The Complete Seabound Trilogy Box Set

by Jordan Rivet

  “I probably would have hated you too,” Esther said.

  David laughed and kissed her forehead. “Yes, probably. I was fourteen when the disaster hit. Most fourteen-year-old boys are awkward. I was just a little jerk. My parents went on vacation to Europe and flew me off to Seattle to go on a cruise with my relatives. I think my mother wanted to show me off to my aunts. All I talked about for the first few days was the debate tournament I had won in New York before spring break. My cousins were about ready to beat me up. That’s when we boarded the Galaxy Mist.”

  “Seattle would have had some of the worst ash fall,” Esther said. “You’re lucky you left when you did.”

  “Yes, we were three days at sea when the news came through. I’d spent most of those seventy-two hours throwing up, though.”

  “Really?”

  “Really. I was violently seasick. It was humiliating. There I was, thinking I’d solidify my status as the best of the cousins, and I could barely leave my cabin without needing to lean over the railing.”

  “But the Mist was really big . . .”

  “I know. I didn’t think the motion of a big ship like that would affect me so much, but it was an absolute nightmare. After the Galaxy ships formed the Flotilla, we never returned to land, so I was seasick for the better part of two years.”

  “Seriously?”

  “By the time I finally got my sea legs, I was a much humbler person.”

  “Not that much humbler,” Esther said.

  “No, not that much,” David agreed. For some reason that made Esther want to hold him tighter.

  “What happened to your cousins?”

  “They moved to a different Galaxy ship years ago. They wouldn’t have wanted to come to the Catalina. They resented my status and my friendship with Boris.”

  David tensed as he said the name. Esther knew better than to ask for more details about what had happened between David and his Galaxy captain friend. It was still a sore subject after all these months.

  “What about your parents?” she asked instead.

  “They may have been in Europe still when the Great Storm hit New York,” David said. “Maybe I’ll find them on the List one day.”

  “I hope so.” Esther hesitated, then asked the question that had been weighing on her. “Do you think they’re in Kansas City? Is that why you were hesitant to take this detour for Naomi?”

  David didn’t answer. They danced in slow circles, bathed in moonlight. The low hum of the music floated over the balcony. David’s heart beat through his sweater, quicker than before.

  Finally, he said, “It’s possible, but with the storms, famines, and violence people have dealt with on land, it’s too much to hope that anyone made it.” He drew back and looked down at Esther. “The truth is I can’t hope for something like that. It’s too painful.”

  Esther hugged him fiercely and didn’t let go even when the music faded away below. There had to be hope. Otherwise, what was all this for? She would show him. They would find hope together. On land.

  Chapter 7—Land Bound

  THE MORNING SUN DAWNED bright and raw, throwing the Lucinda’s preparations into sharp focus. Esther checked the biofuel system and engines and took inventory of her toolbox for the tenth time. Dax darted back and forth, carrying the remaining food supplies to the galley. Neal hovered around the Lucinda’s new and improved comm system, quizzing Zoe on its features until she kicked him out of the pilothouse. At least one shouting match broke out—over bunk allotments—but for the most part the final arrangements went smoothly. Simon boarded the ship serenely with a small satchel of belongings, looking like a tourist embarking on a leisure cruise.

  Before heading to their stations, the crew gathered on the foredeck to mark the beginning of the voyage. Nervous energy spread amongst them. They numbered twenty-eight—the Lucinda’s full capacity—and included David, Esther, Simon, Zoe, Luke, Cody, Anita, and Dax. They had considered reducing the number of crew members to make room for more supplies for their overland trek, but they’d need to leave some people on board to guard the Lucinda if they found a harbor.

  When the full crew had assembled on deck, David stepped up to the bow. He stood tall, framed by the clear blue sky, and thanked everyone for their commitment to the voyage. He looked impressive, Esther thought, with the sea behind him and his white-blond hair glowing in the sun. More importantly, he looked ready.

