BridgeWorld

[Earth: June 10, 2023]
It was one of those rare sunny days in Suva, but Kaylee Anderson was already bored out of her skull as she walked up the gangplank behind her parents and twin sister onto the yacht that was about to take her and her family to their private island. The only thing that was going to make this trip interesting to her was the four-girl band and their manager who was accompanying them.

In addition to their own private island, her parents owned a music publishing company in Suva, and the business dealings that was going to be discussed could just as easily have been done in their office building. But apparently the band members were interested in doing a bit of exploring while they were in Fiji. While not nearly as interesting as the rainforests that covered most of the larger islands, the band members were evidently jumping at the chance of seeing their little mansion and property on that postage stamp of an island the Andersons called home.

"Good morning Jessie and Kaylee!" the Skipper called out as the two sisters came on board.

Skipper. Kaylee never knew his real name. Just "Skipper". He was a fairly fit middle-aged man, and the former owner of the yacht that was generally at the Andersons' beck and call. Years ago, he and his crewman Willy used to provide outings for a number of rich tourists out of Nadi. It was during one such trip several years back when the family took a trip out from there, and where the Skipper and Willy kept them from getting floundered during a particularly bad storm that had suddenly popped up. After that incident, her father decided to buy their boat outright and permanently hired them as its crew.

Willy, a mid-twenties-something man of Indian-decent, took a moment to look up from his work on the ropes to wave at the girls before focusing his attention back on untying the lines in preparation for their departure.

"Good morning, Skipper," Jessie replied as she led the way to their quarters.

"Permission to come aboard, sir?" a voice called out behind her. Kaylee looked back and noted Dmitri, one of the technicians who worked at her parent's business. He was the last member in the group to come aboard for this trip.

"Well, now!" Skipper exclaimed. "You sound like a regular sailor! Permission granted! Welcome aboard!"

"Thank you, sir," Dmitri replied, reaching out to shake the Skipper's hand. "It's just old habits. I was an Information Systems Technician in the US Navy before moving here a few years ago. Dmitri Fraser. I'm the lead computer tech at the Andersons' company."

"Hans Deitrich," the Skipper replied. "My first mate, Willy Ghin," he added, pointing to his fellow crewman.

So, those are their names, Kaylee thought, as she moved on to follow her sister below, leaving the men to their guy-talk.

"…and as you should see, our systems are easily capable of doing all the digital and analogue editing that you might ever wish for," Dmitri finished speaking to the four-girl band and their manager, who were all intently focused on his words. Kaylee saw the shadow of a frown of disapproval over her parents' faces. Just then, there was a sudden violent rocking of the boat.

"Analogue?" Alan Dexter, the band's manager inquired, when he got over some momentary seasickness.

"Never underestimate the value of doing things the old-fashioned way," Dmitri jumped in before her father could speak up. "Naturally, the current technology is hyper-invested in digital recording to editing to publishing and distributing. But analogue still has a fair chunk of the market that it's unwise to just dismiss them. If you recall from history how the Beetles did back when they were first getting started, everybody was analogue. Even as they started embracing digital recording, they never let go of their analogue roots, and look how their sales still hold up, even today. Many bands soon after the Beetles moved strictly to digital recording and editing, even when records were still being published in analogue, but their sales never approached the volume they still hold."

The conversation was momentarily interrupted with another heavy rocking.

"However, if you look at the bands we've been supporting, their sales are also higher than modern bands," Dmitri continued. "Even when some of their music, quite frankly, isn't as appealing as their competitors. It's because we're using many of those same innovative ideas created by Abby Road back then of mixing analogue and digital in our recording, editing, and publishing process. The audience still senses that difference, and it influences the sales, even to the point that other publishers have taken notice of what we're doing."

It looked to Kaylee that her father and mother were both about to have a conniption over what Dmitri had said. Just then, more rocking and abnormal tilting of the boat was enough to make everyone have to grab ahold of something solid to keep from being tossed from their seats. Dmitri frowned, looking up and around, as if just becoming aware of the wave turbulence.

"That's true," Alan spoke out after he recovered from the violent shaking. "It's one of the main reasons we came here to talk with you people about it," he said to Fred and Amanda Anderson, surprising them. "We've noticed how so many of your customers were doing so well. That's why we want to audition with you. Once you hear how good the girls are, we're hoping you lot will be willing to publish us. If you can do for us what you've managed to do for that Andrew's band, I'm sure we all would greatly profit from this venture."

"Well, yes, of-of course!" Fred Anderson replied, his expression quickly changing from disapproval to elation. Dmitri, however, frowned as more of the violent surges in their trip occurred.

"Plus, we're keeping up with the newest recording equipment," Dmitri added, clearly distracted. "Data storage isn't a problem, either. We have both in-house and Cloud based data storage, all totally encrypted and protected from hackers or thieves. Music piracy is a major concern that every publisher like us has to actively combat. Unfortunately, I have to say, many music and movie publishers don't take the threats very seriously. That's why they only have one layer of encryption to protect their customers—and many of them are still constantly getting hacked. We use three."

"Whoa!" Alan exclaimed, impressed. Everyone had to hold on again as the yacht trembled and violently rocked some more, making Alan exclaim, "WHOAH!" once more.

"At least," her father added, nodding.

"Excuse me for a moment," Dmitri said as he stood and made his way toward the door to the upper deck, clearly distracted by the yacht's handling. They all watched him go and were surprised by the burst of rain blasting in as he opened the door and left the room.

"So, no one's been able to hack into any of your customers' data?" Alan inquired when he was able to turn his attention back to Kaylee's parents.

"Not so far," Amanda Anderson said. "On that matter, we clearly have dear Dmitri to thank for that. He brought a lot of knowledge from his time in the Navy. He's certainly been a Godsend for us…."

The door slammed open once more and Dmitri was screaming.

"EVERYONE! CHECK YOUR LIFEVESTS AND GET ON DECK NOW!"

Outside, the Skipper and Willy were both desperately trying to maintain control of the yacht in the face of the hardest tropical cyclone Kaylee had ever experienced.

"WHA—WHERE DID THIS COME FROM!?" her father yelled. "THE WEATHER'S SUPPOSED TO BE CLEAR—"

"THIS STORM'S NOT THE THING TO WORRY ABOUT RIGHT NOW!" Dmitri screamed, grabbing her father by the shoulders. "THAT IS!" he finished, pointing to the blackness filling the sight off the left side of the yacht.

Just as Kalee looked to where he pointed, an intense and nearly blindingly bright fork of lightning burst up and out toward the sky, lighting up the thing from which it was coming. The thing that made her scream….