Chapter Nineteen
Coughs, smoke, and the acidic smell of wires burning filled the Control Room as Seaview's crew slowly began to realize that they weren't dead.
"I need emergency power up!" Bobby ordered over his shoulder, rising from the deck and using the periscope island to find his footing. He stopped and helped Pat back into his seat then felt his way toward the chart table where, once there, he felt for and found a flashlight. Tugging on the cord until the wayward mic reached his hands, he clicked.
"Damage Control, how long before emergency generators are up?" he demanded, training a bright circle of light toward the ribbons hanging limply on the air vent.
"Engine Room here, we're on it, about two minutes, sir."
"Make it faster if you can," he urged, reaching up to feel a sticky wet spot and pulling his fingers away sharply when he painfully touched his forehead. The room started spinning and it was all he could do to stand, as he held on tight to the chart table for stability. "You can't black-out," he ordered himself, there was too much to do… and…
"Are you all right, sir?" Pat asked, moving closer, getting his first good look at the lieutenant and the nasty gash on his forehead, exposing flesh and bleeding more profusely now.
Concentrating to stay on his feet, Bobby was slow to answer before the red emergency lights suddenly kicked on. They both looked up and watched as the ribbons flew perpendicular to the vent, but then his vision got blurry.
"Patterson… I think I need to sit…"
Pat caught the officer and helped him down to lean his back against the chart table. "Hold on, sir, we'll get you to sickbay."
"No… we're on the bottom… can't leave…"
"I've had my turn at goldbricking," a familiar voice interjected, "and now it's your turn."
O'Brien looked up, his vision blurring and barely able to make out the XO standing in front of him.
"You did your part, now it's time to let me step in," Chip said gently, holding his side as he crouched down to O'Brien's level. "But Bobby, you're in command, you have relinquish the Conn."
Bobby smiled. "Gladly, sir. You have the Conn."
"Aye Captain, I have the Conn," he replied, following military protocol since O'Brien was acting captain and Chip hadn't actually been cleared for duty, a technicality he would worry about later; it was a "bust me at the top" situation and he'd worry about what Jamie thought later… after the crisis was over. "We'll get you to sickbay as soon as we have a few free hands," Chip said, "and Bobby, good job. You gave us fighting chance."
Chip rose slowly, holding his side and not exactly in uniform; he had managed to get his pants on, but the white gauze wrapped around his chest was visible since his untucked shirt was only buttoned three-high, and he had slid his feet into his shoes without the benefit of socks. But whether in uniform or not, he was here to work; so, he reached for the mic and got down to business.
"Damage Control, this is the Exec, report. All decks, report."
# # # # #
"This is Crane to Seaview; come in Seaview," Lee had hailed for the twentieth time since Harry had discovered that the boat was now sitting at 150 feet and currently on the bottom; as best as they could tell, it was still in one piece. Whether she was sound or not was something they would have to find out.
"Crane to Seaview; come in Seaview," he hailed again, this time receiving a static-filled answer.
"This is Seaview, Skipper, good to hear your voice."
Lee dropped his head in an emotional release that his worst nightmare hadn't been realized and smiled, then raised it again to answer. "It's good to hear you, Seaview. What's your situation?"
"Hold for the Exec, Sir."
He sighed and exchanged glances with Harry, both chuckling and enjoying the respite from the nonstop danger they had encountered since embarking on this mission.
"Lee, this is Chip, what's your status?"
"Everything's under control; we found exactly what we were looking for. The Admiral and I are fine and the extraction team arrived in perfect timing."
"I'll pass that on to Lt. O'Brien."
"Very well," Lee replied, raising an appraising brow; he had left O'Brien in charge and he seriously doubted Jamie had willingly let Chip out of sickbay, but those facts were the least of his concerns at this point. "Now, tell me what's going on with Seaview," he said, done with the chit-chat and ready to hear about his boat.
