by Ricky Sides
“Thank you for understanding,” Tim said dryly.
“Don’t you ever expect me to embrace an idea that places your life in mortal danger,” Patricia warned, her temper once more flaring.
Tim wisely responded, “Yes, dear. I’m sorry,” and then he kissed his wife.
“I still like the way you apologize,” Patricia said as she hugged her husband.
When Pol finally pronounced the ship ready, Tim asked the crew to go aboard the Damroyal for the testing of the Peacekeeper. Several crewmembers volunteered to stay aboard, but he adamantly refused to permit it. He looked pointedly at Pol who shrugged and said, “You may as well forget it. I’m remaining aboard. This was my idea. I won’t leave you to face the danger alone.”
Tim was about to protest, but he found he had an unexpected ally when Patricia said, “Pol, I’ll not have you stubbornly endangering yourself because of my harsh words earlier. I’m sorry, my friend.” She then hugged the scientist who smiled. Despite the fact that he had tears in his eyes.
“Then you forgive me?” he asked.
“There’s nothing to forgive. I overreacted. Besides, it’s not your fault I married a would-be test pilot.”
“No one can fly the big ships better than your husband, my dear. If his skills were not up to the task, I would have vetoed the test. But I still don’t like him going alone.”
“You’re right. He is the best. But he won’t be going alone.”
“I won’t?” Tim asked in confusion.
“I am going with you. I’m as critical to the mission as you are. In fact, you can’t conduct the test without me.”
“Sure I can,” Tim said.
“Oh? How are you going to get the computer to permit you to dive, dear?” Patricia asked sweetly. “You know better than most people that the safeguards will kick in even if you try to disable them and go to full manual operation. Once you get to within a foot of the surface of the water, it will not descend. Disabling the sensors won’t work. That activates the failsafe override, which will put you to maximum altitude and head for the nearest land in the navigation computer memory banks.”
“Damn. I forgot that.”
“I didn’t, and do you know why?”
This time Tim sighed in surrender and said, “Because you designed them. I don’t suppose I could talk you into just fixing a quick program to let me overcome the failsafe, could I?”
With dozens of things that could go wrong? Nope. You need me. If I’m in the control room I can respond in real time to the emergency. I can’t help you if I’m not here.”
“Okay. I guess it’s the two of us then.”
“Three,” Pol said shaking his head. “Patricia may need my help staying ahead of the computer. I lack her degree of skill, but I’m still one of the best in the peacekeepers.”
“Four,” Jim stated quietly. He had remained quiet during the debate but had chosen this moment to announce his intentions to go along on the test.
“Why?” asked Tim. “Don’t you think it’s irresponsible to risk the entire council?”
Jim shrugged and said, “I don’t think it’s much of a risk. I can swim as well as any of you. Pol says that because of the weight distribution, if anything goes wrong, the nose will be the last portion of the ship to go under, unless you go into the water nose first, and we both know that with our drives that’s unlikely.”
“Well, hell. Let’s go before half the crew of the Damroyal decides they want to go too,” Tim said, sounding irritated. But he was smiling as he said it.
Ten minutes later, Tim said, “It’s no use. Despite the safeguards being deactivated, I can’t get the ship beneath the surface. We lack the downward thrust necessary to penetrate the surface so we just keep bouncing off and ending up back in the air.” He thought a moment, and then he reached toward a control. “Maybe I should deactivate the drive, let us begin to sink, and then reactivate it.”
“No!” Pol shouted.
“Okay, Pol, there’s no need to shout. I’m just a few feet away.”
“If you deactivate the drive, it won’t reactivate under the surface because it won’t have any free space for the field to form. The emitter arrays aren’t sufficiently recessed for that sort of operation.”
“Then you’re going to have to figure out how to enable us to dive.”
“The problem is the field is modulating so rapidly that the leading edge can’t get a bite into the water. I think I can reconfigure the modulation speed, but it will be trial and error. If I slow it too much, we could slam into the surface of the water in something akin to a controlled crash.”
