The Intruder
by Michelle Pichette & Holly Cushing
Lee sighed as he glanced at his watch. It
was just going on midnight. “What a way to spend Christmas,” he muttered,
looking at the Seaview’s Control Room. Normally, it was one of his
favorite places to be, but not this time of year and not because someone else
did not seem to understand the meaning of the season. Or, perhaps, that someone
had understood it very well indeed and had decided to change it forever.
The Seaview had been called upon
to help hunt down a submarine that a terrorist had purchased from a struggling
Russian government, then armed with nuclear missiles he’d bought on the black
market. The terrorist had announced his intention to bomb several holy sites on
Christmas Day, including Vatican City. They had stopped him in time, but now
there was no way that the Seaview would be back in Santa Barbara before
Christmas was over. Lee knew the men had been looking forward to spending time
with family or friends, but no one had complained. They hadn’t even been the
ones to eventually catch the terrorist’s sub, though they had chased it down
into the waiting path of the Australian Navy. There was nothing left of the
boat but a broken hull on the bottom. It wasn’t a very Christian thought, but
Lee wished that they’d been the ones that had sent it there.
“Merry Christmas, Lee,” Chip said in
a low, tired voice.
Lee looked over at him and offered
him the cheeriest grin he could muster. “Merry Christmas, Chip. You look done
in. Why don’t you go get some sleep?”
Chip shook his head and opened his
mouth to reply when a sound echoed through the Control Room. A rapping sound
that seemed to start at the nose of the Seaview and run along her
submerged deck.
“What
was that?” Chip asked as Lee moved swiftly to the periscope to take a look.
“Sonar, radar, hydrophone, are you people asleep? What hit us?”
The
three men all looked equally shocked and surprised, one stammering out, “Sir,
there’s nothing... Everything’s clear.”
Lee
scanned the deck and sure enough, it was empty and undamaged from stem to
stern. He scanned the area around the Seaview, but the ocean was as
clear as the screens indicated they ought to be.
“He’s
right. Everything is clear. I don’t know what that was, but it appears to be
gone.”
Chip
frowned. “Well, we all heard something hit us, or at least bump across the
hull.” He gave a pointed look to the men he’d just addressed. “Keep your eyes
open.”
“Yes
sir,” came a chorused reply, but Chip didn’t look any happier.
“Probably just some small debris in
the water. Something that slipped past the radar,” Lee reassured him. He didn’t
see the sense in getting all upset about it. There was no damage to the boat
and nothing to indicate trouble.
“I don’t know about that, Lee. Every
time something like this happens, it means trouble, major trouble, usually from
some weird something or other,” Chip grumbled.
Lee
knew what Chip was saying was true, but he had the strangest feeling that it
just wasn’t the case this time. “I know, I know, but what would else would you
suggest it was?”
Chip
shook his head. “It sounded like something running across the deck, but we’re
five hundred feet under water, so we all know that’s not possible. It’s bad
enough we’re away from home on Christmas. We don’t need any hostiles to top
that off. Maybe we should report this to the Admiral.”
“Report
what? That we heard a noise. I don’t think he’d be happy about being woken up
for something as silly as that,” Lee said.
“Okay, Lee, okay, but I still think
something weird is going to happen. You remember I told you that,” Chip said.
Lee
grinned. “Sure, Chip. I’ll remember.” He went back to the plotting table and
looked at their position. The absolute middle of nowhere, that’s where they
were. Why would anyone want to bother them here? Lee shook his head, knowing
full well that had never seemed to bother anyone before this. Somehow, though,
he just couldn’t work up an anxiety over what had happened.
* * *
Riley
had been asleep, having the absolute greatest surfing dream ever, when he woke
to something thumping him on the chest. Groggy, he started to sit up in his
bunk, hearing barely coherent complaints starting to sound off around him. Something slid down his chest and
into his lap. He rubbed his eyes and looked down, seeing a small, brightly wrapped
box in his lap. Riley looked around at the other men in the other bunks and
they all seemed to have received a surprise gift as well.
