Time Castaways #1

by Liesl Shurtliff

  Matt looked to Corey, who ironically looked a little less certain. He had been keen on staying when it had been a fun, carefree adventure, with no expectations or strings attached. But now things had taken a serious turn, and Corey never did cope well with serious things.

  “Yeah,” he said. “I guess this is what we have to do.”

  “Take heart,” said Matt. “Think of all the Twinkies and Pop-Tarts you’ll get.”

  Ruby rolled her eyes. “Okay, so we’re all in.” She held out her fist. Matt put his in and then Corey.

  Matt was ready to get started right away and wanted to make a visit to the library after breakfast to see if they could find out what video et taceo meant, but Ruby was supposed to have a fencing lesson with the captain, and Corey said Brocco was going to teach him how to make his own fireworks. Matt got the sense they weren’t feeling quite the urgency that he was, but he didn’t want to go searching without them, and he had told Jia that he would help her with her electricity project, so video et taceo would have to wait. Corey and Ruby ran above deck, and Matt set off to find Jia.

  Jia’s room was just two doors down from the room he shared with Corey and Ruby, but he hadn’t been inside yet. He knew it had to be Jia’s room by the door handle. Instead of a standard knob or handle, there was a hammer. When he knocked, the door swung open right away and Jia beamed. “Come in!” she said, pulling him by the arm. “I was just working on the electricity, but it’s being stubborn.”

  Matt couldn’t decide if Jia’s room looked more like a workshop or a toy shop. There were buckets and crates of tools and stacks of instruction manuals. Saws, screwdrivers, chisels, and pliers all hung on the wall, while dangling from the ceiling were fancy models of cars, trains, boats, ships, helicopters, and airplanes.

  “Can the Vermillion really turn into all these things?” Matt asked, looking up at all the models dangling from the ceiling. “Even an airplane?”

  “Sure,” said Jia. “Airplanes are rare, but it can happen. It’s only happened once since I’ve been on board, and it was terrifying! No one knew exactly how to fly it, and we almost crashed. I’ve been trying to learn more about aviation. It’s incredible. It’s still hard to believe that something so big and heavy can fly.”

  In the very center of the room was a table where there sat a big, beautiful model of the Vermillion as a frigate ship, sliced in half, so you could see all the rooms and cabins inside. Matt peered closer, astonished by all the fine detail, the furniture and light fixtures. There were even miniature models of the captain and crew, but it didn’t give him any further clue as to how it all worked.

  The door creaked open, and Pike stepped inside. She froze when she saw Matt.

  “Hi,” said Matt. She just stared at him.

  “Hello, Pike,” said Jia. “Don’t worry, you can come in. Matt’s just here to help me with something.”

  Pike padded silently across the room, still staring at Matt. She skittered to the back corner of the room where there was a small bed that looked to be made out of old crates with a tie quilt spread on top, all the ties untied. A small metal box with a lock sat next to the bed. Pike crouched down and began fiddling with the lock, looking over her shoulder at Matt every couple of seconds. There was a click and the box popped open. Pike reached inside and pulled out a tangled ball of yarn, quickly shut the box, then skittered out of the room, taking one last look at Matt before shutting the door.

  “I don’t think she likes me being in her room,” said Matt.

  “Oh, she doesn’t mind,” said Jia. “Pike’s just very shy, but she’ll warm up to you.”

  “What’s her position on the crew?” Matt asked.

  “She doesn’t have one yet,” said Jia. “She’s still a bit young, and all she really seems to want to do is untie knots. Anything that’s knotted up and tangled seems to fascinate her. I’m sure the captain will find a good use for even that skill and give her an official position eventually. He’ll train you and your brother and sister, too, if you want. You can choose whatever you want to do on the Vermillion, whatever you’re good at and like to do, and the captain will find a way to make it useful.”

