A/N: Since I was kind of in a Voyage mode, I decided to go ahead and post my final finished story. This is sort of a sequel to "A Slave to Duty" but reading that one is necessary to following in this one. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

CHAPTER ONE

Lee Crane, commander of the atomic submarine, Seaview, sat in the officer's mess wolfing down his salad as he quickly scanned the day's reports. His executive officer, Chip Morton, sat nearby moodily picking out the mushrooms from his own meal. It had been a frustrating day and Chip was tired. He really wanted a hamburger, but had decided to substitute that less than healthy meal with something a bit more nutritious. He sighed and glanced at Lee. Crane's plate was empty, but Chip doubted that Lee even knew what he'd just eaten. He noticed Lee frowning as he read.

"Well, any clue to why the thermostat on the reactor isn't registering properly?"

Lee grunted and shook his head in irritation. All day the reactor's thermostat had been shutting down the system claiming that the reactor was overheating, when in reality it was well within normal limits. They were on auxiliary power while they tried to repair the problem, but it was a drain on their power and systems did not work nearly as efficiently. Lee sighed and pushed the plate away. "I guess I'll have Sharkey tear it apart again," he grumbled. "There must be something we're missing."

Chip pushed away his own plate with a slight grimace and stood up. "I'll go talk to Sharkey now," he said and hurried from the room.

Lee sat silently for a few minutes more rubbing his eyes before gathering up his papers. His head was throbbing. He pushed back his chair and stood up suddenly grabbing onto the edge of the table as a wave of dizziness washed over him. It passed in a moment but Lee held on for a little longer. He'd been feeling a bit off all day and now he was beginning to suspect he was coming down with something. Great. Just what he didn't need. He was officially off duty now, but there was plenty of paperwork that had to be taken care of. With the admiral off attending a scientific conference in Indonesia, this was supposed to be an uneventful cruise. They were retrieving missiles stored in undersea silos to update their remote firing mechanisms. In the past two weeks, they had done approximately twenty but unfortunately, ever since they had crossed the equator it seemed they had experienced nothing but one mechanical breakdown after another. They had made little progress in the past few days. In fact, they were pretty much stranded out in the middle of nowhere. As soon as Lee reached his office he sat down at his desk and with another deep sigh, got to work. It would undoubtedly be a long night.

Chip headed to the missile room to look for the Chief. He stopped for a moment in thought and turning, headed to the reactor room instead. He had an idea about the problem and wanted to check it out. A few minutes later found him entering the reactor room. Expecting it to be empty, he was startled to find crewman Nash busily at work. The crewman looked up, equally surprised. "Oh, uh, Mr. Morton, sir," Nash stammered stepping away from the reactor controls. "Chief Sharkey sent me down here to uh check the thermostat again."

Chip frowned, sensing an odd tension in the man. "And were you able to fix the problem?"

"Aye, sir!" replied Nash quickly. "It took awhile, but I finally found there was a defect in the circuit board. But, it's working now."

Chip looked towards the reactor and noted it did indeed seem to be working properly. Still, there was something about Nash that bothered him. He just couldn't put his finger on it. "Very good, Nash. Carry on."

"Aye, aye sir!"

Chip took one more doubtful look at the crewman and left. Nash let out a long breath, finished screwing the panel back onto the control console and silently made his own way out of the reactor room disappearing down the corridor. His work there was done.

xxxxxxx

Admiral Harriman Nelson wearily crossed the teak and mahogany paneled lobby of the Jakarta Hilton. He was in Indonesia attending an international conference on global warming and its effect on the oceans. There had been some heated discussions during a number of the sessions, and Nelson had been in the midst of several of them. He sighed as he pushed the button on the elevator, listening to the gamelan band as its metallic melodies created an exotic atmosphere within the confines of the lobby.

He looked at his watch and sighed again as he realized it was well past midnight. His weariness multiplied as he remembered that he needed to be up early the next morning for more sessions. He was presenting a paper at the opening session. He still needed to make sure his notes and Powerpoint presentation were in order, but when an old colleague had invited him to dinner, he couldn't resist. He had a weakness for Indonesian cuisine. Now, he had to pay the price for his procrastination.

A few moments later found him fumbling for his key card outside his hotel door. Maybe he shouldn't have had that last scotch. Finally opening the door, Nelson stumbled slightly as he stepped into his room closing the door behind him. As he felt around for the light switch a soft voice caused him to freeze. "Please stand still, Admiral. I have a gun and can see quite well in the dark."

Nelson stood still trying to make out a figure in the dark. There was just enough light filtering in through the partially closed drapes for Nelson to detect someone across the room, a slight glint verified the presence of a gun. "Who are you?" Nelson demanded wondering if he could somehow make it out of the room without being shot. "What do you want?"

The man laughed softly. "You don't recognize my voice, Harriman?" A second later, the table lamp flicked on and flooded the room with a soft light. A short, wiry man stood there, gray haired with icy blue eyes. A mocking grin curved his lips. Nelson gave a start. Of all the people he thought might be here, Jacob Vandergriff would have been at the bottom of the list. Two years ago, he had tried hard to kill Lee Crane and very nearly succeeded. First, he'd sent Crane off on a secret suicide mission, and when that failed, kidnapped Lee, shot him, and left him to die in an abandoned farmhouse in the mountains above Santa Barbara. Crewmen Kowalski and Patterson had rescued him just in the nick of time. They had also captured Vandergriff. He was supposed to be in jail.

"What the devil are you doing out of prison?" Nelson growled.