"We're running on emergency generators, but Engineering reports they'll have us up on full power within the next ten minutes. We're a little battered down here, but we should be able to blow ballast and surface soon after. From what Patterson tells me, the bogey intercepted the missiles less than 100 feet from Seaview. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that?"
"You can thank the Admiral for that," he said with some levity and shooting a smile Harry's way. "What about casualties?"
"Jamie has his hands full, but we haven't lost a man, Lee."
"That's good news," he said visibly relieved, but moving on. "The Destroyer in the area is closing in on your position. We'll coordinate with them and rendezvous with the Seaview as soon as we can."
"Aye, aye, Skipper."
Lee sat back, content to have finally made contact with Seaview. Without thinking, he rubbed the back of his neck feeling the weariness of the day catching up with him. As he dropped his hand back down on the station desk, he noticed the wristband, and stared at it, almost hypnotically as he remembered the searing pain that had pushed him so close to the edge of his endurance. He was lost in that thought when Ski approached.
"Skipper?" Kowalski interrupted. "The Admiral asked me to man the communication's station and send a few dispatches to the Destroyer."
"She's all yours," he said, standing and looking back at Harry who seemed to be waiting for him by the door.
"I think it's time we got rid of that," Harry said, with a nod toward the receiver on his wrist, as Lee approached.
"I'm all for that," he said wearily and followed Harry out the door.
# # # # #
Harry and Lee made their way back down the corridor toward Dr. Barnes' lab. He passed Rodriguez and Ferguson, who had hiked their way through the jungle and were now patrolling the building until the Marines arrived to secure their prisoners.
"I was more than surprised to know that Garrud, or should I say, Jacob, was on our side," Harry said with a small smile. "You could have let me in on it, you know?"
Lee smiled back, they hadn't had time to compare notes and Harry was curious, not angry.
"I was afraid of giving everything away with all the cameras. Jacob found me in the jungle," he went on to explain, "He'd been fighting the transformation… trying to hold on to who he is on the inside. He agreed to help me find you and we staged my capture."
"And that's why you kept making those stupid moves to infuriate Barnes? To make sure the frequency was set on your wristband," Harry postulated easily.
"I knew he was our best chance of subduing Bremer."
"And you also sent out a distress code to Kowalski before your capture..."
"Ski must have sent FS1 back on automatic pilot; I haven't talked with him, but I figured he wouldn't wait for backup."
"It's a good thing," Harry agreed, reaching the lab just as Sharkey arrived with Jacob. "Well gentlemen, let's see about getting those devices off your wrists," he said with a nod to their wristbands.
Jacob shot a hopeful glance Lee's direction in anticipation of taking back the most important part of his life, his will to choose.
"Let me take a closer look," Harry said as Lee nodded for Jacob to go first, who was more than eager to shed the device.
He laid his wrist on the desk as Harry examined it, turning it over and deciding the best course of action. "Do you see this?" he said pointing out a locking system on the band. "I think this would be the best place to cut it, unless of course either of you saw where she stored the key?"
A negative shake of the head from both men answered that question.
"Here's the tricky part, it's made of grade 5 titanium, and its stronger than steel. Lucky for you," he said with a twinkle in his eye, "I happen to know a little about titanium."
Lee chuckled, but Jacob, not realizing that Harry had built Seaview using the same metal, just nodded.
"Now, the interesting thing about titanium is that at extremely high temperatures it's fairly malleable, but at extremely cold temperatures it's brittle," he explained, enjoying himself and offering a bit of lightheartedness to the process. "Which is a good thing, because I doubt either one of you would care for me to use a carbide circular blade to cut the wristband," he said, rising and pilfering through a nearby cabinet, producing a small bottle of nitric acid. "But a drop of this, and I can cut it with nothing more than a fingernail file," he said somewhat amused, while sitting down and opening the middle drawer of the desk. He smiled broadly as he pulled out a stainless steel nail file. "She always kept one in the office desk at the Institute," he explained with a grin. With all the explanations out of the way, Harry got down to business, first protecting Jacob's wrist before carefully applying a single drop of nitric acid to the wristband. A second later, a chemical reaction produced a cool smoke-like wisp, followed by Harry's careful filing. Soon after, the band broke apart and was removed from Jacob's wrist.
