I’ve never ridden a jet ski before. Huh. It was an insane thought, all things considered. Daniel sat on the back of the yacht, feet over the Pacific Ocean which stretched out as far as he could see. At another time that might have been frightening, but they were making good progress. What Chris had installed on the boat let them stay on course even when they were all asleep, which apparently helped conserve fuel like when cars used cruise control. There was a maximum distance they could go from the Hawaiian Islands before they had to go back, that or Chris would have to try and arrange for refueling somehow on the water.
The hope was they’d find what they were looking for by then. Chris, coming in clutch again, had narrowed down an area to search based on various clues like the news story he’d texted. Some were less concrete, general disturbances in normal weather patterns, gravity anomalies, and the odd cargo ship fuel problem that so happened to be in the same area. Then again, if a sizable land mass from another world had just been tossed into the ocean, that might be doing all sorts of weird things to the environment.
It’d been about six days since setting sail and he and Alex were getting tense. Ami spent her time between work and social media, and it had gotten to the point that Chris had to ‘kindly ask’ that she stop giving people a rough idea of their location. It wasn’t that they might lead someone to Eido, but that pirates would watch the streams and take them hostage. As far as his mother, she’d remained resolved but hadn’t spoken anymore about her suspicions.
Six days of all of that had left Daniel’s nerves raw, the oppressive blankness of the ocean not helping, and he’d finally thought to ask about the small watercraft off the back of the ship. It’d been used a few times, mostly by the twins and Chris the one time they’d come close to an island that could have matched what they were looking for. It wasn’t.
“Biggest thing you need to know is not to turn too hard,” the self-proclaimed ‘lifestyle manager’ was saying as he held the handlebars from the boat, keeping the jet ski steady. It was, as far as Daniel could tell, one of those classic designs that made you think of a motorcycle on the water. It moved pretty fast and considering what their budget had been for this trip, he was sure it was a higher-end model. “This is stable when moving, but you can’t do an immediate 180. If you need to turn around, you have to make it a wide arc. I’ll be manually piloting the yacht while you’re out so you don’t need to worry about us hitting you, but you do need to worry about hitting us. Stay out at least fifty meters unless you want to come back, and if you do ease up on the speed. I’ll stop if I see that so you don’t need to race back. If you see a storm or hear me sound the ship’s horn, come back immediately. If you fall off stay in one place, the life jacket will be enough to let me know where you are. Don’t worry about the jet ski, we can get another if you lose it. If, for some reason, we get separated, there’s a flare gun in this panel. For emergencies only,” he emphasized. The whole speech was given like Chris had worked at an aquatic theme park in the past.
“Do you ever not think everything through?” Daniel asked.
“Only when it comes to happy hour and heartbreak,” he replied as if quoting country music. “Go on, sunset’s in two hours and you should be back before then. That has running lights, but I wouldn’t trust them.”
“Thanks.” Daniel was about to push off from the yacht when Alex appeared from the interior.
“Hey, mind if I ride with you?” she asked evenly. Things had taken a turn between them ever since he opened the ‘other world’ door, though to be fair his sister had also lost a job she’d loved recently. It wasn’t a good time for either of them, but for the most they kept civil. Neither could forget that the wedge that had driven Daniel from the rest of the family had fallen mostly between the two of them.
“It’s big enough, just be careful,” Chris said, handing her a life jacket before assuring Daniel, “It’d ride the same.”
“Yeah, why not?” His sister sat behind him, a moment of hesitation before she held on to him. They both kicked and began to float away from the yacht. A low hum from the active engine was present, but it wouldn’t get loud until he pulled on the throttle. “You’re not going to push me off at some point, are you?”
“No.” Alex didn’t sound too surprised that he’d asked. “I just heard you were setting this up and needed a break. Ami can work just fine but there’s not much for me to do but think about this. I don’t want to do too much of that.”
“What about your violin?”
“I don’t want to expose it to too much of the seawater here, it’s bad for the wood.” The yacht’s main engine started back up and the large boat moved forward. “You’re not going to chicken out of this are you? I will throw you off if you just keep us sitting here.”
Daniel held onto the handlebars and almost fell off as the jet ski jumped forward and it took him a couple of seconds to ease the throttle. Alex had started whacking him on the shoulder as they wobbled, but stopped as the ride became even. Experimentally he tried turning, and the machine obliged. In less than a minute he’d shot past the yacht and was just going.
