Chapter 28: We'd Paid Our Bones

We no longer had any trouble anywhere in Europe or throughout the med, around India or the Pacific Rim--anywhere that we cared to steam. Sailors are an undeniably a superstitious folk. We weren't considered a death ship, but we were 'made men' and had proven that we had balls. The guys rarely had to buy their own drinks when in port. On the other hand my lifespan had been serverely impacted. Was I bitter? You damn' betcha.

I got another full blood replacement. I began to get stronger and the doctors had good news--my blood marrow was producing red blood cells again. The oncologist couldn't find any serum markers denoting any wild cancers. I stretched each morning and did a little--a very little--work with the staff. I no longer had the flexibility needed for the violent motions of Shotokan, most of Kumdo and TaeKwonDo. If I practiced Wushu and Silat slowly I didn't hurt myself but I didn't do any credit to the arts, either. My joints ached constantly. Sigh. Twenty minutes can destroy your life. I had looked upon the angel of death and regretted it evermore.

I still had over 40 million dollars in the bank. It slept, mocking me. I still had my diamonds as well. Rather than leave them in a drawer I decided to keep them a bit closer to me. I bought a big solid silver cross with a well-made chain. It had a two-inch square profile for both the vertical and horizontal elements. The guys in the machine shop cut off the long leg at the intersection, bored out the center of the shaft and the central cavity for me and put in threaded steel inserts at the joint. I filled the shaft with diamonds wrapped in cotton cloth, then carefully screwed it shut. Only a small seam betrayed its secret. A cabochon-shaped piece of amber glued to the intersection somewhat disguised the seam from the front. The guys watched me load the diamonds into the cross and close it up tight.

I promptly went to my suite, pulled the brass plug from the bottom of the Buddha and placed all the stones in there, and then plugged it up again. I wrapped a handful of small pebbles in cotton cloth and loaded them into the cross. I hung it on the wall, over the desk.

We made a run from Naples to Cadiz, then back across the Med to Ismir Turkey. Next we sailed up the straights at Istambul, through the Black Sea and up to Odessa. The shipment that we picked up there was deliverd to the Naval Supply Center, Cheatham Annex, just outside of Camp Peary, Virginia. Our next job had us steaming for Cape Town, South Africa; then across the ocean for Porto Alegre, Brazil.

I spent a lot of my time siting on the top deck, protected from the wind by the doghouse that housed the access hatch to below decks. I sat there many hours taking in the sun and feeling the gentl rolling of the sea cradling the ship. It was the owner's prerogative to fuck off and I was doing a yeoman's job of it. Sigh--

I couldn't continue to live like that. Oh, it was great, once in a while, but I was getting bored and I began to worry what I'd let go that the ship needed. Quite frankly, after a while, I was getting over feeling sorry for myself. I began to get back in the game.

I checked our ship's accounts and we were doing fine. Nothing was coming up for certification. The ship and crew were working togther like a fine Swiss watch.

Our path led us to Chennai India; and on to Singapore, Manila, Taipei and Fukuoka harbor in Southern Japan. Winter was coming on in the northern hemisphere, and the girls' contracts were nearly up. I requested a cargo that was destined for northern Germany. We picked up a large but light-weight shipment from the Australian National Science Foundation out of Perth, destined for Kiel Germany. I was informed that it was running a laser measurement experiment and could take no jarring. That was fine. With careful loading and unloading procedures nothing would take anything over 3Gs, with slow onset and fall-off. It got there in good order--all the strain sensors showed green. We paid off the contracts for the girls with a decent bonus for each of them. I added the coursed that each had passed to their official CVs, including registeration as Merchant Seamen, First Class. I took them all in one group to the maritime registry office and got each of them their seaman's papers. No matter what happened thereafter they'd have a skill to fall back on. I remembered Jenny had left before we completed her paperwork. I had seaman's papers drawn up for her and copies sent to her last known address.