Chapter 14: "Shift Colors"

19 January 2024 – UEO seaQuest Sea Trials, Day 1

seaQuest was now what the Navy called "in commission special", which meant that although she was not officially a warship of the UEO, she would still function as one until the actual commissioning ceremony rolled around. The first seaQuest hadn't gone through a process quite like this—Tim had been a member of her crew, too, and remembered an entirely different process, one in which the shipbuilders took her out on what was then called "acceptance trials" and the Navy merely came along to watch the boat put through her paces and note any systems that did not meet their requirements.

This time, however, the crew was almost entirely responsible for the boat, even if contractors were going to demonstrate most of the equipment checks. Still, they were actually operating seaQuest, which meant everyone was running around as pre-underway nervous wrecks, trying to get everything done for the very first time, and often creating the checklists for tasks as they went. Tim, on the other hand, had drawn the short straw, and was waiting on the Quarterdeck for the Navy's senior inspector to arrive.

Tim did own the Navigation systems, of course, but they'd checked out clean an hour ago while Ben was still struggling to get enough food for lunch and dinner onloaded, so he'd wound up taking Ben's place. Although seaQuest was only supposed to be underway for the day, they had to have enough food to feed the hundred-plus contractors and Navy inspectors in addition to her regular crew of 209, which meant Ben's day had gone straight to hell right when the supply truck had failed to show at four that morning.

"Quarterdeck, Checkpoint Two," the Officer of the Deck's radio crackled. "The Navy Inspection team has just passed through security and is on their way to you."

"Officer of the Deck, aye," the OOD replied promptly, and then turned to Tim, who was standing only a few feet away. "Did you catch that, sir?"

"Yup. When you see him in the tube, go ahead and bong him aboard," Tim replied, shifting impatiently. His systems might have checked out just fine, but he still had about a hundred things to do before they got underway, and waiting here didn't get his jobs done.

Of course, what seaQuest called the Quarterdeck was really boat bay 2, on the starboard side. They'd just connected a personnel tube to where small craft usually docked, since the drydock had stayed full of water since launching, and the OOD should be able to see the senior inspector approaching in plenty of time.

Tim wasn't looking forward to this meeting at all. He remembered Captain Clayton all too well from the last time the inspector had visited seaQuest. And while Captain Bridger had gotten the best of him in the end and seaQuest had passed with flying colors, the crew and the boat weren't nearly as prepared this time for such scrutiny. Not when the contractors are still assembling my backup navigation computers, along with several other systems, we aren't ready!

And of course, as the Operations department head, a great deal of the preparation fell on Tim's head. If nothing went wrong, they could probably squeak by with marginal ratings in his areas, but so much of his equipment was newly installed and barely tested that Tim thought getting even marginal ratings might be a miracle. Lately, everything had been going wrong, and Tim's nerves had started getting the better of him.

He had gotten used to the captain and the XO demanding things of him left and right, and the heady feeling of the crew listening to him when he gave orders. He'd even found that he liked being in charge, and really felt that he had grown as an officer in many ways over the last several months he'd been back on seaQuest.

But Captain Clayton was, for lack of better word, a hard ass. If things weren't done precisely to his specifications, seaQuest would never hear the end of it. Tim could still remember the way Captain Clayton had yelled at him the last time for offering a less than literal translation of an incoming communication, and the inspector had been even worse to the senior members of the crew. Now that he was one of those senior department heads, Tim found himself more than a little apprehensive. He was more assertive than he'd been, but he wasn't the type to go toe-to-toe with Clayton, either.

He just hoped his nervous stutter wouldn't make an unfortunate reappearance.

Stop being so nervous! Tim told himself firmly. The man probably doesn't even remember you, and if he does, that's just too bad. Resolutely, he turned away to give the Quarterdeck a quick once over—as the Operations Officer, the launch bays were his responsibility—but everything looked fine. The OOD caught a glimpse of Clayton before Tim turned back towards the tube, and immediately struck the bell four times, in pairs of two, "bonging" Captain Clayton on board in accordance with Navy regulations.

Ding ding, ding ding. "Captain, UEO Navy, arriving," the OOD announced over the 1MC.

Clayton came through the tube wearing his customary scowl, and Tim could tell that he was just waiting to find something to gripe about.

