BridgeWorld

[BridgeWorld: Day 1]
She felt like shit. That was her first sensation.

Her second was the realization that she was soaked through to the bone, but the sun was warm, so it wasn't too uncomfortable. However, she was laying on her side on a patch of rather course and rough sand.

She tried sitting up and discovered there was a large boulder right behind her, so she used it to help herself to sit up.

Blinking, she forced her eyes open and looked around. Straight out from her was the yacht's longboat, over tuned and wedged on top of some large rocks in the water. To her left, toward the rising sun, she saw several people scattered about along the length of the shoreline. Most everyone was clearly still out of it, but one girl near her and one guy further down the way were just waking and struggling to their hands and knees. Then she saw, just beyond the struggling guy….

"Patty!" she yelled out.

Patty didn't stir, but she was several dozen yards away. She spotted Allan, their roadie, closer to Patty, but he was still unconscious. She glanced to her right and saw the top of the Black Tulip, where it laid on its side, looming up above her just a few feet away. And in the water, was the boat's skipper, lying face down in the water.

As much as she wanted to run over to her friend, Jackie Valentine scrambled over to catch ahold of the man's life vest and turned him over. Only he was already blue in the face, there was a large visible dent on the side of his head, and his eyes were rolled up into his forehead.

"Somebody, help! I think he's dead!" she yelled out. The guy whom she had seen earlier had gotten up and was checking on Patty looked up at her call. He left Patty, who was now showing signs of rousing, and he started coming over, still a little unsteady on his feet. As he passed them, he paused to check on first one man, then Allan, and then the woman whom the girl was trying to rouse, then he checked on the crewman to rouse him before wading out into the water to join Jackie.

"I'm afraid we're in pretty bad shape," he muttered as he checked the old man's condition. "Let's get him to shore," he said, pulling on the old man's life jacket.

Together, they floated him to land near the now awake crewman.

"I'm sorry, Willy," the man said to the crewman as they pulled him to firmly land him. "It doesn't look good. I'm afraid he's gone." Then the man waded back out into the water and started swimming toward the aft end of the yacht.

"Where are you going!?" Willy demanded as he checked on his skipper.

"The others are washed up on the other side of the boat!" the man yelled back over his shoulder.

The others—!? Jackie wondered, looking over the scene around her and she suddenly realized Cathy and Sherry weren't accounted for!

"He's right," Willy quietly said. "There's nothing we can do for him. He's dead."

"Can't you do CPR on him?" the older woman asked as she and one of her daughters approached.

"I'm afraid not, Mrs. Anderson," Willy replied. "His skull was badly fractured." He stood up and looked up at the cliffs surrounding their little spit of sandy beach where the yacht laid. He also looked out to sea toward the horizon. "I—don't recognize this place," he muttered.

"We must be at one of the other islands," Mrs. Anderson said as the others all joined them. "As soon as you contact someone in Suva, they'll come and rescue us."

"I know all the islands in Fiji, ma'am. I've seen them from all angles around every one of them," Willy said, turning toward her. "This place isn't anywhere in Fiji."

"That's just ridiculous talk, Willy!" Mr. Anderson sternly spoke up. "You'll get on the radio—"

"Found them!" a voice yelling interrupted the large man. It was the man who had swam off earlier. He was leading Cathy, Sherry, and another girl around a huge rock against which the front of the yacht had impacted. They looked shaken but otherwise alright. "I'm afraid the keel's broken in a couple places and the starboard bow is in a hopeless mess. This rock here's really gave her a good—oh shit!" he yelled, suddenly rushing into the overturned yacht.

A few moments later, he clammered out of the remains of the kitchen's ceiling.

"Sorry about that!" he called out, resuming his walk toward them. "The stove was lit up like Christmas, and we can't exactly afford to burn the ship up right now! We'd better all go through the ship and secure all the lights and power that we can. We're going to be here for a while."

"It shouldn't take us anytime to get back to civilization, Dmitri," Mr. Anderson loudly said. "As soon as Willy gets on the radio, someone in Suva will be out in no time and get us home!"

