Chapter 22

The rocket-propelled grenade shot out of the launch tube and headed in at least the right direction.

John watched it anxiously as it raced towards the ship. Would it overshoot or undershoot? An undershoot might have it bounce off the water surface at an angle and miss the vessel, but with its size, who knows?

He waited while a few seconds elapsed before it’s arrival.

There was an explosion as it hit the ship exactly where he had aimed. That surprised John, for he had never expected a direct hit first time. These launchers were notoriously inaccurate as a rule. He scrabbled to clear the tube and insert the second missile, then he looked again at the ship.

There was a plume of smoke, but only a little amount of fire. There were probably many splinters flying around though. That was always the worst fear of sailors; of a cannonball hitting a wooden ship and splintering the hull inside, his mind told him.

Stop wondering and prepare for another shot! He told himself. He swung the tube ever so slightly, for the ship had continued on its track and his viewer now pointed at the middle. He got it round to the stern and prepared to fire. His attention was diverted by sight of the foremost sail, for it was now riddled with splinter holes and almost torn away by the blast from the explosion. The ship was losing way, with the loss of some of its sail power.

The hull was still intact, and the flames seem to have subsided to a few patches of smoke, so he reckoned a second strike was possible. He quickly went through the pre-firing checks, then let the second missile loose.

This one seemed to take forever to arrive, and to John’s disgust, it fell short and hit the sea near the ship. It rebounded from the waves and shot through the wooden hull. John guessed that the hull was not made of a dense wood like oak. When the explosion came, he heard it but could not see it, then smoke appeared on the outer side of the ship. The missile must have gone right through the vessel and exploded in the hull facing the open sea, or outside it. He hoped this was still above the waterline.

Again, the flames from the explosion did not start a conflagration. He was glad for that, as it would reduce the casualties somewhat.

It was now time to see if the captain would take his crippled ship into the beach by the fishing village. John guessed that he would see no alternative, but if he was under the orders of an overall leader, he may get forced into going further down the coast to allow for a safety margin.

The vessel wallowed for a time, and there was a great deal of rushing around on deck as men tried to do what they could to recover from the two explosions. Most of them would not know what to do, John guessed, as they would have had no training for such an attack.

His surmise seemed accurate, for they eventually hauled down the remnants of the tattered sail, leaving the other sail free to catch all the available wind. Then John noticed people being urged out from below and put to the oars which had been stowed inside the hull at deck level.

It took some time to install the long oars into position, then another delay before the rowing master got them into a decent rhythm to be effective strokes. At that, the ship started to pick up some speed, and the captain at last had some control, but he must have been worried if his ship would hold together after two explosions.

It was soon clear that the beach was the captain’s target. The gently sloping strand would allow the vessel to ground slowly and securely and then be anchored, ready for repairs, yet able to be refloated at a high tide once fixed.

John turned to Fresno, who had been standing by a sheltering tree with his mouth open.

“Fresno, do you think anyone saw us, or saw where these missiles came from?”

Fresno shook himself, shivered, and tried to act bravely. “All I saw was the terrible flames when the fire arrow shot out of the tube, but there was no fire afterwards from the arrow, until it hit the ship; then became ball of flame with a loud bang. It was quite frightening but vanished almost at once.

Unless someone was watching the top of the cliff at the time, nothing would have been seen until the explosions. Looking down there, I didn’t see anyone pointing upward at us, so my guess is that the first they knew was the explosion, and a short while after that, the second explosion. If they were going by where the explosions happened, they were on both sides of the ship, and both ends, so anyone would expect there to be a further attack from both sides, but there is nothing for them to see out there. They must be confused.”

“Good. They may put the explosion down to something that was already aboard, or an act of the gods. I would go with the act of the gods, if I were them.”

“Why? I mean, why would you like them to think that, when you don’t believe in the gods yourself?”

“Did I say that? I actually believe in a creator, but not formalised in an organised religious body, and not in multiple gods: that’s being silly, for where would all these gods come from? You only need one creator, not many.”

“Oh. Sorry. I misunderstood. What then are we going to do about these people from the Big Ship?”

“Nothing, other than watch them. I am expecting them to do things to themselves, without us having any more direct input.”

“Input? That is a strange word; what does it mean?”

“Information that goes inwards, such as what you see or hear or smell. Output means the same in reverse -information going out from you or me. Education is output from me and input for you, at the moment.”

“I get you. So we just watch and make sure we are not seen?”

“That’s it. To stay unseen, we need to keep well away from them. If they see either of us, they will start to get suspicious of anything around them.”

