A Twist of the Sands

by P R Glazier

  Chapter 37. The Lone Islands

  One morning Amndo pointed out that they had flown over some small islands yet the maps that continually rolled beneath the glass surface of the navigation table showed that they flew over a high mountainous region.

  JDC responded, “Yes master keeper, it would seem that the map data stored within the craft is out of date. The mountainous range of which you speak is now mostly submerged, only the peaks of the mountains show above the surface of the Sea of Beadreas. These peaks showing on the map now form the islands that we can see below. At the time that the Leviathan was built the sea level right across the globe was much lower than it is today for some reason.” 

  “Perhaps then we can find a place to hide the vessel on an uninhabited island somewhere, at least for the time being anyway.” Suggested Nar’Allia.

  JDC nodded. “Alright Master Amndo, set a course for the nearest larger archipelago, that will be the nearest chain of peaks on the map that are above sea level. We are now flying at a thousand metres above sea level, so I’ll leave the calculations that will define the peaks showing above the ocean to you?

  Amndo nodded his understanding.

  “We shall take a look; I’ll lower our altitude so that we can take a closer look at any land masses we may find with our own eyes.”

  At the speed that the Leviathan was capable of achieving, it did not take long for them to cross the Sea of Beadreas and upon the horizon see the first of the many larger islands chains that dotted this region of the world. The Lone Islands they were collectively known, according to Jonas. But the majority of these atolls were far too small to hide such a large craft upon so they spent a number of days looking for suitably sized landmasses.

  Nar’Allia found great enjoyment standing in the open air on the outside balcony deck looking down upon the various islands as they appeared moving slowly beneath the craft. JDC had found how to turn off the sterilising mist and she stood along the hand rail relishing the breeze for it was always very warm in these climbs. The sun always shone hot and bright upon the most beautiful sea she had seen in hues of pastel blues and greens. Many of the islands extended out into the open ocean just below the waves for hundreds of metres, the visible colours of the various reefs lying just below the surface were breath taking. Every island had sandy beaches, some were just sand, others had green growth upon them if they stayed permanently above the waves. The effect was as if each of the islands had a jade or turquoise necklace around it sometimes interspersed with pinks and purples, oranges and yellows and a myriad of other colours. But beyond this circular ring the sea grew much darker very quickly, the impression was certainly of flying over a submerged mountain range where only the very peaks of the mountains stood proud above the waves and of course this was exactly the case.

  Nar’Allia never got bored of looking down, after their adventures in and below the rust desert she still felt overjoyed to be in a place the diversity of which was far richer and closer to her own experiences and environment. What she did find a little disappointing was that most, if not all of the islands they had so far come across seemed to be uninhabited by people. She did see a dilapidated hut of sorts on one island, but as they flew around the coast over the sandy beaches of the place, they did not see anyone, either they were well hidden or more likely no longer there.

  The leviathan had of course the heat detector mechanism that JDC used to find them in the desert and Amndo would spend hours at this machine and its controls scanning the islands for any life. he then made a discovery. He found that a new up to date mapping system could be made by using the same or similar detector sensor devices. The Leviathan would remake updated maps based on the detector devices information as the machine itself flew over the world. So JDC decided to fly in a grid pattern over the area so that a comprehensive set of maps could be made. 

  Nar’Allia, sometimes joined by Jonas, continued to concern themselves with viewing the islands below with their own eyes. Many of the larger islands had some life apparent on them, but most of the time it was colourful birds, or ape-like creatures that swung about high in the trees. On one occasion they were flying low, looking for a group of creatures that had been detected only to find it was a noisy group of these primates. But these seemed larger than most they had seen so far. They were so close that the creatures decided to pelt Nar’Allia and Jonas with fruit and sticks as she looked out over the tree line of the island at them. She screamed in surprise and ran for cover. Jonas joked, “well that’s what we get for disturbing their privacy.”

