"Good morning, Miss Winebrenner," Robbie said as I climbed aboard the Millennium Osprey.
"Good morning. Nice day outside, huh?" I replied.
"If we're lucky, the fog will clear up a little, but I'm not convinced it will. I've seen worse, but there's nothing more annoying than when the weather doesn't cooperate with our plans," Nastasya said.
I was sure Robbie had seen much more fog in his day, since he was maybe forty years older than her, but she still had at least five years of age on me, and probably many more in experience.
"I still think we should try the drone. We might not get a good picture, but it doesn't hurt to try," Robbie said. "I'll go get it now."
"Calm down, Robbie. Focus on one thing first, and that's the fact that we need to actually go somewhere. I don't think we're going to find many whales in this spot," Nastasya said, and when I looked around back to the island, which was only about a football field away, she seemed correct.
"Sorry, sorry. I'm just excited," Robbie said, then headed into the cabin to drive the boat to a better location.
Nastasya rolled her eyes and shook her head, but she followed him anyway, which left me by myself. Of course, I didn't mind, but there wasn't much to look at besides white.
The ocean air was always fresh in the morning, and even though I hadn't really slept in a while, it woke me right up. It was part of the reason I was so drawn to the ocean in the first place; it had a refreshing quality that could reset one's life, or even take it in a new direction. There were countless directions to go since it was so vast, but the thing was that it also applied to whales. They could go wherever they wanted, and we somehow had to track them down.
After a few minutes, I headed into the cabin with Nastasya and Robbie. Robbie sat in his chair with his captain hat, slightly adjusting the boat's course to correct for the deflections from the gentle waves, and Nastasya sat next to him. The drone's case was right beside her, and she kept a protective hand on it.
I smiled.
"There's no shame in admitting you're excited too, Nastasya," I said.
"Of course there's no shame. I don't know how I could be any clearer that I'm excited. I've been waiting for this moment ever since they gave me this beauty," she replied, but in her low, unamused tone, she still didn't seem very thrilled.
Excitement was the only emotion I couldn't repress, so it must have been some form of witchcraft on her part to keep it all inside. She rarely smiled and always had a stern, serious look, but underneath that, she had a heart of gold. Or, at least, that seemed to be so. She went out of her way to get (and keep) her hands on that drone for me, but she still kept her head on her shoulders about everything.
I sat down beside the case, and she shifted it just a little closer to herself.
That was probably fair. I would somehow find a way to mess it up.
A muffled voice came over the boat-to-boat communication system, but I couldn't make out what exactly it said. Robbie didn't provide a translation either, so it couldn't have been important.
"So where are we heading for today's whales?" I asked.
"I'm not really sure yet, kid. We could head north again since we had good luck there last time, or we could stay closer to Paradise City because of the fog," Robbie replied.
"Let's just stay close. There's no sense in taking any more risks than we have to," Nastasya said.
It was a solid, rational decision for sure, so I nodded. "That sounds like a good idea."
Robbie chuckled. "Nastasya, it's a good thing I have you out here. Otherwise, we'd be heading straight into Canadian waters to get as much footage of whales as possible."
Nastasya turned to me. "Don't get me wrong, I'd love that. But we'll get to that eventually as long as we're cautious now."
"You don't have to explain yourself to me. I want useful data too, not just photos of a fogged-up lens," I said.
Her eyebrows raised slightly, and I took that as a smile from her, even though I knew the expression could have meant a number of things. But my heart wanted her to like me, so I just cherry-picked the data that supported that with shameless confirmation bias.
Nastasya cleared her throat. "Anyway, we still have all day to search for whales. I'm sure we'll find something eventually."
I nodded.
The only problem was that all day was a very long time to stay awake, and with each passing moment, another weight was added to my eyelids. Even though I told Jia I'd sleep on the boat, there were better ways to spend that time, especially since we didn't have any leads telling us where the whales were.
Instead, I had to keep my eyes wide open and my brain wide awake to find our specimens of interest.
I headed back outside on the boat, and although my vision was rather limited, it was the best way to find a fluke somewhere in the open ocean with no help. Sure, the ocean teemed with life, but a lot of it was too small to see, or the life didn't revolve around our mission to help them.
But if the ocean was alive, maybe it would respond to me.
"Can you please help us find something? I'm looking for whales preferably, but there are lots of cool animals out here that I'd like to see too. How about a shark? Those are pretty amazing too," I said, then checked over my shoulder.
Neither Robbie nor Nastasya paid any attention to me.
Perfect.
"You know, you gave me a purpose. Thank you for that." I chuckled. "If it weren't for you, I'd be back in West Virginia playing basketball, which would be fine, but it's not the life for me. This is."
I paused for a moment.
This isn't weird, right?
I shrugged, even though no one would notice, then continued. "So if you'd just help me out one more time, that'd really be great. I'll do whatever you want in return. Well, not anything. I don't think I can offer a human sacrifice or anything like that—"
A loud splash interrupted my thought.
"Whatever that was, thank you, ocean. You're very kind," I said.
We still weren't too far from Paradise City, and if it weren't for the fog, it probably still would have been visible. But instead of estimating our location, I had bigger fish to fry (sustainably fished fish, of course).
