Chasing the Tide

by Kuro The Dark Ringmaster

Nathan Stark wasn't always a scientist and Nobel Laureate, once he was a struggling student who wanted to make his mark in history. Only to find himself learning that there's more to life than equations. All the while, Jack is trying to run from his past and looks for a brighter future. Perhaps UCLA holds the key to a better life.

1. Prologue

Prologue:

There is a place in the mind, where it is silent. This small corner in which, an individual may spend a lifetime searching for, a slither of silence Ina world that is loud and buzzing. The reason why we search so vigilantly isn't because the world isn't too much, in fact, it's because in this place, in this silence we are one with something even greater, the world. It is this connection to the world around us, the sand, the sun, and the surf that makes us realize that life isn't as complex as we think, its intricate and yet simple at the same time.

This place is difficult to locate but not impossible. Some find it through meditation and self-reflection, while others focus on following the word of others. Yet for some, there is one place where man may meet his maker. One place in which he is no longer superior to the forces which he s learned to battle and prepared. To come face to face with the power of nature and not flinch, no, but to acknowledge it, to respect it and even embrace it.

Out in the warm golden rays of the sun that saturate the earth. That sacred place where water and earth meet and salt permeates the air. The massive blue scape, where over and over the waters shift as often as a butterfly may flap her wings.

Just out on the horizon, where the sea and the sky nearly touch is a very tall man, his sun kissed skin glistens with water from the sea, his dark curly hair is damp, the water slides down his face and slips into his well-trimmed beard. A pair of green eyes showers the water confidently.

The searcher, the dreamer, the inventor, and a man who for the first time in an eternity will allow himself to fall from his lofty position in society, and fall into the caress of a wave placing himself at nature's mercy. The board bobs as his hands hover above the water, feeling the raw power of the ocean under the yellow and red board he's straddling. There's no one else, just him, the waves and calypso.

The engineer draws a deep breath, the water continues to shift and yet he sits. Waiting. Waiting for a chance to meet the gods and not ride the wave, but become part of it. There aren't Ph.D.s given to those who have ridden the tides, Nobel aren't awarded to those who changed the way we view the sea. There's only that primal bond between life, death and nature.

For that moment Nathan Stark, triple Ph.D. and Nobel Laureate ceases to exist.