Holiday On Ice
By R. L. Keller
Seaview, the Nelson
Institute of Marine Research’s futuristic submarine, was headed home after a
relatively quiet three-week mission for NOAA, checking on and servicing half a
dozen unmanned weather sensors. The crew, including officers, was looking
forward to having the next couple of weeks off. Today was November 9th and
Seaview wasn’t scheduled out again until after the Thanksgiving weekend ending
the 26th. It was therefore a little disconcerting to the
sub’s XO, Lt. Cdr. Charles P. Morton that the captain, Cdr. Lee Crane, seemed
to be in something of a funk the closer they got to their home port of Santa
Barbara.
Morton, known to family
and friends as Chip, had tried talking to Lee, his best friend and Annapolis
roommate, about what had the usually easygoing man so out of
sorts. But Lee had refused to admit anything was wrong even though
he kept getting quieter, and almost sullen as they nestled the sub into her
berth at NIMR. The pair went through the routines of releasing most
everyone to their vacations and closing up the boat, leaving just an Anchor
Watch and Security on duty. Admiral Harriman Nelson met Lee and Chip
as they left the sub. He hadn’t been on this particular cruise,
trusting his men to manage the chores needed. But he knew his Command
Team well; they would continue to do the odds and ends of their normal routine,
even after everyone else was gone, unless they were shamed into taking their
own Leave. He knew that Chip wouldn’t be a major problem – his
parents always hosted a large Thanksgiving gathering. Lee, who had
only his mother and she was frequently busy even over the holidays, was always
welcome in the Morton household. But Nelson hadn’t heard if that’s
where he was headed this year. Nelson was, therefore, somewhat
startled when Lee merely shrugged when asked his plans and walked away toward
his car.
“Chip?” Nelson asked
thoughtfully once Lee was out of earshot.
“No clue, sir,” the
blond answered. “He’s been fairly quiet the whole
cruise. Nothing weird,” he added quickly. Lee had a
tendency to get moody on occasion when things weren’t going
well. “Jamie,” he mentioned NIMR and Seaview’s CMO, “noticed it,
too. But neither of us could figure out what was
wrong.” He sent Nelson a wiggled eyebrow along with a quirky smile. “I’ll
go harass him this evening now that we’re away from the crew.”
Nelson chuckled and
backhanded his XO’s shoulder lightly. The two longtime friends were
known for frequently yanking each other’s chains. It absolutely
never interfered with the chain of command. Well, Nelson
thought, almost never. There was that one cruise…* But he smiled and sent Chip a
nod. “When do you leave for your folks’ place?”
“Not for several days,”
Chip told him. “Chaos comes all too quickly in that house with
everyone there!”
Nelson nodded with
another grin. “Then you don’t know yet if Lee is going with you?”
“One of the things still
to be sorted out. Whatever’s got him torqued, it doesn’t stand a
chance against my mother,” he assured his boss.
Nelson chuckled “Well, let
me know if there’s any way I can help. While I’m headed for my
sister’s, that won’t be for several days yet, either.”
“Will do, sir,” and Chip
headed for his SUV.
* * * *
Lee shook his head
slowly as he exited his car in the driveway of his beach house. He
was very aware that he’d been short with Chip most of the trip, as well as not
being as open with his crew as he normally was. But for some reason
he simply couldn’t shake the thought of the upcoming holiday. Not Thanksgiving,
but the one coming up in two days. November 11. Veteran’s
Day. A special day for all military people and their
families. And normally Lee treated it with the respect that it
deserved.
