Lower Decks

Lower Decks

As the sun began to set below the horizon the amber sunshine shimmered against the hull of the cruise ship Pantheon Harmonia, its name in written in big bold letters along the bow of the ship on both starboard and port showcasing its name to all those who come across the magnificent vessel. As day turned to night the ship was bustling with activity from the bridge of the ship where Captain Harry Austin commanded the ship and her crew. To the family of five that was spending some well-earned time away from the city as they dined in one of the ship’s restaurants that sat on the ship’s starboard side giving them a view of the setting sun.

Deep down below the water line the crew worked tirelessly to keep all the ship’s vital functions operational and while most in the lower decks had important jobs, this was far from the case for one crewman David Marsh. His job was merely a janitorial job and while it did allow him access to many parts of the ship there was hardly any glory in the position, none that he would ever tell his friends or family. And with a heavy sigh he walked down the long corridor to engineering in the ship’s stern. Pushing along the cart of cleaning supplies he would pass by other crewman that were going to and fro their daily tasks aboard ship.

There was nothing new about his routine, he was assigned the lower decks to clean everything from the floor to urinals in the men’s restroom. For the most part it wasn’t his first choice for a work, but the benefits seemed to outweigh the cons. Also, he had made friends with much of the crew, he would sometimes get into conversations with the chief of engineering whenever they crossed paths. Just as he was thinking about many of the friends, he made onboard ship, walking in the opposite direction was Chief Engineer Rory Thompson.

“Hey David, how’s it been?” asked Rory as he spotted David in the corridor making David smile with glee.  “It’s been good, just keeping busy keeping the any nasty viruses from spreading” he said adding some flair to his job description. Rory patted him on the shoulder. “Well keep it up, me and my crew have not caught so much as a sniffle since we left port a few days ago.

“Oh, I almost forgot, have you been able to read that book I lent you? I know how you love that series” David shook his head; he had been so busy with work he had little down time and what he did get he spent much of it sleeping.

“Its okay, take your time, speaking of though I need to get to work, I was just coming back from the mess hall.” He raised his Styrofoam cup of coffee, “See you around” With that he left David by himself in the corridor as he returned to engineering to relieve his second in command and take back control of Engineering. And so, David would resume his routine of cleaning out the various rooms along his route.

Meanwhile, up on the bridge the captain had given orders to head further toward the island that was just a few kilometers off the port side. This was all part of the package the guests expected. Guests onboard are treated to a view of a string of islands that were uninhabited but were considered beautiful to many, so much so that the cruise ship made passing the islands as part of the route. But just as the helmsman set the rudder to take them in closer there was a flurry of alarms piercing the air alerting the bridge crew to a problem.

“Report” called out the captain as he surveyed the bridge in search of the issue. Moments later the helmsmen spoke up. “Sir it’s the rudder, she’s jammed, I can’t get response from the helm.”

“Get engineering on the line” he yelled out as a crewman picked up the phone to call down to the engineering deck and once, he got a response he enquired to the nature the malfunction. Rory rushed to the main console looking for the source of the problem.  

“It’s the control rods leading to the rudder, they are physically jammed, its not a software problem” he said as he read the diagnostic read outs.

This was grim news as they were heading toward the island and along the coast was a series of large rocks sticking out of the ocean as waves of water clashed against the rock sending plumes of white water into the air.

“Sir we are on a collision course if we can’t get that rudder operational” Below Deck Rory and his crew worked as fast they could to clear the mechanism that controlled the rudder and regain control of the ship. All anyone on the bridge could do is watch in horror as the rocks came ever closer to hitting the ship. Just as they were about a few hundred meters from impact a call came from engineering saying that have got the rudder working again and so the captain yelled out.

“Hard to starboard” and the helmsman acted as quickly as he could steering the ship away from the rock formations and it seemed it worked as the rocks passed harmlessly by the bow of the ship but then third officer called out. “Brace for impact” And in seconds there was a sudden jarring impact felt throughout the ship knocking many people down in the process.

