April 2: Down to Earth (54 page)

April woke to a pitching movement, that threatened to toss her on the floor. The day was bright already and the boat was making noise. She used the toilet braced to keep from being thrown off. It was a bizarre experience to her. She went above with the suit on and was clipped on a safety line before she could step foot in the cockpit.

The front of the wheel house was sealed up and the spray periodically hit the ports as the bow cut through the waves. They were going really fast and the water foamed and was near the rail on one side. Papa-san was at the wheel with a big grin. It was exhilarating. She re-posted her public eye where it could record the action. She was using it as a vacation cam now.

"I had the radar up a few minutes. It's going to get rougher than this," he warned. "If you going to stay up here I want you to change your suit color to a bright safety color and put a floatation vest with a tracking device on."

"Even with a line on me?" April asked surprised.

"I'm a belt and suspenders sort of guy in this weather."

Li and Taro were out there, with lines on for the first time she'd seen and soon there were only two small sails up at the bow. The boat wasn't tilted over as far but it was still plenty fast. They kept getting sudden squalls of rain, that seems to blow so horizontal April wondered if it was really falling back in the ocean. There seemed to be a lot of lightning behind them and that's what finally made her decide to go back below. She left the eye to record it though.

Gunny didn't look like he was interested in food. Mama-san Lin was making some sandwiches for the topside crew. It was warm still, but the wind chilled you even at this temperature and Papa-san called down he wanted  slickers. The sails trimmed, Li and Taro swung the clamshells of the wheel house shut on the rear and dogged them down, before the wind made it too dangerous to move them. He ran the radar again, but the roughness of the sea limited the range severely. It would have to be a big boat, really close, to get a return in these waves. The wind was picking water up off the tops of the waves in sheets and flinging it in the air.

"Is this dangerous?" April asked Mama-san, when the pitching got particularly nasty.

"Not yet," she answered with a smile. "Papa has not even put out a sea anchor to stabilize her. I believe
Tobiuo
is stronger than you think. She is graphene and Buckey tube composite.  She will bob up from a rogue wave, that would demast and crush a ship of thirty years ago.

"What is a sea anchor?"

"It is like a fabric bucket with holes, that trails behind the ship and pulls on the stern to keep us straight and increase our drag."

"Oh, it's like a drogue parachute then," April said, understanding it quickly.

"Your bunk has a net that raises along the edge. You might not be able to sleep, but you can still rest," Mama-san suggested. "I'm going to."

"I'll come get you if I can't figure it out," April agreed. It was simple, but folded under the edge of the mattress. April had a couple extra pillows and lined them up against the bulkhead.  She lay for a long time and fell asleep eventually, but a different noise or motion would jar her awake occasionally.

When the storm ended it seemed the calm actually woke her, it was such a big change. It was not light yet at all and she went back to sleep gratefully.

* * *

Another day of much less exciting sailing, brought them to the atoll Papa-san had promised. They dropped all sails and loitered at anchor for a couple hours. Then when the tide made the ocean flow into the lagoon he fired up the engines and shot through the gap using the GPS to hold to the center of the channel. Taro stood on the bow to watch for any obstructions, but they acknowledged once he started he was committed and likely nothing could be done if there was a problem.

April asked if they could not have sent their rubber dinghy through, with a handheld radio and then follow. Papa-san said yes, but Taro saw much better high on the bow, than down in a dinghy in the turbulent flow. And if he did decide the ship should not come in they'd have to wait until the tide was running the other way to recover him. April concluded they just didn't have the patience to do it the safe way. She wanted to say something sexist about male ego, but refrained. Probably that was good. Mama-san seemed to be watching her with interest.

The men went to a great deal of trouble to anchor them securely, with multiple lines. Li explained the extra care was as much to make sure they didn't damage the coral, as to see them safe. The water was shallow and clear. This was not a nature preserve, like several others they might have visited, but Papa-san was especially careful of it, because it had less biodiversity than the others, both on the land and in the water. He attributed that to its isolation and the fact it had much less rainfall than the ones to the south east.

