The Stinger
(Sea Crab)
Bridger: Whew, that’s fast. Good work.
Hitchcock: Thank you, sir. I think we’ve conquered the draft problem. It can go faster, hold your breath.
Bridger: I’ve been holding my breath since he got in that thing.
Hitchcock: A little more throttle.
Lucas: (in Stinger) Wha ha ha ha! Whoo hoo hoo! Whoo! Unbelievable! This is a great ride.
Bridger: Hey, stop the hot-dogging.
Lucas: (in Stinger) Aw, come on, Captain, we designed it for this.
Bridger: It's a prototype of a prototype. It's held together with bailing wire and duct tape. Now cut the acrobatics.
Lucas: (in Stinger) Yes, sir.
Hitchcock: We’re testing speed, Lucas, not maneuverability.
Lucas: (in Stinger) I’m showing ninety-five.
Hitchcock: Speedometer’s way off, I got you at one ten.
Lucas: (in Stinger) It’ll do one fifty.
Bridger: Now, come on.
Lucas: (in Stinger) Captain.
Hitchcock: Hydrogear lab is supposed to have tested to one twenty.
Bridger: That’s what their press releases say. All right, one twenty, but no more than that.
Hitchcock: Say thank you, Lucas, Captain’s giving you one twenty.
Lucas: (in Stinger) Thank you.
Hitchcock: On my mark.
Bridger: Straight line, now, no turns.
Lucas: (in Stinger) Yeah, straight line, no turns.
(Land – Truck)
Tom Green: It’s fast, it’s gonna be hard to hit.
Assistant: I can hit it, but how hard do you want?
Tom Green: Just disable it, we need the technology.
(Sea Crab)
Hitchcock: One twelve, one thirteen . . .
Lucas: (in Stinger) I’m, uh, I’m getting a little shimmy.
Bridger: Well, slow it down.
Hitchcock: One fifteen . . .
Lucas: (in Stinger) OK, it’s smoothing out. Very cool.
Bridger: Slow it down anyway.
Hitchcock: One ten, one hundred, ninety-five.
Lucas: (in Stinger) Ahh!
Hitchcock: Lucas.
Lucas: (in Stinger) Ahh!
Bridger: Lucas.
Lucas: (in Stinger) Ahh!
Bridger: Lucas.
(Time Lapse – Later)
Hitchcock: Lucas, can you hear me?
Bridger: Well, we’ve lost audio and visual contact, we’re flying blind.
(seaQuest DSV – Bridge)
Ford: Mr. Ortiz?
Ortiz: Nothing.
O’Neill: Stinger one, come in. Lucas, do you read?
Crocker: No debris trail, sir; he either went up or down intact.
(Sea Crab)
Hitchcock: Negative, if it’s not moving it sinks.
Bridger: Concentrate your search on the bottom. Spread the WSKRS to the limit. We’ll cover this western reef. Six degrees port; climb that ridge, we’ll have a better view.
(Beach – Nearby)
Martin Tucker: (pulls Lucas out of water into boat, then onto beach) No, no, take it easy son. (activates homing beacon)
(seaQuest DSV – Bridge)
Ortiz: I got him! He’s on the beach, he’s on dry land.
O’Neill: Captain, we got a fix on Lucas. He’s on the beach.
Bridger: (in sea crab) Get a rescue launch to him immediately.
O’Neill: Aye, sir. Lieutenant Krieg, Lucas is on the beach.
Krieg: (on radio) We can be there in five.
Bridger: (in sea crab) Have Doctor Westphalen standing by in the medical bay. We’ll all meet there.
O’Neill: Aye, sir.
(Beach)
Tucker: Well, tides are going out, your people should be here soon. Hey, hey, hey. Can you, can you hold this, keep the pressure on?
Lucas: Yeah.
Tucker: Yeah? OK. You’ll be fine.
Lucas: Sir, who are you?
Tucker: Oh, I’m a dreamer son, just like you.
(seaQuest DSV – Sea Deck)
Lucas: Is there gonna be a scar?
Dr. Westphalen: No, you'll still have your beautiful baby face.
Lucas: I don't want a beautiful baby face, I want a scar.
Bridger: Next thing he'll want is a tattoo.
Lucas: I'm gonna get a tattoo.
