New Atlantis
All eyes were on the forward view screen as the seaQuest approached
New Atlantis. The facility was breathtakingly beautiful. It sat like a shining
jewel on the ocean bottom. The design was based on what historians say the
original capital city of Atlantis looked like. Two outer rings surrounding
a hub. The outermost ring was large enough to have docking facilities that
would even accommodate the seaQuest.
Lonnie Henderson was at the helm. She eased the huge boat up to the bay indicated
by the docking master.
"Docking complete," his tinny voice sounding voice advised. "Welcome to New
Atlantis. We have shore leave facilities available for your crew."
"Thank you," Captain Bridger told him. "Once your cargo is off loaded I'm
sure my crew would be happy to avail themselves of them." He turned back
to the bridge. "Commander Ford has posted shore leave rotation schedules.
Once your positions are locked down you are dismissed," Bridger said and
left the situation in Ford's capable hands. He got on the maglev and rode
to the docking bay.
It was a mad house there as scientists and their entourages vied for the
attention of the cargo handlers and docking bay techs. Each knew his
own equipment was the most important and should receive top priority. Bridger
decided he'd let his people handle this. He walked up the ramp to New Atlantis.
Even in this cargo receiving port the place had the air of a luxury hotel
or a theme park. At the top of the ramp he spotted Dr. Westphalen. She was
involved in a lively conversation with Kreig. How that weasel had beaten
him off the boat he'd never know. She looked up when he approached.
"Nathan." She melted into his arms. He could see she was tired. She needed
someone to help her shoulder this burden. Well, he had pretty big shoulders.
The embrace was over all too quickly and she got right to business. "Ben
told me of the trouble you had with the deltas," she began.
"Maybe we shouldn't talk here," another voice suggested.
He turned around to see his old friend and shipmate. "Chief!" He extended
his hand and Crocker shook it warmly.
"Good to see you again, Captain."
"How in the world did you get hooked up with all these scientists?" Bridger
teased.
"It's a long story."
"Perhaps we should adjourn to my office," Kristin suggested "I've had a little
luncheon prepared."
"Great, I'm starving. Nothing but military food for the last three weeks
to hold body and soul together." Kreig took off and headed for Dr. Westphalen's
office.
"How somebody didn't shoot that SOB before now is beyond me," Crocker commented.
"Now, Chief," Kristin cautioned. "He has his good points, I'm sure." She
didn't sound too convinced.
"This place is mind boggling," Bridger changed the subject.
"You haven't seen anything yet. I promise you a proper tour after lunch,"
Kristin smiled.
They mounted one of the moving sidewalks in the sky walks that connected
the rings with the central hub.
"Actually we call them sea walks," Kristin explained. "The outermost ring
is for the receiving of cargo and supplies. Also for housing vehicles and
most of our maintenance facilities are here. There are powerhouses on the
opposite side. Each ring and the hub also have secondary independent power
sources and life support facilities. The innermost ring is made up of public
areas. There's shopping and social areas and dormitories for the students
we hope will come to study here."
The sea walk was now passing over the second ring. "Do I see trees
growing down there?" Bridger couldn't believe it.
"Yes. From down there you'd think you were walking along an ordinary street
if you didn't look up at the Plexiglas ceiling and see the ocean all around
you. That is a bit disconcerting at first for some till they get used to
the idea. That was why we tried to make it as homelike as possible."
"Talk about the ultimate mall." Bridger shook his head.
"We have movies, restaurants, dancing, athletic facilities. The
seaQuest will be the first crew to actually take shore leave here.
Maybe they can make some suggestions in case we have overlooked anything."
"I'm sure they will be very happy with what you've got. Short of actual home
leave, what more could they want?" Bridger assured her.
The sea walk now took them in to the central hub. "Twenty seven levels of
laboratory, research, lecture, library and meeting space. We hope to host
major conferences one day. At present, we are only about 40% occupied, but
as we haven't officially open yet I find that very heartening," Westphalen
continued.
