Titanic
By Jon Sleeper
Part V: Nearer My God to Thee
"My friend Clinch Smith made the proposition that we should leave and go towards the stern. But there arose before us from the decks below a mass of humanity several lines deep and completely blocking our passage to the stern. There were women in the mass as well as men, and they seemed to be steerage passengers who had just come up from the decks below. Even among these people was there no evidence of panic. But oh, the agony of it!"
--Col. Archibald Gracie, first class passenger.
Apr. 15, 1912 1:30 a.m.
I eventually found Marcus below decks, dragging around an indignant steward by the collar. The slope of the deck was quite noticeable, and I could almost feel the bow getting lower, and lower, and lower. "What are you doing?" I asked him.
"Me stuck up crewmate here's a bloomin' idiot! No matter what I've shown him 'e just doesn't understand. I just don't know what to do now."
I thought a moment, and grinned. "Isn't there a gangway door about a hundred feet forward?"
"Yes."
I'm no saint, and the idea I had was decidedly evil. Well, not evil. I still had a bottlenose pendant in my pocket I'd not had opportunity to give away yet. It almost felt like a waste for what I was about to do, but if it worked the idiot might actually do something good for a change, his new nature would demand it. "Good, let's go down there, shall we?" Marcus grinned, apparently understanding.
"Heave-ho?" He said with a wide grin.
"Heave-ho." I replied as we reached the gangway door and he opened it.
The steward looked at us fearfully. "You're not serious! I'll freeze to death in that water!"
"Oh, we are serious," I said, my face becoming grim. "Too serious for our species, I think. Which is sort of why I guess my Master chooses me for so much of his work." Marcus held him by the shoulders while I put the pendant around his neck. He must of had a weak Whaleside, because it flashed blue for a moment, attuning itself to him. "I am going to give you a chance to redeem yourself though, like my Master taught me. But in a rather peculiar way. Marcus?"
At my nod, we both shifted dolphin. The man screamed, and backed against the edge of the opened door. "What! what are you?!" he screamed.
"You're abou' to find out firsthand, matey," said Marcus. ["Heave-ho?"] he continued in Delphin, grabbing him with webbed hands on the man's left side, face in that now-fixed smile.
["Heave-ho,"] I clicked in return. In the future I would have to make myself some clothes that have a slot for my dorsal fin in this form, I've ruined too many shirts this way… I grabbed him on the other side.
Marcus and I were both glowing bright blue, and as soon as the both of us grabbed him, his pendant activated. We held him as his body reshaped like ours: Dorsal fin, webbed hands and feet, dolphin-like head, and smooth and hairless bluish skin. The pitch of his scream went higher and higher into the Delphin range of hearing. When he was finished, we picked him up and unceremoniously threw him over the side. ["Have fun!"] Marcus yelled in Delphin. Then he looked at me, ["I know I will."]
The man transformed completely as he fell, and as soon as he hit the water disappeared in a flash of blue light. ["Lucky sod,"] I said. ["He's probably in the Bahamas by now. Oh, well."]
["Bottle, I hate to tell you this, but I think me job is finished here. Orca says I can go now if I please. An' I please."]
I extended my hand, and we bumped rostrums for a moment in a dolphin "handshake", we also did so in the human manner. ["Then I guess I'll see you soon. I have a strong feeling that you should hang around where you appear, Orca will have chosen that spot for entries."]
["Will do, see ya later, pod-brother."] Then he dove overboard himself, repeating the steward's performance.
I looked aft from the open door, I could just barely see the screws rising up out of the water. The bow was surely completely submerged by now. So I resolved to go find out where Orca and Emily were.
Staying in part-dolphin form would enable me to locate them quicker, so I padded down the corridor, probing with my mind this way and that. This part of the ship was very deserted. I'd invoked my pendant to keep others from noticing what I looked like, it worked very well.
Looking for Emily's mind for some reason turned out to be fruitless. It almost seemed like she was all around me! Very odd. Then I slapped the back of my hand against my small melon. Orca's mind should be easy to locate. I changed frequencies, located him, and followed the maze of corridors towards where I'd felt his mind.
I found them both just before two a.m. I was starting to have difficulty walking on the steepening deck. Every now and again I would hear a crash-and-bang as things on rollers or loose in cabins started to slide forward. I could just feel the fatigue coming off of him… "Are you okay?" I said worriedly in a high-pitched English.
"I'm… fine. Nothing that a night's sleep and a couple dozen herring won't cure. We won't be able to keep this up much longer, Bottle. Emily's on her last legs, and frankly so am I. Marcus has gone to the bottlenose entry point, I trust?"
"Yea, he seemed born to be a dolphin! Why he was born human I'll never know…" Orca almost seemed to blush, an amazing feat on his orca-like face. "You mean?"
"I'm afraid so. Marcus is another one whose memory I loused up. Damn if I'll ever get that quite right. But then I'm really the one who 'invented' this whole disciple business a few thousand years ago, the moment humans first paddled a log out on the ocean. Nobody's perfect." He took a tired, deep breath. "Damn I'm tired. Go check on Emily." He seemed to be losing that veneer of a "proper Victorian manner." This was the real Orca speaking. No frilly language. Frankly, I liked him better.
