Harassed
By JSRobertson
The admiral was contacted by
a company, A. R. Laboratories, to take their mini bathyscaphe* to the Sirena
Deep in the Mariana trench so they could do some research on amphipods, ooze,
xenophyophores and sea cucumbers in the deep trench. No Seaview personnel would be needed
except to launch the bathyscaphe. Seaview
was just the vessel of transportation.
The only reason the admiral
took this mission was to see how deep their bathyscaphe could dive into the
trench and what they would actually find.
This being one of the deepest trenches in the world there wasn’t too
many living things that deep.
They would have three
civilians aboard. Lee really didn’t like to have civilians on Seaview as
there seems to be more trouble when they’re around but he knew the admiral
wanted to take on this mission so he agreed.
One of the civilians was a woman scientist who would handle the diving
of the bathyscaphe, along with another scientist, Silas Howard. The owner of
the company, Andrew Rosen, would also be on board as an observer. Janet was looking forward to have another
woman aboard for a change.
Unfortunately, she got sick and was replaced by Don Porter.
Seaview sailed to
The admiral came in the missile room as Lee
and Janet were looking over the manifest.
“Admiral they sure are
bringing a lot of equipment on board. Do
they really need all these items?” Lee asked shaking his head.
“Most of these items are used
to conduct the tests on the things they find in the trench. It can all go in the lab.”
“Okay, sir,” Lee replied as
he signed the manifest and gave it back to Janet so she could put it in the
file for this mission. She left the
missile room and went back to the control room with the duty rosters she had
typed up earlier.
They brought their own
computer which would need a place to be connected.
“Sir, where would you like us
to put their computer?” Kowalski asked the admiral.
“There’s no room in the lab
so just put it in Mrs. Crane’s office.
I’ll tell her later they’ll be sharing her office.”
“Yes sir,” Kowalski answered
and took the computer to her office.
((()))
Since it would take four days
to get to the Mariana Trench, they would depart
The admiral met the gentlemen
topside and brought them down to the control room where he introduced them to
Lee, Chip and Janet.
“Mr. Rosen, Mr. Howard, Mr.
Porter I would like you to meet the captain of Seaview, Commander Lee Crane, the executive
officer, Chip Morton, and Janet Crane, Lee’s wife, and administrative assistant
to all of us.”
“Nice to meet all of you,”
they replied.
“If you should need anything,
please don’t hesitate to let any of us know,” Lee told them.
They all shook our hands but
when Mr. Porter shook Janet’s hand he held on to it a little too long. She actually had to pull it away from him.
“Mr. Morton, please show our
guests to their quarters. I believe
their luggage has already been taken to their cabins,” Lee asked Chip.
“Aye sir,” Chip replied as he
led them up the spiral staircase and showed them where their cabins were.
As they were walking away
Janet heard Mr. Porter ask where the computer was and when could it be
connected.
((()))
Since they were still in the
harbor, the admiral decided to have dinner that night in the observation nose. Seaview
was the largest vessel at
Chip, Lee and Janet arrived
just ahead of everyone and were looking out the windows when the admiral and
the guests arrived.
Mr. Rosen had brought some
wine aboard which they enjoyed before dinner.
Since Seaview was on a private mission, alcohol was allowed on
the boat.
Cookie and the mess
specialists set up a buffet with delicious appetizers of fresh oysters, shrimp
and sushi to eat before dinner was served.
While eating the appetizers Mr.
Rosen and Mr. Howard were talking to the admiral.
“Admiral we’re very impressed
on how large Seaview is and the windows offer a magnificent view of the
ocean. What keeps them from breaking?” Mr. Rosen asked.
“Gentlemen, the windows are
made of a material I invented called herculite.
If you want to see something spectacular, please come down tomorrow
morning when Seaview dives under the water,” the admiral told them
proudly as he always enjoyed talking about his ‘front porch’.
Mr. Porter showed no interest
in what they were talking about. He homed
in on Janet as she stood next to Lee and Chip.
He grabbed her hand and was stroking it.
“Mrs. Crane, I find it very
interesting that you are the only woman on board. What is it you do on Seaview and how
long have you been here?” Mr. Porter asked.
“I’m the administrative
assistant on board. I help Admiral
Nelson, Commander Crane and Mr. Morton with their paperwork. I’ve been here a little over two years and
there is no problem being the only woman on board, I’m just a member of the
crew,” she replied politely as she tried to pull her hand out of his grasp but
he had a tight hold on it.
He never acknowledged that
fact that she was married and that it was to the captain of Seaview. She was very uncomfortable talking to him and
he never did say one word to Lee or Chip. Neither one of them noticed he held her hand
the whole time he was talking to her.
When it was time for dinner,
Mr. Porter directed Janet to a seat at the end of the table and sat down right
along side of her. Mr. Rosen was already
seated at the head of the table so Lee had to sit a few seats down from
her. He could tell she was not
happy.
Cookie served a dinner of
roast beef, mashed potatoes, and green beans with fresh fruit and of course
brownies for dessert.
“Admiral that was a fantastic
dinner. My compliments to the chef,” Mr.
Rosen exclaimed taking his napkin from his lap and putting it on the table.
“Cookie is the chef on board
and he and his mess specialists take very good care of us,” the admiral said
happily acknowledging Cookie who was standing by in case they needed anything.
“Thank you sir,” Cookie
responded. “I’m glad you enjoyed the
dinner.” He looked at Lee and Janet and
shook his head noticing how little food they ate.
“If you’ll excuse us
gentlemen, we have an early start in the morning getting Seaview out of
the harbor,” Lee told them as he, Chip and Janet got up to leave. “Enjoy the rest of your evening.”
“Mrs. Crane do you need to
leave too?” Mr. Porter asked taking her hand in his as she got up from the
table.
“Yes sir, I will be up early
also,” she replied removing her hand as politely as she could without making a
scene.
The three of them left for
their cabins while the rest of the gentlemen enjoyed a nightcap and the
gorgeous view.
“Well, what do you think of
our guests?” Chip asked as they walked to their cabins.
“I’m not impressed by any of
them and I don’t care for Mr. Porter at all, there’s something about him that
irks me,” Lee commented.
“Could it be because he took
your seat?” Chip chuckled. “And I think
you’re a little jealous. He seems a
little taken with Janet.”
“Very funny Morton. Watch out or you will have to take Seaview
out of the harbor. The last time you
took her out, you scratched her paint and had to pay for dinner,” Lee answered
smiling but noticed Janet was very quiet instead of joining in the banter
between Chip and him.
“Sweetie, are you
alright? You were unusually quiet at
dinner and hardly ate anything.”
“I’m fine. Just wasn’t that hungry. Good night Chip, see you in the morning,” she
replied as they got to Chip’s cabin.
They got ready for bed and
Janet fell asleep as soon as she lay down.
Lee was a little surprised she fell asleep as fast did as he would have
liked some evening exercise.
((()))
They were up at 0400 and
after some morning exercise Janet was in a little better mood. Lee always made her feel better. They quickly got ready as they were running a
little late.
As they made their way down
the spiral staircase, she could see Cookie had already put a pot of coffee on
the table in the observation nose. Chip was already in the control room with a
cup of coffee waiting for Lee. Lee and
Janet grabbed a quick cup before leaving the control room. The three of them climbed the ladder to the
conning tower. The only time Janet was allowed up was when they leave
Once they left the harbor and
were in open sea, Mr. O’Brien took over the conn while they went to breakfast. As they headed into the wardroom, Janet
tensed up as Mr. Porter and the other two men were already there eating with
the admiral and Jamie.
