Chapter 237: Rie’ka and Ne’mara

Day 1, Date Unknown

I opened my eyes to find myself once more on the bridge of the Edna Lorraine. And man, was it hot!

I figured out two things pretty quick!

First, was that I was still clad in my single-breasted wool & cashmere blend overcoat with the designer label. And second, through the open doorway of the bridge, I could see the shore and the lush tropical foliage, so I knew immediately that wool & cashmere were not a good fit for the tropics.

I quickly shed the overcoat as I scanned the Edna Lorraine. Captain Tab and Larry were still lying nearby on the deck of the bridge, unconscious, but breathing. I noticed that Larry was going to have a bruise above his right eye. He must have hit the bridge console when he collapsed. I’d address later, it when he woke up.

I then scanned for the other thirty-two emotional signatures of my family, including Barbara, and then the eleven signatures of the new crew. It seems that that were all still asleep, but otherwise, unhurt. When I scanned for my security detail, they were also still sleeping, however, I did notice that Kip, who had been just outside the door to the wheelhouse when we encountered the vortex, or whatever it was, was beginning to stir.

I also realized that I was now wearing my sword once again. Until that moment, I hadn’t missed it, and I can certainly understand why Thesan hadn’t included it in my wardrobe for New York. But I felt comforted having it back at my side. I know, I know ... what sixteen-year-old wearing jeans and tennis shoes carries such an intimidating weapon in this day and time?

“I am called Flaminia,” she had told me the first time she spoke to me. “Named by my maker, after the goddess of the Silva Ciminia. I was commissioned by Thesan, the Great Mother of all the gods, and forged by the Titan God Xenitus.”

An ancient sword, forged by the ancient gods, she was part of a Te’trad of armor, along with her brother, the man/dragon’s armor called the ‘Armor of Life’, and their twin sisters, the rings of ‘Knowledge’ and of ‘Understanding’. All together, they made up “Thesan’s Te’trad”.

Three of those pieces were now in my possession. It was my quest for the fourth piece, the Armor of Life, that was the reason we were onboard this ship, at this time, and in this place.

As I pulled myself up with the help of the ships’ wheel and began to look around, Thesan’s warning came to my mind.

” ... But Michael ... Beware! This island, while it may appear similar to tropical islands on your world, resides in a vastly different, and much more dangerous dimension.”

She was right, it did appear similar to other tropical islands I had seen. Our ship, the Edna Lorraine, was at a dead stop, with no sound of her engines. We appeared to be grounded on a sandbar inside a lush tropical lagoon with only a slight list to starboard.

Confident that my family and the crew were okay for the moment, I began to scan the area around the ship. The sandbar appeared to be less than fifty yards from a sandy beach that wrapped more than three-quarters of the way around the lagoon. I had no idea whether the tide was ebbing or flowing, but right now, it looked low enough for me to wade to shore without getting my knees wet. I hoped that meant it would be high enough to float the Edna Lorraine again when it reached high tide.

As I made my way forward to check on my family, I wondered briefly about all the others back home. I tried connecting with Catherine, but got nothing. So I quickly went through the list of the others who stayed behind, but still, no luck. I even tried Natalie in North Carolina and my cousins in Tennessee, but there was only silence.

I didn’t panic, knowing how Thesan and the other gods could manipulate our time continuum, so I just hoped that I would see them again soon.

The girls were still asleep in the forward officer’s cabin, but since the engines were not functioning, there was no air conditioning and their cabins were quickly becoming unbearably hot. I began carrying them out of the officers’ quarters.

Due to the position of the sun and the way the ship sit facing the shore, the bridge structure cast most of the foredeck in shadows. And it was to this slightly cooler shade that Kip and I moved everyone.

I thought I wasn’t going to be able to lift Serkia or her sisters since they were almost as big as me, but Kip turned up carrying Unevia and then helped me with them.

Standing on the foredeck, while catching my breath, I scanned the ship again to see if we had missed anyone. Suddenly, I became aware of four more emotional signatures. They were not on the ship. Instead, they were all in a small canoe, which had an outrigger attached to the starboard side, and was propelled by two women with hand hewn paddles. It was silently approaching the Edna Lorraine carrying two other women as passengers.

What surprised me more than the existence of other humans was that one of the female passengers thought that she could actually sense our presence onboard our ship.

I quickly raised my shields as I continued scanning outward until I had covered the entire island; I could detect over four dozen other emotional signatures, all feminine, and mostly confined to the hills to the northeast. There was also a strange, I guess I’d call it a disturbance, not far from the shore where we were aground on the sandbar. But other than that, I found nothing out of the ordinary nor any signs of any hostile emotions anywhere. Since everyone in my family and crew, except for Kip, still seemed to be asleep, I focused my attention on the approaching natives.

“We’ve got company!” I thought to Kip.

“I’ll cover you,” he replied as he mounted the steps to the bridge. I knew he was headed for his weapons.

