Seas of the Red Star

by Andrew Gates

  The pilots swam to the front of the fighter and pulled themselves up. Ellen found it easy to climb on top in the low gravity. Dave followed closely behind. The two of them walked across the roof of the vessel as a powerful wind blew into them.

  Ellen saw nothing at first. Then, after a few seconds, a sight caught her eye far off in the distance along the horizon. She magnified her vision, hoping to get a closer look.

  “I see a boat,” she said, pointing off into the distance. Dave turned to face it. “It looks like it’s traveling our way!”

  “Good!” Dave replied in an excited tone. “Let’s hope they’re friendly.”

  Ellen did not respond. She hoped he was right. The last thing they needed right now was another problem to deal with.

  The Red God’s Gleam

  Earth Date (Revised Julian Calendar): 01.23.5673

  Location: Unknown Ocean, Red One, Vexa Corp Controlled Space

  It had been less than an hour since Ellen hallucinated in the failing stasis pod. Now she wondered if she was experiencing a relapse of some sort. She had seen enough weirdness to last a lifetime, but this was unbelievable.

  The incoming boat was an enigma, crawling through the seas at the pace only a drowning sailor could match. At first Ellen thought it was strange that this crew was traveling so slowly, but as she studied it in more detail, it occurred to her that this boat likely had no engine at all. The ship had two masts, tall wooden poles with thick sails attached to them. Sail-powered boats were still used recreationally every now and then, but never of this size and never so far from land. The monstrous wooden ship appeared to be almost 70 meters from end to end. It was like something out of a museum on 18th Century Earth.

  “Uhm… Milsen, are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Dave asked. His eyes were transfixed on the sight.

  “I am.”

  “Are you sure we went forward in time? Not… you know, backwards?”

  “I’m sure. Yuri verified the date.”

  That’s true. Plus, backwards time travel is impossible, Yuri explained.

  It took a few minutes for the antique ship to reach them. Ellen hoped that as it neared, she would eventually be able to pick up their ATG access. But even as it closed in on them, there was nothing to connect with.

  Tall crewmen, easily twice the height of Ellen and Dave, leaned out over the side of the boat, eager to catch a glimpse of the two pilots. They pointed to the fighter and opened their mouths wide in astonishment. Ellen could hear some of them shouting, though she could not make out any words. Some held old-fashioned monoscopes to their eyes.

  Well this is peculiar, Gloria said. That was certainly putting it mildly.

  “What?” Dave shouted back to them.

  A round-chested man with unkempt grey hair and a pointed hat pushed his way through the crowd. It had been a long time since Ellen had seen anyone with grey hair. Rejuvs usually took care of that. He had a bad skin infection and wore dirty, ragged clothes made of what looked like a mix of wool and animal skins. The man glared down at the pilots. As the massive boat neared, Ellen could now make out their shouts.

  “Travelers, who may you be?” the grey-haired man hollered down to them in a rough, deep voice.

  “What’s our play? Truth? Lie?” Dave quietly asked.

  “Let’s do truth for now,” Ellen replied in a hushed tone. “If these are colonists, they’ll be sympathetic to Vexa Corp.”

  “I don’t know if these people are colonists. They look more like historical performance artists.”

  “Hello!” Ellen called back to the man, ignoring Dave’s comment. She waved to boat. “We are glad to find you! My name is Corporal Ellen Milsen. This is David Cutter. We’re pilots for Vexa Corp. Our ship is out of power. We were hoping you could help us.”

  “Your ship? What ship?” the man inquired.

  Ellen instinctively looked down below her feet, making sure she had not gone insane. Sure enough, she and Dave were still standing atop the fighter.

  “This fighter here,” she explained, pointing down. “We’ve found ourselves stranded here. Please, we could use any help you can offer.”

  The man turned to the others aboard the boat and said something to them that Ellen could not hear. She wondered what he would do next.

  “Aye, a ship you say?” the man eventually said as he turned back to face the pilots. “The Silver Pearl may reside on the seas, but it has never carried passengers. To stand atop it is to desecrate its holiness!”

