Haiku
Jedi Master
Prologue
There’s a blank spot on the map, did you know this? Hint, there’s more than one and there in more than one locale. Unseen territories that have been here longer than man, held in an envelope of fear that makes the unknowing man flee in terror if they ever enter them.
The world isn’t what it seems to be, it’s not a place to gain riches and power although it may seem to be that way. And those that follow in their footsteps have no understanding of what their setting themselves up for. Good souls are taken and absorbed into a world that quite frankly is not theirs, plans hidden away so that even those taken have no care to where they are or what they’re doing for the evil controllers. For those that rebel, they hide them from the rest so the secrets don’t get out. It’s where to put these souls and so much more to hide them from this reality … that’s part of the obscurity here.
You see, this world is full of gateways, gates and portals that can only be seen by few and only if they know what they’re looking for. This makes it kind of hard for the common soul to go looking for something that’s nameless to you, that’s what the evil has done, they kept knowledge hidden and only for their use … it is a self-serving world, but you must know that by now.
Beyond these there are the unseen, concealed areas that sit right out in the open and people have been looking at since time existed. The Zone is one of these places, on any map they show as four voids sitting just above the split island of Haiti and Dominican Republic. Few ask, but just why would you want to show something that’s hidden, like these voids. You would think that you would want to show this obscure nothing so nobody would casually run into what is out of sight. Seems to me that you would just erase these from the maps and remove the ambiguity denoted here … or is there another reason to show them like this. Would they be a marker for the other, a reality between here … and again for those in the know.
Don’t get me started on how every map shows the same voids.
Think about it … just what would you want to hide from this world … would it be something so profound that if you told the world, half of them would go crazy … running to find a cliff to jump off of … what’s left would go numb with these uncloaked thoughts.
Just what would you put here?
It could be worlds unbound and held in a time of their peak in and out of the water, and here they await another time. Or it could be a place to hold testing control samples, you know, when you make a change on something, you keep a control element to see if you did better or worse as time progressed. This also points to a place where you could do testing and changes to see if you want to release it to the world. How about a place to hide someone or something that you don’t want ever seen again. Then again, it could just be someone’s home where they truly have seclusion.
Maybe it’s all of these at once …
It seems that it would be fun just to take a trip around these zones to see what really is here. The first thing you would find here is that there are sixteen islands in the four zones, to move from one zone to the next you have to use the gate that each had. That same gate also gave you access to the port, that’s another story as it resides deep in the other where time exists naught. But only through it can you successfully get into these noted zones and actually see what’s here.
Seems to me it would be the cruise of a lifetime to just scoot around and experience this sub-reality. But that might be precarious as there might be something there that very much would want to eat you … or something like that. I’m just saying that you might want to be armed when you do this … and having a fast ship would help in case you need to run away … fast.
How about this, have a race that cuts around each island, through thick or thin, beast or bay, bush or mountain to get a flag, one of sixteen and bring them all back to the port without someone stealing any of them from you.
Here in the port inside the other … it happens once a year … notices get sent, posters are displayed and they give you a month to prepare for this challenge.
The game begins here …
In the normal world it is the year of 1821, steam powered ships are just entering the age although there are still plenty of older sail driven ships, some over a hundred years old and very much war ready from past times. It’s a savage world, money and power had overcome many souls that know naught of what they were creating. This was only building up those aligned with the evil, the true negative souls, the ones with a major portion of the money and power … they watched as their portion’s grew exponentially … they knew the rest of the world would always be behind. But as their portion’s grew, it also cultivated a lonely lifestyle where you had to watch for thieves that now wanted to take your spot in the hierarchy … along with all your money and power.
Here in the zone this was naught as many were wishfully waiting for their day to return, others secured a place of happiness, this island was one of them.
The third island of the zone is called Shipwreck Skerry and duly named as it is constantly getting hit by ships that try to cross the zone. No it’s not a dreary place with dark ships, ghosts and lightning, it’s a happy place, a tropical island, water so warm you can sit for hours until you look wrinkly like a prune if you like.
There is no law, no governing faction, typically it was called the law of the cannon, those with the biggest had the control … that’s still in effect on some islands. But not here … yes they had ships armed with cannons and captains that look like … well pirates. But the cannon didn’t run this island, it was a positively aligned group that had protection as there was one here that could build ships. Ships that all desired … so by leaving this one alone they could make this essential need. The result is that this island was a paradise and a home of safety for many positively aligned souls.
And this was a growing island, not the island but the people there … this island is where babies are born and children grow up with values. They all live here in an extinct volcano that some past civilization restructured, they took blocks of stone that were impossible to move and lined the inside of the volcanic conoid with them. What they were left with is a cone shaped void that they’ve built a colony in.
Now they had plenty, foodstuffs to support the colony is frequently brought in, cows, pigs and chickens that live on a sunken farm, and fish fresh from a pool that can be caught daily. And with the wrecked ships they get everything else as many cargo and war ships end up here fully loaded. They even had a treasure pile under twenty feet of water that you could spend your lifetime pulling out.
The most senior here on Shipwreck Skerry is old Jean, he was the one that gave away his ‘Ability to leave’, it was just to bring a shipload of people here for their safety, he doesn’t mind, it beautiful and there’s lots of rum, what more could you want. It wasn’t like he couldn’t go anywhere, he could go anywhere in the zone or the port so it wasn’t like he was on a deserted island and all alone.
Right now he was in a quasi-living room made of furniture and walls of Japanese washi shoji … that’s a paper walls for those that don’t know. These had fantastic scenes hand painted all over them, it was kind of like looking out another window far away on each and everyone.