Dr. Westphalen: He's still in shock.
Lucas: I am not in shock.
Bridger: Well you'll get your tattoo.
Dr. Westphalen: No, no, no, you stay in bed. He had no right rushing around in that contraption. He's still a boy, Nathan.
Bridger: Boy, he's a college graduate.
Lucas: Where's the Stinger?
Hitchcock: A party's out looking for the Gazelle now.
Lucas: I'm not calling it a Gazelle.
Hitchcock: And you're not calling it a Stinger.
Lucas: Yes I am.
Hitchcock: Not while half of it's mine.
Lucas: Well my half's the Stinger.
Bridger: Both of you. This thing was built under the auspices of the seaQuest. This is my boat, I'll give it a name. Right now I'm calling it the contraption. You're damn lucky that fisherman found you, so stay in bed as the doctor says. Commander, return to your station.
Hitchcock: Yes sir.
Bridger: You really gave us a scare Lucas.
Lucas: I, uh, . . .
Bridger: If he gives you any more trouble just let me know.
Dr. Westphalen: Oh, he won't give me any trouble, he's a college graduate.
Lucas: Captain, he wasn't a fisherman. He said he was a dreamer.
Bridger: A dreamer, well.
(Sea Launch)
Krieg: You don't send a boy to do a man's job.
O'Neill: Is this Crash Krieg? Come on, skipper let you pilot the seaQuest once and you backed into a volcano.
Krieg: It was uncharted.
O'Neill: How 'bout when you rolled the launch.
Krieg: Because of a riptide.
O'Neill: Stuffed a sea crab into the shoreline.
Krieg: That was a tsunami.
Ortiz: This is where they lost contact with the Stinger.
Krieg: Hang on.
O'Neill: So you were trying to surf a tsunami.
Krieg: I'm a good pilot. Check my record.
O'Neill: That is your record.
Ortiz: There's nothing there.
Krieg: You starting with me too.
Ortiz: The Stinger, Lieutenant, it's gone.
O'Neill: Maybe it got caught in the current.
Ortiz: Not here. Commander Hitchcock made it way too heavy to get tugged off by local currents. Look, that's about the width of the Stinger, like the tide dragged it —
Krieg: Toward the beach. Get us as close as you can to the shoreline. We're gonna have to scuba beyond that point.
O'Neill: seaQuest, we're getting wet to search the shoreline.
(seaQuest DSV – Bridge)
Ford: Thank you, Mr. O’Neill. Make your best effort, you know how much this means to them.
O’Neill: (in launch) Mm hmm, out.
Hitchcock: Well, did they find it yet?
Ford: Not yet.
Hitchcock: I got two days to get this thing back, get it fixed, or we don’t make the UEO qualifying trials.
Ford: Get a grip, Katie. You’re allowing your obsession with the Stinger to interfere with your obligations.
Hitchcock: It’s a Gazelle. I built it and I’m calling it a Gazelle.
(Ward Room)
Dr. Westphalen: For fifty years science has been trying to mimic the movement of fish to cut turbulence.
Lucas: And I did it. I designed perfect laminar flow.
Bridger: Perfect laminar flow is the smooth movement of liquids over a solid body. You used it, you didn’t design it. God did, it’s called a fish.
Lucas: What I mean is, it’s phenomenal.
Bridger: It’s phenomenal if it works.
Dr. Westphalen: Well it did work for a while. Come on, the Wright brothers’ first flight lasted for less than a minute. What we need here is some positive reinforcement.
Bridger: What we need here is the truth. The Stinger was a failure, why? Lucas’s hot-dogging, or a design flaw? You and Hitchcock kept me at arm’s length on this project.
Lucas: We wanted to surprise you, Captain.
Bridger: Oh, you did.
(Beach)
Krieg: (into PAL) O’Neill.
O’Neill: (in launch) Go ahead, Lieutenant.
Krieg: (into PAL) Patch me through to the seaQuest.
O’Neill: (in launch) Mm hmm.
Ford: (on radio in launch) Commander Ford here.
O’Neill: You’re on.
Ford: (on bridge of seaQuest) Captain, we’ve got Lieutenant Krieg.
Bridger: (in ward room of seaQuest) Put him through.