They repaired a few small leaks from the storm, maintained the French boat custom, relaxed and enjoyed the sun, called Home briefly and April learned how to snorkel. She had to be talked back into the water, after seeing her first reef shark. She learned to spear fish and clean them too.

"I was going to Samoa," Papa-san told them over dinner, after three days of lolling about. "But I feel we are so in the dark . There might be warrants or other trouble, waiting for us there. I am inclined to go directly to Tonga, were the political situation is more certain. Are you going to lift from there for Home?" he asked April.

"Yeah, I think I've done as much damage as I can down here," April admitted. "Gunny what are you going to do?"

"The offer still open to find me a job?"

"Yes and we have a labor shortage. I don't see that as a problem."

"Then I'm ready to try a new place, without extradition to North America. I have no family responsibilities, my kids are grown and I'm not interested in being caught between factions playing power games."

"How about you Papa-san? What are you going to do?"

"You still want your young men rescued don't you? I thought I might be of assistance in that matter, while I lay low and see what works out with both Wiggen and the Chinese. Perhaps with you gone they will have no interest in me. If we should decide to move off Earth there is still plenty of time for that."

"Do you feel safe to travel in North America? My lieutenants are in Maine. I can get word to them if you want.  I expect them to check their communications, when I miss the first rendezvous. But I don't want to just add you and your folks to the list to be rescued."

Papa-san got a happy smile. "Tell your young men to meet this ship in Northeast Harbor on Mount Desert Isle, Maine on the second weekend in July."

"You are going to take this ship that far?" April asked big eyed. "That's like half way around the world. Can it handle that sort of a trip? I mean, that's on the Atlantic Ocean instead of the Pacific, right?"

"Yes, if I hurry I can round the Horn before the season closes. The wind and currents are good for a fast passage. It gets windier in March and the rains start up. Much smaller ships than this have gone through the Drake passage."

"If you are sure. I don't want you getting yourself killed doing something crazy for me."

"It will be an adventure," Papa-san assured her with a smile.

* * *

They anchored in Neiafu Harbor after sinking the ship's Browning and Gunny's weapons in a weighed chest they could recover later. Otherwise customs would hold them until their departure and sometimes they held them a little too tightly. April decided to loan her pistol to Papa-san for boat security and passed control to him. She also didn't want it to be an issue with customs.

They saw two shuttles climb into the sky as they neared the main island. After they were anchored, they saw one on approach from the west.

Papa-san ran up a Q-flag, a solid yellow square that informed them the ship had not checked in for health and customs and waited.

The two officials who came aboard didn't search the ship. They were invited to sit at the table and offered refreshments. They inquired after fresh fruits and vegetables and shell eggs. They had used all of theirs, so that was no problem. They had no firearms aboard to surrender. If they knew what the public eye was, April had back on they ignored it.

Papa-san paid a bewildering array of fees and taxes. He even had to pay for trash disposal up front. There was a fee to certify they were not bringing any disease in. A fee for mooring. visa fees and fees associated with entering this particular sub-set of islands. If the boat has been two meters longer they would have been higher yet. April could see keeping a nice boat was expensive. Since she had no passport, April was given a stamped sheet to keep with her spacer's papers. Tonga customs was very familiar with citizens of Home. Just not in the harbor usually.

The next morning they had time for breakfast ashore, before April and Gunny headed to the spaceport. A stranger walked up and handed Papa-san an envelope while they were eating. He said a few words very quietly and made a low bow. Papa-san just thanked him and the fellow left without hesitation.

"I was able to retrieve your bank accounts as I promised some time ago," Papa-san reminded Gunny. "I thank you for not asking constantly about it, because once I set it in motion, there were no updates as to what was happening. I think you will find everything was recovered smoothly." He handed him the envelope and Gunny paid him the compliment of just tucking it away with his thanks and not opening it.

