I once had a dream.
I was standing on a port, with a gun's muzzle resting firmly on the square of my back. As I walked down the docks towards a boat, I could see the waves crashing along the vessels with a violence that decreed the seas were angry. The odd thing about these ships was that they were not the ships that I was used to; they were ancient. Not ancient in the way that time forgot their existence, but ancient in the way that man had no use for them anymore. I have never seen so many decrepit wooden vessels in my life.
I finally made my way to the ship that was our destination. As I entered the hull, a door was slammed behind me. Someone motioned forward, and then surmised my situation for me. My wife, my children would be killed unless I followed every command to the letter. I had no doubt that they were serious, because I had the slightest recollection that I was forcefully removed from my family before I was brought here.
As we left port, I looked across the bow of the ship, and I saw something that I would never forget. The city behind us seemed to be on fire. Whether it was from war or industry I could not ascertain. And to the sea, I saw multitudes of these ships, just as decrepit as ours. Also, in the waters below, I saw gigantic mammals swirling about, half trying to escape, half trying to wage war against their foes. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. These beasts were of a scale that I couldn't guess to their approximate size. It was not uncommon to see two or three ships trying to take on one of these creatures. It was a sight both beautiful and horrific.
Once we finally made it past the deluge of skirmishes outside of the port, the Captain finally made his way down to the crew. He was an older man, but not elderly in any way. His stature clearly surpassed my own. As the Captain looked at me, he told me of his grand plan. He would, of course, capture the greatest of the mastodons of the sea. He would pass the circumference of mankind's known sphere and into the beyond. As he looked at me, with a passion that would be unknown to most men, he cried out, "I will be known as Captain Ahab!"
I replied, "Clearly someone has never read Moby Dick. Jesus, let me be Ishmael, since you're stupid enough to be Ahab."
It's for the best that I never be taken hostage.
