The Emperor's Men 7: Rising Sun. Dirk van den Boom

blinked. No, the darkness was real, it wasn’t his eyes, as far as he could tell. He tried to ignore the throbbing pain in his skull, fought the burgeoning exhaustion, the recurring urge to close his eyelids and just have a little …

      What had happened?

      Aritomo lacked any memory. Unconsciousness, probably due to carbon dioxide poisoning, he remembered. But after that? How long had he passed out? What about the boat and its crew? And why did the air smell fresh, as if it had never …?

      He felt around. The wall wasn’t smooth, his hands slid over instruments, screws, then his fingertips reached a small box. In his mind, Aritomo saw what it could be … With luck …

      He slipped sideways. Apart from the obvious head injury, he seemed to be fine, and the pain, with him giving his attention to new activity, gave way to a dull throb. It was hopefully nothing worse. But he needed light to find out – and other survivors.

      He heard a moan, not far from him.

      Aritomo was relieved, more than he wanted to admit. He wasn’t alone.

      “This is Second Lieutenant Hara!” he said aloud. “Has anyone awakened? Speak if you can!”

      “Ishida here, Lieutenant,” he heard a strained voice. Ishida was one of the men deployed in the control room. He was responsible for blowing and balancing the tanks. A short, stocky man with wide-set eyes, the target of good-natured mockery, which he always stuck away with a smile.

      “Ishida, are you hurt?” Aritomo asked.

      “No, sir, I do not think so. I was flung out of my seat and came to rest on the ground, but apart from a few bruises, I’m fine. Someone is lying on me, though. What should I do?”

      “Stay where you are … I believe … ah!”

      Aritomo had opened the box, his fingers were searching through the contents and quickly found what he was looking for: the flashlight.

      It wouldn’t last long. The batteries were weak. They had to act fast.

      The pale light illuminated the surroundings, as he turned it on. He saw that the boat was indeed crooked sideways. The ballast was not balanced. The stern was lower than the bow. The men in the control room had slipped backwards once overwhelmed by unconsciousness.

      “Ishida!”

      The man moved, half buried. The man on top of him was the motionless captain.

      “Free yourself carefully. To the engine room. The electric motors. We have to get them working. Raise Sarukazaki if he doesn’t move yet. Take one of the other emergency lights.”

      “Immediately, sir.”

      Aritomo saw the man get up a little unsteady and shone his way to access another emergency light. Once Ishida was able to orient himself, Aritomo moved out of his lying position and struggled uphill toward the main controls. He needed to know how deep the boat was.

      Other men moaned. Everyone seemed to wake up gradually. He didn’t care about it anymore. His eyes fell on the Prince, who had slumped in a corner, but seemed to be unharmed. He breathed. Good news.

      Aritomo reached the depth gauge and illuminated the numbers with the lamp. He wiped his eyes, winked. Then he tapped the instrument with his knuckle, first weaker, then a little stronger.

      Nothing happened. The numbers remained unchanged. She stood at zero. The boat was therefore no longer under water, it had to be on the surface. He remembered now. Before he was unconscious, he had felt the boat breaking through the water. But why was the position of the vessel so awkward? There had to be something wrong with the ballast. But after all, they were apparently not trapped under water.

      Or was the depth gauge broken?

      Aritomo continued to observe the instruments, decided to try the periscope. At that moment, a sudden humming filled the ship, and the lights went on again. In the engine room, someone had obviously been successful to re-energize the electric motors. Men scrambled up everywhere. The Prince blinked as well, as one of his bodyguards bent over him with a worried expression.

      Aritomo raised the periscope and looked through.

      Yes, they were definitely not under water anymore. He stared into a cloudless blue sky. The weather must have improved rapidly, really in no time. It was difficult for him to turn the periscope and at the same time stay firmly on his feet, but nevertheless he began a slow 360-degree turn.

      First there was only more sky.

      Then there were …

      Trees.

      Buildings.

      Very strange buildings.

      And then people. Many people who somehow looked up to him.

      People with brown skin and usually dressed in very colorful robes.

      He had never seen anything like it.

      This wasn’t Japan.

      The boat wasn’t in the water, actually nowhere near any ocean.

      This was … nowhere.

      Aritomo’s head tilted back. He looked into the void for a moment, trying to sort out the impressions, to understand. No sea at all. The boat rested on something … evidently an elevation, because the view down to the staring people went far, surely close to twenty meters. And the boat rested unevenly so the periscope’s angle was tilted.

      Aritomo looked again, just to be sure. No hallucination. People who mingle around excitedly. Men with spears and shields who began to instill a degree of order. Excitement. Fear.

      How did that happen? Was he still unconscious, numbed by his head injury, which now caused him delusions? No.

      He felt a movement beside him. The Captain had moved toward him and was apparently unhurt. He was struggling, but the fact that his first officer was already at the periscope distracted him from his own shock, reminding him of his duty.

      “And? Our position?”

      Aritomo turned the eyepiece of the periscope in his direction. “Please see for yourself, Captain. I can’t explain.”

      Inugami gave his first officer a questioning look but didn’t say anything further and took the periscope. He also didn’t say anything when he looked through it. He remained silent as he turned away from the eyepiece. He looked pale. Then he let go and looked around, saw Sawada, the teacher. He was the man closest of being a scholar.

      “Mr. Sawada, if you would just look through this? Maybe you can make sense of it,” Inugami said politely. The older man, who had taken care of the somewhat confused Prince, nodded. Aritomo and his superior watched intently as the man completed his observation.

      Then he took a step back and shook his head. He also looked confused and scared, but his voice was firm as he spoke.

      “I …” he began hesitantly. “I’m not sure I can really make sense of it, gentlemen, but I know pretty well what the periscope shows us.”

      “What?” Aritomo and Inugami asked in unison.

      “It can’t be. It’s impossible in many ways, and I have to be deceived by my mind.”

      “Pyramids. Big stone buildings. Dense forests and many people, warriors with spears, all with brown skin and many full of fear and confusion,” Aritomo summed his impression up.

      Inugami nodded. “If that’s a delusion, then I’m its victim, too.”

      Sawada looked at them both. “Me too. So I see what I see. It can’t be.”

      “Speak, Sawada!” Inugami ordered.

      “I saw drawings in an older work from our library – from the book of an American named John Lloyd Stephens. In it, he laid down his exploration of Central American jungle areas and had it illustrated by a talented draftsman. I have read this book a long time ago, but as far