Chapter 34

When we stop, I tell him, “You might as well come in for breakfast. I have a surprise for everybody, and you might as well join in. I’m sure you will want to have a say in part of it.”

“What is it this time?”

“I’m trying to have fun with a business venture. It is time I stopped being all work and no play. This will let me play and work at the same time.”

“I got to see this.”

He follows me in.

It is still early. Sam and Gramps are having breakfast, but Zlata and all my girlfriends are at cycle practice. I notice that the girls are due back any minute, so I decide to be helpful and start cooking breakfast. I want breakfast to be over as soon as possible so we can get on with my surprise.

When they come through the door, my girls corner me and press their sweaty bodies against me one by one, to kiss me.

“Come on! I’m cooking here. That isn’t very sanitary. Get your sexy little asses in the shower.”

Blair just laughs at me while her boyfriend, Kevin, shakes his head at the four of us. They still regularly join us for breakfast, and an invitation is never needed.

By the time they have all showered, breakfast is ready, and the table is set.

When we get seated, Moira asks, “Not that I am complaining about getting out of cooking, but what is the occasion?”

“I have a surprise for everybody after breakfast.”

“What is wrong now,” Dahlia asks.

“It is partly work-related. I asked Sam and Gramps to hold off going up the hill to work on the car, so they can see it.”

They have learnt that there is no use in asking me to talk about something if it is meal time, and I say it is work-related. The general consensus is to hurry up and get the meal over with.

I decide to play with them a bit. I slow down and enjoy my meal. Everybody is done, and I still have about a third of my meal left. Kevin, Blair and Moira try to be polite and carry on with their conversation. Carol punches me in the shoulder, saying, “You don’t need to be a dick.”

Dahlia adds, “Ya, hurry up already. You know it is a girl’s right to keep a boy waiting. It isn’t supposed to be the other way around.”

I act innocent, asking, “Oh, are you all waiting on me? You should have said something.” I quickly scarf down my french toast. Before I stick the last fork full in my mouth, I tell Carol, “If you are that interested, you should bring me the nine folders that are in my safe. No peeking, now.”

I’m still chomping on my bacon when she returns, trying to hand it to me while my hands are still a bit sticky. When I swallow, I tell everybody, This is going to take the entire table, and these are plans from work, so this table needs to be cleaned, and I know that some of us need to wash our hands.

I get up, leaving Carol holding the folders while I get Sam and Gramps. Behind me, I can hear the clattering of dishes as the girls and Kevin quickly clean up.

When I get back, Carol has the files sitting at the head of the table, where Sam usually sits. When I first got here, he was the only one that sat there. Now, I often steal the spot from him.

I set aside the two largest folders and one other. Then I take a blueprint out of the second to smallest folder and lay it on the table’s centre for everybody to look at. After a quick glance, Moira asks, “Why are we looking at the MCDV?”

“The what,” asks Blair.

Carol answers, “Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel. It is the ship we are trying to sell the military.”

I confuse them more by saying, “I figured that I would help them decide by building a couple and letting them see the ships they are going to buy before we win the bid.”

“That’s backwards. What if they don’t buy them,” asks Gramps.

I pull out another blueprint form the same folder and lay it out before saying, “It is a good thing that we are building this version, then isn’t it?”

Sam is the first to realize what it is and says, “I don’t think we need a private yacht that big. Who is going to crew it?”

“I suppose, if you don’t want a yacht that big, then you will be disappointed that I am already constructing all of these.” I leave the smallest folder closed, and I pulled out the yacht version of the next four folders. Each one I hand him is of a bigger ship than the last.”

Gramps looks at the biggest file, and when he realizes his coffee is about to spill, he clears his throat, saying, “This is eight thousand tons. It isn’t a yacht. It’s a heavy cruiser.”

“Actually, it is a multi-purpose stealth destroyer with a command platform. But the version you are looking at is a luxury yacht with a helicopter pad, hanger, pool, diving platform and small boat launch. At lower sea states, the helicopter can be lashed to the landing pad, and the hanger turns into a gym. You don’t want a gym in rough weather anyway.”

The girls and Kevin run from being stunned into silence to excitedly looking at all the blueprints. Grandpa has been building ships since WW2 broke out. He and I continue our private conversation, with the others listening in while looking at the blueprints and talking amongst themselves.

Grandpa is a bit puzzled and observes, “Your shipyard isn’t built yet, and Yarrow isn’t building these. Who is building them, and where?”

