CONTEST: STORIES IN BLACK AND WHITE : THOSE STORMY FIVE DAYS

It was a dark and stormy night, the sky was constantly divided by irregular lightning bolts that heralded a fierce storm.
The sea began to stir and the waves broke with a ferocity that echoed the storm that was brewing in the sky. In the distance, the lone beam of a lighthouse pierced the darkness, a lone sentinel offering a ray of hope and guidance to those lost in the chaos.
Hearts pounded as the crew prepared for a possible impact, clinging to the hope that the light emanating from the lighthouse would take them to safety. With a final surge of determination, they headed toward the light, praying that they would reach the shore before the full relentless wrath of the storm was unleashed.

  

Image source contest post

You read this story from #oneray, now I commence from here- I invite @josepha @patjewell and @mesola to come up with their stories in this contest started by @oneray

We started this mission with no obvious plan but were willing to give our best to rescue our teammates. We had all packed and prepared for this five-day program on our midsize ship with no set plan but we knew we would find a way of working together. Our minds were working together, and we were exchanging ideas in order to rescue our beloved team members lost on the island.

Our team was traveling to a destination that we considered our team members might have taken according to the data we had received from them, but there were no clues so far. Finally, @josepha our second in command, sailed past those islands and into the open ocean.

As expected, there was nothing visible but water—no distant hints of trees or land—but a widespread blue sea and skyline in the distance and of course a faint view of the lighthouse.

However, our minds were busy finding the clues that would take us to our lost teammates. We were trying to find a way to rescue them while eating food in the dining hall or sipping our favorite drinks in the conference room. We were all working together, and our minds concentrated on gathering clues from the incidents in the last few weeks.

We have been trying to reconstruct the incidents to pinpoint where and how our teammates had disappeared, but we had no clues.

Two days but no result despite all our efforts as a team, but we were assured that we would be able to find one or the other way to locate them and would come back home victorious. But wait, we did not know that Day Three had strange incidents in store for us.

The winds, normally at 15 to 20 km, slowly started picking up. I could see the worried face of the captain in the engine room. I was checking the indicators regularly, and each pointed to a hard time in a short while. I looked at him; he was thinking the same. We were about to face “a violent storm.”

It happened at 11 p.m. on the third evening of the rescue mission. I was in the engine room along with Joepha, in charge of engines, when the waves started hitting our boat with increased velocity; the waves started tossing us around wildly. The worst part of the story was that we were passing through an area with sharp-edged rocks.

The intensity of the storm was increasing constantly, and soon the water began leaking into the ship. I was furiously keeping a watch on the engine room for signs of disaster and soon saw one. The captain and I looked at each other, and then he suddenly left the engine room and called an emergency meeting in the middle of the night.

He shouted, “Listen, all."

He was speaking in a furious tone, "Come on guys, I’m not sure which news to give first." I could sense the emergency in his tone when he said he would start with the most pressing one! I was not shocked when he said there was a leak in the boat."

I knew that being the maintenance engineer of the boat, but that announcement sent a hush in the meeting room. Everyone looked shocked. But I knew we could patch the hole with a little help from our chief engineer, with his expertise in matters like these.

However, I could see a sense of relief in the team when Josepha announced that the leak shouldn’t be that critical for the next few days and that we would fix it. However, he was going to send SOS constantly. We all knew this storm was one of the worst in decades, and if the hole was not patched up immediately and if it came to the rescue, it was going to be tough. But the good news was that we had lifeboats, and the lighthouse was still visible in the distance. That meant, in the worst case, we could take refuge in the lifeboats and wait for the storm to recede.

As we have been working as a team for a long time, knowing each other’s strength and capacity to cope with situations like these, we were anxious alright but not hopeless. We knew we would overcome and finish our mission. A murmur developed among the group. Worried but not distressed or hopeless, not at all.

Meanwhile, one of the crew members asked, “What else do you want to tell us?” The captain looked at no one in particular, but his tone was slightly different, “The storm is picking up speed and power and is headed in our direction, and you know that.”

I knew what he meant. But Josepha reacted, a bit alarmed. “Do you mean all our hard work will go to the dogs?"

Now the conference room has turned into a chattering room. Another crew member was anxious, “All our plans to restore. What is going to happen? Are we in for serious trouble? Is there any hope left???

The captain did not speak immediately, and his silence made things more complicated when he said, “Probably, that’s the case, but I’m getting no response despite my best efforts,” Now everyone in the group was a bit more worried when we heard he had no idea what was going on, how grim the situation was, or safety situation.

Meanwhile, the captain spoke with a reassuring tone, urging us to focus on our safety for the time being. He was right; we expected everything to be fine, but let’s leave no stone unturned at our end. I was sure the storm would subside, we would rescue our team, and everything would be okay in the end.

We sent another SOS, and we knew it would work. We all on this ship cared for each other and our well-being. And then we decide to work in shifts. We asked our group to have some sleep right in this conference room, so we all stay together here. No one should be getting separated at this point!

That was the call of the hour, “We need to stick together.” And everyone wanted to stay together, so everyone agreed. There was a strong urge to stay together, stay close, stay united, and, most of all, stay calm to stay safe. Every one of us knew that three lifeboats were enough to accommodate us in case the need arose.

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I was firm in my mind that, as the first engineer on the ship, I would remain on the ship and do my best with my junior engineers until everything came back to normal. I will be here till the end, and I know everything will be fine with our combined efforts. I know the situation looks grim at this point in time, but we shall come out victorious like we always did in such situations.

The captain's words echoed in my ears, "Dear shipmates, at this point, I can only assure you that all will be well in the end. I am busy plugging the hole with Josepha right now and let’s hope the storm will subside. We should hope we will need no lifeboats and succeed in reaching back to the mainland. Are you ready?"

"Aye-Aye Captain."

The next two days were action-filled, but everything was right in the end. Finally, the storm subsided, and we could see the lights from the lighthouse getting closer and closer. We were on the right track. Meanwhile, we heard from our coastal office that the missing team was also on their way back.