The Hand of Wrath, chapter 3 [PG-13, seaQuest, Bridger/Westphalen, WIP]
Chapter three was finished last weekend but I'm just now getting to post it here! (slow, I know!) As before, if you're just getting here, best to read the chapters in order:
index post for all chapters
Chapter 3 ~ Don't Speak
Northern Pacific Ocean, two months later
Nathan sighed and wished for the hundredth time that he could start the day over. It had been one of those days where if something could go wrong, it did. Minor malfunctions had been cropping up almost from the minute he'd stepped onto the bridge. As soon as Hitchcock and her crew fixed one problem, they found themselves facing another. Two bridge officers had failed to report for their shifts, but had tried refusing the medics sent to their quarters to check on them. When finally confronted by Doctor Levin, they finally admitted that they were severely hung over, the result of having snuck a bottle of real Scotch on board from Pearl Harbor.
This left the bridge crew shorthanded when a distress call reached the seaQuest from a homesteading colony that was under attack. The attackers were eventually subdued with surprisingly little trouble, and it was discovered why. The "pirates" were, in fact, a group of half a dozen young men, mostly teenagers, who had decided that attacking the colony was a way to spend a lazy afternoon. Faced with the might of the UEO's flagship, they had immediately surrendered and tried in vain to promise to make amends.
"The youngest of the lot don't look much older than Lucas, Cap," Crocker said in disgust as he climbed out of the launch. "They've not only claimed they were doing it because they were bored, but thought it was funny to be terrorizing those people, to boot. But they don't think it's so funny now, though....they're just beggin' us not to drop 'em off to the MPs once we reach port."
Nathan shook his head in disbelief. "How much damage was there?" He directed this question to Hitchcock, who had just stepped off the ladder behind Crocker.
"Thankfully, not too much. But we may need to stay another day or two to ensure that the structural weakening we found in some of their shelters doesn't worsen." The chief engineer dropped her tool kit at her feet and paused to stretch out the kinks in her fingers. "We may have another option, though." At Nathan's questioning look, Katie went on. "Lieutenant Moore, Ensign Faraday and Seaman Elmlinger have all volunteered to stay behind, do the work and catch up with us. All we'd have to do is leave them a Speeder and they could meet us in Anchorage when they're done."
Nathan nodded. "See to it, Commander."
"Aye, sir." Getting out her PAL, Katie punched in Lieutenant Moore's code and scooped up her tool kit, heading out of the launch bay.
Crocker had disappeared back into the launch to deal with the prisoners. Nathan headed for the Maglev, and keyed on the audio link once he was inside and seated.
"Bridge, there will be a seaSpeeder going out shortly. Once it clears the docking bay, resume course for Anchorage."
"Aye, sir."
Switching the link off, Nathan slumped back into the Maglev's cushions, closing his eyes and silently willing away the headache that was beginning to build. Now let's hope nothing else goes wrong today.
(*)
Down on sea deck, it was business as usual, despite the earlier encounter with the would-be pirates. Kristin and Charli had spent the entire day immersed in the latter's upcoming plans for thesis work.
"I want to see how much calving has happened in the last year on the Makar Glacier." Charli keyed up a series of photos on her console. "This is from the trip to Siberia last year and my group was only there for two weeks. We spent four to five days at each site, but none of the other glaciers showed nearly this much activity. And we only got to see above water, so I'm doubly curious to see what's beneath the surface."
"I'd start with drawing water samples at various depths and running chemical analysis," Kristin suggested. "If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, this pattern of calving and the resulting melt could begin to cause desalinization down the line."
The blonde nodded. "Plus, whatever else may be contained inside the ice could pose any number of potential threats to the ocean's chemistry."
"It is a bit of a pity we're not in Anchorage that long. If we were, you'd be able to take those day trips you were asking about on your first day...." They were both distracted by a shriek from the far side of the deck. A young engineer was staring into the moon pool in horror, her shaking hand pointing down into the water.
Kristin rose to her feet. "What in the...."
"There's blood in the water!"
Without even stopping to think, Kristin ran straight for the moon pool's edge. She leaped over the barrier, plunging into the water. "Get me the dolphin medkit!" she hollered over her shoulder once she surfaced.
She swam out into the center of the moon pool, meeting Darwin halfway. He was moving sluggishly and making keening sounds of distress. Talking softly to him, she encouraged him to swim over to the far side where several other crewmembers were prepping the dolphin stretcher. A second splash got her attention and she looked up to see Charli had jumped in as well, medkit in hand. Charli handed the medkit over to Kristin the moment she was within arm's reach, then motioned to Darwin in a "come here" gesture. "C'mon, Darwin. Come to the stretcher."
