Chapter 5: Meeting With Second Officer Keen

Swimming in the direction of Life-pod 2, Jake had some of the memories regarding the life-pods coming back to him, and the first one was regarding Life-pod 2. It was regarding the conversations that took place with it's inhabitants.

Remembering that the life-pod had been 500 metres down and only had 30 minutes of oxygen remaining when they reached that depth, he started some calculations. If they were smart enough, they stayed in the life-pod until the oxygen ran out.

Estimating the time it took reach that depth, the amount of time required for them to somehow get to the surface, and the amount of time it took to reach the rendezvous point, which was the island behind the Auror, he figured that CTO Yu and Berkeley were probably halfway to the island.

Thinking of that, he changed his direction to match their estimated current location. Picking up his speed, Jake swam at his fastest possible speed with his current injuries since he knew that when CTO Yu had reached the island, she was alone, implying that Berkeley had died along the way.

It took 10 minutes for Jake to reach close to the estimated location. Looking around, Jake saw the large floating island off in the distance, and in the opposite direction towards where Life-pod 2 was, two small black dots were barely visible.

Swimming in that direction with all his might, Jake didn't know when Berkeley would die or disappear, but the closer he was to them then the better the chance he had of saving Berkeley.

Decreasing the distance between him and the two survivors, he saw that they were currently trying to fend off a strange fish that Jake had never seen before in the game. It was a predatory fish from what he could tell.

Being a dark blue in colour, it closely matched the waters of the planet 4546B, but there were purple rings around it's body that ran down from it's head to it's tail. Reminding Jake of a snake or an eel, the fish had a slightly arrow shaped head, two eyes, and scaly skin covered in some kind of mucus.

CTO Yu was a young woman in her mid-twenties who was tall and slim with short brown hair and stern facial features. Berkeley was a young man in his early-twenties with blond hair, blue eyes, and gentle yet mature facial features. He was as tall as CTO Yu while weighing a little over 70 kilograms.

Trying to wrap the two people up with it's entire body, which was 10, metres long, it wanted to drag them down and kill them. The snake/eel fish completely ignored Jake, who was getting closer and closer. It's attempts at trying to curl it's body around the two were constantly thwarted by Berkeley, who had a small knife.

Fed up with it's lack of progress on getting the two strange creatures, the snake/eel fish decided that it would be happy with a single one of them instead of both. Opening it's mouth, it lurched forward and bit leg of the creature that was constantly poking it, and then started dragging it down.

Watching Berkeley get bitten and being submerged, CTO Yu was terrified and depressed, but then she heard a splash behind her. Swiftly turning around, all she saw was the figure of something else diving towards Berkeley.

Diving below the surface, Jake caught up with the snake/eel fish that was quickly diving towards the seabed with Berkeley. Trying to grab the fish, his hands slipped off due to the mucus covering it's body, and that caused him to lose a few precious seconds.

Altering his approach, he dug his fingernails into the fish and ripped off a large chunk of flesh and scales. The blood from Berkeley and the fish were most likely attracting attention from other sea creatures, so Jake had to save Berkeley quickly.

When the chunk of flesh from the fish had been ripped out, the fish had released Berkeley from it's mouth out of pain and surprise. Turning around, it saw a larger creature compared to the two it had seen before, and this creature gave off the feeling of a predator currently looking at prey.

Choosing not to ignore it's instincts about the larger strange creature, the fish fled as fast as possible since it was not worth it to lose it's life over these weird creatures it had never seen before. As for Berkeley, he was holding his breath while watching the fish flee.

They were just over 50 metres below the surface of the ocean, but that was more than deep enough for Berkeley to not make it back to the surface in time. Suddenly, Berkeley felt his neck being grasped tightly in the hand of someone else, and then he realized that they were rapidly approaching the surface.

CTO Yu wasn't able to see the scene below her as she was currently over a deeper part of the ocean. Mumbling prayers, Yu then saw two people surface a little ways away from her, and Berkeley was one of the two.

Swimming towards the duo, she went to check Berkeley first and find out the extent of the injuries on his leg. Approaching the duo, Berkeley was coughing up some water while she realized that she had never seen the other person before.

"I'm Jake, but there is no time to explain anything. Let's go." Choosing not to explain anything, Jake immediately started swimming back towards Life-pod 5 while carrying Berkeley and CTO Yu following behind him in bewilderment.

After 15 minutes, all three people had arrived back at Life-pod 5. Berkeley had fallen unconscious as soon as they arrived from losing too much blood and that made CTO Yu worry greatly. Climbing on top of the life-pod, Jake opened the top hatch and lowered Berkeley down slowly while observing how much space was available.

The two women were sitting on the chairs while all four men had been sitting cross legged on the floor, but Derek and Ozzy stood up to help lower Berkeley down gently. "All the men can come out of the life-pod and sit on top of it while Berkeley is being treated by Mary.

I also have CTO Yu here as well, so she can go in and help if necessary. The only injury I saw on Berkeley is the one on his leg from a fish that tried to kill him, so treat him with care. It's good that everyone has regained their senses.

And now goodbye, I have to go and get the others. Try and make sure that there is enough room for everyone, the women can stay in the life-pod while the men stay outside if necessary."

Having noticed that the other woman had regained her senses and had been looking at him, Jake addressed her before he descended back into the ocean while the people in and on the life-pod started following his instructions.

