The Miracle of the Ellington

"Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light." Helen Keller

Chapter 5: The Wake

"We're killing him," Crane said flatly. "We can use whatever medical term makes us feel better, but that's what we're doing." He stretched his legs out on the floor of the galley and leaned back against the metal doors of the walk-in refrigeration unit. Even with insulation, he could feel the cold creeping uncomfortably up his spine.

"Have some coffee and relax, Lee," Jamieson said. "It's not like you to be melodramatic." The doctor sat cross-legged next to the captain. In any other situation, the group of grown men sprawled like children on the deck of the galley at 5:00 AM would have been comical, but the situation didn't lend itself to humor. "Or catch a couple of hours of sleep. You need to be sharp when the anomaly occurs again."

"I can't sleep."

"You could try," Schaffner said. "Dr. Jamieson and I will monitor Harry's vitals."

"He shouldn't be alone in there."

"He's fine," Jamieson said for what must have been the hundredth time.

"I suppose so." Lee closed his eyes, trying not to imagine Harry lying in the refrigerator, as still as death as his body temperature slowly fell lower and lower. "You're sure he isn't in pain?"

Jamieson shook his head. "He's too far under to feel a thing."

X X X

After the doctor administered the sedative in the circuit room, Crane carried Nelson back to sickbay. He'd left the young man in Jamieson's care while he returned to the problem of repairs and getting Seaview in shape to face the anomaly again the next day. If it hadn't been for the necessity of returning Ensign Nelson to 1944, Crane would have taken the boat out of the area as soon as it was off the bottom and operational. He had no desire to subject the submarine or the crew to such violent upheavals again, but there was no question of leaving. With so little time to prepare the boat, all he could do was order the repair crews to slap on as many band-aids as possible. He'd simply have to hope Seaview was sound enough to make it through the disruption one more time.

It was evening before Crane had time to check in with Jamieson again. He found the doctor picking at his dinner from a tray balanced on his knees while he watched over Harry. He motioned for Lee to join him but the captain declined. He never could eat when the admiral was in trouble. The fact that Ensign Nelson lay nearby resting peacefully didn't change that. Lee sat down on the deck next to Nelson's rack and placed his hand lightly on the young man's arm, feeling the need to establish some kind of rapport, however tenuous.

"That's one tired boy," Jamieson commented. "I think he would have passed out sooner or later even without the sedative."

"He's only eighteen," Lee said softly. "He's not a boy, though. Did you see how he looked at me when you gave him the injection? These days that expression makes the ratings cringe."

"You didn't mind his show of spirit," the doctor observed.

"No, I'd have been happy even if he'd punched me," Crane admitted.

"He might still get the chance," Jamieson said, "Lee, I can't keep him sedated forever. What's next?"

Wordlessly, Crane passed him the envelope containing the newspaper article and the transcript of Harry's debriefing after his rescue. He fished the admiral's letter out of his pocket and handed it over, too, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against his knees while the doctor digested this information.

"What are you going to do?" Jamieson asked.

"What he told me to: my duty," Crane said tonelessly. "Tomorrow morning I'm going to cast aside every bit of common sense I possess and put the admiral back in the sea, hoping to God a miracle occurs and he doesn't drown before he gets rescued. If I'm lucky, he'll get back to his own time. If I'm unlucky or make even the smallest miscalculation, I'll have murdered my best friend."

"You can't protect him," the doctor said quietly, "and he doesn't expect you to. The admiral walked into this with his eyes open."

"I know. That doesn't make it any easier, though."

"Lee," Jamieson ventured, "it's not enough just to put him back in the water, you know."

"What do you mean?"

"We have to make it seem plausible that Harry's been adrift in the North Atlantic for twenty-four hours. That's what his rescuers believed. That's one reason they discounted his story about being on a submarine." Jamieson set the tray aside and pushed himself to his feet. He disappeared into his office and Crane heard him searching through his bookshelves. In a moment he returned with a slim volume. "What's the surface water temperature?"

Crane flicked on the intercom. "Crane to control room."

"Morton here."

"I need a reading on surface water temperature, Chip."

"I'll have to take her up."

"Acknowledged." They waited in silence for several moments, Crane's expression growing ever more grim as he realized what the doctor was contemplating.

"Control room to Captain Crane."

"Go ahead."

"Surface water temperature is 68 degrees Fahrenheit."

"Thanks, Chip." Lee cast a questioning look at the doctor.

Jamieson consulted the charts in his book. "It would have been similar in July 1944. It's certainly conceivable a fit young man like Harry could survive for a day in water that chilly. It's not possible, however, that his body temperature would be normal. The game will be up the minute they stick a thermometer in his mouth unless we bring it down."

"What's your recommendation?"