"Now, it's your turn, Captain," Harry said with a satisfied grin. A minute later, both men were free from the behavior control device.
"Thank you, Admiral," Lee offered emotionally, his sincerity echoing in his expressive eyes.
"You're welcome," Harry returned feeling a little sentimental himself, and needing to break the seriousness of the moment added, "And don't, for a minute, think you won't be getting a full check-up from Jamie when we board Seaview."
"Aye Sir," Lee agreed with a grin.
"Thank you, Admiral Nelson," Jacob said, extending a hand that engulfed Harry's in a shake. At the sight of the awkward shake he pulled his hand away, staring down at its size. "I'm grateful, but this," he said, holding out his oversized hand, "this can't be fixed," he finished regretfully.
Harry sighed. "I'm truly sorry, Jacob. The wrong that's been done to you is immeasurable, and you're right, the changes are permanent."
Jacob nodded absently. "My mind is slow now… I'm a stranger to myself."
"I can't pretend to understand how you feel, Jacob," Harry interjected in a soothing, calming tone that exuded his sincerity, "but I promise you, we'll do what we can to help you reach your potential. I promise you that," he added with a passion that caused Jacob's eyes to narrow, as if deciding whether he could afford to believe him. He'd been treated as a slave, a non-person, and almost sub-human; to learn to trust again wasn't an easy thing to do.
"Jacob," Lee added, extending a hand of friendship, "It's like I said before, you're not alone anymore."
The giant hesitated for only a moment then extended his hand, accepting both the friendship and the help the two men offered; while over in the corner, Sharkey wiped away a tear with the lame excuse that he had something in his eye.
# # # # #
The marines arrived and entered via the sub pen in the cove, though Sharkey's well-placed laser blast had made the exit impassable for the submarine, it was still accessible by small boats and was the preferred route over the two-hour hike through the jungle. Harry and Lee watched from the dock as the prisoners were escorted to the waiting skiffs.
"Goodbye, Harry," an unrepentant Dr. Belinda Barnes said as she passed by. "You've done more than you'll ever know for my career now."
"And why would that be so?" Harry asked contemptuously.
"Oh, I think you know what I mean," she answered mysteriously and continued on with as much dignity as she could muster walking between two marines and headed to the brig.
"What was all that about?" Lee asked when she was out of earshot.
Harry expelled a disgusted breath. "It means she plans on making a deal."
"What kind of deal? She's got nothing to bargain with," Lee replied, his anger instantly provoked at the thought of Belinda Barnes receiving nothing less than life in prison for her atrocities.
"She does if the right general gets wind of these superhuman giants, especially if she can convince them that they can be enhanced without losing their mental capacities," he replied darkly.
"Enhanced?" Lee questioned fervently. "Is that what we're calling her mutations now?"
Harry placed a calming hand on Lee's shoulder to deescalate the strong emotions surfacing. "She could sell it that way, but Lee, I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen," he promised. "Believe me, when I say that. She's complicit to four ships sinking and dozens of lives lost; add to that the bodies in the cold-storage, and I promise, her deal with fall on deaf ears."
Lee swallowed hard, tamping down the strong emotions their conversations elicited. "I'd like to believe that, Admiral," he said, reserving some measure of skepticism as an unconscious Bremer was carried to the dock, having been sedated for the move when he had become too violent to handle.
# # # # #
The sight of Seaview sitting on the surface was like an elixir to Seaview's battered Captain who had insisted on a fly-over to look over Seaview's battle scars before submerging to dock. Sharkey had already ferried over the rest of the rescue detail, and theirs was the last leg to evacuate the island.
"She's a good boat, if I do say so myself," Harry declared with a grin, echoing their earlier conversation.
