~DISCLAIMER~

This story was written by a colleague of mine his pen name is Sinbad©. He does not own a fanfiction account so I offered to post this and we agreed. We mutually hope you enjoy this. The setting is the Discovery Channel ® game Sharkrunners©

Chapter 1

The ship's bow cut through the water, stirring up a frothy wake. A pair of dolphins playfully rode the bow wave, occasionally jumping out of the water. Sven stared out over the pilot house instruments, watching, reading the water as he steered the research vessel, Black Coral, through the emerald waters off the coast of northeastern Australia. He gripped the wheel with an iron grip, evidence of his rising anxiety. He wondered to himself how he had ever gotten to this point. It had been about a month since the accident had left him the lead diver and ship's captain. He thought back on the accident, still unsure how or even what had happened. Regardless, he had been happy with the extra income and certain amount of prestige that came with the position. His employers, the Monterey Oceanographic Research Institute or MORI, had compensated him well. However, the extra ten percent did little to calm his anxiety. His thoughts drifted back to when he first joined the crew. His childhood and young adult maritime experience on the fjords of Norway and Sweden had honed his skills. The crew of the Black Coral readily accepted him as one of their own, although, the one called Santiago sometimes left him wondering. Everything now would be o.k., if he hadn't gotten himself in such a jam. Now, he was at a loss as to what to do. So he turned to the bottle. Even now, as he navigated the ship, he was wanting a drink. As soon as his shift at the wheel was over, he was heading for his cabin, and comfort from the bottle.

Early the next morning, the Black Coral eased into the chosen anchorage in preparation for researching tiger sharks. The echos of the rattling anchor chain faded across the wide ocean as the crew went about the business of securing from sailing and setting up the research equipment. Sven, red eyed, from his nightly consumption was looking over the remote sharkcam, getting it ready to deploy when the time came. Santiago glanced at Sven a couple times as he was putting scuba tanks into the rack, a wicked smile on his lips. He knew that Sven had been drinking, for he had been bringing rum aboard in Gatorade bottles and generously providing it to Sven under the guise of concern about Sven's anxiety. Santiago's thoughts were interrupted as Brent arrived with more tanks. Brent was the pretty-boy crew member who fancied himself with the women. Brent was an able enough hand, just not particularly motivated to do anything other than research. When it came to clean-up or any other mundane task, Brent was usually not to be found. What irritated Santiago the most about Brent though, was the fact that Brent was making moves on Lizzy, the attractive diver with raven black hair. Santiago licked his lips as he thought about Lizzy. Now there was a woman, one that he fancied for himself. Well, when the time was right, Brent would no longer be in his way, but for now, Santiago had other things to worry about.

Mari was returning from the front of the ship when Lizzy spotted her. "How's it looking?" Mari replied with a non-committal "Alright" and continued on down the corridor. Lizzy watched her go, then headed for the data room, time to boot up the computers.

The sun was showing signs of slipping into the western seas when Sven and Santiago finished securing the equipment from the days activities. Sven looked tense and seemed distant. Santiago looked at him a minute and said, "Amigo, why don't you go to your cabin, I'll take your watch." Sven half smiled and thanked him, then turned and headed for his cabin and the bottle. As Santiago was heading towards the pilot house, he passed the galley. Brent was sitting closely beside Lizzy, talking quietly to her and she would giggle periodically. Santiago clenched his teeth and continued down the corridor.

Abigail, a mousy young woman who would not stand out in a crowd, was checking Brent's diving gear the next morning. Odd..., his tank was only half filled with air. If he had dove with this tank, he would have run out of air before completing his dive. Abigail assumed that Brent had been careless about prepping his gear as he put it away last night. She would fill it up and let him know that she had looked out for him. She went though the whole scenario in her mind, his ready smile and good looks warming up to her in gratitude for her vigilance. Even though she was the newest member of the research team, she knew that Brent was meant for her. This was the man who made her feel pretty.

Sven had done 12 dives this day and then retired to his cabin. He got the call to return to the fantail about an hour later, seems one of the tagged sharks was approaching the ship and they needed data from it. Even though he had already consumed a liter of grog, Sven headed to the fantail, not wanting to bring attention to himself by not showing up. What he didn't know was Santiago had loosened the railing next to the decoy launch. As Sven leaned over to let out the line, the railing gave way and into the drink he fell, the decoy rope looping around his leg. A tiger shark was already approaching the turtle decoy and the sudden tension on the rope snapped Sven's leg. Everyone heard his screams of pain and rushed to aide him. Santiago ran to the radio room to call for a MEDIVAC while Brent, Lizzy, and Abigail tended to Sven. Santiago was already planning how he would announce that he was the acting lead dive, the position he had coveted. A couple hours later the helicopter made it's appearance on the horizon. Before long, Sven was MEDIVACd to Cairns. Santiago quickly announced that he was now the lead diver.....

Santiago had firmly established himself as the lead diver, much to every ones chagrin. Brent, didn't give much thought to such politics however, was definitely interested in Lizzy......

Today, a night dive was planned for the intrepid crew. Wil, Sven's replacement, was scheduled to dive with Abigail. Wil is really an undercover investigator for the International Shark Researchers Insurance Trust (ISRIT) on a mission to determine why so many lost diver claims have been filed recently by the Black Coral. When Wil and Abigail returned from their dive, Lizzy and Mari were scheduled to run the turtle decoy. Abigail volunteered to assist Lizzy rig up, however, what Lizzy didn't know was that Abigail was intent on ensuring that Brent was HER man.....

Lizzy released the turtle decoy and was preparing to enter the diving cage when the winch hoisting the cage suddenly went into free-spin mode. The cage fell on the turtle decoy line and prevented it from feeding out properly. JR was engaging the decoy and the rope suddenly whipped up and snatched Lizzy overboard. Mari jumped in to attempt to save Lizzy, who was tangled in the rope, but JR took off dragging both divers to their watery grave.

Later that night, Wil enter into his hidden report that the 5th and 6th divers reported lost this week had certainly questionable demises......Brent has been ruled out, as he is obviously shaken by Lizzy's loss and Santiago is certainly worried by the loss of 2 divers so soon after he assumed lead diver.....
Abigail seems almost happy by the tragic events of the day........