  “What the hell is he talking about?” Dave asked.

  He’s referring to the fighter. These people must view the ship as some sort of religious relic, Yuri explained.

  “Why? It’s a fighter. It’s nothing special.”

  “Maybe they don’t know that,” Ellen replied, privately. “I’m starting to think these people don’t have a lot of experience with technology.”

  “How came you atop the Silver Pearl in the first place? I see no vessel!” the man shouted down to them.

  “We traveled inside the Silver Pearl, sir. It carried us here,” Ellen explained.

  The man turned to face the others as a look of confusion grew on his face. They quietly conversed for nearly a minute before the man turned to face the pilots once more.

  “You came from inside the Pearl, you say? You two resemble the Governor. You are short, like him, and your clothes are… odd. Are you sorcerers?”

  “Did he just ask if we are sorcerers?” Dave asked, quietly.

  “Uhm… yeah, he did,” Ellen confirmed.

  “How are we supposed to respond to that question? Is being a sorcerer a good thing or a bad thing?”

  “Let’s find out,” Ellen replied. She cleared her throat and looked up to the man on the ship again. “Sir, if we are sorcerers, you would not want to disappoint us, would you?”

  The man gave this some thought before nodding his head.

  “I suppose you are right,” he eventually answered.

  “Then bring us aboard your ship! We will gladly repay you for your kindness in any way we can!”

  The man turned to the crew and shouted some orders. He waved his hands expressively all the while. Eventually one of the men threw a line overboard. It splashed in the water only a few meters away from the fighter.

  “I guess it worked. Good thinking, Milsen.”

  Ellen shrugged. She was making this up as she went along. As far as she was concerned, they had simply gotten lucky.

  She dove into the ocean and swam to the line. When she grabbed it, she was surprised to find that the rope was made of yarn. It soaked up like a sponge in the water. She crawled up it nonetheless, moving easily in the planet’s low gravity. Dave followed closely behind.

  A crowd of tall men awaited her at the top of the line. One held his hand out in assistance, though Ellen did not require any help to pull herself aboard. She stepped down onto the wooden deck of the ship and took in the sailors.

  The crew was all men, with not a single woman present. Many of their bodies were covered in scars. Their hair came in different shades of brown or grey, all straggly as if they had not seen a comb in years. Their dirty clothes were torn and reeked of grime as if they had never been washed. Many of the men were armed with knives or tiny axes. Only the wide-chested man from earlier carried a rudimentary firearm holstered to his hip. He stepped up to greet Ellen with his right hand outstretched, limping as he walked.

  “Pleased to meet you, Corporal Ellen Milsen. I am Captain Azzorro of the Red God’s Gleam.” The man’s teeth were as brown as the wood they stood upon and covered in cavities.

  Ellen shook his hand, surprised by how weak his grip was in comparison to hers.

  His body has adapted to the low gravity. You’re a lot stronger than him here. Don’t crush his hand, Yuri explained.

  Oh, sorry, you’re right. Ellen quickly pulled her hand away, though Captain Azzorro did not seem to mind.

  “Firm grip. I like that,” he said.

  Dave pull
ed himself over the edge of the boat now and joined Ellen by her side. Captain Azzorro shook his hand as well.

  “Oh, firm grips, both of you. Your stature is not an indicator of your strength. Forgive me, I mistook you for a weaker sort.”

  “Happens to me all the time,” Dave joked.

  Ellen casually shoved him. This was not the time for wit.

  “Thank you for letting us aboard your boat, Captain Azzorro. I assure you, we mean you no harm. We hope that you can help us reach land.”

  “Land?” The captain seemed confused by this request. “You mean, like an island? Which island did you have in mind?”

  “Not an island, no, a continent would be preferred,” Ellen replied.

  The captain gave a confused glance to the rest of his crew, as if waiting for one of them to help him make sense of those words. When none supplied any help, he eventually met Ellen’s gaze again and shook his head.

  “I do not know this word, continent. If you are speaking of land, you speak of an island. Islands are for gaining resources, food, trading. But I do not know of a continent.”

