Stranger Tides

by Jack Castle

  “Can you walk by yourself?” she asked, half-holding him.

  “I think so,” but when she eased up on her grip, he nearly collapsed to the ground.

  She sighed heavily. “Alright, I’m going to have to walk you.”

  He had so many questions he wanted to ask, ‘Who are you people?’ and ‘What’s going on?” but in the end he settled for, “Where are you taking me?”

  “Just keep walking. You’re not the only one we’re here to save,” she said, and then commanded, “Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot.”

  He lifted his chin from his feet and saw gilded, shark cages resting in the middle of The Factory floor. Where did those come from? He lifted his gaze skyward and saw chains on top of the cages that extended all the way up to the floating boat. Now that they were closer, he could just make out the letters written in bold letters on the side: H.M.A.S. The DAUNTLESS

  The girl shoved him inside a cage to join several other workers, who were already there looking as shocked as he was. She took his hand and placed it on the bars, so he could steady himself if needed, “Okay, stay put, Mr. Chatty.”

  She pointed upwards. “We’re taking you up. Just hold on tight. You got it?” When he didn’t respond right away she repeated, “Do… you… got… it?”

  Henry nodded in reply.

  The girl jumped out of the cage, slammed the door, and the cage moved, seemingly toward heaven.

  It was at this point it occurred to him; maybe that missile hit me after all.

  Chapter 1

  Maddie’s Berth

  “Who are you? Wait a minute, never mind. I don’t care. Get out!”

  The same girl Henry had seen before, the one with mounds of curly locks, only this time without her goggles matting it down, swung her skinny legs off the top bed of the bunk bed and hopped down. The girl with unruly hair seemed to be studying his meager trappings for a moment, which were little more than a bedroll and change of undergarments given to him by the ship’s quartermaster. Before thrusting a gloved finger in his face and telling him in no uncertain tones, “Don’t even think about it. This is my room!”

  “I’m sorry,” he began. Henry heard himself clear his throat and he sputtered nervously, “I was told to come down here, to this specific room.”

  “Who told you to come to this specific room?” Not waiting for an answer, she launched into her supposition. “Did Traxx put you up to this?” Again not waiting for a response, she pushed past him, stepped out into the hallway and shouted down the corridor, “Traxx, I know you did this. You get back here right now!”

  Henry heard snickering down the hallway and figured Traxx was probably the kid with the goggles on his forehead who had led him below decks.

  When the girl returned to the room he asked, “Do you want me to go?”

  “What?” It was as though she already forgot he was there.

  “I said, do you want me to go?”

  She saw more refugees crowded in the hallway and now lining the walls. He recognized many of them as factory workers.

  “No, you’re fine. It’s not your fault. You can set up over there,” she said, gesturing toward an empty bunk bed on the opposite side of the room. When he removed his coat and dropped it on the lower bunk, she added, “But don’t touch my stuff.”

  Henry didn’t reply, he just waited and for a few seconds, neither of them spoke.

  She sat down at a small desk and asked, “What’s your name, kid?”

  “Kid? I’m not a kid,” he protested. “Heck, I’m probably older than you are.”

  The young girl made a scathing noise, pushed her long locks out of her eyes and said, “Please. Not in this world you’re not. I’ve ridden on the backs of Wooly-Mammoths the size of skyscrapers… I’ve been on dozens of rescue missions… I even escaped the clutches of the Zombie-Pirate-King himself!”

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t believe in such things,” although he was in a giant, gilded submarine, floating amongst the clouds.

  “Trust me; if you stay aboard the Dauntless long enough, you will.”

  Henry shook his head. “Truth is, I don’t remember my real name. But, there was this peculiar man, back before I woke up in The Factory. He used to call me Henry.” He didn’t tell her that it was his only memory before The Factory.

  She studied him a moment longer, then as though deciding something, she stretched out her hand toward him in the form of a handshake and offered, “The name’s Maddie.”

  As he shook it, she asked him, “Got any family?”

