Prison Mountain

by Scott Hilkene

The Captain had finally given up his pirate routine and invited Anton and I for some drinks in the library. It was a huge room that very much resembled an old colonial library. Cool daylight spilled from the high, clear windows positioned beneath and at either side of the wide, high ceiling. It balanced the warmer light from the rest of the devices illuminating the room. It was a welcome tone to the mood.

  The meal weighed on me, however, comfortable had a new name and it was that couch. I had never seen such an odd shape in furniture; slightly wider at one end than the other and curved in the shape of a wave. The fabric was old in appearance, but soft red velvet that was plush, but firm. I never wanted to get up. And after some drinks and small talk about the booze, the Captain began asking the questions I knew he wanted to ask soon as I woke. So much for being comfortable.

  “So, Janus,” the Captain said, slouched down in his own vintage red cushioned, high-back chair. It also had an ergonomic shape and he slouched anyway with an ankle on his knee. He held his wine glass with a pinky pointing at me as he spoke. “Everything we have here is also yours, nothing ‘cept what can hurt ya is off limits. It's only the three of us on this modest vessel so no secrets.” He fingered the edge of his glass in thought at his words, but spoke more quickly, holding the other hand out in a gesture to accept what he says.

  “You have questions, I'm sure. Considering you're our guest, you usually should initiate the sharing of information. This is our custom for there is much distrust amongst the clans, but I believe I can guess much more than you know yourself about many things. In light of that, I shall tell you about us and then you may ask questions. Agreed?”

  He paused, but I remained silent.

  Nodding in response he began. “This ship is under my commission, but has been my home for as long as I can remember now. We can do a tour when you're up to it. Just you keep in mind she is a medium sized vessel, mainly used for cargo and exploration. Older than most. I had several modifications made over the years. This room we are in now is one of them.”

  “Yes, I thought it reminded me of a movie, one that took place in the colonial era.”

  “Colonial?”

  “Yeah, you know. Seventeenth century?”

  “Ahem, yes. Well, you see, this ship is not actually on the ocean.”

  My thoughts raced and that knot in my stomach tightened again. “You mean we're not on the water?”

  “Well no. We're in the air”

  “Oh, you mean an airship. That makes sense. I had wondered why I did not feel the waves.” I needed to understand anything, get a foothold on solid ground. Soon as I said it however, I am sure we would have felt rocking sensations in the air as well.

  Anton leaned forward and said bluntly, “No, this is a spaceship Janus.”

  “Anton! I was going to let him see it for himself.”

  “Yeah, and shock him to death? He has been through enough,” Anton said, but still looked at my shoes when he said it.

  “How do you know what he's been through?”

  Their arguing went on I suppose, but puking my dinner to the floor prevented me from hearing their conversation. I was wrestling with my emotions again. That I had been buried under rock for a long time was obvious, but the reality of spaceships on Earth made the reality of my situation hit home, hard. I felt an injection of warmth from somewhere, a small itch, but it made me feel dirty. Tears burned my eyes again as a towel was handed to me.

  No sooner than I leaned up, a floating machine no larger than a bar of soap hovered next to me and shot a blue light on the puddle of nasty in front of me and it was gone. The bar of soap flew through the air away from me and down the corridor toward the mess hall.

  “What year is this?” Standing up on shaky legs, I fell back to the small couch behind me.

  “Janus...,” the Captain hesitated. “What you need to understand is you have been through a lot and I think I know what happened.”

  “What year is this?” I said not looking at anyone or anything, trying not to lose it again with that sick feeling still within me.

  “Janus, listen to me, please,” the Captain said, his hands out again, imploring me.

  “What year is this?”

  “Damn it, it doesn't matter! We need to move on,” his voice desperate, I wished he could have seen refusing to tell me was making it worse for me.

  “What year is it? Just shoot me straight!” I was going to say I could handle it, not entirely confident in that.

  “Shoot you what?”

  “Tell me!” I yelled, looking straight at him and surprised my voice was up to it.

  The Captain stood, pacing a bit in front of me, on the verge of speaking, but he hesitated, only for another moment.

  “Thirty-one-twenty-two by Earth years, but we stopped using that system and started a new one since we left.”

  “Left?” I was holding it together, but barely, still on an emotional ride I could not control.

