Basket Case
By R. L. Keller
“What are you doing here?”
Cdr. Lee Crane was challenged by Angie Pearce, Admiral Harriman Nelson’s PA, as
he headed for Nelson’s office for the senior staff’s usual Monday morning
strategy session.
Lee merely smiled at the
growl in her voice. “The last I knew I
work here,” he told her affably.
She sent him a glare. “That’s not what I meant and you know it,
Commander. You’re still on medical leave.”
“Not anymore. Doc released me to light duty.”
“Against my better judgment,”
came in Dr. Will Jamison’s familiar grumble as he, too, walked into the open
area in front of Nelson’s office that was Angie’s personal domain. “Couldn’t stand listening to him whine any
longer.” Lee turned to send Seaview’s
CMO a nasty glare but found himself also looking at his boss, as well as Lt.
Cdr. Chip Morton, his XO and best friend.
“Don’t do it, Lee,” Chip
warned him with a broad grin. “You’d
lose anyway.”
“And besides,” Will continued
to Angie, straight-faced, “Mrs. Crane left yesterday. At least if he’s here, someone will be
keeping an eye on him.”
“Harrumph,” Lee did his best
Nelson impersonation, causing everyone else to chuckle.
Lee had been on extremely
restricted duty following injuries suffered during a run-in with
smugglers.* Forbidden to even come on
NIMR grounds he’d stayed at home, allowed to work on a minimum of reports and
paperwork while Seaview sailed without him.
His mother had been drafted to keep an eye on him during the CMO’s
absence, which had led to its own set of interesting circumstances.** Finally on the mend, Lee was anxious to get
back to work.
Lee had no misconceptions
about how the next couple of weeks would go.
He knew that he would try the patience of those closest to him – in
particular his CMO. Jamie would do his
best to slow down his workaholic CO, to allow Lee’s body to continue to heal as
much as possible before Seaview’s next cruise.
Lee had seriously ticked off the doctor following the injuries, and was
doing his best to comply with the restrictions Jamie had imposed. But he knew himself far too well; now that he
was actually back to work he’d do everything he was allowed to do, and as much
more as he could get away with before Nelson, Chip, and Jamie ganged up on him
and tossed his tail back off the grounds.
Today, his first day back, he figured that that would be about noon or
shortly after. And he’d give in – almost
graciously. But starting tomorrow he
would try to push at least an extra hour each day so that by the end of the
week the others would surrender, give up the battle, and leave him alone.
He also knew that at least
this first week he’d be restricted to desk duty, but wasn’t totally bothered by
that. After his years here at NIMR he
was all too familiar with the mounds of paperwork not only his own job
generated, but the little extras that he’d slowly been led into as Admiral
Nelson had him tackling more of the managerial end of things – requesting his input
on staff hirings for the Institute as well as just Seaview herself, keeping
himself familiar with budget requests, department reports, all the little ins
and outs that kept the Institute functional.
It had a decided tendency to fill his ‘In’ basket a good deal faster
than he could dump it in his ‘Out’ one.
But he did, actually, find himself enjoying it. Most of the time, anyway. Occasionally, when there was an overly large
amount of it added to his own load, he had to remind himself that he was giving
the Admiral more time to concentrate on his research projects and military
interfacing. This week it would give Lee
a chance to catch up on everything that had happened while he’d been banned
from the grounds, convalescing.
He still frowned when Chip
clapped a hand on his shoulder and said WAY too jovially, “Not to worry,
Angie. As many refit reports as I dumped
in his office, he won’t be doing anything more strenuous for the next month
than lifting a pen.” That caused more
chuckles for everyone except Lee, and the four men headed into Nelson’s office.
The meeting was fairly
short. Seaview was expected to be in
port for the next two weeks at least.
Most of the crew had been given leave.
