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“And that’s the real story. It’s fun to make up different explanations, though. You’d be surprised what people will believe. The albino story is my favorite.”
    I liked Ebony Grace. Even if her first name defined irony, her last name defined her personality. Composed, hospitable, pleasant—qualities I wished were contagious. Hopefully I’d have the opportunity to get to know her better once we boarded the Bellator . The Bellator . The lump returned to my throat when I thought of the name of my new home.
    Ebony was distracted again, struggling to sit straighter to see over the heads in front of us. “I think we’re almost there.”
    I tried to peer ahead as well, but I’d secured my seat belt a little more responsibly and couldn’t rise up at all. I leaned to the side, looking past the conductor to the illuminated, muddy bottom. The sea floor ahead disappeared, dropping off a cliff into a darker void. I fought back the unreasonable fear that we would plummet to our deaths.
    This is just a shelf on the ocean floor , I told myself as we approached the precipice. We’ll just keep moving through the water, that’s all. Still, I held my breath, letting it out in a gust when we left the shallow water. A small, ridiculous part of me felt the cliff was symbolic.
    As we descended farther, the pit of my stomach experienced the sensation of falling, real or imagined. And then I saw it. The massive Bellator illuminated the deep waters of the ocean, its tiny, lighted windows punctuating the multilevel vessel, creating an outline of this enormous submerged liner. It was shaped liked a giant fish without a tail, the front of it large and rounded, the body tapering down to the tailless tip. What I assumed was the control center glowed at the front, representing the open and well-lit eye of the fish. The physics of such a design were sound, a perfect imitation of nature. The Bellator displayed the same capability to remain immobile amid the ocean currents, its form so still it looked like a permanent resident here instead of an alien presence.
    “There it is,” Ebony breathed in awe, her expression echoing my own sentiments.
    The immense size of the thing left me breathless, diminishing what little confidence I’d accumulated since parting with sunlight—and with Captain Marek. But I didn’t actually part with him, did I? After all, this was his ship, his territory. And it looked every bit as powerful, every bit as intimidating, as the man who directed it. Lucky for me, that meant the mighty Bellator was big enough that I’d probably never have to face him again, never have to look him in the eyes and know that I could recite all the bones in the human body, spout off the element chart, but I couldn’t remember my own name when I found myself in his capable arms. What if I started to forget my training too? I was supposed to be part of the medical staff on the ship. Could he be so distracting that I’d amputate the wrong leg or attempt a hysterectomy on a man?Worse than that, would my research suffer?
    I shook my head. Let it go, idiot. You didn’t get much sleep and even less breakfast. Who would function normally under those circumstances? I cringed at the answer: Any good doctor would. It was part of the job to focus no matter the circumstances, to shut out the rest of the world and concentrate on the task at hand.
    But this wasn’t about being a good physician. I reacted to Captain Marek as a woman, not as a doctor, which had never happened before. For all his charm and effort, Blue Eyes couldn’t knock off my doctor hat, not even when he offered me his best deal-sealing smile and asked me on a date. But I was in my natural element—a medical emergency on my island. Captain Marek made me forget my name by catching me when I fell—at a time when I was emotional, vulnerable, kidnapped , for God’s sake. It didn’t mean he could undermine my ability as a doctor. Besides, I didn’t even like the man. He was