Chapter 47

The Chi Kuang was the name of the Chinese built refuelling ship. She was actually the only one with the hoses and support arms built into the design from the ground up. She was now a day away from us. The New Hope and the Diamond were coming around the southern tip of Florida but were going slow so they would not be seen as stationary.

Cabot and I went shopping for steel structural components. Captain Arsov needed a structure on the Astrakhan to support the chain. It also had to pivot horizontally so the chain could be dragged over the ship itself. The Astrakhan was still close enough to have a gate and the steel was delivered with some subterfuge that night.

The Chi Kuang was getting close and so were the two tankers but a storm was approaching. The storm would be a better time to slip through to Woodland because we would be lost from radar and presumed to have sailed away. Being in the Bermuda triangle was good too.

There were gates set up between the three military ships and the container ship so we could use the available labour to get the arm built.

I was on the Kuenta again with the family. Jonna asked me, "How come you haven't put a shield up yet?"

The reasons were listed but it broke down to the complexity and size of task. "We can try now. There are more of us."

Jonna started to object and I felt a reluctance to do this but it was quickly hidden. She said, "We can try. It's not like we are doing anything strenuous."

Tiffany was sitting in a chair. She tried standing with the aid of the fulcrum but the ship pitched too much because of the approaching storm. "I'm not feeling up to it," she said.

Jonna said, "Tiffany, I'm not up to it either but it's work to do with your mind."

Tiffany still refused and Jonna got more pushy. Once she got something stuck in her craw, she refused to let it go. Caiti heard the mental argument and came in. She held Tiffany's left hand and said, "Tiffany, we need help. We've tried a lot and we can't do it. It's a lot like a tank but we can't get all the details. You were always good at this sort of thing."

Fislu started before Tiffany had a chance to say no. "The ship will be safer for the children. We may not need it now but in time there will be occasions when all of our lives will depend on having a shield around the ship."

I added, "This will make all of us safer. If we could have done it before we would have. I know what can happen to us with the weapon the Church can now throw at us."

We waited until Tiffany said, "I'll try but I can't do much."

"You can do just as much as before. Your head and brain were not damaged by lightning."

She burst out with a temper and said verbally, "I said, I'll try."

Caiti said quickly, "Thanks, Tiffany. I knew we could count on you for some help."

We took a long time talking about what we wanted and then we invited the officers of all three military ships to a meeting to discuss the designs. Gatherings of this kind were common to us and Tiffany began to act her old self a bit more and I felt a mental smile coming from Jonna.

The Kuenta had to leave port but there were coins in Savanna now so we didn't have to go through customs again if we didn't want to. All of the ships stayed at least a hundred kilometres apart. There was no sense stating our affiliations.

Jonna told me matter-of-factly, "A gate that's set up adequately will stay up even after they move apart. Even further than what we could do to reestablish them."

I had not come to a situation to learn this yet and I was happy to find this out.

"Thanks, Honey. The Church would have done a lot better with you as one of their researchers."

Jonna looked at me in disgust. I could not read her mind because her shields were up. I had not said anything wrong, or at least I thought I hadn't.

It was difficult to concentrate on the ship as it pitched so the fulcrum was used by Camsa. Usually this took a lot of thought but it was not that hard once you got the knack of it.

We tried all morning with no shield being made. We did get partial ones made of different sections to learn how to form the various parts but it was just too difficult to complete the design. The jet engine had to be set up on the stern after a midday meal. We built a partial shield around it so that air could come in and exhaust leave without too much of a restriction.

It was later that afternoon as the winds picked up that I brought out the chest to power up our icons that I decided that we should all put our wristbands and headbands on the chest to see if we could get a boost. It had worked well with the lightning gun.

Tiffany gave us more grief but she tried. With only one arm she didn't use any of the wristbands. This was enough to get us over the hump. The shield pieces were constructed by individuals and added to the whole.

When the shield locked in place, it suddenly got dark. Jonna said, "There, we did it finally."