Darwin ignored the young intern entirely, sticking by Kristin's side. He refused to even swim towards the stretcher until she nudged him in that direction and, even then, he floated into its confines reluctantly. He was strangely quiet, only reacting when Kristin moved out of his sight range. No amount of rubbing or gentle words from Doctor Levin or the other medics soothed him; he would not be dissuaded, his whistling and keening rising in volume each time he lost sight of Kristin.
"Apparently, he wants no one else today." Kristin handed the open medkit over to Joshua after her third failed attempt at an examination. She rubbed a gentle hand along the dolphin's snout and he grew quiet once more.
Darwin's only physical injury turned out to be a small gash on his tail. With some coaxing from Kristin, he held still long enough for Joshua to treat and bandage it. A little more persuasion via vocoder made the reason for his injury clear: he'd narrowly escaped the clutches of a shark. A nearby pod of other dolphins in the area had responded to his distress whistles and drove the shark back long enough for him to make his way back to the ship.
"Keep an eye on him, Joshua. I want him closely observed for the next twelve hours," Kristin ordered, hoisting herself out of the pool. She removed her shoes, pouring the water out, then stripped off her lab coat and wrung it out as well. Charli waded over and Kristin offered her a hand up. "We've got spare jumpsuits kept in storage for moments like this. It'll do you for the rest of the day."
Charli nodded, taking two towels from the nearby rack. "Does this happen often?" She handed one over to Kristin, kicking off her shoes at the same time.
"Jumping in fully clothed? Not often, but it can happen. Some of my staff keep a change of clothes at their workstations just in case."
After a brief stop in the main storage room, both of them went into unused rooms in medbay to change. The noise from sea deck could faintly be heard echoing through the adjoining doors. Used to it, Kristin mentally tuned it out. Therefore, she was a little surprised by the air of tension she felt when she and Charli stepped down out of medbay. The reason soon became clear when she spotted Nathan and Lucas in a quiet, heated conversation. When Nathan turned suddenly and left Lucas standing there in obvious mid-sentence, the boy stared after him for a moment and then shrugged to himself.
I wonder what that was all about. Lucas was already heading for the door, but having caught sight of her, detoured her way.
"I wouldn't go over there if I were you, Doc." At the raised eyebrow he got in response, Lucas went on, "He's really mad that no one called him to let him know what happened to Darwin."
"Better I talk to him now. If I look like I'm avoiding the issue, it'll just make things worse." Kristin sighed, not looking forward to the upcoming confrontation.
"Well, don't say I didn't warn you." With that parting shot, Lucas left.
"Thank you for your help and quick thinking earlier, Charli." She patted the girl on the shoulder. Charli nodded and returned to her workstation, using one hand to keep wringing her braid out for several minutes. Finally, she gave up and draped the towel around her shoulders.
Meanwhile, Kristin headed back down the steps to the moon pool. Nathan was sitting on the pool's edge talking quietly to Darwin. She intended to wait until they were done, but Darwin whistled when he spotted her, therefore revealing her presence. She could see his anger in the set of his shoulders and in the way he avoided looking at her as he gave Darwin's melon a final rub.
"No more thumping your tail on the surface now," Nathan lectured, getting to his feet. "You're going to undo all of Doctor Levin's first-aid."
"Oh, I'm sure Joshua's bandaging will hold up just fine." They watched the dolphin sink beneath the surface of the water and begin a slow circle around the pool. The silence stretched on for a long moment before she finally broke it.
"Why do I have the feeling you're angry with me?"
"You're damn right I am. I have to find out from Lucas that Darwin had a narrow escape from a shark?? I should have been called down here the moment you noticed blood in the water!"
"I'm sorry, I thought one of the others had already informed you. As for myself, I was a little preoccupied at the time." His forbidding look didn't fade and it began to annoy her. "Do I need to remind you that tending to the patient is the first priority?"
"Do I need to remind you that while Darwin may be a member of this crew, he's still my dolphin?"
Kristin folded her arms. "Your bond with him aside, Nathan, dolphins do not belong to anyone," she said pointedly.
"The fact remains that the only reason he is even on this boat in the first place is because I am. That means wherever I go, he goes."
"That still doesn't make him your property...."
"Bridge to the captain."
Nathan tapped the nearby audio link to switch it on. "Yes?" he snapped.
"You have a call from Captain Tillman at Elmendorf-Richardson. It's been rerouted to the ward room."
"On my way." He tapped the audio link again to turn it off and met Kristin's glare with one of his own. "We'll finish this discussion later, Doctor. But in the future, I need to know what's going on at all times and I'd appreciate it if you didn't question my authority."
"Fine, Captain." She couldn't believe he was being so unreasonable.
