Cold Water

Chapter Ⅰ

A soft knock on the door of room B340, wakes Gina. Rubbing her eyes and half asleep, she gets to her feet and makes her way to the door. The yellow corridor light is blinding.

"Morning Captain, sorry for waking you. Our ETA is 06:00 with our new date being Friday 13th October 2017, we are yet to complete the checklist and to meet with Caleb for the daily briefing."

"Good morning Reid, thank you for waking me. I must have forgotten to set my alarm clock, I'll be right there."

"No problem Captain, I will have your coffee ready for you in the bridge."

"Thank you, my usual please."

The sound of her high heels echo through the corridor, glancing down at her watch it reads 3:34am. Gina scans her access card, before walking through huge glass sliding doors.

"Good morning everyone. Reid, where are we on our arrival checklist?"

"Hello again, here is your coffee Captain. Safety Officer Kate Marshall is currently in a meeting preparing the deck crew and Chief Engineer Caleb Robinson is on his way up for a briefing."

"Perfect, I will contact Harbour Control closer to our arrival."

Gina looks down at the abundance of coloured lights covering the control desk in front of her. A steady soft hum from the engines fills her ears, as Caleb struts through the bridge doors.

"Morning Captain!"

"Good morning, what do you have for me today?" she says, sipping her coffee.

"Engines are running perfectly, no extra oil is needed today and our fuel consumption is at 55%."

"That's great, thank you."

Gina enjoys a calm morning to herself in the bridge, accompanied with the perfect cup of coffee. When silence slowly creeps in and suffocates the room, then suddenly the temperature plummets. Gina began to feel a chill run down her spine, she leant forward to notice that the temperature gauge read 10 degrees. She sits back puzzled, knowing that the bridge's temperature is normally set to 23 degrees. She convinces herself something must be wrong with the bridge's air conditioning, Gina reaches for her radio and calls to the maintenance crew. She waits for a reply, but she doesn't get one. With the room still cold Gina can't shake the feeling she is being watched. Paranoia engulfs her body when she starts to dart her eyes around the room, only to see that no one is there. Without warning her ears start to ring, the sound violently increases as her head begins searing in pain. Gina feels like she is trapped in her own head and that the sound is never going to end.

All of a sudden Chief Officer Reid asks.

"Captain, is everything okay?"

Gina screams in terror and the ringing sound dissipates.

"Reid!"

"Woah! I'm so sorry Captain, are you okay?"

Gina can feel her heart pounding in her chest, she's breathing heavily. Gina sits there stunned and struggles to think of a reply.

"Yeah I'm okay, you gave me a fright that's all."

"Oh ok, I'm sorry. I just came to tell you we have completed the checklist and we are ready to berth."

"That's great, thank you."

Gina relaxes into her seat, reliving what she has just witnessed. She can't explain the piercing ringing in her ears and why the sound abruptly filled her with pain.

The warm orange sun began to slowly rise above the port, Gina looked down at her watch and saw it was 5:09am. She picked up the ship's radio and changed it to channel 12.