CHAPTER 5: IC - At Sea > NYC to Panama

[royya]

Calm Paco
Rucker says to the man.
Øyvind is all right.
He then turns to Øyvind himself
Son, this is a nightmare and no more. We had terrible days following the accident at the piers. It's a stress and no more ... have some rest and pray with me each morning.
.

[Anatomist]

Calm Paco
Rucker says to the man.
Øyvind is all right.
He then turns to Øyvind himself
Son, this is a nightmare and no more. We had terrible days following the accident at the piers. It's a stress and no more ... have some rest and pray with me each morning.

Øyvind seems surprised by the Priest finding nothing on him. 'Dear God' 'Why would he do this to me' 'Pray i will Padre' 'Ill find you every morning to do so' Øyvind lies back down taking some big calming breaths 'Ill try to rest a bit' 'please leave me alone ' 'And thank you Paco for the water'
.

[Mr. Handy]

"Thanks again," says Katie. "Some coffee would hit the spot. The best coffee beans come from this part of the world, Colombia in particular is the best, but Panama's coffee is quite good too. Goodbye, Captain." Katie leaves the bridge and heads back down, sniffing the air for the scent of coffee.
.

[Seon]

"There's the main hall," Ernest wondered. Getting lost in the ship was a first.

"Excuse me sir," he said, tapping the shoulders of a nearest sailor. "Do you know where the First Officer of this ship is?"
.

[Job]

Calm Paco
Rucker says to the man.
Øyvind is all right.

"Gracias Padre," said Paco, and Father Rucker could see that he relaxed a little. "Qué pasó, Padre? Sorry, what do you think happened? He was screaming."

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Job. (the tortured one)

[Job]

Øyvind lies back down taking some big calming breaths 'Ill try to rest a bit' 'please leave me alone ' 'And thank you Paco for the water'

"De nada, amigo," Paco responded as he laid his hand reassuringly on Øyvind's shoulder. "Try to sleep."

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Job. (the tortured one)

[Job]

"Some coffee would hit the spot. The best coffee beans come from this part of the world, Colombia in particular is the best, but Panama's coffee is quite good too. Goodbye, Captain." Katie leaves the bridge and heads back down, sniffing the air for the scent of coffee.

With the aroma of coffee to guide her, Katie easily found her way down to the Ship's Mess. Just as the captain had said, a warm pot was waiting for her on a wooden serving table along the wall, presumably refilled every so often by stewards from the galley.

The Mess was quiet with only two crewmen sitting at one of six tables. Along the front wall hung a large map of Antarctica, displaying most of the continent blank, unexplored. A number of wooden doors lined each side wall, some open, leading into very small cabin areas containing bunks, desks, and small portholes. The back wall was lined with bookshelves and two closed doors.

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Job. (the tortured one)

[Job]

"There's the main hall," Ernest wondered. Getting lost in the ship was a first.

"Excuse me sir," he said, tapping the shoulders of a nearest sailor. "Do you know where the First Officer of this ship is?"

"He was on the main deck, last I saw," said the crewman. "There's the exit to the deck, right there." He pointed through the open door at the front of the Mess Hall to a stout metal hatch with a porthole, about 5 or 10 feet beyond.

"And if you get turned about, just look along the walls wherever you are and eventually you'll find a small map of the ship's layout."

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Job. (the tortured one)

[Job]

The morning of September 20th?



It was hot! And he heard birds. Peter Sykes had a tremendous headache as he awoke, moaning from the sharp throbbing pain. He wasn't feeling so well. He could tell that wherever he was, it was bright with sunlight, so he kept his eyes closed for a moment. Besides the birds loudly cawing and chirping, he heard the somewhat-distant sounds of horsedrawn carriages and people talking. He could smell... something nauseating. Food of some sort? Sweat? And alcohol, definitely alcohol.

Without lifting his head, he cautiously opened his eyes and looked immediately in front of him at the back of someone's shoulder. They had smooth, dark skin and long hair, so he deduced that it was a sleeping female. She was naked. They were surrounded by empty bottles, trash, and half-eaten food.

"Where am I?" He felt something warm against his backside and turned to look--and experienced a wave of dizziness and nausea. But he had to know and continued to roll over. It was another dark-skinned woman, also asleep, gently snoring and somewhat-dressed. "Huh. Where's Lolita..." He heard another, different snore and forced his eyes to focus further away, cranking up his headache a notch, and saw a tangle of arms and legs hanging over the side of a bed. From his angle of view--and his sore back--he deduced that he and his companions had slept on the floor.

He sat up and surveyed the wreckage.

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Job. (the tortured one)

[Mr. Handy]

Katie pours herself a steaming mug of coffee. While she sips at it, she walks over to the bookshelves and examines the titles of the books on them to see if there's anything interesting.
.

[Job]

Katie pours herself a steaming mug of coffee. While she sips at it, she walks over to the bookshelves and examines the titles of the books on them to see if there's anything interesting.

