The Mariner

“He was a scientist. Perhaps the greatest that ever lived, one whom the likes of myself can only aspire to emulate. He was a pioneer of atheism, the rejection of the supernatural, illogical, unquestioning fallacies of the masses. But he was more than that, he influenced the whole course of civilisation when he discovered a process called evolution. This discovery was found on a voyage, similar to the one we are on, on a ship after which this one was named. And it is through his discovery that we will undo the damage wrought upon us.

“You see, the world used to make sense. Throughout mankind’s history, we have been shrouded in mysticism and ignorance, but finally, through rational thought and perseverance, science managed to conquer. By the beginning of the twenty-first century our world was held together by a set of rules, discovered and confirmed by scientists. For the first time in our history, we truly understood how things worked. I’m sure you remember.”

The Mariner kept quiet, not wanting to explain that he remembered nothing of the old world. Well, almost nothing.

“But then things changed. The centre did not hold, everything fell apart. The cause? I don’t know, no-one does, but nonetheless we find ourselves in a world no longer made of rules, but dominated by questions.” She leaned forward, stressing the subsequent point. “And inhabited by things that simply shouldn’t

exist.”

The Mariner nodded, this much was true, it was what he’d heard time and time again from those who claimed to compare the two eras.

“These things do not obey our world’s history. They do not fit in with the rules we discovered. They are anomalies, and they are our enemies too. The presence of such creatures further weakens and undermines the rules we need in order to restore our lives. Every last one must be hunted down and eradicated.”

“Are these the trials I’ve heard about?”

Mavis turned and retreated to the back of the room. “Come, I have something to show you.”

She led him through a door, proving the room they were in was merely an antechamber to one much larger. Unlike the previous one, this was bathed in an even blue light that seemed determined to eradicate even the smallest shadow. There was little in the way of furniture, just a single chair and a gurney. A figure was strapped into each. Both were dead.

“This man was accused of being an Anomenemy,” Mavis said, standing beside the corpse in the gurney. It was that of an adult male, middle-aged, his head balding and flabby round the waist. The old lady ran her fingers across his skin, pale in death but stained with dark bruises, most located around the arms, still strapped tight. “Anomenemies come in many forms, captain. Some are clearly monsters, other are like you and I. Those that mask themselves thus must be tested. With science.”

“And the other?” he asked, gesturing towards the body in the chair, another man, some years younger than the first.

Mavis didn’t answer, but chose to continue her train of thought. “Richard Darwins discovered the history of our species: that life evolves

. We came from the monkeys who came from rats who came from fish. Every animal is related to the other, slight changes with every child born separating one strain from the last. Different species united in the annuls of time. United in the blood, captain. In the blood.

“How can you tell if a creature is not of our world? If it does not obey the laws of science? Why, you look in its blood of course, to see if evolution can be found there.”

Mavis nodded towards the corpse in the chair, disappointment crossing her face like a teacher referring to a particularly stupid pupil. “A pirate, a thief and a murderer. No-one to feel pity for, but useful for our test, because as loathsome as he was, he was one of us

. He was a being born of evolution, his blood the same family as mine and of yours, just like every other creature from the old-world. All branches from the same tree.

“Anomenemies are not of our family. They do not obey the rules. They have different blood and when it is mixed with ours the effects are… lethal. That’s what we did here. A simple transfusion from the subject to the pirate. If the pirate dies we know we have an Anomenemy, and deal with it accordingly.”

“You kill them?”

“You think we killed an innocent man? No, there were countless reports he was a practising witch. All such evils must be put to death. For science.”

She patted the dead ‘Anomenemy’ tenderly and the Mariner shivered. Despite her frailty he was starting the understand the danger of the old woman, the ease she surrounded herself in the macabre. How easy was it to end up on her gurney, the blood from your arm flowing into that of an equally doomed captive?

“How do you know evolved blood can mix? How do you know you are right?”