Thanks again to Kate for beta-ing this story for
me.
RIGOURS OF COMMAND
By
Sea Spinner
Captain
Lee Crane quickly stifled a yawn as it came to his lips. He saw O’Brien give him a sideways glance and
decided it was time to hit his rack.
“I’m off
to have a few hours sleep. You have the
con Mister O’Brien.”
“Aye,
Captain.”
Lee was
tired. He had only just finished an ONI
mission when Seaview had been ordered
out to sea to conduct a seismic survey.
What made it worse was Chip having to go
into the hospital for an emergency
appendectomy. Between undertaking the
ONI mission and this voyage, he was lucky to have slept for three straight
hours at any one time.
He had
just about made it to his cabin when he caught sight of Stu Riley leaning
against a bulkhead. Normally Lee would
have greeted the young seaman and continued on his way. This time, something made him pause.
“Everything
okay, Riley?”
Riley
looked up just as a tear escaped from one eye.
It was then that Lee noticed the crumpled piece of paper in his hand.
“It’s
nothing, Sir,” he replied quietly as he straightened up and brushed the tear
away.
Lee
decided he had two choices, the first to ignore what he’d just seen and get
some sleep, leaving Riley to work it out for himself. The second to drag Riley into his cabin and see what was wrong. For someone like Lee Crane, there was only
the one answer.
“Stu, come
into my cabin for a minute.” He opened
the door and Riley followed.
Two cups
of coffee later, he’d discovered that Riley’s mother had gone into hospital the
day before to have emergency heart surgery.
She still wasn’t out of the woods.
Lee
pressed the button on the intercom.
“Kowalski, can you report to my cabin? It’s urgent.”
Within
thirty minutes, Riley had disembarked Seaview
with Kowalski. The FS1 would return him
to
He
suppressed another yawn and made his way to the observation nose, too wired up
now to sleep. The silvery moon shimmered
on the ocean in front of Seaview,
mesmerizing him to sleep. Almost as soon
as his eyes had closed he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Captain,
we’ve got an unauthorized surface contact.”
Lee sat up
straight, confused after his brief catnap.
“Uh, where…what’s it’s bearing, Mister O’Brien?”
“It’s
coming straight at us, Skipper.”
Lee rubbed
his weary eyes, stood up and made his way unsteadily into the control
room. “Sonar, time to contact?”
“Approximately
thirty minutes, Sir. We’ve been
monitoring it, but it suddenly changed direction to come to an intercept course.”
“Hmm. Patterson, any indication of the type of
craft?”
“It looks
like a very large surface vessel, Skipper.”
“Sir,”
“Dammit,”
Lee muttered under his breath. “Are
there any other ships closer than us?”
“No,
Sir. The nearest ones are a few days
away.”
“Alright,
send them a reply. We’ll meet them at
these coordinates. I’ll go and apprise
Doctor Jamieson of the situation. Find
out as much information as you can and relay it through to sick bay.”
“Yes,
Sir,” said
To his
disbelief, he found Jamie nursing a broken wrist. “What happened to you?”
Jamie
looked sheepish. “I, uh, got it jammed
in the head door.”
Lee
groaned, normally he might have found it mildly amusing. Right now with a ship full of seriously sick
passengers it was just another hurdle to jump over.
“What is
it, Lee?”
Lee
explained the situation. “Are we able to
assist them?”
“Salmonella
poisoning can be deadly if it’s not treated properly. What’s our expected ETA?”
Lee looked
at his watch. “About thirty minutes.”
“Frank and
Tim can go over with Ski and Patterson.”
Jamie stopped when he saw the look on Lee’s face. “What is it?”
“Kowalski’s
not onboard. I sent him out in the flying
sub to take Riley home.”
Jamie took
a deep breath. “Okay, Sharkey will have
to go as well. I’ll give them the
medication and equipment they need and coordinate from here.”
Lee nodded
to Jamie’s wrist. “Who’s going to set that fracture?”
Jamie gave
Lee a faint smile. “Who do you think?”
“Oh,
no…I’m not qualified for that,” protested Lee.
“Giving me
that I’m-only-a-Captain look isn’t going to work. The others will have their hands full
preparing their kits for the ship. That
leaves you,” he gave Lee a wicked grin.
“After all, you’ve had more broken bones than the whole crew put
together. That has to count for something.”
“I suppose
I could help,” he said reluctantly, doubting any real medical ability on his
part. “Just don’t blame me if I set the
wrong bones together.”
Jamie grimaced,
then called the medics, Patterson and Sharkey, and gave them instructions.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
One hour
later Lee had done about all he could for Jamie and headed back to the control
room. A couple more hours and he might
actually be able to put his head down.
“Medical
party to Captain Crane.”
“Crane
here, go ahead.” What now!
“Uh, Sir,
you’d better come over to the cruise ship, we’ve got a bit of a problem.”
Lee took a
deep breath and counted to five before replying. “What’s the problem?”
“Ah, well,
Skipper, I think it’d be better if you came onboard and saw for yourself.”
“Very well,”
he replied tersely. “I’ll be over in
fifteen minutes.”
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Twenty minutes
later, Lee was scratching his head. The Sea Sapphire was, as
“Damn”, he
muttered, trying to figure out a solution, any
solution except the one that now presented itself. “Crane to Seaview.”
O’Brien’s
voice came across the radio. “O’Brien
here, Skipper.”
“Mister
O’Brien, make a call to Admiral Nelson to let him know the seismic survey will
have to be conducted with a skeleton crew.
Ask him if he wants to join the boat and Kowalski can pick him up on the
way back.”
“Why’s
that, Sir?”
Lee
sighed. “The bridge crew has all gone
down with Salmonella poisoning as well.
They’re going to need us to crew the bridge until they improve. I need two more with
large ship tickets to be ferried over, then we’ll get underway
immediately. Some of the cases are quite
serious and we need to make the nearest port as soon as we can.”
“Will do,
Skipper.”
“That
means you have Seaview until the
Admiral comes aboard.”
“Yes,
Sir,” came the uncertain reply.
“You’ll be
fine,” he reassured the junior officer.
“Crane out.”
Once the
other two crewmen were aboard and he’d found out that the Admiral would indeed
be joining Seaview, Lee made
preparations to get underway. Only when
the crew had settled into their new stations did he leave the bridge, taking a
portable radio with him in case he was needed.
He almost made the shared quarters he’d been allocated, when he found
what he thought would be a quiet place to rest.
The lifeboat already had half the studs open, so he glanced quickly
around, and after assuring himself nobody would see him, he eased inside. It was a large lifeboat, made for a good many
people, so using his jacket as a pillow he snuggled up and closed his
eyes. He had only just drifted off when
something soft and furry rubbed across his face.
“Meeow.”
Lee jumped
about two feet before he realized that the intruder was a cute ginger moggy. After a minute, he realized it seemed to be
limping, so he gently took its paws and examined them one by one until he found
what he’d been looking for. A small
metal splinter had almost worked its way into the soft pad. He gently put his nails around it and pulled
it out, much to the cat’s delight as it began to purr loudly. When the cat snuggled against his chest, he
lay back and thought about the last twenty-four hours. John Le Carré had gotten it all wrong. It wasn’t Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It should have been Skipper, Counselor,
Doctor, Vet. With that thought he
finally managed to slip into a sound sleep.
The End