“I’ll take care of it right away. Have fun at dinner.”
“Where do you want to go?” Marc asked Catie.
“How about Riki’s Waikiki.”
“That’s pretty rich. You’re developing expensive tastes hanging out with rich people.”
“Oh, I didn’t know. We can go somewhere else. I just remember Jackie saying her friend was going to take her there.”
“That’s okay. We’ll need to get you home so you can change. Do you want to take a short nap first?”
“No, why would I need a nap? A shower, yes, but a nap, no,” Catie said as she grabbed her father’s hand and started pulling him toward their condo.
“I guess when you sleep in until noon, you wouldn’t need a nap,” Marc said.
“I had to be up early to crew,” Catie said.
“Did Blake have to pound on your door to get you up?”
“No. I set my alarm,” Catie said.
“Why doesn’t that work at home?”
“I don’t set an alarm at home,” Catie said.
“I give up. So, what were your duties?” Marc asked as he walked beside his daughter.
“Oh, I was the server for when they ate. And did a lot of fetch and carry. They sure were forgetful. I was always having to go to the room to get something they left behind.”
“Did you clean their rooms?”
“Thank god no,” Catie groaned. “Datu’s mother took care of that.”
“There’s no shame in doing a little maid work.”
“I know, but not for those people,” Catie gasped. “The wives complained about everything. They’d misplace something and blame Mrs. Hayashi. And then we’d find it after only three minutes.”
◆ ◆ ◆
The phone rang as Marc was making breakfast for Catie and himself. He put it on speaker as he flipped the bacon.
“How was your workout last night?”
“Didn’t get as hammered as I had planned,” Blake said. “Jackie, that friend of Catie’s, called. She wanted to know if we were going out sometime where she and her friends could tag along.”
“That’s nice of her.”
“Yeah. I told her we were going out this weekend to do some diving. That got her interested. She said Catie told her you were going to teach her to scuba dive, wanted to know if they could tag along and get lessons, too.”
“That would be okay. Are they going to be able to come to the pool on Friday to do the first day?”
“I mentioned that. She said she could, but had to check with her friend. Says her friend has a thirteen-year-old daughter who might want to learn, too. She also has a friend that already is a certified diver. She’ll be coming with them on the boat.”
“Okay, let me know. Make sure they go to the dive shop to get the right-size equipment.”
“I told her we have a deal at Kahili’s dive shop and called to alert him that she might be coming in.”
“Okay, I’ll let Catie know as soon as she’s out of the shower,” Marc said with a tad of annoyance in his voice.
“Been in there a while?”
“Yeah, like thirty minutes now. And she’s only twelve. How long is she going to take when she’s fifteen?”
“Not my problem,” Blake said. “Hey, how is this Jackie chick?”
“She seemed like a really nice person.”
“And ……”
“And what?”
“What does she look like?”
“I’d say she was pretty hot, too,” Marc laughed.
“Great to hear Catie has a good eye. Talk to you later.”
When he hung up the phone, Marc could tell that the shower had quit running. He started scrambling the eggs as he slid the bacon off the burner. By the time he had finished the eggs, Catie came into the kitchen with her wet hair pulled back in a ponytail.
“Morning, Daddy. Was that Uncle Blake?”
“Yes, he says Jackie called about going out with us this weekend. Seems she and a friend would like to learn to dive.”
“That’s cool.”
“Her friend has a daughter your age.”
Catie shrugged her shoulder and tilted her head that way. “Are they going to do the pool training?”
“He’s checking. Why no enthusiasm about another kid your age?”
“I don’t get along that well with kids,” Catie said.
“Why not?”
“Boring, I guess.”
“You or them?”
“Both probably.”
“You could make more of an effort,” Marc suggested.
“Why?”
“Friends are important,” Marc said. “A lot of things get done through relationships.”
“Huh,” Catie said.
Marc sighed. “Eat your breakfast, and we’ll go get your dive gear. Then what do you want to do?”
“Can we go to the beach and body surf?”
“Sure.”
“Hey, who were you talking to last night?” Catie asked.
“Nobody,” Marc replied, giving Catie a skeptical look.
“I heard you.”
“I must have been dictating to the computer, finishing up my presentation. We’re going to do a survey while we’re out.”
“Cool, does that mean we’ll have Willie with us?”
“Yes.”
“Can I drive him?”
“Sure, when we’re not doing part of the survey.”
◆ ◆ ◆
After dinner, Marc and Catie watched a movie, then he sent her off to bed while he went back to work on his Hyperion presentation. After three hours, he and ADI had everything ready; they just needed to insert the data after they made the survey with the new sonar dish.
“ADI, please retrieve message three,” Marc said.
“Yes, Captain. It is now in your folder,” ADI replied.
“Thank you,” Marc said, then he pressed the comm off. He opened the file and pressed play. Dr. Metra’s voice and image came up in his display.
“Captain, I hope you have been able to internalize everything I’ve told you. It is essential that you proceed with caution. You have enough power under your control to destroy your world, or to remake it into a wonderful space-faring civilization. When you entered the ship, you were tested. You should remember the questions and the long series of images you were shown. The DI read your biometrics while you viewed them. Based on your responses, it was judged that you would be a good person to give control of the ship to. If your responses had not been acceptable, you would have been ejected from the ship, then the ship moved. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.