Nelson would be working with several department heads on ongoing
projects. Chip had a number of computer
upgrades to install and test this week, and then he was taking off for his
parents’ place outside
Once the meeting broke up
Chip accompanied Lee to his office, chuckling again when Lee let out a groan at
the door. As anticipated, his desk was
piled high with a jumble of file folders and computer printouts. After a quick hand to Lee’s shoulder Chip
headed for his own office. Lee took a
deep breath and waded in – somewhat literally.
He started by stacking
everything on one end of his desk, the overflow ending up on his chair high
enough to almost reach the headrest.
Then he sorted everything into stacks by content: refit status reports,
resumes for potential new staff, departmental updates, requests for NIMR’s
services, as well as a myriad of other odds and ends. He was just getting the final handful into
their proper stacks when there was a rap on his open door and he looked up to
find Chip leaning casually against the doorframe.
“Hallelujah!” The blond sent him a broad grin before
continuing. “My organizational skills
are finally starting to rub off on you.”
Lee sent him the expected
glare. “Did you come by to gloat? This mess is going to take me forever to get
through.”
Chip shook his head. “Came to make sure you eat lunch.”
Lee glanced at the clock and
involuntarily shuddered when he realized that it was already 1230 hours. “Eesh,” he muttered, and Chip’s grin spread.
“I gather you’ve been having
so much fun that you haven’t kept track of time.”
Lee sent him another glare
before it morphed into a look of chagrin.
“Something like that,” he finally admitted.
Chip shook his head, but his
grin stayed. “Well, come along,
junior.” He instantly frowned when Lee
hesitated, giving the mounds a wistful look.
“Don’t even think about it,” Chip growled the warning. Lee sent him a quick through-the-lashes
glance, along with a small grin, and left peacefully. He was pretty sure that this would be the end
of his first day back to work; Chip would find some way to talk him into going
home until tomorrow. But that wouldn’t
be so bad – Lee would scoot back to his office long enough to stuff his
briefcase full of the most pressing reports, and work on them at home.
It didn’t quite go as
planned. When they were done eating,
instead of heading from the cafeteria back upstairs to the offices, Chip herded
Lee toward the side door. Once outside,
Lee found his car, jacket and briefcase on the passenger seat, car keys – which
Lee had left in his jacket packet – laying on the dash. Lee turned an absolutely nasty glare on his
best friend.
Chip turned palms up and
shrugged. “Just following orders,” he
told his ticked-off CO.
Lee was tempted to ask whose
orders, but decided fairly quickly that he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He gave Chip a quick smile and a nod,
admitting defeat. Tomorrow I just have to
get sneakier than they are, he told himself, and grudgingly headed
home. Once there, he changed out of his
uniform and took a leisurely stroll down the beach. He was a little surprised not to find Chip at
his place when he got back – he’d half-expected the blond to show up either
with pizza and a six-pack, or a suggestion of burgers at BZ’s. Instead, Lee fixed a salad, reheated some
chicken his mom had fixed the last night she was there, and ate in the
livingroom watching a baseball game.
He’d never admit it to anyone but himself, but an early bed felt really
great!
He hit his office early the
next morning but was just standing a few steps inside the door, staring at his
desk, when Chip walked in behind him.
“What’s wrong?” the blond asked, a bit of worry creeping into the usually
cheery voice.
“Did you take some of the
folders off my desk yesterday?”
“Moi?” Chip gave Lee a look of total
incredulity. “You know I hate
paperwork. Especially yours.” He grinned.
“Why?”
Lee shrugged. “I could have sworn that the stack of
applicants was higher than that. I had
it sorted by position – there’s the opening in Engineering on Seaview, a lab
position in Biometrics, and a couple in Security. I criss-crossed the folders, and the whole
stack looks a lot shorter this morning that I remember.”
“Losing it, buddy,” Chip
teased him. “Can’t remember diddly from
one day to the next.”
Lee reached out a hand and
gave his friend a quick slap on the shoulder, but they both grinned and
chuckled softly. Chip headed for his own
office for a quick check before heading to Seaview to oversee work on the
boat’s computers, and Lee tackled the seemingly shortened stack of
applications.