There was a rapid knock at the door and I used my headband to see that it was Captain Powers. He looked worried.

"Come in."

The Captain entered and said, "The crew's upset. There is no light. It feels like we aren't on the Earth anymore."

All of us got up including Tiffany that was using a fulcrum. In a moment we left the cabin and looked out. The Captain was right. It was pitch black and the only light was coming from the electric lights on the ship. To one side, I saw the gate to the Ronnas. I helped Tiffany to this gate and then used the intercom in our room to call the bridge. In a moment Dimitri came to our room.

"Yes, Sir?"

"Hi, Dimitri. We put a shield up around the Kuenta but its pitch black inside except for electric lights. Will you see what we look like on the outside?"

"I'll do it immediately. Will I be assisted with levitation?"

"Sure."

We skimmed the tops of the waves and in twenty minutes we were in the neighbourhood but there was no ship. I was worried that we had somehow ported the ship someplace except that the Kuenta was now rocking on the storm tossed ocean.

Dimitri used radar to no effect and then Captain Powers tried. He had a white screen and I felt a build up of static electricity everywhere. Dimitri said, "The radar is not penetrating the screen. They claim this will not harm us but I don't believe the military, any military."

The operator was quick to comply and shut off the radar even though his captain had not issued the orders. Dimitri said, "We may or may not have been cooking ourselves. I'd rather not find out the hard way."

We used our last known GPS reading and calculated our probable drift and the Ronnas went to that location. There was nothing there to see.

Everybody had a chance to look and the crew of the Kuenta had a chance to see that they were not trapped. They looked at this with more curiosity now than fear.

Vasiliy said, "If you're here and invisible, why not start your jet engines. We have equipment to find infrared."

Powers didn't have to be told by me and he gave orders that the jet be started. The Ronnas went inertialess just in case. The flames were immediately seen and even heard off the starboard bow of the Ronnas. The jets were adjusted to their lowest setting. Caiti and I used our minds to propel the Ronnas to the Kuenta as we had done with the carpet.

When we were only ten metres away, we could see some distortion of the light but basically the Kuenta was invisible. The spray of the waves momentarily stuck to the shield so we could deduce its shape. The hole in the ocean was the easiest way of detecting our position. To reduce fear even more, the crews of all three ships came to see the effect.

We studied the effect while Powers fretted about the state of his ship. He said, "When is this shield going to be removed?"

Dimitri said quickly, "You have an invisible ship. I sympathise with the fact that you are ineffective but we can learn a lot from your experience."

"I can't even tell where the wind is coming from. We are tossed about like a cork. We're at the mercy of the elements. We even have to cut back on power generation because we are overloading the heat exchangers."

The crew of the Kuenta was transferred to the other two ships while we continued the investigation. Morgan was the most happy to leave. He had done his duties so I could not fault him.

There was no way to tie a line to the Kuenta so late that night we reluctantly tried to remove the shield. This was a lot easier. We immediately tried to reform it with tow points, fore and aft. This time the shield was the same as the normal kind we put on vehicles.

The radar on the Ronnas found it hard to see the Kuenta and the amount of radiation inside the Kuenta didn't allow its use. One of the radar operators on the Ronnas told his Captain an additional fact.

Dimitri came to me and said, "When the shield was placed on the helicopter, there was a reduction in amount reflected radar waves. We now suspect that it was only the openings to the craft and the two rotors that actually reflected anything."

"That's good to know, Dimitri, but I don't understand why we could not repeat the first effect."

"Let's look at this logically, Sir. First, what was the original purpose of this shield?"

"A shield is to protect."

"Yes, but how was it used by the alien people that constructed it? Was it used to protect soldiers engaged in warfare?"

I had to do some thinking here. "The aliens got pissed off at Humans for engaging in war. They left because of that. This leads me to believe that the shield was for protection from backwards races or natural dangers."

