Decinaty

SeaFlower

 

                That night as he prayed holding the seaflower a necklace was placed around his neck from nowhere.  He looked at the silver chain and then noticed the amulet that had a single stone that was the same color as the seaflower and seemed to move like the water as the seaflower did.  Tears filled his eyes as he continued to pray giving thanks to his goddess for the gift.  Rather than going to sleep as he planned he put on his inspection uniform and started exploring the decks looking for the little girl to help her clan the ship and hope she would speak with him.

 

~~~

 

      Two new recruits stood in front of the aquarium that took place of a wall.  Only this aquarium wasn’t filled like normal ones.  It had seemingly hundreds of thumb size tear drops floating evenly spread out, though it seemed a bit crowded.

                “I wonder what this is for. It looks like they are floating.” The bigger of the two said thinking out loud.

                Tye walked up and noticed the two of them.  Nobody looks at this wall unless they know somebody or they are new. “You boys know what this wall is for?”

                Tye chuckled when they both jumped and popped to attention.  “No clue sir.”

                “Look closely and you will see the face of every man who has died while serving for our great navy on this ship.” Tye touched the case, his face full of pain.  “Every ship has a wall such as this.”

                “Why does it look like they are floating?”

                “Magic, the goddess arranged it to be such a way.”

                The bigger of the two recruits snorted. “He is a god, not a goddess.”

                “The one who rules the land is a god, yes. The waters are ruled by a goddess.”  Tye touched his amulet through his uniform.  “Very few even know about her anymore.  It was only 30 years ago that she would openly walk among us.”

                “Common people do not see or speak with god, only those of the church can.”  The smaller recruit face had turned negative. 

Both of the young men bowed up in defense when Tye mumbled “Once they did.”

“This ship is only 50 years old, this looks like an entire crew died. That’s not possible.”

“About 80% of the crew died rather suddenly…” He bit his lip as tears filled his eyes threatening to pour.  He lipped a short prayer.

“Rather suddenly? I’m sure we would have been told about it in Training.  But I’ve never heard anything about it.” The smaller guy eyed the teary sailor in suspiciously “Mankind as a whole seems to ‘Look over’ its bigger mistakes.  Once it happened, magic was forbidden and they stopped talking about the goddess.  Not that talking about her was forbidden, it’s just that nobody wanted to chance offending her again.” Tye smirked. “If you paid attention to the evening prayer the first night we pulled out, it was to the goddess. Every ship does it, just encase.  The fights that happen every night at 2100 use to be her testing one student or someone who wished to become one.  Almost all of the survivors that would remember that … day have either changed ships or retired.”

“How do you know so much about it then?” The smaller or the two asked with a cocky tone that Tye ignored.

“I’ve been in service long enough to have a seaflower.” Tye smiled softly.

“What?”

“The first time you meaningfully pray to the goddess you would be gifted with a seaflower.  The seaflower would hold its shape for as long as you faithfully serve her, not many are left.”

“And you have one?”

“The last one made, I believe.”

“Why is that?”

“The next day something terrible happened.”

“The sudden deaths?”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell the story?”

“I’d almost rather not.”

“Why?”

“It’s a painful memory.”

“Wait, memory?”

“Yes, one day it will be told though, if not by mouth, then by pen to paper.”

“Is it true there is a female ghost on this ship?”

“I do not think she is a ghost, but yes, there is a girl on this ship.  Nobody knows her name or age, she has been locked up a few times and just reappears where they found her.  She’s always cleaning the ship, and she always has extra supplies.  So if you come across her you should help out for a few minutes.”

“Why?”

“It gives you some pride knowing that you are part of the reason why your ship looks so good and it also brings you luck.”

“Have you ever cleaned with her?”

“Every chance I get.” I only wish she would speak, the day she speaks is the day I’ll tell my story. Tye promised himself as he went looking for her.

~~~~

When he finally found the girl he was still thinking about the first fight he saw.  “Do you mind if I clean with you?” He asked as he did every time he found her.  She stopped, looked at him, nodded once and waited for him to grab something.  She was washing the walls with soap so he grabbed the wet rag.  “Do you mind if I talk? A memory was brought up and I would like to voice it.” 

Her eyes widen and an excited smile grew on her face.  Normally he would have only asked for permission to clean and then they would go about it in silence. He never thought to speak first.

Tye started to wipe the bulkhead, “I still remember my first day on the ship, and … some of my second.”  He sighed, “Back then, the 2100 fights were not about grudges, showing off or just to test yourself.  The 2100 fights were with the goddess to either be accepted into her class or to advance to the next level. The fights never lasted for more than 10 minutes.  If you held your own she would bow, you passed.  The goddess would then leave for the next ship, or so I was told.  I only got to witness one fight.”