But this year was
different. It had begun quite innocently, just before he left on the
cruise for NOAA, with a call from his mom. There hadn’t been
anything special about the call, just the pair checking in with each other as
they were wont to do when they both weren’t headed in opposite directions –
which was more often the case than not. But the call had gotten Lee
to thinking about his dad, a Navy pilot killed in action when Lee was five
years old. And once that started to erode his normally amiable
attitude other deaths invaded. Seaman Clark, his first year aboard
Seaview. Other crewmen who had been lost, either because of the
dangerous nature of some of their missions or killed by supposedly safe people
on board for research purposes. Or ones that got aboard through
devious means to bring harm to either Seaview or her crew. Names like
Majors, Kelly, Camden…** Seaman Yeager, whose only fault, if you wanted to
call it that, was being young, inexperienced, and over-eager to please.*** Their names got stuck in Lee’s head, then
their faces; Lee couldn’t shake them out. He could keep them at bay
for short periods of time but the instant he let his guard down back they came,
appearing at random around every corner he turned on the giant
submarine. And then they were joined by others Lee had known and
lost. Capt. Williams and Frank Richardson, + friends lost with their
entire crew then the Angler was destroyed through the evil of
others. Even Bracken kept showing up, and the only way he could keep
from screaming was to shut himself off from the living. Not
completely, of course; he still had to function as Captain and complete the
cruise. It had been a hard-fought battle and he knew, deep down,
that he wasn’t the only victim. He’d have bridges to mend.
But not right
now! Even here, in his own home, the faces refused to leave him
alone. Dropping his Go-bag and briefcase barely inside the front
door he made a bee-line for the kitchen cabinet that held what strong liquor he
kept in the house. He didn’t bother to stop and read, just grabbed
the first bottle he saw and drank straight from it. Irish Whiskey, something Admiral Nelson had shared and left the
bottle, went down like water, not really tasted until he’d swallowed the last
of it. The next bottle he grabbed turned out to be
vodka. He wasn’t sure where that had come from, and didn’t
care. It went down a little slower, but by that time the whiskey had
hit his empty stomach and was beginning to make rapid inroads to his
bloodstream. It dimmed the faces, happily, and Lee made another
reach into the cupboard.
* * * *
Chip hit his office. Briefly,
because his secretary threatened to hit him if he didn’t
leave. He reminded her firmly who was the boss, unfortunately not
able to get it out with a straight face, and they both laughed as Chip headed
home to his condo. He changed into jeans and t-shirt, took care of a
few messages, and emailed his sister, Beth. She and her family lived
just north of San Francisco. The plan was for him to meet them at
the airport and fly back to their parents’ large farmhouse the Saturday before
the Thanksgiving weekend and he merely wanted to confirm that everything was
still on track.
By that time it was
nearly 1700 hours and Chip headed to Lee’s to drag his friend over to BZ’s,
most of Seaview’s crew’s favorite pizza and beer joint. Chip was
well aware of how little Lee had eaten this last cruise, and especially the
last several days of it. Something was obviously bothering his
friend and many a trauma – of all sorts – had been dealt with by the pair over
a double-meat pepperoni, sausage, and green pepper pizza washed down with a
pitcher of beer.
There was no answer to
Chip’s knock, but the front door was open so he opened the screen door and
walked in. He frowned when he nearly tripped over Lee’s briefcase,
left with his other bag in the middle of the entryway, and proceeded somewhat
cautiously to the doors on either side that lead to livingroom
on the right and kitchen on the left. A quick look right didn’t
produce his friend but left did, although it took Chip a long second to absorb
the scene. His quiet, controlled friend was standing – well, swaying
actually – a couple feet from one of the kitchen counters, on which stood three
empty liquor bottles. A fourth was in Lee’s hand, about half
full. “What the hell do you want?” slurred from Lee’s mouth before
he raised the bottle and took a swallow before waving it at Chip. It
slipped from his fingers and shattered on the floor at his feet.
“Lee,” came out
unbelievingly as Chip stepped forward, intending to get Lee away from the
broken glass. It didn’t quite go as planned; he stepped forward to
try and push Lee back, away from the mess and thankful that they both had good
shoes on. But the instant he touched Lee, the brunet swung out and
knocked Chip back instead, a string of oaths erupting out of his
mouth. It was language Lee almost never used, and startled Chip even
more. It also ticked him off – he wasn’t so much angry at Lee as he
was concerned, but it came out a little sideways and Chip found himself saying
a few things he normally wouldn’t either.
