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CHAPTER ONE

THE BAD LANDING

It was Sunday September 24th, 2017, and Darin and Robert had been flying for eight hours with next to nothing to do. Boredom was threatening to drive them insane if they did not arrive at their destination soon.

Darin was looking out the window at the clouds as they passed by. He slipped into a light sleep and dreamt of Shora, a lovely orca he had met in Miami Florida. She was a member of a rock group called "Demon's Law". Shora was an arthro, meaning she was an orca in a human form. She was the most beautiful thing he ever laid eyes on.

Robert Cadwallader, was reading a magazine. He and Darin were high school friends. They applied for the same jobs and were a well-oiled machine when they worked together. They were so good, that in the first week at a job, they received thirty raises and promotions. However, this good thing caused them to job-hop much of the time. Their co-workers would hate them until they managed to drive them off. Recently, the two had applied for a job at FUPA (Florida Underwater Preserve Agency) as conservationists after the trawling season had ended. During their tour of duty at FUPA, they had met some interesting characters. Kea, for example, was one of them.

Kea, a bottlenose dolphin, was their guardian during their time in Florida. Keiko, an orca, was unfit for the warm water and had appointed him to take his place as guardian.

In addition, Darin met a long lost friend and lover, Denoras, who at the time when he met her, was in Sea World. Denoras was a bottlenose dolphin and she was attracted to him. When she was released back into the wild, she went in search for him.

Robert had his fare share of encounters too. He had met Krystal, a female bottlenose dolphin, for the first time and quickly became lovers. He also met Selin, a sleek black dragoness. She was a member of "Demon's Law" with Shora. Selin loved Robert deeply and quickly became the dominant one in the relationship.

Robert felt the plane lean to one side. He looked out the window, shielding his eyes from the sun, and saw Juneau airport below them. The plane was turning to line up to land. Robert put away his magazine and looked out the window. He then felt a small vibration as the plane descended; he dismissed it as turbulence and fastened his seatbelt. The plane flew lower and lower, until he could make out the words on some of the signs on the ground. Then he heard the sound of the wheels going down. When the plane touched down, the first thing he felt was the landing gears hitting the tarmac. Then suddenly, the plane gave a violent jerk to the left followed by the sound of scraping metal.

The left main landing gear had failed and collapsed. The plane continued down the runway, spraying sparks as it went. Suddenly the failed gear ripped away, tearing a chunk of the plane with it causing wing to slam into the pavement. The engine on the left wing shattered as it smashed into the pavement. Darin and Robert ducked as fan blades ripped through the cabin. Then the left wing ripped off and the plane turned sideways and stopped.

The plane had skidded over two miles before stopping. The survivors climbed out of the wreckage into the clear weather shaken, some with cuts and other injuries. The rescue squad arrived shortly after and tended to the survivors. Darin and Robert were among the few who came out untouched.

Baggage handlers came over to unload the plane before it was taken off the tarmac. However, before anything could be done the investigation teams had to comb through the wreckage to find the cause of the crash. The passengers where shuttled to the terminal to wait while the investigators did their job. While in the terminal, the passengers had their own theory as to the cause.

"Terrorists sabotaged our plane and hoped that it would cause another plane to crash into us," said one passenger.

Robert, however, knew exactly the cause of the crash. Poor maintenance of the main landing gear and probably too many hard landings caused the hydraulic bracing system to fail and collapse causing the left wing to slam into the tarmac and put the chain of events into motion.

Five hours went by before the investigation ended. The baggage handlers got to work on unloading the plane, and that was another two hours. Darin and Robert were now seven hours behind schedule. Robert watched as a news crew arrived at the scene. He poked Darin hard in the side.

"Ouch, what was that for?" Darin asked.

"Call Shora, I think she might be watching the news." Robert replied.

Darin looked outside and saw a news van on the tarmac. He fumbled for his cell phone and dialed the number. A panicked Shora came on the phone.

"Shora, it's me. We're okay we got out fine. Yes were going to the office to see where they have us this year. We'll be careful. I love you too. See you this summer."

Darin hung up and they went to baggage claim at the other end of the airport. When they got there, they discovered it was crowded. Darin and Robert snaked their way through to the front and waited to retrieve their bags. When they had them, two hours had gone by and it was now 3:15 PM local time. Darin and Robert walked out of the airport to the car rental where they rented a Ford Mustang and drove down to the Alaska Fishing Company office to find out which trawler they were to work aboard. They arrived at the office building and parked. The company building was four stories high and sat along the shoreline. Darin and Robert went inside and up two floors to the employee check-in.

