1. THE CAN
Captain Max Crane had gone into town as Joe his chief mechanic continued tightening a set of bolts on the console he’d just installed within the ‘new’ submarine named THE CAN. Lisa Coprey was the Technical advisor of this ground-up build of a submarine that would be able to carry a crew of three to the deepest part of the ocean and be able to retrieve objects off the floor.
In this Max, who had actually come from a wealthy background had this dream all his life... Now, almost forty, he had finally got a good idea and a shell of the creation made... Hatches were a major stumbling block, as the pressure delivered at that depth failed many a test... But finally, with a 2000 psi safety maximum overload required to pass, it was finally ready to equip.
[ This is four years after the ‘green light’ had been given, Passing the pressure testing stage. The four separate compartments built, {from front to back: Driver cockpit / command chair / engineer station / Engine room} all housing miles of wires/ fiber optic’s / and micro fused wiring, multi camera’s and computer operated controls / which if need be, could be controlled aboard a ship topside. Slowly, it was becoming a very unique submarine... It’s official name : THE CAN (Official launch date 3 months 22days 16hrs and counting down...)
“Joe! Crane’s pulling out, need anything?” Lisa asked as Crane headed toward his pick-up.
“No, Uh, Coffee please?” Joe asked of her over the ear buds receivers.
“Wait.., we have plenty of coffee?” Lisa stated. (wondering why he’d ask for Captain Crane to get something they’d already had.)
“No, that’s what I want you to get for me, ‘A cup of coffee’.” Joe said, pointing out this as one of her ‘blonde moments’.
“Oh... Okay, I see... You are rather busy on those circuits... One cup of coffee, coming up.” Lisa voice spoke, making sure Max was well out the hanger door. “You realize, it’s my head if Max catches this coffee being brought to you on the sub... right.
“Yeah, but you're free and clear ‘if’ you hand it off, then it’s on me.” Joe said, trying hard to rewire this board down at the foot area of the driver’s compartment.
“Yeah, but I would doubt he has a secret camera out here, just watching our every move.” Lisa spoke, as she poured the coffee.. nervous, she forgot how he liked it, slowly walking it up the gangplank to the top hatch of the sub.
“Coffee.” Lisa stated.
“Ah... Um, ouch... piece of crap! Um, could you bring it down... Bit of a pickle here, shit! Ow!.. damn this freaking one wire! Grrr!” Joe fumed that it was being so stubborn with him. Lisa smiled.. (common Joe talk) this is how she got her kicks though, listening to him fighting this large yellow beast tooth and nail every inch of the way... And it seemed to Lisa, that half the time, the sub won the fight.
Placing down the cup top the top of the entrance, she began to climb down the six rungs, and at eye level with the cup, she reached out, ‘slowly’ bringing the cup to her.. two more rungs... easy, easy... (Her ass would be literally chewed off if Max were to see so much as a coffee drop stain anywhere on or in this sub!
So far, everything seemed to be running rather smoothly. The gauges installed, and two weeks of hard wiring everything in. With many hours of hard work, this part was about complete. Tightening down the bolts with a mini torque wrench, he seemed happy at the correct torque readings on the wrench. This sub dubbed ‘The Can’ had been in existence before Joe had ever laid eyes on it.
Manufactured out of a dream once had by Maxwell Crane; a man who had spent almost thirty years of his life hiding small amounts of money away until he could ‘safely’ build this deep sea submarine He’d dubbed ‘the can’.
Now ‘THE CAN’ wasn’t exactly a ‘covert’ sub, but it’s existence wasn’t exactly common knowledge either. The man had picked his workers very carefully with certain ‘protections’ he had written in each contract to hide it’s knowledge from the world. He’d fired many who had spoke it, and had moved it’s location three times.
The story begins at the over large tin hanger where huge double doors hide the secret project behind them, It about 10:30am on a Monday morning early in the month of may. Maxwell Crane had just left, seemingly disturbed about ‘something’, telling Lisa Coprey to just follow through with the day’s assignment of work that had to be preformed on the sub. He stated he be back after looking into a problem that had cropped up... Oh and he’d be making a store run too. Max was a very secretive man and kept most of his problems to himself and was known to lie to keep it that way...
Lisa watched him leave out of the hangers smaller door, and having already letting ‘Fred’ their overnight security guard go home for the day it was just her and the main mechanic Joe to work on today’s agenda. They’d had a few rough patches over the last few month’s, and it seemed the bad luck streak hadn’t stopped rolling out even more problems.
"Damn this... piece, of, SHIT!...GRRR!" Joe stated having a hard time connecting just a few small wires to a computer board.