  Matt felt a little awkward just then. The captain had given him a task, but he didn’t think he could explain it to Jia without telling her things the captain had asked him not to. It was disappointing because he felt Jia really was someone he could confide in, and she was smart. She could probably help. But he would respect the captain’s request to not tell the rest of the crew.

  “So . . . ,” said Matt. “Where’s your electricity project?”

  “It’s over here,” said Jia. She went to the opposite back corner of Pike’s bed, where a hammock hung, almost as an afterthought to the rest of the room. Underneath the hammock was a box full of electrical wires, power boxes, light bulbs, and sockets. A power box was already attached to the wall with a light socket just above it. “I’ve been fascinated with electricity ever since I first saw it, and I’m determined to bring it to the Vermillion, just like I did the plumbing. It would be nice to flip a switch and have light instead of lighting candles or lanterns, wouldn’t it?

  “I’ve read all about Thomas Edison and the invention of electricity, and I’ve been trying and trying to make it work here, but I’m beginning to think it’s a lost cause. I can’t even get a buzz out of the wires, even though I’m sure I’ve got the right ones.”

  “Where’s your power source?” Matt asked.

  Jia knit her brow. “What do you mean?”

  “You need a source of energy for the electricity to work, you know, like a generator? You have to either burn coal or use wind or water to generate the power for the electricity to work.”

  “Oh,” said Jia. “I just assumed the Vermillion was the power source. It is full of energy, you know. It couldn’t transform and travel the way it does if it weren’t. And things tend to work a little differently on the Vermillion. Shall we experiment?”

  “You can’t know until you try,” said Matt, though he highly doubted it would work.

  “Exactly,” said Jia. “Here, help me untangle these.” They began to pull apart the piles of wires. Jia grouped a few together and wrapped them tightly around a beam. “I just need to get the right combination. If we cross these two wires, we should get a little buzz.” She crossed the two wires. Nothing happened. Matt wasn’t surprised, but Jia seemed genuinely disappointed.

  “Is the ship the real source of energy?” Matt asked. “Or is it the compass?”

  “I suppose it’s the compass,” said Jia, “but really they’re so connected they’re pretty much one and the same, so we should get something.”

  Matt didn’t want to tell her that this was never going to work, so he decided to humor her. “Electric wires are usually connected physically to the power source,” he said. “Maybe the wires need to be in the ship.”

  “Oh! I never thought of that. Good idea,” said Jia. She looked all around her room, deciding where she should place the wires. “The floors are always the first thing to change during travel,” she said. “Let’s try putting them in there.” She went to her table full of tools and got a hammer and screwdriver. She came back to the corner and pounded a hole in the floor beneath her hammock. She threaded the wires through the hole, then took the other two ends and held them apart from each other. Matt felt the hair on his head tingle. A light but distinct vibration buzzed in the floorboards.

  “Here goes,” said Jia.

  She touched the wires, and they zapped her so hard she fell back on her bottom. Her hair started to float outward.

  Matt stifled a laugh. “Are you okay?” He held a hand out to her. When she took it, it shocked him so thoroughly he stumbled backward and fell into a bucket of tools. He winced as a screwdriver poked him.

  “Sorry!” said Jia.

  Matt just laughed. “Hey, we got it to work!”

  “Well, we’ve figured out how to access power,” said Jia. “Or you figured it out at least. Now w
e need to see if we can get it to actually light a bulb.”

  They connected the wires to one of the sockets and screwed in a light bulb. It buzzed to life almost immediately, but it also burned Matt’s hand and then exploded. Matt yelped, jumping out of the way just in time.

  “It got hot really quick!” He shook out his hand. It was a little red, but he didn’t think it was too bad.

  Jia ran to the other corner of the room where she had a small sink. She got a cloth wet with cold water and pressed it over Matt’s palm.

  “I’m so sorry, I should have given you some gloves and glasses before screwing that in. I’m never very good about safety.”

  “It seems the Vermillion is almost too powerful of an energy source,” said Matt.