Vandergriff laughed again. "I have many powerful and influential friends, Harriman, especially in the People's Republic, but honestly, that's really not important. Perhaps you'd be more interested in what brings me here this evening." He pointed his gun towards a nearby chair. "I suggest you sit down and make yourself more comfortable."

Nelson cautiously moved further into the room and reluctantly settled himself into the indicated chair. Sitting back, he waited patiently for Vandergriff to continue.

The other man stood silently for a few moments allowing Nelson time to study his adversary. Vandergriff's face was thinner and more lined than Nelson remember. However, his determination was as evident as ever. Vandergriff leaned against the mahogany desk settled against the wall. "How is our friend, Captain Crane?" He spat out the name as if it tasted especially foul.

Nelson's mouth thinned in irritation. "He's fine. No thanks to you."

Vandergriff smiled slowly. "Is he? Are you sure?"

Nelson went cold. He recognized that look. He'd seen it often enough on some of the lunatics he'd run into across over the years, especially the ones that seemed to find their way onto Seaview. It was the look of triumph. "What have you done?" the admiral snarled starting to rise from his chair.

"Stay right where you are!" snapped Vandergriff bringing the gun to bear on Nelson's head. Slowly, Nelson sat down, his anger barely restrained. As soon as he was certain the admiral was back under control Vandergriff relaxed slightly.

"What have you done to Crane?" Nelson asked again through gritted teeth trying to keep his temper from erupting once again.

Again Vandergriff paused as he considered how to proceed. He cocked his head then began. "Admiral Nelson does Cortinarius orellanus mean anything to you?"

Nelson frowned in confusion. He had no idea where this was going. "Yes," he said slowly still thinking hard. "It's a kind of European mushroom. It's more commonly known as Deadly Webcap…" He stopped, eyes widening. "What have you done?" he repeated hoarsely.

Vandergriff grinned although his eyes remained as cold as ever. "I know your dear captain has a fondness for mushrooms. I simply made sure he received some particular mushrooms chosen just for him. "

Nelson sat speechless trying to absorb this. "You…you poisoned him?"

"Deadly webcap," nodded Vandergriff with obvious satisfaction. "Perfect for my needs. It is easily mistaken for nonpoisonous varieties and symptoms can take days or even weeks to appear. And even when they do, poison is usually the last thing anyone suspects."

"Why are you telling me this?" demanded Nelson tightly. "What do you want from me? Surely you wouldn't be telling me all this just to keep me up to date. You must want something."

"Yes Admiral, you are correct. If all I wanted was Crane's death, I could have chosen far more effective methods than poisonous mushrooms, but I am a sporting man and I wanted to give you a chance." Vandergriff paused again. "Admiral, I want the plans to build my own flying submarine."

Nelson stared in disbelief than laughed for the first time. "You're insane. I'm not going give you the plans to the flying sub!"

"Not even to save the life of your friend? Or…" his eyes narrowed. "To keep a nuclear warhead from falling into the wrong hands?"

This was getting more and more bizarre. Nelson shook his head trying to make sense of Vandergriff's words. "What are you talking about? What nuclear warhead? How…" He trailed off as the purpose of Seaview's current assignment occurred to him, horror draining the color from his face.

Vandergriff laughed again. "Admiral, I know that the Seaview's mission is to replace all the remote firing mechanisms in the undersea missiles. Thanks to me, the People's Republic has cracked the code and could fire a missile at any time should it so choose. The problem is, they don't know where the missiles are located or to where they are directed. Or at least they didn't. They now know the location of exactly one of those missiles.

Nelsons continued to struggle to figure out how all of this was connected. He was definitely regretting that last drink. "What the devil has any of this got to do with Crane? Or the flying sub?"

Vandergriff slowly shook his head and sighed. "Admiral Nelson, is this really all that difficult to understand? I want the plans for the flying sub so I can build my own. If you give me the plans, I will be happy to tell you which missile they have located. There is currently a People's Republic agent on board your submarine whose job, in addition to poisoning Lee Crane, is to sabotage the Seaview to prevent it from reaching the missile before his government does. Yes, I realize the People's Republic does have nuclear weapons but none so refined as ours. You certainly wouldn't want them to learn any new tricks of the trade, now would you? Plus, once you have delivered the plans, I will even give you the antidote to the poison. I developed it myself. Without it, there is no question that Captain Crane will die." He paused thoughtfully. "Although it is quite possible that it is already too late, but at least with the antidote, he might have a chance."

Nelson struggled to keep his composure. What was he supposed to do? If he refused to deliver the plans, not only would he be possibly allowing one of the least stable nations in the world to acquire one of the most sophisticated nuclear warheads in the world, but he could also be condemning his friend to death. "How do I know you're telling the truth?" he growled. "You could be telling me this simply to get the plans when in reality none of this might be true."

Vandergriff simply shrugged. "You'll just have to trust me on this. Or, you could contact your sub and check on Crane although he might not be showing symptoms yet. It can take as long as three weeks for them to appear but as I understand it, if it takes that long, his kidneys and liver will probably be so damaged nothing can save him." He stood erect and took a step towards the door. He held up a small piece of paper showing it to Nelson. "You haven't much time, Harriman. You can contact me at this number when you have the plans." He placed the paper on the desk and began to slowly make his way towards the door, never turning his back on Nelson. As he reached the door, Vandergriff cocked his head and again studied Nelson thoughtfully. "I hope you don't do anything stupid, Harriman. I'm giving you an opportunity to save not only Crane but prevent a possible nuclear disaster. All you give up are the plans to a small flying submarine. I don't think that's so much to ask. Think about it." He then turned and disappeared.

Nelson sat frozen for a moment then sprang to his feet and dove for the phone. There was no time to waste.