“That doesn’t sound encouraging,” Jim noted. He double-checked his safety harness.
“Relax, big brother. I know what I’m doing. Sort of anyway,” Tim stated with a mischievous grin.
“Pol, let me know when you’re ready to conduct the test and I’ll disable the failsafe. I turned it back on when our pilot started talking about deactivating our drive,” Patricia advised the scientist.
“Actually, I think I may have it now, but you should take it slow and easy, Tim. I advise no more than twenty miles per hour forward air speed, and you should enter the water on as straight a heading as possible. Doing so while executing a turn could cause the ship to roll over on its side or even capsize.”
“Noted,” Tim said. “Bringing us up to entry speed.”
“The failsafe is deactivated,” Patricia noted.
***
In the air near the Peacekeeper, Lina sat in the pilot’s seat of the rescue APC. She’d watched with interest as the peacekeeper flagship bounced off the surface of the water, not unlike a flat rock skipping across the surface of a pond. She saw them halt the operation and assumed that they were making adjustments.
A few minutes later, she saw the Peacekeeper begin a slow acceleration and she paced it with ease.
Lina wasn’t especially worried about Jim’s safety, even though she had plenty of misgivings about the test. She had managed to survive her fighter going into the water during the war with the pirates and felt confident that if she could do so, then those participating in the test would live to tell the tale if anything went wrong.
Another reason that Lina wasn’t worried was that she knew the occupants of the Peacekeeper would have help that she hadn’t had when she’d survived her experience. There weren’t a lot of professional divers in the peacekeepers, but there were some, and Jim had had two flown in from Florida. Those two men were now in the back of the APC in full diving gear ready to enter the water if things went badly.
However, when the Peacekeeper entered the river and sent up a huge plume of water, not even the presence of the divers could forestall a moment of sharp fear. She watched incredulously as the ship quickly disappeared beneath the surface.
Lina paced the Peacekeeper as it slipped through the water. She could see the top of the ship a few feet beneath the surface. Twice, she lost sight of the Peacekeeper as it maneuvered to sufficient depth that it disappeared in the murky water.
She followed the Peacekeeper for a half a mile, and then it broke the surface and climbed to maximum altitude. Patricia radioed that they were heading to the Damroyal for a full inspection of the ship.
In the Peacekeeper, an elated Tim said, “Now that was fun.” Turning to Pol, he added, “Your theory is now proven. Congratulations, Pol. You’ve done it again.”
“Thank you, my friend, but Patricia’s skill is largely responsible for the success of this venture. It’s her operating system that made it all possible.”
“The question is, can you design the program we need so that it’s applicable to the Damroyal?” Jim asked.
“Yes, I can do that. It’s a simple matter of a little programming,” Patricia stated modestly.
“Don’t you believe that, Jim,” Pol said. “I assure you that it is far from simple. I know I couldn’t have done it as quickly and effortlessly as she just did, and that was manual entries, executed as she needed th
em. To design a program that can do all that automatically is well beyond my capability. I’ve known only one other programmer with a skill level approaching Patricia’s and he died the night of the quakes.”
Patricia beamed with pleasure at the praise Pol heaped on her.
“You needn’t worry. I learned long ago that when you two call something simple, I should reach for a headache remedy,” Jim countered.
“I just want to do this again, only I want to do it in the sea where we have more than a few feet of clearance to test the applications,” Tim said earnestly.
***
“It’s good to see you, Dad,” Evan said as he walked into the conference room aboard the Damroyal.
“Welcome back, son,” Jim said warmly. “Cliff tells me that he was impressed by your crew as you handled the transfer of vaccine. Be sure to congratulate them on their superb performance.”
“I will thank you.”
“How’s Lisa? Is she having complications because of her pregnancy?”
“No, the morning sickness is bad, but we manage to work around that.”
