30th Century: Escape (30th Century Trilogy Book 1)

by Mark Kingston Levin

  “No one’s supposed to be living here,” Alice said. “Likely this is an unfortunate shipwreck.”

  Marty and Mike shared a worried glance.

  “Alice, have the kids help you get the other Zodiac stocked including medical supplies,” Marty said. “Mike, get on the satellite phone to alert the authorities that we’re investigating this as soon as they open at nine.”

  Alice got the students to work and Marty motioned for Mike to follow him to the cockpit.

  “You want any of the weapons?” Mike asked as soon as they were alone. “We have two rifles and two pistols on board.”

  “I don’t want to immediately assume pirates, but we have to be careful. I’m not going to risk anyone getting hurt.” Marty gave a weary sigh. “I’ll check it out myself without any of the guns.”

  “Yourself? C’mon, mate, at least let me back you up.”

  “No, Mike, you’re my backup here at the plane. Protect the crew. I’ll stay in radio contact. If I signal ‘everything is okay,’ haul ass and get out of here. The all-clear will be ‘everything is a mess.’”

  “I don’t like this.”

  “Neither do I, but we can’t just leave. Get in contact with the French authorities in the area if you do not hear from me every ten minutes. If it is just shipwreck victims, I’ll send for Lacy.”

  “Lacy, mate?”

  “Yeah, she’s an RN—spent two years in a rehab place before she came to grad school.”

  “Good call there, I guess. Just look after yourself, too.”

  “Always an adventure,” Marty said as he left Mike to captain the lives of all still on the Albatross.

  The small Zodiac sat in the water outside the Albatross’s hatch. Alice braced the craft while Marty stepped in. “Mike and I will stay on the radio—good luck.”

  “Thanks.” He turned to his students, who were now on deck. “You guys sit tight until I radio in. Lacy, make sure you have your first-aid kit in order. If anyone’s hurt, you and Alice will be coming over on the other Zodiac. Immediately.”

  Jumping to her feet, Lacy took a moment to respond. “Uh…yes, Professor. I’ll be ready.”

  Mike handed Marty the outboard motor. In seconds, he was speeding toward the smoke column rising above the western tip of the island. Just past nine a.m., Mike radioed that the authorities had been alerted and were on stand-by. As Marty came closer to the western tip, he spotted the figure his students had first seen from the plane. Bringing the raft to a stop, he picked up his binoculars.

  “Mike, it appears we have a rescue,” Marty said into the radio. “I see one female on the beach.”

  “Careful, mate, could be a decoy. Pirates have used similar tricks in the past to get ships to stop.”

  “Copy that, going in now.”

  The woman paced back and forth rapidly in front of the large fires she’d used for her smoke signals. Marty restarted the engine and slowly made his way to the beach, his senses alert for anything suspicious. As he came close to the shore, a broad exuberant smile split her face. Her clothes were almost nonexistent—just a pair of shorts—but she seemed healthy enough as she jumped up and down waving her arms. In fact, as the topless young woman approached him, he took in her long, blonde hair and bright sparkling sapphire blue eyes. She was tall with slender legs—most of her body bare and tanned from exposure, but not sunburned. Not even her breasts, out there for the whole world to see just like a native islander.

  “Can I offer you some assistance?” Marty asked, running the Zodiac up on the beach.

  With tears in her eyes and a joyful laugh, the woman approached him and, to his surprise, embraced him over the side of the boat.

  “Hello again,” he laughed in shock. “My name is Marty. Are you all right?”

  She nodded into his shoulder.

  He gently pulled away and stepped out of the Zodiac. “Here, I have some water.”

  He passed her a bottle. She grabbed it and guzzled it down.

  “What’s your name? Is there anyone else here with you?”

  She finished the water with a satisfied gasp before looking at Marty. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but stopped. She pointed to her throat and shook her head.

  “What’s wrong? Can’t speak?”

  She gave a light smile and lowered her unreal blue eyes. Handing the bottle back to Marty, she turned to the brush pile next to the still-raging fires. She picked up a small stick and began to write in the wet sand left by the ebbing tide. Marty stood by the boat, still cautious. She motioned for him to come closer.

