***Chapter 9
Of course, the storm hadn't followed his predicted path. Four hours after Robert had informed Mike Flynn about the latest weather reports, the waves were crushing over the foredeck, windscreen wipers had to do their best to maintain at least some vision and Bomber already had handed out the first two cold packs.
Everyone tried to cling on tight to something that wasn't moving. In the galley, Bomber had given up making dinner. Sandwiches had to be enough. There was no way of cooking potatoes nor anything else while the ship was rolling and heeling over like a roller-coaster.
Charge sat behind his control board at the bridge, monitoring the engines, cursing and swearing. He had just changed his shirt and trousers for they had been stained with oil from the engine room. And now, with the latest wave, he had spilled his coffee over the fresh clothes.
Spider, who had helped Bomber securing the galley, was on his way to the bridge when he met 2Dads, holding a cold pack at his temple.
"Mate what happened to you? Hit your head? That's usually my part."
"Don't ask." The blonde sailor grimaced. "I was fast asleep, dreaming of white beaches and beautiful women when Charge called me to help him with a short-circuit at the engine room. Wish I'd stayed in bed! I hit my head at a water pipe when the ship heeled over. And you know what? Charge just laughed and said that there's not much that could get lost." He grimaced at Spider. "I'm smarter than he thinks."
Spider thought of the night he had caught 2Dads at his attempt to sneak into the ComCen and the monkey incident and failed suppressing a laugh.
"You're laughing at me as well!? Mate I thought we were friends!" 2Dads looked hurt.
"We are, 2Dads, we are." Spider assured him. "Let's go and see if we could help somewhere." With that he pushed him in the direction of the stairs and followed close. Half way up to the bridge, the blonde sailor stopped dead.
"You know it's kind of embarrassing with that cold pack. I had enough mocking for today." Leo bent down and laid the blue gel pack at the step he was standing on.
"You sure that's a good idea?" Spider asked, concerned.
"Hey, I'm fine. Don't need it any more. I pick it up on the way back." his crew mate answered and took the last steps with two big strides.
"It wasn't for you, I was concerned someone could accidentally step on it and slip." Spider murmured under his breathe but followed without taking the gel pack with him.
Kate woke up with a start when her cup slid from the desk where she had put it. She couldn't catch it in time and it hit the floor, spilling coffee all over her stuff. Great she thought. Luckily it had missed her laptop, standing in front of her, the window with the report she had been writing still open, the cursor blinking at the bottom line. Kate hated writing reports. In fact she didn't know any one who actually liked it. Maybe Robert, she wondered. Then she noticed the heavy heeling and stumbled to her feet. If she hadn't been falling asleep in her small cabin, sitting on her rack, she maybe would have noticed earlier. Obviously no one had bothered waking her up, so the situation couldn't be that bad. The next wave sent her flying against the wall of the passage. Or maybe no one had the time cause it's worse than it looks she told herself and with a rolling gait continued her way to the bridge in a hurry. While re-reading what she had written so far before saving, she had noticed something disturbing in her report. Something she should have noticed long before. It seemed that Jason hadn't had a torch with him when he came aboard. So how had signaled them then? Kate was hoping against hope that she had missed something. Maybe she just hadn't noticed the torch and Buffer or Swain had taken it? Because if she was right, they had made a terrible mistake. They had left someone behind out there in the middle of an upcoming storm. Please let me be not right! She wasn't often praying something like that but this time, Kate would be really glad to be mistaken.
"Charge, why don't you go and see if you can find something dry? I can monitor the engines while you're gone." 2Dads offered his help. He could see how uncomfortable the sailor felt with the clothes all wet, covered in hot coffee.
"Thanks, 2Dads. And sorry for earlier." Charge stood up, clearly relieved and made his way to the staircase. He almost had reached it when the alarm started. Red lights were blinking all over his console. Sighing he hurried back.
"Charge, what is it?" Mike wanted to know.
Tipping frantically, Charge just mumbled something under his breath that could be understood as damn electrics, microsoftand good old times. The CO waited patiently until his chief engineer had finished cursing – they all knew Charge's Bill Gates remarks – then pressed on: "Charge? Everything all right?"
