A Paradox in Retrograde (6 page)

So after a short rest despite his exhaustion he stood up and
brushed the sand from his body. He thought it best he should
begin to exercise and shake the rust from his joints. Walking
then would do him some good and he was eager to explore this
new world. He thought it best he should move now. Though
weary from the ages spent in hibernation he spent the better part
of that day then wandering about exploring the island. In the
matter of forty minutes he had encircled the whole of the island.
Then he trudged with some difficulty into the islands interior.
He managed during his wandering to find some helpful things.
Caught among the rocks at the sea's edge, there he found many
examples of rope, and netting. These he thought could make
good use of. And from the forest there were palm and other native fruits enough where he would starve later rather than sooner. He also managed to find a natural fresh water seep high in
the hills. Into a bottle he had found along the beach he collected
the murky water. He had not realized until that moment the degree to which thirst was affecting him. He raised the bottle to his
lips and drank down the water until he was full. Once satisfied he
looked out from his vantage there onto the sea. From his observations he could infer that there were no large land masses nearby.
This made finding his current location all the more critical. After
gathering together what he could carry, he returned to the beach
where his capsule had landed, tired and a bit hungry.

Having return to the spot upon the beach from where he started
he sat down to ponder his current situation. Though it was not
yet clear to him how long he would need to stay on this island, he
knew that it could not long serve his needs. For the time being
though he would need then for now to forage for a living.

Within the capsule there among a number items he found was a
note book. He found the pages blank and he thought this telling
of his future without a past. He thought it might prove prudent to
make a record of some sort. As he sat upon the beach with the
setting sun before him he began to document his first day. There
he described the scene thusly, "Day one: The tumuli of our internment are lost as I have awoken alone upon sea. I can assume
that I may be forever cut off from my kin as I am lost in both time
and space. I shall endeavor in my remaining time to tie together
what threads of this story may be remaining. As for myself I have
fared well. By sheer providence I find myself high and dry upon a
deserted atoll that appears to be part of a chain of islands. The
weather is fair and the water warm. There appears to be abundant
fresh water, plants and animals of all description. Some the likes
of which I have never before seen. When night falls I will attempt
to calculate by the stars if visible, not only my location but the
duration of my slumber." He closed the book and began preparing
for the evening."

At dusk he fought off his weariness, preparing for his night sky
observations by gathering firewood and some familiar shell fish.
He ate these with relish by the fireside. With primitive tools that
might seem familiar to mariners of any age, he watched as the
first stars and planets appeared on the horizon. As darkness fell
he was startled to see the degree to which he could visualize the
universe. The great swath of the Milky Way divided the sky in
two, as he had never seen it before. He paused there a moment
staring into those dark spaces. For a fleeting second he thought
there ought to be something there that wasn't. He put this
thought quickly out of his mind and returned to charting in his
notebook the relative locations of the planets and constellations.
Using the note book he wrote these findings. Again and again he
checked the numbers for something did not quite add up. It
would seem none of his calculations seemed to make any sense,
this he found troubling. His results based on the current positions of the stars showed that his location relative to them put
him thousands of kilometers from his last known position. He
realized if he made the assumption that his current position had
not radically changed from his previous one, the positions of the
stars would then indicate he had been adrift in time for more
than twelve thousand years. This realization of the implausible
left him stunned. How could it be possible that against all odds
or by some strange twist of fate he had survived? Sitting alone
on the beach bathed in the starlight and the ocean breeze he
checked and double-checked his findings. He was forced then
to accept against his will, the facts as they presented themselves.
He questioned himself, "however would I make it alone in a
strange world of which I know nothing?" And of his family,
what had become of them? They were surely all gone now. How
would he communicate with the survivors and in what primitive
state would their culture be in? The world from which he came
was one of turmoil and strife, devastated by the powers of a
seething Earth and beset by missiles from space. There were only several thousand left of the once thriving human race when he
began his journey. He had long ago missed the rendezvous and
now he wondered what could be left.

