The ship moved slowly from side to side, pushing forward through the black waters of the North Pacific. It was probably around midnight and most of the lights on the ship were extinguished save the fog light illuminating the ocean in front, and a floodlight that lit up the deck.
On that deck was myself, staring out into the boundless ocean that I only could guess went off for thousands of kilometres in every direction, full of nothing but churning, empty water.
The metal railings felt like ice under my arms as I leant on them, trusting that they would not separate from the ship and would therefore send me plummeting into the freezing water below. The bolts held, as I thought they would. The ship was secure.
I believe the ship was called the MV Kingfisher. It was the one of the only ship allowed to ferry passengers from mainland North America and the Isles. It was a small, nondescript fishing vessel converted into a cargo carrier. The boat would have not been out of place in any marina along the West coast of Canada, a characteristic that was essential for its purpose.
You see, the Isles are very isolationist, so much so that globalization has not made much of an impact on them. As a phenomenon it occurred in almost every other country in the world, even in those countries of course that were just forgotten by the international community. For instance in Burkina Faso, you would still be able to see someone dressed in an old Pepsi-branded t-shirt or in branded running shoes. This did not occur in the isles, due to many restrictive shipping and immigration legislation. There are no Nike shoes on the isles.
In fact, most people there had no idea that any of the outside world existed. Of course, people didn't necessarily think that the world ended at the edge of their island's horizon, but at the same time, the rest of the world was viewed with suspicion.
Knowledge was only dispensed to those with political or economic connections on a need-to-know basis. It was mostly people that were involved in orchestrating trade between the outside world and the islands; CEOs, legislators of the countries of the Pacific. Other than that, no one had any tangible evidence that these islands even existed.
So, for a country of such an isolationist policy, why was I admitted in? Why was I so special? It was probably due to the one opening that had been made earlier this year to allow for an exchange program of sorts for education there. You see, the head of education there was becoming aware that students in other countries that had had the opportunity to go to school in abroad often had higher averages and were often more well rounded.
Exposure to a mixture of cultures always positively influenced students for centuries. To try to emulate the experience within the Isles, he decided instead of sending students away from the public schools within his country, he would attract students from other countries to come and study there. It was to be something of an experiment in openness. Perhaps the students there could demonstrate that the islands could eventually overcome its isolation and join the international community?
That's where I come in. I was selected from thousands of grade eleven applicants across the US and was now being shipped to live and study in the high school/university there called the National Polytechnic Academy (Or just the "Polytechnic" for short). This was of course paid for courtesy of the government. I didn't have the money to go myself. I barely had enough money to pay for food once I got there.
As part of this new program, I was to stay there for a month for the administration there to learn the logistics of keeping over two hundred students in the country. Students who were to come from over eighty countries, from countries as far away as Tanzania to just across the ocean in nearby Japan. Housing so many people was not a problem to the government, but housing the culture and influences that came along with so many would as thought by many to be not possible.
Many members of the government believed that it was unfeasible, unpredictable, and unsafe. Through much debate, they reluctantly allowed the project to take place. It would just remain under wraps from the public until they found how it would actually pan out. I always thought that it was hilarious for them to think that as they would be housing everyone in the program in one of the largest cities in the country, right near where thousands would come in contact with them.
In order for us to not draw attention to ourselves, we were to become model United Islanders, fitting into the society at large as if we were born there, pretending to the public that we had lived on an island that they had never heard of, somewhere else in the archipelago that they called home.
This would probably be a good thing. People have not moved to the islands in that volume for over half a century. One of the first people to break that trend was I...
The wind had picked up, howling through the open windows below the bridge, which were immediately shut by the crew. The wind didn't bother me; in fact I rather enjoyed it; the way the cool mist came off of the ocean seemed to keep me alert and awake, so I could take in the view from the bow of the ship. It wasn't much to most people, but to me it was fascinating as I had never seen an ocean before. It was probably why I signed on to be one of the members of this great experiment.
The promise of studying in a place that had such a diverse ecosystem, surrounded by nothing but open warm pacific water allured all but the most boring among the population of the world. It was far from the Midwest as you could get no more fields and empty cities for a while.
The place where I came from was a dead city. Not dead in the sense that everyone left, like the ghost towns of the old west, but dead in the fact that it's the syndrome that some cities get. The one where everyone starts living in the suburbs and commuting to work, to school and the next block over. No one walked anymore, no one got out and did anything. I guess it might as well have been a ghost town. This had been avoided on the isles by never importing cars, but then again they didn't import much of anything.
