by Lee West
“Thanks very much for the invite. We’ll see how the evening progresses for us,” said Meg, smiling.
Meg had no intention of going to their room and knew Joe would never go. However, Nancy and Brett seemed so sincere and kind that she wanted to appear more engaged than Joe. He merely sat staring off into space whenever they talked about stargazing or government conspiracies. Eating dinner with Brett and Nancy for the past five nights had exposed her to more conspiracy theories than she thought possible. Even Joe’s brother, Jeff, an end-of-the-world survivalist, had nothing on Nancy’s conspiracy theories. The woman was possibly the most paranoid person Meg had ever met.
***
Later that evening, stuffed full of rum and chocolate, Meg and Joe walked along one of the upper decks. The strong evening sea breeze gave Meg a chill. She pulled her sparkly shawl around her bare shoulders and snuggled closer to Joe. Somehow he was always warm despite their surroundings. The noise from the various bars and restaurants receded as they moved along the length of the ship to a quiet, cozy corner.
“I’m so stuffed even though I saved plenty of room for dessert at dinner. The chocolate buffet was amazing! I have never seen so much dessert in one place. And the chocolate fountain—wow. I could have dipped strawberries in that all night. I’m not sure how I’ll get back to eating normally. All of the food we’ve eaten on this trip has put me into a type of holiday-eating food frenzy,” she said.
“That’ll end pretty quick once we have to make and clean up our own food. Nothing kills culinary ambition more than the thought of cleaning the kitchen afterward. If we ever go on another cruise, remind me to see if we can pay extra to eat at one of those small two-person tables. I don’t think I could endure another vacation with a couple like that. You know I have no intention of going to Brett and Nancy’s room, right?” asked Joe.
“I know. I just felt bad for them. They’re so geeky in such a sweet way.”
“Geeky is the right word. I never saw two people more into a hobby than those two.”
“I think it’s sort of sweet. They love stargazing. It’s nice. We should have a hobby.”
“You’re my hobby. Doesn’t that count?” said Joe, turning to kiss her.
They kissed and enjoyed the last few minutes of the night air, knowing this would be their last vacation for a while.
“I think we’re lucky to have never run into them near our room. They’re in 1247; I think that’s just down the hall from us,” he said.
“Well, after tomorrow we won’t ever see Brett or Nancy again, so maybe we should go to their cabin for a ‘real treat,’ as Brett said,” she said, smiling.
“I’ve got a real treat planned for you in our room,” he whispered in her ear.
Smiling coyly, she pulled him toward the staircase that would lead them one deck down to their stateroom.
— 3 —
Mike Jensen wiped down the bar top and put away the clean glasses, setting up the Starlight bar for tomorrow’s crew. Not every bartender did this for fellow servers. Some of the guys would leave the place a mess, too busy to get off their shift to be considerate of the next person. Mike never left the workstation in disarray after his shift. He had been bartending for as long as he could remember. It had been the only job that he was both good at and enjoyed.
Finding the position on the cruise ship allowed him to make more than he would on dry land, in addition to visiting exotic ports. Before getting married, he traveled with the ship on their long repositioning cruises across the Atlantic, before the ship settled into its European port visit schedule.
The repositioning cruises lasted nearly twenty days, and often felt longer than that. With fewer passengers than the shorter, more local cruise voyages, the ship didn’t have the same busy vibe. People didn’t seem to want to be on the ship for so long with nothing to see but vast stretches of ocean. He developed a sense of awe for the vastness of the ocean during those cruises. He also fell in love.
It was on one of those cruises that he met Sharon, his wife of eight years. He would never forget the first time he heard Sharon singing. She was playing at the small piano bar outside one of the specialty dining rooms. As expected, the crowd was thin, but Sharon seemed to be playing for herself, not an audience. At one point, when no one was there, he brought her a drink, figuring she would need it after using her voice for so long. When they locked eyes for the first time, he knew they’d be together forever.
After the repositioning cruise, Sharon returned to the States while he continued on the ship for the summer European voyages. They stayed in touch through very costly Internet video chats and emails. Upon his return to the States, they decided to move in together. A year later, they were married, and eight years later, they had two children. Mike couldn’t be happier. They decided that he would continue to work the cruise ship job for at least another few years because the benefits for the family were so good. His goal was to become a teacher, leaving the bar scene behind him.