As the small canoe came near the bow of the Edna Lorraine, the two passengers stared up at the massive sides of the World War Two Diver-class ship, wondering how they could get on board her. Based on what I was reading, they were expecting the occupants of our ship to be asleep, courtesy of their trip through something they were calling the ‘Brume’.

“Did your dream include a such a vessel?” I heard the older passenger ask the younger one.

“I told you,” the younger one replied patiently, “when the god-of-the-old-ways appeared to me, he simply said that we should prepare for he who would set us free.”

“It seems so large, my daughter. Can you tell how many there are on board the vessel?” the older one asked.

“So ... they are mother and daughter,” I thought to myself, mindful to keep shielding my thoughts until I knew the lay of the land.

“Oh my! I think that there might be more than in our whole village!” Rie’ka replied.

“Oh, my! How will we feed so many?” the older one asked.

“The god-of-the-old-ways will provide,” the younger one replied almost by rote.

“Well, by chance did your god-of-the-old-ways happen to tell you how we were going to get on board this vessel?” the mother asked playfully.

“Unfortunately, he did not. However, we must find some way to get onboard before they wake up, in order to make sure they are not carrying the sickness.”

“Stop!” I forcefully thought to them. Then added to myself, “I sure hope they can understand what I’m saying.”

“Oh, no!” cried the younger of the two passengers. The two females who were rowing immediately pulled their oars from the water, alarmed at the voice inside their heads.

“What was that, my daughter?” her mother asked. She too had heard the voice inside her head.

“He speaks to us, yet I cannot feel him. It is as though he is not there!” Rie’ka cried. “However, he hopes that we understand him.”

“Well ... tell him that we understand,” her mother exclaimed. “Quickly! Before he attacks.”

As the small craft slowly drifted, the younger passenger did as her mother bade her.

“We understand,” she thought to me. “We mean you no harm. We are here to assist you.”

“Damn! Did she just speak to my mind?” I cursed. “Not another empath! This is the last thing I need right now!

On the small canoe, the younger girl shivered in fear as she felt my anger. Fortunately, my shield kept my thoughts from her, but she still felt my displeasure.

“I hope this doesn’t mean she’s going to have a special connection with me,” I added still thinking to myself. A ‘special connection’ is how my family describes those ladies who are, somehow, able to overhear my thoughts, which, in turn, usually indicates that we are destined for a deeply intimate relationship.

“Please. We mean you no harm,” she repeated.

So I scanned her again, a little more thoroughly this time. When I finished, I couldn’t decide. Did she overhear my thoughts? Or was she using some other kind of mental communication? I was leaning towards some other kind of communication. In either event, I decided they were not hostile.

“Come around to the other side and I’ll put out the stern boarding ladder,” I thought to the younger female. “It will make it easier for you to board my ship.”

While the foredeck on a Diver Class ship was at least twenty-four feet above the water, the aft deck was designed to be considerably closer to the surface; more like eight to ten feet, to facilitate its mission of Search and Rescue. The stern ladder was actually a woven rope net attached to cleats along the coaming and dropped over the side. The way the Edna Lorraine was beached, the stern, which means the rudder and propeller, was still submerged.

The mother looked at her daughter in surprise, as her daughter instructed the other two women to paddle to the far side of the ship. But when she saw the boarding ladder, she was even more amazed. And a little frightened.

“He does not seem to want to harm us, Mother,” the daughter said. “I believe that he is curious.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” replied her mother as she grabbed the rope ladder to follow her daughter. It was natural for her to trust her daughter’s instincts as her daughter had proven many times her ability to sense other people.

“So do I,” the young girl thought to herself. “So do I,”

After I lowered the stern boarding ladder, I had stepped back to allow them room to board. As they climbed onto the deck, I studied them.

The younger one was the first to board. Her skin was the color of a finely burnished mahogany and appeared to be in that mid-teen range, anywhere from fourteen to nineteen years of age. Her lithe figure was clothed in two pieces of what looked like some kind of leather. One piece bound her small breasts while the other wrapped her slender waist to hang just below the cheeks of her ass. She was adorned with a pair of carved wooden bracelets on one wrist, and a necklace of shells around her neck. A leather belt encircled her waist where she tucked her small knife. A matching leather headband held her long dark hair from her eyes.

The next woman was at least twice the younger one’s age. She was attired in similar fashion but her figure was much more lush. Her large breasts strained at the material surrounding them and her hips seemed to sway even when she was standing still. She looked at me with great trepidation as she stepped closer to the younger female.

“What are you sensing?” the mother whispered to her daughter.

“I sense nothing. I can see him with my eyes, but it’s as if he is not there,” her daughter whispered back. “And he is so young! Much younger than I expected! Surely this is not the one that god-of-the-old-ways foretold. Why, he’s just a boy!”

“There it is again! What is it with women and younger guys?” I wondered.

“Welcome aboard. My name is Michael,” I told them aloud. “Can you tell me who you are and where we are?”

“I am called Rie’ka, but I know not where we are. The others call this an island, but I have never heard its name,” Rie’ka replied. “We call it home, because it is all we have now.”