BZT
BZT
Henry sighed. He was really getting over this. He pressed a button on the two way radio.
“Henry here.”
“There’s a problem at the zip line.” The crackly voice responded
“Great.”
Silence.
“Which you are going to sort out.”
“Yes ma’am.”
He clicked the walkie talkie off and walked over to the gleaming glass lift and pressed the button.
Henry tapped his foot and scowled.
The lift doors opened and his plastic smile immediately slapped itself back on his face.
“Morning,” he greeted the guests.
They smiled and nodded at him.
Idiots! Henry thought to himself as the doors closed and the lift started to rise. This ship would be great if it wasn’t for…
BZT
If it wasn’t for …
BZT
For one moment he was tempted to throw the walkie talkie through the glass panels and watch as it sailed through the air and knocked out one of those whiny kids.
“Henry here,” he said. Although it always bugged him that he had to respond with his name. I mean if you buzz for me you don’t get Santa on the line!
“Henry …,” the crackly voice asked
Silence.
“Yes ma’am.”
“.. um, would you join me at the Captain’s table tonight?”
Henry paused. This was getting ridiculous.
“Fine.” Maybe then she would leave him alone.
“Great see you then.”
...
Inwardly Captain Paula Young did a double back flip and landed on her knees, pumped her fists and screamed, “Oh yeh!! He said yes!”
Outwardly the Captain smiled and looked out from the bridge over the cruise ship. This was turning into the best day of her life.
...
This must be the worst day of my life, Billy Bob thought to himself. He would have been surprised to know though that he was, in fact, right. Today was not only the worst day of his life, but also his last.
“Sir, I am First Officer Henry. How can I help you?”
Billy Bob sighed. “Look. This ‘ere buffoon says I cain’t go on the zip line. All I wanna know is why the heck not?”
Henry looked Billy Bob up and down, and side to side for good measure. There was a lot of Billy Bob to see. He struggled to find a diplomatic way …
“Well sir, it’s like this …”
“I’m listenin’”
“I’m not sure that the zip line was designed for someone of your … stature. We wouldn’t want an accident now would we sir – it’s a long drop!”
Billy Bob squinted his eyes up – which was quite an accomplishment for him and snapped, “Are you sayin’ that I’m too fat to fly on that thing fella?”
The plastic smile came out as Henry thought, Of course you’re too fat, you’ll snap the cable and probably take out half the lower decks!
“Sir, be reasonable,” Henry tried to begin.
“Reasonable? I was lookin’ forward to doin’ the zip line, I was. It’s part of me package.”
And then the First Officer had a brainwave.
“Tell you what sir, to make up for it would you like to join me for dinner at the Captain’s table?”
“Would I? Well slap me a sasquatch - that would be grand, that would!” Billy Bob grinned – although the overall effect was like stretching playdough.
Thank goodness that’s over with, Henry thought – prematurely.
“Huh hum.”
He felt a tap on his shoulder and restrained himself from thrusting an elbow backwards.
Henry slowly turned around.
A pencil thin, well, pencil was being a bit generous ... a super thin woman was looking down at him. He was quite impressed considering that he was quite a bit taller than her.
“I say, my good man,” she began. If Billy Bob spoke like an old pick up truck, this woman spoke with a Porsche's voice. “How does one get one of those invites?” She flattered her eyelids, falsely believing it was charming. It looked more like two butterflies trying to take off from her head.
Henry gritted his teeth.
“Well …”
“Mum, I’m going for another go!”
A red haired girl raced past.
“Fiona,” the thin snobby lady called out to her but the girl had run ahead, leapt out and grabbed the zip line and was hooting as she flew over the large atrium and across to the other side of the ship.
“Sorry about that. My daughter Fiona has a lot to learn. Oh good gracious, where are my manners. I am Countess Davina von Snott” She held out a gloved hand.
“Glad to meet you ma’am. Look, about your request. We don’t usually invite anyone …”
“But I heard you just invite that … that …”
“Gentleman. Yes I did. But you didn’t let me finish. We don’t usually invite anyone, but it just so happens I have one extra spot I was looking to fill.”
“Oh marvellous,” the Countess clapped her gloved hands.
“You can bring your daughter too if you like,” First Officer Henry called over his shoulder as he tried desperately to leave.
“Not likely,” Davina muttered to herself.
...
“Not likely.” Keith spat the words out.
“But you might like it,” his grandmother suggested.
“Look, Mary.” His grandmother gritted her teeth. “I’m grateful for you paying for this trip, blah blah blah. But haven’t we spent enough time together already? I need my space.”
“But haven’t you had enough of your epod?” she asked.
“It’s an iPod! Get it right!”
Mary watched as Keith slouched away. How did it come to this? she thought. I’m sure his parents wouldn’t have approved of the pierced nose, let alone his foul attitude.
