splash

chapter Nine: Two men at sea

The warm wind in the depths of the Arctic was blowing with nasty humidity, the sea was stormy because of the messy and broken weather. The IceBreaker had passed a lot during its life, but now is the final test. A cruise straight to the center of the torn and crumbling Arctic.

"Jokul, I am not comfortable sailing here, lots of ships have disappeared in this area in the last year. It reminds me of the old Bermuda Triangle..." Stir told me. I looked around at the alarming wasteland and told him, "Ról­ex Stir. Do you know why the IceBreaker has both a sail and an engine? When I built it I wanted to have as much flexibility as possible for its navigation and for environmental reasons. I wanted to use as little pollutant as possible, but that's only what I usually told people. If I'm being honest. I did it for the possibility of stealth. The sail is much quieter than the engine, so turn off the engine and let's adjust the sail."
After turning off the engine, we moved quietly and silently between the glaciers. The hot wind was blowing in the sail and on me beard, 'When finishing this, I really need to cut and shave' I thought to meself but on such a journey there is not much time for such simple thoughts. Me train of thought abruptly stopped when I noticed something weird. The only words I can find to describe the surprise I saw were- 'That's one weird wave... Or is it? It moves oddly.'
Right in front of the ship, almost under our noses, a wave in the size of the IceBreaker appeared from the water and out of it, almost as if it was magic, a... Big black thing appeared from within the wave.

The sea in front of us started to rumble while the 'thing' appeared. The sound of a mighty engine boomed all around. Our ship began to shake and in front of us, straight out of the water, emerged from the noise, foam and waves, a massive black submarine with skull symbols all over its metallic body. The submarine was long, battered and with rust all around. It was armed with torpedoes and external machine gun units. The units looked like transparent bubbles on the sides of the submarine, each held a seat and a machine gun. The bubbles would open upon use and the person operating the unit could engage underwater too if he had an oxygen tank and an appropriate helmet or suit. It looked like stolen property from the navy of

the United Nations, with a bunch of illegal upgrades and changes. "These are pirates, Jokul! Such submarines have torpedoes and whatnot! They can blow us in seconds! we have to run away immediately!!" Stir responded with astronomical, justified fear.
"So these are the pirates I've heard that have started popping up in recent time AY. I wonder where and how they got the subma...". I thought to meself loudly when a roaring voice came out of the submarine's speaker. "Are you from the UN fleet?! Show everything you have on the deck and get off the boat or we will kill you on the spot!" The pirates shouted from the submarine with a gruff and determined voice.

"Boat?! How dare ya insult me ship!" I shouted. "Jokul! We are getting the hell out of here, now!" Stir shouted and I responded firmly "Be quiet you coward! They want to see what we have so I will show them with glee!" I finished shouting at Stir and raised me hand in the air, but as I prepared to respond to the threat before us, Stir tackled me down to the floor and said firmly with a strong shine in his eyes while looking down on me, "I am also in charge here, DO NOT forget it. Maybe I'm a coward, but I want us to stay alive, Jokul. In fact, you're the crazy one for not feeling fear in such a situation. Fear is for SURVIVAL, Jokul.". I got up from the floor of me ship without a word and looked at Stir with me blue eye. I gave him a murderous look as I began to cover me body with ice. "I am the captain here. Is that clear?!" I shouted at Stir who contradicted me authority and I blew him back to the wall with a cold, strong wind that I sent from me body. "I don't know what's scarier, the pirates or you..." Stir said and then whispered to himself, thinking I couldn't hear him, "Monster..."

Stir fell to the floor and I turned toward the submarine. I sent out of me hands a powerful stream of ice directly at the submarine. The Ice vapor covered me field of view now. The powerful wind from the ice stream was shaking and blowing through me old clothes, thundering sounds were booming all over from the force of the ice stream was putting on the air, like how you put your head out of the window of a moving vehicle. The ice stream hit the submarine's cold metal, but even though the submarine was hit directly, it practically did nothing to the steel. The ice wasn't strong enough to do any real damage to the metal and it didn't reach the engines. "Oh bloody fokk" I was struck with the realization of the situation, I was wrong, and in less of a single second I started sprinting to me quarters to look for me backup plan.