Krieg: (into PAL) Captain, the Stinger’s gone. I’m looking at evidence suggesting it was dragged from the water and carted off on a truck. Somebody stole the prototype.
(seaQuest DSV – Ward Room)
Edgar Gaye: (on screen) Competition for the UEO contract for a high-speed single seat submersible is secret.
Bridger: I understand that, Mr. Gaye, but we have a situation, our prototype’s been stolen.
Gaye: (on screen) Well, I sympathize, but I can’t violate the secrecy of the competition.
Bridger: Well it’s no secret that Hydrogear’s in it.
Gaye: (on screen) Yes, it is. That Hydrogear let leak their participation doesn’t change the secrecy of the competition.
Bridger: Put me through to Secretary General Noyce.
Gaye: (on screen) He’ll be at the qualifying trials, you can speak to him then.
Bridger: No, no, no, I want to speak to him right now.
Gaye: (on screen) So would twenty-five thousand other people.
Bridger: I said now, Mr. Gaye.
Gaye: (on screen) Are you declaring this alleged theft a military emergency?
Bridger: No.
Gaye: (on screen) Than you can see my problem. I wouldn’t put Hydrogear of any of the other competitors through to him either. Your involvement has been cause for complaints as it is, Captain. This is supposed to be a private sector contract. Any more allowances would be seen as giving you an unfair advantage. (screen goes blank)
Bridger: Bureaucratic weasel. Put up the playback of our test run of the Stinger.
O’Neill: Yes, sir.
Hitchcock: (on tape) One fifteen . . .
Lucas: (on tape) OK, it’s smoothing out. Very cool.
Bridger: (on tape) Slow it down anyway.
Hitchcock: (on tape) One ten, one hundred, ninety-five.
Lucas: (on tape) Ahh!
Bridger: Wait, what’s that, above the Stinger? Play that back, frame by frame.
O’Neill: There was something else down there. We were too busy watching Lucas to notice.
Bridger: What’s the next thing you remember?
Lucas: Laying on the beach. The man triggered my homing device, put a handkerchief on my head, told me he was a dreamer, then he left. Oh, he, uh, grabbed a metal case out of the dinghy.
Bridger: Not a tackle box?
Lucas: No, it was the kind of case you carry electronics in.
Bridger: More like a remote for whatever hit our Stinger. Have you got anything on the competition?
Krieg: The only competitor we can be certain of for the Stinger is Hydrogear Labs, Enzo Dinato’s company.
Enzo Dinato: (on screen) I can’t talk about it other than to say that our prototype will become the standard for the high-speed single seat submersible. And that’s all I have to say.
Bridger: Translation -- buy Hydrogear stock now.
Krieg: Institutional investors have driven Hydrogear stock up thirty percent in the last six months. I can’t get a fix on the other competitors, security’s locked down pretty tight. Lenco was thought to be in it, but then they filed for bankruptcy. Other companies were rumored to be in it early on but then they dropped out because of R and D costs. There is a garage outfit run by a former Hydrogear engineer, Martin Tucker.
Lucas: That’s him, the dreamer.
Krieg: Tucker designed Hydrogear’s most successful products and there was a lot of acrimony when he left. He complained publicly about Dinato’s not sharing credit with him, not to mention the profits.
Bridger: I know Tucker. He’s a maverick, he never shared anything with anyone in his life. I remember when I was designing seaQuest he was about a year ahead of me in research. I asked him some questions about a regenerating hull scheme. You know what he told me, he told me he wasn’t going to do my homework for me.
Lucas: That’s what you said to me when I asked for help with the Stinger.
Bridger: You didn’t ask for help, you asked for UEO money for an idea you and Hitchcock hadn’t even put on paper yet.
Lucas: We put it on paper.
Bridger: Yes, and I got you your money. I always knew Tucker was miserable, but I never thought of him as a thief. I think in order to find our Stinger, we’re going to have to find Mr. Tucker.
(Tucker Technologies - Oxnard, California)
Tom Green: (in a truck outside) Tucker Technologies, there it is.
Tucker: (hears Green enter) Oh . . . (takes bite of hamburger)
Green: I’m here for Hydrogear’s property, Tucker, and that would include you.
Tucker: (spits food onto Green) You caused that boy to crash, didn’t you. You’re a pig.
Green: And you weren’t out there spying on it?