This time he was
prepared and stepped firmly to Lee’s side, intending to drag Lee into the livingroom while he cleaned up the mess in the
kitchen. Unfortunately, he underestimated Lee’s ability to fight
back. The last thing he remembered was his head hitting the edge of
the kitchen table.
* * * *
When Dr. Will Jamison
left the boat he ambled over to Med Bay to make sure the place was still
standing after his absence. Mostly everything ran
smoothly. And when it didn’t it was usually because either Lee or
Chip, or both, had created some form of havoc. Even Admiral Nelson
had been known to stir things up a time or two. But that was before
Will had installed his new not-so-secret weapon – Nurse Esther
Hale. The retired Marine, all 110 pounds of her, had very few
difficulties making even the 4-star admiral toe the line. From there
he headed home and spent an hour catching up with Lu-Tsi,
his wife of nearly thirty years.**** But he
was bothered by nagging thoughts concerning Lee’s behavior most of the just
finished cruise, and was forced to explain once Lu-Tsi
noticed his preoccupation. Lee and Lu-Tsi
had forged a very special friendship when she and Will had joined NIMR just a
few months after Lee had taken over command of Seaview. The
Jamison’s had recently lost their only child, a son, in a diving
accident. Lu-Tsi had taken to Lee
instantly, and Lee seemed to understand Lu-Tsi’s need
to ‘take care of Lee.’ He accepted her attention with unusual grace
for the ‘I can take care of myself’ young man. At her insistence
Will called Lee but, getting no answer, decided to drive over. It
wasn’t far; the Jamison’s had a bungalow on NIMR grounds and Lee’s beach house
was on the south end of property owned and controlled by NIMR. To
the north NIMR owned about two miles of the beachfront, on which Nelson had
built single-family dwellings for employees of NIMR. To the south,
on the other side of Lee’s driveway, the highway made a turn inland and there
were a couple acres of hillside dotted with scraggly trees and bushes blown by
the wind off the ocean into growing almost sideways. Some
low-growing groundcover-type plants had found a way to thrive in the
hard-packed earth. The remnants of several much larger trees, now
dead, were scattered here and there. Will had always found the
difference from beach to hillock a bit disconcerting for some
reason. He’d never seen anyone up there in the times he’d been to
Lee’s house or driven by.
So it was with raised
eyebrow that he caught a glimpse of khaki almost hidden amongst the brush as he
pulled into the drive. Chip’s car was there and Will almost
left. If anyone could get Lee to open up about what was troubling
him it was the blond. But that glimpse of khaki… Will shook
his head and entered as Chip had done: calling out, getting no answer, and
opening the screen door. He also mimicked Chip in almost tripping
over Lee’s briefcase, checking the livingroom, and
then the kitchen.
But his first reaction
was instant action. Chip lay on the floor among shards of glass and
the smell of strong alcohol. Carefully stepping next to Chip he was
relieved to find the blond breathing easily with a steady pulse, with no
apparent blood but a rapidly expanding bump on the side of his
forehead. Will was just about to reach for his cellphone to request
one of NIMR’s ambulances when Chip started to come around. Will
quickly pushed aside several glass fragments and helped Chip sit up with his
back against the lower cabinets. “What happened?” he demanded once
Chip seemed able to understand him.
“Lee decided to use me
for a punching bag,” Chip muttered before finally looking at
Will. “He was drunk,” and he swung an unsteady hand to indicate the
carnage on the floor plus the empty bottles still on the counter.
Will looked around in
disbelief. “Why?” he couldn’t help asking.
Chip shook his head – or
tried to. He wasn’t overly successful, as bad as it
hurt. “No clue,” came out instead. “Well,” he added,
“something had him bugged this last cruise.”