Tye stopped cleaning and looked at the girl. He smiled; she was sitting on the floor with her legs crossed, holding her feet and bouncing her knees.  Tye wondered how old she really was, but smiled and sat in front of her instead of asking.

“I can’t remember what she looks like, however the guy looked like he regretted the decision as soon as he stepped up.  I do remember the goddess was wearing sea green, what I’m not sure.  I only remember the color because is only a few shades off of my seaflower.

“You know, the only thing that hasn’t seemed to change is the no talking rule and the introduction.  The no talking rule is great, because they can’t just stand there and yell at each other for however long.  I love how the fights start.  The challenger, back then was normally the student wishing to advance, steps up to the block and falls to one knee.  The defender, which was normally the goddess unless it was someone who wished to start in her classes, bows.  The fighting starts as soon as the challenger can.

“The fight was about the guy starting her class.  So the goddess stood up and was very still.  I found out later that she was doing something, some kind of mind test.  After a short period the guy’s fingers started to twitch. Next she blew on her hands and cold air could be seen coming off, giving him a chance to see what was coming I believe.  She blew the cold air at him,” Tye started to chuckle, “he started doing jumping jacks, it looked ridicules, but I guess it worked. Next she pulled a wave from the water up through the hanger bay doors, he ducked, but he got soaked. She looked at him and bowed.

“I wish I could remember what she looked like.  That night I prayed to her, my family had never forced the land god on me.  They could never wake me up during the day to worship him either.  Receiving the seaflower was an added bonus.  I didn’t know anything about it.  When I asked one of the guys from my cube about it, he showed me his.  I started to ask him how to sign up for her class but he was really busy.”

Tye stopped talking when she jumped up and grabbed his hand, dragging him behind her.  The next thing he knew they were standing on one of the aircrafts in the hanger bay with a perfect view of the fight.

The defender stepped up to his spot when his name was called, and the challenger did the same.  You could tell by looking that this fight was about something, they were after blood.  Tye was wondering if it was about a female back at shore, it is rare that they are ever this serious about anything else.

Fights end at first blood, or before.  However, once blood is spilt you had no further will to fight.  It was a protection placed by the goddess.  She knew she would never spill blood, nor would any of the people that she fought; she must have known that it would be like this.  Two hits, one of the guys dropped, his nose broken, blood gushing.  The “winner” seemed to be in a trance, and then fell to his knees like he was going to pray for forgiveness but no prayer ever left his lips.  Tye lipped a short prayer.

The girl sighed disappointedly and jumped off the aircraft. Pausing, signaling for Tye to do the same. Tye hesitated for a breath and then jumped; landing more graceful than he thought he would next to her. He followed the girl to the injured sailor.  Tye recognized the boy immediately; it was the smaller of the young recruits from earlier.

It shocked Tye a little when the group had parted for the girl like it was planned and nobody seemed to notice him behind her. It had been a long time since the last time Tye walked into a group that didn’t notice him, and this was almost all of the ship.  That didn’t shock him nearly as much as when the girl spoke.

She knelt down next to his head, the medic has back out of her way, she lifted the injured sailors head, “Ryan, it’s not worth it.  He wasn’t the first one to touch your sister, nor is he the father.  Do not blame your sister either.  She was forced her first time but then realized that she liked it.  You will understand one day yourself.”  She touched her small hand to his face and smiled at him in such a warm loving way.  Tye was to busy thinking about how soft, mature and motherly her voice had been to realize that Ryan had stopped bleeding and was sleeping comfortably.  Tye also noticed that his nose looked normal.

Tye stood up, wondering when he had knelt down, he looked over at the other sailor.  “Jax. Why am I not surprised?”  Though Jax did not reply, Tye’s face did show some disgust, his voice stayed neutral. Jax had been a problem on the ship ever since he transferred from one of the smaller ships in the group.  He was known for drinking and fighting.  Given the chance, Jax enjoyed pleasuring girls that had just found their womanhood. He was restricted to certain places when they were in port, but if a family came to visit there was no real way to stop him.

“Go put him in his rack, when he wakes up he needs to see me.” Tye said with a stern voice, watching two sailors take him away.

Nobody else moved, there had not been bloodshed in a long time.  Nobody could remember seeing the girl out in the open either. Tye could hear whispers about the girl and realized that she might had not have spoken to him, she had spoke.

He pointed to the two medics who were watching, “You two, take him to medical, get him checked.” Once Ryan was out of sight he faced the group Tye looked around, 2100 fights pretty much got everybody on the ship to show up.  After a fight was always a good time to hold quarters, fights seem to be good for moral.

