Amber wakes with a jolt well after ten in the morning. She hadn't slept all that well when she went back to bed; she sits up and yawns, just wanting to lay back down and go back to sleep. She drags herself out of her bunk and goes into her private bathroom to take a shower. After she gets dressed for the day she looks at her phone and sees that Tony had left a message saying that the plane they all were on would be in Dutch at noon for sure today, and that call had been last night when she had been sleeping. It is now a little after eleven, so Amber goes down to the galley and gets herself a cup of semi-lukewarm coffee for her breakfast. Before she leaves to go to the very small Dutch Harbor airport, she puts on her Aleutian Queen jacket and goes out on deck. She takes note of Marty teaching Andrew how to cut cod to make hanging bait for the pots.
"Hey Marty, I'm gonna go meet the rest of the boys at the airport, mind if I borrow Andrew?" She asks.
"What do you need the kid for, I'm teaching him a few valuable skills now so he looks like he knows what he's going when we get to the crab grounds." Marty retorts.
Amber sighs. "Carry on then, and Andrew, be careful those knives are sharp enough to shave with."
The shaggy haired kid nods. "See ya later, Captain Jennings."
With that Amber hops off the boat and sets off down the dock to find a truck to bring her crew back to the boat. She arrives at the airport about ten minutes later, just as the plane is landing on the runway.
"That is the last time I fly up here, the next time Amber offers us a free ride up here I'm taking it," Roy Penn states as he enters the terminal.
"Suck it up Penn, at least you didn't get air sick like Tony," Collin replies, patting Roy on the back.
Tony takes the dig at his pride like a man and says nothing. Flying was never an easy thing for him and this time the motion sickness pills hadn't worked as well as he had hoped they would. He sighs, just glad that the plane hadn't hit the forward mast of a boat that was docked at the fuel dock.
"Lay off the man Collin," Rodney admonishes the greenhorn, "not everyone can handle turbulence, I felt a little queasy myself."
Collin sighs and looks over at Frank.
"Don't you push it kid," the deck boss states.
By now Amber is standing in front of them. "You boys have a good flight in?" she asks.
They all nod, knowing that she knew what they had been saying.
"Good, get your bags then meet me outside," she says, turning on her heel heading for the door.
~.*.~
Later, the Aleutian Queen is docked near a pot storage facility. While her more seasoned deckhands stack and chain the pots to the deck, Amber shows Andrew and Collin how to repair holes in the nylon webbing. Once she is satisfied that the two greenhorns can do the job without her looking over their shoulders she gets in the truck and heads back into town to buy groceries for the trip, and to get rain gear and a survival suit for Andrew, whom has already provided her with his sizes.
Of course, when she gets to the market she finds that they are out of eggs. "Dammit, Johnathan..." She mutters in frustration. She actually had expected this, knowing that the Time Bandit is the boat that likes to prank everyone in the fleet. So with that she decides to pay the Hillstrands a visit to buy the eggs from them.
After making her purchases and arranging for the groceries to be taken to the boat Amber sets out for the docks to pay some of her fellow captains a visit. As she parks her borrowed truck, and sets off down the docks she becomes aware of someone following her. She turns on her heal to see another of the cameramen that descend on the small fishing town.
"I done said no to your colleague the other day," she tells him.
"Captain Jennings, do you know who I am?" The guy asks.
"Does it really matter?" Amber counters.
"Yes it does, since I am the executive producer."
"Holy crap, you're Thom Beers?!"
"Yes ma'am, and I fired that Will Cooper," Beers says.
"Why, I mean it's not like he harassed me or anything," Amber replies.
''The contract he showed you was one that he typed up, this is the actual one; you read it over, talk it over with your crew, and meet me at the Grand tomorrow evening."
Amber takes the folded papers from the executive producer. "You'll see me then."
~.*.~
Later that evening Amber finds herself on the Northwestern. She arrives a little early so she can help out with the cooking if necessary. She hauls herself over the rail and makes her way into the galley, she coughs when the strong scent of forty plus years of cigarette smoke invades her nasal cavities.
"You're early," Edgar says from the kitchen area.
