From Sand to Nand

Chapter Twenty-Four

The fifth day of the journey approached slowly. The anticipation of returning home was such an exciting thought that everyone was obsessing over more and more with each passing second. The closer the fleet crept back to the mainland, the more tense people became.

The nights were surprisingly calm. The sailors and passengers had all gotten lucky and avoided most of the inclement weather on their journey, apart from a slight drizzle or two. The greatest risk in leaving Caranos in a makeshift cargo fleet was the possibility of being torn to smithereens by the apathetic waves of a stormy ocean sea. By sheer chance, that never happened. The entire journey thus far had been slow, steady, and easy.

"Why didn't you tell me Peter was the captain's son?"

"Shhh." McSchmitt silenced the question, looking around to see who had heard it. "How'd you know about that?"

"You told me you both never had any children."

"We preferred to keep our family secret. On board, we're sailors and we're all family, but the blood distinction doesn't matter. That was how Royce ran things."

"You know, that letter you gave me a few days ago...It was really important for me to read that," McSchmitt admitted.

"I'm glad you finally got some closure."

"Well, closure is important, too. But sometimes what really matters is knowing what is in the heart of someone you love—no matter how bad or disturbing it may be. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes," Pei started without catching onto the allusion. "The captain—"

"I wasn't talking about the captain, Pei." McSchmitt lowered his eyes. He looked to Yini who had joined the two silently, then back to Pei.

Pei was struck with the realization that he needed to provide his loved ones some amount of closure. He almost wanted to laugh at the verbal trap he had just walked into.

McSchmitt smiled and turned his back as he recalled his post for duty.

Pei looked down in shame. Yini clasped her hand in his and looked to his face for comfort. "It's okay, you don't have to—"

"No," Pei interrupted. He began to walk Yini toward the highest point on the ship. "He's right. I've accomplished what I'm here to do, anyways."

"What you're here to do?" Yini asked.

"It's almost as if you wouldn't believe me if I told you," Pei smiled. Yini just gave a confused shrug. "I planned a trip to explore the world. I wanted to relive as much of humanity's technological history as possible."

"Wait. What do you mean?" Yini asked.

"That's what I was doing on the Elevation. I was planning an entire itinerary to visit some of the most influential places in human history. Those that contributed to the development of technology. I took a boat because I didn't want to fly and miss out on the opportunity to see it all firsthand. I wanted to travel by land and sea slowly, taking it all in and reliving the type of life experience early humans may have had. For my research, I wanted to understand how we grew into the species we are today and what allowed us to get here."

"Okay?"

"Remember I told you I was conducting research for my PhD when we disappeared?" Pei asked.

Yini nodded, still confused.

"Well, once we ended up on the island, I lost all my previous research. I took it as an opportunity to study primitive technology and human engineering from their roots. A kind of ethnographic view. It was fascinating. I got to be a participant in that process."