Sometimes, the sea can be a cruel mistress. An endless vast of water. Sometimes it could give, and sometimes it could take away. However beautiful it may look from above; underneath is an unforgiving darkness with not a human soul to be found at the bottom of the icy cold mass of water. However far down it goes, the deeper and heavier the pressure is. Down there was not a place where any innocent people should find themselves.
The only life that could be found down there were many creatures, cold and warm blooded. Some of them even unexplored. They all go swimming about aimlessly. And down at the bottom is nothing but sand, sometimes flat and sometimes terrain, like an endless desert with no sun to light up the darkness down below. Somewhere, down there, there's a place where the creatures can reside in as a home, not mainly coral reef like in tropical areas. But over there, all they have is sand. And sometimes, shipwrecks too. Sometimes big, sometimes small, even the biggest shipwrecks in the world can be a home for those creatures, unaware of all the secrets that lie deep within them as they all rot away in all the bacteria eating them.
Decenber 25, Christmas Day.
On the railways of the UK, an Intercity high-speed train sped along the tracks with its passengers onboard, seated and waiting to get to their destinations, spending their time either sleeping, listening to music, admiring the scenery, or watching movies on their phones or laptops.
One of those passengers was a young girl in her late teens with shoulder-length pink curly hair, and yellowish green eyes. She was right now on her laptop, writing something on her email.
"Dear mother,
My whole semester in London has finally come to an end. I really liked making new friends there and I'll miss them dreadfully, but I can't wait to get back home. I missed you so much while I was away. I'm sad that I couldn't be there with you during Christmas, as all the flights back home were booked and all I could find was a passenger ship that will take me from England back to America in a week voyage, so I don't know if I'll be there for New Years either. But I'll try to get there as soon as I can. I can't wait to see you again.
Merry Christmas,
Aries Spring."
After clicking the send button, she closed her laptop and looked out the window, watching the scenery go by so quickly. By watching, she could tell even before coming on this train, her journey back home has begun.
Eventually, the train came to a stop at Southampton Central station. This was the place were Aries stepped off the train with her pink bag and yellow suitcase and approached a person holding up a sign with a fancy P letter on it where several other people were waiting. They got on the bus, which transported them to the docks.
Southampton Docks, 1:45 P.M.
When the bus pulled in, Aries looked out the window and saw her ship moored at the dock.
It was a British, luxury passenger liner the same size as the Queen Mary 2 with 14 decks, 40 lifeboats colored in white and red, several capsules of liferafts, and spotless paintwork; red in the keel area, black in the lower five decks, and white in the upper decks with a red stripe across the 9th deck. On the bow section, the name POSEIDON was painted over the red stripe. The name was also there on the stern section with the port of regristry, SOUTHAMPTON painted underneith in white. She had two bow cranes and three attennes on the top deck, one just before the bridge and two others behind the first pool for internet and wi-fi. She also had a smartly painted smokestack on the aft section, black on the lower half and white on the upper half, with a red covering that had the ship's logo on it, a white square with a red letter P over it. She looked as if she could hold up to 2 or 3 thousand passengers onboard.
Aries thought this was the most beautiful ship in the world. She couldn't stop taking her eyes off of it, even as she stepped off the bus with her bags. She looked at her ticket, showing the ship's logo on it, saying she was meant to be on that ship. She began to skip towards it, singing a little song of how "super-duper" excited she was to be going home when...
SWIPE!
Someone dressed in black with a black hoodie rushed by Aries. And that's when she noticed that that figure had her bag and cried out, "Stop, beef-I mean... thief!"
That was when another figure whooshed past her. It was a boy the same age as her with black spiky hair and brown eyes, along with a small scar across the bridge of his nose. He had a very determined look on his face as he sprinted towards the burglar. And to her suprise, the boy was catching up with it, very fast! And, as soon as he reached him, he tackled him down to the ground so hard that the thief was K.O. immediately.
Afterward, while someone called the cops on the thief and arrested him, Aries ran over just in time to see the boy hand back her bag, giving her a kind smile on his face.
"Here you go," he said.
"Thank you, mister," she answered, taking back the bag. "That was amazing!"
"Well, it's no problem," he chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "So, you going onboard the Poseidon too?"
"Oh yes, I am," she answered. "I'm coming home back home from a whole semester overseas."
"Ah, an exchange student program, how neat," smiled the boy.
