Chapter 10
When Lee and Janet entered the escape hatch, he could sense she was a little apprehensive. Once outside the boat, he tuned his radio to her frequency, "Just follow me," he told her. "And relax, you'll do fine."
She swam next to him holding the tool bag while Lee carried the sensors. Once Lee located their first installation site, Janet wasn't sure what to do or what Lee needed her to do so it took a little longer to install the sensor after finding it wasn't fitting in the housing. While Lee figured out how to get the sensor in the housing, Sharkey radioed Lee that they were at the first placement spot, "Skipper, we found the housing and it was easy to spot but we have a problem. The sensor won't fit into the housing. The sensor is a little bigger than the bracket."
"Damn," Lee muttered. "I had the same problem. I just spread out the brackets a little and I managed to wiggle it in there. Can you make it fit or do we have to bring them back and re-tool them?"
"Let me try and see if that will work, I'll let you know," Sharkey replied.
Lee and Janet found their second installation point, Janet had no problems knowing Lee needed and the installation of this sensor went a lot quicker.
Sharkey reported back, "It worked skipper, but it's going to take us longer to install them as the brackets aren't that easy to spread out."
"Admiral, did you hear that," Lee asked, "are you at your location?"
As the admiral and Riley swam to their location, Harry noticed some bleaching of the coral but it wasn't too bad. "I heard and we just arrived at our first location. Riley's trying to install one now." As Riley tried to put the sensor in the housing, he too had a problem. "Lee, we're having a problem too. I'll see if I can spread out our brackets." Harry took a pliers and managed to spread the brackets just enough to wiggle it in too."
"Sharkey, Ski, do what you can and if you don't get it completed come back. Don't wait too long to return to the boat," Lee stressed to them.
"Aye, aye sir," Sharkey answered as they swam to the next location.
"Lee, we got ours in but we're going to have the same problem," Harry told Lee.
"Admiral, don't stay out too long either."
Lee and Janet had reached the deepest and furthest point of their locations but before they started their installation, Lee radioed the laboratory.
"Dr. Worth are you receiving a signal from the sensors we've installed?"
"Yes, Captain. They're reporting on all channels. In addition, I've been following your conversations. I'm going to check the specification sheets and see if the housings were installed incorrectly or the sensors were made wrong. I'll get back to you. Have your men radio me as they complete the installation so I can let them know if they're working."
"Yes, sir," the diving teams reported as they heard the conversation.
Lee and Janet found their third site and had trouble with that sensor yet again. Lee separated the brackets as Janet put in the sensor. They moved on to the next location working their way back to the boat. They had been out for almost an hour and had one more sensor to install. So far all the sensors were working. Lee kept looking for the rest of the divers as they should be returning to the boat especially Sharkey and Kowalski. He finally saw Harry and Riley swimming back towards Seaview and wait by the escape hatch. He and Janet finished installing the last sensor they had and were swimming back to the boat when he spotted Sharkey and Kowalski swimming towards Seaview. They entered the hatch first, followed by the rest of the dive teams.
Once all the divers were safely back on the boat, Lee picked up the mic and called the Control Room. "Sparks, all divers are back aboard."
"Yes sir," Sparks replied and made a note of the time in the logbook.
((()))
After stowing the mic, Lee quickly put on a pair of deck shoes, "Stay here and wait while I get Seaview into the next position," he said as he headed to the control room to position the boat on the north side of the island.
As he was positioning the boat, the divers switched out their air tanks making sure they had full tanks for the next dive. Even though they would be diving most of the day, they wouldn't exceed the amount of time they were allotted for diving in one day. After the first installation, they knew approximately how long it would take them to install the sensors in the next three quadrants.
Once in the Control Room, Lee gave maneuvering the coordinates for the next position. They had her in position within thirty minutes. he returned to the missile room and they all geared up to install the next set of sensors.
They had the same problems with sensors on this dive but again managed to get the sensors installed. Before leaving the area, Lee checked with Dr. Worth and all sensors were working.
Lee repeated the same procedure for the east side of the island and they were finally in position on the south side.
The divers left Seaview and swam to their positions. Harry and Riley reported they had trouble installing the sensors they had but managed to get them in and were informed by Dr. Worth that they were working. They radioed Lee that they were returning to Seaview and would meet them at the escape hatch.
