by Lee West
He continued his slow progress across the room until reaching the door. The heavy door opened easily to the dark hallway. The only light in the hall came from the emergency exit signs and fluorescent green arrows used to point toward the exits. The ship’s power was clearly not on. Brett wondered what tomorrow would bring and how they would get off the ship. Moving his way back into the room, he carefully and slowly walked toward Nancy. The ship continued to roll under his feet, impeding his progress.
“I have bad news for you. Only a few of the auxiliary lights work in the hall.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Only two of the exit signs are illuminated. That means that even the ship’s auxiliary system took a hit,” he said with a tired sigh.
“And our cells don’t work, as in they won’t turn on. Both of them are completely dead. So what are we to do? Just bob around out here until the coasties come and ‘rescue us’? Of all the places to be during this, why here?”
The ship bobbed in the water, swaying port and starboard with the gentle swells. A feeling of hopelessness started to overtake Brett. He knew he needed to keep it together for Nancy’s sake.
“Well, I suggest we fill up our water bottles and get some rest,” he said, stroking her arm.
“Rest? How can we rest now? The world might have ended.”
“Nothing has ended. We just need to figure out what’s happening. Tomorrow we’ll know more. You’ll see, the ship’s captain will come out and let us know what’s going on and when the ship will get fixed. It’ll all be fine.”
“I’ll remind you that you said that when we’re living in a FEMA tent.”
“We’re not going to be living in a FEMA tent. The government would be better off hitting the ship with a missile than trying to rescue us and transport everyone to the tents,” he said with a playful smile. “Come on, you have to be frozen. Let’s get some rest and see what tomorrow brings.”
He took Nancy’s hand, helping her to her feet and through the slider into the cabin.
“Alright. I guess you’re right. We need to see what happens tomorrow. Maybe everything will be fine and I’m overreacting. I doubt it, but who knows, it might be fine. Either way, I’m exhausted.”
“You get settled. I’m going to grab the telescope and binoculars,” he said.
The slider closed behind Nancy, leaving Brett outside alone. Breaking down the telescope and placing it into its case took him no time. They had done it so many times in the past, especially in the dark, that he could do it with his eyes closed if needed. He took one last view of the spectacular night sky and its clear reflection in the water before joining Nancy in the cabin.
— 5 —
Joe tossed and turned in bed. Normally, he slept very well. For the most part, he’d lie down and then not be awake again until morning. Even his dreams never woke him and completely eluded his waking mind. Tonight was different somehow, and he couldn’t figure out why. He had a bad feeling that something had happened, but he couldn’t pinpoint what that something could be. Meg breathed deeply beside him, unaware of his struggles.
Turning over again, he finally figured it out. The ship was lolling through the sea. They were rolling with the swells as though the fin stabilizers weren’t working. The only time he’d experienced this sense of drift at sea was during the engineering casualty drills on board the carrier he had been attached to for four years. Something was wrong. There was no way a cruise ship full of passengers would conduct such a drill while underway. He assumed they did such drills during the off-season or when repositioning, not with vacationers on board.
Slowly pulling himself up and out of the covers, he tried to make as little movement as possible so as not to wake Meg. She had mild seasickness; the rolling of the ship would probably really bother her. The dark cabin seemed foreboding and full of obstacles. Making his way to the bathroom, he stepped in and gently closed the door behind him. His hand clawed at the wall, trying to find the light switch. Finally he felt it and flicked it to the on position. Nothing happened.
Exiting the bathroom, he felt his way against the wall until he could feel the door to their cabin and yank it open. Part of him knew there would be nothing to see in the hallway. Part of him hoped he was wrong. As expected, the halls were dark except for a couple of the exit signs. The ship’s entire electrical generator must be down, leaving the auxiliary power trying to kick out wattage. The ship rolled harder, this time to its port side, causing him to hit the frame of the door. Depending on the location of the ship, they would be either feeling swells from the sea or the currents from the entrance to the channel leading to Port Lorraine. In either case, they shouldn’t be feeling anything if the ship’s fin stabilizers were working.
“Joe? You there?” said Meg from the dark cabin.
“Yes, I’m here,” he said, closing the door quietly.
“I don’t feel so good. My stomach is flipping. What’s going on? Why are we moving so much? Are they speeding up or something?”
He moved back to the bed as quickly as he could to be near her as panic suddenly hit him. “I don’t know what’s happening, but I think something happened to the ship’s main electrical generators,” he said, kissing the top of her head as he slid into bed next to her.
“What do you mean? What could have caused it?”
“I don’t know, but usually, the ship has these fin stabilizers going so that every time a swell hits the ship on one of its sides, the stabilizer fires on the opposite side, creating the feeling of equilibrium. On huge ships like this, they have a lot of those stabilizers working so that the ride is smooth, but they don’t seem to be working now.”
“I think I’m going to be sick,” she said, getting up from the bed.
He couldn’t see Meg but knew she was trying to make her way to the bathroom in the dark room.
“Oh, yeah, and the power is out. We have no lights, so be careful.”
