One
Of Our Sensors Is Missing
By
R. L. Keller
Presented
for the Picture Contest “Found”. There
is one tiny grain of truth to this story.
Well, two – the fish described does in fact exist 😊 In 2019, off the coast of Germany, an
underwater data collector disappeared from its moorings, leaving only a broken
cable. The unit had been there for
approximately three years with no problems, monitoring changes in temperature
and salinity in the Baltic Sea, among other items. Theories abounded as to what had happened to
it, but nothing was ever proved that I know of.
Beyond that, this story comes entirely from my very warped brain !! PS – a little poetic license was taken to get
the right landscape I needed for the story 😊
“Houston,
we have a problem,” came softly out of Chip’s mouth before he could stop it. His second most days in Seaview’s Control
Room, Lt. Chris James, couldn’t stop the quick snicker that bubbled out. He quickly grabbed up one of the clipboards
on the chart table and turned his back to the XO. A small smile pointed at the lieutenant’s
back was hidden by the time Chip grabbed the mic. “Admiral Nelson to the Conn,” he said in his
usual calm, carefully correct, ‘XO on Duty’ voice. He didn’t bother with a call to Seaview’s
Skipper, off on one of his casual ‘walkaboats’ his crew was so used to. Lee would have heard the all-boat call and,
depending on what each man was at present in the middle of, might beat Nelson
to the Conn.
It ended
up being a tie; Lee slipped through the aft hatch just as Nelson came down the
spiral stairs. Chip pointed both toward
Seaview’s front windows, joining them there as Nelson started to sputter. “Where the blazes is my data collector?”
Chip and
Lee exchanged glances before Lee answered carefully. “Not where it’s supposed to be, sir.” He got the expected glare from Nelson but
kept a benign expression on his own face.
A year
ago, Nelson and several of the marine biologists working at NIMR had put their
heads together and developed a piece of equipment for monitoring ocean
variables: temperature, salinity, other factors. The unit wasn’t self-sufficient,
however. It had been placed just over a
mile out to sea from NIMR, at a depth of eighty-five feet. A cable from NIMR supplied it with power, as
well as transmitting its data back to the Institute.
Seaview
had been off the central coast of California on a project for the Admiral,
studying a little-known fish, Macropinna microstoma, or ‘Barreleye’. Found in deep water, it was unique in that
the front and top of its head were translucent, filled with a jelly-like,
mostly clear, substance in which its eyes could rotate. When feeding, the fish would mostly remain still
in a horizontal position with its green eyes pointed up, on the lookout for its
favorite food, small jellyfish. When it
found its prey, the eyes would rotate forward so that it could see what it was
trying to catch. What looked like eyes,
just above its small mouth, were actually olfactory organs. Seaview had been lucky in that they’d been
able to catch one of the small fish, this one about five inches long. Nelson had been able to keep it in one of his
lab aquariums and study it for several hours before it eventually died, not
able to sustain life without the pressures it was used to in its normal
habitat, 2000 to 3000 feet deep. While
not liking that the fish could not survive, Nelson had been ecstatic that he’d
managed even those few hours of close observation. He had been pondering his next move – try to
study them more in the open ocean using FS1, which is how they were able to
capture this one using a collection unit attached to one of the Flying Sub’s
arms – or go on to another of several projects that he always had in progress at
any given time, when they’d received the report from NIMR that the data station
had stopped transmitting sometime during the night. The unit transmitted a report at eight-hour
intervals, and no one had noticed that it wasn’t working until it missed two reports
in a row.
A cross
between growl and snort erupted from Nelson as he turned back to the
window. “Well, it didn’t just walk away
on its own,” was muttered. “In the first
place, it was far too heavy.”
“Yes,
sir,” Lee agreed, sharing a quick look with Chip. There had been issues loading the unit, about
eight feet long, five feet wide, and five feet high, into Seaview’s Missile
Room in the first place. And even with
the Diving Bell’s specially built, heavy-duty cable they used to pick up the
unit and lower it the barely fifteen feet below where Seaview tried to hold
steady until divers could secure it in place, there had been a few moments when
everyone pretty much held their breath that it didn’t get damaged. Everyone had heaved a huge sigh of relief,
especially Lee and Chip who had been supervising the operation, when divers
hooked up the cable that had already been put in place, and the unit came to
life. Now, all that could be seen was
the ragged edges of that same cable, appearing to have been ripped off by
‘something’. “No whale did that kind of
damage,” Lee added. “Even if they had
managed to bump it while feeding, where is it now?”
“Nowhere
within sonar range,” Chip added. “I had
Kowalski scan for it while I was waiting for you.”
“Harrumph,”
Nelson growled.
“Yes,
sir,” Lee said, and earned another glare.
“A
construction barge could have lifted it,” Chip took a turn. That’s what they’d considered using to set it
but Nelson had insisted that he wanted Seaview to handle it, out of sight from
anyone who might be watching.
“Perhaps
another sub, maybe attaching a cable to it somehow and dragging it off?” it was
Lee’s turn to postulate.
“Who’s?” Nelson’s voice had lost none of its
indignation at the, to him, atrocity.
“Russia? China?
North Korea? The People’s
Republic? Even otherwise ‘friendly’
nations might want to bypass standard negotiations and simply steal the
technology. That would explain the
shattered cable. Whoever took it didn’t
take the time to disconnect it.”
“Harrumph,”
was once more growled. This time Lee
kept silent.
