April 2: Down to Earth (51 page)

Papa-san tried to send her below, but she whispered she wanted to stay above. He silently pointed to a bench, well away from the wheel and she tucked herself in the dark corner.

Gunny occupied the other end, so quietly she felt the movement rather than heard him. Nothing that big should be able to move that quietly.

Somebody was working out on top of the boat, visible in the moonlight, but she didn't know enough to understand what he was doing. She could see one narrow sail up well ahead, but after awhile a really big one went up closer and she suddenly realized this boat was a lot bigger than she had thought at first. When the big sail filled, the water started making more noise going past and the boat leaned a little from the wind.

She looked back and was surprised how far away the lights on the shore were already. By the time a third sail was up, most of the line of lights down by the water were gone and it was only the tall buildings and antennas showing lights behind them. In another twenty minutes they were all gone and there was a light way off on the horizon to one side and a flashing aircraft light that soon was gone. Li came past carrying an odd metal object. It was light but awkward. A round shape of sheet metal mesh with square corners in each quadrant. He took it below. The boat was entirely dark and it rolled back and forth really slowly. She leaned back and watched the moon approach the edge of the sail and back away repeatedly. Somewhere along the way she fell asleep.

The sky was a silvery color, the moon set and the stars washed out, when April woke up. One of Papa-san's young men was at the wheel in front of her and the air smelled better than even at the Santos house. Way better than in town, which literally stank to her. She was stretched out on the bench, having no memory of getting there, from leaning in the corner. The padding was firm, but she wasn't sore. She'd slept injured side up. She was surprised to find somebody put a loose belt and safety line on her. She'd been so tired she had no memory of it. It hardly seemed credible she'd fall out of the sunken cockpit, with rails around it, but, their ship - their rules. Every once in awhile, she caught a faint smell of breakfast cooking on the wind.

 Haru, that was the man's name at the wheel, she finally remembered. He looked at her several times while scanning all around, looking off in the distance mostly, but he did not acknowledged her at all. She fumbled around and got the line off, to go down in the boat finally, needing to find a toilet. She went down the companionway and forward at the first level.

The inside of the boat was pleasant, light composites, not as much wood as she expected, more for accents than big areas of it. She went past several doors, until she found one open that was a bathroom. The sink was stainless, set in a synthetic counter top. It was cozy but not oppressively compact to her, bigger than her own bathroom at home. That was smaller than anything you’d find Earthside, except maybe in a compact motor home. She hesitated over the white terry towel hanging in a ring. The only other thing to dry her hands was her own clothing and the towel probably beat them for cleanliness. She went ahead and used it, but pulled out the back part hanging by the wall.

The murmur of conversation was from the front of the boat. She followed it and her nose, across a huge salon with big ports down both sides making it bright and came to a table with Gunny, the older Satos and Li all chatting over coffee. There was still some sausage and fruit on the table. The kitchen was in a cute little alcove, but way too small. There must be a bigger one for serious meals on the lower deck.

"There is oatmeal in the pot on the stove, rolls warm in the oven," she pointed. "We have shell eggs in the frig if you want and the pan is still on the burner for them." If there was to be cooking she obviously was to do it herself. They apparently ran the boat less formally than their house. She went for the oatmeal, loaded it with butter and syrup. The rolls she buttered and put lots of jam on them. It said Fig preserves on the jar, in English and a bunch of Arabic writing. She'd never had it before and it wasn't bad. The coffee was wonderful.

"What is down the corridor to the front?" April asked.

"That's a passageway," Pap-san instructed her. "It goes between a pantry on this side, what we call a cuddy and a storage compartment with an arms locker opposite. Beyond are two double bunk crew cabins and then on the end more storage under the bow. There is an alternative stairs to the next deck too. If you explore down there be quiet, we have two crew sleeping, who stood watch in the night."

"Where should I go to shower and dress?"

"There are four staterooms at the rear of the passageway where you came in. Your things are in the rear one, the aft, on the starboard side, that's the right looking forward. Gunny is opposite on the port side."