The ship rolled to the starboard side, causing his stomach to lurch. Meg gagged loudly as she scratched against the wall, feeling her way.
“Wait. Let me help you.” He got up and made his way to her.
They made steady progress along the wall until getting to the bathroom door.
“I’ve got this. There are some things I need to do alone,” she said, walking through the door.
“You won’t be able to see the toilet, so just hold the rim with both hands and shoot in between your palms,” he said as she slammed the door behind her.
Seconds later Meg hurled violently into the toilet, or rather he hoped she managed to hit the toilet. After several minutes of steady vomiting, things seemed to settle down and then restart as the ship continued to bob in the sea.
“You okay?” he yelled to her.
“NO! I’m sick and I can’t see anything. I think I got vomit in my hair.”
“I’m coming in, like it or not.”
Joe helped her to her feet in the small bathroom and ran the shower. He knew it would be a matter of time before they’d lose water pressure, so he wanted to help her wash and flush before that happened.
“Come on, you need to rinse off,” he said, yanking off her T-shirt.
She seemed limp and pliable in his arms as he fumbled to undress her.
“I don’t know how long the water pressure will last, so get in and out as quick as you can so it doesn’t turn off when you’re all soaped up.”
Joe turned on the shower and waited for it to heat. As expected, the water’s pressure was sluggish and then trickled to a stop just as she finished rinsing.
“Come on, let’s get some rest. You should be fine now that your stomach is empty.”
“I think fine is relative at this point. I feel like I could puke at any moment.”
“Don’t worry, I can’t imagine the ship will stay like this for long. You’ll see, in the morning, everything will be back to normal.”
Lying in bed holding Meg, Joe’s mind moved in a dozen different directions,
trying to figure out what had happened. The ship’s systems were run by complex circuit boards that required very little from the ship’s crew on a daily basis. But he knew from his time in the Navy that if things went wrong, they went really wrong. That was why the Navy did so many simulations and damage-control drills. The crew needed to be prepared in case something catastrophic happened. According to the information on the ship, the vessel was registered in Denmark and its crew was from all over the world. Questions of whether the ship and its crew were as prepared as a U.S. military ship would be in a similar situation concerned Joe as he tossed and turned, seeking sleep.
— 6 —
Mike wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, trying to wake up. After leaving his shift at the bar last night, he had gone straight to his room for a shower, snack and then right to sleep. However, around three in the morning, just after he fell into a deep sleep, the crew alarms went off, alerting him to report immediately to his damage-control station. He and his roommate, Raj, a cook from India, were to report directly to their muster station for orders.
Mike was assigned to a muster station that would help passengers assemble at the lifeboats. As he moved through the cramped crew spaces toward the meeting spot, Mike became increasingly concerned that something was actually wrong with the ship. The captain conducted drills every so often while passengers were on board. The exercises only involved the crew and were conducted belowdecks, in the crew portion of the ship. The passengers never knew about the exercises, but the crew knew about the exercises well in advance. However, tonight, the passageways were all dark except for a few of the red lights to illuminate their path. Their drills never involved darkened hallways. The safety of the crew depended on their ability to see where they were going.
He made slow progress toward his muster station located at the crew galley on deck four. Walking into the galley, he realized that more people were there than should have been, as though several sections were lumped together.
“What’s going on?” he said, turning to a chambermaid.
“Don’t know. They told us to join another section. I’m not sure why,” she said.
“Maybe it’s because the ship is dark and it’s too dangerous to make it farther along the decks?” said another one of the housekeeping staff.
The crew sat waiting for orders. Mike could see the tired, strained looks on their faces and knew most were likely thinking the same thing: that something was really wrong with the ship. The stuffy room seemed to get even smaller as more weary and confused people poured into the makeshift muster station. One red light in the corner of the room glowed, lending a macabre feel to the space.
“Okay, listen up! Can I get your attention!” yelled one of the officers.
The man stood near the food line in his stark white uniform. The officers always looked clean and well rested in Mike’s estimation. Tonight was no different, although Mike could see the strain on the man’s face. He was clearly nervous about their situation.
“The captain asked me to update you on the situation. You probably already figured out something is wrong with the ship. We have lost our main generators and are using the auxiliary ones, which were completely offline when everything started happening,” he said with a shaky voice.
“What happened to cause this?” yelled someone from the back.
“We don’t know. All we know right now is that we have a ship full of people who will need to be calmed and cared for. The captain asks that everyone continue to do their jobs as usual and try their best to soothe the passengers.”
“Are we getting into port at the usual time?” yelled Mike.
Seeing his family in a few hours was the only thing Mike cared about. The ship would get fixed eventually; seeing Sharon and the kids couldn’t wait.
The officer looked down at his shoes and shifted uncomfortably. “No. We have lost communications with Port Lorraine. Unless we’re able to radio ahead and coordinate our approach, we won’t be able to pull into port. As you all know, docking this beast relies on the harbormaster sending out the pilot boat to guide us. Unless we have that, we can’t pull in.”