“Close the watertight doors, and someone tell me where we are hit” he ordered as he waited for answers to come in.

“Engineering sir, water is getting in and flooding the area” called out another officer with concern in their voice.

“Remain calm and sound general emergency and get everyone to the lifeboats”

Below deck David was standing back up nursing a nasty bump on his head after the ship made collision with the rocks. Getting his bearings he quickly assessed the situation. He was near engineering and immediately thought of Rory and the rest of his team and rushed toward the stern as fast as he could through the narrow corridor. Once he reached engineering he looked around as he saw Rory and a few members of his team frantically trying to stabilize the ship.

“David, what are you doing here? Get to the lifeboats the captain has ordered everyone to abandon ship” he said as he flicked switches and turned dials to manage what was left of the ships crucial systems operational like the water pumps to the computer systems so they could coordinate the evacuation efforts.

“What about you?” he asked, feeling concerned about his friend. “I’ll be fine, just get out of here”

David hesitated a moment about if he should leave his friend or not and before he could decide another rumble shook the ship. “What was that?” he asked.

Rory checked the cameras as he tried to figure out what caused the rumble and to his shock, he saw something he had hoped he would not see. “It seems the collision knocked out some key supports along the hull, a portion of deck has collapsed, I got several crewmen stuck down there”

Rory was about to turn and go rescue his men, but David stopped him. “You stay you have a job to do here, and you can save more here”

Before Rory could stop him, David ran for the damaged area of the ship, sparking wires were everywhere and so were portions of deck above collapsing onto the deck he was on. Dodging twisted metal and conduits he could hear cries for help as he rushed toward them. But time was against him as the water pumps only slowed down the rush of water into the ship and could not prevent it entirely.

He came to the to an intersection and down the left was a mangled heap of metal with barely enough space to get in and so he pulled open one of the water hose lines meant for fighting fires and pulled as much as he could hoping there was enough length to make to the survivors. Crawling through the open spaces in the debris he could hear the cries for help become clearer by the moment and he soon reached an opening where several men were. Leaving a couple feet of hose sticking out as the marker for the escape route.

“I got you guys, don’t worry” he said as he tried to calm them down and once, they all saw who it was they felt relief. “It’s David” one said as he was pinned against a support beam and so he went to work to free the men. But just as he got the first one out water began to come through the opening. “Crap” he said as he worked on getting the second man out. Without hesitation he shouted at the first guy to use the hose to trace his way back to safety where he could get off the ship. Time was running out as he freed the second guy and by now the water was a foot deep as it threatened to submerge the last crewman.

This piece of bulkhead was more stubborn than the last two and with all his might he tried to pull the piece of metal off him just enough so he could shimmy out.

“Hold on” he said stepping away and going into another room and a couple minutes later he emerged with a long metal rod that served as part of the ship’s structure moments ago. Using it to get leverage on the piece of bulkhead he managed to help the last man get free and so he ushered him to the opening and made sure he was in front.

As David followed behind, the water was rushing in by now giving them only minutes to escape the collapsed section. Then another rumble came as the part of the already compromised structure gave way pinning David. The crewman turned to see his savior now stuck and tried to pull him free but to no avail. Tears welled up in his eyes as he faced the inevitable.

David just nodded at him for to go and that there was nothing the man could do to save him and the only thing he could do now was make it up to him by living his life. No words were exchanged as the man felt a lump in his stomach as he was forced to leave David behind and by the time he pulled himself out of the collapsed area the water was flooding in faster now as, so he rushed to the upper decks where lifeboats awaited him, and the other two David had saved.

In a stroke of fate, the man found the other two men and Rory as they were boarding a lifeboat and jumped in with them.

“Where’s David?” asked Rory to which the man hung his head low and that was all that was needed to convey the message and as they were taken to safety all the three men could think about was how they would have been in that ship if it weren’t for David Marsh a simple janitor that they will always remember and as the ship listed hard to port before going under they gave a silent thank you to their savior who went down with the ship.