“I forgot something in our
cabin. I will eat in a little while,”
she whispered squeezing Lee’s hand and left.
Lee couldn’t follow her as he
needed to get on duty as soon as he finished breakfast. Chip was also a little surprised that she
left them. So were the admiral and Jamie
who saw her turn and leave. The other
gentlemen had their backs to the door so they didn’t see her.
((()))
Chip and Lee walked in and
were served eggs, bacon, and toast along with some fruit by the mess
specialists. They sat down next to the
admiral and Jamie after getting some coffee.
“Where’s your wife this
morning? Sleeping in? She said she would be up early.” Mr. Porter
asked curiously.
Lee wondered why he wanted to
know what his wife was doing. Controlling his temper, “No she forgot something
and will be down later,” Lee replied abruptly drawing a surprised look from the
admiral at his tone of voice.
“That’s too bad. I was looking forward to having breakfast
with her. Mr. Morton, I need to set up
the computer. Is everything I need
available in the office I’m using?” Mr. Porter queried.
“Yes, sir,” Chip
replied. “I will make sure everything is
ready for you to set up as soon as we’re done with breakfast.”
Lee and Chip finished breakfast
and left the wardroom. Chip left with
Mr. Porter and went to the office where they put his computer.
Lee didn’t have time to check
on Janet now but would make it a point to do so later in the morning. He went
to the control room and relieved Bobby.
((()))
Janet never went down for
breakfast that morning, instead heading right to her office and started work. She was working on some reports when Chip and
Mr. Porter walked in. She didn’t find
out until this morning when she saw the other computer that Mr. Porter would be
working with her in her office.
“Good morning Mrs. Crane,”
Chip said quietly, “Missed you at breakfast.”
“Good morning Mr. Morton,”
Janet replied softly, “I forgot something in my cabin and had to go back.”
“Just making sure everything is
set for Mr. Porter to hook up his computer and it looks like everything is
here.”
Mr. Porter just needed to connect the cables
and plug it in. As Chip watched him, he
could tell he knew very little about computers. Chip did the connections for
him.
“I’m sorry I need to go to
the control room. If you need any more
help, you can ask Mrs. Crane and she will get in contact with me and I will be
able to help you later.”
“Thanks for your help Mr.
Morton. It looks like everything is
working fine,” Mr. Porter answered after he booted up the computer. “If I need anything more I will ask Mrs.
Crane first.”
Chip hoped they wouldn’t need
his help with their computer. He had a
lot of reports to catch up on and was hoping to do that while they were diving
in the bathyscaphe.
Janet wanted to leave the
cabin as soon as Chip and Mr. Porter walked in.
She was not happy he was going to be in there with her. She didn’t like him but she knew space was
limited and would have to work it out.
Hopefully he wouldn’t be in there when she was and if he was she would
somehow work around him.
“I see we’re going to be
working together,” Mr. Porter said coming over to her desk and grabbed her hand
and patted it gently. She quickly
pulled it away. This man was definitely
weird, she thought.
“Yes, I will try to stay out
of your way,” she said tensely.
She would have to be careful
on what she worked on when he was in there.
She didn’t want him to see any classified information or for that matter
any information. She could also tell he
wasn’t too familiar with computers. He
asked her a couple of questions about the computer that everyone should know. She
liked him even less than before.
“I have to go to the control
room, so if you need anything more it will have to wait until I get back,” she
said while she turned off her computer.
“No problem, I’m just going
to check out our program and make sure it’s ready to enter the data,” Mr. Porter
answered back winking at her. This
part of the mission was going to be real fun.
She wants no part of me, he thought.
But that isn’t going to stop me.
She couldn’t get out of there
fast enough.
((()))
Janet went to the control
room and sat in the observation nose as Lee directed the crew to dive the
boat. She loved watching her glide under
the water. The admiral was there with Mr.
Rosen and Mr. Howard. While they looked out
the windows, she could see they were in awe of how she slid so easily under the
water.
“Chip, take over the conn for
a few minutes, please. I want to check
on Janet.”
“Aye sir.”
“What’s wrong? You didn’t come back for breakfast, did you
eat?” he asked her gently.
“Not hungry. Did you know I would have to share my office
with Mr. Porter?”
“Yes, I’m sorry I thought the
admiral told you. If it’s going to be a
problem, I will try and find some other space but your office is very
convenient as it is right down from the lab.”
“I don’t like Mr. Porter. He gives me the creeps but I will make it
work. Please don’t say anything.”
“I won’t. But please go get breakfast,”
he told her grabbing her hand and giving it a squeeze.
Janet went to the wardroom
and did get something to eat and then went back to her office. She had a lot of work to do. The admiral had given her some letters to
type, plus she had inventory to enter.
When she got there Mr. Porter was gone.
This is going to be a long mission; she thought thinking of ways
to avoid him. Cheech he was creepy.
((()))
Seaview had been sailing for four days and got to the trench
early in the morning on the fifth day. Mr.
Porter and Mr. Howard wanted to take their bathyscaphe out right away. They demanded the crew on duty in the missile
stop what they were doing and launch it.
The missile room crew had orders to wait until the admiral or Lee was
there to supervise. Mr. Porter and Mr. Howard
were not happy and were going to try and launch it themselves.
”Control Room,” Riley called on the mic.
“Control Room,” Lee answered. “What is it Riley.”
“Skipper, can you please come
down to the missile room right away.”
“Is there a problem?”
“Aye, sir.”
“I’ll be right there,” he
answered, just looked at Chip and rolled his eyes.
The admiral and Mr. Rosen
were in the observation nose and heard the conversation and went with him to
the missile room.
When they got there, Mr. Porter
and Mr. Howard were trying to work the controls that lowered the
bathyscaphe.
“No one will lower the
bathyscaphe unless Captain Crane or I are here in the missile room. Gentlemen is that clear?” the admiral said
tersely. “We need to make sure Seaview
is in position for lowering the bathyscaphe. I will not put her or the crew in
jeopardy.”
“Yes admiral,” Mr. Howard and
Mr. Porter replied apologetically.
“Control Room,” Lee called on
the mic.
“Aye, captain.”
“Chip is Seaview in
position for launching the bathyscaphe?”
“Aye, sir, everything is
green.”
“Thanks, Chip.”
The missile room crew lowered
the bathyscaphe to a depth of one thousand feet into the trench. Since it was a new vessel, Mr. Howard and Mr.
Porter would only stay down there for a short period of time making sure it
could take the pressure and it was water tight. They worked the manipulator arms and took
some samples of the ooze on the side of the trench and some sea cucumbers and
xenophyophores. They were down there about an hour when they were brought back
aboard Seaview. The bathyscaphe
on its maiden launch came through with flying colors. The men were very excited
when they exited the bathyscaphe. They
were anxious to get to the lab and analyze the ooze, sea cucumbers and
xenophyophores they brought aboard.
“Admiral would you like to
help analyze the ooze?” Mr. Howard asked.
“I thought you would never
ask,” the admiral responded as he left for the lab with Mr. Porter and Mr.
Howard.
((()))
On the way to the lab, Mr. Howard
suddenly doubled over in pain and fell to the floor. The admiral reached for the nearest mic.
“Sick bay,” the admiral
called urgently.
“Sick bay aye,” Jamie
answered quickly.
“Doc come to the passageway
by the lab right away, we have a man down.”
“On my way.” Jamie grabbed his bag and left with John, the
corpsman, on duty.