Shrugging, Riley decided to open his. He
popped the ribbon off and opened the box. A grin spread across his face as he
saw what was inside. Several small tins lined the box and Riley lifted one out.
It was wax, surf board wax, but from a company that had gone belly up years
ago, when Riley had first gotten into surfing. It had been his favorite wax,
though, and he’d been depressed when the small supply he’d managed to squirrel
away had finally given out. He’d always wished he had a little more, just for
competitions, and now he did!
“Way cool!” Riley beamed, then
examined the box to try and find something to tell him who’d given him this
great present. Attached to the ribbon was a small tag that he hadn’t noticed
before. It read simply: Santa. Riley laughed and wondered if the Admiral or the
Chief or somebody was playing some sort of joke or rewarding everyone for a
year’s hard work. Either way, Riley didn’t care. He loved his gift and he’d
keep thanking people until he found the person who had given it to him.
* * *
Admiral Nelson had been fast asleep when
a noise woke him up. He had always been quick to wake up, which had turned out
to be a blessing many times in his life, and he was almost positive that what
had roused him had been his cabin door closing. He looked around quickly, expecting
some sort of trouble, when his eyes fell on his desk. There, in the center, was
a gingerbread house, an elaborate, beautiful one, much like the ones his mother
would make at Christmas time when he was a child. She would spend hours at it,
meticulously working every detail. As Nelson took in the one on his desk, he
could smell his mother’s kitchen as it smelled around the holidays. The Admiral
breathed in deeply the scent of ginger and apple pies and turkey cooking. It
made him feel for a moment like he was home.
Shaking
off the sensation, Nelson moved to his desk to get a better look at the
gingerbread house, thinking perhaps he would find out who had left it. There,
on the board that supported the construction, was a small card that simply read:
Santa.
“Santa,
ay?” Nelson chuckled, wondering who had gone to all the trouble to surprise
him.
How
could they have hidden such a thing or gotten aboard or even have known they’d
still be out at sea on Christmas day? If they hadn’t gotten that emergency
assignment, they would have been back in port days ago. This was odd, Nelson
decided, but at the moment it didn’t seem life threatening. He decided the best
course of action was to go talk to Lee about it. With that thought, Nelson
turned and got dressed.
A
few moments later, as he started down the spiral steps into the nose of the Seaview,
Nelson could hear the buzz of voices before he saw what the commotion was
about. In the nose next to the Flying Sub entry rail stood a magnificent Christmas
tree, complete with ornaments, tinsel, and lights. Everyone in the Control Room
was talking at once and gesturing toward the tree.
“Lee, what is this? What’s going on here?” Nelson asked as
he walked up to the Captain where he stood at the plotting table.
“Your
guess is good as mine, Admiral,” Lee told him with an exasperated sigh. “One
minute, everything’s normal, then we hear this tapping on the hull, then all of
a sudden we started to get all these reports of strange things happening all
over the boat!”
“Strange things like someone putting up a Christmas tree in the nose?” Nelson
questioned, nodding to the tree.
“But
the thing is, no one put it up!” Lee exclaimed, throwing up his hands. “It just
appeared!”
“Like magic?” Nelson said, but this
time with a chuckle.
“First the tree, then we get a call
from the Crew’s Quarters that everyone who was asleep suddenly found themselves
pummeled with presents, then O’Brien reported the same thing, and the Doctor!
Then, I looked back at the tree and saw the gifts under that, one for each of
the men here on duty in the Control Room. After that, I started getting calls
from all around Seaview that the men on duty were finding gifts at their
work stations and they wanted to know what to do about it. The final straw was
Cookie calling to tell me that several cooked and dressed turkeys were now in
the Mess Halls, along with all the trimmings. Plenty for everyone, it appears.
