“They’re welcome to anything around,” Bud responded, “as long as it isn’t us.”
Tom took the opportunity to check their posi—
THE SINGING MERMAN 33
tion on his automatic navigator, which had been miniaturized around an advanced nuclear gyroscope. Then the hydronauts switched on their ion-drive jets and resumed their across-the-ocean swim.
Some time later the young inventor glanced at his luminous watch dial.
“What say we start our sleeping routine now, Bud?” he queried over his sonarphone. “The more rest we get, the better we’ll endure our days under water.”
“Okay with me,” Bud replied. “Who’ll stand the first trick?”
“You can log the first sack time. I’m probably a bit too keyed up to drop off just yet.”
The boys hooked themselves together with their nylon towline. Then Tom maneuvered himself into a lead position while Bud relaxed comfortably and closed his eyes.
“Boy, it’s like sleeping in a cradle,” the copilot murmured. “I feel light as a feather.”
Presently came the sound of Bud crooning himself to sleep with an original tune. Tom chuckled as the refrain filtered through his earphones: “Oh, rock me to sleep With a song of the deep, The Lullaby oj Fishland!”
The planned routine was two hours’ sleep for one hydronaut, followed by an hour with both awake; then two hours’ sleep for his partner and another hour of companionship. Thus, each would
34 AQUATOMIC TRACKER
enjoy eight hours of rest out of every twenty-four, with no undue strain on either boy’s powers of alertness.
By the time Tom woke up Bud, the water had darkened to a somber gray-green. And an hour later, when the young inventor took his own rest period, almost all traces of light had vanished.
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