Mike took one or two online college classes per semester. His progress toward his teaching degree was very slow, but it didn’t really matter. He’d get there eventually and then find a job on dry land so they could live together as a family. The time at sea gave him a deep appreciation for people on active duty serving in the armed forces. Those families not only dealt with the frequent separations, but they also were moved around from one duty station to another. After trying to keep his family together over the past few years, since their son was born, he knew how hard it must have been for military families.
Turning to the clock for the hundredth time in the last fifteen minutes, he realized that he only had another thirty minutes until he could end his shift and get some rest. He intended to be as rested as possible for his family time. Their three-year-old was a handful, and the baby took more energy than he ever thought possible from such a little bundle. Sharon handled things with the kids really well. She seemed happy to have left the stage to take care of them. Instead of performing nightly, as she had done before having kids, she now only performed for private parties and gave lessons in their home. As a talented pianist, Sharon was able to more than adequately make up her income through small performances and private lessons—on her own terms.
Tomorrow they planned to take the kids to the park in the hopes of tiring out their son. Sharon would bring a picnic, and the family would spend a few hours at the park and then go home for naptime. Those days were precious to him. As long as the ship pulled into Port Lorraine on time, everything should go as planned.
Generally, the ship made it to port when scheduled. Passengers relied on its timeliness to book flights and arrange for pickups, so the cruise line made every effort to dock when scheduled. In all of his years traveling with the ship, they had only pulled into a port late once due to another ship departing late. Not a bad record. Smiling, Mike whistled a quick tune and checked the clock again—he was less than twelve hours from seeing his family. He kissed his fingers and touched the photo of Sharon and the kids that he had taped to the cash register.
— 4 —
Brett Marshall leaned into the telescope and adjusted dials until the image of the sky clarified. He and his wife, Nancy, had been amateur astronomers for the past twenty years. Their hobby took them to dark locations all over the world—their travel almost always revolving around an astrological event. As members of multiple astronomy clubs, there was always an advertisement for another trip.
The trick was not spending all of their salaries and time on these outings. Although Brett wouldn’t care if they did choose to allocate more of their resources to their hobby, Nancy, on the other hand, seemed to have a better sense of how to skillfully spend on their expensive leisure pursuits, while also looking toward saving for the future.
“Just another second and then I’ll let you in,” said Brett.
“Take your time. This is a long event; we’ll have at least another hour of viewing. Besides, I’m doing pretty good with these binoculars.�
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Years ago they had invested in a set of high-powered specialty binoculars so that they could travel easier. It made more sense to only bring one large telescope and a second smaller one in the form of the binoculars. If they weren’t flying to a dark location, they would bring all three of their “eyes on the sky,” but if flying, they’d only bring the smaller of the telescopes.
“It’s so beautiful. I feel like this meteorite shower is one of the best we’ve ever seen. Or maybe it’s being at sea that’s making it so spectacular,” she said.
“I agree. Being out here for this one was a stroke of genius. I have to give you credit where credit is due.”
“I just couldn’t take the idea of spending four days on the ground in Montana, eating dried astronaut food and pooping in a hole. Not again. As I get older, I feel like I need more comfort and amenities,” she said with the binoculars to her face.
“Wow! Did you see that?”
“Sure did. It was spectacular.”
Brett stood up in order to switch spots with Nancy. The ship swayed effortlessly to the movement of the inky black sea beneath them. The stars shone on the dark water, mirroring those in the heavens, creating the effect of being in deep space.
Nancy settled in behind the telescope and adjusted its dials. “We can switch again. I think we’re getting close to the intense part of the shower anyway.”
“I agree, things are picking up. How do you think your mother is faring with Rudy?”
“Not sure, really. Rudy is an easy dog, but you know my mother. Nothing is easy for her. I can only imagine the list of complaints we’ll get from her about his behavior.”
“I think your mom is still a little bitter about Rudy being the only grandkid she’ll ever have.”
Brett and Nancy were both college professors. Brett taught English and Nancy taught sociology. They enjoyed their time off, traveling the world. After watching their friends have kids, the thought scared Brett to death. He knew he didn’t want to be hampered in any way. The day Nancy finally worked up the courage to admit that she felt the same way had relieved him. Freed from the pressure of having children, they enjoyed life to the fullest. Family was important to them, but from a distance—not spilling drinks and chips on the couch between them.