None of this makes any sense, but nothing harmful has happened. Frankly, I
don’t know what to make of it,” Lee said, still waving his hands around in
frustration.
“Wait,
you said a tapping on the hull. What made the sound?” Nelson asked.
Lee looked down and put his hands on
the plotting table, probably to bring them under control. “We don’t know. Nothing
showed on any of our monitoring systems.”
A funny thought tickled Nelson’s brain,
but he shrugged it away for the moment. “All right, is there anyone you haven’t
heard from? Any station that hasn’t reported in with these presents and weird
happenings?” he asked, thinking maybe all of this sudden good fortune was a
distraction, steering them away from something more dire. That’s how things
usually seemed to work.
“I was checking on that. Chief,
how’s that list coming?” Crane asked.
Nelson
looked up to see the Chief there reviewing
something on a clipboard. Sharkey was in a robe and pajamas and Nelson assumed
he had probably been off-duty when all this had started and had brought the
report of what had happened in the Crews Quarters to the Captain personally.
Kowalski was standing with him, his jumpsuit wasn’t fully closed and his hair
was mussed, and Nelson assumed he’d come up with the Chief and was helping him
organize the reports.
“Let’s
see. We’ve heard from everyone but Hendricks in the Missile Room and Patterson
in the Engine Room,” Sharkey reported.
Nelson
cast an uneasy eye over at the failsafe controls, but they were all shut, as
they should be. He picked up the nearest mike and clicked it, saying, “Missile
Room, Engine Room, report status.” There was a moment of silence, then Nelson
repeated, “Missile Room, Engine Room, report.” Still there was no reply.
“Hendricks, Patterson, report in now!” Nelson said, the pleasant holiday
atmosphere suddenly growing sinister. Nelson put down the mike, saying,
“Sharkey, come with me. Lee, we’re going to the Engine Room. Send a security
detail to the Missile Room and check there.”
Sharkey
nodded and started to follow Nelson as he turned to go, and Lee said,
“Kowalski, let’s go check out the Missile Room. Chip, let me know if anything
else appears suddenly.”
With that, the four of them left the
Control Room. Nelson began to hope all the sudden holiday cheer wasn't going to
turn to tragedy as he and Sharkey made their way to the Engine Room. He didn’t
know what to expect, but what he saw as he and Sharkey rushed into the Engine
Room was totally unexpected. Patterson was sitting at one of the monitoring
stations with his face in his hands, his whole body shaking. Nelson froze and blinked
twice. Patterson was crying, he realized, and he approached the young man,
gently laying a hand on his shoulder.
“Patterson...”
Nelson started softly, not sure what to say beyond that.
Patterson seemed to snap out of
whatever daze he’d been in and wiped his face violently. “Sorry...” he
murmured. “Sorry, sir... Sorry...”
This shook Nelson and he was at a
loss as to how to respond. Patterson was usually quiet and perhaps a bit
self-conscious. He got angry sometimes, he got indignant very occasionally. He
was strong and reliable, but not ever what Nelson would describe as weepy.
Sharkey
rose to the situation and moved to Patterson, gripped him gently by the
shoulder, saying in a soothing tone, “It’s okay, Patterson. It’s all right.
What happened, kid?”
Patterson
wiped his face one last time, then drew a deep trembling breath and seemed to
pull himself the rest of the way back together, but he wouldn’t meet anyone’s
eyes.
“Sir,
I was watching the boards. Everything was quiet. You know how it is most times
late at night. Then I heard this voice say, ‘I know you wanted to say good-bye.
He knows what you would have said if you’d gotten the chance.’ I turned around,
looked all over, but no one was here. Just that voice. I looked out into the
hall, but it was empty. When I turned back, here, that box was there.”