“Quarters, tomorrow, after the fight.” Most of the leaders looked at Tye in surprise.  Quarters was rare, normally Tye just blabbed over the 1MC.  Someone came up to him and asked were.  Tye shrugged out of character.

Tye turned and knelled on the ground, taking her small hands in his.  “It is you, isn’t it?  That is why you’ve never changed; you ARE her, aren’t you?”  His voice was soft, eyes hopeful and searching.

She looked down at him very naturally, “I can’t remember.”  Her voice wasn’t the loving mother from earlier, but of a small child who was afraid because she couldn’t answer the question.

“How did you know about Ryan?”

“I just did. I get flashes, but nothing solid.” She turned to the open bay door.  The elevator might be hiding the moon, but the rays poured into the hanger all the same. “Something bad is about to happen very soon.  Then something else, I don’t know what, it’s just big.” She sighed, her chest noticeably rose and fell. Tye wondered if she just grew into her teens. “I’m going topside, I don’t remember when the last time I saw the sky.  I think its time, for some reason I feel very compelled.”

“Do you want me to accompany you?” He offered.

“No, I think I’m supposed to go alone.” She smiled, “you are needed here, keep your eyes opens.”  She turned and walked off.

~~~~

“Sir?”

Tye turned around, “How may I help you Spoons?”  He asked the officer using his nickname, hinting at the fact that he was in a good mood and didn’t need the formality.

“Who’s the girl for starters?”

“Not mine.” Tye replied with a smirk, “Have you heard of the ghost who cleans the ship? She’s not a ghost.  That was her.”

“Sure she’s not yours?”

“Spoons, I am not married, nor have I ever touched a woman in that way.”

“What? How is that possible?  Your telling me all the port calls, women throwing themselves on you, you’ve never…” Spoons was trying not to laugh, “Do you prefer men? If you don’t mind me asking, but it just doesn’t seem natural for an officer in your position to, uh, well.”

Tye laughed, “I do not prefer men at all.  I don’t care about anybodies sexual preference as long as they save the sex for ports. I have not touched a woman for personal reasons. A woman saved me once, after what she did, none have even caught my eye.”

“What did she do?”

“You’ll find out tomorrow, but is that what you really wanted to know?”

Spoons faltered for a second, “Oh, sir, what is this quarters about?”

“I believe it is time for a history lesson.  I don’t think there is anybody left on this ship who knows the story of the goddess last appearance, when we lost almost an entire crew.”

“The goddess is only prayed to the first night underway and then not spoken of again.  I’ve never heard why or anything about her.”

“Everybody is about to get a lesson, something is going to happen soon.  We are going to need all of the blessings we can get.”  Tye said.

Two bodies ran down a ladder well and would have flown right past Tye and Spoons, only Tye grabbed one and Spoons had to take a few steps before he got the other one.  Before the two guys could be questioned, an alarm went off.

“Man overboard, man overboard, man overboard port side.  All hands (I’m going to have to pay attention to the next man overboard to get the right information to put here. Stop laughing.)  A voice called over the 1MC.  Shivers ran down Tye’s spine, and he lipped a short prayer.  Men stopped working and everybody had started running to their muster locations.

“What…” Tye was cut off, a wave splashed impossibly through the two open bay doors of hanger three, taking the 2 jets that were parked and chained with it overboard.  When the water was gone Tye saw the girl, no longer a small child.  She looked 18 and was soaking wet, reminding Tye of a wet cat; the anger on her face reflected that of a wet cat.

Tye shot a look at Spoons who had a disbelieving grin. “Oh I wouldn’t smile Spoons, that look calls for blood and the last time she wasn’t too discriminating.”  Spoons looked at Tye. Realizing that he was serious, he stopped grinning.

The girl was breathing hard; she stomped over to the four men.  The two men that were being held started thrashing.  In the beginning it was only so they wouldn’t get caught for throwing someone overboard.  However, there is something about watching the person you just threw off of a very high area (I want to get the actual height, but at least you guys know what I’m talking about)  appearing with a wave and then storming toward you that makes you wet yourself and fear for your life.

Tye forced his captive to his knees, Spoons copied him.  Both Tye and Spoons took a few steps back.

The girl stood in front of the two men, shaking with anger, passing judgment on them.  “Brig, I don’t want to see them again.”

Spoons grabbed the two by their collars and left.

Tye fell to his knees, “You must be her.”

“I still can’t remember, its locked away. I have an idea on how I can find out.”

“Can I help?”

“I think you’re the only one who could.” She said thoughtfully “Good night.” 

She walked off leaving Tye on his knees.  Realizing this, Tye stood up feeling foolish.

“Man overboard time plus three.”

Well, I honestly can say that someone went overboard and was recovered in less than a minute… Tye thought to himself, getting ready for his speech as soon as it was over.