It didn’t feel isolating here, alone with all the blue around. He might have thought of the sharks below, the probability of death if they got lost, but something about the expanse and the sensation of speed hit him with euphoria. It was freedom. The sensation was odd in some way, a faint heady buzz accompanying it in his mind. That was probably adrenaline.
After ten minutes, Daniel let the jet ski come to a stop and looked over his shoulder. “You want a turn?”
“Do you really think we can get Dad back?” she asked suddenly, like they were anywhere other than where they were. “All of this, it’s insane Daniel. What that letter said-“
“I do. I messed up what we were doing, but if we can find Eido we might get a second chance.” He did not mention how much of a blind hope that was.
They both had to turn to the side to switch positions, and to keep the jet ski balanced they had to face away from each other. “I’m sorry about some of the things I said at the house. I just…”
“I know. I should have gone with him.”
Alex was quiet for a moment and they shuffled, leaving her in the front. She didn’t immediately turn to face forward. “Why didn’t he ask any of us to go with him?”
“What do you mean?”
“I liked hiking. We were both in college but it could have been scheduled around that. Mom could have gotten off work. He didn’t have to go alone.”
“He was in the parks service, he didn’t need anyone to go with him,” Daniel countered, though weakly. He saw what she was doing and was surprised by it. “It was supposed to be our trip. He always talked about how much fun the Rockies were the few times he’d gone before and wanted to share it with me. I was the one too stubborn to go.”
“You should have gone with him, but he shouldn’t have gone alone.” She put her hands on the handlebars and Daniel quickly held onto her midsection, though Alex didn’t pull on the throttle. “If we find this place, there’s going to be magic?”
“I don’t know. Probably. Aliens, at least.”
“What kind?”
“Bird people, mostly. From what I heard Eido also had cloud and plant people too.”
“Right, and we’re definitely not the nut heads. Glad you dragged us out here for plant people.” The jet ski shot off before Daniel could answer.
…
It happened quickly. Daniel and Alex had been riding out on the ocean for an hour, trading turns at the front. The fuel gauge was getting low at this point and they probably should have gone back to the yacht, but Ami was there with her constant alternation between yelling at people through patchy wifi and trying to talk them into watching romance movies. Her brand of workplace temper was less incendiary and more motivating than Alex’s, though it was just as loud and occurred at night due to the time zone.
As Daniel was about to tap Alex on the shoulder and point to the yacht, he flinched instinctively. Something very large had appeared right in front of them. Alex saw it too and jerked on the handlebars, but was too late. The jet ski tried to slow down, but by the time they hit the sand it was still going at a considerable fraction of top speed.
They both fell off as the jet ski continued forward from its momentum, slamming across the shallower waters and into the beach that now occupied where ocean had been just a moment ago. In fact, the island in front of them was so large they couldn’t see its entirety from where they stood.
Daniel made it to the muddy sand second, gasping from having hit the water at an odd angle on the way down. Nothing felt broken, and it looked like Alex had faired about as well. As he lay in the sand, recovering, he heard her shout as she waved her arms. “Hey!”
In the distance, less than a kilometer away, the yacht continued forward for about a minute before coming to a stop. The fog horn of the ship resounded across the water once, then twice. “Flares in the jet ski,” Daniel wheezed.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“We’re right here, they should see us!”
“We didn’t see the island.” Their eyes locked in understanding, and Daniel saw Alex’s widen as she fully grasped what had happened over the last few minutes. “I think we found Eido.”
“Holy shit.” She pointed a shaky hand into the distance, where buildings appeared as vague outlines on the horizon. Trees with their leaves in the shapes of domes scattered the relatively even ground between them and the center of the island. From the look of the coast, they’d gotten lucky as most of it ended above the water. Only a few sections had something like this. “Holy shit!”
“Flares!” Daniel grunted in pain as he stood. Nothing was broken, but something was bruised. “They might-“
“Right.” The jet ski had almost taken out one of the dome trees as it self-destructed across the terrain, and by the rough troughs dug into the ground it looked like it had flipped end over end. Alex had to force open the panel Daniel indicated, taking out the red-colored canister gun and a few shells packed in a water-tight case. “There was nothing and then, then it was just there,” she said, still shaken from what had happened. “How are they going to see the flare if they can’t see the island?”
“Shoot it out over the water. There must be a distance that this cloaking falls off at.” The ship’s horn sounded again, a third time, and the yacht slowly began to move. “Damn it, wait. If they come towards the flare they might ground the boat.”
“Should we swim out?”
I found it, Daniel thought, caught between his current predicament and a sudden elation. “No! If we’re behind whatever’s keeping the island invisible, they could drive straight over us. How many flares do we have?”
