Chapter 47

I was not the first one awake the next morning, but Jaycee made sure I was next. Meka woke while Jaycee was rousing me and she and Tutsie weren't ashamed to giggle or bark, respectively, at my plight.

"Come on and get up. If I have to spend half the night learning how to fly a new bird then the least you can do is get up and go along for the first flight."

"Before breakfast?" I asked.

"No, but if you want time to eat it you'd better get moving now," she said, and took off for the ladies room while I headed for the men's.

Tutsie used his potty lawn this morning. I guess he didn't want to cause delays since Jaycee was already on the warpath. I gave myself a lick and a promise in the shower, pissing in there too while I was at it, then pulled on some clothes and headed for one of my favorite places, the table.

Jaycee was surely in the mood for some flying this morning since she was already at the table with coffee in hand as I came in. Francine sent one of the young lovelies in with coffee for me as I sat down and food showed up within a couple of minutes. At least Jaycee didn't try to gulp it down.

"They have outdone themselves this time," Jaycee said, talking about the new helicopter.

"Will it be too much for you to handle alone?"

"No, in fact I'm sure you could fly it with only a little practice. The avionics, aeronautics, and computerized flying aids are out of this world."

"I guess that makes sense, but I didn't think of it last night."

"They said I could fly it the old fashioned way if I wanted to, but why would I. With their automation I don't even have to fuck with the collective at all, and it lifts off without any worries about ground effects if you let it do what it can do. You just pull a small lever and get a smooth and stable lift with no bother and no worries. It's armed to the teeth too."

"That probably won't hurt anything. Are you up for taking a few of our friends to see the ships I was scaring them about?"

"See hell, we're going to capture one if it's close enough to shore. The weight we can carry is greatly increased now since we don't have a fuel load and we have so much more power. We can take seventy five men armed with compound bows with us, at least."

"Damn, I had no idea, but what will we do with them once they're caught?" I asked.

"Depends. If they have some cute young passengers like Alphonse was escorting to the new Promised Land we can give those a ride to their new home. If it's just a bunch of ugly men we'll at least save them the indignity of drowning," she said, and laughed.

Jaycee and I didn't waste time after eating and headed for our new ride. We headed through the basement of the house and then on through the truck tunnel into the lower floor for the newly enlarged again barn. It still had the big door on the back wall so trucks could be lowered but there was now another door in the back corner. It opened to a tunnel that took us to a new facility for the helicopters.

I don't know why we had two of the new giants since we still had only one pilot, but it didn't matter. When Jaycee and I climbed aboard and took our seats, she hit a switch and we started rising as a giant overhead section slid out of our way. When we came to rest we were outside and sitting on a new helipad. It was a little surprising but when I looked toward the house I could see our swimming lake from the backside.

When Jaycee started the alien engines I was under-whelmed. They were nearly silent. Of course when she engaged the big rotor things livened up and by the time they were up to speed the sound level was considerably higher. I didn't have time to pay attention to the noise after we started lifting off. Things started going faster for me about then.

The damned thing was big but mostly it like any helicopter I'd been in before. Soon enough we were far above the ground and Jaycee started a big circling route around where the house was currently. The most visible things were pine trees. Well, what did I expect in the East Texas Piney Woods? Still, we could see our guests scrambling around in the front yard and looking up. A good many of them were pointing, as if anyone was having trouble seeing what was causing the noise.

She flew us around for about fifteen minutes and then we headed home. I was surprised when we got near since the radio came to life.

"John, Jaycee, can you hear me?" Fawne asked.

"Yes, we hear you fine Fawne," Jaycee said, after picking up her microphone, "How did you know how to get in touch with us in this?"

"I went to the room with the moving pictures. I asked aloud if there was a way to call you and a voice told me how."

"I should have given you all some instructions before we left, but you did fine. Can you go out in the front yard and tell everyone to stay clear while we land? Tell them to stay back until the blades stop turning."

"I can try, but what are the blades?"

"They're above us. They're what let us fly, and they will keep turning for a while after we are on the ground again. If someone comes too near they will be hurt, probably killed."

"Oh. I will do my best. I'll get the others to help," Fawne said, and then she was gone.

"We're going to have to work on radio communications protocols a little," Jaycee said, and then laughed.

"We will make sure no one comes close until the danger is over," Big Boy said, into my head.

It was a good thing he was paying attention. Of course we hadn't warned a soul what was going to happen and the front yard landing was a spur of the moment thing. No harm no foul though and this was going to be impressive.

We gave Fawne and the others time to get the word out and then when we saw her waving at us Jaycee started down. Of course detritus started coming up as we neared the ground, but it wasn't as big a cloud of it as I'd expected. Mostly the air was alive with pine needles for a few seconds.

Once we were on the ground and Jaycee killed the power the rotor blades slowed to a stop sooner than I'd have expected. I guess we needn't have worried so about being rushed by onlookers. Most of the Indians were too scared to come close. I walked to Jahedo when I spotted him.

"How can that thing fly, and what is it?" he asked.

"It is a machine, called a helicopter, and the blades on top of it let it fly. This is what we'll use so I can show you the ships that are coming."

"We will be able to ride in it, while it flies?"

"Yes, it is safe. We will ride it all the way to the sea that is south of here and we will find one of the ships. Can you bring twenty of your men, armed with their bows? We want to make the ship come to shore and capture the men in it."