They entered the room that resembled a waiting room in a doctor's office. A TV was on and tuned to a local news channel. On the screen, a young blonde-haired woman was stand out on location at the airport. She stared straight at the camera as she did her report.

"Juneau International airport receives up to 1,000 flights per day, all without any incident. Today that all changed."

The TV was now showing video of planes taking off and landing at the airport as the reporter continued.

"At 2:30 PM a four engine Boeing 777 was landing on runway nine. As the plane touched down, everything seemed to be normal, until a few seconds later when the plane's left landing gear collapsed and the plane went into a skid," the TV was now showing film from a security camera that caught the crash. Then the picture of the plane after the crash was shown. A portion of the left wing was missing, only a giant hole remained.

"Holy crap!" Darin exclaimed.

"Got that right." Robert replied.

"May I help you?"

Darin and Robert both jumped. They turned to see the receptionist sitting behind a desk. She was 5' 5" in her mid thirties and wearing a blue dress. She looked at them from behind the desk with interest.

"Yes, we're here to be assigned to a trawler." Darin replied.

"Okay, IDs' please," the receptionist replied.

Darin and Robert presented their IDs' to her. She took them and wiped them through a scanner to check them in. She looked at the computer screen and read their history. She raised an eyebrow in interest.

"Says here that you two had served on the same vess

Darin nodded yes to confirm her statement.

The receptionist continued to the placement charts. She clicked on an icon, which brought up a list of all the trawlers in the fleet, their crew occupancy, and how many are currently scheduled to serve onboard. There was only one trawler with two spots open. The trawler was the Capt. M. J. Souza. She printed off the information and gave it to Darin.

"Okay, you two will be working on the Capt. M. J. Souza under the command of Robert C. Dewinter. You will find her on pier forty-five in slip number twelve."

Darin looked the printout over; the Capt. M. J. Souza was a Purse seining vessel and was a new trawler to the fleet. The Souza was two hundred twenty-three feet long and had a gross tonnage of one thousand four hundred sixty-eight. Two EMD 3600 hp engines powered the trawler. The trawler had a net 5400' x 1181' and a fish well capacity of eleven hundred tons.

The Capt. M. J. Souza's outline was impressive to say the least. The receptionist handed Darin their boarding papers and time cards. The two left the office and walked down to pier forty-five then turned right and continued down the pier to slip twelve.

"Well this is it," said Darin.

"Holy crap," said Robert.

They stood there gazing at the vessel before them.

"Big, very big," said Darin.

"I think I'll like it here," said Robert.

They walked up the gangway to the trawler's deck. There a crewmember stopped them.

"Papers please," he said.

Darin handed him their papers and the man looked them over. He glanced at Darin and Robert as he checked the papers. He then handed them back along with a cabin key and a map of the trawler. He motioned them aboard; Darin and Robert accepted the offer and set foot onto the deck.

"Welcome aboard the Capt. M. J. Souza, my name is Kevin and I'm the deck manager. I'm in charge of making sure that the crew knows their job and dose it well," said the man. "You might want to settle in before we shove off to start the season."

Darin and Robert walked past the bridge to the main entrance to the main cabin. Darin thought that the inside would look like any other trawler. However, when he opened the door what he saw shocked him.

The inside of the first deck cabin was about eight feet wide and twelve feet high. Two windows, framed with pine, were on the far wall above where the stairs were. The stairs were on the left wall and lead down into the depths of the ship. To the right of the stairs were a blue table and a bench. They appeared to be for some purpose but it was impossible to know.

"This boat keeps getting better and better," said Darin excitedly.

They continued down the steps and through the door and entered the dinning area. They paused for a moment to take in the unusual arrangement.

The dinning area was a very nice sight. The walls were covered with mahogany. A black bench, resembling a corner booth in a restaurant, was centered on a table with mahogany trim that was raised half an inch higher that the table surface. Built into the wall behind the table were a cupboard and a TV next to it. In the center of the two was a nautical theme clock.

"Nice, very nice," said Robert.

"This must be a custom made trawler, and a very expensive one at that," said Darin.

They continued to explore the trawler and noting the unusual construction it had. When they found the crew quarters, they felt like they were on a cruse ship, not a trawler.

