The Phoney Emperor
"All set to go XO?" Mike Flynn asked his Executive Officer, Kate McGregor. Mike was the Captain aboard a Royal Australian Navy Armidale Class Patrol Boat, called HMAS Hammersley.
"Yes Sir, we are all set to leave," Kate replied. XO was Kate's nick name on the boat because of her position as Executive Officer.
"Good, Captain has the ship," Mike called out as he began to steer the boat out of the port.
The HMAS Hammersley had twenty three crew members, two of them were medics, the Swain, Chris Blake, and Bomber, Rebecca Brown, the chef. The boat was a small boat compared to the larger frigates in the Navy fleet; this meant that the crew members had less privacy. It also meant that they had become very close, like a family almost.
They had been away from port for two hours when the Radio Officer, Robert Dixon, or RO to the crew, reported to Mike that there was a mayday call. He told Mike that there were four people on board and the boat was called the Emperor. Mike took the coordinates of the vessel down and gave them to his Navigator, Nikki Cateano. They changed course and headed towards the Emperor. The boat had hit a coral reef in the Arafura Sea and was sinking. The Hammersley was approximately half an hour away from it.
The ships Buffer, Peter Tomesaski, was looking on the EOD, an Electronic Optical Device, for any sign of the Emperor. The EOD was used to scan the water and see other vessels. Nav was looking at the Radar, searching for any contacts.
"I have a radar contact Sir," she called suddenly, she altered the course so that they were heading towards it, "You should be able to see it on the EOD in a couple of minutes, Buffer."
A few minutes later, Buffer had the contact on the screen for the EOD, "It is the Emperor, Sir," she told Mike.
RO had been trying to raise the Emperor on the UHF, he hadn't had any luck.
As the Hammersley came closer to the Emperor, the boarding party was organised. On the boarding party were the XO, Buffer, Swain, Bomber, an electronic technician, Josh Holliday, or ET, and a Seaman known as Spider.
When the Hammersley was within one kilometre of the Emperor, the sea boat left the ship to perform the rescue. The boarding party was over at the Emperor in a few minutes and as they boarded the Emperor, Kate called out but no one replied.
All of a sudden they heard a gun shot being fired! Kate screamed out in pain, she had been shot! Mike radioed over to the boarding party to find out what had happened and instructed Buffer to take the crew of the Emperor into custody and return to the ship.
Swain, Bomber and Kate were sent back to the Hammersley on the sea boat while Buffer and ET began to search the boat for the rest of the crew, Spider wrestled with the man who had shot the XO. He began to talk to the shooter when he had the man restrained, to find out who he was and why he was there. He learnt that the shooter's name was Henry Dekker and that he was from China. Buffer and ET found the other three crew members hiding in the foreign hold of the boat and escorted them back to where Henry was. The sea boat was on its way back to collect the crew of the Emperor and the three remaining crew members from the Hammersley.
Buffer asked about the XO's condition as he boarded the sea boat and Andy Thorpe, known as Charge, another technician, told him that the XO was in a critical condition and urgently needed to be in a hospital. The crew were all very worried about the XO as many regarded her as a friend as well as a senior officer.
Back on the ship, Mike was trying to organise a medivac to come and take Kate to the base hospital.
"Sir, what do you mean there are no helicopters' available, my XO is in a critical condition?" Mike was trying to make his Commander aware of how bad the situation was.
"You will just have to sprint to base Mike; there is not much that I can do. I am sorry and fair winds Mike," Commander Marshall replied.
"Ok, thank you sir, good-bye," Mike said and hung up; he told his crew what was happening with their XO over the PA system.
In the ward room, Swain and Bomber were working hard to stop the blood; they didn't want to touch the bullet because they didn't want to make the bleeding worse. After half an hour of working on her, they finally had the XO stabilised. Swain and Bomber rotated keeping an eye on her but they thought that she would be stable until they arrived back at base.
Mike went down to question Henry, the man who shot the XO. Henry wouldn't answer his questions; although he did want to talk about getting his boat back and possibly gaining an Australian citizenship. Mike left the questioning to the police back at base so that he didn't have to put up with Henry any more.
The trip back to base was quiet; everyone was worrying about the fate of their Executive Officer. While they were nearing home, Swain and Bomber were preparing Kate for the trip into the Ambulance.
When they arrived at base, Swain told the Ambulance Officers everything about the XO's condition and she was taken in the ambulance to the base hospital.
Mike, Buffer, Spider and RO escorted the four Emperor Crew members from the Hammersley; there were three members of the Australian Federal Police awaiting their arrival. The police took the four men into custody.
Mike went to the hospital to see how Kate was and reported back to her crew that she had just come out of surgery but should make a full recovery.
The End
Kristen WorbyPage 3English Communications