Emily looked very strange compared to the way we toothed whales partially transform. She'd kept her hair, her face was still human, and she had not changed in size at all. But her skin was a deep blackish color while her hands were an off white. Her neck was also faintly grooved. Then I looked harder.
"Oh… oh no." I said quietly. She had put a lot of herself into the ship. Too much, in fact. It was not a physical thing, but what can only be termed as her "soul" was tied to the ship in such a way that it was impossible to immediately separate herself from it. I could feel her doing so, but it was so slow as to just creep along just within my range of perception. "It's going to take her years to separate herself!" And we only had an hour at best, probably much, much less. I made as if to remove her from the bulkhead.
[[NO!!]] Yelled Orca in a voice the brooked no opposition. "If you move her she will die a soul-ripping death! You must not touch her."
"But Master! She'll die anyway when this ship sinks…" For a moment he shook his head. "Won't… she?"
"My understanding of this type of soul bonding to inanimate objects is that she will not. Even the ship snapping in half… I'm sure you can hear it creaking now… won't hurt her I don't think. That's the only part I don't know about. Now please, Child, go and find Darius. You and he should be not remain separated. Time is short."
I shook my big head in resignation. ["Okay, Orca. I'll believe you this once. But if you're wrong nothing you can tell me will ever convince me to do another Task for you again!"] Over the past few months I'd grown quite fond of my stodgy humpback "cousin". She was very dear to me and I meant every word I said.
He looked a bit apologetic. "I know… I'll won't Call you again if that is your wish. Now go. I need to concentrate."
I turned my mind in the direction of Darius, pinpointed him, then went human again and left those two in their tired task.
As I was walking aft towards one of the staircases, I saw a large cabinet on rollers. In the back of my mind I realized that it might hit Orca right in the back, but for some reason I overlooked that. Instead I walked onward and upwards in the direction of Darius's mind-sound.
After a few more minutes of being one with the ship I realized two things: One; this ship knew it was doomed the moment it's first keel plates were riveted together, and two; I had sunk myself too deeply into the ship's "soul" to remove myself with any speed.
All the lifeboats except the collapsibles were gone now, and several men were quickly trying to ready them. They would not succeed very well.
I saw Bottle pushing through the crowd of those below decks in steerage. At the top of the stairs he got a serious expression… then punched a crewmember in the nose. That released the throng from below. [[Thank you!]] I said to him. He had another long rip in the back of his shirt, and his pendant was glowing in order to protect him from the cold. [[Don't mention it.]] He returned. [[How are you Em? Orca said you'd… um.]]
[[Slowly pulling myself out… I'm so tired! The water in the bow is reaching a literal breaking point… I can feel the metal just bending under the strain! I lost a section just a moment ago. Part of a bulkhead in a boiler room just caved in! But I'm having difficulty pulling myself free. I've sunk in too deeply.]] I did not tell him I knew I was going to go down with the ship.
[[Orca told me. Why'd you do this, Emily? Why? You're going to die, I just know it!]]
[[If I die, then it's because I've sacrificed myself for the seven hundred-odd souls aboard those lifeboats, those whose lives will remain unaltered. Without my support, the ship would of sunk too fast for even half the lifeboats to be launched! You realize that Orca and I have been defying his Mother outright? She's been lax so far, but when She finds out what we're doing… There will be punishment. Probably not severe, but it's inevitable.]]
[[You know I just don't understand this "self sacrifice" thing? We bottlenoses…]]
[[Oh, shut up Bottle!]] I retorted. [[If you were the 'stereotypical bottlenose' Orca would never have Called you in the first place! You, Marcus, and others are Disciples because you are supposed to understand what self sacrifice is while your pod-brothers are mystified by the whole concept!
[[Take my species. Humor is an alien concept to us. Centuries of hunting by humans have bred it out. We feel no real hatred for them, but my mother volunteered to lead the whalers away from the rest of the group so the others could live! Yes, we're stuffy realists, but only because we have to be. But I was always the 'black sheep' in my family, as it were. They tried to train the sense of humor out of me, but nothin' doin'! If you think a moment you'll realize that you know something of self sacrifice. Think of your first Task.]]
There was a pause, then a moment of pure epiphany. [[I think I remember all too clearly. I had to basically kill those men on those whaling ship. Protecting some of your species, I might add. Kill… among my species it's almost considered sacrilegious to even hurt a human. No wonder I was bullied when I came back… I had to join a whole other pod! Not an easy thing. But it was a strange feeling… now that I think about it I felt good about myself. Even though I've felt a bit of guilt ever since. Whoa…]] The ship seemed to be tilting rather quickly. [[I think I see Darius now. God Emily, I…]]
[[Don't worry about me. I'll be okay no matter what happens. Goodbye, Bottle.]]
[[Good… bye.]]
