The wave crashed over the side of the research vessel as the artic storm seemed to lash out with much more violence than seemed normal to the captain driving the ship. He had been a crab boat captain for thirty five years and had never seen terrible angry waves like this. A side swipe with a 25ft wave jumped over the side of the ship and crashed into the large storage unit designed to protect some of valuable hardware those nerds and the smooth talking guy were bringing up here to what he liked to call Hell's Toilet Bowl. He wondered if the science guys inside the unit just ate deck from that monster, may need to send a deck mate in with a mop and bucket after the end of the night. Perhaps this was not the best time of the year to drive this old girl into heart of an Alaskan winter but when they gave his cut of the ''treasure hunt'' upfront even before they had set sail from the port, he could not resist that daring run. 600 miles to retirement. With this trip, he could retire from fishing forever and then maybe even buy a small island to park with superyacht. That check better not bounce and his ship better not sink.
The cabin door opened up and footsteps came up from the stairwell up into the pilothouse soaking well. The smell of the Bering Sea flooded up the captain's nostrils as his "retirement keeper" put his hand on his shoulder.
"With this storm front coming in, how much off track will we be to to meet our time lines," the young man said to the Captain pulling his hand off the shoulder and walked over to pour himself a cup of coffee from the thermos sitting beside all of the sophiscated instruments used for navigation, ocean floor mapping, and some other things he did not know the name of. The glow of the pilot's light and the panel of instruments illuminated the room in an eerily green glow. The brid
The Captain smiled as he peered over his shoulder at the man pouring his coffee into the dark mug beside the white mug that held his own personal coffee. " We are actually only about day's drive out from the location that your brainiac's have so strategically mapped in the middle of no where. Why the hell are we going out here. There is a large plateau that is litterally a dead zone to fisherman. We avoid this spot because it has not produced anything in the last 70 years. It is like the wild life moves all around the sides of the plateau even though it is forty miles in circumference. That is a hell of a walk or swim for some creatures."
The man looked up at the Captain. "We know where we are going." I hope he thought as he peered down at the warm cup of coffee and raised the mug to the captain who smiled back with a bigger grin. He took a giant swig of the hot java that hit his throat and then something unexpected flowed into his mouth washing over his taste buds. He instantly spat out the coffee and what ever it was that he just drank on the bottom. He began to gag violently as tossed down the mug on the side panel.
"What the hell was that.. that is worst tasting coffee I have ever tasted. I have drank yak piss mixed with some unique leaves and that tasted way better," he said as he spit what he could into the mug hoping he would have time to go brush his teeth before the night ahead. Three hours in the submarine with that taste in his mouth would really damper his evening.
The captain swiveled his chair towards the man grinning wildlyl, his teeth shining across the panel lights showing the extreme gap between his two front teeth. They did not call him Gap for no reason.He flipped on a switch to a personal flashlight and shined it directly into the man's eyes and then down at the mug. "That there is my spit mug, nasty habit I picked up in 'Nam while driving river boats. Back then you just spit over the edge while you weren't driving, if you did your boat mates did not appreciate that much. I got me a system, white cup is good, black cup is bad. Good Coffee goes in, bad spit comes out. Sorry about that, I am usually the only one in the pilot house. You can spit it out if you want or man up and swallow it."
"Tobey, why don't you go get some food in your stomach now. It will take that taste out of your mouth, I can guess you are not a chewer. It is a nasty habit but just who I am now," the Captain said laughing to himself of his financer's unfortunante lesson learned.
Tobey tried to fake a smile but the mix of coffee grinds and the salvia chew mixutre penetrated his teeth and contaminated his lips. Holy crap that is the worst taste I have ever experienced. Guess he couldn't always be perfect and just looked like a complete idiot in front of the Captain. He liked Buck because he was a no nonsense harden fisherman who made the evenings interesting with vast amounts of overly exagerated fish stories and some of the interesting sites that he had seen in his long career. Tobey abd him would spend long nights in the crew dining room sharing a drink or two of some of the collection that he had brought aboard from his own personal travels.
"Well thanks Cap, let me know where when we are nearing the launch site and let's label those damn mugs next time," Tobey said turning down the corner thundering down the stairs to the door. Hope they had some granola or something edible in the pantry because that taste just was not leaving his mouth. He passed between the bulkheads around the various compartments and storage units that crowded the hull of the ship.
