Chapter 2
Seaview had been sailing for four days and got to the trench early in the morning on the fifth day. Mr. Porter and Mr. Howard wanted to take their bathyscaphe out right away. They demanded the crew on duty in the missile stop what they were doing and launch it. The missile room crew had orders to wait until the admiral or Lee was there to supervise. Mr. Porter and Mr. Howard were not happy and were going to try and launch it themselves.
"Control Room," Riley called on the mic.
"Control Room," Lee answered. "What is it Riley."
"Skipper, can you please come down to the missile room right away."
"Is there a problem?"
"Aye, sir."
"I'll be right there," he answered, just looked at Chip and rolled his eyes.
The admiral and Mr. Rosen were in the observation nose and heard the conversation and went with him to the missile room.
When they got there, Mr. Porter and Mr. Howard were trying to work the controls that lowered the bathyscaphe.
"No one will lower the bathyscaphe unless Captain Crane or I are here in the missile room. Gentlemen is that clear?" the admiral said tersely. "We need to make sure Seaview is in position for lowering the bathyscaphe. I will not put her or the crew in jeopardy."
"Yes admiral," Mr. Howard and Mr. Porter replied apologetically.
"Control Room," Lee called on the mic.
"Aye, captain."
"Chip is Seaview in position for launching the bathyscaphe?"
"Aye, sir, everything is green."
"Thanks, Chip."
The missile room crew lowered the bathyscaphe to a depth of one thousand feet into the trench. Since it was a new vessel, Mr. Howard and Mr. Porter would only stay down there for a short period of time making sure it could take the pressure and it was water tight. They worked the manipulator arms and took some samples of the ooze on the side of the trench and some sea cucumbers and xenophyophores. They were down there about an hour when they were brought back aboard Seaview. The bathyscaphe on its maiden launch came through with flying colors. The men were very excited when they exited the bathyscaphe. They were anxious to get to the lab and analyze the items they brought aboard.
"Admiral would you like to help analyze the ooze?" Mr. Howard asked.
"I thought you would never ask," the admiral responded as he left for the lab with Mr. Porter and Mr. Howard.
((()))
On the way to the lab, Mr. Howard suddenly doubled over in pain and fell to the floor. The admiral reached for the nearest mic.
"Sick bay," the admiral called urgently.
"Sick bay aye," Jamie answered quickly.
"Doc come to the passageway by the lab right away, we have a man down."
"On my way." Jamie grabbed his bag and left with John, the corpsman, on duty.
He got to the passageway in short order and immediately began examining the downed man. Lee had heard the call for Jamie to come to the lab and was entering the passageway just as Jamie was examining Mr. Howard.
"Looks like his appendix," Jamie reported. "We have to get him to sick bay immediately."
Lee and John picked him up and carried him to sick bay. The admiral and Jamie followed along with Mr. Rosen. Mr. Porter took the samples to the lab and started to analyze them.
Jamie confirmed that Mr. Howard's appendix had ruptured and needed to be removed immediately. He asked John to start prepping him for surgery.
"Doctor, will he be okay?" Mr. Rosen asked concerned. "What caused his appendix to rupture?"
"Yes, if I get his appendix out right away and put him on an antibiotic he should be okay, but he will not be able to dive for the rest of the trip. It could have been the pressure from the dive or no reason at all. Please excuse me." Jamie said as he prepared for surgery.
"Damn," Mr. Rosen said as they left sick bay. "I've invested a lot of money in this trip. The bathyscaphe needs two men to operate it. Admiral do any of your men know anything about bathyscaphes?"
"I know a little bit and would be glad to help out," the admiral said a little too eagerly for Lee.
"Thank you, admiral for volunteering to help me out. Mr. Porter will take the lead on handling the diving and analysis. My only other problem is I don't have any one to put the data in the computer now that Mr. Howard is out of commission."
The admiral piped up, "Let me check with Mrs. Crane. She's pretty good at computers and maybe will be able to take on the job."
"Thanks, Admiral. I would really appreciate any help she could give us. I will make sure you get reimbursed for any extra time she puts in."
((()))
The admiral went to Janet's office on his way to the lab. She was sitting there staring at the computer screen.
"Everything okay?" the admiral asked as he came in. "I need a favor from you."
"Yes sir everything is fine. Just trying to see if there is a different way of doing this project," she replied, "What can I do for you?"