"Thought I'd better be to make up for being asleep when Sig wanted to talk," Amber replies, stepping into the kitchen. "Need some help?"
"No, I wouldn't do that to you since you're a guest and all." Edgar checks something in the oven, before going over and sitting at the galley table.
Amber eyes her youngest older cousin skeptically for a moment. She coughs as the smell of cigarette smoke hits her again.
"Not feeling well?" Edgar asks.
"No, just the scent of forty some years of cigarette smoke invading my air ways," Amber says through another coughing fit.
Now Edgar eyes her skeptically. "You're looking pale Amber, maybe a home cooked meal will do you some good," his tone is conversational and laced with some concern for the female captain's health.
"If you cook as good as your mother…" Amber says.
Edgar smiles. "Have you never had my salted cod and potatoes?"
"Honestly I can't remember, I know my mother made good salted cod."
Sig emerges from the wheelhouse. "She lives," he says seeing Amber at the galley table. His light smile turns to a deep frown when he sees how pale and tired she looks. "You coming down with something?"
Amber shakes her head. She sighs, figuring she'd better tell someone other than Marty what is going on. "No, try having ultra vivid nightmares every night."
Edgar gives a concerned look while his older brother hisses in sympathy. "What are these nightmares about?" Sig asks, more or less brushing superstition aside.
"The first one was after Christmas, the boat was in rough seas and we were taking on water…I woke before anything else happened," Amber replies.
Sig and Edgar nod. "You two chat up in the wheelhouse, I'll call when supper's ready," the deck boss says, getting up from the galley table.
"You want some coffee, Amber?" Sig asks, getting up and filling his Cal Maritime mug.
"You have any tea, the high caffeine content of coffee won't help anything going on with my ticker." Amber replies, cryptically saying that all this was messing with her heart.
Edgar hears the request and finds a box of the herbal tea that Nick had bought the season nearly everyone had come down with the flu. "All we got is herbal tea that is most likely outdated." He says.
"That's fine Ed, two bags and a little honey and peppermint oil if you all have it, if not black is fine," Amber yawns.
"I'm going on up, you come on up after your tea gets brewed," Sig says going up the steps to the wheelhouse.
~.*.~
Supper with the Northwestern crew is nearly silent, save for murmurs about how good Edgar's cooking is. Of course everyone expresses concern for Amber's health and advise her to let Marty take over for this season.
"Guys, these dreams are really the only thing stressing me out ten ways to Sunday, I can still fish," she insists.
"We're just making some suggestions," Sig says putting an arm around her shoulders, "and here's another, you'll stay here tonight, maybe a change in scenery is what you need to get rid of these horrifying visions."
The others go about gathering the dishes and putting them in the sink to be washed at a later time. They are shocked to see the fair haired Hansen take on this gentle, older brother like demeanor with the female captain. It's no secret that they are related, the whole fleet knows, but either party rarely showed it.
Amber nods, then asks, "Where do you plan on having me bed down?"
"My stateroom, I'll bed down up in the wheelhouse or with Matt, Nick and Jake."
"Thanks, but I shouldn't take your bunk,"
"Amber, you're family, it's the least I can do, especially since I promised your father I'd look out for you."
~.*.~
Amber sits bolt up right, gasping for breath. She feels her heart pounding, threatening to break her ribs. She wipes a hand across her forehead and finds sweat, but not from a fever, the nervous, anxiety driven, cold sweat.
The door to the stateroom opens and Sig comes in.
"I heard a scream and thought the guys were playing a little Xbox, told them to keep it down, but they said it wasn't them," the eldest Hansen says.
"I don't remember screaming, or even what I was dreaming about," Amber murmurs.
Sig nods. "You just try to get s'more sleep.
~.*.~
The next day the last of the pots are chained to the stack. Andrew is also safety tested by a Fish and Game officer, along with the rest of the Aleutian Queen's crew. The season is set to start on January eighth and today is December thirty-first, a mere nine days away.
Amber calls a crew meeting to go over the contract with Discovery; to her amazement everyone actually agrees that it may be a good thing to be a featured boat for a few seasons of Deadliest Catch.