"That's—not likely to happen," he said point up toward the sky above them. "We're nowhere near Fiji. Nor on Earth, for that matter. And we'll probably want to be real careful who we call out to, too. Chances are, we were brought here, and whoever did this to us clearly wasn't too awfully concerned about what condition we'd be arriving in."

They all turned to look into the sky, and everyone was horrified at seeing a freaking huge moon covering at least ten times the sky as Earth's moon, sitting serenely above them in a third quarter phase.

"We'd also better get busy burying Hans," Dmitri said as he joined the group as if he wasn't the least bit fazed by the realization that they were all on another world. "His corpse isn't going to last long in this environment."

"We're—on another planet!?" Mr. Anderson spoke out. "Which means there's no food! Should we be burying Hans so quickly? There might not be anything edible on this world!"

"If there's nothing edible on this planet, then going cannibal won't help anyone much," Dmitri countered, glaring at the bigger man. "The—last survivors will only last for another month, at best, at which point there won't be anyone else left to eat. Then you starve to death in a week beyond that. So, what's the point?

"Me, I'd like to find out if there's food out there rather than for us to all start killing each other in the next hour or two," he growled. "Also, I'd like to find out just who brought us here. And why. Maybe, just maybe, we can find a way back? Assuming we don't have to fight whoever brought us here—too much."

Willy directed everyone to go through the wreck to shut off all lights and other power consuming devices, they all gathered to bury the skipper using shovels Willy located in the yacht's tool cabinet. Willy and Mr. Anderson each said a few words about the man they were consigning to this strange new world. They dug his grave as close to the ship's wheelhouse as they could.

Afterward, Willy pulled Dmitri over for a few words as Jackie joined everyone else to begin the process of cleaning up the broken glass and debris from the inside of the yacht. In a short while, Willy and Dmitri joined in as well.

"There are a few things that everyone should understand," Dmitri spoke out as he began helping with the cleanup. "There are a couple of rules we should all remember here. Rule Number One: the decisions we all make will affect whether we live or die, and even if no one makes a wrong decision, even if every decision we make is the right one, there may come a situation where someone's going to die. But remember that any bad decisions we make will kill us all off just that much faster. Rule Number Two: whoever we chose as a leader, that person's responsible for everyone's life—but that leader will never be able to change Rule Number One.

"Now, just because I'm not freaked out by the fact we're on another planet, it doesn't mean I'm the expert about dealing with this shit. And to be honest, I really, really hope we don't have an expert regarding extraterrestrial travel among us," he added, grinning at Willy, who grinned back. "If we ever do make it back to Earth, I have no doubt that each and every one of us will come down with a very severe and hefty dose of PTSD when we return. There are only two reasons I'm not completely and totally freaking out to the point I'm functionally useless right now. One, I've had years and years of watching and reading Star Trek, Doctor Who, and dozens of other sci-fi and horror movies and books growing up. Two, I've had—not quite as many years—serving in the US Navy. And if it's one thing those two past life experiences combined will teach you, panic will kill you!

"Oh, and that reminds me, something else I heard once that might help to keep you all level headed," Dmitri said, smirking. "There's a saying that I liked when I first heard it: the Universe gives us all just one chance to live in it, then it spends the rest of our lives trying to kill us. Eventually, it wins, but the point of the game is don't let it!"

Willy, Alan, Sherry, and Patricia all snickered at that.

"Someone's certainly done something to earn a lot of karma," Willy muttered.

"I'd like to think of it as the Universe has suddenly decided to really amp up its game on us," Dmitri countered. "I'd have to conclude it's cheating."

"So, you really don't know how to get us home?" Mr. Anderson demanded.

"No! And I never said or implied I could," Dmitri sharply responded. "But I do know this: aside from whatever monsters this world will be throwing at us, our situation really isn't all that different than it would be if we just simply ended up on another island back on Earth with no radio to call out with. Survival is going to primarily depend on anyone with skills for roughing it with just the shit we have on our backs, in this boat, and what we can make from what we find on this island or whatever it is. Which means, we'll need good suggestions on how to survive in the wilderness. You're a businessman, Mr. Anderson, sir, and I'd have to say a pretty good one to make it this far in someplace as messed up and corrupted as Suva. But I don't think your background in business management and accounting can help us here. My own skills are in electronics and computers, but unfortunately, I've got shit for surviving off the land. The only thing I think I can help with in this situation is keeping an eye open for any alien tech or traps that we might find out there. And hopefully, a cool head so I don't flip out, myself, when we end up going toe-to-tentacle with a Third Space Vorlon."