  “We just need to figure out a way to harness the energy properly,” said Jia. “But isn’t this fun? I mean, I don’t really like getting electrocuted so much, but I’ve never had anyone else to work with on projects before.”

  “Did you have a family before?” Matt asked. “I mean . . . sorry, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

  “Oh, that’s all right,” said Jia. “I never knew my parents. I was left at an orphanage in China when I was just a baby.”

  “Me too!” said Matt.

  “You were?”

  Matt nodded. “Well, not in China. I was born in Colombia.”

  “So it’s almost like you’re an orphan like the rest of us.”

  “Sort of. My parents adopted me when I was three months old. I don’t remember anything except my life in New York.”

  “You’re lucky,” Jia said. Matt agreed. As unlucky as he had felt in some ways, he had always felt very lucky in that way.

  “But it’s almost like the captain adopted you, too, isn’t it?” Matt asked.

  Jia scrunched up her face. “I’m more like his . . . what’s the word . . . his ward? He has charge of me and we get along, but I don’t think he’s my father like your father is your father, and the crew aren’t quite like brothers and sisters, I don’t think. But I’m happy here. Of course I would rather live anywhere than the orphanage.” She shivered a little, as though shaking some terrible memories from her mind. Mateo wondered what awful things she’d had to endure at such a young age, but he knew it would be impolite to ask.

  “Do you still want to learn Chinese with me?” Matt asked hopefully.

  “Yes,” said Jia. “We’ll be able to learn better together.”

  While they worked and continued to electrocute themselves, Jia tried to teach Matt a little Chinese. Matt picked it all up very quickly, and they were able to have some short conversations, but Jia exhausted all her knowledge within twenty minutes.

  Matt asked Jia about all the places she’d traveled, what was the farthest in the past she had gone and what was the farthest in the future. Coincidentally it was the day Matt and Corey and Ruby had boarded the Vermillion.

  “But you could go farther, couldn’t you? I mean, the compass could take us farther into the future, couldn’t it?” Matt had been a bit envious when he realized that everyone on the Vermillion had traveled well into the future, according to the time they were born, not just the past. They didn’t just see things that had already happened before they were born, they also got to see how the world changed long after they should have died. Wouldn’t it be cool if Matt could go a century or more beyond his time and see all that had happened? The new inventions? He could see the iPhone 20. Maybe they’d have flying cars, like in Back to the Future, and maybe there was a time when they really had figured out how to teleport. In a hundred years humans could have colonized other planets, traveled to other galaxies. And maybe, just maybe, they could find a future year when the Mets win the World Series again.

  But Jia shook her head. “I’m pretty sure the captain has tried many times, but we always get yanked back here to Nowhere in No Time. It’s a little jarring, actually.”

  Matt crinkled up his face. The captain hadn’t told him that, and it seemed significant. What could that mean? Why would the compass stop working right after the time he, Corey, and Ruby boarded the Vermillion? Did they all cease to exist? Did the world end?

  “It’s not so unusual, really,” said Jia. “There have been other times and places we haven’t been able to travel, sort of pockets of times and places where we are unable to go. The 1940s is a big spot, actually, almost everywhere in the world. Wiley says it’s probably something to do with a big war he read about in one of his future books.”

  “World War Two,” said Matt.

  “Yes, that’s the one. It sounds awful.”

  “But you can travel after that particular decade,” said Matt. “But not beyond my time at all, right? So that’s different.”

  Jia just shrugged. “It could be any number of things—a natural disaster, or someone else causing a glitch in the space-time continuum. Who knows?”

  “You mean there are others who can time-travel?”

  “I don’t know,” said Jia. “I’ve never heard of anyone else, but it’s possible. After all, the captain didn’t make the compass, and who knows if the inventor created more than one or some other person has figured out a way to time-travel.”

  “I wonder who did invent the compass,” said Matt. “The captain really doesn’t know?”

  “No,” said Jia. “Captain Bonnaire, the captain before him, had some clue, I think, but she kept it very secret, even from Captain Vincent, and then she died.”

