Cabin 1153 on the Emperor of the Seas.

“Honey, do I really have to wear this?” Curtis complained. If there was one thing he didn’t like, it was wearing a tuxedo. He took pride in the fact he had avoided them for all but twice in his life. Both occasions he had worn a tuxedo had turned out to be disasters.

The first time he had worn one had been when he took Florence Logan to the senior prom. He couldn’t believe he’d finally gotten her to agree to go to the prom with him. Sadly, it had turned out she only agreed to go with him as an excuse to leave the house.

Her parents had grounded her for seeing some scumbag boyfriend and when plain old Curtis had asked her out, they were ecstatic that she was dating a “normal” young man. She snuck off before the first dance to meet with her scuzzy boyfriend and Curtis had spent the entire prom drinking punch, which was not even spiked, and feeling uncomfortably embarrassed in his rented, powder blue tuxedo.

The second time he had worn one was at his wedding. Not that his marriage was a mistake, just the opposite. His problem was that the tuxedo had gotten lost during their honeymoon and he had pay for the stupid thing. They charged him $549 for the tuxedo and another $298 for the shoes, cummerbund, and bow tie.

If there was one thing Curtis hated, it was getting ripped off. Some people may say he was a cheapskate, but he liked to think of himself as merely being frugal and cautious with his money. Let those other fools throw away their hard-earned cash on fancy vacations and new cars every year. He had done differently; he had played it smart with every cent.

His wife hadn’t been too pleased with his thrifty habits over the years, but they loved each other and had reached a compromise. She got to spend all she wanted on her hobbies, up to an agreed-upon budget amount, and he got to save everything else. All that hard work was paying off and he was proud to announce ten years ago, that they had finally saved enough for him to retire early at the young age of 50.

Sadly, when his wife reviewed his budget and saw how much they would have to cut back on their already frugal spending, she demanded that he keep working. To maintain marital peace, he had continued in his job, extending his boring career at the accounting firm.

When he hit sixty, their bank account was finally large enough for her to consent to his retirement, given one small caveat, this vacation. After the around the world cruise was completed, they would return home and live a simple life. This cruise was horrendously expensive, and his wife wouldn’t hear anything about skimping on the extras.

First, there was a room upgrade from a perfectly fine interior cabin to the one with an ocean view. Next, she had upgraded to a balcony cabin, which he begrudgingly admitted was a nice feature, but not worth the price. The cruise would last nearly six months and they would visit places he had only read about. Thankfully, he was able to curtail his wife’s shore excursions, nudging her toward the more inexpensive or free options.

They had left Osaka Japan a couple of nights ago on their way to Papeete Tahiti. Tonight was the captain's banquet and his wife had made him purchase a tuxedo and haul it all around the world for just this one fancy night. A glare from his wife got him moving, changing from what he considered his shipboard uniform of shorts and a t-shirt, into his tuxedo. The suit felt a bit too snug, not painfully tight, but just enough to amplify the uncomfortable fabric the thing was made of. Curtis had been taking full advantage of the dining package and all the free snacks and drinks their ridiculously expensive cruise offered.

“You look, lovely dear,” he told his wife. She did look beautiful, the age lines and wrinkles she had picked up over the years didn’t mean a thing to him. They had married at the young age of twenty and despite their occasional fights, he wouldn’t change his choice for anything.

“And aren’t you a handsome devil. Come on Curtis, I want to make sure we’re there early so we can get a seat close to the captain,” His wife Lois told him.

They made their way the main dining room, which had seen its normal décor elevated with ice carvings and, to Curtis’ delight, all you could eat lobster tails on the buffet. He was a big seafood fan and couldn’t wait to dig in. They were seated only a few tables away from the head table, and his wife seemed pleased that she could see everything going on. He had never bothered to tell her that they had an option, at a ridiculous cost, to upgrade to a seat at the captain’s table.