Alex opened the box. “Three.”
“Fire one now, then another when they get closer. There’s no way Chris doesn’t miss one appearing out of nowhere.”
His sister cracked the flare gun open and shakily loaded one in. She paused before firing though, looking over her shoulder. “The people who live here, are they dangerous?”
“Not to us. They shouldn’t be, at least.” Most of the people on the Octyrrum were normal, reasonable. If they’ve been starving this whole time, that’s a different story. Let’s hope Eido had good ration stores and that avianoids don’t turn rabidly carnivorous when left with no other choice. “We’re here to meet them. Might as well announce ourselves rather than sneak up.”
Alex sighed, raised the flare gun, and fired. The red glow continued to shine as it flew out over the water despite going far enough away that it should have crossed the illusive barrier. The fact that they could still see the yacht should have told them the illusion was one-way, but this confirmed it as the yacht turned toward them.
“Ok,” Daniel said as they watched the yacht slowly approach. “The person in charge should be a Commander. I don’t actually know who they are but people mentioned Eido had one when it was sent here. Don’t say anything about this being another world, not at first. Their religion says that anything outside of their world is literal hell.”
“You didn’t think to mention this sooner!?”
“You kept calling me crazy when I tried! I could’ve- ah hell.” He was one part thrilled, one part terrified as a trio of humans became visible in the middle distance running at an impressive pace. They’d get here before the yacht, even though they’d started further out.
Alex saw what he was looking at and the fear on her face was plain. “They’re so fast.”
“They probably have enhanced attributes.” Alex looked at him blankly. “In their world, they use magic to improve their bodies and minds. You can also get powers to make you better at things, one might be giving them a movement buff. I’d say they’re at least level 2.” He gritted his teeth as he saw Alex load another flare. “Don’t fight them! If their magic is working we don’t have a chance.”
“If they’re dangerous, I’m aiming at the yacht,” she said determinedly. “I think Chris would get that message too.”
Damn, that’s… she’s handling this better than I am. “Just let me talk to them! I know enough that I can make a good first impression.”
“If we’re relying on you to do that, we’re screwed,” Alex teased, a bit of humor edging in as her incredulity began overwhelming everything else. He absentmindedly wiped at the dirt and grime that had gotten all over him after the crash. His bare feet were also an annoyance, though as soon as he saw them he chuckled. “What?”
“Looks like I don’t have shoes here either.”
“What!?”
He didn’t have time to explain. Three honest to god aliens stood about ten meters away, bedecked in light armor and weapons. They’d come to a stop some distance away, no doubt wanting to assess the visitors before getting closer. That they were all human didn’t change the fact they were from a different world. “Uh, hi!” Danie called out to them, fervently wishing he’d thought this part through more. “This is Eido, right?” It had to be, either that or he’d accidentally discovered where rich people went to LARP in secret. His face fell when one of them called back, the language completely incomprehensible. “No, no, damn it!”
“You can’t understand them?” Alex guessed.
“The Bunker must have translated it for me. I thought… damn it!” The same human called out to him again, the sounds of the words completely foreign. Daniel had heard many Earth languages over the years, and while he could only speak English, he at least had a sense of others. Though, if I’m honest, I probably couldn’t tell French from Spanish spoken in a French accent. Either way, these people were speaking something he’d never heard before.
One of the two further back looked from the gun Alex was holding, to the dying red light, to the yacht still half a kilometer out. She said something to the one up front and the other two made the connection as well. The second human grabbed at her bow, though the other hand didn’t immediately go for an arrow. Daniel paled as he realized these people could easily hit both Alex and himself, as well as the people on the Far Shores. They had to be hunters, and most of the best had been in Eido.
“Is there anything else you can do?” Alex asked, not looking away from the three in front of them.
I, I... “Damn it, no. I thought I could at least talk to them but I can’t even do that!”
She slowly passed the flare gun to her other hand, holding it barrel first, before putting it on the ground between them. “These people, are they like us? They’re not all bloodthirsty monsters, right?”
“No, they’re, they’re just people. Some suck but the majority are good. They’ve been fighting this cosmic threat for so long it’s given them a kind of unity.” Well, that’s not counting Aughal or Heldren, but… “Why are you- what are you doing?”
“Speaking a common tongue,” she said. “Stay here, use the flare gun if this doesn’t work.”
“What?” He stared in disbelief as Alex began to walk towards the humans, gesturing to the third. Daniel hadn’t looked too closely at him because he’d neither spoken nor drawn a weapon, but the moment he did he understood.
