The Peacekeepers. Books 7 - 9 (The Peacekeepers Boxset Book 3)

by Ricky Sides

  Ramon’s report concluded that to the best of his knowledge, Australia and Greenland were the only appreciable landmasses that had been spared the ravages of the plague.

  Next, Ramon laid out the negative manner in which America was now viewed by the rest of the population of the world. Even though America had done everything it could to prevent the spread of the vile disease, an inescapable truth was that the Americans were the ones who had spread it. In the United Kingdom, there had calls for the Royal Navy to destroy the auto manufacturing capability of the United States, as well as the foundry where the Huxley alloy was manufactured. Ramon speculated that he doubted the officers in charge of their air ships had been ordered to attempt such an invasion and limited warfare, but that he could not be certain that there was no truth to the radio chatter concerning a buildup of the air assets before the radios went quiet.

  In closing, Ramon summed up what he had already explained to Evan. Though the Cuban people had requested the vaccine, so many had lost family members to it that now there was a growing anti-American sentiment on the island, and as a consequence, he advised no more American peacekeeper vessels approach Cuba until the situation stabilized.

  Jim detected bitterness and a deep sadness in Ramon’s closing paragraphs as he read, “Admiral, through no fault of your own, I am afraid that the majority of my people now blame the American Peacekeepers for spreading the disease to Cuba.”

  “This is terribly unfair to you and the rest of the council. You advised us not to use the vaccine unless it was strictly necessary. Unfortunately, the governing body of Havana opted to use it while I was at Cabo de San Antonio. The base Commander at El Morro felt he had no choice, but to distribute the vaccine to the people when they expressed their desire to use it.”

  “The people of Havana were generous with the vaccine. They saw to it that it was distributed to the outlying communities, but they neglected to explain the safest methods of using it. Because of their ignorance, those people stayed confined in large groups. When the twenty percent who took the medicine, sickened, they were not isolated, as they should have been, and they spread the plague to the rest of the people of those smaller settlements before the immunization could take effect.”

  “The inhabitants of Havana fared better. However, most knew or were related to people who perished, if not in Havana, then in the outlying districts. Through their own foolish actions, my people have incurred a guilt that is too great to bear, so they shamefully turn their anger toward you. It pains me to say that even among the ranks of the Cuban peacekeepers; there are those who now despise the Americans who have done so much for us in the past.”

  “I have spoken to my crew and to the fighter pilots. We are all prepared to fly to the base of your choosing and surrender our peacekeeper aircraft. I feel there is a growing tide of resentment that will ultimately culminate in an attempt on the part of the hostile faction to seize these assets. If we do this, we will need asylum for a time until the hatred and anger abate.”

  “I respectfully await the council’s decision, my friend. Please don’t take too long. I fear the time is rapidly approaching when these decisions may be taken out of our hands.”

  “Damn,” Jim said in frustration. He got up and walked out of the office and down the hall to the control room of the Damroyal.

  “Lieutenant, send an encoded message to Captain Marino of the Havana. Tell him that I am ordering all Cuban air assets to report to the Damroyal at once for an extended mission. Also, you are to advise him that he will be fully supplied when he reaches the Damroyal, so he is not to waste any time getting supplies from stores.”

  “All air assets, sir?” asked the lieutenant, thinking he had misspoken.

  “All, Lieutenant. I realize that leaves Cuba without air cover. That can’t be helped. Call them in immediately.”

  “Yes, sir. Sorry, sir,” she responded.

  “Don’t apologize. You were right to question the order. It is highly unusual to strip an area of all air cover.” Pausing and giving her time to transmit the message, he waited for a reply.

  A moment later, she turned to the Admiral and said, “Sir, Captain Marino says to inform you that they are already en route and expect to land on the Damroyal in a few hours.”

  The lieutenant paused to listen again. Jim noted that her face paled as she listened. “He is standing near me. One moment, Captain,” she said.

  Turning to Jim, she said, “Sir, you’d better take this in your office.”

  “Tell him I’ll be a few moments getting there,” he responded and then he turned and walked out of the control room.

  When he reached his office, Jim sat down and pressed the intercom. “Transfer the communication to my office, Lieutenant,” he ordered.

  A moment later, Jim said, “Ramon, are you there?”

  “I am, Admiral. I’m afraid I didn’t have time to wait for your decision. Two hours after the Valiant departed, a group of peacekeepers tried to take control of the air assets. Other peacekeepers intervened and forced them back, but the base commander approached me and said he thought I needed to remove the temptation from Cuba. I agreed with his decision, and so now we are men and women without a country.”

  “The Damroyal will expect you. Your people have a country here if you want it. However, I know you, Ramon, and I believe I know enough about your people to say this with a degree of certainty. The time will come when you and the people with you will return to Cuba.”

  There was a sound of renewed hope in Ramon’s voice when he said, “My friend, I have seldom known you to be wrong. I will pray that you are right in this. On behalf of my people, I thank you for granting us sanctuary in our darkest hour.”

  “My friend, you are doing the right thing. Keeping those assets against the will of the Council would have been an act of war. This isn’t your darkest hour. It’s the exact opposite. In my view, this is your brightest.”