“Good. The next few days are going to be hectic. I’m afraid I’m going to have to take over the Valiant so that we can get the vaccine delivered in time for our accelerated timetable.”
“I understand. I knew it was a temporary post, and there are undoubtedly more experienced men who are qualified for a ship captain’s slot before I get one.”
“Actually, I’m thinking of retaining you and your crew for the prototype, next generation ship that Pol plans to build when all of this is over. But right now we have this emergency to handle and I need the Valiant for a few days.”
“So the crew will be broken up now? We’ve flown our last mission?” Evan asked.
“No, the crew won’t be broken up. Your crew will enter advanced training courses soon. Meanwhile, I have other missions for you, Lisa, if she’s up to them, and your strike force team. Unfortunately, every ship in the fleet is about to be tied up in distributing the vaccine. That means we won’t have a patrol class ship for your team. You’ll be flying an APC for the next few days. After that, we fly everything to the rendezvous point and link up to ride out the worst of the plague.”
“All right, Dad, where are we going and when do we leave?”
“You’ll be flying two hundred thousand doses of the vaccine to the Cuban peacekeepers, and you leave in an hour, assuming your team is willing.”
“The only problem I expect is in keeping them from fighting over who gets to go.”
“Not so fast. Hear me out, because you just might change your mind when you know everything,” Jim explained.
Evan nodded his understanding, so Jim said, “Ramon requested the vaccine, but I had to turn him down because we had so little to try to distribute. With the new supply you helped recover, we’ll have all we can distribute to the various communities in the time we have remaining to us, so I’m sending the requested medical aid to Cuba. They’ve been an invaluable ally in the past and have proven critical in helping defend America from foreign aggression.”
“There are currently no fly zone orders in effect over Cuba, so I’m arranging for the Havana to meet your APC in the Dry Tortugas at Fort Jefferson.”
“That was where Uncle Tim fought a pitched battle with some pirates,” Evan commented.
“Yes, and it’s perfect for the exchange. The Havana can meet you there. They’ll remain inside the ship while your team offloads the vaccine in sealed plastic containers. Once you’ve offloaded the supply of medication, you board your APC and leave. The Cubans will exit their ship in decontamination gear and hose down the containers to kill any possible infection, and then they’ll load it and return to Cuba.”
“I understand the need for the precaution, but all my people are fine,” Evan said a bit defensively.
“I’m sure you’re right, Evan, but we won’t take any chances.”
“I understand,” Evan responded. Then he asked, “Will we be flying along the Keys?”
“Yes. That’s the safest route. We think we’ve finally rid ourselves of the pirates, but you can never know for certain. Therefore, I want your team to be especially careful on this mission.”
“I understand, sir,” Evan responded.
“Good. I don’t want you flying the keys in the dark because of the possibility of pirate stragglers so you’ll spend the night at the Miami base. Be certain to radio command here that you safely arrived. You should get there well before sundown. Have your gunner keep a vigilant watch over Florida. We’ve been hearing some bad things about what has been going on down there.”
“Are we to intervene if we see people under attack?”
Jim sighed heavily and Evan noted that he was beginning to show his age. “Do you understand the importance of your mission? That vaccine is meant to keep the Cuban people from disappearing off the face of the Earth,” Jim explained, and then he paused to study Evan’s reaction.
“Yes, I understand.”
“Then you should be able to understand the reason I’m about to give you these orders. Help those you can, but only from the air. Your flight plan calls for you to land at the Miami base and at Fort Jefferson. I expect you to obey that order. I won’t be there to enforce it, so you might be tempted to land to intervene. Just know that if you do, and then something goes wrong, two hundred thousand Cubans may have to pay the price for that decision.”
“Furthermore, if you encounter a scenario in which marauders are using any sort of missiles or rocket propelled grenades, I want you to leave that area immediately because the grenades could cause a crash, which could lead to the loss of the vaccine.”
“I understand,” Evan said quietly.