He got to the passageway in
short order and immediately began examining the downed man. Lee had heard the
call for Jamie to come to the lab and was entering the passageway just as Jamie
was examining Mr. Howard.
“Looks like his appendix,”
Jamie reported. “We have to get him to
sick bay immediately.”
Lee and John picked him up
and carried him to sick bay. The admiral
and Jamie followed along with Mr. Rosen.
Mr. Porter took the samples to the lab and started to analyze them.
Jamie confirmed that Mr.
Howard’s appendix had ruptured and needed to be removed immediately. He asked John to start prepping him for
surgery.
“Doctor, will he be okay?”
Mr. Rosen asked concerned. “What caused
his appendix to rupture?”
“Yes, if I get his appendix
out right away and put him on an antibiotic he should be okay, but he will not
be able to dive for the rest of the trip.
It could have been the pressure from the dive or no reason at all. Please excuse me.” Jamie said as he prepared for surgery.
“Damn,” Mr. Rosen said as
they left sick bay. “I’ve invested a lot
of money in this trip. The bathyscaphe
needs two men to operate it. Admiral do
any of your men know anything about bathyscaphes?”
“I know a little bit and
would be glad to help out,” the admiral said a little too eagerly for Lee.
“Thank you admiral for
volunteering to help me out. Mr. Porter
will take the lead on handling the diving and analysis. My only other problem is I don’t have any one
to put the data in the computer now that Mr. Howard is out of commission.”
The admiral piped up, “Let me
check with Mrs. Crane. She’s pretty good
at computers and maybe will be able to help out.”
“Thanks, Admiral. I would really appreciate any help she could
give us. I will make sure you get
reimbursed for any extra time she puts in.”
((()))
The admiral went to Janet’s office
on his way to the lab. She was sitting
there staring at the computer screen.
“Everything okay?” the
admiral asked as he came in. “I need a
favor from you.”
“Yes sir everything is
fine. Just trying to see if there is a
different way of doing this project,” she replied, “What can I do for you?”
“Mr. Howard has to have his
appendix out and he will be unable to do any diving for the rest of the
mission. Mr. Porter will be taking over
his position on the bathyscaphe. Since
he will be unable to enter the data into the computer, Mr. Rosen asked me for
someone to help out. Do you think you
could do this? I realize it will cut
down on the time you have to do your regular duties but I will try to get Chip
and Lee to help out with that. He will
pay you for whatever time you put in,” the admiral stated.
“Does that mean I will have
to work with Mr. Porter?” she asked tensely.
“Yes. He will be giving you all the data you need
to enter. Is that a problem?”
“No sir. I will do whatever I can to help them
out. Will they show me how to enter the
data?”
“I will arrange to have Mr.
Porter show you everything you need to know as soon as he is free. He’s analyzing some samples now so it
shouldn’t be too long before he is finished.
Thanks for helping out.”
“No problem sir.”
The admiral left her office.
She didn’t want to work with Mr. Porter but she could tell the admiral was
counting on her to help them out and she didn’t want to let him down.
((()))
Before going to the control
room, the admiral went to the lab to talk to Mr. Rosen and Mr. Porter.
“I checked with Mrs. Crane
and she is willing to help you with the data entry. Someone will need to show her what and how to
enter the data.”
“Thank you very much
Admiral,” Mr. Rosen replied gratefully.
“I’m almost finished
analyzing the ooze we brought aboard. I
will show her what needs to be done,” Mr. Porter said happily. “We’re getting a late start so I hope she
won’t mind staying a little longer.”
“She’ll be waiting for you.”
Mr. Porter was happy as a
clam as he would get to spend a lot of time with her.
((()))
The admiral left the lab and went
to the control room to talk to Lee and Chip.
“Janet has agreed to help out
Mr. Rosen and do the data entry for them.
Do you think you could take on some of her work if she gets behind while
doing the data entry?”
“Sure that won’t be a problem
sir,” Lee answered not too thrilled that Janet would be working with Mr.
Porter.
“I’ll do whatever needs to be
done to help her, sir,” Chip replied too.
“Admiral, you’re looking
forward to going into that trench aren’t you,” Lee asked grinning.
“You bet. I can’t wait until tomorrow when we go down
again,” he said returning the grin.
((()))
Janet was in her office
catching up on some work when Mr. Porter came in with the data.
“Mrs. Crane since we’re going
to be working together may I call you Janet?
And please call me Don,” he said patting her hand.
“Okay,” she reluctantly replied.
He turned on the computer and
as they waited for it to boot up he explained what needed to be entered.
“I will give you sheets with
numbers, compounds, comments and all kinds of data. There are columns on the spreadsheets that
correspond to what I give you. The
laboratory in
“Yes sir.”
“Please come to the computer
so I can show you what the spreadsheet looks like and how to enter the data.”
She went over to the computer
and was stunned at all the data that needed to be entered. He made it seem a lot easier than it really
was. He handed her the analysis he had
already completed on the ooze, sea cucumbers and xenophyophores and grabbed her
hand when he gave it to her. He wouldn’t
let go and started rubbing it. She had
to yank her hand out of his hold.
“Mr. Porter, it’s already 1800
hours. I’m meeting my husband and Mr.
Morton for dinner at 1830 hours. As soon
as I’m finished with dinner I will start entering in your data and won’t stop
until I finish. I hope that’s alright
with you,” she told him.
“That will be fine. I’m meeting the admiral for dinner at that
time to go over the plans for tomorrow’s dive,” he said smiling. “I will come back with you and make sure you
understand what we need to have done,” he told her rubbing her arm.
“Yuk!!” she thought, “he won’t stop
touching me.”
((()))
Janet went back to their cabin
before going to dinner. Lee was there
waiting for her and could see she was upset.
“Sweetie, what’s wrong,” he
asked after he gave her a kiss.
“Mr. Porter. I know I told the admiral I would help out
but I’m already regretting that decision,” she told him after she kissed him
back. “I just don’t like him.”
“Do you want me to say
something to the admiral, maybe Chip could do it.”
“No, please don’t the admiral
is counting on me help out just like the rest of you. Chip has a lot of work of
his own work to do and since I can’t do his work I’ll make it work. I didn’t have lunch today and I’m starving
maybe that’s why I’m upset.”
“Let’s go. I’m hungry too,” Lee said as they walked out
the door and met Chip on his way to the wardroom.
They ate dinner with the
admiral, Mr. Rosen, and Mr. Porter. Cookie
had made Lee’s favorite dinner, lasagna.
Even though she told Lee she was hungry, she didn’t eat very much.
“Mrs. Crane, I can’t thank
you enough for pitching in and helping us out,” Mr. Rosen said
appreciatively. “Mr. Porter is looking
forward to working with you.”
“Thank you sir, I will do my
best,” she responded softly.
“I bet he is,” Lee mumbled
under his breath.
Chip heard what Lee said and
also most choked on his food.
“Lee, did you say something,”
the admiral asked.
“No sir.”
After they finished dinner,
Janet went to her office to start working on entering the data. Mr. Porter followed her out and walked down
the passageway with her ‘accidentally’ brushing up against her.
She sat down at the computer
and was entering the data on the computer when Mr. Porter put his hand on her
shoulder.
“No Janet, you’ve put that
data in the wrong place. It goes here,”
he told her showing her on the screen where it went.
She shrugged off his hand and
stopped typing.
“Please don’t touch me,” she
said curtly. “If I’m not doing something
right, you can tell me without touching me.”
“Now, Janet, we’re going to
be working very ‘close’ together, so if you aren’t careful and don’t do what I
ask, I promise to make things happen to people you care about,” he said
maliciously as he put his hand back on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
She continued entering the
data with his hand on her shoulder.