Tim shifted to attention as he came on board, but after a moment, he stepped forward, offering him a hand. "Welcome aboard, sir. I'm Lieutenant Commander O'Neill, Operations Officer. I'll be in charge of seeing you around the boat."

"Thank you, Commander." At least Clayton's first words were polite. "I trust there's someplace for my team to make themselves at home while you complete pre-underway checks?"

"Yes, sir. Refreshments are ready in the conference room, if you'll just follow me," Tim replied, trying not to hold his breath. Of course, the sudden realization that he hadn't stopped to check the conference room made his stomach tie itself in a knot, though Tim plastered a confident smile on his face, anyway. Ben, you better have those refreshments ready!

Along the way, Clayton only found five or six things to complain, but by the time they arrived at the spacious conference room, Tim was ready to bash his head into the wall. The other ten members of Clayton's team seemed to take their cue from the captain, and were proving obnoxious already. Some of their complaints were legitimate—Tim was rather certain that Williams hadn't noticed the broken electrical panel cover in the passageway outside the conference room, for example—but others were just plain nitpicking. After all, who cared if the paint in one passageway was a slightly different color from the one around the corner from it? seaQuest was supposed to be a warship, not a fashion show.

Tim was relieved to see that the food had been laid out as he led them into the room. "Please, make yourselves comfortable. I'll be happy to answer any questions you have from your informational packets." Happy wasn't exactly what Tim would be, but he was struggling to appear friendly and helpful. He just wasn't naturally charming like some of his fellow officers.

"I'd have been a lot happier if these were distributed to us before coming aboard," Clayton retorted peevishly.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I'm sure you understand that with the level of security surrounding seaQuest, this information couldn't be distributed any earlier than absolutely necessary," Tim responded soothingly. A few weeks ago, Tim might have found the security restraints somewhat ridiculous, but after what had happened to the captain just ten days before, he was starting to understand the reasons why the UEO was keeping such a tight lid on seaQuest.

"That's not my problem, Commander," the captain snapped. "But it will be likely to adversely affect your crew's ratings."

The urge to point out that Clayton wasn't there to evaluate the crew was overwhelming, but Tim bit it back. Clayton was the sort of man who probably wouldn't be averse to highlighting every single flaw that the boat had, no matter how minor, if he didn't approve of her crew. "Yes, sir," he replied instead, keeping his tone as neutral and un-antagonistic as he could manage.

"Now, I'd like to be escorted to the bridge. Immediately." Clayton had barely even given the information packet a glance, and he didn't bother to bring it with him, either.

Tim resisted the urge to sigh, but he led the inspector towards the bridge, answering what questions he could along the way. This is going to be a long inspection, he thought, trying not to feel relieved when Captain Clayton set his sights on the XO instead of Tim. At least now he could just watch the massacre, and Katie had always been better at fighting back than he was.

"Now go to your stations, all the special Sea and Anchor detail," the Chief of the Watch announced on the 1MC. "Now go to your stations, all the special Sea and Anchor detail."

Katie, as the XO, was running the underway check-off list, which left Nathan with very little to do aside from watch, but he was perfectly happy with that situation. So far, most systems had lit off without much difficulty, although Lucas was half-under the communications console trying to figure out why a few communications frequencies had suddenly refused to come up. Normally, Nathan would have been more than happy to get underway with a few comms limitations, but 'Navy Red' was one of the frequencies that wasn't working, and since that was the backbone of long-range fleet communications, leaving Pearl without it working was definitely not an option.

"Got it!" Lucas called, earning him a dirty look from Chris Schafer. There was still some bad blood brewing between the two of them, but Nathan figured they'd work it out on their own—or Katie would force them to work it out, which would be less pleasant, but no less effective. Personnel problems were mostly her job, anyway, and Nathan was determined to stay out of this one. He was too biased, and he knew it.

"Good job," Nathan said before Schafer could reply; they had both been standing and watching while Lucas worked, and although he thought that the new Communications Officer would be on his best behavior with his captain standing next to him, Nathan couldn't be sure.

"Communications up and nominal, XO," Schafer reported instead, after running a quick diagnostic on the system.

Katie checked that one off on her list. "Very well. Engineering?"

