Finished with his daughters, he turned to General Zarman, informing him, “You realize that there will now be a lot of interest from your friends back at the Pentagon. I wouldn’t put it past them to attempt reactivating you. I want to work with them. We have a lot to sell them, but no way, let me repeat, no way, are we going to give Earth a full technology package. We’ll ease them into it. I have some ideas. You, Kary and Justice meet with me in the morning after I run. We need to plan exactly what we will offer them militarily and when. I plan to give them about a week or two to wonder what I’m up to and then go see the President. I need to have our plan in order by then. God Bless Verron!”
Chapter 27
The next morning, while Paul was on his run with Katelyn, Chase, Daniel, Tala and 99, Prince Hon IV arrived at Air Command Headquarters looking for Amber. He had been searching around the shipyard even before she arrived at work and was frustrated by what he had found, or rather by what he didn’t find. Hon, accompanied by two of his aviators and two commandoes, was looking for a ship he could use for target practice. Hon and Daniel had been working on some new armor piercing ammunition designed for his 12.7mm and 25mm weapons. He was disappointed that Verron had no scrap vessels or discontinued ships for him to use. With Hunter and Vlad gone, Amber decided to see if Camil was knowledgeable enough, through her travels, to know where something might be available. After one call, a bored Camil made a jump to Amber’s office and strutted in as a perfect Angelina Jolie, dressed in dark-gray commando garb and her hair in a French braid. Amber shook her head, partially envious that Camil could be anyone she wished and partly disgusted that she had chosen someone so over publicized. After a few minutes of discussing what Hon was looking for, Camil replied, “Vlad told me that on Earth there are several places that scrap ships; Bangladesh, Pakistan, China and a few more countries, they call it Ship Breaking or Ship Demolition. Basically they remove anything of value from an old ship and then dismantle it section by section to retrieve the scrap metal. They will anchor derelict ships off-shore until they have room to move them into the demolition area. One of those ships would be perfect, if we had a way of getting one.” Hon replied, “I need more than one. I need at least two if possible.”
Amber asked, “Lucy, can you get into an Earth satellite and find me a Ship Breaking Yard?” There was a pause and Lucy, answered, “There are several that I found listed on the Internet. The largest is Bangladesh, but Jiangyin, China appears to have a greater number of ships awaiting demolition.” Camil asked, “Can you get us a holographic image Lucy?” There was another pause and a holographic image began to appear on the desk in front Amber. Hon IV commented, “I really have got to get me one these computers.” Amber gasped and the image disappeared. Hon looked confused. Amber immediately said, “Lucy, he didn’t know. Will you forgive him if he never says it again?” Camil turned to Hon, saying, “On Verron she is never called a computer. Lucy is officially classified as a person. She is the most advanced AI in the Universe and takes offence at being classified as a mere computer.” Hon immediately said, “I’m sorry Lucy I really didn’t know.” The holographic image reappeared. Hon shook his head in disbelief and muttered, “Women.”
There were dozens of derelict ships anchored along the shore of the Yangtze River and almost as many dry-docked for breaking. Two ships were actually being towed away from the junkyard and back out to sea. Camil pointed and asked, “What’s up with that? Why would they be taking dead ships back out to sea?” Lucy once again replied, “According to Chinese Navy Communications, the two ships are being towed out in order to be used as target practice by the Chinese Navy.” Amber smiled and said, “Perfect! That means that those two ships will be way out to sea and away from the heavily populated city and I know just how we can get them both at once.”
Bob Fu was the pastor of an underground Christian Church in Jiangyin, China. He had been ordered numerous times by the Chinese Communist Government to disband his small congregation and worship in the state run Three Self Church, with the approved pastors all being trained at the same government operated seminary, there was nothing even close to Christianity being taught at the Three Self Church. In fact, as Bob Fu persisted in his preaching, he had been jailed, beaten and most recently he and most members of the congregation, known by the local government, had been shut out of their jobs and thrown out of the state owned housing. Now 36 people were homeless and hungry and attempting to stay alive the best way they could, while hiding from the police who were trumping-up charges on them in order to send them to prison.
One member of Bob Fu’s congregation had worked at the Jiangyin Ship Demolition Yard and was able to find the 36 of them a place to live temporarily in one of the ships awaiting destruction. It had just arrived recently and would be there for a month or more before breaking crews would get to it. They had just eaten a meal of rice with a few bits of chicken in it and were now passing the one and only Chinese Translation of the Bible from reader to reader and enjoying their time of evening worship together. A ship yard is a noisy place and no one paid any attention to nearby motors or clanging of chains or banging steel. But when the ship they were in began to move, so slowly at first it was hardly even noticeable, they became alarmed. Two young men raced from deep in the cargo hold to the ladders and stairs that would take them to a good observation point. What they saw made their hearts almost stop. There were armed Chinese soldiers walking on the deck of the ship casually talking and enjoying a cigarette. The ship was being towed by two Chinese Navy tugboats in an easterly direction down the Yangtze River; they were headed out to sea. In a panic, the two young men hurried back below deck as quickly and quietly as possible.