“It would
have taken time for a surface barge to locate it and bring it up,” it was
Chip’s turn to take a stab at offering suggestions to an irate Admiral. “I’ll have Sparks start calling around to see
if the Coast Guard has reported any activity in the area, or even any Navy
vessels out of San Diego.” He headed for
the Radio Shack on the portside aft section of the Conn.
“In the
meantime I’ll send out a work party to clean up and cap the cable,” Lee told
his boss. “No sense allowing the
corrosion that’s certainly happening, with the ragged end in that condition, to
cause any pollution problems or corrode any more of the remaining cable.” That got a grunt and a nod, and Lee headed to
the Missile Room after a quick call to have COB Sharkey and Seaview’s MAA,
Chief Hauck, meet him there. Hauck,
along with Lee and a couple of Security personnel, also went out on the dive. They used the time to scout the area looking
for any clues as to who, or what, made off with the data station. They didn’t find any drag marks, nor were
they expecting any as currents in the area would quickly wipe them off the
ocean floor. That’s a good part of why they
had so much trouble putting it there in the first place. But also why Nelson wanted it there, because
the currents kept the unit reading ‘new’ water, not merely the same calmer
water over and over. Still, they did
keep their eyes peeled for any sign of disturbance or debris that could give
them a lead as to what happened. Chief
Hauck, once everyone was back in, suggested sending out another team to follow
the cable back toward the coast as perhaps the cable had been found and
followed out to the unit. Lee thought
that unlikely as, except for the last dozen yards or so, the cable had been
carefully buried underground. But at
this point they needed to check every conceivable idea so he authorized the
dive.
He
reported both teams’ lack of success as everyone met for dinner. Even this close to home, Nelson had ordered
Seaview to stay in the area until further notice. “Did Sparks come up with any intel?” Lee
asked Chip. Between the dive, and
bouncing half a dozen other ideas off Chief’s Sharkey and Hauck, he hadn’t made
it back to the Conn before it was time to head for the Wardroom.
“Not so
far,” the blond told him as well as Nelson.
“He’s got Dewey,” he referenced NIMR’s Head of Security, Dewey Caudill,
“checking out a few tips.”
Lee
nodded. “If there’s even a hint of
anything going on Dewey, or one of his ‘friends’, will sniff it out.” It was an ongoing comment around NIMR that
Dewey had friends everywhere.
They had come in handy on multiple occasions.*
“Slim
pickings tonight,” Cookie told Seaview’s ruling triumvirate apologetically from
the passageway into the galley. “Was
sort of planning on being back in port so I didn’t have much defrosted.”
Nelson had
apparently started to calm down. “Looks
just fine,” the OOM told him, glancing across the available items. Oven-baked steak fries sat next to thick
slices of turkey and ham, probably set aside from previous meals as sandwich
fixings but now heated through. Canned
peas and carrots in a light butter sauce accompanied them along with a simple
tossed salad, and cookies for dessert.
“I think we’ll head for port in the morning. I don’t see any need to hang around here any
longer unless something changes.”
Cookie
nodded. “I’ll start the pancake batter
before I crash this evening,” and he headed back into his domain. The others shared a quick grin and dished up
their meal.
They spent
the next half hour both eating and tossing out ideas for what had happened to
the data station. Lee felt that the
shredded end of the cable indicated an accident of some sort. Nelson countered that with the thought that
someone had tried to make it look like an accident; that they’d cut the
cable a bit back from the connection and then shredded the end they left. Lee had to agree that that was also a
completely plausible action. But he
couldn’t quite understand why anyone would go to that much trouble for a piece
of machinery designed wholly for monitoring ocean characteristics.
“Maybe
they didn’t know that,” Chip offered.
“Maybe someone thought that it was some new device for monitoring ship
movements, especially submarines. We all
know that we occasionally get non-friendly subs all along America’s
coastlines.”
“They’re
going to get a big surprise when they hook it up to a power source,” Nelson
told the other two, and all three grinned softly.
“Which
means, it’s also probably long gone,” Lee added with a sigh.
Nelson
nodded. “Nearly $400,000 down the
tubes. Not to mention all the man-hours
designing and building it.”
“Seriously
doubt Angie could claim it as an insurance loss,” Chip offered, and got an
elbow in his ribs for being so glib.
Nelson, however, chuckled slightly and Chip sent Lee a quick wink.
“Now what
have they done?” Seaview’s CMO muttered as he just then walked in the door.
“Reminding
me not to be such a grouch,” Nelson answered before he looked up. When he caught the fact that both Lee and
Chip were staring at the doctor he finally turned. “Will, are you okay?”
“Jamie?”
Lee added, when Will didn’t immediately answer.
Dr. Will
Jamison waggled a hand briefly, glanced at the available food items, and merely
grabbed a cup of coffee before sitting down next to the Admiral. “Got a
headache this afternoon,” he finally answered, then noticed Cookie looking at
him from the pass-through into the Galley.
“Not really hungry tonight,” he told the occasionally temperamental but
very conscientious chef – especially when it came to his officers.
“No, no,
Jamie,” Chip jumped in. “You can’t use
that excuse for not eating. Strictly
Lee’s prerogative,” for which he got another elbow in his ribs, albeit with
lowered eyes pointed Will’s direction.
“Beef
barley soup in the freezer,” Cookie offered, making all four officers
grin. Cookie kept it on hand after
discovering early on that it was one of the few things an under-the-weather
Skipper would agree to eat.”**
Will’s
expression, however, faded quickly.
