***** Vol.1 Chap.11 Emergency briefing on board the Mayflower *****

Kristin smelled something rotten happening, with the unexpected Mayflower’s direction change on the day reserved for her test run of the submersible.

What now! We better not have any changes at all. I’ve worked too long and too hard to get the requested assignment approved, and I’ve waited long enough for this time slot. Somebody better not play games with me.

She rushed to the hatch to go inside and confront Captain Jonas about this surprising change. As she headed towards the bridge, figuring that the captain might be at the bridge by now, her mind was racing, considering what she would say to him. She passed many colleagues and fellow researchers huddling and mumbling among themselves. For the time being, she ignored them, as she had an urgent matter at hand.

Just then, the PA system came on. “All senior personnel are requested to report at 0800 for an emergency briefing.”

What is going on? She was even more puzzled now.

“Morning, Kristin,” Chandras yelled out to her.

“Morning, Chandras.” She kept walking or half jogging, shoveling past people in the hallway. She passed another corridor. A couple of crew members stood idly by.

“Kristin, wait up.” He ran after her, panting. He was never physically adept. “Have you heard?”

“Heard what?”

“We got rumors we are turning back.”

“I am sure the good captain has a valid reason,” Kristin replied in a sour tone. She was clearly disappointed. “Today is my day for taking the sub out. He better not have anything funny in mind.”

“We’ll see.”

Kristin looked at the time in the hallway. It was 7:45 am already.

Well, it is too late to find the captain. I’ll confront him later. I’d better hurry. Only fifteen minutes to grab a bite and change. I have to make it to the briefing early.

She rushed down to the galley, grabbed a New York bagel and a pack of cream cheese, and headed for her room to freshen up.

When she finally got to the briefing room packed full and bustling with people, the tension in the room was stifling. Instead of the usual silent humdrum, the charged atmosphere grabbed anyone entering the room. Groups of animated people had animated talks around the room.

Well, this is different, she mumbled to herself.

Most of the time, the captain’s briefing was routine and spoken to a few officers. The project leads always found legitimate excuses not to come. But today, the room was well attended and charged with an unusually high level of anticipation. The project leaders huddled together in groups. Chandras raised his hand to make a point while talking fast and furious to the group.

This is really strange, she thought.

Off to the side, a few officers held a bunch of navigation charts. One spread an open scroll, pointing with his finger while the rest of the officers looked intently at the pointed spot. A few assistants who, though not officially invited, sneaked in to get a firsthand report. They would then leave the room quietly in the middle of the briefing after they heard enough and start a line of rumors and half-truths.

Kristin looked around and joined Chandras and the other project leads. She pushed her way through the crowded room to them.

“Hey, Kristin. Come over here. We were just talking about you.” Chandras saw her coming and shouted to her when within earshot.

“What are you going to do?”

“Do what? What is going on?”

“Haven’t you heard?”

“Heard what?”

“Tom here said that all the remaining projects are scrapped!”

“We have been recalled,” Tom said.

“Wait. Nobody can do that to me. They better not do that. Today is my day. I waited two years for today.” She shook her head violently and getting annoyed, frantic, and worried.

“Tom, tell Kristin what you told me.” Chandras clearly enjoyed this.

Tom completed his project two days ago. So, for him, it was time to go home.

“Sam, the redheaded officer, said this morning in the hallway that we are turning back.” Tom propagated his version of the rumor mill.

“Are you sure?” Kristin asked with a quizzical face.

“Well, you know we have changed course.”

“Yeah, I know. But where to?”

Just then, someone shouted: “Here comes the captain.”

The room fell silent immediately as Jonas strode in with his pompous regalia. A big man and certainly did not become a captain on account of his intellect. His physical prowess might have something to do as well. Usually, he wore a simple shirt and tie with matching pants as he patrolled the vessel. Of course, he never parted with his captain’s hat to hide his balding head. He wore a pair of wire-rimmed glasses that added to his inscrutability. His mustache, always expertly trimmed and manicured, added an air of superiority with him. Kristin tried to avoid him as much as possible. But today, the captain wore his formal captain dress all decked out with medals and honors.