Polished mahogany covered the walls of the eight-foot wide hallway. On one side of the hallway were the crew quarters. The floor was covered with a dark blue carpet. The hallway was wide enough for two people to walk through without touching each other or even coming close to it. Darin and Robert were stunned at the beautiful sight.

"Do you see what I see Robert?" Darin asked.

"I see but I don't believe it." Robert replied.

They walked down the hall to their cabin number 174 and entered. The door closed itself behind them. They stood there in awe that the luxurious appearance of their room.

The cabin was small, about fifteen by twenty feet. On the left side were two bunk beds. The bottom bunk had about four and a half feet of clearance below the top. Each bunk had its own set of blinds that provided privacy for the occupants while they slept. The walls were furnished with mahogany wood paneling that wrapped around the entire room.

There was also a small table in the middle of the room. Mahogany wood trim was on the outer edge of the table, preventing small items from sliding off and onto the floor when the ship was in bad weather. Darin and Robert were very happy with their cabin and felt that their luck had finally turned for the better.

"Sweet," said Robert.

"Best of all, this is our home for the next few months. How do we get so lucky!" said Darin.

"I don't know," said Robert. "But I like it."

They hauled their belongings into the cabin and put them into the closet. They then left the cabin and turned to go back out into the hallway when Darin noticed a framed piece of paper with big bold letters that said, " GENERAL INFORMATION" on the back of their door. Darin took a moment to study the list.

Below the list was their cabin information. The cabin's number and maximum number of occupants it could hold. Below that was emergency information that showed fire escape routes and procedures for evacuating the ship.

Below that was a list that had everyone's name on it and his or her job. The list was organized by last name in alphabetical order. Darin searched down the list to see what his job was and found it.

"Looks like I'm in the engine room," said Darin.

"Where I'm I?" Robert asked.

Darin searched the list again for his job.

"You are....you are....also in the engine room." Darin replied.

"Well, let's go see our work area," said Robert.

They walked down the hall to the dinning area then continued to a set of stairs. They climbed down into the engine room.

"Oh snap!" Darin exclaimed.

"Whoa, this just keeps getting better and better." Robert said.

The engine room was very bright, quiet, clean and orderly. On the left side of the engine room's bulkhead of was an electrical distribution panel. On the right was a circuit breaker. On the left wall was an electric air compressor with a pipe stretched toward the back of the room. On the opposite side was another machine that Darin had no idea what it was used for.

They walked deeper into the room; they came across the trawler's two massive engines. Each engine was twenty-eight feet long, fifteen feet wide, and fifteen feet high. The upper half of the engine resembled a half circle with sections cut out of it. On the front of the engines were fifteen gages that showed the engines current performance and other information. Pipes and wires were all over the front of the engine, which supplied the engine's needs.

"Whoa, look at that monster!" Darin shouted.

Robert's eyes went wide at the sight.

"Now that's what I call an engine." Robert said.

As they were about to leave a crewmember came down.

"Excellent, just in time for us to shove off," he said.

Darin and Robert looked at him when the engines turned over and roared to life. The man had to shout over the noise.

"YOU TWO WILL BE IN CHARGE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE SHIP! I AM GOING TO SHOW YOU TWO SOME IMPORTANT PARTS THAT YOU NEED TO KEEP A CLOSE EYE ON!"

The man led them behind the engines and pointed at the machinery along the walls.

"THESE ARE OUR TWO AUXILIARY ENGINES; YOU WILL ACTIVATE THESE IN THE EVENT THE TWO MAIN ENGINES FAIL!"

He continued the tour as the boat began to roll and pitch. He then pointed at the middle of the floor behind the two main engines.

"THAT THERE IS THE GEAR BOX! IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART! YOU TWO WILL HAVE TO CHECK IT REGULARLY! THAT'S IT FOR THE TOUR! YOUR SHIFT ENDS IN FOUR HOURS!"

After the man left, Darin and Robert began their duties. They ran around checking the major components of the propulsion system. Clip boards with the correct gage readings where hung next to them. The trawler was pitching slightly as they traveled out into the sea. The engines began to slow as the crew prepared to drop the nets. Darin was inspecting the gearbox while Robert inspected the main engines. For four hours, they ran all over the engine room checking gages and other equipment. Darin and Robert's shift ended at 10:31 PM. They left the engine room and went outside for some air.

