* * *
Ryan had spent the last few days celebrating his upcoming holiday and praying for a quiet cruise to finish his contract in beauty but his peace was gone in minutes with a passenger that came into the medical center with severe hemorrhages, consequence of a disease that she had already being treated for, but something went seriously wrong and they didn’t have the resources to keep her alive for long. The senior doctor didn’t have a choice but to give the captain the bad news: they needed a helicopter evacuation, one of the most dangerous maneuvers that could ever be done on a cruise ship.
A special team was assembled to prepare everything while the helicopter was on the way and the ship was immobilized in the middle of the ocean. The evacuation was done on deck 15 and with a ship full of passengers many curious people were trying to see as much as they could, causing trouble for the team and ultimately endangering themselves so the crew had to be very well organized to deal with that and prevent further problems.
Groups of crew blocked every door that lead to the area of the evacuation to make sure no one entered until it was over. The assessment party waited in position with their firefighting equipment ready in case it became necessary. The helicopter was a large moving vehicle and there was the wind and other elements to consider. During the evacuation there was a time frame where the helicopter was very close to the vessel. If something went wrong and there was a collision, an explosion followed by a fire was likely to come next. That was the reason why so many safety measures had to be taken.
The idea of helicopters flying over, landing on the ship and taking off in a few minutes only happened that easily in the movies.
The helicopter approached and as expected the passengers near ran over each other trying to find the best spot to observe. Their interest was only natural. The doors were carefully guarded and as curious as they were, the passengers understood how serious the situation was.
The medical team arrived with the sick passenger and as the helicopter lowered equipment and staff to proceed with the evacuation, it became extremely windy on deck and it was hard to keep a balance. The medical team secured the passenger and Ryan coordinated with the rescue team.
Shortly after, the helicopter was safely flying out and everyone on the ship, starting with the captain took a deep breath of relief. It was over.
“Do you think she will make it?” The captain asked Ryan and Sofia.
“We hope so. It shouldn’t take them more than two hours to get her to a hospital. With the right assistance and a bit of luck, maybe. It’s a serious one though. It could go one way or the other. We did everything we could here.” Ryan clarified.
“It is only the second time in my career that we had to do something like this and I’ve been at sea most of my life.” The captain informed them.
“First time for me.” Ryan added. “Days like this I’m glad for the drills and the trainings and all the things we normally complain about.”
Sofia nodded. “That was the scariest thing I’ve witnessed since I came onboard.”
“The only thing scarier than this is a real emergency. And I will do my best to make sure you will never have to go through one.” The captain said with a warm smile. He thanked the medical team and everyone else involved for their good work and returned to the bridge.
Life went back to normal on deck and the medical team took the equipment back to the medical center.
“What a way to start the day!” Keira observed.
“What a way to finish a contract!” Ryan added.
“I hate to remind you of it, but you still have a few days onboard: more than enough time for more adventures.”
“I hope not, for the sake of the passengers. I get paid for this, but they paid for a holiday and getting out of here in a helicopter or an ambulance to be taken to a hospital is not exactly a good way to remember your vacation.”
Sofia spent the rest of the morning attending crew. The rest of the morning went really fast and before they noticed, it was lunch time.
Denise picked up her friend from the medical center and they went together to the officer’s mess.
“That was a hell of a morning we had.” The front desk supervisor observed.
“Yes, it was. Not something I would like to repeat. On land, no worries, but on a ship this is a very dangerous thing and thank goodness nothing went wrong.”
Denise nodded in agreement. “I had several drills preparing for something like this, but it was the first time I’ve seen it happening for real. I was a bit afraid, but it was exciting.”
The two friends entered the officer’s mess and sat together. Sofia helped herself to a bread roll and dipped it in olive oil and vinegar on a small plate while they waited for the main course. She looked at her friend with attention while Denise looked aloof. Her mind was somewhere else.
“How are you anyway? You seem to be in a foul mood.”
“I’m fine.” Denise answered wryly.
“Honey, it’s me you’re talking to. You are so far away from fine you’re not even in the same area code!” Sofia observed and the conversation ended there because the nurses arrived.
Denise excused herself as soon as lunch was over and moved on to her so wanted nap, thinking about ways to deal with the passengers. The complaints about the Eagles were more than fifty and the file that the front desk kept on the general drive was reaching proportions like she had never seen in all her time at sea.