Tucker: That’s exactly what I was doing, but I wasn’t out there to destroy it.
Green: (Load up the vehicle. (Tucker pushes him, grabs bar) No, no, don’t hurt him. Don’t hurt him.
Tucker: Don’t you get it? Dinato is nothing without me, and the UEO will know that as soon as the qualifying trials begin. Now get out of here.
Green: We are not leaving without you and the vehicle, Tucker. It’s in your contract.
Tucker: Oh, and when did you become a lawyer?
Green: Don’t force me to hurt you.
Tucker: You’re not gonna hurt me, Dinato would fire you.
Green: I carry following orders only so far. Now, put down the pry bar.
Tucker: No.
Green: OK, OK. (takes out voltage disk, throws it at Tucker, who collapses)
(seaQuest DSV – Gym)
Ford: (enters) You still here?
Hitchcock: No, it's not me, I'm a figment of your imagination.
Ford: Oh, you're in a good mood.
Hitchcock: You come in here, you ask if I’m still here; it’s obvious - I’m here.
Ford: All right. Take it easy.
Hitchcock: Take it easy. In less than a day and a half I have to produce a minisub for the UEO trials, but I don’t have one. I lost it. Bridger gets me two hundred thousand dollars in R and D money, and I lose the minisub.
Ford: Well, technically Lucas lost it.
Hitchcock: I’m in charge of the project, Jonathan.
Ford: Not according to Lucas.
Hitchcock: Well, Lucas could use a lesson in the hierarchy of project management.
Ford: And a girlfriend.
Hitchcock: Don’t you guys think of anything else?
Ford: Sure, sports. (pauses) Come on, Katie, you can always pay back R and D money.
Hitchcock: No, I make ninety seven hundred dollars a month, I have a condo that I can’t sell in L.A. You pay it back. (throws towel at Ford and leaves room)
Ford: I wonder why I’m single.
(Hydrogear Industries)
Dinato: Martin, are you all right? Mr. Green, this is my partner, I told you to treat him with respect.
Green: He took a pry bar to me.
Dinato: Ah, well then, circumstances extenuate. Aye, Marty? You can leave, close the door. Hell of a design for a seventeen year old kid. Would have given you a run for your money.
Tucker: Five years ago I told you --
Dinato: I’m not interested in five years ago.
Tucker: I am. I told you, I told you this project was the future, but no, no, no, no, you told me, and I quote, “Shut up and get back to work on something that makes me money.” When I refused, you fired me.
Dinato: I fired you, but I still own your ideas. Your minisub was one of them. That, my friend, was in your contract, which I paid off and as a result remains enforced.
Tucker: This is too much concept and not enough consideration. I mean – I could beat this. And now I’m gonna leave and you’re not gonna stop me.
Dinato: But my HS-3 stays here.
Tucker: You’re a common thief.
Dinato: You want to make the qualifying trials, it’s going to be under the Hydrogear banner. Good to see you.
Tucker: I’ll go to the police.
Dinato: No, you won’t. Come on, Tucker, we’re on the same team. That’s why we took your competition out of the race. (leaves)
Tucker: You know, your boss has the visionary abilities of a bat.
Green: And your minisub.
Tucker: Oh, yeah, well, every once in a while God lets the dumb get lucky, they need it. Keeps ‘em in the game, gives guys like me, uh, something to play around with.
Green: You try anything, Mr. Tucker, and you’re gonna get hurt.
Tucker: You learn how to talk tough like that by watching digital comic books?
Green: Uh, I think you should sit down.
Tucker: Oh, no, no thanks, I, I never could sit still. That’s why I made this and you guys didn’t. For you it’s all press releases and cocktail parties, huh? Me, I’m in it for the work.
Green: That’s enough, fellas. I’m not playing with you.
Tucker: Oh, no, but I’m playing with you. You see, it’s called plan ahead; I have and you haven’t. (high pitched noise) You know, it comes in real handy when you’re underwater trying to scare sharks away, but on land, uh, hmpm, raises hell with the dogs. Oh, and by the way, be sure and tell your boss, good to see him, too.
(seaQuest DSV – Ward Room)
Krieg: You’ll have to do better than that, Bickle.
Bickle: (on screen) Look, Krieg, I want a lecture on performance, I’ll ask my wife.