"The girls and I have been in numerous situations where we had to make do when our van would break down in the middle of nowhere, in deserts, heavy woods, jungles, and so on," Alan spoke out.

"Then I'd say we've found our George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Ben Franklin," Dmitri said, patting Alan on the arm.

Dmitri and Willy helped identify the debris that was salvageable and potentially still useful from pure trash or dangerous to keep, like the broken glass that widely littered the area of the wreck. They, with Alan and Sherry, recovered the jetty longboat which, although damaged, it was fortunately still in a serviceable shape.

They also recovered what food they could from the refrigerator that had gotten knocked clean out of the kitchen and smashed against the same huge rock that the bow of the ship had smashed against. Unfortunately, the forward cabin of the yacht, which was originally a guest bedroom just beyond the front bulkhead of the kitchen, was a total loss, with its starboard side entirely smashed in and the debris was jammed nearly solid against the interior port side hull. Jackie and her friends were devastated. All of their musical instruments, as well as their changes of clothes they brought for the trip to the Andersons' island, were in there.

As they all worked together, Willy and Dmitri spoke at length with Alan, Patricia, Sherry, and Mr. Anderson about how they should go setting out to explore the land they were washed up against, while the rest of the girls mostly listened. They agreed they needed to determine if this was just an island or something bigger, what dangers might exist here, such as predators, deadly foliage, or even the landscape itself, and what might be searched out as possible food sources. Although Jackie knew she and her friends were well versed in survival skills, since the band had had many adventures over the years, Willy and Dmitri both seemed the ones most knowledgeable about, and oddly the most confident, about being on another planet. Mr. Anderson appeared to listen very closely. Jackie felt he was a shrewd businessman, but clearly not one who had gone soft over the years for owning his own corporation in Suva. He was close to the same size as Alan, and during the cleanup, showed he was just as strong. Jackie and her bandmates were enthusiastically helping to clean, as was one of the Anderson teens, Jessica. The other teen, Kaylee, whom had been the one Dmitri had brought around the ship and had a bit of a goth theme going with her outfit, was a little less eager to be involved. Mrs. Anderson was nearly useless, however. Fortunately, her husband well made up for her lack of contribution to the work with his efforts.

They kept up a running discussion about the planned exploration. The surrounding cliffs towering above the small beach by several hundred feet posed a potentially formidable challenge to getting into the interior, so they decided they would initially use the longboat up and down the coast to look for an easier route inland. They also spoke a lot about how they should continue using the wreck of the yacht for shelter as long as possible, barring storms.

They made arrangements for the girls to all sleep in the aft main bedroom. Now, cleaned up from all the smashed glass that the wreck had caused, they managed to rebuild the original four pole poster bed and they erected several rigid poles between the port bulkhead, which was now the ship's ceiling, and the still flooded starboard bulkhead. Between those poles, they fashioned hammocks for the seven women. It had two direct routes, port and starboard, to the living room/kitchen space. As the sea water would eventually be the utter ruin to everything, the passengers strung some fishing nets to serve as a temporary deck in the bedroom so that no one should track water throughout the rest of the yacht.

One deck up and a little to the rear, there originally had been used a serving bar and lounge. It had a route to the Wheelhouse. Those two spaces, were now the sleeping quarters for the men.

It was agreed by all that the portside stairway from the lounge to the bedroom would be off limits to everyone during sleeping or times for changing clothes, and it was decided that those standing watch would have the rest of the ship to patrol and keep an eye out for any dangers.

"Please, call me Fred," Fred Anderson suddenly spoke up. "This constant 'Mr. Anderson', is starting to make me sound old and rather pretentious. I'm not in my office anymore, and I don't know if I'll ever get back there. And, quite frankly, as it's been pointed out several times, we're all in the same boat. And yes, while this is my boat, I know what the saying means," he finished with a laugh.

