The Reckoning Series Box Set Read online

  “What’re you kids up to the rest of the evening?” asked Brett.

  Meg shifted uncomfortably for a minute. She hoped Brett was merely asking to be polite and not intending to invite himself and Nancy along for the evening. She knew Joe would never agree to spend time with the couple outside of the obligatory dinner. He had even suggested they take their evening meal at the buffet just to avoid them. However, she would not entertain the thought. The grand dining room with all of its formality was something Meg wouldn’t miss, even if that meant sharing each dinner with Brett and Nancy.

  “We haven’t decided yet. What about you guys?” said Joe.

  Meg smiled at him conspiratorially. She knew he was thinking the same thing. Another reason she loved him. He always seemed to keep pace with her thoughts.

  “Tonight we have the rare opportunity to view what is predicted to be a very large meteorite shower. The conditions at sea are perfect for stargazing, especially tonight. We have a clear night ahead of us. Our telescope is set up to the perfect angle; all I need to do later tonight is pull it out onto the balcony. It promises to be an amazing night,” said Brett excitedly.

  “The meteorite shower is one of the primary reasons we took this cruise. In the past, we’ve ventured to dark sites to view the stars. However, this time, we decided to do something a little different and far more comfortable,” said Nancy, holding up her wineglass in an air toast.

  “You should be able to see the show from one of the top decks. Just try to find a dark corner as far from the ship’s lights as possible, or you can pop down to our cabin for a real treat.”

  “We might take you up on that. What room are you in?” asked Meg.

  She could feel Joe’s foot pressing gently on hers, warning her to stop.

  “We’re in room 1247. Come by anytime. We’ll probably be awake watching the show until around three a.m.”

  “Thanks very much for the invite. We’ll see how the evening progresses for us,” said Meg, smiling.

  Meg had no intention of going to their room and knew Joe would never go. However, Nancy and Brett seemed so sincere and kind that she wanted to appear more engaged than Joe. He merely sat staring off into space whenever they talked about stargazing or government conspiracies. Eating dinner with Brett and Nancy for the past five nights had exposed her to more conspiracy theories than she thought possible. Even Joe’s brother, Jeff, an end-of-the-world survivalist, had nothing on Nancy’s conspiracy theories. The woman was possibly the most paranoid person Meg had ever met.

  ***

  Later that evening, stuffed full of rum, Coke and chocolate, Meg and Joe walked along one of the upper decks. The strong evening sea breeze gave Meg a chill. She pulled her sparkly shawl around her bare shoulders and snuggled closer to Joe. Somehow he was always warm despite their surroundings. The noise from the various bars and restaurants receded as they moved along the length of the ship to a quiet, cozy corner.

  “I’m so stuffed even though I saved plenty of room for dessert at dinner. The chocolate buffet was amazing! I have never seen so much dessert at once. And the chocolate fountain, wow. I could have dipped strawberries in that all night. I’m not sure how I’ll get back to eating normally. All of the food we’ve eaten on this trip has put me into a type of holiday-eating food frenzy,” she said.

  “That’ll end pretty quick once we have to make and clean up our own food. Nothing kills culinary ambition more than the thought of cleaning the kitchen afterward. If we ever go on another cruise, remind me to see if we can pay extra to eat at one of those small two-person tables. I don’t think I could endure another vacation with a couple like that. You know I have no intention of going to Brett and Nancy’s room, right?” asked Joe.

  “I know. I just felt bad for them. They’re so geeky in such a sweet way.”

  “Geeky is the right word. I never saw two people more into a hobby than those two.”

  “I think it’s sort of sweet. They love stargazing. It’s nice. We should have a hobby.”

  “You’re my hobby. Doesn’t that count?” said Joe, turning to kiss her.

  They kissed and enjoyed the last few minutes of the night air, knowing this would be their last vacation for a while.

  “I think we’re lucky to have never run into them near our room. They’re in 1247; I think that’s just down the hall from us,” he said.

  “Well, after tomorrow we won’t ever see Brett or Nancy again, so maybe we should go to their cabin for a ‘real treat,’ as Brett said,” she said, smiling.

  “I’ve got a real treat planned for you in our room,” he whispered in her ear.

  Smiling coyly, she pulled him toward the staircase that would lead them one deck down to their stateroom.

  — 3 —

  Mike Jensen wiped down the bar top and put away the clean glasses, setting up the Starlight bar for tomorrow’s crew. Not every bartender did this for fellow servers. Some of the guys would leave the place a mess, too busy to get off their shift to be considerate of the next person. Mike never left the workstation in disarray after his shift. He had been bartending for as long as he could remember. It had been the only job that he was both good at and enjoyed. Finding the position on the cruise ship allowed him to make more than he would on dry land and to travel to exotic ports. Before getting married, he’d traveled with the ship on their repositioning cruises across the Atlantic and then all over Europe. It was on one of those repositioning cruises that he met his wife of eight years, Sharon.

