December 26, Boxing Day
The next morning, the sun rose over the east, which is now completely void of any land but just sea behind the Poseidon as she sailed towards the west towards America ahead. Since it was the first leg of the voyage, there will be no sign of land anywhere in front for a few more days.
It was breakfast time in the buffet on deck 7 and lots of people had come down to get their food. They love the wavey lights on the ceiling of the service area where people got their food before going to the main eating area where people sat down to eat. The main area had paintings all over the walls, including a painting of the Greek God, Poseidon, holding a trident. There was also a window seating area where people can get a nice view of the ocean.
Aries had gotten herself a meal of pancakes with maple syrup, sausage, and milk. She had also gotten herself a bowl of fruit and was just headed back to her table when...
BUMP!
She bumped into a tan-skinned blonde girl her age whom she had never met before, causing her to drop her own tray onto the floor. She was Quitterie, but Aries didn't know this yet.
"Oh! I'm so sorry!" cried Aries.
"AUGH! Watch where you're going, you klutz!" Quitterie scolded.
"Again, I'm sorry!" Aries begged. "Please forgive me! I'll pick this up for you."
"Don't bother! I'll do it myself!" Quitterie snapped, picking up her tray. "You're lucky my tray hasn't got any food on it yet. Otherwise, you could've ruined my clothes! And they're really expensive too!"
"I know, I'm sorry," Aries said.
"Are you just gonna stand there and keep saying 'you're sorry' to me all day or are you going to be sensible and get out of my way?" Quitterie asked impatiently.
"Oh, yes, of course! Sorry... again," said Aries sadly as she moved out of Quitterie's way while Quitterie harrumphed, sticking her nose in the air as she stormed away to join her family at their table.
Aries sadly returned to her table and started eating her breakfast, not feeling so enthusiastic after that little spat Quitterie gave her earlier.
In the ship's gym, there was all sorts of activities such as treadmills by the windows, weightlifting, bicycle runs, and more. It was a place where people come to work out, though they needed a key card to get in.
Kanata was exercising by running on the treadmill. While he was running, he was also listening to some music to keep himself not bored. He panted and sweated as he ran for over an hour before stopping. He brought up his rag and rubbed his sweating face in it. His breathing got slower to a calmer level, then started looking around at the others for a short while.
Once he got his breathing under control, he pulled out his cellphone, opening an image of him and some man with blonde hair next to him. He stared long at the man in the picture.
"I hope you're watching, sir," Kanata thought. "I will become stronger, just you wait!"
He remembered back in the old years when he was younger when they were hiking out in the woods together.
His teacher was standing next to him while Kanata walked beside him while a few other kids were walking behind them. There were so many trees, they could hardly see the blue sky above them. Despite how far they walked, Kanata was having something on his mind.
"Teacher, why should I even bother going out to sea when all I'm capable of doing was running and jumping?" Kanata asked him.
"What makes you think that?" asked his teacher. "Did you dad give you that idea?"
"Um... you can say that."
"Now, while sailing on the ocean is adventurous, life and sports can be adventurous also."
Kanata blinked and looked at his teacher.
"Really?"
"Yeah, but don't forget, you're still young and have all the time in the world for you to decide how you want to live your life."
"What does that mean?"
"It means do what you want," his teacher said.
"You really believe that?" asked Kanata doubtfully.
"Of course I do," he replied before they reached the edge of a cliff, overlooking the distance. "If you want to, always keep reaching out to the distance, whether its to the stars in the sky, or to the farthest land. Besides, helping everyone get there is my purpose... even you!"
Kanata began staring over to the landscape before them, reaching his hand out, as if he wanted to grab something, drowning out others calling out to him.
"Hello?"
"Hello!"
Kanata snapped back into reality when the second "hello" became louder and he turned to see another man standing behind him.
"Are you getting off that thing or are you just going to stand there?"
"Oh, sorry!" stammered Kanata before stepping off, letting the man have his turn on the treadmill.
One deck underneith was the ship's library, where people often came down to check out some books to look at and read with peace and quiet. No stress ever goes on here. Any noises in the room was forbidden anyway.
Luca had just found a good book to read from the shelves. It read, "The Wreck of the Titan." He went to find a chair and sit down so he could read it. On the way, he met that same black-haired boy from the muster stations drill the other day before departing, reading his own book and made a waving gesture with a smile, but the boy just ignored him again and kept on reading, like he was never there. Disappointed, Luca sat down on an empty chair to sit down and read his book. It was no use talking in a place like this. Nobody was allowed to talk much here anyway.
He read on for a little while until he heard that black-haired boy stands up and might've noticed something white fall to the floor as he left. Confused, Luca picked it up. It was a Cunard Card, and it had the name written, "Ulgar Zweig," on it.