When the meal was done a taxi was called and there was hand shaking all around. April hugged everyone. Somehow she felt like she was abandoning them. Gunny looked pretty stunned when he climbed in the cab. He finally did open the envelope and found a deposit slip, a credit card and a couple thousand in mixed USNA notes and EuroMarks.

Boarding wasn't complicated. Gunny presented ID at the gate and April had a voucher. Once they saw the voucher they didn't even ask for ID. Anybody could use a voucher. It was like cash.

They had two of four seats, on a direct Mitsubishi shuttle that was mostly a freight hauler. They were the only two passengers and they were assigned the two center seats, likely to best balance  the mass. April wasn't surprised to see there were a couple UPS bags and two big coolers with red HOT labels, strapped in the two empty seats. It could be medical, or it might be live lobsters. That meant they could not use the two small ports to look out during lift. The deck was offset below a round hatch, instead of a rectangular door. Below the flat deck had to be a freight hold. The overhead was flat too and low. Little cubic was wasted. The entry and airlock was in front of Gunny's side . The head was in front of April's side.

When the flight crew came on it was two lovely ladies. They said hi briefly, passing through to the flight deck and took their seats immediately starting a long preflight. Most of it was nonsense, if you didn't know the terminology. "Terminal TVA set on manual VR with auto GBA override, check," was Greek to April even. She wasn't ground to orbit qualified. But they left the feed on, if you wanted to listen in and didn't dog the hatch closed to their section so you could hear them faintly, even without the radio channel.

They reached a point where they gave an OK to their carrier aircraft and then the activity shifted to him. He had clearance to taxi and rolled in seconds, a slow waddling motion, as he taxied on electric wheel motors. They stopped again and after another clearance he started his flight engines. It was only ten seconds or so, until they were gently pushed in their seats and they rolled down the runway. It was a twenty minute climb and several transitions, until there was a thump and their own engines fired.

"Be damned, it worked again," their pilot marveled. "See you Wednesday, Todd." She told the departing carrier. He reply was an unintelligible crackle.

The push this time had more authority. It eased on and April looked over to make sure Gunny didn't have an arm hanging out or doing anything else to get in trouble. He was following all the instructions the flight crew had read them. When the acceleration eased off the crew reminded the passengers where the barf bags were. Gunny didn't seem distressed.

"It does feel a little weird when you turn your head," he admitted.

"Final maneuvers to match Mitsubishi 3, in about thirty minutes," their copilot informed them. "Please be in your seat if you are not using the head. I recommend you loosen your belts, but leave them latched."

The pilot reappeared and hung by one hand from the side of April's couch. "Are you by any chance the Miss Lewis associated with Lewis Couriers?" she inquired.

"I'm the owner," April admitted. A fact she still had to internalize completely.

"Is there any possibility you folks will be running shuttles in the future?" she asked. "I'd much rather be space based, doing turn-arounds to Earth ports, than the other way around."

"We are an operating company you know. But the fact is I've been telling the fellow that owns our hulls and the two who have been doing most of our design work, that we can't keep depending on Earthies for our lift and lander capabilities. How fast that is going to happen I can't promise, but my number is open listed on station com, if you want to send me a resume. Would you have any objection to doing lifts to the Moon or beyond?"

"Object? You have to tie me up, to keep me from going," she laughed. "Thank you, my resume will be in your inbox late Wednesday," she promised. "I'm Kaihau Laulu." They touched hands and Kaihau went back in the flight deck slick as a fish in the zero G.

"Moon or
beyond
?" Gunny asked, surprised and interested.

"Did you think we just aspired to run the equivalent of an orbital taxi stand?" April asked amused. "There's a lot of stuff going on we never talked about."

Chapter 44

The
Home Again
had its shake down run to New Las Vegas a week ago. A couple of the circuits checked two out of three redundancies, but nothing vital. She flew OK. They would trace down the bad third circuits soon and get the coffee maker installed.