Words:
Remote
Pirate Ship
Cosmic
Sparkling
Barley
Mallory
Many days have come and gone since the last
abandoned ship showed itself on the horizon, drifting aimlessly upon the
ocean. It is the reason I put together
our team to navigate the waters for months at a time. Our current sixteen week exploration is only
five days from completion, and while this mission has been an overall success,
it is still missing something to set it apart.
We are not the only such team
attempting to profit from the mysterious vessels, and we are far from the most
successful. Teams have come from both
sides of the Atlantic to scour the seas, and most of them have at least found
one of the centuries-old ships. There
are many theories as to why such crafts have been discovered over the last
several years, having somehow floated upon the water undiscovered since the
American Revolution. Some include
references to the Bermuda Triangle, while others sound like something out of
science fiction or some sort of paranormal horror film. I do not know why the ships have started
appearing, and it is not really of my concern.
I have my sights on something else.
The ships have come in different sizes
and styles. Some are cargo ships, and
the teams that discovered those crafts plundered a wide variety of antique
objects of historical significance.
Other ships were strictly for passengers, perhaps transporting British
diplomats between Europe and their western colonies. Pirate ships have been found, of course, full
of cannons and the occasional treasure horde.
These finds are the main reasons our team is out searching, seeking the
one great discovery that will make us richer than we could ever imagine. We have watched videos of other teams coming
across such ships, grown men weeping at the sight, the ship shimmering of bright
gold in the cosmic rays of the midday sun.
That is what we want. There is a
ship out there for us, we know it, and we will not stop until we find it.
The strangest thing about the
discovered ships is that they have all been completely devoid of human remains. It would be expected to find the occasional
body. Perhaps a sailor who died of
starvation on his voyage, or an apprehended prisoner found shackled to the
walls in the brig. Yet there has been
nothing. Not a skeleton, not even a
bone. I assume the sea travelers all
abandoned ship and lived out their days on some remote island somewhere, only
to watch their ship drift off and disappear into the horizon. It is still strange, though.
Our own ship, a large freighter
named Mallory, was repurposed from its transatlantic trade route and now holds
the remains of our last several finds in large cargo containers. The containers will be brought to our
headquarters in South Carolina and unloaded into the warehouse, and hopefully
the loot will sell for enough to finance our next three month mission on the
high seas. Finding a treasure horde
would allow us to retire, though I do not believe I would. There is always more to find.
“Captain!” comes the voice,
pulling my eyes from the maps that cover the walls of my office. A man runs in through the door, a wide smile
across his face.
“What is it?” I say, not wanting
to be disturbed. I spend much of my time
studying the maps and watching weather patterns, attempting to discern the
places a drifting sea vessel would be most likely to be discovered.
“A ship! We’ve found a ship!”
“Good,” I say, standing and
walking through toward the door.
“And Captain,” the man says. “There is a shine.”
I raise my eyebrow at him. “We shall see,” I say, not wanting to be too
optimistic. I quickly make my way to the
bow, joining dozens of my crew. Just
ahead of and well below us, there is indeed a ship, a great structure of dark
brown wood. It is dwarfed by our own
cargo ship, but it is significantly larger than any of our previous finds,
perhaps even larger than any of the other finds by the other teams. A small number of cannons protrude from its gun
ports at a variety of angles, some obviously damaged and others completely
missing. The cannons were there only for
defense from pirates, as this appears to be a trade ship. The vessel does emit a shine, but I am still
hesitant. However, as I watch it come
closer, the shine becomes more pronounced, and I finally allow myself to
smile.
The ship is full of gold. I watch the sparkling coins and jewels, piles
of riches larger than anything we’ve ever seen.
I feel a tear falling down my cheek and quickly wipe it away. This is it, I know it. This is what we’ve been looking for.
Mallory stops and anchors with the
trade vessel directly on our starboard side.
I do not need to give a single order, as my crews know exactly what to
do when we come across a find. Each crew
member goes through months of training before they are allowed on such a
mission, as I will not allow our expeditions to be slowed by ineptitude. I smile as the boarding bridge is lowered,
the ladders are let down, and the initial boarding crew scampers down and
across quickly, and soon they are aboard it, and then…
And then the air around the trade
vessel shimmers, with thin streaks of color twisting around the whole of the
craft, and the men and women who boarded it can no longer be seen.
And neither can anyone else.
I am suddenly alone on the deck of
Mallory, completely alone in the middle of the sea. I see none of my crew on either ship, nor do
I hear them. For several moments I can
only stand there, my unbelieving eyes staring at the vacant deck. I feel cold and can see my breath. And then, my eyes move toward the trade ship
below me, the gold shine filling the air.
I feel myself smiling, though I know I should not be smiling. And yet, smile I do, and I am then
approaching the edge of the ship, climbing down the ladder, walking across the
boarding bridge. My eyes have not left
the gold that shines brightly.
I step down onto the craft,
walking up to a small wooden table with high piles of gold coins. I hear myself cackling as I reach out and
take several of the coins, running them through my fingers. This is it.
This is what I’ve been looking for.
This is the answer to all my questions.
I then realize that the coins
don’t feel like coins.
The whole of my vision shifts, and
suddenly there are not coins in my hand, and there are not piles of gold or
mounds of jewels. I peer at my hand and
see small fragments of yellow. Corn
kernels. All around me there are massive
piles of yellow, but not of the kind I have been seeking. There is wheat and bananas and barley, and
more corn, all scattered about. I begin
to see bones, some scattered about and some in full skeletons, piled high and buried
within the food of the ship, as though this were a floating mass grave. The more I looked, the more bones I saw. They were everywhere.
I shiver in fear and then turn
toward Mallory, knowing I need to return.
I run for it, leaping over the side of the trade ship. Or I try to, as I instead slam into something
that I cannot see, an invisible barrier that shimmers with streaks of color as
I bounce off it and fall to the floor, landing between two skeletons in a pile
of corn ears. I scamper up, attempting
not to completely lose my mind, and again run toward the edge, but I abruptly
stop. I watch as the boarding bridge is
raised back to the ship, and the ladders are pulled back up. I look to the deck, and for a moment I see
nothing, and then suddenly the deck is full.
I bring my hand to my mouth as I watch skeletons walk upon the deck of
my ship, and soon they are running off into its interior, acting very much like
crew should act. I turn and see piles of
food, but the bodies have all vanished.
When I turn back to Mallory, I see
nothing but the blue of the ocean.
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