"Mr. Howard has to have his appendix out and he will be unable to do any diving for the rest of the mission. Mr. Porter will be taking over his position on the bathyscaphe. Since he will be unable to enter the data into the computer, Mr. Rosen asked me for someone to help out. Do you think you could do this? I realize it will cut down on the time you have to do your regular duties but I will try to get Chip and Lee to help out with that. He will pay you for whatever time you put in," the admiral stated.
"Does that mean I will have to work with Mr. Porter?" she asked tensely.
"Yes. He will be giving you all the data you need to enter. Is that a problem?"
"No sir. I will do whatever I can to help. Will they show me how to enter the data?"
"I will arrange to have Mr. Porter show you everything you need to know as soon as he is free. He's analyzing some samples now so it shouldn't be too long before he is finished. Thanks for helping."
"No problem sir."
The admiral left her office. She didn't want to work with Mr. Porter but she could tell the admiral was counting on her and she didn't want to let him down.
((()))
Before going to the control room, the admiral went to the lab to talk to Mr. Rosen and Mr. Porter.
"I checked with Mrs. Crane and she is willing to help you with the data entry. Someone will need to show her what and how to enter the data."
"Thank you very much Admiral," Mr. Rosen replied gratefully.
"I'm almost finished analyzing the ooze we brought aboard. I will show her what needs to be done," Mr. Porter said happily. "We're getting a late start so I hope she won't mind staying a little longer."
"She'll be waiting for you."
Mr. Porter was happy as a clam as he would get to spend a lot of time with her.
((()))
The admiral left the lab and went to the control room to talk to Lee and Chip.
"Janet has agreed to help Mr. Rosen and do the data entry for them. Do you think you could take on some of her work if she gets behind while doing the data entry?"
"Sure that won't be a problem sir," Lee answered not too thrilled that Janet would be working with Mr. Porter.
"I'll do whatever needs to be done to help her, sir," Chip replied too.
"Admiral, you're looking forward to going into that trench aren't you," Lee asked grinning.
"You bet. I can't wait until tomorrow when we go down again," he said returning the grin.
((()))
Janet was in her office catching up on some work when Mr. Porter came in with the data.
"Mrs. Crane since we're going to be working together may I call you Janet? And please call me Don," he said patting her hand.
"Okay," she reluctantly replied.
He turned on the computer and as they waited for it to boot up he explained what needed to be entered.
"I will give you sheets with numbers, compounds, comments and all kinds of data. There are columns on the spreadsheets that correspond to what I give you. The laboratory in Hawaii needs all the data at once. So once you start you will have to finish entering it before you can stop. Is that clear?"
"Yes sir."
"Please come to the computer so I can show you what the spreadsheet looks like and how to enter the data."
She went over to the computer and was stunned at all the data that needed to be entered. He made it seem a lot easier than it really was. He handed her the analysis he had already completed on the ooze, sea cucumbers and xenophyophores and grabbed her hand when he gave it to her. He wouldn't let go and started rubbing it. She had to yank her hand out of his hold.
"Mr. Porter, it's already 1800 hours. I'm meeting my husband and Mr. Morton for dinner at 1830 hours. As soon as I'm finished with dinner I will start entering in your data and won't stop until I finish. I hope that's alright with you," she told him.
"That will be fine. I'm meeting the admiral for dinner at that time to go over the plans for tomorrow's dive," he said smiling. "I will come back with you and make sure you understand what we need to have done," he told her rubbing her arm.
"Yuk!" she thought, "he won't stop touching me."
((()))
Janet went back to their cabin before going to dinner. Lee was there waiting for her and could see she was upset.
"Sweetie, what's wrong," he asked after he gave her a kiss.
"Mr. Porter. I know I told the admiral I would help out but I'm already regretting that decision," she told him after she kissed him back. "I just don't like him."
"Do you want me to say something to the admiral, maybe Chip could do it."
"No, please don't the admiral is counting on me just like the rest of you. Chip has a lot of work of his own work to do and since I can't do his work I'll make it work. I didn't have lunch today and I'm starving maybe that's why I'm upset."
"Let's go. I'm hungry too," Lee said as they walked out the door and met Chip on his way to the wardroom.
They ate dinner with the admiral, Mr. Rosen, and Mr. Porter. Cookie had made Lee's favorite dinner, lasagna. Even though she told Lee she was hungry, she didn't eat very much.
"Mrs. Crane, I can't thank you enough for pitching in and helping us out," Mr. Rosen said appreciatively. "Mr. Porter is looking forward to working with you."
"Thank you sir, I will do my best," she responded softly.
"I bet he is," Lee mumbled under his breath.
Chip heard what Lee said and also most choked on his food.