Dimitri said, "You mentioned on our trip that you think that the collection of portals you found was probably for trading or for moving people. This sounds like a peaceful activity but at times it could be dangerous. What about the chain gates and the medallions?"

"The medallions, I feel, are a way to prevent unauthorised use of the gate. The shield is personal in case the wearer steps into a dangerous situation."

"There are many kinds of dangerous conditions. The shield will repel anything or just advanced projectiles. It can be actuated from inside and out. It can also be locked into the on position."

"That's true."

Dimitri said, "One circumstance could require invisibility just like what happened to the Kuenta."

"That's probably true as well."

Dimitri said, "Both shields are similar. Why can't they be used in space?"

"They would leak air."

"But those advanced races would have to prepare for this eventuality and have this feature built in. In fact, a poisonous atmosphere may have free oxygen. The suit would have no need of bottled air if the shield were made selectively permeable to that gas and perhaps carbon dioxide too."

This was all true and I sat back to think on it. "It could also work in an aqueous environment? Many of the lower portions of the complex suggest water worlds or a civilisation in the water. In any case the portals are large."

"That sounds reasonable but I postulate that there may be a time when the wearer of the shield may be attacked by people using your plasma weapon. In those cases another expression of the shield would be warranted."

I said, "We never tried going through a chain gate with a large shield formed from the wristbands."

"Could the large shield just be used to protect people and goods?"

"Let's bring the family in to discuss this."

We talked until Caiti was sleepy, then we tried a few experiments with the medallions. We produced a solid shield that kept the wearer immobile. This was initiated outside the shield. I was wearing the shield at the time and I felt stuffy, so we got a oxygen monitor from engineering and tried it again. Oxygen didn't seem to go through.

The storm got worse so we went to bed. Tomorrow, or rather later today, we had to transport the ships. The Kuenta caught up to the Chi Kuang near dusk. I used the portal to get to the former Coast Guard ship and hail the oiler. The storm was starting to weaken and I still had to use the fulcrum to help me get aboard with the use of a small boat. I was soaked from even the short trip.

I talked privately with the captain and then the family came over to put some minor controls on the Russian crew.

We dropped off a coin and I shifted to the Ronnas then to the Andis as she approached the Diamond. This crew and that of the New Hope were American. When everybody was processed, the ships converged on the nexus near the Bahamas.

The giant chain was slung on the beam of the Astrakhan when I arrived with the chest. Captain Arsov quickly said, "We had two low level flybys in the last half hour by military planes. I think this means we will have a visit by helicopters and a ship soon. The winds are diminishing but the rain is just getting worse. That won't stop the helicopters."

"Thanks for warning me, Captain. Let's try to act normal for the next half hour. The Chi Kuang should be here by then." I used the gates to get the Captains to hurry up just in case.

The rain got heavier as time went on. Another jet came by and even circled us. They could not see us well because it was getting dark. We didn't use any extraneous lights to help them. I was sure the pilot was using his Brownie to snap a few photos of us. The radar on the Astrakhan picked up a solid return so we knew that there was going to be some company soon.

The boom was pushed out and two ropes were used to secure it perpendicular to our keel. Camsa and Fislu went to the Diamond and elevated the bow and took most of the two hundred metre bulk of the ship out of the water. She was now going the fastest she had ever gone.

Caiti and Porta did the same to the New Hope. Jonna boarded the Chi Kuang and made it nearly inertialess. I opened the inter-world portal and then concentrated on the raft with the coloured stones in the ocean near Woodland. I tried working from memory but had to use the coin. The gate sprang to life.

The waves from Earth's ocean spilled into the calm seas of Bejek. There was daylight there and it was much easier to see. In a moment the Chi Kuang was at our stern. The engines worked very efficiently but it was still difficult getting the ship through the portal. It did go though. In moments the Diamond went through too. She was much wider and the men on her deck moved the chain around obstacles on their ship at Fislu's orders.

A plane came by just after the ship passed through. I collapsed the gate but the air craft circled four times.