~~~~

Tye woke up a little early, shivering trying to make the nightmare go away.  He walked to his mess and then decided against it, he found it good for moral to eat with your lowers every now and then.

“Hey skipper, who’s X?”

“Yeah, they can’t spell your name whoever they are.”

“Who calls you ‘Tyde’?”

“Maybe they don’t to have the quarters.”

“Maybe they don’t want to get in trouble for the man overboard.”

“Wait, what?”

“Oh, you didn’t know?”

Tye shook his head, walking straight past all the overly excited officers to the coffee maker. Great, it’s going to be a long day. It’s great to see all the officers’ alert and in good spirits around the scuttlebutt…

“But seriously sir, who is X?” One of the officers asked Tye again, interrupting Tye’s thoughts.

Tye took a deliberate sip on his coffee before he spoke.  “What on the sea are you talking about?”

“Sir, you haven’t checked today’s fight?  I thought it was the reason why you wanted quarters.  Or is that why it’s an x challenging you, does that mean it’s an open challenge?”

“Can you wait to harass me until I have had enough coffee to wake up?”  Tye took another sip. “You’re worse than the enlisted sometimes.”

A few officers chuckled, the one who had been bugging Tye took a few steps back, looking down and shuffling his feet like a school boy who just got caught doing something. Tye lipped a prayer and then shook his head.  Taking another sip at his coffee, he looked at the computer screen for the plan of the day.

“Wait. Who is X, and why can’t he spell my name right?  It’s Tye not Tyde.  He managed to get my last name right and it’s far more complicated.”

“This isn’t part of your quarters?”

“No, did anybody see how this person was?”

“It was filled out before the window opened, and it was right on top.  In fact whoever wrote it had girly handwriting.”

“How girly?”

“The X was “pretty” and so was your first name.”

Tye, who had been sipping on his coffee, nearly spat it out.  “Can I see it?”

“Sure, it is filed away with the other ones, the after 6 months it gets scanned into the computer system and destroyed.  The system you came up with.” One of the officers shrugged, wondering what was going on.

“I remember finding the books were people would sign up to fight and who passed.  It saves a lot of room if it is on a computer; it was easier to sort out later.  I’ll be back later; you men know what you are supposed to get done today right?” When they all mumbled yes, Tye took off to find that paper.

Right there was the X; it showed him everything he needed to know.  He knew who he was challenging; he would let the others find out at the fight.  Lipping a prayer and then biting his lips, Tye admitted to himself that he was nervous.

~~~~

The day had seemed to crawl and at the same time fly by.  By dusk he was so nervous he went to one of his squadrons and asked for a flight.  Every time he rode in a jet was the same.  It feels like the first time you’re on a rollercoaster, a little bit excited, but wanting to back out at the last second.  The skipper of the squadron knew his problem.

“Don’t worry Tye, I’ll have you safe and sound back on your boat in no time.”

Tye was still worried, but his worries washed away when a small amount of time later he saw his ship on the water.  The sun was setting on one side, all those colors reflecting off the sea’s surface.  The moon rising on the other side… It was breath taking, worth any uncomfort that the landing and take off might cause.  Tye lipped a prayer at the beauty of it all.

When Tye got off the jet he was relieved, and felt positive about the day.  Of course, that all went away a few hours later. when his name was called and he stepped to the platform, he felt terrified. 

Tye said a soft prayer.

~~~~

“X”

At first nothing happened, everybody was still.  Tye took a deep slow breath; he could hear his heart beating fast.  The crowd began to whisper, just a few at first, but a minute went by and more talking broke out. Then the lights went out, Tye opened his eyes, everybody was excited.  The only thing that could be seen was the full moon outside.  A soft shadow fell onto the platform in front of him, everybody went quiet again.  A short breath later, the lights were on.

The girl stood on the platform wearing sea green tight fitting pants and a tank top to match.  She was a perfectly developed 18 year old woman.  There was marking down her arms.  Tye’s eyes met hers and she pulled her hair away from her face to show more markings that Tye studied while she put her hair up.  He swept his eyes over her, noticing even more marking on her bust; he blushed when he realized he was staring and moved his eyes down.  She was barefoot and had markings there too.  You really shouldn’t be barefoot on a ship. His attention came back to present when he realized she was kneeling.  He bowed fully, and then stood straight as a board.  He could hear faint whispers in his head, sounded something like a spell. Then he heard a loud buzzing sound, then a sharp scream. 

Tye didn’t move, after a minute he saw that she was breathing on her hands.  Tye moved his body into a defensive position, his hands ready and twitching. Tye could see the cloud of ice, he wasn’t sure how, but his arms and hands moved on there own, taking the cloud and turning it into an ice ball, sending it back to her.