I didn't have that many friends. Most people were too concerned about things I had no interest in; their self image, their pathetic high school love life, et cetera. It all seemed too petty for me. When I put in my application for my spot at the academy, I wrote about these things. I to this day still think that that is why I was admitted.
The fact that the school that the applicant would be arriving at would be newly renovated helped to increase the number of applicants. It had one of the most extensive, diverse and research-intensive program there, from everything from biochemistry to what I came for, the history.
The history of the islands was one of the most unique in the world. Due to a combination of remoteness and isolation, most of the archaeological sites in the region had been left intact. Even a conquest by the Spanish did little to destroy this country's amazing history. What happened to the Great Pyramids of Giza never happened there. No tomb robbers to take all of the stuff inside these sites.
These places gave a clear look at what the islands would have been like before the arrival of the Europeans nearly 500 years ago. The islands were actually discovered by the west in 1539 by Dutch sailors, who were looking for a place to moor their ships while waiting out a storm. This all could have been myth of course, but they did dock at the island where they came in contact with the natives of the island. Not much is known about them, their language and culture is now dead.
They apparently got along great with the islanders and decided to set up a semi-permanent camp on the northernmost island. This was mostly to trade small items and such and to resupply with fresh food on the long sea voyages the Dutch spice fleet had to travel to reach ports in the west. So what better name to call the islands other than "Eilanden van de Fluyt" which doesn't make a lot of sense in English, but when translated means the islands of the Fluyt, which were the iconic Dutch ship of the time.
However, this did not last. Due to the politics of Europe, the small colony would soon have to be handed over to the Spanish. The Anglo-Spanish war of 1585 (Which is best known for the Spanish Armada) ended with a treaty which handed over the territory of the islands to Spain. Spain, although it lost the battle of the Spanish Armada, did come out ahead in the end. The Dutch were forced to leave, the colony was officially closed.
When the Spanish arrived, the islands were still left largely undiscovered and undeveloped. To change this, they decided to attempt to repeat what they did in South America. Conquer, Plunder and then Populate. The first part was easily achieved. Much like in the Caribbean, the natives of the islands were erased from history. In the Caribbean, there was a race of aboriginals known as the Arawaks. Within fifty years of European contact, the people had been killed through a combination of disease and state-sponsored murder by what was to be later known as the conquistadors. You won't find any Arawaks anymore.
The Spanish second objective was never achieved. Gold was never discovered, probably hidden away by the last of the natives. This was probably a big let-down for the Spanish and they never really did much else on the island. No real big settlement was formed during the Spanish occupation, for there were no non-Christians left to convert and there was little space for farming. They actually abandoned the colony in the middle of the 18th century, leaving behind mostly empty island chain, thousands of dead and some wrecked ships in the shallows.
The islands were left empty until they were given to the British in the Treaty of Paris in 1763, after Spain lost the Seven Years War, in exchange for keeping some colonies in North America. At that point, the British had no use for the Islands, much like in North America with Quebec and opened it up to "so called" private endeavours. This ended up splitting the previously one colony into four. The northernmost and middle islands would be turned into separate colonies and the southern island split into two.
The southern colonies were settled by the Puritans, who by then had established colonies within the Thirteen Colonies in North America. It would make sense that those from the already established colonies of Massachusetts and Rhode Island would be well informed and trained on how to survive in a frontier environment. This was not the case. The colonists were met with hostile animal life, constant storms and bad weather. However, they remained on the island. Not many people know why exactly, it seems they had it real tough. If I was in their position, I would have probably left.
By the time reports of the colonies reached London in the mid-19th century, the southern Island had been well populated. Cities and towns popped up all over the southern Island alongside new farms and mines. The middle island had been converted into a naval port, for the British fleet, due to its natural harbour on its east side. It was all working out amazing. Even the North Island was leased back to the Dutch for their trade fleet, and the previously abandoned harbour was rebuilt. It was all doing fine until the report of 1837.
This was the defining moment in the history of the Isles, more important than anything that had happened previously. What it was, was a written report by the governor of the island written to the King and parliament back in the nerve center of the empire. The report was on the development of the islands. Nothing exciting there, but what caught the attention of everyone seated in government that day was the mention of the ecological system on the island.
