Chapter 1
Nathan Bridger rubbed his hands together in anticipation of the week ahead. It was truly rare that an assignment was this much of a pleasure for him. The UEO's brand new DMD was operational and seaQuest was going to be there for the grand opening. True there would be the obligate stuffy ceremony and official dinner, but the DMD was a facility well worth the inconvenience.
Press releases reported that the Discovery housed technology which rivaled seaQuest's own. Nathan would have to see that for himself. But he had to admit the non-classified schematics were pretty impressive. To be completely honest, most of his excitement stemmed form the chance to view the first completely hydroponic life support system. Nathan's original vision for seaQuest included a similar system, but after he abandoned the project and retired, the engineers had strayed slightly from the original specs.
As it drew closer to thirteen hundred hours, assorted members of the crew began to trickle into the ward room. Ford, Hitchcock, O'Neill, Ortiz, Westphalen, Crocker, everyone, was on time except for Ben and Lucas. Before Bridger could resummon them over the intercom the door flew open and they stumbled in out of breath.
"I assume there's a good explanation why you're late?" Ford asked. He didn't appear amused in the least, and he focused his stare on Krieg rather than Lucas.
Lucas glanced back at Krieg his eyes were wide as saucers. Ben offered his most genuine phony smile. "Nothing sir, just lost track of time at mess."
Before Ford could cross-examine the late-comers Bridger interjected. "Let's not hold up the meeting any longer. Okay, gentlemen?" It was obvious that Ben and Lucas had been up to something, but it was very unlikely that asking them would produce anything. You just had to wait for the disaster to hit with Kreig sometimes. Besides Nathan had more important things to discuss at the moment.
Lucas and Ben took their seats, across from Ford and Hitchcock, Katie refused to smile back at Ben across the table, and Bridger stood. "As you all know, seaQuest and her crew have all been cordially invited to witness the activation of the Deep Marine Discovery Research Station. We will be arriving in a few hours. I consulted with the Station Leader, Dr. Sandra Lewis today and she requested seaQuest's help for the first two days of our visit. A large number of politicians and corporate backers will be present for the formal dinner and ceremony. To help provide plenty of distractions for their guests, I agreed to host a few guided tours aboard seaQuest," Bridger started.
Crocker frowned. "It is a huge security issue, allowing civilians free run of the ship..."
"It will only be small guided tours. Most of these people are scientists. They will be opening their facilities to us. I just agreed to reciprocate," Bridger answered.
"And who will be handling the tours?" Hitchcock asked.
Nathan smiled and glanced over at Lucas who was doodling on the notepad in front of him. "I think Lucas is our man," he replied.
Lucas hadn't really been paying much attention to the conversation up until that point. He almost missed his chance to say anything. "Woa, but sir, I was looking forward to checking out the Discovery. They have an entire team devoted to mammal engineering and a larger swim-tube set-up than seaQuest. Captain they have three dolphins in residence most of the time, and sometimes even more. Can you imagine the data I could get? I have clearance from Admiral Noyce to try the vocorder on them..." Lucas stopped babbling and shook his head. "It just isn't fair."
"You'll have five full days to tweak your vocorder and examine the Discovery. Besides, aside from Kristen and myself, you're the most knowledgeable about the research currently underway," Bridger admonished.. Lucas mumbled something under his breath but seemed to accept his assignment. Bridger turned to Chief Crocker. "I know you're going to want to up security with civilians traipsing all over the boat, Chief, but any personnel you can spare for the first two days would be appreciated on the Discovery. They're stretched rather thin."
"I see what I can do Captain," Crocker replied. "It won't be much."
"Do what you can." Bridger turned back to the entire assemblage. "Kristen and myself have been asked to attend the upcoming ceremonies as representatives of the Science and Military crew of seaQuest. Due to safety issues, Discovery will be off limits to the rest of the crew until after the main ceremonies. Should something go wrong, and it's unlikely that it will, there is only enough safety equipment for the scheduled guests." Bridger paused.
Lucas piped in. "After what happened to the first DMD, I can understand why they'd be cautious."
"Yeah its not everyday that an American sub "accidentally" blows one of their own research facilities out of the water," Ben said humorlessly.
"The DMD II is completely safe," Bridger replied. "The only sub that's going to be in the area is us. Unless Commander Ford decides to accidentally blow the new Discovery away, it's not likely to happen." Bridger sighed and continued. "SeaQuest will be helping provide a shuttle service between an aircraft carrier, the Savannah, and the DMD. Lieutenant Kreig, I trust you'll work out the pilot rotations. If there aren't any questions, that will be all."
