Escape from the Drowned Planet

by Helena Puumala

  “No, we can’t do that,” Kati laughed. “If we pay too much, then we’ll get to pay too much for everything we buy after that. And you’ll be shocked to see how quickly we’ll run out of money, even if we seem to have plenty now.

  “Besides, we have a long way to go yet. And having Jocan along costs too, although I am awfully grateful for his presence and I don’t begrudge him a single copper.”

  “Even if he spends his money on girls?” Mikal laughed.

  “Oh, well; I was young and foolish once, too. Hormones are hormones.”

  Thing was, she was starting to worry a bit about her own hormones. After supper the previous evening Mikal had been very attentive towards her, in a kind and polite way, but without the emotional heat that a potential lover would display. It was disconcerting. She remembered that he had refused to talk about the breakdown of his marriage while the two of them had been riding on the wagon in the Kitfi tunnels. He had unresolved issues which meant that falling in love with him was not a good idea. Yet she was afraid that it was exactly what might be happening to her.

  “Witness that burst of jealousy when I first saw him with Cira at Jo’s,” she said to herself severely. “Why care who he spends his time with, otherwise?”

  It was disconcerting, indeed.

  *****

  Captain Lomen turned out to be a dark, heavy-set man, well-muscled and good-humoured. He had an engaging grin framed by a bushy beard and Kati liked him on the spot. He looked to her what she thought the captain of an ocean-going vessel should look like: strong, capable, no-nonsense, yet able to enjoy life.

  “So, it’s the three of you looking for passage to the Northern Continent,” he said, looking them over with a twinkle in his eye.

  Jocan had been interested enough in meeting the ship captain, and helping Kati haggle the price of the passage, that he had foregone an outing with Sara and Cira to do so. Now he was studying the man as avidly as the Captain was studying the three of them.

  “You do realize that this is storm season and we expect everyone to help out during the storms, to keep the ship operable?” He crossed his big arms across his barrel chest, looking formidable except for the engaging grin lighting up his face. “Only way you get out of bailing water and dragging ropes is by being sea-sick when we ride out a storm.”

  “Not much of a choice,” Mikal commented with a laugh. “What do you think, Kati? How are you with water pails and ropes?”

  She grinned at both men. “I guess I’ve handled a thing or two since Mikal and I started travelling. Pails and ropes don’t intimidate me, but I sure hope I don’t get seasick!”

  “Actually, just for a change, I’m hoping that if someone has to be flat on his or her back, it won’t be me,” Mikal groaned.

  “I think it’s going to be great fun,” Jocan piped up suddenly. “I figure that if I could look after myself for two years in River City, a ship, even during a storm, is not going to be a problem. Bring on the ropes and pails; I’ll manage.”

  “And here I thought you were going to offer to leave us, and stay in Delta to court Sara,” Kati teased him, winking at the grown-up men.

  “To court Sara! You’ve got to be kidding! That sister of her is glued to her; I haven’t been able to even steal a kiss!” He sounded so disgusted that the other three all burst out laughing.

  “You’ll have to come on my ship then, young man,” Captain Lomen said, wiping his eyes. “We have some girls on board who like a good kiss every now and then, and aren’t afraid to grab a young fellow by the collar to snatch one.”

  And so they got down to haggling over the fare. In the end, Captain Lomen was as reasonable as Kati had hoped he would be and it was agreed that the three of them would gain passage to Oasis City on the Oasis Coast of the Northern Continent for the cost of two gold pieces. Captain Lomen told them that if they came to the ship that evening after supper, he would give them a tour of the vessel and show them their quarters. He really could not do that at the moment, since he was waiting for the first load of wood to arrive for stowing aboard. He would accept their payment of the fare then, if the three of them would meet him at the Port Control Office; the clerk there would draw up the contract for the transaction.

