...and the sea before you!

Posted on 19 Nov 2012 @ 3:34am by Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Arthur Willis

972 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: Vega IX, open water
Timeline: MD 5-6

ON]

DAY-1


"Trust me, kid. I was sailing on the open sea when your daddy was still on the tit. We will be fine.....now, what side is port?"

The two friends laughed as the young man that was renting the sailboat gave a look of sudden dread. "Um, you'll be back tonight, right?"

Quinn looked at Willis, then to the young man. "Sure. Tonight, kid."

Willis finished stowing on the rest of the supplies and came back topside. "Can we get this show on the road, already? Or are you going to keep trying to pick up a cabin boy, old man?"

"Shut-up, before I shove this jive somewhere uncomfortable, boy-wonder." retorted Quinn with a smile. "Alright, let's get going, then."

Willis grabbed the mooring line and brought it in while Quinn dropped the sail and pulled it tight.

The blustery winds caught hold of the sail and the little boat began to move out from the docks, and out to the open sea. Quinn lit a long cigar and placed it between his teeth as he stood behind the large wooden wheel. "Now this is how sailing should be done, Willis. The wind at your back..."

"And the sea before you!" Willis finished as he tossed a bottle of the Quinn's Family home-brewed beer to Markum.

The two sat back and enjoyed the sound of the waves splashing against the hull, and the taste of the salt water in the air. After about four hours of steady sailing, Willis dropped his sunglasses down over his nose and faced Quinn. "Hey, grannie. Where the hell are we sailing to any way?"

Quinn smiled back at his friend. "That way." he answered with an outstretched finger, pointing over the bow and towards the horizon? "Why," asked Quinn with his best old lady impression. "do you need to call your mommy to tell her you'll be home late?"

The two shared a laugh. Willis stood up and walked to the port side of the boat and started to unbutton his fly, as his bladder suddenly shrunk form the beer. While standing, facing out into the vast blue ocean, something caught the eye of Willis. "Markum?" Arthur asked out loud.

Quinn turned to Willis, when he looked out Toward the port bow, and that was when he saw it too. The black storm clouds were so thick that neither man could believe their eyes. "Don't remember seeing storm warnings posted for today." remarked Quinn as he took a quick survey of a nautical map he had stowed in the wheels side-locker.

Wilis finished just as a large gust of wind nearly tipped him over. "That's because you didn't check before we left, I'd bet." Willis grabbed a hold of the mast. This storm is moving in quick." the small sailing vessel rolled hard to port from a large wave.

Quinn firmly paced both of his hands on the wheel. "Willis, while I trim the main sail, unfurl the jib and ease the sheets until it's full, then lock the wench!" shouted Quinn as the wind started to produce heavy seas.

Another large wave hit the hull of the small craft, and an angry wind overfilled both sails, causing the vessel to heel hard starboard. "Hike to post, hike to port!" bellowed Quinn and he grabbed onto the rudder and the main sails halyard.

Willis leaped to the port side and took the jib's halyard and pulled at it through the jam cleat. "Damn, this is getting hairy!" Arthur yelled out as the rain began to pummel them.

With the two men now standing against the port quarter planks in an almost full, upright position. Quinn let out a loud, "Woo-whoo! I doesn't get any better than this, Junior! Now this is...." Quinn lost some of his footing and nearly slipped overboard, if it weren't for his prosthetic arms strength to not let slip the main sail's line from his hand. "Now this is sailing!" Quinn hollered out once he regained footing.

The wind was rushing the two men forward, deeper into the maw of this uncanny storm. The rain was falling so hard that Willis was sure the stings against his flesh was not form the rain, but it had to be a swarm of bees stinging him at will. The downpour brought visibility to almost zero, until it slowed slightly. Quinn breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the worst was over. Then he heard Willis squeal, "Markum! Look!"

The elder man at the helm looked out and saw a massive, fifty foot wall of black approaching them, and it was growing. Quinn turned the wheel and the boat came back to even-keel, allowing the two sailors to cease from having to stand on the hull any longer. "Make sure your tied in, kid!"

"What!? Your not really going to turn into that wave? Quinn!"

Markum merely smiled and held on tight to the tiller and wheel. "Just shut up and hang on, you landlubber!" Markum was laughing out loud as they began to climb the wave up, up, up. Then just as the boat began to crest he shouted out. "Drop the sails, drop the sails!"

Makrum and Willis both dropped the sails almost simultaneously, as the small craft sped down the face of the seventy-foot high wave into the base of another newly forming wave. The entire boat was swallowed up by the dark and angry sea as it rammed into the wave's base.

This one may hurt...a bit. was Quinn's last thought before the wave consumed the sailors and their vessel.


to be continued....

OFF]

Master Chief Petty Officer Markum Quinn
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo

Senior Chief Petty Officer Arthur Willis
Engineering Computer Specialist
USS Galileo

RSS Feed