That one is for my beta reader:-) thanks Amethyst2417

***Chapter 8

Early at the next morning, about the same time Mike Flynn had to account to Commander Marshall for leaving their patrol, an elderly couple had an argument on the other side of the biggest island of the archipelago. They were standing at their ship's stern, looking over the railing at something floating in the water.

"I told you that I saw a light last night! And see, there is a diver in the water. It's probably like this movie we saw, they just forgot the poor soul out here." the white-haired woman said. "We should have come to investigate earlier! But no, you must get your own way, as always!"
"Oh please, stop yelling at me! I saw nothing last night and I'm the one who can actually see without glasses as thick as... I can't even describe it. Look at you, just like portholes!" her husband nagged.
Handing him the lifeline, his wife ordered harshly: "Well get that poor girl out of the water now, will you? You must have learned that much back in your navy days?"
Muttering away to himself, the old man climbed down the few steps at the stern until he stood on the platform at sea level.
"Hey there, can you catch the line?" he yelled, throwing the lifeline as far as he could. He turned around, looking up at his wife who was clearing her throat. Having second thoughts, she asked:
"You know, if it's a trick and there are pirates around here, coast watch warned us not to pick up unfamiliar people."
"What a load of rubbish! They meant at the port, not at open sea!" He shook his head in disbelief. Linda could be so naive sometimes.
Their argument was interrupted when someone asked in a hoarse slightly voice: "Could you...could you … give...a hand please?"
The old man instantly turned round and held out his hand. "Of course young lady. At your service."
He helped the young woman out of the water, pulling at her hand until she sat on the platform.
"Thanks...a lot, Sir. Could you help me...open the BC? I'm...little clumsy...just one arm." Sara shivered with cold and exhaustion, her teeth clattering as she fumbled around with the buckles. The couple looked at her guest astonished. Why was she talking about having just one arm? The woman saw the blood first.
"Oh my god, you poor child have been bitten by a shark!" she screamed.
"If that had been a shark, there really would be just one arm left, stupid woman!" her husband mumbled and helped the diver up the stairs.
On deck, the younger woman let herself drop on the floor and winced when she accidentally used her right arm to steady herself. That alarmed the old woman.
"Hi, I'm Linda, let me see that arm, will you?" The elder woman kneeled before her. "Get that diving stuff of her, darling." she ordered her husband.
Addressing the young woman, she added: "You know, I was a nurse when I was younger."
"That's must be some time ago" the man teased her but helped nonetheless.
Sara felt like being part of a strange movie. That couple was really nice and helpful but kind of weird as well. He was mumbling all the time, teasing his wife and doing what he wanted to while she was ordering him what she thought ought to be done next. They seemed to be ok with it though. Her head was spinning around and she had problems thinking straight. What the hell had just happened?
"We need to get you out of that wet stuff, my dear. And then I will see if I can stop the bleeding. It looks as if it's a bullet wound? Don't look at me like that, it's not the first one I'm seeing, I used to work at a military hospital for some time. That's where I met him. Fell overboard and ended up in hospital." she nodded in the direction of the old man who was standing now at the wheelhouse's door.
"I'm going to inform the boats around that we have a medical emergency. Maybe someone can help." he informed them.
Sara grabbed the woman's arm. "He mustn't do that!" she urged. "The men who shot at me...they may be still in radio range. If they find out...they come back."
Linda acted without any further question. "We bring her back to the port on our own, Jonas." she shouted over her shoulder. "No need to bother the other sailors. We wanted to sail back to Cairns anyway, right? She's holding out until then." More quiet, she added "You will, yes?"
Sara nodded gratefully. Linda gave her a conspiratorial glance. "You know, we never had a real illegal on board. No problem, you don't have to explain anything. My father came to Australia as an illegal, you know? We just bring you back to Cairns and to a hospital and ask no questions."
That must be some weird dream, maybe I'm already starting to hallucinate Sara thought. She was glad when the old woman finally stopped talking and helped her to a couch under deck. Jonas brought her some water and dry clothes which she managed to put on with Linda's help. They where far to big. Linda chuckled.
"My dear, you should eat more. Look at you, so skinny. I'm going to make you something to eat right now. Just rest a little bit."
Sara leant back and closed her eyes. She could feel a throbbing pain in her upper arm, her joints were aching, she couldn't remember ever feeling so exhausted. There was something she wanted to ask Linda but before she could grab the thought everything went dark.
"Poor girl. She's fallen asleep. They get younger every year, don't you think, darling?" Linda asked her husband, they both stood and watched her guest sleeping. Jonas just nodded and left for the wheelhouse. He didn't agree with his wife. But for that special topic that was something they never would. Back in the old times, when he had been a sailor, he never had told her when they had sent back illegals. She would have been upset. But he didn't bother now. He wasn't in the navy any more, they were on their way to Cairns anyway, so why get worked up?

Buffer pushed Jason out of the RHIB up on deck of the small yacht laying alongside, not even trying to be gentle. They had managed to contact Jason's friend who had already been worried. They both had promised not to do such a stupid thing again and the captain had agreed to hand over Jason to his friend without informing his father. Before, he had thrown the book at him.