"And Amanda, for me," Amanda Anderson added, chagrined.

The sky outside suddenly darkened, and Fred Anderson looked at his watch.

"Ah! About time!" he bellowed. "I was beginning to wonder if the sun ever was going to set!"

Jackie looked at the large wall clock on the kitchen bulkhead, and it showed it was nearly eight hours since they had buried the poor skipper.

"It'll be interesting to see what stars we've got for this world," Dmitri said, stepping through one of the open panels of the living room's ceiling and out onto the sand outside. He looked up.

"Ah, Mr.—Fred, I think you'll be wondering a bit more about when sunset is supposed to be—" he instantly said.

"Different world, remember," he said grinning as he pointed up when everyone else joined him.

Looking up, they were all amazed by the view of the sun, that had appeared to be nearly the same size as that of Earth's, was now hidden by the gigantic moon. It had gone behind the object nearly a twelfth of the way down from the upper limb. There was a bright red arc covering much of the edge of the moon.

"We'd better not look too long at that," Willy warned.

"Yeah, just like solar eclipses back on Earth, infrared can burn our retinas in next to no time," Dmitri agreed, quickly looking back down at everyone. "And I think that thing's got an atmosphere of some type, too, if that glow is any indication. This must be a double-planet. The rotation's a lot slower, a lot longer than one of our days. How long has it been since we woke up?"

"I—I'm not sure," Fred admitted.

"We must be close to just half of this planet's day," Dmitri said, glancing up. "We spent several hours going through the ship, shutting down all the switches, burying Hans, and then nearly eight hours cleaning up."

"Gathering up what food we could," Amanda spoke up, to which Dmitri nodded.

"At least ten or eleven hours, maybe more," he concluded. He glanced up again.

"This sun's a lot lower in the sky," he said after a few moments. "A lot lower than Fiji. Definitely the northern hemisphere if that way's east," he said, looking out toward where the distant shore met the horizon. "It feels about like—Southern Florida, which puts us around the mid-twenties in latitude. If the day's closer to forty to forty-four hours or more for this world, then the nights are going to get a bit chilly."

"Not to mention whatever storms might show up," Willy pointed out, to which Fred nodded.

"Or critters," Dmitri added. "We should set up some kind of watches around the clock, like we did in the military. Two or three people up to keep watch out for trouble for a few hours while the rest of us gets some sleep, and we rotate out, so no one set of people are too worn out for work."

Dmitri explained the concept of how the Navy conducted around-the-clock watches involving a group of traditional four-hour watches, with two two-hour Dog Watches thrown in, which he admitted was just plain weird and made little sense. However, given their short numbers, and the fact that everyone would be expected to be awake during the periods of the Terran day, they reworked the idea that their sleep-time security watches should be set for a steadier three-hour watch cycle that wouldn't overwork those who were needing to be awake to patrol. Dmitri, Willy, and Jackie were to take the first three-hour watch, Alan, Fred, and Kaylee Anderson would do the next, followed by Cathy, Patricia, and Amanda, and finally Sherry and Jessica would finish up the patrol. They agreed that rotations and adjustments to the combinations were very much still on the table, but that this current arrangement would do for now.

"Sleeping's going to be a lot of fun, especially if it's going to get cold at night," Willy said. "I'd like to try again to get what blankets and clothes we can from what's left of the front bedroom."

"Does anyone recognize the stars that we can see?" Dmitri asked.

No one could. Dmitri watched Willy closely as the crewman searched the sky for anything familiar. In the end, he turned and shook his head.

"Let's get up this rock and onto the ship so we can see the rest of the sky on the other side," Dmitri suggested, pointing toward the regolith that had done so much damage to the yacht's bow. "One good thing about having a big eclipse like this, we don't have to wait half of whatever year this planet has to see the stars beyond the sun." The entire group accompanied them to also have a look.

They used the rock to climb up on the port side of the overturned ship and sat to gaze out into the darkened sky.

"Remember, if we are anywhere near Earth, the constellations in the direction of home will still be there, just smaller and dimmer in the sky," Jackie heard Dmitri quietly tell Willy. "And you might have to try seeing past some brighter stars to find anything recognizable." Willy just silently nodded.