"What about you?" Aries asked. "Were you an exchanged student too?"
"Nah, had an hiking internship in Edinburgh," he explained. "Coach says I was too straight forward, taking too many risks, especially the really dangerous ones. He even had the nerve to say that I had no right to take charge in situations where I didn't belong."
"You mean you got fired?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Sorta," he shrugged. "But hey, this gives me the perfect opportunity to get what I really wanted."
"And what's that?"
"To be the captain of my own boat, just like that one up there," he said before pointing to the Poseidon, "I want to climb to the top and reach the skies. And even when I do reach it, I'll climb even higher!"
Hearing this made Aries smile.
"Sounds like your coach gave you exactly what you wanted without even knowing it," she said.
"Exactly," he said confidently. "I am a free man!"
"Well, I hope you do, mister camper!" Aries smiled brighter.
The boy winced a little at that.
"Uh, that's not my name," he said. "It's Kanata Hoshijima. Seriously, 'Mister Camper' would probrably be the weirdest name ever."
"Oh, I suppose you're right. I'm Aries Spring. Nice to meet you," she answered shaking his hand.
Suddenly, while shaking his hand, she noticed the time on her watch saying 1:55 P.M.
"Oh no! The doors will close at 2! We gotta hurry!" Aries exclaimed as she started running towards the terminal building.
"Hey, wait up!" Kanata called, picking up his stuff before hurrying after her.
In the terminal building, there was a line of people that had already started handing the assistant their tickets before walking the gangway to the ship. Among those were a woman with two daughters and a young man.
The woman had tan skin, short blond hair and lilac-colored eyes with a lilac business outfit and a very serious look on her face. Her two daughters were tan and blond as well with the same colored eyes, thought one was holder and the other was younger. The young man had short white spiky hair, and blue eyes covered with frame-less glasses and at the same age as the older daughter.
"Now listen, you two," said the woman to the girls. "While we're on our vacation to New York, I want the both of you on your best behavior and try not to embarass the Raffaeli name."
"Why would you think I would do that?" asked the oldest daughter in her snobby tone. "The only one you should be worrying about is my younger sister here."
"Quitterie," scolded her mother. "You should remember that Funicia is a lot younger than you and is a well addition to this family. So, you better take great care of her."
"Come on, lighten up, big sister," teased Funicia before holding up her puppet. "Even Beego thinks you should have a good time, 'Yes, you should, young lady!'" she said, mimicking her puppet.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Quiterie murmured sulkly, rolling her eyes.
"Sorry about that, Zack," said the woman to the young man.
"Not to worry, Madam Olive," replied Zack before turning his eyes towards Quiterie. "I'm sure deep down, my fiancé shall find this rather amusing once she gets adjusted to it."
Quiterie looked over, clearly very annoyed with Zack. She had never asked for her mother to have an arranged marriage to a man she hardly knew. Just the thought of it alone was enough to infuriate her. But she knew that the Raffaeli family was important with rich businesses and all that, so she said nothing about it, especially as they gave their tickets and showed their passports to the assistant, who stamped them before walking up the gangway.
The last passengers just turned in their tickets, showed her their passports and had just stepped onto the gangway when...
"Wait! We're here!"
It was Aries and Kanata, sprinting out the doorway towards the terminal area after getting their baggage through security and reached the desk just in time. Aries brought out her passport and reached in her back to find her ticket, but she couldn't feel it anywhere.
"What the?!" she murmured frantically. "Where is it?! I know I had it in here!"
"Oh wait!" said Kanata behind her, pulling out a ticket. "I think you dropped this when you rushed in."
Aries looked at it, seeing it was clearly hers and snatched it, feeling very relieved.
"Thank you again!" she said to Kanata before handing it to the assitant, who took her ticket and stamped her passport before giving it back to her and allowing her onto the gangway.
And as soon as Kanata showed the assistant his own ticket and passport. And after stamping the passport, Kanata was allowed through and went in right before the assistant closed the door behind him.
The two hurried up the gangway and managed to reach the end of it, stepping through the gangway door before stepping onto the ship's deck, where they were greeted by the stewards standing beside.
"Welcome aboard the Poseidon, ma'am," one of them said.
"Thank you," said Aries as she went in.
Once Kanata made his way in, the mechanical gangway was disconnected and moved back as the stewards closed the door.
