by C. R. Turner
“Why did they decommission the Navy?”
“It became obsolete. All the wars are fought off-world now.”
I sit and hold my cup close with both hands, blowing to cool it down. The steam clears, and there’s a dead ant floating in it. Not wanting to offend the guy, I take a sip. I glance back at the maritime paraphernalia stacked up in huge piles all over the place with little paths crisscrossing back and forth between them.
Lindsey nods at me. “So why do you want to go and live on Arcadia? You know there isn’t anyone else living up there anymore? It’d be a tough life.”
“Yeah, I know. But I’m not joining the Union, and I can’t stay on the mainland. I’d be drafted. And besides, I think it would be fun.”
“Yeah, I don’t blame you. It’s been decades since I was in the Navy. Back then half of the wars were still fought on Terra Primus, and there was an enormous amount of pride in being in the armed forces. Now it’s been hollowed out and turned into big business. It was all downhill after the unification of the Talon armed forces. Most of the Union soldiers probably don’t even know why they’re going off-world to fight.”
“All I know is that I want to get as far away from the Union as possible.”
“Fair enough. I ain’t gotta worry about being drafted at my age.” He grins.
There’s a few seconds of silence before Lindsey says, “You know there are Bellona on Arcadia?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know much about them.”
Lindsey laughs. “It’s a cat! A four-hundred-pound cat with ten inch teeth.”
“I didn’t know they were that big.”
“Well, stay close to your Canine Maximus and you’ll be alright.”
“Will Bellona attack a Canine Maximus,” I ask, starting to worry.
“They would have to be pretty desperate. The Bellona are top of the food chain on Arcadia. Second only to your Canine Maximus that is. If you look out for Max, and he you, you’ll be okay. Just don’t let your guard down.”
“How are you going to get to Arcadia?” asks Lindsey.
“I was wondering if you might be able to help me.”
“How so?”
I look around at all the maritime equipment lying around. “I was looking at a patrol boat in the harbour and was thinking I might be able to get it going to make the trip up to Arcadia.”
Lindsey says, “That would cost an arm and a leg.”
“How much?”
Lindsey sniggers. “I don’t know exactly. It would depend on how much work it needs. It would be around ten to fifteen-thousand bills just in fuel.”
“I have money and I have gold as well, if you would accept it.”
Lindsey looks surprised, takes another sip of his cuppa and says, “Why don’t you stay the night and we can take a look at it in the morning?”
After breakfast, I stand at the windows overlooking the ocean. They’re covered in a layer of sea salt, refracting the morning light. The ocean is calm with the occasional wave smashing against the breakers, sending spray flying. Max leans against me and I turn and pat him.
“Do you want to go and take a look at that patrol boat?” Lindsay says. His tone has changed since yesterday. I guess he’s as excited about getting the patrol boat going as I am.
“Yeah.” I reply.
While he takes the last of the things into the kitchen, I wait near the entrance. The wall is covered in photos of ships and sailors. I find one with a battleship in the background and hundreds of sailors on the deck and dock. There are half-a-dozen sailors in the foreground with chests decorated with medals, and I step in to take a closer look. As Lindsey returns, I realise the man in the centre of the photo is actually him, only much younger. He smiles and holds the door open for us.
Max trots ahead of us towards the harbour, smelling everything. I spot the patrol boat and lead Lindsey over to it. “This is the one I was thinking of,” I say, nervous about his reaction.
“She’s a big boat to get going.”
Lindsey and I jump down onto the deck, and I turn back to tell Max to stay but before I can open my mouth, he’s already jumped. He lands on the deck right next to me.
Lindsey smiles. “He must be worried he’s going to be left behind.”
We inspect the boat for nearly an hour, opening hatches, exploring the many sleeping quarters and rooms in the bridge. We’re in the engine room looking around when Lindsey calls me over. There’s a heavy smell of fuel and oil, and although there are only two hatches in the deck letting in air, it’s quite light, so we don’t have any trouble seeing where we’re going.
