Ch 25
They met the Eternal Explorer with the launch at 16:45. The Eternal Explorer crew helped the navy men tie the launch up along side and lowered the chain and post ladder down. The boatswain cut the engine when they were tied up. the swells were long but shallow. They had no problem climbing aboard. McDonald met and shook hands with Captain Smythe, Cameron Connor and Delilah Connor.
"It take it your daughter is the cause for all this activity?" he asked Cameron.
"The plane she was in crashing, then the man who was rescued and lied about being the only survivor was," Cameron corrected him. "Jackie has found mermaids there. Humans are strange to them, so please keep that in mind when we meet. They are curious, but also wary."
Delilah grinned and said, "When they met Jackie, they were quite surprised by her. A crowd of them gathered around her to inspect her. From what we know, they are all getting along well, and have engaged in joint activities. The dock Jackie and Duncan made sees mers on it every day. We should be there within the hour."
"Captain," the helmsman called out of the window. "They see us coming, all the mers have vacated the dock."
Captain Smythe said, "Slow to one third, we do not want to run over anyone. Instead of where we can see them, they're all in the water now." He nodded to McDonald. "Sir, I must return to the bridge, please make yourselves at home."
The helmsman said, "Now everyone's off that dock, it's hard to see, it's floating right on the water."
"Delilah and I will go over to give you a point of reference," Cameron said, they went below.
"Captain?" the boatswain asked, "Are they talking mer people, as in Mermaids?"
"They are," McDonald said. "I'm thinking we should keep watch over the sides to warn the crew if we see any."
"Yes sir."
.
Moahan raced after Ha-kee, but couldn't catch her! Terrified Ha-kee might try to take on the mean people all by herself, Moahan swam as hard as she could. They were approaching the vessel. Ha-kee, then went deep and turned swim up fast and leave the water. Moahan was expecting her to come back in, but she didn't. Moahan had to save her!
.
The boatswain went to the port bow and looked over the side. The water here was clear. Seeing movement below, he saw what looked like a girl, but with a tail, and she was rising fast. "Over here!" he said. He no more than said that when she burst up out of the water and flew at him. He yelped and dodged back, she caught the rail right below her, which made her flip and slam down on the deck on her back with a hard slap just this side of the rail.
"ouch," Jackie said in a giggle.
The boatswain and two officers went over to help Jackie up.
"Are you all right?" The supply officer asked.
"Yeah, just not very graceful." Jackie said with a grin.
Another form shot up to grab the rail. Leaning over, Moahan let out a nasty growl and swiped at the officer, knocking his hat off and ripping it. The men quickly backed away, wide eyed.
"Ha-kee, um!" this mermaid cried and reached down for Jackie.
Jackie got up and grabbed her hand. "Moahan, it's OK," she said and offered a coo.
Moahan pulled on Jackie and looked down at the water. "Ha-kee um!" she cried again.
"No, it's OK," Jackie assured her, and cooed again. She petted Moahan's hair as Moahan tried to get Jackie to come back in the water.
"If you were just going to jump on board, why build a dock?" Cameron asked as she came towards them in her bikini and her tail over her shoulder. Delilah was behind her and had her tail also.
"ee?" Jackie asked Moahan, pointing at Cameron. She made motions and did her best to explain these were her mothers.
Seeing the tails like Jackie had, Moahan calmed down. She let Ha-kee lift her up over the rail on onto the deck. She still didn't let go of Ha-kee. Strange people were here and to her it had looked like they were going to do something to Ha-kee. When the women Ha-kee said was family waved, Moahan waved back. she even returned their smiles.
Wheew! Her fears were unfounded, these weren't bad people.
Jackie coaxed out of Moahan why she swung at the men. Listening close, she got that the boat on the beach, that kinda looked like this one, had bad men that killed and stole mers and made them scream. Jackie nodded and explained, "Guys? the last time a boat similar to this one landed here, they were anything but decent to mers. I'm getting they had a war with mers, Moahan was afraid you were like them. She was trying to protect me from you."
"That's why she tried to take my head off," the hatless officer said.
"Yes, she was afraid you were going to hurt me. Why don't you wave to her and show her you're friendly?"
The men waved. Moahan sheepishly waved back.
"Now that misunderstanding is over," Cameron announced, "We need to get to the dock and help the Captain tie up. Jackie are there cleats on the dock you made?"
Jackie blushed. "Ahh, kinda forgot those," she said with a wince.
"Anything on the bottom we can use to keep this ship in place?" Cameron prodded.
"Yeah, there is!" Jackie beamed. "And this thing has an anchor doesn't it?"
