"Ughh, just go to sleep, Amy," I muttered to myself as I closed my eyes for the tenth time that night. Deciding that sleep was not my option, I got out of and bed and went for a walk.
"Who will even be up this hour?" I muttered as I walked down the ships corridors. Turning left, I saw that a light was on in Ben's room.
"Perfect."
"Yoo, Ben what's-" I said as I walked into his room, stopping myself short when I looked at what was in his hands.
"Omg dude, what's that?" I said with a smile on my face as I looked to the glowing light crystal that was in his hands.
"Great, just great," I heard him mutter as I looked from him to Ortiz.
"It's this mineral glowing thing that Ben found on his practice test. We don't know what it is," Ortiz said looking to me then the glowing object.
"Well, whatever it is I bet you could make a small fortune from it," I said making Ben perk up and a smile to appear on his face.
"That's exactly what I said. I say Amy, would you be interested in, I don't know, joining us?" Ben said with a smirk on his face making one appear on mine.
"I would love to," I said looking between both men who held similar looks.
"It's a warm night, the ocean's like glass, and you're walking along the beach with a woman so beautiful, so full of love your heart aches just to look at her. You stop, take her hands in yours, breath deep as a gentle breeze caresses her face and tickles your senses with her sweetness. And there, alone under a canopy of stars and the moon so bright you swear God must have poked a hole through right from heaven just to whisper inspiration in your ear. You kneel, slide a ring on her finger and ask her to be your wife. And tell me Murray, what kind of gem do you suppose is sitting in that ring?" Ben said to the man over the video call.
It had been a couple of days since I found out about Ben's glowing rocks and since then, we've been finding customers, getting in shipments etc and it's been a hell of a ride. Ben has told a few other people though. One of them being Lucas. That brings us to now as. Lucas was standing to the right, just out of view ready for his cue to come in with the rock while I stood behind Ben with my hands on his shoulder. Something about this Murray guy liking to look at a pretty girl. Me and Ben didn't like the idea at all but it's gonna be good money.
"Hot number like that...better be a diamond, at least two carrots if i'm expecting any kind of reply to the affirmative," This Murray guy said over the call as he was getting his hairy back rubbed.
"Damn, shoutout to the masseuse for doing it."
"A diamond? Outside? At night? It's gonna look like a black hole on her finger. No, you want sparkle, you want dazzle...you need light. Well, I've got your light and the new jewel for the new millennium," Ben said putting his hand out indicating Lucas to bring over the blue glowing rock. Kneeling down next to him, Lucas placed the object in Ben's hand while smiling at the Murray guy.
"I call it, Krieg Light," Ben added on as Murray put on his glasses.
"More rare than diamonds, more beautiful than rubies or emeralds. The lovely women on the moon lit beach, Murray, that's every woman and every woman's gonna want a piece of Krieg Light dancing on her finger," Ben said, carrying on with his sale.
"The glow? It's Natural?" Murray questioned.
"Right off the ocean floor and one 100% organic. No batteries or solar cells required," I said making Ben nod along.
"And...you can get me...?" Murray said trailing off making Ben chuckle.
"Murray, what I can get you is gonna depend a lot on what you can get me," Ben said with a slight chuckle.
"Listen Benny, i-i'm not prepared to talk numbers yet. If you contact some retail I have to confer with first but if this little sea gem is everything you say, your life's about to change in the most traumatic way," Murray said with a nod of his head.
"Excellent," Ben said with a smile.
"Just one thing, lose the name. Krieg Light, sounds like something you hacked up from the back of your throat," Murray said making me laugh before he ended the call.
"Brilliant," I said making Ben turn around unimpressed as my laughing slowly died down.
"Thanks for the private line, I owe you one," Ben said as he handed Lucas the gem while he smirked.
"Who else knows about this stuff?" Lucas questioned as Ben was about to stand up.
"No one," he replied back taking the gem back.
"No one knows, just you, Amy and me and that's the way it's gonna stay, understand? Our secret," Ben added on, lying making me roll my eyes.
"Half the ship must know by now."
"Hey Ben, if you can't trust me who can you trust?" Lucas said looking to the gem then back at Ben. Standing up, Ben left the room leaving me and Lucas alone.
"So, how have you been?" Lucas asked and I went to lie down on his bed.