"Lee, did you say something," the admiral asked.
"No sir."
After they finished dinner, Janet went to her office to start working on entering the data. Mr. Porter followed her out and walked down the passageway with her 'accidentally' brushing up against her.
She sat down at the computer and was entering the data on the computer when Mr. Porter put his hand on her shoulder.
"No Janet, you've put that data in the wrong place. It goes here," he told her showing her on the screen where it went.
She shrugged off his hand and stopped typing.
"Please don't touch me," she said curtly. "If I'm not doing something right, you can tell me without touching me."
"Now, Janet, we're going to be working very 'close' together, so if you aren't careful and don't do what I ask, I promise to make things happen to people you care about," he said maliciously as he put his hand back on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
She continued entering the data with his hand on her shoulder.
((()))
Lee finished his walk around the boat and was surprised to see the light on in Janet's office. It was after midnight and she was still working. Lee walked in and she was still typing in the data. Mr. Porter was not there.
"Sweetheart, you're still working? I thought you would be done by now. It's after midnight."
"Is it really? I'm almost finished. I didn't realize how much time the data takes to enter. Did you know ooze is pelagic sediment of which at least thirty percent is composed of the skeletal remains of microscopic floating organisms?** Why does it take me over four hours to put all this data in when one sentence should cover it? Then there are the sea cucumbers. They are all echinoderms and are marine mammals with a leathery skin and an elongated body containing a single, branched gonad.*** How about a xenophyophore which are giant unicellular organisms found throughout the oceans at depths of up to 6.6 miles. But no everything needs to broken down by category, type, kind etc. I should be done in fifteen minutes. Will you wait up for me?" she asked sighing.
"Of course. I don't think you would make a good scientist and you better not let the admiral here you talk like that you know how technical he can get," Lee said grinning.
"Yes, but I don't have to put his data in. He does it himself," she stated.
He left her alone so she could finish up. She finally came to the cabin about a half hour later. He could see she was very tired and nervous. He was surprised at how nervous she was.
"Sweetie you seem awfully nervous. Is everything alright?"
"Yes, just worried about how much work I have to do tomorrow. The duty rosters need to be typed up and Chip gave me some reports that need to be done too. Plus the bathyscaphe is going out tomorrow and who knows what they will bring back. I might have taken on more that I can handle."
"I'll do the duty rosters for you tomorrow if you want."
"I'll let you know if I can't get them done. Thanks Lee," she said giving him a kiss.
They climbed into the bunk. Lee wrapped his arm around her and she fell sound asleep.
((()))
The bathyscaphe went out again the next morning and this time it went deeper and for a longer period of time. They brought back more ooze, xenophyophores, and sea cucumbers. The admiral was very excited about going down into the trench. He had never been that deep before in this part of the Sirena Deep trench but on the way back up there was a problem. Something went wrong with the oxygen in the admiral's side of the compartment.
"Control Room," Sharkey called frantically.
"What is it Chief," Lee answered quickly hearing the tone of his voice.
"Come to the missile room, something is wrong with the admiral and bathyscaphe,"
"On my way." Chip and Janet were at the plotting table with Lee and heard what was going on.
Double clicking the mic, "Sick bay get to the missile room on the double," Lee said.
Lee, Chip and Janet ran to the missile room just as the bathyscaphe was being brought up.
They got the admiral out as soon as it was clear of the launch area. He was unconscious from lack of oxygen. Jamie arrived, pushed everyone out of the way so he could examine the admiral. He gave him some oxygen and he started to come around. Jamie would take him to sick bay to be checked out further.
"What happened?" Lee asked Mr. Porter tersely.
"There was a malfunction of a valve on his side of the bathyscaphe. I will repair it immediately," he told Lee.
Mr. Porter looked over at Janet and smiled.
"Janet, are you okay?" Lee asked looking over at her. "You're as white as a ghost."
She felt like she was going to faint.
"I'm fine. Just worried about the admiral," she told him shaking like leaf. "I'm going with him to sick bay."
"Okay, I will be there shortly," Lee told her rubbing her arm which she quickly pulled away.
Lee was too worried about the admiral and what went wrong with the bathyscaphe to notice.
Jamie got the admiral to sick bay and made him lay down on the gurney. Janet followed them to sick bay and leaned up against the wall. Her legs were like jelly.
"I'm fine," the admiral said adamantly.
"I'll be the judge of that," Jamie replied tensely.
He checked him out and found nothing wrong with him.
"You seem to be fine but you will definitely not be diving in the bathyscaphe tomorrow. I'll check you again tomorrow to see if you can go out the following day."