  Matt wondered if this was what the key was supposed to lead them toward, the maker of the compass. Surely if anyone would know how to fix it, it would be him. Or her.

  “Okay, I switched some wires,” said Jia. “Let’s try just one more time, shall we? Then we can go to lunch.”

  They both got zapped again.

  “Oh well,” said Jia. “I guess today is not the day.” They unplugged their wires, coiled them up, and headed to the dining hall.

  “What happened to you two?” said Corey, laughing as Matt and Jia appeared with their hair looking like masses of tumbleweed.

  “Electricity,” said Jia.

  “Oh good,” said Ruby. “I thought maybe Brocco had started a hair salon or something.”

  After lunch, Matt, Ruby, and Corey made their way to the lower deck, where Wiley said the library was located. He was delighted when they told him they wanted to pay a visit and said he’d help them find some books.

  “What’s the phrase again?” Ruby asked.

  “Video et taceo,” said Matt. “It translates to ‘I see and say nothing,’ but I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean.”

  “You know, it does sound familiar for some reason,” said Ruby, “but I can’t think why.”

  “Probably because it sounds like videos and tacos,” said Corey. “Maybe we’re supposed to go to dinner and a movie somewhere, instead of the library.” Corey was dragging his feet on this particular mission. He had never had a great relationship with libraries or librarians. He was always too loud and rowdy and thought all the books the librarian kept pushing into his hands were boring.

  Matt opened the door at the end of the hall and was hit with the smell of old leather and oil, paper and pipe smoke. It smelled much like a library, he thought, but when they entered he very soon found that this wasn’t your typical library. Yes, there were books, lots of them, but they were not lined in neat rows on straight shelves. Instead they were stacked in towers all around the room, each in the shape of a famous building, many of which Matt recognized. There was the Empire State Building, the Colosseum, an Egyptian pyramid, and a tall tower of books that seemed to be miraculously leaning without toppling over—the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was a world city made of books.

  “Whoa,” said Corey.

  “Wow,” said Ruby.

  “Yeah,” said Matt.

  A head poked out from behind the Empire State Building. “Good day, my friends!” said Wiley, a huge smile on his face. “Come in, come in!” He sat in a
worn leather chair with his feet resting on an old lobster trap (filled with more books). He held a large leather-bound book in his lap. His pipe was between his teeth, and he wore wire-framed spectacles that made him look very scholarly.

  “Welcome to the Vermillion library!” said Wiley. “I am your humble librarian, at your service. You kids like to read?”

  “Yes,” said Ruby and Matt nodded, still taking in everything.

  “And how about you, young man?” Wiley asked, turning to Corey. “Got any favorite books?”

  Corey shrugged. “I like comics,” he said. “But I know that’s not real reading.”

  Wiley raised his eyebrows. “And who told you that?”

  “My teacher,” said Corey. “She said there are too many pictures and it’s not enough of a challenge for my brain.”

  “Well, with all due respect to your teacher, who I am sure is fine educator, I disagree,” said Wiley. “Pictures are no less powerful than words, and words no more powerful than pictures. They each tell us a story. And what happens when you put the two together? A symphony in the mind, like lobster and butter. People who read pictures and words at the same time are smart people in my book, yes, sir.”

  Corey, who probably hadn’t been referred to as smart in quite some time, seemed to grow two inches in two seconds, and it made Matt want to hug Wiley.

  Wiley set his own book down on the lobster crate. “Now let’s see if we can’t find something right for you, my young friend. No book is for everyone, but for everyone there is a book!” Wiley guided Corey around the library until they found a stack of comics in the middle of one of the towers (that big clock tower in London, maybe?). Corey tried to pull them out carefully but ended up toppling half the tower.

  Corey sagged. “Sorry,” he said.

  “No apology necessary,” said Wiley. “I always look forward to a good toppling so I can stack it into something else. I was thinking of making an Eiffel Book Tower. I liked that tower. What do you think?”