Chapter Text
The Ever Given’s Captain sits down in his office and covers his face in his hands. This is a disaster. A complete flaming heap of landfill-sized disaster, that will probably haunt him for the rest of his life.
Approximately 85 hours ago on Tuesday the 23rd of March 2021, the Captain of the Ever Given had entered the Suez Canal. As per the Egyptian’s government’s protocol, he had (reluctantly) handed over control of the Ever Given to one of Suez Canal’s endorsed pilot crew.
Ever Given’s Captain was a highly esteemed captain. He had first begun sailing at the mere age of 16 under his mother’s watchful eye in their very own dinghy sailboat in India. The sailboat itself wasn’t much, it was only a few meters long and could only travel a maximum speed of about 6 miles per hour.
Nonetheless, it was an important experience. It was where the Captain decided that he wanted to become a sailor, and travel the ocean on the largest boats. The following nine years weren’t as fun or easy, but the Captain had persevered, and eventually graduated and was offered a position as one of the crew members on a small cargo ship. From there, the Captain quickly rose in ranks, until he got where he was today: Captain of the Ever Given, one of the largest cargo ships in the entire world.
When the Captain had been hired, he was given the authority to choose his crew. He handpicked the best crew members, the ones with stellar resumes, extensive experience and passion for their positions. He could confidently say that his crew was one of the best in the entire world.
The endorsed Egyptian pilot crew was another story altogether.
The Captain had sailed the Suez canal hundreds of times before, and he had yet to hear of, yet see a diligent Suez pilot who actually stayed at the helm even half of the 13 hours it takes to sail the canal.
The Captain did not trust the pilot crew at all. However, the law was the law and the Captain was forced to let the Egyptian pilot crew steer the Ever Given through the canal.
The Captain turned to his crew and ordered them to keep an eye on the Egyptian crew in shifts just in case, and to get him if something should happen. A mere five hours later, the Captain had been awoken from his sleep by a frantic crew member banging on his door and winds howling around his ship.
Heart racing, the Captain had flung open the door to the crew member, who quickly summarized the situation. The Ever Given had gotten stuck in a sand storm with 50 kt gusts and literally no visibility. It was the worst storm the crew had encountered; they literally could not see the water beneath them, which forced the Egyptian pilot to navigate solely by radar and sonar. The Egyptian pilot had panicked once the winds picked up, and now the bow was rotating to face the shore of the Suez Canal.
The Captain quickly ran into the bridge and quickly took control of the situation. Due to the fierce winds, momentum of the Ever Given, and their trajectory, it wasn’t possible to get the Ever Given back on course. The Captain ran through a quick checklist. They were going to crash, and he had to minimize the impact. First, he had to protect his crew.
The Captain quickly had given the crew member instructions to get everyone prepared for a crash and to anchor themselves somewhere where loose objects and items would not fall, slide and hurt them.
Next he had to protect his ship. He turned his attention to the ship and reversed the engines to reduce their impact speed (and force). Following, he ordered the crew members in the bridge to alert the other ships of the impending crash, so that they wouldn't get caught in between. Then, to the best of his abilities, he guided the Ever Given such that it crashed with the minimal force possible and without the resulting vibrations knocking any cargo off the ship.
That was 80 hours ago.
Two hours ago, the local authorities and Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement had estimated that it would take weeks to unstick the Ever Given and get them back on course.
Two entire weeks.
The Suez canal was one of the busiest waterways in the world; approximately 12% of the global maritime trade passed through. Companies and entire governments would lose billions of dollars. In fact, the International Chamber of Shipping estimated that $3 billion dollars worth of cargo passes through the Suez Canal everyday.
Even worse, his daughter’s birthday was coming up in a week and a half. He had purposely arranged time off so that he’d be home for her 10th birthday. Due to poor weather at sea, he had missed her previous two birthdays by a few days. This year, he had been determined to make it up to her, and get there a few days early. He had promised her he’d be there.
Not to mention, he still had to get the rest of his crew back to India, where undoubtedly their families were anxiously waiting for the arrival of their loved ones.
The Captain closed his eyes and despaired, the weight of his failures weighing on his shoulders. He couldn’t abandon his ship and his crew, and they couldn’t get the Ever Given back on course for weeks. It would take a literal miracle from the gods themselves to fix this.