Krieg: How’s her eating disorder?
Bickle: (on screen) Binge, purge, nag, marriage is like trying to paint a self portrait with mittens on. You can do it, but you ain’t gonna like the way you end up lookin’.
Krieg: I remember. Give me the numbers on Tucker’s purchases.
Bickle: (on screen) Well, it’s like told you, the guy’d buy almost anything we put up for auction. I once unloaded two hundred barracuda decoys on him. Said he wanted ‘em to scare the surfers. You know, this guy could spend a little more time in the decompression tank.
Krieg: Maybe you’ll make room for him. Pull the bills of lading.
Bickle: (on screen) Why?
Krieg: ‘Cause they’ll have his address, Bickle.
Bickle: (on screen) Hey, good idea.
Krieg: I’m loaded with ‘em.
Bickle: (on screen) The barracuda decoys went to an industrial park in Oxnard, sixteen nineteen frontage road.
Krieg: Thanks. Kiss the wife for me.
Bickle: (on screen) You wanna thank me, you kiss her.
(Hydrogear Industries)
Dinato: Don’t tell me this, Mr. Green, not now.
Green: Tucker had some kind of alert rigged up. I think I’ve lost hearing in my left ear.
Dinato: You’ve lost more than just a little of your hearing, Mr. Green.
Green: Well, what did you want me to do, shoot him?
Dinato: If necessary, yes.
Green: I’m a production manager, Mr. Dinato, not a killer.
Dinato: You are a guy who didn’t do the job, Mr. Green. Now get out of here.(enters office, dials number on vid-link)
Tom Riley: (on screen) Mr. Dinato, what can I do for you.
Dinato: Are we on a secure channel?
Riley: Of course.
Dinato: I’ve got a problem.
(seaQuest DSV – Bridger’s Room)
Bridger: (knock on door) Come in.
Krieg: (opens door) Captain, I found Tucker.
Bridger: Where?
Krieg: About half an hour from here.
Bridger: Great. Have Crocker send a squad of men over there immediately.
Krieg: Yes, sir.
(Tucker Technologies)
Riley: I’m afraid that’s a waste of time, Mr. Tucker.
Tucker: Now, nothing a man puts together with his own two hands is ever a waste of time. Didn’t your boss tell you that?
Riley: Yeah, well, uh, I’m afraid he forgot to mention that.
Tucker: Heh, heh, of course he did. Well, this is private property, if you don’t leave I’ll have you arrested.
Riley: It’s not going to happen. I’m taking you back to Mr. Dinato.
Crocker: Well, you’ve got that half right, you’re taking us to Mr. Dinato. Now this can go down one of two ways, easy, or hard; doesn’t make much difference to me.
(Hydrogear Industries)
Green: Tucker stuck pretty close to the design he first drew up when he worked for you. You could claim that you paid for them.
Dinato: But we didn’t pay for that one. Cannibalize it for technology, and then be sure no one finds it.
Crocker: (security group enters building, Crocker aims gun at ceiling) Stay where you are! (fires gun at ceiling) Don’t move! (sees Dinato sneaking away) Hold it right there!
(Time Lapse)
Crocker: We found it, sir.
Bridger: (on screen) How’s it look?
Crocker: Well, you know those big ol’ puzzles you used to get at Christmas, had about a thousand pieces that nobody could put together? Pretty much like that, I’m afraid.
Bridger: What about Tucker?
Crocker: Ah, it wasn’t Tucker, Cap, it was Dinato. Tucker’s fine, we’re bringing his minisub back for the trials. Sorry ‘bout the Stinger, sir, I know they worked awful hard on it.
Bridger: Yes, they did.
(seaQuest DSV – Mess)
Lucas: Are you sure you ran the numbers on the stress configurations?
Hitchcock: Are you sure you weren’t pushing the Gazelle past its limits?
Lucas: Yeah, I’m positive. And it’s not a Gazelle.
Hitchcock: Well I’m not calling it a Stinger, that’s sexist.
Lucas: What’s sex gotta do with it.
Hitchcock: Not sex, sexist. A guy name for a guy thing, like chainsaw, screwdriver, boxing--
Lucas: What are you going to call boxing? A multi-handed contact sport?
Hitchcock: I call it stupid.