"How many of these terms will I need to learn?" April asked, grinning.

"A few hundred will carry you through being a passenger. If you want to learn to sail a few hundred more. If you want to learn to build boats," he smiled big, "that is a project that would take some years. I am going to show Gunny how to handle the boat," Papa-san explained. "If you'd like to learn you may join us. Gunny however has some sailing experience. I doubt I would trust you at the wheel alone, with no history of sailing smaller boats. There is a matter of a feel for it, anticipating what will happen that comes from experience. No offense to your intelligence or maturity in any way. There are things that can happen suddenly, that don't lend themselves to calling out for help."

"None taken. I would be very cautious about handing the
Happy Lewis
off to somebody without experience, even orbiting away from any station and no burns scheduled."

"Exactly."

"I have to tell you though, my experience is in an eighteen foot open boat, with a single sail  you trimmed by hand. It had a folding keel and you held the tiller by hand instead of a wheel. But yeah it gave me a sense of what a boat will do, although it reacts faster than a bigger boat like this," Gunny said.

"They are both small compared to the ocean," Papa-san said, smiling.

"Your little boat was eighteen feet? Five meters? How long is this one?" April asked.

"The
Tobiuo
is twenty-three meters," Papa-san informed her. "It is considered a ketch."

"Your boat is longer than my spaceship!" April exclaimed.

"And I bet it has a lot more room inside," Gunny told her.

"Oh yeah. We have a toilet and that is the only enclosure, besides storage cabinets and tool boxes. It has a lock too, uh, not the toilet, but the ship, but it is a coffin lock and really snug, tapered even to reduce the volume to pump down."

"A description I would not want to explain to nervous passengers." Papa –san noted.

"The big room back there is nicer than our living room on station. How wide is it?"

"The main salon is about seven meters, at the wide point."

"Ha! Wider than Gunny's boat is long," she said amused. "We had the sun on our left when I came down." April started, waving a hand that direction.

"Sun off our port when I came below," Papa-san corrected.

"Yeah, so we are headed South. Do you have someplace in mind for us to go, or just cruise around for awhile?" She got a refill of coffee too.

"We are headed toward the equator. When we get close, there is a band where the circulation of air in the north and the south hemispheres meets. That is an area where you get long periods of calm, or it can also be an area of storms. I'd rather not deplete our fuel motoring through. But if I have to I will do so, at a low speed to conserve it," He explained.

"Are we going to see any other islands?" April wanted to know.

"Perhaps a week from now, we may visit an atoll," Papa-san promised. "There are three I have been to and which one we go to will depend on the winds. We can kill a few pleasant days anchored in one of them and then go on to Samoa. Eventually we will move on to Tonga. If you want to lift for Home that will be your opportunity."

"What about my two lieutenants I came to rescue?" April asked.

"If you go to the mainland, maybe even if you go back to Hawaii, I can see
you
needing rescued, instead of rescuing anyone. Or more likely dead. The Chinese are playing very rough. I doubt sinking their very expensive submarine endeared you to them either. Such things excite sovereigns, instead of making them back off. In my professional opinion and as your friend, it's time to back off." Papa-san entreated her. "I offered to help your young men if needed. The offer still stands."

"Perhaps you'd be safer to come up to Home too," April suggested.

Papa-san looked surprised at the idea. He looked at his wife and pursed his mouth. "Perhaps in the future. I'm not quite ready for that big a move. That would be taken as a political statement by my colleagues," he explained. "I'm not sure it's a statement I want to make yet."

"I'd like to contact my service, when it won't compromise our location," Gunny added.

"If I call Home, I can arrange to have your call relayed, so that our location is hidden from the end recipient," April promised.

"I'd appreciate it if you went through the ship's dish to contact Home," Papa-san requested. I know your com will contact them, given the power from your pistol, but that has to radiate pretty broadly. I don't know who might be out there looking for us. My radio guy can set his gear up to track Home and radiate quite tightly."

