ShadowWolf: add {{universe}}

2009-02-14T20:15:10Z

add {{universe}}

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:15, 14 February 2009
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	[[Category:Story]] [[Category:Eirik]] [[Category:Animal]] [[Category:Visionary]] [[Category:Avian]] {{DEFAULTSORT:Ballad}}		[[Category:Story]] [[Category:Eirik]] [[Category:Animal]] [[Category:Visionary]] [[Category:Avian]] {{DEFAULTSORT:Ballad}}
	{{title\|name=Ballad\|user=Eirik\|author=Eirik}}		{{title\|name=Ballad\|user=Eirik\|author=Eirik}}{{universe\|Visionary}}
	The bow dipped below the water again, looking for all the world		The bow dipped below the water again, looking for all the world
	like it would sail straight to the bottom. Then with a groaning		like it would sail straight to the bottom. Then with a groaning

Bryan: category

2007-09-27T23:34:42Z

Eirik: New page: Category:Story Category:Eirik Category:Animal Category:Visionary {{DEFAULTSORT:Ballad}} {{title|name=Ballad|user=Eirik|author=Eirik}} The bow dipped below the water again,...

2007-09-20T00:13:54Z

New page: Category:Story Category:Eirik Category:Animal Category:Visionary {{DEFAULTSORT:Ballad}} {{title|name=Ballad|user=Eirik|author=Eirik}} The bow dipped below the water again,...

New page

[[Category:Story]] [[Category:Eirik]] [[Category:Animal]] [[Category:Visionary]] {{DEFAULTSORT:Ballad}}
{{title|name=Ballad|user=Eirik|author=Eirik}}
The bow dipped below the water again, looking for all the world
like it would sail straight to the bottom. Then with a groaning
heave it pulled itself out of the boiling water. White foam
bubbled around the anchor chains and capstans on the forecastle.
Even as the ship righted itself, the swirling storm that gripped
the Mackay-Bennett tried once again to pull it under.

Captain Nofplot stood confidently on the bridge of his ship. A
veteran of the sea, he had seen storms like this before, on ships
both larger and smaller that the one that he stood on now. He had
survived them all.

Yet he still felt a twinge of panic each time he went through
one.

As the bow dipped slightly below the sea again, the door to the
bridge swung open, and a figure stepped in. The Captain turned
and looked at the dark clad man.

"Ah, Mr. Henson! I see that you've chosen to join us. Would you
be so kind as to relieve Mr. Barbary at the helm? I'm sure that he
would like to get some rest."

The young helmsman unbuttoned his rain gear. "Yes sir, Captain.
I'm sorry I'm late. This storm..."

Nofplot cut him off. "Thats all right, Mr. Henson. I believe this
is your first big storm at sea?"

The young man nodded as he strapped himself into the helmsman's
chair.

"Well, son, get used to them if you can. Ive seen a number of
them in my day, and if you stay at sea long enough, you'll see
your fair share."

Henson nodded meekly and turned his attentions to the helm
controls. There wasn't much for him to do at the moment. The
Mackay-Bennett wasn't a new ship, but her systems were fairly
modern. It was capable of holding a course without a heavy hand
on the wheel. But he had to be ready in case the situation
changed.

Nofplot grinned a little from behind the young man. Had he ever
been so young? This kid looked like he only started shaving last
week. He mentally nodded to himself when he remembered his own
first assignment as helmsman. It was World War II, in the South
Pacific. He was the helmsman of the light cruiser Shasta.

Those had been good days for him. Coming out of a tiny town in
Nebraska, he had joined the Navy as soon as he came of age. He
wanted to see the world, he wanted to see some excitement.

His first bout with excitement came in the form of a Japanese
convoy, guarded by four destroyers. The Shasta had taken four
torpedoes before withdrawing. It managed to limp into a dry-dock
in Australia for repairs, and Nofplot was assigned to a new ship.
A heavy cruiser, a ship so large and powerful that only a few
ships could oppose her one on one.

That ship had been called the Indianapolis.

Nofplot grimaced as the memory of that ship surfaced. He had
served on her for a year when he and about half a dozen other men
were abruptly transferred off just before she made a secret run.

The Indianapolis never returned.

She was sunk by a lone submarine in the middle of the hot August
night. She had gone down, burning, by the stern, taking some of
her crew with her to the bottom.