"Yeah Boss, all fine. Just the electrics again. Wish we had the good old lady back. There's definitely too much wires on that ship! 2Dads, with me!" he ordered and went for the stairs again. On his way down, he met the XO coming up and made room to let her pass. Kate herself moved to the outer edge of the step to allow Charge and 2Dads to continue their way down, she had heard the alarm and could see that they were in a hurry. Concentrating on not falling over with the constant rolling and looking up at the towards coming sailors, she didn't notice the small blue pack laying on the next step 'till it was too late. Her foot slipped and she fell backwards, already been thrown of balance by the waves, not able to control her fall. The rumbling noise alerted the other men on the bridge.
"X!" Charge was the first to stumble after her. "You ok? Say something!" He knelt down beside her.
"Kate?" Mike was at his heels, worry showing on his face. He helped Charge bringing her in a sitting position propped against the wall and gently stuck a stray strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "Kate?" he hold her face in his hands, forcing her softly to look at him.
She winced. "It's ok. I'm fine. Just help me up." Mike shook his head, seeing her slightly unfocused gaze.
"You better stay there. Swain?" he yelled but the first medic was already standing behind him, ready to have a look as soon as his boss would made room. Spider had taken over the helm for him. The medic grimaced when Kate flinched and squinted at the flash light shown in her eyes.
"I'm sorry 'bout the light Ma'am. Pupil reaction is a bit sluggish." he informed Mike who was hovering behind him, waiting anxiously for good news. "Kate, can you tell me what day we have?" he turned his attention back to his patient.
"Swain, I'm fine, honestly. My name's Kate McGregor, it's Friday evening, we're in the middle of a storm, I slipped on the stairs. See, I remember everything just fine, no concussion or whatsoever." She tried to stand up.
"Just wait a second, X. Is there any pain?" the coxswain asked, not willing to let her stand up that soon after her accident.
"My left ankle hurts a bit but...ouch!" the blonde woman exclaimed when Swain carefully examined her ankle. It felt like he had run through it with a hot iron.
"I'd say you sprained your ankle, Ma'am." he concluded. "Charge, help me get her up and to the wardroom. I'd like to put a support bandage on it. And then it's RICE for you this evening, X."
Kate was confused. Hadn't Bomber and Spider been preparing potatoes when she caught them earlier? "Since when is rice helping with a sprained ankle?" she wondered. Swain chuckled.
"RICE as in rest, ice, compression and elevation, Ma'am." Kate blushed, being a bit embarrassed. Of course, she should have known that from first-aid drill.
"Now let's get you to the wardroom before it swells up." Swain said but before he or Charge could even move, Mike pulled his second in command up and carried her down the passage in his arms.
"Well er … I go check on that alarm then." Charge looked a bit confused, seeing his CO and XO like that. Swain patted him on the shoulder.
"Go see your patient, I'll go see mine. Although it looks as if she's fine for the moment." he added in a lower voice, more to himself, seeing Kate leaning her head against Mike's shoulder. He started to follow his Boss when something caught his gaze. It was small and blue and shouldn't be on the steps at all.
As fast as the storm had come, it went. Just a few hours later, the sea was still rough but the worst seemed to be over. Mike was sitting on his chair at the bridge, flipping absent-mindedly through the latest weather reports RO had brought him. "It seems we are through the worst." he concluded, handing the reports back. He still couldn't believe what Kate had told him when he had brought her back to her cabin after Swain had stabilized her ankle with a bandage and handed out a cool pack and some painkillers.
"Sir, I believe Jason hadn't had a torch with him." she had said, trying to find a comfortable position on her rack that would allow her to put up the ankle high. "So there could be someone still out there."
"That's why you asked Swain about Jason?" Mike had wondered and had helped her placing a pillow under her left foot.
"Yes. And neither he nor Buffer saw a torch. So either Jason had let go of it when it gave up or he hadn't had one in the first place." She had looked at him with a troubled expression. "Sir, if that's the case... I should have realized earlier. If someone's out there right now, they don't have a chance at all." Her eyes had started to water both from the guilt she felt and the pain in her ankle that had increase with all the shuffling around. Mike hadn't known what to say to comfort her. He had known she was right. But she and the team had done what they could. For all they had known, there hadn't been any one else out there. He had padded her shoulder sheepishly then gently had wiped away a tear running down her cheek. He would have liked to hug her, show her that he really cared for her. But the door of her cabin had stood wide open and it wouldn't have been a good idea letting the crew see them like that.