  “We don’t know what we’ll find on land,” he said, “but I’m proud to have such a fine crew aboard the Lucinda. I will do everything I can to keep you safe no matter what dangers we face. May we have good weather and calm seas, and may we find a safe harbor once again.”

  Zoe whooped, and a smattering of applause rippled through the crowd. People filled the balconies and railings of the Catalina above them, and they cheered too. Some waved shirts and bits of cloth like flags.

  Judith came forward on the lower deck of the Catalina where the gangway stretched across to the Lucinda, a loudspeaker in her hand. Dirk, Neal, Mrs. Cordova, and the other council members stood around her, forming a farewell committee. Judith addressed the crew through her loudspeaker.

  “Be careful out there,” she said. “Send updates whenever possible. And don’t do anything stupid.” Then she turned on her heel and strode back into the Catalina without further ceremony. At least Judith was still Judith.

  Eager to get moving, the crew said their good-byes quickly, shook hands, grabbed brief hugs. It wasn’t until they were pulling up the gangway and shoving off that Esther realized she hadn’t spoken to Cally since the night before. She searched the faces peering over the Catalina’s rails above them for her young friend. She caught sight of a flash of red hair on the lido deck, but it was gone before she could wave. Esther fought off a pang of sadness, but it was just as well. She didn’t want to see Cally’s disappointment as they left her behind.

  They pulled away from the Catalina slowly, and the faces on her decks disappeared one by one. The Lucinda’s wake lapped against the Catalina’s battered sides, which were no longer white but a crackled grayish, like the scales of a giant black jack. She creaked and groaned with every roll of the sea. The Catalina was getting old. Her hull still held, but it had been patched and repaired dozens of times.

  It was bittersweet, this voyage. The Catalina was the only world Esther had known for years. The vast, seething sea was never still, never forgiving, but the Catalina endured. She had kept them safe. Yet Esther had dreamed of this departure for nearly seventeen years. They were finally on their way to seek a new life. They would get answers about what had happened when they left the land behind and maybe find a final harbor after all this time.

  As the Catalina shrank behind them, the Lucinda sailed swift and true, still the fastest ship Esther had ever encountered. The voyage to the shores of Mexico from their current position should take five or six days, barring adverse weather, and they would cover over three thousand nautical miles. Esther hadn’t sailed that far in a straight line since the Catalina first fled the ash from the eruption. But the Lucinda was the perfect vessel for the job.

  She was a Cyclone-class patrol ship, 179 feet long and 331 tons, built by the old US Navy. She had a maximum speed of 35 knots, though they didn’t need to sail quite that fast now. Her strong prow cut through the waves beneath Esther’s feet, the breeze sweeping across her face. The pilothouse stood out over the main deckhouse, its windows like wide fish eyes. The lookout tower and guns rose above the pilothouse, sharp against the sky. They didn’t fly a flag, though. Countries no longer existed as far as Esther knew, but she wished they had fashioned one for this trip, something to mark their allegiance to the Catalina and to the sea.

  The crew got to work, settling into their routines as they coaxed the ship through her first hours at sea. The crew was divided into eight-hour watches of nine or ten people each. Many of the Lucinda’s systems were automated, and now that the new fuel system had been installed she operated quite efficiently. A heal
thy bustle filled the decks, everyone moving with a spring in their step. They couldn’t help looking forward across the rolling sea. Toward the land.

  Esther went belowdecks to monitor the engines for most of the morning, watching for problems or inefficiencies. The engine room hummed with a familiar music. As she knelt beside her biofuel machine to check for leaks, she thought about her childhood on land.

  She had only been six years old when the disaster struck, too young to have had many real experiences on land. She remembered images and feelings more than actual details. She remembered riding her bicycle around their cul-de-sac and accidentally pitching off into a patch of gravel. She could still feel the sting of the scrapes on her knee but had no memory of anything that happened afterwards. She remembered sneaking into Naomi’s bedroom at night to play tricks on her, like dripping water from an ice cube onto her face from behind the bed. She felt the sharp cold of the ice on her fingers and heard Naomi’s shriek of surprise but couldn’t recall the appearance of the room itself.