  “Thank you, my friend. I’ll see you aboard the Damroyal.”

  “I’ll meet you on the flight deck,” Jim promised and then he said goodbye.

  Pressing the intercom again, Jim said, “Lieutenant, tell the flight bay to expect another thirty fighters in a few hours. The flight control officer needs to decide how many of those he can accommodate in his bay.”

  “Yes, Admiral, I anticipated that and made an inquiry. The Lieutenant said that with so many fighters on extended patrols, taking them all aboard in the flight bay shouldn’t be an issue.”

  “Good work, Lieutenant,” Jim said and then he glanced at his watch.

  He still had twenty-five minutes before his scheduled rendezvous with his wife. He took ten minutes of that time composing a brief message explaining what had just transpired, and then he dropped that off in the control room for communications to send to Tim and Pol.

  ***

  “Yes it can be done. It’s not a matter of whether or not it can be done. It’s a matter of should you do it, and I have to advise you as your physician that I think it’s a terrible risk. You know the damage to your uterus inflicted in Salina is such that carrying a baby to term could be a serious threat to your health. That’s probably why you haven’t conceived. In this case, I think your body knows what’s best for you. As your physician, it’s my responsibility to inform you that this could kill you.”

  “I want this, Maggie,” Lina said adamantly. “If it will make you feel better, I’ll sign a release stating that I am asking for the treatment, despite your opinion that it’s too risky.”

  Pausing to stare at Maggie, she added, “I wanted you, because you’re the best, but if you won’t help me, I’ll just find someone who will. My mind is made up, Doctor. Help me. Please.”

  Maggie vented a protracted sigh. “How does Jim feel about this?” she asked.

  “He doesn’t know and I’d rather not get his hopes up. You know his history. It’d just be another disappointment.”

  Maggie smiled at that point, thinking she had an easy way out, and
then she said, “Then I’m afraid no one can help you. Without his contribution, it is impossible. Unless of course, you wanted another donor, and I’ll tell you right now, I won’t participate in that. I won’t do that to Jim.”

  “Hell no, I don’t want another donor. It has to be his child, and I have what you need,” Lina explained as she pulled a test tube that was filled with white fluid from her undergarments.

  “I’m not even going to ask you how you got that,” Maggie stated with a twinkle of amusement in her eyes, “But how old is it?”

  “It’s fresh, Doc. I wouldn’t have brought it to you if it wasn’t.”

  “You must have done your homework.”

  “I did and I made the poor man abstain for a week to ensure a good sperm count.”

  Despite her opposition to the plan, Maggie laughed, and said, “Oh, that’s bad. It’s sort of funny, but it’s bad.”

  Smiling, Lina added, “He thinks I was having bad headaches all week.”

  Sensing that Maggie was now considering her plan, Lina asked, “So you’ll help me?”

  “Yes, I’ll help you, but only if you reconsider talking to Jim about this plan. I’ve known him a long time, and I think he’ll be hurt that you didn’t include him in the decision making process,” she added thoughtfully. “I’m not demanding that you tell him. I just want you to reconsider the matter.”

  Seeing the stubborn look on Lina’s face, Maggie shook her head in exasperation. “You don’t have to decide right now. I’ll take care of the sample,” she said and she took the vial from Lina’s outstretched hand.

  “Thank you, Doctor. So, when do I start taking the fertility drug?” she asked.

  “You really did do you homework, didn’t you?”

  “I told you, I’m serious about this.”

  “Yes, I can see that your mind is made up. All right, if we’re going to do this, let’s do it right. I’ll put the sample away and be right with you. Disrobe and put on the examination gown, please.”

  Maggie took the sample and walked out of the small examination room, closing the door behind her as she left.

  Lina smiled as she disrobed. She was happy, because if Maggie handled things she felt her chances of becoming pregnant via in vitro fertilization were greatly improved.

  Maggie returned moments later and began her examination. “Damn, Doc, that’s cold,” Lina complained as the cold chest piece of the stethoscope touched the bare skin of her chest.

  “Good,” said Maggie with an angelic smile. “I’ve got the camera tube we’ll need in a few minutes in the refrigerator,” she quipped, causing Lina to laugh because she thought Maggie was joking.

  When Maggie inserted the camera tube a few minutes later, Lina thought that she hadn’t been joking after all.

  “I’m sorry, I know it’s cold and uncomfortable, but we need to determine if this is even feasible,” Maggie stated as she stared at the live video footage of Lina’s uterus on the monitor. As she studied the old damage inflicted on the woman’s body when King Tom had held her captive in Salina, Maggie’s heart went out to her. She could readily see the problem. Evidently, the bastard had used foreign objects on her to amuse himself and there was extensive scar tissue.

  Prior to the night of the quakes, Maggie wouldn’t have been able to help Lina, but in the intervening years, Maggie had been forced by necessity to expand her medical skills to include several fields, and this was one of them. Lina was right; she was the best physician in the peacekeepers when it came to this particular problem. As the doctor studied the damage that had been inflicted on Lina’s uterus, she knew she couldn’t refuse to help her patient.

  That portion of the examination seemed to Lina to last an eternity, but eventually she felt the invasive presence of the tube leave her body.

