“Skipper?” It took a second for the voice in his ear to register. “Skipper.” A little more insistently this time, and Lee finally acknowledged it.
“Yes, Kowalski?”
“Where
are you? I can’t see you.”
Lee
finally looked around and chuckled to himself.
He’d been concentrating so hard on the samples he was collecting,
he’d apparently wandered off from his diving partner. And how many times have you fussed at the
Admiral for doing the exact same thing?
“Skipper?”
“Sorry,
Ski,” Lee answered, a bit chagrined. “I
must be on the West side of this little kelp bed from you.”
“Okay,
Sir. Just turned around and you’d
disappeared.”
“Sorry,”
Lee mumbled again. “Be right back.”
Seaview
was in the cool waters off
But
as Lee turned and started to head back a feeling of unease hit him and he paused, looking around. The hair on the back of his neck bristled –
not an easy task inside a wet suit – and Lee suddenly got the feeling that he
was being watched. Seaview’s
instrumentation hadn’t registered any other boats in the area prior to the
divers going out and, try as he might, he couldn’t see
anything or anyone. But the feeling
persisted. Getting
paranoid, Crane. He
tried to shake off the feeling but just couldn’t make himself move from that
spot, continuing to glance around him nervously. “What was that?”
He
didn’t realize he’d spoken out loud until Ski’s voice once again sounded in his
ear. “What was what, Skipper? Everything okay?”
Lee
shook his head. What’s going on? “Nothing, Ski. Thought I saw something.” He looked around again nervously, but tried
to keep the unease he was feeling out of his voice. “On my way back.”
But
he still couldn’t make himself move from that spot. His attention kept being drawn back toward a
section of sea grass. Unable to see
anything but natural vegetation, he still couldn’t shake the feeling of being
watched. He swam slowly toward the
patch, growing between two sections of the kelp bed, Kowalski again
forgotten. He thought that he could just
make out two very small eyes looking back at him through the leafy grasses, but
he wasn’t sure. In fact, suddenly he
wasn’t sure of anything. He shook his head
and cleared his mask but that didn’t seem to help. Small eyes continued to watch sorrowfully but
Lee couldn’t make out what – if anything – they were attached to. All he could see around the eyes was
vegetation. Shaking his head again, and
belatedly realizing that he was in trouble, he was about to call out to Ski for
help when a shove in the back was immediately followed by a severe pain in the
back of his right thigh. Immobilized by
the pain and the fuzziness, he didn’t even realize the instinctive grab he made
for a handful of kelp.
* *
* *
“Skipper?” Kowalski called again when Lee failed to appear from around the edge
of the small kelp bed they were taking samples from. “Skipper!”
“Lee,”
another voice joined the conversation.
Nelson had been monitoring dive communications from the Radio
Shack. He knew Chip was listening in as
well from the chart table. As nothing
but silence greeted Nelson’s call, Chip joined him next to the main radio. “Lee?” Nelson said into the radio a good deal
more firmly. More silence. “Kowalski?”
“Here,
Sir. Already headed in
the Skipper’s direction.”
As
Nelson just grunted, Ski swam faster. He
didn’t think Crane could be far away, but couldn’t understand why he wasn’t
answering. That just wasn’t like the
Skipper at all. Often Crane’s diving
partner, the two had become very used to each other’s dive styles. The seaman hadn’t liked the sound of
distraction in Crane’s last communication.
“Skipper?” he called again sharply.
There was still no verbal answer, but suddenly he thought he heard a
sharp intake of breath, then a gagging sound.
One final curve and he finally spotted Crane wrapped in a length of
kelp, hanging almost limp. “Skipper!” he
practically screamed, and reached for him.
* *
* *
Awareness
returned slowly. The pain in his leg
seemed to have disappeared. In fact, he
wasn’t even sure now if he’d dreamed that part.
He tried to move his legs to test the theory but they didn’t seem to
want to cooperate. Sounds tried to
filter into his ears but he couldn’t identify them. Frustrated, he tried to open his eyes, at the
same time reaching out to try and figure out where he was and what was
happening. Frustration quickly turned to
panic when his arms wouldn’t move and his face felt covered by something that
didn’t feel like his diving mask.
He
had no idea how long he tried to fight whatever had hold of him when the sounds
finally sorted themselves out into the Admiral’s resonant “Lee, take it easy,
lad. Everything’s
okay,” and Jamie’s quiet, confidant “Easy, Skipper. You’re safe now.” This time when he tried to open his eyes they
worked, and he found himself looking at a very fuzzy bulkhead several feet away
and a lump of something right next to him.
“Huh?” he mumbled, closed his eyes, and tried again.
“Lee,
how do you feel?” finally sunk in, and Lee tried to focus. The ‘something’ finally organized itself into
the very worried face of Admiral Nelson about the same time Lee realized there
was an oxygen mask covering his nose and mouth.
Closing his eyes again, he gradually became aware that he was lying on
his left side on what felt like the exam table in
“Skipper?” The voice came this time from
behind him, and he turned his head far enough to make out Jamie’s face. Before answering, however, he tried to use
his right hand to brush the mask off his face and again started to struggle
slightly when it wouldn’t move, belatedly realizing it
was because Jamie had hold of it. “Easy,
Skipper,” came in Jamie’s now slightly bemused voice. “Frank?”
Lee watched as the corpsman moved to the head of the gurney and the mask
was removed, only to be replaced by nasal canules.
Lee
frowned. “What happened?” he muttered.
“Suppose
you start by telling us what’s the last thing you remember,” Nelson asked
gently. Lee turned back toward him, now
aware that Jamie was holding him on his side, not allowing him to roll over
onto his back. Lee didn’t immediately
answer, sorting through the mental images, and Nelson prodded gently. “You and Kowalski went off to collect
samples, and got separated…”
Lee
gave a slight nod. “Guess I wasn’t
paying any attention,” he gave Nelson a small sheepish grin, “and ended up
around the other side of a kelp bed.
Heard Ski call, and started back…”
He hesitated, not sure now what he actually did remember.
“And…”
Nelson again encouraged.
“Not
sure,” Lee admitted. “Suddenly…I don’t
know…things were kind of fuzzy…disjointed, sort of. I thought my mask had clouded up. Tried to clear it but that didn’t help.” He tried to reach up with his left hand and
remove the canules – even if I’m lying on my side, the forearm should work, he
reasoned - and finally noticed that arm firmly attacked to an IV board. He tried to use his right arm again, and
scowled when Jamie refused to turn loose.
“Leave
it along, Skipper,” the doctor just scowled right back. “What you’re describing is classic symptoms
of hypoxia.”
“Lack of oxygen? But I was no where near the end
of my dive time…” He trailed off and
looked at Nelson as the Admiral grumbled.
“Which is why I’m having Chief Sharkey check your tank.” A dark look crossed Nelson’s face before he
again prodded Lee. “What else do you
remember?”
“Not
sure,” Lee repeated carefully. Hypoxia
could cause any number of symptoms, most of which Lee wasn’t overly anxious to
admit to. Unfortunately, it appeared
neither Nelson nor Jamie was going to let him off the hook.
“Any
bits, Skipper,” the CMO encouraged. Lee
turned slightly toward him, but was still not permitted to roll over. “Its important.”
“I
thought…well…” Lee closed his eyes,
trying to remember. “I got the feeling
that I was being watched.”
“Did
you see anyone?” Nelson immediately pounced.
Lee
gave him a curious look, reacting to the growl in Nelson’s voice. “Not really,” he admitted. “I sort of remember thinking that I saw eyes
looking at me from behind some sea grass…”
He
was cut off by a new voice. “Oh, oh. Mermaid
alert,” Chip said easily, walking up to stand by Nelson. Lee noticed that the lighthearted comment
didn’t quite match the worried expression on the blond’s face, but Jamie
chuckled, Nelson finally dropped his scowl and grinned, and Lee glared at his
XO and friend.
“It
wasn’t a mermaid,” he grumbled, then lowered his gaze to focus on nothing in
general. “Eyes were too small,” he
continued very softly, but loud enough that all three other men chuckled before
Nelson once again got serious.
“So,
what you thought you saw was in front of you?”
“Yes, Sir. Why?” All the questions were confusing him.
“In
a minute,” was all Nelson would say. “Anything else?”
Lee
closed his eyes, trying to piece together the last of the remnants. “I was trying to make sense of the
eyes…started to swim toward them…something hit me in the back.” He stopped and looked at Jamie, now getting
suspicious of why the doctor wouldn’t let him move from laying on his
side. “A pain in the back of my leg…” He let the sentence trail off. Jamie scowled again, but it was the Admiral
who answered.
“You
were being watched, alright,” Nelson growled, “but not from in front of
you. Someone fired a spear gun at
you.” Lee jerked to sit up but was held
firmly in place by not only the doctor, but Nelson and Chip as well.
“Easy,
Lee,” the blond said quietly.
“You’re
going to be okay,” Nelson continued.
“Fortunately the spear glanced off the tank.”
“Unfortunately,”
Jamie continued the explanation, “it ricocheted into the back of your
thigh. No permanent damage, but its
going to hurt like the blazes for a day or two.”
Lee
remained stiff with indignation. “Who?” he demanded.
“Don’t
know,” Chip answered when Nelson didn’t.
“Ski said he didn’t see anyone when he came around the kelp and found
you.”
“He’s
okay?” Lee wanted to know instantly.
“Except
for the fact that you scared the hell out of him,” Nelson answered sternly, and
Lee cringed back against the pillow he finally noticed was under his head. “When you wouldn’t answer him he went looking
for you.”
“Which
he shouldn’t have had to do,” Chip joined in the accusations. Lee settled deeper into the pillow.
“Just
saw you half clinging to a few strands of kelp,” Nelson continued a little
softer. “Saw the spear sticking out of
your leg. By that time Nielson and
Roberts had heard the radio calls and were headed back toward Seaview. They all helped get you back inside.”
Lee
hadn’t noticed Jamie move from where he’d continued to stand on the other side
of the gurney from Nelson and Chip, his hands on Lee’s arm, but Lee suddenly
started to feel fuzzy again and turned to glare at the doctor.
Jamie
just grinned. “Yes, I had Frank add a
little something to the IV.” He held up
one hand to stop whatever Lee was about to bluster. “Don’t even start. The spear went in at an angle, and not very
deeply. I was far more concerned with
getting your oxygen levels back up so I haven’t even gotten around to removing
it. That’s why I’ve been so insistent
that you not roll onto your back.”
Lee
knew he blanched at that bit of information, that he still had a spear sticking
in him. But whatever the corpsman had
put into the IV was doing its work rapidly, and Lee suddenly had no interest in
anything except closing his eyes.
* *
* *
Chased
out of
Nelson
nixed the order. “I understand how you
feel, Chip. I’m very concerned that
someone’s taking potshots at our divers.
But since Kowalski didn’t see anything they have to be long gone by
now.”
“Any idea why anyone would object to us being here? At least to the extent of
shooting at us?” Chip paused a
second. “Or do you think it could have
been an attack on Lee personally?”
Nelson
shrugged. “The latter is doubtful. No one could be sure Lee would be one of the
divers.” Chip snorted and Nelson
smiled. “True. Anyone who knew Lee at all would know he goes
out on as many dives as he can.” He sent
Chip a grin. “I don’t envy Doc having to
tell him he’s boat-bound until that wound heals.”
An
absolutely wicked smile spread slowly across Chip’s face. “Did Jamie ever find out about Dr. West
showing Lee how to bandage a wound like that?”* The smile spread to Nelson as he, too,
remembered the incident in question.
“I
don’t believe so,” he admitted, but finally sobered. “However, Jamie was also concerned at how
much blood Lee lost. He’s not going to
be happy to let Lee dive anytime soon.”
“And
since when has that ever stopped him?” Chip grumbled, before both men shrugged.
They
were interrupted as Chief Sharkey caught up with them just as they were about
to enter the aft hatch of the
“Will be fine. He was awake long enough to
tell us his version of what happened…”
“Which
wasn’t much,” Chip muttered darkly.
Nelson
frowned at the interruption, but continued to the Chief. “Doc’s treating the spear wound, and I’m sure
will keep Lee in
“If
he can put up with the Skipper’s complaints that long, you mean?” Sharkey
grinned. Nelson couldn’t stop a slight
one from showing, and noticed Chip’s expression lighten as well. The crew made great sport of the
‘conversations’ that always erupted between CO and CMO whenever Lee was under
the weather.
But
Nelson quickly got back to business.
“Did you find out what was wrong with Lee’s tank?”
“Yes,
Sir,” the Chief also sobered. “The air
was contaminated.”
“What?”
Chip exploded.
Sharkey
visibly cringed. The XO was not
going to like hearing this. “We found a
faulty “O” ring on the compressor.”
“The rest of the tanks?” Chip demanded.
“Everything
filled before two days ago was fine. The
Skipper was the only one out today who had one of the newly filled ones. We’ve already fixed the compressor, and all
the tanks filled after Tuesday’s dive are being
re-done.”
“Then
re-checked, as well as the compressor,” Chip ordered.
“Aye,
Sir,” Sharkey answered meekly. If that
was the worst of the XO’s outburst, the crew just might survive
unscathed. The Chief was, however, still
almost holding his breath.
Chip half-turned to Nelson. “Lee’s going
to love my trying to explain that one.”
“That’s
why I’ll explain it,” Nelson said quietly.
“My
job…” Chip started even quieter.
“Chip,”
Nelson sent his Exec an indulgent smile.
“We all know what Lee’s reaction will be. He’ll just start berating himself for not
noticing before he left the boat that something was a little off.”
“But…”
Sharkey started to interrupt. Nelson
held up a hand.
“That’s
right. There’s absolutely no way for him
to have noticed in that short a time.
But we all know that won’t stop him.”
There were nods of agreement from the other two. “So I’ll tell him, and he’ll jolly well
listen!”
“Aye,
Sir,” came immediately from both Chip and Sharkey, as
well as a quick shared glance that said silently they’d each be making
themselves scarce at whatever point the Admiral headed for
“In
the meantime, Chip,” Nelson re-directed the conversation, “let’s maneuver Seaview
over closer to that particular area – see if our instruments can find anything
that could account for the attack on Lee.”
“Any
ideas, Sir?” the Chief asked.
Nelson
just shook his head. “None
that I can think of, unless it has something to do with what’s causing the
pollution. But most of that’s
been blamed so far on runoff from agricultural spraying.” He shook his head. “Could be there’s a different threat no one’s
aware of.”
Chip
grumbled under his breath, and Nelson raised an eyebrow at him. “Leave it to Lee to stumble into
trouble…” Even Chip had to grin at his
own comment, however reluctantly. “But,
Chief,” he sobered, “all divers going out from now on, collecting more samples
or whatever the reason, go out with an armed escort. And no one,” he emphasized firmly,
“goes off on their own, for whatever reason.”
“No,
Sir…ah, I mean yes, Sir,” Sharkey nodded rapidly. He sent an unconscious glance back over his
shoulder.
Nelson
chuckled. “We’ll see that Capt. Crane is
reminded to follow proper procedures,” he said sternly, although he was unable
to suppress a slight smile.
“Aye,
aye, Sir,” Sharkey grinned as well. “By
your leave, I’d better get back to the Missile Room.” As he headed aft, Nelson and Chip continued
on into the
* *
* *
All
was quiet as Nelson entered
“Enjoying
the peace and quiet,” Jamie said good-naturedly. “It won’t last much longer.”
Nelson
grinned. “You heard about the air tank?”
Jamie
nodded. “Chip’s been here a couple
times. He told me. You want some coffee?”
“Thanks,”
and both men entered Jamie’s small office.
Nelson sat down in the visitor’s chair in front of the desk. Jamie settled into his behind the desk, once
he’d filled a mug from the carafe sitting off to one side on a cabinet and
placed it in front of the Admiral.
“Was
just getting the Skipper settled the first time Chip came down. Told me what happened. Said they’d made a sweep through the area and
didn’t see hide nor hair of another diver or boat of
any kind.”
