The Santinese Liberation Navy has been formed. With only two non-military ships in its command. 2 small Expeditionary boats made to be manned by a crew of 4 individuals.
The SNL Horizon Seeker would be the first to travel North and then South to explore the edges of the new world that the Santinese people inhabit. Consisting of a crew:
Karisma Belbase [Captain | Age: 32 | Female | Paksheekaan]
Aasiya Nambiyar [Guard | Age: 21 | Female | Jaanavarkaan]
Shinu Nan [Engineer | Age: 25 | Female | Jaanavarkaan]
Lhawang Trengwa [Photographer/Scribe | Age: 23 | Male | Paksheekaan]
Crowds would gather around the boat cheering as they were about to set sail, Lhawang Trengwa was about to board the boat until he felt a tug on his jacket. He turned to see it was his mother.
Lhawang: “Ma, what are you doing?”
Miss Trengwa: “I-I just wanted to give you lunch, as well as this,” she says as she gives him to lunch and a scarf, “I have held onto this scarf since a kind stranger had given me this, ever since then, I felt as though it has given me good luck, I want you to stay safe out there,”
Lhawang was a bit embarrassed but kept silent as his mother wrapped the scarf around him, she had grown old and was by the government “UNFIT TO WORK”, it was stamped in red onto “The Mehanati Designation Papers” and therefore she was unable to be given any provision tickets. Which are now the new currency being slowly used as the nation phased out the bartering system. Those who can work will be able to provide for their family, and those who cannot will not be able to provide.
My younger brother and sister were also unable to work being at the age of 8 and 14 respectively. I was the oldest and was able to do work. Thus I applied to get a job and through physical and mental examinations they determined me to be one of the four to venture out to sea on what seems to be a ship that can drown if a sea storm were to feel hungry.
The job was good, and provided my family with lifetime care and Type 4 Housing permanently if houses were to be built and made sturdy. It was a good job and almost made me feel as though this was a death sentence. As if they knew the Horizon Seeker wouldn’t be made to last. . . The other ship, however, the SNL Star Seeker, seemed a bit more sturdy than those boats.
Lhawang: “Look ama, I’ll be fine, after all, I have wings!” he said, then my mom would pull my cheeks real hard as I winced.
Mom: “Do not make those sorts of jokes about possibly dying!” she says, as she lets go of my cheek and I rub it trying to relieve the pain, “Though I need to ask you something,” she says as she held my hand.
Mom: “Are you going to be alright out there? Please, you do not have to do this, we can always go to the Mehanati Program Office and beg them for another position, something that keeps you closer to home, you know? I need help with managing your brother and sister, we don’t need the lifetime care, nor a house. . . I just need you,” she says as she grips my hand tight and hugs me. She softly cried onto my shirt, I tried to hold back my tears, I—My heart felt heavy, felt as if it was being crushed.
Lhawang: “Ma. . . I—I wish I could stay back, it’s just that even if I go now they will tell me that I’m a quitter, look down upon me, and even then just look around you, they have already assigned people into their occupations,” I say, she knew that though, she knew what would people say of the family, 'a bunch of birds that don’t know how to fly; a family that doesn’t know the meaning of freedom’.
There wasn’t much to do, though my heart still was attached to an anchor, and my arms reached around my mother's shoulders and my hands clasped onto her back as I hugged her, perhaps this will be the last time I would be in my mother's warm embrace. The cheering and the world disappeared around me as it felt as if it was just us two. Though nothing ever mattered other than seeing my mother, my brother, and my sister happy.
Lhawang: “Please promise me one thing ama,” I say as I close my eyes holding back my tears, “S-stay strong for me, for the family as well, I will come back, please don’t worry,” I say. . .
I wake up to the sound of a horn. A board horn. I lay in a bed, a bunk bed for that matter, dressed in several layers of clothing, along with wearing the scarf my mother gave me, it was a rainbow scarf that she gave me, one that had all the colors of the rainbow.
The air was cold and even with these layers of clothing I still felt cold. to add to it I couldn’t get up from my bed, both remembering the last moments with my mother and the fact that I didn’t want to get up from the warmth of my bed, even though it was uncomfortable.
Though the captain's shouts forced me to see what the commotion was all about. So I got up after being a bit grumpy, got out a camera and a tablet, and walked upstairs to where the captain was steering and controlling the ship.