  “Continents are like really big islands,” Dave explained.

  “The largest island belongs to the Governor,” Captain Azzorro replied. “It would not be wise for us to sail to such a place.”

  Ellen sighed in frustration. These people had not even heard of continents. This was truly a backwards society. She needed to know just what they were dealing with.

  “Let me ask you a question, have you ever seen someone like us before?” she asked, bluntly.

  “Only the Governor. Though I have not met him in person, you resemble the tales of his appearance. Your short stature, your strange clothes…”

  The Governor is like you. Did you catch that? Yuri asked.

  I did.

  “And have you ever heard of the ATG, of Vexa Corp, of terraforming or colony missions?” Ellen continued.

  The man shook his head.

  Don’t put too much on him all at once, Yuri warned.

  Sorry, I just had to be sure.

  “I am sorry, Corporal Ellen Milsen. I do not know what you are talking about.” The captain’s tone was innocent enough. He squinted and stared at her for a few moments, then let out deep breath. “You are not really sorcerers, are you?”

  “No, we’re not,” Ellen admitted, shaking her head. She did not want to confuse the man any more than she already had. “But we can help crew your ship in exchange for food and shelter until you make your next stop on land.”

  “I thought as much,” the captain said. He snickered. “So if you are not sorcerers, what truly brought you to the Silver Pearl? We have passed by this gleaming rock on many voyages but have never seen anyone atop it until today.”

  “What I told you earlier was the truth. We came from inside the Silver Pearl.”

  “But you are not sorcerers?”

  “Right.”

  Captain Azzorro removed the pointed hat from his head and scratched his dirty hair. A look of perplexity shone on his face.

  “I can tell you are confused,” Ellen said, jumping in. “But I assure you, we mean you no harm and we did not set out to desecrate any holy relics. We have been asleep in the Pearl for many years and finally awoke today. You have my word.”

  “I find this hard to believe. I have passed by this floating shrine for decades, as has my father before me. Tell me… where are you from?”

  “This may take time to explain, but we are from another world, another planet.”

  “Beyond the seas of Taspansa?”

  “Uh… yes, beyond the seas of Taspansa,” Ellen said. She assumed Taspansa was what they called this planet. If so, she liked the name a lot better than Red One.

  “And the Silver Pearl was your portal?” the captain wondered.

  “You can think about it like that, yes. The Silver Pearl brought us to Taspansa.”

  “If what you are saying is true, it seems we have a lot to discuss,” Captain Azzorro said.

  “You have no idea, Captain.”

  The captain closed his eyes for a moment, taking in the heat of Vexa Prime. He slowly bobbed his head as he reopened his eyes again, meeting Ellen’s gaze.

  “Well… you seem an honest sort, despite your strangeness. I shall welcome you aboard this boat as part of my crew, as you have requested. I could certainly use someone of your strength. I hope you do not mind if my crew seems intimidated by your presence. It has been a long time since we have had a woman aboard the Red God’s Gleam.”

  “I understand,” Ellen replied. She smiled. “Thank you.”

  “Yes, thank you, sir,” Dave added.

  “Should you try any tricks on me, you will find my hospitality quickly revoked.”

  “Understood,” was all Ellen said in response.

  “Good.” The captain nodded. “You two are sea scorgers now. Welcome to the Red God’s Gleam!”

  The crew cheered. Some even raised their knives or hats to the sky.

  Sea scorgers? What do you reckon that means? Gloria wondered.

  Not sure. It’s not a term I’m familiar with, Yuri responded.

  I guess we’ll find out, Ellen replied as she followed Captain Azzorro below deck.

  “Come, follow me. We have much to talk about,” their host said, leading the way.

  Dim candles lining the walls lit the interior of the lower deck. When they reached the bottom of the staircase, the captain motioned to a door before them.

  “This be my office. If I be here, I am not to be disturbed.”

  “Is this where we are meeting?” Ellen asked.

