Maria

Chip turned back toward Nelson ready to get to work. "How do we help Lee about the girl?"

Nelson faced it head on, "Let's see if Maria is able to talk with us now."

Chip lifted Nelson's desktop intercom unit and paged Riley.

Riley was having a great time. He had taken Maria to get a change of clothes; she preferred a blue crewman's jumpsuit to the red. Then he had seen her ensconced in a guest cabin and left her to clean up and change while he fetched a breakfast tray for her. As she enjoyed her breakfast Riley had a coffee as well. They got along famously finding things to talk about despite being thrown together in such an unusual situation. They discovered they were a similar age, both just barely twenty-one, they hit it off just great.

The voice of Mr. Morton on the intercom broke into their cheerful discussion ending Maria's breakfast and Riley's uncomplicated joy. The two youngsters headed to Nelson's cabin as requested where Maria was invited in and Riley dismissed back to duty. Riley watched Maria disappear into the cabin, sighed then shrugged and headed off. Now to find the guys to get the scuttlebutt on the Skipper.

"Maria, this is Seaview's Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander Morton. Mr. Morton this is Maria. Maria helped me get Captain Crane to the Flying Sub and back here to Seaview for which she has my profound thanks."

Morton and Maria eyed each other somewhat warily and nodded acknowledging the introduction.

"Now, Maria, our intention is to take Captain Crane home to Santa Barbara for his convalescence following the injury he received several days ago, although we may stop at Pearl Harbour on the way. That depends on the Captain's condition and what treatment he needs." Nelson was leading this conversation for the time being. "Before we leave these waters though we would like to hear your story of your interactions with him."

Maria looked a bit confused by this. "But I didn't have any interactions with him."

Nelson now looked confused. "I found you on Mulayo with him, in rather close contact with him."

"That was not the man I helped you put in the boat." Maria declared. "That was the other one, Gerry."

"But … "

"You were there. Did you not see? When you had the gun pointing at him? Gerry left him." Maria asked intently, "You saw that didn't you?"

"Yes, I saw that. I did not want to presume." Nelson was finding it hard to understand that Maria made a distinction between the two persons using the same body but he realized that so did he. On reflection perhaps he had been doing her a disservice to assume she didn't.

"The one with the hard eyes, the one who gave me drinks, who paid me. That was Gerry. He was the one the necklace saluted, not the man we brought here."

"The necklace?"

The young woman fingered the ribbon-like necklace at her throat. It was much more delicate than the other jewellery she had worn. The bracelets and armband were much larger, more bold, bright, shiny, and primitive looking.

"Yes, this necklace it was given to me by my mother who had it from her mother before her. It was given to my grandmother by my grandfather when he went to sea. He never came back." Maria explained this very casually and as if it was a very unimportant matter. "Just a pretty bauble, but when I met Gerry … he touched the necklace. Every time he did it fizzled, tingled like it was electric but it didn't hurt."

"I see." Nelson paused considering, "Who is your grandmother?"

"Oh, I never knew her. She died as a young woman. My mother didn't know her well either. My mother was a very small child when my grandmother died."

"What was your grandmother's name, if I may ask?"

"I don't really know. My mother just called her 'my mother' or 'your grandmother', but it might have been Lana or Lori, I'm not sure it was long ago. My own mother's name was Gerda."

Nelson was looking a bit poleaxed by this point. "Mm, hmm. Thank you, Maria."

There was a pause as Nelson rested his fingertips on the desk in deep thought.

Morton took up the questions. "Maria, the man who had his hands on your throat … was he hurting you?"

"Yes, I was terrified, Gerry was trying to kill me."

With a definite note of incredulity, "But that was not the man you and Admiral Nelson brought here in the Flying Sub?"

Morton couldn't understand her making a distinction between them.

"No. I don't know who that was. You called him Captain … ? He was not the man who was hurting me. He was the man who apologized to me. He was injured but kind."

"Just to be clear, you have no quarrel with Captain Crane, the man you and the Admiral brought here?"

"Is that his name? No, no quarrel."

Morton and Nelson looked at each other. Their relief was palpable.

Nelson took up the ball again. "Mr. Morton and I need to find out from you what you would like to do next. We can take you back to your home eventually but if you prefer we can take you to Hawaii or Santa Barbara in the United States. You do not have to decide right now. We will be stationkeeping in these waters for another day or so while we sort some things out. We need to speak with Captain Crane and that means waiting for him to recover sufficiently to talk with us. I will have a crewmember escort you back to your cabin where you may rest. It's been a long night."

After Maria left Nelson and Morton looked at each other with hesitant looks of relief.

"Well, Chip I think we dodged a bullet there. I'm very glad that Lee isn't going to be facing charges of assault or worse."

"Yes, sir that is a relief."