matter of disconnecting some cables and hoping he could rig them into a forty-year-old submarine.

With any luck Mortimer will have most of the work done by the time I get these out…

On cue, the pilot’s head bobbed into view from the rear of the DSRV. He was still chewing happily. “You about ready, Mac?”

MacGyver nodded. “Can you give me a hand with these; they’re heavier than they look.”

Mortimer obliged, grabbing the end of the two cells, with Mac on the other side, while Laura appeared and took the emergency unit.

It took another five minutes to get back to the motor room. While MacGyver hooked up the cables he’d scavenged to the new cells, Mortimer was preparing things in the control room and instructing Laura on her part in the escape.

Once the batteries were sorted, Mac turned his attention to the DSRV. It needed cutting loose, but just disconnecting the docking collar wasn’t enough. It had to be out of the way of the U-boat before they could try and ascend.

For that he needed to rig the controls, and he needed something to do it with. Returning to the panel where he’d removed the batteries, he found the two longest cable harnesses and cut them free. Unraveling the wire into two lengths, he slipped behind the sub’s controls and wrapped the two separate pieces onto the joystick and motor controls.

Once secured, he moved aft and climbed down into the U-boat, trailing the wire along with him as he moved. At the bottom of the ladder, he tugged on the two wires until he heard the DSRV motors kick in, and then quickly closed the escape hatch and disengaged the docking collar.

There was no way to see if the mini-sub had cleared the U-boat’s intended path, or ended up snarled on the wreckage or the Eternal Flame.

Now, there were no second chances.

When MacGyver finally clambered back to the U-boat’s control room, Mortimer seemed to have things wrapped up.

“Did you manage to get the batteries connected and the DSRV free?” He asked, his normally jovial features now edged with worry.

“Hope so,” MacGyver teased. “Why don’t you throw a few switches and see?”

Mortimer scowled but did as he was told. The console in front of him flickered into life, the opaline backlighting attenuating the German writing on the gauges and dials. His frown instantly turned into a grin. “You did it!”

“So can you move this thing now or what?” Laura was sitting in front of a strange yoke that looked like it belonged more on a plane than a submarine.

Mortimer shook his head. “Like I was just explaining to you before Mac got back, I can’t pilot this baby solo – it’s old, it’s dated, and back in the day it took a whole lotta crew to move it.” He looked to MacGyver. “Can you take the other yoke next to Laura?”

Mac knew the yokes controlled the dive planes and ultimately the submarine, but he had no idea what to actually do with one. He took the metal seat next to Sand as instructed and waited while Mortimer worked his magic.

As he operated various levers and switches, the pilot explained what he was doing, his tone becoming that of an excited school boy as he moved back and forth between stations. “Okay, I’m gonna start blowing the air into tanks five, four, three and two in that order, but only enough to get the con tower above water. Nice and slow so we don’t put any stress on the old gal’s hull…”

Mac and Laura watched in morbid fascination as Mortimer began throwing levers and the ancient Arian dials started to move. Beneath them, they felt the submarine groan as the air began to tug the U-boat from the silt on the sea floor.

The noise of metal screeching and twisting filled their ears, even though in fact the sound wasn’t that loud – right now, it was simply the only sound.

“Right, it’s your turn,” Mortimer offered. “Laura, take the yoke in front of you and push it forward, while Mac pulls his back. We want the forward dive planes up, and the stern down and we should start moving at about one and a half feet per second.” He paused, chewed hard and scowled. “At least I hope.”

MacGyver and Sand silently did as they were told, watching the depth gauges in front of them for signs of movement.

The U-boat wailed as it pulled from the mud and everyone finally felt it shift its weight and start to rise.

After a minute, more noises erupted from the aging metal as rivets began to pop and hull panels began to dribble water. The leaks were small, but how long would they stay that way?

Mac took his eyes from the controls and cast a glance at the largest point of ingress. If there were leaks like that in the motor room, the salt water could get to the batteries, and that would give them a whole new problem.

“We need to check the motor room. If salt water gets in those cells it can cause chlorine gas!” He moved to get up, but Mortimer waved him back down.

“We need to get topside first, before the hull completely blows!” The pilot appeared more than worried as he shut off a valve to stop a badly leaking pipe.

Laura seemed suddenly quietly composed. “We’ll make it,” she whispered. “We have to.”

The U-boat shuddered, as if answering, and then its ascent seemed to momentarily pause. It hung in the water, a ghost making a decision whether to return to death, or seek new life.

In the end, it chose to live, and finally finished its journey from the depths. The con tower burst through the Baltic’s cruel waves to see daylight once more.

