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On a ship there are dozens upon dozens of things that could go wrong, and even more when that ship is going used to carry one of the most dangerous and unstudied substances the world has known.
But there were only two words that were able to put the fear of God in each and every person’s heart who was on the ship.
Man overboard.
There were very few good outcomes that might arrive after those words were first shouted. It took mere moments for a person to slip out of sight, for them to be too far gone, for them to slip under the waves and never resurface. Add conditions like rough waters, and low visibility, and the situation was almost instantly deadly from the moment a person’s feet left the surface of the ship.
So, when the alarm started blaring in the middle of the night, red lights flashing in every room, through every hallway, the speakers overhead announcing that one of their own had gone into the ocean- the dark, vast ocean- the entire ship was awake within moments.
Ryland jerked awake, throwing himself upright from where he had been hunched over his table in the lab. His back screamed at the movement, unhappy with the position it had just spent several hours in. In his grogginess, it took him a moment to make out what exactly was going on, but the alarms were clear enough, and in an instant his mind was cleared, and he was on his feet.
Around him, there were a few others that had either worked late or fallen asleep like him, and they glanced around between each other, like someone might have more information.
“Man overboard? A drill, you think?” one of the junior scientists near him asked.
“I don’t know,” Ryland admitted, debating on what exactly he was supposed to do in this scenario, but he felt a sort of responsibility. “Radio for a science team check in, make sure everyone is accounted for,”
The young scientist nodded and walked off to grab her radio.
Only a few moments later, a solider appeared in the lab, not a young, fresh solider like the ones that were normally sent for errands across the ship, but an older, seasoned solider, one who rounded the corner to find Ryland and skidded to a stop.
“Dr. Grace, you will need to come with me,” he demanded, not waiting for a response before grabbing his arm and beginning to pull him away.
“What’s going on?” he asked, not resisting as he was pulled along- he had learned to stop trying- though stumbling a bit with the force that the man was using. “Someone’s overboard?”
“Yes, and we have reason to believe that person is Director Stratt,”
Ryland froze, stopping the solider, “Eva? Overboard? Did she fall?” his body could not decide between staying where he was and running overhead to the surface, trying to get to her.
“Witnesses claim that she fell alongside someone else, was possibly pulled. Our team leads must be accounted for with the possibility of a threat on board. That includes you Dr. Grace,” the soldier started moving again, and Ryland did not have a choice but to go with him.
“I want to- I want to go to her,” he said, unsure of where exactly he was being taken, but fairly certain that it would not be somewhere he wanted to go. He did not receive an answer.
A minute into the hasty journey, it was proved his assumption was wrong. He was being brought to the surface of the carrier, where he would be able to get a clear view of whatever was happening.
“Over there, with the others,” the soldier released his arm and nodded over to where the other team leaders were standing.
He stumbled over to them, the ship rocking beneath his feet, eyes glued to the collection of people at the edger of the ship, shouting between each other, commands, words he did not understand- it took him a moment to register that it was likely not English.
“What’s happening?” he asked again, bumping into the shoulder of who he knew to be one of the engineering leads. The group of leaders were all in various states, some clearly having come from late nights in their office, and others ripped from their beds the moment the alarm started to sound.
“It’s the director, they have spotted her, and are keeping eyes on her while rescue makes it attempt. There was another man, in the beginning- they have lost him,” the woman he had bumped into explained.
Ryland nodded, still not tearing his eyes away from the activity, though one word continued to ring through his head. Attempt. The teams attempt. There was not a guarantee in the world that Eva would be pulled out of the water, and certainly now that she would be pulled out alive.
“How long has she been in there?” other one of the leaders asked, pulling his robe tighter against his middle, shivering against the wind. If they were cold on the surface, how cold was that water?
“I don’t know,”
For what felt like an age, none of them spoke, only watching what was before them. A few of them began to mutter prays under their breath.
Ryland just stood, unable to move, unable to get his lungs to expand enough for a full breath. They were going to get her; they had to get her. Without Eva, the entire project would fall apart, the entire world would fall apart, his entire world would fall apart.
