Jamey ran quickly towards the captain’s cabin. “Admiral!” He panted before quickly saluting. “Admiral, Something is messing up the computers.”

“At ease cadet, how exactly are they acting up?” The Admiral replied, his jet black curls spilling out from under his just placed hat. As they walked to the bridge, Jamey tried to summarize the problems as much as possible. When they arrived at the bridge, the Admiral looked at the rows of screens, all of them either showing a black screen of death or a static screen.

“Admiral Lance! Come!”

“This way!”

“No, this way!”

People shouted and called, anxious for an explanation.

“Calm down everyone,” Lance chuckled, “ everything should be perfectly fine.” He smiled calmly.

He’s as scared as the rest of us, and even more stressed. Jamey thought, he’s just trying to keep a straight face for everyone else. He analyzed the tenseness of the admiral’s pose, mainly noticing the fretful crease in his brow.

“Yeah,” a young woman with long, straight, chestnut brown hair walked up. “The computers started to lag like hell and then either blacked out or got all static.”

“Tomiko, shouldn’t you be navigating?” Lance lifted his eyebrow at her.

“Yeah, but it got boring so I came over here and all this started happening soon after,” Tomiko replied nonchalantly.

“That isn’t really an excuse but okay,” Lance shrugged it off knowing that it wasn’t the main problem at the moment. “Can someone fetch the backup generator?” He looked around, a focused look claiming his face.

“Uhm… about that, there is none in storage.” Jamey notified Lance

“What do you mean there’s none?” Lance whipped around a hint of both irritation and concern.

“I checked the cargo hold before I went to tell you and there wasn’t any sign of a backup generator.” He replied hesitantly. An awkward silence filled the room. The silence then burst into a bout of fear, worry, and anxiety.

Lance stepped out the bridge. “What is the-” He was cut off by worried shouts.

“A whirlpool!”

“Steer us outta the way!”

“How?!”

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Trainees shouted worriedly, feeling like disasters were coming one after another without ceasing.

Tomiko whistled loudly for the cadets’ attention then looked at Lance. Once most of the cadets were at attention Lance called for everyone to calm down and focus on the problem ahead. Once finished, the chaotic shouting continued, but only more controlled.

Jamey looked over the side of the marine ship to see a giant whirlpool, approximately three times bigger than your average big whirlpool. That… doesn’t look too good. He looked a little closer at the whirlpool to see a strange difference in hue between the whirlpool and the calmer sea water. It looks almost more…purple ? He blinked. That looks too abnormal to be simply algae. Am I the only one seeing this?

Jamey shook his sunkissed curls as if to disperse the irrelevant thoughts. Dawdling wasn't the ideal option. He started to tune in the chaotic chatter of his shipmates.

“Hard to port! Hard to port!”

“Who the hell’s steering?”

Cadets shouted, a hint of worry lingering in their voices.

“I think I found the cause of the steering problem.” A cadet pulled on Jamey’s uniform sleeve.

“What?” Jamey said with irritation creeping into his voice, his fellow cadet pointed out towards the sea. Beyond the disaster awaiting them was a piece of what seemed to be debris peacefully floating in the sea. Jamey squinted at the strangely shaped piece before coming to the realization that it was the rudder of their ship. The two men stared at the rudder silently.

“Oh great.” Jamey spat at nobody in particular.

“It’s caught us!” Someone hollered from the crow’s nest. In that moment the ship swirled to the starboard side causing Jamey to get ripped from where he was. Jamey dug his feet into the deck flooring the best he could possibly manage until he hit the deck entirely. He looked for the other trainee keeping a firm grasp on the deck’s flooring. He looked behind him, nothing. A rock dropped in his heart. He whirled his head to his hands thinking they loosened slightly. Looking up he saw the trainee gripping to the gunnel, tight.

“Are you alright cadet?” A voice came from above and a hand lowered from Jamey’s right side. Jamey took the hand, Admiral Lance’s hand. He looked at Lance, unfazed by the sudden jerks of the ship.

“I take it your sea legs haven’t come in yet.” Lance commented in a playful manner.

Jamey’s deep blue eyes rested on Lance with awe. H-how? He inquired to himself in astonishment.

“It’s the amount of time on the water, you’ll get used to it.” Lance seemed to reply to the unsaid inquiry. Jamey blinked in confusion but shook it off as the boat started to shift again. As Lance was assisting Jamey in not rolling around on the floor like the actors in Rolo ads, Tomiko stepped past the two men, her long hair being tied into the cleanest messy bun possible. “Hard to port dammit! Can’t you plebes remember anything you used to get here?” She snapped at a cadet on the helm.

“The rudder doesn’t seem to be co-operating Vice Admiral Tomiko ma’am.” The cadet responded.

“Then get your asses busy with unfurling the sails!” Tomiko barked out her orders with ferocity. Befitting for a navywoman of her class. Jamey observed the panic of his fellow cadets before aiding the others with the sails. He started to wrap rope around the winch, but as he was tying the final one in, a geyser erupted from the center of the whirlpool cutting his sight to a dark abyss.