Dimitri was called and told to come too. I had only a little bit of argument. The New Hope passed through the loop as did the Ronnas not five minutes later. The ships approaching us had picked up speed.

The Andis was the furthest away. The family opened a portal to me and we were now on the top of the Astrakhan. Jonna said, "Those American ships are going to give us trouble."

"I know." Just as I said that a military plane rushed by near the speed of sound.

Jonna said, "We can get this vessel through. We can set up the gate on the other side to get the other two through. This cargo is the most important."

"You're right."

The Kuenta and the Andis were coming but they would not make it in time without help. The family split up and I was left here with Jonna. I collapsed the portal one more time and pulled in the chain with the fulcrum.

With the chain in a pile, it was easier to handle. I got to the bow in time to hear a helicopter coming over the noise of the storm. We would have to activate the portal before we cast it out or we would leave a portion of our bow behind. The copter was near now and a loudspeaker said, "This is the United States Coast Guard. Prepare to be boarded."

Jonna said worriedly, "What does he mean?"

"They are going to land on the ship."

"Shoot them. They're pirates. This is international waters."

"Can't do that yet." I thought for a second and said, "Do you have your gun?"

Jonna quickly handed me the lighting gun. She obviously didn't want any toys being used. I thought of this then figured some lightning may distract the pilot.

I got the chest and used it as a barrier as I hid behind it. My hand went over the chest holding the gun. This had to appear to be normal lightning or as close as I could fabricate it. I fired a brief burst then another one. The second went near the copter.

The pilot was almost blinded by the first blast but he did pull the craft away. The copter fled about a kilometre and a half then started to return. This time the lightning was further from them but still seen as dangerous. The helicopter turned again and left. The first ship was only twenty kilometres away.

I energised the gate. Jonna and I each used a fulcrum to hold the chain as we allowed it to settle beside the ship. We walked back toward the stern just as a jet flew by. The pilot turned abruptly probably because of what his instruments were telling him.

We were only a quarter of the way back when he came around again but he was going too fast on a dark night with lots of rain or I hoped that this was the case. Near the mid point I lowered the chain to touch the chest and a burst of some kind of energy flowed across the gap.

I picked up one handle of the chest and Jonna did the other. Our other hands were holding the fulcrums. We were near the stern of the vessel when a line of bullets hit the water just back of the rudder. The Kuenta was close now because she had to take the chain.

The captain was not taking any guff from his countrymen and surged forward. Jonna said, "What are we going to do? Jump in the water?"

"Hold onto, Sweetie. She did and I strengthened the power of the fulcrum while concentrating on the chain, the chest, and the two of us. We floated down and the last of the ship passed through the gate.

I used Camsa's method of locomotion and even without the carpet, we moved toward the Kuenta. The ship had its shield in place and we tried to remove this when it disappeared. Fislu and Porta met us on the small copter pad and brought the heavy chain in with more fulcrums. We helped with the long chain and as soon as it cleared the props I said, "Let's get out of here."

"We can't yet."

"Why?"

"Caiti and Camsa are providing a diversion for us."

"What diversion? What are they doing?" I tried to listen in to Caiti and Camsa but they had me excluded. All I knew was that they were busy. When I could not find anything out, I said, "Let's get a shield up before they put a shell into the ship."

We put up a partial shield with too many openings. We needed radar, at least to receive. The exhaust for the diesel engines and the jets had to be made. Jonna checked on the Andis. We shifted over to that ship and set up a similar portal. This ship was being harassed and some holes were in our bow. A flair had been shot at the ship and the plane had jinked and ran. The pilot thought the heat source was a missile. A radar at the frequency of a Sam did even better at clearing the air. Since this ship had been hit, it got a bit more in the way of shields.

The Captain asked me, "What are your orders, Sir?"

"Move toward the nexus on the jet engines. I going to try to open the portal another way." The man looked at me oddly but now was not the time to talk about it.