"Guys," I shouted over the engine, and even though I hadn't seen anything yet, I heard it. That was enough for me to know something big was out there.
Nastasya, with the drone case in hand, peeked out of the cabin. "You see something?"
I waved her over. "Help me look."
"What are we looking for?"
"I'm not sure, but it's out there. I heard it," I said, and my eyes still scanned the surface of the water as far as I could see, which admittedly, wasn't far.
Nastasya let out a breath. "So you're just supposing?"
"But it was right after I asked the ocean to give us something. Please don't judge me. I'm a little loopy right now since I'm only running on three cups of coffee."
"I'm not judging. I've already known you're a bit off," Nastasya said. "I didn't think it was that bad, but—" She stopped for a moment. "That's what you're looking for right there."
She pointed into the fog, and there were three dark bodies that poked out of the surface of the water heading in the direction from which we came.
"What—what are those?" I asked.
"If they're what I think they are, we're going to want the drone up and running. You don't see them every day in the Gulf of Maine," Nastasya replied.
"Well, I've never seen them before, whatever they are. What are they?"
"I don't want to get your hopes up. Robbie, we have three potential O. orcas heading south for Paradise City." She headed back into the cabin, and I turned back to the water.
"Killer whales?" I asked myself, then looked at the three figures swim deeper into the fog. "Was that just a crazy coincidence, or are you guys even more social than I thought?"
There were varying opinions on whether killer whales deserved their murderous moniker, but whether it was true or not, they were certainly on my list of things I didn't think I'd see when I woke up the morning prior. If we were farther north, it would have made more sense, but—
The seals.
The seals were easy prey for killer whales since they were small, and in the waters surrounding Paradise City, they were plentiful, especially thanks to the excessively large seal that displaced the rest of them.
"Sorry Logan, and sorry seals, but your sacrifice will not be in vain," I said as the boat began to turn around. My right foot slipped out from under me on the wet metal, and I collapsed right along with it, landing on my hands to protect the rest of me.
"You good Reagan?" Nastasya asked from the doorway, and when I looked up at her and nodded, she had my camera in her hands. "You're going to need this."
I laughed. "This is crazy."
A smile rose upon Nastasya's face. "If this is the first footage we get with the drone, it's instantly worth the ten thousand dollars. And who knows what other great things we can get done on this boat? This is huge for Robbie, you, and me." She shook her head and the smile dissipated. "I shouldn't get ahead of myself. Let's focus on the task at hand."
I wiped my hands off on my pants and took the camera from her and hung it around my neck. "Calm, cool, and collected. Calm, cool, and collected."
Those three adjectives were the exact opposite of every fiber of my being, but that was okay. I had my eyes on a bigger prize, one bigger than I could fathom at the moment.
"Does this boat go any faster? I don't want to miss a thing that the killer—I mean, unidentified cetaceans do," I said, and
"Calm down, Reagan. They're faster than us, but they're not going to leave our sight," Nastasya said.
"I think I know where they're going, too. There are a ton of seals resting in the water right by the rock, so if they were smart, which they certainly are, that's where they would be heading."
"That seems reasonable," Nastasya said.
Robbie drove the boat in the trailed blazed by the maybe-maybe-not killer whales, and they occasionally leaped out of the water like their smaller counterparts, the porpoises. They certainly looked like killer whales with their distinct black and white coloring (there was no doubt, even), but I tried to strictly observe without getting my hopes up. They were on a mission, and simply following them was a privilege not too many people were allowed to live.
And just like I predicted, they picked up on the presence of another mammal in the ocean, the harbor seals that Logan studied twice a day, and they swam straight in that direction. My heart sunk into my shoes. They didn't deserve such a cruel fate, but at the end of the day, the circle of life would always win. Orcas needed to eat just like the rest of us.
I picked the camera that rested on my chest up and held it up in anticipation. We couldn't afford to miss a moment with the rare creatures, but I didn't want my friends to miss out on it either.
"Could you hold this for me?" I held out the camera and asked Nastasya, but when I looked up, she had the drone's case open in the cabin and scrambled to get everything in order. I turned back to my task. "Never mind. I can just put it down. It's strapped to me."
I picked up my phone instead, and the first number from anyone in Paradise City that I found was Toby's. I pressed call, and after a few rings, he picked up.
"If you're stranded, call the Coast Guard. I can't help you from here," he said without a proper greeting.
That was a bit rude, but I had more important things to talk about.
"We think we found three killer whales right off the island, and they're about to feast on Logan's seals. Tell him to not be sad, because he doesn't take death very well, and—"
"I'll let everyone know," Toby said, then hung up.
Once again, rude, but at least it was efficient.
-------------------------------------------------------
Hey everyone! Thank you for reading! I hate to make you wait for the second part of the chapter, so since I already have a chunk of it done (thank you, polar vortex!), I'll see if I can get it out before next Friday. I spent about nine years researching killer whales for this, and I enjoyed it way too much. They're pretty amazing animals.
So how are you? Do you have anything exciting going on?
And, for our plot-relevant question, how do you think Reagan, Nastasya, and Robbie are going to handle this? Will they get the footage they want? And how will Logan deal with this?