So this is the start of my NaNoWrMo contest story this not the whole first chapter but almost
Lieutenant Williams glanced to the right side of his bunk into the deep dark blue of the sea. The nothingness out there reflected him inward to the emptiness of his life. Aden Williams was a communication officer in the navy. He had served the military for 6 years now, and still he watched his time dwindling away in a cramped bunk on a Tuna can under the sea. His job was tedious on the best of days.
Footsteps pinged against the corroded metal floor of the Submarine, as the other others in his quarters began to get up for their shift. I was red eye shift, but no one could tell what shift it was if it weren’t for the digitally linked clocks in all the Bunk House’s. Aden mulled over in his bunk, just before coming to an up-right position. Aden swung his legs out of the confined bed as he slid open the small curtain used to offer the little bit of privacy the Navy offered him.
Aden slipped on his pants, which fit snugly around his wider hip bone that matched his frame. Aden was not the type of guy someone would identify with a comm. Officer he certainly look more like a Marine or Seal. His abs was well defined, as they should be for the several hours a week Aden spent on the Abb. Press. His pectoral muscles protruded from his body by a couple of inches. His face was defined with chiseled cheek bone, but he had light dusting of freckles. The freckles offset his tealish eyes, and snowy blond hair.
Aden walked over to his foot locker smiling at the mirror attached to the outside of it. His teeth were still white, although they were growing a small layer of white fuzz on them. Last night after he retired from the mess he found the bath rooms to crowded to make a stop. This impatience was the cause for the stubble the grazed his face. Aden opened the locker door to find the cold metal biting at his sense of touch in his fingers. Aden grabbed a plain white tee-shirt, before he took off for the showers.
Aden walked through the stale damp submarine, trying to make it through the usual hustle and bustle of the shift change. Sailors going to bed with the exhausted look of a hard day of work on their face, or the groggy expression of not enough sleep. Aden made it the sink that was closest to the door with his tooth brush in hand. Aden scrubbed his teeth, and went about the rest of the morning routine of getting prepared for shift.
It was not long before Aden showed up in the Command center in his dress blues uniform. He had shaved and was feeling pristine for his pertinent morning. Aden walked over to the communications post and relived Seaman First class Roger Happernat. The Private was a horrible man, but he did know almost anything about communications. The boy had barley completed the training on the subject, yet he still managed to keep the station running at an extraordinarily high level. Aden sat down at the post moments after saluting the commanding officer, Exo Charles Presley, and private Happernat.
Aden placed the moist with sweat headphones on his head. There was the normal drum of static. Nothing to exciting happened for the next eight hours on his post, or on anyone’s for that matter. The ship was stationed in the Yellow Sea. Their mission was simply to monitor the situation over there. The problem was there was no situation over there; this led to a very dull tour afloat.
Aden watched has the decibel monitor on the screen stayed in the minim level registering only dull sound of static. Aden played with the volume knob on the side of the screen as he wasted more of his shift. Aden set the headset down giving up on his job. “Hey Aden how do you sit there and listen to that thing all day?” Captain George Dorlin asked from the navigation terminal beside Aden.
“Well it is all that hard since there is nothing to listen, but static.” Aden replied knavishly with his eye glaring at the captain. Dorlin was a failure as a commanding officer, but Aden had to suck it up and listen to the shrilling pointless commands that spewed from his mouth. Dorlin was a short stubby man with a large receding hair line. His come over was just about as ridiculous as the mans gingeresk features with the large amount of freckles and fiery red hair.
Aden shift was supposed to be over in about a minute, but it did not seem that his replacement would be in any time soon. He was always late, but it was not anything to major to get the man in trouble for. Aden was pretty at ease with his tardiness after all nothing ever happened in this bucket, so there was nothing to fuss about. Aden was laid back when it came to this ship, his pose, and his life at this point. Finally the ensign came into report; he was the last of the three communication station workers on the ship. He had also gone to college and officers school. The main difference between Aden and this particular individual was that Aden had doubled majored in communication and cryptology. Not like he used the skill of the second field very often.
Once the ensign relived Aden of official duty, he jubilantly walked out of the C.I.C. The submarine was a little bit livelier now that it would be normal awakening hours. The galley would be serving a hot breakfast, if that is what you could call that stuff that they served. Walking through the tiny passage-way Aden saw few faces he knew and many that he did not, maybe that because Aden was not the most social of creatures. When Aden finally reached the galley and got his of ration he took a seat at a table in the far right by himself.
Aden mulled over the bland food as he watched the people pass by without saying a word, until Suzy Wilcom a reporter aboard the ship for the tour sat next to him. “You Lt. Williams right?” she asked with her mike out and her camera man close behind.