She dodged it; it hit someone in the crowd.  Next came the wave, he guided it back to her, watching her absorb it.  Next there was fire in her hands, she came rushing to him.  Tye sidestepped out of her way, reflecting her attack and grabbing her from behind.  Her body was surrounded by lightening, but Tye couldn’t feel anything.

The girl started to thrash, trying to get him to let go. When that failed, she disappeared and then reappeared grabbing him, Tye wasn’t sure how, but he made her fall through him.  He picked her up and looked her in the eyes.  This wasn’t the same girl he had cleaned the ship with for all these years, there was something deeper, this was her, the one who had saved him.  Tye wished he could kiss her, but now was the wrong time.

The girl smiled, he set her down, she took a step back and then bowed.

Tye had forgotten all about the crowed until the roar of applaud brought his attention away from the girl.  The crowd was standing and clapping, yelling.  This was the first fight since his first night on the ship that had magic.  Tye smiled at himself when he realized that that fight hadn’t been nearly as long as this one.  Not many of the fights eer did last very long.

What Tye wanted to do was run over to the girl and kiss her.  What he did instead was raise his arms up, making the crowed go wild again.

~~~~

Tye put his arms down, feeling good.  He remembered he had asked for quarters and made a hand signal to the officer who asked him “where” yesterday.  “Where did you decide?”

“Here sir, it made sense.” (I know I know I let an officer use common sense!!!)

“That works for me.  Get them quiet, I’m going to get a drink.”

Tye walked to the girl, “Come on, I’ll buy you a drink.”

She nodded and followed him to some vending machines.  Tye tossed her a water bottle and drank his.

“I hope you don’t mind my goddess, but I plan on telling them about my first days on this ship.   I am the last person on this ship who knows what happened, well most of it.”  He looked into her eyes, and then fell to his knees. “My goddess, I hope you know that I have never altered my faith since I first learned about you and that my seaflower is still as perfect as the night that you gifted me with it.  That I have never taken off the necklace that you gifted me either. Please know that I am your faithful servant and have never prayed to the land god.  Nor do I ever plan to.  I am at your bidding.  I thought you were the small girl and visited her frequently to try to find out.  It pleases me to no end to know that I was right.  I pray for forgiveness for the two who attempted your life and I am thankful that you forgave them.  If the fight today was about accepting me as a student, then I am overjoyed.  If I could ask for one thing from you it would be your blessing.”

“Tyde,” He noticed the‘d’ she put in his name, but was just too happy when she placed both of her hands on his cheeks.   With a voice that was soft and loving, she continued to speak. “It has been your prayers that never let me completely forget who I was.  You are the owner of one of the five seaflowers that are left.  The others are weak, no color and barely hold there form.  They belong to men that remember me but no longer pray.  Unlike my counter-part, it would not hurt my pride if you preyed and served him as well.

“While I was in my child form you never let me be lonely.  There are a few other sailors that actually helped me, but none sought me out as you did.  As for the two that threw me overboard, as they do not pray to me, I will not forgive them.  Nor will I seek out punishment on them.  I will speak with my counter-part to whom they do pray to.

“Today’s fight was not so much to accept you as my student as much as it was to awaken my true powers and yours as well.”  She half-smiled at Tye, and then her face went very serious.  “I will not bless you Tyde.”

Tye’s eyes closed and open slowly, he bit his lip waiting for her to continue. “I will not bless you because there is no further blessing that I can give you.  Just like I will not teach you because you already know everything that I would teach.  If you look closely within yourself or maybe you will see it in the events that happened, you will realize why.  I can lead any creature to my waters edge, but I cannot make it drink, or even look at its own reflection.  Now, finish your water, your crew anxiously awaits your words after the display they just saw.  I will be along in a moment.”

~~~~

As Tye walked back he did a calculation in his head, if he had held this off for just 2 days it would be 30 years ago exactly.  The second Tye was in sight the crowed came to attention without even being called.  He walked to the platforms, having made the decision already; he stepped on the challenger’s.

 “Sit down, please; I have called this quarters to talk about things that have not been spoken above a whisper for the last 30 years, r close enough to it.  I feel it is time to bring it up.  Please forgive me if I go out of order, I did not want to bore you with a mindless speech but rather inspire you to listen by talking from the heart.”