  “I can easily see why you’ve never conceived, but I think that if we can successfully implant you, then you’ll be able to carry the baby to term. It all depends upon whether or not the egg attaches to the wall of your uterus. However, it will be risky. We’ll most likely need to do a cesarean section. Frankly, I think it would kill you to have a normal delivery.”

  Pulling off her gloves, Maggie added, “Think about what I said about discussing this with Jim. He’s going to be hurt if you don’t.”

  “Then you’ll help me?”

  “Yes, I will. It’s your right to decide if you want to try. A lot of people are opting for pregnancy now. I think maybe they feel they should, what with so much of the population gone.”

  “Oh, I haven’t told you yet, but it’s worse than we thought,” Lina told Maggie as she began to get dressed.

  “What’s worse?” Maggie asked absently as she made notes on Lina’s chart.

  “Jim just found out from Ramon that the plague went worldwide.”

  Maggie dropped the chart and stared at Lina in shock.

  ***

  At 10:00 p.m. that night, Pol walked along the length of the port side of the outer hull of the new ship. He had just spent hours inspecting the vessel, and everything looked good to his practiced eye. The ship building crew was taking great pains with their portions of the construction. They always did their best on every ship they built, but this time, they were building one that would serve Evan and Lisa.

  When the Peacekeeper was at Base 1, the two young people had often visited the shipyards. They would usually bring baskets laden with food that they’d wheedle out of the cook, because they knew the ship building crew often neglected to break for lunch. While the workers ate, the pair of young people often entertained them with stories of the adventures they had experienced on the latest missions of the Peacekeeper. That they had slightly embellished the stories to include fantasy adventures they dreamed up hadn’t bothered the crew who thought it amusing.

  Now those two kids had grown up, married, and were about to get their own ship and the construction crew was going all out to see that everything was perfect.

  The construction crew wasn’t alone in taking a hand in the development of the ship. Patricia had an extra desk installed in the couple’s cabin and built the computer that would sit on it. She knew that occasionally, Lisa had sleepless nights, so she wanted to give her access to a computer to have something to occupy her time.

  Tim had spoken to the interior team who was working on the crew quarters. He had them omit the extra bunks along the wall of Lisa and Evan’s cabin and install a larger bed. The desks were moved down to the area near the foot of the bed in order to install the king sized bed. It was the largest bed installed in any ship in the fleet, but Tim understood that there were times that Lisa needed her space.

  Lina had called in some favors and in a series of seven trade deals, she had gotten the ship a large screen television for the mess hall, which would double as an entertainment room. Bill Young had done that with the Constitution, and Lina had thought that was a splendid arrangement.

  Maggie had seen to it that the infirmary was well provisioned with anything they were likely to need, including an incubator for a baby and an assortment of prenatal care equipment.

  Now, as Pol examined the ship, he was wracking his brain in search of an idea that would help upgrade the ship in some way to make it better serve the crew. It already had an additional wall included in the hull, which should help it survive any conceivable attack. The weapons and navigation packages were shielded better than the Constitution, and they should survive an electromagnetic pulse on the order of what they had faced against the pirates. The new drive configuration would enable the ship to accelerate to a speed that was faster than anything else in the fleet was.

  Pol also knew the weapons package of the ship would be identical to that of the Constitution, and that was about as good as it could get for a ship her size. It just wouldn’t have the surface area available to fire the Damroyal style shotgun weapon. Unless he could somehow increase the surface area, and that was impossible because the outer hull of the ship had already been constructed. Then Pol stopped and
stood still as his mind was lost in thought. In fact, he stood still thinking for so long that the head of his strike force team, who was acting as his bodyguard during the inspection, asked, “Sir, are you all right?”

  “What? Oh, yes. I’m sorry. We need to get to my workshop. I’ll be sleeping there on the cot tonight after I finish my work. You can go ahead and retire for the night if you like.”

  “I’ll see you to the workshop and arrange a guard detail, sir. The Admiral was adamant that you be properly protected.”

  “I see, well in that case, let’s get to the workshop. I have a lot of work to do tonight.”

  Pol worked for hours on the new plans. At one point, he called in his sleepy-eyed assistants and put them to work on a set of complex mathematical problems. The two men soon forgot their sleepiness as they began to understand just what it was their boss was working to achieve, and the potential that the modifications would give the ship.

  Pol’s plan was simple. In fact, it was so simple that the assistants wondered why no one had ever considered it in the past. When they finished the math computations, both men went to work helping Pol who was already attaching the improvements to the scale model that he had brought to Base 1 inside his APC. They added the SR-71 Blackbird style, curved port and starboard fuselage sections, which wrapped around and met at the nose of the vessel. Then they added two vertical fins to the aft third of the ship. Those fins would be eight feet tall on the new ship.

  All three of the men were justifiably excited. The alterations would cause the ship to recharge an estimated seven to twelve percent faster, depending on the atmospheric conditions at the time. They would also improve the aerodynamics, which should improve acceleration, top speed, and maneuverability. Hopefully, to the point that the ship would be able to perform a slip maneuver, which was something the Constitution couldn’t do.