“There are a few small islands directly south of the main Japanese islands. Kawasaki did their research before agreeing to build our shipyard. They discovered that we put in a bid for the MCDV project, and since Japan is looking at modernizing their navy, they wanted in.”

“You sold weapons to Japan? Are you kidding me?”

Few Canadians from the late 80s to early 90s know anything about Japan, other than they were our enemy in WW2. I have to remind Gramps, “We are allies now, and I didn’t sell them weapon systems. I admit to providing hull designs and stealth technology, but that is it.”

In school, we are reminded of the role they played in WW2, but aren’t told why they started the war. Everything we learn is propaganda, telling us what horrible people they are. The same is true with the US.

The reason for it is Japan has the second-largest economy in the world. The only reason they are not called a superpower is because the west refuses to recognize them as such.

“How did you get them to build the ships if you are a minor?”

“Apparently, in Japan, as a 14-year-old, you can own a company. The Japanese government, Kawasaki, a couple other companies and I jointly own a new shipbuilding business that will build mostly luxury yachts. It will also be used for government contracts to build warships. They are mostly my designs, which have a dual civilian/military purpose. The great thing is, I get the first of every class at less than cost.”

“Why less than cost.”

“Because it saves them money in the long run. You know that the first ship in a class has the most problems. The bugs aren’t worked out yet. It ends up being the most expensive ship in the class, and it isn’t as good of a ship.

“They will work the bugs out of them, then ship them here, where we use them as demos to sell more ships.

“We can use these ships anytime we want, but they don’t technically belong to me. They belong to the sales division of my shipbuilding company.”

Holding up the last file, I say, “This is the boat we own. It’s a 142 foot, 250 ton trimaran with a dive platform. It was designed to be a training platform, so it has the drive system of a much larger ship, and it is super-maneuverable.”

Grandpa laughs, “Training vessel, alright, look at that bridge. The navy sure knows how to make things inefficient.”

“I agree, which is why the bridge will be overhauled once the brass has seen it. As it is now, it needs a crew of 9. When it is refitted, it will only need 6. It sleeps 24. I expect everybody here to get their bridge qualifications, so we only need to hire two engineers, and we can sail.”

Gramps asks, “And, who is going to be the third engineer?”

“Me. I would get you all qualified if it weren’t such a long course.”

“What would that take,” asks Carol. The desire to become a ship’s engineer is all over her face.

I give her a hug and kiss her on the forehead, “Nice try, angel, but you need to be able to fix anything mechanical or electrical on the ships. I will get the ticket for the chief engineer, but there needs to be two others that have a basic understanding of everything.”

She looks at me, puzzled, asking, “Why do you need three people with that much mechanical knowledge? It isn’t like you will get in that much trouble between ports on a yacht.”

“I don’t know what the regulations are for a privately-owned craft. It is owned by Brown’s Holdings, our main company, so we need to follow commercial regulations. They require an engineer on watch around the clock, and no engineer can be on watch for more than 8 hours a day. It is because a commercial vessel might not be near land. What happens if we hit a whale, and it takes out both props, or we get a hole in the side of the boat? An unforeseen issue away from civilization can turn your day bad fast.”

Grandpa points out, “You do know that you can’t just challenge your marine engineering certificates. They require sea time for a reason. You also need different certificates for different drive configurations, so you will need to requalify to crew a ship with a gas turbine or boiler.”

“I know. That is why you and Sam will be doing a lot of fishing, and the girls are getting their scuba licences.”

Hearing about the scuba lessons has the girls jumping up and down in excitement, saying how their brothers and sisters are all going to be jealous.

Carol points out, “The first time you take it out, everybody will want to come.”

“We will start building the MCDV on Monday, so it should be the first one available. The smaller training ship, we will start when the next bay is open at our new shipyard. It will be ready before summer, about the time we take possession of the other ships. The MCDV can take 30 passengers, so we have to limit it to 30.”

Excited, Moira asks, “Does that mean we can bring our families?”

“Yes, our family and your families will be invited, as will Blair and Kevin. Think carefully and let me know who else you want to come. We still have 14 more people to invite.”

Sam interrupts, “Before we get to the rest of that, what are the three folders that you haven’t shown us?”

“The biggest one is a stealth diesel-electric attack submarine that is so high tech it can stay submerged for more than three weeks. The next biggest is a multi-role light aircraft carrier, and the last is a combat-ready replenishment ship.”

Gramps is distraught, thinking I am giving this tech to a potential enemy. Sam is shocked that I could even design such things.