  “I don’t know. Before The Factory, my memory’s a little fuzzy.”

  “Oh,” she said knowingly, “You’re a No-Mem.”

  “A what?”

  Tapping her forefinger against her temple, she said, “A No-Mem. As in… No Memory.”

  Henry didn’t like the sound of that.

  Maddie dropped onto a stool next to a considerably cluttered desk situated against the back wall. She removed something from a drawer that looked like a fat, metallic dart and placed it in a vice. Focusing on her task, she pulled forward a large magnifying glass mounted on a swivel, and using tiny watchmaker-like tools, she began tinkering around with it.

  Unsure what to do, he started to examine his new quarters a little more closely. For fighting so vehemently over it, there really wasn’t much to it. It was only about ten steps long and half that wide. The walls were smooth, and painted a rusted gold. On the wall above her desk was a solitary porthole. Beneath that, Henry saw a few shelves stacked with dozens of books and more electronic junk. There was also one closet on either side of the room, and that was pretty much it.

  The wall space that wasn’t taken up by the two bunkbeds was adorned with maps and photographs. One map in particular caught his attention. There were various drawings all over it, many of which were labeled: The Fairy Maze, Dino-Land, Portlandia, and Zombie-Pirate Swamp. All seemed to be centered by a crossroads. Circles were drawn around many of these locations with green question marks next to them, where other circles were marked out with giant red Xs.

  He moved closer to get a better look.

  Before he could however; he felt two hands grab him by his arm, spin him around and shove him across the room.

  “You just leave it alone. It doesn’t concern you.”

  Why was she so mad all the time? he wondered.

  Henry was about to apologize again, when both of them noticed a family standing out in the hall watching them. They too were refugees from The Factory. Henry didn’t recognize them, only their clothes and the black smudges on their faces. They stood outside, huddled together in the hallway; a mom with a handkerchief holding back her hair, a dad with a thick mustache and leather boiler-man cap, and a blond-haired girl, who couldn’t have been more than eight years old.

  Spotting the young girl in the hallway, Maddie stepped up to the door and asked, “Hey, you, little girl, what’s your name?”

  “Sorry Miss, she is from Poland and doesn’t speak English.” The woman’s accent was as thick as Piotr’s had been. Even though it sounded like they had the same mother (Mother Russia), Henry detected something different about her accent. “We are Ukrainian, but we have been watching over her for almost a year now. Her name is… Natalia.”

  Maddie seemed to let this sink in, or maybe she was having a memory of her own. Eventually, she waved them inside. “Come in here, come on.”

  The pint-sized girl waited for her father’s approval. When she got it, in the form of a head nod, she hesitantly led the family inside.

  Natalia coughed into her hand and Henry instinctively checked for blood in her palm. Thankfully, there was none.

  Maddie removed her bedroll from one of the bunks and tied it to a heavily worn, leather backpack. She then began grabbing some of her personal things and began shoving them into the bag. She then stared at one of her maps for a moment, almost like she was in a trance. When she realized he was staring at her, she quickly tore all the maps from the w
all, rolled them up and also stuffed them into her pack. Slinging the bag over her shoulder, and patting the bunk, she said to Natalia’s guardians, “Tell her, this, is her bed.”

  The little girl spoke softly, in Polish. When Maddie raised her palms, shrugged and said she didn’t understand, Natalia stretched out a finger to the sky.

  “What? You want the top bunk?” Maddie asked, patting it.

  When Natalia nodded her petite head, the parents scolded her in Ukrainian, but Maddie quickly cut them off by saying, “No, no, it’s okay, she can have the top bunk.” To the little girl, she leaned forward and whispered into her ear, “Good choice.”

  Natalia lunged forward and gave her a fierce hug.

  “Alright, alright, don’t get all emotional on me,” is what Maddie said, but Henry could tell she was secretly moved and may have even brushed a tear out of the corner of her eye.

