Kinsmen of the Dragons
Copyright© 2013 by Gina Marie Wylie
Chapter 6: The Battle of Half Moon Bay
Ben watched the Coast Guard cutter circle them for the third time. It was like watching someone pace endlessly. Evidently Minerva thought the same thing.
“What are they doing?”
“Thinking, Minerva.”
She looked at him. “You’ve slept?”
“A little, Guardian.”
“A second ago you called me Minerva.”
“Guardian, right now I’m a little confused.”
“Ben, do you understand how you learned our language so quickly?”
“Magic,” Ben told her, trying to keep his voice light.
“I transferred an imprint of my speech centers to you. With that came memories to define context, history, customs ... quite a lot, do you understand?”
“I understand everything, and yet, nothing. I think you’re talking about something else.”
She nodded. “Ben, you have a piece of me in your head — a fairly large piece. Right now you could beat me in any strategy game because you would know what I was going to do and I would only have a dim idea about what you would do in response. In time we will grow apart again, but right now, you and I are closer than Demeter and I.
“I taught you for two reasons. Obviously, so you could use our language so that we could talk. But secondly because I think we are both fair, reasonable and just people. My people need an advocate here on your world. I could already see last night that you understood and were willing to help.”
“I was thinking it was something like that,” Ben agreed. “It seemed like everything you said was reasonable and made perfect sense — no matter how outlandish it was.”
Ben waved at the Coast Guard cutter. “I told them that you have weapons aboard. The kind of weapons that destroy cities.”
She nodded. “I also got a little of who you are, too, Ben. Not nearly as much, but some. Sleep will improve both of our understandings of each other, at least for the first few hours. If the things you say about your people are true, then it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that a dozen orikina are coming this way. Demeter says that your people’s ship is fifteen hours from land — and the orikina are twenty. We can not afford to waste much more time.”
“They have sent a boarding party and Demeter is showing them around. Hopefully he is being candid.
“He was much taken with the woman in command.”
“Our military allows women in combat positions, as does yours.”
Minerva shook her head. “Guardians aren’t considered soldiers. Our women are always carefully protected. Ben, in good times our population growth is a fraction of a percent a year. I can see from your mind that here it can run to three and four percent. No wonder you can spare women from childbirth!”
“Most of our population increase has been in the last couple of centuries,” Ben told her, sounding a little defensive. “Before that, medicine was primitive and many women and children died in birth.”
The search party appeared on deck and the woman in charge headed for Ben and Minerva.
“Sir, ma’am,” the woman told them. “I’m at a loss. I told my captain about the four devices you have below. SOP is for something large and official to come and take them off. One thing not in any SOP is allowing those weapons to come in proximity with the mainland, even if they aren’t weaponized.
“You need to talk to my captain, Mr. Schooland. Miss Minerva,” the Coast Guard officer concluded.
“We have a better idea of the threat now, Lieutenant,” Minerva said through Ben.
“There are a dozen adult orikina coming from the west, the thirteenth survived and is going out to meet them. In addition to the thirteen adults, there are a half dozen younger consorts. Orikina are hermaphrodites, Lieutenant — they are all female. It is accurate to say they are born pregnant. Fortunately, they typically only have one daughter at a time to raise.”
The Coast Guard officer replied, “Ma’am, I listened to a description by a survivor of how they played with their victims. It isn’t pleasant to contemplate. However, as bad as that is, it pales in comparison to what one of those four weapons you have below could do in just one city of our country. This is way, way, above my pay-grade, ma’am.”
Ben sighed. “Lieutenant, perhaps we can compromise. They can dump the weapons over the side and we can all haul ass out of here.”
Minerva saw the woman smile slightly. “As I said, it’s above my pay-grade.”
“How about we all transfer to McAdoo and leave the weapons behind?” Ben asking, starting to feel desperate.
The woman from the Coastie cutter blinked in astonishment. “Not a chance!”
Ben frowned. “Why not?”
Minerva touched Ben’s sleeve. “She’s seen what’s below, Ben. You haven’t. We’re the last of our people. We came away with all we could carry. About six hundred and fifty, that’s fifty women and nearly six hundred children. We don’t allow them on deck. Nearly five hundred men stayed behind, so that the woman and children could come away with us. Eight days ago they reported they were under attack and since then they have been silent.”