“Ah. The beans.”

“Yes. If as you say, your people and the other captives know to steer clear of them, they will leave their captors to make use of them. As soon as the invaders fall ill, the captives will make a run for it, and we can send them to safety. In the meantime, I need to put this weapon back in its cache, in case I need access to it again.”

Fresno got his attention again, tapping on his shoulder as he bent to pick up the launcher.

“Uhh, John? I didn’t say that all their captives would know about the beans. Some may not have encountered them.”

“I am sure that the captives that do recognise them will warn them not to sample the bean stew. Most folk are clever enough to take note of good advice. I only hope that the invaders are from far enough away that none recognise the beans as dangerous.”

“We just wait, then. Where should we wait, John?”

“Why don’t you tell me, Fresno? Think it out for yourself. If you were trying to get away from the village as fast as possible, which route would you choose?”

“I see: put yourself in their shoes, and work it out. I am afraid that I would expect them to choose many ways to run, so that any pursuers are split up to chase them.”

“A logical answer, Fresno. Good lad. But what would the majority pick as their route?”

“Probably whatever was the easiest route to take them away fastest; so, flat and open, rather than the forest, though forests are good to hide in. I would choose both: an easy flat route away for a distance, then into the forest, spread out and going in different directions, staying off any trails and so difficult to find.”

“There: I knew you could work it out. Let’s hope that the captives see it the same way!” Then he added a question. “You didn’t happen to see dogs with the invaders?”

“Dogs? No. I have heard of such animals, but we don’t have any, and I didn’t see any with the invaders. Why do you want to know about dogs?”

“Because dogs have a keen sense of smell, and can be trained to chase after the fresh smell of humans. I think your refugees will be safe from that possibility.”

“Thank the Earth Mother for that. I hate the idea of dogs: vicious monsters, by all accounts; not much removed from wolves.”

“Yes, they are derived from wolves. Eventually they will become close associates of humans, but perhaps not yet.”

“You come up with the weirdest ideas, John. You keep confusing me with new concepts.”

“Sorry, Fresno. It is not intentional. There is a limit to the amount one person can absorb in a few days. I had many years to get used to most of the things I talk about. In many ways it is a response to my memory returning. Most of these, I knew it the past but had forgotten. They are returning to me slowly.

Now, if you can identify the route most probably to be used by the escapees, we should position ourselves so that we can keep a watch on that route as well as being able to observe the village. Can you think on that for a while, and we can meander slowly to that spot. It will take a fair while for the ship to make land at the beach and decant personnel into the village. The captain will want to locate suitable timber for repairs, so we must avoid such good timber when deciding on our observation post.”

They made their way down the hillside from High Point, then they had their mile or two trek towards the village before detouring to Fresno’s chosen observation position. At times, they could see the ship through the trees, and so keep an eye on its progress. Noting how well the captain was coping with the damaged vessel, John was of the opinion, as a military man, that he would be safer to sail the ship many miles down the coast before thinking of beaching her. However, that was the mind of a modern soldier used to long range weapons. The captain and his crew had never encounter such an onslaught before, John was sure, and would be thoroughly confused as to the cause. They would not put it down to one man with a rocket launcher, and probably not to an armed group of fighters, as John would have done.

By the time they reached the spot that Fresno favoured, and big ship had sailed into the small bay and run itself aground on the sand. The frightened crew were preparing to launch several boats into the water, and John noted that the sailors carried spears. The first boat was probably the advance party, prepared to make contact with their garrison group. They must be puzzled at the lack of a boat on the beach, John mused as he grinned to himself.

The advance party opened their ranks to cover all the huts still standing, and although John could not see all of them, he was sure they were entering each hut, looking for their comrades. Once the whole village had been searched, the advance party returned to their boat and rowed back to the ship to report.

The captain now had a mystery to add to his earlier shock; he was having quite a day.

The other two boats had delivered two stone anchors, one to each side of the ship, at the end of long ropes. John wondered what the ropes were made from. It took half a dozen men to heave the anchor over the side of the boat and into the water, presumably into a rocky protrusion where it would hold the ship steady. The large splash when the stone entered the water, and violent rocking of the boat, showed that the man knew what they were doing as they held on tightly. They must have done this at least once before.

With the anchors deployed, the boats returned to the ship for orders. They were quickly sent to the beach to assist in the search for the missing garrison.

They had no more luck than the others, and someone with more sense then the others noted the absence of the boat and brought it to the notice of the team leader. The team leader clearly did not want to reveal his own ignorance and seemed to imply that it was simply another factor in the search. He could be seen ordering one of the boat crews to search up and down the shore line for the boat, and they swiftly deployed on that task.