"Both reactors online and jacking gears disengaged," Henderson replied as Lucas headed back to his own console. "Impellers are spinning with buckets in neutral. Ready to answer all bells. Standing by transfer control to the helm in accordance with EOP."

"Transfer control."

"Transfer control, aye," the young ensign replied, the professionalism in her voice impressing Nathan. Katie was right. When Lonnie's not preoccupied with her own nerves, she's pretty good. He'd spent most of his career shepherding along talented junior officers, and had no intention of stopping now. Clearly, he needed to keep watching Henderson—and watching out for her career. There was a lot of potential there, and Henderson would go far if properly focused. She turned to face the helm. "Chief Carleton?"

"Accepting control," the diving officer replied immediately, watching his two main helmsmen as they hit the appropriate keys and then tested the system for the appropriate response. "Helm has throttle and bucket control."

Nathan bent over to watch the process on one of the nearby consoles; his crew was trained and ready, and they didn't need their captain getting in their business during routine operations, even if this was the first time they'd executed these orders for real. So far, he was rather satisfied with how well he'd stayed out of the way—while he burned to get in the weeds and start up every system himself, doing so was not his job.

Besides, his ribs were starting to ache again, and bending over made the pain recede a little bit. Although he had been so busy that it seemed like the accident had occurred a lifetime ago, his body had a habit of reminding Nathan that it had only been ten days. The bouts of dizziness due to his concussion had disappeared, at least, and although he was still suffering from random headaches, he was in pretty good shape. And having to leave his left arm in a sling kept him from getting involved in the hitting of buttons, for which his crew was probably thankful.

Before Katie could reply to Carleton's statement, Nathan heard a familiar voice speak to her. "I assume you're the XO of this boat, Commander?"

"Captain Clayton, it's nice to have you back on board seaQuest," Hitchcock said smoothly, switching from cool and professional to friendly and welcoming, yet still professional. Her attitude change, however, seemed to go unnoticed. As did Bridger, since the console he was behind obscured Clayton's view of him.

"As you probably know, I am the senior Navy inspector," the burly officer introduced himself unnecessarily, his tone brusque and arms crossed. "I would like copies of your underway check-off list, all other applicable checklists, and all of your casualty control procedures."

"I'll be happy to have copies made for you, sir," his XO started to reply, only to be cut off.

"Immediately," Clayton stressed, his expression growing unfriendly as he cut her off.

Katie glanced towards Bridger, and he could read her expression easily enough as he straightened, trying to suppress his own irritation. Can I kick him off the bridge, now? Katie clearly wanted to ask him, but Clayton didn't give Nathan a chance to speak up before he tried to goad her into saying something else, clearly not following her gaze…and clearly not caring what evolution he was interrupting.

"Is there a problem, Commander?" the inspector challenged.

"We're in the middle of going through the checklist right now, sir. I can have a copy made once we're underway," Katie answered, her expression growing tense.

Clayton opened his mouth to argue, but Nathan decided it was time to intervene. "Captain Clayton, it's good to see you again," he said, stepping down from the upper level where the communications console was. About as good as it is to get a case of syphilis, anyway. He forced himself to smile. "Welcome back."

He held out a hand, and pretended not to notice the other captain's slight scowl of distaste as he shook it. Clayton's eyes lingered on Nathan's sling for a moment, and the inspector's superior sneer grew. Clearly, he had already decided that the 'tech-head' he remembered from his visit to the last seaQuest was not a worthy opponent. Not a moment passed before he sneered:

"Waste of my time, if you ask me," Clayton said dismissively. "What the UEO needs now is a warship, not a science experiment."

Nathan blinked and resisted the urge to stare open-mouthed at the other officer. Finally, he found his voice. "I quite agree."

The inspector snorted. "And yet here we are, Captain."

Given the number of light-years in seniority Bridger had over Clayton, the comment was more than a bit insubordinate, but Nathan had never been one to smack people with his rank unless he really had to. Instead, he replied as levelly as he could, trying to remind himself that Clayton hadn't had the clearance to learn much about seaQuest before his arrival, and that he couldn't be blamed for assuming that this boat was like the last one.

Doing so calmed his temper. Mostly. It would have worked better if he hadn't known that Tim had taken the time to prepare an extensive briefing packet for Clayton and his team, one Clayton had clearly not bothered to read.