"I've been good, apart from the fact my Dad has been ignoring me," I said with an eye roll making Lucas look to me.
"How come?" He asked intrigued.
"His stupid job. Apparently it's really busy, so busy that he can't talk to his daughter for 5 minutes," I said with a huff as I looked to Lucas.
"What does he do?" He asked sitting closer to me.
"He's trying to make electricity work all around the world or something with these big windmills under the water. I don't really pay much attention to it, just like my dad with me."
"No way, really?" Lucas asked a smile on his face.
"My dad does that too, maybe they work together," he added on.
"Probably," I replied back, a small smile on my face too.
"My dad doesn't talk to me much too. My Christmas and Birthday presents are literally video calls saying "i'll see soon you, I promise,"" Lucas said, trying to imitate his dad making me laugh.
"Oh my god, same," I said still laughing making Lucas join in to. Soon, the laughing died down and all that was left was a comfortable silence.
"Hey, Miguel!" Tim called as we all made our way over to Ortiz. It had been a couple of hours since Ben, Lucas and I did the video call and of course in that time loads more people new about the whole crystal thing. I mean, Ben could not keep his mouth closed.
"What's going on? One of Clayton's drills?" Ortiz asked when we approached him.
"Come on, let's see," Tim said reaching for Ortiz's bag before he snatched it away.
"See what?" He said, thinking that Chief didn't know about it.
"The glowing rocks, that's what you've got in the bag, isn't it?" Chief said, looking to the bag then back at Ortiz.
"You told him?" Ortiz said, hitting Tim on the arm.
"No!" Tim replied back, shocked at the thought of it.
"I did, he wouldn't let me take a sea crab by myself," Lucas said in a fed up tone.
"Well how'd you hear about it?" Ortiz asked confused.
"Krieg," Lucas replied simply.
"He told me no one else knew," Ortiz said, a tone of hurt in his voice.
"That surprises you?" I said with a chuckle.
"Must of told Riley. I heard him taking about it at breakfast," Tim said waving his hands around as he spoke.
"Well, actually I might have mentioned something about..." Chief said trailing off at the end so I couldn't hear the last part.
"Anyone else you might have told it?" Ortiz sarcastically questioned.
"Alright, I talked to McKee too-" Chief said making Tim mutter,
"Oh..." unimpressed.
"McKee? You might as well broadcast it to the whole boat. Nice going Lucas," Ortiz said clearly fed up with the situation already.
"Oh me? Like you didn't blabber to him," Lucas defensively said while pointing to Tim.
"Come on, let's see what in the bag," Tim spoke up reaching for the bag again.
"Get your hands off. Get your own," Ortiz quickly said as we all reached for the bag. Slapping our hands away, we walked back knowing what Ortiz could get like.
"We're your pals," I said, trying to get closer again making him move back further. Suddenly, everyone went for the bag at the same time making us all fight for what was inside.
"Hey, come one. Let us see," I said once I had my hands on the bag.
"Yeah, come on man," Lucas added on. Soon enough, the bag zip came open making a few of the glowing objects fall out, making me and Tim dive for one. Once getting one each, we all held them in awe.
"Put them back in," Ortiz asked making me and Lucas laugh.
"Ortiz, everybody, listen up. Can I please have your attention please," Ben suddenly called as he appeared from the top of the room making everyone stop and look towards him.
"Umm, I don't know what you've been told but there are potential dangers to what you're doing, you see uh, I've been out there and uh, well w-what i'm tryna say is, that-the...we're not alone down here...and umm, there's something that I can't really describe but it's uh, big, and i'm not sure it really like us and wants us messing around out there you see," Ben said, about to carry on before Ortiz stepped in.
"I've been out there lieutenant and I didn't see anything, expect these," Ortiz spoke up, holding the crystal in the air making everyone cheer and yell.
"Ben! Ben! We've all heard about your sea monster, now you're gonna have to come up with something a whole lot better than that if you expect to keep all this for yourself, right?" Chief added on as everyone nodded in agreement with him.
"Fine, if you don't wanna believe me, don't...but if we're gonna be partners in this, then let's do it right. So, first thing we gotta do is get organised, working shifts, keep teams moving around the clock. O'Neil, you'll be in charge of scheduling. Next, no one neglects their duties. If Captain Bridger expects anything, we'll be shut down for sure, go it?" Ben spoke as everyone nodded along to what he was saying.