“No joke,” it was Will’s turn to mutter, the memory of that glimpse of khaki
working forward into his brain now that Chip was at least
conscious. He stood, searched for a zip-lock bag, and filled it from
the icemaker in Lee’s fridge before laying it carefully on Chip’s
head. “You stay put,” he ordered, “while I track down your sparring
partner.” Chip almost smiled at the boxing reference; Lee had boxed
at Annapolis while Chip had played football. “I think I might have
seen where he walked to.”
“He was walking?”
slipped out, causing Will to finally chuckle.
“Actually, not sure how
well. But you’d parked behind him so at least he couldn’t try to
drive.”
“Hallelujah,” Chip
mumbled, and focused on keeping the bag of ice on his aching
forehead. Will gave him a light pat on the shoulder, kicked a few
more shards of bottle further away, and headed for the hillock.
* * * *
When Lee once more
became aware of conscious thought, however tenuously, he was kneeling on hard
ground leaning against the trunk of a dead tree. He had no idea how
he’d gotten there – wherever ‘there’ was. His left arm was resting
on an exposed root of the tree and he couldn’t think straight enough to even
try to move. All he could do was lay his head on his wrist and try
to put a half dozen disjointed images together into something that made
sense. But he was having absolutely no luck.
“Lee,” broke softly
through his muddled brain but he still couldn’t make himself move, not even
enough to raise his head. He thought he noted something move around
his right side to stop a couple feet in front of him but he couldn’t be
bothered to check. “Lee,” came once more, “can you hear
me? Can you look at me?”
“Why?” he tried to
answer but wasn’t sure if anything came out. It must have because he
heard a soft snort.
“Because I need to know
if I’m going to have to call the Rescue Squad to get you back to the house.”
Lee thought he heard the
words ‘Med Bay’ mumbled as well and that finally got him to raise his head, if
only the few inches necessary to focus on the figure – with limited
success. “What are you doing here? I’m fine,” he
grumbled. But that’s as far as he got before his head dropped back
to his wrist just before his entire body lost control and he toppled over onto
his right side. With a frown, Will reached for his cellphone.
* * * *
“What the…” Nelson
blustered as he barged through Med Bay’s front doors after being advised that
his two senior officers had been transported there by
ambulance. Will, prepared for the onslaught, was standing just
inside at the front desk and held up a hand until his boss had himself under
more control. Mostly. His eyes were still blazing and his
body stiff with rage.
Will sent a quick glance
at Nurse Hale, manning the desk, and with a nod of his head lead Nelson toward
the Doctor’s Lounge down the hall. Once Nelson had a cup of strong
coffee in hand they both sat down. Nelson was still fuming but he
recognized that, if Will was this calm, whatever was going on must be under control.
“While you weren’t on
this last cruise,” Will started, “are you aware of Lee’s attitude; his
moodiness most of the trip?”
Nelson nodded, taking a
sip of coffee. It wasn’t nearly as strong as he liked but it would
do. “Chip mentioned it. Nothing totally
wrong.” He sent Will a nervous look.
NIMR’s CMO was very
familiar with Nelson’s almost paternal relationship with Seaview’s young
captain. It was mostly kept under wraps but would sneak out any time
Lee was injured. Now he sent his boss a small
smile. “Still not sure what caused it, but once we were back Lee
decided to drown it in alcohol.”
“What?” Nelson yelled,
almost spilling his coffee before he could get himself under control.
Will
shrugged. “We’ll get it sorted out,” he assured his boss.
Nelson took a deep breath,
and another sip of coffee. “Chip said he was going to go over and
harass Lee into telling him what the problem was.” He looked at
Will. “Harassed him a little too much?”
“Sort
of. Chip says that by the time he got there – and by the way, that
wasn’t much more than an hour after they both left NIMR, Lee had emptied three
bottles of booze and was apparently trying to do the same with the fourth right
in front of him. Chip said that bottle slipped out of Lee’s hand and
shattered on the floor. Chip tried to move Lee away so he wouldn’t
cut himself, Lee went ballistic, and Chip’s head ended up bouncing off the edge
of the kitchen table. He’ll be fine,” he hurriedly explained as
Nelson sat forward.