Nelson
shook his head. “Chip set Seaview facing
the area where Lee was attacked, confirmed by Kowalski. None of the instruments picked up anything
that shouldn’t be there. I told Chip not
to bother sending out divers – that whoever it was had to be long gone.” He shrugged.
“He waited until I’d headed for the lab to start analyzing samples and
sent them out anyway.”
Jamie
grinned. “Sharkey rat
on him?”
Nelson
chuckled. COB Francis E. Sharkey had a
rather unique – for want of a better word – position aboard Seaview. He probably wouldn’t have lasted a week on
any other submarine, with his tendency toward doing things pretty much as he
wanted despite what he may have been told by his superior officers. He got away with it for several reasons, not
the least of which was, he was Nelson’s personal pipeline to everything that
happened aboard Seaview. Also, despite
his occasional lack of respect, indicated not so much by outright
insubordination as it was by tone of voice, he ran one of the tightest boats
anyone on board had ever served on.
Everyone was aware that Chief Sharkey would make sure the Admiral knew
what was happening on his boat. But no
one said much because the Chief was just as likely to rat on the Skipper as he
was the lowliest seaman. Maybe even more so.
“Heard
me tell Chip that sending out divers was probably a waste of time, and just
wanted me to know that not one of the crew objected to checking out the area
anyway.” He gave Jamie a slightly
hesitant grin. “Might be a good idea
they didn’t find anyone out there, given the crew’s loyalties toward
Lee.”
Jamie
shivered. “Good point.”
Frank
poked his head in the door from the main area.
Nelson hadn’t seen him when he’d come in, but wasn’t surprised. With Lee’s propensity for walking out of
Jamie
nodded. “You go on and get some dinner
if you want. I want to be here when he
wakes up, and I rather suspect the Admiral isn’t going anywhere for awhile,
yet.” He just grinned as Nelson grunted
and scowled at him, but it changed quickly to a look of chagrin. Both men rose and headed for the main room.
Lee
was indeed in the process of pulling himself out from under whatever Jamie had
given him. Nelson noticed the CMO had
left the nasal canules in place, assuring Lee a steady oxygen supply after his
brush with the contaminated tank. That
won’t last long, Nelson chuckled to himself as he settled into a chair
close to the foot of the bunk and let the CMO monitor his patient.
* *
* *
Unbeknownst
to the men watching, Lee was not coming gently out of the sedation. As senses returned, he found himself stranded
in the middle of a bed of giant kelp.
The long tendrils kept wrapping themselves around him, impeding his
progress as he tried to make his way back to Seaview.
Suddenly
he felt eyes watching him but couldn’t find a body attached to them. The harder he tried to get away the more
firmly the kelp held him and the closer the eyes came. He felt a tendril tighten around his face at
the same time the eyes drew close, surrounded by fluttering leaves. Lee struggled to keep away from the small
black eyes, the leaves building in volume and starting to encase him, the
tendril under his nose threatening to smother him. At the last second he threw himself to one
side, away from the eyes, at the same time ripping at the tendril around his
face.
He
succeeded in dislodging the tendril but in doing so the side of his head
connected with something extremely hard.
Momentarily stunned, and waiting for the instant pain to go away, a
voice filled with dry humor registered in his ears. “Giving yourself a concussion is just going
to keep you here longer, Skipper.” Lee
finally opened his eyes and found himself in a lower bunk in
“You
awake now?” Jamie interrupted his thoughts.
“Think
so,” Lee said softly, his hand reaching up to rub the side of his head.
“Behave
yourself and I’ll let you stay that way for awhile.” Lee sent the CMO an instant glare, but Jamie
just chuckled. “Hungry?”
“That’s
not what this is?” Lee growled, indicating the IV.
“Not
really, Skipper. Just
trying to balance your fluid levels a bit. You lost more blood than I’m happy about.”
Lee
tried another glare, knowing it was probably a lost cause but wanting to give
it a shot just in case. “I can go back
to my cabin now?” Nelson snorted, Jamie
growled, and he surrendered and settled back against the pillow.
“He’s
awake,” Jamie told Nelson dryly. “You willing to take responsibility for him for awhile?” Lee scowled at the CMO, but Nelson just
chuckled.
“I
promise not to let him escape,” Nelson told his CMO seriously – or as serious
as he could, given the broad smile on his face.
Lee just muttered something under his breath as Jamie walked back to his
office. Nelson pulled his chair closer
to the head of the bunk and began his explanation of the morning’s misadventure
concerning the tanks.
He’d
been right earlier – Lee tried to take responsibility for not doing a better
check before heading out on the dive.
Nelson quickly squashed the notion, but wasn’t sure he had Lee totally
convinced when Chip poked his head in the door just after 1800 hours. “Come on in, Chip,” Nelson told the blond,
who had hesitated by the door. “Lee’s
coherent.”
“At
least for the most part,” Jamie added, joining them.
“Is
he coherent enough for dinner?” Chip asked the CMO.
“Haven’t
a clue,” Jamie shrugged, as Nelson chuckled at the very put-upon expression
that crossed Lee’s face. “But tell you
what. You go get yours,
and something for the Skipper. Something
light,” he added hastily, as Lee seemed intent on interrupting. “Maybe Cookie has some soup handy. If not, just half a sandwich – not too much,
anyway. When you get back you can
Skipper-sit while I make sure the Admiral gets a decent meal.”
It
was Nelson’s turn to scowl and Lee’s to chuckle softly at the CMO’s slightly
underhanded way of prying Nelson out of
“Status
Report,” Lee demanded as soon as they were alone.
Chip
choked on a bite of food as he tried to keep himself from laughing out
loud. “Chill, Lee. Eat your dinner. Everything’s under control.”
“Except
me,” Lee growled. He stared at the mug
on the tray, which held Cookie’s beef barley soup – the chef’s personal cure
for whatever happened to be ailing a person.
“Where’s the coffee?”
“Doc
ordered no caffeine until at least morning.
Not sure why.”
“Pure
meanness,” Lee muttered, nearly causing Chip to choke again.
The
blond glanced around and, not seeing a corpsman anywhere, handed Lee his cup of
coffee. But he only allowed a couple
swallows before regaining possession of the cup and pointing to the food on
Lee’s tray. “Make nice and eat, and you
can have some more.”
Bride
though it was, Lee nodded and picked up the sandwich. The bribe was, however, about to work both
ways. Before taking a bite Lee asked
again, “Status Report?” The two long
time friends shared a laugh, then got each other caught
up as both worked their way through the meal.
Chip recapped his efforts to find whoever had shot at Lee, and Nelson’s
orders that all future dives be under guard.
Lee used his friend as a sounding board, walking himself through not
only the disjointed images caused by the hypoxia but the dream they’d later
apparently influenced. Chip teased again
carefully about Lee being watched by a mermaid.
He knew only too well how Lee liked to bottle things up inside, and wanted to lighten up the conversation to keep
Lee from dwelling on the incident.
Teasing too hard, however, would just make Lee clam up, so he also
listened intently to what Lee told him.
Between the two they decided that Lee must have seen something amongst
the grasses – a fish of some sort. “But
definitely not a mermaid,” Lee told his friend firmly. They figured that Lee had to have already
been feeling the effects of oxygen deprivation from the contaminated tank, and
that was the reason he never saw the fish clearly enough to identify it. Chip was relieved that that seemed to satisfy
Lee’s need to pinpoint exactly what happened, and gladly handed over the last
of his coffee. Lee had finished his
abbreviated meal, except for the one cookie Chip had snagged, and looked
longingly at Chip as he handed back the now empty coffee cup. But Jamie returned right then and Lee just
sighed, handing Chip his now empty dinner tray.
“And
how much of that did you actually manage to get down?” the doctor asked,
walking over.
“All
of it,” Lee answered defiantly. He
wasn’t ticked at Seaview’s CMO. In fact,
the two had a great relationship. But
their squabbles when the CMO had to treat his CO had become such a
long-standing, comfortable tradition, neither one particularly wanted to give
it up.
Jamie
glared at Chip, happily keeping up ‘The Game’.
The XO was pretty good at it as well, although not nearly on a level
with the other two, and folded quickly under Jamie’s gaze.
“Swiped
a cookie,” he admitted sheepishly.
Jamie
just nodded philosophically. “All things
considered, I’ll accept that.” He
half-grinned at the two younger men. “Do
as well with breakfast tomorrow,” he told Lee, “and I might just release you to
your cabin.” As Lee started to open his
mouth, Jamie cut him off. “Don’t even
start,” he ordered. “I put seventeen
stitches in the back of your leg. I don’t
want to have to replace any your shenanigans rip loose.” Chip grinned as Lee just lowered his eyes and
folded his arms over his chest. “Now,”
Jamie continued, “if Mr. Morton will kindly get lost I’ll have John help you
with a quick trip to the head, then it’s lights
out. And if you don’t think you can
sleep on your own I’ll find something to help you.”
“I’ll
manage,” Lee growled. Actually, while he
wasn’t about to admit it to Jamie, the short walk to the head and back cost Lee
more energy than he imagined it would.
He didn’t complain when the corpsman removed the extra pillows and
settled Lee into the bunk. He knew he
wouldn’t sleep – he never slept well in
* *
* *
Lee
had rolled over to face the bulkhead.
When he heard someone walk over, and felt the blanket shift so whoever
it was could check his pulse, Lee turned his head far enough to see Jamie
smiling down at him. “Good morning,
sleepyhead,” the doctor grinned, before concentrating on his watch and
counting.
“Huh?”
Lee muttered drowsily, and shifted onto his back. He flinched as there was a sharp pain in the
back of his leg, and Jamie glanced up.
“Leg
a little sore this morning?” Ignoring
the question, Lee concentrated on the fact that that was the second time Doc
had used the work ‘morning’, and he tried to see around Jamie to the clock on the
far bulkhead. Finished, Doc pushed the
blanket a little further over. “Its just after 0930,” he said, the grin broadening as Lee
started badly. He’d have sworn he barely
closed his eyes! “You slept a good
thirteen straight hours. That should
be a hint that your body wants to stay quiet and mend no matter what your mind
happens to be plotting.” Lee just
frowned at him. “Now roll back over
toward the bulkhead. I want to take a
quick look at my handiwork.” Grudgingly
Lee complied. Since he was wearing only
skivvies, Doc had easy access to the wound.
Lee flinched again as Doc peeled the bandage back, but paid attention as
his leg was gently touched around the wound, finally identifying where exactly
it was. He looked back at Jamie, who
supplied the information. “When the
spear glanced off the tank it went almost straight down along your leg. Unfortunately it angled just enough to rip a
path starting about three inches below the buttocks for four inches, then imbedded itself just under the skin and continued on
another couple inches. Because the spear
was barbed, I had to extend the incision to get the point out.”
“I
still say you should have just yanked on it,” Chip’s voice sounded from the
doorway. Whipping around to glare at his
XO, Lee had to smother a groan as he pinned Doc’s hand between the incision and
the mattress. With a sheepish glance at
Jamie, he rolled back over enough to allow the doctor to remove his hand and
replace the bandage.
“Mr.
Morton,” Doc started, but Lee cut him off.
“Who’s
minding my boat?” he growled, rolling back over onto his back. He slowly sat up, earning himself a glare
from Jamie that he chose to ignore.
Chip
ignored both men’s grumbles and walked over.
“Chris is holding station a few hundred yards further west
from where we were yesterday. I just
sent two teams of divers out to gather more samples for the Admiral who, in
case you’re interested, is holed up in his lab working on the samples that were
brought in yesterday before you decided to go mermaid watching.”
“It
was not a mermaid,” Lee hissed.
“Haven’t you got something better to do than harass me?”
“Actually,
no,” Chip quipped cheerfully. “Both the
Admiral and I checked in earlier, but when you decided to sleep in we got
things organized for the day without you.
I just came to see if you’d decided to rejoin the living. Doc said, once you woke up, he’d appreciate
my assistance hauling your tail out of his
“Not
exactly dressed for eating out,” Lee quipped back, instantly in a better mood
now that his prospects for getting out of his least-favorite part of the boat
were looking up.
“Got
it all under control, Sir,” Chip answered, more smirk than respectful response. Lee gave a low snarl but didn’t
interrupt. “Once I made sure you were no
longer comatose I was going to hit your cabin for a pair of sweat pants and
some clean skivvies. It will take Doc at
least that long to get in a few parting shots before you escape. A quick hit on the Wardroom and you’ll be all
tucked into your nice comfy rack in your nice quiet cabin before the divers get
back and I have to get busy again.”
By
this time Jamie was fighting a losing battle to smother his laughter. It never ceased to amaze him how two of the
finest, most competent officers it had been his pleasure to serve with could
come off sounding like a couple of little school boys. And he loved every minute of it! It was, however, time to exert a little
control over the proceedings. “Mr.
Morton,” he started again, “you have already been given your assignment.”
“Aye,
aye, Sir,” Chip answered respectfully.
But heading for the door he burst out laughing, and even Lee’s frown
disappeared.
Jamie
turned back to Lee. “You
about ready for a quick shower?”
When Lee gave him a grateful smile, he nodded. “Frank will give you a hand.” He stopped whatever Lee was about to say with
a glare. “You’re going to be stiff and
sore for a few days, not to mention a little weak until your fluid volume is
back to normal. The last thing I want is
you falling on your face and my having to put up with you down here any longer
than I have to.” He chuckled to himself
as Lee dropped his eyes. “By the time
I’ve changed the bandage Chip should be back.
However,” he added firmly, punctuated by a finger tapped lightly against
Lee’s chest, “I see your backside anywhere on this boat other than your cabin
or the Wardroom, until I tell you differently…”
He let the threat drop, knowing he’d made his point by the expression on
Lee’s face.
Lee
knew only too well that Jamie was allowing the escape from
Jamie
was standing in the doorway to his office, coffee mug in hand, watching Frank
redress Lee’s leg when Chip returned.
Wrapped only in the towel he’d used for his shower, Lee was laying on
his stomach on the exam table, face in his crossed arms.
“You
know, Lee,” Chip started, with a wicked grin at Jamie, “maybe I have been wrong
all this time.”
Lee
sent his XO a weary glance. “About
what?” he asked carefully.
“If
you weren’t so skinny, that spear would have deflected down right into your
butt.” He grinned broadly as Jamie
choked on a swallow of coffee and Lee just shook his head and buried it back in
his arms. “Would have made sitting down
a decided problem, at least for a few days,” Chip continued, walking up to the
gurney.
“Pathetic,”
Lee muttered, not lifting his head. “You
are totally pathetic.” He finally
reached out a hand as he felt Frank tape the new bandage in place. “Pants,” he ordered, and turned to sit up as
Chip handed him his underwear. Once
dressed in the sweatpants, soft flannel shirt, and leather moccasins Chip had
brought, the pair headed out of
Lee
wasn’t overly hungry but he allowed Chip to tease and cajole him into downing
the scrambled eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and blueberry muffin that Cookie
cheerfully set in front of him. He did
insist on, and received, a large mug of the strong black fluid Cookie called
coffee, but Chip made him balance it with a big glass of orange juice. As he ate he made Chip catch him up on the
day’s planned activities. Once the
divers returned from gathering samples in this area Seaview would move on to
the next section Nelson wanted checked.
Neither the men now outside, nor those watching the instrumentation in
the Control Room, had reported another human in the area, only marine
life. Chip teased Lee again about a
mermaid, but Lee just growled that no mermaid would have fired the spear gun at
him. Chip nodded seriously, then responded with a wicked gleam in his eye that they’d
far prefer taking the handsome, dark-haired Lee home to their lair. Lee muttered a few choice epithets just loud
enough for Chip to hear, and demanded the rest of the Status Report.
Once
he’d finished breakfast Lee knew that, back in his cabin, Chip would lobby
strongly for Lee to lie down and rest.