Just like she predicted, the other passengers were not happy at all. Although the gay group had shore side tours and onboard activities separated from the remaining passengers, it was impossible not to see them walking around the ship hand in hand or hugging here and there, sometimes even kissing.
As open minded as people could be, most didn’t like to have that sort of behavior thrown on their faces.
The comments were really bad, especially from people traveling with their families who didn’t know how to explain it to their kids. Most parents didn’t like their children witnessing that sort of behavior.
In her office, Sofia read through the file and emphasized with the passengers. They were upset that the company didn’t advise them of the gay group. After reading the last comment from a passenger who told the reception how disgusting it was to see these hairy bearded men hugging in the pool in front of his ten year old daughter, she called Denise.
“Hey you. I was just reading the complaints. It seems like you guys are having an interesting time thanks to the Eagles. Or should I say the beards?” Sofia joked and she heard Denise chuckle on the other side of the line.
“We are being hammered with complains from unhappy passengers and I must say if I were a passenger I would be complaining too. This time I have to be on their side.”
“Yes, I guess you’re right. There are limits.” Sofia agreed.
“The passengers are not complaining about the fact that these people are gay, but they don’t want to have the Eagles on their faces and they are right. On top of that some areas of the ship have been closed to hold their private parties and other passengers don’t have access. That’s annoying them even more.” Denise explained.
“That’s crazy. You guys must be having a nightmare.”
“We were but now we are delegating. In the beginning of the cruise we used to listen to everything and try to calm them down and apologize for something that is absolutely not our fault. But since the number of complaints is now over fifty and growing the hotel director got fed up with it and the people with the big stripes decided that we are going to register every complain and forward it to the company so that they can deal with the problem they created. At the moment if the passengers are very angry and demanding we call Kate to talk to them, not that it helps, but that’s it.”
“Good point. Why would you have to put up with the consequences of their decisions?”
“Because we always do. They only care about selling cruises and get the ships full to make revenue. They always expect us to
take care of what happens onboard. This time the hotel director had the good sense to see this is too much and he’s not taking it any longer.” Denise clarified.
“Changing subject, are you going to that disco tonight?”
“Maybe, I don’t know yet. What’s the theme of this one?”
“There was a poster saying it’s the back to school party.”
Denise laughed and promised to make an effort and show up.
18
The first thing Sofia noticed as soon as she entered to the medical center was the empty space by the wall at the entrance. The second were the gigantic eye bags under Keira’s eyes.
“Good morning. Long night?” Sofia asked suspiciously.
“Yeah. Very long night.” She confirmed.
“Fun?”
“That too.”
“Do you know where the wheelchair that we normally keep over there is?” The doctor asked and pointed the location.
Keira took a second to think and then she seemed to remember. “That’s probably still in Eli’s room.”
“Who is Eli and why is the wheelchair in her room?”
The nurse looked up and started laughing. “Eli is one of the cruise staff girls and Carla and I had to take her back last night. She was so drunk she couldn’t walk so we took the wheelchair.” She explained.
Sofia scowled at her. “How did she get drunk to the point that you had to take her on a wheelchair? Two months ago a crew member died on this ship because he drank too much. Don’t this people learn?” She observed, shocked at how irresponsible they were.
Keira nodded. “I know, but some people are like that. They don’t think it can happen to them.”
Sofia couldn’t be bothered to worry about drunken crew members anymore so she headed to her office and went through her emails. It looked like Ian had a busy night like normally happened after a crew disco with lots of noise complaints and a fight that woke up a good number of people in the middle of the night. The two crew members involved were intoxicated and the captain and the hotel director would have to make a decision on whether to keep them onboard or fire them.
Denise was her first patient for the day.
“Are you sick?” Sofia asked.
“I hope not. My sleeping problems are getting worse. I’m just wondering if you could get me some sleeping pills to help at least for the worst nights.”
“Do you normally have sleeping problems or is this a particular hard time?”
“Yes, I do. But now it’s getting harder and it looks like the more tired I get the more difficult it is to sleep.” Denise replied.