Patterson
nodded behind himself to where a small velvet box sat on one of the panels. It
was open and there was a pocket watch in it. “The watch was my father’s and his
father’s before him. He had it on him when he was killed. It was smashed... I
took it everywhere, trying to get it repaired. See, I knew how much it meant to
him, but all the repair shops told me it wasn’t repairable. And now here it is,
working perfectly...” Patterson stopped and shook his head, looking at the
floor. At least now Nelson understood what he’d witnessed when he’d walked in.
Pat had been letting go of grief that he probably hadn’t realized he’d been
holding in. Nelson felt a shiver pass through him all the same.
What was happening? First, he got to
revisit his mother’s kitchen, if only for a moment, now Patterson and his
father’s watch and what this mysterious voice had told him. He could only
assume the other gifts were similarly personal, but it didn’t explain who was
doing this or why.
“Patterson,
are you all right? Do you want me to send someone down to relieve you for a few
minutes so you can get a cup of coffee or something?” Sharkey asked, squeezing
the sailor’s shoulder again.
Pat shook his head and gave the two
of them a sheepish look. “I’m okay, Chief. I’m sorry, Admiral. It won’t happen again.”
Nelson waved off the apology,
knowing he’d likely be a bit emotional himself if he’d been in the young man’s
place. “It’s been a rather interesting night for all of us. Chief, I’m going
aft to the Missile Room to see what’s going on there. Why don’t you and
Patterson double check everything here, make sure our mysterious visitor didn’t
do anything besides leave a gift.”
“Yes, sir,” Patterson said. He
seemed to be feeling better and now that he had something to devote his
attention to, Nelson was pretty sure he’d be fine.
“You don’t want me to go with you,
Admiral?” Sharkey asked.
Nelson grinned. It was just like
Sharkey to worry about him. “I’ll be fine, Chief. Just make sure the Seaview
will be.”
“Aye,
sir,” Sharkey said a bit begrudgingly and he and Pat began to check systems as
Nelson turned to go.
He
walked quickly to the Missile Room and was just coming through the hatch when
he skidded to a halt, not believing what he saw. It was as if the Missile Room
had been converted to the living room of someone’s house. Hendricks was
standing at one end, opposite a woman, from whom a small child was unsteadily
walking in the direction of Hendricks. Lee and Kowalski were stopped just into
the room as well seemingly frozen in place, and a little past them was a stout
man that Nelson could only describe as Santa Claus, right down to long white
beard and the red suit. Nelson glanced back over his shoulder and could clearly
see the rest of the Seaview behind him, so whatever was happening seemed
restricted to the Missile Room.
The
Santa Claus double was smiling broadly, his blue eyes fairly twinkling and his
rose cheeks glowing with cheer as he watched the scene before him. He in no way appeared to be a threat
to anyone, but all the strange things that had gone on unnerved Nelson and he
started to question the man as to who he was and what he thought he was doing.
“What
I always do, Harry, granting Christmas wishes. Some wishes were easy. Yours, to
revisit simpler times, for instance,” the man commented before Nelson spoke a
word. His voice was deep and gentle and, if such a thing were possible,
palpably loving, as if the man had never had an ill thought of anyone in all
his life. “But Edward here, all he wanted was to hear his daughter’s first
words and see her first steps. It’s only an illusion, but for him, it’s real.
And you know who I am.” He turned slightly and gave Nelson a wink.
Nelson
frowned, beginning to get seriously concerned because this person could
obviously read his mind and was capable of manifesting near-perfect illusions.
The man chuckled, his whole body seeming to join in on the laugh.
“You
needn’t be worried, Harry. I would never cause harm to another living thing. I
only thought that you, your crew, indeed all men and women who bring a little
safety and sanity to the craziness that claims this world in these troubled
times, deserved thanks and a little joy on this day. This is my last stop on
your vessel, then I will be gone. I am truly sorry if my presence, and my
presents, have disrupted things here.”
Hendricks laughed suddenly and
Nelson looked up to see him now holding his daughter in his arms, joy pretty
much radiating from the man. Nelson thought about what the intruder had said,
about what his intentions were. He still wondered why.
