Tracy had pulled out almost every single drawer as she searched for the ship's deck log that the quartermasters are suppose to keep on the ship.  This way there is an official record of it to help explain everything about the ship's movements and the history of everything around it.  Finally she found a drawer that looked promising.  But it seemed to be jammed as she tried to pull it open.  But then after a lot of very loud scrapping and screeching, she was finally able to forcefully yank it open. Inside she found exactly what she was looking for.

"Jackpot."  She said out loud.  

Then she took off the waterproof backpack that was on her back and packing up all of it to take with them.  Then she threw it back over her shoulder, as she stepped back out into the hallway to meet back up with Bob.  Then she turned into the Captain's quarters.  But she had been so focused on telling Bob about her luck with finding the logs, that she had missed the motion that was slowly making its way down the hallway.

"Any luck?"  Tracy asked as she watched him go through the drawers of a desk that was on one side of the room.

"Not yet."  He said as he got up and started looked through the the various shelves that lined the bulkheads right behind the desk.  "And you?" 

"I hit the mother load."  She said with a huge smile.

"Really?"   Bob said as he looked up at her.

She was standing there beaming down at him.  But he only saw this for a moment when he saw something that stopped his heart.  His jaw dropped as he watched a giant squid type creature start to stand up right behind Tracy as it stood back up to its full towering height.  Bob couldn't seem to move as he stared right at it.  He had never seen something like this before, and the very sight of it was a great reminder that they were indeed in danger and in unknown territory.  Which only provided to him that he had truly had a lot to learn about Niflheim.

"Are you alright?"  Tracy asked as she searched his face.  "You look like you have just seen a ghost."

"Tracy, I need you to slowly step towards me and don't make any sudden moves."  Bob said in a cautious voice as he slowly started to stand up himself so that he could either run or fight.  Or more than likely, both.

"Why?  Do you....?  Tracy started to ask, before she stopped short as she suddenly became very much aware that there was something very large behind her as she caught a glimpse of a moving tenticile out of the corner of her eye.

Bob then stood almost in a trance and stared at Tracy as time seemed to slow down as if he was watching a slow motion movie scene. For he watched as Tracy slowly started to turn as she stepped forward as she reached for both of her pistols that were on her hips.  With her thumbs she flipped the thin leather straps off of both guns and slowly pulled them out of their holsters at the same time.  Then as she raised them up, she flipped the safety off of both of them and raise them both up as she took aim at the squid type creature.

Then the quiet air was shattered as she fired off several shots right at the head of the creature.  Bob watched the creature jerk with each hit, before falling to the ground in a quivering mass.  It's tentacles still curled around everything they could find.  Bob just stared in shock for a few moments until he heard a terrifying scream coming from the hallway and knew that more of them were coming.  Then suddenly everything seemed to speed back up to a normal speed as another one of those creatures came into the room.

Bob watched as Tracy once again took it out with ease.  Then he nodded at her as he realized that she not only knew how to fight with her hands, but she was amazing with pistols.  For she kept hitting them directly in their weak points.  Something that he hadn't known that they had, until he saw her take down the second one with ease.

"Did you find the log?"  She quickly asked as she dropped the two empty clips on the ground and quickly reload in one smooth sweep with both hands against her belt.

"Huh?"  He asked in a stunned look.

"The Captain's log?  Did you find it?"  She asked with a tiche more force as they heard yet another one starting to come down the hallway.

Bob then quickly shook his head as he snapped out of his trance.  "Not yet."

Right as he said that, he did a quick glance down and spotted one drawer he hadn't checked.  Then after one hard yank, he opened the last drawer and found what he was looking for.  

"I got it." He said as he grabbed the green log book out of the drawer and made for the door.  "Let's get back to boat.  We're done here."

"Yeah."  Tracy replied as she started for the door, with both guns raised at the ready for the third one that she knew was coming.

Then she approached the door cautiously, only to have the third try to come into the room.  But this time it was pushed back into the hallway as she heard a gun sound off from behind her.  She turned around and saw Bob looking back at her with a slight smile on his face.

"Your not the only one who knows how to handle a gun you know."  He replied with a smirk.