Sofia looked at her seriously. “Denise, sleeping pills are addictive and I really don’t like to prescribe them. I recommend you buy some valerian ones in a natural shop and see if they help. Those are made of herbs and they won’t create you any problems. If they don’t work then we’ll think about the stronger stuff. Meanwhile, you need to reduce your stress. That’s probably what’s causing you not to sleep. And try to spend more time doing things you enjoy.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” She answered with sarcasm.
Denise would have been happier with a box of sleeping pills that could knock her out but she knew Sofia was right and the logical thing to do was to take it easy.
Back in her office she realized sleeping was the least of her problems. Kate was in a bad mood, half the receptionists were late to work and Leah had a horrible cold that made Denise feel a bit sorry for her, but only a bit. Leah didn’t look like she was in shape to work but with Kate in that mood it was better to have her around. Between the two of them Leah was the smallest evil.
The busy afternoon ended with ten passengers missing at sailing time and many announcements to try to find if they were onboard. Three of them called the front desk, but after half an hour with the other seven missing, the captain started getting impatient. A group of five people approached the gangway where Tania and her assistant, Rebecca, waited and they apologized profusely for the delay but they had rented a car and took a wrong turn somewhere which is why they were delayed. No one on the bridge cared why they were late but it was good that they were onboard. Without further news the captain ordered the ship to sail away, leaving a couple behind.
Not long after that, Tania and Denise were in the back office working on some details for embarkation in Auckland when they received an email from the port agent in Christchurch saying that the missing couple turned up at the pier. Apparently they hadn’t noticed the ship’s sailing time.
“Nearly three thousand other passengers were able to read the big sign by the gangway with the departure time. Too bad two of them didn’t.” Tania said with sarcasm.
“Now they can meet us in Tauranga the day after tomorrow. I’m sure there are nice hotels there.” Denise pointed out.
“I wouldn’t mind getting stuck in Tauranga for a few days.” Tania noted.
Rebecca looked exhausted and the pile of papers on her desk almost made it impossible to see her face. Tania didn’t look much better and she explained to Denise that they were implementing a new system for disembarkation and that added a lot to their usual work load. They had been working extra hours every day, especially Rebecca. Denise offered to help, while Kate pretended not to listen that one of her team members had a lot more to do than she could handle and wasn’t getting enough rest.
Tania and Rebecca thanked Denise but it was a ‘one man job’ that would have to be done by Rebecca mostly. Denise suggested that maybe she could assign someone from the reception to help them with other tasks. During port days they had enough free time to do that.
Kate woke up from her dream world and made it very clear that if extra help was necessary SHE would arrange it. Tania and Denise glanced at each other thinking that Kate must have been missing something very important in her life to have that kind of attitude and Rebecca just hid shyly behind her papers and pretended not to listen. She was familiar with Kate’s ways and didn’t expect kindness, understanding or anything of that nature from her.
Denise returned to her office infuriated. At least Anne used to be fun and she helped the team. It used to be nice to get to the office and have a coffee and a chat. With Kate there was no way such thing could happen. The woman acted like the world was against her. She was rude, unhelpful and a poor supervisor. Denise felt sorry that Tania and Rebecca had to work so close to such a person.
Just above, on deck 6, Leah kept coughing and looking very pale. Denise wanted to ignore her, but her conscience spoke louder and she ended up asking her supervisor if she needed anything. Leah looked at her in surprise and asked for a tea.
“Did you go to the doctor?” Denise asked, giving her a hot mug that the waiter on deck 5 had prepared with an infusion for her. “You should take some medication and go to sleep.”
Leah nodded. “I’m going now, but this wasn’t so bad this morning. Will you be okay if I leave earlier and go to bed?”
Denise could hardly believe her ears. Leah asked if she was going to be okay. Leah being nice… There had to be something seriously wrong with her. Denise whished that it could be always like that but she was sure it wouldn’t last long.
“I’ll be fine. You take care of that cold.”
“Thanks. Have a good night Denise.”
“Y-you t-too.” She stuttered, mesmerized at her supervisor’s sudden friendliness.
Without Leah, Denise stayed in the office until later and looked after everything until the Assistant Night Manager arrived. Then, it was time for the gym and a steam room session with Sofia.
There are very few people in the gym at dinner time and it was nice to have a good workout in a peaceful environment. The Spa wasn’t busy either and the receptionist looked bored.