As the conversation goes from talking about the ships themselves to talking about the fun we are going to have on them, the adults excuse themselves so they can speak in private and get some work done on Sam and Gramps’ restoration project.

As soon as they are out of earshot, Dahlia asks, “I thought you wanted to prevent war? Why are you giving warships to Japan?”

I laugh and correct her, “Japan is the one nation you can give weapons to and know that they would never use them.”

Kevin and the girls are a bit puzzled by that revelation.

“Look, Kevin, Blair. There is something we should have shared with you a long time ago.”

I can see that Dahlia is chomping at the bit to tell them, but she keeps her mouth shut for once. I almost laugh at her before saying, “Ok, Dahlia, you can tell them.”

She brightens up then blurts out, “Trent is from the future. Isn’t it great?”

It doesn’t faze either one. Blair says, “I thought there was something wrong. That explains so many things.”

I suppose the advantage of not fully understanding science is you can accept the magic of it without asking too many questions.

I comment, “I suppose you are right.”

Kevin follows me by saying, “I thought time travel was impossible. The way Albert Einstein explained it, the maximum speed you could travel is the speed of light, and you needed to pass that in order to time travel.”

“Albert was a moron. Most of his work was stolen, but we don’t need to get into that. His graph was all wrong. The speed of light is a variable. Granted, it relatively remains a constant because of how fast it is, but light bends into a black hole. Which means, it has mass. Which means, you can affect its speed. If you surpass the speed of light, all it means is you can’t see behind you. The only boundary that can’t ever be passed is speed infinity. At which speed, you will occupy every point on a line from where you reached speed infinity to the end of all existence. There are theories that state since you shrink with speed, once you have reached speed infinity, you will have shrunk out of existence. But, they don’t take into account the laws of conservation of mass and conservation of energy. When you figure that out, you realize mass is energy. Star Trek replicators are possible.”

Holding my arm, Dahlia says, “Trent sweetie, you are confusing people.”

“Sorry, bad habit.”

Holding me tight, she says, “We should get back on topic. Now, why will Japan not use the weapons?

“What about World War 2,” adds Moira

“Japan had no choice. They were forced into a war they didn’t want. If I were to explain it all to you, it would take days. The short of it was, Japan was overpopulated, and despite being a modern nation, people were dying of starvation. Every time Japan tried to do something to rectify the situation, the west would get involved and stop them. It ended up that the US and UK had either blockades or trade sanctions preventing Japan from getting the food they desperately needed. It would be like the US closing its borders to Canada and then putting up a blockade to prevent any ship from coming or going from Canada, and then, burning everything in the prairies, so we had nothing to eat. Wouldn’t you want to go to war then?”

“So why are they so peaceful,” Asks Blair.

“At the end of the war, the Japanese government knew that the people would revolt in response to the occupation. They had no choice but to make concessions so the allies would do as the Emperor desired, preventing the uprising.

“Having no choice, the Emperor signed The Treaty of San Francisco. This dissolved the Japanese government and instituted a democracy. It forbade the Japanese from entering any war zone, gave Hong Kong to Britain and gave the US control of the history taught in Japanese school. All to last for 50 years.

“The Americans rewrote history. Go to Japan today and ask them why they started WW2, and they will tell you it was because they were warmongers. That is what the US had them teach. Not one of them knows about the Russo-Japanese War and what the Americans did to cause the Imperial Japanese to hate Americans. They have no clue about the starvation or the Chinese communist betrayal. Heck, they don’t even know about the sanctions and blockade.

“You have a nation of peace-loving people that are ashamed of a history that didn’t happen. Every country needs a military, or it will be invaded and taken over. If you ask the average Japanese citizen, they will tell you that they wish that Japan would abolish its military because they are taught that the military is strictly for war.

“The first time Japan was allowed into a war zone, the only thing they sent was a tanker to refuel coalition ships. Heck, when I left, Japan was one of the few countries that hadn’t lost its mind. The only thing they did with their military was defend themselves. Japan will never again fire a gun in anger. Who better to give stealth technology to? In fact, I am contemplating giving them supercavitating torpedoes.

Dahlia comments, “Try speaking in English. What the hell is supercavitating?”

“It is a way to make things almost frictionless in water. Conventional torpedoes travel between 50 and 60 knots. I can get a torpedo up to 300 knots, around 556 kph. Right now, the Soviets are the only ones with such a torpedo. It only travels at 200 knots and can’t be steered. The Germans are the first ally to invent one. It only goes 100 knots, but it is steerable.”