Chapter 50

There remained the question of the Goose. It was still sitting on the hard by the ramp. She could use the watch ... and she had used the watch but it seemed she ought not use the watch since she planned on bringing the Grumman seaplane back to Darwin. A US marked Navy aircraft just shows up... ?

Then again ... she could time it to Pentwater and 1988 ... and what? She was Supposed to be in the Pacific. A Grumman Goose it a pretty big aircraft ... bigger than a Widgeon. But Pentwater in the summer ... What? You expect her to land it on the ICE? ... As I was saying ... Pentwater in the summer was generally full to overflowing with summer folk (Pronounced summerfuck by the locals.) and nearly every one of them that didn't rent dockage had a mooring.

Sailboat masts are hell on wings.

She could time it to 1946 Lansing, Michigan and Harold's Aircraft Service and Restoration and have him 'have a look', but she wasn't born yet ... and she'd have to leave it until she was at least 17 ... legally... 1977 ... She was 17 in 1977. Good lord ... she was nearly 30 ... where did it go ... the time?

Junior? She'd want to keep it ... SHE had an island she could take it to... (she had already delivered TWO Elco Torpedo boats and TWO brand new ... but old stock Grumman Widgeons to said Island simply because her mother didn't have one.) ... and a mother who understood ... nay ... aided and abetted her offspring in nefarious acts of sabotage and open rebellion. Junior wouldn't be born for TWELVE YEARS ... but here she was ... with her mother's blessing.

She needed a quasi legitimate reason to 'fetch and carry'.

What to do? What to do?

The problem was solved by the Royal Australian Navy. Lieutenant Sanderson was all hot to trot to visit the two bases. Just to look, you understand. He wasn't going to move anything ... yet.

Unlike his predecessors, Lieutenant Sanderson wanted to know more about the War that had come a hairbreadth from destroying his nation. The Jap was right over there ... just across the water and the only thing that saved them was defying the British.

Before the Jap, England Expects caused nearly the entire military machine of Australia to up stakes and move to North Africa, Rommel's War and the eastern Mediterranean. They were heavy into it when the yellow devils to the north started south ... Australia was the Japanese goal and they were coming from the north and west intent on crushing the whites. If the Aussies hadn't abandoned the Med war in mid-stream and returned to the home country... ? The defense of Port Moresby was key. That and the pounding Darwin took from 1942 on. Darwin was Australia's London Blitz.

That and American industry and Guadalcanal. The halt of Nip aggression at New Guinea and the loss of face at the 'canal saved the entire continent.

Sanderson wanted to see with his own eyes what the High Command had done. The abandoned bases around Darwin had been pretty much swallowed by urban sprawl ... the north coast would present untold evidence of... 'We need the Men ... American industry can speedily replace the tools. The public doesn't need to know'.

This ... and similar information was what Professor Andrea Koenigsknecht-Slagle-Austin Ph.D. was looking for. It was a perfectly legitimate reason to go back to the abandoned base and Sanderson could deliver her.

Andrea still didn't know everything the watch could to ... from what she knew ... she could go as far as her leaving date... 1987 ... and any time she had lived in the future... 1988 and thousands of years in the past.

"Junior!!" Andy needed a quick lesson. That's because her watch was an after thought gift by the Powers that Be just before they went to the Island for their first vacation in centuries. Nobody thought to leave the instruction book. She was supposed to give her sturgeon watch in exchange but she never did.

"Yes, Sir."

"Shit ... does that mean I'm an Admiral? ... I hate it when you people do that."

The Pretty Penny was the sole warship of the Nevis and St. Kitts Navy and Andrea was the only Fleet Admiral in that Navy ... officially.

Admiral Lightweight the crew called her ... she was a cheap drunk ... and WHEN she was the Admiral ... the shit usually hit the fan.

"We have company coming and They look official." Junior had her side-boy gloves on ... so did Connie.

"Shit shit shit," Andrea said as she fled for her stateroom. "Why don't you people tell me this shit before it happens."

David came out of the stateroom in his whites as she was going in, "Because we like to watch you panic!" he said as they passed each other in the hatch.