Nathan Bridger sighed tiredly as he pushed open the door to his cabin.  Sometimes he got the feeling that the various systems on this boat were in collusion to try to drive him crazy.  They certainly had been during the last 48 hours.  It hadn't been bad enough that the weapons system had developed a major malfunction which took down all targeting for the torpedoes but as soon as they'd figured out that little problem the WSKRs started acting up.  He stood for just a moment just inside the door and stared across the room.  As tired as he was, there was still no way he was getting to sleep just now.  It
wasn't just that his mind was still working at 500 MPH but also the emotion of almost losing his communications officer which had him keyed up.

Bridger wandered over to the imager stand in the middle of the room and picked up a book where he kept pictures that were special to him.  Ones he would put in the viewing port.  After thinking about it for a short time he selected one picture and slipped it into the port before activating the imager and turning to his bunk.  He sat on the bunk and slid across it so his back was against the bulkhead before looking up at the image in the smoke.  A soft smile crossed his face as he looked at the woman.  His eyes carefully studied the gentle contours of her face and the glint in her eyes.  The photographer had
caught her at just the right moment.  Slightly unguarded but not really surprised.  The warmth she felt towards the person with the camera was evident in her eyes and their softness spoke volumes about the depth of her heart.  Bridger leaned his head back against the hard bulkhead as he continued watching her image.  Her hair appeared to ruffle and move with the smoke giving her image an almost real quality.  He could feel himself relaxing just looking at her.

A couple of sharp knocks on his door brought him quickly out of his reverie.  He slid across the bed and to the imager as the door opened almost immediately.  "Come in," he said dryly to the boy who breezed into his cabin as he reached hastily for the switch on the imager.

"Oh… Sorry, Cap.  Should I go out again?" Lucas asked sheepishly.

"No, that's okay," Bridger said leaning against the base of the imager.  "What's up?"

"Nothing much," the boy said with a smile.  "I just wanted to make sure that you were alright."

The boy's concern made Nathan smile a little bit more.  "Yeah, I'm alright.  I wasn't the one who got hurt."

Lucas moved over to sit on the end of the Captain's bunk, a place he'd spent many evenings while talking to the older man.  "I know but you looked like you were pretty wound up about the accident."

Bridger moved back to sit on the other end of the bunk.  He dangled one leg off and rested his other foot between them.  "That barely qualified as an accident.  When something is quite as stupid as that it's almost idiocy," he said in a disapproving tone.

"Carson didn't mean to do it," Lucas hedged.

The older man didn't let up on his tone, "Carson never means to do anything he does when he screws up.  He's damned lucky that he didn't get O'Neil killed."  He shook his head.  "Activating the power circuit when O'Neil was working on the system is inexcusable."

"It was an accident," the boy offered.

"Energizing a circuit when it's tagged out is stupidity, not an accident, Lucas.  It's gross inattention to duty.  Thank God that O'Neil had moved just at that moment so that he only got a minor shock.  If he'd still had his hands inside the wiring we could have lost him."

Lucas grinned just a little.  "I think that's the first time I've ever heard Tim swear."

That finally solicited a soft smile from Bridger.  "And he did a pretty good job at it," he chuckled.

"I think he would have given Chief Crocker a run for his money."

Bridger got a little serious again.  "Fortunately burned fingers were the worst of it."  Then he smiled just a little.  "But I wouldn't suggest getting him and Carson in the same room for a little while."

Lucas smiled wanly but then also got serious.  "What's going to happen to Carson?"

"I don't know, Lucas," Bridger said with a frustrated sigh.  "From what I've seen he's an excellent engineman and a good petty officer but this is the third time in the last three months that he's screwed up badly."  The boy nodded.  "Fortunately, it's also the first time he's managed to hurt anyone.  And even more fortunately he didn't manage to kill anyone."

"I don't think he means to, sir," Lucas said hesitantly.

"That's not going to help O'Neil's fingers… or mood."