We elevated just as the plane came by. It passed us and we opened the jet engines only a bit. We were not far away. The pilot must have us on heat sensors. There was so much fog and rain he couldn't see anything. We were just slowing down when a missile came at us. The Captain turned hard to starboard but the missile still hit. It pushed us forward but we felt very little of the acceleration. In a moment two more came at us. Both hit and pushed us forward. It was like a gust of wind from our stern.

I checked for damage and found none. The shield had taken the abuse and transmitted the force to the mass we allowed the ship to retain.

The Captain wanted to shoot back but all of our weapons were stowed below. The Coast Guard ship fired repeatedly at us. They had some sort of radar lock and they were accurate. They did no damage at all. The crew were less apprehensive when they saw that we were not taking damage.

The inertia was restored along with our mass. We were took a few more hits that did nothing but make the ship quiver a little bit. The guns stopped as if they saw the futility of what they were doing. The noise of the explosions was bad but I somehow felt it would be a lot worse. The shield must absorb some of this energy too.

The Kuenta was only a few hundred metres away but not taking any abuse. This looked to be a case of bias. One ship was a former Russian one and the Kuenta was a former Coast Guard. It was too hot here and we could not try to activate a portal so I ordered both ships to head east. The planes came in again and they began using machine guns and missiles on both ships now.

I called to Caiti and Camsa but they were still busy. I felt that Camsa was also quite angry. "Come on you two. Leave the ships alone. We're leaving." There was no reply. I looked around and saw that Porta and Fislu had disappeared and after I checked, they were not on the Kuenta.

I asked Jonna, "What were Caiti and Camsa up to?"

"They were talking to the men that operated the radar. This was a weak link that could be exploited without any damage being done."

"How — " I knew how they got there. "They can come back now. I want to leave."

"Camsa was hurt and he's angry now."

"What happened!"

I'm not sure but it was only a brief pain. He is not hurt now. He wants revenge."

"They are only doing their jobs. I don't want anyone hurt."

"Camsa is a level headed person even with all his other faults. He will not hurt anybody."

"And the rest went to help him?"

"We're family, Husband."

I noticed that we were not being harassed any more. The radar said that the planes were flying around their ships now. I had to take a second look because the Coast Guard ships were elevated off the ocean's surface and heading west. I felt sorry for the nearly defenceless crews of the vessels.

We changed course and stayed near the ships. The wind had picked up and was blowing them in the direction they were travelling. Smaller ships came at us but they were actually trying to aid their larger brethren. In a few hours, one large ship came back to the ocean but the larger one continued much further inland.

Near dawn I formed a gate and picked up a portion of my family. They looked tired out but somehow satisfied.

I didn't give them any rest and we elevated our ships and fled eastward. It was getting light out and we had not shaken our pursuers. There were only planes now. We slowed down and then reformed the shield. This time there would not be any holes other than the intake and the exhaust for our jet engines. The Andis was done next. It was a larger ship but the shielding was not as difficult. Tiffany was put in charge of this vessel along with Jonna, Porta, and Camsa.

I had Fislu and Caiti with me. Vasiliy had not stayed with the Ronnas and had used the gates to stay behind. He was not part of the Ronnas crew so I could not be angry at him. I was going to leave when I had another thought and called Vasiliy and the interpreter.

Vasiliy stood in front of me and at attention. I figured that he would think he was in shit for moving around. I said, "Coordinate with both Captains. Take us up. I want to see how well we avoid radar."

"Me, Sir?"

"We're going high and probably into orbit."

"But I know nothing about — "

"That's an order."

"Yes, Sir."

The family knew what I wanted anyway. In a moment Vasiliy got over his shock and we shot upward. The streamlined shape, the functional engines and the now completely inertialess ship had us accelerating rapidly. The crew was at a loss because the bow of the ship was uppermost and we were now in both freefall and a vertical posture.

When the engines started to die, Vasiliy talked us into a horizontal position and we were now going forward. Fislu and Caiti were tinkering with the shield to funnel more air into the engines so they would continue to work.