"I realize that you haven't had time to take the tour," Nathan responded dryly. "But I do assure you that seaQuest is a warship. Much like her predecessor, this boat was designed from the keel up to be the most deadly submarine in the ocean." He smiled nastily. "I'm afraid there simply wasn't time to refit her to become a science vessel. We've been in a bit of a hurry."

"It amuses me that you think you can get this boat underway so quickly, Captain. What I've seen so far of both the boat and the crew is not promising," Clayton retorted. Bridger could practically see the man's ego swelling with the small amount of power the Navy trusted him with. If he was like this when he was in command of Scorpion, it's a small wonder that crew was thankful to meet Oliver Hudson!

"Is that so?" he replied, letting his eyebrows arch. His headache was returning in full force, but this time he didn't think the concussion was to blame. Not this time, anyway. "You saw that much on your way from the launch bay to the bridge?"

"I am trained to be highly observant."

Nathan could not help the bark of laughter that came out. "I bet you are," he snorted, but then his tone turned hard. "Be it as it may, I would appreciate it if you refrain from insulting my crew or my boat while you are a guest on board."

"I—"

"Captain, the boat is ready in all respects to get underway," Katie reported, interrupting whatever nastiness Clayton was going to sprout.

Bridger smiled. "Thank you, XO."

"We'll finish this conversation later," Clayton promised ominously before he could continue, and Nathan finally let fury sharpen his voice. The months of tension combined with the recent accident to tear open the door to the cage he kept his temper locked up in—and he couldn't regret it. Not with Clayton determined to be such a jackass. I don't have to put up with your antics, and I'm damn well not going to, he thought angrily.

"Yes. We will." He met the other captain's eyes for a long moment before stepping away from him, matching Clayton glare for glare. "But for now, I would like to get my boat underway. Excuse me."

He had to wait several seconds before he was certain that his temper was under control; Nathan hated the fact that his crew had seen that little pissing contest, but he supposed there was no getting around that, now. Most of them were trying to hide smiles, with their eyes turned intently to their consoles in hopes that neither Bridger nor Hitchcock would comment. Not like I can yell at them when I'm the one who lost my temper at the jerk. Nathan took a deep breath, letting his eyes travel around the bridge, luxuriating in the fact that his creation had finally come to life.

Satisfied that his expression was finally calm enough, he stepped up next to Katie, who was already seated at her station. Nathan leaned against the back of his own chair, propping his sling up on its top edge.

"You ready to see if this overgrown squid of ours can dance?" he asked with a smile.

"Would you like a tango or a waltz, sir?" she asked with a grin of her own.

"I'll take both, I think. But one at a time, I think." Nathan raised his voice to be heard by the entire bridge—and by the voice recorders that served as the boat's official log. "This is the Captain. I have the conn."

"The Captain has the conn, aye, sir," Chief Carleton replied immediately.

Squaring his shoulders, Nathan stepped up into the open area just aft of the helmsmen's stations. He still wouldn't sit in the captain's chair until the boat was officially Navy, so he preferred to have a bit of room to move around. Besides, he'd been raised in a tradition that said the conning officer never sat down, and even this many years later, he had a hard time shaking that.

"Sonar, put aft WSKR view on the main screen," he ordered.

"On screen," Ortiz replied immediately, giving Nathan a view of the drydock behind them, which was now open to the sea. seaQuest fit rather tightly in her berth, but backing out should make for a straightforward operation—as long as nothing broke along the way, of course.

Judging from Clayton's expression, he was salivating at the thought of that happening.

"All engines back slow," Nathan ordered, easing his boat out of the drydock. If anyone was going to hit something with the UEO's brand-new twelve billion dollar submarine, it might as well be him. His job included taking the risks, after all. "Maintain heading of zero-five-two."

"All engines back slow, maintain heading of zero-five-two, aye, sir," Carleton replied, and the moments ticked by slowly as they inched out of the slip. Finally, however, seaQuest entered the harbor for the first time, and twisted around to face the channel on Nathan's command.

"Couple your jets. Left full rudder, steady course two-five-five. Make your depth forty-five feet."

His boat shuddered slightly as the port jets reversed their thrust, and the bow came around with surprising swiftness. They were underway, and it had never felt so good.