It still took him most of the
morning. NIMR was a popular place to
work; they paid well, supplied great benefits, and did their best to maintain a
congenial atmosphere in which to work.
Because of this, there was always an abundance of applicants for the
infrequent staff openings. But they also
required high standards for employment, and there were usually quick ways to
weed out at least half of all applicants simply because there were others more
qualified.
Today, however, each position
had half a dozen equally appealing prospects.
Lee found himself spending extra time with each application, having to
get extremely nitpicky narrowing the choices.
He was just finishing the final list of recommendations for interviews
to the various department heads when Admiral Nelson poked his head in the door.
“In the middle of something?”
he asked once Lee noticed him.
Lee shook his head with a
grin. “In need of a break, actually,” he
admitted. He glanced at his clock as he
reached for his long-empty coffee mug, and shuddered when he realized that it
was just after noon.
Nelson grinned. “Been a bit involved, I take it?”
“Apparently more so than I
realized,” Lee admitted.
“Then its good I stopped by,”
Nelson told him firmly, and Lee sent him a sheepish grin. Nelson’s expression softened. “Come along – we’ll go have lunch at
Visconti’s and you can tell me what’s kept you buried.” Lee gave his desk another glance, but
surrendered peacefully and grabbed his jacket.
The pair had just reached the
bottom of the steps in front of the Admin building when Seaview’s senior
rating, Kowalski, along with one of her younger crewmen, Riley, passed by in a
NIMR jeep. Nelson gave a whistle and
Kowalski braked, looking expectantly at his bosses. “May I inquire as to where you’re headed?”
Nelson asked him genially.
“Into town to pick up some
spare parts, sir,” the rating answered.
“Something I can pick up for you?”
“Actually,” Nelson started,
then stopped and turned to Lee. “Got
your car keys in your pocket?”
“Yes, sir,” Lee said,
starting to frown. Nelson held out a
hand and Lee reluctantly dropped the keys into the palm. Nelson immediately tossed them to Kowalski. “Could you drop Cdr. Crane’s car back at his
place first? We’re headed to lunch, and
that will save him a trip back for it.”
“No problem, sir. Sirs,” he amended, slipped out of the jeep as
Riley took over the driver’s seat, and jogged off to where Lee’s little red
sportscar was parked.
Lee sent his boss an only
slightly muted glare. “I think I smell a
conspiracy,” he muttered.
Nelson’s face split into a
wide grin and he chuckled openly. “A
little one,” he admitted. Lee muttered a
few things too softly for Nelson to hear actual words, causing the Admiral’s
grin to increase. He gave Lee’s shoulder
a little nudge. “Coming?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Not really.”
“Thought so,” Lee continued
to mutter with a frown. But he went
along peacefully. He did enjoy the
relaxed meal with Admiral Nelson, refrained from grumbling when dropped back at
his beach house, and spent the afternoon and evening much as he had the day
before.
Wednesday started with a bit
of gentle harassment from Angie. Lee
sent her a grin as he walked past her area on the way to his office. She grinned back. “It’s nice to see you looking so well-rested,
Commander,” she told him all too innocently.
She snickered at the momentary glare sent her direction, and Lee
continued walking. He knew perfectly
well that, having put up with Nelson all these years, he didn’t stand a chance
against the ultra-competent PA.
Lee realized that he was
going to have to get sneakier than his friends if he was going to put in a full
day’s work. They had proven all too
effective at ousting him by mid-day. To
that end he piled as many of the departmental reports into his briefcase as it
would hold, figuring that he could read those at home, and started in on the mound
of requests for NIMR services. Some were
for projects that would be handled in the various labs, and Lee had little to
do with them. What got passed on to Lee
were those that required Seaview’s use.