Tracy half laughed, half smiled at him as he came walking up to her as he took it out with one more round as he hit it in the head as it stood in the hallway.  Then he turned and looked at her with a grin.  She looked back and gave him an even bigger smile as she nervously grinned at him.  He then nodded at her and put the log book into her backpack.

"Let's go."  He said once he zipped it back up and put it back on her shoulder.

"Right."  She grinned back.

Then they both quickly left the room as they could once again hear another one coming.  Then as they entered the bridge again, they quickly locked down the hatch and turned only to see Mike and Jeff fighting off several gobins as they ran around the bridge before darting at them as they tempted to steal their weapons and anything else on them that they could get.

"Let's get out of here!"  Bob shouted to them and made for the emergency exit door that lead them to a back stairway that would take them down to the stern or the ship and the aft part of the main deck.

But as they ran down the stairs, several goblins were chasing them and taunting them.  Tracy looked back and saw that two of them were trying to take Jeff's feet out from under him as he ran down.  She quickly turned around and planted her feet firmly.  Then she aimed at the goblins and took them both out with one precise shot each, to the head.

Jeff gasped and paused for a moment before he realized what had happened.  Then he slightly smiled at Tracy as he quicken his step to catch back up to the group.  Mike was in the lead and was trying to get the ladder to drop.  But it didn't seem to want to move.

"Fuck!  I can't get it."  Mike shouted as the ladder seemed to have rusted tight.  

Then he got mad and kicked it.  Then much to his delight, the ladder very loudly, was rattled loose and slid down to its full length.  Everyone quickly descended the ladder and went running around to where the boat was moored to the ship.  As everyone ran, goblins were chasing them across the decks.  But then they suddenly stopped as they reached midship.

"I think that they gave up."  Bob said as he watched them turn back around and run the other direction.

"Yeah!  That's right!  Run, you motherfuckers!"  Mike shouted at them as he practically bounced at them as he jumped after each sentence as he shouted at the retreating goblins.  "You don't want to mess with us!"

Tracy just smiled at him as she could clearly see that he was shaking like a leaf when he was done.  Mike then turned and strolled casually over to the group as everyone got ready to descend down the rope and back to the awaiting boat.  He had a huge smile on his face as he seemed quite pleased with himself.  Jeff just shook his head as he started to make his way down to the boat.

"You feel better now?"  Bob asked as he half laughed at Mike as he handed him the rope next so that he could climb down.

"Motherfuckers will think twice before they mess with us again."  Mike said as he grabbed the rope and started down.

Tracy and Bob just smiled at him.  But what they all missed, right as Mike started to head down.   Was that the large blue tarp that was right behind Bob, started to move.  It was slowly revealing something very large as it slid off of a giant lobster-type creature that made a slight purring sound as it started to make for Bob.  The large feet seemed to glide smoothly and silently across the metal deck as it approached. 

"Your pretty good with a gun."  Bob commented to Tracy as he held the rope out for her next.

"Thanks."  Tracy said with a smile as she put the safeties back on both guns before she put them both back into their holsters.  

Then she restrapped them back down so that they didn't fall into the water.  

"Your not bad yourself."  She said to Bob with a shy smile.

"Thanks."  Bob said as he looked at Tracy with the same gentle look that he had before the pirates had attacked.

The look took her breath away, until she saw the beautiful, tall, tail with blue tips of a very large karlabo that was walking up behind him.  She felt all of the color drain from her face as she realized what they needed the fully automatic guns for.  And before she even realized what she was really doing.  She rushed forward and pushed Bob out of the way by shoving him off of the boat, right as the massive tail came swinging towards them.

The tail just barely missed Bob as he flew off of the ship before falling and landing in the water.  Unfortunately, it caught Tracy and threw her up against the stack of crates that were piled in the center of the deck.  The force of the blow took her breath away.  And as she sat there gasping, she tried to catch her breath.   She looked up when she could final breath again and saw that it had now turned its attention towards her.

"I'm sorry, did we wake you up."  She said to it as she pulled her guns back out and started firing at it.

The creature screamed at her and started thrashing around as it kept getting pelted with bullets.  After the clips were empty, Tracy started to get back up on her feet as she quickly reloaded.  The creature had backed up enough for her to start to make her way around to the side of the ship.  Once she was reloaded, she started firing again.  She knew that handguns weren't going to be enough to kill it.  But it would be enough to get it to move out of her way as she started to make her way around it.