  To the parents Maddie said, “You two take the other bunks here. This is your roommate, Harry.”

  “It’s Henry, actually.”

  Maddie gave him an eye-roll. “No one cares.”

  As Maddie finished gathering up a few more of her belongings, Henry stepped closer to her. “Wait. Where are you going?”

  “It’s a bit too crowded in here for my tastes.” Marching purposefully out of the room with her stuffed bag, she left only the sound of heavy work boots as she clunked down the hallway.

  Henry stood there a moment, too stunned to speak. He turned toward the new arrivals, but they were busy unpacking their things and getting Natalia ready for bed.

  Henry ran to the door shouting, “Wait… I thought you said this was your room?”

  But by the time he reached the hallway, she was already gone.

  Chapter 2

  Mad-Maddie

  “Ahhhhhhh…”

  Engineer Rick enjoyed the sound of creaking leather as he eased himself into the captain’s chair. It was mounted on a metallic pole made of solid gold.

  Even though he was officially the chief engineer on board, taking his turn at the wheel on the bridge of H.M.A.S. The Dauntless, was easily one of his private joys.

  Before getting too comfortable, business came first. He checked the bulky navigation console overhead where the destination coordinates were proudly displayed in latitude and longitude. Presently their heading was North, 40 degrees 45’ 84” by West 70 degrees 45’ 84”.

  Swiveling in the captain’s chair, Rick also checked their position on the large wall chart that dominated the left side of the bridge. Similar to the navigation board over his head, the design was Victorian, but in reality, the chart was as futuristic as it was functional.

  To the naked eye it appeared as though the wall chart was a simple map board that would seem more at home in the 19th century, Royal British Geographical Exploration Society. But all you had to do was speak your destination to the map, and it would adjust to the requested location accordingly. That is, if the location was a mapped area. At some point in history, many of the domains of this new world had returned to uncharted territories.

  As he settled further into his chair, the departing sun shone in through the large glass-paned windows and warmed his face. Gazing down upon an ocean of clouds, it was easy to imagine they were inside the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, sailing on a sea of pink cotton candy. In this world, he supposed, anything was possible.

  The ship’s throttle and other controls were all within easy reach of his chair. When The Leftenant was on the bridge, the controls were mostly just for show. He took another sip of his coffee and set it on the console. If The Leftenant had seen him do this, she would’ve been furious.

  Rick leaned forward and spoke into the gramophone-shaped speaker. Even after all this time, he still appreciated how everything was designed to look like something Jules Verne might have crafted, but worked perfectly.

  His voice echoing all over the ship he began, “This is your captain speaking…”. He meant this only in jest as his official title on board The Dauntless was chief engineer. “We have reached an altitude of seven-thousand feet and are cruising at a steady speed of two-hundred knots per hour.” The refugees they rescued would never know this, but this was a big deal. The Dauntless was originally designed to fly at only a maximum altitude of seventy feet, but after all the major modifications they had reworked over the years, she was capable of flying nearly to ten thousand.

  Rick examined the refitted bridge once more. Behind every bolt and every deck plate, hid a memory. Over the years George, Traxx and he had completely remodeled the bridge by combining the fake one upstairs, with all its 20,000 leagues aesthetics, with the altruistic modern one below, to form one large bridge that combined both. Even with the futuristic tools and help from The Leftenant and other specialists they had rescued, the refit had still taken over a year. “Just a reminder, the galley will be closing for the evening at 2000 hours, so if you’re hungry, I suggest you get something now. Thank you for flying with Engineer Rick Enterprises. We know you could fly with another airline, but we’re glad you decided to fly with us.”

  Pleased with his own comments, he propped his boots up onto the helm controls in front of him and eased back in the comfy leather chair. Interlocking his fingers behind his head, he sighed with pleasure at the view of the clouds melting on the horizon.

  He hungered for the quiet, and this was easily the only place on the crowded vessel he could get any piece of…

  THUMP!

