Winds of Change Snippet 3

 Here is snippet 3:

ORCA

Agnosta

 

The fishing boat's bell clang gently with the rocking of the boat. Thesmall crew on the trawler was too busy with a catch to try to muffle it.

Gobby Novak struggled with the line before getting it around a cleat.He gasped, flexing his gloved hands as he tried to get feeling back into them.

On the other end of the high tech polymer line was a Great White Shark.They were trying to catch it for an aquarium since the fish were not running atthe moment. It was early spring, and the icebergs were flowing down from thenorth.

There were crabbers out there but the ship was too small to make aprofit in crabbing anymore. Celtic Bimbo had once been new but was nowshowing signs of her age. It didn’t help that the captain spent most of hiscredits in port in the off-season.

The first officer checked the weather with an eye and then went back towatching the line. It was taught as it should be. The shark was firmly hookedin the corner of the mouth with a sturdy steel hook. He wished the skipper hadgone for a better hook material, but this one was working for the moment.

The shark needed to wear itself out a little before they could get italongside and get it into a sling. They didn’t want to stress it out though.Too much stress and the beast would go belly up.

~~~{^}~~~

Captain Brown steered away from a group of icebergs on the horizon. Itwas early spring and it showed. You could still see icebergs of various shapesand sizes everywhere floating south in the current. There was a storm frontcoming in a few days; he wanted to be back in the harbor by then.

His weathered hands held the pegs on the old fashioned wheel withpracticed ease. He kept an eye on the line, keeping it just taut and clear ofthe stern. He didn’t want the beast to foul the screws. That was the last thinghe needed.

Easy does it, he thought as he guided the ship with slight movements ofthe wheel and minor tweaks of the throttle.

He glanced in the mirror and then adjusted his cap. He was an Irishcharming rogue according to the women he met. He had more salt in his hair thanpepper these days. He couldn’t change, the sea and fishing was the only thinghe’d ever known. He made a mistake and swung the ship into a rogue wave. Thewave hit the boat and kicked a boom loose from its line. The line was old andworn and snapped with a cracking sound. The boom swung across the deck andknocked Ken into the water.

The splash alerted the crew that something was wrong. Ann leaned outthe open porthole to see Ken flaying. “Man overboard!” she called out and thenhit the alarm.

The alarm went off throughout the ship, setting off a klaxon andflashing strobe. The crew cursed as they tried to find Ken.

“Anyone got eyes on him?” the captain called out over his shoulder.“Sing out to me! Who has him?” he demanded.

~~~{^}~~~

Katina saw the human splash and went to investigate. The rest of thepod was intent on the shark that the humans had caught on the line.

Namu and the others in the pod told her to ignore the thrashing 2-legbut she took pity on the human and rose up under him. From her melon, herecholocation clicks determined that it was a male as her sixth sense penetratedhis clothing.

“You shouldn’t be jealous, Namu. Is manhood is tiny,” she teased hermate. He gave her some side-eye and then clacked an echolocation burst at the 2-leg.

He sent a withering comment in primal dolphin and then swam off.

His mate sighed softly to herself and lifted the human up on her back.Her mate would never understand her fascination with the 2-legs. He didn’t carethat her ancestors had actually liked working with them. They were endlesslyinventive and had saved two of her ancestors from the tiny predators thatattacked through their blood.

She could at least help the 2-leg out and temporarily sate hercuriosity over the thing while also adding to the mystery of her species withthem. It never hurt to have the 2-legs indebted to her kind and remind them ofwho the real rulers of the sea were.

~~~{^}~~~

Ken realized he was in trouble when he hit the frigid water. No onelasted more than a few moments in the cold seas without a proper suit and hedidn’t have one on. He cursed his stupidity. The captain was cheap. He shouldhave bought one in his last port of call but he’d stupidly gambled and drankmost of his money away.

Now he was going to pay for his shortsighted stupidity with his life.

He spat the salt water out of his mouth as he bobbed and wavedfrantically to the ship. Something touched his leg and he frantically lookedaround. They’d been hunting a shark, and he’d heard that they would first taptheir victim before they took a test bite. He flayed around as he tried to swimback to the boat.

~~~{^}~~~

“Secure that line!” the captain snarled as he held onto the oldfashioned wooden wheel.

“Port side!” Ann called out.