An audible groan moved through the crowd as the reality of the situation set in. Each member of the crew began to chatter with his or her neighbor, causing the noise volume in the space to crescendo to a loud roar.
“Captain is hopeful we’ll be able to contact the port shortly.”
“Why can’t we reach them? What’s happening?” shouted a panicked person near the front.
“We don’t know. The comms problem does not seem to be on our end. We have backup systems that seem to be working, but no one from the port is answering. Neither is the Coast Guard.”
The crowd erupted in tense side conversations. The entire room seemed to be building to a frenzied state as the officer lost control. Mike wondered if the young man had divulged more of their situation than he was supposed to. Looking around the room, he knew there was no way the crew would be able to put on a calm face for the passengers. In time the crew’s panic would spill over to the passengers, causing an intolerable situation.
“Attention! Attention!” yelled the officer.
Eventually the group settled, allowing the man to speak again.
“We’re doing everything we can to get into port. The captain will continue to update the crew as the situation unfolds. Right now we need everyone to be ready to face the passengers with calm professionalism. Each and every one of you needs to be ready to answer questions from our guests. You’re only to tell them that there is an issue in port and we’re waiting for clearance to dock. In a few hours the captain will make an announcement advising the passengers of the situation. We need to keep them as calm as possible.”
Turning to the guy next to him, Mike said, “Great, he gets to make a quick, cheery announcement, and we have to field all of the questions. That figures.”
The man nodded in agreement, a look of astonishment on his face.
“For now, everyone should go back to their rooms and try to get some rest. In a few hours our guests will be moving around the ship, needing our guidance and leadership. I know this crew is capable of getting us through this.”
Getting up from his seat, Mike looked around the room for one of his friends. Catching sight of Frank in the back of the room, he waved, trying to get the man’s attention. Frank had been in the Navy for his entire career. When he retired, he’d missed the sea so much he decided to work on a cruise ship because of the seafaring lifestyle. Mike knew Frank would have a handle on their situation.
“Hey, man! How’re you holding up?” asked Mike as his friend approached.
“Shit’s hit the fan, my friend. Never seen anything like it. We’re screwed,” said Frank in his no-nonsense Navy way.
“No kidding. What do you think happened?”
“Well, if this were a warship, I’d say we were hit with something. In our case, I’m going with an EMP that fried the ship’s circuits,” said Frank in a low voice.
“An EMP? I thought that was just sci-fi stuff. Geez. You really think so?”
“What else could have taken out the ship’s systems and knocked out the mainland’s communications? This is something big. We think we have it bad, who knows what’s happening on shore.”
Mike’s mind reeled. He had been so focused on getting into port for his day off that he never considered that Sharon and the kids might be going through something similar. “Holy shit. If you’re right…”
“If I’m right, there’s gonna be food shortages, rioting and looting within days. You remember what happened in New Orleans. Just think about the entire U.S. being like that. Things won’t be much better for us. The ship will run out of food in a day or two. We were due to restock in port. There’s no way the captain can just keep us floating around out here indefinitely.”
“What do you think he’ll do?”
“My guess, he’ll give it a day or so and then seek another port. Maybe head out to the islands fo
r shelter. We’re basically sitting ducks out here just bobbing around. It won’t be safe for us to just stay here indefinitely.”
“My God, Sharon and the kids. I need to get to them. She’s all alone out there trying to care for herself and the kids. There’s no way she’ll be able to handle this without me.”
Mike spoke in a familiar way to Frank about Sharon and the kids because over the years, Frank had become part of their family. They had invited Frank over to their home numerous times over the years, always including him in holidays and major events like birthdays. Frank had no real family in the area and was Mike’s best friend on the ship. Mike and Sharon considered Frank to be family. They even changed their wills to have him be the guardian for their kids since neither one of them completely trusted their families.
“Look, calm down. I could be wrong. I say we give this a day and see what happens. I have no intention of starving to death on this tin can. I’d rather take my chances at home. My friends Smith and Wesson will be there to help,” said Frank with a sly smile.
“You planning on swimming for it? I hate to break it to you, but you don’t strike me as the kind of guy who could swim to shore,” said Mike, glancing at Frank’s ample physique.
“Hey now. The ladies love this belly. It’s a real magnet!” said Frank, rubbing his round stomach.
“Just saying, man. How do you plan to get away from the ship?”
“I’ll pop out one of the lifeboats and make a run for it,” said Frank conspiratorially.
“Now you’re just talking crazy. You know how much trouble you’d be in if you did that?”
“Yeah, maybe. But still, it’s better than rotting on this ship. Besides, if things are as bad on shore as I suspect, it will be a long time before anyone comes looking for me for stealing a lifeboat. I’m willing to take my chances.”
“Are you serious?”
“That depends on how things unfold. I plan to wait and see what happens. If the ship starts to move back out to sea, I can’t see waiting around. In the meantime, I plan to head down to engineering to get the scoop. Someone down there will tell me exactly what’s happening. Once I know more, I’ll come topside and we can talk.”