She turned to the woman from the McAdoo. “Please, if nothing else, take off our women and children. The rest of us are willing to take our chances at sea. At least do that for us.”
“The only way we could get that many people aboard McAdoo would be to hang them from the rafters. Ma’am, we’re on the end of a long deployment. It’s true we have food for another three weeks of sea duty, and after that it’s emergency fare; it’s not very nice. Nearly seven hundred more mouths to feed? We’ll run through all of our rations in a few days.”
“Leaving out the fact that McAdoo could make land by dawn tomorrow,” Ben said, his voice bitter.
“That’s right, Mr. Schooland. Do you understand that this ship is radioactive? That these people are radioactive? That everything they possess is radioactive?”
“We will come naked, if it means our lives,” Minerva said. She too was bitter.
The officer from the McAdoo shook her head. “Please, I understand your frustration. We’re working on it. In a few minutes we’ll have some Air Force aircraft overhead. They are equipped with smart bombs and soon there will be more air cover as well. The Navy is putting some patrol aircraft up and they’ll be able to track any threats. We are not, I assure you, leaving you out here alone!”
“Lieutenant,” Ben said carefully. He reached out and put his hand on Minerva’s, restraining her. “A question. How many aircraft and what kind?”
“Well, this is pretty far out for fighter-bombers. A half dozen.”
“Armed how?”
“Two laser-guided bombs, a couple of anti-radiation missiles, a couple of heat-seekers. Each.”
“Torpedoes?” the Guardian pressed, and Ben added his own urgency to the words.
“Those are coming later.”
“Lieutenant, you are out here with the rest of us. Smart bombs might get two or three. After that, they’ll stay deep except on attack runs. These are intelligent animals, do you understand? Not to mention, they hold grudges. Minerva tells me that the door to their home must still be open if these things are here. If that’s the case, we could be in for really big trouble.”
“Bigger than two hundred feet?”
“Do you understand power-laws or scaling factors?” Ben asked.
The woman lieutenant shook her head.
“Among other things they describe the relationship between size distributions and predator counts. Say you have a field with ten thousand rodents, rat-sized and smaller. The rodents may have a dozen cats as predators, some coyotes and a few owls. The cats will have to worry about coyotes and owls and the owls have their own concerns. Ten thousand rodents, a dozen higher level predators, two or three top-level predators. Like that, each level of predator larger than the last.”
“And your point?”
“Where these people are from orikina are middling-small critters. If that door is still open, thousands of things the size of great white sharks could be coming in. Or a couple of critters twice size of the McAdoo. More likely all of the above.”
She paled and went and spoke into her radio. Ben walked up after a second and tapped her on the shoulder. “Something else.”
“What is that, Mr. Schooland?”
“If I were to ask, Minerva would tell you that you could buy yourselves a few hours by taking everyone off McAdoo and aiming her due west, steaming at flank, with no one aboard.”
Minerva watched the two natives of this place talk, with Demeter at her side. “I do not think Ben has a sister, either,” she told her brother.
He could only nod. He’d figured out the same thing himself. “Sister, I love you and so does he. This woman though ... he may have a fight on his hands if he wants her too!”
The Coast Guard officer stood with her hands on her hips glaring at Ben. “Are you suggesting that we use McAdoo as bait?”
Ben smiled slightly and shook his head. “No. As a sacrificial lamb.”
“I won’t make any such recommendation to my captain!” she exclaimed.
“Earlier,” Minerva intervened, “she said ‘weaponized,’ Ben. What does that mean?”
“It means they aren’t attached to a delivery system.”
Minerva frowned. “I thought I was clear.”
Ben looked at Minerva. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
She tugged on the Coast Guard lieutenant’s sleeve and the woman looked at Minerva. “Tell this woman,” Minerva told Ben, “that her captain needs to call a dozen men right now to his foredeck, equipped with ropes and chains; enough to deal with eleven hundred pounds on a wheeled carriage.”
The lieutenant from McAdoo looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“We don’t deliver weapons like you do, do you understand? I can think it and it happens! Five minutes, do you understand, and then you will have a nuclear weapon rolling loose on your ship’s foredeck. I suggest you alert your captain.”