"Unconsciousness occurs when the body's temperature drops below 86 degrees Fahrenheit. We definitely don't want Harry's to be so dangerously low. The newspaper article says he was disoriented when he was pulled out of the water, not unconscious." The doctor frowned, considering. "We need him to start shaking off the sedative by the time we put him in the ocean so that he's at least aware enough to hold his head up and keep his face out of the water. That will give him the best chance for survival." Jamieson closed his book decisively. "With your permission, I'll bring his temperature down to about 92-94 degrees Fahrenheit. Amnesia and disorientation set in around 94 degrees. That sounds right, since we know Harry's memory of his time on Seaview was compromised."

"Can you do it without shocking his system? The admiral's already been though a lot and you know how exhausted he is."

"I'll take that into account."

"See that you do," Crane said. His hand curled around Nelson's bandaged one. "We can't afford for anything to go wrong."

X X X

After a bit of thought, the doctor suggested putting Nelson in one of the walk-in refrigerators in Seaview's galley. They cleared the unit of food and raised the temperature almost to ambient levels. Once the admiral was inside, they would slowly begin dropping the temperature again, giving his body time to adjust to each incremental change.

Crane and Jamieson carefully dressed the unconscious young man in his uniform once more and removed the gauze that protected his burned skin. For the captain, the task had an almost surreal quality. Try as he might, he couldn't shake the feeling he was preparing the admiral's body for burial. He wished Harry would open his eyes and look at him one more time, even as he dreaded the thought he might if the sedative wore off too soon. This young man wouldn't understand the necessity of the captain's choices, wouldn't be able to fathom why he was so cruel. It was better that he remain the way he was: a lifeless doll, a shell with the vibrant pearl of Harry's spirit hidden deep inside.

They placed him in the refrigerator with a tiny thermometer in his ear and an EKG monitoring his heart. Then they left him and sank down, drained, on the deck of the galley, keeping vigil.

It was there that Dr. Schaffner found them in the early hours of the morning. He, too, had passed a sleepless night. It wasn't worry for Nelson, though, that had prevented him from resting. He'd been analyzing the data from the two occurrences of the anomaly, desperate to find some answers before the disturbance struck again.

"Captain," he said, sitting down beside Crane, who acknowledged him with a nod, "I've found something very interesting. The readings from the two times we've passed through the anomaly are similar, but differ in one important respect." He cleared his throat, his voice taking on a professorial tone as Lee looked at him questioningly. "Do you see this spike here?" He handed Crane a readout from Seaview's computer. "This is a measurement of electromagnetic activity around the boat before, during, and just after the anomaly occurred. Now observe, please, the profiles from the first and second times we encountered the anomaly."

"There's a spike in electromagnetic activity the first time, but not during the second," Crane said.

"Precisely. And it was during the first encounter that Harry traveled through time. The second time the anomaly occurred the storm it spawned was just as strong, but there was no electromagnetic spike."

"And no time travel."

"Ja, you understand. Good! So it is not identical each time. I think this is why the anomaly has caused so many ships to sink, but only once has caused a breach in time."

"That we know of."

"Yes, captain, as you say—that we know of." Schaffner looked uncomfortable. "It is possible others have experienced the same shift as Harry and disappeared from their own times into different pasts or futures."

"That's not comforting," Jamieson observed.

"No, it's not, and," Schaffner continued, "I'm not sure there's a way to counter the electromagnetic spike, since we can't predict when it will occur again. We know it will happen at 10:00 today, but it may not reappear for weeks, months, or years!"

"We'll have to put out the warning for ships to avoid this area at all costs," Crane said. "I thought the danger was unusually rough seas, but this is far more perilous."

"Yes, but we can't allow ourselves to be frightened into leaving with the job undone," Schaffner said. "Harry would never approve." He frowned, thinking hard. "Captain, do you have monitoring buoys we could attach to the bottom with strong cables? Then we can continue to retrieve data during future occurrences of the phenomenon. When enough is collected, we should be able to get a picture of what is happening and determine if there is a predictable pattern."

"Seaview has three buoys, but none are programmed specifically to measure electromagnetic activity. It's possible we could use the FS-1 to place them if you have enough time to make the necessary modifications to their programming."

Schaffner got to his feet with surprising speed for a man his age. "As you Americans say, 'I'm on it!'" He glanced again at the door of the refrigeration unit. "I can take Harry out and put him on the surface when I place the buoys, if you'd like."

"It'll be dangerous to be in the FS-1 when the anomaly hits again," Crane said quietly.

"Yes, but perhaps our best chance of getting Harry back is if the FS-1 is as close as possible to its coordinates when he disappeared from it."

"There's logic in that, Lee," Jamieson said. "I'll go with him, if you'll give permission, and monitor Harry's vitals until the last moment."

"Are you sure? You two might get pulled through to another time, or the flying sub might be shaken apart."

"I'm willing to take the chance," Jamieson said, his features calm.

"I'm not concerned, either," Schaffner said. "I should have died here more than thirty years ago. Every day of my life is borrowed time. Besides," he flashed a smile, "after you've served on a U-boat with Harry hunting you, you're not afraid of much!"