He evaluated them for feasibility – did it really require the giant
submarine or could other ocean-going vessels handle it. And if they needed Seaview, what were the
risk factors, if any, and/or extra crew requirements – did they need to carry
more dive specialists than normal, or maybe extra lab technicians. Lee had given the stack a critical glance
when he first walked in the door, but it looked no smaller than he remembered
it being. What he did discover, as he
opened the first one, was a detailed summary of the request – what Lee would
usually do and pass on to Admiral Nelson was already done, merely needing a
quick read to keep him up-to-date.
It was the same with the next
folder. And the next. And all the way to the bottom of the
stack. He was muttering dark threats
against whoever had beat him to his morning’s work when his phone rang, and he
answered it none too pleasantly.
“Bad morning, Skipper?” Will
Jamison asked way too cheerfully for Lee’s foul mood. “Hopefully you’re not doing something not on
your list of approved duties, and that’s causing pain.”
Lee muttered a particularly
nasty retort – thankfully only to himself.
Out loud he was almost under control.
“No, Jamie,” came out with only a mild growl. “Paperwork only. And not even much of that,” he added with a
slightly more noticeable grumble.
“Good,” Will told him firmly. “For once I’d like to see you completely
healed before you once more mangle yourself.”
Lee briefly closed his eyes,
and finally said with half a smile in his voice, “I don’t do it on purpose,
Jamie,”
Will snorted. “If I thought you did I’d send you off to the
Funny Farm so fast you wouldn’t know what hit you.”
It was Lee’s turn to snort,
but it ended in a chuckle. While it was
rarely spoken of out loud, he’d come to enjoy his sparring matches with
Seaview’s CMO. And despite the grumbling,
he had every reason to believe that Jamie did as well. “Fat chance,” he growled, but could be fairly
sure that the doctor still heard the humor in his voice.
He was sure when Will
chuckled. “Don’t suppose I could get you
to wander this direction about 1100 hours, Skipper?”
“Why?” came out with a huff,
and more loudly than Lee had intended.
Will chuckled harder. “You’re not the only one who is expected to
keep detailed reports, Skipper. I have
to account for all the time and resources you cost NIMR, and that means keeping
closer tabs on you than anyone else under my care.”
“All the doctors in the
world, and I get stuck with a smart-aleck.”
But both men once more chuckled, and Lee promised he’d come over.
Lee was pretty sure that,
what with the previous days’ happenings, Jamie would find a way to kick him off
NIMR grounds for the rest of the day.
But at least today he was prepared.
He took the precaution of putting his loaded briefcase in his car before
walking over to
He had a feeling that,
despite the frown, Jamie still read some of the sparkle in Lee’s eyes when Lee
semi-stomped into the CMO’s office. “So,
if it wasn’t pain, what did have you grumbling this morning?” Will asked
amiably. “Besides me,” he added with a
grin.
Lee squashed the one that
instantly threatened to replace the frown on his own face out of sheer
habit. “Having most of the reports I’d
planned to work on this morning already finished.” He pointed a glare at Will. “You have anything to do with that, by any
chance?”
“And what reports would that
be?” When Lee explained, Will sent the
younger man his own glare. “And how,
pray tell, would I know anything about any of that?”
Lee was forced to shrug,
along with a bit of a sheepish grin. “It
was just a thought.”
“Well, think again,” Will
told him firmly. “Come along to the exam
room.” Lee went back to frowning –
mostly because he knew that it was expected.
But he went along peacefully.
The frown quickly became all
too real. The doctor seemed intent on
not only checking the original injuries that had led to Lee’s latest
recuperation period, but also doing a complete physical. Lee’s increasingly frustrated mutterings went
totally ignored. He rarely had any
effect sidetracking Jamie unless circumstances warranted the doctor stepping
back and letting Lee deal with whatever crisis was happening. It didn’t keep him from trying, however.
Lee very carefully
buried a grin when, finally finished, Will reminded Lee that he was still on
limited duty and ordered him home for the rest of the day. It wouldn’t have taken much for the supremely
competent doctor to catch the fact that Lee, who was anticipating all the work
waiting for him in his briefcase, didn’t put up the usual arguments. He finally let the grin out as he exited
NIMR’s gate. He made a quick grocery
stop, fixed a light lunch, and then settled into his favorite chair in the
livingroom, his briefcase on the small table at his elbow.