Lucas: Yeah, well, I’m calling it a Stinger. I call it a Gazelle and I’m gonna get beat up.
Bridger: I think you better call it gone.
Lucas: You haven’t found it?
Bridger: I’m sorry, it’s been destroyed.
Lucas: What are we going to do now?
Bridger: I don’t know, but unless you two are willing to stand up and juggle in front of these people, you better have something to show for the monies invested.
Lucas: But Captain, it wasn’t our fault.
Bridger: Hey, these are adults. The “dog ate my homework” defense doesn’t work here. What was your alternate?
Hitchcock: Sir?
Bridger: You didn’t have one?
Hitchcock: No.
Bridger: Well, I guess we’re gonna have to build another one.
Lucas: In twenty-four hours?
Bridger: Why not? You’ve got the materials, you’ve got the plans, Krieg can get you anything else you need. Or, you can start practicing your juggling.
(seaQuest DSV – Ward Room)
Bickle: (on screen) How come when you get fifty cents you don’t call someone else?
Krieg: I got a thing for men in uniform. I’m gonna need two gallons of fiberglass resin, a pound of titanium rivets, fifty feet of flexible tube, a spool of waterproof wiring, G2 rating --
Bickle: (on screen) What are you guys building?
Krieg: A big fish. Can you do it?
Bickle: (on screen) Of course, but you’re gonna owe me.
Krieg: I’ll turn you on to a great divorce lawyer.
Bickle: (on screen) Some lawyer; you gotta salute your ex-wife.
(seaQuest DSV – Sea Deck – By the moon pool)
Hitchcock: Throttle control?
Lucas: Operational.
Hitchcock: Vertical stabilizer?
Lucas: Uh, we had to wire around that one, we didn’t have an extra gauge.
Hitchcock: What about the horizontals?
Lucas: Same thing. They’re gonna have to work off the water break readout.
Hitchcock: Does the water break work?
Lucas: I hope so.
Bridger: We gonna make it?
Hitchcock: I don’t know.
Lucas: If we’re lucky.
Bridger: You don’t win one of these on luck.
Lucas: I’m starting to figure that out.
Bridger: Anything I can do to help?
Lucas: No thanks, I brought it this far -- I mean we all did, Captain. Why don’t you get some sleep, we can handle it.
Bridger: OK, just thought I’d ask. Good luck.
Lucas: Thanks.
Hitchcock: Thank you.
(Later)
Bridger: (enters) Not bad, kiddo, not bad. (leaves)
Announcer: (in dream) They’re on the starting line and we’re moments from the start of the underwater five hundred. The track is wet and Lucas Wolenczak the young rookie from Buffalo, appears to be the crowd’s favorite. And they’re off, what a start. Wolenczak takes the lead into the first turn . . .
(seaQuest DSV – Bridge)
Ortiz: WSKRS assuming assigned positions, surge and currents minimal, perfect conditions, sir.
Bridger: Thanks. Hey.
Noyce: (entering) Hello, Nathan.
Bridger: Mr. Secretary.
Noyce: Good to see you.
Bridger: How are you?
Noyce: Oh, my appointments secretary, Edgar Gaye.
Bridger: No, not the Mr. Gaye that wouldn’t put me through to you the other day.
Noyce: Really?
Gaye: Well, yes --
Noyce: It’s just a temporary position.
Bridger: I don’t think that’ll happen again.
Noyce: Well, what do you think?
Bridger: Well, they’ve had duplicate components for all the parts but it’s taken them twenty-four hours to put it together.
Noyce: Yeah, is there any danger to Lucas?
Hitchcock: We’ve done round the clock structural tests on every joint and hydraulic system. I hope not.
Noyce: Well, good.
Dr. Westphalen: What “round the clock structural tests”? You’ve only been finished a few minutes.
Krieg: Lucas.
Lucas: (in Stinger) Yeah, yeah what?
Krieg: Nervous?
Lucas: (in Stinger) Not now, I like being in here. I trust this thing.
Krieg: Good to know. Uh, feeding you course telemetry.
Hitchcock: OK, Lucas, game plan.
Lucas: (in Stinger) I say we go for it.
Hitchcock: I say we put on a good show and score points for design.
Lucas: (in Stinger) I wanna win.