"Aye Sir, that she is," Lee agreed amicably. "Hang on back there," he said over his shoulder as the downward attack of FS1 sharpened and its speed increased for the water immersion.
"Just relax," Sharkey said encouraging the obviously concerned man in the seat next to him, "the Skipper's a pro at this."
His adrenaline rushed and his hands wrapped tightly around the arms of the seat he had squeezed into, but Jacob managed to fight the fear of seeing the ocean advance in the windows and after the flying sub had sliced through the water without incident, let loose a wide smile for both the innovative craft and his ability to take control of his emotions.
# # # # #
With the thrill of his first ride in the flying sub still soaring through his veins, Jacob sought to be useful as he stood hunched over reaching for boxes Admiral Nelson had brought along from Dr. Barnes' laboratory.
"Jacob," Lee said, after shutting the flying sub down, "you're our guest here," he admonished with a small smile of reassurance.
Jacob blinked; the idea of being a guest had nearly been manipulated out of his nature by the behavior control device. He nodded and relinquished the box to a crewman unloading through the cargo hatch.
A tilt of Captain Crane's head toward the ladder was his invitation to follow as Jacob climbed up the ladder and stepped into the brightly lit Nose of Seaview's Control Room.
"I've got a lot to work to do," Lee explained, "but Kowalski here will take you to Sickbay for a check-up. Don't worry, we've got a good doctor here…"
"And Captain Crane will be making his way there before long as well," Harry interjected, while Lee barely avoided scowling at the thought.
Jacob expelled a breath and nodded; his eyes fixated for a moment out Seaview's windows. He was overwhelmed and struggling inwardly with an almost overload of new data for his brain to process. Deciding to deal with the new realities of his transformed body one day at a time, he turned and nodded, following Ski.
"We call these knee-knockers," Kowalski was heard explaining at the aft hatch, "because if you're not watching out for them, you'll be picking yourself off the deck and rubbing your knees afterwards," Kowalski explained, now wearing a red jumpsuit and giving Jacob the fifty-cent tour on the way to Sickbay.
"Welcome back, Skipper," Chip greeted now that the Nose had cleared out. He was looking more military at this point; his uniform was now tucked and buttoned, but the uncharacteristic hand across his hidden bandage was a dead giveaway he wasn't up to par.
"Thanks, Chip. Did Jamie clear you for duty?"
It wasn't that Lee was taking issue with his XO bucking sickbay orders, God knows he would have done the same thing; his question was asked in concern for his fellow officer and friend.
"Jamie has enough to worry about down there, but I imagine he'll come looking for me before long," the blond answered vaguely.
"Fair enough; why don't you bring me up to speed before Jamie comes looking for both of us. Report, Mr. Morton," the last added returning to military decorum but with a small upturn of his lips as being aboard Seaview was all the medicine he really needed.
Epilogue
The soft beeps and hums of a working Control Room played in the background like soothing music to Lee's ears. After repairs and Gerry rigs, Seaview had finally been deemed fit for her journey home and had been underway for three days as she sailed slowly toward Santa Barbara. Chip had spent two of those days under Jamie's direct care in Sickbay; the doctor's reparation, Lee was convinced, for slipping out of Sickbay to take the Conn in the first place. Though it hadn't sat well with the Exec, he was much happier when he had been remanded to his cabin with the explicit instructions to rest, and had found it the perfect time to catch up on reports. Fortunately for Lee, his own trip to Sickbay had been nothing more than a few tests, blood work, and an EKG in order to receive the doctor's rubber stamp of approval for return to duty.
With so many of Seaview's key officers and crew injured, Lee had called upon Sparks to take the Conn for the Delta watch. He and Harry were covering the other watches as junior officers stepped up to the plate, receiving valuable experience in the process.
It was presently Delta Watch, and unable to sleep he had slipped into the Nose for quiet reflection on the Admiral's Front Porch. Water pressed against Seaview's windows as the boat made her way, some ninety-feet below the surface. For others not accustomed to the sea, it was a daunting sight; for the experienced submarine captain, it was an elixir.