  Taking the surreal moment in stride, Marty looked over her shoulder. She’d written JENNIFER HERO in the sand. The woman pointed the stick at herself and smiled.

  “Jennifer Hero, huh?” Marty murmured. “Where are you from, Jennifer?”

  Grimacing as if in pain, she wrote, MEMORY LOST.

  Marty studied her. She looked out of place here for sure, but his instincts warned him to be cautious still.

  “So, you’re alone here?”

  YES, she wrote in response.

  “How have you survived here by yourself?”

  She smiled and began writing her answer. Despite his caution, Marty felt elated at the intelligent gleam in her eyes. Distracted for a moment, he looked to see what she had written.

  OLD BUILDINGS

  Marty chuckled. “The old French military buildings? Clever, though there might be some danger of radiation. How long have you been here and staying in those ruins?”

  Jennifer took a moment and considered.

  4 MONTHS

  She added, +

  “Wow,” Marty said, shocked. “Impressive. Though that might be a dangerous amount of radiation. My crew and I are just offshore. We came here to study the effects of this area’s radiation. If it’s okay with you, I’d like to test if you read hot before we get you out of here. I can get some people out here with food and water. Okay?”

  She nodded, radiating excitement.

  “Can you speak any language at all?”

  YES

  OUI

  But she pointed to her throat again and shook her head with downcast eyes.

  “So, I take it you can speak French and English—or at least used to, but something is wrong with your throat.”

  Marty considered the young woman for a moment. The mystery of Jennifer confounded him. Alone, amnesia, bilingual. Something isn’t adding up. If this is a trap, I have no choice but to spring it. Must be sure before I send for the others.

  “Can you show me how you survived?”

  Jennifer nodded and confidently walked ahead, motioning for him to follow. Apprehensive, Marty gripped the radio.

  “Stand by, Mike,” he whispered into it. “If you don’t hear from me in five, get out.”

  It’s my turn to take the risk alone, Marty thought.

  He followed Jennifer into the underbrush of the island’s palm and coconut jungle. In the shade of the trees, Jennifer stood amongst discarded coconut husks and sharpened stakes used to open the coconuts.

  “Resourceful. That’s a native technique, how’d you learn to do that?”

  Jennifer merely shrugged and moved on. Further on, she showed him multiple camps she had made throughout the western end of this large atoll. Marty could imagine the progress, where she had initially used washed-up trash and driftwood to build temporary shelters, collect rainwater, and fabricate crude fishing nets. Later she built a sailing raft, which was on the beach nearby. It was made from wood and barrels she must have found at the French facilities and used to transport building materials for her current shelter, which was very impressive. Marty’s caution gave way to wonder at her tenacity and skill. Her survival skills indicated intense training or genius intuition.

  Finally, convinced that Jennifer was indeed alone, stranded, and the victim of some event, Marty took up his radio again.

  “Everything is a mess, over.”

  Jennifer looked confused for a moment.

  “
Mike here, waiting your instructions, over.”

  “Marty here, I have a woman who cannot speak and has lost her memory. We seem to have discovered a Jennifer.” Marty smiled—of all the things he’d imagined finding on this trip, a beautiful and vivacious castaway had never entered his mind. “Go ahead and send Lacy and Alice with supplies for our stranded lady. Use the extra Zodiac and bring my iPad and the Geiger counter. Everyone else can get started with their projects as soon as we get back with the big Zodiac. I think the ladies and I can manage this Jennifer, over.”

  “Roger that, over,” Mike responded, his relief audible.

  Marty turned to Jennifer. “We’ll get some food brought over for you, and my iPad to give you something to write on. Should make conversation easier.”

  Jennifer gave a bright smile, her eyes glistening.

  “Come on, we’ll wait for my crew at the beach, all right? I think you’ll get along with them, they’re a good bunch.”

  * * *

  The crew of the Albatross gave a united sigh of relief at Marty’s all clear. Hearing the radio call, Lacy prepared her equipment and supplies for a lunch on the beach with this mysterious Jennifer.