  “Since Anton believes we need to be straight with you, maybe he is right. We only have a short window to leave before we're stuck here for a while. We would not survive the wrath. We need to know everything you know and confirm what we suspect. And all our lives depend on it! We are not supposed to be here!” That last was directed more to Anton who stared at me. The Captain had worked his way into a livid temper. He said, obviously controlling himself best he could, his eyes telling me he did not trust me, “Now, tell us who you are and where you are from.”

  “I... you see...,” I faltered. Used to being completely confident in everything I did, this guilt was frustrating and debilitating. I could not bear the anxiety. It was so easy the day before, so comfortable in that prison that I silently wish to go back, but that was impossible and cowardice. This was Earth. She destroyed humanity, and the planet. It had to be true, the year, the spaceship, everything had to be real. Then something broke inside me. Realization of the truth that this was hundreds of years into the future and I was still on Earth gave me the anger towards her that I needed to be brave and face the truth enough to speak.

  “Come on man, tell us or I'll toss you into the sea myself and be...”

  “I have always been here! Is that what you want to hear? I am no intergalactic criminal dropped here by an evil empire or whatever you were talking about before. Not part of any federation of planets or some crazy pirate ship of the stars. I am here because you came. Must be why. Something called me from my prison, I do not know what it was, but was strong enough to break my bonds. I fell down that mountain when I escaped and here you are.”

  The Captain, looking satisfied, but awed at the same time was not a surprise to me. No, the more stunning issue at the moment was Anton. He was wide eyed, his demeanor of defending me was lost, and a distant, fearful expression overtook him.

  The Captain must have noticed as well because he said, “Breathe Anton, breathe.”

  Then, several things happened at once. The ghost flared into the room making me jump back suddenly from approaching Anton. The Captain, not hindered by the ghost, quickly put a hand on his shoulder, shaking him slightly saying his name, and Anton suddenly fainted and fell back into the couch he was standing in front of. The ghost, reaching Anton, positioned herself in front of him, blocking out the Captain, but he stepped back only slightly, still ready to help.

  Being this was my second time in the presence of a spirit, I was in awe again, but not so much as I would have been if Anton was with us.

  “What's she doing?”

  The Captain looked around and said, “Healing him. He has been dealing with horrible nightmares for a long time and his mind is affected by them. Something about you has made it worse”

  I moved to the side so I could see what she was doing. As Anton's head came into view from around the ghost's wispy entity, I could see her ghost hands resting on his cheeks and fingers probing inside his head. A few seconds later she withdrew and he immediately woke look
ing much more relaxed.

  “Thank you,” he said with a sigh, putting his hood back on.

  The spirit merely bowed slightly and shifted gracefully towards a mantle on the wall, her hands folded and head down. Glancing back to Anton, he was looking at me, no longer in fear, but in understanding. “I think there is more to your story Janus. Can you tell us what happened before she came please?”

  A sudden movement from the Captain caught my eye and distracted me from what just happened. I had wanted to address Anton's condition, get a little deeper into it at the time, but the Captain, looking older than before, much older than a middle aged man should be, demanded silence from the room for a moment. He scratched his head and again I could tell he was thinking over something to say carefully.

  “Please, do tell. Maybe you have to understand one thing first. According to all historic documents and the stories parents tell their children when or if they ask of the home they never saw, humans left the Earth because it started to die. Sorry.” He nodded to the spirit at that then continued, “After the soul catcher attacks stopped, no one could figure out why. That was as well because to this day, no one know why they started either. Suddenly, a great unsettling calm, apprehensive and sorrowful, replaced the hell the Earth endured for three years. At the time, they figured they had won. That somehow and somewhere, someone had defeated them. Or, they had their fill of humans and left.

  “In truth, however, those who were left warred over a great many things. The Earth turned against them and the harmony we once took for granted turned to darkness in each of their hearts. The fear the evil brought with them turned from their weapon to a saturated evil hate that linked each person to an insane desire to hurt others.

  “According to the many records we compiled, there were a handful of people who could resist the plague enough to experiment with ways of fighting back. Over the years, it was found, the only way to defeat the feeling of hatred toward others was to leave. Everyone except those who could not resist found a way to group together in what you would remember as Switzerland. The Earth already started to change. A dark and strange mountain far off to the west pushed up from the ground. The seas rose as the ice caps melted away for no apparent reason.

