"Commercial fishing" (Story) by Drgong

Commercial fishing

Somewhere off the coast of Alaska, 2084

The 36 meter (120 foot) vessel the “Inca Roads” sailed though the choppy seas, the captain happy to see that the seas where calm today. He looked over his ship, not the largest in the fleet, but not as expensive to run as some of the massive boats. Fishing had changed over the years, but in many ways, the basics where the same. Go out to sea, catch inexpensive protein, come back to shore and sell it. However WHAT was caught had changed in the last few years.

Back in the 40’s fishing stocks collapsed, and with more and more land being used to grow ethanol and grains, there was a shortage of inexpensive protein rich food. However, with the changing times, and new technology, a new method of feeding the world was discovered.

Some physicists argued that each choice, even a flap of a butterfly’s wings causes a new parallel universe to open, and 20 years ago, this was proven to be true, while the ability to travel to such places had not been developed, it was quite easy to drag items from the parallel universes back to our world, and soon, a brave new world existed. Rather then letting the world starve, and rather then feeding on our own kind, it was decided that humans who where “grabbed” where fair game to be eaten, though a few rules where established.

Radio transmissions interfered with the “D-Grabbing” (Dimensional Grabbing) and there was a constant fear that one of these “D-Grabbed” humans had a horrid illness, so the old fishing fleets where rebuilt, and instead of nets, D-Grabbing devices where installed, and these boats sailed out into the sea, and harvested there catch.

The Captain checked his logbook and chronometer, and turned on his intercom. “Ok crew, the season for females from Western US of A, Alternate Reality 777A3 is about to open, lets fill the boat and get back to port.” The captain sounded his horn, and there was a low hum as the field generators kicked into place.

Almost immediately, 4 girls slid down a ramp to the waiting fishermen. The first was a older women, 40ish with red hair and a tall, thin body, the second a blond in her late 20’s, who was at best average, the next two where teens, 18-19 years old, and wonderful to look at.

The fact that these women had been forced from there reality to ours caused them to be disoriented, and the crew quick goes to work, carefully but quickly cutting off the clothing. Rings and any jewelry is quickly placed into a large bucket, to be sold later, as each girl is stripped, she is brought before the deckboss, who has the job of grading the catch. Grading is a important step, the boats cannot afford to hold alive all of there catch, as the food and water costs alone would make it unprofitable, However, the prime girls are worth much more alive at a auction, while the lesser catches need to be quickly stored so as the catch is constant. The Deck-boss quickly looks over each of the girls, as the fishermen see more coming down the ramp. The two older women are deemed “Cannery stock” and are led away, while the two teens cower, the Deck-boss looks over them, both are rather tall, one dark haired, the other blond. Making quick work, he calls the Dark haired girl “Prime” while the blond is deemed “choice”. and are also led away, but to another area of the boat. as they clear out, the next set of grabs, from the looks of it, college girls, and brought forward to be graded.

The redhead and the older blond sob as they are dragged across the deck, as they see what awaits them, a horrible looking machine of metal. The redhead struggles as the fishermen grins, and says “this is the Candy 4000, not nearly as fun as the Jessica 3000, but much more…efficient. The fisherman grabs her, and sticks her head into a opening of the machine, and presses a red button. The blond, who is right behind her friend, hears a THUNK, and the redhead body jerks and goes into fits, the fisherman pulls it out, and to the blond horror, Beverly, her old friend, is now headless. she does not have time to scream, as her head is forced into the opening, and with a thunk, her world goes black.

the two corpses are dragged over to the holding tanks, filled with chilled seawater, and both are dropped in, soon there bodies will be frozen solid, and once the tank is full, the chilled water is pumped out, and will remain chilled till the boat gets back to port.

Emily and Robin, the two teens, are headed to another area of the boat, even as they see more women heading down the ramp to be “processed” Emily, the dark hair teen, goes “God, what is going on, what happening” between sobs.