  What would it be like to see Naomi again? Would she even recognize her? She wasn’t even sure what she’d say to her. Well, except for one thing. The first burning question she would ask Naomi was what had happened to their mother.

  Esther’s memories of her mother were different, more dreamlike. As a child at sea she had imagined that her mother escaped the ash cloud and disappeared into the jungles of Brazil to live amongst the trees and flowers and snakes. Despite her father’s insistence that this was impossible, Esther had held on to the idea. One day her mother would find them. She would swim across the sea and emerge like a goddess with seaweed in her hair and dolphins following in her wake. Esther had imagined it so many times that the image was sharper than many of her real memories. But now she would know the truth of what had really happened on the terrifying day when the world changed. The prospect sent shivers along her spine.

  Esther shook away the feeling, reached for the wrench in her belt, and tightened a bolt needlessly. She wrapped her fingers around the metal until it warmed in her grip. For now all she could do was focus on the ship and the journey.

  The Lucinda sailed onward. By the second shift change, some of the crew’s nervous energy had dissipated. The novelty of the voyage began to wear off as they settled into the monotony of their work. They had many days at sea ahead of them.

  Esther went up to the mess after her shift, where Luke and Cody had started a card game. To Esther’s surprise her father was with them. She found the three of them caught up in a heated argument.

  “That’s how they played it in my day,” Simon said as Esther crossed the narrow room to join them.

  Tables and benches packed the mess hall, and a doorway at one end led to the galley. Like most of the lower cabins, it had no portholes, so it was a close, dank space. Stacks of cards littered one of the tables. Simon tried to pull a small pile of washers and twists of fish jerky toward his side of the table.

  “No way!” Luke said, waving a bent playing card at him. “Aces are ones! You can’t just make them the highest-value card, you old whale.”

  “Old whale, am I?” Simon chuckled. “Which one of us is actually old enough to have played casino games in real casinos? Aces are high, son.”

  “That makes no sense. There’s only one fin on it!”

  “That’s a spade.”

  “Whatever. You can’t make up your own rules.” Cards fluttered off the table as Luke crossed his arms.

  “You could do something to settle it,” Cody suggested. “I’ve got some dice here somewhere.” He searched through the many pockets sewn onto his green jacket.

  “No dice,” Luke said. “Arm wrestling.”

  “You’re on,” Simon said.

  Esther rolled her eyes and went to join Dax, who stood in the doorway to the galley watching the spectacle, his sleeves rolled up above his elbows.

  “How’s it going, Dax?” Esther leaned against the bulkhead beside him. The usual fishy odor came from the galley. Dax was the official cook for this voyage. He had asked to be called Silver after the famed pirate cook from Treasure Island until the guys threatened to nickname him Long John instead. He had quickly abandoned the idea.

  “They’re going for best out of three,” Dax said. “Your dad won the first game, and now Luke’s trying to redeem himself. Guess he decided to play to his strengths.”

  Esther laughed. “Serves them right if they both pull a muscle.”

  The two men strained over the steel tabletop. Luke began pushing her father’s arm closer to the table. Simon grabbed the edge with his other hand, sending more playing cards flying. Finally, the younger man prevailed, driving the back of Simon’s arm down all the way. Luke whooped, but he was sweating profusely.

  Simon shook Luke’s hand while Cody thumped him on the back.

  “Nice one,” Simon said. “Aces are still high, though.”

  “He’s tough for an old guy,” Dax said.

  “Don’t let him hear you say that. What do you think of the Lucinda’s galley?” Esther asked. The men had picked up the cards scattered across the floor, and they began dealing out another game.

  “It’s not bad. A little cramped.” Dax glanced back at the small kitchen space behind him.

  “Mind if I check on the equipment?” Esther said. “I want to make sure all the power links are okay under the hood.”

  “Oh! Um, now?” Dax tugged on his hair, pulling at it, though he no longer wore it spiked quite so high.