“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us to dine on this special occasion. Tonight, we pass over the deepest part of the ocean, a portion of the Mariana Trench known as Challenger Deep. If we dropped the tallest mountain into the trench, it still wouldn’t breach the surface. This has been a wonderful and eventful cruise and myself and the rest of the crew are honored to share it with you. We’ve come through the events of the Upgrade surprisingly well and I’m so glad most of you have stayed onboard for this once in a lifetime adventure,” the captain started.

Curtis’s mind drifted off from the captain’s speech when he mentioned the Upgrade. They had been only two days out of Los Angeles, just starting their cruise, when the Upgrade had happened. It was a frightening few days, but other than the initial pain that everyone on the planet felt, they had been fine. The crew did an excellent job of keeping all the passengers calm with all the bad news and chaos going on around them. Thankfully, things calmed down by the time they had reached Hawaii and the lush tropical ports of call seemed to be just what the doctor ordered for them all.

“Curtis, shush,” Lois whispered to him, interrupting his thoughts. For a moment he thought he might have muttered what he had been thinking to himself, but it turned out it was just his stomach growling, which it did once again.

If the captain heard his stomach growling over his speech, it didn’t seem to stop him. It looked like this speech was going to be a long one and all Curtis could think about was the buffet and if the lobster would still be good after sitting out that long. He almost got up and took a spin through the buffet but didn’t want to be rude or at least didn’t’ want to be the first one to do so. His longing for lobster was cut short when the horrible screeching sound of torn metal was heard throughout the ship and the vessel lurched ominously.

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A few people fell out of their seats and some dinnerware crashed to the floor, but the ships unusual motion was more startling than violent. Curtis watched as a crewmember brought the captain a radio and he moved out of earshot to heatedly discuss something with whoever was on the other end.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve had a slight mechanical failure that requires the captain’s attention. Please return to your cabins and we’ll announce when dining can resume,” an officer said. They were hustled out of the room through the far exit, one that led him away from the buffet and the waiting lobster. Maybe he could get room service to send him up a pizza, the pizza was pretty good on the ship, even if it wasn’t lobster.

***

“What did we collide with people,” Captain Jurgen called out as the entered bridge, still slightly winded from sprinting all the way from the main dining hall that was located near the aft of the ship.

“We have a hull breach indicators going off on the starboard side outer compartments. Every compartment from the bow to the stern it lit up. We also lost propulsion, whatever did this also took out the starboard propeller shaft. The port shaft can turn but we’ve powered it down to make sure it wasn’t damaged as well,” the officer of the deck reported, the man looking relieved that the captain had arrived to take over. Because of the captain’s banquet, only the junior officers had been on watch.

“Get me, chief Agbayani, on the horn,” The captain ordered. His staff tried to raise their chief engineer who had gone below to assess their damage. The phone mounted to the captain’s chair buzzed as Agbayani reported in.

“Captain, we have serious flooding in several compartments. I’m ordering the neighboring compartments sealed,” the engineer reported.

“What did we hit?” The captain asked, dumbfounded as to what had been in their path. The deepest part of the ocean didn’t exactly have navigation hazards and any ship or large debris floating around would have shown on their radar. His bridge might have been crewed by the more junior officers at the time of impact, but all of them were well trained and wouldn’t have missed any radar contact that would have been large enough to do this much damage.

“I’m not sure exactly, but it does appear to be a biological that we collided with,” Agbayani replied. The answer shocked Captain Jurgen, hitting something like a whale at sea was almost unheard of. A loud buzzing hum was heard throughout the deck and Jurgen could have sworn the ship vibrated with the sound.

“Sir, we’ve got hull breach warnings in compartments 17, 12, 33, and 54,” the crewman at the damage control screen called out.

“Agbayani, get some eyes on that new damage, that couldn’t have been a biological, we’re stopped,” the captain ordered.

“Aye, sir, I’ll call you shortly,” the engineer replied. Jurgen resisted the temptation to keep the man on the line and ask more questions, but he needed him working on the problem, not talking to the captain.

“Make an announcement to the passengers to return to their cabins and put on their life jackets as a precaution. Get word quietly to the crew to be ready to deploy to their lifeboat stations, just in case,” the captain ordered. He might cause some panic among the passengers, but he would rather risk upsetting them over placing them in danger.