((()))
Lee finished his walk around
the boat and was surprised to see the light on in Janet’s office. It was after
“Sweetheart, you’re still
working? I thought you would be done by
now. It’s after
“Is it really? I’m almost finished. I didn’t realize how
much time the data takes to enter. Did you know ooze is pelagic sediment of
which at least thirty percent is composed of the skeletal remains of
microscopic floating organisms?** Why
does it take me over four hours to put all this data in when one sentence
should cover it? Then there are the sea cucumbers. They are all echinoderms and
are marine mammals with a leathery skin and an elongated body containing a
single, branched gonad.*** How about a
xenophyophore which are giant unicellular organisms found throughout the oceans
at depths of up to 6.6 miles. But no
everything needs to broken down by category, type, kind etc. I should be done in fifteen minutes. Will you wait up for me?” she asked sighing.
“Of course. I don’t think you
would make a good scientist and you better not let the admiral here you talk
like that you know how technical he can get,” Lee said grinning.
“Yes, but I don’t have to put
his data in. He does it himself,” she
stated.
He left her alone so she
could finish up. She finally came to the
cabin about a half hour later. He could see
she was very tired and nervous. He was
surprised at how nervous she was.
“Sweetie you seem awfully
nervous. Is everything alright?”
“Yes, just worried about how
much work I have to do tomorrow. The
duty rosters need to be typed up and Chip gave me some reports that need to be
done too. Plus the bathyscaphe is going
out tomorrow and who knows what they will bring back. I might have taken on more that I can
handle.”
“I’ll do the duty rosters for
you tomorrow if you want.”
“I’ll let you know if I can’t
get them done. Thanks Lee,” she said giving him a kiss.
They climbed into the bunk. Lee wrapped his arms around her and she fell
sound asleep.
((()))
The bathyscaphe went out again
the next morning and this time it went deeper and for a longer period of time. They
brought back more ooze, xenophyophores, and sea cucumbers. The admiral was very excited about going down
into the trench. He had never been that
deep before in this part of the Sirena Deep trench but on the way back up there
was a problem. Something went wrong with
the oxygen in the admiral’s side of the compartment.
“Control Room,” Sharkey
called frantically.
“What is it Chief,” Lee
answered quickly hearing the tone of his voice.
“Come to the missile room,
something is wrong with the admiral and bathyscaphe,”
“On my way.” Chip and Janet
were at the plotting table with Lee and heard what was going on.
Double clicking the mic,
“Sick bay get to the missile room on the double,” Lee said.
Lee, Chip and Janet ran to
the missile room just as the bathyscaphe was being brought up.
They got the admiral out as
soon as it was clear of the launch area.
He was unconscious from lack of oxygen.
Jamie arrived, pushed everyone out of the way so he could examine the
admiral. He gave him some oxygen and he
started to come around. Jamie would take
him to sick bay to be checked out further.
“What happened?” Lee asked
Mr. Porter tersely.
“There was a malfunction of a
valve on his side of the bathyscaphe. I
will repair it immediately,” he told Lee.
Mr. Porter looked over at
Janet and smiled.
“Janet, are you okay?” Lee
asked looking over at her. “You’re as
white as a ghost.”
She felt like she was going
to faint.
“I’m fine. Just worried about the admiral,” she told him
shaking like leaf. “I’m going with him
to sick bay.”
“Okay, I will be there shortly,”
Lee told her rubbing her arm which she quickly pulled away.
Lee was too worried about the
admiral and what went wrong with the bathyscaphe to notice.
Jamie got the admiral to sick
bay and made him lay down on the gurney.
Janet followed them to sick bay and leaned up against the wall. Her legs were like jelly.
“I’m fine,” the admiral said
adamantly.
“I’ll be the judge of that,”
Jamie replied tensely.
He checked him out and found
nothing wrong with him.
“You seem to be fine but you
will definitely not be diving in the bathyscaphe tomorrow. I’ll check you again tomorrow to see if you
can go out the following day.”
“No problem Jamie,” the
admiral said with a grin, “it wasn’t scheduled to dive tomorrow anyway.”
Jamie just gave him a dirty
look.
Lee and Chip came into sick
bay just as the admiral was buttoning up his shirt and getting ready to
leave. Janet was still leaning against
the wall.
“Sweetie, are you okay? Maybe Jamie needs to check you out. You’re still pretty pale,” Lee said with a
frown.
“No, I’m fine,” she told him,
“I need to go back to my office, I’m sure Mr. Porter has some data for me to
enter.”
“Alright, I’ll come and get
you for dinner,” he told her giving her a kiss.
((()))
Mr. Porter had analyzed all
the items he brought back from the dive and gave it to Janet to enter into the
computer. As he handed it to her, he
grabbed her hands and held them in his.
She knew if she didn’t let him touch her, he would keep his promise and
hurt someone else. He stood over her
shoulder rubbing her arms as she was typing in the data. It was hard to type so it took that much
longer. She could barely contain the
tears from falling down her face.
Lee went off duty at 1830 and
went up to her office to get her for dinner.
She was entering data and Mr. Porter was standing a little to close to
her.
“Excuse me I would like to
talk to Janet,” Lee asked but almost had to push him out of the way so he could
talk to her.
Even after Lee asked him to
move he still stood close enough to hear their conversation.
“Let’s go have some dinner,”
Lee told her as he reached for her arm which she pulled away. “You can finish
this in a little while.”
He was a little surprised she
pulled her arm away.
“I didn’t have lunch so I’m a
little hungry,” she told him as she got up quickly from the computer.
“Mr. Porter, will you join
us?” Lee asked politely.
“Damn,” she thought to herself. “I don’t want to have dinner with him. I
can’t stand him.”
“Yes, Captain, lead the way,”
he replied smiling at her and grabbed her arm as they left for dinner.
Lee could see she wasn’t too
pleased he invited him to join them for dinner but what could he do. He was standing right there.
The admiral and Mr. Rosen
were already eating when they came in.
“Admiral I’m very sorry there
was an issue with your oxygen valve. Mr.
Porter as assured me that a new valve has been put in and there should be no
further problems,” Mr. Rosen said.
“I’m sure it was just freak
accident,” the admiral replied. “Mr.
Porter, Lee and Janet please join us for dinner.”
“Yes, sir,” Lee replied.
They went over to the
sideboard and Cookie filled their plates with chicken, rice and corn. There was hot apple pie for dessert.
They sat down at the table. Lee on one side of Janet and Mr. Porter on
the other side, he was sitting so close to her she could barely lift her fork.
At dinner Lee could see she
wasn’t eating even though she said she was hungry. She just pushed the food around on her
plate. She was also very quiet, much
more than normal.
The admiral, Mr. Rosen and
Mr. Porter had finished their dinners and left the wardroom.
Chip came in just as they
were leaving. Cookie filled his plate
and knew it would all be eaten. He would
probably come back for more.
After the men left Janet said
to Lee and Chip, “Excuse me. I have some
work to finish for Mr. Porter. Lee, don’t worry about the duty rosters I got
the typed up.”
She was going to take her
plate to the bin for washing but Chip grabbed it and ate what she didn’t. Cookie saw him take her plate and was very unhappy
with the amount of food she had left.
“Okay sweetie. But what’s the rush? The work for Porter will wait.”
“No Lee, it won’t. It has to be done completely. If I don’t do it now I’ll be up for most of
the night,” she told him sharply.
