Snookums

By

Carol Foss

"We got another nudge!" O'Brien yelled.

"Like tell me something I don't already know!" XO Chip Morton shouted back, dangling nearly sideways from the plot table handhold as Seaview rolled again. "I told him, I told him!" Morton hissed. "But, no, did he listen to me? Does he ever listen to me?"

The great sub had been battered for nearly a half hour. This had been getting old, fast.

"Hey Ski," Riley leaned towards the man seated next to him, which wasn't easy as they were hanging on to their consoles as if their lives depended on it, "This would be a great ride at a theme park!"

No sooner than the words were out of his mouth Seaview angled down at a 60 degree angle. Morton lost his grip and slid down the highly polished deck toward the Observation Nose.

"Maybe not," Riley whispered.

"Flying sub's managed to launch!" Spark's voice came over the caphaphany of sputtering sparks.

"I can see that!" Morton yelled, "Get us out of this dive!"

"Working on it sir!" O'Brien called, "but..."Seaview suddenly angled up, nearly vertical, "that monster seems to have other ideas!"

"Damn, Damn, Damn!"Chip muttered as "C'mon Lee, do something!"

"He's doin' the best he can, sir!"Sharkey defended the Skipper.

A great 'oomph' from the straining coffin of titanium made even more sparks fly as the sub smacked back down to a more or less even keel. For a moment nothing happened.

"Is it over?" Ski asked.

"For us," Morton said, rising and checked sub's cameras on the monitor, adjusting them towards the Flying Sub. Now it was the prime target of the denizen of the deep, and all hands held their collective breath's as it was bashed sending the smaller craft into a tailspin.

"Skipper? Skipper?" Sparks was desperately trying to raise him on the radio.

After about a heartbeat they saw Captain Crane emerge from the submersible on the rocky seabed, his only scuba gear air tanks and regulator, new prey for the monster.

"Shit," they heard him say, as he tried to dislodge his special cargo from the specimen jar, without much success. "C'mon, c'mon, see," he pointed, as he grabbed the infant Plesiosaurs' tail and pulled it out of the jar, " that's your mother, not me."

But the miniscule remnant of a bygone age wanted nothing to do with the supposedly extinct dinosaur and cried out in distress, escaping Crane's hold and making for Crane's hair instead.

"Uh oh," Morton said under his breath, trying not to alarm the crew as it burrowed deep into the Captain's curls.

"Ow, ow, ow! Aw, c'mon Snooky!" Lee found it's grip on his hair firm.

The large monster's nostrils widened, menacing, as it swam closer to the hapless diver. The infant's squalls of displeasure not helping.

"If he'd only listened to me!" Morton hissed again.

"He didn't know it was gonna hatch and get all bonded with him," Sharkey said, remembering when the Skipper had returned to the sub with the 'fossilized' egg after an enjoyable respite cave diving. They'd been checking on algae samples and the Captain thought the Admiral back at NIMR during this trip might enjoy adding this relic he'd found from the Jurassic Age to his collection. Little did Lee know the 'relic' just happened to be a few weeks old, and decided to make it's debut aboard Seaview. 'Snookum's' as Crane had dubbed the little lizard like creature, had, like a newly hatched chick, claimed Crane as it's 'mother', it's cries only calmed when in the Captain's presence. The shrill decibels had caused a great number of instruments and panels to snap crackle and pop. So Crane had taken to carry the critter around in his shirt pocket to shut it up. In fact, it was rumored that they'd become fast friends, even to the point of letting it scamper along his dinner plate, seizing up the leftover bits and pieces and sleeping on his pillow. That was all well and good. Everyone knew it was lonely at the top and the crew was glad the Captain could have a special friend with no rank to get in the way of it, but no one, not even he knew, that the creature's small 'meows' and cries had alerted, through the titanium hull, it's own kind, probably it's mother, now on a rampage to rescue her offspring. Hence the battering of the great and smaller subs.

As for Crane, well, he and the great Plesiosaur were mere inches away from each other.

The Captain finally managed to pull Snookums off his head, strands of hair held fast in it's talons, pulled from the roots.

"There, see..that is your mother. M-O-T-H-E-R.," he held the baby out in front of him by the scruff of it's neck. When it screeched with fear at the sight of the gigantic creature, the monster responded by glaring at Crane and snorted again.

"Look, lady, I'm doing the best I can. You say something!"

Suddenly the monster lurched forward and opened it's jaws.

All hearts aboard Seaview stopped.

Instead the monster simply gave Crane a long slurpy kiss with it's sandpapery tongue, then looked at the baby entreatingly.

"Ah, yeah, "Crane wiped the goo from his face, "See, Snooky, nice mother..."he gingerly extended his hand and stroked the side of the monster's face.

The little one meowed, questioning him.

"Yeah, see? Me, human, Bad human, he shook his head 'no', "Her...at least I think it's a her...nice dinosaur..er..Pleasiasour...whatever...look it's really for the best. You'll never fit aboard Seaview anyway,you're growing so fast, and don't you want to have friends of your own kind? I'll always be your friend, but it's time for you to go home....okay?"

The baby turned this way and that, taking in the khaki clad biped and the large dino monster with the same kind of skin and fins as it.

"Go on," Crane gently shoved Snookum's toward the monster.

For a moment both relics looked at each other, then Snookum's gave a soft meow, answered by a deep rumbling of it's kind.Then both dino relics swam away, Snookum's looking back once at Crane before disappearing from sight.

~

"Now," Morton leaned against the hatch in the Observation Nose as the dripping wet Crane wearily returned from the flying sub's hatchway, a few trails of blood dripping from his damaged scalp, "Will you listen to me in the future? No pets!"

"It was a fossil for the Admrial!"

"Yeah,"Chip laughed, "well, next time, don't bring one aboard!

"How about a dog?" Crane pondered, "I think I remember seeing a puppy on that island we passed by on the way to...what's the matter?"

Morton only groaned, resisting the urge to pull out his own hair.