Bermuda

A Bit Lost

I waited until the two big cats sauntered away before lowering my rifle and whistling for Hadi and Teff who quickly climbed to join us.

“Do you know what this is? Where we are?” Hadi asked after I showed him the names I’d recorded along with Megs’ findings, once we woke her up. “We’re in the Bermuda Triangle,” he waved a hand at the deserted vessels below us, “all these crafts simply disappeared without a trace.”

“That doesn’t explain animals that became extinct millions of years ago fighting with each other,” Megs squeaked.

“Ummm…” I began, “I think I can explain a bit of that.” I chewed the inside of my lip anxiously as three pairs of eyes turned towards me. “After I qualified, I went on a dig in Mexico to study a giant crater - the crater that was said to have been caused by a meteor.”

Teff seemed curious. “The one that made the dinosaurs extinct?”

“Yeah, that one. The thing is, if there was a meteor, then where did it go? It bugged me for months until I found stress fractures consistent with something being pulled, not crushed.”

All three of them stared at me and I could see what I’d just said click into place. I’d signed an official secrets act and sworn an oath never to reveal my findings, but we were a long, long way from home.

“So you’re saying a massive chunk of Mexico got wormholed - complete with its resident dinosaurs - and dropped off here?”

“‘Fraid so Hadi, history got it all wrong. I reckon the same thing happened to the big cats.”

“Fuck!” Megs snapped her fingers together, “Hadi, what went first, the water-ships or the ‘planes?”

“The ships first, then the aeroplanes,” he replied.

Teff butted in. “Don’t forget the rocket.”

“So working on the theory that the Universe is constantly expanding-”

“The entrance to the wormhole is getting further away from Earth,” I finished.

Hadi whistled through his teeth. “Well I’m glad we got that sorted out, but where’s Ky and Esa?”

*

We headed back to our own ship, enlightened but with heavy hearts. From a distance, the fire Megs and I had built the previous night seemed brighter than it had been before we left. Megs gestured with her hands for us to be ‘ready’ - sign language for ‘get your guns out.’

A low murmuring became audible, getting louder the closer we got to our destination. Silently, we crept through the trees until we could see the Trailblazer and the crowd surrounding it.

Logs were being cut and stacked, each row crossing its predecessor at a ninety degree angle to form two pyres. At the front of each lay one half of the ‘mouth’ from one of the monstrous Venus fly-traps we had passed earlier. Each half had been stripped of its teeth which had been lit like torches and placed into the ground in rows.

“Hadi, no!” I hissed a second too late as he stormed into the clearing.

“What the devil do you think you’re doing with my crew?” he thundered in a voice full of grief and anger.

A grey-haired woman stepped forward, flanked by the two Sabre’s we encountered earlier. She extended her arms, palms upturned so he could see she carried no weapons.

“My name is Suma Iqbal,” she said quietly. “I was captain of the Intrepid.”

I recalled the newspaper clippings I’d seen after the Intrepid’s disappearance along with my UESAA studies. She spoke the truth. I moved from the trees to stand next to Hadi and saluted.

She returned my salute with a sad smile and turned back to Hadi. “We didn’t know if there were any survivors. We uphold a tradition here to prevent the dead from falling victim to scavengers.” She reached out to scratch one of the big cats behind its ear. “Come sit with me and bring the other two.”

We followed her obediently as she led us to the Trailblazer’s rear loading bay.

“The Intrepid was the first FTL vessel to arrive here - where and whenever here is of course, but you knew that already, didn’t you.”

“Yes Captain,” I replied.

She pointed a bony finger at each of us in turn and pursed her lips. “There is no way out right now, so don’t even try. God knows I have, my crew did - one never returned.”

Megs and I lowered our eyes, we knew where the missing crew member lay battered and broken.

“It’s a simple life. Most of the time it’s a dangerous one, but we’ve come to accept it. We’ve even tamed it. We may never find our way home, but we can build a new one here. In the centuries to come, when Earth is no more than a distant memory floating like dust in the galactic winds, humankind will live on.”

“Like a new world,” Megs breathed.

“Or a forgotten planet,” Teff nodded

I shook my head. “It’s not forgotten, it’s just a bit lost.”

We sat until the pyres burned to ash.