When he heard Lieutenant Stoddard’s warning Jack Reubens decided that this whole thing was so far outside of normal that it wouldn’t hurt to humor them. So he called the Chief Bosun and ordered a party forward and then alerted his Exec to go oversee. Sure enough, a few minutes later they were trying to lasso a rogue nuclear weapon which had, to all intents and purposes, appeared out of nowhere.
“Lieutenant Stoddard, I want to speak directly to Mr. Schooland again.”
A moment later Ben was on the circuit. “Mr. Schooland, how did that happen?”
“Sir, it’s quantum physics. Do you know the many-worlds theory?”
“I’ve heard of it. Quantum physics isn’t anything I’ve studied to any degree; I read the Cliff notes version of Hawking’s book.”
“Captain Reubens, there is an old thought problem about Schroedinger’s cat, trying to determine if it is alive or dead in its box. Miss Minerva can alter quantum outcomes, making ones that weren’t that likely, more likely. Likely enough to actually happen. One moment that device was here, Captain. The next it was aboard your ship. I talked to her brother, who was the man who directed the nuclear attack on their enemies. From what he was saying, they could score from a couple of thousand miles away. After that, the error factors prevented sufficient accuracy.”
He paused and then added, “Miss Minerva says that the cities they attacked were marks on a map; the Dragon Lords never allowed anyone into their lands. Some of the marks on the maps weren’t even close to the actual cities, which is why more than a few of the weapons they used missed.”
“How is it that you understand these people, Mr. Schooland?”
“Minerva imprinted most of her memories to me, sir. Language, history, society, culture.”
“So, I should consider you a biased source.”
“In the same way a German, Captain, considers you a biased source when it comes to describing the virtues of England.”
Abruptly a half dozen F-16s roared over the ships, turned and returned.
Chief Acoma reported, “The Air Force is calling us, Captain.
Jack took the call, after excusing himself from his discussion with Ben Schooland and the woman from the strange ship not that far off their beam.
“Air Force, state your intentions,” he asked.
The lead pilot laughed. “Intentions? We’re at the end of our operational range. We conserved fuel all the way here; we’ll conserve all the way home. We have about fifteen minutes on station ... after that we won’t be able to engage in combat operations.”
“The targets are about two hundred miles further west.”
The Air Force pilot laughed. “Hey, hurry up and wait! Except, we’re the Air Force! Waiting sucks up fuel. Now if they were fifty miles west, Captain, we could do something. Two hundred miles? We’ll wave goodbye when we RTB in thirteen minutes, bingo fuel.”
“We need larger platforms and tankers. I’m going to turn for the coast, making for Half Moon Bay.”
“Santa Cruz is closer.”
“The water inshore is too deep there. The bad guys will be able to operate closer to shore. Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve seen one of the babies. I do not want to meet its momma in a fair fight.”
There was a pause. “Its momma?”
“They didn’t tell you what you are out here hunting?”
“Hostile subs, Coast Guard.”
“Sea serpents, Air Force. Two hundred foot sea serpents.”
The pilot laughed and his voice turned mocking, “You be funnin’ me, right?”
“No, sir.”
“Well, I’m close enough to bingo to call it a day, Captain. Good luck!”
The Air Force jets turned and headed back to the mainland without further ado.
“Chief Acoma, get me Admiral Garner.”
Jack decided to lie — sort of. “Admiral Garner, the vessel we have intercepted has four nuclear weapons aboard. As a gesture of good faith, they are willing to give us custody of the weapons. They’ve already transferred one to my control.”
“What if they have the ability to remote detonate the weapon they gave you?”
“Sir, it is my understanding that we have NEST teams to deal with that. I want to turn towards land at once, escorting this vessel, although it appears to be faster than we are. A NEST team can helo out and can deal with the weapons offshore, and we can send the NEST team over to the other vessel to verify that there are no further weapons.
“My boarding party commander tells me that these are refugees from a nuclear war. She has, with her own eyes, counted nearly seven hundred women and children stacked cheek and jowl in the ship’s hold. They are radiologically ‘hot.’