“Don’t bother. I think I heard
that we’ll be home tomorrow morning?” He
looked at Nelson.
“Harrumph,”
Nelson muttered, but it was fairly soft.
“There seems to be no reason to stay here. I was just about to order Seaview spend the
night doing a gradually expanding spiral search when you walked in.”
“I’ll plot
it as soon as I get back to the Conn, sir.” Chip told him, and started eating a
little faster.
“You’ll
plot it?” Lee challenged. “You usually
make Chris do it.”
“I left
Sparks with the watch. You grabbing
Chief Hauck for the dive postponed a meeting he and Chris had arranged.” His expression turned a bit snide. “You really should keep better track of your
boat, Commander.”
As Lee
drew himself up and started to open his mouth to blast his insolent XO,
Nelson’s firm “Gentlemen!” had both younger men giving him, and each other, a
quick grin.
It even
made Will chuckle, but ever so briefly.
“Jamie,” Lee told him, “you really do look like crap.”
“Good,”
Will told him with a small glare, before it softened into a frown. “At least it matches how I feel.” That got nods from Lee and Nelson, and a
quick snicker from Chip.
“Frank
still on duty?” Lee asked very carefully.
Will’s head corpsman usually took the day shift, when most of the
activity aboard the sub was taking place.
Not that John, the other one, was in any way a slouch!
Will was
just about to slam his Skipper – and very worst patient – with any
number of insults, but he caught the expectant looks sent his way from both
Chip and Nelson and surrendered. Leaving
his coffee only half-finished, he got up and stalked grudgingly out of the
Wardroom.
“Harrumph,”
Nelson once more muttered, but very softly.
“I’ll
check, but a bit later,” Lee told him.
“Coward,”
Chip mumbled around a bite of food, and returned one of the elbows.
“Yes,
sir,” Lee agreed with a slightly bashful look.
It deepened when Nelson chuckled.
It was
nearly two hours before Lee checked, poking his head carefully through Jamie’s
office door as his first stop on his evening amble through the boat. He’d stayed in the Conn with Chip until Lt.
O’Brien showed up to take over shortly before 2000 hours and had the spiral
course Chip had plotted explained to him.
Then Chip headed to his cabin to work on his reports and Lee headed for
what was his usual evening ‘walkaboat’.
John was sitting in Will’s chair behind the desk and immediately started
to rise. Sick Bay was never one
of the Skipper’s routine stops unless a crewman was incarcerated there. But Lee waved him back down with a quick
flick of his hand and a sheepish grin.
“Was just checking on how Jamie’s feeling,” he told the medic.
“Lousy,
sir,” John told him. “Frank and I both
think that he’s coming down with something – maybe the flu. He won’t admit it, of course. But we did get him to head for his cabin
earlier than usual.”
Lee
nodded. While the doctor was harder to
slow down than even Lee, and that was saying a lot, Will would never
admit it. But if he was getting the flu,
he’d at least try to not give it to anyone else if he could help it. Lee nodded again and continued his check to
make sure his ‘Gray Lady’ was set for the night.
* * * *
A call
came in from Dewey just as Lee, Chip, and Nelson were about to sit down for the
promised breakfast pancakes and Lee had it piped down to the Wardroom, putting
it on speaker so that the other two could hear it as well. “Not a lot of verifiable intel,” Dewey
started, “but there seems to be a bit of chatter about ‘something’ coming into
the marina yesterday all covered up. But
not on a construction barge; it was on the rear deck of an old fishing
trawler. However, there’s also a bit of
chatter about a construction barge being nearby, but headed from San Diego to
San Francisco.”
“Is the
trawler still in the marina?” Lee asked.
“Unclear,”
Dewey told him apologetically. “Some
reports have it coming in, others say that it started to, but rather abruptly turned
north. I wasn’t able to reach Mr.
Baxtrum,” he referenced the Harbormaster at Santa Barbara’s main marina, “last
night. Wanted to update you before I
left the office for a bit of legwork.”
All three officers smiled. Dewey
was nothing if not diligent.
“Understood,”
Lee answered. “We’re just finishing a
thorough search of the area, then we’ll come into port. Should be home in about two hours.”
“Hope to
have more for you by then,” and they broke the connection.
“Curiouser
and curiouser,” Lee grumbled as he sat back down. “But that might mean that it’s something
local as opposed to a foreign power.”
“Saw us
place it and it took this long to figure out how to steal it?” Chip asked.
“But that
was the whole point of using Seaview,” Nelson told him. “I know that it was a pain but it kept anyone
from seeing us, and it.”
“True,”
Chip agreed.
“Or
somebody with a big mouth mentioned it to someone he – or she – shouldn’t
have,” Lee offered.
“While we
weren’t overly specific,” Nelson admitted, “we didn’t really keep the project a
secret.”
“But,” Lee
told him, “if it was someone from NIMR they would have known that it was merely
for scientific research.”
“Unless,”
Chip pointed his fork somewhat in Lee’s direction, “someone thought that was a
cover story. We still do a fair amount
of work for the Navy.”
“Humm,”
came from both Lee and Nelson, and the rest of the meal was eaten in silence as
each pondered the multitude of possibilities.
