Oceanus: Chapter 8
"Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not"- William Shakespeare, The Tempest.
Chapters 1-5| Chapter 6| Chapter 7
August 10, 2300 - eleven years earlier
Every Sunday, those who were forced to call Oceanus ‘home’ would visit the seaside to observe a day of rest. After having a picnic on the sand dunes, the children would often play on the beach until sundown. On this particular morning, it was just Derrien, Thea and the scientist who had welcomed them to the planet. It was Thea’s sixth birthday. Even though her father felt that the offers of birthday excursions or presents were limited on Oceanus, Thea wanted nothing more than a trip to the beach to collect shells.
“Thank you for helping us, Shona,” Derrien said whilst they were sitting on the sand dunes overlooking the isolated beach. Hours had passed this way for most of the time that they spent there.
“You would have done the same for me,” she smiled with a kindness. “Jet and I are happy that you’re here”. Her large, doe eyes made her face look friendly and inquisitive no matter the subject. Even when she frowned, Shona never appeared to be serious. Until now.
They looked over to the shoreline where a six year old Thea was beachcombing. She was singing to herself and collecting shells to put in her little net bag.
“Thanks for giving me some work to do here, too. I think I would have gone mad simply sitting around.” He feared that he was already going mad and the work was simply delaying his inevitable decline. He found the work dull, tedious and unfulfilling. Sometimes, when digging in the rain, he wanted to storm up to the cottage and demand to be in charge. Does she know who I am? She did not know who he was. She didn’t seem to care, either.
“Oh that’s okay. I understand. A scientist needs their work.” She smiled and looked down at the sand, letting her fingers create pits for it to spill into. “I couldn’t have you just chopping logs now, could I?” she chuckled.
“I’m not the best botanist, Shona, or the best geologist for that matter.”
“I know,” she smiled. “But you’ll have to do,” They laughed. Derrien’s laugh had been more of a forced effort than he could bring himself to admit. He found her infuriating but could not bite the hand that fed him.
Shona had provided them with warm blankets, food, shelter and companionship on the island. For Derrien, she had provided some work for him to do to pass the time, even if he felt that she didn’t really need him. He dug, collected soil, rocks and various other natural materials. She had never specified what it was that she was doing but he buried his mistrust and did the work. No matter how overpowering his curiosity was, he would not look the gift horse in the mouth. Shona is helping us.
He had never seen Shona’s place of work but respected that if it had been a sensitive project, he had no authority to know the details. He had never had to disclose the details of his own research with his students. As friendly as she was and excellent at small talk, he had never felt that he could ask deeper questions until that day on the beach, two years after they had first met. She seemed more approachable than usual on this day.
“How did you and Jet end up here, alone?” he dared to ask.
Shona took a deep breath and looked away. “Oh, it’s a long story, Derrien. Are you sure you want to hear it?” Her face had a unique ability to switch from enthused to tired. She looked wan.
“Not if you don’t want to tell me, Shona. I don’t want to upset anyone.”
“Oh Derrien, you’re so kind. Always thinking of others.” She laid a hand on his arm.
“I’m glad that you think so. I’m sorry, I’ve always wondered. How could they just leave you and your son here? It seems barbaric.”
He thought of his own circumstances two years before. How could they? Had anyone ever bothered to look for the disgraced Professor D. Victor Smith? He had done things that were questionable and felt it was fair enough to stop him in his tracks. But Thea? What had she done to anyone? Did they really deserve to be dispatched into unchartered space to fend for themselves? The heat was rising, bubbling in his blood while he thought about them. They are murderers. They will pay.
“The science teams were on a rota to carry out surveys here on Oceanus. We would swap every 6 months. One day, no one came to relieve me and that was it.”
“All these years?”
“Yes. Just Jet and I.”
“And no one came to find you?”
“No.” She said firmly and looked away again, fidgeting with her dress.
Sensing that she no longer wanted to talk about her arrival on the planet, Derrien reluctantly changed the subject.
“How is Jet?”
“He doesn’t say much. He hasn’t said much since his father died, really.” She sighed. “I just let him express himself in whichever way he can.” She gazed into the horizon. “He doesn’t have to speak if he doesn’t want to.”
“When did his father die, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Just after we arrived here, he killed himself. Jet was four years old.”
“Shona, I’m so sorry.”
“He didn’t sleep, hardly ate, and walked the breadth of the island most nights. I hardly knew him any more. He jumped off that cliff there.” She pointed to one of the sea cliffs to the west of where they were sitting. “It’s ok Derrien,” she said, looking at her friend’s shocked face. “It was a long time ago.”
“I lost my wife, too,” He said quietly.
“Oh, I’m so sorry.”
“Thea barely knew her.” His eyes filled up with tears but they could not come. He swallowed and fought them back, taking a deep breath.
“We don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.” she said quietly.
The pair sat and watched Thea happily at work for a short while. She looked up, waved and returned to her beachcombing. The sun was beating down on them by now and the clouds had been burned away. The tide had gone out and left ample room for the seabirds to start their hunt for gifts that the waves had left behind.
“It’s a shame they did drop offs and didn’t leave you with a means of escape, especially with…” Derrien bowed his head, thinking of the man who had taken his own life many years before. “It’s an alien world, after all.”