“There is a cruise ship out here, Admiral, right in the path of these creatures. If we don’t give them a warning, if we don’t give them a course with a good shot as they’re going to get, we could lose thousands of lives. And there are quite a few other ships at risk as well.”
“The Air Force said they would help. They are supposed to be there any moment.”
“They have come and gone, sir. As soon as we stated the suspected nature of the targets, they turned around and left. In fairness, Admiral, Mr. Ben Schooland, who is been of particular use in helping translate, reminded me that smart bombs aren’t going to be much use against submerged targets.”
The admiral was silent for a long minute. “Captain Reubens, do you understand that if the Navy knew for a fact that the Chinese were surging a dozen missile-armed subs towards the US, planning on launching their weapons, and that those subs were four hundred miles offshore, we might, just possibly, be able to engage half of them in the time we have before they could reach the coast?”
“Sir, the Notice to Mariners?”
“It’s going out as we speak. Concentrate, Captain Reubens. Now what?”
“Well sir, these ‘subs’ aren’t armed with nuclear missiles — just an appetite. They will have to close with shipping to do any damage, and then it will be one on one, surface actions. Get everything in the water east of Hawaii back to the closest port. Then start working on everything in the Pacific north of the equator. Tell people rogue subs; tell them anything. But get everything out of the deep water.”
Admiral Garner chuckled. “In this case, even though it will cause a case of the galloping shits from San Francisco to the Pentagon and on to the White House, this is a time where candor will pay. People just do love their sea serpent stories! I can think of nothing else that would work as effectively to get every ship into port than an official Coast Guard warning about sea serpents.”
Jack had to laugh at that.
“And the weapons?”
“Secure them. I understand that you’re going to Half Moon Bay?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Captain, if you’re sure all weapons have been removed from the refugee vessel you can send it on ahead. Please tell them they will be interned, do you understand? They will be met at the breakwater; another boarding party will secure their vessel before they can enter the breakwater. All this is SOP and out of my hands. And you and yours, Captain, will stand by for a NEST team arriving by helo about a hundred and fifty miles offshore. When we have their clearance, you’ll be able to come in. In the meantime, I assure you, I will get everything I can into the air to support you and your crew.”
“Sir, thank you, sir!”
“I have things I have to do, Captain. So do you. Let me know when those weapons are secure. As soon as they are secured, make all possible speed to Half Moon Bay.”
“Aye, aye, Admiral!”
Jack picked up the internal walkie-talkie. “Boats, this is the captain.”
His Chief Bosun answered promptly. “Weapon secure, sir. Piece of cake!”
“I want to let the chain run on one of the anchors; how long would that take to accomplish?”
“We can disengage the brake and the clutch, sir. That’s about ten minutes of work. Then the chain would run out in half a minute, Captain. It’ll be really noisy and send a couple thousand dollars worth of anchor and chain to Davey Jones’ Locker.”
“Release the port-side anchor. Once the chain has run out, prepare to store the weapon you have in the port chain locker. Also, prepare to receive three more weapons. They’ll arrive in the same position as before. Secure them and then get them below. Once all four are there, secure the hatch; use a spot welder.”
“Aye, aye, Captain. Captain, they would have to be blind not to see the missing anchor. And by the way, just how did they get that bomb to the foredeck?”
“Magic is the answer to the latter; plausible deniability the answer to the former, Master Chief!”
“Aye, aye, Captain!”
Jack changed channels and spoke to Lieutenant Stoddard. “I want the other three weapons sent over starting in ten minutes, ten minutes apart. Not delivered, do you understand?”
The lieutenant spoke formally, “Captain, I understand the difference in the wording. You’re right sir, this isn’t something we want to make a mistake about.”
“After we have the weapons secured, give them a course for Half Moon Bay. Then, if you can, see if you can convince the woman to come aboard McAdoo. Tell them it’s to discuss the issues. Send Mr. Schooland as well. You can tell Mr. Schooland, by the way, that we’ve cancelled the alert on him and have reported him safe.”
Lieutenant Stoddard came back almost at once. “They agree to everything, sir. They are in process of coming about and are now turning for Half Moon Bay. The woman, they call her the Guardian, says that if you want to stop them short of land, you will have to sink them. They say they won’t fight back. They will either all die or all live.”