“Yeah, yeah,” Captain Brown snarled under his breath as he yanked thewheel hard over to come back around to his hapless sailor. “Bet he didn’t thinkhe’d be bait this morn,” he growled gruffly. “Next time tie the line properly!”he bellowed.

~~~{^}~~~

Gobby Novak the XO scrambled to secure the line as Paul tossed apreserver and line in Ken’s direction. The toss was bad, partly because of theswaying of the boat and partly due to the sudden turn. Paul dodged the swingingboom and tripped on the line.

Gobby snagged the line and wrapped it around his wrist to contain theboom. He was nearly yanked off his feet. Ann came up behind him and grabbed hiswaist to pull him back down. He breathed a sigh of relief as the cook assistedhim in wrestling the wayward boom under control.

As they secured the boom line with a fresh replacement, Paul managed tostruggle to his feet and pull the preserver back in to try another throw.

Just as Paul got the preserver to the side of the boat a geyser blastof air and water went skyward near the hapless sailor.

“Whale ahoy!” Gobby said. He stared gob smacked as the black shapeemerged under the sailor and lifted him out of the water.

 ~~~{^}~~~

Ken felt the rubbery shape push him up and out of the water.Instinctively, he hung onto it as he shivered. Hypothermia was beginning tosink in. He knew he didn’t have much time left. If he lost consciousness, hewas a gonner.

 ~~~{^}~~~

The captain stared at the sight of the black shape carrying Ken back tothe boat. Initially he thought it was the shark that they’d been hunting, buthe quickly realized from the blunt black fin that it was an Orca. It was curvedand short, a female he judged. Where had she come from?

She must have been drawn in by the thrashing from the shark. He checkedthe line. It was still tied off to the cleat.

 ~~~{^}~~~

Namu saw the shark thrash as it tried to snap the line that connectedthe massive hook in its mouth to the 2-leg boat. In its maddened state, itlined up on Katina and the human. The alpha male went into overdrive and swamup to slam the massive great white from below.

~~~{^}~~~

One moment they were staring at the incredible sight of Ken beingrescued by an orca, the next the shark fin had lined up on them and then anexplosion of water and shark was thrust in a geyser upwards. The two-ton sharkwas thrown into the air with a massive male Orca’s jaws clamped around itstorso.

Captain Brown stared thunderstruck for a long moment.

 ~~~{^}~~~

Ken felt the spray of water but he was beginning to lose consciousness.His grip began to slip. He coughed up water and moaned. Hands reached for hisback. He heard muffled voices saying they got him, and he felt himself beinglifted out of the sea.

 ~~~{^}~~~

“Show off,” Katina teased her mate in a series of clicks. “This one isabout done in. They are so fragile. Not really meant to be in the sea,” sheobserved as she pushed the human to the side of the boat.

Namu ignored her as he shook the shark and tore at its abdomensavagely. The shark’s mouth opened and closed, exposing triangular serrated teeththat bit the water in impotent rage and terror before the glass black eyesfaded.

The water was red with blood. The orca backed off and allowed the sharkto drift before it went back in and used his flippered hands to rip the woundopen further to get at the liver. He extracted it, took a bite for himself,then bit off a chunk and spat it out to the other orca as he took a piece offto his mate.

 ~~~{^}~~~

Gobby and Paul pulled Ken back on board. He shivered uncontrollably,half awake. Paul slapped the guy on the face to try to get him to remain awakeas they tried to get him below decks.

Ann met them at the hatch and threw a blanket over Ken. “I’ll get somebroth going. Get him in the shower. Don’t warm him up too fast or he’ll have aheart attack,” she warned.

“We know,” Gobby said testily as he pulled the sailor to the head andwaiting shower. He could hear that Ann had already turned it on.

 ~~~{^}~~~

“Well, that was fun,” Namu said as he came up to his mate as she swamaway from the ship.

“Did you at least save me a piece?” she asked.

“Of course,” he teased. He played with her for a bit, keeping it awayfrom her before she began to get exasperated. When he sensed her mood shift, hekicked it to her with his flutes.

She gobbled the liver in a couple of bites and then nodded.

“Just what our growing child needed,” she said.

“You’re welcome,” he said as he swam back to the pod. They were chasinga run of seals that were fishing nearby.

 ~~~{^}~~~