Lucas resisted the urge to swear. Captain Clayton was hovering over his shoulder, and with things already going to hell, Lucas didn't need to add unprofessional behavior to the list of things the inspector had against him.

It's not like he understands anything I'm doing, he grumbled to himself. Hell, I barely understand what I'm doing!

For some reason, two of seaQuest's four jets had stopped responding properly to helm controls, despite their flawless operation that morning. The buckets were doing exactly the opposite of what they were supposed to be doing, and the power levels were all over the charts.

And of course, everyone was waiting on him. He could practically feel the entire bridge crew staring at him, watching him work. Captain Clayton's impatience was practically palpable, and Lucas was dreading the moment he decided to start in on Lucas. He didn't think even the captain could protect him right now, especially since neither he nor Commander Hitchcock was currently on the bridge. Heck, even Tim and Miguel had finally turned over their stations to their reliefs, and Schafer had the deck. No help there. He's probably too busy gloating, anyway, Lucas thought to himself, and then forced his mind back to the problem in front of him.

There's gotta be an inverse matrix in here somewhere. I just need to find the stupid thing. But the lines of code scrolled across his screen, and he couldn't figure out what was causing such a bizarre error. The code was fine. He knew the code was fine, and the jets had worked perfectly in every single test, not to mention three hours of actual operation. Something, somewhere, had to be corrupted, but Lucas had no idea what.

"Are you going to fix this sometime today, Lieutenant, or are we all just going to stand here and watch?" Clayton demanded after less than a minute of hovering over him.

Lucas rolled his eyes, only because he knew the inspector wouldn't be able to see the action. "I'm working as quickly as I can, sir." Unless you know how to program something like this and would like to take a look? he didn't ask out loud. "It may be a hardware problem."

"Unless I missed something, the water jets were working fine this morning, Lieutenant. How can that be a hardware problem?"

Clayton, it seemed, knew just enough to be dangerous.

"We could have fried the processor since this morning. And as you said, sir, they were working fine this morning, so it isn't necessarily a problem with my code."

He scrolled back up to the top of the code anyway, taking it line by line. Seventeen thousand lines of code, should only take me a couple of hours... Assuming Clayton shut up long enough to let him think, but Lucas was beginning to realize that was distinctly unlikely.

"With your code?" the inspector demanded aggressively.

"Yeah, my code. I wrote it for seaQuest II, and I upgraded it for this boat," he said. "Sir," he tacked on, before Clayton could yell at him for being insubordinate.

It didn't help.

"Don't get smart with me, boy," Clayton growled.

I'm not a boy, you overgrown walrus. He wished he was back in his stateroom, where he could blast his music as loud as he wanted and didn't have to deal with an overbearing idiots like Clayton. "My apologies, sir," he said, still trying to focus on the task at hand.

"You're just one more example of an officer who doesn't belong on the UEO's so-called flagship," was the dismissively arrogant answer. "If I had my way, this boat would be manned with the top of the line officers and enlisted men, not a bunch of half-socialized misfits who can't even figure out how to operate their own submarine."

"You think you can do better, sir? I mean, after all, it's not like I programmed this myself, and it's not like I have two Ph.D.s or anything, or that this is all brand new and no one knows how to operate it. But please, sir, go ahead and show us," Lucas snapped before he could stop himself. By then, the words were out, and he couldn't take them back. Captain Bridger is going to kill me!

"Ow!" Lucas expected to be yelled at—and he even deserved it—but he never expected Clayton to physically haul him out of his seat by the front of his shirt.

"Now see here, you little shit. No lieutenant talks to me like that—I'm a captain in the UEO Navy, and you will show me some goddamned respect," Clayton snarled, shaking Lucas. "You will remove yourself from the bridge right now, pending charges of gross insubordination and dereliction of duty!"

Lucas' mouth flew open, ready to start tossing insults back at Clayton when Ben walked onto the bridge, bounding up the stairs to the upper level in a few long strides.

"Is there a problem here, Captain?" Ben asked casually, shooting Lucas a keep your mouth shut look. It took all of Lucas' willpower to snap his mouth closed again, grinding his teeth.

