New Homeport Island

by Robert Lyon

  “Use the remote actuators.” Then Hyple and I decided to swim out. I grabbed Hyples collar and pulled him through the space.

  Once I had him in the trunk above water he said, “Thanks” and said, “I’m going to close the suction valve”, and I swam back down as he climbed the ladder.

  In the forward engine room Tinnel, Washam, and Gillis went to align the space and pump it out. Washam stayed at the

  pump controller Gillis and Tinnel headed up and out of the engine room to the passageway to use the remote operators there. Gillis ran to the hatch to forward pump room and looked down the trunk. In astonishment he uttered an odd sound, “uo whoo whoo eh.”

  There was still a current to the water in the space as I swam for the suction valve. It hung down from overhead and it had a large hand wheel, I had been wishing it was just a butterfly valve. As I spun the valve closed every fear and doubt I had over my entire life came to mind, I might run out of air and this wasn’t exactly absolutely necessary, but there had been doubts about the source of the flooding because of the whirlpool in the bilge and it was possible that there were multiple sources of flooding. I thought back to the women in the crew I had dated and the number of times my heart had been broken and it felt like a kick in the chest. Just as I was beginning to think, ‘well, that’s close enough’ the valve came to a close and I swam back to the trunk.

  When I reached the top, all those that were directly involved had been evacuated for shock, hypothermia, and to take statements and give reports. The late comers asked ‘what happened down there’ and others asked ‘what the hell I was doing there they had flooding to deal with.’ I could only respond with a shivering, “were pumping it now.” to which more than one replied, “Oh, that’s good because we don’t even know what gear we need for this yet, but were pumping it down?” I said, “Let me guess you guys are repair two?” A female voice called out from the back of the crowd, “Ya, so fuck off.” And I headed down to berthing to put something dry on.

  Gillis came back and asked if I had come up, FC2 Garenie responded, “Ya, some idiot was down there.” Gillis replied,

  “Some idiot?” Garenie retorted, “Ya…it’s still full of water and he came up soaked.” Gillis replied, “He had to go get someone out and close the valve. So, you idiots get the eductor.” Garenie said, “I didn’t think it had the static lift for that trunk.” Gillis replied, “It probably doesn’t…your just supposed to have something in the event the in space educator fails or isn’t enough.” Gillis then looked down the ladder and noticed the water level seemed to be dropping, and headed back to the forward engine room.

  Back in medical Hyple was sitting on the examination table with his shirt off as Hospital Corpsman first class Linda Hays and Hospital Corpsman third class Brian Dorman took his vitals.

  His chest was pale and still beaded with water; he was using a hand towel to dry his hair. Dorman asked politely, “Could you be careful not to poke my eyes out with your nipples?” Hyple looked at him and said, “It won’t be my nipples that poke you in the eye.”

  DCFN Hyple was chilled, shivering and in euphoria from the hypothermia. Captain Artimus was still interviewing ENS

  Mulner through her stateroom door which was left ajar as she changed into dry clothing. DC3 Jennifer Hennely came to the officer’s country passageway to report to the captain. The captain was amidst his interview with ensign Mulner, “When you saw the water your first thought wasn’t to call me?” Mulner responded, “No sir! I was trying to figure out how long it would take to flood the ship; then I needed to report it to central control.” The captain replied, “But…why the hell would I have been the furthest thing from your mind?” Mulner said, “I’m almost done changing sir…I’m sure you’re a hero…but I don’t believe you have superpowers.” DC3 Hennely interjected,

  “Captain she’s probably putting her bra on. I’m supposed to

  report the dewatering is nearing completion and it appears the fire pump caused the flooding.” Artimus glanced at Jennifer’s chest with a pause and rubbed his bottom lip with his index finger in contemplation. He then replied, “What about the two that nearly drown?” She said, “They didn’t say anyone had nearly drown…” The captain responded, “Check with medical and tell your chief I’ll need that for the record.”