But as she moved, she felt the warm trickle of something running down her side.  That was when she realized that she was bleeding from her side from hitting the crates.  She silently cursed to herself as she started to grit her teeth as she could already feel a deep sharp pain in her side as she continued to fire her guns.  But she kept moving.  She had to keep moving.  She would not die here.  Not after all of that.

Finally she was able to get to the railing.  But then right as she was about to push it back a bit more, that was when she heard nothing but clicking from the two handguns in her hands.  She quickly looked at her spend guns and realized that she had lost count of the bullets.  She quickly looked down at her clip belt and saw that it was empty as well.

Shit!  She through as she put the  guns back in their holsters.

She then slowly looked back up at the giant beast as it towered over her.  She felt her heart in her throat.  She grabbed her side forcefully as she gritted her teeth from the sharp pain and walked over to the edge of the deck.  Then she stared at the creature as it screamed its fearful battle cry at her.

But then right as it was swinging its tail at her again, Tracy took one last step off of the ship, to which her foot was met with nothing but air.  And right as everything went black, her whole body went limp.  She fell off of the ship right as the tail just barely grazed her as if it had gently pushed her off of the ship and down to the cold water below.  

~~~~~~~~~~0~~~~~~~~~~

"How is she doc?"  Alex asked as the ships doctor closed the curtain behind him.

"She's resting now.  I just gave her a mild tranquilizer for the pain.  She should sleep until morning now.  She's very lucky that it was only a nasty cut and a couple broken ribs.  She should be fine after a few days."  Doc told him with a smile.

"That's good."  Alex replied.

"How's Bob handling it?  I heard she saved his life by pushing him off the ship."  Doc asked as he looked at Alex with a concerned look as he leaned up against his desk.

"He's handling it the way he always does I'm afraid."  Alex said as he looked down for a moment.  "He's in there pouring over those logs that they just risks their lives for."

"I really hope that they were worth it."  Doc said to Alex as he studied Alex's face.

"Here to."  Alex said.  "Here to."

Then Alex looked in the direction of Tracy's bed.  "We really owe a lot to her for everything that she just did for us.  I would really hate to lose her now after saving everyone like that."

"Well rest assured.  She's in good hands here."  Doc said with a reassuring tone.

"Now that I don't doubt."  Alex said as he put a hand on Doc shoulder.

Then after a slight squeeze of his shoulder, Alex dropped his hand and made for the door.  "I'll be in my cabin.  Call me when she wakes up."

"Of course."  Doc returned.  "I'll call you first thing."

"Thank you."  Alex replied.  "Oh, and where you able to check on that other thing?"

Doc dropped his gaze.  " I did.  And against my better judgement, I might add."

"And?" Alex asked dismissively without looking at him.

"I believe that she is.  Or was might be the better answer."  Doc answered dryly.  "At least based on some of the labs."

Alex's eyes got big and his heart stopped.  "What do you mean?"

Doc took a breath before he looked at Alex again.  "I didn't hear anything.  Not even a faint heartbeat.  And now I'm afraid of how she is going to react when she learns that it may have been gone for a while now. How long ago exactly? I won't know for sure without asking her when she found out she was and after running a few more labs.  But based on the labs so far, it looks like it may have been gone before she came across us."

Alex dropped his head and closed his eyes for a moment before he made for the door again.  And without another word, he walked out of the room.  And with that, he was gone. Doc glanced down for a moment.  Then he slowly looked back up and turned away from the door.  He then stood back up and walked over to his desk chair so that he could finish off the rest of the paperwork for the night.

~~~~~~~~~~0~~~~~~~~~~

"Find anything good within those logs?" Alex asked as he walked into Bob's stateroom.

"So far it's been a lot of the same information as the others. The only difference is that this one has a log that stopped about two months ago." Alex replied.

"Are you telling me that the ship has been unmanned for two months?" Alex asked as he went over and looked over his shoulder at the papers in front of Bob.

"Not unmanned per-say." He said as he pulled up the last page of the deck log and sat it on top. "But more than likely, that was when it was last used as a commercial cargo ship."