First of all, the third human had the classic marks of someone with higher charisma and the practice of using it, from improved looks to knowing how to bear themselves. For one terrifying moment, he thought that’s what Alex had meant until he saw the Focus on the human’s back. The Bard’s back. No way.
Ami, the twin sister still on the yacht, had an unfortunate habit of bragging about certain things. Like how much she made or the fact that she could pull almost six figures while kicking back in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It was a remnant of the competitive spirit the twins had had growing up that Alex for the most part had abandoned.
However, there was one thing Ami would never challenge her sister on. Musical ability. If Alex hadn’t had the drive to teach, she could have been in a professional orchestra. Chris had been astounded the few times Alex had played during this trip, though as she’d said she’d hardly ever brought out her prized violin. During the flight here she’d taken it as her carry-on and it had never left her sight until they’d gotten on the yacht.
She didn’t have that now, but as Daniel had witnessed in the Bunker, the Bards of the Octyrrum used similar instruments to Earth. He could tell the three were on alert, though the Bard grew a little bemused as Alex stopped a short distance away and gestured at his back.
The three discussed this, being open in their conversation as they’d also figured out the language barrier. The archer, class unknown, kept glancing at the red gun still on the ground and Daniel took a step away hoping that would help. He’d need to go for it if this took too long since the yacht was currently on a collision course, but Chris was keeping it moving at a slow pace. His mother was at the front, looking down just in case they were about to run them over. It was about half an hour to sunset and the sky was darkening.
A faint sound brought his attention back to the ground. The Bard had walked forward, the archer ever so slightly putting a hand to an arrow without drawing out. With a flourish, he spun his instrument in his hand and offered it to Alex, bowing slightly so she could withdraw the instrument’s bow from a sheath he’d had made so it could go on his back too.
Alex carefully inspected both and had begun tuning the instrument, which had alerted Daniel. “I can’t tell what these strings are made of,” she said, more to herself though everyone could hear her. “It’s shorter than normal, but the tone is similar. It’ll be awkward to hold, and there’s no real chin rest.” The Bard said something in his language, the cadence of which Daniel was beginning to describe as flowing based on how there were fewer pauses for punctuation than his. He thought he caught curiosity in the Bard’s tone and hoped the guy wasn’t getting any ideas.
Alex spent another minute testing the strings, holding the instrument as if she was going to play it while moving her fingers around to find the notes. The yacht was getting closer and closer, but if Daniel went for the flare gun he’d ruin what she was doing. After three experimental chords, Alex drew out the last note, and then began to play for real.
The confident smile on the Bard’s face slipped and his eyebrows rose when Alex began, an aura of focus around her as she struggled to bend the new instrument to her will. Perhaps it would have been more difficult for her to adjust, but Daniel knew that in her former position she’d had to at least become practical with any instrument someone in her class could play. How else could she teach them? The other two reacted keenly at first, perhaps fearing she was using a power, but it became clear that Alex was ‘just’ playing.
It was complete improvisation, though Daniel could pick out certain themes at times that had been adapted into the impromptu performance. It was moving, either way. Alex didn’t play any rapid-paced sequence of notes designed to show off her technical skill, rather she reached for the hearts of these humans and kept the pace slow. The melody was sad, but not depressing. At times there were moments of hope that lifted the spirits, but not so much as to make Daniel forget his melancholy.
Alex had always been so expressive, so honest about her true feelings. That had been a fault when she couldn’t get over blaming him for their dad’s disappearance, but now, as it was every time she played, she could stun with just two hands and four strings. The performance ended after only a couple of minutes, the yacht having closed to a quarter kilometer. The Bard was blinking away tears and held up a hand when Alex offered the instrument back. He wanted her to keep playing.
His sister gestured towards the ship, and the three seemed to understand. She pointed with the violin bow to the flare gun, and the human who’d first spoken to them nodded, gesturing with his hand at the archer to relax. With careful movement, Daniel bent to pick up the gun and turned away from the group, hiding his tears with the motion.
If you knew Alex, if you knew why she played, it’d be easy to tell what she’d been thinking of in those moments. Dad should have sent her over, he thought as he raised the gun. Alex would’ve made one hell of a Bard.
The flare launched from the gun and over the water. The yacht was so close Daniel could make out Chris’ face. He could tell exactly when it became visible as the man gaped, and then a moment later the yacht came to a complete stop from the more careful approach they’d made. “Alex, that was amazing.”
“It was nothing,” she said as she finally convinced the Bard to take his instrument back. “Now let’s go get Dad.”