  “My shift just ended, but since I’m here anyway . . .”

  “Right, um, well, I need to get started on dinner, so maybe this isn’t the best time,” Dax said.

  “Actually, that’s perfect. You really need to be running the equipment for me to test it. Once you get the stove fired up—”

  “Can we do it tomorrow?” Dax interrupted. “It’s pretty disorganized in there right now. You just finished your shift, and I’m sure you probably want to spend time with your dad for a bit.”

  “I have my gauge right here.” Esther indicated her tool belt. “Besides, he’s busy.”

  “No, you hang out. I’ll let you know when I’m cooking tomorrow.” Dax gave Esther a nudge toward the card game and disappeared into the galley, closing the door behind him. She shrugged. He was up to something, but knowing Dax it was probably just a special meal plan he didn’t want anyone to know about yet.

  Esther sat down beside her father at the bench and leaned her elbows on the tabletop.

  “Hey, Esther. You seen Zoe?” Luke asked.

  “She’s on duty,” Esther said. “How was your first shift?”

  “Hasn’t started,” he said. “I’m in the third rotation.”

  “Shouldn’t you be sleeping instead of playing cards?”

  “I would be, but your dad came in and challenged me. Can’t have that.”

  “You talk a big game, son,” Simon said. “Guess you can do that if you make up your own rules.”

  “Rules are fluid, old man,” Luke said, grinning as he checked out his hand. “You in, Esther?”

  “Why not?” She took a few damp playing cards from the stack and studied them. Some of the cards were so faded she could barely read them.

  “How’re things down in the engine room so far?” Cody asked.

  “Pretty smooth,” Esther said. “We’re making good time.”

  “What do you think it’ll be like when we get there?” Cody scrubbed at the stubble on his upper lip. He had decided to grow a mustache for the voyage, and it was slow going.

  “I barely remember anything about before,” Luke said.

  “Same here,” Esther said. “Dad?”

  Simon narrowed his eyes at his cards. “I remember it too well. This’ll be easier on you kids, I think.”

  “Well, what was it like?” Cody asked. “I was only four when everything went down.” Cody had been traveling with his parents on a freighter. It was originally meant to be a low-budget adventure for their family. The
y ended up surviving on the canned contents of the shipping containers for many years before drifting within range of the Amsterdam Coalition, where Cody had eventually joined the Metal Harvesters with Luke.

  Simon tapped his cards on the tabletop, thinking for a moment.

  “It was stable,” he said. “Solid. We didn’t think about it like that, though. We complained a lot on land. Someone was always ranting against politicians or the state of the culture or their neighbors. We were a little worried about the changing climate, but many treated it like a problem for the next generation. Now we’re at the mercy of the environment, and we’re ultimately focused on survival. Back then, at least in North America, survival was basically a given.”

  “We do all right now, though,” Cody said. “I wouldn’t say I worry about starving or getting killed most of the time anymore.”

  “That’s hard-won,” Simon said. “We’ve really had to struggle to make this life at sea work. And the vast majority of our time and effort is still spent gathering food. It’s hard to comprehend now, but back on land we didn’t even know where most of our food came from.”

  “Farms, right?”

  Simon laughed and took a card from the stack on the table. “Yes, but those farms were often hundreds of miles away, and we didn’t think about them much. You all know how to fish. You can all identify every edible type of seaweed and shellfish. You take it for granted. I kept a garden at our home in San Diego, so I knew a bit more about how things grow than the average person, even though I only managed to produce a few vegetables and herbs each year. And hunting! Some people did it for food, but it was more of a sport than a means of sustenance.”

  “You think people have gone back to hunting and growing things for themselves after the volcano?” Cody asked.

  “They’ll have had to. I expect they scavenged for canned food at first, and then eventually got together to grow things again, starting from scratch.”

  “Neal told me they already have big farms in Kansas City,” Esther said. She wondered if she’d ever see that settlement now. She took another card, then pulled a washer from her pocket to drop onto the betting pile.