“One last thing. I know that APCs crews don’t always seal their doors. Don’t make that mistake on this trip. The plague is bad in portions of Florida and some people are doing some crazy things. A flying car tried to hijack a peacekeeper APC down there two days ago. That ended when the gunner blew it out of the sky. You bear that in mind during your trip.”
“We’ll take every precaution,” Evan assured Jim. He reached out to shake his father’s hand.
Jim shook hands with Evan and said, “Take care of my grandchild.”
“You can count on that,”
“I am,” Jim responded, and then he pulled his son into an embrace. “Good luck to you and your crew. Have Ralph carefully check the weapons and ammo supply, and you make certain you check the emergency rations of food and water.”
“I’d best hurry. It’ll take half an hour to inspect everything and I still have to break the news to the crew.”
“Oh, Evan,” Jim said as his son was about to walk out of the room.
Evan paused and turned to face him. “You should be back in Miami from Fort Jefferson by early tomorrow afternoon. You may be tempted to keep flying north because it will be a bit early in the day. Don’t. I want you to stay the night at the base and fly the rest of the way the next day. It’s too bad in northern Florida to stay the night, even if you stayed inside with the door sealed.”
“I understand, Dad.”
“No you don’t. Come here a moment,” Jim said curtly. When Evan approached, Jim opened his briefcase and pulled out a large photograph. As he studied the picture of a downed APC with a gapping hole in its port side, Evan’s eyes widened in alarm. “The last anyone heard from them they were parking at maximum altitude just outside Jacksonville, Florida so they could sleep a few hours three nights ago.”
“Did they survive?”
“No, there were no survivors. Hell, we don’t even know what did the damage, but it was obviously some sort of explosion.”
Chapter 16
Ramon was tired. He couldn’t remember having ever been so tired. But even though he was exhausted, the captain’s spirits were high because he had finally managed to deliver food to every home in the city. At each home, he had knocked on the door, yelled that he had left food for the occupants, and then
he quickly boarded the sled, and moved on to the next home. That task had taken him fifteen hours of nonstop work.
He flew the sled to the edge of town and parked it near the remaining provisions. It was late, and he was hungry, but he was too tired to prepare a meal. Instead, he sipped water from his canteen and ate a pack of hard crackers from an MRE. He washed those down with another few sips of water, and then he went about setting up his camp for the night.
Although the night wasn’t cold, Ramon lit the fire he’d prepared earlier in the day during one of his frequent resupply trips to the stockpile of food. The Havana had delivered the provisions to feed the people of the city. He wanted the fire to keep any potential predators away during the night.
Ramon unfolded an old canvas tarp and spread it over three sections of the side rails of the sled. He scooped up sand with his bare hands and weighted down the edges to hold the canvas in place. When he had completed that task, the sled was covered with the exception of one end, which he’d left open as an entrance. The Cuban captain crawled inside the open end of the sled. It was a warm night so he just lay down on his bedroll, certain that he’d be asleep within moments. But it took a long time for Ramon to fall asleep, and when he did, he dreamed of the people that he’d heard coughing inside their homes as he delivered food that day.
The next morning, Ramon realized that he must have slept too soundly. He had heard no one near him, but he found a thermos and a small pot of freshly made stew sitting on the ground about twenty feet from the open end of the shelter. Looking around him quickly, he spotted a distant figure of a woman walking away at a slow pace. Whoever the lady was, she was headed back toward the center of town. As the captain watched her walk away, the lady stopped, turned to face his camp, and then raised a hand to wave before hobbling away on her cane.
“Thank you!” Ramon shouted after the retreating figure.
Curious as to the contents of the thermos, Ramon opened it and saw a dark black liquid. His sense of smell told him that the thermos contained coffee. Smiling in contentment, he poured some of the precious liquid into the cap of the thermos and tasted it. His eyes widened in surprise, as he tasted the brew. It was pure coffee when he had expected one of the weakened blends that most people now drank. He realized then that the old woman had probably saved the coffee for years and was now sharing it with him.