"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep."

The plaque that bore this inscription sat neatly on the desk, next to the name placard that read 'Olivia Stuart'.  Those two items, however, were the only 'neat' things on that desk, which was strewn with books in various stages of abuse, precarious stacks of papers and files, and a cleared-out space just enough for a laptop... and a sandwich.

"Not coming to lunch, Livi?"  An elderly man asked, walking by the desk.  "We're all heading out to Luigi's, it IS Lasagna Wednesday, after all."  The young woman sitting at the desk looked up from the notes she was taking, half of a sandwich in hand.
"Nah..."  She shook her head.  "Gotta finish going through these old charts."  The man nodded, then made his way to the door.

"Oh, professor?"  He paused, then turned to see her walking toward him.
"Changed your mind?"  He asked with a smile.  "Lasagna is good for the soul, you know."
"No, it's not that..."  Olivia paused, contemplating her next words.  "I was organizing the archives like you told me too..."
"...Yes?"  The professor's smile faded slightly.
"And... well, I found a box marked 'Erebus'..."  Olivia said.  "Am I imagining things, or do we actually have artifacts from Captain Orion's Erebus?"  Her heart began to race, as it always did when the name of that ship came to mind.  Ever since she'd read about it in an old textbook, she'd searched for any information she could about the infamous privateer frigate and its enigmatic captain.

The old man frowned.
"You're too smart for fairytales like that, Livi."  He said sternly.  "It's... just a box of files about the Franklin Expedition.  An Erebus that actually EXISTED."  Olivia's smile faded. 
"Get back to those notes."  Her professor said.  "I don't want you going near that box.  I'll handle the archival work from here on out."
"But...  But..."  Olivia stammered.
"That's enough."  He said.  "Don't argue."  He turned and walked out of the research lab, leaving Olivia alone.

Olivia sat at her desk, trying to concentrate on notes.  But her mind kept drifting to the dusty box sitting placidly in the corner of the archives.  Finally, she could take it no longer.
I've got to get into that box.  She thought.

The artifacts were stored in a section in the far side of the facility.  Olivia walked through the hallways, now empty due to most people taking off for lunch.  She finally made it to the room of shelf upon shelf of carefully-tagged, meticulously documented artifacts, ranging from buttons to bullets to human remains.  She closed the door quietly behind her, looking around.  She was alone.

The box was coated in dust.  Olivia sat down against the opposite shelf, staring at it.  It was only then that she noticed the name neatly penciled onto the card taped to the side.
Marcus Gray...  Why do I know that name?  She wondered.  And then she remembered.  The small bench that sat outside the facility was dedicated to him.
Now I remember...  She thought.  He disappeared.  No one ever found him....  This was what he was working on before he vanished.  It gave her a slight chill to know that she was the first person to see the contents of that box in ten years.

The late afternoon found Olivia back at her small apartment.  It wasn't much, but at least it had a good view of the sea.  Olivia sat on her balcony, staring at the dusty cardboard box.  She was almost afraid to open it.  What if it WASN'T Captain Orion's Erebus?  That would mean that the legend that made her turn to the field of studying shipwrecks was just that: a legend.  A lie.

She used to tell her colleagues all about the legend.
"You know that's just a story, right?"  They would say.  "There aren't any records of the ship going down...  And no one's ever been able to find Orion in any records.  We don't even know his real name!"
Still, Olivia held out hope, stubborn as she was.

"Dammit..."  She put down her glass of wine.  "I'm not afraid of a box."  And with that, she lifted the lid and looked inside.

Files and notebooks about a shipwreck.  Nothing unusual.  She rummaged carefully through the notes.  A frigate with no identifying markings recovered.  A veritable John Doe.  She sighed, jamming the notebook back into the box in frustration.  And then she heard the clinking of metal.
Did the spiral of the notebook bump into something?  She wondered.  She reached carefully down into the box.  Her heart skipped a beat when her fingers brushed against metal.  She couldn't draw the object out of the box fast enough.

Olivia bit back a cry as she held the hammered-flat gold coin in trembling hands.  The gold had not been dulled by age, and gleamed in the late afternoon sunlight.  She ran her finger over its smooth face, marred by several punched holes in a very familiar pattern.  A constellation.
"You...  You were real..."  She whispered.  She held the coin up to the setting sun, watching as the light shone through the holes in the coin.  And then, suddenly, everything went black.

