The Unpocalypse Series - Volume 1

The Young Lieutenant - Sailing to the New World

One day near summer's end, the cry of "land ho!" sent a ripple of excitement through the crew of the expedition's flagship, Wanderer. The young lieutenant, an average-looking man of about twenty, stuffed his flannel cap on his head and ran up the wooden steps to see for himself. He immediately saw several other ships in the fleet surrounding them at different distances, but at first, he saw no land. He squinted, not sure what he was seeing. He noticed a fuzzy line of gray-green on the horizon. A canopy of treetops!

They had been underway for many weeks, much longer than any of the few voyages he'd taken as part of his naval training, but now it was done. In his sudden longing for land, he tried to calculate how long it might be before he set foot on that blessed shore. He hearkened back to his lessons. Given the height of the ship, the presumed height of the trees, he thought it must be less than ten nautical miles, maybe eight or nine. He knew Wanderer sailed at about seven or eight knots. "Just over an hour," he said with sudden delight, though no one was near enough to hear him. He began to daydream about life back on land: spreading out in a larger camp, walking on solid ground, drinking water that wasn't stale and warm from a barrel, being away from the putrid smell of chamber pots and unwashed bodies.

Bells rang. Crew men bustled. Signal flags flashed between all six ships. The lieutenant had been taught all these things in training but had already forgotten some of it. He understood that the admiral had signaled a change in the formation of ships, but did not fully understand what the change was, or why. The great warship, Rover, which carried the enlisted and the lower-ranking officers, began to pull in close beside them. The other four ships, which followed behind, began to gather in a tighter formation. They were packed full of farmers, laborers, livestock, women, and provisions.

Half an hour passed with the young lieutenant's eyes transfixed on the shore, as it grew brighter and closer. Then he felt, almost as much as heard, the low, bass rumble of thunder behind him. He turned to see a storm had appeared behind the expedition and was coming up on them, as though it was racing them to shore. The massive cloud formation was gray on its edges and a deep, roiling midnight-blue at its center. As the six ships drew closer to shore with the storm following closely, they looked as though they were dragging a dark shroud, as large as the sky, behind them.

Because of the shallow coastal shelf, the ships were forced to drop anchors well away from the shore, perhaps a quarter of a mile. As soon as they dropped, the more senior officers across all six ships paced up and down the decks, yelling orders to make ready the landing boats. The young officer was not immune to this. A lieutenant commander came up behind him and caught him unaware, "Lieutenant, prepare this dinghy for launch. You and Carson will be a on a special detail."

"Yes, sir."

"The Chairman will be here in just a few minutes. He's demanded the right, as the leader of the expedition, to be the first of our party to set foot on shore. You and Carson will ferry him." At this, the senior officer jerked his thumb in disdain in the direction of the four cargo ships, and continued, "Do it quickly before some pig farmers beat you and ruin the ceremony of the whole thing."

"Yes, sir. Understood." The lieutenant could not believe it. The Chairman.

For the entire voyage, he had overheard his fellow crew members make queer comments about the mysterious Chairman put in charge of the expedition. Chairman of what? The lieutenant didn't know, but he had the largest stateroom on the ship – normally the captain's quarters. There was nothing especially strange about that, except that since this was the flagship, the "captain" was actually the celebrated Admiral Neville brought out of recent retirement, specifically for this historic voyage. The Admiral had to sleep in the quarters originally intended for the First Mate!