  Even as they started walking away from the ship next to which they had met with Captain Lomen, a long, runnerbeast-drawn cart arrived, heavily loaded with boards of dark wood. The carter manoeuvred the pair of animals that were pulling the cart into a position in which the cart was next to a winch on the deck of the ship. They stopped long enough to see the first boards get winched up onto the deck by crewmembers who obviously were old hands at the work.

  “I’m glad I’m not required to use that thing,” muttered Jocan as he watched the ship’s crew lower ropes on to the boards, fasten them around a stack, and then winch them up.

  The boards disappeared onto the deck of The Seabird, and the onlookers turned around to continue on their way.

  “Kati,” Jocan said, beaming a grin at her. “I thought you did a nice job of bargaining with the Captain. I think you got us as good a price as anyone could have.”

  “Thanks, Jocan.” Kati grinned back at him. “It’s good to know that I have learned to haggle as well as the locals do. Now if only I could read the contract that Maric will draw up this evening, I would consider myself to be an accomplished woman.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  It was early morning when Kati, Mikal and Jocan, along with another half-a-dozen passengers, boarded the sailing ship, The Seabird, at the Delta docks. The vessel was floating deeper in the water now than it had been the afternoon when Kati had first seen it. The weight of the lumber that it was carrying, according to Captain Lomen, was all to the good. The heavier vessel would be more stable in the water, and therefore less liable to be battered by stormy seas than it had been on the voyage to Delta, when most of its cargo had been the lightweight but popular cloth that weavers in Oasis City had began to produce from the hair of a type of runnerbeast found only on the Northern Continent.

  “It’s excellent cloth, although not cheap,” the Captain had explained the evening he had given his passengers a tour of the ship, “and my cargo master bought up all that he could, knowing well that we could sell every last bolt to the tailors in Delta. But a part of why it is considered so good is that it provides warmth without weight, so the bundles are light. We did balance things a bit by carrying tubers to one of the Low Islands, and picking up casks of wine from there to bring to Delta. But it didn’t take much of a blow for us to get somewhat unstable, so I’m looking forward to this trip with all the lumber in the hold.”

  Kati was in high spirits, glad that they had embarked on the next step of their journey without having seen or heard anything of Guzi and Dakra during their time in Delta. Not that it would be difficult for the two of them to find out where the trio had gone; a copy of the contract for the fare of passage that they had signed with Captain Lomen, was in Maric, the Clerk’s file in the Port Office. It was a public document, so anyone could ask Maric to read it to them, and thereby find out where they were sailing.

  Kati smiled to herself as her thoughts wandered back to the drawing up of the contract between Captain Lomen and his three would-be passengers. The issue of names had come up; how did each one of the parties to the document wish to be referred to in it, Maric had queried them.

  Captain Lomen had been easy of course; he was Captain Lomen of The Seabird. It was as simple as that. Jocan’s moniker had been just as simple:

  “I’m Jocan of River City,” he had stated. “Since I was born there and have lived all my life, until very recently, in River City, I think that I can make the claim that it’s my home. Things may change in the future, but for now, mark me down as Jocan of River City.”

  Maric had turned to look at Mikal next, and Mikal had looked pained.

  “How official is this?” he had asked Maric. “Do you need my legal name?”

  “It’s a legal document,” Maric had replied,
severely. “I do think your legal name is called for.”

  “You sure you want the whole litany?” Mikal had sighed. “I usually try not to think about it, or even remember it; I just get my node to set it down for me when necessary.”

  “The whole litany?” Captain Lomen had eyed Mikal curiously. “What—are you of some kind of nobility, or something?”

  “No, no, no,” Mikal had protested. “It’s just that my father was from Borhq, and Borhquans have what they call tree-families, complete with branches, roots and whatnot, each one adding another word to a person’s name. I get to add my mother’s Lamanian family name and place of origin to that, and because she re-married after my father died, and my step-father adopted me into his family, that’s added to my already long list. It’s a pain, if you ask me.”

  He had gazed at Maric and shook his head.