Lee had other plans. He fussed
until Chip brought him the logs, and the dive reports from the previous day,
then chased the XO out so he could go over them in peace. He was most of the way through Kowalski’s
debriefing of yesterday’s incident when there was a quick knock on Lee’s
door. When it started to open before Lee
could get out a response he knew who was on the other side, and was therefore
not surprised when Admiral Nelson walked in.
What did surprise Lee was the fact that Nelson was followed in by
Cookie’s assistant carrying two food trays and Lee took a quick glance at his
watch, discovering that it was just past 1230.
Nelson just grinned as Higgins placed the two trays on Lee’s desk and
quickly left, then settled into the chair opposite Lee and very purposely began
eating. With a quick glance at Nelson’s
suddenly upraised eyebrow Lee took the hint, pushed the reports to one side,
and pulled his tray a little closer.
Nelson nodded, then began going over with Lee what he’d found in the
samples that had already been brought in.
So far there had been no surprises.
The local naturalists were already suspicious that the increase in
agricultural spraying was leading to run-off finding its way into the
ocean. Unfortunately, it was having a
detrimental effect on that area’s marine life, some of which could be found in
no other waters in the world.
“Especially the dragons,” Nelson said offhandedly.
Lee’s
hand stopped halfway to his mouth with the last bite of brownie and he stared
at Nelson. “Dragons, Sir?” he sputtered
disbelievingly.
“Weedy
and Leafy Sea Dragons,” Nelson explained patiently. “You’ve heard of them, I’m sure.” He gave his captain an indulgent smile. He was well aware that Lee preferred to
concentrate on the technical aspects of Seaview’s cruises and leave the
scientific part to the Admiral and his band of experts. But he also knew that, with Lee’s insatiable
curiosity, at least some of the Admiral’s interests had rubbed off.
“Yes,
Sir,” Lee finally answered. “Guess I’ve
just never heard them referred to quite that way.”
“Um,”
Nelson nodded, finishing off his coffee, then glanced at the reports Lee had
been reading. “How are you feeling?” he
asked quietly.
“I’m
fine,” came out automatically. Lee gave
Nelson a glance through his lowered eyelashes as Nelson chuckled softly. “Don’t know why Jamie won’t let me go back to
work,” he added carefully.
“Because
he would prefer you let yourself heal properly for a change, not keep pushing
yourself so it takes four times as long.”
Nelson kept a half smile on his face, but his voice carried a warning.
It
wasn’t lost on Lee. “Yes, Sir,” he
responded softly, and stood slowly as Nelson gathered up the lunch dishes and
stood as well. The Admiral gave the reports
another glance. “Want to finish Ski’s
report,” Lee interpreted. “Thought if I
could match what he saw to anything I can remember…” He left the thought unfinished, relieved when
Nelson nodded.
“Just
take it easy. I know its going to be
frustrating, especially not to be able to dive.” A grin Lee didn’t totally understand crossed
Nelson’s face as his conversation with Chip about the substitute doctor’s
rather unorthodox recommendations to Lee after a minor diving accident crossed
his mind. Lee gave him a curious look
but Nelson didn’t elaborate. If Lee had
forgotten the incident, Jamie would not appreciate the Admiral reminding
him of it.
When
Nelson didn’t respond to his questioning look, Lee just sighed. “Almost the worst part,” he agreed with a
little grin.
“Hopefully
we’ll see you in the Wardroom for dinner?”
“As
long as casual attire is acceptable,” Lee indicated his clothing.
Nelson
chuckled. “Never can tell – just might
try it myself sometime.” At Lee’s snort
of disbelief, he picked up the trays and left.
Jamie
was still working on a cup of coffee when Nelson returned the trays to the
Wardroom. Nelson refilled his own and
joined him, greeted by an upraised eyebrow.
“Working at his desk,” Nelson confirmed the unvoiced question. “But he did eat all his meal.”
“That’s
something, at least,” Jamie replied with a sigh. “Guess I can’t expect miracles.”
Nelson
grinned. “Told him I expected his
presence at dinner,” and related the comments concerning attire.
Jamie
guffawed. “That I want to see. You’re harder to keep out of a uniform than
our workaholic Captain.” Despite Jamie’s
grouch, the two old friends shared a grin.
“I’ll go check on him after awhile – see if I can’t harass him into laying down.” He
laughed. “And if that doesn’t work I’ll
sick the Exec on him.”
“Those
two,” Nelson said fondly. He laughed
heartily as Jamie related what had transpired earlier in
“Just
wanted you to know, Sir,” he said to Nelson, “we’re ready to send out the next
survey teams.”
“Still
no sign of other divers in the area?”
“No,
Sir. Sending out
watchdogs, though, just in case.”
“Good. Those kinds of surprises I can do without.”
“Yes,
Sir,” Chip agreed emphatically. “Lee?”
“Just finished having lunch with him.” Nelson grinned. “Jamie would appreciate you dragging him down
here at dinnertime.”
“Consider
it done,” Chip grinned. He glanced at
his watch and disappeared.
Nelson
gave his own a quick look, polished off his coffee, and stood up. “Making any progress?” Jamie asked.
“So
far, nothing we didn’t already know as far as the pollution goes. Have several more areas to check before I can
start to formulate a plan for correcting the problems.” He hesitated.
“Also want to do a little more poking around where Lee’s attack
occurred. That whole thing just doesn’t
make any sense.”
“And
when does the Skipper walking into trouble ever make sense?”
Nelson
laughed. “Now Jamie. Just think how boring life would be aboard
Seaview without Lee around.”
“But
do you think, just maybe, we could have even one cruise without all hell
breaking loose?” He only frowned worse
as Nelson left the Wardroom still chuckling.
* *
* *
When
there was no response to his light tap, Jamie stuck his head inside Lee’s
cabin. Expecting to find the younger man
at his desk working, he was pleasantly surprised to see him sprawled across his
rack instead. Doing something right
for a change? What’s wrong with this
picture? He walked over and sat
carefully on the edge of the bunk. Lee
was lying on his stomach, face turned toward Jamie, arms over his head and
pillow shoved into the corner. He hadn’t
bothered to pull a blanket over himself but the cabin was warm. Jamie reached out a hand and brushed it
gently over Lee’s forehead. “Good. No sign of fever,” he told himself
softly. He reached up and checked the
pulse just on general principles, and discovered it steady and strong. He hesitated laying the stethoscope he’d
brought with him on Lee’s back to check lung sounds for fear of awakening Lee,
then got concerned that Lee hadn’t awakened already since he was usually such a
light sleeper. Hopefully still the after
effects of the blood loss, Jamie rationalized. Pulse was okay, no fever, the expression on
Lee’s face didn’t indicate he was in any pain.
You’re constantly fussing at him to rest – now let him do it. Time enough to get
worried if Chip couldn’t get him to come down to the Wardroom later.
But
as he started to get up Lee moaned ever so slightly and turned his head toward
the bulkhead. Jamie sat quietly, just
keeping watch. He suspected Lee was just
reliving some adventure or another. He
did shift a bit toward the foot of the bunk, remembering the incident where
Chip had disturbed one of Lee’s nightmares and, still not totally awake, Lee
had tossed Chip head first into the side of his desk.** Poor Chip – he was never going to live that
one down. Jamie just watched quietly as
Lee became more and more restless and finally, with a grunt, opened his eyes.
“Did
you win the battle?” Jamie asked softly, and smiled as it took Lee a few
seconds to follow the voice to Jamie’s face.
“Don’t
think so,” Lee admitted, took a deep breath and blew it out, and rolled over
onto his side. “Not sure, but think the
man-eating seaweed got me that time.” He
grinned, raising up long enough to retrieve his pillow and tuck it under his
head.”
“Definitely
just a dream, then,” Jamie grinned back.
“In real life it wouldn’t stand a chance.” He was pleased when Lee chuckled softly but
made no effort to get up. Usually, as
soon as the Skipper was awake he was on his feet – no matter what he’d been
doing or how badly he hurt. My guess
is, it has something to do with the fact that his eyes
still have that slightly unfocused look of half-sleep. Jamie thought he might just have an idea to
help things along even more. “Could I
get you to roll back over the other way for a minute? Just want to check quick
to make sure your lungs are still clear.”
“They
feel fine, Jamie,” Lee groused instantaneously, but the doctor just
smiled. He knew all too well he’d get
some kind of grumble no matter how simple the request. It was Lee’s instant reaction to being asked
any question whatsoever by any person even remotely associated with a medical
degree. He waited patiently, and Lee
finally sighed heavily and turned.
“You
know the routine, Skipper,” Jamie said lightly, scooting closer again. “Deep, steady breaths.” He very purposely took his time, starting at
the top of one lung and working his way down.
Almost to the bottom, he hid a grin as Lee yawned broadly. As Jamie started down the second side Lee’s
eyes started to close. And by the time
Jamie was through, happily determining both lungs were totally clear, with no
sign of pneumonia that could so easily follow a bout of bad air, Lee’s eyes
were totally closed and his deep breaths had changed to the soft, steady,
rhythm of sleep. Mentally chalking one
up for his side, Jamie very carefully left.
* *
* *
The
last thing Lee remembered was Doc’s gentle teasing so he was a bit puzzled to
hear Chip calling him.
“Hey, slacker. Gonna miss dinner if you’re not
careful.”
“Huh?” Lee finally opened his eyes, realized he was
staring at the bulkhead behind his rack, and rolled over. His XO was sitting where he’d last seen his
CMO, and he glanced at the clock on his desk – almost 1800. “Smart-aleck doctor,” he mumbled, realizing
what Jamie had maneuvered him into doing, and slowly sat up.
Chip
just grinned. “Jamie strikes again? He didn’t mention that he’d slipped you
anything.”
“Didn’t
have to,” Lee grouched, and explained.
Chip
laughed out loud. “Sneaky. Very sneaky. Definitely have to keep a better eye on
him. In the meantime…” He gestured toward the door.
“If
you’d move your six I could get up,” Lee sniped back and gave Chip a light
backhand.
Coming
out from a quick trip to the head, Lee gave his closet a longing glance. “Not a chance,” Chip interpreted the
look. “You show up in uniform and Doc
will have my tail.” The instant look of
speculation that crossed Lee’s face sent them both into snickers. “Come on, smarty. If I heard correctly, Cookie’s fixing pot
roast with oven roasted potatoes and carrots, apple salad with raisins and
pineapple, and your favorite chocolate pudding cake for dessert.”
“That’s
your favorite dessert,” Lee corrected firmly, then wavered. “Think I’ll just have you bring me a tray
later.”
One
long step brought Chip close. He didn’t
grab Lee, but laid his hand gently on his friend’s arm. “Come on, Lee. Chris will be there. You can quiz him about all the things he
thinks I did wrong while you were playing Rip Van Winkle.”
A
wicked grin crossed Lee’s face. “You
mean you’re actually admitting you’ve screwed up?”
Chip
stiffened. “I said, what Chris thinks
I did wrong, not what I did wrong,” he muttered indignantly. Lee’s grin broadened and the two finally
headed aft, nattering easily at each other.
They
were still at it when they entered the Wardroom, and Nelson gave Jamie a quick
wink. It would have been nothing new for
their stubborn captain to have dug in his heals and refused to wander around
the boat out of uniform. No one was
quite sure why Lee had such an aversion to doing it. On shore, at home, he was perfectly happy
lounging around in whatever clothes he happened to grab. Part of it, Nelson knew, had to do with Lee’s
workaholic personality. On board Seaview
Lee felt he was on duty 24-7. And in
essence, as Captain, he was right. But
Lee tended to take the trait to extremes.
He caused not a few people, and most of all the CMO, major headaches by
refusing to allow himself any downtime whatsoever, for any reason. Jamie had been known to threaten to shoot Lee
out a torpedo tube and put him out of their misery, but so far Chip
hadn’t let the CMO do it. He kept
telling Jamie that if he did, Chip would get stuck with the Captain’s share of
the paperwork, and no way did he want that!
But
that’s why the two older men had made sure Chip had been the one to go roust
Lee for dinner. The blond had an
absolute knack for wheedling and needling his long-time friend without totally
ticking him off. Nelson knew he could have simply walked in and ordered a
reluctant Lee to accompany him to dinner.
And he would have if Chip’s tactics had failed. It was far too easy for Lee to shut himself
off and brood when things weren’t going the way he wanted them to. This way was so much easier, and better for
Lee’s psyche. Chip steered him, once
their trays were full, toward where several of the JOs, including Lt. Chris
James, frequently Chip’s second in the Control Room on day watch, were sitting. Lee had hesitated just briefly, looking
toward where Nelson and Jamie sat a short distance away. But Chip made a quick crack to Keeter, Chris
and O’Brien joined in, and Lee was quickly involved in the conversation.
Nelson
grinned over his coffee cup and said quietly to Jamie, “Chip strikes
again.” He concentrated on his dinner a
bit, not wanting to seem like he was listening to the others’ conversation, but
enjoyed the banter nonetheless. “You
going to let Lee go back to light duty tomorrow?” he finally asked the CMO.
“Doubt
I’ll have a choice,” Jamie grumbled, but finally smiled as Nelson snorted
lightly. “He’s doing well. There are no signs of any problems from the
bad air. And I’m pleased he actually
rested today. Guess I can’t expect
miracles.”
“We
are talking about Lee Crane, Doctor,” Nelson quipped, and they both
chuckled. “Nothing much planned over the
next several days except what we’ve been doing.
As long as we can keep him from diving, there’s not much trouble he can
get into.”
It
was Doc’s turn to snort. “To coin a
phrase, we are talking about Lee Crane, Admiral.” Both men cracked up. Nelson saw the object of their wisecracks
glance over, but was immediately distracted by something Lt. Keeter said and
returned his attention to his own table.
Nelson almost said something to Jamie about Dr. West’s solution for
allowing Lee to dive with stitches, but quickly changed his mind. If Chip was right and Jamie didn’t know about
that incident, no sense getting him worked up unnecessarily.
“Thought
I might suggest Lee come and sit with me in the Observation Nose for awhile
after dinner,” Nelson said quietly. “I
know that’s closer to the Control Room than you’d like him to get. Just have a couple project proposals I
haven’t gotten around to doing much about and thought if he had something to
distract him for a couple hours, he might sleep better tonight. Or had you already made other arrangements?”
he asked with a grin.
“Actually
hadn’t thought that far ahead,” Jamie admitted.
He grinned sheepishly. “Was still patting myself on the back for this afternoon.” Nelson chuckled. “I was about to suggest that you try keeping
him off his feet as much as possible, but letting him wander around might be a
good thing, within reason. Let him work
off a little energy and maybe I won’t have to get into my bag of tricks.” He sent Nelson a disgusted look. “Its getting harder
and harder to keep ahead of those two.”
“Keeps
you young,” Nelson teased. His only
answer was a growl.
When dinner was over Nelson made his suggestion to Lee, and had to bury
a grin at the look of pure delight that hit the younger man’s face. “That would be just fine, Sir,” Lee said
instantly. Behind him, Chip grinned at
the excitement in his friend’s voice, and Nelson figured Lee had been gearing
himself up for being sent back to his cabin.
Nelson
adjusted his normal brisk walk through Seaview’s corridors to allow Lee to move
a bit slower, and covered it by enthusiastically starting to discuss the first
of the proposals he wanted to go over.
By the look that flashed briefly across Lee’s face as they first left
the Wardroom he suspected Lee understood the ulterior motive. So little gets past him, Nelson
chuckled to himself. He purposely led
them through the aft hatch into the Control Room instead of entering by way of
the spiral stairs, and pretended to have some urgent business with Chief
Sharkey while Lee made his way slowly forward, stopping at each station to
check monitors and chat easily with the duty crew. As he hesitated at the chart table Nelson
finally came forward, and the two went on to the table in the Nose. Nelson had left several folders there, just
in case. Not noticed in the Wardroom,
Nelson saw Lee flinch as he sat down and reminded himself that no matter how
casual Lee was acting, he still had a long gash on the back of his leg that had
to be somewhat painful.