"I'm really impressed," Bridger nodded as they stepped off the sea walk and
into the foyer of the building. From here you could look up and see the entire
twenty seven levels. This area was a bustle of construction workers and
technicians.
They made their way to a bank of glass elevators. Kristin pushed the button
marked three. "The first two floors are mostly reception and meeting areas.
Administration is on the third floor, after that it's all science," she promised
as the elevator stopped at
their floor. The
foyer of this floor was also rather grand. A reception desk with two attendants
was the first thing that met the eye. Westphalen, Crocker and Kreig were
all greeted by name. Bridger was given a badge that allowed him access to
the entire facility. Kreig flirted with the younger of the two girls while
the other prepared Bridger's badge. Then the four stepped into Kristin's
large office. A buffet table had been laid out. "Shall we eat while we talk,
gentlemen?" she offered.
At first, more eating than talking went on but once the edge was off their
hunger they got down to business. Crocker switched on the bug jamming device.
Bridger explained what had happened to the shuttle.
Crocker let out a low whistle. "Renegade deltas is the Atlantic. I thought
we had that problem licked five years ago."
"We did," Bridger assured him. "With checkpoints at every port and the perimeter
seas tightly patrolled I don't see how unregistered deltas could have popped
up, but they did."
"Pirates," Westphalen shook her head. "It's like something out of the 17th
century."
"Oh, there's been pirates around a lot more recently than that, ma'am," Crocker
told her.
"So, do we consider this a separate problem or part of our ongoing situation?"
Kristin asked.
"I don't see what motive pirates would have in getting rid of New Atlantis."
Kreig was firm.
"Who would have a motive?" Kristin demanded rhetorically.
"I still say reef huggers," Crocker said flatly.
"How about oil companies?" Bridger suggested. "You are sitting on top of
one of the richest oil fields in the Atlantic."
"Yes, but there's no drilling rights granted to us either. The UEO still
enforces the Conservation Concordance. No one can drill here, period," Kristin
told him.
"The ones with the most to gain would be the original heirs." Kreig stuck
with his theory.
"Ben, Rupert's children are a bunch of jetsetting spoiled brats. They've
never had to so much as lift a finger for themselves. They hardly seem capable
of organizing anything more ambitious than a ski weekend. The wives would
have never gotten anything other than what they got in the divorce settlements.
I had Chief Crocker check that out when you first brought it up." Kristin
was beginning to show her frustration with the situation.
"Well," Kreig digested then discarded that information, "I'd better get to
my office and see if I can locate replacements for the lost cargo. If you'll
excuse me. And thanks for the lunch," Krieg ducked out of the office.
"I have my rounds to do." Crocker also went to the door."Catch me later,
for a drink, Cap."
"My pleasure," Bridger agreed.
"It is so good to see you," Kristin smiled when they were alone. "So tell
me about the new boat. How's Lucas? Where is he? I half expected him to be
the first one to leap off the seaQuest."
"Lucas wanted to be sure that Kreig's "supplier" actually did deliver the
computer things you ordered so he was on the shuttle that was attacked,"
Bridger told her simply.
"Oh dear Lord! Was he alright?"
"I'm a little embarrassed to say that he held up better than two of my Navy
guys."
She looked at him curiously.
"The life pod shot to the surface right into a storm. The raft had to deal
with 15 ft seas. My guys got seasick."
"Well, under those conditions that was certainly understandable," she told
him. "It's a wonder they didn't all succumb."
"Lucas was fine," Bridger said proudly. "As was the other civilian on board.
A GELF named Dagwood, who is part of the crew this tour."
"A GELF. As a geneticist, I'm both appalled and fascinated by that experiment.
I'm eager to meet him. Where are they now?"
"This is getting to be like old home week. They were picked up by a tanker
- one captained by Katie Hitchcock."
"Captain? Well, good for her."
"The UEO will arrange to transport them here as soon as they can."
"Are you ready for the twenty-five cent tour?"
"Lead on."
