Chapter 13

Once the water in the dive chamber had cycled out and allowed for the door to be opened Jung and Kowalski stepped out into the missile room to a very irate Harriman Nelson and a none too happy Delbruck. Jung studiously ignored them as he made his way to the dive bench and began divesting himself of his dive gear. As the helmet came off Delbruck moved in.

"Just what the hell do you think you were doing out there?!" he yelled at the archeologist. "You were briefed on dive protocols and told that you were to follow all directions provided by the team lead. What came over you?!"

"I was standing up for what we contracted for, since apparently you have no intention of doing so!" Jung fired back. "There's nothing dangerous out there other than people who are too afraid of their shadows to get the job done."

"You're done Jung," Nelson said in a low and menacing voice barely controlling his temper. "You're not making another dive and if this belligerence continues I'll have you taken back to shore so fast you won't know what hit you. Is that understood?"

Jung glared back at the admiral. "You can't do that we've chartered this boat. You throw me off I'll sue you for breach of contract and do my best to let the entire world know about your inability to fulfil your contractual obligations. You can't let him treat me this way Hans!"

"I can and I will since I happen to agree with him. How can you stand there and say no one is being affected by the emanations from that storage hold while you're foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog? Answer me that one Elmer," Delbruck volleyed back.

Jung continued to remove his gear then stood. "There's nothing wrong with me, I'm just anxious to accomplish the mission we set out to complete. We're wasting too much time taking this piecemeal approach. Had we gone ahead with two more dive teams each day, we'd be almost done by now," he fumed.

The last of divers entered the missile room as the confrontation continued. As Jung caught sight of Crane he sneered. "You don't live up to your reputation as a fearless leader, Crane," he spat as Lee pulled off his helmet.

"Fearless is not foolhardy, Jung," Lee responded evenly. "My job is to help you recover what's in that boat but I won't do that at the expense of anyone's safety; even yours Doctor." Jung glowered back and stepped menacingly towards Crane only to be pulled up short by Kowalski.

"Enough! Sharkey call down the Master at Arms and have him escort Dr. Jung back to his quarters," Nelson interjected his patience with the doctor's outburst at an end.

"Aye sir," Sharkey acknowledged as he picked up the microphone and made the call.

"Elmer sit down, shut up and cool off," Delbruck ordered. "Admiral, Captain I apologize for my colleague's behavior."

"Stow it Hans, no one needs to apologize for anything! I've only pointed out the truth, a truth you've been too spineless to mention," Jung retorted. As he prepared to exit the missile room the MAA arrived blocking his egress.

"Parkins escort Dr. Jung here back to his quarters and ensure he stays there," Nelson ordered.

"Aye sir," Parkins responded. "Doctor, if you would," he said as he motioned towards the door.

Jung made a rude noise and glowered at the surprised faces in the missile room. As Parkins moved to take his arm he jerked it forward and hastened his pace back to his cabin.

(o)

"What the hell set him off?" Lee asked as he continued to undress after his dive.

"I have no idea," Delbruck answered as he shook his head in wonder. "Elmer is usually the calmest most easy going individual I've ever met. This behavior is totally out of line with his personality."

"Do you think it has anything to do with what's in that room Lee?" Harri asked.

"Could be but then why isn't Ski affected? You're okay aren't you Ski?" Lee replied.

"Yes Skipper I feel fine. I didn't notice anything as we shifted stuff around."

"Do you know if Jung found what he was looking for?" Lee asked.

"He didn't say what he was going after and he didn't act as if he had come across it," Ski answered.

Lee thought for a moment on what else could have prompted such a change in the doctor's personality as he toweled off. "Chief check out Jung's gear. Check the settings on his mix, the regulator and even the gas. Maybe he was reacting to an unbalanced breathing mixture or some other glitch with his dive gear. Let me know what you find out."

"Will do Skipper," Sharkey answered then moved to collect the doctor's gear.

"Thank you for giving him the benefit of the doubt, Captain," Delbruck said. "As I said his behavior is so out of character there has to be something going on."

"Not a problem," Lee answered as he pulled on his sweats then reached down and grabbed his towel. "I'll go get cleaned up and see you in the nose in a few," he said to the admiral as he headed out the door, his mind currently distracted from his encounter in the torpedo room.

"Take your time, lad," Harri replied with a smile.

(o)

Lee walked quickly to his cabin thankful for the moment alone. He let loose a sigh of frustration and a hint of guilt at having neglected to mention what he had seen to the admiral as his mind turned back to the dive. He hoped to hell that they would believe he had actually forgotten the incident given what was going on with Jung.

He doffed his clothes and made his way to his small head to grab a much desired shower. Despite the number of layers he donned the ocean cold always managed to seep beneath them and chill him. He moaned in ecstasy as the hot water cascaded down his body and his muscles began to relax and warm. He soaped himself up enjoying this one decadent pleasure and savored a longer than normal shower.

Once out of the shower he rapidly dressed, girding himself for his encounter with the admiral when he revealed what else had happened on the dive. He knew he had to report without any further delay or it would most likely get him banned from future dives or worse get him punted off the boat.

As he prepared to exit his cabin and track down the admiral, he was momentarily frozen in his steps as the emergency klaxons began to sound. He quickly made a grab for the hand set. "Control room this is Crane, report!"

(o)

"Morton here. We're getting wildly inconsistent readings in the reactor room indicating a containment breach and we just lost our air revitalization units. DC parties are on their way and the reactor crew is initiating an emergency shutdown."

"Copy that," Lee replied. "I'm heading down to the reactor room now, you focus on getting those air units back on line."

"Aye, Skipper. Admiral Nelson is on his way to the reactor room as we speak, Morton out."

Shipping the mike, Lee bolted out of his cabin making a bee line for the reactor room. Upon his arrival he spotted the admiral already in the room working closely with the engineering crew.

"What's the situation, sir?" Lee inquired as he joined the admiral at the control console.

"According to the read outs we're experiencing a containment breach in the reactor that is threatening to release radiation but based on our monitoring and examination there is no such breach," Nelson answered as he continued to work through the shutdown protocols with the chief engineer.

"Marks kill the alarm would you? I think we're all more than aware there's a problem," Lee ordered. Marks nodded and quickly shut the screeching alarm off eliciting a sigh of relief from those on board.

"So there's no release of radioactivity?" Lee asked wanting to verify what the admiral had said.

"That's correct, Lee. It looks as though the glitch is located in the control panel and not in the reactor itself. We're going to power down until we can figure out where that glitch is just to be on the safe side," Nelson replied.

"Do you need me to surface the boat?" Lee inquired.

"Not due to issues with the reactor at this point in time," Harri answered.

"Very well. I'm going to check in with Chip about the problems with the air revitalization unit. If we've got real problems with that we may be going to the surface anyway. Let me know if there's any change," Lee said as he headed out of the reactor room towards the conn. Harri nodded as he continued to scrutinize the control panel.