Tye hesitated, everybody was paying attention to him, and even the aviation group had stayed for the quarters, which was a first. “Two days from now will be the 30th anniversary of my first steps onto this ship.  The navy was different then, this ship was much different then.  I was just a young recruit, 18, fresh out of basic training.  I had never seen a ship before, let alone a body of water so massive as the sea.  In fact, when the recruiters first told me about it I didn’t believe them.  But 30 years ago I stood on the dock, my sea bag on my back and my mouth wide open.”  Tye made an impression of himself, a lot of the men laughed. “Shit, this ship isn’t the oversized boat that I thought it was, this ship is an armored city that can float anywhere it freak’n wants to go.  It is amazing to think that every man sitting in front of me is not only a sailor that does his job, but when needs to can police our ship, fight fires, do other peoples jobs better than they could.”  Here a few men laughed, “Hell boys, I bet a few of you could probably run this ship better than I do.”  A few enlisted guys made some cat-calls, but most everybody else were saying “No”, “No way”, and “No one is better than you.”  Tye looked at his XO who was shaking his head no as well. “Oh whatever Richie, you know you cannot wait until I’m gone so you can take over.  Shit you have probably thought about taking me out yourself.”  The whole crowd was laughing, the XO shrugged with a smile that said “you caught me.”

“And while I really don’t have a clue what my chiefs do other than keep you shit-bags of sailors from standing in front of me in your best uniforms.  I appreciate that you do that at least.  That is in fact, if you don’t just push that on your leading petty officers.”  The enlisted men were laughing hard, including some of the chiefs.  “No, I’m kidding, I realize that the ship needs at least 90% of all of you to run it at the outstanding rate that it does.”  A few men seemed to catch what he said and snickered.

“Alright, alright.  I didn’t call this quarters to make jokes, nor was it about the fight.  The fight was a plus.  I am glad that it happened, it will make what I’m about to tell you a lot easier to believe.”  Tye took a second to fix his thoughts into an order that would be right.  Looking out into the crowd of faces, some of the guys were leaning forward, leaning to the side, but every one of them where watching him, waiting.  Tye considered testing how long they would wait; he brushed the idea out aside when he realized he was as ready to tell his story about what happened as they were to listen.

“Before I tell you my story from 30 years ago, lets talk about something a little more current. Did anybody here know that our ship does the least amount of man over board drills?  Go ahead, raise your hands.”  Most of the officers, some of the older enlisted raised there hands.  “Does anybody care to guess why that is?”

One very junior enlisted stood up.  “Because you trust all of us to know how to do it.  Because we have the fastest time?” Most of the senior guys chuckled, some of the junior ones as well.

Tye managed to keep his face serious, even though he wanted to smile, “Boy, you were stupid enough to join the navy, AND you want me to believe you are smart enough to remember how to do a drill?” The laughing got pretty loud, “If that was true we wouldn’t do half the other drills we do.  Though, he is right, this ship does have the fastest times.”  He winked at the kid and tossed him a coin.  “Nice try though.  Come on, anybody else want to guess?”  He waited a few seconds, no one else stood up.  “Come on Richie, I know you know.”

Richie looked him in the eye.  For the last few years he had kept it to himself out of respect.  The XO never dreamed there would be a day that he would be asked to share that information.  When Richie realized that Tye was serious he stood up, “You’re scared of that drill sir.”

Most of the crowd was in shock, a few whispers fluttered.  “It’s true.” Tye admitted, “I shake every time I hear it.  I’ll get to why in a minute.  Now, how many people were paying attention last night?  Who knew that last night wasn’t a drill, and that we didn’t throw the dummy?”  About half of the sailors attached to the ship hands were raised, all of the air dales were.  “Two of your shitbags of shipmates are not here right now, nor will you see them until we hit the next port.  These two shitbags did something unthinkable, they threw somebody overboard.  Who was the one who noticed someone got thrown?”  The second class stood up, “Good on you.” Tye threw him a coin.  “Who hear has heard of the cleaning girl?”  Most of the ones attached to the ship had there hands raised, a surprising number of the air dales hands where up.  “Keep your hand up if you have seen her.” Most of the hands fell. “How many of you have helped her?”  Only 8 hands stayed up, 5 of which where air dales.  The second class who had noticed the girl get thrown overboard was among the group, he threw the other 7 a coin.

“Believe it or not, the female that I just fought is the same little girl.”  There were murmurs, “How many of you have heard of the goddess of the sea?” All the officers and chiefs hands were raised, but the E6 and below where scattered.  Tye noticed a few people were getting offended.  “I am not talking about god of the land; I am talking about his counterpart.  Let us not get into that argument right now; we’ll save that for a captain’s call at a later date.”  Tye waited a few seconds, letting the ones who were getting mad to calm down. 