John was intrigued to see what happened next, and made a guess. His guess was confirmed when the team leader set out to return to the big ship, obviously to make his report. John wondered if someone would suggest that the garrison had set out in their boat and got swept down the coast. When that was deduced, a full search party would be sent out in the direction the big ship had been heading, for the opposite direction would have led to a meeting earlier.

It did not take long for the team leader to return with another boatload of men, who he split into two groups; one to take the boat and search the coastline, and the other group to take the coast and look for evidence of their men having come ashore.

As John watched with amusement, several of the men on the land detail raised a point. Clearly they were asking about food supplies, for the team leader sent his men as a scavenging party to search the fisher huts for food.

All they came back with was a smallish sack of beans. The team leader demanded to have a look first, and opened one of the pods. Seeing what were clearly succulent beans, he sent the men back to look for more, while he issued a handful to each of the shore party. They were seemingly told that this was all that was available at short notice, and to put up with it. The group settled for this and went off on their search.

When the scavenging party came back with three more sacks of beans, the leader obviously decided that this high-energy food was too much for the lower ranks to have for themselves, so he sent a boat back to the ship with the three extra sacks, and told his own team that this sack would be used by themselves. The men seemed happy with that, so John surmised that rations aboard ship were pretty dismal and monotonous; probably fish all the time.

He looked over at Fresno and signalled that he was happy with how things were going. Fresno gave him the same signal back. It was an entertaining sight at the village, both thought.

After these series of events, nothing much happened. The searching around the village produced nothing, so the team leader redirected his men to finding decent timber of ship repairs. They were sent to where John and Fresno thought they would choose.

John assumed that they would mark the trees they thought would be best for the work, and when that was done, a runner was sent back to the team leader to tell him the glad tidings of great trees for the job.

This cheered up the team leader, and he went back to the ship, presumably to report to the captain and the ship’s carpenter. That took him some considerable time, so he must have been included in the discussion. When he returned, he had a workman type with him, whom John guessed was the ship’s carpenter, and they progressed to the site of the marked trees, for the carpenter to give his approval or otherwise.

He was out of sight for a while, so John assumed he was giving his professional opinion of the suitability of the materials. He may even have asked for more trees to be marked, so that he had enough wood for his repair work, and an additional stock to take aboard for future use. Ship carpenters knew the value of thinking ahead, as they were expected to perform miracles in woodwork at the whim of the captain.

John was glad that the two of them were silent and well hidden, for two of the search party came near their position, still trying to find any sign of the garrison. The searchers moved on, by this time fed up with a fruitless search, and their lacklustre voices told the tale.

The searchers returned from every direction and reported in that they had found nothing. The team leader was visible near the beach, and as John watched, the man scratched his head in puzzlement at the vanishing garrison. There was clearly no threat in the village, and no bodies to be found if there had been any attack on them. A battle always left visible signs of the clash. Here there was nothing.

He gave up and ordered a fire to be lit for preparing a meal. That done, he collared one of his men and spoke to him, as if issuing orders. The man must be the designated cook, for the selectee was sent back out to the ship, and returned with a cooking pot and a pile of wooden bowls and horn spoons. The gear for the meal preparation had been sorted out.

Fresh water was needed for preparing a soup or stew, so another man was sent to the stream with leather bags to collect enough water. Fresno watch in fascination, and whispered to John, “Why didn’t they have the cooking utensils in the boat before they started? With a damaged ship, it was obvious that they would be there for some time.”

The team leader, having left instructions, had himself rowed back to the ship, to update the captain on progress. John and Fresno watched him go, then John responded to Fresno’s comment.

“Well observed, Fresno,” John whispered back. “It shows how disorganised they are. They are making things up as they go along. They haven’t even thought about wood for the fire.”

The team leader had indeed actually thought ahead, and sent his men to locate wood within the village. They did find the wood supplies, and carted a fair pile back to where the fire was being started. They had enough wood to keep it lit the entire night.

The water was soon bubbling on the fire, and the cook hulled the beans into the boiling water, until he reckoned he had enough. He then stirred the broth with a long wooden spurtle, and held up his hand, fingers open, twice; indicating ten minutes – or whatever the local equivalent of minutes was.

The light was just starting to go as the sun began setting over the sea, so the men were ready for their meal. After a while, the cook prodded the beans and seemed satisfied. Presumably the beans were now soft and breaking down, for the cook was happy. He summoned the men to pick up a bowl and spoon, and he began to ladle the broth into the bowls with a larger horn spoon. He was quick to transfer the meal to the bowls, stopping every so often to plunge his horn spoon to a bowl of cold water before using it again.