"What do you want?" Clayton demanded angrily, turning to face Ben. At least it meant that he let go of Lucas, though, which was a good thing, since he was starting to feel a bit claustrophobic. And I don't have claustrophobia, either… not when giant walruses aren't assaulting me, anyway!

"Excuse me for interrupting, Captain Clayton," Ben was suddenly smiling and chipper, seemingly having no idea that he'd intervened in a tense situation. "I'm Lieutenant Commander Krieg, the Supply Officer, and I wanted to let you know that lunch is being served for you and your team in the conference room, or if you prefer, Captain Bridger has invited you to join him for lunch in his cabin."

Somehow, Lucas got the impression that Bridger had issued no such invitation, but Ben was playing lifesaver, anyway.

"Oh yes, I think I'll be speaking with the captain immediately, regarding the behavior of this lieutenant," Clayton replied. Lucas winced.

Ben's smile never wavered. How does he do that? "Shall I escort you there, sir?"

"I know how to get there myself, Commander," he snarled.

"Yes, sir." Ben waited until Clayton stormed off the bridge before he turned to Lucas, his cheerful expression suddenly intense. "Go find the XO, and tell her what happened. I happen to know that the Captain isn't in his quarters right now—he's down doing a swim tubes inspection with Darwin, so I'll find him and warn him. And for God's sake, Lucas, stay away from Clayton until the Captain has dealt with him. Okay?"

Lucas nodded, still a little rattled by Clayton's actions. "Yes, sir."

"Don't worry about it, kid," Ben said with a much more sincere smile, patting him on the shoulder. "With assholes like that around, we've got to stick together."

Ben followed Clayton off the bridge a moment later, and true to his word, he did get to the captain first. Of course, Clayton got to Bridger not long after, which ignited an argument that half the crew heard down on the Sea Deck before Bridger managed to convince Clayton to take it someplace quieter. Lucas wound up being 'counseled' for his behavior by Commander Hitchcock, an evolution that took up about two minutes of his time, and really consisted of her telling him that she knew Clayton was a jerk, but Lucas couldn't mouth off to him, anyway. And that he really should know better, so knock it the hell off.

Then she sent him back to detangling the maneuvering systems' programming code, reminding him that they really did need to figure out the problem with the waterjets as soon as possible. With that in mind, Lucas was finally able to swallow his pride enough to ask Chris Schafer to help him with it. Working together, it only took them an hour and a half to figure out where the problem was, a faulty 'if' loop nested in a section of code. He was slightly surprised that Schafer was able to help so much, considering the academic work he'd seen out of the other officer back at MIT, but Schafer did have a lot of practical experience debugging Navy code. Not only did it fix the boat, but Lucas hoped it had helped with their relationship, if even just a little. He was sick of the war of attrition between the two of them.

They even managed to have a real conversation afterwards, even though it was about work. Still, the two of them had managed to talk for almost three hours without fighting, and when they both headed to lunch, they even sat together. It was progress, anyway, and left Lucas feeling a lot better than he might have after being yelled at—and shaken—by Clayton.

That evening, after seaQuest pulled back into port, Bridger pulled him aside. The captain didn't criticize him—which Lucas had been sure he would, especially since he deserved it. Instead, he told him that Clayton was just an example of the type of person who was sometimes drawn to the Navy: one who liked power and really liked making people squirm. He did warn Lucas to stay as far from Clayton as he could from there on out, though, something Lucas had absolutely no problem doing.

Of course, there was another week's worth of trials scheduled, so there was no knowing how long that would last.

21 January 2024 – UEO seaQuest Sea Trials, Day 3

"Self noise check complete, sir," Ortiz reported, and saw the captain nod in relief. Three days of nonstop testing evolutions left the entire crew feeling wasted—especially since Captain Clayton and his team seemed determined to make everyone feel as miserable as possible.

"Very well," Bridger replied, and then turned to Tim O'Neill, who currently had the watch as Officer of the Deck. "Mr. O'Neill, take us home."

"Aye, sir," the Ops Officer replied, ordering up a course for Pearl Harbor.

Meanwhile, Miguel turned his console over to his relief; he'd been training up four different understudies in both the simulator and during sea trials, and he was more than ready to take a break. Tim had the Deck, so he couldn't leave, but Miguel could see other watchstanders turning over now that the day's testing was complete. Miguel would have bowed out after the full power run earlier, since it was the most interesting thing on the schedule for that day (he had Petty Officer Melissa Morgan run the passive sonar testing for training that morning), but Loner had started acting up again when they'd tried to start the self noise test, so he'd taken the console over from Morgan to run the test.

