The End of the Beginning

“Where are we going, Poppy?” I asked.

“Someplace safe, Will,” he said with forced strength...

“Captain, wake up, we’re almost there,” Roger said, shaking William. “Captain! Wake up.”

William opened his eyes to a bright blue ocean only a few hundred feet below, moving swiftly by.

“Are we there?” he groaned, sitting up.

“Yeah, almost. We’re approaching the coast of Florida. We’ve arranged to do a flyby of the base so you can see it properly.” A large piercing white ship with what looked like a kite attached at its bow came into view below. William could see it had the UNIRO seal on its hull.

“One of yours,” said William to Roger, pointing below.

Roger looked and said, “Yeah, that’s Phoenix 25.”

The pilots told everyone to prepare to descend. Then they engaged in the usual pilot babble.

“This is Phoenix 1-2 calling Tranquility Tower.”

“Tranquility Tower, Phoenix 1-2. We have you on radar. Descend to 400 feet and continue on your present course. Once flyby is completed, use landing pad zero-four.” “Understood, Tranquility. We are passing outer beacon buoy now, seven miles out. We’ll be over the seawall in three minutes. Base computer is synchronizing. Bring us on home.” William heard all this and looked back to Roger and said, “Tranquility. What is that?”

“Tranquility is the name of the base,” Roger replied, moving with Andrew over to where William was sitting, each taking their own row and window seat.

“You’re on the side you’ll want to be on,” said Andrew from behind Roger, who was behind William. “Any second now.”

William turned so that his entire body was facing the window. He anxiously awaited the site of the base; his nose pressed against the glass. A few small ice crystals were on the other side of the window. As William watched them, they began to melt with the warming air. Air streamed past the airframe across the engines and the stationary disk above. William looked down at the ocean as his ears popped. It was clean and had only a light chop across its surface. A bright sun was to their south, high in the Florida sky. The last time he could remember seeing the ocean, he had just landed in San Diego from Hawaii after the war.

William felt like a child. Having been closed off in a shell of solitude for years, he had forgotten the world and its many simple gifts. Things seemed brighter and warmer and it wasn’t just the clear day. William was about to undertake an adventure much like that of colonizers of old, not to discover a new land but a new life. The sails had been set and his course laid out in front of him. All he had to do was find the wind.

A dolphin jumped from the waters below, a few more of the pod followed in its wake. From the air, the playful group looked like an aerial battle. Their wakes looked like contrails and their splashes like explosions, intertwining in a display of aquatic precision. Roger suddenly pointed.

“There it is, look. Home.”

William looked to the west and then saw it.