Suddenly, an old memory drifted into his mind. A tale his father had told him, one that he had never believed. Years ago, when he was still young, his father had told him fantastical tales of going on quests and being a greek hero. What was the term he used? Demigod. His father had claimed that he was the son of the god of travelers, that his grandmother (bless her soul) had fallen for a Greek god.
The Captain hadn’t believed them, hadn’t even entertained the thought at the time. But now he was desperate. He fished his phone out of his pocket and scrolled down, down to where his grandmother had added the contact to his phone: Hermes. Steeling his nerves, the Captain swallowed, prayed that this wasn’t some elaborate joke created by his father and grandmother (and considering their personalities, it was very likely that it was) and pressed ‘call.’
~ ~ ~
Hermes, the Greek of of travelers and trade, slouches in his throne, grinning ear to ear as he looks at his phone. One of his daughters, Julia Feingold had created a meme about the situation in the Suez Canal. On top were the words, “Who would win?” followed by two columns, the first having a map of the world and various trading routes Hermes recognized highlighted, captioned with the words. “A global trade system between technologically advanced civilizations.” The second column had contained an image of the Ever Given, along with the caption, “one shippy boi.”
It was one of the first memes created about the event, and Hermes was proud of her response time.
Hermes looked to his side. His brother Apollo was also scrolling through his phone with a smile on his face. “Brother,” Hermes addressed Apollo in their native tongue. “Look.”
Apollo looked up and glanced at Hermes’ phone, before laughing. “I’ve seen that meme already,” Apollo replied in ancient Greek. “You’ll have to do better than that. Look at the one my son, Will Solace, sent me.”
Apollo held up his phone and Hermes glanced at it. The first image was Marvel’s version of the norse goddess Hela, with the words “Global Capitalism,” on top of her. Beneath were her infamous words from the movie. “You can’t defeat me.” Underneath that, was Marvel’s Thor with his eye-patch with the subtitle, “I know, but he can.” The third image showed Ragnarök destroying Asgard, surrounded by flames.
Hermes laughed. He had to admit, it was good.
Apollo looked smug, as if to say that his children made better memes. Hermes narrowed his eyes and glared, as if to say aww Styx no, before scrolling through his phone, looking for the meme that his son Cecil Markowitz had created using the TV show Person of Interest. That was another pretty good one.
His phone began vibrating, and an unknown number showed up on screen. Hermes looked at it and frowned. Unknown mortal numbers shouldn’t be calling him, Hermes had magicked his phone numbers so that his phone wouldn’t receive any calls from people he didn’t give his number to.
So how had this mortal gotten his phone number?
Martha curled around his phone and hissed. “I think you sssssssshould pick up thisssss one. It’ll be worth it.”
“I agree, and then get usssssss some ratsssssss when you’re done!” Hissed George from the other side of the phone.
Hermes frowned at his phone. “Well if you insist…” he muttered before excusing himself from the throne room.
Outside, Hermes accepted the call. “Hello?”
“Hello. Is this - is this Hermes? The Greek god of travelers?” asked the mortal at the other end of the call in Hindu, sounding a tad desperate and disbelieving. Hermes tried not to take offence.
“Yes. Who is this?” replied Hermes, switching to Hindu.
“Oh. This is the Captain of the Ever Given. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we’ve crashed in the Suez Canal in Egypt, and I was, uh, I was wondering if you could help us out?”
Hermes felt his eyebrows raise in surprise. This was quite the unexpected turn of events. Hermes had read the articles and seen the pictures on the internet (that he created, a voice at the back of his mind reminded him smugly). He recognized that the situation could have been far worse. With a ship of that size, and a sandstorm of that magnitude, it would have taken an expert captain or pilot to have crashed the ship without any injuries, deaths or collateral. And judging by the man’s tone, he was honest and his plea was genuine.
Hermes sighed. He had been looking forward to a few more weeks worth of memes, created by his children. They were just so entertaining. Not to mention that tumblr hadn’t had this level of chaotic energy that Hermes reveled in since November the 5th.
Hermes closed his eyes, and used the phone signal to locate the Captain’s presence on the Ever Given. Within a moment, he assumed his true form and made for the boat.