  A leather backpack appeared on the console. It was one Rick knew as well as his own. There was a bedroll hastily tied to the side of it, while the bag was overflowing with rolled up maps.

  Not even turning to see who it was, he began by saying, “No, no, no. You can’t sleep here. You know the rules, Pumpkin.”

  “Oh, c’mon Uncle Rick. I’ve got nowhere else to go.”

  Maddie wasn’t the cute little eight-year old kid he had first met six years ago. She was fast becoming a young lady. Mad-Maddie, that’s what the rest of the crew called her. She had every right to be that way, especially after what happened to her parents.

  “What’s wrong with your room?” Even before she replied, Rick knew the answer. They had taken on way too many refuges. Most likely Maddie did what she always did, which was to give up her berth.

  “Don’t worry about it,” she grumped.

  He checked to see if The Leftenant was listening; which was ridiculous, because she was always listening. Nope, even if she wasn’t, she recording everything that happened on the ship and played it back later.

  “Look, kiddo, you know the rules. You’re not even supposed to be on the bridge, especially after that stunt you and Traxx pulled last time.”

  “Awww… c’mon, just for tonight. I’ll set up my hammock somewhere tomorrow night.”

  “No way. Try again.”

  Maddie stamped her foot and cried out a hearty, “Ughhh!”

  He could imagine the wheels turning in her head. “Fine. I guess I’ll just have to find somewhere else to sleep tonight.”

  Rick bolted upright. “Not in the engine room. Say it. Say, Uncle Rick, I won’t set up my hammock in the engine room.”

  She paused, “With that idiot, Traxx, down there to drive me crazy? Yeah, I don’t think so. No. I was thinking of stowing away in the Hopper.”

  This wasn’t a bad idea. The Hopper was a land craft he and Traxx had reengineered for scouting expeditions. It’s not like she could take one out while they were in mid-air.

  Maddie grabbed her backpack but didn’t lift it. She spied her rolled up maps sticking out of it and kept staring at them. Not moving a muscle, she asked quietly, “You don’t think they’re dead do you?”

  What to say? Rick wondered. George had made him promise never to tell what really happened to her mother, Tessa. No one had seen or heard from him in nearly three years. He felt enormously guilty. He never could stomach lying to Maddie about it. Lying about the truth.

  Growing impatient, with a little more fervor in h
er voice, “Uncle Rick, I asked you a question.”

  It was time for a dose of tough love. He didn’t like doing it, but it had been something he had been thinking about telling her for a good long while now. “Listen kiddo, no one has seen or heard from your parents in over three years.” Seeing her face, he quickly added, “All I’m saying is your parents wouldn’t want you to spend your whole life looking for them, especially if they’re not able to be found.”

  “What do you know? Huh? You’re just a big, fat, stupid, engineer.” This time she did grab her backpack. “You were supposed to be his best friend. And you stopped looking for him. You all did.” She moved to the hatch.

  As far as Rick was concerned, she couldn’t leave quick enough. She was killing him inside. “And another thing,…you’re not my dad, okay?” She wiped a tear from her eye and picked up her bedroll and other belongings. She tried to leave but tripped over her feet and dropped her things. He was about to offer her a hand collecting her things, but when she flashed him a venomous look, he thought better of it. “So, stop acting like it.”

  Mad-Maddie was gone before he had a chance to tell her that he was sorry.

  He grabbed his coffee, instinctively blew over the top of it and thought quietly to himself, George, where are you? Are you still alive? I miss you, buddy. And, there’s a young girl on board who badly who needs her daddy.

  Chapter 3

  Jerry Meets Board of Directors

  “Floor please.”

  Jerry from Corporate flicked his hair over to one side, gave it a brief finger-comb and promptly stepped one polished loafer into the gold-plated elevator… and froze.

  There was a man standing in the corner of the elevator. He was leaning against a vast array of brightly-lit, numbered buttons. Jerry could see the Imp was dressed in his normal Victorian attire, which included a ridiculously oversized top hat.