The
two spent the next couple hours discussing the pros, cons, and ramifications of
several projects NIMR was being asked to undertake. Because Lee took a totally different tact
from Nelson when looking at a project, the Admiral valued his input
immensely. Nelson sometimes forgot what
he would be asking Lee to put Seaview and her crew through. Thankfully, Lee had never been bashful about
pointing out the pitfalls of such a one-sided view. That didn’t mean the Admiral wouldn’t get hot
under the collar when Lee stubbornly refused to budge on this or that. In fact, there had been more than a few
arguments loud enough to have any junior officers wandering past the Admiral’s
cabin, where these discussions usually took place, instantly decide that they
had urgent business elsewhere. But the
two were usually able to work out a solution agreeable to both without actually
coming to blows.
At
one point, shortly after they sat down, Cookie appeared with a fresh carafe of
coffee and a plate piled high with peanut butter cookies. Chip was in and out of the Control Room
several times, each time coming forward and helping himself to the
munchies. Lee swatted at his friend’s
fingers the second time, and they all chuckled.
About
2145 the blond ambled forward, grabbed a cookie, and parked himself on the
window ledge, listening as Lee sketched out a possible cruise route to combine
two of the proposals he and Nelson had been discussing into one cruise. Nelson sat nodding approval, then asked if Lee thought it would be possible to add a
small detour. “That way,” he offered,
“we can combine two paying trips with a little research of my own.” He watched silently as Lee thought for a
second, and tried to cover a yawn before answering.
“It
would mean Drs. Waskom and Lester being on board about, oh, six days longer
than they’d planned. Either that or we
could send them home in FS1.”
Nelson
nodded. “That would work. No, wait.
The last time Dr. Waskom was on board I took him out for a little
reconnaissance and he got sick.”
Lee
started laughing. “I remember. Riley got stuck cleaning up, and didn’t quit
complaining for a month.” He didn’t
quite get the next yawn covered up, and Nelson grinned at him.
It
was Chip, however, who spoke. “How about
you wandering down to Engineering with me. You wanted to check on the improvements to
the power converter Bobby was talking about at dinner.”
“Kind
of like to hit the Missile Room and check the compressor,” Lee said
carefully. “Keeter said he kept the
damaged “O” ring.”
“Don’t
push your luck,” Chip muttered darkly, not quite under his breath. But he grinned when Nelson snorted at the
comment. “Come on then,” he added,
standing up. “Let’s see how much we can
accomplish before Doc sends out an armed posse.” The two left by way of the aft hatch, and
were barely out of sight when the CMO walked down the spiral stairs.
“Been
listening long?” Nelson asked amiably, gathering his folders into a pile.
“Not
really,” Jamie answered, totally unabashed.
He grinned. “Chip’s been giving
me updates.”
Nelson
laughed and glanced at his watch. “About
20-25 minutes to check Engineering.
Another 15, maybe 20 minutes to hash over all the ramifications of what
happened with the compressor. Say 2230,
maybe a bit more, and Chip will have him back at his cabin.” He grinned at Jamie. “One way or another.” They both chuckled.
It
was a little closer to 2300 – Lee got involved with Patterson and Chief Sharkey
over why, all of a sudden, they’d had problems with the “O” ring, and it took
Chip a little extra to pry him away.
Through it all Lee had been fairly good-natured, but he got stubborn
when Chip offered to come in and help Lee get ready for bed. The look he sent his XO, and the one Chip
sent back, had them both instantly chuckling.
Lee’s
died, at least momentarily, when he entered his cabin. Sitting squarely in the middle of his desk
was a glass of water and a small paper cup with two pills inside. Instantly ticked, he almost immediately switched
gears and recognized Doc’s gesture – the CMO had supplied the meds, but left it
up to Lee whether or not to take them.
At first he was going to ignore them on general principles. But by the time he’d washed up and headed
toward his bunk he allowed himself to acknowledge just how painful his leg had
become. He still hesitated, flipping a
mental coin. He didn’t know for sure
whether the pills were simple painkillers or something a little sneakier on
Jamie’s part, despite the CMO’s assumption that Lee could recognize every drug
in the dispensary simply from the fact that Lee’d had to have been given all of
them at least once. Finally deciding it
didn’t really matter either way he downed the pills, crawled into bed, and was
asleep in his usual two minutes flat.
* *
* *
The
next morning started out much better for Lee, although he had to get a little
sneaky himself. Awakening about 0515 he
rose – not without a moment of complaint from his leg that he simply chose to
ignore – and took as quiet a shower as possible in the hopes of not awakening
his light-sleeping XO next door. Dressed
again in a uniform he felt almost back to normal, and was halfway through his
breakfast in the Wardroom when Chip and Jamie walked in together. His warning glare defied
either to make a derogatory comment, but it died to one of hesitation when
Nelson walked in right behind the other two. When all three simply said good morning and
filled their plates his confidence returned, and the four visited amiably. He did have a moment of irritation when Jamie
mentioned casually that Lee should come down to Sick Bay for a minute before
heading to the Control Room but the expression on Nelson’s face, one of
authority with an underlay of amusement, had Lee nodding ascent.
It
turned out all Jamie wanted was to change the bandage. Lee had been careful of it during his quick
shower and Jamie, happy with how the injury was healing, covered it with a much
smaller bandage that would be easier for Lee to change himself. Lee wasn’t holding his breath that that would
keep the CMO out of his hair for any great length of time, but it was a
start. He also wasn’t holding his breath
that he’d actually be allowed to put in a full day of work. Especially since what Lee
considered a full day was 0600 one morning to roughly 0100 the following. But he’d tackle that problem when it became
one.
There
was more to keep him occupied in the
At
one point about halfway through the morning, without so much as a word to Lee,
Chip retrieved from its storage cabinet the small stool that sometimes sat next
to the chart table. Lee was at that
point standing over Riley’s shoulder monitoring hydrophone traffic. He turned as he heard the stool legs hit the
deck. Chip didn’t look in his direction,
just headed toward the Radio Shack. Lee
grinned as he turned back to query the young seaman. But he also took the hint and sat when he
returned again to study the reports and maps scattered across the
tabletop. He had to admit it felt good
to get his weight off the injured leg for awhile.
He
was still sitting there when Chip returned from the Missile Room after the
morning’s teams of divers returned. They
were discussing the next section scheduled for that afternoon’s dives, and
whether they wanted to stay on the surface or submerge, when Riley called that
he was getting weird hydrophone traffic.
Lee gave the seaman a stern look.
“Riley, seems to me we’ve had that discussion before, about the
definition of the term ‘weird’ as it pertains to the hydro readings.”**
Chip
grinned and Riley gave both senior officers a sheepish look, but held one hand
over his earpiece, clamping it to his head to block out as much extraneous
noise as possible. Everyone else sat
quietly, concentrating on their own equipment, not wanting to disturb the young
man. Finally Lee couldn’t stand the
waiting and started to walk over, followed closely by Chip. But they’d no more than reached the
hydrophone station when Riley’s face brightened.
“Got
it, Sirs,” he said happily. “Water scooter of some sort.
Coming from port, probably launched from one of the sport dive boats
sitting off
“Long
run for a scooter,” Chip observed.
“Headed toward Seaview?”
Riley
listened intently for a bit before answering.
“Now veering to cross in front of our bow.”
Chip
grabbed the nearest mic and double-clicked.
“Missile Room.
Unidentified water scooter approaching port side and
headed across our bow. Divers in
the water, but stay close to the boat.”
“Aye,
aye, Sir,” came back immediately in Sharkey’s voice.
“Interesting
that the scooter appeared right after our morning teams came in,” Lee observed.
“Just
thinking the same thing,” Chip answered.
“Think they’ve been monitoring our schedule?”
“Not
sure why, but would seem to be the case.”
“Lee,
what’s going on,” came over the intercom from Nelson, and Chip handed him the
mic.
“Probably
nothing, Sir,” Lee answered calmly. “Just taking precautions.”
“Harrumph,”
came through loudly, and Lee and Chip shared a grin. “Keep me posted.”
“Yes, Sir.” Lee handed the mic back to Chip just as
Sharkey announced, “Divers away.”
“Roger that, Missile Room,” the XO acknowledged.
“Where’s
the scooter?” Lee asked Riley softly.
“Passing
about 50 yards forward of the bow…ah…
Hang on. Sounds
like he stopped.” No one said
anything. “Seems like maybe he’s
lost…just sort of hovering.”
“Spotted
our divers?” Chip asked Lee, who just shrugged.
“Whoever it is can’t be stupid enough to think we can’t hear the
scooter.” Lee just raised an eyebrow at
him. “Forget I said that,” Chip backslid
rapidly, causing Lee to grin again.
“Scooter
turning back the way he came,” Riley reported, just as Nelson came through the
aft hatch.
“Apparently
whoever it was didn’t want any part of our divers,” Lee told the Admiral, with
still half a grin, “Turned
tail as soon as they were out.”
“How
far away are we from where you were attacked?” Nelson asked.
Lee
frowned and walked back to the chart table.
Pushing a clipboard aside, it took him only a moment to get his
bearings. “Here’s where we are, Sir,” he
indicated one spot. “Here’s where we
were two days ago.” He measured it with
his eye. “Call it two thousand
yards.” He looked at Chip. “But no report that day of
a scooter?”
“No,”
Chip confirmed. “No reports of anything
but our own divers. Two separate
incidents?”
“Who
knows,” Lee shrugged. “Sure would like
to know where this one thought he was going, and why he turned tail the instant
our divers hit the water.”
“We
could always send FS1 out to follow him home and ask,” Chip offered helpfully.
“No,
no,” Nelson interrupted. “Probably
someone just curious, and decided we weren’t friendly
when he found divers with spear guns staring at him.” He glanced at his watch. “Just about lunch time,” he said pointedly to
Lee.
“Yes,
Sir,” Lee answered with a heavy sigh, and lightly backhanded Chip who had
unsuccessfully tried to bury a snicker.
“You
go on, Lee,” the XO got himself under control.
“I’ll be along as soon as the scooter’s left the area and the divers are
back aboard.”
Ganged
up on by both the Admiral and the XO, Lee didn’t have much choice, and followed
Nelson to the Wardroom. Nor was he
overly surprised when Jamie walked in within a couple minutes. With a heavy sigh and a shrug of his
shoulders, he just grabbed what he wanted from Cookie’s abundant selections and
settled down at his usual place. Nelson
and Doc sat opposite, and they were joined shortly by Chip. Lee gave his XO an upraised eyebrow but the
blond just shook his head.
“Riley’s
got his gain turned up as high as it will go, and he’ll pass the word to the
other shifts. Sonar is also on alert
until further notice. We won’t be
surprised again.”
“Famous last words?” Lee asked with a small grin.
“Not
on my watch,” Chip growled. Lee raised
an eyebrow again. “At least not twice on
the same cruise,” Chip qualified, finished filling his plate, and sat down next
to Lee. As Lee continued to grin, Chip
returned the backhand Lee had given him earlier. “Eat your lunch,” the XO ordered.
“Aye,
aye, Sir,” Lee smarted back. All four
men chuckled, and enjoyed an amiable meal.
* *
* *
Lee
had a feeling he’d get ganged up on after lunch to go and rest, and he wasn’t
disappointed. He put up a half-hearted
defense, knowing perfectly well his arguments were doomed to fail but also
knowing it would be expected. He
eventually surrendered peaceably – sort of.
Leaving the Wardroom he wandered down to the Missile Room and hung
around until the afternoon teams of divers were away. Ambling back through the boat to the Control
Room he ignored Chip’s decidedly pointed glares, grabbed the previous day’s
Status sheets he hadn’t so far taken a look at, and finally headed reluctantly
to his cabin. Once there, however, he
got one glimpse of his desk, slammed the cabin door shut behind him, and just
stood there a moment. Eyes closed and
fists clenched, he took deep, steady breaths until the instant temper storm
that had hit him started to subside. One
very deep sigh, a growl that ended in a soft chuckle, and he opened his eyes
and reread the placard that had been placed on his desk. “This Desk Out Of Order. Use Your Bed,” it read in large block
letters. It wasn’t until he took a step
closer that he saw what was written underneath in Chip’s neat script. “If you remove your uniform first, it will
look a little less like you slept in it.”
There was also more water and pills set to one side of the sign.
“I
will get them for this,” Lee muttered darkly.
“No,
you won’t,” came firmly from behind him.
Lee started badly, not having heard his cabin door open, and whipped
around. Admiral Nelson was standing in
the open doorway. “Heard the door slam
two corridors away,” he added a bit more gently.
“Sorry,”
came out instantly, then Lee nearly had to stifle a snort. There was an instant flash through his brain,
associated with the expression on the Admiral’s face, that reminded Lee of a comment
Chip had made at Annapolis shortly after their first class instructed by then
Captain Nelson. Something about
exasperation at just how stupid some young men could be, coupled with how much
rope to hang themselves fatherly indulgence was going
to allow. Lee hadn’t understood the
comment at the time, having lost his own father so early in life. He’d picked it up rather quickly when Chip
started dragging Lee home for holidays.
This wasn’t the first time Lee’d seen it on Nelson’s face – a fact that
both embarrassed Lee, and pleased him.
Noticing that the Admiral’s expression had softened into more indulgence
than exasperation, Lee gave him a quick grin.
“Not even a little bit?” he tried carefully.
Nelson
snorted. “You know what always happens
when you smart-mouth Doc,” he said in his best ‘land on the junior officers’
voice. But he almost instantly
grinned. “With Chip you’re on your
own. However,” and the lecturing quality
was back, “for right now…” He let the
sentence die, but not the meaning still written clearly across his face.
“Yes,
Sir,” Lee surrendered.
Nelson
nodded and tucked the reports Lee had brought up with him and tossed on the
edge of the desk under his arm. “You
won’t be needing these for awhile,” he told Lee, and
left.
For
a split second Lee strongly considered ignoring everyone anyway. But with a shrug of his shoulders he finally
stripped off his uniform and laid it carefully over his desk chair. He disposed of the pills down the head on
general principles, deciding the pain throbbing in the back of his leg wasn’t
really all that bad, and stretched out on his bunk, pulling the top blanket
over his lower body. He’d play the game
for an hour or so, then return to the Control
Room. By that time the divers out now
would be back, their debriefing reports filled out and given to Chip. Between those, the reports he’d brought up
with him and confiscated by Nelson, and catching up with whoever had “B” watch today, that should fill the rest of the afternoon.
He’d
barely closed his eyes when they popped back open, suddenly overwhelmed by the
feeling that he was being watched. He
hadn’t heard his cabin door open but it would be just like Chip to come check
on him, even with Nelson’s interruption of his plans. But it wasn’t Chip. Lee blinked as Jamie’s face came into focus,
sitting quietly on the edge of Lee’s bunk.
“Beginning
to wonder if you were going to wake up in time for dinner,” the CMO said
casually.
Lee
blinked again and glanced over at the clock on his desk – almost 1745. “Damn,” he muttered, not totally under his
breath. “But I didn’t…” He let the thought drop and lowered his eyes,
looking at Jamie carefully through his eyelashes.
“Didn’t
take the pills?” Jamie asked casually.
“Didn’t really think you would, Skipper.
Not with your track record.” He
grinned. “Wouldn’t
have made any difference. It was
just an antibiotic anyway. I’ll give you
a long-lasting one to make up for it.”
“But
why…?” Lee started, then let the question die.
“Why
did you sleep all afternoon?” Jamie refused to let him off the hook. “I keep trying to tell you, Skipper, but you
stubbornly won’t let it sink in.” His
grin broadened as Lee again dropped his eyes.
“Your body wants to rest and heal.”
He paused to let that sink in. “I
suppose it’s too much to ask that you’d just stay curled up ‘til morning.” Lee’s answer was a snarl as he started to sit
up. “Don’t get in a hurry, Captain,” Doc
ordered, a hand quickly landing in the middle of Lee’s chest. “Three minutes, and an
injection in your backside.
