Chapter 25

Greg was seated on a campstool. He was drinking coffee, and waiting for the UH-1H (Huey) to show up. He and his men had arrived at this location the night before. He had decided it was perfect for a perimeter defense if one was needed, and had a good clear space for a helicopter to land.

According to the last radio contact with the freighter he was supposed to meet and their GPS position locator, they were close enough now for the helicopter to fly in and return to the ship, with fuel to spare.

Still, it would take a lot of flight time to make a round trip, so Greg said he was camped, and the ship could make up the difference. A transmission from Cheyenne had instructed Greg to board the ship, and explore the new Island.

It had been stable for almost a year now, and according to satellite and overflight information, the volcano was dormant. Greg thought it an interesting mission. To be one of the first people to explore a new island! This was the stuff books were made of! He grinned to himself. This would make a great novel.

Finally, late in the afternoon, he heard the sound of a chopper approaching. He stood, with coffee in his hand, and watched as it approached. Sgt. Langford went out to guide it in.

The Sgt. positioned himself so that he was facing into the wind, and left a large enough area for the chopper to land. He held his arms straight up in the air. This was a signal to the pilot, which basically meant, "Guide On Me."

Shortly, the helicopter was down, and two men got out. The pilot and copilot were doing shut down procedures. Greg waited as a captain and a civilian came up to him. The captain saluted.

"General Baron. I'm Captain James Ortman. I will be taking care of your group while you are on the ship. This is Mr. John Pullet. He is an expert on volcanoes," the Captain said.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, General. I must say I enjoyed your last book, The Color Blind Killer. A very clever book, indeed. I have a copy of it on the ship with me. I would be honored if you would sign it for me," John said to Greg.

So it was, that after eating their evening meal, Greg found himself strapped into the Huey, and was on his way to the ship that was now his floating headquarters. Thirty-five minutes later saw them touching down on the cargo freighter's newly made helipad.

The ship was commanded and run by Navy and ex-Navy personnel. The Captain was an active duty Navy man, who had survived by living in the Appalachian Mountains. When things settled down, he had gone to the nearest military base, and had run across a military sweep that accepted him as one of their own.

His rank was as a Captain in the Navy. His last post had been as a destroyer's Captain. While this was a let down from being on a surface warship, it was still a command at sea!

He had no idea who General Baron was, just that he was now his immediate commander. Well, he would do everything he could to make the general comfortable. He just hoped that the man did not try to run his command. After all, the man was a ground pounder, not a Navy man, and he might not know when he was over stepping propriety.

Greg called a meeting of department heads, and asked that the Captain be present, also.

"Thank you for coming. This is going to be a very exciting time! We are going to explore a newly formed island. This is something that has not happened, in a long time. I want to make it clear from the start, that Captain Ron Clark, this ship's captain, has my full cooperation.

"I have no clue as to how to run a Naval operation. I will be relying heavily upon his expertise. What he says, goes. If he says we stay 10 miles off the island, then we have a long commute. I have full confidence in the Captain. He is my adviser in everything that pertains to the Naval portion of this mission," Greg told the assembled personnel.

The Captain of the ship listened, and was pleased that the general had basically admitted his ignorance to seaborn conditions. The Captain was impressed. Not many people of the General's rank would be willing to admit to not knowing that his ideas were better than a Captain's knowledge.

They discussed how best to land, and who to send to the island. The General wanted to go, but was willing to go in, on a secondary or tertiary lift. He was not adamant on being the first to set foot on the new island.

And so it was, that the Captain said they could be at island, in just three day's sailing time. He did say that he only had food stores on board for another 30 days. Greg told the captain that a tender would be made available, if resupply was required. The tender could be detached from the aircraft carrier Ronald Regan's task force.

With that, the ship turned eastward, and proceeded towards the new isalnd, which still needed to be named. It took almost three days of sailing before the ship slowed, and started its long coast, until it was dead in the water on the western side of the island.

A helicopter was dispatched. It did a recon of the perimeter of the island. Reports came back about things growing on the island. Also, a water source seemed to be running off the island. It was not yet known if it was fresh water or salt water, but still, a water source was an exciting find!

With the exception of the center of the island, most of the island was made up of what had once been the sea floor. The island was over 40 miles in diameter, but was more ovoid, than circular. Its longer axis (just over 50 miles) was mostly north-to-south The ship was doing sonar soundings to try to get an idea of the floor of the ocean in the immediate vicinity.

The helicopter over flew the island, and took videos of everything. When the tapes were reviewed there were several surprises. One was the wreck of a ship. It looked like an old 1930's freighter. The other was more difficult to pin down, except there was an obvious old style cannon sticking out of the sides of a ship. Most of it was buried a short distance from the ocean. It was very exciting really.

Everyone wanted to explore the two wrecks right away. The captain of the ship wanted to hear reports first. Was there anyone else here? Was there evidence of previous visitations? The captain was cautious, and Greg backed him to the hilt.

Admiral Allen Page was worried. From the intelligence that had come from South Korea, it appeared that the North Koreans had a modern submarine, and it was on its way to America to launch some sort of biological weapon.

While it sounded far fetched to him, they had already received faint sonar echo's of, "Something" out there. They were unable to get a lock on it. As soon as it was detected, it took advantage of the newly changed seabed, and what ever it was escaped.