"It was a pretty classic delta attack pattern," Brody was saying. "We couldn't
outrun them or outgun all four of them. We outmaneuvered them for a while,
but finally they breached us. We were probably lucky to get out of there
alive. I did manage to leave a little surprise for them," he smiled.
"Mode 86," Captain Hitchcock guessed.
"Bingo," he concurred. "Ol' M R 4 took two deltas with her! It was beautiful."
"What were deltas doing operating in these waters? I thought they were swept
away years ago."
"Maybe instead of decreasing patrols, they should increase them.
SeaQuest can't be everywhere at once," Ortiz suggested. He had gotten
his appetite back and was digging into the dinner with a vengeance.
"That would be fine with the commercial sector," Katie commented.
"Have you been having trouble with pirates?" Brody asked.
"Not pirates," she said taking a sip of wine. "Reef huggers."
The word set Lucas' teeth on edge. "Well, not everybody agrees with some
of the practices of oil companies. They are historically the greatest ocean
polluters."
"That was in the past, Lucas. The records for the past ten years prove that
the safety measures that were set in place do work. There hasn't been a major
spill since we switched to containerized tankers and supertankers to ship
product in."
"What about at the drilling sites?"
"All sites are carefully monitored by independent environmental scientists.
Modern drilling methods have become so uninvasive that local flora and fauna
barely notice our presence."
"That sounds like company propaganda," Lucas pointed out.
"It does, but I've checked it out for myself at a couple of sites. It has
finally dawned on industry that it's easier to work with nature than to
constantly try to fight it. And oil is far too scarce these days to let any
of it get away in spills. Water around drilling sites is clean enough to
swim in. I've done it."
"Accidents can still happen."
"So can sabotage," she agreed. "But every precaution is taken against both."
"Tell me, Captain," Brody changed the subject. "Do you miss the service?"
"A little. I have to admit. But I felt I'd advanced as far as I could there.
Do you realize how long it takes for a woman to make captain of an important
vessel in the Navy?"
"Are you talking about the old glass ceiling? It might be difficult, but
not impossible. There are woman captains. Wasn't the first captain of the
seaQuest a woman?"
"Tell me about it," Ortiz shuddered. "I served under Captain Stark. In those
days, it wasn't seaQuest DSV. It was seaQuest PMS."
"Miguel!" Brody was shocked at the remark in the presence of their hostess.
He took the glass of wine out of Ortiz' reach.
"I'm sorry," Ortiz gasped just realizing what he had said. "It must be the
wine."
Captain Hitchcock did not seen as insulted as they expected. She merely sat
back in her and sipped her own wine. "You never could drink, Ortiz," she
said.
He nodded in agreement wondering how she knew. He'd certainly never socialized
with her before.
"You know," Katie began casually, "it's fairly unusual for a non com to be
a department head on a boat like the seaQuest. Of course, under a
woman captain, a guy as good looking as you are would be a shoe in."
"I.... What?!" Ortiz demanded. If the wine had dulled his senses it had
heightened his emotions. He flushed with anger. "What did you say?"
"I said you were good looking," she said simply. "It's a compliment. Why
do you sound so angry?"
"Well I... because.." he fumbled for words he could use in polite company.
"Could it be that the veiled implication is your looks got you the job not
your qualifications?"
"But I am qualified," he sputtered. "My looks have nothing to do with
anything."
"Exactly!" She sat forward "But every time a woman gets any promotion that's
the stereotype she has to deal with. It's not much fun, is it?"
"You don't have to tell me about prejudice. How many Hispanic captains are
there? I'm a brown face in a white world." Ortiz was still angry.
"I have lots of colors on my face," Dagwood said proudly.
It broke the tension. "Maybe they got it right with the GELF," Katie allowed.
"I see no gender bias with them either. They have no problems serving under
a female captain." She glared at Ortiz a minute. He busied himself with his
meal.