When Pastor Fu was informed what was happening, he and two of the elders debated a few minutes but agreed, it was better to be discovered now than to be stranded in the ocean in a helpless freighter. They decided to approach the armed guards and suffer the consequences of being charged with trespassing or vagrancy, but knew they needed to get to shore. The three men made their presence known while still far away from the armed sentries, then walked out of the ships hatch with their hands high above their heads and hands exposed. The Navy sentries held them at gun point while they explained their situation. After debating with each other for a few minutes the commander of the group got on his radio to explain the circumstances to his commanding officer. Of course, he was not about to make a decision about stopping a ship being towed that had been ordered from much higher up than him. He immediately put in a call to his company commander, who put in a call to the fleet commander.
Fleet Commander of the 7th Fleet, Admiral Zheng, was a devout and devoted member of the Chinese Communist Party. He remembered the good old days when Christians could be shot or imprisoned without question. When he heard that he had 36 of the annoying people on board a ship that was destined to be used as target practice for the DH-10 Tactical Cruise Missile, the Chinese version of a Tomahawk Missile, he had no doubt he was doing China a favor by eliminating all of them at once. He ordered the company commander to secure the criminals in the cargo hold of the ship and hold them there until 0600 in the morning. At that time he and his men would be evacuated from the two ships that should by that time be anchored far out in the East China Sea.
When the word came to the Navy security team aboard the ship, they did not hesitate to make their commander happy by enthusiastically obeying their orders. Bob Fu and the elders were clubbed with rifle butts and manhandled to the cargo area where the rest of the congregation was awaiting their return. The women and children began to cry and the men were about to rush the soldiers when the blooded pastor and elders entered the cargo hold, but with Chinese made AK-47 rifles pointed at them by men who would love to use them, they restrained themselves. Surrounded by their captors, they went back to reading their Bible and praying; praying that God would either rescue them or let them come home to be with Jesus.
Amber and her crew grabbed two more airmen that were being trained by
Amber and headed for the R4. She decided that since they were going to be far away from the prying eyes of major population areas and under the cover of darkness, she could fly in, steel the two five hundred foot long freighters and fly out before the sun came up and so what if they were seen by a few eyes, they had already exposed themselves to the World, and besides, no one would miss a couple of derelict ships. She had just made the trip and knew exactly what needed to be done. Hon IV and his commandoes would be responsible for cutting the anchor lines, her two assistants would operate the tractor-beams and Camil was thrilled to be her copilot. They’d get the ships, make a quick jump to Klelta to unload them and head directly back to Verron. She doubted anyone would even miss the ships or notice they were gone. As soon as everyone was on board, Amber exited Verron airspace and made a gateway to the dark side of Earth. She turned on her radar jamming device and wished they had installed the cloaking reactors on the ship already. They were entering the air above the East China Sea at 0145 local time. With the ships IR and Night-vision capabilities it was easy to determine which vessels were dead. There were heat transmissions from every ship for 100 miles. In the center of the restricted zone were two idle hunks of steel. It was unfortunately a perfectly clear, star-filled night with a beautiful full moon. Amber thought, “No matter, we’ll be in and out before anyone knows we’re here.” The two Klelta commandoes who were going to board the ships and cut the anchor chains were already in their body armor with their 5 foot long Klelta made sword across their back. They looked like Ninjas from Hell as they hung from the open retrieval doors. To save time, Amber approached with the retrieval doors already open. As soon as she was positioned over the first ship, with the bottom of the cargo door about 150 feet above the ship’s deck, the first commando jumped. Immediately following him, about 2 miles further away, she lined up for the second jumper.
The sight of a 9 foot tall Ninja with a 5 foot long sword was enough to scare anyone. The Chinese Sentries were no exception. There were only four on deck of each ship and they were soon opening fire on the giant intruder and trying to radio in their situation to the small patrol boat parked somewhere near the two ships. The Klelta simply ignored the gun fire and headed directly to the stern and bow anchor chains. In one swing each, the chains quickly fell into the sea. He gave the signal and the ship began to rise. Four Chinese sentries dove over the side of the ship when they looked up to see a hovering monster drawing the ship skyward. The second ship was where the patrol boat had decided to anchor. He spotted the R4 before it got there and opened fire with a 12.7 mm Heavy Machine Gun. The Klelta commando was not bothered by it or the 7.62 rounds from the rifles on board. He had just cut the chains and was calling for his pick-up when two more guards ran from below deck and began to shoot, wondering where their friends who had already jump overboard had gone. One of the fool-hearted men actually jumped on the Klelta’s back and tried to subdue him, but when he realized that the ship was being drawn up into the cavernous opening above, he joined his friends in the surrounding sea. In minutes, both ships were secured and Amber was on her way out of the Earth’s atmosphere, headed for Klelta. She didn’t waste any time on her arrival and had Hon IV direct her to where he wanted to place the two ships for his target practice. They hovered over a quarry that was backed by an 8000 foot solid rock wall. The two ships were placed about a mile apart, Hon gave Amber and Camil a hug and he and his commandoes jumped to the ground. Within an hour Amber, Camil and her two assistants were back at the Air Force command center. No one even noticed they were gone.