"Why is that important?" Jackie asked.

"We'll need to know which way to go in order to get back to Earth, if we can ever find and decipher the shit that brought us here," Dmitri replied. "Willy's our best chance on finding which way that is on our own. I doubt any alien tech we dig up is going to have tech manuals written in English, saying 'Earth is here.'"

"I have an eidetic memory," Willy quietly spoke up. "I remember everything I see. Everything! That's how I knew we weren't anywhere in Fiji the moment we woke up this morning. I've seen all of our islands from every angle imaginable."

"Likewise, the stars of the night sky are literally burned into his brain," Dmitri added. "So, he's our best substitute for Mr. Chekov."

"No, none of these stars, either, I'm afraid," Willy sighed after looking over the western view of the sky.

"Well, there's still the view north to search through," Dmitri said looking up at the cliffs towering above them. "Plus, the night sky once the sun sets. And don't forget whatever's still hidden behind that rock up there. Then there's however long it will take for this planet's orbit to give us a view at the stars down at the east and west horizon." Willy nodded at that.

"What's that glow up there?" Jackie asked, looking up at the moon.

"Earthshine," Dmitri and Willy spoke said simultaneously without looking.

"No, the orange glows on its face," Jackie corrected. They both looked up sharply at that.

"Cities?" Willy asked, to which Dmitri shrugged.

"They—don't—seem to be spread out like cities," he slowly muttered. "You got any binoculars?"

"Yeah," Willy replied, jumping to his feet and made his way down the length of the side until he reached the Wheelhouse. They all followed until Willy stepped down and they waited as the crewman entered by himself to search. In a short time, Willy crawled up out, holding up the binoculars for Dmitri to take and give the crewman a hand up. Then Dmitri looked through them toward the moon.

"They look like—maybe—volcanos," he finally said. "I see several smoke plumes—unless those are some seriously dirty factories they've got up there," he chuckled, handing the binoculars over to Willy to have a turn.

"I—yeah, I think you're right," Willy said. "And I think I see some fairly large seas or oceans, but they're not eating up nearly as much of the surface as they do on Earth. They're more like just globs of huge lakes, like the Caspian or Black Seas. I don't see anything that could be settlements at their edges. Those orange glows are nowhere near those seas or lakes. They're all well inland, and yeah, those look like mountains around them," he finished as he lowered the set of binoculars. He handed them to Jackie for her to have a look.

The view through the binoculars was beautiful, if a bit stark in its beauty. The overall glow from the moon made their location dim like twilight, not anywhere near as the full dark of nighttime Earth even with a full moon. She passed the set to Cathy, and eventually, everyone took turns looking up at it.

"We'd better stop," Willy warned. "That glow around the edge is the sun coming out from behind it."

"Yeah, and we've still got something like eleven hours, give or take, before sunset," Dmitri said, leading them all back toward the bow of the ship. "We're all going to have to set up to do those watches, get some rest, and plan out how we're going to tackle this world when we wake up," he said, still taking the lead to the sandy beach.

"We wake up, it's going to be the start of night!" Amanda protested.

"With a moon that big, it's not really going to be too dark to see by," Dmitri said. "That damned thing's covering at least ten times the sky that our moon does. Once the sun goes down—" he paused to do some rough calculations in his head, "at its quarter phase, it's still going to be at least fifty times brighter than a full moon back home. And it's only going to get brighter as the night progresses as it gets fuller."

"Except for the lunar eclipse," Willy suddenly cut in.

"Hmm?" Dmitri inquired.

"Solar eclipse? Double planet?" Willy asked suggestively, smirking.

"Oh, yeah," Dmitri laughed. "Yeah, that's going to get rather dark! Almost pitch black!"

The area suddenly lit up as the sun emerged from behind the huge moon, and they noted the time. After that, they were all starting to feel the effects of being up and working nonstop for the length of a full day.

Jackie knew she was just still too excited to sleep, which was why she chose to volunteer to stay up with Willy and Dmitri for the first watch. They started with a short venture back up to the Wheelhouse where Willy recovered another instrument while Fred and Alan climbed down to find their hammocks. While Dmitri stood on the hull and used the binoculars to scan the cliffs above them and both sides of the beaches, Jackie watched Willy work the instrument.

