Ocean Leave
By Caroline Miniscule
Chapter Two
"I think I'm going to be sick."
Ensign Pavel Chekov hunched his torso over the side of the ship, gazing almost unseeingly down to the blue water so far below, and attempted by sheer force of will to keep his breakfast where it belonged.
Ensign Elena Ustinov touched his arm in commiseration. "Don't try to keep it in," she advised. "You'll feel a lot better if you just empty your stomach."
"I think I…" began Chekov, then his stomach muscles contracted of their own volition and he leaned even further over the side of the ship. Various unpleasant noises proceeded to come from him. His sole comfort was that he was not the only one disgorging his breakfast into the water. He only hoped that Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock were not witnesses to his disgrace. He was not concerned that they would make jokes at his expense, any more than Elena would, he knew, but a spaceman who got seasick…
But Captain Kirk and Spock were at the bow of the fishing trawler, accompanied by Madame Sealke Vanschuir and the Captain of the ancient ship, a tall, burly earthling named Carl Vincent. They were watching the thick hawsers that held the nets, so far below the surface of the ocean, hauling up a catch of ocean life weighing several thousand pounds.
Ten of the Enterprise's crew were aboard the vessel, along with thirty tourists who were along as observers, and fifteen crewmembers who were also tourists, but working on the ship as part of their vacation. Most of the tourists were clinging to the sides with green faces thrust over the gunwhales. The sky was a deep blue, the yellow sun shone brightly, and there was little swell..but the trawler still rose and fell like an elevator and some stomachs just hadn't gotten used to it.
Elena Ustinov watched Pavel and the others and shook her head. There were pills to ward off seasickness, she knew. Why hadn't any of these people taken them? Well, perhaps they wanted the full impact of the ocean-going experience, including knowing what it felt like to wish you were dead.
Wasn't it…the great Admiral of ancient Earth Horatio Nelson, who had always been seasick at the start of his voyages until he'd gotten his sea legs? If he could withstand 24 hour of feeling like death warmed over, those who followed in his footsteps could do no less. She would tell Pavel this, Elena decided, when he was once again in a condition to pay attention to what people were saying to him. He would find comfort in it.
At the bow, Madame Vanschuir and Vincent turned away from the two Federation officers, to speak to other dignitaries who were aboard the tourist ship.
Kirk and Spock gazed out over the blue horizon.
"It's beautiful," said Kirk.
"It's ironic," said Spock. "People come here from all over the galaxy. Their own worlds have oceans, they have a fine sea-faring heritage. But their oceans have been denuded through over-fishing and pollution…so they come here to relive those old days. Thousands of people a day, thousands of ships…the ocean-life here will be gone within a decade, I have no doubt."
"You're wrong, Spock," said Kirk. "The vast majority of the tourists here do what's called "catch-and-release - nothing is killed. It's just these trawlers that keep their catches."
And their eyes followed the swirling of the water below as the huge net and its cargo finally broke the surface.
The net rose high in the air, water cascading down from the desperately struggling silver fish-like creatures within it...interesting how underwater life forms had evolved in similar fashion in ocean-worlds across the cosmos, thought Spock.
Spock's eyes narrowed... What was that?
The crane twisted around, bringing the net from over the ocean, around to the open doors set in the deck of the ship. The ends of the net opened, and the fish cascaded into the hold.
"Close the net!" Spock yelled. "Bring the crane right down!"
At that second Kirk saw what Spock had seen. A female figure hung by one hand from the now empty net, far above. She was naked, and her body had a silver sheen...as if she were a fish in human form.
She hung there by one hand, unmoving, seemingly unstraining, and Spock and Kirk saw her impassive face... (rather beautiful, Kirk thought) looking around as she took in her surroundings...at the humans who suddenly whirled around from their fascination with the ocean far below to turn and look at her, at the other ships dotting the horizon, and then down at the sea creatures in the hold, flopping around desperately.
The creature let go of the net, and plummeted like an arrow into the hold.
Kirk jolted forward and leaned over the edge of the railing. She, falling straight as an arrow, had plummeted into the morass of fish and was lost to sight.
The deck opening below this one, from below which the hold extended into the bowels of the ship, was flush with the opening over which Kirk leaned. How could he get down there quickly?
"Spock," he said, climbing up on the railing.
The Vulcan understood immediately. He took Kirk's hand and lowered his Captain over the edge of the hold, and then began to swing him like a pendulum. One swing back, one forward, one swing back - further, and then swinging forward, and Spock released his hold.
Kirk flew threw the air, over the squirming and desperately jumping mass of fish, and hit and rolled safely on the deck below.
He hopped to his feet, and cupped his hands around his mouth.
"There's a woman fallen into the hold!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. "We need to empty it out now!"
The men...and a couple of women...stared at him, then turned to look into the hold.
One of the women screamed, and pointed. "Look."
Something was moving under the fish, toward a point at one edge of the hold. There was a marked squirming and agitation above it that seemed to be a trail, showing where the thing below was moving.
All was silence. And then, suddenly, there was the sound of rending metal.
She's tearing her way through the bulkheads of the ship, Kirk realized. He whirled and headed for the ladder back up to the top deck. He had to fight his way through the crush of people running downwards, anxious to take a look into the hold themselves.
She must be a deep sea creature, Kirk thought, with the strength of body to withstand the tremendous pressure down there. She was ripping through the steel as through tissue paper.
He made it to the top deck and sprinted to the side where he anticipated the creature to emerge. And indeed, even as he looked downward, he saw her head emerge from the hull. And then she was climbing out.
"Hey," yelled Kirk. "Hey!"
The woman turned to look up at him. And then...incredibly...she started climbing toward him, her hands and feet crunching handholds into the metal.
She came up to him.
Kirk watched her face, beautiful for all that it was cold and seemed carved frm steel.
"I'm Cap..." he began, and then she put an arm on his shoulder, gripped down, and with incredible strength, lifted him over the railing. She shoved herself away from the ship, still holding onto Kirk's neck, and Kirk just had a couple of seconds to take a deep breath before they hit the water.
And then they were going down..and down..and down.
Kirk struggled desperately, savagely, but he could not break the creature's hold on his neck. His lungs burned...he was running out of air.
His lungs were burning...he couldn't breathe...he couldn't break free...he stopped struggling...mustn't open his mouth...needed air.
Dimly, he was aware that their tremendous descent downward had stopped. He saw the cold face look into his...an expression of surprise and concern come into it...and then suddenly they were arrowing upward.
But it was too late, Kirk knew, even as his mouth opened of its own volition and he sucked in water. No matter how fast she rose to the surface, he wouldn't be alive when they reached it.