“It is.”
“Rather an oversight, in my opinion.” He sensed his pulse beginning to race as he risked the comment. Shona did not entertain it.
There must be a bloody ship, Shona. What are you hiding from me? No reputable scientific research organisation would leave a team member out here, not to mention one who clearly has a family with her. How much longer do I have to eat this?
Instead she stood up and stretched like a cat after a long nap under a warm window. “Shall we go for a walk?” she asked, hands on hips.
Despite his frustration from never having had a clear answer from Dr Lennox about most things to do with the obscure planet, Derrien was grateful for the friendship and agreed to go with her. “Thea, we’re going for a walk.” He said, waving to his child. She obligingly skipped along behind them.
Up over the sand dunes was a slightly wooded path to the centre of the island. Birds darted up and over the sand dunes and brought with them their shrill calls. Rabbits and red squirrels shot past the path to sit elsewhere and watch, their large black eyes opening and closing. The tufts of dry grass susurrated in the firing line of the sea breeze as Shona and Derrien strolled along the sandy walkway.
He had been this way many, many times before. The beach stayed the same. The coastal path stayed the same. How many more years could Derrien endure the same? He wondered. He looked over at his little girl. She had once known Atlantis, a temperate world, not much different to this one, only bigger, all the conveniences of modern technology and with more people. More faces to look at. Thea was born in the year twenty two ninety four. At the time, both her mother and father were highly praised for their work on advanced cyber and AI defence technology. “To defeat it, you have to understand it,” Derrien would say to his students at the University to great applause. “Enemies are defeated when we truly know them.”
He remembered the day he met Thea’s mother, Cara Tate. A tall, red haired lady ten years older than he was, she was both beautiful and a genius; an intimidating mix for an average man. Lucky for Derrien, average was never a word his peers would apply to his character.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. I feel like the grey lady from earth,” she joked, looking down at her beige raincoat and brown trousers and taking in the beauty and blueness of the colony. The light on the water dazzled like diamonds with every crest of wave. They were standing at a sea view window on campus, basking in the warmth of that summer’s day.
As far as Derrien was concerned, Venus had arrived at Atlantis, her hair flowing and angels rushing in to adorn her in silks but she did not need the assistance of any angels. She was adorned by her charm, her wit and her intelligence. For the first time in his academic career, Derrien loved something more than his work.
She had first met him when supervising his PhD at the University. The day after his PhD was awarded, they married in a private, civil ceremony on the island of Nafplion.
They did not know about the tumour, then.
They would not know about the cancer until Thea was two years old. In spite of man's technological and medical advances in previous centuries, new, rare and poorly researched brain cancers remained the most deadly and problematic of all.
She died in her husband’s arms in a hospice by the sea, aged forty eight.
With an all consuming feeling of emptiness, Derrien looked out at the sand dunes now as he had done then. He had known Cara for five years. Sometimes, in his darker moods, he thought that loving Cara had been a moment's pleasure in exchange for a lifetime of pain. She may have been the love of his life but she had also been the catalyst in his downfall.
On Oceanus, various grasses and wildflowers grew as Derrien had found when sampling the local flora for Shona. He was not particularly enamoured with becoming a makeshift botanist but he found the work fulfilling for the time being.
This spot had also become a favourite play area for his daughter. Daddy’s work was boring but flowers were always interesting for a child. Thea, true to form, skipped around looking for daisies while the adults stopped to wait. Derrien, intrigued by the revelation of a deceased Mr Lennox, looked west of their direction. There was nothing there. No stones, cross or cairn in sight.
Perhaps she didn’t want little Jet coming to a windy cliff edge to visit Dad. Fair enough. Maybe they have something at home instead.
A windswept Shona raised her hand over her eyes to shield them from the sun as she peered into the distance. “It’s Jet,” she remarked happily.
Across the way, emerging from the wood that surrounded Shona’s cottage was a skinny, dark haired boy of the age of seven or eight wearing handmade rag clothes. He had a solemn, permanent sulk. He walked towards them carrying something in his hand.
“Has he caught a rabbit?” asked Derrien.
Jet approached and ran past the adults to find Thea. He stopped abruptly and held out the object.
“Is this for me?” the little girl asked. The barefooted boy, bashful and mute as always, simply nodded. She took it from him and held it to her chest.
“Thank you.” she beamed. “Daddy! Daddy! Look!” She rushed to Derrien and held it up. It was a rag doll made out of old pieces of cloth. Its hair had been painted red just like Thea’s.
“Happy Birthday, Thea,” said Shona, smiling down at the little girl.
Present Day
Journal of D Victor Smith - November 2, 2311
If only he’d read those damn journals. J is as stubborn as I am which leaves us at this stalemate of sorts. If he’d just fucking read them, we’d be in a better place. I did what I had to do.
We have to get off this planet. But what about the others? What will become of them? I have no control over it. It’s not me. It’s that thing. It won’t let me fucking sleep.
Ship seems to be in good working order. Only carries four. Could have been the four of us, thirteen fucking years ago. I can’t leave those people behind. Fuck!
So many mysteries