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Aspen Matthews waited nervously in the briefing room for Dr. Lewis to arrive. She straightened her blue dress and recrossed her legs. Aspen wasn't alone in her nerves. All the research staff were gathered for their first real staff meeting. Time to meet the boss. Finally, only fifteen minutes late, a haggard looking mousy woman rushed in. She dropped a load of files onto the conference table and pushed her glasses up on her nose. She opened her mouth to speak but stopped and pulled off her rumpled lab jacket first. Aspen sighed internally. At least Dr. Lewis wasn't a perfectionist.
"Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you all had a pleasant trip and are ready to work," Dr. Lewis began. Her voice was firm but even, reflecting the woman within far better than her haphazard appearance. "We have forty-eight hours to get this place up and running like the six billion dollar facility it is. We embarrass ourselves tomorrow and the grants might stop flowing so freely. Most of our major backers will be here, including the Secretary General and Vice President Flint. Making a good impression is very important. SeaQuest is scheduled to arrive a day early to help with preparations and will continue to provide support through the festivities." Dr. Lewis walked around the table handing out manila folders. "Each Division and section leader has certain duties, defined in here. Read over your responsibilities and then meet with your subordinates. If there's something you can't handle, page me." She threw her lab coat back over her arm. "I know this is a terrible way to begin, but I have a long-distance video conference in three minutes. Good Luck people." And Dr. Lewis bustled out of the room..
Aspen frowned and glanced around the room. Everyone looked as shocked by the two minute meeting as herself. She reached down and read her title off the manila folder. Dr. Aspen Matthews, Director of Marine Animal Research. The other division heads and section leaders began to leaf through their own files and some even left. Aspen sighed and started reading. Before she had gotten very far, an older man with a full head of white hair took the seat next to her.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Noah Davis. I think I'm one of your section leaders, Dr. Matthews?" He asked while shaking her hand. "Invertebrate Research?"
"That would be correct. It's nice to meet you." Aspen tapped her finger on the sheaf of papers for a moment and smiled. "What do you think of our assignment for the banquet?"
"I think we got off easy. We're the largest research division and our sole duty is to manage the tours," Dr. Davis said. He smiled and crossed his arms over his chest. "A walk in the park."
"I don't know. There will have to be a lot of coordination. Not to mention that we're responsible for making sure the seaQuest tour is up to par," Aspen added.
"I wonder if Dr. Lewis ran that policy past seaQuest," Dr. Davis chuckled.
"Do you think they'll have a problem with a little supervision?" Aspen asked absently.
"Well it is their boat."
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Lucas bent over the guts of his vocorder and tested circuit after circuit trying to find the faulty connection that had the machine out of commission. "Only when I need you," Lucas muttered at the device. Then Lucas's PAL beeped and he dropped his tester across the board. A loud crack followed by a cloud of smoke and some small flames signaled the end of his need to find a faulty circuit. "Lucas, you have a vid-call from the Discovery," O'Neill reported.
"We've only been here an hour. What could they possibly want with me?" Lucas snapped., annoyed with himself and his fried circuit board.
"I didn't ask. Where do you want me to route the call," O'Neill asked. He could hear the fire extinguisher in the background so didn't take offence at Lucas's terse reply.
"Can you send it through my PAL? I'm kind of busy at the moment," Lucas replied.
"Sure, I'm patching it through now," Tim said.
"Hello, Mr. Wolenczak?" a feminine voice asked.
"Yeah, hello. How can I help you?" Lucas fired off.
"I'm Dr. Matthews, with the DMD. I am in charge of supervising all the tours that will be on the Opening's agenda. I just wanted you to know that I will be taking a walk through tour tomorrow morning before the guests start to arrive. I was thinking six am. If I approve the tour, we'll need you or whomever is guiding the tour here at 7:30 ready to accommodate guests," Aspen recited. She knew that she was bulldozing a bit but she had spent most of the night organizing her team into a coherent whole and the caffeine wasn't holding up anymore.
"If you approve the tour?" Lucas tried to hide the incredulity in his voice. "I got the distinct impression that this was a favor for the Discovery?"
"I don't know what your impressions are or where you got them but I expect a walk-through in the morning at 6 am. If you can't accommodate me then I'll contact your Captain and cancel the tour right now. Tomorrow is a very important day, and it will be perfect," Aspen replied icily. Whoever this Wolenczak fellow was he needed an attitude adjustment. Why were ninety-nine point nine percent of all men overgrown insecure little boys.
Lucas almost told her to cancel the stupid tour, he wasn't interested anyway, but he stopped himself. "Bridger would kill me.. twice," Lucas mumbled.
"What was that?" Aspen asked.
"Nothing," Lucas replied. He rolled his eyes heavenward and started wiping the extra extinguisher foam off his sneaker. "I'll be ready for you at 6 am. Anything else?"
"That's sufficient," Aspen answered.
Lucas cut off his PAL. If he was ever going to finish fixing the vocorder before 6 am, he had a long night ahead of him. Besides if he was gong to have to give a tour and be inspected by some witch pencil pusher he was going to blow her away. The vocorder was his ace in the hole.