by Jordan Rivet
“It’s the Charley!” David shouted, pumping his fist in the air. “The Calderon Group is here.”
The newcomer swept toward them, the big harpoon missile on her deck swinging around to point at the destroyer. Esther imagined the Calderon pirates preparing their weapons, shouting sharp orders across the decks.
Another vessel burst from the mist, large and rust-bitten. Guns cocked. Sailors ready. Then another, small and deadly. Another.
“There’s the Sebastian!” Zoe shouted. “And that’s a Harvester ship, I’m sure of it.”
“Look, there’s another!”
“And there’s Adele’s ship!”
One by one ships sailed out of the haze. Souped-up, rusty, weather-beaten, enduring. They didn’t engage the Hampton and didn’t draw too close to the shore, instead sailing through the clouds, forming an honor guard around the Catalina, defenses ready. Esther’s call had been answered. Their friends were here to help.
“Okay,” Esther said. “Call the Hampton.”
“You got it, boss,” Zoe said. She hit a few buttons and then turned up the speakers.
A voice filled the pilothouse. “HMS Hampton.”
“This is Esther Harris on the Lucinda. Is Captain Boris there?”
Silence. A muffled sound. Then: “Speaking.”
“Hello, Boris, this is Esther.”
“You’re too late,” Boris said. “I already put a hole in the hull of your precious Catalina. I decided to let her sink slowly. But you? You I’ll destroy.”
“Sorry, Boris. You’re the one who’s too late. You might want to take a look at your radar. Or better yet, look out the window.”
The other ships sailed closer. They surrounded the Catalina, some moving in front of her, forming their own flotilla. The Lucinda was still the closest ship to the destroyer, but the others were gathering, threatening like storm clouds.
“See all those ships?” Esther said. “Those are people who have been able to use my energy technology to travel all over the sea. They can sail all the way to the shore—this shore, in fact. All these people came when I asked them for help because I helped them. Do you remember when I asked you to help me save the Catalina all those months ago? You said no. Well, these people said yes, now when I need it the most. And they are going to blow you out of the water if you come any closer to my ship.”
“You think your words scare me?” Boris said.
She could almost hear him spitting into the radio.
“No,” Esther said. “But the simple facts should scare you. You’re outnumbered. It’s over. You can go back to nursing your grudge at the Galaxy. If they’ll have you back that is. I hear Marianna let a rumor or two get out among your own people. They’ve heard some folks are moving back to land. They might want to do that too. They’ll definitely want to choose for themselves. You’d better hurry back if you want to salvage anything of your hold over them. And you can leave me and my family alone.”
Boris was quiet for so long Esther thought he had hung up on her. The Hampton still floated before them, its giant steely form tossing in the waves.
“Is my friend David Hawthorne there?” Boris said.
“I’m not your friend,” David said. “I should have realized that a hell of a lot sooner. Go home, Boris.”
“I always knew you’d move against me,” Boris hissed.
“I tried to move away from you, actually,” David said. “I found myself a real friend.” He grinned at Esther.
“Enough talking,” she said. “Boris, you and the Hampton have thirty seconds to hightail it out of here, or I’ll send my people after you. And don’t even think about causing problems for us again.”
“Fine,” Boris spat. “Keep your sinking ship. My work is done.”
The connection cut off.
Zoe switched the satellite phone back to her headset and asked a few of the gathered ships to follow the Hampton back out to sea. The Charley volunteered a bit too enthusiastically. Esther wouldn’t be surprised if the Calderon Group decided to relieve the Hampton of some of its choicest weapons along the way. Other ships that hadn’t made it to the coast in time offered to keep an eye out and make sure Boris went all the way back to the Galaxy Flotilla. It was over. Almost.
The Catalina listed badly. She really was sinking. Esther felt her heart constricting as they turned in a wide circle and sailed closer. They could see now that there was a nasty gash low in her portside hull. It was near the bowling alley, Esther realized. At least it was far from the cabins. But the sea would already be flooding into her, filling the engine room and all the lowest spaces in her belly with water faster than the pumps could get rid of it.
Esther remembered hiding in those spaces, taking refuge, growing up. That vessel had carried her home.
Some of the lifeboats were already moving away from her, every seat filled. The people escaped from her sinking decks with nothing but the clothes on their backs, leaving behind everything that had made up their world over the past sixteen and half years. They were oddly calm, embracing the solemnity of this moment. Their life at sea was over.
There were over a thousand people on board, and they no longer had enough lifeboats for everyone. But the other ships that had gathered to help them sent their own lifeboats to pluck the survivors from the Catalina’s decks as she went down. They carried the Catalinans to shore or back to their own ships for the time being. David sent the Lucinda’s raft and motorboat over too. Every little bit helped.
The Catalina sank slowly, and with the help of so many boats they were able to get everyone off her in short order. They worked together to whisk the people away to safety boat by boat as the old ship went down. The mists lifted a little, framing the Catalina like curtains on a stage.
