Mike leaned against the railing at the ship's bow, breathing deeply the salty ocean air as he watched the sunset. Stan was somewhere behind him relaxing in a lawn chair, supposedly trying to catch some fresh fish for dinner but the soft snores said otherwise. Ford was somewhere in the ship, probably double-checking their heading and making sure they were still heading towards the next anomaly hot spot his instruments had detected. But Mike wasn't really thinking about any of that right now, just enjoying the sight before him and marveling at how his life had turned out. Sure when he was a little kid, he liked to pretend he was a pirate out on the sea, having wild adventures and finding all sorts of adventures, but never had he truly believed he'd actually do it.
Mike was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of Stan's fishing rod bending as the line went taut. Stan woke when he sensed the movement and held on with both hands. The line jerked back and forth and Stan grunted, "It's quite the fighter, mind giving me a hand kid?"
Mike complied, coming over and grabbing onto the too. It was harder than Mike expected as whatever they had caught thrashed with all its strength, trying desperately to escape the line. But slowly and carefully Stan reeled in the catch and as it started to break water the fish seemed to give up, so Mike let go of the rod to reach over the side to grab whatever it was they caught. The first thing Mike saw was a tangled net with only hints of grey from the catch within, it's desperate thrashing most likely getting it this hopelessly trapped. Mike grabbed the net and heaved it onto the ship's deck.
"Think I actually caught us some dinner or just a bunch of trash?" Stan asked, looking at the tangled mess. At the sound of Stan's voice, the net wiggled and moved in fear before stilling again.
"Well there's definitely something alive in here," Mike said, extending the claws from his animatronic fingers and began to carefully cut away the net. "Too early to say what it is though."
Section by section, Mike cut away the tangled lines, revealing more grey skin and flippers. Soon they could see it was a baby seal, which began thrashing in fear again and Stan had to gently hold it down so Mike could keep cutting it free. As they worked, Stan joked, "Well there goes our dinner as we can't eat this little guy, otherwise Mabel would have our heads."
"True. A good thing she isn't here right now or she might try and keep it." Mike chuckled, cutting the last of the net free. The baby seal seemed to have exhausted itself with its struggles as it just lay on the deck limply even once Stan let go of it. Examining the seal, Mike observed, "It seems to have gotten hurt pretty badly from trashing in that net. We'll probably want to treat it first before releasing it."
"I'm not seeing any signs of its family," Stan said, looking out over the darkening water in the fading sunlight. "We'll probably have to wait until morning to make sure the little guy gets home. I'll go let Sixer know what's up and see if he has any ideas where to look for its family while you go treat it."
Mike nodded and gently lifted the baby seal into his arms. It squirmed in fear before going limp when it discovered it couldn't escape Mike's hold. Mike took it below deck and into Ford's lab and placed the seal on the metal examining table. The seal watched Mike with large fearful eyes as Mike started pulling stuff from the drawers.
"We don't have a ton to treat animals with," Mike spoke out loud as he worked, hoping to help soothe the scared animal with a soothing tone. "Because we're more here for research rather than being an ocean veterinarian, but we do have a few things that should help you heal a bit better."
Mike continued to talk as he cleaned and treated the various cuts the baby seal had. The seal flinched and tried to wiggle away from Mike's touch at first but slowly relaxed, whether that was because of Mike talking to it, it realized he was trying to help, its exhaustion, or some combination thereof, Mike couldn't tell. Either way, the baby seal was soon treated and Mike placed it in the water tank Ford used to observe smaller water anomalies and creatures up close. Getting a fish from the fridge, Mike put it in the tank for the seal to eat and said, "Eat and try and rest. You'll want your strength back once we find your family."
The baby seal watched him go as he left to go have his own dinner with Stan and Ford before they all went to bed.
Later that night Mike was heading to the kitchen in the dark, having been woken up by a nightmare and craving some hot chocolate to calm down. As he approached though, he heard some sort of shuffling and munching coming from inside.
Do we have rats? Mike wondered to himself as he slowed down. Listening carefully outside the door, Mike determined whatever was inside was too large to be a rat, at least a normal rat. Knowing he wasn't going to learn anything else just standing there, Mike opened the door as quietly as he could and went inside. It wasn't quiet enough as the shuffling and munching went silent. Thanks to the night vision mode in his animatronic eye, Mike was shocked to see what looked like a little girl turn to look at him with wide fearful eyes. She let out a terrified scream at the sight of Mike's glowing eyes and tried to bolt.
"Hey! Wait- "Mike tried to calm the girl down, stepping in her way. The girl didn't wait though, squeezing by his legs with a surprising amount of strength and kept running. Ford and Stan came tumbling out of their room ready to fight, having been woken up by the scream. The little girl screamed again and changed directions. The three men did their best to try and corner her, attempting to calm her down the entire time, but she wasn't listening and was incredibly difficult to pin down. Eventually, she managed to burst out onto the deck with Mike right behind her. She ran towards the edge of the deck and looked like she was preparing to dive overboard. Mike panicked and his wires snaked out of the panels in his back, wrapping around the little girl and pulling her right out of the air.
"That was a close one," Mike sighed in relief, his wires bringing the girl into his arms. Once she was safely in his embrace, Mike's wires retracted and he sat down on the deck as he tried to calm the terrified girl. "I'm sorry I had to grab you like that, but I couldn't let you just jump into the ocean like that… you would have drowned!"