  On another day they flew low and could see smoke on the horizon, so they headed in that direction. From the map that was being created as they flew Amndo could see that they were headed for a big island that stood in the sea alone. He watched its outline being mapped on the monitors as they got closer and closer. The temperature sensors on-board showed the sea water around the island as being quite a lot warmer than the rest of the ocean. As they got nearer they could see that this island was completely isolated, its nearest neighbours at least a hundred kilometres away to the south. It was very mountainous, the interior of the island rose to a great height, the slopes of this single great mountain ending in black sandy beaches at the coast, not the normal soft white ones. Nar’Allia stood on the balcony deck as always as they approached. There was a strange smell on the air, very pungent, a reek that clung to her clothing and if she got a stronger smell of it something irritated the back of her throat making her cough. There was a constant deep rumbling noise coming from the island, the top of the mountain had a deep hole set within it and grey, wispy smoke billowed forth from the hole. Every now and again a denser plume of smoke belched forth. Nar’Allia became concerned for she noticed that the denser smoke was formed mostly of a thick grey ash that cascaded back down through the air like heavy rainfall and this coated the sides of the mountain. Occasionally a landslide of the stuff would run down the flanks of the mountain burying everything in its path, as its own weight got too great to support it on the sloping faces of the mountain. All the while that deep rumbling noise could be heard.

  All the vegetation on the island appeared to be destroyed or dying. She felt saddened that nature itself sort to destroy that which it had previously created. At night time the whole island took on a more spectacular look. The grey ash was speckled with red sparks and a continuous flow of deep red liquid, a hot river of molten rock running down one side of the mountain as if the mountain was disgorging some kind of red liquid, it cooled as it went. In one place this red flow ran down to the sea at a cliff that had been built up. Every now and again a great lump of the red glowing material broke off and fell into the sea. Every time there was a great spout of water that crackled and hissed and much steam was given off. Amndo eventually joined her and Jonas, coming to stand alongside them; he said that what they were looking at was a caldera, a great natural cauldron left behind when a volcano collapses. He also added that the volcanic process seemed to be starting up once more. Liquid rock from deep within the earth was pouring out through a fissure set in the caldera, the rock cooled eventually and piled up. He added that most of the islands within the Sea of Beadreas would have been formed in this way. Regular eruptions like the one they were now witnessing added to the land mass. On the fifth or sixth pass around this island a massive booming explosion was heard from the other side of the island, much molten rock and ash and other material was thrown outwards for many kilometres with a massive force that dwarfed even the energy cannon of the Leviathan. As the three of them watched hundreds of large boulders were thrown high into the air and out from the island, leaving smoking trails of ash and other debris in their wake, they would eventually fall back into the sea many kilometres beyond the islands coast. The whole effect was most dramatic to witness, especially in the light of the moon.

  “Well, thank the Maker we were not on that side of the island when that happened,” said Amndo.

  The Leviathan changed course now flying directly away
from the island, obviously JDC had decided it was far too dangerous to be around that particular place any longer and they found themselves flying back over open water. The smoke and ash from the island receding rapidly behind them until once again it was beyond the horizon and the plume of brightly burning smoke that rose miles into the air was the only thing marking the islands existence. They decided to fly farther to the east, back closer towards the eastern coast of the continent of Dahl’Ambronis and try their luck there.

  Amndo soon found a large archipelago of islands being mapped by the machine in the direction they were heading. This archipelago was situated about two hundred kilometres out into the sea from the coast of the continent of Dahl’Ambronis. They could see from the charts as they were being produced that a large collection of islands had formed at the tip of a long peninsula and many islands formed a kind of chain moving out into the sea from this peninsula. The map reminded Nar’Allia of an old man his nose dripping droplets of moisture, represented by the island chain. There must have been thirty islands or so of varying sizes. They decided to fly over the old man’s nose and progressively fly down the archipelago, for the islands were larger at this end. They hoped to see whether or not any of these larger islands looked like a promising landing place.

  The peninsula attached to the mainland itself proved a desolate spot, mostly tall cliffs of bare eroded rock. These rocks were worn into weird shapes, deep fissures and strange looking pinnacles and funnels. Some tough scrub grasses growing on the few flat areas on top. It was solely the domain of many nesting sea birds and large mammals with paddles instead of legs bedding down for the night on the more sea-rounded rocks nearer the shore. It was getting dark and as nothing much could be seen.

  Nar’Allia shivered and wrapping her arms about her decided to go back to her cabin. She looked in on the control room on her way, JDC was sitting in front of the helm desk as usual and Jonas was standing behind him. Amndo was scrutinising the navigational pane. She knocked on the door to get their attention then said, “I’m off to bed; wake me if anything interesting happens.”

  Without looking up from their desks her companions waved an acknowledgment. So she went back out through the door and down the corridor to her cabin.