"What do you have there?" she asked him.

"An astrolabe," Willy muttered. Dmitri looked sharply at him.

"Get out of here!" he exclaimed. "Really!? You've got a fucking working astrolabe!? Shit! Look at you!" he said laughing, clearly impressed.

"Yeah," Willy laughed. "And, hey, you were spot on with that call we're in the mid-twenties. This thing says we're at twenty-six degrees, eight minutes North."

"Well, I've spent enough time in Miami. You quickly get to know just that feeling when you're looking up at the sun," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "It puts a certain—crick—back there," he laughed.

"We'd better not stay up here too long," Willy said. "This is a good way to get sunstroke."

"I hear that!" Dmitri said, wiping his brow. "I don't see any signs of life out here or up there. If anything's going to show up, it might come at us in the later hours or at night." They took shelter at the forward end of the living room so as to not talk too loudly and disturb the girls sleeping.

They talked about a wide variety of matters, places that Jackie's band had gone to perform, places that Dmitri had seen in his time in the US Navy, and areas outside Fiji that Willy had visited in his younger days and how he came to meet and join Hans in the water taxi business, and later how the Andersons bought up their boat. They also spoke about many of the shows they used to watch, and despite Jackie's interest, it was clear Dmitri and Willy had a lot more in common in their tastes.

However, after a lull developed in their conversation, Willy suddenly blurted out something.

"What about 'My Little Pony'?" he asked.

"I've—never heard of that," Jackie said, uncertainly.

"Wasn't that—some little girls' show?" Dmitri asked with a suspicious look on his face.

"I had an older sister, remember?" Willy said, sighing. "She made me watch it. ALL of it."

"And of course, you'll never be able to forget it. God, that must've been the worst, most painful, most horrendous mind-destroying moment you ever experienced," Dmitri said. Willy grinned.

"'The day you were chosen as Dragon Warrior was the worst day of my life,'" Willy quoted from Kung Fu Panda 3, even doing a fair imitation of Dustin Hoffman's voice. "'By far. Nothing else came close. It was the worst, most painful, mind-destroying, horrible moment I had ever experienced. But once I realized the problem not you, but within me, I found inner peace and was able to harness the flow of the universe.'"

"Hey! I get that reference!" Jackie exclaimed, slapping the arm of her chair.

"Actually, the show wasn't that bad," Willy stated, shrugging his shoulders. "They hired John de Lancie to do the voice for a Q-like character, named Discord."

"Wait, how is that possible?" Dmitri demanded. "Q was from The Next Generation, and that was a '90s show. I remember My Little Pony in the '70s! It was before we had remote controls and it wasn't easy to jump up and run across the room fast enough to change the channel! De Lancie is too young to have worked with Sandy Duncan back then!"

"…" Willy looked at him. "OH! You're thinking of the Generation One show! No, de Lancie was on the Generation Four version of MLP."

It was Dmitri turn to gape at him, this time.

"They had four versions of that crap on TV!?" Dmitri nearly yelled. "Who the fuck did they have to bribe to get four versions of 'My Little Pony' on the air!? And how much did they have to bribe them with!?"

"No idea," Willy admitted, shrugging. "Anyhow, as I said, the Generation Four show I watched wasn't that bad. And I saw a video on Youtube that showed de Lancie being asked about it at a Star Trek convention. He explained that the producers came to him and told him they wanted him to do Discord, and they wanted him to play the character like Q. He said it was the scripts they showed him that convinced him to go for it, because the show was presenting quality role models, good challenges and quality villains for the protagonists to go up against, and good resolutions. There were a lot of positive things he explained about the show, and because of his interview, it pulled in a lot of Trek fans—even a lot of men—over to it. Seeing that video was what convinced me to seek out a fan site, and damn, if some of the fans put out quality stuff as good as any of the Trek, Who, or other sci-fi fan sites."

"Huh—" Dmitri grunted. "Well—maybe I'll give it a shot—if we ever get back—" He looked at the clock on the wall, and it was nearly time to wake Fred, Allan, and Kaylee….