Neither of them noticed Charli surreptitiously watching the entire scene. By the time Kristin came back up the steps into the lab and the captain had departed sea deck, Charli was back at work. But a faint smirk played across her face for the rest of the afternoon.
index post for all chapters
Chapter 3 ~ Don't Speak
Northern Pacific Ocean, two months later
Nathan sighed and wished for the hundredth time that he could start the day over. It had been one of those days where if something could go wrong, it did. Minor malfunctions had been cropping up almost from the minute he'd stepped onto the bridge. As soon as Hitchcock and her crew fixed one problem, they found themselves facing another. Two bridge officers had failed to report for their shifts, but had tried refusing the medics sent to their quarters to check on them. When finally confronted by Doctor Levin, they finally admitted that they were severely hung over, the result of having snuck a bottle of real Scotch on board from Pearl Harbor.
This left the bridge crew shorthanded when a distress call reached the seaQuest from a homesteading colony that was under attack. The attackers were eventually subdued with surprisingly little trouble, and it was discovered why. The "pirates" were, in fact, a group of half a dozen young men, mostly teenagers, who had decided that attacking the colony was a way to spend a lazy afternoon. Faced with the might of the UEO's flagship, they had immediately surrendered and tried in vain to promise to make amends.
"The youngest of the lot don't look much older than Lucas, Cap," Crocker said in disgust as he climbed out of the launch. "They've not only claimed they were doing it because they were bored, but thought it was funny to be terrorizing those people, to boot. But they don't think it's so funny now, though....they're just beggin' us not to drop 'em off to the MPs once we reach port."
Nathan shook his head in disbelief. "How much damage was there?" He directed this question to Hitchcock, who had just stepped off the ladder behind Crocker.
"Thankfully, not too much. But we may need to stay another day or two to ensure that the structural weakening we found in some of their shelters doesn't worsen." The chief engineer dropped her tool kit at her feet and paused to stretch out the kinks in her fingers. "We may have another option, though." At Nathan's questioning look, Katie went on. "Lieutenant Moore, Ensign Faraday and Seaman Elmlinger have all volunteered to stay behind, do the work and catch up with us. All we'd have to do is leave them a Speeder and they could meet us in Anchorage when they're done."
Nathan nodded. "See to it, Commander."
"Aye, sir." Getting out her PAL, Katie punched in Lieutenant Moore's code and scooped up her tool kit, heading out of the launch bay.
Crocker had disappeared back into the launch to deal with the prisoners. Nathan headed for the Maglev, and keyed on the audio link once he was inside and seated.
"Bridge, there will be a seaSpeeder going out shortly. Once it clears the docking bay, resume course for Anchorage."
"Aye, sir."
Switching the link off, Nathan slumped back into the Maglev's cushions, closing his eyes and silently willing away the headache that was beginning to build. Now let's hope nothing else goes wrong today.
(*)
Down on sea deck, it was business as usual, despite the earlier encounter with the would-be pirates. Kristin and Charli had spent the entire day immersed in the latter's upcoming plans for thesis work.
"I want to see how much calving has happened in the last year on the Makar Glacier." Charli keyed up a series of photos on her console. "This is from the trip to Siberia last year and my group was only there for two weeks. We spent four to five days at each site, but none of the other glaciers showed nearly this much activity. And we only got to see above water, so I'm doubly curious to see what's beneath the surface."
"I'd start with drawing water samples at various depths and running chemical analysis," Kristin suggested. "If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, this pattern of calving and the resulting melt could begin to cause desalinization down the line."
The blonde nodded. "Plus, whatever else may be contained inside the ice could pose any number of potential threats to the ocean's chemistry."
"It is a bit of a pity we're not in Anchorage that long. If we were, you'd be able to take those day trips you were asking about on your first day...." They were both distracted by a shriek from the far side of the deck. A young engineer was staring into the moon pool in horror, her shaking hand pointing down into the water.
Kristin rose to her feet. "What in the...."
"There's blood in the water!"
Without even stopping to think, Kristin ran straight for the moon pool's edge. She leaped over the barrier, plunging into the water. "Get me the dolphin medkit!" she hollered over her shoulder once she surfaced.
She swam out into the center of the moon pool, meeting Darwin halfway. He was moving sluggishly and making keening sounds of distress. Talking softly to him, she encouraged him to swim over to the far side where several other crewmembers were prepping the dolphin stretcher. A second splash got her attention and she looked up to see Charli had jumped in as well, medkit in hand. Charli handed the medkit over to Kristin the moment she was within arm's reach, then motioned to Darwin in a "come here" gesture. "C'mon, Darwin. Come to the stretcher."