The sinking of the Costa Concordia in 2012 had been the last major cruise ship disaster, and one thing that the industry had learned from the incident was not to delay giving the order to abandon ship. He wanted things ready to go if Agbayani didn’t think he could save the ship. The phone buzzed again a few minutes after the announcements had gone off.

“Captain, we’ve got the same problem on the port side and I can confirm it’s a biological. I’ve never seen anything like it, some giant tentacles have breached the hull, sir. The damage is too severe, and I don’t think whatever’s causing this is going to stop attacking us anytime soon,” Agbayani reported.

Jurgen was thinking of a reply when he heard the engineer's phone hit the deck and screaming begin before the line went dead. The captain hung up the phone looking down at the deck as he tried to make a decision. They were being attacked by what could only be an Upgrade monster of some sort. This wasn’t anything they were capable of handling, but he had to make a decision.

“I’m ordering that we abandon ship, get things rolling commander,” Jurgen said to his visibly shocked second in command. She looked shaken and confused for a moment, but the training and professionalism he insisted on with his crew took over and she began to coordinate the evacuation of the Emperor of the Seas.

“Comms, send a mayday and try to get us some military support if you can, I think we’ll need them to help handle this,” the captain ordered. In the sea around the ship, he watched several tentacle looking things slither their way up the sides of the ship.

“While you’re at it, have security open the weapons locker and distribute arms. I want armed protection on the bridge,” the captain ordered.

***

“I don’t know why they’re making us wear these smelly things. I’m going onto the balcony for some fresh air,” Lois told him. As beautiful as he thought his wife was, seeing her in a cocktail dress with a bright orange life preserver over it was kind of funny.

Of course, he must have looked just as ridiculous in his tux and life-preserver combo. He had thought about changing out of his tux, but Lois insisted the captain would call them back to the banquet soon. Somehow, Curtis didn’t think that dining with the passengers was much of a priority right now.

A knock on the cabin door signaled that his pizza and mojito had finally arrived. When the call to don their life preserves had been announced, he was worried that they wouldn’t bring his room service order, but the steward must have already been on his way.

“Thank you,” Curtis told the steward who had brought his delicious smelling pizza. Instead of backing out the door the steward just stood there with the hand he had delivered the pizza with still sticking out. While he was appreciative of the man bringing his meal, room service and all gratuities were part of his cruise package, he wasn’t going to get shaken down for more cash.

“Now look here, I paid good money for this cruise and was told all the gratuities were included,” he said sharply. The man just stared past him, finally pointing before turning and running from the room.

“Did you see that craziness, Lois?” He asked his wife as he brought the pizza and drink out to enjoy on the balcony.

The pizza and mojito dropped from his hands as he looked out on the balcony toward his wife. He was frozen in terror, but unable to look away from the horrifying sight. A slimy tentacle a thick as his leg had snaked its way up the side of the ship and was wrapped around his wife. Her arms were pinned to her side and she tried to gasp for breath that wouldn’t come as the thing holding her constricted.

The sound of bones cracking was heard, and the tip of the tentacle now hovered over the top of Lois’ head. Splitting open like the petals of a flower, the tentacle revealed itself to be a tooth lined maw. The hideous thing engulfed his wife’s head, convulsing as it made its way further down her body. The sight of a second tentacle coming over the edge of the balcony snapped Curtis into action. He opened the door and fled into the hall, not even sure where he was going. All he wanted to do was get as far away as he could from the monster. Almost as bad as the terror was the crushing guilt that he felt over doing nothing to save his wife.

The Emperor of the Seas was the largest passenger vessel ever built at that time. With multiple redundant systems and automated damage control, it was believed to also be the safest. Sadly, the measures put in place to protect the passengers never accounted for monsters from the Upgrade.

The frantic calls for help that the ship continued to transmit were heard by a United States Navy task force that was holding joint exercises with the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Forces. Knowing the dangers that an Upgrade monster represented, they responded with overwhelming force. At least, that’s what they thought they had done…