The Lost Race - V.Rough Draft Chapter 1 - By Grace Schienbein

     Six months ago I would have told you it is true, that in this modern age, there is no land on earth that is undiscovered. Satellite mapping has revealed to us even the smallest islands in the vast oceans.

    However, there is much land that has yet to be explored, and that is my work; I am an exploration scientist and anthropologist-- A modern day explorer. I studied at Harvard and went on to teach exploration science in Oxford.
  
    Six months ago I taught that, in regards to humanity, there are no more surprises. There is nothing left to discover. Based on location, and topography, the anthropologist can accurately hypothesise on the nature, language group and culture of newly discovered tribes on any continent.

   But that was half a year ago. A lot can change in half a year.

   It was a Thursday, which for me meant a light class load. And like many Thursday afternoons I was playing with google earth. That particular Thursday I was "exploring" islands in the Pacific when I noticed an anomaly. There was an area of water that looked distinctly different from the water surrounding it. I could tell by the scale that it must be a stretch of at least 200 miles, east to west, and almost perfectly square; Unlike the water surrounding it it had no white caps, in fact, seemingly no waves at all.   At first I thought that perhaps the page didn't load properly, and so I refreshed it. In fact I did that several times and each time the same patch appeared.  Then I thought that perhaps Google had a faulty image and had created a patch, Although, why they would patch with a piece that so clearly didn't match made no sense. Unable to leave it alone, I went to my colleagues office and found the location on his program. (One he had developed while working for NASA) There was the same square in the waters of the Pacific with no waves. Curious, I emailed the photo to a friend, who in turn sent it on to a friend and so on. No one could adequately explain to me what could be the cause.

   I had a large amount of vacation days and a fat bonus from my book, "The Known World", and my itchy feet got the better of me. Even if it's nothing, I told myself, a few days soaking up the sun in the South Pacific would be good for me. And so I embarked.

    I had thought the trip to this "glitch" on the map was an adventure. Nothing seemed to go right, from cancelled flights and emergency landing, to a fire in my hotel... but that was nothing compared to what awaited me when my boat nearly reached the spot. It wasn't still waters, or an oceanic fresh water lake that greeted us,  but land. Land with what appeared to be a glistening city.  How it could be missed by the satellites confused me. The buildings, built right up to the Sandy shores glimmered in the midday sun.

    My mouth dropped open and my heart pounded. I turned to my guide and Captain, practically jumping up and down with excitement, and saw that she too was dumbfounded. She stared, unblinking, and let our boat run aground.

    It is hard to describe what I saw, because it is so unlike anything I have seen or experienced before. I would like to say that it was like all the buildings were made of stained glass, because they had colour and form and even substance, but were also transparent. And yet, on later inspection we found that the substance was neither hard nor soft. The buildings had no doors or windows because you could move through them freely at any point. I would perhaps say that they were like force fields out of science fiction. They did provide relief from the sun. And the air, although it could move through the substance, was slowed to the gentlest of breezes.

     We could immediately see the land was populated, although, at first glance it seemed as though it was inhabited by shadows. A shiver ran up and down my spine. The shiver gave way to relief when a man approached. Yes, a man, not a ghost or a shadow as I first (irrationally) supposed, but a living, breathing, human being. To be honest, I was not altogether certain he was human at the beginning. I was never one to believe in aliens, but I had never met a human being with purple skin and red hair. I say purple and red, but neither of these colours are accurate descriptors. His skin was dark, very dark, and leathery; like many that spend much of their lives in the sun. I would even venture to say that he was tan, but his skin was also almost the colour of eggplant. (Perhaps more red or mahogany than a true aubergine but it was not any shade of brown.)  And his hair, cropped short and very curly was almost a flame red.  His nose was wide, much like and African nose and yet the nostrils were narrow and made me think of the delicate features of the Scandinavians. He was tall, at least four inches taller than myself (I am six foot, four), and slight but muscled.

    His clothing was loose and light, but cut close to the body, and had an iridescent quality, much like a black pearl.

    He observed us almost as long as we observed him, and then he started to sing.  The song lasted only a few moments and when he finished he looked at us expectantly. Katherine, my guide, whispered to me that I should say something. As soon as she spoke he sang again; only this time the song had a quick nervous rhythm and seemed to be about something surprising.

   In a low calm voice, and for some reason in English, I introduced myself and Katherine. And she, awkward and uncertain or how to react or what to do, curtsied.