Sofia looked around and found that almost everybody there was a crew member, except two young ladies running side by side on the left side corner. The fitness guys were still there and both Sofia and Denise appreciated better why Carla had been miss
ing from her intense social life since she had hooked up with one of them. The tall, muscled young man was the kind that was built to mess up with women’s nervous system.
“No wonder I haven’t seen Carla this cruise.” Denise murmured with a grin, trying to look natural so the guy wouldn’t realize they were talking about him.
“I work with Carla and I haven’t seen her either.” Sofia said, and then she stopped and looked at the set of spinning bicycles stored together by the wall.
“What?” Denise asked, wondering what she had in mind.
“I used to love spinning. Maybe we could ask Carla’s guy if there is a way to put on classes for the crew, two or three times a week would be great.”
“Yes, that would be cool. They used to do it in some of the ships I worked before.”
Sofia approached the fitness instructor, Mario, and exposed the idea. He answered with a welcoming smile and said that he would do the classes as long has the Spa manager and the hotel director approved them. Sofia and Denise promised to take care of the details and then the conversation drifted to the usual: where are you from? How long have you been on ships? How do you find it here?
While they were still talking, a naked lady in her fifties or so came running from the changing rooms and the Spa receptionist was chasing after her with a bath robe but the lady disappeared through the door that lead to the massage rooms.
Instinctively, the three of them ran after the woman and managed to get her into the robe despite her protests. Sofia paged Mary for help and they took the woman to the medical center where she kept screaming insults until she was sedated.
They found the cruise card with her room number in the locker by the Spa and since her roommate was not in the cabin, Denise called the front desk and asked for an announcement to be made to locate her.
A few minutes later one of the receptionists arrived in the medical center with the patient’s sister. They found out after a chat that the lady running naked on the Spa was bipolar and since she was feeling fine she had decided to stop taking her medication.
Ryan asked the sister how she had allowed that to happen and she replied that if her sister was feeling fine, then there was no need for the pills. Ryan rolled his eyes heavenwards and wondered how people like that survived on a daily basis.
The senior doctor and Sofia agreed that if the woman woke up the next day thinking she was superman she could as well jump out of a balcony. They settled on getting her disembarked under the protests of her sister, who seemed to be as responsible as a child.
“There it goes our steam room session.” Denise told Sofia when they went to the buffet for food because they didn’t make it to the officer’s mess on time.
“Yes, another crazy day onboard. And I thought this job would be boring.” Sofia sighed.
Denise laughed. “Some days can be very repetitive but once in a while we get an extra dose of insanity to keep things interesting.”
“You know what I just realized?” Sofia continued. “I’m really tired. I’m not sure why but this job is getting me as exhausted as I used to be in the hospital. There’s always something going on. It’s insane.”
“Yes, that’s true. I was exhausted about two months ago. At this stage I’m not sure what I am anymore. Maybe a zombie…” Denise confessed. “The fact that I rarely sleep well doesn’t help.”
“You know what, screw the diet. Since we’re in uniforms lets go to Stardust and get some cocktails.” Sofia suggested and Denise followed. Since she wasn’t going to get sleeping pills, alcohol was a good alternative. It worked for everyone else onboard.
Stardust was nearly empty. There were just over twenty passengers in the disco and only four of them were dancing. There were several bar stewards wandering around with their black trays and as soon as the girls sat down one of them immediately approached the table. They ordered raspberry martinis, one of Denise’s favorites. Sofia was bemused that being such a nice place, the disco had so few customers.
“Many people are tired from the ports and they go to bed early, plus we have a lot of old people onboard. Stardust is only full when we travel with young people and that rarely ever happens.” Denise justified.
“What about the Eagles?”
“They had a private function somewhere else, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they showed up here later on.”
A Mexican steward brought the drinks and Sofia put everything in her account. Denise argued against it and they made a deal that she would pay for the next round. They looked at the DJ’s booth and a blondish young man smiled and waved at them shaking his head to the beat of the drums.
“It must be boring for him to be playing music for so few people and no one is even dancing. How depressing.”
Denise stared at her. “Depressing is me putting up with all kinds of crap while that guy makes more money than me working three hours a night.”
