airplane took off and reminded Jack of the life he once knew back on earth. It filled him with a sense of sorrow for a world now gone, but also with excitement about discovering a brand new world.
He didn’t know what to say to Alicia and the brief trip was filled with awkward smiles and chuckles of a married couple trying to work things out. There were no windows, so he couldn’t even glance out the window when he felt a bit uneasy, so he fidgeted with his fingers like Timmy always does when he’s nervous.
The trip only lasted about three or four minutes before the carriage came to a halt and the door opened again. Sunlight flooded the interior and when Jack stepped out onto the lush lawn he glanced at their surroundings; trying to figure out where they were and why he couldn’t see the castle anymore. He shielded his eyes from the sun as he glanced up at the massive geyser on the opposite side of the lake that lay at his feet. The geyser’s intermittent discharge of thousands of gallons of water created steam that crept over the lake like the last breath of the dead. The water stream that erupted and spurted reached high up into the sky and the tip disappeared beyond the clouds. A restaurant was situated on a small island in the middle of the lake with the steam of the geyser creating a vague rainbow behind it.
He turned to Alicia in amazement and it was only then that he noticed that the carriage was parked right at the edge of a cliff – though she hardly seemed rattled about it, so he walked closer and glanced over the edge. They were on a landmass roughly the size of an island that hovered about ten feet above an ocean with enough space between for dolphin-like creatures to jump and play.
“We’re about a thousand miles from the castle.” She said as she stepped out, “Everything travels by means of light-worm tunnels – it’s much faster and with such a big planet, you need to travel fast.”
“This is amazing.” He was flabbergasted.
A group of brightly coloured butterflies with long tailing wings flew by. One of them hovered a few feet away from his face and he inspected the majestic beauty of the creature that was the size of a sparrow; not only did it glow, but it seemed as if the tips of its feathers were encrusted in little diamonds.
He reached out to touch it, but the creature fluttered away and joined the rest of the group before disappearing into the clouds above.
“This is my favourite restaurant.” She said, “It’s far away from the buzz of Lagoon City and surrounded by the beauty of nature... and they make a killer cappuccino.”
Coffee was something he was sure he’d never taste again – never mind a cappuccino. To him it was a luxury that died long ago and he had almost forgotten what it smelled like along with so many other things he took for granted back on earth; the smell of freshly mowed grass, the feel of a warm towel after a bath, the texture of chocolate-crumb cake and even what air-conditioning felt like on a warm summer’s day.
She led him to the edge of the lake where black cobblestones led to the restaurant about twenty yards out. At first glance, it appeared to him as if large stones were submerged, but on closer inspection it was evident that they hovered just above the water’s surface like the landmass they were on.
A hostess waited in the foyer and led them to a table for two right next to the glass wall facing the massive geyser in all its splendour. Jack stared out the window at the majestic sight in amazement as he sat down. Despite the water turbulently spurting up towards the heavens, he spotted yellow-coloured fish swimming around inside the water without being dragged up and away by the ferocity of the geyser.
“Your waiter will be with you shortly.” The hostess excused herself.
“Hard to believe this island was uninhabited ten years ago.” Alicia told Jack.
He turned away from the stunning view outside the window and smiled at her.
“It’s hard to believe anything I’ve seen so far.”
“I know it’s a shock, but progress is inevitable. Ten years before the Wright Brothers invented the airplane, the idea was alien and seemed impossible and less than a hundred years later thousands of airplanes flew around the world every year. You’ll be surprised at what we accomplished here on this planet in the last century. We even invented a way back.”
“A way back?” Jack was stunned.
“You see the problem with light-worms is that they are bound to this planet, so we couldn’t use them for interstellar travel and our top scientists tried for nearly a century to figure out how to make the device work that brought us here. About three decades ago Professor Bertrim figured out a way back to earth. They combined the energy of the light-worms with an artificial black hole to form a wormhole that pierced through the fabric in space.”
“So it worked?”
