Reborn Action Star: Starting in Hollywood

Chapter 614 Living Conditions on the Big Black Fish

While they were talking, Lieutenant Colonel Louis had already brought Lin Yuan and others to the Virginia.

Following the racks on the side of the submarine, they climbed to the entrance to the hull above the submarine.

To get down from the entrance hatch, you need to climb a ladder at a vertical 90-degree angle.

Looking at this cramped environment, Lin Yuan couldn't help but think of the Kalonos Cave again.

He turned his head to look at Meng Tao beside him and found that he also had a strange expression on his face, and it seemed that he was also remembering that unpleasant experience.

"Come on, I'll take you inside for a tour." Lieutenant Colonel Louis took the lead and climbed in from the ladder.

Lin Yuan and others followed closely and entered the Virginia.

As soon as he entered the submarine, Lin Yuan's first feeling was that it was a bit stuffy, but the passage was not as narrow as he had imagined.

In his impression, in many places inside the submarine, one even had to walk sideways and keep lowering his head to avoid bumping into various metal pipes standing across the passages.

But the Virginia is relatively spacious. The wide passages can support two people moving side by side, and in the narrow passages, they can pass each other easily by just turning sideways.

Although there are some places where Lin Yuan needs to walk with his head down, this is not a problem for the Virginia. After all, submarine soldiers generally do not recruit tall people.

Lin Yuan's height of 1 meters is indeed not a consideration for submarine design.

It is not surprising that the air is a bit stuffy. The submarine is now docked on the shore, the air circulation system is not turned on, and there is no ventilation inside the submarine. This is completely normal.

Depp, who was following behind Lin Yuan, saw the environment inside the Virginia and his face was full of surprise.

He has seen many pictures of the harsh environment inside submarines these days and has already prepared himself for the worst.

But when the environment of the Virginia appeared before him, it was like a step from hell to heaven.

As expected of today's most advanced attack nuclear submarine, the environment was far beyond Depp's imagination.

"Mr. Lin Yuan, I will take you out to sea tomorrow to experience it. Today I will simply let you learn three things: eating, sleeping, and going to the toilet." Louis said.

Hearing the captain's words, Lin Yuan smiled and said, "We feel like children. When we get on a submarine, we can only learn the simplest things in life."

"Hahaha, it's not that exaggerated. It's not to the extent that we have to learn all over again. The conditions are much better now, and basically not much different from on land." Lieutenant Colonel Louis said with a smile.

The group continued forward and came to an arched doorway. Commander Louis pointed to the small compartment behind the door and said, "This is the submarine sailor's lounge."

Lin Yuan and others immediately looked inside, among whom Depp was the most active, and he instantly stuck his head out.

Living conditions have always been everyone's biggest concern, after all, there are too many worrying horror stories.

And when the Virginia's sailors' lounge really appeared in front of everyone, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

When Lin Yuan saw the sailors' lounge, his first impression was that it looked very much like a sleeper car on a train.

The beds in a small compartment are divided into two parts, left and right.

Unlike the upper, middle and lower bunks in ordinary submarines, the Virginia only has upper and lower bunks, with only four bunks in one compartment. This is obviously much more spacious and the comfort is greatly improved.

What is even more surprising is that there are dark blue curtains next to the beds, which can be pulled up when resting to ensure personal privacy.

Having such conditions on a submarine is definitely five-star.

Lin Yuan silently calculated in his heart:

These conditions are already very good. This time, only he, director Cohen, Depp and Meng Tao boarded the submarine to participate in the filming. The other crew members were on the surface ship to cooperate with the filming.

The four people who entered the submarine for underwater operations just happened to occupy a sailors' lounge, so it didn't seem so unbearable to think about it.

"Mr. Lin Yuan, the conditions are still a bit difficult, and we have to inconvenience the crew members." Lieutenant Colonel Louis said.

"No, this is already very good. If we still complain here, we are too pampered." Lin Yuan replied with a smile.

"Thank you all for your hard work. Mr. Lin Yuan, please come with me and I will show you your lounge." Lieutenant Colonel Louis continued.

"I don't live here?" Lin Yuan asked curiously.

"Well, you live in the front. It's not far from me."

Lieutenant Colonel Louis took Lin Yuan and walked forward more than ten meters to the door of a separate small private room.

Opening the door, it is a small room of only about 6 square meters:

There is a bed in the middle, with small storage cabinets hanging on the walls on both sides, and even a small table.

If this independent small room were placed on the ground, it would be no different from the pigeon cage rooms in Hong Kong Island.

But in a submarine, this kind of private room is absolutely luxurious beyond imagination.

Lin Yuan saw a standing photo of Lieutenant Colonel Louis on the table and immediately guessed the purpose of this room.

"Mr. Louis, is this your captain's lounge?" Lin Yuan said.

Space in a submarine is extremely valuable, and it is easy to imagine that apart from the captain, no one else can have such an exclusive private room.

"Well, the conditions are still a little poor. Please bear with it during the filming." Lieutenant Colonel Louis said.

Lin Yuan shook his head: "Thank you for your kindness, but I can't accept it."

"What? Why can't you accept it?" Lieutenant Colonel Louis asked anxiously.

"When we were filming, Mr. Cohen, the producer and director, was the boss. Even though I was the boss, I couldn't be superior to the director. The director lived in the sailors' room, so it wouldn't be appropriate for me to live in a private room.

"Besides, this is your captain's treatment. It's unacceptable for a guest like me to occupy your room." Lin Yuan said firmly.

Seeing that Lieutenant Colonel Louis was still trying to persuade him, Lin Yuan stopped him and said, "Don't persuade me anymore. Let's go look somewhere else."

Since Lin Yuan was so determined, Lieutenant Colonel Louis had no choice but to say nothing more.

He could see that Lin Yuan was not being polite, but really insisted on doing so. He had originally worried that a super-rich man like Lin Yuan would have very demanding requirements for living conditions, but now it seemed that was not the case at all.

This makes the perfect image of Lin Yuan in the movie and his real self increasingly overlap in the eyes of Lieutenant Colonel Louis.

There was a bit more respect in Lieutenant Colonel Louis's eyes when he looked at Lin Yuan.

"Then let's go see where to eat." Lieutenant Colonel Louis continued to lead the way and take everyone on a tour.

The restaurant is about 30 square meters in size. There is a stainless steel food cabinet in the middle, with fixed dining tables and chairs surrounding it. It can support up to 30 people dining at a time.

There are 133 officers and soldiers on the Virginia, which means that not everyone can come to the dining room to eat together, and they have to take turns in batches.

Lin Yuan turned his head and saw a large warning sign on the wall of the restaurant:

Please finish your meal within 5 minutes and don’t let your companions wait for you with empty stomachs!

5 minutes is really a bit short.

But as far as Lin Yuan knows, the 5-minute eating limit for submarine soldiers seems to be a common practice among submarine soldiers around the world.

On the one hand, the restaurant inside the submarine is narrow and people have to queue up to eat, so it is impossible to eat slowly.

On the other hand, the submarine needs to concentrate when operating underwater, as there are a large number of instruments, equipment and valves inside the cabin that need to be kept an eye on.

This has led to strict restrictions on meal times.

Seeing Lin Yuan staring at the slogan on the wall, Lieutenant Colonel Louis smiled and said, "This is our requirement. You are guests and can eat slowly. There is no need to be so anxious."

It was special care again. Although it was Lieutenant Colonel Louis's good intention, Lin Yuan felt that it was not good.

After all, they are here to film a movie. If they want to capture the difficulty of underwater sailing, they can't be leisurely and ask for special treatment for everything, otherwise they will completely lose that nervous feeling.

Apparently, the others thought the same thing. Director Cohen spoke up, "Captain Louis, don't treat us like guests, and don't give us special treatment. Aside from operating the submarine, we can't help. Otherwise, we'll just do what others do."

Hearing Director Cohen's words, Lieutenant Colonel Louis turned his head and looked at Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan smiled and said, "During filming, the director is my leader. I have to listen to whatever he says."

Director Cohen: “…”

Why didn't you say this when you were doing all kinds of intense and dangerous action scenes?

Lin Yuan patted Lieutenant Colonel Louis on the shoulder and said, "We have also finished touring the restaurant. We have memorized the 5-minute dining rule and we also know that we should sort and pack the food leftovers after the meal.

Now let's go to the bathroom. There are a lot of urban legends about using the bathroom in a submarine."

These words immediately made Lieutenant Colonel Louis laugh.

He covered his forehead helplessly and said, "You've also heard the story about a pile of shit that sank a submarine?"

Before Lin Yuan could answer, Meng Tao and Depp beside him nodded vigorously at the same time.

I have to say, going to the toilet in a submarine is really a technical job.

Under normal circumstances, when humans use the toilet on a vehicle, their excrement is discharged directly.

For example, in the early green-skinned trains, the toilet hole had a direct connection to the railway tracks below, so you could just poop out comfortably and drop it directly onto the tracks.

Even early airplanes didn't have poop bins to collect excrement.

But submarines obviously cannot do this, because when submarines sail underwater, it is normal for them to be under water pressure of dozens of atmospheres.

If you dare to connect the toilet directly to the outside, seawater will rush in in minutes and sink the submarine directly.

Therefore, when the submarine's underwater toilet is in use, the soldiers first discharge the excrement into a collector, then pressurize the collector until the water pressure is greater than the water pressure outside the boat, and then spray the excrement out. This is a real jet fighter, the kind that sprays many meters.

It sounds like the problem has been solved, but this equipment is quite troublesome to use.

The first step is to open the valve that connects the toilet to the collector so that it can be used. The second step is to flush the excrement into the collector after use.

The third step is to close the valve between the toilet and the collector.

The fourth step is to pressurize the collector, and the pressure must be selected to be appropriate based on the diving depth.

According to the principle of increasing the pressure by 10 atmosphere for every 1 meters of descent, when sailing 240 meters underwater, the pressure needs to be increased to more than 24 atmospheres to ensure success.

The fifth step is to open the valves on the collector and outside the boat to spray out the excrement.

The sixth step is to close the connecting valve between the pumping machine and the outside of the boat after use.

This tedious process is daunting at first glance, and there is no room for error.

If something goes wrong... the consequences will be disastrous.

There have been painful lessons in history.

In 1944, a captain of a German U-boat found a toilet after defecating and asked him to help him with the follow-up matters.

It’s not that the captain is too delicate. He needs someone to help him flush the toilet every time he goes to the toilet.

This is because the submarine defecation system at that time was more complicated than it is now, so it always made mistakes.

Therefore, a special position of "poop flusher" had to be set up on the submarine, whose job was to help officers and soldiers who went to the toilet and deal with the aftermath.

After the captain of the U-boat left, the owner pressed the wrong button for some reason due to shaking hands.

The terrible consequences immediately occurred. Under the huge pressure, the sea water rushed into the submarine in an instant.

Along with the sea water, there is also a large amount of indescribable excrement!
To make matters worse, there were submarine batteries underneath the toilet.

The influx of sewage soaked the batteries and caused leakage, producing large amounts of toxic chlorine gas.

Because the interior of the submarine is a closed space, the only way is to find a way to escape.

The captain of the U-boat immediately announced an emergency ascent, and in order to ascend faster, he had to reduce his weight.

Then they blew up the ballast water tank and randomly fired all the dozen or so torpedoes they were carrying.

Finally, the submarine surfaced in a panic, but the location where it surfaced was in the enemy's intensive surveillance area.

It was immediately discovered by a British reconnaissance plane, which eventually led to the sinking of the submarine and the capture of dozens of officers and soldiers.

This is the famous story of a pile of shit that sank a submarine.

Regarding this somewhat legendary story, Commander Lewis said helplessly: "Going to the toilet is not so scary now. At least on the Virginia, you don't have to worry about such a thing happening."

After saying that, Lieutenant Colonel Louis took them to the toilet.

There were four toilets on the Virginia. When Commander Louis opened one of them, he saw a toilet stuck in the cramped room, with various "passing" pipes all around the top.

It is obviously very uncomfortable to be in such a toilet.

This was the first time Lin Yuan saw such an uncomfortable design after entering the Virginia.

The narrow space is already uncomfortable, and the curved pipes everywhere make it even more depressing.

This is a common practice on submarines in various countries, that is, toilets are generally placed in the "waste" areas where the pipes are most densely packed.

On the one hand, space in a submarine is extremely valuable, and every inch of space must be fully utilized.

On the other hand, there are only a limited number of toilets on the submarine, so if you feel uncomfortable you will go to the toilet faster to avoid waiting in long lines.

Lieutenant Colonel Louis pointed to the control panel next to the toilet and said, "Now, everything is an intelligent, integrated operating system. All you need to do is confirm the valve is in the initial position, and you can complete the process with one click. It doesn't require the same six or seven steps as before, with no mistakes required."

"Will there be a problem if the valve is not in the initial gear?" Depp immediately raised his hand and asked.

Lieutenant Colonel Louis smiled and said, "There will be reminders. Mistakes will not be taken. You don't have to worry about getting sprayed all over."

His words finally put everyone at ease.

After Lieutenant Colonel Louis's introduction, Lin Yuan and his party found that the basic living facilities on the Virginia were indeed convenient.

Whether it is eating, sleeping or going to the toilet, there is nothing that is unbearable.

If that were the case, the filming process might be a little depressing due to staying underwater for a long time without seeing the sun, but there wouldn't be too many inconveniences in other aspects.

"Thank you Mr. Louis for your introduction. We are very satisfied with the conditions on the boat," said Lin Yuan.

"I'm glad you like the Virginia." Lieutenant Commander Louis was obviously quite proud.

"We are going out to sea tomorrow. Is there anything else we need to pay attention to?" Lin Yuan asked again.

"Nothing, just don't go into the weapons bay casually." Lieutenant Colonel Louis added, "It's not because of any confidentiality requirements, but the temperature there is only -25 degrees Celsius. If you're really curious and want to go in, remember to ask me for a cotton jacket."