“My civilization is called Paraxea. We have only encountered twelve other sentient species; in fact, we have discovered only eight hundred worlds that can even sustain life as we know it. Of the twelve sentient species, only four, one of which is your world, have satellite technology. The others range from Stone Age to early postindustrial. The first satellite civilizations we encountered had progressed a long way. They have fully colonized their solar system. However, they were uninterested in interstellar travel given the vast distances and the decades of travel time. We acquired an enormous trove of technology from them in trade. We gave them hundreds of quantum-coupled relays and access to our other technologies in exchange for their technologies. However, we withheld the technology to make quantum relays. Our scientists were still trying to integrate some of their technologies when I left Paraxea for your planet.
“The second satellite civilization we encountered had progressed to interstellar travel to about the same degree as we have. We encountered them one hundred of your years ago, and we reached an uneasy peace with them. We were able to trade some of our technology for some of theirs, but in general, we avoid each other. The other two satellite civilizations we discovered were at approximately the same level of development as your world. We are continuing to track their progress. The pre-satellite civilizations did not have any technology that we found useful, so like yours, the
y are on the watch list. There are more than enough empty systems to provide resources for us; thus, we are only interested in technology or other knowledge that might spring forth from unique minds.
“Our mission here was to study and extract what existing technology and knowledge we could find in this world. We were then to watch and determine how it was developing. We have noted that because of your political splintering and your advanced weaponry, your civilization is not expected to survive nor move beyond your home planet. We were instructed to wait and observe for another one hundred years. We do this by rotating the crew through stasis, keeping a small team awake while the rest are in suspension.
“The DI, ADI, has within its memory all the information we have gathered from your world, as well as all the information from our world and what was shared with us by the other worlds, especially the space-faring worlds. We use that to compare and contrast the various technologies in order to identify any that are of special interest. You have access to this information, and I’m sure you can see how powerful that will be. As you query this from the DI, you need to be cautious about who else might have access to it.”
“Oh joy,” Marc muttered to himself.
In her room, Catie was wondering who her father was talking to.
◆ ◆ ◆
At 7:00 Friday morning, everybody was assembled at the pool for the first scuba lesson. Jackie had brought her friend, Melinda, and Melinda’s daughter, Sally. Sally and Melinda were carbon copies of each other, both 5’ 3” with red hair. Both claimed to be 110 lbs. when Blake asked them so he could set their buoyancy compensator. Blake was wearing his eye-patch, which Sally thought made him look like a pirate.
“Okay, put on your BCs, that means buoyancy compensator,” Blake instructed. “It lets you work the level you want to dive at and is your emergency way back to the surface. And it’s the harness for your air tank.”
Blake continued to go through the lesson, while Marc simply observed and helped the women get their tanks mounted.
“Now hop into the pool, and we’ll get your buoyancy set right,” Blake continued.
Marc and Blake worked with each woman to add the right amount of weight to set her buoyancy.
“Now, you need to adjust your mask, and to keep it from fogging up, just spit into it,” Blake said as he spit into Catie’s mask.
“Ugh, Uncle Blake. Don’t spit in my mask.”
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s gross.”
“You didn’t care last year.”
“That’s before I knew better.”
“Might I suggest that Catie might prefer to use No-Fog gel? It seems to work pretty well,” Melinda said as she held out a tube.
“Yes, way better,” Catie said. She quickly cleaned her mask and then spread the gel on it. Everyone else did the same and then they all put their masks on.
“Okay,” Blake said. “Now for air. Your tanks should all be ready, so put the regulator in your mouth and breathe.” Everyone was looking at Blake. “Go ahead, do it.”
They all pulled their regulators out of their mouths.
“What’s the matter?” Blake asked. “No air?”
“Yes, no air,” Catie gasped as she pulled the regulator out of her mouth.
“That’s because you never trust anyone about your air. You make sure your tank is full, that it is turned on, and that your regulator is delivering air,” Blake said sternly. “Now here’s how you turn the tank on, check the gauge here to make sure your supply is full. Then press this button on your regulator to make sure that air is flowing. Then put it in your mouth and breathe.”
“That was mean,” Catie said.
Sally giggled.
“Not nearly as mean as letting you suffocate yourself. Air is critical, you have to double, triple check it.”
Catie stuck her tongue out at him, then followed his instructions to get her air on. Soon everyone was breathing through their regulators.
“Alright, just relax and get used to breathing through your mouth and regulator for a bit. When you feel comfortable with that, just sit down on the bottom of the pool and get used to breathing underwater.”
It took five hours to get through the material. At the end, they were sharing the pool with the regular class, but by then they had progressed to the deep end, so their presence didn’t inconvenience anyone.