Jack sighed. “Please, there’s no need for drama! Once we’ve secured the weapons, Lieutenant, I would like you and your party to stay aboard that ship. Does it have a name, by the way?”
She was silent for a moment, and then came back. “I don’t think they understood the question. Mr. Schooland says that they do not anthropomorphize things like we do. They think of it as ‘their’ ship and if it was another ship, they would refer to it as commanded by so-and-so. Mr. Schooland says, ‘Hey, you guys!’ will work.”
Jack recognized the allusion and smiled.
“How fast can they move?”
“Faster than we can, sir.”
“And their fuel state?”
There was another pause. “Sir, half the time explanations come down to something akin to ‘it’s magic.’ They take in seawater, break apart some of the water molecules and vent the oxygen to the atmosphere. They do something I don’t entirely understand with the hydrogen that sounds a lot like fusion and create a plasma to heat more seawater and squirt it out as steam. As near as I can tell, they would be astonished if the system stopped working. Mr. Schooland tells me that there are no moving parts and they need no fuel.”
Jack gulped.
“Captain, something else. Mr. Schooland says that the ship is made up of composite materials that they can extrude in any size and shape they want, plus any strength. They can make a cable of it, sir, the diameter of a wrist that would be strong enough to lift a warship out of the water.
“Mr. Schooland says that they figure they are beggars, looking for a handout. He’s tried to tell them that even though they don’t have integrated circuits, lasers, computers and a lot of other things, they aren’t going to be beggars.”
“Probably not, Lieutenant. Tell them they have permission to make for Half Moon Bay once they send us the last three weapons. Tell them they will be met at the breakwater and boarded. Resistance would be a bad idea.”
There was another moment of silence than a much-subdued Lieutenant Stoddard came back. “Captain, they want permission to teach one of them English.”
“That’s fine, Lieutenant, go ahead.”
“Sir, they mean like they taught Mr. Schooland their language. He says it’s almost instantaneous, painless ... except you give a lot of yourself if you’re the source and get only a little in return. I quizzed him about memories and he says not specific memories, sir. But I’m not sure how that can be. Certainly opinions and attitudes, and overall patterns of thought.”
“Well, not you for the source. Who do they want to learn English?”
“It’s the Guardian’s brother, Captain. I’m not sure what his rank is, but he’s more or less in command of the ship. His title is something like the Guardian’s Guardian.”
Jack laughed and she came right back, “Mr. Schooland says if that’s funny contemplate the Deputy Second Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security.”
That was the responsible cabinet official for the Coast Guard and brought a smile to Jack’s face. “I guess that’s true. Pick the steadiest person in your boarding party to be the source.”
“That would be Chief Vargas, sir.”
“Send the Guardian over on the Interceptor and Mr. Schooland as well.”
“That will leave myself and two NCOs aboard, Captain.”
“Lieutenant, if I thought you were at significant risk, I wouldn’t ask this of you. But if anything untoward should happen or if you’re being coerced say the word ‘apparatchik’ in a message. I don’t believe you’re at risk, but we do want to be careful.”
“Aye, aye, Captain! I’ll have the boat off in about five minutes.”
Jack turned and saw the pharmacist’s mate standing by. “Yes, Chief?”
“Sir, Mr. Forward would like to talk to you.”
Jack nodded and a moment later the football player was brought to him.
“What is it, Mr. Forward?”
“Call me Miles, Captain.” The big man paused and gathered himself.
“Sir, I’m not stupid. I know we can’t be but a few miles away from where Steffie went down. And we’ve been circling for some time now. I’m nervous, Captain.”
“We killed the smaller of the two animals,” Jack told him. “And the larger one was chased away.”
“I heard about the little one,” Miles replied. “Now I want to know why we aren’t making tracks for land.”
“In a few minutes. We met another vessel and we’ve been talking to her. In a few minutes a representative of the other crew will be aboard and we’ll head back to shore at flank.”
“Captain, if we get out of this alive, I’ll see to it you and every man and woman of this crew get free season tickets to Bronco games from now until eternity.”