Okay?” Lee continued to grumble
under his breath, but laid back down and rolled over
to face the bulkhead so Doc could check the wound, run his stethoscope quickly
up and down Lee’s lungs, and administer the wide-spectrum, delayed action
antibiotic. “There,” Doc did a bit of
muttering of his own, giving the injection site a final swipe with the
antiseptic swab, “go harass your XO for awhile.”
“Think
you’ve got that backwards,” Lee sniped as Doc finally let him get up.
“Whatever,”
Doc replied amiably, just grinned when Lee sent him a glare, and left. Lee dressed quickly and headed for the
Control Room.
He
was somewhat surprised not to find Chip there as he came down the spiral
stairs. He wasn’t sure what expression
crossed his face when he inquired as to the XO’s location and was given the
message that Chip would meet him in the Wardroom. Whatever it was had young Lt. James burying
his head into a computer printout, and Lee was left to wonder if Chris was
hiding nervousness or laughter. Deciding
he really didn’t want to know, Lee headed aft.
He
was further disgruntled to discover that Chip had gone out diving that
afternoon, but only because it reminded him that he couldn’t. Once the teams Lee had seen leave were back
aboard, Seaview was shifted back into the area where Lee’s attack had
occurred. Chip, Kowalski, Sharkey, and a
couple armed divers had gone out to scout around. But they’d returned without a clue as to why
anyone would object to their presence in that area. Nor had they seen, or Seaview’s
instrumentation detected, anyone else.
It was all very strange.
Admiral
Nelson was particularly annoyed. He
spent a good deal of the meal waxing not overly poetic about the forms of
pollution he was finding in the samples Seaview’s divers had so far brought in,
how much damage was being done to this very fragile marine environment off the
southern coast of Australia, and how many different species could be effected –
some of them unique to this area.
“You
mean like the dragons?” Lee asked innocently, and sat smiling to himself as
both Chip and Jamie started. Nelson had
to explain to them what he’d told Lee the previous day about the Weedy and
Leafy Sea Dragons.
Chip
could have kicked himself into the next time zone at one point, when he messed
up and said something about Lee having to hit Cookie up for some plastic food
wrap so he could go play with the dragons.
As Lee’s face instantly lit up, Nelson gave Chip a kick under the table
that caused the younger man to yelp, and all three had to explain to
Jamie. The CMO plastered a hard look on
his face that had the other three looking somewhat sheepish.
“Try
it, Commander,” Jamie growled, and Lee ducked even further, “and I’ll have you
confined to
“It
was just a thought,” Chip tried to deflect some of Jamie’s ire, since he was
the one who’d caused it.
“Well,
unthink it, immediately. Both of you,”
Jamie ordered. “I find out the
Commander’s left this boat any time in the foreseeable future by way of the
diving hatch, he’d better not come back!”
Nelson
chuckled as both younger men gave their CMO “Aye, Sirs” respectfully, then
earned a glare himself from Jamie, as well as chuckles from Lee and Chip, when
he casually told Lee, “There’s always the escape hatch.”
“Keep
it up, Admiral,” Jamie warned. “Your
next physical is only a few weeks off.”
Even he was finally forced to grin as both Chip and Lee cracked up, and
the Admiral buried a mutter in his coffee cup.
“So,” Jamie decided it was time to change the subject, at least
somewhat, “tell me more about these ‘dragons’.
Don’t think I’ve ever heard of them.”
“Not
surprised,” Nelson was immediately back in good
spirits. Chip and Lee shared a quick
grin between themselves. They’d learned
very early on at
“I
suppose that’s why they’re called dragons,” Jamie asked, “because they are so
much larger than the sea horses?”
“One
reason, I’m sure,” Nelson agreed.
“Why the weedy and leafy part?”
“Sea
Dragons don’t have a prehensile tail like a sea horse. While their body shape is somewhat similar,
the Weedy Sea Dragon looks sort of like a twisty twig with a sea horse
head. The Leafy Sea Dragon has much the
same body style as the Weedy, but he’s covered all over in appendages that sort
of look like someone dumped a basket of seaweed pieces on top of him, and half
of them stuck.” Nelson chuckled as Jamie
just shook his head. “Wander down to the
lab sometime and I’ll show you some pictures.
It’s a little hard to describe.”
“I’ll
do that,” Jamie nodded.
“Like
the common sea horse,” Nelson continued, “it’s the male of the species who
carries and incubates the eggs in a ‘brood patch’ on the underside of his tail. Carries them about eight weeks, and once the
eggs hatch, just swims away and leaves them to fend for themselves.” Nelson shrugged. “Part of the reason only about five percent
of the 250 or so hatchlings are estimated to reach maturity.”
“I
take it they live in this area?”
Nelson
nodded. “All in
“They
sound pretty spectacular, Admiral,” Jamie was suitably impressed. “Why are they not better known? I mean,” he backtracked a bit, “I’m hardly an
expert on marine wildlife. But we do
tend to pick up a certain level of knowledge aboard Seaview.”
Nelson
chuckled. “Little hard not to,” he
agreed. “Part of the reason is, Sea Dragons are extremely hard to spot in the wild. They blend in perfectly with the kelp and sea
grasses they live in. And you don’t see
them except rarely in aquariums. They
are protected by Australian law, and their export is strictly regulated.”
“Ah,”
Jamie said.
“I
know that there’s a very nice Sea Dragon exhibit in
“That
makes me feel a little better, at least,” Jamie said.
“You
don’t want Lee and I to go catch you one so you can see it for yourself?” Chip asked, all innocence.
“Much better than just a picture.”
“You
want to join the Skipper strapped to a rack in
“That’s
if we could keep you out of the Australian Judicial System,” Nelson added. “They don’t take kindly to anyone messing
around with their dragons.”
“That
would sort of take all the fun out of it,” Lee told Chip with a sigh.
“Major
bummer,” Chip agreed. Nelson chuckled,
Jamie growled, and the group broke up.
* *
* *
2030
found Lee at loose ends. After dinner
he’d gone to the Control Room to catch up on what he’d planned to do that
afternoon. That was all well and good. But the logs he planned to take to the nose
and work on, he discovered when he picked them up, had already been taken care
of by Acting Captain C. P. Morton. Chip
caught him looking at the filled in pages and snickered softly. “Thought you hated paperwork,” Lee muttered,
and frowned when Chip just shrugged his shoulders and walked off. His next couple hours’ worth of activity
foiled Lee headed aft, walking through the boat checking all the departments
and visiting with whoever was on duty.
But
even that didn’t occupy him as long as he’d have liked, and he found himself
standing in the juncture of the corridors to Engineering and Reactor Control,
both of which he’d already visited, trying to think of something to do to fill
the hours before his usual bedtime.
Suddenly, over the intercom, came, “Capt. Crane, please report to the
Wardroom,” in Chip’s quiet, confident, voice.
Lee, just starting to wonder what was going on, had to smother a soft
groan when Chip added with a grin in his voice, “Your money is needed at the
poker table.”
The
game was in full swing when Lee ambled in.
Not that they actually played for money – they just passed the poker
chips out amongst whoever was playing.
Tonight it was Chip, Chris, Keeter, and
In
Sick Bay Jamie chuckled when he heard Chip’s intercom call. Good.
That will keep the Skipper off his leg until bedtime, he nodded to
himself.
Nelson
had much the same thought, working in his lab.
Leave it to Chip to sidetrack Lee for awhile, he smiled.
Even
Lee had to send his friend a smile of gratitude over his cards awhile
later. Lee was always at his worst when
bored, and Seaview’s crew couldn’t often indulge in the pleasures of a good
game of cards – they were usually kept far too busy. Besides having something to fill his evening,
Lee got great pleasure from watching the others’ enjoyment of the evening as
well. Much more relaxed at 2230 than
he’d been earlier, he had no qualms about Chip breaking up the poker game and
hustling him off to bed.
* *
* *
Not
usually one who needed to set an alarm, Chip vowed Lee wasn’t going to beat him
up two days in a row and was up, showered and dressed, and parked in Lee’s big
desk chair when Lee came out of his shower.
Lee just shook his head but said nothing as he laid out his uniform and
started getting dressed. Chip suppressed
a shudder as Lee changed the bandage, not because the wound looked bad – it was
healing quite nicely. But Chip had a
sudden image of how much damage the spear could have done if it hadn’t glanced
off Lee’s air tank first. He figured Lee
must have seen at least a little movement because he paused and raised an
eyebrow at his friend. Chip just shook
his head. “Nothing,” he shrugged off
Lee’s unasked question. After the
briefest of pauses, Lee went back to getting dressed. Chip still got the impression Lee might have
read something on Chip’s face, however.
While Chip had the reputation among the crew as totally unreadable when
he chose to be, and the possessor of the best ‘poker face’ on the boat, there
were still times he knew Lee saw right through the act. Not always.
Lee sometimes complained that he didn’t know what Chip was thinking. But more often than not, however Lee managed
it, Chip knew he could hide very little from his friend.
Lee finished buttoning his shirt and tucking in the tails. “So,” he asked, “do I get to walk through the
Chip
snorted, then grinned bashfully. “Actually hadn’t thought that far ahead,” he
admitted. “Just wasn’t about to get
caught flatfooted two mornings in a row.”
Lee
just shook his head as he started toward the door. “Like I said before. Pathetic, Morton. Totally pathetic.” Unfortunately, as Lee looked back to toss
that last jibe over his shoulder, opening his cabin door at the same time, he
practically walked right into Nelson.
The Admiral had his hand upraised, about to knock. Chip snickered as the two managed – just
barely – to keep from tripping over each other.
Lee gave him a dirty look and muttered under his breath, “I rest my
case,” before turning back to the OOM.
“Good morning, Sir.”
Nelson,
not knowing totally what had triggered it this time, still so enjoyed the
hi-jinks of his two senior officers.
While his old friend Admiral Jiggs Stark was firmly convinced the two
unorthodox young men were going to lead to Nelson’s ruination, probably sooner
than later, Nelson was positive of just the opposite. Even Jiggs has had to change his tune,
Nelson grinned to himself. “Interrupting
something, am I?” he now asked Lee with a grin.
“Just
considering the possibility of feeding my XO to the nearest shark and promoting
Lt. James,” Lee answered easily.
“Watch
it, junior,” Chip muttered, but he was by this time also smiling. “Who was it that wandered off and tried to
become fish food?” Lee immediately
turned sheepish as both Nelson and Chip chuckled.
“Come
on, you two,” Nelson said sternly, but still smiling. “I’m hungry, and Sharkey said Cookie’s making
blueberry pancakes.” A grin split Chip’s
face wide open, seeing it Lee just shook his head, and Nelson headed aft,
followed closely by his still happily bickering officers.
* *
* *
The
morning went by peacefully enough. Since
Seaview had already taken samples from this area, the divers Nelson still
ordered out were more on the lookout for anything unusual than scientific. Still, for most of them, any excuse to be out
swimming was good enough. The waters
here were clear, not particularly deep and, while cooler than further north,
still abundant with marine flora and fauna.
Chip,
especially, was antsy to go back out. He
didn’t get nearly the opportunity he’d like.
He tried to cover it as he and Lee sat eating meatloaf sandwiches for
lunch in the Wardroom. While he knew his
CO certainly wouldn’t begrudge him the chance, he still felt a bit of a traitor
for going out on what amounted to little more than a pleasure dive while his
friend was stuck inside. He knew Lee had
caught some of his mood when Lee put down his only partially eaten sandwich and
stared at Chip.
“Go,
please, before you split your seams,” he said amiably, despite a small frown.
“You
don’t mind?” Chip asked carefully.
Lee
sent the blond a disgusted look. “Of
course I mind.” He quickly changed to a
grin. “But at least one of us should be
enjoying themselves.”
He looked around the mostly empty Wardroom and frowned again. “I’m expecting any time now to have Doc
wander in and send me to my room for the afternoon.” Chip nearly choked on his last bite of
macaroni salad, and ended up with a huge grin on his face. “Don’t,” Lee ordered firmly. “I’d just as soon not hear about how it did
me a world of good, that it was exactly what I needed, all the other hogwash
Jamie’s been trying to feed me.”
“I
assume you also don’t wish to be reminded he’s right?” Chip said innocently,
still smiling.
“You’re
right, I don’t,” Lee muttered, and put down the sandwich. Chip instantly glared at him. Lee frowned again, but picked it back up with
a heavy sigh.
“Thank
you,” it was Chip’s turn to say determinedly.
Lee just lowered his eyes and took another bite, but Chip saw the
corners of his mouth twitch that had nothing to do with chewing.
That
was when the object of Lee’s mutterings happened to walk in, and Chip decided
he’d better make his escape while he still could. He did pause just a moment as Lee again
started to put down the sandwich, cast a quick glance at Chip, and changed his
mind. “You don’t eat, I don’t play,” he
said quietly, so only Lee could hear.
Lee just sighed heavily again and nodded, and Chip headed happily to the
He
needn’t have worried – Lee was in the Missile Room when he got there,
ostensibly seeing off the afternoon’s teams.
Chip suspected there was probably more to it than that but didn’t say
anything. He did raise an eyebrow as Lee
walked over to give him a hand getting into his wetsuit.
“Yes,
Mother Hen, I finished my lunch,” Lee growled, then gave Chip a sheepish
look. “The Admiral walked in right after
you left,” he admitted, and finally matched Chip’s grin.
Chip
knew instantly that Lee had gotten his revenge when he finally walked over to
the dive hatch and discovered that someone had shuffled the teams. Chip’s original partner was supposed to have
been
The
plan for this afternoon’s dive was to scout around the base of the larger of
two kelp beds in the area. As he got
closer, Lee’s voice in his ear mentioned casually that it was the same one he’d
been around the other side of when he’d been attacked. That told Chip that one, Lee hadn’t been
grounded for the afternoon; and two, he was watching out the Observation Nose
windows. Chip responded that he’d keep
an eye out for mermaids, got a grunt in response, and swam happily on.
One
team headed east around the bed, scouting close to the base for anything they
thought might be of interest either to the Admiral and his research, or to
finding a reason for the attack on their Skipper. Chip’s team headed west, doing much the same. Mickelson, playing watchdog, swam about 20 feet
above them. For the first 15 minutes or
so they didn’t find anything that hadn’t already been reported, and just kept
on traveling.
The
three of them had just rounded another section of kelp when they found their
way blocked by an area of heavy sea grasses.
Suddenly suspicious, Chip sent a call back to Lee, who confirmed that it
sounded like the area where he’d been attacked.
“But Kowalski and several others went over that area with a fine toothed
comb,” Lee finished.
“Well,
think we’ll just use an even finer one,” Chip answered back.
Figuring
that if there was anything worth finding left behind by Lee’s attacker it would
be on the ocean floor buried in grass, Chip focused his attention down. He stayed along the edge for a few minutes,
noticing at the same time that
“Mr.
Morton?”
“Find
something?” Chip answered hopefully.
“Not sure, Sir. But didn’t the Skipper say he
felt like he was being watched, just before the spear hit him? That he saw eyes looking at him?”
“Remember,
he was breathing contaminated air,” Chip replied. “That stuff will make you see all sorts of
things. Why?”
“Because I’m getting the same feeling, Sir. Haven’t seen any eyes, but something is for
sure here. At least…I don’t know. It’s just a little spooky.”
Sharkey’s
voice broke in from dive control in the Missile Room. “Whatever it is, its
not bad air, Mr. Morton. All tanks are
now triple checked before anyone goes out, and the compressor is checked after
every use. Maybe it’s the Skipper’s
mermaid.”
Please,
Lee, be somewhere else besides monitoring dive communications, Chip begged silently. It was one thing for Chip to get away with a
minor crack. But if
the crew starts in… Out loud
he said casually, “I’d be careful about that, Chief. Last I knew, the
Skipper was in the
“Oh,
sh…” came clearly through Chip’s ear piece, followed almost immediately by a
growl that Chip easily recognized, and suspected at least a few others did as well
– especially Sharkey – as coming from Lee.
“Counting
on having any free time in the near future, Chief?” Chip asked casually.
“No,
Sir,” came miserably back. Chip just
chuckled.