Hitchcock: Yeah, well, so do I, but if this thing craps out, we lose.
Lucas: (in Stinger) Than we can call it a Gazelle.
Hitchcock: Just stick to the routine, no improvisation.
Ortiz: All set, sir, WSKRS ready to evaluate data.
O’Neill: Tucker’s on channel eight, Lucas on nine, sir.
Noyce: Now, these are performance trials for UEO’s private sector development of a single seat underwater submersible, minimum top speed, one hundred miles an hour.
Tucker: (in minisub) Hey, are you sure Dinato can’t see me from his jail cell?
Kellog: Compulsory maneuver number one -- single roll and reverse direction loop on a mark.
Ortiz: Three . . . two . . . one . . . mark.
Lucas: (in Stinger) Wow, that guy’s good.
Kellog: Very stable around a tight center of gravity.
Tucker: (in minisub) It’s all yours, son. Good luck.
Kellog: Mr. Wolenczak, are you ready?
Lucas: (in Stinger) Wish me luck, Darwin. I’m gonna need it.
Kellog: Mr. Wolenczak, are you ready?
Lucas: (in Stinger) Ready.
Ortiz: Three . . . two . . . one . . . mark.
Hitchcock: Lucas, how’s it holding up?
Lucas: (in Stinger) It’s, uh, very smooth.
Hitchcock: Just keep the Gazelle in one piece.
Lucas: (in Stinger) It’s a Stinger.
Hitchcock: Yeah.
(Later)
Noyce: Hard to believe he’s a teenager.
Bridger: Try winning an argument with him sometime.
Kellog: All right, gentlemen, that concludes our compulsory trials. One final test, uh, then we take you boats back to the Honolulu lab for schematic appraisal.
Tucker: (in minisub) Hey, son.
Lucas: (in Stinger) Yeah.
Tucker: (in minisub) No matter what happens, you did a hell of a job.
Lucas: (in Stinger) Thank you.
Ortiz: Mr. Tucker, Lucas, I have starting coordinates for you.
Kellog: Ten miles, flat out, as fast as you can go. Any questions?
Tucker: (in minisub) Nope.
Lucas: (in Stinger) Nada.
Ortiz: If you’ll watch the WSKR.
Lucas: (in Stinger) Look for my taillights, pal.
Hitchcock: OK, good job, Lucas, come on.
Crocker: Go, son.
O’Neill: Come on, Lucas, come on.
Ortiz: Two and a half miles gone. What a way to go.
Hitchcock: Talk to me, Lucas.
Lucas: (in Stinger) It’s, uh, hard to steer.
Hitchcock: It’s supposed to be, you’re going one forty. Draft off his wake.
Lucas: (in Stinger) OK.
Hitchcock: OK, you’ve got it, Lucas, come on.
Ortiz: Five miles to go.
Ford: Yes!
O’Neill: Yes!
Crocker: You’ve got him.
Ortiz: Three quarters gone, home stretch.
Lucas: (in Stinger) Commander, I’m losing thrust. (sees Tucker win) Oh, man.
Krieg: Come on, catch up, catch up.
Noyce: Looks like Tucker just got himself a very lucrative UEO contract.
Bridger: (to Hitchcock) It was a hell of a job, Commander.
(Sea Deck)
Dr. Westphalen: You a little glum? Look, you were magnificent today. You should be very proud of yourself.
Lucas: I lost.
Tucker: You think winning is everything?
Lucas: As opposed to what?
Tucker: Doing better next time.
Lucas: Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.
Tucker: Hey, don’t give up, you’ve got a great future.
Lucas: Thanks.
Bridger: Hey, no congratulations, Lucas.
Lucas: Congratulations, Mr. Tucker, you built a great fish.
Tucker: So did you. And check the oil injection valve placement. I’m surprised you didn’t see that with a blindfold on.
Bridger: I did.
Hitchcock: What?
Lucas: If you knew, why didn’t you tell us?
Bridger: Did we discuss the theory?
Lucas: Yes.
Bridger: Did I show you the books and files?
Hitchcock: You let us lose.
Bridger: No, Lucas didn’t read the material and neither did you, Commander. I mean, sometimes we learn a lot more by losing than winning.
Hitchcock: Yeah.
Lucas: You can call it a Gazelle, Commander.