He couldn’t let it happen could not let the thought that kept him up at night become a reality.
“We got her!”
In all the shouts from the other side of the carrier, that was the only one he was truly able to make out. There were more, more updates, more commands and announcements being thrown around, but none of them broke through, not as he watched Eva’s limp body pulled onto the ship, gripped by a soaked member of the rescue team.
Unbeknownst to him, several arms of the people around him had reached out towards him as she was brought into view, but none were enough to stop him from breaking away from the group and sprinting across the deck towards Eva.
It was a fair distance, but even in the night air, where most of the light was coming from the stars overhead, he had seen the shade of her skin, seen the franticness of the people around her, heard calls asking if she was breathing, if her heart was beating, how much water she had swallowed, how long she had been in the water and how long they had before the temperature alone would kill her.
During his run, there were several more attempts at grabbing him, at stopping him before he could get there, but none were successful. Nearly everyone was focused on Eva and the remainder of the rescue crew returning to the ship.
It was not until he had skidded to a stop a few feet away from Eva, and fell to his knees to be beside her that his presence was known by the larger group.
“Dr. Grace! Get out of here, you are to stay with the others!” there was a hand on the back of his shirt, trying to pull him away, but he managed to yank himself away from it.
“She’s- she’s unconscious, is she breathing? Please tell me she’s breathing!” Ryland could not get as close as he wanted to her, the medical personnel surrounding her on all sides.
“Dr. Grace, let our people do their jobs, I assure you that every attempt to help the director is being made!”
This time, there were more hands on him, more than he could fight off as he was dragged backwards and deposited harshly on the deck, one of the soldiers keeping hold of him.
He strained, trying to move so that he could see through the crowd of people, but was only able to get the tiniest view of what was going on. He watched, fists clenched so tightly there would be blood in his hands when he released them.
The deck fell disturbingly quiet, the entire teams- several teams- waiting to see if Eva would regain consciousness, and exchanging whispers about what exactly they were supposed to do if she did not. Who the hell were they supposed to call? Eva had all the power in the world, was there anyone above her?
Eventually, there was the sound of aggressive retching, and a flurry of activity as Eva was loaded onto a stretcher and wheel away. He wanted to run after her, and he would have if attempting didn’t mean that he would have to run straight through a group of soldiers who were free to treat him as they wanted if Eva was indisposed. As if he had heard his thoughts, the soldier who was gripping his arm only tightened his hold.
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Ryland didn’t know how long he and the others had been held on the deck, but by the time he was escorted back to his quarters, the frantic adrenaline had partially dissipated, being replaced with an awful sense of dread that had him staring at the ceiling in his bunk for nearly three hours before he finally gave up on any kind of rest- he was not getting back to sleep, not until he saw her.
When he exited his room, the ship had fallen quiet once more. It was in that odd sort of hour where the ones who worked late had finally slept, but the earliest of risers had not yet risen. It was an hour he normally missed unless he had some sort of meeting with the other side of the planet, and the stillness was strange.
There had been no more updates about Eva, and from the looks of it, everyone had, in a way, forgotten that the incident had happened in the first place.
Of course, he hadn’t. Eva didn’t get the privilege of everyone forgetting about her.
He arrived at the med bay without being stopped, and slid through the doors that led him to the front desk. “I'm here to see the director,”
“The director does not take visitors,” the man at the desk said, not even looking up at Grace, scratching down another answer into his crossword puzzle.
Ryland huffed, though it was not entirely unexpected. “Is she conscious?”
The man glanced up then straightening his back as soon as he saw Grace, seemingly surprised at who he was talking to, “Dr. Grace, I apologize, I was not informed you would be stopping by, I assumed it would not be until morning,”
“I was hoping to see her tonight, if she’s- if she’s okay,”
The man nodded immediately, “Director Stratt has been stabilized, she is receiving treatment, I will take you back to her room,”
Ryland followed behind the man, stomach untwisting as he got the news that she was stable- stable was good, stable was probably the best that any of them could ask for.