"Alright then, leave your names with Mr O'Neil then report at your assigned times," Ben added on as he finished off.
"Okay, let's go get them guys!" I shouted as everyone shouted, practically running over to Tim to give their numbers.
"Yo Tim, make sure you get mine and Lucas's names down!" I shouted making him nod his head.
After about on hour or so, Chief, Lucas and I were all in a sea crab on our first, formal trip down. Sitting next to Lucas, I saw he was in deep thought. A smile came to my face as I saw Chiefs hand move out and grab Lucas's shoulder.
"Ahhh!" He lightly screamed making me burst out laughing along with Chief.
"What's the matter? You afraid you're gonna be gobbled up by Krieg's sea monster, huh?" I asked as Chief chuckled along.
"No I uh, just had this strange feeling," he responded making me suddenly become on edge along with Chief.
"It's nothing...never mind," Lucas added on making Chief nod an look back ahead while I moved closer to Lucas's side letting him out an arm around me.
Soon enough, we had collected the crystals and were back at SeaQuest. Going to my room, Lucas followed as I lay on my bed letting him grab my chair and pull it closer.
"So, what happened to you today in the sea crab?" I asked as I looked to him.
"Like I said, it was nothing. I just had an unease feeling. Everyone get like that sometimes," he said trying to play it off as nothing.
"Yes, but when people do have that feelings, it usually ends badly," I said with my eye brows raised.
"Yeah, well, this one won't. It was probably just my mind playing tricks on me," Lucas responded with a shrug.
"Okay, whatever you say..." I said, trailing off at the end making Lucas chuckle.
"Hey, we'd best get going. Gotta speak to Ben, remember?" Lucas said standing up making me nod.
"Oh yeah..." I said as I followed him out of his room and over to Ben's.
Getting there, Lucas knocked on the door calling Ben's name.
"We uhh, gotta talk," Lucas said as he and I walked in.
"We?" Ben questioned. Tim, Ortiz and a few others following in soon after.
"Guys? N-n-n-no, stop right there," Ben called as we all started picking up some of the glowing, crystal, rock thingys.
"We all agreed, the rocks stay together it's safer that way," Ben added on confused as to what we were doing.
"Sorry Lieutenant, there's been a change of plans," Ortiz said making Ben stop and look at us with hurt in his eyes.
"Oh god..."
"Don't take it personally Ben. We just felt we really don't trust you with this stuff," Lucas said with a nod.
"We? Who we?" Ben questioned walking closer to us.
"Umm, all of us we," Tim said pointing to everyone apart from Ben.
"Ever think about airing this place out once in a while?" I asked, looking around the room then back at Ben.
"I'd like to air you out of here right now, and that goes for all you guys. Alright, come on get out of here come on," Ben said moving way making it harder to here him as everyone bickered over the rocks.
"Knock it off!" He yelled making everyone stop and look at him.
"What's wrong with you people? Look at yourselves. You call your self friends? Well friends trust each other. You call your self partners? Well partners share. Hey look, I know I can't tell you how to behave, it's not my place but the way I see it you got two choices here. You wanna act like mature, rational adults, then drop everything, shake hands and walk out that door with your heads held high. Or, there's the other way, where you can forget about how long you've known each other. Forget about teamwork, about faith in your fellow man. Or about how all the money in the world isn't going to erase the poverty that's chocking in your rotting souls. If you can live that way, if that's what you want, then do me a favour. Take everything I've got and get outta here cause i'm ashamed to share the same room as you," Ben said making everyone silent and look to the ground before we all nodded.
"Okay man, thank you. That's great," we all said as we started picking up more, ready to leave.
"Maybe I didn't make myself clear, you can have the rocks, but you can't have Murray uh-uh," Ben added on making us stop.
"Who's Murray?" Jack questioned making Lucas sigh.
"Murray Goldwater, Krieg's buyer,"
"That's right, and Murray has major contacts and fine jewellery and that spells money, big money. But he'll only deal with me," Ben said, a sick smile placed upon his face making me giggle.
"He's all yours Ben. My mother has major contacts too, along with my dad and his work buddies," I said with a smile as I walked to the door.