But she had been alone, on the return leg of a secret mission.
She wasn't missed for days. By the time a patrol plane spotted the
wreckage and bodies in the water, she had been lost four days.
More than half who survived the sinking died of exposure,
drowning or by shark attack. Many were men that he considered
friends.

Nofplot shuddered when he thought about that, about how close he
came. By all rights, he should have been aboard. He never knew
why he had been transferred off, and the executive officer who
ordered the transfer didnt survive.

It wasn't the last time that Nofplot would miss a sinking at the
last minute. After the war, he had been hired as an officer for a
small cargo line. It wasn't much, but all Nofplot was interested
in was the sea. A few years later, an old customs agent in South
Africa refused to let him aboard his ship. He wouldn't explain
himself, only he adamantly refused to allow him to leave the
country. The Captain of the vessel was sympathetic, but he was
also on a deadline. He made arrangements for Nofplot to be picked
up by another ship later, once this mess was straightened out.

The ship sailed out of port, never to be seen again. There were
no survivors.

Seamen are, as a rule, a superstitious bunch. Nofplot was more
the exception. He felt that it was a coincidence that he had
managed to avoid two tragedies. He also knew better than to tell
anyone about it. There was more than one story of a person who
managed to survive several sinking, only to be banned from
sailing.

But, the next time Nofplot survived, it wasn't something that he
could easily dismiss as a coincidence. He knew that something,
some higher power, was at work.

She was the Harley, a large refrigerated container ship. They
were four days out of Manila with a shipment of foodstuffs bound
for Los Angeles. By this time, Nofplot had become second officer.
It had been an absolutely clear day. The sea was calm, there were
no other ships in the area. It was a day of absolute serenity.

The Captain had relieved him, and Nofplot had wandered back to
the stern of the ship. The crew was small, only 25, but even on a
ship this size it was hard to get privacy. He stood and looked
back against the trailing wake of the ship and found himself lost
in thought when a voice interrupted him.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

He turned and found himself looking at a man he didn't recognize.
He was certainly overdressed, in a dark suit and hat. Despite the
heat of the South Pacific sun, he had an overcoat with him,
though it was hung over one shoulder. "Who are you? How'd you get
on the ship?"

"Fair questions, Jeremy, but there isn't time to answer them. I'm
here to warn you."

Nofplot took a long look at the man, and a memory clicked.
"You... you were in South Africa. You're that customs agent. But, that
can't be. That was years ago."

"Ive held many jobs and positions over the years, whenever they
have suited me or my purpose. But there isnt time. You must be
warned, this ship is about to sink."

Nofplot felt a pit in his stomach. He knew this man wasnt lying.
"How? When?"

"It doesn't matter. It will be soon. Very soon. Just be ready for
anything to happen. Do not be concerned about the present. You
have a future."

The man abruptly turned and walked behind a cargo container.
"Wait!" yelled Nofplot as he chased after him.

But he was gone.

He turned his head a few times, but the man was gone. Deciding to
look for him later, Nofplot started running at top speed for the
bridge.

He never made it.

There was no reason for the disaster. There was nothing out of
the absolutely ordinary. But before Nofplot had run fifteen
steps, he felt the deck lurch from beneath him. There was a
tremendous noise as steel rubbed and strained against steel. It
was as though a giant hand was slowly tearing the ship apart. The
deck between him and the bridge heaved and buckled. The ship was
going down.

Nofplot raced to grab a life jacket from a safety cabinet, but
stopped as he reached his arm out.

It was slowly growing white feathers.

Even as he realized it, he found himself a bird. A seagull to be
exact. He hopped about a bit, confused, on the deck. He opened
his wings and looked at the parallel feathers in wonder. He tried
to call out, but only heard the high pitched scream of the bird
that he had always considered the rat of the sea.

The water started to flow across the weathered decking, and he
instinctively took to the safety of the air. From that position
high above, he watched the ship twist in two as it fell beneath
the waves.

Not knowing what else to do, he flew. He flew in the general
direction of the Philippine Islands. With every flap, he wished
more and more to be dead. He didn't want to live out his life as
an animal, at least not one of the air. He loved the sea, but
somehow a seabird isn't the same. He toyed with the idea of
killing himself, of diving into the water at full speed.