Lucas started talking about the Stinger he and Hitchcock had designed. This
took the pressure off Ortiz. Brody leaned close to Ortiz. "Must be hard to
eat around that foot," he commented.
"I still think Gazelle was a better name."
"A gazelle is a land animal. It should have at least been a sea creature,"
Lucas argued.
"Like what? Dolphin?"
"No, Darwin would have gotten a big head if he thought we named it after
him," Lucas laughed.
"How is Darwin?" she asked remembering the wiley dolphin.
"Same as ever only, if anything, fresher. We have a new crewmen who has taught
him all kinds of crude language."
"You're the one that taught him about being paid,"
Brody pointed
out. "Now we have to cut a deal with him to get him to do anything."
"Maybe he's becoming a little too human," she laughed.
"Speaking of being a little too human," Brody pointed with his chin at Ortiz
who was nodding off. "We're going to have to give him a refresher course
in manners." Brody roughly shook him.
Ortiz yelped and startled awake. He saw Brody glaring at him. "I'm sorry,"
he gasped with a shudder.
"Are you alright?" Katie was concerned.
"Yeah." He shook his head trying to fully wake up. "I keep dreaming I'm a
baked potato wrapped in foil and someone is going to put me in the oven."
"It would be a mercy killing, in your case. I think we'd better put him to
bed," Brody decided.
"Maybe we should call it a night," Katie agreed. "I should go check with
my night watch on the bridge anyway."
They thanked her for the dinner, left her cabin and headed for the crews'
quarters they'd been assigned.
"And you think my nightmares are weird," Lucas commented to Ortiz.
"But, Lucas," Dagwood pointed out. "Last night both Ortiz and Lt. Brody did
look like baked potatoes."
Just then Ortiz stumbled. Brody grabbed him roughly. "I think there was a
hole in the deck." Ortiz chuckled.
"Like the one in your head," Brody sneered as he open the door to the room
he and Ortiz shared.
"What bit him?" Ortiz asked Lucas in a stage whisper.
Brody nearly lost it. "Look can you two see he gets to bed without breaking
his neck? I'm gonna go jog around the deck for a while."
"Sure," Lucas was a little confused.
Ortiz was not. "I won't wait up," he laughed.
"Which bunk is yours the top or the bottom?" Dagwood asked.
"I don't know." Ortiz shrugged. "We never decided."
"Let's put him in the bottom one." Lucas said as he pulled back the blankets.
Dagwood sat the tipsy Ortiz in a chair and untied his shoes.
"You know what my father used to say about bunk beds?" Ortiz asked pleasantly.
"No," Lucas smiled. "What did you father used to say about bunk beds?"
"You got two worries with bunk beds. If you sleep in the top bunk you gotta
worry about rollin' over and fallin' a long way to the floor. And if you
sleep in the bottom bunk you gotta worry about the guy in the top bunk wettin'
the bed," Ortiz laughed uproariously at his father's joke.
Dagwood and Lucas laughed too.
When Dagwood got his shoes off Ortiz stood up. "What was I doing?" Ortiz
asked quizzically.
"Going to bed," Lucas reminded him. It amused Lucas to see Ortiz in this
condition.
"Oh," Ortiz said simply and fumbled out of his uniform "I am kinda tired
all of sudden." He climbed into the lower bunk without question. "Where are
you guys gonna sleep?" he wondered.
"We have out own quarters down the hall," Dagwood told him.
Ortiz just nodded sleepily.
"Man, is he drunk," Lucas laughed.
"Me drunk?" Ortiz scoffed sleepily, "I'm not the one who thinks he's gonna
get anywhere with Hitchcock."
"Go to sleep, Miguel," Lucas snapped then tried to rein in his anger. Ortiz
didn't know what he was saying, he told himself.
"Buena Noche," Ortiz mumbled as they switched off the light and left.
"Are you tired?" Lucas asked Dagwood when they got into the corridor.
"No."
"Let's go up to the rec room. Penelope might be there."
"Lucas," Dagwood was hesitant.
"Come on, Dagwood, I think she likes you."