“Yes man that’s me. What can I do for you?” Aden said snidely as he took the last bite of his oatmeal. Wishing he had not sat alone at this point Aden figured he had just got himself signed up for a long too personal interview.
“Well we were hoping to get the you to give us a little more information on your post as a comm. officer and just a little background information.” The reported said as she pushed the hair that had fallen front of her face back behind her ear. She had dirty blond hair that reminded Aden of the last sandy beach he had seen just hours before the float.
“I guess, I don’t really have anything better to spend my time doing this morning, or any morning for that matter.” Aden said in a joking manner.
The reporter let out a little giggle, but she quickly snapped back to her tough extorter. Like most women reporters they tried to be a tougher the even some of the female marines Aden had met. Of course it was not really necessary for this reporter because she worked for national geographic. Aden thought that they were doing a piece on the life on a submarine. The press was not allowed to enter the command center, or release the location of the submarines post. That was more than likely more political bullshit that caused trouble for the military. Aden did not really think highly of those who involved themselves in politics he felt like most people treated the fact that they were politicians as the worlds telling them they could be as horrible as they wanted as people. “Well we will start off what is it like to do your job in times of peace like this?” She asked smiling, as the camera rotated to look at her.
Aden knew that the first question she asked would have to do with his job in times of peace, because that is what the country was apparently at peace. Why did they have an army, or a navy then? Why was it that he was stationed here in the yellow sea when there was no threat currently active? It frustrated Aden that there was a standing army in times of peace. It was not what was intended for this country, but it was not Aden’s place to judge. He shut the doorway to his opinions like he always did. That was the true way of any solider no matter how high up they were. “Well in times of peace it is extremely boring.”
The reporter seemed to be thoroughly unsurprised in the least bit. It seemed to Aden that it would be fairly obvious to anyone that a communications officer’s job during times of peace would boring and useless. He had nothing to relay from the other facilities on the ship because they were all in working order. There was also nothing else to pick up such as enemy chatter. Her face read that she was dissatisfied with the answer, but Aden couldn’t think of any way to reface his morbid existence in his job. “Well what does it sound like, you know the comm. Chatter right now?” she said with a look across her face begging for more.
Aden sighed as this interview dragged on in pain like a trip to the dentist’s office and it had just begun. Aden gritted his teeth in preparation for the long morning he was about to have before he answered. “It’s like driving through the middle of nowhere so your already frustrated, and then in addition you have the low rolling static of a radio that can’t find a station.” Aden took the liberty to add a little bit more spice to the answer in hopes that she wouldn’t ask the same basic question again.
“Colorful analogies Lieutenant Williams, now tell me since by my records you started your job at the end of the Australian conflict what it is like to be at the comm. in the middle of a battle? Like the one off the coast of New Zealand.” She said smiling, her brown eyes widening as she knew his answer would be something people would want to hear about.
Aden was surprised by the fact she had taken the time to read his profile before he switched to this ship. He began to wonder if she did the same background information checks for all the members of the crew she interviewed, but Aden didn’t see how background information was needed for a documentary. “Well in battle my job is fantastic. Yo have the constant slew of commands coming from the commander that you have to relay to the other stations around the ship. Then you have to listen for enemy transmissions, which I think is the hardest because it can be very mute. The best part is when you get a transmission though,” Aden paused to take a breath as he realized he was excited. She had effectively gotten his heart racing, and this could not have come at a better time because Aden toughly hated his job right now.
She had rekindled his fire for this job. Aden hadn’t been this happy since he boarded the ship, after all this whole tour was a punishment for his previous mistake. Aden looked up to see her staring at him and he realized that she was still waiting for him to complete his thought. “When you get a transmission it will first be in a different language, so if have to get it quickly to a linguistic. Once they translate it, you will find the words to be in some kind of code. Luckily I am a cryptologist so I studied codes, and ways to crack them. I find that the codes are often close to some other one even if the person thinks they invented it.” Aden said his pearly whites beamed towards her. Cryptology was his passion it pinned his intelligence directly against someone else’s, but he found that code’s from the past were boring. The only way he would have the ability to crack codes from the present day was the military, so that’s how he ended up here.
She smiled at him, and Aden figured he had given her what she wanted. “Well Lt. that sure sounds like fun if you’re the problem solving type, and I guess that you are. That’s all we need for the documentary thank you Mr. Williams for your time.” With that the camera man walked away, but Sara stayed behind. She kept smiling at Aden, but it was about something besides the interview. “So Aden off the record how do you have fun around here, because I have been on this bucket for almost two months now and I am running out of people and things to film.”