After hearing what Lieutenant Colonel Louis said, everyone suddenly understood.

The weapons bay of the Virginia mainly stores three types of weapons: torpedoes, cruise missiles and anti-ship missiles. In order to ensure safety, the temperature will be lowered.

It's like this in a submarine. Some places are as hot as the Sahara Desert at noon, while some places are as cold as Antarctica.

After a brief tour inside the Virginia, Lin Yuan followed Lieutenant Commander Louis and climbed out of the submarine.

Lin Yuan looked back at the "Big Black Fish" in front of him. Tomorrow he would be entering it with his luggage, and for the next short period of time, he would have to stay with it day and night.

According to the plan, he will first take the Virginia to the Kitsap Naval Base in Washington State.

This part of the journey is mainly to initially adapt to underwater life in a submarine.

Next, he will undergo some necessary training, such as the most important training of launching from a torpedo tube.

These two items will take about 5 to 7 days.

Next, the formal shooting phase will begin.

At this time, Lieutenant Colonel Louis will drive the Virginia and take Lin Yuan to find the strategic black fish and complete the filming mission in the designated sea area.

As for where the Ohio-class Blackfish is now, Lin Yuan doesn’t know.

After all, the location of strategic nuclear submarines is absolutely confidential, and it is impossible to let Lin Yuan know in advance. He can only have temporary access to it before filming.

Once the filming is over, they will leave immediately and return to their hidden state.

After leaving the Virginia, Lin Yuan looked at the sky and said to Lieutenant Colonel Lewis, "I'd like to invite all the officers and soldiers of the Virginia to dinner tonight."

"How can this be appropriate? You are a guest, and we should treat you to a meal." Lieutenant Colonel Louis said in surprise.

"Just because I'm a guest and have caused trouble to your host, I should treat you to a meal. Don't refuse. My assistant has already booked a hotel. Let's notify everyone to set off now." Lin Yuan said.

GAKKI-chan and Charlize had not entered the interior of the Virginia just now.

Because they did not have any scenes in the submarine scene in the movie, they naturally did not need to adapt to underwater life in a submarine. Instead, at Lin Yuan's request, they went to the nearest St. Antis Hotel early and booked dinner for nearly 200 people.

There were 133 officers and soldiers on the Virginia, and with the crew members involved in the filming of this scene, the total number easily reached 200.

After receiving Lin Yuan's invitation, Lieutenant Colonel Louis happily said to his adjutant, "Go gather those young men. Mr. Lin Yuan is treating us tonight! I just wonder how many of them are already eager to head to the red-light district."

Just when Lin Yuan and Lieutenant Colonel Louis entered the submarine for a tour, the officers and soldiers outside the submarine received an order to disperse.

Originally, Lieutenant Colonel Louis thought that at most he would have dinner with Lin Yuan in the evening, and those officers and soldiers who had just completed their mission and returned to the port would set off again tomorrow, and they must have a lot of things they wanted to do.

Therefore, Lieutenant Colonel Louis only left a few officers and soldiers on duty, and the others were free to move around.

Is it still too late to get it back now?
"Don't worry, even if they are in the middle of sprinting on the girl now, they will rush back immediately after hearing the news that their idol is treating them. I guarantee that no one will be left behind." The adjutant smiled and turned to leave.

After hearing the adjutant's confident speech, Lieutenant Colonel Louis also felt that it should not be difficult to gather everyone again. After all, Lin Yuan was everyone's idol.

When can't a sleeping girl sleep?

However, the opportunity to get close to your idol and attend a dinner together may only come once in a lifetime.

"Let's go, we'll go to the hotel now." This time it was Lin Yuan who led the way, taking Lieutenant Colonel Louis and others to the hotel.

……

……

The St. Antis Hotel is located southwest of the Norfolk Naval Base, less than 10 kilometers away.

Lin Yuan and his group quickly arrived at this magnificent five-star hotel.

GAKKI-chan and Charlize, who had been waiting here for a long time, brought everyone to the banquet hall.

The crew members have arrived, and the officers and soldiers of the Virginia have also arrived at the hotel one after another.

After a while, everyone arrived and sat in their assigned seats. Everything seemed in order.

The food had not yet been served. Lieutenant Colonel Louis walked to Lin Yuan's side and whispered:
"Mr. Lin Yuan, every officer and soldier on the Virginia here is your fan. Please say a few words to everyone."

Lin Yuan did not refuse. He took the microphone from GAKKI-chan and walked to the center of the banquet hall.

There was no podium above the ground, but Lin Yuan just stood there with the microphone, and the scene immediately became quiet.

"Hello everyone, I'm Lin Yuan."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was warm applause and cheers from the audience.

(End of this chapter)