Looking through the binoculars was not as bad as Brett imagined it would be on board. The ship moved very little, minimizing the amount of shaking his hands did while viewing the sky. This evening, the ship moved even smoother through the sea, having slowed its speed considerably. Nancy thought the speed reduction was to keep the passengers on the ship busy spending money in the casino and the bars instead of spending an extra day in port, as they clearly could have done.
“Wait, what is that? Did you see that?” she asked, pulling herself closer to the telescope.
“See what? Where?” he said.
“Look to the southwest horizon at seventy degrees.”
As Brett turned in his chair, refocusing on the area Nancy directed, a large orange orb appeared in the dark sky. The orb grew larger and larger until an entire section of the sky shone orange.
“This is crazy!” he said.
“What the hell is that?” she asked as she feverishly moved the telescope, trying to get a better view.
“I have no idea, a supernova maybe? Or a collision of two meteorites?”
The orange glow in the sky slowly faded until nothing remained except darkness—all over the ship. The only remaining light came from the stars and the moon’s glow. The normally smooth-moving ship rolled to the port side, catching Nancy off guard and pushing her into the railing. She quickly regained her balance, righting herself on the chair. She stood their for a moment, steadying herself, when the ship tilted to the starboard side, pushing her against their chairs.
“What’s going on?” said Brett.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we saw a huge flash and now the ship is dark—and feels like we’re adrift. Maybe something about the magnetic effect of the event caused a temporary break in the power, like the effect of an EMP. I just don’t know.”
“I agree. It can’t be a coincidence. I’ve never seen anything like what we just saw out there, and now the ship has no power. Geez. This can’t be good,” said Brett, running a hand through his thinning hair.
“I wish we were closer to port so we could assess what’s happening. I think the big question here is whether the flash affected only seagoing vessels or if the mainland is in a similar blackout,” said Nancy, her voice shaky.
“Good point. Assuming you’re correct that this was some sort of either natural or man-made event causing an EMP—”
Interrupting Brett, Nancy said, “Natural? No way. I’m going for government-issued disaster. Wouldn’t that just suit them? Damned crooks. They generate some sort of disaster and then ‘save us’ by rolling in the troops on U.S. soil. Some senator is getting rich on this, you’ll see. No way this is a natural phenomenon. Shit. What about my mother and Rudy?”
“Just try to settle down. We need more facts. I agree that a man-made disaster is far more likely. However, this could just all blow over. Maybe the ship has some sort of problem that just happened to correspond to the flash? It would have been an odd coincidence, but it’s possible. I think we’ll know more in the morning. Let’s wait and see what happens. Everything might just be fine,” said Brett, trying to reassure her.
Brett stood and moved closer to Nancy. He knew she was right; this was some sort of man-made event. From what he could tell, it seemed very similar to a video he’d watched years ago called Starfish Prime. The government had finally released video footage of a nuclear device they’d detonated over the South Pacific. The event he witnessed seemed to bear an uncanny resemblance to the video, but he couldn’t be certain. For now, he needed to calm Nancy down. She had a way of going from zero to sixty in record time with all of her conspiracy theories. Working in either the sociology or political science department of a major university had a way of doing that to a person. She and all of her colleagues were always talking about government conspiracies and takedowns. It was all he could do to keep her from living in a bunker.
“Well, whatever it was, it’s definitely gone now. I’ll have to text Fred and see if he saw anything. I think he planned to watch tonight’s show at his lake house,” he said.
“Good thinking. I’ll grab the phones. Maybe Susan was watching too. She was supposed to be at the observatory tonight. Maybe she has more information she can share,” she said, going into the dark cabin.
A minute later she emerged with both of their phones.
“I can’t tell you how dark the cabin is. Like, there’s no light whatsoever. You’d think the ship would have some sort of emergency lighting system,” she said, sitting down and handing him his phone.
“Let me check outside. The lights down the hall might be on.”
Brett got up and went inside the pitch-black cabin. Nancy was right, he couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face. He moved slowly, holding the bed and the wall of cabinets to make his way through the room.
“Shit!” he yelled in pain.
“What happened? You okay?”
“Oh fuck, that hurt like a bitch. I caught my toe on the side of the bed. Damn it,” he groaned.
“Try to be more careful!”
“Thanks for the sympathy and advice,” said Brett curtly.
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 swayed in the water, rocking alternately from 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.