"No problem Jamie," the admiral said with a grin, "it wasn't scheduled to dive tomorrow anyway."
Jamie just gave him a dirty look.
Lee and Chip came into sick bay just as the admiral was buttoning up his shirt and getting ready to leave. Janet was still leaning against the wall.
"Sweetie, are you okay? Maybe Jamie needs to check you out. You're still pretty pale," Lee said with a frown.
"No, I'm fine," she told him, "I need to go back to my office, I'm sure Mr. Porter has some data for me to enter."
"Alright, I'll come and get you for dinner," he told her giving her a kiss.
((()))
Mr. Porter had analyzed all the items he brought back from the dive and gave it to Janet to enter into the computer. As he handed it to her, he grabbed her hands and held them in his. She knew if she didn't let him touch her, he would keep his promise and hurt someone else. He stood over her shoulder rubbing her arms as she was typing in the data. It was hard to type so it took that much longer. She could barely contain the tears from falling down her face.
Lee went off duty at 1830 and went up to her office to get her for dinner. She was entering data and Mr. Porter was standing a little to close to her.
"Excuse me I would like to talk to Janet," Lee asked but almost had to push him out of the way so he could talk to her.
Even after Lee asked him to move he still stood close enough to hear their conversation.
"Let's go have some dinner," Lee told her as he reached for her arm which she pulled away. "You can finish this in a little while."
He was a little surprised she pulled her arm away.
"I didn't have lunch so I'm a little hungry," she told him as she got up quickly from the computer.
"Mr. Porter, will you join us?" Lee asked politely.
"Damn," she thought to herself. "I don't want to have dinner with him. I can't stand him."
"Yes, Captain, lead the way," he replied smiling at her and grabbed her arm as they left for dinner.
Lee could see she wasn't too pleased he invited him to join them for dinner but what could he do. He was standing right there.
The admiral and Mr. Rosen were already eating when they came in.
"Admiral I'm very sorry there was an issue with your oxygen valve. Mr. Porter as assured me that a new valve has been put in and there should be no further problems," Mr. Rosen said.
"I'm sure it was just freak accident," the admiral replied. "Mr. Porter, Lee and Janet please join us for dinner."
"Yes, sir," Lee replied.
They went over to the sideboard and Cookie filled their plates with chicken, rice and corn. There was hot apple pie for dessert.
They sat down at the table. Lee on one side of Janet and Mr. Porter on the other side, he was sitting so close to her she could barely lift her fork.
At dinner Lee could see she wasn't eating even though she said she was hungry. She just pushed the food around on her plate. She was also very quiet, much more than normal.
The admiral, Mr. Rosen and Mr. Porter had finished their dinners and left the wardroom.
Chip came in just as they were leaving. Cookie filled his plate and knew it would all be eaten. He would probably come back for more.
After the men left Janet said to Lee and Chip, "Excuse me. I have some work to finish for Mr. Porter. Lee, don't worry about the duty rosters I got the typed up."
She was going to take her plate to the bin for washing but Chip grabbed it and ate what she didn't. Cookie saw him take her plate and was very unhappy with the amount of food she had left.
"Okay sweetie. But what's the rush? The work for Porter will wait."
"No Lee, it won't. It has to be done completely. If I don't do it now I'll be up for most of the night," she told him sharply.
"Alright, I'll check on you later," he frowned at the tone of her voice.
"What's wrong with her? She seems a little nervous," Chip asked as he put a piece of pie in his mouth.
"I'm not sure. I think she took on more than she can handle and is worried about not getting all the work done. I told her I would help her but she didn't want it."
"I'll help too. I've finished what I needed to get done," Chip stated wiping his mouth with the napkin. "How about more coffee?"
"Sure," Lee replied as he handed Chip his cup.
"Chip, do you think that Mr. Porter is a bit weird?"
"I don't know, Lee, I haven't had too much to do with him."
They finished up their coffee and left the wardroom. Lee went to his cabin and Chip went to his.
((()))
Lee was working on some reports and noticed it was after midnight. Janet hadn't returned so he went to see how much longer she would be and found her sound asleep at the computer. She had almost all the data entered. He woke her up and walked her to their cabin. She got ready for bed and was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
Lee was going to have to talk to the admiral about the amount of work that Mr. Porter needed her to do.
When he wasn't doing any analysis, why couldn't he enter in the data? Lee thought.
**Ooze-Source: britannica
***Sea cucumber- Source: wikipedia
***Xenophyophore-Source: wikipedia