The coffee was surprisingly good and surprisingly robust, even when compared against the strong and tasty brews that Katie had sampled during her travels!

Katie discovered an eclectic collection of books in the ship's "library", all carefully sorted into categories and subsorted in alphabetical order according to title, including technical manuals, nautical and scientific guides, exploration tales, numerous historical textbooks, tradecraft manuals, religious and spiritual sourcebooks, a couple of shelves of literature and fiction, a few books of poetry, and even a handful of artistic works. There was a small handwritten sign near the shelves asking: "Please be considerate of your crew members and promptly return all books to these shelves."

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Job. (the tortured one)

[Mr. Handy]

Katie strolls over to the map and examines it, looking particualrly for the ship's intended landing site and the route the expedition will take.
.

[Seon]

"Thank you, good sir," Ernest said, bowing slightly. He turned towards the door to the Main Deck.

[Job]

Katie strolls over to the map and examines it, looking particualrly for the ship's intended landing site and the route the expedition will take.

Alongside the map of Antarctica, Katie sees the Starkweather-Moore Expedition (S-ME) route, hand-drawn on a display board. When Katie cross-references the hand-drawn route map against the large map of Antarctica, she notes that the question mark corresponds to "Lake site" area in the Victoria Quadrant.



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Job. (the tortured one)

[Mr. Handy]

Katie finishes her coffee and then heads out to the main deck to look for First Officer Turlow.
.

[Job]

"Thank you, good sir," Ernest said, bowing slightly. He turned towards the door to the Main Deck.

Katie finishes her coffee and then heads out to the main deck to look for First Officer Turlow.

Ernest finds First Officer Paul Turlow stationed at a small podium at the top of the gangway on the main deck, animatedly directing crew workers as if he were a policeman directing traffic, occasionally taking notes in a logbook, and drinking a large mug of coffee. Turlow asks Ernest if he can wait for a short while before he is able to leave his post, otherwise the crewmen will all stop their work.


After a half hour or so, Katie joins them.

Once a supervisor comes to relieve him, Turlow asks, "Well now, where would you like me to begin your tour of the ship? Normally, I'd start at the bridge, but apparently the two of you just came from there."

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Job. (the tortured one)

[Mr. Handy]

"How about we start at the top and work our way down?" suggests Katie. "What can I say? I like high places. I believe the boat deck is below the bridge."

[Anatomist]

George Barrow was staring at the same line in his book about animal life of the Great Southern Ocean for about ten minuttes. He had been distracted for the past few days, immersed in his own thoughts, ideas, and reading material. He looked at the small circular window his lab had. Someone was talking outside, and there where sounds of Øyvind and his dogs, Turlow maybe speaking grandiose about the ship?

George laid a pencil on the page of the open book, took a look at himself in a small mirror to fix hsi hair and opened the door. He could smell the coffee from the mess hall, the air was hot and humid and the warmth pusht him a bit back when he opened one of the big heavy metal doors on the main deck plane to walk outside. It was a beautiful day and in the distance he could hear a female voice he had not heard onboard before talking quick and assertive it seemed the voices where a bit to far to make out the words.

Wonder who this could be... George did not notice his legs automatically took him towards the noise.

[Seon]

"How about we start at the top and work our way down?" suggests Katie. "What can I say? I like high places. I believe the boat deck is below the bridge."

Ernest shrugged. "I have no objections."

[Job]

"How about we start at the top and work our way down?" suggests Katie. "What can I say? I like high places. I believe the boat deck is below the bridge."

Ernest shrugged. "I have no objections."

Wonder who this could be... George did not notice his legs automatically took him towards the noise.

"Very well then, follow me," said Turlow as he led the way into the aftercastle superstructure and up two flights of stairs to the Bridge Deck.

The First Officer entered the bridge, introduced the Captain and Second Officer (whom Katie had already met) and provided an overview of the navigational equipment. A wall of glass windows provided a view forward of Balboa bay. There were a variety of communications gear including telephones, telegraph, voice pipes, foghorn, whistles, and navigating lights. The compass binacle and ship's wheel dominated the middle of the compartment. A log indicator showed the ship's speed and a dial showed the angle of the rudder relative to the keel of the ship. Racks and cupboards along the walls contained signal flags, national flags, semaphore flags, flare pistols, pyrotechnic signal rockets, and hand-held lights along with various other small items of equipment.

The nearby chart room contained the ship's log and another telephone. Turlow pointed out a depth-sounding machine that was controlled from here that could measure down to 100 fathoms (600 feet or roughly 180 meters) while the ship was under way, using a wire and weight that unspooled automatically from the ship's keel. There was also a rack of six bolt action rifles, all padlocked by a chain running through their trigger guards, and a large iron safe.

Two doors on opposite sides of the room led outside to the "flying bridge" areas, balconies and a roof area that overlooked the main deck, each side with stairways down. A single huge smokestack rose above.

"Any questions before we move down to the Boat Deck?" asked the First Officer.


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Job. (the tortured one)