“This could be a show stopper,” Lindsey says as he points to a bearing on the propeller output shaft.
He rocks the starboard propeller shaft back and forth, then walks over to the port-side propeller shaft and says, “It’s seized solid. You should be able to rock the output shaft back and forth.”
“What does it need?”
“It needs a new bearing. You can’t buy them anymore.”
I look at the bearing, dejected, wondering if we’ll ever get to Arcadia.
Lindsey rubs his chin in thought. “I’m not sure, but we might be able to scavenge a bearing off another boat. I’m doing the numbers in my head though, and to get it going and over to Arcadia, it’s probably going to cost close to a hundred-thousand bills, including fuel.”
My jaw nearly hits the floor. “I don’t have that much.”
“Sorry kid, but I told you it wouldn’t be cheap.”
My dream of making it to Arcadia is smashed once again.
“Do you have a plan B?” he asks.
“No.”
Back at Lindsey’s place, he asks, “How much money do you have?”
I retrieve my backpack, pull out all my stuff to reveal my giant wad of cash and drop the money on the table. Lindsey raises his eyebrows as I continue rummaging then plonk gold nuggets on the table too.
“You’ve probably got close to fifty thousand bills’ worth of cash and gold here,” he says.
I drop my backpack on the ground. “It’s not enough though.”
Neither of us say anything for a while, then I ask, “What if you pay for the rest and keep the boat once we’re done with it?”
Lindsey looks at me. “You’d be stuck on Arcadia with no way back!”
“That’s alright. I don’t plan on ever coming back to the mainland.”
Lindsey looks at the cash and gold, then back at me. “I have a bit of cash, and I have some favours I can call in. Yeah … alright. Let’s do it,” he says, holding out his hand.
“Okay.” I shake his hand, grinning.
A few weeks later, Max is lying on the back deck sunbaking as Lindsey and I walk around the boat, checking all the work we’ve done. We’ve spent countless hours pulling it to pieces and cleaning it out, and Lindsey’s organised fuel, parts and supplies from his Union buddy.
“Well, that looks like it. All we need to do now is take it out for a short run to make sure everything’s working before heading off,” Lindsey says.
“Do you want to go now?” I ask.
Lindsey chuckles. “Yeah. Keen much? Do you want to stay down here and get ready to cast off.”
“Okay.”
Lindsey climbs up to the bridge and starts the engines. A massive black cloud of diesel smoke pours out of the exhausts for a few seconds before dissipating, and a deep rumbling reverberates through the hull, causing Max to jump to his feet in fright. Lindsey gives me the thumbs up, and I climb up onto the pier, lift the massive ropes off the stern and bow bollards and throw them down on the rear and foredeck. Once I’m back on board, Lindsey manoeuvres the boat away from the pier. Just as I enter the bridge, Lindsey throttles up the engines, the boat surges forward and we take off into the harbour.
After about an hour of testing, we’re on our way back to the pier and even Lindsey, who carries the regimented Navy Commander demeanour well, is smiling.
“Do you want to have a go?”
“Yeah,” I say with a grin.
Lindsey shows me what all the controls are for, and as I drive the boat back towards the pier, my mind is going a hundred miles an hour, thinking about all the things that could go wrong, as well as what it will be like to step foot on Arcadia for the first time.
I’m sure I won’t get any sleep tonight.
Chapter 11
A Union striker scout has my father on his hands and knees. His Ashra is pointed at my father’s head whilst a Union policeman has his fist tightly bunched up in my mother’s hair as she kneels on the ground.
“Arrrhhhhh …” her high-pitched scream bellows out.
“Run!” she screams.
Her voice is cut off by an almighty thud from an Ashra, and my father’s body falls to the ground like a steaming bag of cement, to the sound of blood being sprayed far and wide, followed by chunks of flesh and bone raining down like horrific hail.
“Run … Run …” she cries out. A cry that will haunt me to the day I die.