  Jennifer darted down into medical and saw Hyple on the table coughing into a hand towel and rubbing his nose. Jennifer blurted out, “I heard you drowned…?” Hyple took her by the wristed and said romantically, “No…Lyon may have…but I’m still here.” Jennifer looked him in the eyes, then at her wrist that he was holding and then at the bulge in his dungaree pants. She gasped with a cringe and look over at HM1 Hays and said,

  “Linda…what did you give him!?” Hyple let go of her wrist and wiped his face with the hand towel. Dorman said, “Didn’t you just blow your nose on that towel?” Hyple glared at him thinking, ‘you cock blocking bastard!’ but he said, “Ya, I did.” and then tossed the towel in Dorman’s face. Hennely said,

  “You’ll be fine just don’t get excited.”

  In the forward engine room Washam was at the bilge pump controller looking over at the suction gauge waiting to see the suction drop off. Over the 2JV amplifier came the word,

  “Forward, Central…status of forward pump room?” Washam grabbed the 2JV mic on the lower level of the forward engine room and keyed it, “You got anyone down there?” Central control responded, “No, that’s why I’m calling you.” Washam replied, “I haven’t lost suction yet…that’s all I know.”

  Hyple had changed into dry clothes and went back to central, he was provided a sounding tape from the oil lab, another clip board and a fresh log sheet. Chief Pete said, “You’ll

  need to start your rounds in forward pump room, good job.”

  Hyple smiled and replied, “Thanks.” Then he headed to forward pump room and resumed his rounds.

  DC3 Hennely was back at the machine shop and heading aft and down one deck to the Hull technician store room to help find more flex pipe. As she arrived HT1 Hefter was shifting the stock material around, trying to get past pipes and valves and rods to the flex pipe buried beneath the other raw materials of his trade. ‘Turd chasers’ they were sarcastically called. The most frequent tasks they tended to was unclogging the sewage system.

  On no less than three occasions he had been called upon to remove shower towels and even men’s briefs from the sewage piping to unclog it within the past six months. It seems some areas of the country still relied on out hoses and the restriction as to what can be sent down the commode was still a difficult matter for some to understand.

  Hefter asked, “You working with me Jenn?” Hennely responded, “Ya…how bad is it?” Hefter replied, “Lyon told me that flex pipe was bubbled, so I told the Div-O and he said to hold off. Now it looks like I may be an HT two.” Hennely said,

  “Lyon will tell the Captain.” Hefter responded, “All Lyon knows is I said I would handle it and didn’t; and he and Hyple nearly drowned.” Hennely reassured Hefter, “Lyon’s chiefs are like our officers, he’ll understand.” Hefter coughed out, “Don’t sweat it…it’s a guy thing.”

  As the pump was being repaired C.I.C. was getting the satellite communications up and running. Manuals and procedures, circuit cards and tools were strewn across the space and the operational specialist were sitting cross legged indian style on the deck like some disobedient kindergarten class finally brought to order. Athena asked, “Does anyone have card

  three six one seven four four twelve tac nine?” as she read the part number out. A voiced called out from behind the console,

  “Go fish.” Athena replied with a laugh, “I’m pretty sure that’s what I’m doing.” ET1 Spaclavia asked, “Why don’t they just put these things in Nintendo cartages?”

  At that moment a seagull blew out to sea by the recent storm landed on the superstructure and found a warm place to rest. The sea gently rolled and the word was passed, “Dinner for the crew.”
The crew gathered in the mess line for their meal, midday meal being ‘dinner’ and evening meal being ‘supper’; which was a semantic pointed out to new sailors usually followed by saying, “…but, the breakfast is pretty good.”

  As the sailors ate their lunch the ship changed course to rendezvous with and auxiliary oiler ship for underway replenishment. The oiler was a full days steam from the USS

  Paul F Foster’s position, and had to divert due to weather extending the distance and making the rendezvous and refueling critical or we would run out of fuel on the open waters.