  “Humans eventually overcame all obstacles and created a means to leave this planet in a sustainable craft. It is said that without the need for political competition, worry for the environment, or economic matters, work went unhindered for seventy years and a way to power a great ship was found. In the meantime, the two-hundred-thousand people gathered, and when work ended, only ten-thousand remained.”

  “Ten thousand people? That's all that was left?” I was bewildered beyond anything yet. To think of so many people destroyed by an invading force was horrifying, yet we were able to survive so many years later, but among the stars.

  “Yes,” he nodded. “It is a sad story to all of us, but distant, like what you may think of colonialism. So much of our history is now just a fairy tale to most people. No one's learned from any of it and we continue to plunder what we want and leave the rest. Like children, we never learn.”

  “Wait, are there any other... aliens out there?” I had to know despite already believing the evil, hideous creature was not from anywhere near Earth.

  “No, we are still the only things in the galaxy we have found. We still have a lot of exploring to do.”

  “Well back to the history. Those who had the best genetic chances for reproductive success were sent on the spaceship for the nearest star system with a habitable planet. It happened so long ago, most people forget about the story. It is documented that only fifteen hundred people escaped on that spaceship and we are all descendants of those people. Everyone except you, that is.”

  My breath short, I said, “I need to get out of here for a few. Get some air.”

  What I really needed was to see the Earth for myself. Nothing would have helped me accept what year it was, but seeing the Earth would bring me closer to reality. Since it was robbed of me all these years maybe I was in shock. Nothing seemed to really take me down. It was almost like something was propelling me forward, charging me with positive energy regardless of what I should have been feeling.

  “Are you sure? Maybe you just want to lie down... take a nap... anything else?”

  “Please lead the way Captain.”

  He was reluctant to lead me through several hundred feet of winding corridor to a large open area. There were metal crates everywhere and strangely shaped equipment that I could not guess what purpose each possessed. A small craft, a little larger than van, was positioned in the center of the room. It was curved like the interior of the spaceship, but came to a point on one end. It was straight out of a science fiction comic book. All around the sides, about fifteen feet up was a horseshoe shaped platform that lined the walls on a second level. A large door on the far end had writing on it I did not understand, but the large lettering that read BAY 02 was unmistakable.

  The Captain walked over to the side of the bay to a pedestal with a small control panel. A screen lit up when he approached and a blue holographic cube rose above the control panel and floated there. The light was the same type the bar of soap used to clean up earlier. He put his hand inside and closed his black eyes. Without seeing exactly how, he started the doors opening.

  Light shone into the bay in rays, blinding me momentarily. The hum of the ship, hardly noticeable before, changed to a vibrating dissonance that deepened as the doors fully opened. My eyes adjusted from the dark, but warm light. I could see something shimmering under a deep blue sky. The sun was brighter than I remembered and the sea could almost run into the sky.

  It was a beautiful sight, but not what remembered from my life before darkness. When I think on it, maybe spending over a thousand years in the dark made me appreciate the color of the real world again, but who knows anymore.

  “What ocean is this?” I called back to the Captain and Anton.

  They exchanged looks again and my stomach lurched.

  “It is the ocean. There is only one.”

  “Then where is the land?”

  The Captain put his hand back into the control holograph and the ship vibrated ever so slightly under my feet. For several seconds it hummed more loudly. Then a dark image appeared from the left side of the bay opening. At the horizon, the shape grew, but slowly and I moved to the right to see more of it. The edge flowed upwards from the water in a black slanted hill that gained in height and steepness as more of the mountain came into view. Expecting to see some texture or rocks, even a snow cap, I was disappointed. The mountain was blacker than coal and reflected no light in contrast to the ocean. Then, as more of it came into view, I realized the mountain was behind the horizon, not on it. It had to be miles high.

  “That is the only land on the planet,” the Captain called out.

  My head snapped back at him.

  “The only land?”

  He nodded.

  “Where did you find me?”

  He smirked slightly and nodded out of the doors to that evil mountain that imprisoned me for so long. Long does not quite cover it after knowing the truth.

  I took a few steps towards the opening, but my head, which was close to crooning over the edge, ran smack into nothing. I looked back at Anton who was grinning.

  “Invisible force fields,” he called out.

  “Cool,” I said, but actually, completely in awe was more accurate.

  “What is?”

  “Never mind,” and continued to run my hands over the slightly warm invisible shield.

  “Janus, your age is showing,” the Captain chuckled from the panel. When I turned, he motioned with his head to follow him, his hand just leaving the hologram.

  ~