“Alright, I’ll see everybody tomorrow morning at six o’clock,” Blake said. “Breakfast will be served on the boat, so you just have to stumble your way there. Make sure you don’t forget your overnight bag. We’ll have plenty of food and drinks. Also, we’ll have some Dramamine in case it gets rough, but the weatherman says smooth sailing. Leave your dive gear here, and we’ll haul it over to the boat for you today,” Blake added. “That’ll help make the early morning tomorrow bearable.”
That simply elicited groans from the women.
“We have Faye’s gear in the car. I’ll bring it in if that’s okay,” Jackie said.
“Sure, might as well deal with everything at once,” Blake replied.
◆ ◆ ◆
Saturday morning, everyone made their way onto the Mea Huli, none of the women looked very awake. Catie and Marc greeted everyone, while Blake and Datu were preparing to get underway. Catie and Marc had spent the night aboard, so they were raring to go, something that didn’t seem to get much appreciation from the bleary-eyed women. Sally was the only one who actually looked awake.
“Welcome aboard. My brother Blake is on the bridge, getting us ready to sail. Just stow your bags in the lounge; we’ll sort out cabins after we cast off.”
When the women entered the lounge, Jackie got raised eyebrows from her friends. “Nice boat,” Melinda said. “You are going to marry this guy, right?”
“They said it was a yacht, I never imagined it was something like this,” Jackie replied. “And I’ve only met him that once at the pool, not sure we’re ready to get married.”
“Blake McCormack?” Faye asked.
“That’s right.”
“Hmm, I wonder if it’s the same guy.”
“What guy?” Melinda asked.
“I knew a Blake McCormack in the Navy.”
“Catie mentioned her uncle was shot down in Iraq.”
“My guy wasn’t shot down,” Faye said.
“Anybody want some coffee?” Catie asked as she made her way into the lounge.
“Everyone but Sally held their hand up.”
“Espresso or just Kona roast?”
“Double espresso,” Faye said.
“Double espresso latte if you can,” Jackie said. Melinda seconded that.
“Coming up,” Catie replied. “Sally, we have orange juice, pineapple juice, and milk.”
“I’ll have milk,” Sally replied.
“Whole or skim?”
“Skim,” Melinda answered for Sally.
As Catie made the drinks, everyone could feel the boat get underway. They were in one of the large end slips, so it only took a few minutes to make it into the channel. Even then they were only moving at a sedate five knots to avoid giving off any wake to disturb the other boats in the harbor.
“Okay, cabin assignments,” Marc said as he came down from the sundeck. “We have two VIP staterooms, and one slightly smaller stateroom and crew berths available. How do you want to split them up?”
“Sally will stay with me,” Melinda said.
“Good, then you should take one of the VIP suites; they have queen beds,” Marc said and looked at the other two women.
“I’m Faye,” Faye said, extending her hand and shaking with Marc. “I’m good with the small stateroom. Jackie set this up so she should get the VIP suite.”
“That’s perfect,” Marc said. “Catie, you can move into the crew berthing if you want, or you can bunk with me.”
“I’ll stay with you,” Catie said. “I like the queen-size beds in there.”
“The owner’s suite?” Jackie asked with a knowing look, a
ssuming that would be Marc’s stateroom.
“No, Blake has that one,” Marc replied. “It’s on the main deck with quick access to the bridge; the others are on the lower deck. Catie, show our guests to their rooms.”
“Aye, aye Captain,” Catie saluted.
“Blake’s the captain,” Marc corrected. “I’m just part of the crew.”
◆ ◆ ◆
By the time everyone got situated in their berths and had made their way back to the lounge, the Mea Huli had cleared the point and was cruising at twenty knots.
“Morning everybody,” Blake said as he entered the lounge.
Faye jumped up and snapped to attention. “Commander McCormack,” she barked as she gave him a sharp salute.
“I’m just plain Blake now,” he said. “Lieutenant Williams, as I recall.”
“Yes sir,” Faye replied. “It’s an honor to meet you again.”
“Relax, you’re embarrassing me.”
“So, he is the same Blake McCormack,” Jackie said.
“Yes, he is,” Faye replied. “I just want to say how grateful everyone on the Stennis is for your sacrifice.”
“As I recall, I sacrificed an F18 Hornet into the desert,” Blake said.
“Everybody aboard that AWACS was happy to sacrifice one Hornet, sir. They’re just sorry that bastard tried to flame you.”
“What do you mean, flame him?” Catie asked.
“When he had to eject, the enemy pilot tried to burn him up in his exhaust plume. Fortunately, he only caught him a little,” Faye said.
“Is that what happened to your face?” Sally asked.
“Sally,” Melinda scolded.
“It’s alright,” Blake said. “Yes, I got burned by his tail exhaust. It messed up my face and my left arm. But my buddy shot him down.”
“You never said that,” Catie said. “I thought you got burned when a missile hit your plane.”
“He didn’t get shot down,” Faye said.
“What?” Catie cried.
“Now you really are embarrassing me,” Blake said. “I didn’t get shot down; I ran out of gas.”
“He stayed to protect the AWAC,” Faye said. “He shot down two MIGs and used up most of his fuel, but he still stayed with the AWAC. He shot down a third MIG but then had to eject when he ran dry. That’s when the SOB tried to flame him.”
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