Esther joined her father on the deck of the Lucinda as the boats retrieved the last few survivors from the Catalina. They’d had to pull further away to avoid the drag of the sinking vessel. They watched her languish, the sea swallowing her in a slow, sad embrace. They were within sight of the shore. The Catalina had finally made it back to land.
Esther looped her uninjured arm through her father’s and rested her head on his shoulder. They stood watch together, not speaking, bearing witness, quietly saying good-bye.
The last boat to leave the Catalina’s decks was a navy speedboat they’d had since their first weeks at sea. It headed straight toward the Lucinda. As it got closer, they could pick out the faces of the last of their friends abandoning their home.
Reggie drove the speedboat. A battered guitar leaned beside him. He looked ten years younger as he sailed away from the Catalina for good. Neal sat on one of the benches, his headset around his neck, the wire dangling free. The wind blew his mousy hair back from his forehead.
Judith stood on the other side of the motor in the stern, arms folded. She stared back at the Catalina. The speedboat carried her further and further away from it, but the whole time Esther watched her, Judith didn’t look away. She watched the Catalina until the speedboat stopped in the shadow of the Lucinda.
When Judith finally turned, her face was wet with tears. She didn’t wipe them away, didn’t try to hide them. But she looked lighter, looser. They had made it. They had survived. Judith had seen them through until the very final moment, and she had been the last one to leave the Catalina’s decks.
Simon reached down to help Judith onto the Lucinda. Once on deck, she hugged him and Esther tight, failing to notice Esther’s arm in a sling. Even though the pain made Esther want to scream, she hugged Judith right back.
Then the three of them looked toward the Catalina. The sea had reached her uppermost decks now. The foredeck was covered. Neal’s Tower sprouted up like a lone periscope. Water sloshed over the windows, already working at some of the patches they had installed over the years. Foam and sea spray hugged her angles, her battered white-gray surfaces.
Then with a final gurgle the Catalina slipped beneath the surface of the sea.
Chapter 38—Land
ONE YEAR LATER
ESTHER DUG HER TOES into the sand as she walked along the beach. The grit was wet and cool. Her boots hung around her neck, tied at the laces. She dodged a bit of debris—a mangled plastic chair—leaving footprints in her wake.
The tide was all the way out. It was the best time to gather salvage and collect sea creatures. Eating land food had been a nice change over the past year, but she still preferred seafood. A crab scuttled along the beach, its legs leaving miniature tracks in the sand. Esther darted forward to pick it up, her boots banging against her chest.
She pinched the crab around the middle and examined its soft underbelly while its legs waved wildly. There was a wide pattern on the pale shell. This one was a girl. She placed it back on the beach and let it scuttle toward the sea. It would return to the seafloor and help repopulate the blasted planet with new life.
The next wave swept the crab up and surged around Esther’s bare ankles. She turned her face into the wind and looked out at the sea. The upper decks of the Catalina were visible a few hundred feet out. It was always like this at low tide. Twice a day the waters receded and her crown emerged from the surf, a memorial to their life at sea.
Esther often timed her visits to the beach for low tide. She’d put on her goggles and swim out to the wreck to walk atop the Catalina’s decks. Barnacles grew thick on her now. Sea grasses and coral had begun to spring up in places. Fish darted in and out of her corridors in flashing, brilliant schools. The last of her paint had been worn away. Every time Esther visited, another section had corroded or a wall had opened. Every time the Catalina had sunk a little further into the sand. The sea would overtake her one day, and she would truly become a part of it.
Esther breathed in the ocean air. It was a warm day, sunny like many of their days had been that summer. The farms along the riverbank were doing well. They were planning a real harvest festival for the next month. They’d invite everyone: the Lake People, the folks from Emilio’s village, the former Catalinans, and all the crews that were in port then.
They had removed the cargo vessel blocking the entrance to the river and begun building a port town on the Santiago River. The town itself was located atop one of the hills about two hours upriver. They knew better than to build anywhere too near the sea. But they were building. They were making a new life. Their town would become a city, a hub bridging the gap between land and sea. Already ships came from all over to trade, to exchange information, and even to settle on land once again.
David emerged from the sea then, wearing striped swimming trunks that Cally’s mother had made for him. He waved one hand at Esther and lifted a bulging plastic bag high in the other. Water glistened on his white-blond hair and made tracks down his tanned chest as he trudged through the shallows toward her.
Further up the beach, Esther’s father and sister walked side by side along the waterline. They found joy and solace in long, slow talks, still getting acquainted after all this time apart. Simon was writing about the aftermath of the disaster, and Naomi was proving to be a willing research assistant as well as one of his best sources. They spent hours every day interviewing travelers and studying any eyewitness accounts they could get their hands on. Neal helped them by connecting them with new sources whenever he came in contact with someone with an especially interesting story.
Esther had had her father to herself for all these years, so she didn’t mind. She didn’t have much in common with Naomi, so getting to know her again had been a slower process than she had expected. Their lives had been so different, and for the first few months they had orbited each other, slowly figuring out how to talk like sisters again. But Esther had David and Zoe and Neal and Cally and even Judith. She could let her sister spend a little extra time with their dad.