The sight fascinated Fresno.

“What the heck is he doing with that spoon?” he asked John.

John responded, “It must be a horn spoon, and they get soft when hot, so he plunges it into cold water to harden it again; then it is ready for more use. He clearly knows what he is doing, Fresno.”

The cook finished dishing out the bean stew, then laid his horn spoon back into the cold water. He reached over to rearrange the cooking pot, and it tilted over, spilling the rest of the meal on to the fire. He threw up his hands in disgust, and turned to curse at the pot. One of the other men seemed to offer him some of his stew, but he waved it away, seemingly blaming himself and not aiming to deprive anyone else of their meal. John frowned at his antics, then screwed up his face in thought, but said nothing.

It was now a waiting game. The cook got up from the fire and went to the nearby stream to wash his hands; another touch that made John think. He spoke to Fresno.

“How long does this poison take to act, Fresno?”

“It varies. Touching a damaged bean leads to death within a day. Eating it in a stew – probably a few hours, for it goes straight into your digestive system. I can’t say for certain, but not very long.”

“Hmmm ... we’ll give it a few hours before we approach the village, but if they start collapsing, it may be a sign they are near death. The ship bothers me, for they don’t seem to have more boats, and I wonder how the captives are going to get away.”

“We can row one of the boats to the ship, and ask what is going on, all innocent-like. We say we were passing, on our way to another tribe, and saw the abandoned boats, so wondered what was happening.”

John laughed aloud. “Fresno, that is brilliant! Behave as if nothing important had happened; we are just passing and are puzzled at what we see. Wonderful!”

They sat and waited for activity at the village, and meantime prepared their story for telling at the ship. When they noticed the fire at the village dying down and no-one adding more fuel, John decided that it was time, for there was no activity from the ship either.

They walked slowly towards the village, each carrying a spear, with John’s crossbow on his back. At the start of the village, John called out, “Hello the village! Are you open for visitors?” and walked towards the campfire.

They were greeted by a voice from near the fire. “Hello. Who are you?”

“Passers-by, on the road to John’s tribe. Is it all right for us to visit?”

“In some ways, yes, but in some ways, no. This place could be dangerous for you. Some men have just died of a poison.”

“A poison? Sorry if I repeat you, but if they are poisoned, are you not well also?”

“No. I recognised the poisonous beans and did not eat any. I was a captive of theirs for some time, and as a cook, I recognised that this had been prepared as a trap for them.”

“So you allowed them to poison themselves, as your revenge?”

“In a way. My girlfriend is on the ship, so I cannot let the men there know I have survived, or they will kill me, and perhaps do worse to my girlfriend.”

He indicated all the dead men near the fire.

John told him, “In that case, consider yourself one of the dead, and disappear. We will visit the ship, and see what we can do for the captives.”

“Eh? Does that mean you had something to do with the poison beans? More beans went to the ship, but I don’t know if they were recognised by the cook there. He is one of the invader group.”

John told him with a grin, “We left them in the village. It is not our fault if they get stolen and eaten, is it?”

The cook grinned back. “Quite so. If people steal them and use them, that is their own look out.”

“Right. Now go and hide in the forest, and keep an eye on the village in the morning. If you see us looking well, it should be safe to return.”

“Which way is the forest? I don’t know my way around here.”

“Go directly away from the sea, for about a mile, and you should find the forest, get well in among the trees, and stay hidden for now.”

After he had gone, John suggested, “It is too dark now to be going to the ship. They would not like being hailed in the night. We’ll wait until first light, and apparently arrive in the village, on the way to John’s Tribe.”

Fresno saw the sense in that, and they used one of the huts to rest in.

The dawn roused them from their sleep, for tiredness had dropped them into that state as soon as they lay down. First task was a wash at the stream, to clear the sleep from their eyes and start to feel fresh again. Breakfast was restricted to a handful of their dried fruit and nuts, so that they could start right away. John told Fresno they would leave the spears, as they were a bit unwieldy for climbing on board a ship.

They selected a boat and Fresno showed John the method of rowing a boat. John recalled that he had learned this in his dead future past, but kept that to himself, to allow Fresno a touch of superiority that would boost his ego.

Fresno managed to row the boat out to the ship, all by himself. It was a stretch, but he was proud to show that he could do it. John sat further back, watching the ship as they approached. There was little sign of crew activity.