After boarding, Aries found her way into the ship's lobby atrium, where she looked around. It had multiple floors with bronze railing, several spiraling stairways, a colorful skydome, two capsule elevators and a grand staircase at the bottom. It looked so lively and shiny. She made her way at the pursur's desk, where the pursur found her reservation onboard and gave her the card key for her cabin. Aries took a ride up the elevator to deck 13, where she found her cabin, B-14.
It was a single cabin, which had a closet and cupboards, white panelled walls, a clean bathroom, a desk with a chair and a telephone and a mirror, a television hanging on the wall with a remote sitting on the nightstand, a few lamps, a place with a coffee pot and mug, a confy chair with leg rest, and a nice comfortable bed, all made and set for her. There was even a small table wich had a bucket of champaign and a shampaign glass sitting on it, seeing it as some sort of nice welcoming. Then she found the outdoor balcony, showing her the whole view of the outside.
"Wow!" she murmured in amazement.
Aries took all of this in for a short while before giving herself some time to unpack and organize everything. She stumbled a little at that part, organizing and reorganizing everything. She was so airheaded, she had trouble figuring out where everything went until she got it right. Once everything was set, she could hear the speaker turning on.
"This is Captain Bradford, announcing that we will begin our muster station drill in five minutes. So, collect your life-jacket, read the instructions on the wall and where your boat number is, then report at the main deck at once."
So, after reading the instructions on the wall, including the station she was at, boat 12, Aries fetched her life jacket from the closet, snapped it on, and went out the door towards the deck.
In short notice, all the passengers gathered at the lobby for practice. Among those were two young boys in their late teens. One of them had light purple hair and the other had black hair with most strands covering his right eye.
"Hey, I'm Luca," introduced the boy in light-purple hair to the black haired boy, extending his hand to him for a handshake.
But the boy scoffed him off and stepped away from him, much to Luca's disappointment.
Nearby, a woman in her late teens with long violet hair tied down in pigtails and with bangs covering her eyes, which were blocked by some glasses was standing in place when she saw that small commotion. She wanted to speak about it, but the words could never leave her mouth, so she turned away.
Then they heard the annoucement on the speakers.
"On the wall of your cabin, keep in mind that it shows you what boat number you're stationed at outside on each side. Also, your life vest has a beeping light that spots your location and a whistle that gives noise to whoever's nearby. Always remember that in case of an emergency, that's the station where you will go. So, stay calm and follow the directions the officers tell you for they may save your lives."
Once the session ended, everyone went back to their cabins to put their life vests away before returning to their daily activities.
Up on the bridge, the ship's captain reported to his duties, seeing his men ready on the thrusters and the helm. He looked at his watch, seeing they are right on the hour.
"4 o'clock," he said. "Are we unmoored?"
The first officer looked out from the bridge window and watched as the dock workers unhooked the ship's lines from the moors before the ropes were pulled back inside the hull.
"We're unmoored and detached from all gangways, sir," replied the first officer.
"Good. Let's take her out, men!" said the captain. "Fifteen degrees port on thrusters. And as soon as we're off the dock, eight knots astern."
"Yes, sir," said the man at the thrust controls, turning the knob gently to the right.
In the forward section, underneith the water line, there were three holes in the hull with propellers inside, which slowly began to turn, pushing the ship away from the dock without the assistance of tugboats.
All the passengers on the decks began waving and shouting their good-byes to those still on the dock, waving to them onboard. As soon as the ship was free from the port, the man at the thrusters turned off the bow thrusters and pulled down the lever to slow speed astern, turning the stern propellers backwards, reversing the ship from her berth.
Aries was on the balcony of her cabin when looked down on the pier, watching it slowly slide away as they pulled out and noticed a few of her friends on the dock, waving and shouting their good-byes to her. Aries smiled before waving back to them.
"Good-bye!" she called. "I'll miss you!"
Once she was pulled out, the ship turned around, using her bow thrusters towards the exit along the channel moving forward at slow speed to avoid running over any nearby boats or ships that might get too close. And, by night, the gorgeous ocean liner was out of the channel and sailed into the open sea towards the North Atlantic Ocean.
And so, begins a voyage no one will ever forget.
Author's Note:
I'm only going to make one thing clear. The ship may be from the 2006 film, but I'm not going to go entirely in the same direction as that went, so our main characters will not in the same path either. So, no hurry either. I plan to do right what the film didn't. How? Just wait and see as you read on the chapters.