Pastor Fu waited for over 12 hours before he and one of the young men ventured to the deck of the now motionless ship. He had heard the shooting, felt the ship moving and then a long silence. Then once again the ship moved and must have hit something, because there was a loud bang as it came to a halt and it was leaning at a strange angle, as if it had run aground. When he cautiously crept to the edge of the ship and looked over the railing he wondered if God had taken the congregation and the ship to Heaven. He was overlooking a high rock wall behind him, but in the distance were huge trees and forests, snow-capped mountains and a river almost to the horizon. He could see no people, buildings or animals anywhere around, the Chinese soldiers were gone and he scratched his head totally puzzled about how he could have been suddenly transported miles from the nearest ocean. He sent the younger man below to get the others so they could see where they were and help him make some sense of it. In no time there was 36 men, women and children staring over the edge of the ship wondering how in the world they got there and how on Earth they were going to get down to the ground. As their attention was on the forest and distant river, the sun seemed to go behind a cloud and they were in a shadow. No one paid it much attention until one of the children began to tug at his mother’s skirt and begin talking in very fast Cantonese. Like any mother, she at first tried to ignore the babbling four-year-old. Then she turned to see what he was going on about.
The scream got every ones attention immediately and as one they turned around. There behind them was 9 foot tall Prince Hon IV, smiling from fang to fang. He tried to speak to the little people in Klelta and Xhondarian and then remembered his English. Pastor Bob Fu could understand enough to recognize friend and safe and food when Hon said, “I don’t know who you are, but I am a friend and you’re not in any danger, your safe here. Are you hungry; do you have any food?” Hon noticed one of the ladies holding out her cross, as if she were warding off a Vampire. Hon recognized it immediately and pulled his from under his gray commando shirt. It was gold with emeralds, given to him by Paul Verron when he became a Christian. He then noticed one of the elders holding a ragged looking Bible. Hon reached into his utility pouch and produced a full-sized NIV Bible. In his hand it looked like a pocket sized New Testament. When he showed it to the Chinese they began to laugh, cry and praise God at the same time, thinking, if this is Heaven, then God is full of many surprises.
In a short while twenty more of the big men came to the ship. They helped the little people off and helped carry their meager possessions. Everything and everyone was loaded into the back of one of the big Klelta troop transports and took off across the forest. No one could see where they were going, but it was a short flight. When the rear cargo/troop gate opened they were looking at a compound of very attractive stone buildings surrounded by lush green grass, trees and concrete sidewalks and drives. The building in front of them looked like a dormitory of some kind. They were escorted into the building by Hon and realized that it must have been a military barracks at one time. There was room for hundreds of people. There was a dining hall and a huge kitchen full of pots and pans and even a walk in freezer full of food. The place looked like it had been abandoned for a while, but was still in good repair, just a little dusty. The children of course were checking out every room and soon found bathrooms, showers and comfortable beds for everyone. Hon smiled at the group and said, “This is yours. Make it your home. I will try to take good care of you.” Pastor Fu understood what he said pretty well. He knew it wasn’t Heaven, but he was also certain, God had brought them safely here for a reason.
The ladies began to clean to the place. The children hurried outside to see what was there. The men checked out the accommodations and realized that they were nicer than any they had ever seen. They found some food they didn’t recognize in the freezers and storage pantry. They managed to make some bread, find some canned meats to eat and something that resembled beans. That evening they gathered around one of the barracks common areas and sat on comfortable chairs and sofas as they read the Bible and prayed and sang praises to the God who had delivered them from certain death. Who knew what he had planned?
Admiral Zheng was infuriated. He had two Type 052D Luhai-Class Destroyers in route to the East China Sea to test their targeting system and their newly designed cruise missile. Now he had no targets to shoot. He had the 12 man Naval Security detail standing before him and felt they had been drunk or on a hallucinogen, te
lling stories of giant black Ninjas with 6 foot long swords that could cut anchor-chains in one swing. Who were bullet proof and jumped from the sky. They even told the Admiral that the derelict ships had flown away into the sky and were swallowed by a gigantic spaceship. He had personally taken control of the investigation and kept it as quiet as possible, but he wasn’t certain what he was going to tell the High Command when he had to postpone the trials until he could get two more ships. He decided to have the dozen men involved transferred to a small listening outpost on an island near the Nansha Islands, known to the rest of the World as the Spratly Islands. He would then tell his commander that the two ships were in such bad shape that they had sunk on their own. He would personally make certain the next two ships used for target practice were more sea worthy. In fact he intended to use two decommissioned People’s Liberation Army Naval Force battleships in their place. He silently blamed those Christians for what had happened. He had no idea what they had done, but he was certain it was them who were responsible for this embarrassing situation. After all, they were the only ones present other than the Navy Security Team. It had to be them.
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