“Because that’s what I do, Admiral. Granted, usually for
children, but I think you and your crew have seen enough strange things that I
doubt my appearance will cause any long reaching physiological difficulties.
Would that I could do it for everyone who deserved it, young or old, but...” He
paused and shrugged, seeming to grow a little sad, then looked back over at
Hendricks and he smiled warmly. “Most adults, they’re more than capable of
achieving their fondest wishes without my help. It’s actually refreshing to see
that even in this jaded world, some men still see the worth of the simplest of
things.”
With
that, the illusion faded and the Missile Room once again returned to its normal
self. Hendricks was still kneeling on the deck, but he was blinking his eyes
rapidly, looking a bit dazed.
The
intruder was suddenly at the escape hatch and he winked at Nelson again and
said, “Merry Christmas and peace on Earth to men of good will.” He closed the
hatch, then Nelson heard a sound, like something knocking across the hull of
the Seaview above them.
“‘The
prancing and pawing of each tiny hoof,’” Nelson murmured and suddenly Lee and
Kowalski seemed to spring to life.
“Hendricks,
what in the... Admiral, how did you get here so quickly?” Lee asked as he took
in the room around him. Nelson wondered how he was going to explain what he’d
seen to Lee and not be thought insane. Kowalski crossed quickly to Hendricks
and helped him to his feet. Nelson and Lee followed him over.
“I
don’t know what happened, sir. Must’ve gotten lightheaded or...” Hendricks
murmured, rubbing his eyes.
“It’s all right, Hendricks. Are you
all right to resume your duties?” Nelson said, wanting to set the man’s mind at
ease.
Hendricks
nodded. “Yes sir. I’m sorry. I really don’t know what happened. It’s like I was
here one minute and back home with my wife and daughter the next. I can’t
explain it.”
“Just go back to your watch,
Hendricks,” Nelson said, giving the sailor a clap on the shoulder. “Oh, and
Merry Christmas.”
Hendricks
grinned sheepishly. “Almost more like Halloween, sir, but thank you. Merry
Christmas to you, too.”
Nelson laughed softly and Lee gave
him a funny look. “Carry on, Hendricks,” was all Lee said, then he turned to
go. Nelson left with him and Kowalski followed.
“Ski,
go on and get some sleep. Thanks for pitching in,” Lee told Kowalski as they
neared the crew’s quarters.
“Uh,
yes sir. Are you sure you won’t need me for anything else?” Kowalski asked, sounding
unsure. Nelson didn’t blame him.
“I think everything’s under control
now, Kowalski,” Nelson told him. “Happy Holidays.”
“Yes sir. You too, sir. And to you,
Skipper,” Ski said.
Lee
nodded to him, then Kowalski walked away. “So what just happened, Admiral? And
don’t tell me you don’t know. I know you too well and I know that look on your
face,” Lee said once Ski was gone.
The
Admiral knew that Lee wasn’t going to back down and he also knew that Lee did
deserve some sort of explanation.
“We
had an visitor, but a benevolent one for once. He’s gone now and he won’t be
back,” Nelson replied. Lee didn’t look at all satisfied by that explanation.
“Lee, have you ever read the story, ‘A Visit From Saint Nicholas?’”
Lee let out an exasperated sigh and
said, “Of course, but what has that got to do with what’s been going on
tonight?”
“Let’s
just say that we should treat this pretty much the same way as the man in the
story did and leave well enough alone,” Nelson said.
Lee frowned for a moment and said,
“If you say so, Admiral, but if anyone reports reindeer swimming around the Seaview,
I’m scheduling the entire crew for a psychological screening.”
“I don't
think you’ll have to worry about it, Lee. I doubt our visitor will be back,”
Nelson said, then a grin formed on his face. “Oh, and Lee, Merry Christmas to
all.”
Lee shook his head to Nelson’s joke and
finished for him, “And to all a good night.”
The End