He arrived at his destination and grabbed ahold of the door handle and yanked it hard upwards to open the door to the terrible seas that seem to want to punch the ship directly in the face. He tightened down his hood over his head and ducked his down to avoid the freezing rain that wished to get closer to his exposed cheeks. He carefully made his way across the deck towards the storage unit holding all of his toys. The ship took a hard dip to port tossing Tobey off his feet as the sea spit up over the edge and washing him into the side of the unit. Tobey crashed hard with a loud thud almost three feet up the side of the wall before the ship righted itself and Tobey feel hard to the ground.
This better be worth it, Tobey thought as he stood up soaking wet down through his deck gear. He banged hard in quick succession on the unit's personal door. An annoyed looking scientist who had to open the door glared at Tobey as he stepped aside to let him inside the unit. Within the unit, a two man submersible and it's ROV were being prepped by a team running diagnstics on the software, system and hardware checks before the launch which occurs in the next six hours if the weather clears, tomorrow at the latest.
Tobey walked over and looked at the read outs over the shoulder of one of the many engineers working on some of the programming that had to be completed before the expedition could be started. Much of the stuff that these guys did he had no clue what they were doing but he knew alot of finding things that no one else could locate anywhere in the world. Some called him a treasure hunter, other's called him a grave robber but he knew that this was his passion and profession so those critics can suck it.
A something flew out across the hanger and was aimed directly at Tobey's head. He had a innate sense that something was heading his way as he was looking at the computer screens. He ducked down behind the closest computer chair and grabbed a dart gun of his own and fired up over the top of the chair. The dart aimed for his head hit harmlessly against the way and Tobey's dart struck his attacker directly in the chest.
"Holy crap Tobey, how the hell did you know that was coming. We are running motor tests and this storm has been slamming us all day," Alan said as he rubbed his chest. The dart guns they got before they left port were no longer approbiately for small children. The guys had souped them up to fire at three times faster than what was standard for a standard dart gun. As he finished his sentence, a second dart hit him directly between the eyes. "Ow... crap! What was that, Tobey?" Alan as he rubbed his forehead kicking the dart with his boot."
Tobey stepped out from behind the chair and smiled. This had been their game since they had left port and Alan had only scored a direct hit on him once while he was doing a kegstand in the bowels of the ship. He did get him back with a nice shot to the face and a digital picture for payback.
"How is the sub holding up with all of this insane weather we are having tonight," Tobey asked as he crossed the floor to the makeshift conference table taking a seat at the head of the table looking at the some of the navigational maps that charted his progress towards fame and glory.
Alan shrugged as he pointed out towards the continuous whine of the motors of the submersible, "We've been having trouble with some of the electrical for the sub and some of the data connections for the ROV. You sure we can't for more respectable weather because this is just not the time to be launching a sub and a bot in tow. By the way you owe me a case of beer for this, none of that cheap stuff but some of that great stuff you picked up in Costa Rica near that river basin."
Tobey smirke as he laid his rain soaked boots up on the table leaving wet marks on the detail oriented maps that someone had worked so hard on for the past several months.
"Alan, if we find what we are looking for, I will buy you that whole dang brewery," Tobey said wishing that time would hurry up and come.
The wait always tortured Tobey for the fact that he naturally resided in action and adventure, not these monotnous waiting periods where some ship had to sail to some God forsaken locations or take a bumpy one engine prop to a landing street where the local market collapsed back upon the runway right after the plane landed. The times when the bullets were flying, high speed chases and fist fights in pubs smaller than his bathroom at his penthouse. I hope his backer would appreciate all of the pain and protest that his posterior was putting up with during the last six months. Three of the some of the most forgotten locations on the planet and all three were busts for what they were looking for. What were they looking for, he had never been told just that he would know it when he found it. Well atleast he could still get a nice sandwich while he waited. Tobey sauntered over to the tiny kitchen that had been built into the side of the sub enclosure and stuck his head in the fridge to find himself something to eat while he waiting for their arrival at the destination.
-Alan and Tobey dive deep down to the base of the plateau where their readings suggest is what they are looking for.