  “Oh heck, Maric, you can’t possibly write it all down in this world’s chicken-scratches,” he had said. “Just put me down as Mikal of Borhq and Lamania, anyone who knows me will recognize me from that.”

  Maric, who had begun to look a bit panicky during Mikal’s explanation, quickly put pen to document to follow this suggestion. He had made a notation which Kati could not follow and then turned to look at her questioningly.

  Thanks to Mikal going first, she had had time to come to a decision. She had changed her first name; now she was going to leave her—Donny’s—last name behind, too.

  “Put me down as Kati of Terra,” she had said to Maric in a quiet, steady voice.

  “Terra. Is that what the planet you’re from is called?” Mikal had asked.

  “Sometimes. Mostly we just called it Earth, but sometimes when people want to differentiate the planet from the earth beneath their feet, they would use ‘Terra’. It’s actually a word meaning ‘Earth’ but in an old language that hasn’t been spoken in a long time.”

  Maric had been scribbling onto the document again. Kati had had no idea how he was rendering her words into the local squiggles. To be honest, she had not cared one whit.

  So the contract was in Maric’s hands and however he had written their names down, he was the one who would be reading them out to Guzi and Dakra if, and when, they came looking for information at the Delta Port Office. However, those two had been sent “up the river without a paddle”, and had been left with no money or any resources except their rations, clothes and the lifeboat. Unless they had some way of requesting aid from their employer, it would take them some time to work themselves into a position in which continuing the chase was feasible. At least that was what Kati hoped for; she and her travelling companions did not actually have any idea of what sort of connections Guzi might have on the planet.

  In any case, she felt secure at least for the length of the sea-voyage. It was exhilarating to not have to worry about pursuit; besides, as Kati had told Mikal and Jocan the night before, she had never been to sea, especially not on a sailing ship. There had been sailing vessels on her home world, she had said, and people did use them, even in her time, for recreational travel, but they had not been the dominant form of ocean transport for years. Besides, she had lived in the middle of a continent; her experience of water craft were small motor-boats and canoes.

  “Small motor boats? Powered by fossil fuels?” Mikal’s eyebrows had gone up.

  She had nodded solemnly. “Oh yes, and giant ships, powered the same way, on the oceans.”

  “Maybe your world is on its way to a catastrophe like this world had,” Jocan had said, his eyes wide.

  “The thought has crossed my mind,” Kati had replied, in a low voice. “Lot of people were worried about the greenhouse effect and global climate change and all the problems that they could see coming closer day by day.”

  “And, here you are,” Jocan had said making an expansive gesture with his arms. “Right in the middle of the results.”

  “Four hundred years after the deluge,” Mikal had added.

  “Yeah, four hundred years after The Disaster it’s back to sailing ships, carts drawn by animals, oceans covering a lot of land that they didn’t use to, and no proper winter in sight even this far south of the equator. And the three of us, we’re heading north into desert lands, from the sounds of it.” Kati had drawn a deep breath. “Why would anyone let it get to this?”

  “Wrong-headed optimism is my guess,” Mikal had answered quietly. “It’s not that unusual. The signs are there but plenty of people refuse to see them, not until the world as they know it has crashed around them. They think that because they don’t want it to happen it won’t.”

  “Well, I’m not in a position, right now, to do anything about anything, except our journey.” She had inhaled deeply again. “So tomorrow we will sail away, towards the Oasis Coast.”

  *****

  And here they were on The Seabird.

  With only nine passengers aboard the ship, Kati had a cabin to herself. She was pleased with that, although it seemed a little unfair that Mikal and Jocan had to share again. However, there were more male passengers than female ones, and, in fact, the other two women were a mother and a daughter and wanted to share a cabin, since the mother was somewhat elderly and the younger woman wanted to be on hand to help her, should there be need. The daughter’s husband, who finished that trio, had a cabin to himself, offering his wife, Kati presumed, an escape from the older woman’s presence if she wanted it.