Staring into a fire he had built from the sea drifting wood, he
watched mesmerized as the pillar of smoke welled high up into
the night sky. The sounds of crashing waves and of crackling
embers created a symphony as he stared into the rising plume.
Suddenly into his field of vision flew a craft of unknown design.
His ears now were full with an obnoxious sound of its motor. He
could feel its base rumble in the pit of his stomach as the craft
passed speedily overhead. He abruptly stood and ran off into the
direction of the trailing lights of the speeding craft. He followed
it, running and waving his arms, along the ring of the beach until
he ran out of land. He stood there, hyperventilating, knee deep
in water and watching its taillights blink until they disappeared
into the distance. Glowing there at the edge of the horizon were
the telltale lights of civilization casting its illumination far out to
sea. From his belt he removed his binoculars as to estimate their
distance. With careful observation he correctly assumed the lights
to be of a medium sized coastal town perhaps thirty kilometers to
the west. He determined now he would have to make the journey
across the water. Returning to his capsule he spent the night looking up into the stars until he fell asleep dreaming for the first time
in millennia.

As morning arrived he wasted little time and began to cannibalize
the capsule. It was then he noticed something he had not before
seen. In contrast there upon the sarcophagus under a heavy patina
lay in gold inlay a set of symbols. He reached out his hand and
traced with his finger over the surface of the script. As his fingers
moved the sounds these symbols represented rang in his latent
mind a distant chord, both familiar and mysterious. He could not
tell for sure what strange meaning was held there, for he spoke
the words that formed in his mouth "Hector the King." He shook
his head in denial while turning away from that which he had no
capacity to remember.

With a renewed sense of urgency he removed from the capsule
the metallic cloth which was used to raise the capsule. From it he
began fashioning a rudimentary sail to hang from a make shift
mast that he lashed to the capsule. He did not bother with supplies for he thought with luck it would take a day at most to sail
across the portion of sea that separated him from those distant
lights. With his preparations complete and without much ado, he
pushed the dark capsule back into the blue surf and pushed off
from the beach with an oar he carved from a bambootrunk.

The sea was mild and the warm breeze ruffled the sun lit fabric as
the tiny craft plied the gently rocking waves. Sheltered from the
sun beneath the fronds of palm he rowed out into the open sea in
hopes of catching a favorable wind. Before long his sail had
caught the westward wind. Our traveler watched as the day grew
older and the outlines of the distant city grew more distinct on the
horizon. By the early evening before him the great body of the
sun sat heavily over the lands of the western islands. As the sunlight faded he took a moment to write another note in his journal,
"Day two: I have in my makeshift raft reached overthe horizon to
the city on the far side of this expanse. I know not if I will find
there descendants of our experiment, or a rabble of pirates. I
have little choice but to assume this is my best chance at finding
the truth."

To those who witnessed this image from the shore, the visage
of the golden sail shining like a mirrored orb afloat upon the
placid sea, were much impressed. The craft was still some distance off the shore as the sun was swallowed into the horizon.
He grew chilled in the darkness as the cool night air caressed his
sun burned skin. From exhaustion he drifted once again into
unconsciousness. After an interminable time he was jarred
awake by the shock of an abrupt landfall. His craft had run
aground upon a course of white sand. Still groggy from his long
ordeal and exposure, laden in his somnambulist's armor, he
stepped reluctantly into the tepid water. Leaving behind his
makeshift craft he walked up the slope of the beach. There he
stood in amazement, as he looked at the strange angularity to the
architecture shining in the moonlight. This sparkling city stood
just beyond the clutch of forest that bordered the beach. Using a
strong bow from a severed mangrove root at the crest of the
beach he twisted there into the sand a flag garnished with a
swath of blue cloth. Fluttering in the breeze the makeshift flag
danced. In a symbolic gesture he said with a laugh, "I claim this
land in peace for all of humanity." Having said his piece, he fell
to the ground giddy with exhaustion. The rigors of exposure
and of his labors brought him to sleep where he lay.

There he slept for untold hours until as morning approached a
child with a gentle shake awakened him. He stood abruptly startled in confused response. "Ah huh what!" he said in a language
the boy could not comprehend. The child stood his ground and
with a gesture beckoned the stranger to follow him. He stood
brushing the sand from his armor and began to make his way up
from the beach and onto the ancient walk way that rose from the
sea into town. He ascended a stairway made of a well-worn alabaster until he had reached the start of a broad avenue. It rose up
toward a highpoint on which at its apex stood a citadel with a
tall tower. His gaze was illuminated along its length by lines of
light reflecting panels. Above the street level on either side of
the avenue stood all manner of building some whosestyles
seemed vaguely familiar while still others appeared strange.
There were also people there. This land he concluded seemed
wholly unfamiliar as did the people he saw there both in manner
of language and dress. He thought it likely that to them he too
looked equally strange. As he walked along with trepidation, a
crowd of the curious began to form around him. As the crowd
swelled he sensed he was being ushered onward toward an agora
or central square.