Aden was sent back by the question, he was not the person that was the fun guy. In fact he had never been that person. In high school he was popular, but he never planned anything and he was never the life of the party. He often found himself invited to things after they had happened; now he wasn’t sure what that meant. He did know though that it was not a good thing though. “Well me I just kind of sit in my bunk and think, or re-read the few books I brought along with me. Other then that I will go use the abs press on the bow flex in the mess. This might be the biggest submarine under the sea, but there is still nothing to do. Why do you ask me?” Aden retorted with a puzzled look on his face.
Sara grimaced when she realized that she might be barking up the wrong tree for some fun, but that wasn’t really the reason she asked was that Aden was probably the most attractive sailor on the boat. She liked the muscular type. Most the people on the boat with the kind of muscles she like were gear-heads who worked in place like the engine room. “I know what you mean about nothing to do. I would like to take a look at those books, I bet there mysteries and I like mysteries.” She said with flirtatious undertones.
Aden’s face turned a bit as his eyes widened. Aden knew why she asked him the question now, and she didn’t have to say a word. This could be a nice change up, due to the fact he hadn’t been able to sleep with anyone since a month and a half ago. Aden believed in the regulations, so he refused to sleep with any of the female sailors aboard. This was a different story though. “Well I would love to show you my books, but I was goanna stop in the mess before I head towards my chambers…” Aden said leaving it wide open for her to make her move.
The girls smile turned upwards as it turned into a satisfying grin. She would let Aden do what he needed to do first after all this was just a casual hook up. Something you would go to the club for, but seeing as there was not a club on board she would have to get asual sex some other way. She hoped that he felt the same way about this… “You’re going to the Mess to work out right?” Aden gave her a slight nod, “Well then should we get going we don’t want your body getting to out of routine.” She said making a joke out of the very nature of the armed services being inherently routinely based. She had recently had a difficult time adjusting to the rules and relations excreted towards keeping the schedule maintained.
Aden smirked back at her as he grabbed his trey and stood up. They walked to the mess, where Aden did his typical abs press routine to stay in shape. It was a very quiet conversation, but Sara was not interested in idle chit chat. She was an addict looking for her next high, and would cope with whatever the circumstances were to get it. Once Aden was finished and sweaty they to the long stroll to the room in silence. “Which of the bunks is yours?” Sara asked inquisitively, with subtle eager undertones in her voice.
“Uh it’s right there.” Aden said as he pointed at the only bottom rack on the far left side of the room. They walked up to it without saying another word, and Aden couldn’t decided if this was going to be the cold an awkward type of sex where you can’t look the person in the eye afterwards. Or if it was going to be the hot passionate kind that left you asking for more even though you knew you couldn’t get it. Once they reached the bunk Sara pushed Aden into the small cramped space. His broad shoulders slammed against the cold meal, while she climbed in. As she began to kiss him her hand reached up and closed the curtain that was there for privacy.
Aden awoke several hours later alone in his bed. Aden figured as much, bet he would have liked her to wake him up when she left, after all he would be going to bed in a couple hours from now, and he missed the card game. Aden felt slightly bad about the way he acted, but nothing had been the same since Cheyenne. Aden refused to have a real relationship since her. These causal hook-ups were the only form of physical intimate interaction he got.
Cheyene was Aden’s wife for two years, before she suddenly died. Aden doing his normal after sex routine was mulling over the memories of her. She would always sit on the end of the bed and stare at him her straight red her giving light to her face, with her grey eyes judging Aden as he laid there. He could see them now on their first date, Aden had taken forever to work up the guts to ask her out. She was in his Cryptology, the best in fact, she would always sit next to Aden. On their first date Aden picked her up at her residence hall before they walked to the shuttle stop.
Aden was nervous his hands were clammy with his warm sweat, but she still reached down and grabbed his hand. Aden took her to see a show on campus that night. It was horrible show, but t this day it was the best time Aden ever went to the movies. As they left that theater that night the laughed at almost every detail of the movie. It truly was a great night.
Aden rolled over in his bank as he searched for his boxer-briefs and pants. Aden slipped back on his close just before heading back down to the mes hall. The whole crew knew what had just happened. It turned out that keeping something a secret on a submarine was harder to do then in a small town high school. As Aden strode around the cramped corridors the sailors smiled and hollered from a far at Aden’s accomplishment. Aden knew for a fact though that there was several other officers on board that were having sex with someone. Though for some reason, Aden figured regulations, no one talked about the.
Aden entered the mess hall with a smile on his face. He was letting the congratulations get to his head. This was extremely odd because Aden never let their opinions get to him. Perhaps it was the fact that the opinions were finally good. The usual card game was still going, so Aden took his normal seat. Aden placed a twenty on the table as the passed him a pile of chips, and dealt him in.