  “Should be exciting, Lacy,” Alice said cheerfully. “Not every day we get to save someone stranded on a desert island.”

  The two got onboard the large Zodiac, and sped westward with Alice at the helm.

  “What’s wrong, girl?” Alice asked. “You look worried.”

  “Nothing,” Lacy said. “I mean, it’s really cool the professor’s trusting me to help with this lady…”

  “But?”

  Lacy took a deep breath. “What if this interferes with our study? This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get involved in a serious research undertaking, with a scientist of Marty’s stature and reputation, and it could be cancelled due to some random stranger.”

  “Saving a life isn’t a serious undertaking?”

  “Ah…I don’t mean that. It’s just, this trip is crucial to my future career.” Lacy turned away from Alice. “Sorry for being so selfish.”

  “Don’t worry about any of that, love. This is a just-as-important once-in-a-lifetime chance. You’re a smart girl—Marty’s always singing your praises. Your career will fall into place just fine. Now you must admit you’re curious about this whole thing. A ‘mysterious woman’ gone all Amazon, no memory, no voice!”

  Lacy’s cheeks turned pink from the praise. “I am curious, I have to admit.”

  They neared the beach, where Marty waved them closer alongside the small Zodiac.

  “I guess I must put on my nurse’s hat for a while,” Lacy said with a shrug.

  “What do you think it is?” Alice asked.

  “Amnesia, mute...probably dehydrated with possible head trauma,” Lacy surmised. “I’ll have to examine her thoroughly to be sure. I can’t let the professor down.”

  “If I were her, I would trust you, mate.”

  CHAPTER 5

  Picnic in Paradise

  Alice steered toward Marty on the shore. He grabbed the bow of the Zodiac as Alice shut the motor off. Lacy hopped over the bow and helped haul the boat up past the tideline, next to the other Zodiac.

  “Glad to see you, Professor,” Lacy said.

  “Roger that. You brought your med kit?”

  “Yep.”

  Alice handed Lacy her supplies from the Zodiac.

  “We got the other equipment too,” she said to Marty. “Now where’s this Jennifer?”

  “Nature called,” Marty replied. He pulled the iPad from the pack Lacy held.

  Lacy looked up at him. “Marty, where is your shirt? You will get burned.”

  “I gave it to the topless Amazon.”

  “What’s she like?”

  “She’s a real enigma. No memory—it’s not dementia, maybe from a blow to the head or something? Maybe she conked out when she fell overboard? I want you to check for that on her first, Lacy. Then look at her throat.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She says she can speak French and English, but something’s wrong with her throat right now. Laryngitis? I don’t know. She can still write, so use the iPad to communicate with her. I just set it up.” Marty handed the iPad back to Lacy and rummaged through the other supplies for the Geiger counter.

  Alice pulled Lacy aside. “Remember—this girl has been here alone for who knows how long. I bet right now she could use a friend more than anything.”

  From the trees edging the shore, a beautiful young woman emerged and approached the trio.

  “Let me give you the formal introductions,” Marty said, gesturing to the woman. “Jennifer Hero, this is Lacy Wu, one of my graduate students, and this is Alice Keizer, a longtime friend and our flight engineer.”

  “Bonjour, Jennifer,” Lacy said with a friendly smile.

  Jennifer looked wary for a moment before she smiled and replied with a nod.

  Marty spoke again. “Jennifer, if it’ll be all right, I’d like Lacy here to examine you for any injuries. She’s a trained nurse. Alice and I will get some food set up in the meantime.”

  Jennifer nodded her permission, but Lacy had already begun a visual assessment. “I would expect the lone survivor on a deserted island to be suffering from atrophy and dehydration, but Jennifer looks fit and healthy enough to run a marathon.”

  “She’s not even sunburned,” Marty noted enviously, as he felt the high sun burning his back.

  Motioning the two girls to follow, Marty and Alice retrieved the food supplies from the Zodiac and brought them to the shade of the trees. Lacy led Jennifer to a small clearing some twenty meters away, for the semblance of privacy, and began a physical examination.