Dewey met
them at the dock when they got home just after 1000 hours. Lee saw him out the front windows as Chip
settled Seaview against her upper berth and he, Chip, and Nelson all gathered
around the table in the Nose after closing the crash doors, leaving Chris James
to do the usual routines. Except, this
time no Leave was granted; all crewmen were told to hang close to their phones
until further notice, just in case. That
included the two corpsmen, who first escorted a grumpy but obviously sick CMO
to Med Bay before they came back to do a thorough inventory of supplies, and
restock Sick Bay. Actually, there wasn’t
much needed as it had been a quiet cruise.
But neither was willing to irritate Will more than he already was, and
made very sure that everything they were responsible for was ship-shape! Both Lee and Chip had grinned when Frank
reported their plans just before Seaview docked. Lee did raise an eyebrow, and Frank easily
understood the question. “No better,
Skipper, but no worse, either. Mrs.
Jamison has already been advised.”
“In that
case, Jamie doesn’t stand a chance,” Chip said, making notes on one of the
clipboards. All three grinned and Frank
headed aft, back to Sick Bay.
“Some
news,” Dewey started as everyone took a seat at the table. “Mr. Baxtrum confirmed that the trawler did
radio for permission to dock but almost immediately canceled the request. He’s going to check with the owners of some
of the boats moored furthest out, to see if anyone noticed anything more
specific.” The others nodded. “And a buddy in San Francisco is checking to
see if he can locate the barge.” The
others smiled softly as, once more, Dewey utilized his legion of friends. “It probably hasn’t made it that far yet,” he
added. “They don’t travel that
fast. But Lane will keep his nose on the
trail.” That got more nods.
“Any of
your crew have even a hint of someone at NIMR passing on intel about the
project?” Lee asked. Normally he
wouldn’t have given that thought the light of day, but they were all too
familiar with a recent incident aided and abetted by two members of NIMR’s
staff.”***
“First
thing I mentioned when I alerted everyone to the problem,” Dewey assured
him. “Nothing so far.”
“Good,”
from Chip didn’t quite cover Nelson’s growl of discontent and remembrance.
“Yes,
sirs,” Dewey acknowledged both.
“Anybody
checking San Diego for the barge’s origin?” Lee asked.
Dewey
hesitated with a slight cringe. “Working
on it,” he answered. “But my main
contact is down with the flu so I’m scrambling a bit to find a reliable – and
discrete – replacement.”
“What is
it suddenly with the flu?” Chip grumbled.
At Dewey’s upraised eyebrow he qualified. “Doc.”
“Oh, oh,”
Dewey said softly, and got answering nods from the others.
“Guess
that’s all we can do right now,” Nelson told the group. “Dewey, stop by my office in an hour or
so. I might can give you a few names to
check with for intel from the San Diego area.”
“Yes,
sir,” Dewey acknowledged as both Lee and Chip grinned softly. NIMR’s Security Head wasn’t the only one with
friends in interesting places.
* * * *
Not much
happened the rest of the day. Both Lee
and Chip spent most of the time unburying their desks. Even though Seaview had only been out just
over a week, files and folders seemed to breed like rabbits. While most needed nothing more than initials
to indicate that they’d been seen, neither man dared not read every one in case
something came up later that they should have known about. Dewey did report that Baxtrum had gotten back
to him; he had a little better description of the trawler but it didn’t help
much. No one Baxtrum had talked to could
remember the name, usually very visibly written on the stern panel. Without that there was little Dewey’s friend
could do about finding it; there were just too many places where it could have
pulled in.
Just after
1800 hours Chip tapped on Lee’s open office door, catching his friend with his
chair turned toward the window, staring out.
“Know the feeling,” he said as Lee glanced his way. “Hard to concentrate. Finally realized that I had no idea what the
last report I read was about.”
“Unfortunately,
I resemble that remark,” Lee admitted.
“What say
we hit BZ’s for a bite and a beer.” He
sent Lee a quirky grin. “It will either
stimulate our brains…”
“Or
totally fry them,” Lee grumbled.
“Right
now, I think the latter might be the better option. Let us get a fresh start in the morning.”
Lee
nodded. “Good point.” Closing a couple folders, he stacked them in
the center of his desk, stood, grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair,
and followed Chip toward the front door of NIMR’s Admin. Building. Nelson was just leaving his own office,
looking like he was in the mood to eat nails, but he managed half a smile when
he saw them. Lee invited him to join
them, not really expecting an affirmative.
When Nelson actually agreed both Lee and Chip quickly buried their
surprise.
They had
just finished what was Lee and Chip’s favorite pizza, double meat pepperoni,
sausage, and green pepper, supplemented by a few french fries off of Nelson’s
roast beef sandwich plate that he didn’t want, and had split the last of the
pitcher of beer between their three glasses when Nelson’s cell phone went
off. He frowned, but scrambled to get it
to his ear when he glanced at the screen.
“Dewey,” he said simply, and instantly had Lee and Chip’s full attention. He almost smiled as he concentrated on what
his Head of Security was telling him, realizing just how badly Lee was having
to struggle not to grab the phone out of Nelson’s hand; being in a
public place meant that he couldn’t put the phone on speaker. Knowing Lee’s impatience, he was quick to
share once the call ended. “Dewey sent a
couple men on a road trip, headed north, checking every place there was a dock
where the trawler might have stopped.
Well, the barge as well, but he was concentrating on what we think had
the data station aboard.”
“They
found it.” Lee couldn’t restrain himself.
Chip was just as tense, but remained silent.
“Actually,
they lost it.” Something came out of
Lee’s mouth that the other two chose to ignore.