“Gentlemen,” Jonas began and then added “and lady,” after noticing that Kristin was there. “This morning, we have an important announcement.”

Kristin silently asked herself, “What is more important than my project today?”

“I feel patriotic today, so I would like to open this briefing with the national anthem. I have asked the officer’s band to come and play for us. May we all rise, face the flag, and recite the national anthem.” As the band played the star-spangled anthem, Kristin was going crazy trying to outguess the situation.

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“This is the Mayflower, a research vessel owned and operated by NOAA. Our mission is dedicated to exploring all underwater activities…”

Underwater life, not activities, she corrected him in her mind.

“We have a complete chemistry laboratory with three mass spectrometers…” the captain droned on and on. Everyone had heard this speech many times, and she could almost repeat it, per verbatim.

“This vessel is a floating laboratory that is self-sufficient. It is equipped with two main scientific installations that set this vessel apart from others. We have a high-power 3D sonar array designed for this vessel…”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Her impatience increased as he droned on.

“The second most important point about this vessel is that we have a submersible on board…”

Huh? Kristin’s ears perked up. Jonas had never mentioned the sub before. But today, he highlighted the sub. “Something is definitely up his sleeves.”

The captain continues, “This marvelous sub was conceived by me after I became captain. With the help of Dr. Kristin Sobinowski,” the captain nodded in her direction. “This sub is the only one in the world that can submerge to a depth of two thousand feet, a depth that no other boats of this class in this entire world can match. The sub can literally crawl on the ocean floor and explore.”

She gritted her teeth in anger. The sub was her idea and her brainchild. Besides, the sub was not a thing. It was her life, her hope, her goal, her everything.

She had not forgotten that after the sub was loaded on the Mayflower. As soon as Jonas saw the sub, he laughed in front of her and his officers and kept referring to the sub as ‘the boat,’ ‘the ugly thing,’ ‘the shrimp,’ etc. While it was not unusual for a sub to be called a ‘boat’ in the traditional sense, somehow the tone and innuendos that he used to refer to the sub were rather demeaning and condescending. Well, she had kept her peace in order not to jeopardize her valuable project time.

But, how can he now say this is “his conception”? Sure, she had to secure his approval in terms of the weight and dimension requirement to be sure that the sub would fit on the Mayflower. Some minor modifications were made to bolster the crane assembly to support the weight of the sub. But the concept ‘conceived’ by him was indeed more than a stretch. What a joke! What a blatant lie!

Another question popped into her mind. Why is he bringing up her sub right now? There is something he is not telling.

“As captain, I foresaw the need for such a boat, and I lobbied for it.”

Another unimaginable lie, of course. Unfortunately, only she had the truth. Everyone else thought he was truly the genius here, the brain behind the design and building of the whole thing.

After looking in her direction, he was delighted that she was seething with anger. With a smirk on his face, he enjoyed the moment of seeing her smoldering in her seat. He also knew that she knew what he said targeted her deliberately to offend her, and he took great pleasure in driving and twisting the knife deeper into the wound.

Ah, the pleasure and perks and privileges of being a captain, he thought to himself.

She was really quite fidgety and agitated now. She wanted to run up there, punch him in the face, and make him set the record straight. But perhaps now was not the time, at least not yet. She shuffled her feet, which were ready to jump up and pounce on the man. With her hands, she hung on tightly to her chair for fear that her legs would rebel and sprint into action.

“On this trip, you all know that we have several research projects…” He dragged on.

Get to the point, would you? She muttered under her breath.

“For the remaining days of this trip, we have scheduled only one additional project, exploring marine things in the sub by Dr. Kristin Sobinowski…”

Marine life, not things, please!

Everyone else looked bored. They have heard the same speech half a dozen times already. Surely, the captain did not call this emergency meeting to rehash old things. Everyone on board wanted to have the reason why the vessel turned around? This is the single question on everyone’s mind.

The officers still stood at attention and the project directors shuffled their feet. But Kristin had the sensation that something was hidden with the captain still. He was just enjoying the moment and gloating in his glory as the supreme captain.

“This brings us now to my announcement today.”

