Finally. Signed, sealed and delivered. I had the printouts in my cabin. Now, all I had to do was join Dr. Wilson
and Lee in the Observation Nose and wait.
Wait for Sparks to recieve the message from the Navy and have it brought forward to the Captain. All that remained was
for Lee to accept. I know it was a bit underhanded going about it this way, but knowing Crane's ethics, I doubt he'd
have considered the proposition to skipper Seaview permenantly while still on active status in the Navy. Especially
since he was still technically in command of another boat, scooped off her in the middle of a patrol, for our emergency mission.
I'd known Lee as an Ensign aboard Nautilus. Now, however, he had the added maturity and command experience honed by his
years in the Submarine Service, and his own personal intuition.
Awards, decorations, and Presidential citations seemed to have followed in his wake as his career had progressed. No
doubt there would be another after this.
By now, the events of that near global catastrophy and our part in thwarting it are widely known, a matter of public
record. Back then, however, it was all top secret. And our sucess was due largely to him. Any wonder I wanted to keep him?
And so I joined them in the Nose, just when the Chief came in with a message from the Navy Dept for Crane. Curley was
in it with me, and cast me a knowing wink as he returned to his duties.
Lee was confused. The communique was short, a mere statement. Cmdr. Lee Crane was out of the Navy. That was my cue to
explain he'd have to be to accept the captaincy of Seaview.
Oh, there'd be a few details to iron out,after he'd accepted, such as his demand to be kept on the active roster
of ONI field agents. That was news to me, but not entirely unexpected, he'd had knack for being sneaky, and I'd have to find
out more about his extra curricular activities. But I doubted they'd have much call to use him while he'd be busy with Seaview.
Little did I know his postion with Seaview would find him doing even more agency work. And I'd be fast pulling my hair out
and going gray.