But the words of that old man came back to him. He had a future
to think about.

After a few hours, and as he got steadily more tired, he came
onto a tiny, uninhabited island. As he landed, he found that he
was human again.

He survived two weeks on that tiny island before he was rescued.
He told them part of the truth, that the ship had simply sunk
around him. It was guessed that the ship had simply had a massive
structural failure at an expansion joint. It had been known to
happen, though it was typically only when the ship was in a
storm.

They never were able to understand how he survived the sinking.
After all, no one else did, and the wreckage had been found very
far from the island. Nofplot simply never told another living
soul what happened to him.

Nofplot brought himself back to the present as a wave crashed
across the windows of the bridge. He had been the Captain of the
Mackay-Bennett long enough to know how his ship was doing by the
feel of the deck plates, and she felt solid beneath his feet.
According to the radio man, this storm was supposed to break
pretty soon, and it would be clear sailing.

Then the door of the bridge opened again. Nofplot looked at the
figure. It was him. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he
realized that he had been expecting him.

The dark clad man stepped into the bridge. This time, he was
wearing to overcoat and hat, but didn't seem to be bothered by the
rain outside. He stood firmly on the deck, only swaying slightly
on the pitching deck. He crossed the deck deliberately. He
crossed to Nofplot.

"I must speak to you."

"Is my ship going to sink?"

"You remember me."

"How can I forget?"

The old man merely nodded, then looked away.

Nofplot felt a sinking feeling. "You're not here for me, are you?"

The man turned back. "No."

The Captain merely nodded. "Then, you have forsaken me."

The man looked grave. "You were never mine to forsake. You've done
good, my friend. I may not be able to save your ship, but I can
save your life."

"You mean, like the seagull you turned me into?"

The man shook his head. "No, it would be one way. You wouldn't get
another chance. That is reserved this night for another."

The Captain looked across his bridge. It seemed that no one else
noticed the old man. Which one is going to be saved?

And how could he abandon those who wouldn't?

"No. I'm their Captain now. Anything that happens is my
responsibility. If this ship goes down, then I go with it."

The old man nodded and walked to the young helmsman. The Captain
kept his distance as the two talked briefly. Then the man turned
back to Nofplot. "Captain, if you don't mind?"

"Mr. Nelson, you are relived." He walked over as the bewildered
young man unstrapped himself from the chair. "Captain, what's
going on?"

Nofplot looked at him a moment. "Be ready for anything, and
remember."

The old man led him off the bridge. The Captain turned back to
the controls as he felt the familiar rhythm of the deck shift
suddenly. There were shouts as he felt a pair of waves smash into
the ship at an angle to each other. It was more than the tiny
vessel could take, and her keel was snapped like a toothpick. The
power flashed once, then died. The men on the bridge scrambled
for the exits, but the Mackay-Bennett was suddenly two ships, and
disintegrating.

As the water poured through the open door, Captain Jeremy Nofplot
saw an albatross struggle into the sky.

And he smiled one last time.

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:34, 27 September 2007
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	[[Category:Story]] [[Category:Eirik]] [[Category:Animal]] [[Category:Visionary]] {{DEFAULTSORT:Ballad}}		[[Category:Story]] [[Category:Eirik]] [[Category:Animal]] [[Category:Visionary]] [[Category:Avian]] {{DEFAULTSORT:Ballad}}
	{{title\|name=Ballad\|user=Eirik\|author=Eirik}}		{{title\|name=Ballad\|user=Eirik\|author=Eirik}}
	The bow dipped below the water again, looking for all the world		The bow dipped below the water again, looking for all the world
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	"Ive held many jobs and positions over the years, whenever they		"Ive held many jobs and positions over the years, whenever they
	have suited me or my purpose. But there ~~isnt~~ time. You must be		have suited me or my purpose. But there isn't time. You must be
	warned, this ship is about to sink."		warned, this ship is about to sink."

User:Eirik/Ballad - Revision history

ShadowWolf: add {{universe}}

Bryan: category

Eirik: New page: Category:Story Category:Eirik Category:Animal Category:Visionary {{DEFAULTSORT:Ballad}} {{title|name=Ballad|user=Eirik|author=Eirik}} The bow dipped below the water again,...