  Mr. Mormus dined in his stateroom with Ens. Mulner. As they dinned they discussed the investigation they were going to conduct on the ship. Mulner said, “I hate to rule anyone out so early, but certain members of the crew that have been very violent in the past have been just too busy to be involved in any coercion.” Mormus chuckled and asked, “Who are you afraid to rule out?” Mulner said, “Honestly, I think Auxiliaries division has let the slang name for their department to go their heads…I mean ‘A-Gang’? But, the engineers have been very busy.”

  Mormus replied, “I believe that’s exactly where they are rooted.”

  Mulner said, “Well Elper for example, he falls into social cliques quickly and would love to be regarded as a bad ass, but

  just had to deal with a ruptured pipe in Aux one and all the other discrepancies in material condition. Lyon had to deal with that as well and with the flooding in forward pump room. He was on a tender before this ship and he hates it here but he is also way too busy.” Mormus replied, “Lyon carries work lists in the waist his coveralls that he generates and I’ve seen how he responds to his shop when they throw a tantrum. I know why he hates it here, but he is more likely to threaten their lives if they don’t do the job right rather than demand protection money or sell drugs.” Mulner said, “Drugs?” Mormus said, “Something is driving this. We have top performers that save the day here and it’s been a tough couple of months, they make themselves hero’s and when we go to complement them they tell us to fuck off.”

  Mulner replied, “Isn’t that just the F.T.N. guys?” Mormus looked at her as he finished chewing his food, he swallowed and said, “You mean like Lyon?” Mulner looked surprised and drank her bug juice then said, “Well no I mean the ones that won’t work and hate the navy.” Mormus rubbed at his right eye and said, “I’ve been in the navy a while…and I never have seen one of those.”

  In Aux. one senior chief Rickly was putting away tool inventory sheets and headed up to the chiefs mess for lunch. As he walked down the passage way a small group of blue shirts stood talking, two of his were there EN3 Zanes and EN3 Elper.

  Zanes looked near to the point of rage and Elper was laughing a subtle laugh they were toe to toe with one of the gunner’s mates and one of the Firecontrolmen. Rickly let out a loud startling cough from behind the combat systems pair and the enginemen were also caught unaware.

  Rickly looked at the two enginemen, “Have you eaten yet?” he asked. “Ya.” they replied. The two Combat systems

  personnel said, “No. We’re headed there now.” Rickly replied with a big pleasant smile, “Okay.” as they left and Zanes and

  Eplers started to walk away Rickly blocked their path by slamming his fist up against the wall and said with a great deal of restraint, “I want to know from you two what that was.” Elper said, “Nothing…” like a young boy caught messing around in the school yard. Rickly responded, “Get your heads back in the game, the whole chiefs mess has been looking at all of you guys.

  These whispering conversations look like god damn drug deals and some of the more junior guys have been pissed of enough to kill since before the flight deck bullshit with the captain.” Zanes gave a reassuring wave of his hands at waist level and said, “It’s nothing chief, we’re not allowed to say.” Elper said, “We’re handling it…we can’t say, but we’re handling it the same way you would.” Rickly’s face turned bright red for a moment and then he said remorsefully, “You better be.” and he continued into the chiefs mess.

  As the crew ate their meals on the enlisted mess deck there were darting looks from table to table. The mess decks were unusually silent; the crew had been pitted against each other in a series of political schemes. From my position on the ship it seemed to be an exercise in absurdity, fighting for control of a chaos hurricane they had lost their sense of security so they tried to control every social aspect they could manipulate and it all came down like a house of cards. The one thing that drove me crazy was how so many half-witted schemes could be plotted at the same time by so many people in different social cliques.

  Then I realized the destroyer squadron staff’s role was

  “Instigator”. It seems they had some ridiculous notion of finding the navy’s first ‘five point oh’ sailor. Navy personnel evaluations had been changed adding an additional point from

  ‘four point zero’ to five; the evaluation system was actually left to being pass or fail anything over a two point zero was passing.

  Any sailor given lower than two point zero was substandard and the management would have to site themselves as having failed as well. Left with a substandard sailor too long and your

  ‘Fitrep’s’ would drop. The officers and their fitness reports, the enlisted with their evaluations and both fell into simple pass or fail so it is the system its self that failed. On the new ‘five point oh’ system this was to be avoided the navy announced the first five point zero sailor would be held up to the entire navy as an example; and for a fair amount of scrutiny.