Old Jean was once known as ‘The Captain’, a moniker given to him for an act of bravery in France. He brought men home on a ship driven by a tied together group of oars, that was because all the aft of the ship had been removed by cannon fire … and as they returned he took out three ships on the way, the same three that used all their ammo to damage the ship he was on.
He graciously passed on the moniker to a young man here, his name was Blake.
Blake grew up here and returned for the seclusion, he had now been here six months, his lady that he cared deeply for, she was in delicate condition with child and now was starting to show.
Blake, he was just coming in to have a seat in the cool of Vulcane, he noticed old Jean, he was looking at a poster in his hand. He leaned over to see what it was and he lit up as he noted, “The ‘Zone Rally’, is it that time of the year again. You got to be half crazy to run in that one. If it was just a simple race that would be good, but having a mosasaur chase you past an island is bit out of the ordinary. Or running up a hill being chased by jaguar-men, and my favorite the flying piranha’s, I heard that always takes one or two.”
Old Jean said, “What I like to see is how many start and how few finish, most fall out fast … so you totally sure you don’t want to try it … even once?”
Blake looked to him, he was serious, so he said, “You’re not kidding are you, that’s a run as fast as you can and avoid as much as possible kind of race.”
Old Jean was still looking at the poster as he stated, “And you have a crew, a healthy crew too like you have, all you need is a little more guidance from more experienced souls,” as he looked to him.
Blake noted it as he stated this, “You want to come along … oh I don’t know about this.”
Then old Jean said, “I’m sure Louie will want to join us too. … what say you mate?”
Blake was doing the slow head shake as he stated, “A race … then my ship is out of the question, it’s a slug compared to newer ships.”
Old Jean went back to passively reading the poster as he said, “They just got that schooner back together, three masts and thin on the water, bet you could get eighteen knots out of her with extended sails.”
And Blake humorously said, “Well we could get that out of the Black Arrow on standard sails.” The both looked at each other as they came to the same conclusion and Blake asked, “So where is Louie right now?”
Old Jean took the poster and folded it twice and stashed it away in his shirt and he got up and said, “He was heading to the pig pen, the mama pig got too excited around your man Pig.”
And as they scuttled away Blake said, “You know how that is, some people are dog people, others are cat people, he’s a pig man …”
As they walked away, there was one that was noticing them, it was Aurélie in the kitchen, the next oldest person on the island, and what she looks to, any other woman there follows.
Lucy stepped up to her and asked, “You onto something?”
And Aurélie said, “The men there, that was an excitement step, they were walking too fast.”
Sabina came out and said it, “That means they’re up to something sweetie, um hum.”
And they were as they came into the farm, there’s one fenced in end, the rest sat in the sunken lava tube, it must have been a big one in its time as it’s twenty, thirty feet wide most of the way to the coast. They found Louie in the far end that they use for the pigs, two pens and a large mud pit that catches all the morning mists.
He and Pig were there just finishing tying on a new section of fence, Louie saw them … and he noticed that they had intent … and it was heading his way. He stood up and brushed off his hands to meet this head on as it must be something important.
Blake said, “Bonjour, did I say that right? Well we were just talking about the upcoming race …”
Pig overheard as he said, “Race, you no speak of race.”
Old Jean said, “You’ve only been here what six months now, this is an event that happens every year here.”
Louie then stepped in and said, “And not like any race you ever seen before, eight men died last year alone, it was over twenty three years earlier.”
Old Jean said, “That was because they were soft in the bellies, you can’t run fast with all that fat. That wouldn’t be the same here, shit, just look at this man here, I bet he could wrestle a lion.”
Blake recalled this as he said, “I don’t know a crab almost beat him.”
Pig’s arms went wide as he said, “Big crab, taste good.”
Old Jean gave him the stare down as he stated, “Seems to me we could use some of your steering expertise if we were to attempt this, you interested?”
Pig said, “Pig’s interested, I go tell others,” as he scooted off.
And Blake was next as he asked, “What say you Louie, want to go have some fun? We can always fall out if it gets too tough, we may after we hit a few of these islands here.”
Of course Louie’s mind was working as he asked, “What ship would we take, the Prestige is too heavy.”
Old Jean stated this, “Yea, we were in discussion on that too. Come, let’s get a bottle and take a walk, got one stashed by the gate here.”
Thirty minutes later and all the women inside came out the entrance, more women were gathering now as the vibe went out … something was up. They looked to the lagoon and no men, so Aurélie said, “Quiet so we can hear,” and silent it went … but not here, the noise was coming from the work dock they use here and the schooner that still sat there.
And as the troop of women moved out toward the dock, they were seen by the men. Hamza saw them first as he called it out, “Ladies incoming, off the port side.”
The crowd stopped at the side and Lucy took over as she asked, “You’re up to something, what are you all doing on the schooner?”
Blake stepped up and said, “Last minute check, it was Louie’s idea to have us all do a final inspection to see if they missed anything …”
She had her hand to her hip and shaking her head and her other hand as she didn’t buy it, she said, “Nope, try again.”
It was a game of silence as each woman had a man in eye to eye contact, it was a matter of seconds before someone lost, it was Pig as he said, “It race, we try to win.”
Aurélie said, “Is this that one where people die every time?”
Jaydon was hanging over the side and passed the paper off to Camilla as he said, “We got a month to prepare, we don’t know if we want to do this with this ship or with the Black Arrow.”
Arabella spouted, “It sounds like you’ve already made up your mind on this.”
Riley looked around and said, “Well, we haven’t even had a vote on it yet, were still in debate.”
Camilla said, “This says the race takes four to seven days, is that true?”
And Blake replied as he stated, “You have to circle each of the islands and retrieve a flag from each of the sixteen, moreover many of the flags are on land so you have to do excursions to get to them.” ...