”Alright, I’ll check on you later,” he frowned at the tone of her voice.
“What’s wrong with her? She seems a little nervous,” Chip asked as he
put a piece of pie in his mouth.
“I’m not sure. I think she took on more than she can handle
and is worried about not getting all the work done. I told her I would help her but she didn’t
want it.”
“I’ll help too. I’ve finished what I needed to get done,”
Chip stated wiping his mouth with the napkin. “How about more coffee?”
“Sure,” Lee replied as he
handed Chip his cup.
“Chip, do you think that Mr.
Porter is a bit weird?”
“I don’t know, Lee, I haven’t
had too much to do with him.”
They finished up their coffee
and left the wardroom. Lee went to his
cabin and Chip went to his.
((()))
Lee was working on some
reports and noticed it was after
Lee was going to have to talk
to the admiral about the amount of work that Mr. Porter needed her to do.
When he wasn’t doing any
analysis, why couldn’t he enter in the data? Lee thought.
((()))
When they awoke the next
morning, they both were very tired.
Janet kept tossing and turning so Lee didn’t get much sleep either. He noticed something was wrong as her as she
was still very nervous. He’s not sure if
it’s the overload of work or something else.
But there is something definitely bothering her. If they weren’t running late this morning he
would have asked her but she ran out of the cabin as soon as she was
dressed.
He found her at the computer
entering the data from yesterday.
”I’m in trouble. This should have been
completed last night. I hope Mr. Porter
isn’t too upset,” she said nervously.
“Sweetheart, you fell asleep
at the computer. Obviously you were too
tired to finish. I’m going to talk to
the admiral this morning about this.
Maybe Mr. Porter could help out a little more.”
“No, Lee, please don’t,” she
pleaded. “I will catch up today since
there is no dive scheduled. I will get
all of my work done today. I promise.”
“Sweetheart I don’t care
about the work. Please tell me what’s
going on. Something is not right. You’re too nervous about this.”
“I’ll be fine. Please don’t say anything.”
“If you insist, I won’t. But if I find you asleep at the computer tonight,
I will go to the admiral.”
“Lee, I need to tel...”
before she could finish Mr. Porter came in to make sure she completed entering
the data from yesterday’s analysis.
“What were you going to say,”
Lee asked waiting at the door.
”Have a good day, see you at dinner,” she told him hastily as he left the
office for the control room.
“Very good, Janet,” Mr.
Porter said coming into the office. “You
would have had a big problem if you told him about our deal. They sure drink a lot of coffee on this boat.
I would hate to see anyone get sick,” he bullied her as he handed her a cup of
coffee, which she took and put on the desk having no intention of drinking it.
“Finish putting in the rest
of the data. You will be able to do your
regular work today as I’ve finished analyzing everything we’ve brought up,” he
told her as he took her hands and started rubbing the backs of them.
She wanted to grab her hands
away from him but was too afraid of what he might do to the coffee.
((()))
Chip had given Janet some
reports to type and Lee also had some that needed to be done. She doesn’t know how she did it but
everything was done by dinner. Lee and
Janet even managed to have dinner together with Chip and Jamie.
Janet finished her dinner and
got up to leave.
“Excuse me gentlemen. I have some things I need to take care of in
the cabin.”
“Need help?” Lee asked with a
gleam in his eye.
“No thanks,” she replied as
she walked out the door.
She was going to take a shower
and try to get some sleep but didn’t want to tell Chip and Jamie that. She could tell Lee was hurt the she didn’t
want him to go back with her. But right
now she didn’t want to be around anyone.
“Lee, what’s wrong with
Janet. She seems extremely tired and
nervous. Is she sleeping and eating?”
Jamie asked with concern.
“No she isn’t. She’s not eating very much and sleeping not
much either. I found her asleep at the
computer the other night. She does seem
very nervous but I don’t know if there’s a problem or just too much work. I’m going to have a talk with her before we
go to sleep.”
“If she needs something to
sleep, I can put something in her coffee,” Jamie offered.
“If you do that she’ll be
pissed for sure but if she continues to have a problem sleeping, I’ll let you
know.”
As they left the wardroom,
Jamie was shaking his head. Just what he
needed another Crane with eating and sleeping problems.
Lee did his walk around the
boat and went back to their cabin and found her sound asleep. He got ready for bed and climbed in the bunk
with her. She would normally wake up when he came back from his walk but she
didn’t even know he was there.
No sleep problem tonight, Lee thought.
((()))
They woke up early enough so
they could have breakfast before the bathyscaphe would go on a dive later that morning.
They met the admiral and Chip
in the wardroom. Cookie was waiting for
them so he could put the food on their plates.
“Mrs. Crane I made your
favorite breakfast this morning, pancakes.
You didn’t eat much dinner last night so figured you might be hungry
this morning,” he said as he put three pancakes on her plate and some fruit.
“Thank you Cookie.”
She didn’t want to hurt
Cookie’s feelings about making the pancakes especially for her but could only eat
two of them and the fruit. Chip took the
third one and wolfed it down.
After they put their plates
in the dirty dish container, Lee wanted to know where everyone would be so they
could launch the bathyscaphe.
“Admiral I’ll meet you in the
missile room after Jamie checks you out.”
“Okay Lee. I’ll be there shortly.”
“Chip, please go to the
control room and relieve O’Brien. Check
to make sure Seaview is in position so we can launch the
bathyscaphe.”
“Yes Lee,” he replied as he
left for the control room.
“Janet, where are you going?”
Lee asked. “I need to talk to you once
we launch the bathyscaphe.”
“I’ll be in my office making
sure I’ve entered all the data and catch up on some work.”
“I’ll see you later,” he said
giving her a kiss as they were the only left in there besides Cookie.
((()))
Janet went to her office hoping Mr. Porter
wasn’t there but no such luck. He was
there checking on the data she had put in the day before. He wanted to make sure everything was done
before he went on the dive this morning.
“The laboratory in
“Thank you.”
She had all she could do to
keep from pulling them away. But she was
afraid he would do something to the admiral during the dive if she did.
Since they were going deeper
in the trench the admiral and Mr. Porter went on the dive earlier than planned.
Janet stayed in her office the whole
time the bathyscaphe was on the dive. Mr. Porter had found some more data she needed
to enter as he forgot to give it to her the other day.
((()))
Lee went back to the control
room after they launched the bathyscaphe.
He was standing at the plotting table tapping his pencil. Something was wrong with Janet. She was acting very strange but he couldn’t
figure out what it was.
“Chip does Janet seem alright
to you?” Lee asked worriedly.
“She seems a little
tense. Maybe she’s just tired from being
overworked. That guy Porter doesn’t
really do too much. Why can’t he put the
data in the computer after he analyzes it?
He knows more about it than she does,” Chip responded honestly.
“That’s what I told her the
other day, and she begged me not to say anything to the admiral. I found her asleep at the computer the other
night. Last night was the first night
she hasn’t been up past
“How about I check on her
later today and she how she’s doing.
Maybe I can take over entering the data for the next couple of
days. You can run the boat by yourself,”
Chip said grinning.
“You bet I can. You’re in my way most of the time anyway,”
Lee told him laughing.
((()))
The bathyscaphe took two
hours to get down to four thousand feet.
They would take more samples of ooze at this level and hoped to find
some amphipods. They would spend about
three hours down there before coming back up.
When they returned, the
admiral was going to help Mr. Porter analyze what they found. He was very interested in the amphipods.
They would take the samples and
check them for their chemistry and identification. Even with both of them doing the analysis it
would still take several hours before they would have the data to Janet. It looked like it would be another long
night.