“You understand, Mr. Forward that I’m just a little busy and much as I appreciate your offer, there are things I have to do?”
“You’re giving me the bum’s rush?” The football player actually laughed at Jack.
“Not entirely, but as you seem to understand, we’re not out of the woods yet. There are a lot of unexpected issues; not the least was that you met two critters. There are a dozen more adults and a couple more small ones bearing down us.”
Miles paled. “Captain, I know this isn’t a request you probably want to hear, but Daphne and I ... we would like to get married if it looks like ... well, you know what I mean.
“Captain, Daphne and I have loved each other since first grade when I pulled her pig-tails and her big brother beat the shit out of me. No matter what you might think, Captain, we’re mostly chaste. Kissee-touchee-feelie, yes. But not the full monte. We were planning on saving that for our wedding night — she told me she wouldn’t agree to marry me while I still played football, but I’m sure she’d understand why we’d have to make an exception if we have to make an exception.”
“Well, it’s my intention to give you no cause for worry. Mr. Forward...”
“Miles,” he said firmly.
“Miles, if it looks like that, I’ll marry the two of you myself and give you my stateroom for a day or so as a wedding present.”
The two men exchanged glances. So, Miles understood the basic lie. If it was bad enough to marry them, the newlyweds weren’t going to be able to enjoy the stateroom for very long.
“But, let me assure you again, it doesn’t look like that now, nor do I envision it getting that bad. We’ve already had a half dozen Air Force fighters overhead, but they have almost no ability to linger when we’re this far from the coast. As we get closer, not only will there be more of them, there will be aerial tankers and other help as well.”
They shook hands and when he was gone Jack turned to Chief Acoma. “Get me Admiral Garner.”
“Funny you should mention that, sir. They just informed us that in about ten minutes they’ll have a conference call ready. Admiral Garner and a cast of thousands back in DC.”
“Tell Commander Thomas to join me in my office,” Jack said and walked towards the place he’d started the day.
Lieutenant Commander Sam Thomas was short, had a blonde, crew cut, and above all, was intense. The only knock Jack had against the man was that he had avid desire to command — but then, you pretty much didn’t make captain of the good ship “Rubber Duckie” without that desire. He was a fine executive officer.
“Admiral, this is Captain Jack Reubens with Commander Sam Thomas, my executive officer. We’re in my office.”
“Very good, Captain. With us on the circuit are the Secretary of Homeland Security, Jason Margulis; Secretary of Defense, Rita Frazier; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Marine General Steven Howell; Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Oscar Murray; the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Wayne Kirkland; Admiral Hernando Gomez, Commander, US Coast Guard, and myself, Vice Admiral Vance Garner, Commander USCG District Eleven. Also now in the circuit are Captain Jack Reubens, commander of USCG Cutter McAdoo and his executive officer. Sometime in the next few minutes we should be joined by COMPACFLEET as well, Admiral William Stewart.”
During the introductions, Lieutenant Sterling appeared, with a young man of about twenty in tow, plus a stunningly beautiful blonde-haired woman, who appeared to be a little older than her translator.
Jack contemplated them for a few moments. Time, he thought, to pass the buck.
“Admiral Garner, this is Captain Reubens. I have here the woman, the one they call the Guardian...”
Ben Schooland interrupted. “Her name is Minerva, Captain.”
“And Mr. Ben Schooland, who is, as I understand it, a student at the University of San Francisco. He is her translator. I’d like to ask permission sir, for Minerva the Guardian, to join us initially, as well as Mr. Schooland to translate for her.”
“Why is that, Captain?” Admiral Garner inquired.
“Sir, if her story is to be believed, she is the author of the current situation. I haven’t had time to make my report yet about the full results of my boarding party’s search of the vessel under her control, but I’m confident that she can answer many of our questions.”
“I understand,” Admiral Garner said, “that you had a flight of six Air Force fighters overhead a short time ago?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I understand they turned around and went home when you told them the target was biological.”
“Sir, they told me that they had only a very short stay time. When I told them the estimated location of the incoming targets they said they couldn’t engage at that range and elected to return at that point to the mainland.
“Sir, I need direction as to whether or not Minerva and Mr. Schooland should be included initially in this meeting.”
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