Regardless of what it actually said, the parliament decided to cut ties with the colony. Citing "moral and ethical misconduct", the naval base was shut down, and all previous records of the colony were burned. The colony was shunned; it was taken off the maps. The head of the Church of England denounced it as being one of the most "ungodly" places in the world and was quoted saying "The fauna of the islands are of the most queer and blasphemous nature and must never contaminate the race of man". A few years later Darwin, when he was allowed to visit called it "the most deviant and highly unusual places on earth". In fact, it proved beyond a doubt all of his preconceived ideas that he had gathered on the Galapagos. In short, everything that was alive on the island was in direct conflict with religious text. In a sense, no one wanted to believe that anything rivalled man's intelligence.
The colony was obviously forgotten and any person with religious or scientific connects often worked to destroy all records. Maps after that were drawn without ever mentioning the three islands at 180 degrees longitude and 40 degrees North latitude... and so it remained that way.
Years passed. The people of the islands forgot the outside world. Eventually England did as well and the islands were given to Japan, unceremoniously in the early 20th century.
Japan continued the trend of keeping the settlers isolated while supplying the islands with many technologies and manufactured goods (Which were carefully disguised as being manufactured on the Isles by Sliph Company). They basically used the islands as a cash cow, with Japanese companies being the only supplier of goods to an entire country. Heck, they even used the islands as a base for a kids show and video game series, unknown to the people living there.
All of this was too much for me. The chances of each event in this so-called history of the islands happening and to the extent they did was like a million to one. Was it fate that these were perhaps the last undisturbed pieces of what once was, and what could have been? I did not know then.
"Hey, is that you David?" someone asked from behind me, rather loudly so he could be heard over the sound of the waves hitting against the bow. I turned quickly to see who it was; surprised that someone else had been awake at the hour. It was Jake.
Jake Brennan was the kind of person who was rich, yet never really acted like it. He was the son of the President and CEO of Poketech, the second largest industrial firm on the isles. Jake was a few years younger than I was, probably in his mid-teens. He was also part of the program and he was given the task of getting me off of the ship and to the Polytechnic without me getting lost and ending up in the wrong city before the orientation even started. Also, it was good to have someone to talk to about what life would be like there for the next month.
"Yes, it's me." I replied, tired.
"So what brings you out here so late at night?" he implored, walking across the deck towards where I was leaning over the side. "Couldn't sleep?"
I nodded an affirmative, transfixed by the ocean in front of me. "I guess neither could you then." I replied jokingly.
"Yes" was all he said and stood in silence for a bit. I just remembered then, I had to return his book he leant me.
"This book," I started, lifting the book out of my pocket "has to be the biggest bunch of garbage ever perpetrated by..." I looked closer at the name of the publisher. "The government of the United Islands." I said the last six words much quieter than the rest.
"Everything in that book is true." he said, taking back the history book he gave me earlier in the evening. "It was written especially for the program. Did you get through it?"
I shook my head; I had not finish reading through most of the modern history section.
"Then, you should probably keep this as a reference then, just in case someone asks you a question about something modern, like what a pokeball is."
"Yeah, what is that?" I asked earnestly.
He simply smiled and handed the book back to me. "It's something you should probably get to know." He said the sentence as if he were explaining it to a kid who didn't understand something that they should.
"You get an odd feeling when you find something out that you thought couldn't possibly be true."
"It's what I felt like when I found there was something else other than the islands I thought to be the known world. Also it's probably what everyone on that island would feel if they were allowed to be a part of the program. I don't even know what I am going to explain to everybody."
It really must have been hard on him, he seemed disconnected from the world. This was very different than the Jake that had come to pick me up from the harbour in Victoria. He was normally full of energy, now it seemed that his battery had run out.
"So, people on the islands think that the world is only comprised of their islands and nothing else?" I asked, after a while.
"Kind of. Most don't really know, or don't really care. Others speculate wildly, but there is a strict travel ban so no one really knows what to even begin to think is out there. Needless to say, I won't be able to explain where or how long I was gone. Some might think that I should have fallen off a corner of the world or something..."
"But you didn't." I interrupted, turning to face him. "You found an entirely new world."
"I guess..." was all his reply, his eyes moving out to sea, distant.
"Hey, cheer up." I said, not knowing what else to say. "Just try to focus on what's ahead."
"Yeah, I just need some sleep," he answered, before making his way back to the cabins. "And you should too. I don't want to be dragging you to Jubilife City."
With his last comment before retiring, I could sense that he was not completely a wreck over the whole experience. Perhaps by tomorrow, it would all blow over and by some stroke of luck, the world as we knew it would be back the way it was with both our little worlds still intact. However, I knew with little thought that by tomorrow morning, I would end up in the last place I thought I would; Sinnoh.