I walked into the strangely quiet bridge to see Captain Powers staring forward. In a moment I said, "What's wrong, Captain?"

"I'm in an Island Class patrol boat that is a hundred and twenty four feet long. I've been attacked by my own country. A crazy Canuck comes to me with some alien ladies and I agree to help him. A crazier Russian gives me orders and now I am skimming the very top of the atmosphere. We have to be nearly into space but the engines are still working somehow."

"How high are we?"

"At a guess, I'd have to say twenty to twenty five miles."

"That's not very impressive."

"It is when the SR-17 can't make eighteen miles. You need a rocket to go higher."

I had to smile now as I said, "Your title may have to change from Captain to Pilot."

"Not me! I'm part of the wet navy and proud of it."

I met Vasiliy in the Andis. He and that Captain stood at attention. "Are you switching over to space navy traditions, gentlemen?"

It took a moment for both to get the idea then Vasiliy said, "This is a momentous occasion. Your family is reconfiguring the scoops to bring in more air. I would like to see just how high we can fly."

"That's fine by me but I want to get to Bejek soon. Dimitri is probably being harassed by Artlam and Mantoya not to mention your friends in Section M."

Those interested in aeronautics contributed their ideas to the redesign of the shield. At eighty kilometres, the engines were not getting enough air even with very large scoops. Since we were this high already, we went weightless and were able to get to what we thought was a hundred kilometres.

We applied mass to the ships and we descended into the atmosphere. We had actually gone quite a distance now and we were over the Pacific Ocean.

We could go to Bejek from many places but I wanted to check the house in Tula and then see how much trouble we had stirred up trying to get through the portal and gate in the Bahamas.

In the mean time I talked to Camsa and those that had seized the American ships. Since a lot of crew were around we used our voices.

"What made you get so angry Camsa?"

I could feel his anger coming back. "I went over there to screw up their radar only. It would hide us and what we were doing. I talked to the guys here and found how well a ball of aluminum foil can block the receiver. Caiti and I took the small ship first and stuffed all three receivers. We got two done on the big one when they started to shoot at us. I didn't mind them shooting at me but not Caiti. We got the last one done and were going to go after the small ones attached to the guns when they started to use the machine guns on us. Those can kill. We went nearly inertialess and they knocked us away from the ship."

"Is that what made you angry?"

"Only a little. We had talked to the Russian guys here and found that the Americans are afraid of Arabs. So some of the Russians wrapped some cloth around my head to make me look like one."

"You would not look very close. Your skin is too light."

"That's not all of it. I dressed like that to frighten them and they shot at me. One man was down there yelling and screaming like he was crazy. He was not so much afraid as he was insane. He was like those people that the Church get hold of."

"Go on."

"Well, I was on my carpet and I buzzed him. He takes his gun out and aims for my head. I had no weapons and in fact all I was wearing was the turban and my silver. When he finds he can't kill me, he calls for the machine gun. I hold onto the mast and the bullets hit the shield. The man really goes crazy and gets a really powerful machine gun that shoots big bullets and a lot faster than anything we ever used. The bullets rip apart the ship around me and some bounce off and hit the crew. I left because they were getting hurt."

"Ok, what did you do?"

"We picked up the ships. The wind was blowing towards the shore so we went that way. I found a way so I could go faster. I leaned the ship over just right. Anyway one ship was put in some type of river that lead to the ocean. The other ship with the crazy guy was taken to a big lake further inland."

"And you just put it down?"

"Well, almost. It was as deep as it would go into the water but I picked it up a bit and let it go. It didn't bob up and down."

"Was anybody hurt?"

"It was like we have when the there's a storm or a bit more."

"Ok, then. What did Caiti do? Was she dressed like a leprechaun?"

"What's a leprechaun?"

"A tiny imaginary creature. What did Caiti do?"

"She helped me mostly. She used her broomstick on the men that were shooting me. She just used it to beat on the front window where they steer the boat."

"Broomstick?"