Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 16:26:59 -0600 (MDT) From: "Katherine R. Freymuth" Subject: Whale - ch 2 Message-ID: Chapter 2 Sam was exhausted. He never realized how hard it was to work in a kitchen for four hours straight without a break. From the moment lunch began to the moment it ended, Sam worked as both waiter and busser. Then, after lunch was over, he cleaned all the dishes and dried them before he had his own lunch. Sam decided to have the remains of the vegetable dish that he made, especially since the main course had been completely finished by his shipmates. "Gregor?" a voice asked him through a crack in the kitchen door. "Are you sure you don't want any help?" While working, Sam was able to learn all the names of his fellow crewmen. The one who was speaking was Alik. He had spoken to Sam when he first arrived and was apparently Gregor's best friend. There were also some indications from the rest of the crew that Gregor and Alik were related to one another but Sam couldn't see the relation from what he saw of his reflection in the pan. "No, that's okay," Sam told him. "I've just finished them." Alex laughed silently as he watched Sam take a bite of salad. "I never thought I'd see the day you eat a salad. But, then again, what else is there to eat, right? At least I have the excuse of being a vegetarian." He chuckled. "The captain should have seen me when we ate in that restaurant in Florence. Eh, Gregor?" "Right," Sam answered. He wasn't sure he understood what Alik meant. "Well, I'll see you in the cabin," Alik stated as he turned to leave. "The cabin?" "That's where you sleep, isn't it?" "Oh," Sam said, covering his ignorance. "That cabin." Alik laughed. "You're funny, Gregor! You should have been a comedian." With that, he left the room. At the same time, Sam could hear the Imaging Chamber door open in the distance. He quickly washed his plate and fork, closed the kitchen window, and went out on deck. Standing at the aft, facing the ocean, was Al. Sam smiled and quietly crept up to Al. Very slowly, he put his hand through the Holographic Observer and gave a low howl. Al, seeing the hand through him, jumped in shock. "Sam! Don't do that!" he exclaimed once he realized who the guilty party was. "Isn't that my line?" Sam teased, extremely pleased that he could take revenge for how many times Al had done the same to him. "Ha, ha," Al responded sarcastically, his voice sounding extremely tense. "Where have you been?" Sam asked. It seemed to always be the first thing he would ask Al when he arrived somewhere. "We've been having some trouble with this guy you've leaped into." Al looked around, admiring the view all around. "Oh, Sam! Isn't this great! Reminds me of my first tour of duty in the Navy." He stared lovingly into the ocean as he spoke. "Chip and I were aboard the Enterprise for a short time..." "And your captain was Captain Kirk," Sam teased. Al glared at the physicist. "Your Swiss-cheesed memory would remember 'Star Trek'!" he complained. "I hated that show!" His expression changed for a moment. "Except for that Yeoman Rand. Yumola!" "Al..." "Anyway, we were aboard the Enterprise... for training!" Al emphasized. "We libertied in Japan for a few days. Sam, the women there were soooo...." "Al..." Sam interrupted. "Friendly," Al amended, raising his eyebrows to emphasize the true meaning. He looked out to sea again. "You know, there's nothing like this in the world! The wind in your face! The sea at your back! Boy, I wish I was really here!" "Al..." Sam starred again. "What?" "What does Ziggy say I have to do to leap?" "Oh. She doesn't know," Al answered, back in the present. "What?" "Like I said, we've been having some problems with this guy you've leaped into." Al raised the handlink and pressed some buttons. "You're name is..." "Gregor Stawpahvich," Sam finished. Al looked at Sam with slight annoyance. "Yeah. Gregor Stawpahvich. You know, my uncle's name is Stawpah... that means Steve. And that suffix 'vich' means 'son of' so your father's name was Steve." "I'm also aboard a boat..." Sam added. "A ship," Al corrected as he lit a cigar. "A ship is large and stays afloat. A boat either submerges or needs a paddle to row. Besides, this would be an awfully big row boat," he commented as he looked around. Sam looked at Al with annoyance. "I'm just telling you so you won't be thrown overboard by someone who's ex-Navy." "Thank you very much," Sam answered sarcastically. "You're welcome." "Now, why am I here?" Al consulted the handlink. "Today's August 29th, 1988, and you're aboard the Russian ship Khrushchev... someone named a ship after that nozzle?... and the Khrushchev is a whale." "What?" both Sam and Al exclaimed in unison as Al hit the handlink on the side with his palm. Al looked at the small viewscreen on the handlink and stared wide-eyed. "You dirty dog!" he exclaimed angrily. "What?!" Sam backed away slightly. "You're a whaler!" "I am not a whaler!" "Do you realize how many whales were killed in the '80s?! Even now, with all the restrictions, thousands of whales are killed!" "Al..." "We're talking about an endangered species here!" "Al!" "What?!" "If you don't mind, I still