The fisherman smiles, and explains “Most girls are sent to the cannery, however you two are noted as being much prettier then the rest, and we have speical plans for you. Prime means you go to the slave auction alive, as your worth enough to feed till the auction, your blond friend here is choice, so while she doesn’t have long to live, she not going to the cannery” At which both of them broke down into more tears and struggles, but both are already bound and helpless.

Emily, the dark haired teen, found herself chained to the wall of the wheelhouse, unable to move but alive, but her friend Robin screamed and shouted as she was hooked from the ankles, and raised upside down on the rolling deck. Then she saw the fishermen take a sharp knife, and she screamed, quickly turning into a gargle as the knife went across her throat. still alive and kicking, the fisherman then opened her belly, and quickly pulled out her guts, keeping the liver, but the rest going down the hole listed as “waste” that feeds into the sea. Robin then is quickly washed down, and then placed on ice in a special sea-water ice hold. Soon a what must of been a van full of cheerleaders joined Emily and Robin as the boat kept working in a clockwork fashion. 95% going into the cannery holds, 4 percent into the ice-boxes, and finally 1% ended up in the live holds, scared and screaming till they pass out. —————–

Two weeks later

The Inca Roads sails into port, low in the water as it is filled to the brim with is tasty cargo. Twenty four hours before, the captain had turned off the cooling elements in the cannery holds, so that the cargo might not be stuck together. The boat docks next to the OZARK food company cannery, and soon the dock workers board the ship, and bolts are released and the top of the tanks are exposed, and the process of unloading the catch begins.

The live tanks are emptied first, the scared girls taken onshore, and given harty meals and a fresh shower, little do they know that this kindness is to prep them for live meat auctions. The iceboxes are next, and each girl is carried off, and stored in a freezer truck that has pulled up, once loaded, it heads to the “Fresh Grab Market”, of these I will tell more later, but for now, we will look over the cannery side.

each tank has already been pumped dry and slightly thawed, and the workers quickly load the catch and deposit it on shore. On shore each body is weighted and tested, for size, fat content, and checked for spoilage, each is given a cannery grade, A - fit for human consumption, B - fit for canned pet food, and C - Cull, rendered. The fishermen keep track of the weight and the grade, and on rare occasions, discuss the individual grading. Ten hours later, the Inca Roads has been emptied, and the crews tally there catch. 9,439 women had been “D-Grabbed”, with a average weight of 140 pounds. 90 where “Prime” and another 300 where “choice”, leaving 9,049 to the cannery. of which 6000 where grade “A”, and sold for 63 cents a pound, or $529,200, and another 2,000 as grade “B” sold at .13 cents a pound, for $36,400, and the rest where grade C, and no payment received.

Each of the women sold to the cannery is washed with warm water, then sent down a assembly line, first the arms, and then the legs are cut off, then gutted and meats cut off as it goes down the line, the waste heads to the attached rendering plant. the meat is steamed cooked, pulled from the bone, and then placed into cans, water or oil added and then retorted and labeled, Grade A becoming “OZARK ‘Tastes like chicken’” and sold in the groccery store, while the grade B becomes “OZARK cat food”. All the waste and culls end up in the rendering plant facility. here they are broken down into fats (which are used for soap and industrial uses) and the rest becomes fertilizer.

However, we still have not talked about the Choice and Prime girls. Robin, who had been on ice, is hauled to the fresh Dgrab market, formally a fish market, and after being washed again, is displayed for sale, and a Japanise buyer buys her, as her fate is to be Sushi in Tokyo. Emily found herself standing on a wooden platform, as she heard people bid for her, The Crew of the Inca Roads ended up buying her, as they had a good catch, and they felt it would be best to have a party, of course, when Emily saw the Jessicca 3000 spitting machine, she fought, but in the end, she was roasting over a open fire on Kodiak Island, her catchers enjoying her fine flesh. The fishermen where happy, each deckhand had 9,300 in his pocket after the costs and captain shares, and the captain new that the very profitable Brazilian season opened in less then a week.