Arriving at the side of the ship, John looked for a ship’s ladder, but all he found was a rope with large knots at intervals. It seemed this was the equivalent of a ladder. John’s estimation of the invaders dropped another notch. They could build a big ship but not devise a ladder? Preposterous!

There was nothing to do but prepare to climb. First of all, John called up, “Hello the ship! Anyone on board?”

There was no response that he could discern, so he waited while Fresno used the boat’s painter to attach the boat to the climbing rope, then made a start on the climb. It was a steep climb, and he was puffing by the time he reached the top. A ladder would be much preferable.

Looking over the ship’s rail, he peered at the deck. There were a couple of bodies to be seen near the seaward rail, but that was all. John took this as an invitation, and climbed over the rail; waiting for Fresno to join him. John was pleasantly surprised at how little damage to the ship his missiles had caused. The raised prow and stern had taken hits and were blasted, but the damage had done nothing to the integrity of the vessel.

The pair then examined what they could see of the deck. There were what appeared to be doors, one at each end of the deck, both still intact despite the explosions. One was open, presumably left so by the seamen who had gone to the rail, probably to be sick. The other was shut, with a stake through two loops of rope, preventing the door from opening outward. Guessing that this was to hold in the captives, John walked over to it and pulled the stake free. The door swung open on leather hinges, and John wrinkled his nose at the foetid smell from below.

He called out, “Anyone able to move down there?”

A voice called back, “We are tied to our bunks!”

John braced himself against the smell, and forced himself to climb down below, knife in hand.

The place was dark and dismal, lit only by the light from the door hatch and a few gaps between deck boards. Couldn’t they have designed the ship with a ventilation hatch somewhere? Mind you, it may have been originally intended as a cargo ship; the size would have made that a valuable decision. It may very well have been taken over by the invaders and turned to suit their own purposes. The gaps between deck boards were the only means of ventilation when the hatch was closed. That was just enough to stop the occupants from dying from lack of oxygen. The smell was not much of an improvement over carbon dioxide poisoning. The sooner he could get them released and out to the fresh air, the better.

John made his way between the bunks, cutting through each tied rope with his knife, as the fastest way of releasing them.

He announced, “Get yourselves up to the deck for air. My friend is up there to help you. He is a fisherman.”

Someone tentatively grabbed hold of his tunic and demanded in a terrified voice, “What happened? Where have all the pirates gone? They were here last night, and we heard some odd noises, and now nothing from them. Where did they go and why?”

John told the grabber, “They are all dead, as far as I can tell: poisoned by something they commandeered in the village. It was their own fault. Now get yourself outside; this place stinks!”

The grabber brushed past, and John finally noted that it was a woman. The voice had not penetrated John’s skull earlier, as he had been concentrating on releasing captives, now he added, “ ... madam.”

He got a giggle for that, and she slowly made her way towards the outside. John continued to cut bonds until he had freed everyone he could find. One small figure did not move, even after the rope was cut, and John released that this was a teenager, and he or she was dead. He left the body, to be dealt with later, with reverence. The child deserved that respect.

John now joined the last the procession of people making their way to the fresh air, and assisted a few with the stair climb. The hand rail was a single rope, not very sturdy, as if added as an afterthought. He was less than impressed. This mob, despite the impressive-looking ship, were not as advanced as he had supposed. They had simply taken over other people’s technology for their own use, much as the people back in his own time seemed to have done.

The question was, was this the total number of invaders, or were there more who had kept to the land? The displaced wanderers that had kept appearing in the area of John’s tribe indicated that there was a ground-based pressure pushing them this way. Certainly the original direction of the big ship had been parallel to that on the land.

One good thing about everything was that all the people he had met had spoken the same language, or at least he supposed that, as it was not just him and his nanos that let him speak with them; all the locals could speak with the others, even if they were slightly different dialects.

Did the invaders use the same language? The only people he could ask were the captives he had just freed, and the cook from the village activity. He would like to know the answer to that conundrum.

Getting up to deck, he found Fresno going around the released prisoners who were lying or sitting on the deck, just breathing the refreshing air. Fresno was doing his best to answer their questions, but there was little he could say that would make sense to them.

He was just saying that their captors had eaten something poisonous, and it had killed them. There were therefore now free, as he and his friend High Chief John had come across the scene.

John sighed at this use of his title, for at this point John preferred to be more or less anonymous. He would set Fresno the task of establishing where all the captives had come from, whether there were more that had been sold or killed, or whatever.

Then he remembered what the cook had told him, and called for attention.

“Hello, everyone! Is there a lady here who is the girlfriend of a man who acts as a cook?”