Mr. Porter gave Janet the data
to put into the computer at 2100 hours that night.
“I know it’s late but this
must be put in the computer tonight.
Since this is the deepest we’ve gone they want the information right
away so they can compare it with the data we’ve already sent them,” he told her
as he handed her the information.
He grabbed her hands started
to rub them against his chest. He let
them go so she could type in the data.
“Yes, sir,” she responded and
started typing.
As she was typing he started
to massage the back of her neck and moved his hands down her back.
“Please stop, I’m having a
hard time typing with you doing that,” she told him nervously.
“Too bad, keep typing. I know your husband likes a late night cup of
coffee,” he hissed as he continued.
Finally she had enough. She pushed him away. She pushed him a little too hard and he fell
against the corner of her desk about five feet away and put a huge gash in the
back of his head. His head was bleeding
profusely. There was blood on the desk
and the floor.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to
push you that hard, please don’t hurt my husband,” she said sobbing.
“You’ll be sorry you did
this,” he said viciously as he grabbed the back of his head and found his hand
covered in blood.
Chip was on his way to her office
to see if he could help her out today and walked in just after she pushed Mr.
Porter.
He saw the blood on the floor
and desk. Grabbing the cabin mic he
called sick bay.
“
“
Clicking the mic again, he
called the control room.
“Control Room.”
“Yes, Chip what’s wrong?” Lee
asked alarmed at the tone in his voice.
“Lee, you better get to
Janet’s office right away. There’s been
an accident.”
“On my way,” he answered
throwing the mic on the table and telling
Jamie got to Janet’s office
and saw Mr. Porter with his head bleeding.
After he looked it over he knew he would need quite a few stitches. Just as he was taking Mr. Porter to sick bay,
Lee came in and was amazed at the amount of blood all over.
“How is he Jamie?” Lee asked
seriously.
“He’ll need a few stitches,
but head wounds do bleed a lot so it’s not as bad as it seems,” Jamie replied
as he walked away.
“What the hell happened in
here,” Lee asked Janet as he went over to her as she sat on the bunk. “Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to push him that hard. I couldn’t take it anymore,” she said
sobbing. “Please don’t let the admiral
fire me.”
“Sweetie, what are you
talking about? Take what anymore,” he asked worriedly putting his arm around
her.
As she was going to tell him
what happened, the admiral and Mr. Rosen walked in and saw the blood all over.
“Lee, what’s going on here,”
the admiral asked curtly.
“I don’t know sir. That’s what I’m trying to find out. All I know is Mr. Porter has a gash in his
head and is in sick bay.”
“Let’s go to my office,” the
admiral said tersely.
“Admiral, I’m going to go to
sick bay and see how Don is doing,” Mr. Rosen said angrily. “I’ll check in with you later.”
“Chip could you please get
someone to clean up in here,” Lee asked.
“And then go to the control room, I left
“Yes, Lee. No problem.” He called maintenance to come and clean up
the office and left for the control room.
The admiral, Lee and Janet
walked to his office. She could tell he
was not happy. She was so scared he
would fire her for pushing Mr. Porter. The
admiral could tell Janet was very upset as she was shaking.
They sat down in the chairs
in the front of the admiral’s desk. He
opened the bottom drawer of his desk a pull out a bottle of brandy and a
glass.
“Here drink this,” he told
her as he handed her the brandy.
“No sir, I don’t want it,”
she said softly.
“Janet, that wasn’t a
request, it was an order.”
“Yes sir,” she replied and
drank it down in one gulp.
Lee was surprised she not
only drank it but did it in one gulp.
She had to admit it did calm her down a little and it sure got warm in
the admiral’s office all of a sudden.
“Now, please tell us what
happened in your office,” the admiral said calmly.
“Mr. Porter was massaging my
back. He told me if I didn’t let him do it, he would do something to Lee’s coffee.”
“Damn, why didn’t you say
something,” Lee asked her angrily as he ran his hand through his hair. “We could have stopped him.”
“Lee, there’s more,” she said
quietly. “Ever since he came aboard he’s
been touching and harassing me. If I
didn’t let him do it, he threatened to hurt more people. He was responsible for the admiral’s accident
in the bathyscaphe. He caused his air
valve to malfunction. He also said he would do something to the boat’s coffee
to make everyone sick.”
“I’m going to kill him,” Lee
threatened and started to get up.
“Lee, sit down,” the admiral
commanded. “I will get to the bottom of
this. Do you have any proof that he did
any of those things?”
“No sir. It will be my word against his,” she said
sadly. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to push him that hard to hurt
him. I just wanted to get him away from
me. Please don’t fire me,” she pleaded.
“Honey, I’m not going to fire
you. I’m sorry you had to put up with
what he did,” the admiral said sympathetically.
“I need to know where else he touched you.”
“Just my arms and back, he
would hold my hands and rub them. He’s being doing it since he got on board. He would also rub my shoulders and arms,” she
told him sobbing.
“Okay, I’m going to check on
him in sick bay. I don’t know if he will
tell me the truth but until we get back to
“But admiral, please I need
to...” Lee started to say.
“Lee, don’t make this any
harder on you or Janet,” the admiral stated firmly. “I don’t want you to do something you will
regret later.”
“Yes sir.”
They got up and left the admiral’s
cabin and went to theirs.
((()))
“Sweetheart, I’m sorry. I had no idea what was going on. I could see you were nervous but I thought it
was because of all the work you needed to do.
I should have asked you what was happening.”
“Lee I wanted to tell you but
I was afraid he would hurt you or someone else on the boat.”
“I’m sorry you had to endure
what he did to you. But if you ever have
a problem with anyone on this boat whether it be a crew member or civilian you
must tell me immediately no matter what they threaten to do,” he said as he
gathered her in his arms.
“’Yes, Lee,” she replied
putting her head on his chest relieved it was over. She couldn’t see the guilt he had in his eyes
for letting this happen to her.
There was a knock on the
door. Chip was off duty and wanted to
know what took place in Janet’s office.
“What happened in there? I
don’t think I’ve every seen that much blood from a gash in the head.”
“Janet pushed him away from
her. He’d been touching her since he
came aboard. He threatened to hurt me
and members of the crew if she didn’t let him.
He tampered with the air valve in the admiral’s compartment to prove he
meant business.”
“I’m glad I went up to check
on her. Who knows what he would’ve
done. You really shoved him hard.”
“Thanks Chip, for checking on
me. I had no idea what he was going to
do next,” she said tears starting to run down her cheeks again. “I really didn’t mean to push him that
hard. I just wanted him to get away from
me.”
“Man if I ever get my hands
on him, he’ll be very sorry.”
“I’m right behind you,” Chip
stated.
((()))
The admiral went to sick bay
to check on Mr. Porter. He was livid at
what Janet had just told him. Jamie just
finished putting in ten stitches in the back of Mr. Porter’s head. Mr. Rosen was there along with Mr. Howard who
was still in sick bay recovering from his appendix operation.
Confronting Mr. Porter, the
admiral stated, “Mr. Porter, I understand you’ve been touching Mrs. Crane since
you got on board. You threatened to hurt her husband and members of this crew
if she didn’t let you touch her. She
said you tampered with the air valve in the bathyscaphe.”
“Admiral you must be
kidding. I did nothing of the sort. She was the one who came on to me. If she wanted more than to have me touch her I
would have no problem giving her what she wanted. She’s a very nice looking
woman.”
“That’s a bunch of shit,” the
admiral retorted. “There is no way in
hell she would ever have done that.”