It was Texas hold’em Aden least favorite poker game, but it was something to pass the time. Most of the people in the game were almost out of chips except Major Lance Rumsding. He was the winner of the card games nine out of ten times. Aden felt like he had a good chance at taken him down this time. It was the high he was on from the sudden admiration of him for having sex with Sara.
The game went on with person after person running out of chips till it was just Aden, and Lance. Lance had one huge tell, and he used it when he was bluffing with high stakes. There piles were even now with Aden cleaning out the few other players before it was just the two of them. Aden had a pair of pocket aces and raised the bet to see the flop to ten. Lance called like Aden knew would, and the flop was King Queen Jack. It was a highly improbable flop, but Aden had seen it once or twice before. The pot was raised, and Aden worried a bit, about what the Major had. Aden knew that he only needed a ten to have a straight, but the major could have a ten and a nine. Going for it all Aden went all in, worried but not really that concerned. The major followed, as he bushed his mustache. That was the tell Aden knew that it would all be fine now. The river was a seven which would mean nothing in this game no matter what. The turn was another Ace. The two men showed their cards, and indeed the Major had the nine and the ten. It didn’t matter though because all he needed was the 10.
A grimaced Aden walked back to his quarters to get about seven hours of sleep before he had to report to duty again. Aden’s high was officially gone after that lost. Aden crawled into his bunk laid his head down on his pillow sighing about the blandness of his day even given the unusual circumstance surrounding it.
Aden awoke at twenty-three thirty just like the previous day, and every other day of his life aboard this miserable little tub. Aden got dressed a little bit faster than normal. He thought he would be nice and relieve Hapernat a little bit sooner. Aden would always like to be relieved a bit early sometimes, after all treat people like you want to be treated. Aden relieved Hapernat, and began his shift. The monitor read like usual, but Aden could swear he was hearing something else like a faint beep. It was possible that a beep could mean Morris code, and that would be great since Morris code was the same in all languages. Aden turned up the Knob, and there it was as clear as day a beep. “I need a piece of paper now. Exo I am getting something on the chatter. I think It could be Morris code.” A Seaman quickly brought Aden a piece of paper while the others in the command surrounded him.
The message was so incomplete like the sub was too far away for them to pick up most of the transmission. Aden sat there and stared at the paper with the scrambled words and letters in his own chicken scratch type of penmanship. Aden knew that he could decipher this somehow, but even if he took his best guess at what the words were it still did not make a lick of sense. Aden looked up at the Exo who had not left his shoulder since Aden reported the incoming transmission. The Exo could tell that Aden wanted to be relieved to work on the transmission. The Exo had already sent one man to awake the captain and tell him the news, so it wouldn’t really be that big of a deal to send someone else to go get Happernat back in here to take over duties. “Roggers go get Happernat out of his bunk. He needs to relieve Aden Asap.” The Exo said grimly.
“Sir you know this is probably only the second half of the transmission. I think it was playing during Happernat’s shift as well. I wish he would have caught it… the more information I can get the better at this point.” Aden said a little bit disappointed, because he was not sure if he had enough information to crack it in the end. Aden let out a deep sigh while his eyes zeroed in on what he guessed were the first full sentence he had written down. The letters looked scrambled, but Aden had a feeling he had seen this particular unusual arrangement of letters. He was glad it happened to be in Morris code because looking through his old cryptology books would be a much easier task.
It was not long before Happernat showed up with an extremely irate look radiating off of his face and body posture. Aden didn’t have the time to care though he grabbed the paper and briskly walked out of the room. Storming through the maze of halls Aden seemed to make it just fine to his room even though he had not paid any attention to where he was going. Aden opened his foot locker grabbing the few books on the bottom of it that weren’t fiction. Aden thought that the code was something from world war two, or maybe the Korean conflict.
Thinking more about the other forces in the sea Aden changed his primary search topic to the Korean resolution. Aden flipped to the section in the most prominent of his cryptology books about the 1960’s then the sub section on the end of the Korean conflict. Sure enough there was a descrambler on a Morris code. Aden applied it to the scrambled letters and words, and what he thought the others were, and it didn’t help the message become anymore readable. Aden slammed his fist against the metal on the far side of his bunk. He was furious he was so sure that that was the right code to decipher it. Aden looked through more of the Korean section, when he found a side note about the Koreans likening to use two codes on their messages instead of one. Aden had no idea what the next code could possibly be. He would need a code that worked with all international 26 letter alphabets.
Aden did not have anything like that in his books, but he knew if he could just crack this code he would not only help himself with say a promotion. It would tell them what the Koreans were saying to the Chinese or vice a versa. Aden saw a magazine lying in his foot locker that he had never read.
by Guest Fri Nov 06, 2009 5:23 am
Elisabeth (my estonian friend) is writing one horror story for it! 