“Now, I want to give you a history lesson of when I first got on the ship.”  Tye took a deep breath, wondering where the girl was.

~~~~

“About 30 years ago I came on this ship wide eyed, 18, fresh booter and had never seen a lake before let alone an ocean. I started the check-in process then that night everybody went to the hanger, much like they do now.  The first fight that I saw was similar to the one you just seen, a few minor differences.  She appeared right when they called “X”, and the guy did jumping jacks when she blew the cold air.  The fight ended when he curled into the fetal position when she threw the tidal wave.  I had never heard of her before that, but I wanted to serve her right then, and wanted to be in her class.  Never praying in my life before, I prayed to her, and was gifted something.”

            Tye felt her presence before he could see her.  She was holding his seaflower.  He reached to take it but she walked forward, holding it, and then levitating it, for all to see.

            “Most sailors had one.  It was a time that praying to both of us was acceptable, even though my counter-part had long since hid within the walls of the building of his name.  I prefer to walk among my followers, gifting them when I see fit. I let them know that I am there for them.” 

            “The next night something horrible happened.”  Tye continued when the goddess didn’t. “It is winter now as it was then. Days ended early, nights were cold, dark and seemed to last longer than they did.  We had pulled out that day, and like always, there was no moon that night.

            “I had snuck up to the flight deck.  The stars filled the sky like they did at my home.  You can’t see the sky for the stars, go up next new moon.  You’ll see what I’m talking about.  I had been appreciating the fact that I did have something so important to me on the ship that I had from home that I didn’t realize there was two guys behind me.   Before I could turn around to see who it was, I was falling, then cold water, and finally nothing.” Tye had to pause. “I woke up to the most beautiful face; it was full of concern until she realized that I was okay.” He shot a quick look at the goddess who was watching him with a smile he could not recognize.  “Let me tell you, you do not want to piss her off.

            Tye changed his voice and tempo.  He had been talking so quietly he was surprised anybody could hear him, but they were all listening.  “How many of you have seen the wall of tears for this ship? Or heard why it’s famous?”  A lot of hands rose.  He noticed the junior sailor who had tried to answer about the drill, pointed to the sailor.

            The sailor gulped as he stood up, “It is famous because no other commissioned ship has as many.”

            “That’s right; see there, you’ve actually earned your coin.” One of the guys slapped the sailors back so hard he fell on the sailor in front of him. 

            “Our ship, well, no other ship in the history of our great navy has half the tears that ours does with the exception of ones that have sunk.  Who is the most recent recruit, freshest booter?”

            A few stood up, looked around, one was left standing.  Tye spoke, “Do they still take you to building 13?”

            “They still take us to the halls of sorrow.”

            “What do they tell you about it?”

            “When a ship sinks and every man is either dead or no longer trapped in ship that the wall of tears disappears and reappears in building 13.  Every tear holds a face of a man who has died while serving on a ship, so that there families will know if they are alive or not.”

            Tye nodded and tossed him a coin.  “I don’t remember much of what happened after I woke up.  However, the aftermath wasn’t pretty.  80% of the crew was dead, 15% injured.” 

            There were a few protests.  “No, you didn’t hear about it in boot camp.  They choose to cover it up.”

~~~~

“They choose not to chance offending me again.”  The goddess corrected.  “Back then I taught my magic.” She pointed to a jet, the chains disappeared, the jet rolled to a different spot and then the chains where put back on.  “Magic can do wonderful things, and make life that much easier.

            “But two men wanted to try something.  They grabbed the freshest booter, used a concealing spell and threw him over.  I only found out when he hit the water and scared a dolphin.  I used water to bring him on the ship, and once he was safe…” She dramatically raised her arms, waves of water hovered on both sided of the ship. “I took water, mixed it with lighting” The waves where both hit by lighting, in front of her was a hologram of the ship, she let the water funnel through the hologram as it showed what she was describing.  “I made the water find every person. If they did not believe in me, they died.  Those who only prayed to receive my gifts, died.  Those who had been horrible people, died.  Those people who no longer worshiped me, but at least acknowledged my existence, a few broken bones.  That was my judgment day. Only my true followers stood unscathed.”

            She looked at Tye, her eyes were filled with tears, and she smiled.  Tye could almost see her thoughts, they were a little hazy.  “Like Tyde, I don’t remember what happened next.  But now that I am awakened again, I remember a promise I made a long time ago.” She looked at Tye and then walked to the crowd, “And if you men are daring enough, I am going to ask your captain to go on the biggest adventure of your lives.”

