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The day was beautiful with a stunning pale blue sky dotted by the occasional white cotton candy cloud and a steady, warm breeze. On the starboard side of a large speeding vessel, on the top observation deck a young man leaned against the rail near the bow. He appeared to be in his late teens or early twenties with longish, straight dark hair that whipped in the wind as he remained still, looking somewhat melancholy as he gazed out at the light chop of the dark ocean. He wore a lightweight grey blue windbreaker with rolled sleeves partially zipped over an oversized, hooded T-shirt in faded orange. His sand-colored cargo pants flapped frantically about his legs over good sweat-wicking sports socks and high-topped hiking shoes. Very few travelers were topside, most of them one level down where snacks and cold beverages could be procured and enjoyed in a climate-controlled area where a handful of high-definition monitors played enticing loops of footage featuring some of the adventures awaiting at their destination.
Adventures that could be had if the park they were heading toward was actually up and running.
Dr. Jonathan Happenstance was huge for a man in his sixties, tall with a bodybuilder's physique, his time in the gym having served him very well over the years. His closely-shorn black hair was frosted a soft, brushed-metal grey, but his features remained youthful, if a little tired looking. He could pass for a man in his early fifties and moved with the slow, easy grace of an elk. As the head scientist of ArtReal Artificial Realities he was well respected by his colleagues if not especially well-known. He stood near the stern of the swiftly coursing passenger yacht staring straight ahead, watching for the dark shape of a landmass as well as keeping an eye on his much younger charge. Beside him stood a man from the island with an Aussie-style wide brimmed hat crushed in his hands, a gold Seiko dress watch on one wrist, his camel-colored linen suit flapping like a flag as he rambled on and on about Jurassic World. John paid him little mind. It was obvious he had been warned not to go into too much detail regarding recent events at the park and was mainly serving to distract the guests. John was fully aware that he would be granted a tour of only the park's highlights, wined, dined, and kept mainly in the laboratories where he could speak science with people of his own education level. It was the kid at the front of the ferry who he counted on to get to the bottom of everything amiss.
Seagulls had trailed them for a while after they'd departed the mainland, and fins in the distance suggested porpoises more than sharks, but the boy's head snapped upward as he stared keenly at a dot slowly growing before them, and Dr. Happenstance knew the kid had detected something no one else on board could, or could yet. Noting a slight difference in the man's posture, Dane Alten, the park representative, squinted beneath a raised palm and mentioned, "Be there soon." John knew that more than mere sight of the island held the young man's attention.
Eyes closed, the youth cast out his consciousness in an ever-widening aura. He felt the bird-like, nervous contentment of nearby sea creatures, the responding curiosity of sensitive small cetaceans, the calm focus of sea turtles, the strangely dream-like perceptions of sharks. His eyes opened to slits as he picked up on a playfulness he had not expected. He smiled as if in reaction to some private joke, and then turned to look at his employer.
John studied the boy's features before allowing his own wide grin to spread. Relief and exhilaration flooded him as the kid bowed his head and let his shoulders shake with a barely suppressed chuckle of delight.