Now Morgan was back in the seat, and Miguel was able to finally stretch a bit. "You figure out what we're going to call the fourth WSKR yet, sir?" Morgan asked him.

"I'm still working on that," Miguel admitted. "The first three just kind of came to me when we got sick of calling them by numbers on the first seaQuest, but nothing's occurred to me yet for this boy."

Morgan looked up at him with a frown on her face. "How do you know the WSKR's a he, sir?"

"I don't know," Miguel shrugged. "Guess I just picked a pronoun. And don't call me, sir. I may be a Warrant Officer now, but I still work for a living."

And what work he did, too. This seaQuest gave him even more toys than the last one had—now he had four WSKRs to play with on a regular basis, with a maximum of six available under battle conditions. Currently, none of his understudies could manage more than four, but since one of those was usually trailing the boat at a set distance, driving an extra one wasn't much harder than managing three had been.

"Sorry, boss," she grinned. "So, Mother's a girl, right? Why not this one, too?"

"Heck if I know. Maybe he is—"

"Sir, our launch and recovery tests were completed yesterday," Hitchcock's voice rose far enough over the din to grab Miguel's attention, and he cut off before he could finish his own playful remark. Captain Bridger had left the bridge a few moments before, so of course Clayton was attacking now. He couldn't do this when someone might overrule him, could he? Miguel thought contemptuously. The XO's voice was still calm, but Miguel could hear an undertone of annoyance. "We have a schedule to keep, and we if we slow to launch a Stinger or two, we'll be late getting back to Pearl."

"I don't care about your schedules, Commander," Clayton snapped. "When I give an order, I expect it to be followed."

Morgan turned to him, her eyes suddenly wide. She spoke quietly. "Sir, is he able to—"

"Hush."

Hitchcock was continuing in a stiff voice. "Captain Clayton, with all due respect, you are not the captain of this boat, and although I respect your higher rank, I have no obligation to follow your orders. Commander O'Neill, maintain course and speed."

"Aye, ma'am," Tim replied, sneaking the same kind of look at Clayton that the rest of the crew so often did. For the last three days, Clayton had pushed and shoved at every one of them, and this was not the first time that he had insisted that someone alter the testing schedule just to suit one of his whims. Usually, Captain Bridger shut him down, but now it seemed like he was trying to do an end run around the captain and get his way.

Unfortunately for Clayton, he hadn't seemed to get a pretty good read on Katherine Hitchcock, not if he expected her to knuckle under after a little bit of bullying.

The thought hit him like a ton of bricks. Gazelle. She wanted to name the Stinger 'Gazelle' in the beginning, and had been furious when Lucas suggested anything else. It took all of Miguel's self control not to burst out laughing, but this really wasn't the moment for humor. He knew what that last WSKR was going to be named, though he knew that there would be hell to pay from the XO if he so much as suggested it.

Maybe I'll get Ben to run interference for me. He knows what it's like to piss her off. Maybe he can handle her.

Clayton couldn't, judging from his expression. "I'll put you on report for this, Commander!"

"Go ahead, sir. My captain is in his cabin." Her gaze didn't give even an inch, and although Clayton glared back at her for almost an entire minute, he eventually stormed off the bridge. Everyone seemed to hold their breaths until he finally did—even if Katie had won this battle, they had five days of testing left to endure, and how miserable would Clayton manage to make the crew during that time?

When he was finally gone, Miguel turned and whispered to Morgan. "I think you're right. WSKR four is a girl. And I know just what to name her."

She gave him a confused look, so he started to explain.

A/N: I can't begin to offer enough apologies for the long delay between this chapter and the last—and it's completely my fault, not Sol's. However, here we are, and seaQuest is finally underway. Things are going to start happening a lot faster from here on out, as the (almost) war is about to reach out and touch seaQuest in a very personal way.

Please do let us know what you think! In the meantime, stay tuned for Chapter 15: "Déjà Vu," in which Captain Ford shows up again, Lucas learns to drive, and a certain old friend appears.