  Sharon was a singer and piano player who had accompanied the cruise for a transatlantic repositioning. The cruise lasted nearly twenty days. The days were long and boring for him since there were not as many passengers on board compared to a shorter cruise. People didn’t seem to want to be on the ship for so long with nothing to see but the great blue ocean. Although bored, he developed a sense of awe for the vastness of the ocean during those cruises. He also fell in love. He would never forget the first time he heard Sharon singing. She was playing at the small piano bar outside one of the specialty dining rooms. As expected, the crowd was thin, but Sharon seemed to be playing for herself, not an audience. At one point, when no one was there, he brought her a drink, figuring she would need it after using her voice for so long. When they locked eyes for the first time, he knew they’d be together forever.

  After the repositioning cruise, Sharon returned to the States while he continued on the ship for the summer European voyages. They stayed in touch through very costly internet video chats and emails. Upon his return to the States, they decided to move in together. A year later, they were married, and eight years later, they had two children. Mike couldn’t be happier. They decided that he would continue to work the cruise ship job for at least another few years because the benefits for the family were so good. His goal was to become a teacher, leaving the bar scene behind him.

  Mike took one or two online college classes per semester. His progress toward his teaching degree was very slow, but it didn’t really matter. He’d get there eventually and then find a job on dry land so they could live together as a family. The time at sea gave him a deep appreciation for people on active duty serving in the armed forces. Those families not only dealt with the frequent separations, but they also were moved around from one duty station to another. After trying to keep his family together over the past few years, since their son was born, he knew how hard it must have been for military families.

  Turning to the clock for the hundredth time in the last fifteen minutes, he realized that he only had another thirty minutes until he could end his shift and get some rest. He intended to be as rested as possible for his family time. Their three-year-old was a handful, and the baby took more energy than he ever thought possible from such a little bundle. Sharon handled things with the kids really well. She seemed happy to have left the stage to take care of them. Instead of performing nightly, as she had done before having kids, she now only performed for private parties and gave lessons in their home. As
a talented pianist, Sharon was able to more than adequately make up her income through the performances and lessons, except her work was done on her terms.

  Tomorrow they planned to take the kids to the park in the hopes of tiring out their son. Sharon would bring a picnic, and the family would spend a few hours at the park and then go home for naptime. Those days were precious to him. So long as the ship pulled into Port Lorraine on time, everything should go as planned. He had no reason to believe things wouldn’t go as planned.

  Generally, the ship made it to port when scheduled. Passengers relied on its timeliness to book flights and arrange for pickups, so the cruise line made every effort to dock when scheduled. In all of his years traveling with the ship, they had only pulled into a port late once due to their place at the dock being taken by another ship, which had minor technical difficulties. However, within an hour, the other ship was able to clear out of the way, allowing the cruise ship to pull into port. Not a bad record from what he could tell. Smiling to himself, he whistled and checked the clock again—less than twelve hours to seeing his family. He kissed his fingers and touched a photo of Sharon and the kids, taped to the cash register.

  — 4 —

  Brett Marshall leaned into the telescope and adjusted it for maximum clarity. He and his wife, Nancy, had been amateur astronomers for the past twenty years. Their hobby took them to dark locations all over the world. Travel always revolved around an astrological event or a group meeting at a dark site. As members of multiple astronomer clubs, there was always an advertisement for another trip. The trick was not spending all of their salaries and time on these outings. Although Brett wouldn’t care if they did choose to allocate more of their resources to their hobby, Nancy, on the other hand, seemed to have a better sense of how to skillfully spend on their expensive leisure pursuits while also looking toward saving for the future.

  “Just another second and then I’ll let you in,” said Brett.

  “Take your time. This is a long event; we’ll have at least another hour of viewing. Besides, I’m doing pretty good with these binoculars.”

  Years ago they had invested in a set of high-powered specialty binoculars so that they could travel easier. It made more sense to only bring one large telescope and a second smaller one in the form of the binoculars. If they weren’t flying to a dark location, they would bring all three of their “eyes on the sky,” but if flying, they’d only bring the smaller of the telescopes.

  “It’s so beautiful. I feel like this meteorite shower is one of the best we’ve ever seen. Or maybe it’s being at sea that’s making it so spectacular,” she said.

  “I agree. Being out here for this one was a stroke of genius. I have to give you credit where credit is due.”

  “I just couldn’t take the idea of spending four days on the ground in Montana, eating dried astronaut food and pooping in a hole. Not again. As I get older, I feel like I need more comfort and amenities,” she said with the binoculars to her face.

  “Wow! Did you see that?”

  “Sure did. It was spectacular.”

  Brett stood up in order to switch spots with Nancy. The ship swayed effortlessly to the movement of the inky black sea beneath them. The stars shone on the dark water, mirroring those in the heavens, creating the effect of being in deep space.

  Nancy settled in behind the telescope and adjusted its dials. “We can switch again. I think we’re getting close to the intense part of the shower anyway.”

  “I agree, things are picking up. How do you think your mother is faring with Rudy?”

  “Not sure, really. Rudy is an easy dog, but you know my mother. Nothing is easy for her. I can only imagine the list of complaints we’ll get from her about his behavior.”

  “I think your mom is still a little bitter about Rudy being the only grandkid she’ll ever have.”