"So what has it been doing for the last two months?" Alex asked as he looked at him.

"Nothing good, based on what we just saw." He said as he sat back. "They had that ship armed to the teeth for protection from whatever they had been transporting."

"Did you actually get to see what it was?" Alex asked as he gave Bob a concerned look.

"No. She had shoved me off the ship just before it had attacked.  So I didn't exactly get a chance to turn around and look at it." Bob said as kept his head down. "In fact, after I fell off, all we heard was gunfire as she must have been fighting it off.  But then we all watched in shock as she fall off herself after that."

"It's a good thing that you caught her in the water then.  She's here now because of you." Alex said to him.

"I was just returning the favor." Bob said as he kept his eyes on the papers in front of him

"Drop the act Bob." Alex sternly said as he sat on the end of the desk. "You may have fooled the others.  But you can't fool your own brother."

"What are you talking about?"  Bob asked as he kept his eyes averted.

"You got a thing for her." Alex said with a smile.

Bob paused for a moment before he looked back up at him. "Now why would you think that?"

"Because I know you."  Alex said with a smile.  "You may be older than me. But that doesn't mean that I don't know you better than anyone else."

Bob rolled his head back as he closed his eyes as he tried to deflect his brother's smile.  But when he looked back at Alex, he was greeted with an even bigger grin.  Alex then stood up and walked to the door.

"I'll let you know when she's awake.  If you haven't already visited her by then that is."  Alex said as he started to walk out the door.  

"Oh," Alex started in a low voice as he stopped with his hand of the doorknob,  "and on the other thing. Doc did confirm what you were thinking.  But I afraid there's a bit more to it."

"What so you mean?"  Bob asked as he gave Alex a confused look.

"Well, she is carrying."  Alex said back before he turned and looked at his brother with a distraught face.

"But she'll never deliver it.  At least not how she thought that she would."  Alex said back in a flat tone to Bob's stunned face.

"Does she know?"  Bob asked as he watch Alex.

Alex shook his head.  "Not as far as we know.  Or at least Doc hasn't said anything. But then again, we did have him check without her consent. So it's not like he can tell her unless she asked him."

"Now you make it sound criminal. We didn't have him run a  pregnancy test or anything.  I just wanted to know if he could hear a faint heartbeat."  Bob said as he sat back again.

"Either way.  It doesn't matter." Alex said in a sad tone.  "We still can't say anything to her about it.  Well, not until she asks about it."

Alex then dropped his gaze again.  "So for now, we'll just keep it to ourselves."

"Agreed."  Bob said as he look down as well as felt his heart drop as he pictured seeing her reaction.  

That was a sight that he wasn't looking forwards to seeing.

"I'll let you know when she wakes up."   Alex said with a nod and walked out the door.

Bob then dropped his head.  He knew his brother was right.  But he had been concerned after seeing her acting that way she was.  And he knew that it was dangerous enough for a woman to be pregnant on a ship.  There were way too many hazards to content with.  Plus, if something went wrong, they might not be able to get her to the hospital in time.  But as he sat back and sighed from the new development.  He couldn't help but think that this question had backfired on him in the worst way.

"XO, Sir."  Bob heard from his squawk box by his desk. 

"What is it?"  He returned as he hit the talk button.

"I have Korn Scientia on the phone for you in radio."  The voice returned.

"I'm on my way."  He returned.

He then gathered up all of the pages from the deck log and put them back into a nice and neat stack.  Then he put the stack as well as the green Captain's log book, into his bottom desk drawer and locked them up.  Then he stood up and headed for radio.  The logs would have to wait for now.  First he needed to clarify Tracy's story.  This way they could move forward with either sending her to the jail or giving her, her freedom as soon as they reached Altissia.

******Author Note****

I love it when families work together.  And especially when it is a 'family' own business.  To me, it means that there is way more heart into it then anything else.  And that's what makes those businesses great.

But in a cruel twist of faith.  Tracy is forced to face a harsh reality as she finds out that the very thing that she was trying to protect, has been taken from her.  But is it enough to destroy her.  Or will it be the start of something new that has started with another?

We shall see in the next chapter.

Thanks for reading.  :)

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