Olivia woke up slowly.  She tried thinking back to what had happened.
The box...  Captain Orion, he exists!  I saw the coin... and I saw the green flash...
But wait a minute...  It was SUPPOSED to have been green...  Instead, it was blue.  She thought it odd.  Blue flashes were quite rare.  And then she realized she was hearing a man's voice.

"Hey! Time to get up, son!"

Olivia started awake as she was pulled from a sitting position by the back of her shirt.  Looking around, the color drained from her face as she realized she was no longer in her apartment.  And then her eyes came to rest on the coin.  Except... it was attached to a string, which hung around the neck of a very tall young man with thick black hair and piercing green eyes...  Almost as if he were...
Oh.  My.  God.

Olivia stared blankly at him, having suddenly lost the ability to speak.  She didn't know how, she didn't know why, but somehow she knew she was staring at Orion himself.  And he was tall.  And he was annoyed.

Olivia gasped as she was lifted into the air by the back of her sweatshirt. 
"H-hey!  Hey, put me down!"  She kicked her legs, trying to reach the floor.  She knew it had to be only a few inches away, but she couldn't reach it.  her mind was reeling.  She didn't know where she was, she absolutely REFUSED to believe this wasn't a dream.  She must have had a bit too much wine or something...

And then a few members of the crew started laughing.  If there was one thing Olivia couldn't stand, it was being looked down upon.  Their laughter was like a slap in the face.

Olivia turned and glared at them, balling her hands into fists.
"Oh, you think this is funny?!"  She screeched, kicking out at them.  "How 'bout you come over here and I'll kick your ass?  Will you think it's funny then?  HUH?"  She flipped them off.
"And you!"  She turned back to the tall man.  "Put me down, dammit!  You think that just because you're freakishly ginormously TALL that you can just pick me up like this?  PUT ME DOWN YOU SONOVABITCH!"  She swung out at him, but her arm was too short for her fist to make contact.  This made her even angrier.

Olivia opened her mouth to protest, but then closed it again, looking around at the bedraggled crew.
This is a dream.  She thought.  Just a really trippy dream...  What else could it be?  There's no such thing as time travel...  right?

She decided that it would be in her best interest to keep her mouth shut as she was shuttled along, Orion holding firmly to her arm.  As they left the hold, still more sailors looked up as she walked by.  Olivia looked around nervously as they walked through rows of bunks until they came to a door.  Kellen opened it, and Orion rather unceremoniously pushed her in.  She fell to her knees and looked up just in time to see the door shut.
"Hey!"  She ran to the door and banged on it, but it wouldn't open.  "Hey!  You can't keep me in here forever!" 

The cabin was little more than a glorified closet.  There was a hammock strung between two corners, but not much else.  Olivia sank down to the floor, leaning against the door.
I'm dreaming...  I'm dreaming, and I'm gonna wake up soon...  Real soon...

Thunk.  Thunk.  Thunk.

For a few minutes, all Olivia could think to do was bang her head against the door.  She was running out of explanations for what was going on.  No wine-induced drunken coma could produce something so vivid and cohesive.  She groaned, crossing her arms. 
Now how do I get out of here?  She wondered.  maybe...  Maybe there would be a phone onboard.  She'd call the cops.  Tell them some insane reenactors had kidnapped her for... some odd reason.  Yeah.  They were probably out in the harbor...  She could hijack a lifeboat and make it to shore...

And then something bumped against the door hard enough to start her from her thoughts.
"Dammit, McCullough!"  A voice barked.  "Watch where you're goin'!  Cap'n says we need all hands NOW!"
"Sorry!"  Running footsteps could be heard as, Olivia guessed, whoever was guarding the door abandoned his post.
Great.  Now I don't even have a guard.  She sighed.  She let her head fall back against the door with a thunk...

And the door opened.

"What the..."  Olivia stood up, looking around.  Whoever bumped into the door earlier must have dislodged the lock.  Olivia looked back at her makeshift prison, then shrugged.  She was going to get off this damn boat if it was the last thing she did.