"Is that cool, Lucas?"
"That's very cool, Dagwood. Come on."
As he planned, Brody ran into the captain as she returned from the bridge.
"I wanted to apologize again about Ortiz."
"Oh, think nothing of it. I spoke to Anna. The medication she's got him on
for his ear would have made that wine hit him like martinis. It wasn't really
his fault."
"I was surprised it hit him so hard and didn't even phase Lucas or Dagwood,"
Brody admitted.
"You get him all squared away?"
"Yeah, I guess he'll just sleep it off." He looked up at the cloudy sky.
"Hard to believe that's the same ocean we had to deal with last night."
"It is pretty amazing to watch the changes. You kind of miss all that in
a submarine," Katie agreed.
"So you don't miss seaQuest at all?"
"I miss the people," she admitted. "And a lot of the state of the art technology
we had or were developing. That was exciting. So how about you? You planning
to be a lifer?"
"I haven't really decided. I'm keeping my options opened. How does an operation
like this work?"
"You wanna see the bridge?"
"I'm up for as much of the tour as you want to give," he smiled.
Brody got more than he bargained for. Katie loved her ship and knew it inside
out. The tour lasted over two hours and did not stray near her cabin once.
When they at last re-emerged onto the deck, the night was darker. He pretended
to be interested in Alexander's mural. They stepped into the light provided
by the bridge tower and she explained the voyage to him. He was about to
make his move and tell her how lovely she looked when a clanging noise got
her attention.
"What was that?"
"Just a ship noise," he tried to convince her.
"I know all of this ship's noises and that wasn't one of them," she disagreed.
She switched on the deck flood lights. They turned around to see men in dark
clothing streaming over the railing. The powerful lights showed a creaking
old fishing boat just off their bow.
"Reef huggers!" she spat angrily and ran toward the intruders. He kept pace
with her even though neither one of them had any weapons.
"What'd' ya think, Henderson? Are these me or what?" Tony peeked around a
display spinner wearing the most outlandish pair of sunglasses she'd ever
seen.
"Those are definitely you, Tony," she laughed. "Don't you think, Tim?"
"I don't actually see what anyone needs of sunglasses here at the bottom
of the ocean," O'Neill commented.
"Because they're cool," Tony stated the obvious.
"I'm afraid I never got the hang of being cool," O'Neill admitted.
"Look at this." Tony charged off.
"You're cool enough," Lonnie said quietly to O'Neill "Thanks for letting
him come along. He's pretty lost without Lucas and Miguel and Dagwood."
"He almost rivals you as a shopaholic," O'Neill teased.
"Hey, you dumped a pretty good chunk of change at the bookstore," she teased
back "At least what we bought isn't that heavy." She hoisted the two bags
she carried over her head with ease. "Couldn't you get most of that on disk?"
"Not this stuff. Only the things in popular demand get put on disk. Besides,
I'm a traditionalist. I like to hold a book in my hand."
"You wanna sit here a while and look at your books. I'll go find Tony."
"He isn't coming to dinner with us. Is he?"
"No," she laughed. "I'm not that much of a softy."
When Henderson and Tony returned they didn't find O'Neill sitting on the
bench perusing his new books as they expected. He was looking into the window
of a shop they had missed. The shop window contained artifacts with ancient
writings on them.
"Jeez, this place looks like a museum," Tony commented sourly.
"Hey," Henderson objected "It's his turn to pick a place. You wanna go in,
Tim?"
"Yes, I do," O'Neill decided and led the way into the shop.
It was rather dark and quiet inside. It did give the impression of being
a museum. Tony wandered off to look at a case of what appeared to be gold
jewelry. Tim stopped in front of a table of books. Lonnie waited with him
patiently.
"Man," Tim said quietly. "Miguel would love this place. It's all Atlantis."
"Oh no," Tony rejoined them. "No more Atlantis for him. He tried to make
Italian sausage outta me last time he got around this stuff."