"No," the boy said softly while he stared at the blanket between them.

"Talk to me, Lucas," Bridger said gently.

The boy glanced up at the older man quickly before returning his eyes to the blanket and he shrugged a little.  "It's just…..," he started hesitantly.

Bridger's voice was still gentle.  "Just what?"

Lucas nibbled on his lip for a moment as he looked back up at Bridger.  "It's just that he might be having some problems at home that are messing up his concentration," the boy offered quietly.

"What kind of problems?"

Lucas just looked at Bridger for a moment before apparently deciding to take the plunge.  He shrugged again.  "Like maybe his mom is really sick and maybe his wife has been telling him that if he didn't get out of the Navy she'd leave him."

Nathan leaned forward on the bed and chewed on the end of his thumb thoughtfully for a moment.  "How come you know about this?"

Once again, Lucas shrugged his shoulders.  "I don't know if I was just in the right place at the right time or if Davy… I mean, Carson, just felt like he could talk to me but he told me about his mom and his wife a couple months ago."

"I see," Nathan said leaning back again.

"And since then he's talked to me every time he gets a message from his wife or he hears anything about his mom."

"Would it help to send him home?" Nathan asked quietly.

"I think it would help a lot, Cap," the boy said earnestly and then he hesitated a second.  "But not if it's done as a punishment.  He really loves being in the Navy.  His wife's big beef is that he's been at sea for four of his last five years."

Nathan rubbed his hand across his eyes.  "Let me talk to him," he said tiredly.  "If what you said is true there's a reason why his attention isn't on his work.  I just wish he'd mentioned it to someone earlier."

"Umm," the boy hesitated again.  "He did."

Bridger rested one elbow on his knee and his chin on his hand and looked impassively over at the boy.  "Who did he tell?" he asked in a worn out voice.

"Lieutenant Travis."

"Why haven't I heard about this?"

"Because Lieutenant Travis told him to quit whining and that sometimes people just had to live with problems when they were in the Navy,"

The captain shook his head.  "That was certainly considerate of him," he said in a slightly sarcastic voice.  "Alright so I've got a petty officer with problems on the home front and a lieutenant who needs major remedial instruction on managing people."

"Sorry, sir," Lucas said apologetically.

Nathan straightened up a little as the boy slid off the bed.  "No, don't be sorry."   Then he looked up at Lucas.  "Thank you for telling me about it."  He saw Lucas' embarrassed little smile.  "My bet is that Carson took you into his confidence and the decision to tell me about it wasn't an easy one."

"No, sir," the boy said with a little shake of his head, "but I thought I'd be serving our friendship better if I let you know about it."

"You're absolutely right," Bridger said sliding off the bed and standing next to the boy.

"You sound awfully tired, sir.  You should go to bed."

"I was working on that when you barged in," the older man said with a little smile.

"Ummm… yeah," Lucas grinned back.  He headed for the door but stopped and turned back with his hand on the handle.  "Did I take that picture?" he asked.

"Which picture?" Bridger asked with a frown.

Lucas motioned towards the imager.  "That one."

Nathan glanced quickly at the imager and then back to the boy with a slightly embarrassed look on his face.  He moved over to the machine and pressed the `on' button.  Almost immediately the smoke within the machine appeared and the picture of Kristin Westphalen formed in the smoke.  "Yeah, you did.  At that picnic where you stole my camera."  He looked at the picture for a few moments.  "Nice job," he said looking over at the boy with a little smile.

Lucas smiled back.  "She's an easy subject."  He shrugged again as he looked at the picture.  "And awfully darned pretty," he said turning again to go out of the door.  "Good night, Cap."

"Good night, kiddo," Bridger called after the boy as the hatch shut.  Then while watching the vision created by the imager he sat back up on the bed.  For a while he just contemplated the picture of Kristin as it played through the smoke.  "The prettiest woman I've ever seen," he said softly.
 
 

<<The End>>