"Yes, my men will come. I will bring twenty of the best warriors."

"Will you ask Twako to bring twenty also? I promised to show him the ships too."

"Yes. I'm sure he will come. Should they bring weapons?" he asked.

"Yes. There will be fifty or so men on the ship and they may fight. We can sink the ship from the air, but I would like to make them run it aground so that we might take anything of value. It is also possible they will have women and children aboard, but I'm sure there will not be many. I don't want to kill them unless it is necessary," I said.

"But why would it be necessary?" he asked.

"We do not want them to get back home and tell of the riches they found. It will only cause more to come here to steal. If we can save the women and young children you can take them in and show them a better way to live on this land," I said, hamming it up just a little.

In less than an hour Jahedo, Twako, and twenty armed men with each of them boarded the helicopter. Doctor Jorge came along with us and George did too. Bob declined the invitation and he and Wanda forbid Chuck and Dave's participation. I was happy enough about that part. I didn't really mind if Chuck and Dave got permission for a later trip, but for now I had my hands full.

In its current configuration inside, the Pave Low 1000 had metal seats installed in the cargo section and they had rudimentary seat belts. It took twenty minutes to get our passengers inside and buckled in, along with showing them how to unbuckle.

Jaycee didn't anticipate trouble, but she thought it would be much better if they stayed put while we were traveling. One of the nice features of Big Boy's model were large windows in the side so our passengers could see at least something except metal walls.

We were about two hundred and fifty miles from the gulf, and no doubt farther from the nearest ship, or at least I thought we probably were. Jaycee didn't say so and I didn't ask. The trip to our first victim took two and a half hours and it was a surprise since the ship, presumably a Spanish Galleon, was much closer to shore than I'd expected.

If our Indian friends had been shocked by the Pave Low, the crew of the ship we found first was terrified. I wondered that the ship didn't list horribly to the side the crew ran to, trying to get a better look at us.

It was a square-rigged relic that wasn't an antique yet. There were two main masts with smaller ones both in front and behind them. Jaycee cured the gathering on one side by moving directly in front of the vessel, as if to block their path. We didn't have a way to communicate with them over the noise we were making, but Jaycee cured that also by using the machine guns to truncate the forward main mast just above the lower sail. I think they got the message after the top half or so fell to the deck.

The crew had no hope of defending themselves from us, but they gave it a shot, in fact they gave it a few. Five or six men came out with muzzleloaders and fired a round or two each. Not a shot even made it to our armor to bounce off. Jaycee didn't take it kindly though and she fired some type of rocket into the gulf. It hit within ten feet of the side of the ship and the explosion was impressive. A couple of minutes later they turned toward the shore and ran it aground on the beach.

Jaycee wasn't done with them yet though. She lowered a cargo hook. They got a clue from somewhere and attached it to something on the bow. Meanwhile I was wondering what in the hell Jaycee was up to. Even if we did have space age engines we surely didn't have over twenty thousand pounds of pull on that line and the ship had to weigh nearly a thousand tons.

After we set down she explained. She'd pulled on the ship just to bring it up a little farther onto shore so they couldn't get loose. It wouldn't have done them any good anyhow, but it would have been annoying.

She'd made sure to land directly ahead of the beached ship so no canons were pointing our way. As we got out to meet our new friends we saw a party of three men climbing down a net type rope ladder and they headed our way. It turned out to be the Captain, the First Mate, and the Second Mate. I nearly laughed at them, but I managed to keep from it.

The Captain, Humberto Abarca, was not pleased to see us. As usual he started in what must have been his native language, but I cut him off.

"If you can't speak English then you are a dead man now and we'll work our way down your crew until we find someone who can," I said.

He was not pleased. He could speak English fine, but he made the mistake of calling me an English pig and Jaycee cashed his chips in with her Glock right away.

"If the rest of you can't speak English and keep a civil tongue in your mouth while you do it, don't even bother to say anything except prayers," she said, and then gave them an evil smile.

"I can speak English and I also have manners. May I assume you are some type of pirates?" the First Mate asked.

"If it suits you go ahead. What type of ship is this and where are you coming from and going to?" I asked.

"We have been to the new world to the south and we are going back to Spain?"

"What are you carrying?"

"We have thirty female slaves for the brothels in Madrid and we have some gold plus other assorted goods," he said.

"He has some nerve, coming to our land to steal women and gold and calling us pirates," Jaycee said, and I could tell she was pissed.

It's likely the First, Second, and all mates down to the hundredth would have started dying about then if Jaycee hadn't noticed two more men descending the net ladder. One was dressed as a nobleman and the other wore the robes of a priest, and not a poor one at that. I could see her nervously squeezing the grips of her Glock while she watched.

"Who is this coming?" I asked.

"It is the owner of our ship and his guest, a holy father."

Jaycee didn't say anything but she did spit on the ground demonstrably.

"Try to keep a grip Jaycee. If you have to shoot one of them, do the priest, and try to only wound him for now. We want some answers if we can get them."

She promised she'd do her best, but I wasn't hoping for much anyway. We watched the Spanish assholes approach. The owner came up and tried to get in my face, shouting Spanish again. I was tired of giving language instructions so I got through to him with a strong backhand that knocked him on his ass.