"Try to rest a bit, Kate. You did what you thought was right at the moment. You couldn't have know then. It was all dark and a rough sea, and you saved that stupid boy's life." He had rearranged the cool pack on her ankle and straightened. "Call Swain if you are in any pain. He said that you could have some more painkillers in two hours. I'll see that we turn around and have a second look." He had known that there wasn't a chance at all to find someone out there in the middle of a storm at night and he had been sure that Kate would knew too. But he had managed to sound as sure and convincing as ever.
"Thanks Sir." Kate had leant back in her pillows and closed her eyes.
"That's exactly what NACOM says." RO sounded annoyed. Mike was confused. What was Robert talking about? He noticed the clipboard his radio officer still had in hand and realized he must have been daydreaming for a minute.
"But they also said we wouldn't be even near the storm which wasn't accurate at all." RO continued. "I wonder if I should sign a complaint. It is of immense importance that we could trust these weather reports." With that he took place at his console, put on his headset again and started switching through the frequencies. The CO had asked him to find out if any vessel had reported someone missing. Every Sailor with nothing to do right now was standing outside overlooking the ocean for possible per sons in the water. But Mike didn't have much hope to find someone. It just had been a really bad night to be out there. Robert's expression suddenly got concentrated, he listened to something, made some adjustments and asked the speaker to repeat. Mike looked up.
"Robert? What is it?"
"Sir, I got a Mr. Jones here. He's calling on an old military frequency and seems to be in quite some excitement." The radio officer pressed the headphone with one hand on his ear, trying to understand better. "Sir, please calm down. I really do have problems understanding you!" He waited, listening to the other man then answered.
"This is the Australian warship Hammersley. Sir, I can't understand you if you're talking so fast. Please calm down." Robert shook his head in frustration and turned to his CO. "I have no idea what the problem is. That man is speaking so fast, I can't understand him. And I have no conclusion on how he got one of our radio frequencies."
"Put it on the speaker, RO." Mike asked. "Mr. Jones? This is Mike Flynn speaking. I'm the commanding officer of HMAS Hammersley. You are broadcasting on a military frequency, Sir. Are you aware of that?"
"Commander Flynn, glad to hear you, Sir. I thought it would be easier to reach you on that frequency. My name is Jones, I'm a former navy officer and you know, I still have some friends there."
Mike frowned. That was neither the answer to his question nor an excuse to use the military frequencies at all.
"So what is your problem, Mr. Jones?" he asked, a bit annoyed. They had better things to do than listening to an old veteran's chattering right now.
"I wouldn't have called you Commander Flynn if it wasn't for an emergency. My wife and I have a delicate situation here on board. We picked up an illegal this morning. My wife is somewhat sensitive about that matter and so we took the young girl with us."
"And now you want to hand her over?" Mike wanted to know.
"Yes. My wife wanted to bring the poor girl to the hospital herself but she's in a critical condition and we don't know what to do. I saw your ship on the radar and thought you could handle better."
RO already had a pencil at hand when Mike asked for the position of Mr. Jones' ship. "Sir, that's about 7 miles east from our current position." he informed the CO.
"Thank you RO. Mr. Jones, we're heading in your direction now. Spider, mark the contact on radar please. X, get a boarding party ready and inform Swain... ." His voice trailed of. Kate wasn't at the bridge but lying in her cabin, a cold pack at her swollen ankle. He sighed. "Buffer, you're in charge on that one. See if we can launch the RHIB at the current weather conditions."
Swain looked through his stuff again. The man on the other ship hadn't informed them what kind of medical emergency they had. But as it looked, the patient was really young and that was what bothered him. He hated treating children. They always reminded him of his own daughter, Chloë. He hadn't seen her for some weeks now. She'd been with her grandparents the last time Hammersley was at home port. Bomber came into the wardroom, already in full gear, handing him over his vest.
"You ready? Buffer says the waves are still a bit high but we could give it a try."
"I'm coming. Here, please take that." Swain handed her the first-aid bag and started to pull on his vest. "I don't know what we need over there but that must be enough for the start."
"Heard the skipper said something about a young girl? Do you know how old she is? I hope she's not too young. I have no idea on how to treat a child. I never did before." Bomber was concerned. Swain tried to look encouraging.
"Let's see what's on that boat before getting worried, Bomber."
She followed him out of the wardroom, not fully convinced. Swain hadn't sounded as calm as he normally did and that made her a bit jumpy as well.
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