“They collected reports of occasional sightings until they hit
Arguello. Going all the way up to the
Vandenburg Air Force Base there were no more reports so they backtracked. Along the coastline south of the Base there’s
a section of cliffs, and someone told them that there were caves along that
stretch. Mostly small ones, but they
were led to believe that at least a couple were fairly large.”
“Big
enough for the barge?” Lee asked.
“Unclear.”
“Tuck the
trawler in a cave until the heat is off, and bring in something else to take the
data station…wherever,” Chip offered.
“I don’t
remember anything like that on the charts of the area,” Lee said, but then
shrugged. “Not that I remember there
isn’t,” he admitted.
“Mostly,”
Chip added, “we tend to stay away from the area around the Base.” Both Lee and Nelson nodded.
“Alert
Sparks to start a call-up…” Lee started, then looked at Nelson. His boss merely sent him a quick smile and a
nod. “Tide is…” He looked at Chip.
“0115 high
tide,” Chip told him instantly. Nelson’s
grin broadened.
“We sail
no later than 0200 hours,” Lee finished, got nods back, and all three headed
out, the last of their beer forgotten.
* * * *
They
almost made it. A few last minute
glitches had Chip telling Chief Sharkey to keep watch on Lee – in Lee’s hearing
– and have a repair crew standing by to fix any dents Lee’s fist might make in
Seaview’s bulkheads. Lee glared, Chip
shrugged, Sharkey unsuccessfully buried a snicker, but the comment had Chip’s
desired effect and Lee tried a little harder to manage his case of nerves.
Traveling
at Full speed, they slowed to Dead Slow as they reached the area in question
just after 0830. Seaview came to
periscope depth and Lee kept his eyes glued to the periscope, scanning the
coastline as Chip kept the giant submarine as close to the coastline as he
dared, not easy in the rocky shoals they discovered in the area. While Lee missed it, never taking his eyes
away from the eyepiece, Chip noticed Nelson keeping an eye out Seaview’s front
windows and suspected that the OOM was already planning a return visit to the
area during more quiet times.
They
traveled all the way to the south end of Vandenburg without finding anything so
turned and headed back south, still traveling at Dead Slow. Nelson took a turn at scanning the shoreline
but Lee was again at the periscope when he suddenly stiffened. “All stop!” he ordered
“Hold
trim,” Chip added, somewhat unnecessarily, and he caught a quick grin cross
Helmsman Leyton’s face.
“Lee?”
Nelson demanded, walking back from the Nose.
“Can’t
quite make it out,” Lee told him, finally stepping away and letting Nelson look. “There’s ‘something’ in the back of that
large opening on the left. At least,” he
qualified as Nelson stepped up, “I think I see something that’s not rock.”
It took
Nelson a long minute. “Could just be
driftwood that’s piled up over the years,” he admitted. “But it needs to be checked out.”
“Not in
daylight.” Lee glanced at his watch; it
was just after 1430 hours. None of the
officers had even given lunch a thought, although they had managed a decent
breakfast on the cruise up.
“Kowalski,
Riley,” Lee called out, “you getting anything?”
Senior Rating Kowalski was Seaview’s best Sonarman, and Seaman Riley her
second-best Hydrophone operator.
“Nothing
but waves, sir,” Riley answered.
“Too many
rocks, sir,” was ‘Ski’s apologetic response.
“Keep
heading south?” Lee asked Nelson. “We
can keep long-range scans in this area while we backtrack and double-check what
we might have missed earlier. This
close, they can’t move without us knowing.”
“Not to
mention,” Nelson agreed, “that they, if it is them, probably won’t move until
after dark, either.”
“Yes,
sir.” Lee ordered Seaview once more
forward. But finding nothing, they
returned to the previous spot just as the sun was setting.
The three
strategized over a dinner of braised beef chunks in gravy, poured over
noodles. Apparently, Cookie had used the
few hours in port to quickly restock the Galley. They left O’Brien with the Watch and included
Lt. Chris James, Seaview’s Weapons Officer, as well as MAA Chief Hauck and COB
Sharkey. Nelson had come up with a more
detailed chart of that specific area – no one asked where, but Lee and Chip
knew that he often had charts in his office that weren’t in the files in the
Conn. And, he’d had time to grab more
after they got the call from Dewey. But
even they weren’t all that helpful.
Lee
proposed a scouting mission after dark using FS1. “No periscope,” Chip pointed out the
obvious. “And she doesn’t exactly blend
in,” he added, referring to her bright yellow color.
“And if
she’s spotted,” Nelson added, “the people who took the data station will know
that we’re on to them.”
“Suggestions?”
Lee asked, acknowledging the problems with his plan.
“Maybe,”
Chief Hauck offered, “we don’t come by sea.”
“Huh?”
Sharkey didn’t quite get cut off, and ended up the subject of several
smiles.
Hauck
quickly continued; he’d just as soon not get on the COB’s bad side, even if it
wasn’t technically his fault. “From the
maps, there’s at least a primary road that runs along close to the top of the
cliffs. If we drop a team off up there
they’d have a better chance of staying undetected and searching for access down
to the cave while Seaview stays here and guards the entrance.”
Nelson
glanced around the group. “Objections?”
“Not an
objection, sir, but how do we reach that road?” Lee asked. “It would take too long to drive up from
Santa Barbara.”
“There
must be somewhere to rent a car at Arguello,” Chip offered. “FS1 to there shouldn’t raise any red
flags.” He shrugged. “Well,” he amended, “not too many anyway.”
