Island Rebirth: A Bureaucrat’s Journey to Simplicity

The steward knocked on the door to his stateroom. "Here is your dinner, Sir. You have about twenty minutes before the weather hits."Tui turned from his tiny desk tucked into the curving wall of the airship. "Thanks Lim, please set it here."Tui was a large-framed man, with a perpetually worried face and skin the color of dark chocolate. His wiry, black hair was close-cropped in an attempt to hide streaks of gray. He had large, ink-stained hands and the beginnings of a belly from too much time behind a desk.Lim the steward was low-caste, with the flat nose and wide cheekbones typical of mountain tribes. He wore a smartly tailored uniform with shiny brass buttons. He set the tray down on the edge of the desk.A bowl of clear broth and two chunks of fish were arranged along with some spiced rice cakes. An essence pill was set off to the side. Tui sighed and took off his spectacles, closing the ledgers.The essence pill was clearly low quality, and the impurities would probably give him indigestion. Tui could live with that. He had selected the airline for its broad-minded employment policies rather than its cuisine.He ate quickly, downing his dinner and the pill. He rang the bell for the steward.The airship hit some turbulence just as Lim was picking up the tray. The whole ship jounced, sending the plates crashing into Tui's lap. The remnants of his meal spattered his silk traveling robes. He felt the broth run warmly into his slipper.The blood drained from Lim's face. "Master! I am so sorry." With trembling hands, he restacked the dishes on the tray and dabbed ineffectually at Tui's robe with a napkin."Lim, I'm fine," soothed Tui. He gently brushed Lim's hands away. "These things happen." His calming words did not affect the distraught steward. "Why don't you take those dishes away, and send someone in the morning to take this to the laundry" Nodding vigorously, the steward left the room.Tui sighed. The hospitality staff would be a pain for the rest of the trip. They would be obsequious in their efforts to atone for the mishap. Tui hated fawning.He gathered his ledgers, packing them neatly into their chest. He changed into clean robes and made his way to his hammock. There he settled in to wait out the storm.Meditating, he reached with his spiritual sense and drew the essence from the pill he had just eaten. He felt the storm hit, the airship shuddering as the wind flung it around.Deep in his meditation, the movement was something he noticed but was not bothered by. He fed the essence carefully to the small sparks of qi in his dantian. The sparks grew larger, and a few more appeared. The qi flickered around like fireflies. Upon completing the absorption, Tui began to doze, trying to ignore the increasingly violent shudders.The airship bucked wildly and Tui was flung from the hammock. Light burst behind his eyes as his head crashed into the deck. Teeth smashed through his lip and his mouth filled with the bright coppery taste of blood.The cold awareness that something was terribly wrong flooded through him. Tui struggled to his knees. The lamp was extinguished, the room pitch black. The airship was moving strangely, heaving in a slow rolling motion. He could hear the snapping of spars and tearing of fabric. Somebody was screaming. Either from pain or terror, Tui couldn't tell.The lack of light was disorienting and terrifying, and the floor was at an odd angle. He crawled forward, feeling ahead with careful hands. It didn't take long to find the door. For once, Tui appreciated the tiny stateroom.Water was seeping in under the door. When Tui turned the latch, the door banged open and six inches of water flooded into the room. The passageway was still lit with a lantern, which swung from its bracket on the wall. He sloshed his way up the passage toward the exit, holding himself steady against the wall.Tui realized the screaming had ceased. All he could hear was the sound of groaning timber and sloshing water. He opened the door and the icy hand of terror gripped his stomach.The airship lay in the ocean, heeled up at an angle. Most of the living quarters were underwater. The gas bag was half empty and flapped noisily in the fierce wind. It was settled with half over the deck and half in the white-capped sea.He could see a figure swimming weakly in the water. He looked around for a way to help and spotted a coil of rope near the railing. He fought his way up the inclined deck. He was about two feet away when the deck suddenly shifted, throwing him against the railing. A yawning pit opened in his stomach as he desperately grasped at the rail, but he overbalanced and flipped straight over.Tui fell screaming into the roiling sea below. He smashed into the cold water and it closed over his head. He thrashed his way back to the surface, gasping for breath. He fought to keep his head above the water, but it was too much for him. The wind-driven waves disoriented him.His lungs burned and he struggled for air. His mind was clouded, and he could see nothing with the black water swirling around him. He tried to swim, but his limbs were sluggish and his robe heavy. His heart thudded in his ears. He was going to drown.When his flailing hands brushed a spar, he grasped it desperately. The long pole was floating freely, snapped off at one end. Abruptly a flash of lightning lit the sky, allowing him a glimpse of the airship. Thunder smashed the air. The vessel was listing sharply to one side. The gas bag was torn open and flapping. The airship was moving, blown away by the gale.He gripped the spar tightly. The swells lifted him soaring into the sky, then dropped him deep into valleys. More lightning lit up the night. The airship was out of sight and there was nothing around but the angry sea.Tui lashed himself to the spar with his belt with fumbling hands already numb with cold. His head throbbed in pain.With his spiritual sense, Tui reached into his dantian for a spark of qi and began guiding it carefully along the conduit to the third meridian, located in his heart. He was not a physical man, preferring the more cerebral existence as an auditor for the Department of Interior. At this moment he felt a pang of regret for his sedentary lifestyle. A bit more practice would have made this much easier.The chill was making it hard to concentrate and he had little practice using this conduit. The spark wavered erratically through the pathways. Slowly, carefully, he guided it along, finally dropping it into his heart meridian.