She spots me and we lock eyes just as the Union policeman lets go of her hair, steps back and fires. The energy weapon echoes out over the valley like thunder. Watching on from a distance, through the obscured view of the surrounding bush, I fall backwards in terror, gasping for breath.
The Union policeman and the striker scout look up in my direction. “Get him!” the striker scout wails.
I run.
I jolt awake so violently, I fall off the bed and land on the ground. Heart racing, I look up at Lindsey’s concerned face. “Are you alright?” he asks. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
I don’t reply, just sit and catch my breath. Max walks over and lowers his head to within just inches of my face, and I lean forward, resting my forehead against his.
“Brekkie will be ready in fifteen,” Lindsey says as he heads back into the kitchen.
It’s early; Hati hasn’t even risen. It’s the day of the big trip to Arcadia, and I quickly stuff all my belongings into my backpack and join Lindsey at the table.
“What were you dreaming about?”
I look down at my breakfast and take a deep breath. “I keep having a reoccurring dream about the day both my parents were killed by a Union striker scout and a policeman.”
Lindsey shocked, replies, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that.”
I go on. “Max and I had a striker scout chasing us for months. It took me a while to work it out, but it’s the same striker scout that killed my father.”
Lindsey shakes his head and takes a sip of his drink. “Your father was a good man. Your nightmares are probably from stress. You watch. When you make it to Arcadia the nightmares will stop.”
I manage a small smile.
“You must be pretty excited. Today’s the day.”
I smile again but don’t say anything.
Once we get to the boat, I stow my stuff inside the cabin and Lindsey starts the engines. The same black plume of diesel smoke bellows out of the exhaust as I cast off the ropes, Max lying in watch. Soon we’re motoring towards the breakers.
Lindsey and I are in the bridge as Hati peers over the horizon. The ocean is flat and several large seabirds fly low over the surface as we pass through the breakers.
Hours later and we’ve lost sight of land. I sit patting Max on the aft deck, both of us looking out over the ocean. The cold salty air blows on my face as I watch birds circling before diving into the ocean as they hunt for fish. I notice something floating in the ocean and walk to edge of the boat to get a better look. It’s a small piece of deep-blue ice. I look up at Lindsey sitting at the helm and climb up to join him in the bridge.
“Was that a piece of ice I just saw?”
Lindsey turns around. “Probably. Arcadia has a glacier on it. Chunks of ice fall off the face from time to time and float off.”
I start to get excited. “Where will you drop me off? How will I get ashore?”
“There’s a jetty of sorts on the south coast I had planned on dropping you off at.”
“Does anyone live on Arcadia anymore?”
“No, I don’t think so. When the defence forces stopped doing survival training there, the few private residents left. Even if there were people living on it, the place is so massive you’d probably never see one another.”
Hours later, I’ve fallen asleep in one of the chairs in the bridge when Lindsey wakes me. He points out over the bow to enormous snow-capped mountains on the horizon. Arcadia. I jump up and walk to the forward windows, smiling with joy.
“I bet you’re glad to see that,” he says.
I open my mouth, but I’m not able to say anything. I just stare at the thick pine forests running nearly all the way down to the water’s edge.
As we draw nearer, the glacier is clearly visible, brilliant blue, white and towering above the boat, glistening in the midday sun. I go out onto the deck and am hit by the freezing air. Max is standing at the edge of the aft deck, also looking up at the glacier. I smile and head back inside.
A short while later, we’ve made it to the jetty, and Lindsey says, “Well … this is it.”
I smile with joy.
He throttles the boat down to an idle and reaches into a bag, pulling out a small hand-held radio. “Here. I want you to take this. It’s not very powerful but on an overcast day it might just reach the mainland.”
“Thank you. How do I use it?”
Lindsey gives me a quick lesson, and I shake his hand, a bit choked up at saying goodbye. Under that rough exterior is a nice guy, I can see why my father and he would’ve been friends. “Thank you, for all your help.”
As Lindsey positions the patrol boat alongside the jetty, Max jumps down and I throw my backpack onto the jetty and jump down after it. Lindsey pulls away from the jetty and I wave. He pulls on the horn several times, the thunderous blast ringing out over the bay and echoing through the mountains.