have no idea what I'm doing here and I have quite a few questions that need to be answered." "Such as?" Al asked with some annoyance at having his ranting interrupted. "I spoke in Russian, Al," Sam told him firmly. "I don't know Russian, do I?" "No, but your brain is merged with Gregor's. So, you speak Russian because Gregor speaks Russian." "What do you have on Gregor?" Sam asked. "Not much. He's not being very cooperative with us and the history we have on him is sketchy." He read the handlink. "Gregor Stawpahvich Roulier..." "Roulier?" Sam asked. "The first mate's name is Roulier. There was some talk about us being somehow related but I don't see how." "Really?" Al checked with Ziggy. "Well, Ziggy says you're distant cousins," he explained. "Gregor was born on August 30th, 1958, in Volgograd... Hey! You'll be thirty years old tomorrow! Your father died in 1969 after which you and your mother moved to Moscow. You went to college for a couple of years until your mother died in an automobile accident in '78. You moved to Marseille, France, and became a sailor like your father." The handlink squeaked slightly. "Ziggy has something for us now," Al told Sam. "What is it?" Sam asked with curiosity. "She says that there's an eighty-three percent chance you're here to prevent the Khrushchev from disappearing. The Khrushchev is due in Peter..." He hit the handlink with his palm. "...Petropavlovsk in one week but she never shows up. The Soviet Union made a thorough search for the ship but the only thing they found was your... I mean, Gregor's... journal. It was floating in the water five miles from the Khrushchev's last known coordinates. The tides must have shifted it around, so the Soviets thought. The journal gave no indications that anything unusual happened to the ship and the Khrushchev was added to the lost ships in the Devil's Sea!" "The Devil's Sea?" "Yeah! It's the Bermuda Triangle of the Pacific Ocean! Sam, I don't like this!" "You're scared, aren't you?" Sam asked in annoyance. "You think something supernatural caused the Khrushchev's disappearance?" "Sam, don't you remember when you leaped into that pilot who was flying through the Bermuda Triangle? A lot of strange things happened, Sam!" "Oh, come on!" Sam exclaimed. "I'm serious, Sam! Your instruments were messed up! The radio didn't work! Ziggy was completely on the fritz! Even your partner was a little caca, hearing and seeing weird things! Sam, there's something about these vortexes!" "Vortexes?" Sam shook his head. "I can't believe I'm even listening to you." "Gregor!" Alik shouted from behind Sam. "Let's go! We have work to do!" "Okay!" Sam answered him in Russian and turned back to Al. "Go back and have Ziggy run a check on the Khrushchev and all the other ships in the vicinity. Find out what caused the Khrushchev to disappear. Also, find out everything you can about this crew. In the meantime, I'll see what I can learn while doing Gregor's job." "What?!" Al exclaimed. "You're going to hunt whales?!" "Al! Go!" Sam ordered, in no mood to argue the matter with a hologram. "Okay, I'll go! But if you harm one fin on those gentle creatures, I'll never talk to you again!" Looking as if he could strangle Sam, Al opened the Imaging Chamber door. "Why did Gushie have to replace the old doors?" he muttered under his breath, wishing there were some way to slam the Imaging Chamber door. "He's close, Thames! I can feel it!" Zoe said as she sat in her cot. "He's here!" Zoe was a very attractive brownish-red-haired British woman with dark brown eyes that could drive swords into a person's soul. Her beauty had caused many a man to underestimate just how cruel a heart she had. And now, scarred at her ankles and her wrists, as well as at other areas of her body, her cold heart yearned for only one thing: to kill Sam Beckett. But not just to kill him - to see him suffer the pain that she had endured for her failure to kill both Sam and Alia, her ex-partner. But since Alia had disappeared, she would have to wait to take her revenge on her. First Sam Beckett, then Alia. Now, she was on a ship and she had a mission to do. She had to succeed with this mission. She doubted that the Director would be as lenient as he was with her before if she failed. She grimaced slightly at what leniency meant to the Director. "Dr. Beckett?" Thames asked with a smile at Zoe's comment. "Listen, baby. If he were here, don't you think Lothos would know? And he says he isn't here." "Lothos doesn't know everything, Thames, despite what I told Alia!" Zoe stated, standing and pacing the cabin. She walked through the poorly-dressed black Holographic Observer several times in the process. "I want him! I am going to get him and, when I do, he's going to regret ever having interfered with me!" "Okay, Zoe," Thames consented. "You'll get him. But, until you do, you still have a job to do. And this one's a breeze compared to that last one. So, forget Dr. Samuel Beckett for now and concentrate on your mission." Before Zoe could give a response, Thames disappeared through the Holographic Observatory's rainbow-colored portal. Zoe kicked a piece of paper that was laying on the floor and returned to her nautical maps.