"Two. Hold on, I'll got tell the Captain, then we'll go guide the ship in," Cameron told her. She went in the wheel house.
"Ahh, Ma'am?" one of the sailors staring at Moahan asked, "These mers, they all naked?"
"They are. They thought it odd I wear clothes," Jackie said with a smirk. "Being in the water most of the time, they never even thought about clothes. They tell each other apart by physical features, including eye and hair color."
"That jump you did to get on board, you're not a mer?" the boatswain asked.
"I'm part human," Jackie told him.
Cameron came back out. "Jackie, when this ship gets to the dock, you and Moahan take the front anchors they lower to you, We'll get the back secured. We start out on the dock until the ship stops."
Cameron and Delilah sat down and put their tails on. Jackie looked to see they were only a hundred yards of so from the shore. She motioned to Moahan to jump over. Moahan did, with a little helping push from Jackie. Jackie followed her into the water.
Swimming to the dock, Jackie got up and on, standing on the end in the middle. Moahan jumped up and sat on the side not far away. Cameron and Delilah took the dock corners.
The helmsman was good. He steered the ship so it came in right at the end of the dock and stopped like the top of a 'T'. Jackie and Moahan jumped off and grabbed the anchors as they came down one at a time to spread them out in a 'Y', wrapping the chains around rocks. Cameron and Delilah did the same thing with the ropes thrown down to them. Once he was sure the ship wasn't going anywhere, Captain Smythe had the brow lowered down onto the dock.
Jackie got out and got her tail off and ran to see how dinner was doing. Duncan had everything done and warm, Wanda had all the bowls and plate leaves out and the log stools set up. Moahan saw her parents watching from a distance, so she swam to them and assured them these weren't bad people. She coaxed her family to come eat with Ha-kee's clan.
.
This was the strangest dinner McDonald ever had. Obviously, it was 'native' style with coconut cups and wide leaves for plates. The fare was fish and crab with some vegetables and papaya. For castaways, the people here had done a fantastic job setting this up. "Mr. McLeod, Miss Connor, Miss Walker and Randy, To arrive on this island with nothing but the shirts on your backs, you have done an incredible job here!" he praised. "Given time I can easily see you having a whole community built here."
Wanda pointed up the path. "The hut and bathing pool is up that path. To be honest, it's been Duncan here and Jackie who saved us. Me, Randy, we didn't have a clue. Randy here also has much of his time taken up with Moahan."
"She's right," Randy agreed. "Duncan and Jackie are the reason we got so much done in such a short time and even found enough food to stay healthy. Until I met Jackie, I never thought someone could get in the water, kill and drag sharks back on land so we could eat them."
"She even scared a ship away," Wanda said with a grin.
"Didn't mean to," Jackie grumbled. Seeing Delilah cast her a smirk, Jackie added, "I was trying to get their attention! I didn't think they saw the first shot, so I shot closer to them. They turned and fled!"
Grinning, Delilah told her, "Shoot plasma bolts at people, I'm sure they would flee if they can."
"You have that weapon here?" McDonald asked.
Jackie lifted her left arm up and morphed it. "Right here in my arm." She morphed her arm back to a normal fore arm and hand.
"You've got that thing in your arm?" one of the officers asked, wide eyed.
"Only one," Jackie replied.
"Damn, the boatswain whispered.
"And remember, everything we do, say, and see here is top secret information," McDonald stated.
"Yes, sir," all the sailors chorused.
Duncan said, "When you're done, just throw the remains in the fire pit to burn them up. Captain, Randy here decided to stay, the camp up the path will be his. You should get with him later on where the station you want to build will be put."
"You are staying?" Mc Donald asked.
Randy nodded. "I know, it seems odd, but in the last month and a half, or however long it's been, I feel more at home here, that I did at home. I've learned more here that I ever did at school, and it's not stuff that I might never use. How to do things, practical things. I love this place."
"Give him a year, I bet he grows fins," Jackie said with a smirk.
"I bet his kids will," Delilah added.
That earned her some mirth.
"As long as he claims residence here, then this will be American Territory," Duncan said, "If the Navy constructs a station or not."
Mc Donald nodded in agreement. "And we will watch out for the well being of all the residents."
.
After dinner, Jackie made sure the fire was going and went to say goodbye to the mers. Saying goodbye was much harder than she thought. She hugged Moahan, and Moahan burst out in tears. She did too. She didn't know why and she couldn't stop. She hugged Moahan's parents too. Duncan got a surprise when Wanda hugged Randy and tearfully chided him to take good care of Moahan.