Lee and Janet had put in two of their four sensors and headed to the next position. No matter what they did, there was no way they could get either one of the two sensors they had left into the housing. "Let's go to the next position," Lee told Janet as they swam to the final position in their area. Neither one of those sensors would fit into that housing. "Damn," Lee muttered, "we're going to have to come back out tomorrow with a couple of different sensors and see if they can be installed."
"I can help out tomorrow," Janet volunteered even though she was very tired.
"We'll see," Lee replied as he took Janet's hand and gave it a squeeze. Lee made sure his radio was tuned into hers so only she could hear him. "Sweetie, thanks for helping out. You did a fantastic job," he told her. "Love you."
"You're welcome," Janet answered, "but I'm going to admit to you, I'm very tired and love you too."
He gave her an okay sign and motioned her to follow him to the boat. He was worried that he hadn't gotten a report from Sharkey and Kowalski.
Once at Seaview and before they entered the hatch, Lee called them on the radio, "Chief, Ski, report." He waited a few seconds before he called again.
"Ski, Chief," he yelled over the radio again and began swimming in the direction of the installation. "Janet, go in the hatch, you can't dive that deep. Riley heard Lee's call to Kowalski and Sharkey and immediately headed towards him to help him find the two men.
They didn't have to swim very far when he saw the flashlight from the divers. They met them and helped them back to the boat and giving them their octopus regulators so they could breathe off their tanks as they were very short on air. They had stayed out a little too long. He made sure they were the first in the hatch followed by the rest.
Once all the divers were on the boat, Riley and Janet helped Kowalski and Sharkey remove their gear as they sat down on the bench. Both of them were okay but knew they had cut it too close. Lee ripped off his hood and threw it on the floor.
"What the hell were you doing out there?" Lee yelled at his men. "You know better than that. You not only put yourselves in danger but the rest of the dive team that had to go look for you.
"Sorry sir," Sharkey replied contritely. "We had more trouble with the last sensor. It was much bigger than the bracket and it took us longer to work it into the housing than we planned. We just pushed it too far."
Letting out a breath Lee continued, "I realize you wanted to get that sensor into the housing but safety is our top priority on this boat especially after what happened on our previous mission, do I make myself clear?
"Yes sir," both men answered in unison, both knowing they had messed up big time.
Lee breathed deeply, it had been a long exasperating dive for all of them.
"Mrs. Crane and I didn't get our last two sensors into the housing as they were too big and we couldn't pry the brackets far enough apart so there's two housings without sensors. I want the two of you to go out tomorrow and put them in," Lee ordered the men, letting them knew he still trusted them and their skills. "This way once you've got them installed I can bring Seaview around to the western side of the island."
"Aye, aye sir," both men responded relieved to have survived the dressing-down.
Lee calmed down and patted both men on the shoulders to show his appreciation for their hard work. He understood they wanted to get the job done but as the captain of Seaview and responsible for every life aboard, he wasn't willing to sacrifice a life for those damned sensors.
"Thanks men," Lee said as he walked over to Riley and gave him a pat too. He winked at Janet who winked back.
"Nice work, men" Harry said to the divers. "I'm going to find out who made the mistake…the company that installed the housings or Zamkor Industries."
Janet knew the men would be anxious to remove the rest of the wet suits so she left and returned to her cabin to remove hers and would report back to the missile room.
((()))
Janet quickly removed her wet suit, changed back into her civvies, ran a comb through her hair and returned to the missile room. She slowly peeked around the door of the hatch making sure the men were dressed before she entered the missile room. Lee saw her look and waved her in. The men were dressed in their uniforms and were looking at the rest of the sensors in the crates. She walked over to them and picked up a couple of pieces of the bubble wrap that had fallen onto the deck. She smoothed them out and put them in the crate. She picked up one of the sensors, unwrapped it and compared it to the two they brought back from their dive. Harry already had one in his hand and picked up another one. He was comparing the two sensors and could see one was bigger than the other. Riley, Sharkey and Kowalski picked up the remaining sensors, unwrapped them and noticed they too were all different sizes.
"Well I guess we know the problem isn't the housings but the sensors. I'm going to report this to Dr. Worth and let him know just how different these sensors are sized," Harry said disgustedly. "The consortium needs to know what a shabby job Zamkor Industries did."
