Inside the bridge was a bed under masks hanging on the wall, and near a weapon rack at the corner with spears. Beneath it, brown furry carpet covered the floor near a chest full of clothes.
Barry pulled out a lacquered wooden wine bottle from a chest and walked toward a table. He sat down and poured the wine into his cup “Would you like anything to drink here? I have little….. It has been a while since I have talked to another human being.”
Jenny stepped toward him. “Dad….. I have many questions to ask you.”
Barry sipped his cup. “First, I have a question for you.”
Jenny beamed her eyes. “Like what?”
“How did you get here?”
Jenny sat at the table. “Well….. It is a long story.”
“I believe we have plenty of time for a long conversation here.”
Jenny signed. “I’m not good at long conversations, but I came here by accident.”
“How?”
“Remember your friend, Walter Freedom?”
“Yes.”
“He rebuilt your Transgate machine and presented it at a convention.”
Barry glared at the table. “Of course he did.”
“A friend and I were reporters, sent there to broadcast the presentation. The machine worked, but someone sabotaged the second machine, causing the portal to go berserk. After that….. I appeared in the jungle….. Near New York City. Huntar, Zena, and Torag soon found me and brought me here after I told them who I was. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them.”
“Indeed, they are my best warriors who never failed me. I’ll thank them with the time comes.” Barry stroked his beard. "Anyway, the same thing happened to me. My colleagues and I built two prototypes at the testing facility. The first trial went well until a lightning strike damaged the second prototype. It sucked me into the portal and appeared here. It seems the portal threw me through time since the gate needed to transfer me somehow randomly. Quite a condense it sent you here too.”
Jenny thought the same. However, Jenny arrived further in the future past the time her father appeared. He would have been younger if they both arrived at the same time, which would be awkward. “Is there a way back?”
Barry sipped his cup. “There is no other way back. Both of us are trapped here.”
“But there must be a way back!” Jenny exclaimed.
“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be here. The machines are only in the past, and it is impossible to reach them. All we can do is hope someone in the past can fix the portal and find us.”
Jenny sighed, doubting that will happen. If the corporation fixed the Transgate, how would they know how to use the machine to send an expedition team through time? They would need to use only one Transgate to open the portal to allow them access to the time-traveling wormhole. And even if they succeeded, how would they know which time period Jenny and her father were at? It could take forever to find them unless the wormhole could only send people to the distant future. Waiting for the past to rescue Jenny felt impossible. “So…..What happened to you after you came here?”
Barry finished his cup and poured more. “After I arrived in this future, I fell into the ocean. I swarm to the shore, encountering a group of ape-men. They threw me into their slave cart where I met Huntar, Zena, and Torag. They were slaves too, taken against their will, and they became my first non-human companions. The apes brought us to their city and forced us to fight in their arena. I trained hard to survive and grew close to the slaves I trusted. We won a few battles together, but I soon realized we wouldn’t last long.”
He sipped his cup. “So we broke out and escaped into the wildlands. When we found a place to live, we built our own clan to stay strong. But our peace didn’t last long when the Cocidius Clan found us.”
“What happened then?” Jenny asked, resting her arms on the table.
“We defended our clan. It wasn’t easy, but we prevailed. Although we have defeated him once, they continue to fight us for a long time. They will not stop until they get what they want.”
“What do they want?”
Barry smiled at her. “Would you like to look at it?”
*****
Jenny followed her father down the stairway to the third level. He wore a furry coat and carried a walking cane, shaped like a tree branch. He reached a metal door and pushed it open, revealing the main hangar deck. Rusted jets and helicopters stood near crates along the main empty path. But that wasn’t all inside the main hangar.
A small forest of green tents stood in the middle where cat-men sat around the campfire while two dog-men carried wooden boxes past them. A bird woman stretched a next and hung it over a rope between two tents. The Blood Brave Clan village looked like a campsite instead of a village. They must have had lost many numbers from their battles against the ape-men tribe.
“This way.” Barry walked through the hanger, reaching another doorway on the other side. He pushed it open and strolled down a stairway as Jenny caught up with his lead.
“Watch your step please,” he warned.
Jenny watched her bare feet, avoiding the sharp-looking corals on the rusted steps. “So those Beastmen are all that is left of your tribe?”
“I am afraid so. We lost a thousand in our last battle. There are only a hundred of us left now. I was hoping Huntar and his friends could bring us more allies to help us rebuild our clan. But we are still on our own. I suppose the tribes out there are too afraid to fight the Cocidius Clan.”
Jenny gripped the railing, keeping up with her father. The stairway was making creaking sounds by each step. The aircraft carrier was so ancient, it could collapse at any moment.
“Why would they be afraid of the Cocidius Clan?” Jenny asked.
“The Cocidius Clan are one of the strongest clans in the wildlands,” said Barry. “With advanced weaponry and strong armor, nobody could stand a chance against them.”
Jenny remembered observing the Cocidius Clan city when she was captured. The ape-men were advanced like the ancient Romans. With strong armor suits and weapons, they were probably stronger than the primitive tribes. No wonder her father’s clan was hiding from them.
Barry reached a doorway at the bottom and pushed it open. He turned to Jenny and smiled. “Prepare to be amazed.”