“Great haul today,” David said as he joined her. He opened the bag to show her the scraggly, waving legs of a couple of giant lobsters.
“They’re bigger than the last batch,” Esther said.
“And tastier I hope.” David fell in beside her. “What’s on your mind?”
“How do you know something’s on my mind?”
“I know you, Esther,” David said. He stopped her with a hand on her arm and tilted her face up to his. “I know you, and I love you. That’ll never change, even though everything else has.”
“It’s good to be back,” Esther said. “I’m glad we took a day off today.”
“I miss the sea too,” David said. “I know you like fixing the combines and working your magic on the cars, but I can tell you miss it.”
Esther nodded. It was a different life on land. There was still a lot of building to do as their town slowly took shape. The farming was difficult. They had to coax the land to support them, but the former Catalinans were working hard. Their numbers had nearly doubled over the past year as people heard about the new settlement and decided to join them.
Esther had more than enough to do with her own projects, but she sometimes missed the wind in her face and the whir of a marine diesel engine under her hands.
“Maybe it’s time we took the Lucinda on another trip,” she said.
“Sweeter words were never spoken,” David said. “I was thinking we could check out the Panama Canal. Assuming we make it through another winter, I say we sail south next spring. Luke, Zoe, and Cody should be back from Kansas City by then.”
“I like the way you talk,” Esther said.
A horn honked much further up the beach. Cally stood up from the front seat of the jeep and waved her arms over her head.
“Hurry up, you guys! I’m hungry,” she called, leaning on the horn.
“I’m beginning to think Reggie shouldn’t have taught her how to drive,” David said.
Esther laughed. “She’d have figured it out on her own. You got enough of that lobster for everyone? Dax should have the pot going by now.”
Cally had broken up with Dax again last week, but he had shown up, bright-eyed with his hair on end, when they packed up the jeep for their trip to the beach that morning. Everything was back to normal.
“Yes, ma’am,” David said. He leaned in and kissed her softly, a hint of salt and sand on his lips. Then he smiled and jogged up the beach toward the jeep.
Esther fell in beside her father and Naomi as they followed him up the beach.
“It’s too bad Judith couldn’t come today,” she said.
“Penny and I had breakfast with her this morning,” Simon said. He had married Penelope Newton in a simple ceremony last winter. Esther had been extra nice to Penelope that day. Naomi really liked her, and at least she made their father happy. “Judith’s keeping herself more than busy. She’s drafting a trade agreement for all the ships that want to use our port. I haven’t seen her so happy in a long time.”
“That’s good,” Esther said.
“I hear Dirk is going to run against her in the next election,” Naomi said.
“Just a rumor,” Simon said. “As a matter of fact she’s asked him to be her running mate. It’s a smart move. She may have actually managed to neutralize him.”
“I don’t envy him one bit,” Esther said.
She noticed something metallic sticking out of the sand. She stopped to extract it and brush off the grit. It was some sort of motor. Wires trailed out of it, but the components didn’t look too rusted. Excellent. She knew just how to use this in her next project.
“Can’t you guys walk any faster!” Cally called.
She and David sat in the front seat of the jeep. The Harris family climbed into the back. Cally fired up the engine and drove them back toward their campsite further up the beach, where Dax awaited the lobsters. Sand spun out from beneath their wheels like sea spray.
They settled in around the fire and boiled the lobsters, talking as the sun set over the rolling sea. The waves crashed beneath them, hiding the Catalina from view again. But they were okay. Life on land was good. And they still had the sea.
*****
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jordan Rivet is an American author from Arizona. She lives in Hong Kong with her husband. Prone to seasickness, she likes to watch the ships in Victoria Harbour while standing on solid ground.
Also by Jordan Rivet:
The Seabound Chronicles
Seabound
Seaswept
Seafled
Burnt Sea: A Seabound Prequel
Steel and Fire
Duel of Fire
King of Mist
Launching in April 2016, Steel and Fire is a new fantasy series featuring a professional duelist in a mountaintop kingdom.
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www.jordanrivet.com
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BURNT SEA
Moments before the world ends, Simon, a dissatisfied history professor, walks along the San Diego boardwalk with his young daughter, Esther. Judith, an ambitious college senior, jogs nearby, trying to relax before her first big interview.
Hundreds of miles away, the giant volcano sleeping under Yellowstone erupts for the first time in 640,000 years. Ash and death spread in all directions. When Simon and Judith see the destruction rolling their way, they flee on the nearest available escape vessel: a cruise ship called the Catalina.
Adrift at sea, the survivors are cut off from all communication as the earth changes forever. Tensions rise between the stranded passengers, the crew, and the increasingly volatile old captain. As storms and threats roll in, Simon and Judith must work together to keep the peace in this dangerous new world. Will they find a safe haven on the other side of the ocean?