“Lee,” came in one of
Nelson’s command tones. It only caused Will to smile softly again
and Nelson sent him a glare.
“I had originally gone
home as well,” Will continued in his mild way, and thankfully Nelson sat
back. He wasn’t relaxed, but Will would do his best to keep him as
calm as possible. “I mentioned to Lu-Tsi a
little about what Lee was like on the cruise and she insisted that I go over
and see what was going on. You know Lu-Tsi,”
came out with a sheepish grin, finally creating an answering one from
Nelson. “I tried calling first and got no answer. I
didn’t realize that Chip was going over. Although,” he sent Nelson
another small smile, “I should have known.” That got another grin
and a nod from Nelson. “I happened to catch a glimpse of uniform on
that knoll just south of Lee’s house but didn’t at the time know who or what it
was. Went in and found Chip. He was just coming around…”
“He’d been unconscious?”
Will
nodded. “That’s why he’s here. I don’t really know how
long he was out but other than a terrific headache and what’s going to be quite
a spectacular black eye he’ll be fine.” He chuckled. “He
should have a grand time explaining that to his family.” They both
gave a small laugh. “I sat him up, gave him a bag of ice, and headed
after who I now knew was Lee. Chip mentioned Lee must have hit the
booze the instant he got home although there is no way to know how full any of
the bottles were to start with. Chip and I both almost tripped over
Lee’s briefcase, dropped just inside the front door that he didn’t even bother
closing.”
“Damn,” slipped out of
Nelson’s mouth quietly and he polished off the coffee.
Will
nodded. “Anyway, to make a long story a little shorter, I did find
Lee on the knoll. I have no idea how he even made it that far with
all the alcohol he’d downed so fast on what had to be an empty stomach as
little as he’s eaten, especially the last couple of days.”
“Alcohol poisoning?”
Nelson guessed.
“A touch,” Will
confirmed. “None of the bottles could have been more than half full,
and probably even less. Once I got him here I pumped his stomach
although by that time, with no food to slow it down, the alcohol had already
done its damage.”
“But why?”
Will knew that Nelson
wasn’t questioning the diagnosis, merely the reason it happened, but all he
could do was shrug. “Hopefully, once he wakes up in a few hours
we’ll find out.” He frowned. “Assuming he’ll
answer.” They both nodded again. Lee only talked when he
wanted to!
“A few hours?” Nelson
verified.
“I’ll call you,” Will
told him with another smile.
“You’d better,” Nelson
grumped. But he also smiled softly, nodded, and headed for his
office.
* * * *
Lee couldn’t remember
when he’d felt so bad. His body ached, his throat burned, and his
head felt like it had exploded. He had no idea why; the last thing
he could remember clearly was getting back from Seaview’s last cruise and
heading home.
“How’s your head?” came
softly and he struggled to open his eyes. He was only partially
successful – one opened to half mast but the other
stayed firmly closed. He did manage to make out the figure of Dr.
Will Jamison standing to his left and assumed that somehow he’d ended up in
Jamie’s domain, Med Bay.
“Is it still attached?”
he asked carefully.
Will
chuckled. “Very much attached. Well, fairly firmly,” he
amended.
“I’ll have to take your
word for it,” Lee managed to get out before once more closing his eye.
“That’s got to be a
first – you taking my word about anything related to your health,” Will
grumbled. It switched to a chuckle as Lee, eyes still closed, frowned. “Do
you remember what happened?”
Lee tried once more, now
that he knew he wasn’t missing at least half of his brain. “I seem
to recall losing a fight with a 500-pound, twenty-armed monster,” came out
slowly. “But don’t quote me,” he added tiredly and heard Will
chuckle softly.
“Maybe you’ll think
twice before you do that again.”
