GOD of a man

“It’s hard to destroy someone’s faith and even harder to restore it.”

Chapter Eleven: You are a brave girl!
Dated: 9th August, 2425

It’s not that man never questioned his belief in GOD. In fact renaissance represented the epitome of conflict between faith and science, a dark era written in human blood as a script for a brighter future. And what a bright future it was indeed. In three glorious centuries that unfolded after that hard phase, man rewrote entire human history, sociology, geography and psychology with much more human blood, thanks to the advances science made. But it won’t be appropriate to point an accusing finger at science for the sins against humanity that were committed by men governed by the dictates of their own greed, selfish interests and scant respect for human dignity or morals. Money and power became so important, the essence of freedom renaissance provided the mankind that was earlier perfectly cocooned in a shell of superstitions in the garb of religion, was effectively lost among the pages of history. What Henry did nearly three hundred years ago was just the climax of a battle that started somewhere in medieval times. He killed GOD, or so everyone believed.

“Since that day, praying to GOD in any form was completely banned for the humans, every mention of the word GOD was removed from the daily conversation. Religions were banished. Henry instructed everyone, if they need to use someone’s name for the sake of a phrase, they use his. So we have phrases like; Henry helps those who help themselves, for Henry’s sake, etc.” Steve told Clara and Nakata the story about GOD and his last men.

“So how come we never knew of GOD before whereas you people know it?” Nakata asked.

“It was decided by the elders that since GOD and religion are very powerful subjects, their truth better be taught to everyone only after they have mentally matured enough to realize there is no GOD and all the religions were hypothetical creations of our ancestors to rein in men within the purview of ethical conduct as also to exercise control over those who were illiterate,” Robin replied.

“Perhaps your mother and father, and in Clara’s case, even Frank thought you were not mentally ready to be told the truth,” Steve added.

“Wow! That’s some kind of a story. What intrigue, what treachery,” Clara giggled.

“Anyway, it’s getting late in the evening now. Robin, you better get some sleep now as you will be staying awake and at the wheel all night,” Steve continued, “Nakata, we’ll read the diary latter. You, Daniel and Andy better catch some fish now for everyone cause our frozen meat has started to get bad, perhaps because we are at sea.”

“I’ll get the radio-activity readings before I go to bed,” Robin replied as he got up and grabbed the apparatus and headed out to the deck while the other three grabbed a fishing rod each and headed on to the deck for fishing.

As Robin set up the apparatus to check the readings, the others were busy setting their tackles and rods, Steve stood by the wheel in the wheel house as Clara slowly walked past him and stood right next to the control board with her hands turned around to rest her weight on the palms supported on the edge of the board.

“How long do you reckon it will be before we’ll see the first landmass?” she asked.

Steve looked at her standing over there, his eyes prying on her frame from top to bottom. He locked the wheel in the lock and slowly moved behind her and he sandwiched her body between his and control board. He planted a soft kiss on her neck, while his hands grabbed at her hands resting on the control board as he pushed his body hard against her back, “I don’t know!”

“You should be careful with what you do now. You’ve already rubbed Robin the wrong way and the other two guys are not too impressed by your influence especially when you have dragged them along. Anymore controversy will not be politically good for you once we return to Hatsu Saisho,” Clara reminded him of their company.

“Who will know our little secret,” Steve was unconcerned as he tried to crush her body between him and control table. She turned around and as she turned around Steve grabbed her and lifted her on to the control board and they began to kiss wildly as Steve’s hands navigated her controls.

“We forgot to take the bait,” Nakata’s words were cut short as he entered the wheel house and was taken aback by the sight of Clara holding Steve in between her fours and the two lost in a different time and space. They were themselves scared to their bones having been caught in the act. Nakata silently turned around and was about to leave when Steve said, “Use some penguin meat as bait.” Meanwhile Clara, her face flushed pale walked out of the wheel house and strolled to a corner on the deck trying to avoid eye contact with the other three men on the deck. Luckily for her, they didn’t notice her come. They were lost in their own discussion.

“We are with you Robin. Once we get back, we are going to make sure Steve is punished for threatening you,” Andy was saying.

“How dare he bring a gun along with him? He can potentially kill someone in a fit of rage,” Daniel was also busy placing his loyalties with Robin.

“We’ll deal with him once we get back,” Robin said and before he could say anything further, he noticed Clara and motioned the guys to cut the conversation out.

“Here guys, here’s some Penguin meat to use as bait,” Nakata came out and as he walked past Clara, he looked at her and as she hesitatingly looked at him, he quickly turned his head downwards as if he was ashamed of having caught them in the act. He was more embarrassed and pale then Clara.

“What happened to you? Why are you pale?” Robin asked Nakata.

“Oh nothing, it’s just the chill in the breeze,” Nakata replied as nobody inquired any further as no one was expecting anything.

Clara tried to walk away and back to the wheel house but then decided against doing it as she was still in a shock and her heart was pounding fast. She moved further away from the group into a corner. They boys baited their fishing rods with penguin meat and dropped them into sea to catch some fish. There were plenty around, confirming the radio activity levels were well within the survival limits for living organisms, a fact confirmed by Robin’s apparatus. Robin went back inside and went to take his nap while Steve manned the wheel.