  There was a knock on the cabin door as Kati stowed away her things. When she opened it, she found Jocan there, a look of anticipation on his face.

  “Mikal and I are going up on the deck to watch the ship cast off and sail out of the harbour. Want to come?” he asked her.

  “Yes, of course. Give me a second, I’ll grab my jacket. It’ll be breezy up there.”

  They snaked their way along a passage too narrow for two people to walk abreast, and up stairs just as narrow. Crewmembers were moving to and fro, forcing them to flatten themselves against the wall to let them rush by, but everyone was very good-natured about the inconvenience. The crew, clearly, was used to it, and had a few standard jokes that they brought out at such moments to oil the tight passings.

  “Hey, I’d rather slip by the lady than you fellows,” said a male crewmember cheerfully as he threaded his way by the three of them.

  And a young female crewmember reversed that when she passed: “I always enjoy going by the gentlemen,” she said with wink. “The ladies, not as much.” She had a grin on her face so mischievous that no-one could possibly take offense.

  “I think I’m going to like being on this ship,” Jocan murmured to her retreating back as they resumed climbing the stairs.

  Kati giggled and Mikal guffawed.

  All the other passengers were already on deck. The three arrived just in time to see dockworkers uncoil the heavy ropes that had attached the vessel to two massive posts on the pier. The sails were up to catch the breeze which, as was usual, was blowing from the open water and towards land. Therefore the motion of the vessel away from the dock was slow and veering, but the Captain and the crew of The Seabird knew what they were doing, and guided the ship into a graceful tacking motion that would eventually take it into the open sea. The deck under Kati’s feet was heaving just a little bit, turning her landlubber walk into an uncertain shuffle. She could feel an unease in the pit of her stomach.

  “Shit,” she said to Mikal, “I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m going to suffer from sea-sickness and it’s going to start pretty soon.”

  Captain Lomen happened to be walking by and heard her.

  “That’s actually not so bad, if you can get it over with early on. Your body will adjust, and come the storms you’ll be in shape to haul ropes.” He winked at her cheerfully.

  “This is one malady I’m pretty sure that I’m immune to,” Mikal said to Kati. “So perhaps I’ll get to look after you for a change—I do owe you some care-giving, after all.”

  “Well, I wish you could go on owing it,” Kati sighed, “
but I am afraid that I’ll be taking you up on your offer no matter what I want. I’m sure not going to be eating lunch today.”

  Jocan was looking rather green, too.

  “Oh-oh. Mikal, looks like you’re going to have two patients on your hands!”

  Kati grabbed hold of Jocan’s arm. He turned to look at her, his face miserable.

  “Mikal, can you help Jocan and me back to the cabins. We’re both going to have to lie down.”

  The walk back would feel awful, she knew. But it was better to admit the situation, and get into a horizontal position so as to allow her body to do whatever was necessary, to adjust to ship conditions.

  “Get on the job, you frigging granda node!” she silently snarled on the way down.

  “Don’t you worry, I’ll figure this out and grow the necessary neurons in a day or two, young woman,” the granda replied subvocally. “Pity poor Jocan and the other passengers who don’t have a node to help them through this.”

  *****

  The ship’s medic came by around noon to check on the sick passengers. She told Mikal that he was doing a great job looking after Kati and Jocan, brought a pail for each of the cabins, for use “when the throwing up starts”, and full water skins for combating dehydration. She explained that it could take a week for a first-time sailor to get better, and that some folk would have recurrences during the storms.

  “We have four other passengers who have fallen ill,” she said, “so I am really glad that you are well and can look after your companions. The older lady, Mistress Susana, her daughter Mistress Mea, and the daughter’s husband Evo are all down with it, and since that’s the whole group of them, I’ll have to tend to all three myself. The last sick fellow, fortunately is travelling with a brother so in that case I can depend on him, at least some of the time.”