“He doesn’t do anything else?”
“He does loads of things. Goes out every port, sunbathes, sleeps with whoever he can… It’s just work that doesn’t load him much. He has passenger status, gets his own cabin, works nearly nothing and enjoys the same benefits as the passengers. DJ is probably the best job onboard. It’s even better than being a dancer. It lasts longer too.”
“Nice. He’s cute.” Sofia noted his boyish face and the blond spiky hair that probably took a good half a can of spray to fix like that.
“Yes. That’s Brian. I’ve been with him in at least three ships. He has a really interesting strategy. Every time he wants to get a crew member into his bed he tells her that he never sleeps with crew but he would like to open an exception because she’s special. But of course this is a small world and I know a bunch of crew members who slept with him. But if you ever talk about it you’ll see how he tells you that he only slept with one crew member before and it was a long time ago.”
Sofia chuckled. “And that works?”
“Depends. Sometimes it does. Some girls find it flattering, and then others know he’s lying but they go with it just to find out if he’s anything good.”
“Is he?”
“I don’t know. I’ve heard different reports but I’m really not interested in finding out. There are many things that make me unhappy but my sex life is not one of them. I can say my boyfriend is great in that area.”
“It’s great to hear that he’s that good at something.” Sofia mumbled and regretted saying that a second later.
Denise gave her a disapproval glance.
“Sorry.” Sofia said. “You know Diego is not exactly a role model as a boyfriend.”
“I know. I notice that every day. But there is something else he’s good at: his job. That one seems to have been born on duty.” Denise pointed out, trying to turn into a joke the fact that her boyfriend was hardly ever present in her life.
“So did Kieran. But hopefully he’ll get fixed soon. He seems to be on the right track to become a proper human being rather than a workaholic who doesn’t know how to live outside the OR. I don’t mind hard working guys, but I’m not looking to hire anyone. I’m looking for a boyfriend. His professional skills are useless to me if he proves to be an incompetent partner.”
“It’s good that your strategy is working. You’ll see, the two of you will end up married.” Denise said hopeful.
“When we get the next round, lets drink to that.” She replied with a big happy smile and called the waiter.
A group of the Eagles came in at a point when Sofia and Denise were already tipsy. They were indeed big, hairy men. At the first impression they didn’t even look gay. There were about fifteen of them and they took over a corner by the big windows. Some of them sat on each other’s laps and even being a bit affected by alcohol both Denise and Sofia found it uncomfortable.
“If they start kissing, can you please swap places with me? It’s not of my business what these people do but two men kissing just looks horrible to me.” Denise observed with a disgruntled expression.
>
“If they start kissing, we’re out of here. I can’t focus on my cocktail if I see something like that.”
For a while, all the Eagles did was talk and order drinks and the two friends almost forgot about them. It was just after midnight that they took things further. Sofia and Denise called it a night.
“I’ve already seen an old lady naked tonight. There is no need to see men making out as well. There’s been some strange stuff happening on this ship lately.” Sofia observed when they took the elevator to deck 4.
Very unusually, Denise arrived in her cabin after Diego. He was in bed watching a movie.
“Hello stranger. Where have you been?” He asked casually, his eyes on the TV screen.
“In Stardust with Sofia. And then the Eagles showed up and they started kissing and we left.”
“Have you been drinking?” He asked with a smirk.
“A little.” Denise sat on the bed next to him.
She tried to get rid of the uniform by taking off her shirt but it didn’t work and Diego started laughing at her ordeal. “I think you had more than a little. Do you need help?” He asked, finding her clumsiness charming and funny.
“No. I’m not drunk, I can do this.” She insisted, struggling with the buttons that eventually fell all over the floor but she was too dizzy to pick them up. The skirt was another drama and Diego watched amused how his girlfriend looked like a kid desperately trying to remove her clothes.
He felt sorry for her and helped her to take off the rest. He held her while pulling out her shirt and next took off her stockings and then his hands moved up to the bra.
“I don’t think I need to take that off.” She murmured.
“I think you should.” He started kissing her shoulders and then she felt his lips moving down.
“Are you still helping me undress?”
“Yes, I’m very thorough.” Diego replied rolling his tongue through her breasts.
That night Denise didn’t have trouble sleeping.