A hush came over the entire room. All the whispers stopped. All heads turned to the makeshift podium, and all eyes were on the captain. Even a few of the less attentive officers snapped into attention. Kristin shifted her position and stared at the captain as well.

“Most of you already know that we have changed our course,” Jonas said in an official tone. “I am here to confirm that we have indeed changed to a new course setting.” A slight roar arose in the room.

Kristin wanted to burst out, but bit her tongue so as not to yell.

“Let me explain why the sudden course change. Early this morning, we received an SOS signal from a boat nearby and consequently an urgent request from the Coast Guard to help. A private luxury yacht had encountered some difficulties and unfortunately sank this morning. The Coast Guard has also received the SOS signal and radioed us requesting our help to provide search and rescue efforts since we are at present the closest vessel to the last reported location of the yacht.”

The murmur got much louder as people whispering in groups all over the room. A few assistants slipped out of the room. No doubt, a rumor mill was now propagating in full steam outside the room. As much as she wanted to calm herself down, she could not hold herself down anymore.

“Captain Jon…” she shouted at the top of her voice.

“Just a minute, Kristin. I know what you want to say.” Jonas held out his hand and interrupted her in the most patronizing tone. “I know today is your research day. But consider the bigger picture. There are people alive on that yacht. They are in severe danger and we are the only vessel in a unique position to save them. Just think about this: what is more important? People or some fish?”

Mammals, not fish, Kristin said to herself.

That is nasty. What ulterior motives does this man have in mind? There must be something that he is not telling.

“This is a great honor that we have been asked to serve the public with our high-tech equipment. After all, the equipment was all paid for by public funds. If the taxpayers had paid for this vessel, this equipment, and this trip, we have a moral obligation to the taxpayers that we repay part of this debt by demonstrating that what the taxpayers had paid had not gone to waste.”

No one is listening to the captain anymore.

“If we can do our part in rescuing these people from the yacht, we would have shown the public that we are using their money well. So, I have accepted the Coast Guard’s request to check into the situation. I feel this is truly our obligation, and I am honored to have this opportunity to do so.”

“But today is supposed to be my research day! Captain Jonas. That schedule was set a long time ago. How can you change…” Kristin shouted back.

Jonas again raised his hand to stop her. “I know what you are going to say. I have also considered the remaining schedule. But we can accomplish both the predetermined research and the search and rescue operation at the same time. To locate the sunken boat, we will need the super high-power 3D sonar array that we have. The search for the sunken yacht is the best test of how well the new sonar array is going to work. Then once we have located the yacht, we will need your little boat, Kristin,” Jonas turned towards her and continued in the most patronizing tone, “to rescue the people trapped inside the boat. What better way to highlight the work of this vessel and to show the public that we serve the American people?”

This is adding insult to injury.

“But what about my dolphin studies?” Kristin shouted back.

She kept trying, knowing full well she had already lost the battle right from the beginning.

“The dolphins can wait, but those people trapped in the boat can’t. Our estimated arrival time is one hour. We need all sonar technicians ready now. I want the new sonar array to be operational in 20 minutes. Kristin, check the little boat and I want that ready to launch as soon as we have located the sunken boat. Let’s go. We have plenty of work ahead of us.” With that said, Jonas strode out of the room and never turned his head.

“Well, how do you like that, Kristin?” said Chandras.

“The man is a total idiot.”

“Maybe, but he is still the captain.”

“Sorry about that,” she replied with a sour note and a sad face.

Nobody else came to say anything to her. In fact, the crowd dispersed quickly. Those in the room rushed out to tell those not privileged to be present. Instead of the usual humdrum atmosphere like every other day around the ship, excitement reigned in the air.

She was hushed and railroaded into the rescue operation. But she rationalized the situation, seeing that she would still be a part of the mission. Most importantly, she would still have the chance to try out her sub. At that thought, she comforted herself. After all, as Jonas said, the dolphins could wait, but the people in the yacht could not.

As she was walking back to her cabin, she remembered the messages from her albatrosses and her dolphins. She wondered if they already witnessed what happened and were trying to tell her about the incident.