He was down a short hallway, housing the few private rooms that the med bay offered for particularly high-profile patients.
“She is in here, stay as long as you like,” the man indicated the correct door and left Ryland to go in on his own.
When Ryland pushed open the door, he braced himself for the impact of what he was going to see, of what state he might find her in, praying that it was not one that would haunt his dreams for the rest of his time.
Once the door was all the way open, he could have collapsed. It could have been much worse.
Eva was in the bed, laying on her side under a pile of blankets, several tubes and wires coming out of her from different directions. There was oxygen at her nose, and fluids being pumped into her system, half a dozen monitors constantly telling the team what was going on. The room was warm, but not as warm as Ryland would have liked it considering the ordeal that she had been through.
As quietly as he could manage while shaking like a damn leaf, he crossed the room and pulled the single chair against the wall closer to the edge of her bed. She appeared to sleep soundly, but the image of her unconscious as they pulled her on board was stuck in his mind, he wished desperately for her eyes to open, just for him to know that they could.
Not long after sitting, the tears began to gather in his eyes, the sheer relief at seeing her before him, alive, breathing on her own, it was more than he could handle at once.
He did not notice when Eva began to stir, he didn’t notice a single thing until there was a hand brushing through his hair, pulling him out of his own head.
“Ry- “Eva croaked, not able to force out much more.
His head snapped up, “You’re awake,” he breathed, deflating slightly, “Oh my god you’re awake,”
Eva nodded, and tried to force a smile, but it only came out strained and painful, Ryland grabbed her hand, rubbing his thumb across a smooth patch of skin.
“I was so scared,” he admitted, trying not to grip her too hard, but he never wanted to let her go again.
“Me too,” Eva said, quietly, searching his face, eyes pleading for reassurance, for comfort.
“I know, I know you were. They said someone pulled you over,” Ryland watched her eyes gloss over for a single moment.
Eva did not speak for several seconds, and when she did it was small, “I watched him drown,”
“He deserved worse,”
Eva just hummed, burrowing a little further into the pillow.
“Is there anything I can do, anything I can get you?” Ryland tried, ducking so that their faces were mostly level.
“You can get me the hell of this ship,” Eva said, shutting her eyes as the floor rocked beneath them ever so slightly. On a ship the size of theirs, it was rare to feel the rocking for majority of the day, but particularly rough waves would send pens rolling across desks. How had Eva survived in the waves?
“We’ll get off this ship one day, right?” the project would end someday, though no one knew exactly when it might be.
“Not soon enough. Not unless you plan on saving the world all on your own anytime soon,” Eva said, adjusting her position again. One of the monitors started to beep, but settled down a moment later.
Ryland almost chuckled, he was far from ever being the savior of the world. “I don’t have any plans,”
Silence fell over the room again, neither quite sure what to say, but it didn’t matter, not much needed to be said. Eva pulled a blanket tighter around her shoulders, and for the first time Ryland noticed how bad she was shaking.
“Are you still cold?”
Eva shook her head, but burrowed ever deeper into the piles of covers, “It’s getting better,”
“Should I go and tell someone?” Ryland started to move like he might stand from his chair.
“No, no. I'm fine,” Eva said, nodding for him to sit back down. Another few beats of silence passed, him watching her closely, before she finally worked up the courage to ask. “Lay with me?”
Ryland hesitated, he didn’t want to hurt her, but her eyes were scared, and he be damned if he didn’t do a think about it. “Can you scoot over?” he stood, slipping off his shoes.
Eva did, scooting over just enough for Ryland to slip into the bed beside her, it taking a few moments of adjustment before they settled into something comfortable, her curled up nearly atop Ryland, held tightly to his chest.
For the first time that night, both of them were able to relax, their heartbeats falling into a steady rhythm. Eva’s eyes were drooping shut when Ryland muttered, “I was so scared, you can’t leave me like that. I love you, you know that,”
“I know that,” Eva whispered, already mostly asleep in his arms. “I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon,”