“Admiral those are pretty
strong allegations,” Mr. Rosen said.
“Mr. Rosen, I believe every
word she said.”
The only one who didn’t see
surprised was Mr. Howard who finally spoke up.
“Andrew, didn’t you ever
wonder why all the secretaries kept leaving.
Even the ones that had been there for years left right after you hired
Don,” Mr. Howard remarked.
“Yes I did think it was odd,
but I figured they got better jobs or more money. Did you see him touch any of them?” Rosen
asked cautiously.
“Yes, but he threatened me so
I was afraid of him too,” Mr. Howard said cowardly. “He put some barbiturates in my coffee to
show me what he would do if I spoke up.”
The admiral and Mr. Rosen
looked at Mr. Porter and knew he lied.
The admiral was having a hard time controlling his emotions. He wanted to slug him. The admiral looked at Jamie and could tell he
wanted to hit him too.
“In light of what has
happened, Mr. Porter will be confined to his quarters for the rest of this mission. As of now, we are heading back to
“Admiral, I’m very sorry this
happened to Mrs. Crane. Do you think I
could talk to her?” Mr. Rosen asked
solemnly.
“I will ask her and let you
know. Jamie can Mr. Porter be released
to his cabin?”
“Yes admiral there is no
reason for him to stay here. I will
check on him tomorrow in his cabin.”
The admiral picked up the
mic, “Master-at-arms.”
“Aye sir.”
“Please come to sick bay on
the double.”
“Yes sir.”
The master-at-arms was at the
sick bay door in two minutes.
“Please take Mr. Porter to
his cabin and sees that he stays there.
No on is to enter his cabin except Dr. Jamieson and Mr. Rosen without my
permission especially Captain Crane.”
“Aye, aye sir.”
The MAA took Mr. Porter by
the arm and led him to his cabin.
“Admiral is Janet okay?”
Jamie asked worriedly.
“I think so, but I will let
her know you are available if she needs you.”
((()))
After confining Mr. Porter to
his cabin, the admiral went to Lee and Janet’s cabin to tell them what Mr.
Porter had told him.
“Admiral you know me better
than that, please tell me you didn’t believe him?” Janet pleaded.
“I never doubted your
story. I knew his was lying but it’s
still your word against his. What pisses
me off is that Mr. Howard was being bullied by him and knew he was touching
other women and never gave us a warning that there could be a problem with him.
“I’m sorry for all the
problems I caused. I never meant to hurt
him.”
“I know that. I’ve confined Mr. Porter to his cabin for the
rest of the mission. We’re heading back
to
“Yes sir,” they both replied
as Lee paced up and down the cabin clenching and unclenching his fists.
The admiral was worried what
Lee would do if he saw Mr. Porter. The
admiral could tell he was mad as hell.
By this time it was 0100
hours and Janet was emotionally and physically exhausted. They went to bed and she fell asleep in Lee’s
arms.
The admiral went to the
control room and told Mr. O’Brien to set a course for
((()))
Later the next day, Lee tried
to get into Mr. Porter’s cabin. He
wanted to talk to him and Kowalski was on guard. As he reached for the door knob, Kowalski
stepped in front of it.
“Kowalski, let me in,” Lee
ordered.
”No, sorry sir. No one is allowed in
there, especially you,” he told Lee quietly.
“Lee, I specifically told you
not to go in there,” the admiral yelled as he entered the passageway on the way
to his cabin and saw Lee trying to get in.
“Sir, I just need to ask him
why he did it to her,” Lee pleaded.
“Please let me go in. You can
come in and watch that I don’t do anything to him.”
“No, Lee and that’s an
order,” the admiral stated. “I realize
you feel responsible for what happened to Janet but there is nothing you can do
now. Please leave son.”
“Yes, sir,” Lee said as the
admiral put his hand on Lee’s shoulder as they walked away.
Kowalski and none of the crew
knew what had taken place. But whatever
happened must not have been very pleasant for the skipper to be that
upset.
((()))
Janet went to sick bay that
morning not that she was sick but to talk to Jamie and see how Mr. Porter was. He gave her hug when she walked in.
“Are you okay?” he asked with
a concerned look. “Did he hurt you?”
“No he didn’t hurt me, just
touched me on my arms and shoulders. I’ll
be okay. I’m mad at myself for not
telling anyone and I really didn’t mean to hurt him.”
“He isn’t hurt that bad. If you need to talk at any time, please come
and see me.”
“Thanks Jamie.”
She left sick bay and was on
her way to her office when Mr. Rosen tracked her down. As Lee came into the passageway he saw Mr.
Rosen talking to her and joined them.
“I’m very sorry Mrs. Crane,”
he apologized profusely, “I never realized what was going on not only here but
in my offices in
“I accept your apology,” she
told him reluctantly, “I will also finish entering the rest of the data from
the last dive. There isn’t too much more
to enter and I want to complete the job I started.”
“That’s very gracious of you. I really do appreciate it.”
“Captain please also accept
my apology. I’m very sorry for what
happen to your wife.”
“Yes, sir,” Lee replied
tersely as he kept clenching and unclenching his fists.
She could tell Lee was ready
to punch him for not knowing what was happening in his office. She grabbed his arm and they went into her
office.
He couldn’t wait to get them all off Seaview
but they still had three more days of their company.
((()))
When they docked at
As the MAA brought Mr. Porter
out the sail hatch and down the gangplank he had to pass Janet, Lee, Chip,
Jamie and the admiral. Jamie was
standing next to Janet as Mr. Porter walked by her. She looked him straight in
the eye as he walked past her. She would never let anyone bully or harass her
again.
The admiral and Chip stood
very close to Lee and could feel him tense up as Porter walked by him. They were afraid he would take a swipe at him
not that they blamed him as they all would’ve like to have a swipe at him
too. Once he passed, Lee relaxed and the
admiral and Chip moved away from him.
They made eye contact and both let out a sigh of relief.
“Thanks. If you weren’t there to stop me, they’d be
putting me in jail right now,” Lee stated as he left to stand next to Janet and
squeezed her hand.
Janet would have to go to the
police station and give a statement to the police as to what had taken
place. They all hoped Mr. Porter
wouldn’t press charges of assault against her for pushing him. Chip would
oversee the unloading of all the supplies, computer and the bathyscaphe while
Janet, Lee and the admiral went to the police station.
((()))
When they arrived at the
station, the police took Janet’s statement.
There wasn’t much they could charge Mr. Porter with as it was her word
against his when it came to the faulty air valve on the bathyscaphe. The admiral did run a test on the coffee in
Lee’s cabin and in the crew’s mess but found nothing in there and brought the
results with him. Hopefully the women at
A. R. Laboratories would come forward and tell the police what he did to them
so no other person would have to endure what they did. Mr. Howard was also going to give them a
statement.
((()))
As the left the police
station, the admiral said, “That was quite a nice little bathyscaphe they
had. Too bad it’s a little too big for
us to carry around.”
“No thanks. I’ll stick to my bathysphere.” Lee stated.
After they pulled up to the
dock, Lee opened the door for Janet. She
got out of the car and gave her husband a kiss.
“What’s that for?” he asked
smiling.
“Because you didn’t slug him
as he walked by. I don’t have enough
money to bail you out of jail,” she grinned.
They walked hand in hand down
the gangplank behind the admiral but before they got to the sail hatch the
admiral turned around.
“Lee, since we got back to
“That sounds like a good
idea,” Lee agreed. Chip was nodding his
head in agreement.
