OK, here's my attempt at the ATC challenge. I wrote this with the help of liquor and the sarcasm of Anthony Bourdain droning in the background, so if it doesn't work, I apologize. Disclaimer: I own nothing, nada, zip. Any similarity between real people and what you read here is purely coincidental. I hope you like it :)
A large arctic hurricane battered the crab grounds, forcing boats in the fleet to duck behind St. Paul and Akutan in attempts to stay afloat amid the 40-foot swells. Aboard the Northwestern, Sig Hansen's radar screen showed the Time Bandit, the Seabrooke and the Wizard anchored behind Akutan, not 1,000 yards between them.
"Hey Johnathan, you out there?" Sig said into the radio.
In the Time Bandit's wheelhouse, the radio crackled as Johnathan Hillstrand picked up handset. "Yeah, I'm here," he said. "This storm's a bitch."
"Yeah it is," Sig said. "Tell your guys we turned on the SAILOR unit if they want to try to reach their families."
"Sounds good," Johnathan said. "They're crawling the walls down there."
Over on the Wizard, Monte Colburn booted up his laptop. He had spied the Northwestern just off the Wizard's port side and hoped she had her Internet turned on. That unit turns the boat into a huge frickin' Wifi hotspot, he thought. Maybe we can piggyback off their signal. Don't have anything else to do until this storm blows over.
Monte saw the Wifi icon pop up on his screen and smiled. Boredom averted. "Hey Soper! Got a connection. Wanna watch South Park?"
Freddie Maugatai walked by Monte in the Wizard's galley, looked over his shoulder and stopped when he saw the cartoon.
"I like this one," he said. Monte slid over so he could sit, and that made Freddie grin. "Sweet!"
In the Northwestern's galley, the crew sat grouped about the table, Norman Hansen and Nick Mavar on their laptops, Matt Bradley, Edgar Hansen and Jake Anderson on their smart phones.
"I can't believe you google your own name," Nick said to Norman as brought up the search engine. "Why should you care what the fans do?"
"I want to know what's out there," Norman said, skimming through the search results. "What the fuck is this?"
Norman called up the Fan Fiction site link that connected with the Deadliest Catch collection of stories and saw pages of links to stories, including ones that were rated Mature. He called up a story titled, "To Catch A Guy Or Two" and started reading.
"So are you gonna share or what?" Edgar said. Norman looked up and grinned.
"You're getting more action than you normally do bro," he said, chuckling when Edgar flipped him off. "We can count the times we all get laid in these stories and use them as a drinking game."
"You shittin' me?" Edgar asked. He moved so he could look at the screen. "Damn..."
"What's that site called?" Jake asked, typing away on his phone. "Yes! They have a mobile version."
Josh Harris, now on the Time Bandit, sent Jake a text: "We're bored over here. What're you guys doing?"
Jake laughed and sent him the link to the DC community site. "Have some lite reading. Check out the ones marked mature. LMFAO!"
"Will do" Josh texted back.
~~~ about an hour later ~~~
"Hey, wonder if we can figure out who they are?" Jake said. "I'm gonna join the site and review this one."
"What are you gonna say?" Matt asked as he watched Jake call himself Northwestern4evr.
Jake read his review out loud: "Great chapter and detail. Jake's my fav!"
The rest of the crew rolled their eyes. Jake refreshed the page and saw the author had sent him a private message. This is gonna get interesting, he thought.