Lee piped up, "Find the two smallest sized sensors. Hopefully they'll fit the housing so there won't be a problem installing them tomorrow."
Harry put the six sensors side by side and picked out the two smallest. Kowalski put them in the mesh bag for tomorrow's dive. Sharkey, Riley and Janet wrapped up the remaining sensors put them in one of the crates so they could be taken to the laboratory in case they needed to replace any of the ones they had installed.
Lee looked at his watch and noticed that his men should have been off duty an hour ago. He told them to get something to eat and to report to the missile room tomorrow morning at 0900 hours.
Harry, Lee and Janet remained there for a few more minutes. "I'm going to call Jonas and see if we can't meet with him tomorrow after we've installed the last two sensors." Harry said and looked at Lee, "I'd like you to come with and bring the specs Zamkor left with us."
"Yes sir," Lee replied as they walked out of the missile room. "Right now I want to check in with Sparks in the Control Room. He's never been at the conn this long. Taper should be coming on duty in an hour. I have no one to serve with him but since we staying in this position for the night, he should have no problems."
"Sounds good," Harry answered, "I'll meet the both of you in the wardroom in a couple of hours. I'll be in my cabin if you need me."
"I'm going to check on Chip," Janet told them as Harry dogged the hatch when they left the missile room.
Harry headed up the nearest ladder for his cabin while Lee and Janet walked to Sick Bay where Lee stopped briefly before heading for the Control Room. Janet sat down in the chair next to Chip's bunk and gently took his hand. It still felt very warm to her. Jamie had gone to the medical stores to get the last of his antibiotics and saw them over by Chip's bunk.
"How's he doing, Jamie?" Lee asked as he stooped down next to him.
"His temperature is the same and his liver enzymes haven't changed; he's still critical."
Chip started to stir and cautiously opened his eyes blinking a few times before he saw Lee and Janet.
"Skipper…boat okay?" he said with difficulty. "Thirsty."
Janet picked up his glass and helped him take a few sips of water.
"Boat's fine…don't worry…just get better," Lee told him as he squeezed his shoulder. "You're sure making the most of this illness," Lee teased hoping he would get a smile from him.
"I just needed a nice long rest and picked this cruise," he grinned weakly and fell back to sleep.
"That's okay buddy," Lee replied knowing he didn't hear him. He turned to Jamie, "How much longer is he going to be sick?"
"Lee, he's going to be out of commission for a few weeks. It takes a long time to recover from this. Sometimes it can take months to get well. He was in good shape before he got sick so I'm hoping we're talking weeks and not months."
Lee ran his hand through his hair, "Thanks for taking care of him," he said as he looked at Janet. "I'll meet you in the wardroom in two hours."
"Yes sir," Janet replied as Lee left Sick Bay and headed for the Control Room. After he left she let out a big yawn.
Jamie caught her and smiled, "How was your diving experience…everything go as planned?"
"No and I'm exhausted. I don't know how they can stay out there for all that time," she replied and explained to Jamie all the problems they had with the sensors.
"They're used to it. They've all been diving a long time. That's why I like staying 'indoors'," Jamie chuckled and left her to sit with Chip while he put away the supplies.
((()))
Lee surveyed his control room. Sparks was at the plotting table and had everything under control. He walked over to him, "Doing okay?"
"Yes sir," he replied. "I've made all the notations in the logbook, mapped the course we took around the island just in case we need to go back for some reason but had to move a few men around to make sure the critical stations were manned."
Lee looked over the logbook and reviewed the notations. "Thanks for all your hard work today. I know it was difficult manning the radio and the conn but you did a great job."
"Thank you, sir," Sparks answered. "It did get a little hectic."
"Would you like to be on the conn a little more often? I can make arrangements if you would like to try it out."
"Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll stay in communications. I really do like manning my radio, not quite as stressful."
"No problem," Lee responded. "Why don't you sign off on the logbook and I'll take over so you're relieved of duty."
"Yes sir," Sparks said as he signed the book and left the control room.
Lee was happy Sparks wanted to stay in communications as he was the best radio operator out there. He checked all the stations and was satisfied with what he saw. He went to the observation nose and touched the coffee pot. It was warm so he poured himself a cup of coffee and looked out the windows at one of the coral beds. It wasn't showing any signs of bleaching and he hoped it would stay that way.