  The schemes running onboard seemed to start off as just harassment and retaliation, but then led into outright sabotage.

  Now on the mess decks everyone had a chance to begin to suspect the persons targeting them as well as who their accomplices would be, and what bizarre social dynamic was driving the chaos. Glances exchanged were mind boggling a sailor gives the nod of trust to another, that then in turn looks to their cohort and nods with trust resulting in that first sailor terrified that they are in the wrong clique and have become fodder for destruction.

  There was a cough on the mess decks some sailor had a cold, as nearly every crew member there flinched and reached for a weapon of one kind or another I laughed and pointed it out and then said, “What’s that napkin holder going to do for you dude?...seriously, your all such a bunch of back stabbers you’d all kill each other for a navy achievement medal and when she coughed everyone reached for their knives or something in their pocket and you reach for a napkin holder…haha” It was

  Firecontrolmen second class Ecky. Ecky broke out into a sweat and teared up a little and said, “Well, I could throw it.” after he

  said that the laughter that broke out was downright satanic. After

  I made the assertion that these games had been exposed I glanced around the mess decks and noticed some where smiling…they’re finally going to get help with all the harassment they’ve been through, Others were looking to each other in distress with an expression that seemed to communicate

  ‘we’re gonna’ die!’ I pointed that out to the whole crew there on the mess decks in the hope that my bluff would work; I had no idea why they were attacking each other. Athena coughed and then said to the whole crowd, “Oh sorry, don’t kill anybody.”

  Mulner and the X.O. were still trying to determine the access points for investigation and dinning in the X.O.’s stateroom. Mr. Mormus said, “I know the electrician’s mates are involved somehow.” Ensign Mulner replied, “Not everyone that doesn’t play dungeons and dragons are just the devils idle hands sir.” Mormus gave a hearty laugh and Mulner joined him in a giggle-fest followed by Mr. Mormus regaining his composure and saying as seriously as he could manage, “Yes, they are.”

  The ship began rocking a little more as its profile in the winds and seas were changed by the chow reliefs. On the bridge the captain poked his head in asking, “Is everything alright?”

  Mr. Deckly the deck division offi
cer was standing officer of the deck and replied, “Ya.” Ms. Clarkson had the conning officer watch and she replied, “Situation normal all forward.” Artimus smiled and starred first straight into her soul through her eyes daring it to utter another word then right at her breast and said,

  “That’s not how that goes.” Clarkson turned around and checked her bra, Deckly noticed and laughed saying to her, “The phrase is, situation normal all fucked up.” The Captain just glanced around at the bridge watches ensuring he made eye contact and

  headed back to his stateroom. Ensign Clarkson watches as waves crossed the bow crashing about a third of the way across the ship from the starboard side toward the port side and said, “I love that this is where we serve our country, but why do the seas get worse every time we take the watch?” Deckly said, “This is why they call it the raging main” Clarkson stepped out on to the port side bridge wing and took off her ball cap and let down her shoulder length brunet hair and let the wind blow through hair locks. She smiled the ecstatic smile of a girl in love, the wind at sea does this to women and while they don’t join the navy for it, it is why they stay in. Deckly walked over to the starboard side bridge chair, the Captain’s chair and climbed up into it, on experience he knew not to watch Clarkson on the bridge wing.

  He took out his keys and fumbled through them. The helm watch relaxed as the rocking of the ship lulled them to a misty comfortable place in their minds. The blue sky was streaked with long white flat clouds and the gusts of wind were tolerable like a spring day on the beach, as the ship cut the winds and tides at an other than desirable meter.

  In Aux two the work bench tool cabinet slung open and spanner wrenches and cans of penetrating oil and graphite grease tumbled out and rolled across the diamond deck plates and one of the cans of graphite grease fell into the bilge. From the main deck passage way near the ships store the hull could be heard creaking again.