Unfortunately,
the conversation had taken his attention away from what he was supposed to be
doing. It took him a second to refocus,
and realize that he couldn’t see his dive partner. “
“He
was right there a second ago, Sir. Now I
don’t see him.”
“
Both
men reached
“Done,”
Sharkey’s voice responded, again all business.
“Hatch set for emergency cycle.”
Search
forgotten, Chip had his team headed back toward Seaview as fast as they could
go.
* *
* *
“What
the hell is out there?” Chip wasn’t the
only one who cringed slightly as Lee thundered, pacing in the Missile Room
while Doc tended to
“Lee?”
he tried softly.
“What?”
Lee growled viciously.
Chip
cringed again. Lee didn’t get this
steamed very often. It was well known
among the crew that it was the XO you stayed away from if at all possible when
things weren’t going well. Lee was much more
likely to be the one to go along smoothing ruffled feathers once Chip got done
ruffling them. Today, however, not only
were the few crewmen in the room looking for corners to hide in, Chip noticed
Jamie cringe with nearly every heavy stomp Lee took on the metal decking. “Calm down,” he said as controlled as
possible. “We’ll get to the bottom of
this.”
“We
damn sure will,” came the answering growl. Chip was just gearing himself up for Lee
bashing his fist into the control station for the diving bell, that being where
he happened to be standing, having momentarily stopped his pacing, when Admiral
Nelson came through the hatch.
“Lee,
calm down,” Nelson told his irate Captain.
“I could hear you bellowing halfway to the lab.” Chip almost choked on a snicker – Lee was
also usually the one trying to calm down a for-whatever-reason-at-the-moment
irritated Admiral. “We’ll get to the
bottom of this.”
“That’s
for sure,” Lee still said darkly, but toned it down a few decibels.
Chip
was by this time out of his wetsuit and toweling off. “Nothing on the instrumentation?” he asked
Lee
Lee
just shook his head. “Not a d…” He paused and took a quick look at a frowning
Admiral. “Thing,” he finished, and
sighed.
“Could
they be using a re-breather? No air bubbles, and silent.”
“Has
to be,” Lee answered, getting himself back under control. Chip saw Jamie finally relax as well as Lee
quit stressing his own injury. “But
where are they coming from? The few
boats we’ve come across haven’t been all that close. And why that particular
spot?” The last was threatening
to get loud again, and he looked down as Nelson frowned at him.
“Come
on,
“Jamie?”
Lee asked instantly.
“He’s
fine, Skipper,” Jamie smiled at Lee, whose ire that a crewman of his had been
injured could so quickly turn to concern for that crewman. “Just want to keep an eye on him for a couple
hours. He got his bell rung a pretty
fair bit.”
“Obviously
not as hard-headed as you are,” Chip teased his friend as he finished dressing,
standing up and tucking in his shirttails.
Lee sent him a withering look as there were smiles and snickers from the
crew, including
“Lee,”
Nelson distracted his Captain further, “why don’t you and I take FS1 out for a
little reconnaissance. Think we’ll be
safe from anybody taking potshots at us.
And if nothing else,” he added firmly as Lee had gone back to pacing,
“it will get you to sit down for awhile.”
From the look that briefly crossed Lee’s face, Chip decided he’d be
safer in the Control Room, and rapidly left.
* *
* *
While
the scouting trip did accomplish that task, it was otherwise a waste. Even though they stayed out just over two
hours, and covered areas much closer to shore than the divers had been able to
search, they still came up empty. Lee
could feel his fists tightening on the controls as Nelson asked him to maneuver
the little craft this way and that. He’d
hesitated when he’d first entered FS1, not knowing if the Admiral was going to
pilot her himself. But the older man had
just grinned, settled comfortably into the co-pilot’s chair, and started
studying the chart of the area he’d brought down with him. Now Lee forced himself to loosen his grip and
concentrate on scanning the relatively clear waters for anything that seemed
out of place.
Nelson
finally called off the search as he glanced at his watch and discovered it was
nearly 1715. While the trip had gotten
Lee off his feet, Nelson knew Doc wouldn’t be overjoyed that the still
recuperating man hadn’t rested at all that day.
And as steamed – and worried – as he knew Lee was, the prospects for a
peaceful evening and night weren’t looking too good, either. Humm, Nelson thought to himself as Lee
neatly tucked the craft back into her hold, perhaps I’ll quietly suggest to
Chip that this might be a very good evening for some of Cookie’s infamous Death
By Chocolate brownies and a carafe of cocoa – properly augmented by one of
Jamie’s stronger potions.
First things first. Once back aboard Seaview and their dismal
failure reported, Nelson coaxed Lee to join him for an only slightly early
dinner. As Seaview was going nowhere
until they had answers to why the attacks were occurring, Chip readily joined
them as well. Lee insisted on a quick
side trip to
The
conversation was all business during the meal, primarily because Lee refused to
give it a rest. The four of them kicked
around every conceivable idea they could think of from smuggling to drug
running to poaching – although when Jamie asked what could be poached no one
could really give him an answer. They
also tried a few inconceivable ideas, pure cussedness being the most
reasonable. But Cookie’s meal of
barbeque-sauce-basted brisket, garlic mashed potatoes, pea, onion, bacon and
peanut salad, and cherry pie, could do nothing to dispel the bad taste in their
mouth each man had when they pushed themselves away from the table.
Lee,
especially, was still fussing. He
grabbed a mug full of coffee and stalked off, purportedly headed for
Engineering on some errand or another.
But the other three knew it was just an excuse to try and walk off his
excess temper. Nelson waited for him to
close the door before mentioning his earlier idea to Chip. With an enthusiastic nod from Doc, Chip
headed to have a word with Cookie. Notwithstanding the plans for a bit later,
Chip knew that the chef had been hovering, concerned because Lee wouldn’t stop
muttering threats at unseen enemies long enough to eat much of his meal. It didn’t take much to spoil Lee’s skimpy
appetite, and Chip figured Lee had managed what he did only because Nelson and
Doc took turns glaring at him.
Blissfully
ignorant of the other three men’s plans Lee did, in fact, head for Engineering,
and spent half an hour discussing with Bob O’Brien several advanced courses in
mechanical engineering the young lieutenant was thinking about taking. From there he hit Reactor Control, the
machine shop, and spent time tracking down the off-duty Patterson to discuss
possible ways to augment the hydrophone.
They even drafted seaman Rawn, Seaview’s hydrograph operator, into the
conversation. But the instruments on
Seaview were so finely tuned already, no one could
come up with any ideas for making them better.
Lee
was just headed back toward the Control Room when Chip hurriedly walked up
behind him. Glancing around, ostensibly
checking to make sure he wasn’t overheard, Chip whispered that Cookie had left
the galley early and Chip had been able to convince the assistant, Higgins, to
part with a few of Cookie’s special brownies and some cocoa. Chip told Lee he’d hidden them in Lee’s cabin
for safekeeping and invited Lee to join him in the repast. Lee declined but Chip kept insisting, and
just to shut his friend up returned to his cabin. Halfway through the first mugful of the hot,
soothing brew, nibbling on the two-inch cube of super rich brownie slathered
with half an inch of chocolate cream cheese frosting, Lee finally felt himself
relax for the first time since he’d heard Henderson’s call about feeling like
he was being watched. He laid his head
against the back of his chair and stretched out his long legs, totally
oblivious to the fact that while Chip was filling Lee’s mug for the third time,
the blond had taken only a couple small swallows, preferring to concentrate
instead on the rest of the brownies. Lee
started out trying to bounce a few more ideas off Chip, each of them getting a
bit more ridiculous than the last, until Chip suggested they hit up Riley for
his latest UFO theories. Lee’s
expression instantly turned disgusted but he took the hint, took another bite
of brownie, and settled back with his once again full mug. Ten minutes later when Chip removed the
almost empty mug from his hands, stripped off his uniform, and tucked him into
bed, Lee made absolutely no objections.
By that time, Lee was sound asleep.
* *
* *
It
was, unfortunately, not the fully restful sleep his three friends would have
preferred. It started out okay, before
the dreams came. Even then Lee was
merely paddling through clear waters, looking around at all the sights to be
seen. It did puzzle him for a bit that
he didn’t seem to be wearing a wetsuit.
He also didn’t seem to have any scuba equipment. Not that it mattered – he wasn’t having the
least bit of trouble breathing. What did
matter, when he finally figured it out, was that he wasn’t wearing anything at
all. Oh well, he shrugged, and
kept on swimming.
He
wasn’t totally sure where he was. The
water was clear and warm, but didn’t seem to have the abundance of colorful sea
life that so often inhabited those kinds of waters. Here there were, in the distance, great
fields of kelp as far as he could see.
Yet as he swam on, he never seemed to get any closer to them.
Then,
suddenly, he was surrounded by them. He
didn’t know how. He didn’t remember
reaching the edge and swimming inside.
But all of a sudden he could see no open water at all. Not knowing which way to swim, afraid he’d
simply be going deeper into the clinging, grasping kelp, he tried to just stay
where he was, hoping that eventually he’d figure out which way to swim to get
back – ah, but back to where? Had he
come from Seaview? Had he swam from
shore? He had no idea. That was when he felt them – eyes, watching
him. He couldn’t find them at first,
surrounded as he was by the kelp plants.
Then suddenly they were everywhere.
Little eyes, seemingly a part of the plants
themselves. All
around him. Not threatening
him. Just looking at
him, an almost sorrowful expression in them. They seemed to want to tell him something,
but whatever it was he couldn’t understand.
He tried swimming over to one of the pairs of eyes but as he got close
they just became part of the kelp plant, disappearing from view. He turned toward another pair, which also
started to fade as he approached. “No,”
he tried to tell them. “Don’t go
away. I won’t hurt you. Tell me what you want.” But the eyes just began to fade, reminding
Lee a bit of the Cheshire Cat of Alice in Wonderland fame. Only instead of a smile, Lee was once again
left with only a strand of kelp to stare at.
Then
suddenly the strand started fluttering, its leaves moving in a sudden shifting
of waters. Other strands around him
started doing the same thing. And creeping closer as they did it. Closer and closer they came, leaves
fluttering faster and faster. Lee felt
his breathing growing faster as well, matching the movements which had become
synchronized. The eyes began to pop back
into view – one here, two there, one again somewhere else. The kelp strands kept getting closer; started
to press against his body. All the way around, holding him firmly between them. “Leeeeee,” they seemed to whisper, softly at
first, then gradually getting louder. “Leeeeee, Leeeeee,” louder and louder. “I don’t know what you want, you have to tell
me,” he tried to make them understand.
“LEE!”
echoed firmly, and Lee’s eyes finally snapped open, finding themselves
staring into worried blue ones. Taking a
deep breath, Lee studied his surroundings.
Obviously not taking any chances, Chip had grabbed the blanket firmly on
both sides of his friend and pressed down, effectively pinning Lee’s shoulders
to the bunk. “You awake now?” came a bit
softer.
“May
have to work on it a bit,” Lee muttered honestly. His head felt like he’d just regained
consciousness from an all-night drinking party.
Sort of, anyway. There wasn’t really the pain of a hangover,
but he was definitely muzzy and disoriented.
“That’s
what you get for working yourself so hard while still somewhat under the
weather,” Chip lectured, finally releasing the blanket. His face remained perfectly bland as Lee
worked his way through that piece of information. It took him a second.
“You
sure Doc didn’t spike the cocoa?” He
stared hard at Chip.
The
blond remained totally neutral. “If he
did, I didn’t see him do it,” he replied benignly.
“Yeah,
sure,” Lee muttered, and pushed off the blanket to sit up. He started badly when he glanced at the clock
on the desk and discovered it read 0640.
“Doc, definitely,” he growled.
“Whatever,” Chip said easily, and stood up. “See you in the Wardroom by 0700?” His only answer being a grunt, he chuckled
and left.
Lee
almost made it. He spent a few extra
minutes in the shower trying to unfuzz his brain. Unfortunately he was only minimally
successful. He had his proof that Chip
knew more than he was admitting to when he came out of the head to discover a
large mug of the extra potent, morning eye-opening, possibly radioactive sludge
Cookie lovingly called coffee sitting on his desk. Lee stood in the middle of his cabin, towel
wrapped around his waist, eyes closed, savoring every
last drop before finally getting dressed.
The
three co-conspirators were in their usual spots, almost finished eating, when
Lee finally got to the Wardroom about 0715.
“Sleep well?” Nelson asked easily as Lee joined them, his usual light
breakfast even lighter due to a still slightly queasy stomach. “Chip was just telling us about his after hours raid on the galley.”
Nelson gestured toward what little was on Lee’s tray. “Eat too many brownies last night?”
Lee
sent a positively frosty glare at Jamie before glancing at Nelson through
lowered eyelashes. Both older men sent
back expressions angels would have been proud of. Chip, as before, was totally nonchalant. Lee sent a glare across the room to where
Cookie was standing. Seaview’s backup
Nuclear Reactor Control dutyman, and Premier chef, was
sending Chip glacial frowns suitable to someone who had dared enter his domain
without permission. Lee wasn’t buying any
of it. He also knew there wasn’t a
single thing he could do about it, and surrendered. “Must have,” he muttered. “Didn’t think so, but don’t quite
remember.” That one went with a
meaningful look at Jamie, unfortunately without any apparent effect on the
CMO. “Must have been
more tired than I thought. Don’t
really remember much after Chip and I went to my cabin.”
“I
have warned you, Skipper,” Jamie said casually, “that your body is perfectly
capable of retaliating if you don’t take care of it.”
“Yes,
Jamie,” Lee all but growled back before changing the subject. “Admiral, have you decided on a search
strategy?”
“How
about blasting anything that moves with the laser rifle,” Chip volunteered.
“Problem
being,” Nelson tried hard not to agree, “that so far
no one has seen any movement. Lee
didn’t,
“Picky,
picky, picky,” Doc muttered. Lee and
Chip chuckled, and Nelson nodded.
“Really
not sure where to start,” the Admiral admitted.
“Well, that’s not quite true.
We’ve started, technically. Just
so far not had any luck. You have an
idea?” He looked at Lee.
Lee
shook his head. “Both attacks have come
in the same general area. Unfortunately,
that doesn’t mean they couldn’t come somewhere else, just
that, so far, they haven’t. I
guess we stay here and keep searching?”
“I’m
certainly not in any hurry to leave, not with two of my crew attacked for no
apparent reason.” No one mentioned that,
with one of those two men having been Lee, Nelson would move heaven and earth
to find the person or persons responsible.
“Back
to sending out teams, but the two that go together stay together.”
“Or one armed watchdog for every diver.” Chip suggested.
“Same
difference,” Lee nodded.
“If
you flood the area with divers, “ Jamie asked, “don’t
you run the risk of driving off whoever you’re looking for?”
“Good
point,” Lee nodded. “So we continue to
send out teams twice a day.
However…” He thought for a second
before turning to Chip. “How many
re-breather units do we have aboard?”
“Two,”
his XO answered instantly. “They can be
used for up to eight hours at a time in this temperature and depth of water,
with about an hour needed to get them reset between uses.”
Lee
nodded again. “Then I suggest we send
out two divers two hours before we usually send teams out. Send them out the escape hatch and bury them
in the kelp bed. If we don’t get any
nibbles, they come in when the regular teams go out, and return outside to stand
watch until the afternoon divers go out.”
“Works
for me,” it was Nelson’s turn to nod. “Suggestions for the strike squad.”
“Kowalski,”
Chip and Lee said together, and looked sheepishly at each other.
“And
Patterson,” Chip added.
“I
need Pat inside,” Lee vetoed. “He has
the most experience on the hydrophone.”
“Then
I’ll go,” Chip volunteered himself.
Nelson
frowned. “Not sure that’s such a good
idea.”
Lee
was frowning as well. “Normally,
Admiral, I’d agree with you. But right
now our guys are sitting ducks, no matter what we’ve tried. We need our brightest, sharpest people on
this part of the mission.” He gave Chip
a speculative look. “Not to mention our
most ruthless.”