“Chip and I will set up the
rotation so everyone gets some time away but we’ll still have all important
posts covered on Seaview and on deck.”
They continued into the sail
hatch and down the ladder to the control room where Lee and Chip started
working on the shore leave schedule.
They had it worked out in an hour.
The crew was very happy they
would get some leave.
As the first group was
leaving the boat, Chip reminded them, “Men please don’t get into any trouble or
fights and be back on time so I don’t have to look for you or bail you out of
jail.
Lee smiled as Chip gave the
crew their instructions. He knew they
could get a little rowdy sometimes.
“Aye, aye, sir,” they all
answered.
((()))
Since they would get the
first leave, Janet went back to their cabin while Lee and Chip worked on the
schedule. She grabbed a duffle bag and
put in some clothes for her and Lee. Lee
came to the cabin about an hour later and she had everything packed.
“You ready to leave,” he
asked giving her a kiss.
“Yes, let’s go before the
admiral changes his mind.”
Lee grabbed the duffle bag
and they left the cabin just as Chip was leaving his. They walked down the passageway to the spiral
staircase and went down to the observation nose.
The admiral was in the
observation nose watching the crew leave and saw them come down the staircase.
“Have a nice leave,” the
admiral told them winking at Janet.
“Thank you, admiral. I’m sure we’ll have a wonderful leave,” she
winked back.
They went up the ladder to
the sail and walked down the gangplank to the dock. They walked to the end of the dock and hailed
a taxi. Since they didn’t have a lot of
time to spend in
“This sure is a nice change
of plans,” Chip said eating a Black Jack Burger with fries. He also ordered a
piece of coconut cream pie.
“Yes it is nice,” Lee commented
as he ate a Koko burger.
Janet sat there eating her
Spicy Chicken salad watching the two of them. She was glad to see they both had
finally relaxed. When they were finished
they went for a walk on the beach. As
they were walking back to the hotel, they walked by a bar and saw Patterson
sitting there. Chip decided to go in
instead of going back to the hotel.
“We’re going back to the
hotel,” Lee told Chip before he went into the bar, “Please don’t get into any
trouble. I don’t want to have to bail you
out of jail.
“Yes sir,” Chip saluted and
patted him on the back.
Kowalski, Patterson and Riley
were already there enjoying the music and dancing with some of the women. They all stopped what they were doing when he
came in.
“Don’t stop on my account,”
he told them as he sat next to Patterson at the bar and ordered a beer. He also danced with a few of the women in the
bar.
((()))
When Lee and Janet got back
to their room, Lee took the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign and put it on the door. He took Janet into his arms and gave her a
passionate kiss. He led her over to the
bed and gently laid her down where he made love to her. With what had happened on Seaview’s
mission it had been awhile and they both missed the affection between
them. When they were finished, Lee put
on a white shirt and shorts and went out on the balcony. The sun was setting
and the clouds were rolling in. It looked like rain. He turned around to look at his wife who was
watching him from the bedroom.
“What’s wrong honey? You have
a tormented look on your face,” she asked as she grabbed her robe and joined
him on the balcony.
“Just thinking of how I let
you down by not finding out what was really bothering you.”
“You didn’t let me down. You
could never let me down. I was just as
much to blame by not saying anything,” she replied taking his hand and bringing
him back into the room.
“Let’s go back to bed,” she
suggested as she dropped her robe.
He took off his shirt and
shorts and joined her in bed where they played the rest of the night.
((()))
They awoke the next morning and were famished.
They got dressed, packed their duffle bag and were leaving the room to
get some breakfast just as Chip was leaving his. He looked a little hung over.
“We’re going to breakfast,”
Lee told him with a grin, “Care to join us?”
“I need coffee. I’m too old to hang around with Kowalski,
Patterson and Riley. I didn’t get back
until 0300 hours. It’s now 0700. It’s a good thing were still in port. I would never get Seaview out of the
harbor today.
“Damn,” Lee said, “there went
a free dinner for sure.”
All three of them where laughing as they walked
to the cafe for breakfast.
When they finished breakfast
they hailed a cab and went back to the dock to relieve the admiral, Sharkey,
((()))
They boarded the boat and
went into the control room as the rest of the men were getting ready to
leave. Chip made a beeline for the
coffee pot in the observation nose.
“Welcome Lee, Janet,
Chip. Enjoy your leave?” the admiral
asked with a grin. He noticed Chip was
not his normal self.
“Yes sir. Any problems?” Lee
wanted to know.
“None so far.
Chip okay?” he asked with a grin.
“A little hung over. He hung out with Kowalski, Patterson and
Riley last night.”
Smiling Nelson said, “I’ll be
back later on tomorrow. I’m going to
visit a friend of mine I haven’t seen in ages.
Call me if you need me.”
“Aye, aye sir.” Lee answered,
“Enjoy visiting your friend.”
Lee gave the same speech Chip
did to the next group of men to leave.
With half the crew gone and
nothing pressing in the control room, Lee and Chip went to their cabins to
finish up some reports and logs that needed to be done. Janet was still trying to catch up on all the
work that was left behind when she was entering the data from the dives. She
would have more work to do once Lee and Chip finished what they were working
on. At least she would be busy on the
way back to
The day flew by and Chip, Lee
and Janet finally were able to meet for dinner in the wardroom. The mess specialist on duty served them the
leftovers from the mission. Cookie was
on shore leave and ordering supplies for the trip home.
“What’s wrong Chip you still
don’t look good,” Janet asked him worriedly.
“I’ve had a headache all day;
remind me never to drink again.”
Laughing Lee said, “You’re
getting old bro.”
They would have an early
start tomorrow getting Seaview out of the harbor so they went back to
their cabins after enjoying the dinner the mess specialists made for them.
((()))
The next morning, Lee and
Chip were on the dock checking in the crew when the admiral returned.
“Did you enjoy your shore
leave, Admiral,” Lee asked noticing the blond that dropped him off and a lipstick
mark on his face.
“Just fine Lee,” the admiral
replied wiping off his face. “Are we
ready to shove off?”
“Yes sir. All the crew has reported back. I’m happy to say no one got in trouble this
time.”
Chip and Chief Sharkey were
on the also on dock watching the crew load the supplies Cookie ordered to get
them back to Santa Barbara. They also
had grins on their faces when they saw the admiral.
Once the supplies were loaded
Chip instructed the dock hands to remove the gangplank and prepare for them to
shove off.
((()))
Lee let Chip take Seaview
out of the harbor this time. Janet got
to go in the conning tower to watch him maneuver Seaview out of the
harbor and make sure he didn’t scratch the paint. As they came down the ladder into the control
room, Lee was waiting for an answer.
“Well, did he scratch the
paint?” Lee asked with a smirk.
“Yes, he did,” Janet told Lee
in a very serious tone.
Chip almost had a heart
attack.
“How could you say that? I never was close enough to anything to
scratch her paint,” Chip said looking at her appalled.
“No of course he didn’t,” she
said grinning. “I just wanted to see his
reaction if I told you he did.”
“You’re going to be sorry
Janet Crane,” Chip said teasingly. “I will
get you for that.”
The admiral was in the
observation nose and heard the conversation between the three of them. He just shook his head and knew all things
were back to normal.
The End.
*Bathyscaphe is a free diving
self-propelled deep sea submersible consisting of a cabin crew similar to a
bathysphere but suspended below a float rather than from a surface cable. Source: en.Wikipedia.org.
**Ooze-Source: www.britannica.com
***Sea cucumber- Source:
en.wikipedia.org
Xenophyophore-Source: en.wikipedia.org