"I love you Ben, but these things never end well with you, Remember the painting incident?" I added on, giving Ben a friendly kiss on the cheek before leaving, everyone following behind me before they all went their separate ways.
As Lucas, Katherine and I walked down the hallway with our jewels, the light suddenly flickered off making us stop.
"This is Captain Bridger, we'll be operating lights out until further notice all hands please report to stations to begin emergency preparations."
"Brilliant, we'll be sitting in the dark," I said as we carried on walking.
"This is Captain Clayton. Your objective during this lights out drill is to demonstrate a tactile knowledge of your boat and systems. Cheating of any kind will no be tolerated. Out." Another voice said making us stop again.
"If Clayton sees us with these, we're dead," Lucas said looking to Katherine and I.
"I don't know what i'm doing. This is insane. I could lose my commission over this," Katherine said, dumping her jewels with Lucas.
"Whoa, hey, hey, hey. W-what are we supposed to do with these?" Lucas questioned as Katherine put on her cap.
"Run," she said as if the answer was that simple as she walked off. Looking to Lucas, a panicked look was placed on my face. Shrugging his shoulder, he started running off, me following behind.
Walking down the corridors, panic flooded my veins as we turned a corner and saw Ford, Captain and Clayton walking our way. Turning around with quickly walked down the hallway before hearing a voice boom,
"Hold it right there tinker bells," making me giggle and Lucas to drop his things.
"Oh my god, you absolute melon head!" I whispered yelled as I heard footsteps approach making me and Jonathan, making us pick up as many as we could before running. Heading over to the sea deck, we started throwing them all into the water as our hearts raced.
"What's going on here guys?" Captain asked as all three of them waked in making Lucas and I stop dead in our tracks
"Command the lights on, the drill's over," Clayton said making Captain do just that.
"Commander, lights on."
"Aye, sir," I heard Katherine's voice say through the walkie talkie and soon enough, they were on.
"Hey uh, we uh, were just uh, checking up on some of Dr Westphalen's work. Uh, something about uh, r-radiant flux and uh, how it's impacted by marine conditions and deep sea pressures...and uh, that sort of thing," Lucas said as I threw the last on in with a smile placed on my face. That was until Darwin started throwing them back out.
"Do you think he's tryna tell us something?" Captain asked making me look to the Dolphin.
"Sir, I think I can explain everything," Ben said as he walked into the room with more jewels in his hands.
"An expert on radiant flux," Captain nodding making Ben confused.
"I've obviously come at a bad time. I'll tell you what why don't you finish your drill, i'll leave and we'll talk later," Ben said, turning around to walk off before Clayton stopped him.
"No, I want you to stay here and explain to me what's going on," he said making Ben sigh.
"Am I making myself clear Lieutenant?" He added on.
"Sir, have you ever known, I mean, been absolutely certain you were gonna die?" Ben started making me roll my eyes.
"It's the same every time," I mentally said when suddenly the ship jolted causing every to lose their balance slightly.
"Now what?" Clayton piped up.
"Captain, please report to the bridge. Captain to the bridge," Katherine's voice appeared over the speaker.
"What is it, Commander?" Nathan questioned through his walkie talkie.
"We've been struck, Sir. Still waiting for the pulmonary damage report," Katherine answered,
"Any idea who we're dealing with?" Captain said, asking another question.
"It's a biologic. A very large biologic," Katherine said.
"Oh no," Ben muttered but we all heard.
"Picking up some kind of electrical interference...it's coming round for another strike and it's moving fast," Ortiz's voice said through the walkie talkie.
"On my way Commander. Damage report when I get there and have Dr Westphalen join us," Nathan said through the walkie talkie as he walked over to Ben.
"Talk to me, Lieutenant. Talk to me," Captain said as he stopped in front of Ben.
"I'd like to Sir, but i'm not sure you're gonna believe me," Ben responded, clearly on edge. Suddenly, the ship was knocked again making everyone jolt again.
"Try me," Captain said as he turned Ben around, making their way to the bridge. Lucas and I stayed behind, not wanting to accompany them.
"Well, who would have thought collecting a few gems would make this much of a fuss," I said with a chuckle as I leaned against the moon pool,
"I know, this is ridiculous," Lucas responded making me nod my head in agreement. All of a sudden, the emergency alarms started going off immediately putting me in edge.