She sighed and headed in the opposite direction, towards the park.
Mary emerged from the crowded shopping precinct into the relative calm of the park. Large trees arched over the chairs and, although she knew it was piped in through speakers, the twitter of birds was relaxing. It felt a little reminiscent of her garden at home and, not for the first time, she questioned her decision to come on this trip.
...
A couple of metres from where Mary was sitting, Sergeant Wayne Alter was crouched down low.
ZZZ
The buzzing noise was near, he was sure of it.
He cocked his ear and waited.
ZZZ
The sound was coming from near that old woman.
Sergeant Alter crept closer to her.
And then he saw it.
It was the biggest he’d ever seen.
And it was crawling up the seat towards her!
He started to run.
The bug paused and reached out to the old woman.
Sergeant Alter leapt through the air ....
Chapter 3:
A Little Bump
SPLOOSH!
Red and green fluid oozed out the side.
“That’s gross!”
The pastry started to deflate as its contents spewed out onto the plate.
“Now dear,” Davina frowned, “that’s no way to talk.”
“Mum, I’m not eating that – it looks like guts! I mean, look at it.”
The Countess sighed.
She looked around the table – Billy Bob was absorbing his food at a great pace with one eye on Fiona’s, the Captain was staring at the First Officer - who looked like he was desperate to be anywhere else and then there was her daughter – not the sort of company she was expecting at the Captain’s table!
The Captain was also concerned. She was hoping that it would just be dinner with her and Henry, but instead he brought all these other people along.
BZT!
Great – just what she needed!
BZT!
Paula pressed the two way
radio.
“Yes,” she snapped, “I’m at dinner. What is it?”
“Ma’am, your presence is required on the bridge,” the voice crackled.
“Sorry everyone, I’ll be back shortly,” the Captain said as she reluctantly left the table with a glance back at Henry, who was still preoccupied with his pastry.
This had better be good news, she thought.
But for Captain Paula Young and the people on board the cruise ship, it was to be anything but good news.
...
SPLOOSH!
Red and green fluid oozed out the side.
“Oh my goodness!” Mary exclaimed.
“Don’t worry, ma’am. I got it.”
“Are you insane! You almost hit me!”
“Sorry about that. It was some sort of massive bug that was crawling up your chair.”
“You hit my chair over a bug?” Mary walked around behind the chair, and gasped.
“Are you serious?”
Mary couldn’t believe her eyes.
...
“So what is it?” the Captain asked as she arrived on the bridge.
“Captain on deck!” All of the other sailors turned and saluted.
“Yes! Yes!” Paula gave a perfunctory salute. “C’mon my dinner is getting cold.”
“Yes ma’am. Well we spotted some fog a little off the coast.”
“Fog,” the Captain stared at him.
“Yes ma’am.”
“You called me away from dinner for fog?”
“Yes ma’am. Only, it wasn’t there before.” The sailor stared back at her.
“And you’re telling me this because …”
“Because it seems to be playing a bit of havoc with our radar.”
“What do you mean – havoc?”
“Well this blip keeps appearing and disappearing in the middle of the fog. It might sound silly but it looks almost like an island.”
“An island? That appears and disappears? No that doesn't sound silly, it sounds ridiculous. There aren’t any islands this far off the coast of South America!”
The sailor turned red. “Well that’s why I called you ma’am. Because it did seem odd. Not to mention the fog.”
Captain Paula sighed.
“Look I appreciate you bringing it to my attention. I’ll let the passengers know about the fog, but in the meantime …”
“Captain. Over here. It’s flickering again.”
Paula walked over to the radar operator and looked at the screen.
Sure enough a large island like shape started to appear …
… but then disappeared.
...
Half of the bug was still sliding down the back of the chair. When alive, it would have been about thirty centimetres long with long armoured plates down its back and hundreds of legs.
“You have to be kidding me. It’s only a centipede.”
The sergeant bristled, “… and I killed it. Only good bug is a dead bug – that’s what I always say.”
“Look,” Mary began. “Sorry I didn’t get your name.”
“Sergeant Wayne Alter, ma’am. Just doing my duty.”
“Your duty? Sergeant, it’s just a centipede. It’s harmless. Well, not to other bugs I suppose.”
“Harmless? But it’s giant! And it was crawling up your chair!”
“Giant. That’s why they call it a giant centipede, I guess.” Noticing the sergeant’s expression, she added, “not that I’m not grateful. You weren’t to know. I’ve seen them before in my garden. Not that size obviously. But they are native to South America. Must have come on board from the last voyage. But in reality, I’m more likely to die of shock from the scare than from that poor creature.”
The sergeant blushed and mumbled, “Sorry about that.”
Mary smiled, “Don’t worry about it. It was rather gallant of you actually.”
“Well I’d been tracking it for a while. Not much to do here really.”
“So why did you come on the cruise then?”