"I thought I'd find you down here."
Lee turned at the familiar voice to see Harry, descending the spiral staircase. He was carrying a manila envelope and a bottle of scotch.
"Celebrating something?" Lee asked with a nod toward the Glenlivet.
"As a matter of fact, I am," he said mysteriously, dropping the envelope on the conference table and walking to the sideboard to retrieve two coffee mugs. Taking a seat adjacent to Seaview's Captain, he tilted his head toward the envelope and poured two fingers worth into each mug.
Lee reached for the envelope and pulled out the photo that had precipitated their little adventure; the picture taken as the rescue helicopter hovered over the two survivors in the raft, with the mutated giant squid broaching the surface. He studied the photo and blew a breath out.
"It seems like a lifetime ago," the Captain said almost melancholy.
It had been a very busy three days, and with the priority of Seaview's repairs, they had had little time to talk about anything else, much less the creature that had been the focus of their concerns.
"We've been pretty focused on other matters," Harry continued, "and things are liable to get busier when we make port with Seaview's repairs, settling Jacob into a new life, and then there's Dr. Barnes," he said with a hint of regret.
"Admiral, there's no way you could have known about Dr. Barnes," he assured, knowing Harry felt some responsibility for not recognizing her true character five years ago.
"I know, Lee, but it's a hard thing to come to terms with when you look into the face of someone you thought was a friend and discover a depraved, malicious person looking back at you."
Lee nodded, they had only been on the island for one day, but the repercussions of what had happened there was still affecting each of them in different ways. Jacob's life had been changed forever, and Harry had taken on a new crusade to ensure Belinda Barnes paid for her crimes. Lee hadn't been unaffected either and was privately struggling with nightmares, brought on by a very long and painful session with Dr. Barnes' device. That wasn't anything he planned on sharing with anyone; he was sure it would pass in time.
"Anyway," Harry said, passing a mug over to Lee. "We've been focusing on the negative, and we haven't had time to celebrate the very important things that we did accomplish."
"Like the destruction of the squid?" Lee said with a tilt of the head toward the photo.
"It was an extraordinary case of teamwork, Lee, and no doubt, its destruction saved many more lives had it not been stopped."
Lee smiled. "And this boat," he continued, "the crew stepping up and taking care of business while we were on the island." His smiled widened at the crew's performance in the face of danger, and he'd been especially proud of O'Brien.
"And Jacob now has a chance at a life, far different than the one Belinda had in mind for him. We have a lot to be thankful for, Lee," Harry added.
Lee nodded, mentally letting go of the broody mood that had unexpectedly crept in on him these last few days.
"To teamwork," Harry said, his eyes twinkling as he raised his mug. It was his way of celebrating not only the cooperation it had taken to overcome against overwhelming odds, but the very special relationship these two men shared.
"To teamwork," Lee repeated but then paused before continuing the toast, "and to the best damn boat to sail the seas," he added, in a salute to Seaview, her crew, and an unspoken private salute to the man who created her.
"I'll drink to that," Harry replied with a grin, as the two men soaked in the warmth of the moment and the knowledge that Dr. Gamma's plans had been thwarted once again by Seaview and her gallant crew.
The End
# # # # #
Author's Notes: Thanks for reading, and if you liked the story, please let me know. : ) Writing is half the fun; the other half is in knowing that you enjoyed the story as well! Lynn :)
Episode Credits:
*Season 2, Leviathan, written by William Welch, directed by Harry Harris, original airdate Nov 14, 1965.
**Season 2, The Deadliest Game, written by Rik Vollaerts, directed by Sobey Martin, original airdate Nov 7, 1965.
***Season 1, The Price of Doom, written by Cord Wainer Bird (Harland Ellison), directed by James Goldstone, original airdate Oct 12, 1964.
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Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and her main characters belong to Irwin Allen
And the respective production companies