“Hey,”
Chip decided to take umbrage at Lee’s statement, then
got speculative himself. “On the other
hand, I resemble that remark.”
The
others chuckled before Nelson turned serious.
“Just remember – don’t get carried away out there. Lee would be very upset to have to break in a
new exec.”
“Don’t
know about that,” Lee teased. “Lt. James
is doing quite a good job. O’Brien could
handle it, although I suspect he’d rather stay down below with his
machines.” By this time Chip was giving
him the evil eye, which Lee was totally ignoring. “And I’ve already offered the job to Tim
Hughes once.***
I bet with a little persuasion he’d…”
Whatever he was going to say was cut off as Chip punched his shoulder.
“The
loyalty I get around here,” the XO complained to the Admiral and CMO. “Just listen to him – you’d think he was
sending me out on a suicide mission without a care in the world.” Nelson and Jamie were having a hard time
keeping a straight face.
“Not
suicide,” Lee defended himself. “Kamikaze. There is a
difference, you know.”
“How’s that?” Chip challenged him.
“Suicide
is if I don’t expect you to come back.
Kamikaze is you getting so caught up in what you’re doing you forget to
make sure you get back.”
“I
think you’ve got that backwards, Junior,” Chip growled, but was again
interrupted, this time by Nelson.
“Gentlemen,”
he said firmly, “I expect both of you to remember what you’re doing. Is that clear?” He tried to keep his voice in command mode,
but he knew he wasn’t covering the sparkle of amusement in his eyes as both Lee
and Chip sat at attention and gave him wide-eyed, totally innocent, “Yes,
Sirs.”
“Heaven
help us,” they all heard Doc mutter into his coffee cup.
* *
* *
Shortly
before 0830 Chip and Kowalski slipped quietly out the escape hatch dressed in
dark, camouflage-colored wetsuits and armed to the teeth. Lee saw them off then hurried back to the
Control Room. Patterson was on the
hydrophone and gave his Captain a thumbs up as Lee
stopped at the station.
“Absolutely
nothing, even when I know where they are,” the seaman said quietly.
Lee
gave him an approving pat on the shoulder and headed for the Radio Shack, where
“Good
job, Sparks. Make sure you co-ordinate
with Pat and Larry.” Larribee was their
best sonar operator after Ski.
“Perfect,”
Lee said, picking up the units. He gave
one to each of the hydrophone and sonar operators, waited while they and
Lt.
James beamed. He knew that both Capt.
Crane and Mr. Morton liked him; considered him a good bridge officer. If they didn’t, he wouldn’t have lasted ten
minutes aboard Seaview. It wasn’t so
much that they demanded perfection. They
did expect competence but were perfectly willing to allow a person to grow with
the job as well, encouraging further education and training, and taking the
time to do a lot of the instructing themselves.
Especially the Skipper. Chris had spent hours – both on duty and off
– listening as Capt. Crane discussed procedures, strategies, and tactics. Chris never tired of listening to him, and
tried to soak in as much information as possible. He worked hard to follow the Skipper’s logic
through hypothetical problem after problem, and in
particular the real-life situations that occurred unpredictably on
Seaview. That he’d been able to
anticipate the Skipper’s plans pleased him no end, not to mention getting the
man’s verbal acknowledgement and approval.
Not that that was important. But
with the Exec outside, Chris would have been happy to get nothing more than a
nod, as distracted as the Skipper could get when he was worried.
Lee
smiled again and grabbed the nearest mic.
Double-clicking, he called the Missile Room.
“Missile
Room,” Sharkey answered instantly.
Lee
took a quick look at Lt. James’ timeline.
“Just confirming, first divers out at 1015.”
“Aye, aye, Sir. We’re just doing the equipment
check.”
“Be
down in a few minutes.”
“Missile Room, aye.” Lee broke
the connection and gave Chris an upraised eyebrow.
“Everything
under control here, Sir,” Chris answered smartly. Almost forgetting himself, his hand started
to come up in a salute before he caught it, hoping the Skipper hadn’t
noticed. That was one thing that had
been very difficult for the young lieutenant to get used to – the casual
attitude Capt. Crane preferred to maintain.
Unfortunately, the Skipper missed very little that happened around
him. Chris just smiled sheepishly as
Capt. Crane’s eyes sparkled and he grinned broadly, gave him a quick nod, and
headed aft.
Lee
had intended to ask the Chief several other things, before deciding it might be
better not to do it over the intercom.
He couldn’t imagine any way that Seaview’s internal communications could
be tapped into, but under the current circumstances he wasn’t about to take any
unnecessary chances.
Some
of the questions were answered as he stepped through the Missile Room
hatch. While the next scheduled teams
were just beginning to go over their checklists, there were four other men
suited up, equipment laid out, ready to hit the water
at a moment’s notice. Lee gave them a
nod, had a quick word with Sharkey, and returned to the
Once
there, he realized within just a few minutes that he was starting to pace. He was just undogging the upper hatch to FS1
when Nelson’s voice sounded behind him.
“Lee, where are you going?” He
turned to find the Admiral coming down the spiral stairs, and waited until
Nelson had hit the bottom before responding.
“Just
going down to do a systems check – make sure she’s ready to go out instantly if
we need her.”
Nelson’s
immediate response was a grunt and a frown.
But he finally nodded, and Lee slipped down the access ladder. Running through the checklist didn’t keep him
occupied long, even double-checking the laser rifle. Nelson was sitting at the nose table looking
through a folder when Lee came back up.
He originally intended to walk through the Control Room, giving each of
the stations another check. But he was
interrupted when Nelson, using a foot, pushed one of the other chairs away from
the table and gave Lee an expectant look.
Lee just sighed heavily.
“Yes,
Sir,” he surrendered. He did look at Lt.
James.
“Nothing
new, Sir,” came softly back, and Lee settled into the chair. Or, at least, the front
half of it.
Nelson
poured him a mug of coffee from the ever-present carafe. “Settle down, Lee,” he requested gently. He knew it was probably useless. With everything that had been going on, and
today’s covert operation in full swing, Lee was at ‘Battle Stations’ readiness. Nelson knew the coffee wasn’t going to help
the matter in the least. But he also had
a pretty fair idea of what would happen if he suggested a glass of warm
milk. At least Lee was sitting, however
momentarily he could get the younger man to remain there. At this point he’d take what little
cooperation he could get. “I was just
studying some old maps of the area.” He
pushed several papers toward Lee. “I
thought perhaps there might be some references to an old shipwreck; that maybe
divers had found something worth looting.”
“You’d
think that sonar would have been able to pick that up,” Lee replied, and gave
the charts a distracted glance.
“You’d
think so,” Nelson agreed. “Just a
possibility we hadn’t totally explored yet.”
“Yes,
Sir,” Lee answered politely. His
attention, however, was focused on the various stations in the Control Room.
Nelson
knew when he was licked, and surrendered
gracefully. “Go on, Lee,” he said with a
sigh of his own.
Lee
bounced out of his chair so fast he bumped the table. That piece of furniture was firmly bolted
down. But in regaining his own balance
Lee put out his hand and overturned his barely touched mug of coffee – right
into Nelson’s lap. “Oh my gosh,” Lee gasped as Nelson launched himself to his feet,
and reached for the handful of napkins next to the carafe. Once the shock of getting a
full mug of coffee dumped on him subsided slightly, Nelson realized the
futility of Lee’s efforts.
“Never
mind, Lee,” he said firmly, then had to repeat it as Lee was busily trying to
soak up the spill.
“Sir?” Lee finally looked at Nelson.
“I’ll
call the Wardroom and have this cleaned up.”
“I’m
so sorry, Sir. I can’t believe I did
that.” Lee was so embarrassed.
Nelson
just shook his head. The whole time Lee
was trying to clean up the mess he was also looking over his shoulder into the
Lee
didn’t stay long at the chart table before moving nervously around the
“Skipper,
I thought the divers were supposed to stay hunkered down and just watch.”
Lee
was instantly alert. “Problems?”
“Mr.
Morton is on the move – away from Seaview.”
“In
a hurry?”
“Not
really, Sir. In fact, he seems to be
moving a little strangely. At least,”
“He’s
in the middle of a kelp bed,” Lee offered.
“That could cause problems.”
“Yes,
Sir,”
“Try
calling him,” Lee said, and watched the radioman send a quick series of clicks
over the divers’ channel. There was no
reply. “Again,” Lee ordered, starting to
get concerned. The speaker remained
silent. “Try
Kowalski.”
“Aye,
Sir,”
“Missile
Room,” Lee practically shouted. “Divers in the water – Now!”
“Missile
Room, aye,” Sharkey responded promptly.
“Has
Ski moved?” Lee asked
“No,
Sir.” Worry was now evident in the
normally controlled radioman’s voice.
“Sharkey,”
Lee said into the mic he still held, “
“I
can be up there in two shakes,” the COB offered.
“No,”
Lee ordered. “I need you to supervise
the divers.”
“Aye,
aye, Sir,” Sharkey’s unhappy voice came back.
He knew the Skipper shouldn’t go out by himself. Maybe the Admiral is with him, the
Chief speculated, and instantly felt better.
But
Lee was already halfway across the
Nelson
heard Lee’s call to the Missile Room and quickly pulled on his pants. Grabbing his shirt he hurried back to the
Chris
was quick to supply what he knew, augmented by
Nelson
grabbed a mic. “Lee,” he shouted into
it, once
“No
time, Sir,” Lee answered. “Chip’s in
trouble or he’d answer. Have the divers
found Ski?”
Nelson
growled, but looked at
“Morton’s signal?” Lee asked.
“Two degrees port and about thirty yards ahead of your present
position, Sir.”
“Roger
that. Keep me posted.”
Nelson
started to say something but the divers Sharkey had sent out called in, saying
that they’d found Kowalski. The senior
rating appeared to be hurt badly, with a spear through his shoulder. Nelson listened, silent but seething inside,
as calls were relayed to
Then
suddenly the blip disappeared. There was
mad scrambling in the Control Room between the various stations to try and
figure out what was happening. Nelson
called Lee. For a moment there wasn’t a
reply, and Nelson practically screamed into the mic.
“Here,
Sir,” came the response – finally.
“There’s what looks like a small seamount. I just got a glimpse of someone – or
something – going around one side. Then
they disappeared. There’s a small
opening at the base of the mound. I’m
guessing there’s a chamber, or bunker, or something. That’s why we’ve never seen any boats in the
area. Has to be a staging area…” His voice trailed off.
“Lee?”
Nelson asked. No answer. “What are you doing? Wait for the divers. They’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“No
time, Sir.”
“Lee,”
Nelson growled, using the tone to try and disguise his worry. “Lee?”
When no answer came, Nelson transferred the growl to James. “The instant the divers have Ski on board,
get Seaview directly over FS1.”
“Aye,
aye, Sir,” the young lieutenant responded, and looked toward Patterson on Sonar
to help set the coordinates.
* *
* *
It
took him a few seconds but he finally spotted it – an opening just big enough
for a diver. He made his last call to
Nelson, settled FS1 where he could exit out the bottom hatch, unplugged himself
from the radio, and started to suit up.
He did take a couple extra seconds, stripping off his uniform and
pulling on a wetsuit, to put two pieces of waterproof tape over the bandage
still on the back of his leg. Sorry,
Jamie, he muttered softly to himself.
Best I can do. Slipping
into a tank and harness he strapped on a diving knife, grabbed a spear gun, and
opened the escape hatch.
Working
hard to steady nerves suddenly on end, Lee approached the opening cautiously
but as quickly as he could. He knew
Nelson was going to land on him big time for going out alone. Not to mention all the little ways Jamie
would get his revenge. But it would have
taken too long to explain. Hell, not
even sure I could explain, he admitted.
I just have this feeling…
He
did regret that the diving gear on board FS1 was standard scuba gear, without
two-way communication capabilities. But
it wasn’t like FS1 was hard to spot or for Seaview to track. Easing up to the opining, so camouflaged that
if he hadn’t seen the diver disappear behind the mound he’d never have spotted
it, he tried to keep on the lookout for any detection devices. But he saw nothing except normal fauna. Keeping the spear gun slightly forward, and ready to fire, he entered the opening.
The
first thing that surprised him was the entrance angle – almost straight
down. There was no light inside so he
had to practically feel his way along.
The sides were either smooth rock or concrete. Old WWII bunker? Strange place for one, on
He
held his breath as he approached the surface of the water, wanting to control
the air bubbles as much as possible. He
couldn’t believe he’d been as lucky as he’d been so far, and that in itself was
worrisome. Anyone who could have set
this up had to be smart enough to take a few rudimentary precautions. He willed himself to relax – a case of nerves
wasn’t helping him control his breathing.
The
guardian angel that seemed to follow Lee into crucial situations once again
watched over him as he entered the underground chamber. Chip usually referred to it as dumb luck,
with a decided emphasis on ‘dumb’.
Whatever it was, when he tilted his head so that just his mask broached
the surface there was no one in sight.
His first impression was that the entire chamber wasn’t man-made. This front part certainly was. But farther back it turned into natural rock
that extended beyond where Lee could see.
Humm – someone must have found a natural cavern, sealed the front and
made the channel entrance, then covered it over with dirt. But whoever did it, its years old. More weird. Gently, Lee eased himself into the
cavern.
As
Lee carefully and quietly rose to his feet, spear gun still at the ready, he
heard sounds emanating from around a ‘corner’ in the cavern. This front area was quite small – barely big
enough for a diver to remove his equipment.
Lee left his on and apparently so had the other diver as it wasn’t in
evidence. What was evident was a drag
mark on the floor. “Chip,” Lee breathed,
and moved toward the sounds.
A
large boulder sat directly in front of the tunnel that led further back into
the cavern. A small opening skirted the
rock, and Lee eased into it. Coming to
him from further along was the sound of the compressor, now more evident. The air was a bit stale but breathable in the
chamber so Lee figured it was just a small unit. He wasn’t sure why Seaview’s instrumentation
hadn’t picked up anything but it was possible that something in the original
rock formation, and also whatever had been used to face it, was blocking
transmissions. That would explain why
Chip’s transponder had blipped out as soon as he’d been taken inside. Lee also heard what sounded like someone
moving about, maybe taking off dive equipment.
If I can catch him distracted, Lee thought, and
if he’s alone… Lee
continued into the narrow passageway.
As
Lee moved forward he could just make out footsteps fading away deeper into the
cave. “What the hell is this place?” he
half growled to himself, and pulled back the hood of his wetsuit. Still moving slowly, he rounded another
corner and entered a larger cavern. The
first things to catch his eye were several fairly large, round,
aquarium tanks. All had water in them
but only one held anything else that he could immediately see. At first he thought it was just a piece of
seaweed, hanging suspended in the water.
As Lee stepped closer he realized his error. From pictures he’d seen, this had to be a
Leafy Sea Dragon – the twig-shaped body, the sea horse-type head, and looking,
as Nelson had so aptly described, as having bits of seaweed stuck to it all over. It was more yellow than green, although the
coloration varied. Some areas were more
greenish yellow than others. As Lee
watched, fascinated, small translucent fins on either side of the head and a
longer one along the spine moved in a feathery motion and the roughly 18”
creature turned to stare directly at Lee.
“Oh, my….” he breathed. The tiny
black eyes looking at him almost mournfully were what he’d seen that first day
– he was sure of it. And also what he’d
seen in his nightmare.
A
small sound behind Lee startled him back into the present and he spun
around. In the corner was a wet-suit
clad figure laying somewhat in a heap.
Lee hurried over to it and, laying down the spear gun, he knew even
before he removed the faceplate from the re-breather that it was Chip. His friend appeared to be stunned, and just
starting to fight his way up out of it.
“Shush,”
Lee hissed, having no idea where the other person was – and hoping it was only
one other person. He had no idea how
badly Chip was hurt. There didn’t seem
to be any puncture wounds but his friend was definitely not coherent as he
continued to struggle gently under Lee’s hands.