He found himself after sometime within the gates of the citadel.
There a sea of people meandered about dressed in every imagined
color, adorned with strange motifs and symbols. The imagery
although intriguing held little meaning to him. At the center of
the square stood a temple like structure atop whose stone stairway
there appeared a contingent of dignitaries. He based this observation upon the relative fineness and ornate quality to their garments compared to the others. This assumption though presumptuous was nonetheless correct.

Once they had reached what appeared to be the stairs to a temple,
the people there began speaking. From this strange barrage of
voices there he could not find one word of understanding. In frustration he gestured for them to stop with his open hand, to which
they seemed to understand. During this pause he reached into his
shoulder bag and removed a small electronic device. He pinned
this device to his chest and turned it on. He gestured again for
them to begin again to speak. As they did the small but powerful
device sifted their voices through a pattern analyzer. Within a few
moments the traveler then began to hear their voices in something
akin to his own language. Activating in mid-sentence the first
words he heard were, "Visitor from what strange land have you
sailed? The spectacle of your golden sail was like none I have
ever seen." His translator having broken the language code processed the vocal signal sensed in his throat and translated it automatically in a language they could understand. "Good day gentlemen and ladies I am Ananda. I apologize for being perhaps a bit
vague but due to discrepancies in my equipment it is difficult for
me to determine how long or how far I have traveled. However I
am left with two equally compelling conclusions based on the
information available to me. Either I have sailed far from my
home or I have been lost to time, perhaps for manycenturies."
"From what land did you first depart?" asked one of the robed

figures. To which he responded, "I come from a land west of the
Pillars of Hercules, a land called Atlantia. Have you heard of
it?" They responded with only blank stares. "What of the lands
of Isis, or the lands of the polar seas?" No one among them
seemed to recognize these odd sounding names. After a moment
he began to realize that the world from which he came was truly
unknown to these people. He again began to speak, "To what
land have I come?" One of the apparent elders answered, "I am
Grunhuf, Lord Mayor and a member of the governing body. It
is for us an honor to show a traveler as yourself hospitality while
you remain as our guest here now in the great nation of Baldur.
Our people as is our tradition have been here since the great
flood many thousands of years ago." His words though clear did
little to inform him of his whereabouts, and so he posed the
question again. "Has not one of you heard of my land of Atlantia? From that land of which I speak, many years ago I was set
adrift in time and the sea. We as princes of our lands would ride
out the long winter that had befallen us. Having been plagued,
we had survived the ravages of flood, storm, earthquake and
fire, despite our technology. In the end we found ourselves burdened by all manner of ills until we determined that we could no
longer sustain our own survival." One of the gentlemen spoke to
him, "I for one, have not heard of the strange names of these
lands, nor of any equivalent catastrophe as of which you speak,
save for the flood." Statements such as this left him troubled.
"The city state of Atlantia was the greatest on the continent,
"surely you must have heard of it", he said to them. In response
he received only confused unknowing stares. It then dawned on
him they should have some form of knowledge repository or
historical database from which he could discover his location.
So he asked, "Do you have a library or other such depository? If
so I would request an opportunity to peruse these documents for
any historical clues. Would that be possible?“ One of the Ladies
there stepped forth in response and spoke to him. "Good day sir.
My name is Xora, and I am the keeper of the books. Though I
doubt you will find what you are looking for there is a resource
to which might answer your questions." She raised her hand and
pointed towards the tower beyond. "There upon within the temple complex stands this repository that you speak of." Those
there recognized his keen interest for which this possibility held
for him. Grunhuf then made an unusual suggestion. Lady Xora, It
would appear he is much interested in this wonder of your’s.
When would it be possible for our guest to be availed to an audience with the crystal room? Though Xora was taken off guard by
the suggestion, she was none the less intrigued by his arrival.
There was something about his appearance. She wanted to know
more. After a moment she said, "The request is highly unusual,
but so is your appearance here among us. We can go now, if you
like." Ananda gladly accepted her invitation and thanked her for
her hospitality. Xora then beckoned him to follow.