The moment he said that, I heard an amazingly beautiful and apologetic voice say, [[I'M SORRY, CETUS.]] Then give a little push to… something. I heard a rolling noise. Then a heavy cabinet on rollers shot past me going very fast… Orca could not see it coming behind him, nor could he hear it because of his intense concentration.
It hit him a glancing blow, just missing (on purpose, I thought) his relatively tall dorsal fin. But it must of weighed a couple hundred pounds at least. He was knocked senseless, sprawled on his stomach. In his unconsciousness he transformed completely, then disappeared in a flash of light.
I could not do anything about it. With Orca no longer holding back the water, the bow started to plunge.
The last thing I saw before I decided to head for the stern was J. Bruce Ismay getting into collapsible D. I did not really feel any real hatred for him, not now anyway, especially when Ape had gone up to him and said: "*You* will bear the brunt of the blame for this disaster! You are the partial cause of it, but not all. You will not remember me, but for the rest of your life will you bear the mark of your incompetence! And I will suffer with you, Child of mine. Because it is as much your fault as it is mine."
The other men started to unlash collapsible B, but I wandered aft instead, wondering where Emily and Bottle were.
Just as the bow started to submerge faster, Bottle appeared out of nowhere. "Think it's time to jump?" he asked me quickly.
"No, not yet. Where's Emily?"
"Well… I… uh…"
"Come on, spit it out."
"She asked me not to tell you. And hell if I'm going to go against her wishes." The slope of the deck was such that we had to lean in towards the stern to remain level. "Orca will explain all later, or so I'm told. I'm sorry, Darius."
I did not like the sound of that. I knew what she was doing, and how dangerous it was. I looked around for Ape, but he seemed to have disappeared… "It's okay, Bottle. I'm not worried, I've had a lot of experience over my three hundred-odd years. I've soul-bonded like this myself, she should not have any problems. The thing is, she's inexperienced. The water is over two miles deep here, and if she withdraws completely…" Then she would be crushed by the pressure! My only hope was that Orca would be ready to transport her once. Not much comfort. But I had a job to do. I would not make her sacrifice in vain.
Then the moment came. The ship shuddered for a moment, then with a gurgle a wave of water washed aft from the bow, which had started to plunge much faster than before.
I saw the wave carry away Col. Gracie and his friend Clinch Smith. I'd given Smith a coin with a bottlenose on it, and when he was swept under I felt a pulse that meant he'd disappeared. The lights flickered and dimmed a little.
The noise from the ship itself was tremendous! Everything from dishes and pans to tons of baggage and even motor cars must of been rushing forward. Bottle and I held on to the railing, the only thing keeping us from falling down.
The band stopped playing.
I saw Captain Smith take a header off the bridge. Then the wave caught Bottle and washed him overboard. I was not worried about him, or myself. Because a moment later after a few blue flashes under water I saw an orca surface not a hundred feet away. I waved to him, but he did not respond, apparently getting used to this other cetacean form.
The stern rose higher and higher. People began to jump off the ship. So, with a sigh, I did so too.
Jumping into the cold water was like a thousand tiny knives driven into me. But my ring clicked into action not a moment later, and I ripped out of my clothes into my part orca form. Bottle came up next to me and did the same, and we treaded water on the Surface. "You really don't want to go down there just yet," he said. "The noise that ship is making nearly deafened me!"
We swam out further among some floating debris, keeping out of sight. Our bright white undersides would of shown us off immediately. To the uninitiated, Bottle and I might seem like identical twins. But the white patches above his eyes were a little more circular than mine. But we could be brothers otherwise. "How do you feel?" I asked.
"Big. Big, big, big. How do you deal with it?"
"You'll find out. You won't have to deal with it much longer anyway." We both watched as the stern tilted higher, and higher. We heard splashes as people began to jump off the stern. Though no others seemed to be disappearing… not yet anyway. I wondered what Orca was waiting for.
Then with a great tearing of metal, the forward funnel fell forward, killing many outright I was sure. We had to grit our teeth as the noise from Below echoed up into our ears, "blinding" our Sight.
Then the lights failed. I wondered what would become of those still trapped inside the ship, especially the stokers and firemen who'd heroically kept her lights burning throughout the whole thing. The ship could only be seen as an outline against the starry sky.
With a great cracking and booming, the ship began to split in two. It was a sound I will always remember. It was almost like the ship was screaming. Then I realized I Heard Emily's voice over the scream…
I was too shocked to do anything about it, nor could I in any case. I did not know if she would be in the bow or the stern section. I dove below the Surface for a moment, and Saw the bow plunging at an incredible speed, two miles down. The stern settled to an even keel for a moment, people jumping off of it. Then it, too began to sink, broken end going under first until it was almost perpendicular to the water.
There was silence on the water, all were speechless. The stern sank lower and lower, picking up speed as it went. It sank so calmly that I could see people just swim away without getting their hair wet.
Emily was once more large in my mind as I saw the greatest technological achievement yet by mankind slip silently beneath the waves, leaving the two of us alone with the starry night.
On to the next part
Back to my Stories Page