“We land,
tell whoever we run into that FS1 had to land; mechanical problems. We leave one man there, and rent a car to get
the rest of us home. Except, once out of
town headed south, we switch and head north.”
“Weapons?”
Chris asked. He was a bit intimidated by
being included in this meeting. Even
though he was Weapons Officer he still mostly followed orders. Although, he was slowly getting better about
making suggestions to Chief Hauck.
“Oh,”
Nelson sent him a smile, “I rather suspect that we can scrounge a few backpacks
that will have something in them other than clothes.” Both Chris and Hauck nodded.
“You keep
saying ‘we’, sir,” Lee spoke carefully.
It still earned him a glare from Nelson.
“They
stole my data collector,” was all that came out of Nelson’s mouth but he
got instant nods back, Lee’s with an almost shy look.
* * * *
The plan
didn’t work too badly. Everyone stayed
in uniform so that no one questioned their cover story. The biggest discussion was over who was
going. Nelson, Lee – because very few
missions were allowed to go without him, Chief Sharkey, to stay with FS1 – he
wasn’t overly happy with that arrangement but at least he wasn’t left aboard
Seaview. Chief Hauck volunteered himself
and Jackson, one of his best men. And
Chip volunteered Seamen Kowalski and Patterson, two of Seaview’s strongest
fighters. Lee had no issues with either,
but Chip got a glare when the blond stated his biggest reason: Kowalski had
medic training and could take a proper EMK, an emergency medical kit. Neither of Seaview’s two corpsmen, other than
having diving skills, were military-trained.
Lee’s glare softened as Nelson chuckled softly and sent his XO a nod,
and everyone scattered to get what they needed.
Once on
the ground at Arguello, Hauck and Kowalski were sent to arrange for a vehicle;
one large enough to hold the six men comfortably, and they got lucky with a
9-passenger van. Sharkey petitioned to
go along since there would be room for him, but Nelson was adamant that someone
be left with FS1 who could fly her in case she was quickly needed. While that would screw up the cover story
that she was malfunctioning, by that time no one really cared what the locals
would think.
As men and
backpacks were transferred to the van, Lee sent the COB a glance. “Might be a good idea if you hang close to
the radio, Chief.” He sighed heavily,
but mostly for effect because he wanted the COB to pay attention. He knew that the loquacious man could all too
easily get sidetracked by curious locals.
“We don’t know what we’re walking into and we might need you rather
quickly.”
“Yes,
sir,” Sharkey answered. “Think I’ll
close the crash shield so no one can look inside, and make sure all the hatches
are locked.”
“Sounds
perfect,” Lee agreed. “Sorry that you’ll
be a bit bored, but you were the best person to leave since you’re so familiar
with her.” He reached out and gave FS1’s
side a soft pat.
“Brought a
couple magazines I haven’t gotten around to reading yet, Skipper,” was said a
bit bashfully, but Sharkey had puffed up at Lee’s praise.
“Good
man.” Lee gave Sharkey’s shoulder a
quick pat and headed for the van. He
didn’t turn around, but figured that the COB had puffed up again when he
noticed Nelson have to quickly bury a grin.
His own shoulder received a soft backhand as he slid in next to the
Admiral.
“I
sometimes forget to tell you, Lee,” Nelson said softly, “what a fine job you do
managing your crew.” He barely got it
out without laughing out loud. Lee
merely nodded with a sheepish grin.
Sharkey was a good man, and a great COB.
He just had his own ways of doing things that occasionally drove those
around him up the proverbial wall!
The drive
to where they needed to be took about an hour, what with having to
backtrack. Lee drove and Nelson
navigated. Hauck and Kowalski sat in the
second row of seats with Patterson and Jackson in the third. Four backpacks loaded with an assortment of
weapons, and one with everything from the EMK, were tucked just inside the rear
doors. Nelson carried a small tracking
unit so that Sparks could follow their progress and guide them to just above
the suspect cave.
Then
things got a little more complicated.
There was absolutely no way down, without rappelling, near where they
wanted to descend. Now nearly 0100 hours
and fully dark they relied on Chip, having spent the last hours of daylight
scanning the cliff face, to point them to a trail about half a mile further
north that he thought would take them down to the water’s edge. He also reported seeing possible movement at
the far back of the cave but was unable to identify who – or what – had caused
it. So far, the waters around the area
were remaining quiet but Riley and Rawn were keeping a very close eye and ear
to Seaview’s instrumentation.
The trail
proved challenging, especially in the dark, but everyone made it down with a
minimum of noise. While the tide was
ebbing there still wasn’t easy access to approach the target cave, but they
were able to get to a smaller one that Sparks told them should only be about
thirty yards from the one they wanted.
They waited there, making as little noise as possible and speaking only
in whispers, until the tide was down enough to make the journey across some
very wet and slippery rocks. By then it
was starting to get light; not ideal but there simply hadn’t been a choice. Everyone strapped on sidearms and Hauck, Jackson,
Patterson, and Kowalski carried small rifle-like weapons that fired
tranquilizer darts. All of the
backpacks, including Kowalski’s first aid pack, were left in the small cave.
Seaview
still reported no other craft in the water and, now that it was getting light,
Chip could also report no one seemed to be up above on the cliff, either, so at
0600 the men started inching their way carefully toward the cave. The tide had receded enough that in spots
there was a bit of sandy, although mostly rocky, beach. But the closer they got to the cave, that
turned into more rocks and less sand.