"Is that his name?" he wondered.
Then he heard a Russian feminine voice speak from afar, "Do you have your card with you?"
Luca looked up to see that same black-haired boy at the librarian's desk. The librarian was a 28-year-old woman with long blond hair, light brown eyes, and hazel colored eyes, wearing a uniform with the bronze nametag, Polina Livinskaya, engraved on it. The boy looked around in his wallet.
"I know I had it in here," he muttered.
He was beginning to get frustrated when...
"Excuse me."
Both the boy and the librarian turned to see Luca walked up towards them.
"I think you dropped this," he said, holding out the card to the boy.
The boy took the card and looked at it before looking at him.
"Thanks," was all he could say before turning back to the librarian to continue renting his book.
Luca went back to his seat and to his book, still wondering why that boy, whom he knows now as Ulgar, was so grumpy.
On the ship's bridge, Captain Bradford was with his officers and crew on duty. But today, however, they had two visitors.
The first was a man with neatly combed hair and light blue eyes, wearing a dark olive-colored suit and a light green tie. The second was Funicia, who was given permission for one visit as long as she promised not to touch anything. She enamored all of the equipment they had inside, even the captain had to smile, interested in her amusement.
"So, this is where this ship gets its controls?" asked Funicia.
"Close," chuckled Bradford. "Up here is where we give our orders to the controls in the engine room at the bottom. While they work on the rudder and the engines, we stay topside to keep a good lookout so that we can give our control orders to those down below such as how far we want to turn or how fast we want to go."
"How do you tell them?" Funicia asked curiously.
"Simple, we use the knobs and buttons here," said the first officer, pointing at the panels. "They send electrical currents to the engine room. If push the engine throttle slow ahead, those commands get sent to the engine room where the men down there read and set the engines to that level."
"Wow!" gasped Funicia before looking out the window towards the bow and the sea ahead. "How fast can she go?"
"Well, this ship's full speed is over 30 knots at fastest," added Bradford. "And we're currently going at 24, which is no cause for alarm as we are making great schedule and also, we want to give our passengers, including you, a very leisurely, comfortable voyage. Therefore, there's absolutely no need to push her."
"I see," marveled Funicia. "When can I see the engine room?"
"I can show you that some other time," said the man with the neatly combed hair, smiling at her. "Right now, I think you should head back to your mother. I'm sure she must be waiting for you for lunch."
Funicia nodded and smiled as she left, thanking everyone for showing her everything up here. Once she was gone, the man turned serious as he looked at the captain.
"Now that she's gone, Captain, I believe I must show you this," he said, pulling out a large paper chart and setting it on the table by the wall.
"May I ask what that is, Mr. Esposito?" asked Bradford.
"This is the weather forcast for tomorrow," said Mr. Esposito, pointing to the chart. "It shows that there's going to be an Atlantic storm coming."
"Should we batton down for it?" asked Bradford.
"Maybe, but I wouldn't worry too much about that," reassured Mr. Esposito. "It said it's going to be a small one, so I'm sure we'll stay upright, but I would do something about the outdoor pools and other stuff out there. We don't want any people slipping on the wet decks."
"Are you absolutely sure?" Bradford asked with a slightest hint of worry.
"I am," replied Mr. Esposito. "I own this ship. So, it's my ship and my rules!"
Bradford could only sigh in annoyance at this man.
In the ship's spa, lots of people come here to relax and unwind. It had soothing music, majestic plants, calm and refreshing air, even a statue of the Greek god, Poseidon, himself in his usual stance of holding the trident.
Quitterie and Zack were there, relaxing as they got their treatments from the assistants working there, getting massages, facials, even relaxing baths. Originally, Quitterie wanted to go there alone, but her mother insisted she take Zack with her to keep and eye on her. She didn't like it, but relented anyway. She just really needed that spa treatment.
Quitterie went into the ship's sauna in a towel wrapped around her body underneith her arms while surrounded in hot steam, making sweat expell from her skin. She noticed that it has a large window of the outside where she could see a great, big view of the open ocean.
"Now this is the type of getaway I needed," Quitterie thought to herself.
She was glad it was just her in there right now and not Zack with her, who was too busy relaxing in one of the jacuzzies.
Feeling quite done, Quitterie stood up and began readjusting her towel when suddenly the sauna door came open, and there was Zack standing on the other side, wearing a towel around his waist, seeing Quitterie standing in front of him with her towel open, accidentally revealing herself to him. Time seemed frozen for a few seconds with the two of them staring at each other, Quitterie looked surprised while Zack kept his usual neutral face. At last, there was movement.