It was a good thing that he
was alone. With a few notable
exceptions, NIMR’s entire complement of employees would have been shocked at
the string of epithets Lee let loose when he discovered that all of the reports
had been read, evaluated, and a summary sheet attached to the top sheet of
each. Within an hour Lee was totally
caught up. And was immediately bored out
of his skull! He seriously considered
returning to NIMR and checking in with Chip, working aboard Seaview, but
quickly dismissed that idea. Even if
Jamie hadn’t ordered the gate guards to refuse him entrance once he’d left for
the day, Chip would no doubt throw him out anyway. After muttering a few more words he figured
most of his crew didn’t know that he knew he went for a long, decompressing
walk on the beach.
Apparently he didn’t
dissipate as much of the previous day’s frustrations as he thought he had. Admiral Nelson was just getting out of his
car when Lee drove in the next morning, and waited for Lee to join him for the
walk up the steps into the Admin building.
But the smile on his face died as Lee walked up to him. “What’s wrong, Lee?” he asked, worry evident in
the carefully asked question.
Lee grimaced but was unable
to hold it, and sent his boss a small smile.
“Don’t suppose you had anything to do with all of the departmental
reports I stuffed in my briefcase to work on at home yesterday afternoon already
being digested and summarized?”
Nelson’s grin came back
twofold. “Not guilty,” he told Lee. “Although, can’t say I’m displeased that your
flaunting of orders to rest got outmaneuvered.”
“I would only have been
sitting and reading,” Lee muttered, albeit softly in deference to the Admiral’s
authority.
“Harrumph,” Nelson did his
own bit of muttering, before the grin once more took over. “Come along.
I need coffee, and it sounds like you do as well.” Lee nodded his agreement, and the two spent
half an hour discussing odds and ends in Nelson’s office before the Admiral had
to leave for meetings with a couple of Department heads. Lee headed for his office and the final mound
of folders. He’d left it until last,
knowing that it would take him the longest since it was filled with all the
little intangibles that got tossed his direction – Fit-reps to read, approve,
and sign off on; leave requests to be worked into Seaview’s schedule; the next
several cruises to refine orders and staffing for, and pass on to Chip any
extra supply requirements he thought that they might need. While Seaview’s XO usually had that well in
hand, he appreciated Lee double-checking him.
Major grounds or building maintenance requests were kept separate from
Departmental reports and had to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Lee understood why Admiral Nelson wanted Lee
to be at least familiar with all of NIMR’s workings, and appreciated the fact
that Nelson valued and trusted his input.
But Lee still felt a bit overwhelmed at times.
Today turned out to not be
one of them. Once again, every folder he
opened had been previously summarized, and recommendations made. By barely 1000 hours he had all but a couple
tossed into his ‘Out’ basket, and had decided to risk all-out warfare with
Jamie by spending the rest of the day puttering aboard Seaview, when Angie
tapped on his open door frame. Lee sent
her a glare. “I’ll just bet you had
something to do with all of these reports being done,” he challenged her. “It would be just up your alley – you know as
much about running NIMR, if not more, than I do.”
Admiral Nelson’s PA sent the
glare right back. “And when would I have
time to do any of your work, Commander?” she growled. “Trying to keep up with the Admiral is a
full-time job, and then some.”
Lee’s frown morphed into a
sheepish grin and he sent her a nod. “I
know, Angie,” he apologized. “Just
frustrated that everything I planned to work on this week is all pretty much
done.”
“Well, when you identify the
culprit send him my way – I could use the help.
In the meantime,” her voice softened and she set several folders in
front of him, “here’s some requests for Seaview that came in today’s mail. You can concentrate on them for the next
couple hours until you leave for the day.”