"No! I wouldn't have!" the girl yelled, still trying to squirm free. "You're just trying to steal my skin! I won't let you! I won't let you trap me on land and away from my home!"
"Your skin? What…" Mike mumbled in confusion, looking at the girl closely and noticed she had a seal skin wrapped around her shoulders. "Hold on… You're a selkie!?"
The little girl froze in fear, realizing she had accidentally given herself away. Before Mike could either question or assure her, Stan and Ford came running onto the deck, both relieved to see that Mike had managed to catch the girl. With a relieved grin, Stan said, "Good, you caught the little stow away… now maybe she can tell us how she got here. It's been days since we were last at port and there's no way she's been hiding this long…"
"I think she's a selkie," Mike explained. "She must have been that baby seal we caught."
"A selkie," Ford said in delight. "I didn't think I would ever get to see one considering how cautious they are of humans, men especially…"
Their conversation was apparently too much for the little girl and she burst into tears and begged, "Please don't hurt me… I just want to go home… please let me go home…"
"We're not going to hurt you…" Mike gently assured. "We were planning to try and reunite you with your family before and that's still true… Do you know where they are?"
The little girl didn't reply, still scared they were going to hurt her.
"How about we take this conversation inside?" Stan suggested. "So we're not just shivering out here in the dark."
Mike silently agreed and stood up, still carrying the little girl. She didn't fight him anymore, but she was still sobbing in terror. The group made their way into the kitchen, Ford cleaning up the mess the girl had made raiding their supplies and Stan making the girl a snack while Mike sat down at the table with her, trying to calm her down. Just as her sobs quieted into sniffles, Stan placed a plate of crackers with cheese and sandwich meat on them in front of her. She eyed the plate with fear and suspicion, so Mike reached over and grabbed one, eating it to prove that they hadn't done anything to it. That was all the assurance the girl needed as she began to eat the crackers.
"So I think we should get to know each other properly," Mike smiled kindly at the girl as she ate. "I'm Mike. That's Stan and that's Ford. They're twins which is why they look so similar. What's your name?"
The girl was silent for a moment before quietly whispering, "…Coral…"
"Coral… that's a pretty name…" Mike replied. "Now Coral… I meant it when I said we want to get you home, but it's dangerous for you to go out into the dark alone to try and find your way… do you even know where they are?"
"No…" Coral admitted with a sad sniff. "I had swam deeper than I was supposed to and got chased by a shark. I swam away while my mom fought it and ended up getting stuck in a net. When I was trying to get out a current pulled me even further away… How am I going to get home?"
"We can figure it out," Mike assured.
"Describe everything you remember and especially what the area is like about your home," Ford said, getting his notebook ready. "The more information the better. With luck, I'll be able to match your description to the maps we have."
Coral seemed unsure but began describing her home. She wasn't the most organized doing so, often jumping from subject to subject and backtracking when she remembered more details. But Ford never got frustrated with her, just nodding along and writing everything she was saying down while Stan and Mike made sure she ate her fill. Coral eventually started to get tired and was even beginning to nod off, so Ford called it for the night, saying the information he had should be more than enough. Stan finished cleaning up the kitchen and Ford went to consult the maps while Mike went to tuck Coral into his bed since that was the more private one. When he tried to put her down though, she clung to him, scared to be alone. Mike had no choice but to resign himself to being her pillow for the night.
The next morning Coral was a lot more open and excitable, eating the food put in front of her without worry and watching them do their chores about the ship with fascination and curiosity. Once they started sailing in the direction that Ford believed to be Coral's home, Coral remained glued to the bow of the ship, searching the horizon for anything familiar. Mike stayed with herjet during that time, either talking and playing games to help her pass the time or just being silent company.
Soon after Stan brought them lunch, Coral let out a gasp as she leaned precariously on the railing. "Mom! I can hear my mom!"
"You sure?" Mike asked, trying to hear anything over the waves.
"Yes!" Coral shouted for joy. She scrambled onto the railing and dove into the ocean, Mike forcing himself not to grab her. A baby seal jumped out of the water in excitement and kept going forward. Mike let the others know what was going on and they maintained course for now, wanting to make sure Coral actually made it home.
They didn't have to wait for long though before they found their boat surrounded by seals, prompting them to bring the boat to a stop. A large seal with a familiar baby seal jumped onto the boat and transformed into human form once they were on deck.
"I thank you for returning my daughter to me," the woman said. "But I doubt you did so out of the kindness of your hearts. So what is your true purpose?"
"Our only purpose was to unite a child with her mother," Ford said diplomatically. "Though if given the opportunity I would love to just talk with you and learn more of you and your culture. But if you are unwilling to part with those secrets then we'll be happy to go on our way."
"I find that hard to believe and am hesitant to let you go now that you know where we reside," the woman said with narrowed eyes, but with a pleading look from Coral added. "But I cannot condemn you when you have nothing wrong. You may come with us and spend some time in our village and if you are who you say you are you'll be able to leave on pleasant terms. If not we'll make sure you drown."
"We agreed to your terms," Ford said with a grin. The woman nodded in satisfaction and leaped over the side with Coral, leading the way to their island.
They ended up staying nearly a week with the selfies, learning from each other. Stan entrained them with dramatic retellings of some of their previous adventures and occasionally tried his luck at flirting with some of the women. Ford spent most of the time with the elders, learning the tribes' history. Mike himself was often surrounded by the children as they found his animatronic limb fascinating.
When they departed, it was with cheerful exchanges and a promise to visit if they're ever in the area again.