“Not much to do at home either, I guess. I was stuck at home getting bored so I thought why not go somewhere different – South America for instance. And now …”
OOOWH!
OOOWH!
The sound came from the speaker system.
“This is your Captain, Paula Young speaking. Just to notify you that we will be going through a patch of fog on our way to port. We still expect to be docking on time. Due to the conditions however the zip line and pools will be closed for safety reasons until we get through the fog. We appreciate your co-operation with this matter.”
Mary and Wayne looked at each other.
Now that was odd.
...
John Margin switched off his iPod. He frowned and got up off the couch. John opened the sliding door and stepped out onto the balcony. However it was not the view that had caused him to wake from his electronic slumber. In the distance he could see a blob that the ship was heading towards. It looked like a cloud or a grey monster lurking in their path, its long tendrils reaching out and almost at the ship.
“Mum?” he called out.
He turned back towards their loft suite.
“Sarah?”
It was empty.
...
“Holy baboon’s bottom!”
“I beg your pardon? I don’t think …” Countess Davina paused and then turned to see what Billy Bob was pointing at.
She gasped.
A wall of fog was looming closer.
First Officer Henry frowned.
...
John looked around the room again but his sister and his mum were nowhere to be seen.
CRRK
The door opened and they walked in with his dad.
“Where were you?” John demanded.
“I tried to tell you dear,” his mum replied, “but you were fast asleep. Your sister and I just went to check that the zip line was actually closed …”
“Which of course it was!” Sarah folded her hands across her chest.
“… and then we bumped into your dad on the way back.”
“I was just getting worried cause of all that fog and all,” John mumbled.
“You’re such a sook, John. First bit of fun on this boring ship and you get scared.”
RRRRRRRRRRRRR!
Everyone was knocked to the floor as a massive jolt rocked the cruise ship.
“What on earth was that?” Sarah screamed.
...
As First Officer Henry ran past, passengers who were still lying on the ground called out to him. Others reached for him trying to get his attention. He ignored them all. He had to get to the bridge. Urgently. But a part of him was glad to have an excuse to disregard them all. It was refreshing to not have to stop whatever he was doing and put on the fake smile and try and attend to some sunburnt whale’s request that usually involved something that the passenger could do themselves - but couldn’t be bothered. Henry stifled a smile as he opened the door and went onto the bridge.
He stopped short. It was absolute chaos.
Chapter 4:
End of the Cruise
Smoke poured out of several of the consoles. The glass that gave a panoramic view of the ship was cracked. Little tendrils of fog began to slowly inch their way through into the room. The crew were struggling to get to their feet.
"What's happening?" Henry asked.
Paula got up slowly, clutching her head. Drips of blood started oozing between her fingers.
"Ooh, my head." She blinked as she began to focus on Henry.
"Captain, what on earth just happened?"
"I'm not sure. The fog was mucking up our radar. We must have bumped an underground reef or something. But, we are pretty much going blind."
"Well," Henry paused, "in that case we need to get out of this fog. We will have to just reverse out and go around it. Scott, what do you think?"
The chief engineer frowned, "Unfortunately the fog seems to have damaged our ins
truments as the Captain said. There's not much I can say. The radar seemed to be showing some island up ahead, but they kept flickering. Before we stopped it looked like, and don't quote me on this, but it looked like it suddenly got very shallow."
"Are you saying that we have run aground in the middle of the ocean?"
"Look Henry, I'm just telling you what the instruments told me - they were going insane anyway. We've obviously hit something and stopped - the engines aren't damaged too badly and we are not taking on too much water. I don't have an issue with reversing the ship from an engineering perspective - but I'm definitely not taking responsibility for the decision. I'm flying blind here."
"Alright Scott, I hear you. But we also have a lot of people on board. Sooner or later we have to get around this obstacle. All I want to know is whether we are safe to reverse," Henry replied.
"Structurally she should hold. But all the instruments appear to be going insane. So it may be better to wait until we can try and get some of them fixed."
Henry looked over at Paula who was now slumped back in her chair, still holding her head.
"Captain?"
She groaned.
Scott glanced at Henry, "Your call, mate."
"Fine. Reverse it now. We need to find a way around whatever this is. We can't afford to be too far off schedule."
"Sir," Scott marched out of the room.
Henry grabbed the intercom.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is First Officer Henry Chapel speaking. We have been experiencing some technical difficulties and we apologise for the delay. We are just going to reverse the ship so that we are able to continue on our voyage. Due to the unseasonal fog that we are currently enduring, all passengers are requested to return to their cabins and remain there until further notice. We apologise for the inconvenience and we hope to resume the voyage shortly.”
Henry slumped into a chair.
He hoped he was making the right decision.
But there wasn't one.
...
"I'll be fine," Mary snapped at Sergeant Alter as he helped to lift her back up off the grass.
Bug Island Page 2