Lee insisted that Hauck and Jackson go first, then he and Nelson, with
Patterson and Kowalski bringing up the rear.
They didn’t all move at the same time; the two in front would go first
over a section, and then carefully watch and listen while the other four moved
up so that no sounds they made could possibly cover ones from inside the
cave. The six were extremely exposed as
they made their way across the gap.
There was
mostly silence from within the cave when all six men had made it safely to the
edge of the entrance. Every so often
they could detect a small sound, almost like a snore. “All this work for a sea lion?” Kowalski
muttered darkly. Lee didn’t quite get a grin
buried but Nelson’s glare made it instantly disappear.
“That’s no
sea lion,” the OOM all but growled while still whispering. “If it was, Chip would have reported seeing
them go in and out during the time he’s been monitoring the area.”
“Yes,
sir,” ‘Ski told him, thoroughly chastised.
Lee sent him a nod and got one in return.
Ever so
slowly, first Hauck and then Jackson crept forward. Lee almost expected Nelson to push past, now
that they were this close. But Nelson
held his place – barely, apparently, from his expression – until both men had
disappeared from view into the cave opening before the others started
forward. They hadn’t quite made it
around the last rocks when there was a shout, and the sound of one of the dart
rifles going off. Everyone instantly
scrambled to get inside. There, they
could only stop and stare. The trawler
was now in view, tucked as far back into the cave as possible, something large
on the aft deck heavily tarped. Also on
the deck were two men laying on top of sleeping bags. One was a bit sprawled, probably because of
the dart sticking out of his left shoulder.
The other one had apparently slept through the bit of commotion as he
was quietly snoring away. Although, as
the men looked further, an empty vodka bottle lying next to him might have had
something to do with it.
Nelson was
outraged. “A couple of bums stole my
data station?” he started yelling. Lee
saw both Hauck and Jackson have to turn their backs, unable to bury grins that
fast. Patterson and Kowalski, more used
to Nelson’s outbursts in the Conn on occasion, did a better job of controlling
their expressions.
“So it
would seem, sir,” Lee managed to get out fairly normally. He figured that his boss still heard
something of the humor Lee was trying to control as Nelson sent him a nasty
glare. But then all six got busy
searching the boat, as well as the rest of the cave, for any bits of intel they
could come up with.
Lee and
Kowalski started on the two men, searching for I.D. and then tying them
up. Patterson came up with a roll of
duct tape and Lee put a piece of it across the darted man’s mouth after using
more of it to bind his arms and legs.
The still sleeping man was also bound, but ‘Ski wouldn’t let Lee use
tape on his mouth. He made sure that the
man was laid on his side, braced so that he couldn’t roll just in case that, if
and when he did wake up, he vomited from the excess alcohol. Not that ‘Ski particularly cared but he did
know that his CO didn’t like to waste a life unnecessarily. Lee sent him a quick nod before continuing to
search.
They
discovered that the boat belonged to the darted man. Once he woke up from the dart they tried
questioning him but he wouldn’t say a word.
Something had him more scared than he was of them, and Lee finally left
him alone. The Coast Guard was notified
after Chip still reported no other vessels in the area. Apparently, the trawler was to stay put until
further orders. Once Admiral Nelson
explained what had happened, the Coast Guard took possession of the two men,
and further reports went out to try and locate the barge. The CGIS Special Agent that Nelson spoke to
needed some convincing that the data collector wasn’t newly designed spy
equipment, but grudgingly admitted that could be the reason someone had stolen
it and hired these two apparent bozos to hide it until given further
instructions. Two Coast Guard sailors were
assigned to pilot the trawler back to NIMR, and Nelson assigned Hauck and
Patterson to accompany them. Normally
NIMR got along quite well with CG personnel; today, Nelson wasn’t in a
particularly amiable mood so everyone made the best of it that they could.
Sharkey
was called to bring FS1 down to pick up the remaining four men, but Lee
reminded Nelson that there were packs at the other cave. He and Kowalski headed back across the rocks
while Nelson and Jackson gathered up all the armaments and headed back to
Seaview. Sharkey would make a second
trip for them once Nelson could get back to better communications with
Seaview’s equipment as opposed to using the walkie-talkies they’d brought with
them, or having messages transferred through the Coast Guard cutter’s
radio. He’d also, on the return trip,
drop someone off where they’d left the van, so that it could be returned, and
pick that person up later. Lee made a
quick, slightly irreverent comment to ‘Ski about being glad that his return to
Seaview was going to be slightly delayed, and hoped that Chip had some decent
earplugs; that things were no doubt going to get loud!
“Maybe
he’ll go to his cabin first,” the senior rating, comfortable around his CO and
especially as they were now alone, quipped back.
Lee
grinned. “One can hope,” and the pair
started across the rocks back to the smaller cave.
They were
making fairly good progress as the tide was now fully out but there were still
a couple bad spots. They’d just hit one
of the last when they both turned at the sound of the trawler’s engines turning
over and watched as the boat was eased out of the cave, made a bit more
difficult at low tide than it would have been at high. Kowalski questioned about that; why they
hadn’t waited a little longer. Lee was
just starting to remind the seaman that right this moment nobody wanted to tick
off Nelson more than he already was by unnecessary delays when his foot slipped
off a rock and he tumbled headlong into the rest of the ones piled around.
“Skipper!”