"That wasn't his fault," Lonnie defended him. "Let's bring him here when
he gets to New Atlantis. He probably could use a little fun after what he
went through."
"Take it from me. There's lots more fun places here than this. Speakin' a
which," Tony glanced at his watch. "I got a date with the chick from the
sunglasses store. She should be getting off work just about now, so, if you
lovebirds will excuse me." With that he ducked out of the shop.
"And you were worried about him being lonely," Tim teased.
During the course of Kristin's tour they came upon the Parapsychology
Department headed by Dr. Levin. Wendy was with him. Introductions were made
all around.
"I've got to admit," Bridger said, "I'm a little surprised to find parapsychology
studies here."
"No, Captain," Dr. Levin explained. "This is the perfect place. Far from
civilization and all the psychic pollution."
"Psychic pollution?"
"Stray thoughts from billions of people. Wendy can tell you. Under the ocean
is the best place to get a little peace from all that if you're an empath.
That's one of the reasons I encouraged her to apply for ship's doctor on
the seaQuest."
"So you're the one now responsible for the health and well being of the
seaQuest and her intrepid crew," Dr.Westphalen laughed."Which is no
small task, I might add."
"I found the detailed notes you left me on the crew to be invaluable. Thank
you so much," Wendy put in. "This place...this place is amazing. I can't
believe what you've done here."
"When Kristin sets her mind to something there's no stopping her," Dr. Levin
said proudly.
"Well, thank you, but I didn't exactly do this all by myself, you know."
"Never the less, it's is an absolute wonder," Wendy stated.
"Perhaps we should continue with the tour," Kristin suggested to hide her
embarrassment at the gushing compliments of Wendy and Dr. Levin.
When they got out into the hallway Bridger had to ask."You didn't leave her
any detailed notes about the Captain, did you?"
"Volumes," Kristin teased.
That night Bridger stopped off at Crocker's office for a drink. Crocker
got out the Jack Daniels. They each downed two fingers in silence. Crocker
refilled the glasses.
"So tell me, Chief. Do you really think it's reef huggers?"
"They are the logical suspects."
"What about Kreig's theory?"
Crocker punched a button on his desk. A screen lit up. " These are Channing's
kids - Carlisle Channing. Computer whiz and video game expert. Not even remotely
in touch with reality. Surrounds himself with every new electronics toy that
comes along. Nothing but a big, spoiled kid. Then the daughter Tyler Channing
jetsetter/fashion model/party girl. Seen in all the right places with all
the right people. A regular princess. Another spoiled kid. An interesting
note. Carlisle and Tyler were born within months of each other, to two different
women. Apparently ol' Rupert got both his wife and his mistress pregnant
at same time. How stupid is that? Anyway that brings us to the third and
final member of this cozy little family. Rupert Channing jr. son of wife
number three. This one is an international speed boat champion always looking
for a faster boat, a higher high. Each one of these brats is so self absorbed
that it's unlikely they even know they were cut out of the will, so to speak.
They will continue to get the stipends they are used to subsisting on. They
probably won't even notice a difference in lifestyle. They've got all they
could ever want. Why bother with Daddy's little project?"
"Still delta subs? Reef huggers are notoriously underfunded."
"I'm thinking those were probably separate opportunists."
"I'm inclined to agree. Still, I don't see how reef huggers could do more
than harry this place and make open threats so, why is UEO central so concerned?"
"What do you suppose they are not telling us?"
"There has to be more to this," Bridger agreed "And it's our job to find
out what."
They shared another drink and pondered in a comfortable silence as only trusted
friends can.
"You can feel it too?" Josh Levin asked over a quiet dinner.
"I can feel it too," Wendy agreed. "Something is very wrong here. I just
can't put my finger on it."
"Well, don't try too hard," he advised. "Just let it come to you. Wander
around and see what vibes you can pick up."
"Whatever it is, it's getting stronger," she shuddered.
"I know. I'm so glad you're here to help me get to the bottom of this."
To be continued.....
Return to New Atlantis