  Brett and Nancy were both college professors. Brett taught English and Nancy taught sociology. They enjoyed their time off, traveling the world. After watching their friends have kids, the thought scared Brett to death. He knew he didn’t want to be hampered in any way. The day Nancy finally worked up the courage to admit that she felt the same way elated him. Freed from the tyranny of the expense and limitations of having children, they enjoyed life to the fullest. The only thing Brett could determine as a negative to their lifestyle choice was the fact that people always looked at them with pity for being childless, as though they had tried but were unable to produce offspring. The comments didn’t bother him as much as he knew they stung Nancy. Other women were the worst offenders. They would look down at Nancy for being a childless woman with pity and ultimately choose not to continue a friendship with her. It seemed the family set preferred to hang out with others similarly saddled.

  Looking through the binoculars was not as bad as Brett imagined it would be on board. The ship moved very little, minimizing the amount of shaking his hands did while viewing the sky. This evening, the ship moved even smoother through the sea. By using celestial navigation, they calculated that the ship had slowed its speed considerably the closer they came to Port Lorraine. Nancy thought it was to keep the passengers on the ship spending money in the casino and the bars instead of spending an extra day in port, as they clearly could have done.

  “Wait, what is that? Did you see that?” she asked, pulling herself closer to the telescope.

  “See what? Where?”

  “Look to the southwest horizon at seventy degrees.”

  As Brett turned in his chair, refocusing on the area Nancy directed, a large orange orb appeared in the dark sky. The orb grew larger and larger until an entire section of the sky shone orange.

  “Holy shit! You see that?” he shouted.

  “What the hell was it?” she asked as she feverishly moved the telescope, trying to get a better view.

  “I have no idea, a supernova maybe? Or a collision of two meteorites?”

  The orange glow in the sky slowly faded until nothing remained except darkness. The normally smooth-moving ship rolled to their port side, catching Nancy off guard and pushing her into the railing. She quickly regained her balance, righting herself on the chair. The ship’s lights were no longer on, causing everything to go dark. The only remaining light came from the stars and the moon’s glow as an eerie calm came over the night. The ship rolled sharply to the starboard side, pushing them back against their chairs.

  “What’s going on?” said Brett with panic in his voice.

  “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we saw the flash and now the ship is dark and feels as though we’re adrift. Maybe something about the magnetic effect of the event caused a temporary break in the power, like the effect of an EMP. I just don’t know.”

  “I agree. It can’t be a coincidence. I’ve never seen anything like what we just saw out there, and now the ship has no power. Geez. This can’t be good,” said Brett, running a hand through his thinning hair.

  “I wish we were closer to port so we could assess what’s happening. I think the big question here is whether the flash affected only seagoing vessels or if the mainland is in a similar blackout,” said Nancy, her voice shaky.

  “Good point. Assuming you’re correct that this was some sort of either natural or man-made event causing an EMP—”

  Interrupting Brett, Nancy said, “Natural? No way. I’m going for government-issued disaster. Wouldn’t that just suit them? Damned crooks. They generate some sort of disaster and then ‘save us’ by rolling in the troops on U.S. soil. Some senator is getting rich on this, you’ll see. No way this is a natural phenomenon. Shit. What about my mother and Rudy?”

  “Just try to settle down. We need more facts. I agree that a man-made disaster is far more likely. However, this could just all blow over. Maybe the ship has some sort of problem that just happened to correspond to the flash? It would have been an odd coincidence, but it’s possible. I think we’ll know more in the morning. Let’s wait and see what happens. Everything might just be fine,” sai
d Brett, trying to reassure her.

  Brett stood and moved closer to Nancy. He knew she was right; this was some sort of man-made event. From what he could tell, it seemed very similar to a video he’d watched years ago called Starfish Prime. The government had finally released video footage of a nuclear device they’d detonated over the South Pacific. The event he witnessed seemed to bear an uncanny resemblance to the video, but he couldn’t be certain. For now, he needed to calm Nancy down. She had a way of going from zero to sixty in record time with all of her conspiracy theories. Working in either the sociology or political science department of a major university had a way of doing that to a person. She and all of her colleagues were always talking about government conspiracies and takedowns. It was all he could do to keep her from living in a bunker.

  “Well, whatever it was, it’s definitely gone now. I’ll have to text Fred and see if he saw anything. I think he planned to watch tonight’s show at his lake house,” he said.

  “Good thinking. I’ll grab the phones. Maybe Susan was watching too. She was supposed to be at the observatory tonight. Maybe she has more information she can share,” she said, going into the dark cabin.

  A minute later she emerged with both of their phones.

  “I can’t tell you how dark the cabin is. Like, there’s no light whatsoever. You’d think the ship would have some sort of emergency lighting system,” she said, sitting down and handing him his phone.

  “Let me check outside. The lights down the hall might be on.”

  Brett got up and went inside the pitch-black cabin. Nancy was right, he couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face. He moved slowly, holding the bed and the wall of cabinets to make his way through the room.

  “Shit!” he yelled in pain.

  “What happened? You okay?”

  “Oh fuck, that hurt like a bitch. I caught my toe on the side of the bed. Damn it,” he groaned.

  “Try to be more careful!”

  “Thanks for the sympathy and advice,” said Brett curtly.