  “I will give you a brief tour of the ship, but then we will return to meet in here. There is much I want to discuss. But first, get below and keep in line.”

  The captain continued down the steps, past the office to an even lower level and turned to face the inside of a long, narrow hall. Ellen and Dave followed closely behind.

  “Please, follow me. Ye’ may find the layout a bit unusual. Most captains have their offices beneath the quarterdeck, but I be different from the others. I keep mine on the opposite end of the ship, near the bow.”

  “Why is that?” Ellen asked.

  The captain huffed as me moved across the creaking wooden floor. His boots squished with very step. Though he tried to appear calm around them, Ellen noticed that his right hand was never far from his holstered pistol.

  “The ship is moving forward, so I should be moving forward with it, not hiding in back beneath the helm. Sure, most navigational decisions be made on the quarterdeck, but if I have business needin’ attention in my office, I won’t be on the quarterdeck, will I? So say I, in the end, what does it matter where my office is located?”

  “I guess that makes sense,” Ellen said.

  Now inside, Ellen noticed that this long hall was full of cannons mounted on either side, with large wooden barrels scattered intermittently here and there. Candle sticks were still mounted along the walls, though they were unlit. Instead, sunlight illuminated the room through narrow slits before each of the cannon barrels.

  Everything here was supersized. Candlesticks were the length of Ellen’s forearm, barrels practically came up to the height of her chin, ropes were twice as thick and the tall ceiling seemed like something more out of grand hall than a crammed boat.

  “Where are we now?” Dave asked, looking around.

  “That should be obvious. This be the gun deck,” Captain Azzorro said.

  “And these barrels are full of… what? Gunpowder?” Dave asked.

  “Haven’t spent much time on ships, have you?” the captain replied. He slowly turned around to eye each of them up. “Came from beyond Taspansa, you say?”

  “That’s right,” Ellen responded.

  “Well,” the captain continued, facing forward again, “gunpowder’s stored in the ship’s magazine. That’s on the deck below this one, near the stern.”

  “Why there? Why not closer to the weapons?” Dave wonde
red.

  “Too close to the galley.”

  “So?”

  “So, gunpower explodes. That’s why we keep it far away from the ship’s galley, where the stove is. In my years, I seen too many ships catch fire from dim-witted layout. The Red God’s Gleam will not join that list.”

  Ellen studied the cannons. There were no forward nor backward-facing cannons. Instead, each were angled directly perpendicular to the keel. The weapons themselves appeared to be made of brass. Some even had cannonballs beside them, trapped in small enclosures carved into the floor to prevent them from rolling. The balls were made of iron and, like everything else, supersized.

  Iron is sturdier than brass. If these sailors have access to iron here, why don’t they use guns made out of iron too? The ship seems large enough to support the weight, Ellen privately wondered to Yuri.

  I don’t think it’s an issue of weight. Brass doesn’t corrode in salty air. Iron does, Yuri explained.

  You think these guys were able to figure that out?

  They’ve figured out a lot. They might be technologically behind, but they’re not unintelligent, Ellen.

  When they finally reached the end of the gun deck, they came to two wooden doors. The captain pressed on the door to the left. It opened to a dark staircase heading down and twisting back beneath them.

  “Another level?” Dave asked.

  “Yes, but this one be tight. I suggest ye’ duck just to-” the captain paused and eyed them up. “Well, in your case, you two might be alright.” Then he turned and walked down.

  Ellen and Dave followed behind Azzorro. Ellen found herself adjusting the settings in her eyes just to see clearly in the darkness.

  “Where did that other door lead?” Ellen wondered as they descended.

  “That other leads to the galley. No need to visit there now. Roy is preparing today’s meal. You’ll learn it’s best to keep him undisturbed. He takes unkindly to interruptions, even from his captain.”

  Once at the bottom of the steps, the ceiling hung barely above Ellen’s head. Captain Azzorro, being considerably taller, had to crouch.

  “This be our cargo hold,” Azzorro said, “and where the two of you will take residence. We have extra cots here. It’s not the largest of spaces, but it’s a place to sleep.”