The boys didn’t have to wait long before they caught the first fish and as they were celebrating their first catch on the seas Steve locked the wheel and came outside to have a look.

Their joyful celebrations were rudely interrupted by a big shock. They all nearly fell to the floor. It was as if something has hit their boat.

“What the hell was that?” Steve exclaimed. And once again something hit the boat and gave it another jerk.

“What’s happening?” Robin rushed outside, “Steve what are you doing, why are you not manning the wheel? What have we hit?” Robin was nearly pale with fear, panicky and hyper.

“Wait! I hear something,” Steve said.

“What, a sinking ship?” Robin was scared to death.

“Listen carefully! I hear a voice,” Steve said again.

“Help!” the cries became louder.

“That’s Clara’s voice where is she?” now everybody panicked as they rushed in the direction of the voice and realized the impact had toppled Clara off-board and into the sea. The worst thing was, she wasn’t alone. Their boat had been assaulted by a group of hungry sharks as they clamoured to grab the penguin meat they were using as bait. The sharks wanted more and Clara had fallen straight into their dish.

“Steve!” everyone cried out in unison as they turned around towards Steve but Steve was no where to be seen.

“Where is this man when you need him,” Robin was infuriated. They were getting away from Clara while sharks were rushing towards her.

“What’s that sound?” Andy asked.

“That’s the motor boat,” Nakata replied as everyone rushed to the other end to see Steve rushing at the earnest in the motor-boat, gun held between his legs as he loaded ammunition bullet by bullet with one hand and manoeuvred the boat with the other.

“Bang, bang!” in a flash he was firing bullets as he approached the drowning Clara. No one counted how many shots he fired and how many sharks he hit but as he neared Clara and stretched out his arm and nearly grabbed her hand, she was pounced on by one that evaded Steve’s bullets.

The shark thrust it’s teeth deep into Clara’s stomach and back, and pulled her below the water as Steve took aim trying to avoid Clara and pulled the trigger.

“Damn it!” Steve’s gun had run out of bullets and he had none left on him on his motor boat.

There was no time to be wasted. He quickly turned the motor off, threw the rope attached to the motor boat into water, grabbed his hunting knife and jumped into the slightly warmer water than the Antarctic seas. He took a deep breath as he followed the shark dragging Clara down as she struggled with her last few breaths. Steve didn’t waste much time as he slashed open the sharks stomach as the shark with it’s mouth grasping Clara was too busy to defend itself quickly enough. Steve grabbed Clara’s hand, pulled her towards him, locked her between his legs, grabbed the rope and quickly climbed out of the water and into the boat. Clara had fainted by that time, perhaps because of water inside her body, and she was bleeding from the wounds inflicted on her by the shark.

Steve quickly headed back to the boat where Clara was pulled on board by others and as Steve secured the motor boat to the main boat, they turned Clara on her stomach and pressed the water out of her body. She finally regained consciousness but was immediately overpowered by the immense pain of the fresh bleeding wound inflicted on her by the shark and it’s effect aggravated by the sea salt that now contaminated her wound. They took her inside.

“Hold on Clara, you’ll be alright,” Nakata nearly cried.

“She’s bleeding, we need to stich her cuts up,” Steve replied.

“First make sure there’s nothing sticking inside the wounds,” Clara managed a few words out of her intense pain.

They had no painkillers to relieve her pain in the first place and now they needed to stitch her up with a needle as well.

Steve asked the other guys to leave the room, requesting Nakata to stay by his side as he had to take Clara’s clothes off to examine and stitch her wound. Clara was nearly screaming with pain.

“You are a brave girl Clara. Hold on,” Steve said as he examined the bite marks in her back. “There’s nothing in the back wounds and luckily they are small and not too deep.”

But when they turned her around to inspect her front side wound, to their dismay there was one shark teeth embedded deep in her stomach.

“Clara, there is one teeth stuck in your body. I’ll pull it out but you have to see for yourself if any internal organ is damaged,” Steve said.

“Everything is fine Steve. Nothing can be wrong with her,” Nakata broke down.

Clara nodded her head as she grabbed and pulled her hair in deep pain, clenching her teeth trying to overcome it.

“That’s my ovary. It’s injured my ovary,” Clara screamed as Steve pulled her skin away to show her the body organ that tooth was stuck in before he pulled it out. “Damn this bloody fish, I am going to die,” Clara cried out.

“No! No! You will be alright,” Nakata cried out more profusely.

“You are a brave girl Clara, you will survive,” Steve said as he inspected the internal damage, “and you are lucky too, there’ not much damage to your ovary or whatever you call it.”

He washed her wounds with harvested rain water that they were carrying as a part of their medical kit and then stitched her wounds one by one as she cried out loud due to the pain the stitching caused in addition to the wound.

“I know it hurts, especially because of the sea salt, but the same sea salt is going to act as a disinfectant. So hold on brave girl,” Steve said. He dressed her up again and looked at Nakata, “Nakata, she is your responsibility now until she gets better.”

“She is, yes she is. I will not rest until she gets better. I want her to get better soon. You have to get better soon, do you hear me?” Nakata was still crying.

Steve left the room to return to the wheel house while the nurse entrusted with the task to take care of the team was left to be nursed by Nakata.