"WHOA! Zack!" shrieked Quitterie, quickly covering herself very tightly with her towel. "Listen, Zack, I get how you feel, but couldn't you have at least waited or knocked?!"
"Sorry, I failed to notice any 'occupied' sign on the door," said Zack calmly as he walked inside and sat down on one of the benches.
Quitterie was surprised. Zack just saw her totally naked and he just acted like nothing ever happened. It was like he was a robot! She felt like screaming on the inside.
"How can you be so calm?" she asked. "I'm not wearing any clothes!"
"I've seen you that way before," he replied.
Quitterie knew exactly what Zack was talking about and remembered. As mentioned before, she didn't like the idea of being betrothed to an arranged marriage to a person she doesn't even know. But what really shocked her the most was that her soon-to-be-groom was none other than Zack Walker, a man she knew since childhood! Out of all the times they've spent together, she never imagined that he would have some kind of money, let alone be next in line with some kind of company by his father, not that he ever tells her about him. Even so, the previous times he saw her in the buff was when they were young toddlers, taking a bath together. But it's different when she got older to a teens age.
In the ship's galley, several chefs were clearing the kitchen after everyone had lunch and were now getting everything and themselves ready for the dinner hours.
One of the chef's was a young man with pale skin, blonde wavy hair and blue eyes, he was busy cleaning the pots by tossing them in dishwashers and pulling out fresh clean ones for the next meal. He was working very quickly and he knew the head chef wouldn't stand any nonsense if something were to go wrong.
He just gotten some more dishes out when he slipped on a puddle and fell to the floor, shattering some of the dishes that slipped out of his hands. The man had just recovered when the head chef stomped up.
"Charce Lacroix, what the hell are you doing?!" he snapped.
"I'm really sorry, sir!" Charce spoke.
"You better be!" shouted the head chef before picking up a few pieces. "Look at all this! We paid a fortune for a good man to make these plates!"
"It was only over a few hundred thousand dollers," mumbled Charce.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!" shouted the head chef, startling Charce.
"Uhhh... nothing important!" Charce stammered.
"You're lucky we still have a plenty of them! Just make sure you keep a good lookout next time!" he said before pulling a bell and ringing it, alerting the other chefs. "Shift change!" he called to them before turning to Charce, who started to leave. "Not for you!" he yelled, pointing directly at his chest. "Clean up this mess first or we throw you overboard!" he finished before storming off.
Charce groaned as he started to clean up the broken plates. Sometimes he wondered why he got this stupid job in the first place. But he knew that the way was good and he needed the money for his lifetime. Therefore, whatever he was given, he had to take it.
"It's for the money," he whispered to himself. "It's only for the money!"
That night, Aries was just coming back from dinner and decided to take a little stroll to Deck 8, to the aft section on the poop deck, right next to the flat pole at the center. It was lucky for her that the deck's lights were on so that she could see where she was going. She could ony stare out to the dark distance they were leaving, hearing only the noise of the churming water the propellers were leaving behind. The poor girl was deep in thought.
"It's hard enough making new friends in England," she thought. "But having to make new friends again is totally difficult. I didn't have to worry about it while I flew over there. But here I am taking the slower way back home instead of the faster way."
She was still feeling pretty sad that she wouldn't be home in time for Christmas or the New Year. She had been planning for that, but things went awry. There were several souviners she wanted to give to her mother has presents.
"Will they really be considered as Christmas presents if I gave them to her long after the holday?"
As she thought, she was unaware that she was being watched.
One deck above, on Deck 9, Kanata had just gotten out of the glass, indoor swimming pool where he managed to score some laps and had just dried off and put on warm clothes before heading outside for some air. There, he saw Aries on the poop deck, staring longly to the distance. He wondered why she was there, he was sure that she must be in thought. He continued to stare at her for a moment before leaving, feeling sure she might be fine.
Aries continued to watch the dark landscape for a while, thinking, before retiring to her stateroom. There, she opened her laptop and started to type another email message.
"Dear Mom,
Happy Boxing Day! It's hard being so far away while trying to get back. There are so many things I wanted to give to you as presents until I ended up traveling by boat instead of by air. But I worry they might not be Christmas presents when I get them to you long after the holiday, especially after the New Year. I'd really hate to be alone during that time. It just wouldn't be the same. I'll try to pull through, but I don't think the sadness will ever go away when I still think about it. So, I wanna read your thoughts. Please help me understand, because I'll need your support and guidance.
Hugs and kisses,
Aries Spring."
After typing, Aries took a moment to breath and proofread it before pressing the send button. Once it was sent, she shut off her laptop and went to bed, hoping she would get her answer tomorrow. She wasn't sure what was going to happen, but she felt sure her mother would have all the answers she needed. For now, she must wait.