Mortimer didn’t wait to get excited. He made a beeline for the nearest hatch and was halfway through before he paused and turned back to his companions. “I need to get to the engine room and start the diesels!” And with that glimmer of an explanation he was gone.

“What’s so important about starting engines so soon?” Laura asked as MacGyver began to slide on a lifejacket. “Aren’t we safe now?”

“I don’t think he can completely blow ballast until the engines are running,” Mac explained as he headed for the con tower ladder. “The U-boat uses the exhausts to finish the job. Hopefully the engines might put some charge in our batteries too.”

Sand’s lips mouthed “Oh” as if she understood, but her expression said otherwise.

Either way, MacGyver didn’t have time to stick around and go through the whole procedure. The Eternal Flame’s crew, Pete and Nikki might still be in the freezing water, and he had to try and help them.

Scrambling up the ladder rungs he quickly swung open the con tower and dared to face the storm outside. The waves had calmed somewhat and the wind had dropped a couple of notches, but it was still bitterly cold.

Visibility wasn’t great, and Mac had to squint to try and make out shapes in the water as the chill ocean showered him. Debris bobbed around the U-boat, but at first he couldn’t see any rafts – only crates, unused life jackets and items he couldn’t even recognize.

He spun around into the wind, his blonde mullet soaked and swept back by the squall, but he didn’t even notice. Just ahead, there was something orange bobbing in the water and the more he focused, the more certain he was that it was a raft.

Mac began waving his arms and shouting, his churning stomach praying there were survivors on board, and his subconscious begging for Nikki and Pete to be among them. “Hey! Over here!”

After a tense moment, a hand appeared from the enclosed raft and waved back. Someone unzipped the roof panel, revealing several people, and they all began to frantically try and row towards the submarine.

Beneath him, MacGyver felt the diesel engines finally kick in, and the U-boat rose further out of the water. He waited until the deck was through the surface of the sea and scrambled down the outer con ladder onto the hull.

The surface was awash with white crashing surf, and several times the troubleshooter stumbled and was almost tossed into the unforgiving water. He steadied himself and paused, knowing he needed to help the survivors, but how?

Mac’s eyes scanned the submarine’s sparse deck area and spotted the ropes it would have been moored with wrapped away carefully as if they’d been stowed only hours earlier.

They should have long rotted away, but then he already knew this was no ordinary wreck.

MacGyver tumbled and slipped across the deck until he reached the rope, and quickly coiled it over his arm. Looking up, he noted the raft had somehow made it closer to the sub. Maybe they were lucky and the storm was actually driving them in the right direction.

Mac waved again and pointed to the rope. “Try and grab this!” He yelled, hoping he could be heard over the noise of the wind.

Someone in the raft waved back, and MacGyver swung the rope out like he was pitching for his life – because he was, just not his life.

The line splashed into the Baltic just short of its target, and Mac quickly reeled it back in and made another attempt. This time, one of the men in the raft managed to grab it as it landed in the water next to him.

Other crewmen followed his lead and seized the rope, and began to pull on it. On the other end, MacGyver did much the same until the raft was slowly hauled to the U-boat’s bouncing decking.

Mac tied off the line his end and offered up a hand to the first crewman, it was the communications officer he’d briefly met earlier, named Engel.

Engel nodded his head in silent thanks as he clambered aboard, and then helped MacGyver unload a further seven of the Eternal Flame’s crew.

Neither Pete, nor Nikki was among them.

The realization made MacGyver suddenly feel even colder. He turned to Engel, wiping freezing spray from his face. “What happened to Pete and Nikki?”

Engel looked cold and disorientated as he shook his head. “I don’t know…everything happened so fast.” He glanced down at the U-boat, his face abruptly incredulous as he seemed to realize just what he’d climbed aboard. “Where’s the DSRV? How? I mean this can’t be U3524..?” He steadied himself as a particularly large wave glanced off the starboard hull.

MacGyver wanted to explain, but for now he wasn’t giving up on searching for more survivors, including his friends. He patted the officer on the back, urging him to the con tower where Mortimer was now ushering the other seven rescued men. “It’s a long and very crazy story. And it will have to wait…”

Engel still seemed dazed and simply nodded, following Mac’s guidance up the con ladder.

Once Engel was safe, Mac turned back to the swelling ocean and his search. Squinting again against the unforgiving weather, he soon spotted a second raft a little further out than the first.

