The men nodded, and looked at each other. "And what kind of external manipulators are there?" the bearded man said.
"That's depth dependent," Damon said. "At lesser depths"
"Let's say at two thousand feet. What external manipulators are there?"
"You want to collect samples at two thousand feet?"
"Actually, we're placing monitoring devices on the bottom."
"I see. Like radio devices? Sending data to the surface?"
"Something like that."
"How large are these devices?"
The bearded man held his hands two feet apart. "About so big."
"And they weigh what?"
"Oh, I don't know exactly. Maybe two hundred pounds."
Damon concealed his surprise. Usually petroleum geologists knew precisely what they were going to place. Exact dimensions, exact weight, exact specific gravity, all that. This guy was vague. But perhaps Damon was just being paranoid. He continued. "And these sensors are for geological work?"
"Ultimately. First we need information on ocean currents, flow rates, bottom temperatures. That kind of thing."
Damon thought: For what? Why did they need to know about currents? Of course, they might be sinking a tower, but nobody would do that in two thousand feet of water.
What were these guys intending to do?
"Well," he said, "if you want to place external devices, you have to secure them to the exterior of the hull prior to the dive. There are lateral shelves on each side" he pointed to the model "for that purpose. Once you're at depth, you have a choice of two remote arms to place the devices. How many devices are you talking about?"