Winds of Change Snippet 3

 Here is snippet 3:

ORCA

Agnosta

 

The fishing boat's bell clang gently with the rocking of the boat. The small 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 at the moment. It was early spring, and the icebergs were flowing down from the north.

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

The first officer checked the weather with an eye and then went back to watching the line. It was taught as it should be. The shark was firmly hooked in the corner of the mouth with a sturdy steel hook. He wished the skipper had gone 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 it alongside 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. It was early spring and it showed. You could still see icebergs of various shapes and sizes everywhere floating south in the current. There was a storm front coming 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 with practiced ease. He kept an eye on the line, keeping it just taut and clear of the stern. He didn’t want the beast to foul the screws. That was the last thing he needed.

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

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

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

The alarm went off throughout the ship, setting off a klaxon and flashing 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 the pod 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-leg but she took pity on the human and rose up under him. From her melon, her echolocation clicks determined that it was a male as her sixth sense penetrated his clothing.

“You shouldn’t be jealous, Namu. Is manhood is tiny,” she teased her mate. 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 care that her ancestors had actually liked working with them. They were endlessly inventive and had saved two of her ancestors from the tiny predators that attacked through their blood.

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

~~~{^}~~~

Ken realized he was in trouble when he hit the frigid water. No one lasted more than a few moments in the cold seas without a proper suit and he didn’t have one on. He cursed his stupidity. The captain was cheap. He should have bought one in his last port of call but he’d stupidly gambled and drank most 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 waved frantically to the ship. Something touched his leg and he frantically looked around. They’d been hunting a shark, and he’d heard that they would first tap their victim before they took a test bite. He flayed around as he tried to swim back to the boat.

~~~{^}~~~

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

“Port side!” Ann called out.

“Yeah, yeah,” Captain Brown snarled under his breath as he yanked the wheel hard over to come back around to his hapless sailor. “Bet he didn’t think he’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 a preserver and line in Ken’s direction. The toss was bad, partly because of the swaying of the boat and partly due to the sudden turn. Paul dodged the swinging boom and tripped on the line.

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

As they secured the boom line with a fresh replacement, Paul managed to struggle 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 blast of air and water went skyward near the hapless sailor.

“Whale ahoy!” Gobby said. He stared gob smacked as the black shape emerged 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 to sink in. He knew he didn’t have much time left. If he lost consciousness, he was a gonner.

 ~~~{^}~~~

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

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

 ~~~{^}~~~

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

~~~{^}~~~

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

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 his back. He heard muffled voices saying they got him, and he felt himself being lifted out of the sea.

 ~~~{^}~~~

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

Namu ignored her as he shook the shark and tore at its abdomen savagely. The shark’s mouth opened and closed, exposing triangular serrated teeth that bit the water in impotent rage and terror before the glass black eyes faded.

The water was red with blood. The orca backed off and allowed the shark to drift before it went back in and used his flippered hands to rip the wound open 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 off to 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 awake as they tried to get him below decks.

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

“We know,” Gobby said testily as he pulled the sailor to the head and waiting 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 swam away 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 away from her before she began to get exasperated. When he sensed her mood shift, he kicked 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 chasing a run of seals that were fishing nearby.

 ~~~{^}~~~