"No need. I can give you a geostationary sat to aim at. It won't answer until you ping it with the right code. And it has two mates, so it can relay through them to Home anywhere along its orbit.  We set that up about two months ago, so it was tested before I came down. It's encrypted, but it talks to the other sats with a laser, so chances are nobody will know there is any traffic. I wish my laser could be modulated to transmit directly, but Jeff hasn't built that in yet."

"Wait until we cross the equator. I'll feel safer well away from Hawaii,"

"No hurry. They know I'm out of touch for a few days. You got any urgency Gunny?"

"Not to my knowledge. I'd like to get some news and understand what's going on first if I can, before contacting my chain of command."

"There is regular television we can get off the satellites. For as much good as the regular news channels are worth to you. We had coverage from six satellites until some maniac shot them up last year," he said squinting at April. "We're down to two now, but each carries multiple channels."

"We missed two?" she asked, totally unrepentant.

* * *

The day was uneventful, the sailing smooth. April cleaned up after breakfast and decided she didn't need to wear the public eye away from land. She took it on deck though to record what it was like sailing. At one point there was a large ship on the horizon, crossing in front of them east to west. The man Haru was at the wheel again. He adjusted the sails slightly and aimed to their rear to keep as far from them as possible. Their own radar was turned off during the day and he explained the radar reflector they normally carried aloft was stowed below. They might use their radar if visibility was very poor, but even at night they planned to keep a careful watch with binoculars and leave their lights off.

The fewer people who saw or reported a vessel of their size the better. Satellites they could do little about, but there were far fewer of them since the
Happy Lewis
had destroyed so many, a year ago. The various nations had used the cover of that, to take out quite a few satellites of unfriendly powers, while it could be blamed on somebody else. Indeed the
Happy
had not destroyed a single satellite in Low Earth Orbit, but they were seriously depopulated.

April tried to volunteer to help with lunch, but the galley was so small and the provisions so organized, she was just in the way. The other young man Taro sent her back to the wheel, with the suggestion she be put to work fishing. That sounded interesting. Haru called Li, who was clearly his supervisor and passed the idea along.

"We often put four or six lines out in the evening," Li agreed, "but we don't usually do well enough in the day to bother. It is complicated setting a spread of multiple lines and knowing how to pull them in, especially in the dark. I don't want to get into that with you. It's easy to get them tangled and you can hurt yourself landing a fish. Why don't we just have you fish over the transom with a rod, for right now?"

"I think it was more for entertainment than catching supper. I'd like to try it though."

Li already had her on a safety line, like going EV in a shuttle and set a swivel seat into a deck sprocket in the corner of the cockpit and put its belt on her loosely too. He explained how the tackle worked and showed her the line and leader with a shiny spoon on it. "This is weighed to let the lure work to the surface and dive, back and forth. You want to hold the pole up at forty to sixty degrees and let about twenty meters of line out.  If you get a bite give a yell and start reeling it in. Somebody will come gaff it and help you get it aboard."

"It doesn't need bait on it?"

"Trust me, the flash and motion does it." He got her set. "Don't leave the fighting chair if you get one. We'll land it for you."

"Fighting chair?"

"If you hook a big fish it can be quite the struggle pulling it in. Chances are, nothing like that is going to hit on a two inch spoon." He went back forward and left her alone.

The day had started warm, it was hot now. Gunny came by and chatted about fishing a bit. Apparently most of what he caught, this crew would consider live bait. He brought her a sandwich and a new drink. After the meal and Gunny went away, it wasn't long before her eyes closed. She retained her grip on the rod however.

A sudden jerk brought her awake. She started cranking the reel and yelled, "I got one!" The fish pulled the drag a couple times, but mostly he was being pulled in. It didn't take long to see him. Haru showed up beside her and instructed her how short to get the line. When the fish got near the boat he put the end of the gaff in the water. Just before it touched the surface he set the gaff in the head with a sharp pull and quickly raised it hand over hand.