"Alpha team, report to the moon pool immediately," a voice through the speaker called.
"Why are they coming here?" I questioned, moving away from the pool as Lucas grabbed the Vocorder.
"I have no idea," he responded leaning closer to the pool and Nathan rushed into the room. Clayton, Kristen and Ben soon joining us.
"Alright Darwin, come on," Nathan muttered as Darwin's head popped up in the water. The divider soon started close as Darwin made it to the other side so he was safe.
"What have you seen, huh?" Nathan asked him once he was closer.
"Shiny sees the shining," Darwin responded with nonsense yet again.
"What kind of gibberish is that?" Clayton asked, clearly unimpressed.
"I wonder if he means bioluminescence. A certain species that live in the dark create their own light," Kristen said, explain it to Clayton. Screams were soon heard coming from the next room alarming all of us.
"Ahhh. No, no. Help," they called out making all of us rush over.
""Let's go, let's go. Get her outta there before it comes back," Chief called as some of the divers swam back to the deck.
"See if she's alright," Chief said to one of the Commanders there.
"It's gone now Cap, we're standing by," Chief said as he walked past us after shouting a bunch of orders and formations.
"I am no longer alone," Ben called after taking to Chief.
"Dr Westphalne, what exactly might a creature like that feed on?" Clayton questioned looking into the moon pool as if it was still there.
"If it's in the squid family, could uh, be a carnivore," Kristen said, standing up straight from hunching over.
"A meat eater?" Clayton questioned just to be sure.
"I'll vouch for that, this thing definitely wanted me for lunch," Ben said speaking up.
"Through your back though, didn't it?" I questioned with a smirk as I heard Lucas chucking behind me. Moving around, I got a better view of the water. Looking into it, something felt odd when suddenly a tentacle bursted out of the water coming straight for me. Someone quickly pushed me out of the way making me fall to the ground, but out of harms way. Coming over to me, Lucas looked concerned.
"Don't just stand there, shoot!" Clayton ordered as the tentacle swung around the area, knocking over everything in its path.
"Hey, you okay?" Lucas questioned, grabbing my face with both of his hands making me look to him.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine, don't worry," I cleared up as I gently stroked his hand over mine. Suddenly, it grabbed a hold of one of the metal crates and started pulling it into the water.
"Commander, lights out, immediately," Captain ordered through his walkie talkie.
Soon enough, the lights turned off and the creature stopped.
"I want you to raise the probe light to high beam. Get the creature attention," Captain ordered again.
"And then?" Katherine questioned.
"Run. It should follow you," Nathan answered making Katherine confused.
"Follow me where, Sir?" She asked innocently.
"Away," Captain replied simply.
"Aye, Captain," Katherine said as she followed her orders.
Just as the giant squid was leaving, it quickly splashed Clayton making me laugh as Lucas helped me up.
"You still think our science team doesn't pull it's weight?" Nathan questioned, pointing to Kristen as he looked to Clayton. Looking away, Clayton looked down, not wanting to make eye contact with Nathan.
The next day things were finally back to normal, or whatever was normal on SeaQuest. Leaning over into the moon pool, Lucas and I lightly rubbed Darwin's head which he loved ever-so-much.
"Fecal pellets," I heard Kristen say as Lucas and I approached her and the group.
"Wait a minute, are you tryna tell me the orbs are-" Ben said before Kristen cut him off.
"Yes Mr Krieg, fish poop," she said with a nod making me try and stiff a laugh.
"Glowing fish poop," Nathan said, speaking up until Kristen corrected him.
"Well only for 48 hours then the bacteria that was glowing will of died leaving Krieg with simply-"
"-Fish poop," I said, cutting Kristen off as I came closer to Ben.
"You gave Clayton fish poop," Lucas added on as he placed a hand on Ben's shoulder.
"Won't you know, easy come easy go," Ben said with a chuckle, Lucas and I joining in. Suddenly, Ben stopped making me look to him.
"I gotta call Murray," he said with a panicked voice and he turned and quickly left.
"Oh my god," I muttered as I chuckled again.
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Hi everyone! Sorry for the late update, something was going on but everything is normal now. I do have a question though, should I keep writing this? I mean, I really enjoy it but do you guys enjoy it to? Please comment your views on it as that would really help! :)
Thank you x