Lee pointed an eyebrow at
her. “And who said I was only working
half a day?” he half growled. Whatever
she was going to say was interrupted by his phone ringing. Never taking his eyes off Angie, he reached
for it and said firmly, “Crane.”
“Ouch. Bad timing?” came over the receiver, in a
voice Lee instantly recognized as belonging to his lady friend from Portland,
Oregon, Becca Radiwan.
Both Lee’s expression and
voice instantly softened. “Just spent
the last few days having all my plans screwed up,” he admitted. Angie sent him a grin and beat a hasty
retreat, partially closing Lee’s door behind her. Lee momentarily wondered why, but was
distracted as Becca continued.
“Ah, sounds like me,” she
said with an almost purr in her voice.
“I was all set to attend a four-day seminar in
Lee chuckled. He was often amazed at how things just
happened to happen around him. All his
life. Not long before his grandfather
had passed away he and his mom got new neighbors, an older couple that filled a
major hole in his life. The fact that he
grew up close to the
“I think I might just know a
frustrated sailor in need of some distraction,” Lee answered, the chuckle
evident in his voice. Becca returned
it. “When do you get in?”
“Six-ish this evening. Humm, that’s 1800 hours to you if I remember
correctly.” She added the flight number.
“Meet you at LAX,” Lee
answered, and the two rang off. He
glanced at the folders Angie had just left on his desk, called Security to let
them know that he was going to be out of town until Monday morning, left a note
for Chip, and told Angie that he was leaving.
He frowned at her “Hallelujah,” sent her a glare when she merely
chuckled, and headed home to pack.
Admiral Nelson watched out
his office windows as Lee started down the front steps to the Admin
building. With him were Chip, Will, and
Angie.
The first to speak was
Chip. “I can’t believe we got away with
it.” His voice was filled with
amazement. “I don’t know how I kept a
straight face when he accused me of having trimmed down the list of
applications.”
Will sent him a glare. “And if anyone ever suggests that I do that
again, there will be major repercussions come next physical time.”
Nelson sent his CMO a
grin. “But you did a great job,” he told
the ticked off doctor.
Will’s frown softened. “Actually, it wasn’t too hard. Because most of the applicants were well
trained, I could weed out any that had iffy health issues – smokers
particularly.” He sent a pointed glare
at Nelson, who ignored it as usual.
“I had the same problem when
he asked me if I’d had anything to do with the Departmental updates.” He turned to Angie. “You did a terrific job with those, by the
way.”
“While my work sat,” she told
him with a grumble. “But all in all, it
was worth it.” The others nodded.
“But please don’t ask me to
do anything like those extra reports again, sir,” Chip pleaded to Nelson. “If Lee had asked me point blank, I don’t
think I could have lied convincingly.”
Nelson nodded. “I know exactly what you mean, Chip. We’re lucky that he chose to question each of
us on what we didn’t do, and not what we did.” The others nodded agreement.
“So, sir, he’ll be gone until
Sunday evening?”
“More likely Monday morning.”
“He’ll be a lot closer to
recovered by then,” Will said to no one in particular. “I might even let him go back to full time
duty.”
“You’d better, Doc,” Chip
told him with feeling. “I don’t think we
could pull this off again – at least not any time soon.”
Again there were heartfelt
nods of agreement, and a few shudders.
Chip turned to Nelson. “May I
ask, sir, how you got Dr. Radiwan suckered into the conspiracy? Ah…” he realized too late how that had
sounded and didn’t continue.
Nelson sent him a fond
grin. “Let’s just say that she seems to
have a soft spot for a certain dark-haired Commander.”
“Hurrah to that, sir. We gotta get him to keep this one. Even if it is only limited to the occasional
few days at a time.” There were more
nods of agreement, and Chip’s wasn’t the only smile that was a bit more on the
smirk side.
“Just so long as we don’t get
caught,” Will added quietly, and they all watched as Lee’s car headed out the
gate.
* see “Dragon of the Sea”
** see “Out of the Action” by