This time, the orange material was sagging in the water, as if it hadn’t fully inflated, or maybe it had somehow been damaged when it had been deployed. Hanging onto the flaccid fabric’s edge was a figure – a portly frame and bald head that could only belong to Pete Thornton, and he wasn’t moving.

In fact, if he hadn’t been wearing a life jacket, MacGyver suspected he wouldn’t still be on the surface at all.

How many minutes has he been in the freezing water already..?

“Hey, can you hear me?” Mac waved to the raft as he had done before, but this time there was no response from Pete, or anyone aboard – if indeed there was anyone else alive on the thing.

Mac swallowed hard and made a decision. The raft was too far for the rope, and there was no one to grab it anyway. While the raft was slowly drifting towards the U-boat like the first one had, Pete probably wouldn’t survive if they had to wait for momentum alone to carry the raft to safety.

Without giving his own wellbeing a thought, MacGyver dived into the frigid sea and began to swim towards the raft. The tempestuous ocean seemed to try on purpose to push him back, but Mac was more than determined. He could feel just how cold the water was, and not knowing how long Pete had been at its mercy, spurred him on.

As he grew close, he spotted McKenna, trying in vain to pull Pete aboard. Nikki was there too, holding on to Thornton’s arms for dear life to try and stop him floating away as his grasp loosened.

“You have to try and paddle to the U-boat!” Mac shouted above the squall, pointing behind him as he trod water. When Nikki and McKenna finally spotted him and nodded, he put his attention on giving them a hand.

There were ropes dangling freely at the side of the damaged raft, perhaps where it had been lowered into the sea. MacGyver gripped one as best he could with cold, stiff hands, and began to try and help “tow” the raft as he swam.

“It’s not working!” Nikki was yelling into the storm, shaking her head as the raft bucked and was tossed off target by ruthless waves.

“Swim for it!” McKenna made the announcement and then dived into the water. Nikki followed him, pushing hard against the swell, sometimes her vest the only thing keeping her buoyant.

MacGyver watched them go and then let go of the rope, grabbing Pete instead. “Pete, it’s me, Mac, just relax and let me help you.”

Mac felt the elder man go limp as he put his arm around Pete and began to haul him through the icy Baltic. Every now and again, he would feel Pete shiver, and in a way, he was glad, because it meant his old friend was still alive.

Once they reached the U-boat, Mortimer, Engel and Laura were waiting, perched precariously on the rocking deck to help them aboard. As soon as everyone was out of the water, they clambered to the con tower and down into the slightly warmer bowels of the U-boat.

Inside, one of the rescued crewmen was already giving out cocoa and old blankets he’d managed to find.

MacGyver grabbed three of the blankets and quickly wrapped them around Pete, rubbing hard to try and warm his friend.

Pete continued to shiver, but managed a wan and very pallid smile. “T..Thanks,” he stammered.

McKenna was sitting opposite, sipping from a mug that was older than he was. His hands were white and shook from the cold, but it was his gaze that caught Mac’s attention the most. The captain was looking around the U-boat both in awe and amazement, his eyes a mix of disbelief and was that fear?

“This can’t be U3524? It’s some kind of setup…a badly timed joke?” McKenna looked to MacGyver expectantly.

Pete joined in with the incredulity. “We’re where?” he mouthed, until now, unaware of his surroundings. “How is that even possible?”

“It’s kind of a long, and very complicated story we only have half the answers to.” Mac gratefully accepted a blanket that Laura offered up and wrapped it around his shoulders. “One thing for sure, this was no ordinary sunken wreck, if it was ever a wreck at all.”

McKenna’s expression didn’t change. There was still that edgy look, and his eyes worked their way around the room every few seconds as if he was appraising everyone in the group. “How is that possible?”

“It doesn’t matter right now.” Mortimer had appeared from nowhere at the nearest hatchway and his expression was almost as grim as McKenna’s. “Right now we have a bigger problem than how this tub got here, and who was behind it. This baby has sprung a few leaks, and if we don’t stop them we’ll all find ourselves back in the Baltic.” He stared at MacGyver. “I know you’re tired and wet, and we all need answers, but I could really do with your help and knowledge on this one.”

Mac moved to pull off the blanket from his shoulders, but McKenna’s soulless, almost terrified voice stopped him.

“We have more than the sea to worry about,” the captain whispered, his voice cracking as if the cold and trauma of his ordeal had left him somehow broken. “The Eternal Flame didn’t just sink because of some localized storm.” He paused, milking the effect it had on the others. “She was a new ship, state of the art – the Phoenix Foundation only paid for the best. No…she was sabotaged, and whoever did it could be sitting right here among us.”

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