Kowalski shouted, totally drowned out by the trawler’s large diesel
engines. He got to his CO as quickly as
he could; he had to be careful that he didn’t fall as well. Lee was breathing but wasn’t conscious. Ski didn’t want to move him but where Lee had
fallen between several boulders, the tide was bringing water dangerously close
to his face. In fact, before ‘Ski could
reach him most of Lee’s head ended up under water and ‘Ski scrambled faster,
reaching him before the next wave did.
Kowalski
quickly looked for blood, or limbs laying in an unnatural position, and heaved
a large sigh of relief when he found neither.
He had a feeling that Lee had inhaled at least a little water before
‘Ski could get to him because Lee’s breathing wasn’t perfectly steady. ‘Ski’s immediate need was to get to the radio
he knew was still in one of the packs but he was reluctant to leave Lee laying
where he was. Quickly he ran hands
lightly over as many body parts as he could.
Except for a rapidly expanding lump on the left side of Lee’s head,
everything seemed to be where it was supposed to be. Sending a quick prayer skyward he manhandled
Lee into a position where he could get him into a fireman’s carry, and ever so
cautiously managed the dozen or so feet needed to get them both safely to the
smaller cave. There he propped his still
unconscious CO against some rocks, wanting him to be at least partially sitting
up to facilitate his still erratic breathing, and then scrambled for the
walkie-talkie. Once his hurried message
was relayed, he grabbed the EMK and pulled out the small bottle of oxygen,
clamping the mask over Lee’s nose and mouth.
He kept
total concentration on Lee, his own breathing settling down as Lee’s steadied
as well with the supplemental air, and didn’t look up when he almost instantly
heard FS1 approaching. But he wasn’t all
that surprised when Nelson was the first person to appear. Lee chose that moment to start to regain
consciousness and try to brush away the mask.
‘Ski had to get a bit forceful to keep it in place until he was sure Lee
was awake enough to realize what had happened.
Nelson,
his patience already strained, demanded a better explanation than ‘Ski’s very
short message. Lee finally woke up
enough, his breathing now much easier as well, to help. Jackson showed up right behind Nelson and
‘Ski realized that FS1 hadn’t gotten back to Seaview before his call and had
been diverted his direction. That meant
that the Admiral still had a pretty good head of steam built up and made sure,
by concentrating on a still fuzzy Skipper, that he didn’t end up getting
scalded in the process.
Thankfully
it only took a few more minutes for Lee to feel enough better to seriously
start arguing with Kowalski. Nelson
started to chuckle at his captain’s all-too-familiar battle over anything to do
with his health and Lee sent his boss a quick nod. While it was easily apparent that he was
suffering a strong headache, he easily held a chemical cold pack over the lump
with one hand as Nelson helped him to stand with the other. Jackson and Kowalski quickly gathered all the
backpacks and the four walked over, around the corner north of the cave to
where Sharkey had found a fairly easy spot to ground the small craft, and they
headed for Seaview.
* * * *
Epilog
Two days
later Chip was still teasing Lee about the accident. Nelson was a little surprised that Lee was
allowing it as the two younger men entered Nelson’s office for a scheduled
meeting. He finally realized, when he
sent a puzzled look Lee’s way and Lee winked back, unseen by Chip as he poured
coffee for himself and Lee, that while everything was going on Chip had been
left – again – to man Seaview. Not
really knowing how anything was going until after the fact, and then getting
Kowalski’s slightly frantic call, had no doubt stretched Chip’s nerves to the
limit. This was simply Lee’s way of
letting Chip blow off steam without either getting further upset, and had to
hide a quick smile as Chip handed Lee one mug of coffee and settled into the
other chair with his own.
“Not sure
how much you two have heard about the investigation,” Nelson started.
“Bits and
pieces only,” Lee confirmed. He’d been
instantly checked out by the two corpsmen when he got back to Seaview. But without Jamie as back-up, the doctor
still fighting the flu bug, no one had guts enough to tackle him about
resting. He was still fighting a
headache and Nelson realized that that was probably why Chip was keeping close
track of his CO and best friend.
“That’s
about all there is, really,” Nelson admitted.
“The trawler captain and his buddy have been charged with Grand Theft
but they claim that they were merely hired to transport ‘a piece of equipment’,
nothing more. The construction barge
owner was tracked down at a marina in Santa Cruz. He claims that he was paid to go to a certain
coordinate and retrieve a piece of equipment that had fallen overboard from
another barge. Neither man seems to know
who hired them; all communications were handled by phone, and cash deposits
into their bank accounts. The police are
tempted to believe them.”
“Wasn’t
the barge owner curious about having to work at night?” Lee asked.
“Or why
the unit was attached to a cable,” Chip challenged. “His divers have to have seen it when they
attached their cables to lift it.”
Nelson
shrugged. “Enough money makes some
people blind,” was his simple explanation, and the other two nodded.
“Was the
unit damaged?” was Lee’s next question.
“A few
connections loosened when the cable broke as they lifted it,” Nelson told
him. “Nothing the techs can’t easily
fix.” He sighed. “Then, gentlemen, we get to put it back.”
“Any way
we can camouflage it this time?” Chip asked.
“Maybe throw some seaweed over it?”
Nelson
chuckled. “Actually, that has already
been suggested,” he told them, and the three left that topic for another time
to concentrate on more pressing matters.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
*
See “A Turtle’s Tale” and “Missing” (among others) by R. L. Keller
** See “Cobwebs” by R. L. Keller
*** See “Missing” by R. L. Keller