Darwin ignored the young intern entirely, sticking by Kristin's side. He refused to even swim towards the stretcher until she nudged him in that direction and, even then, he floated into its confines reluctantly. He was strangely quiet, only reacting when Kristin moved out of his sight range. No amount of rubbing or gentle words from Doctor Levin or the other medics soothed him; he would not be dissuaded, his whistling and keening rising in volume each time he lost sight of Kristin.
"Apparently, he wants no one else today." Kristin handed the open medkit over to Joshua after her third failed attempt at an examination. She rubbed a gentle hand along the dolphin's snout and he grew quiet once more.
Darwin's only physical injury turned out to be a small gash on his tail. With some coaxing from Kristin, he held still long enough for Joshua to treat and bandage it. A little more persuasion via vocoder made the reason for his injury clear: he'd narrowly escaped the clutches of a shark. A nearby pod of other dolphins in the area had responded to his distress whistles and drove the shark back long enough for him to make his way back to the ship.
"Keep an eye on him, Joshua. I want him closely observed for the next twelve hours," Kristin ordered, hoisting herself out of the pool. She removed her shoes, pouring the water out, then stripped off her lab coat and wrung it out as well. Charli waded over and Kristin offered her a hand up. "We've got spare jumpsuits kept in storage for moments like this. It'll do you for the rest of the day."
Charli nodded, taking two towels from the nearby rack. "Does this happen often?" She handed one over to Kristin, kicking off her shoes at the same time.
"Jumping in fully clothed? Not often, but it can happen. Some of my staff keep a change of clothes at their workstations just in case."
After a brief stop in the main storage room, both of them went into unused rooms in medbay to change. The noise from sea deck could faintly be heard echoing through the adjoining doors. Used to it, Kristin mentally tuned it out. Therefore, she was a little surprised by the air of tension she felt when she and Charli stepped down out of medbay. The reason soon became clear when she spotted Nathan and Lucas in a quiet, heated conversation. When Nathan turned suddenly and left Lucas standing there in obvious mid-sentence, the boy stared after him for a moment and then shrugged to himself.
I wonder what that was all about. Lucas was already heading for the door, but having caught sight of her, detoured her way.
"I wouldn't go over there if I were you, Doc." At the raised eyebrow he got in response, Lucas went on, "He's really mad that no one called him to let him know what happened to Darwin."
"Better I talk to him now. If I look like I'm avoiding the issue, it'll just make things worse." Kristin sighed, not looking forward to the upcoming confrontation.
"Well, don't say I didn't warn you." With that parting shot, Lucas left.
"Thank you for your help and quick thinking earlier, Charli." She patted the girl on the shoulder. Charli nodded and returned to her workstation, using one hand to keep wringing her braid out for several minutes. Finally, she gave up and draped the towel around her shoulders.
Meanwhile, Kristin headed back down the steps to the moon pool. Nathan was sitting on the pool's edge talking quietly to Darwin. She intended to wait until they were done, but Darwin whistled when he spotted her, therefore revealing her presence. She could see his anger in the set of his shoulders and in the way he avoided looking at her as he gave Darwin's melon a final rub.
"No more thumping your tail on the surface now," Nathan lectured, getting to his feet. "You're going to undo all of Doctor Levin's first-aid."
"Oh, I'm sure Joshua's bandaging will hold up just fine." They watched the dolphin sink beneath the surface of the water and begin a slow circle around the pool. The silence stretched on for a long moment before she finally broke it.
"Why do I have the feeling you're angry with me?"
"You're damn right I am. I have to find out from Lucas that Darwin had a narrow escape from a shark?? I should have been called down here the moment you noticed blood in the water!"
"I'm sorry, I thought one of the others had already informed you. As for myself, I was a little preoccupied at the time." His forbidding look didn't fade and it began to annoy her. "Do I need to remind you that tending to the patient is the first priority?"
"Do I need to remind you that while Darwin may be a member of this crew, he's still my dolphin?"
Kristin folded her arms. "Your bond with him aside, Nathan, dolphins do not belong to anyone," she said pointedly.
"The fact remains that the only reason he is even on this boat in the first place is because I am. That means wherever I go, he goes."
"That still doesn't make him your property...."
"Bridge to the captain."
Nathan tapped the nearby audio link to switch it on. "Yes?" he snapped.
"You have a call from Captain Tillman at Elmendorf-Richardson. It's been rerouted to the ward room."
"On my way." He tapped the audio link again to turn it off and met Kristin's glare with one of his own. "We'll finish this discussion later, Doctor. But in the future, I need to know what's going on at all times and I'd appreciate it if you didn't question my authority."
"Fine, Captain." She couldn't believe he was being so unreasonable.
Neither of them noticed Charli surreptitiously watching the entire scene. By the time Kristin came back up the steps into the lab and the captain had departed sea deck, Charli was back at work. But a faint smirk played across her face for the rest of the afternoon.