“It still works.” She agreed, “But there’s nothing to go back to. Earth is known as a waterworld... it consists entirely of one supermassive ocean. There are no landmasses left and is virtually uninhabitable. Even after three centuries, evolution hasn’t quite taken place yet.”
A waiter came by and took their order of two cappuccinos and left again just as swiftly as he arrived.
“So interstellar travel is possible?” Jack enquired.
“Yes. I regularly go vacation on the Forest Moon of Nebula.”
Jack nodded in agreement, but had no idea what the Forest Moon of Nebula was. He was still getting used to the marvels of this world and would need some time to let everything sink in before he could start to fathom interstellar travel to distant planets purely for a vacation.
“I hate to ask the obvious question... did we make contact with other life-forms?”
The smile faded from her face and she shifted uneasily in her seat, “We did. We made contact with the Luftas Race about two decades ago. They only know violence, death and destruction. Our exploration team lost one of their team members, but they were lucky enough to escape.”
Jack had a hard time processing everything, but he wanted to know everything there was to know about the galaxy he found himself in – even about any possible threats.
“Don’t worry.” She assured him, “They are light-years away and don’t have the technology to master interstellar travel. Our planet is the safest place in the universe.”
Easy for her to say that, he thought, she wasn’t nearly eaten three times by creatures on this planet.
The waiter brought the cappuccinos and the aroma tugged at his senses like a lost love and Jack couldn’t contain his craving to taste the decadency of something he had forgotten. It tasted better than any coffee or cappuccino he ever had back on earth and the taste bordered on addiction.
“Oh my God...” He groaned in delight.
“Tell me this isn’t the best cappuccino ever?”
“There’s no denying that.”
She chuckled and then hesitated to ask a burning question, “When can I see Timmy.”
He wanted to reunite his family, but wasn’t sure whether uprooting Timmy’s life was the best thing at the moment. He as adult had difficulties grasping the fact that time left them behind in the canyon and Timmy would surely not understand it.
“How do I introduce him to this world?” Jack gestured at everything around him.
“Children adapt the easiest.”
“Not when they’ve seen the worst this planet has to offer.”
She took a sip of her cappuccino and uttered, “I wish we found you earlier.”
If they found Jack’s village sooner it might’ve been easier on everyone, but now a world of differences spanning three centuries divided them. There was so much of this world that they still needed to discover.
While a long silence befell the table, Jack remembered the startling creatures that dragged them to the fiery concentration camp.
“What happened to those flaming monsters? The flying ones? Please tell me they died of extinction.”
“They’re actually a big part of our air force.” She said, “We haven’t seen any wars, but ever since we encountered the Luftas Race, I gave the order that an air force be set
up and trained. We are a great nation spanning most corners of this massive planet and we can’t be left defenceless. Should someone try to attack the planet of Eljavic we’ll be ready.”
The table rumbled a bit, but she assured him that it was nothing to be worried about, “It’s normal with floating islands. The light tremors—”
The building shook with more ferocity and the geyser was engulfed by a massive shadow as the rumbling quieted down. Some of the patrons hiding beneath their tables slowly came out when the shaking stopped.
“What was that?” Jack asked, “Is that normal?”
Someone yelled outside the restaurant and Alicia jumped up as her leadership instincts kicked in. Jack hesitated as she ran out, but then ran out after her. When he got outside, Jack stopped dead in his tracks; a massive space vessel about ten miles wide hovered about half a mile above them as it descended through the clouds. The foreboding vessel cast a menacing shadow that consumed the entire island and most of the ocean.
“What is it?” Jack asked.
It took Alicia only a few seconds to realize what they were looking at, “It’s the Luftas.”
“I thought they didn’t have the technology for interstellar travel?”
“So did I.”
COMING IN 2016 & 2017:
Age of Men: Titan
Age of Men: The Invasion of Eljavic
“Like” the official Age of Men Facebook page for updates about what the future holds for the people of Eljavic.
Official Age of Men Facebook Page
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends