WEB EXCLUSIVE

Liam sat at the captain’s seat in the bridge, groaning as Yellow Submarine played for the four hundredth time. Some CD carrier must have been jammed, and wouldn’t stop repeating the same song. Akane sat at his side in a co-pilot’s seat, flicking through the ship’s operating manual, occasionally requesting a translation for one part or another. James, their newfound companion, was on the task of locating and relocating resources such as loose electronics and cables from cabins and rooms to the bridge. The intention was to find a way to call out on a phone, but first they had to be able to recover one of the devices from the EMP wave that had accompanied the initial explosions.

Akane signaled an “ok”, then left out the back door to on another one of her mysterious endeavors. Liam sighed and turned his eyes back to the placid waters, choked with fish bodies and seaweed upset by the explosion. He sadly turned his thoughts to his family, whom he realized were almost certainly dead. Tears snuck down his cheeks as he leaned back in the seat. Perhaps, if luck was with him at all, his dad had survived. He was probably out to sea at the time, a long way from shore on a patrol or a job. Perhaps the Americans had seen the launch. Perhaps his dad and the rest of the navy had scrambled to safety. He had to hope for something.

Just then, Akane returned with a beaming expression, the ship manual, and an English-to-Japanese translation pamphlet.

“Talk now!”  She chuckled, and tossed it to him. On the cover, it read: “Blue Ocean Cruise Lines Complementary Translation Guide.” He flicked it open and started to look through. What was something he could say to test if it was a good translator?

“Anata… ga rikai shite…” Liam struggled with the odd pronunciations, “ireba unazukimasu.” Liam had hoped to say “nod if you understand”, and looked hesitantly at Akane. She smiled back and nodded. She took the book back, and started flicking through it as well.

“Nod if you… understand.” Akane laughed and looked at Liam, who was now also grinning. Akane sat down in the co-pilot’s seat again and started to read the translations.

“Some kind of party I missed?” James remarked as he walked into the room with the day’s lunch. The two turned and started laughing like crazed hyenas as James looked on helplessly.

“What?” Soon he was laughing as well. They all took their time to recover, still chuckling as James laid out at least ten phones and a similar number of charging cables, auxiliary cords, and a mess of other wires.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do with it, but there you go.” James sighed as he sat alongside them in a chair he grabbed from just behind himself. Akane started immediately, plugging the phones into their chargers and those into whatever outlets she could find. They sat, talking to each other over a bowl of soup they had found already prepared. As they spoke, the phones began to ding as they recharged and came back on. They laughed, and began to walk around, checking any of them for calls, for cellular connection, anything that might be useful. As they were finishing their search, Akane and Liam sat back down in the bridge waiting for their third.

“This one has signal!” James suddenly shouted from the farthest phone. Liam jumped up and noticed that oddly, they all now did. Akane grabbed one and rushed it to the controls of the bridge, and, using one of the auxiliary chords, plugged it in. With the volume low, she turned on the phone. Immediately, a call came in and answered itself, a low voice speaking rapidly through the speakers.

“Radio outcast,” Akane said quietly.

“I think she meant broadcast, but who from?” Liam whispered to James.

“I think she does.” James replied, motioning to Akane, who had her ear pressed to the control board, listening. Her face turned pale.

“Japan.” She croaked, the confused eyes of the other two on her.

“At war.”