"You know, you are old enough to make your own decisions but next time I'm going to inform your father, no matter if you're already of age, you understand?" Mike had finished. His intense look had made the young man shudder.
"Yes Sir, I do, Sir. I promise I will never bring myself in such a situation again, Sir." Jason had stumbled, not being able to look at Mike's face.
Spider had felt sorry for the young man when he had shown him the way to the RHIB after that. He knew that his CO could be pretty intimidating when he was angry.
Now Jason and his friend where standing at the railing, not sure whether they should wave at the departing ship or not.

"I do hope we don't have to deal with them ever again." Buffer still was angry when they were back on the Hammersley. He slammed the door of the equipment's cupboard and turned around. "What do you think, young Spider?"
Spider flinched and frantically looked for a way out of the situation. It felt like it wouldn't be a good idea to argue with Buffer right now. He spotted Bomber on her way to the galley.
"Sorry Buff, I promised Bomber to help her with the cooking." With that he quickly left, glad that he escaped that time.
"Bomber, I'm here to help - as promised." he added a little louder just to make sure. Rebecca looked surprised and wanted to ask what that was all about when she saw Buffer turning up behind Spider. She needed just one glimpse to see that the bosun was grumpy and hastily shoved Spider in the galley, closing the door behind her.
"I do hope he isn't angry because of something you did. 'Cause then I won't block his way when he comes in here."
Spider shook his head and made himself comfortable on the counter.
"No, he's upset because he had to play nanny for the young man we fished out last night. CO told him to make sure he won't get lost 'till we make the transfer. That Jason must have been pretty annoying."
Spider caught the potato peeler Bomber had thrown and regarded it with a blank look.
"What do you want me to do with that? If Buffer comes in here, I sure can't prick him with that, can I?"
Bomber rolled her eyes. "You could try. But I would highly recommend to use it for its true purpose."
She opened a door next to the refrigerator, pulled out a potato sack and laughed at his look. "You offered your help, didn't you?"
Spider sighed, he hated to be the kitchen helper. But on the other hand, if Bomber was the chef... .
"You know, that's why I prefer chips. They come already peeled." he teased her. The brown haired woman tried to scowl at him but couldn't hide the smile playing on her lips. She and Spider had been through a lot together and developed a deep friendship although it hadn't looked like that at first.
"You know" managing to imitate him perfectly, she mocked in return "I find you something else to do the minute I'm sure you can safely distinguish between cauliflower and broccoli." She tried to hit him with a dishcloth but Spider ducked out of the way, wrapped his arm around her waist and started tickling her 'till she would let the dishcloth go. Bomber chuckled and tried half-hearted to get free. To be honest, she wasn't sure if she wanted him to stop the embrace.
"Having fun, you two?"
Both sailors instantly froze. Kate McGregor was standing in the doorway, an empty cup in her hand. She raised an eyebrow and waited for an answer.
Spider let go of his crew mate as if he had just touched a red-hot coal and straightened out his clothes, a blush of shame creeping up his face. He didn't say a word. Bomber finally answered: "Ma'am, seaman Webb offered to help me with the cooking." She paused, not sure what to say next or how to explain the situation they were caught in.
The officer looked at the young sailors with the best I'm-really-angry-look she could manage but couldn't help thinking of her days as young seaman. Sure she never had acted like that but she could partly understand nonetheless. Spider's face colour had changed he was getting paler every minute now. Bomber tried hard to concentrate on the dishcloth she still had in hand. Kate suppressed a smile, then told them:
"Well then I propose you go on with the cooking and stop whatever you just did. I'm sure the rest of the crew would appreciate a hot meal this evening, don't you agree?"
She helped herself with a new brew and left the galley. Spider exhaled and gave a sigh of relief, he hadn't even noticed holding his breath. That had been awkward. He smiled sheepishly at Bomber and pointed at the potatoes.
"Still ok if I help you with that or shall I leave?"
"Don't you think you can get away so easily, seaman Webb." She smiled back. "I sure won't peel them all alone!"
Spider took one of the potatoes and started to give it a scrape while watching Bomber preparing dessert. With the cap slightly slipped, her brown bob was hanging half over her face, yet he could see her focused expression as she counted some teaspoons of sugar for the blancmange, the smile again playing on her soft lips, her hazel eyes sparkling, her cheeks still a little blushed... . Sometimes he couldn't help but asking himself some of the famous what-if-questions.

Swain looked up when he heard someone coming up to the bridge. He was sitting at the helm, steering the Hammersley safely through the shoals and sandbanks around the islands to get them back on course.
"Swain, have you seen the CO?" Robert asked, entering the bridge with a clipboard in hand.
"I think he's in his cabin. He wanted to do some paperwork. Is there a problem, Robert?" Chris Blake asked, pointing at the clipboard.
"No, at least not yet. These are the latest weather reports, things look stormy."
Swain pointed at the still rough sea outside, the sky was all grey, covered now with big dark clouds, white crests made the water look like someone had gone wild with the icing on a big cake. "I guessed that much already. Waves are getting higher every hour. And night is already falling although it is nowhere near sunset."
RO flicked through the pages he had in hand. "NAVCOM says it's not as bad as it looks. The storm is supposed to run a few miles east from here, not hitting any land this time."
Swain nodded. "Nevertheless go tell the CO, he would want to know. And we should probably inform the crew that it could become a bumpy ride."
More to himself, he added cause when do storms ever do what they are expected to do? and made a mental note to ask Bomber to make sure that there were enough cold packs in the fridge. If it was going to become as bumpy as he expected they would need them. There was always at least one who hit his head or slipped.