Chapter 2: The Night Beneath the South China Sea
Chapter 2: The Night Beneath the South China Sea
The ballroom lights dimmed.
A large screen descended behind the stage.
Military footage appeared.
A destroyer burned against the dark ocean.
Smoke.
Flames.
Alarms screaming.
The date appeared.
Three Years Earlier.
A missile strike had ruptured the engineering compartment.
Twenty-one sailors became trapped behind a collapsing steel bulkhead.
The hydraulic controls had failed.
Someone had to hold the emergency door open manually.
That someone was Celeste.
For nearly four minutes...
She braced herself against burning steel while temperatures climbed high enough to melt protective equipment.
Every sailor escaped.
She was the last person pulled from the compartment.
Her uniform had fused to her skin.
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Doctors later said another thirty seconds would have killed her.
Not one sailor had died.