“I doubt it,” came in
Nelson’s familiar tones, now with a hint of humor, and Lee once more struggled
to open his eyes. One still got stuck half open but the other
managed its normal function as the Admiral came to a stop at the foot of his
bed.
“That was me, you dodo
bird,” came from Lee’s right. He very slowly turned that direction
and saw Chip in the next bed, half sitting up with an icepack against his head.
“What?” came out in what
Lee thought was a demand but even he recognized it was more whine.
“How about you both get
some sleep and we’ll continue this discussion when all of us are under
control,” Nelson used his ‘I am he who is to be obeyed’ voice, although there
was still half a smile on his face.
“Yes, sir,” came in
stereo from the younger men, and Will and Nelson walked out.
* * * *
Chip knew that Lee had
lapsed back into a restless sleep. Jamie had him on an IV to help
with Lee’s lack of eating lately but had no idea if the doctor had added
anything else. Chip had tried to sleep but he still had a wicked headache
despite the meds Jamie had ordered for him. He wasn’t blaming Lee
despite his earlier snipe. Lee was too much his brother and friend,
and he felt only concern over what had caused the so out-of-character
actions. Lee had ‘seemed’ under control earlier but Chip wasn’t
holding his breath! He did wonder if, whatever was wrong, it would
have gotten so bad if Admiral Nelson had been aboard this last
cruise. He didn’t think it would have made a difference since Chip
had just as many years of friendship and even more contact because of their
years as roommates at Annapolis. Lee hadn’t turned to him with any
problem and Chip was forced to admit that actually wasn’t unusual; Lee tended
to internalize so much of his personal issues. Chip had heard Jamie
muttering to Nelson once that he didn’t understand why Lee hadn’t developed
serious ulcers, as much as he chose to handle himself. Nelson had
cracked back that Chip was such a big needle that he could deflate Lee before
the brunet could cause himself any harm. Chip snorted
softly. “Didn’t work so well this time, buddy,” he chastised himself.
“Humm,”
came softly from the other bed and Lee turned his head in Chip’s direction.
“You’re awake,” Chip
said, startled.
“Eh,” Lee mumbled
back. He tried to waggle a hand at Chip but wasn’t totally
successful.
“I know the feeling,”
Chip sniped back.
“Sorry.”
They were both quiet for
a few minutes before Chip decided that silence was a major contributor to the
current problem and something needed to
change. Now. “What the heck happened?” he asked softly.
There was silence for so
long from the other bed that Chip thought Lee wasn’t going to
answer. Or hadn’t heard. Or had gone back to sleep.
“Veterans Day,” came so
softly that Chip almost didn’t hear. “Yeager,” Lee
continued. “Kelly. Majors. Camden. The
men on the Angler.” There was another, longer pause. “My
dad.” Lee made the supreme effort to roll on his side facing
Chip. “I’m not sure. It all started to build for some
reason and I couldn’t…” he hesitated. “I just kept seeing their
faces. Them and so many more…” He took a deep breath and
looked directly into Chip’s eyes. “Sorry.”
Forty-nine platitudes
ran swiftly through Chip’s mind. “500 pound, twenty-armed monster,
huh?” he said instead with a quirky grin, and from the expression that hit
Lee’s face he knew it had been the exact perfect response. “You
know, the Admiral and Jamie are going to want a better answer than that.”
Lee sent a smirk
back. “Doesn’t mean I have to give them one.”
Chip sent him a
glare. “You are coming with me for Thanksgiving,”
he ordered. “No way am I going to explain this black eye on my
own.” Chip’s expression softened. “But I’m sure we’ll
have time for a stop at Arlington Cemetery on the way.”
Lee sent his friend a
smile and nodded, and both men closed their eyes.
* See
“Storm Front” by R. L. Keller
** See some of my other stories
*** See “For
Every Action” by R. L. Keller
**** Mrs. Will Jamison
used with permission of her creator, Cris Smithsom
+ See
Episode “The Enemies”