Lee was just about to put a hand over Chip’s mouth to try and keep him
quiet when ‘something’, and he was never able to identify what, made him shift
quickly to his left.
That
movement saved his life, at least momentarily.
The knife blade that buried in his back, had it been more toward the
center, would have punctured a lung, and in all probability Lee would not have
lived long. The damage it did cause,
however, was bad enough as it sliced into the top of his right shoulder. Lee couldn’t stop a scream of pain as he felt
it scrape his collarbone. It sliced
further, held firmly by whoever had wielded it, when Lee spun around. His right arm suddenly useless and in severe
pain, Lee tried to push his attacker away and grab his own knife with his left
hand. He was only partially successful. “Who the hell are you?” he screamed. The man, approximately 25 years old, dark
haired and dressed only in the bottom half of his wetsuit, just ignored the
question. He’d taken a stumbling step
backward when Lee shoved him, but maintained his grip on the knife and again
lunged for Lee. Not having time to reach
his own weapon, Lee’s only option was to grab the man’s wrist and try to keep
him from using the already bloody knife again.
* *
* *
Chip
had absolutely no idea what was going on.
The last thing he remembered was sitting on the ocean floor in the
middle of a kelp bed. All of a sudden he
was laying on something very hard, breathing normally instead of through a
re-breather unit, and his head hurt like hell.
From somewhere close there were yells and grunts, but it took Chip an
undeterminable amount of time to pry his eyes open and try to figure out what
was happening. During his struggle his
right hand landed on a piece of metal laying next to
him, but for a bit it didn’t sink in what it was. As the sounds of struggling continued close
by, Chip struggled himself. Nothing
wanted to work. Not his eyes. Not his brain. And when he tried to move his body,
explosions went off in his head forcing him to stop, take a deep breath, and
rest a few seconds before trying again.
Finally
he was able to roll slightly on his side and get his eyes to function – if not
very well. Several feet away, two
somebodys were fighting. For a moment
Chip wasn’t sure he cared why. He just
wished they’d shut up!
Slowly
it sunk in that the dark, curly hair on one of the combatants was
familiar. But it took a few more grunts,
and another pain-filled scream, for Chip to finally identify the man as
Lee. And he was in trouble! Chip tried to sit up in an effort to come to his
friend’s aid but again his head exploded.
Flailing about, his hand again landed on the piece of metal, this time
identifying it as a spear gun.
Desperately, with hands shaking and eyes that wouldn’t totally focus, he
raised the gun, aimed it at the bare back of the combatant who wasn’t Lee, and
squeezed the trigger.
* *
* *
Nelson
was on the warpath, and every crewman anywhere in his immediate vicinity was
trying to find a very deep hole to crawl into.
Normally their confident young Captain would be there to deflect the
Admiral’s infamous tirades. In the
Skipper’s absence their Exec could be depended upon to step in and help keep
things under control. Unfortunately,
this time it was precisely those two people who were the major cause of
Nelson’s temper tantrum, and poor young Lt. James was caught in the Admiral’s
crosshairs.
So
far he thought he’d been managing pretty well.
As soon as the divers bringing Kowalski back were inside, Chris
carefully maneuvered the giant submarine around the kelp bed and directly over
FS1. From this position they still
couldn’t see what the Skipper had reported seeing but two heavily armed divers
were already preparing to go down and investigate, meeting up with the other
two who were just arriving. At that
point Nelson went flying off to the Missile Room, intending to go out with
them. Chris knew that this was a bad
idea. He knew that without either
Skipper or XO aboard, Nelson should remain here. Unfortunately, he also knew that there wasn’t
a chance in hell of stopping the rampaging Admiral. All he could do was follow orders, keep Seaview
in this position until told otherwise, and pray!
He
might have been a little happier if he’d known that Nelson himself realized he
was being a damn fool by going after his officers – although that didn’t stop
him from going anyway. Sharkey, already
suited up, had Nelson’s gear laid out and waiting when the Admiral hit the
Missile Room, and Nelson changed in record time. As James reported nothing new from the
Nelson
wasn’t sure if they’d ever have found the opening to the underground chamber if
Lee hadn’t pointed FS1’s nose directly at it.
Even then they wasted several minutes scouting around before Roberts
spotted it. With room enough for only one
man at a time to enter Nelson, very begrudgingly, acquiesced to Sharkey’s request
that the Chief go first, then another armed diver, then the Admiral, who wasn’t
armed. Nelson wasn’t happy, and almost
grabbed a spear gun from one of the other divers. But reason finally prevailed – barely.
Even
knowing the reasons for proceeding cautiously, Nelson’s patience was nearly at
the limits when he finally broached the surface in the small entry room. Sharkey was already slowly advancing down a
narrow passageway. Nielson stopped to
help him out of the water but Nelson motioned him to follow the Chief and was
out quickly by himself, followed instantly by the last two, and they all headed
along the passage, deeper into the cavern.
Nelson
was just rounding the corner when Sharkey yelled out and everyone charged
forward. The scene laid out in front of
them caused everyone a momentary pause before they all headed in a different
direction. Nelson and Sharkey descended
on two bodies in the center of the chamber, Neilson headed for Chip, lying in
the corner, and Roberts and Richardson, spear guns at the ready, scouted the
rest of the cavern.
The
person on top of the other in the middle had a spear sticking out of his back,
and it took everyone a second to realize it wasn’t Crane. Sharkey quickly determined that the stranger
was dead and rolled him away, discovering Lee lying underneath. Nelson’s heart was in his throat until he
found a pulse, although only a slight one.
There was a large knife wound on the back of Lee’s right shoulder and
another gash on the front of his left.
Both were bleeding profusely, and Nelson tried calling Seaview as
Sharkey grabbed the small emergency kit on his belt. Nelson was realizing that something in the
cavern was blocking radio transmissions when the other two divers came back,
reporting no one else in the cavern.
Nelson sent Roberts outside to radio for assistance. He knew Jamie wouldn’t be too happy about
diving, but he wasn’t about to try and move Lee without being treated
first. Neilson reported that Chip didn’t
have any apparent injuries, that he was just dazed and not totally coherent.
“Hold
on Lee,” Nelson pleaded as he and Sharkey tried with what they had to staunch
the bleeding from the two wounds.
“Please. Jamie is on his way.” He heard Sharkey snort despite the
seriousness of the situation, and a small smile appeared on his own face. “You have to be okay. You know you can’t deprive Doc of the
opportunity to get even for making him leave Seaview in a wetsuit.”
* *
* *
Lee’s
dreams were a confused mixture of fluttering seaweed, spiked monsters, caves,
and severe pain. The pain finally took
over and forced him out of the depths in an attempt to escape it.
“Easy,
Skipper,” sounded gently from one side, and Lee tried to turn toward it. Instant pain forced a cry from his lips. “Try not to move,” again came softly, and
ever so slowly the pain started to subside.
“Open your eyes, Skipper. I know
it’s hard. But just for a moment.” Lee finally recognized Jamie’s voice through
the fog, and tried to follow the instructions.
It was harder than he expected.
But as long as he didn’t try to move his body, the pain kept to a dull
ache. Ever so slowly his eyelids opened,
revealing a smiling CMO sitting next to him, and beyond, the unmistakable
images of
Lee
sighed heavily, letting memories start to sink in. “Chip?” he asked through a parched
throat. Doc reached for a small glass
with a straw in it, and held it so Lee could take a few sips before answering.
“In
the next bunk,” he pointed forward. “Didn’t realize until now that he has an even harder head than you
do.”
“Jamie,”
Lee growled – or tried to. Even he
realized that’s not how it came out.
“Easy. Just relax.”
Jamie grinned again. “He’s
sleeping peacefully and I’d appreciate you not waking him up. He took a pretty good shot to the noggin but
he’ll be back on his feet by morning.”
Jamie frowned. “Has
to be. I’ve told the two of you before, I will not deal with you both in my
Lee
had the good graces to lower his gaze, but he still saw the return of Jamie’s
grin. “Ski?”
Jamie
nodded across the room to the other section of bunks. “Nasty spear wound, but didn’t hit anything
vital. Lost a fair
amount of blood. Once he gets up
and going there will have to be a few weeks of physical therapy. But he’ll be good as new long before you
are.” Lee started to open his mouth but
Jamie shushed him. “Not now,
Skipper. Don’t even start.” He smiled again. “Considering what’s in the IV, you wouldn’t
last long enough for me to explain, anyway.”
“The Admiral?” Lee managed to get out, already starting to fight a losing battle with
his eyelids.
“Is
off-boat at the moment, still straightening things out with the Australian authorities. I’m sure
he’ll be here by the time you wake up again.
He can explain everything.”
Lee
thought he heard a softly added, “I hope,” but was never sure later as the fog
once again closed in.
* *
* *
Nelson
was finally starting to calm down. It
had admittedly taken awhile. Getting his
injured officers safely back to Seaview’s
His
mood lightened further when he was finally free to return to
He
brightened even more a short time later as he watched Lee fight his way out
from under whatever Doc was feeding him.
The CMO, ever on alert, caught the movement and walked over. “I do need to talk to him for a few minutes,
Jamie.” Nelson told the doctor. “There
are still a few details the authorities need before they can wrap this up.”
Jamie
frowned but nodded. “Just not any longer
than you have to,” he warned. “He wasn’t
totally back on his feet from the first attack.” He just shook his head as Nelson
snorted. “Yeah, well. You know what I mean.” Nelson smiled as he took another healthy
swallow of the ‘doctored’ coffee. “He did
not need the extra trauma,” Jamie continued. “This time he stays down and heals properly.”
“Fat
chance,” Nelson chuckled.
Jamie
indicated the upper bunk and picked up a handful of straps laying there,
showing them to Nelson before dropping them back where they were. “If I have to keep him sedated or in
restraints – or both – so be it. He will
behave!” As Nelson continued to chuckle,
Jamie headed back toward his office muttering, not quite under his breath, “He
will pay for forcing me into a wet suit.”
Nelson
was still chuckling when he noticed Lee’s eyes start to open. He chuckled even harder as he watched Lee
recognize who was sitting next to him and very quickly close them again. “Won’t work, Captain,” he said sternly, but
knowing he couldn’t keep the humor out of his voice. “While we will be discussing this
latest episode of wanton insubordination, I’m willing to let it go until you’re
a little stronger.” His smile broadened
as Lee barely opened his eyes, looking at Nelson through his eyelashes. “How are you feeling?” he asked, more
seriously.
Lee
tried to shrug, realized how painful both shoulders were, and surrendered. “Pretty lousy,” he admitted. “What happened?”
“You
don’t remember?”
“Some of it. Parts are a little fuzzy,
especially toward the last.”
“You
remember entering the underground cavern?”
Lee
started to nod but even that simple movement hurt. “Yes, Sir,” he said quietly.
“Suppose
you start there, and I’ll fill in where I can.”
Nelson
listened quietly as Lee explained about his anxiety over Chip’s safety, and
knowing that he had to get to his friend as quickly as possible. Nelson suppressed a smile as Lee adamantly
insisted that if he hadn’t been so close when the diver disappeared, he’d never
have found the opening. When Lee
hesitated, apparently waiting for Nelson to refute the comment, Nelson just
nodded and Lee continued.
Lee
got as far as finding Chip before once again hesitating. “After that, all I really remember is a whole
lot of pain,” he admitted almost shyly.
Nelson
nodded again. “You were apparently
attacked from behind.”
It
was Lee’s turn to nod – sort of. Pain
abbreviated the movement and he grimaced before continuing. “Spotted Chip and was kneeling next to him.” He sighed heavily. “Didn’t hear the guy come
back from the other part of the chamber.” He sighed again.
Nelson
recognized the signs. Lee’s body being
short of blood, badly needed oxygen wasn’t getting transported as efficiently
as it should be. Trying to compensate,
Lee was unconsciously taking in great gulps of air with each heavy sigh. “My turn,” he interrupted as Lee started to
continue. “You rest. I think I can take it from there.” Lee nodded slightly once again.
“Chip
regained consciousness, at least partially, while you were struggling with the
other man. He said he tried to get up to
help but just couldn’t manage it. But he
found a spear gun lying next to him, and…”
“Mine,”
Lee said quietly. “I remember laying it
down when I knelt to make sure he was breathing…”
Nelson
nodded. He could well imagine what Lee
had been feeling when he first spotted Chip.
Nelson was sure he’d had much the same reaction moments later, upon
finding Lee. “Chip was able to stay
conscious long enough to fire the spear.
From the looks of what we found when we got there, just in time.” He saw a small shudder hit Lee’s body. The younger man closed his eyes for a moment,
just long enough to miss the shudder that hit Nelson, before a thought seemed
to hit him and he looked at Nelson.
“We?”
he asked. “You came?”
Nelson
nodded. “As soon as the divers had
Kowalski aboard, Lt. James moved Seaview directly over FS1. Oh,” Nelson sent Lee a small grin,” it’s a
good thing you pointed the Flying Sub’s nose directly at the opening or we
might never have found it, either.” Lee
gave a slight nod and half closed his eyes again. “There were five of us. Sharkey and I tried to care for your wounds
until Jamie could get there. Neilson
looked after Chip, and
“Jamie
came?” Lee breathed softly, and glanced toward the CMO’s office.
Nelson
chuckled. “Chip woke up while Jamie was
getting you stabilized enough to transport.”
“Damn,”
Lee said softly.
Nelson
snickered. “Jamie let Chip know in no
uncertain terms that he expected the XO to use the dive as Jamie’s
recertification dive for the coming year.”
Nelson grinned. “I rather suspect
he’ll petition you for the same recognition.”
“Got
that right,” came instantly from Jamie’s office.
Nelson
grinned, and finally Lee did as well. It
was a standing joke on Seaview that the only way the CMO wanted to be
underwater was with a submarine around him.
As a member of the crew, however, Jamie was required to certify his
diving skills yearly. It was the XO’s
duty to see that the certification was up-to-date. On that day each year Lee tended to make himself scarce during the day, then take his Executive
Officer out to dinner – and several very large drinks – that night.
Lee
finally got back to business. “What was
going on down there?” he asked Nelson.
“Do you know? I saw the dragon…”
“Poaching,”
Nelson answered simply. At Lee’s puzzled
expression he continued. “Remember when
we were talking in the Wardroom, and I was explaining that the dragons are a
protected species?” Lee nodded. “The Leafy Sea Dragon in particular, because its so rare. We can
only speculate at this point. But from
the set-up we found in the cavern, it looks like he was catching ‘pregnant’
male dragons, holding them until the young hatched, then selling the hatchlings
to private collectors.”
“The cavern itself?” Lee persisted.
“Who
knows?” Nelson shrugged. “It was
obviously older than the poacher. Even
the Aussies I talked to had no idea what it could have been. Whatever it was,” Nelson added with a growl,
“its history now,” and he explained how it had been cleaned out and permanently
sealed.
“That
was fast,” Lee mentioned cautiously.
“The
Aussies have apparently been trying for a couple years to figure out how
collectors around the world were getting their hands on immature dragons. Whatever that cavern
was originally, and however the guy found it, he had a pretty well organized
set-up. The authorities wanted it closed
down and out of commission immediately.
I was only too happy to give them the assistance.” As Lee started to say more another heavy sigh
hit him, and Nelson laid a hand on his arm.
“Enough for now,” he said softly.
“You go back to sleep. You need to
rest.”
“Somehow I get the feeling I’m not going to
have any options,” Lee muttered, not quite looking at Nelson. The Admiral followed Lee’s gaze up to where
one of the restraint straps had slipped over the edge of the upper bunk and was
hanging down within view.
Nelson
chuckled. “Think I’ll be leaving how,”
he said as he smiled and stood. He gave
Jamie, who was once again standing in his office doorway, a nod as he left. Seeing the expression on the CMO’s face, Lee
immediately closed his eyes.
* *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
This is for Liz M., because
I promised to write her a sea horse story.
* see “The Substitute” by R. L. Keller
**
see “Past Imperfect by R. L. Keller
***see
“Friends” by R. L. Keller