Out on deck the weather was calm, almost unreal. The water was flat and there was no breeze. The crew was busy cleaning up for the night. Darin and Robert went out onto the bow and looked out onto the ocean.

"Clear night," said Darin.

"Sure is," said Robert.

"Well, I bet Shora is worried sick." Darin said.

"Why is that?" Robert asked.

"We are in a communications blackout. Most cell phones don't work this far off shore and I currently have," Darin took out his cell phone and checked the signal bars. "No service out here."

"Ahh, Darin. I have a confession to make." Robert said in a shaky tone.

"What?" Darin asked.

"I may have given Shora the number of the company." Robert replied.

"What are you trying to say?" Darin asked.

"She might be trying contact you via radio patch." Robert replied.

"I'm not following you." Darin said.

Robert sighed.

"During our shift, the captain called the engine room several times asking you to come up to the bridge for a phone call. I told him that you were busy at the time and that I'd tell you when our shift was over."

"How many times did she call?" Darin asked.

"About..."

"DARIN, GET YOU FAT ASS UP HERE," the captain shouted.

"Enough to cause that." Robert said.

Darin scrambled up to the bridge. He found the captain with the radio microphone in his hand.

"Talk to this person of yours!"

Darin walked cautiously over and took the microphone.

"Hello."

"Darin is that you?" said a voice.

"Shora?" said Darin.

"You're alive, oh, how I've missed your sweet voice," said Shora.

"Shora, how many times did you call?" Darin asked.

"Fifteen times, why?" Shora replied.

"No reason." Darin replied.

"Well I have to go; Sethi-Arh is taking us all to dinner," said Shora.

"Okay. Hay, when is your next concert going to be?"

"In August, I'll try not to embarrass you to much." Shora replied.

"After the last one, I'm ready for anything you throw at me," said Darin.

He hung the microphone up and turned to face the captain.

"Well I'll be, you're the one Shora loves!" the captain exclaimed.

"Well yeah." Darin replied.

"You'll have to excuse me, we don't get to many opportunities to see a concert so we're a little behind on stuff," the captain said.

"Captain, we've got rough weather coming in from the north," said a crewmember.

"Have the crew lock down all hatches and portholes; I don't want to see a single drop of water anywhere below deck when this is through," the captain ordered.

Darin left the bridge and walked to his cabin where he found Robert closing the porthole.

"So what happened?" Robert asked.

"Nothing really, other than letting the captain know that I'm the one Shora is in love with." Darin replied.

"Come on it can't be all that bad," said Robert.

"I hope not," Darin replied.

They secured their belongings and settled down for the night. The night watch went on duty and the captain went to his quarters. He requested that if something major was happening that he is notified immediately, regardless if he was asleep or not.

As the trawler traveled toward the fishing area, the weather was starting to change. The clear night sky was becoming clouded and the wind was starting to blow. The waves were starting to rise and gain in force as a fierce storm began to brew.

Around 11:00 PM, the trawler was bobbing slighting in the water. The crew on duty kept the ship on course and watch as the sea changed before their eyes. The waves began to wash over the railings, flooding the deck with water. The wind began to howl through the wires and the rigging.

Around 11:15 PM, lightning light up the night sky. The bolts struck the water, creating steam. It was an awesome sight, but also deadly. In the wheelhouse, three men were watching the weather when suddenly a bolt of lightning struck the water in front of them. The men were blinded for a moment after the bolt had vanished.

At 11: 30 PM, the storm was building strength. The waves were now forcefully throwing the _Capt. M. J. Souza_around like a toy. The waves were now washing against the windows with enough force to make them vibrate.

Then at 11:45 PM, the bow was periodically underwater as they slide down the crest of a wave and slam into another. The bilge pumps were activated to pump the out water. Thunder roared and lightning flashed. The rain pelted against the windows and the wind harassed the crew with ere sounds and blinding them with sea spray.

Meanwhile, in cabin 174, Darin and Robert were sound asleep, despite the rolling of the ship. Darin was sleeping in the top bunk and Robert in the bottom. When the trawler rolled to the left, Darin rolled in his bed and up against the wall. Then as the ship tilted the other way, he rolled to the edge of his bed and almost fell out. Robert was doing the same thing but when the ship tilted right, he fell out of his bed and hit the floor. However, he never woke up.

The storm was becoming a real problem, not just for the Capt. M. J. Souza, but for other ships as well.