  “Something’s on your mind, Marty,” Alice said, as they set out apples and grapes from the Albatross’s galley.

  “She’s not hot.”

  “What the hell, Marty? That’s probably both the meanest and the wrongest thing I’ve ever heard you say. Look at her. She’s like Castaway Barbie.”

  Marty shook his head. “She’s plenty pretty and looks like she spends every morning at the secret island gym. That’s not what I’m talking about.” He held up the Geiger counter. “I was holding onto this when Jennifer approached, and it didn’t read anything other than just a hair above the ambient.”

  “So? That’s good, right? We shouldn’t have to worry about her irradiating the others. We can bring her back with us, then.”

  “It’s just curious. Four months here—or more, since her memory can’t be relied on. When I put this project together, I had to make sure it was safe for us to even be here, and figure out how long we can stay without becoming dangerously exposed. Based on previous studies done on these islands, she should be glowing like a Christmas tree if she has been eating a coconut per day. I counted one pile and there were about a hundred empty shells.”

  With a nod of the head, Marty told Alice, “Come with me.”

  Tramping through the brush to Jennifer’s camp, Marty set the Geiger counter on a nearby cluster of Jennifer’s discarded coconut husks. The Geiger counter clicked and crackled, registering the spikes in radiation.

  “Okay, that is strange, all right.”

  “Girl just might be lucky; in which case, we’ll send her out for some lottery tickets. She could definitely use closer examination. We’ll know more when we get data back from our samples in this area.”

  * * *

  Jennifer watched her handsome rescuer Marty and the redheaded woman carry supplies from the Zodiac toward a shady spot beneath some palm trees near the open examination room. Jennifer was left with Lacy, a tiny little thing with black hair and deep brown eyes. Jennifer wondered if this young woman knew how attractive she was. Lacy fidgeted where she stood, her dark eyes scanning Jennifer up and down. She noticed Jennifer staring at her and gave a start.

  “Well, you certainly look plenty healthy,” Lacy said, blushing. “This is nothing like physical therapy—for starters, my ‘patient’�
�that’s you—doesn’t seem to have anything wrong with her. Although I must admit the ‘examining room’ is a lot nicer. Maybe everyone would be healthier if hospitals were outdoors. Do you have any discomfort?”

  Jennifer shook her head, trying to hide her amusement at Lacy’s nervous chatter.

  “I want to examine you just to be sure—uhh…I mean, Professor Zitonick wants me to examine you.”

  Jennifer nodded her approval.

  Trying to hide her red face in her pack, Lacy retrieved the med-kit and placed it on the sand. She handed a flat, rectangular object to Jennifer.

  “It’s set up so you can write on it. Let me know if you’re feeling any pain.”

  Jennifer recognized the thin tablet as a primitive communication device. Touchscreens were in their infancy in this era. With her finger, she wrote OK on the screen.

  Satisfied and ready to begin, Lacy had Jennifer sit on a fallen palm trunk as she opened the kit. Using a penlight, she quickly checked her patient’s pupils and mouth. Lacy stepped behind Jennifer, gently moving her hands up Jennifer’s neck and through her long blonde hair. She stopped above the castaway’s right ear.

  “You have a pretty grisly scar here.”

  Mentally, Jennifer berated herself for forgetting she’d need to justify the scars from her past conflicts with the Syndos. While Lacy gently moved her fingers around the old head wound, Jennifer subtly covered her thigh more—the unique scar pattern there was from an ion pulse rifle bullet. She would have to keep that hidden.

  “Do you know how you got hurt here? Feels like it might have gone to the bone.”

  Jennifer’s hand reached up and followed Lacy’s, feeling the scar under her fingers. She had earned her title of “Hero” then, saving an important friend and a political ally. Her first experience with assassination left her the wicked thigh scar as she leaped from a third story roof to push a senator out of the line of fire. After taking the shot in her thigh, she hit the senator’s limo head first, cracking open her skull. Thank goodness I’d already been augmented.

  “Um…?”

  Yanked back from her memories, Jennifer realized Lacy was still waiting for an answer. She moved her finger on the tablet.