I stand watching the boat motor off before grabbing my gear and heading to the edge of the jetty, where it meets the land. I pause, look down at the ground. “Here we go, Max.” We step forward onto Arcadia for the first time.
I look over the grassy fields, to the thick forests that seem to go on forever, and the vast snow-capped mountains jutting out of the forests and into the sky from horizon to horizon.
I’ve dreamt of this moment for so long.
As I stand there taking in the scenery, a realisation hits me: everything we’ve been through, and all the times I had to find it somewhere within me to strive ahead against overwhelming pressure, has all been worth it. Though, deep inside, there was a small part of me that thought this day would never come.
I look up at Max who’s standing tall and looking up at the strange surroundings. “We’re here, Max. We’re really here,” I say with a quiver.
He has a look on his face I’ve not seen before.
I jump up on his back and we start crossing the grassy field. With so much open space, I nudge Max a little harder and he trots, then builds speed without me even asking. He runs faster and faster until I fear falling at such high speed, but I’m overcome by the sheer thrill, my spirit lifted to an overwhelming feeling of freedom and excitement. It’s a feeling I’ve never experienced before in my entire life. It’s like my soul has been caged and now it’s suddenly released.
With the wind in our faces and a massive smile on my face, Max streaks across the massive grassy field. He breathes in copious amounts of air and exhales in an instant. His ripped muscular frame and thick claws tearing the earth up. I hold on as tight as I can while Max flies across the field, until we reach the far side, where I pull on his reins to slow him to a walk. He’d probably keep running like that for hours.
He catches his breath in no time at all, although it takes me a while longer to wipe the huge smile from my face. As we enter the forest, we’re surrounded by enormous pine trees, dwarfing us in the shade of the forest canopy. There’s a chorus of birds chirping, and from time to time, the scurryin
g of a small animal running away.
Hati is setting and the temperature has been dropping dramatically, when I decide to stop for the night and light a fire. As we sit around the campfire, the birdcalls that echoed throughout the forest during the day go quiet, and the forest falls to a creepy silence, as if there’s a curfew in place. Sitting close to Max to keep warm, I have my knife by my side as I eat my dinner.
The surrounding forest is slowly being layered in frost, and I can’t help but wonder if I’m seeing the same things my father saw.
The silence is brutally punctured by what can only be described as something being eaten alive. I haven’t seen any Bellona yet, but I get the impression there are other animals in the forest I should be equally afraid of.
Morning and Max is already awake, birds chirping, everything covered in frost. After a quick breakfast, I scurry about packing up all our things, eager to head off.
Walking for hours through the thick forest, we encounter an abundance of animals, many of which I’ve never seen before. Several days go by with us stopping and hunting from time to time as we follow the trails that time has nearly erased. Eventually, we come to a clearing at the foot of a snow-capped rocky mountain that casts a shadow over the grassy field. I pull on Max’s reins to stop him as something catches my eye — an old log cabin with verandas on all sides and a stone chimney protruding through the tin roof. Stunned to find any sort of building on Arcadia, let alone such a nice log cabin, I gently nudge Max and we head towards the cabin to investigate.
Sixty or so feet away, I stop Max again and sit there for a few minutes looking at the cabin and the surrounding area to check if I can see or hear anyone, then lead him towards the cabin for a closer inspection.
On the veranda, I turn around to again make sure we’re alone. That’s when I see the magnificent view for the first time — the forest and the ocean crashing on the rocky beaches in the distance. I smile as I take in the beauty of the tranquil landscape.
I twist the door handle. It’s unlocked. Inside, the cabin is fairly neat and tidy. There are a dozen single beds, a kitchen, a large timber table, bookshelves filled with books and a stone fireplace with firewood stacked next to it. I run my fingers along the surface of the table leaving several lines in the thick layer of dust. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s been here in years.” I put my bow and arrows down on the table and drop my backpack on the ground. Home. This is so cool.