            The men cheered at once, she turned her back to them and smirked, “So Captain, can we proceed to your quarters so that we may discuss this grand adventure?”  A few guys cat called, Tye blushed but signaled for the goddess to lead the way.  Somebody else took charge of the quarters, but Tye only wondered what the adventure was.

~~~~

The first thing that Tye did when he walked into his room was look at the drawing on the wall.  Noticing something he walked to it, picked up the appropriate color and fixed the part that stood out.  Drawing was something of an obsession that he developed from after he recovered from the being thrown off the ship.   His current picture was of a seaflower floating over cupped hands.  Though it already looked incredibly real, some parts seemed to change colors as you moved, much like the real thing.

There were more drawings on the wall.  There wasn’t any quite as detailed, some came close.  The goddess touched the one of the little cleaning girl.  It looked real, but rather than be a huge poster like the one he was currently working on, it fit on a normal sized white page.

Tye waited patiently watching the goddess look and touch the pictures.  She stared at his first drawing for a long while.  It wasn’t very good, mostly just outline and rough coloring, but it was a moment from the first fight he saw.  A female was blowing on her hand, water particles for the background; he had colored it but no detail or shading.

“You like drawing.” She finally said, turning to him with a smile.

“Yes.”

“You have gotten very good, but that’s not why I’m here.  What do you know of the creation of man?”  She asked sitting on his desk, kicking her feet softly.

Tye sat down in his chair and wondered, “Only that we were created in the likeness of god.”

“Do you know why some people can use magic and others can not?”

“No.” Tye admitted, “I have never thought about it.”

“You were taught correctly, man was created in our likeness.  Both my counter-part and I created men.  I gave mine the gift of magic.  My counter-part didn’t, thinking that powers should be reserved for gods.

“Though it wasn’t encouraged, there were couples made of both races.  Some of the children were magical, some not.  The families normally lived among my counterpart’s people.  While his race was less forgiving, it is easier to pretend to be ‘normal’ than be normal and live among people who can do magic without thinking.”

Tye wondered where this was going, but he found her story along with her voice fascinating.

“My race was much smaller in numbers, also took longer to grow.  What takes you 18 years to be a man can take about 40 for my people.  My people also stop aging at will.  They loved to learn and experiment.  They are slow to anger; there was never war with my people.”

“So what happened to them?”

“While one of the leaders was exploring, he became corrupt and because the rest of them wouldn’t follow him anymore he did something unspeakable.  Something that drove my people into having me hide them deep in the sea until such tie was safe enough for them to come back into the world.”

“Why couldn’t you kill the corrupt leader?”

“I gave my people free will.  I do not mean the free will that my counter-part gave you.  By free will they have life for as long as they will to live without my interference.  I cannot kill them, nor have they figured out how to kill themselves, for it is not so easy.  Killing each other is just something that they do not even comprehend, so they did not even try to figure out how.  Violence is not in there nature.”

“So how did the one guy become corrupt?”

“He learned it from my counter-parts race, and he liked it.”

“What happened to him?”

“When my people went into hiding I erased his memory of them and all evidence of my peoples, minus the ones who lived among my counter-part’s people.  I told them what happened then gave them the choice of hiding with my people or becoming more like the ones they lived with.  I gave the ones who stayed behind the ability to grow old and die, though I let them keep there magic, discouraging them to use it.  I made sure to always hear and answer them, but unless they came to the sea I would not walk among them, my counter-part became possessive of the land.”

“That is how you became goddess of the sea?”

“I created water, and he formed the lands.  At the time we agreed to share, but only really rule what we made.”

“What does this have to do with my ship?”

“I had promised to bring my people out of hiding once the corrupt one finally stopped living.  It has been at least 300 years since I hid them.  And I had that nice little breakdown after my judgment day.  Sometime within the last 30 years he finally died.  I cannot find anything but a tomb that I fear to open.”

“So how is bringing your people out of hiding a great adventure?”  Tye was a bit confused, but he had never studied religion before and teaching about the goddess had been forbidden.  When he went to basic they only spent one day learning about the two gods and the background of the world.  When he was in school to become an officer the only they would say is that she did exist and that it was very important to pray to her the first night after you leave land.

“My people had encased themselves, and I took that and hid it in a part of the ocean.  After doing so I set traps so that one person could not do it alone and men would get discouraged.”

“300 years? Surely even by then they would all be dead, hiding in the sea.”

“You’ll understand when the time comes.”

Tye leaned on his thighs, looking at the goddess in wonder.  Part of him would follow the goddess any wear in a heartbeat, willing to do anything she asked, but the thought of his crew made him second guess himself.

“My goddess as much as I want to say yes, I must put my men before myself.  What of them? Will they live? Will they get hurt? Will I need the whole CAG or just my ship?  What about the planes?  How will I persuade the navy to fund this mission? How soon do you want this to happen? So many questions my love.”  Tye shut his mouth and turned a deep red, facing away from the goddess. “Forgive me, I did not mean to say that out loud.”

“Oh Tyde,” She sighed, touching his cheek and slowly guided his face to look at her. They held eye contact for what felt like forever.  All doubts wiped away from Tye’s mind.

​

Updates tri-weekly at patreon.  Come check it out.