My Journal

By Harriman Nelson

28.  Star light, Star bright

It was late and yet again I couldn’t sleep so I decided to get myself a shot of some especially good Rum I’d purchased in Bermuda.

I’d stored the bottle, (okay, so I’m cheap) in the Observation Nose inside the ever convenient sideboard.

The crewmen I passed now gave me nary a sideways glance, as if it were the most normal thing in the world for me to walk around in my night attire. At least I’d had the good sense to add a robe (for modesty sake), and slippers, (because we had a very cold deck)!

As I trod down the spiral ladder, I was surprised to see that we’d surfaced, and was about to congratulate O’Brien for such a smooth assent when he  read my mind and  shook his head ‘no’,  and nodded toward the Control Room’s ladder. I could feel the breeze from the open hatch topside and headed topside.

“Chip,” I asked as soon as I climbed through the hatch, “problem with the inertial navigator?”

“No sir. Just shooting the stars. Thought I’d stay up here awhile for the fresh air. Just look at those stars, sir. The same stars that Sheamus and Columbus and even the conquistadors saw all those hundreds of years ago. It’s pretty humbling. We, all of us, we’re born and we die, but the stars remain…”

“That sounds like something Lee might say.”

“Yeah,” Chip grinned. “Guess I’ve been spending too much time with him…”

“I’m glad you are, my boy. He needs us both right now…you know, though, stars do die, it just takes more than a  millennia…”

“Look!” he added suddenly and pointed. “Over there! A Borealis!”

“If I remember my history correctly, Columbus recorded weird lights on his journey. Scared the crews of his three little boats shitless. Of course, they all thought they were going to fall off the edge of the world anyway…”

For a moment we both appreciated the magnetic storm’s display as we leaned against the coaming as Seaview continued to slice through the water.

“Any luck with the bell?” he asked after a moment. “I would have asked sooner but you’d gone to bed.”

“None of the solvents worked. It’s just too corroded to make out any kind of marking. Riley told me not to worry, that it had to be the Nymph’s bell. What with that skeleton we found holding the strong box. Almost like Lee’s vision.”

“Any captain of a slave ship would have tried to save his money…maybe Lee should have let Dr. White examine him after all….”

“I thought you agreed with Lee that he was probably a quack.”

“Well, I decided to check with various universities  that had done similar procedures. Their scans showed absolutely no change between ‘normal’ brains and those with extra sensory perception when tested with questions, etc. But, I have to admit, those tests were a few years ago and White’s using some different kind of imaging and…Look now!”

“My God!” I exclaimed as I saw the luminescent and enormous squid like creatures rising through the surface.

“The Kraken?”

“Could be…legends weren’t all that specific if it was squid or octopus or a combination of both…whatever these are, they’re bigger than any Architeuthidae discovered to date…er…that’s a giant squid.”

“Kinda’ figured. “O’Brien?” he said as he clicked the mike, be prepared to crash dive. Does sonar have that creature on our starboard side?”

“Creature? No sir, nothing on instruments. What do you have?”

“Er…giant squid. Or a mutation of them. If they get too friendly or aggressive we may need to put a charge through the hull. Don’t panic the crew but be prepared to sound the alert.”

“Aye sir.”

“It’s moving away, Chip,” I said.

“But for how long? We’d better get below.”

It was apparent after a few minutes that we’re weren’t very interesting and they moved off.

“Well, I’ll be in the Nose,” I told my officers.

I was downing my second drink when Doc, in uniform, ambled down the spiral ladder.

 “So, you couldn’t sleep either,” he said.

“Afraid not. Edgy I guess. What’s your problem?”

“I switched watches with Frank….Would you like a sleeping pill? I gave Lee something a bit stronger to take when he went to bed.  I found out later that he asked Frank  to take him to the lab. Until the blindness clears, I’ve assigned escorts to be on call. Anyway Frank said even if the skipper couldn’t see the skeletons in those clear saline filled body bags, he’d felt him shudder. Then the captain  asked where Sheamus was.

“But…”

“Oh, Frank told him we weren’t sure about him, but the skipper insisted. Moving on, when they were standing in front of that particular skeleton that had been holding the strong box, the skipper asked Frank to give him a moment.  Obliging he simply moved off a few feet. That’s when Frank heard him talking to the skeleton.

Told it that while the Good Lord may had forgiven him his trade as a slaver,  that he, Lee, couldn’t.”

“Then Lee still believes it’s Sheamus.”

“Most everyone aboard does. There was more he told the bones,” Will added.

“Yes?”

“That if he, Lee,  weren’t a Christian, and if Sheamus hadn’t already crossed over by the grace of God, that Lee would have taken great pleasure in cursing the man’s soul to rot in hell for eternity after all he’d done, including having made you  endure the heartache and shame to the family name. Then Lee took a deep breath, and told Frank he could help put him to bed . And he took the pill.”

 “I think I may want something stronger than a sleeping pill tonight,” I said, my heart too full as Lee again proved he cared more for my feelings than his own discomfort.