Watching as the Jake started swimming away, CTO Yu wondered who he was since she had never seen him before, but she switched her attention back to Berkeley when she heard a grunt of pain from someone.

Looking down into the life-pod, she saw that Berkeley had regained consciousness and was scrunching his face in pain while looking at his leg. Not only that, but she also noticed that all four able bodied men in the life-pod stood up to climb out.

Climbing the up ladder one after the other, Ryley, Derek, William, and Ozzy all sat on top of the life-pod while CTO Yu took the opportunity to climb down the ladder and help with Berkeley's injuries. Laying on their stomachs, the four men watched as Mary tore open the the pant leg of Berkeley's suit to examine the wound.

Once the leg of the suit was torn away, four large puncture wounds that went all the way through Berkeley's leg were visible. Even though he wasn't as injured as Jake was, his wound was no less fatal than the massive one on Jake's back.

Passing out again once he saw the state of his leg, Berkeley couldn't bare to look at it nor at what Mary was going to do next. Surprisingly, no more blood was coming out of the puncture wounds, but that wasn't really a good thing.

All of the medical supplies that Jake had brought back to the life-pod as well as the medical supplies that were already in the life-pod were currently stored in the small storage container that came built with every life-pod.

Examining the state of his wound, Mary noticed that whatever injured him wasn't poisonous and had somehow missed the arteries, but that didn't mean his wound wasn't serious or that he hadn't lost much blood.

Searching through all of the medical supplies they had, she took out some disinfectant, disinfected gauze, roller bandages, antibiotics, some of the pills Jake had taken, and an adrenaline injection, which was what Jake had injected himself with and what Derek had injected Ryley with.

Carefully disinfecting Berkeley's wound, Mary cleaned it with some of the gauze before injecting Berkeley with the adrenaline to wake him up since the gentle method wasn't working. Once he was awake, she gave him the antibiotics and the pills that would help with blood production and closing the wounds.

Covering the wound with a few pieces of the gauze, Mary wrapped the roller bandages around Berkeley's leg and then proceeded to pour more disinfectant on it. Wiping her forehead, she sighed to herself before breaking off a small piece of the nutrient block and eating it while thinking about Jake.

Continuing to swim, Jake's next destination was Life-pod 19, which only had Second Officer Keen as the inhabitant. Knowing that CTO Yu had met him on the island implied that he had gotten there before her, so he immediately started swimming back to the island.

Reaching the island another 15 minutes later, Jake had just swam ashore when he heard a loud and commanding voice. "Stop! State your name and position! After doing so you may stand!" Staying on his hands and knees, Jake did as he was told since he could recognize the voice as Second Officer Keen's.

Looking down at the man in front of him, Second Officer Keen eyed him suspiciously since he had never seen him aboard nor in the crew log, which he would most definitely have noticed him aboard due to his... stature.

Not only did he notice his peculiarity about his identity, he also noticed the many injuries that were present all over his body. There were a few that were treated and some that weren't, but the most eye catching injury was the large cut that was crudely treated on his back.

"My name is Jake! I am a stowaway!" Proceeding to stand up to his full height, Jake looked at Second Officer Keen, who must have been from European decent as well as a sight to behold. Having jet-black buzzcut hair, sharp light-brown eyes, and a square jawline, he was quite handsome.

Standing at 1.84 metres tall, he seemed quite imposing with the way he was standing and the long scar stretching from his right eyebrow down to his chin, at least he would have if Jake was an ordinary person, but he is not.

Jake could intuitively tell that Second Officer Keen must have seen battle at some point in his life since he had fought with many retired soldiers in the underground fights. In Second Officer Keen's right hand was a long weapon of some kind covered in a cloth, looking kind of like a gun.

"May you please lower your weapon and follow me? We have to get back to Life-pod 5. I have rescued the crew members from Life-pods 2, 3, 6, and 17. They are currently waiting at Life-pod 5 for us to return.

We must hurry since there are still many other people that need saving and we don't know what could happen." Trying to convince Second Officer Keen, Jake was getting agitated since every second not swimming was a precious second that was wasted.

Slowly lowering his "weapon", Second Officer Keen chose to believe the man named Jake. Although reluctant, he still understood that this "Stowaway" was right and that anything could happen in the time that they have been talking.

"Fine, let's go. Explain everything to me after we get to back to Life-pod 5." Saying that, Second Office Keen preceded to remove the cloth covering his "weapon" to reveal that it was nothing but a stick shaped like a gun.

"My name is Owen Keen. I was the Second Officer on the Aurora, but I am no longer the Second Officer due to very obvious reasons. I shall follow you, so just lead the way."

Giving out his name and prior position, he walked down the sloped hill towards Jake and the water. Stopping beside Jake, Rob looked up at him for a second before turning his gaze to the water and the creatures it may hold.

(Yay! The chapter is done! If I can get 20 power stones by... Friday? I will reveal small spoiler for some of the survivors as a comment on the last part of this chapter. If you don't want a spoiler and I still get 20 power stones then I will give a warning on the spoiler since you don't want it and warn you not to look at it. Peace out!)

(PS. I kinda wanna change Keen's name to Owen instead of Robert, but if you like Robert then I won't change it. It just seems a little strange when I use it in sentences. The spoiler is in the last part of this chapter.)