Even when she dove in to free the anchors, Jackie had a tight feeling in her chest. She even hugged Randy and made him promise to do his best. Getting on the ship, Jackie got her tail off and stood on the back as they motored away.
Looking up at Duncan, she said, "Hold me tight so I don't jump off and swim back there."
He did hold her tight and gave her a kiss. "I'm going to miss that island too."
Delilah came up and leaned on the rail by them. "You know, Jackie we brought clothes for you. You don't have to run around in your undies any more."
Duncan laughed.
Jackie winched. "Actually, I haven't even thought about it for a while. I do wonder if Wanda will ever put a shirt on."
"She did, by order of the Captain," Delilah told her. "Time for you to cover your ass too."
"Hokay," Jackie said in a drawn out huff.
.
John sat looking at the computer screen with a frown. On it was the president's Security Advisor.
"Mr. Connor, We really think your daughters should be inducted into the NSA."
"No. If they want to join, then we will talk about it. They aren't going to be inducted into anything."
"This time, the incident with your daughter Jackie made world wide news! She shot plasma at a ship!" he stated.
"After she was stranded on an island when the plane she was on crashed," John replied. "Did you know this is the third time that's happened? First, she was on the plane and it had massive engine failure. She managed to get out and spent a week in the woods hobbling around until the was found. Right after that she was scheduled to go on a return flight home. She refused to get on, since she'd just come from a plane crash and was still injured. That plane crashed as well. When she went to Australia, there was little notice, so whoever didn't have time to rig that plane, but on the return flight, they did, and it went down in the middle of the ocean. Have you been looking into WHO is trying to kill my daughter?" he asked in a hard tone.
"Planes do crash, Mr. Connor."
"That often? On three of the four flights she was scheduled to take? Those have been the only serious crashes in the last few years! Don't even tell me it was coincidence!" John stated.
"We can't have international incidents," the man stated.
"One, I'm NOT telling and of my kids they have to join anything. TWO, I've begun working on a plan to find out who's behind these crashes, and who is paying the bill. This is something the FBI should be looking into. If they want to help , fine. I will tell you that if these incidents weren't happening, there would have been no international incident. I had that plane looked up, last year it had been checked out and flew several times with no trouble. The pilot reported the fuel system had locked up right before, or during fueling so they didn't have the fuel they thought they had. The flight engineer noticed the fuel level wasn't going down so he rebooted the system and found they were all but empty. That plane was rigged to run out of gas over the pacific ocean. That is a fact. It also happened in Hawaii."
"Mr. Connor, we have been helping your family for years."
"And we have been saving the US AND the world for years," John retorted. "We did the jobs no one else can do. Are you forgetting that?"
The man sighed. "No, we aren't."
"Then how about helping us find out WHO is rigging these planes to crash."
.
Properly dressed, with a good shirt and bra on and a nice skirt. socks and deck shoes, Jackie felt a little weird. The bra felt tight and her feet were hot. Sitting in the small lounge with Delilah and Wanda, Jackie muttered, "Wearing clothes now seems kinda restrictive."
"It does. I'm sweating more," Wanda lamented.
"You liked being 'native' girls?" Delilah asked.
"I did," Wanda said. "It was more comfortable."
"It was," Jackie agreed. "I liked having a shirt on so I could get in the water and get it wet. It would cool me down."
"I initially went topless to try and get Randy to notice something besides mer-boobs, but I found the wide brimmed hat kept the sun off me and I was cooler without one. After a while it just seemed ... natural."
"Actually, it is natural, but socially unacceptable in many places," Delilah told her.
Cameron stuck her head in the door. "Delilah, we got trouble. John Henry picked up a Chinese broadcast on their civilian maritime frequency. They have a huge reward out to find and sink this ship and bring the survivors back to China. One of their fishing boats, we think the one we passed yesterday has broadcast our position and heading."
"What are they going to do, ram us?" Delilah asked.
"If they have no weapons, that is a very high probability." Cameron told her.
Delilah got up. "We need to go see the Captain."
Jackie got up and left with them.
.
Captain Smythe cast a look of shock at Cameron, "They are going to try to sink us?"
"They are. The purpose will be to pick us up out of the water and take us to China," Cameron stated. "We have two options, evasion and sinking them, first. Evasion is our best option. If that fails, we fire on them until the ship is going down, and kill as many crew as possible."
Captain Smythe went pale. "We have nothing to shoot! This is a research ship, not a warship."
"We do," Cameron told him. "As I said, that is the second option. To keep from doing that you'll have to change course to evade them. The fishing boat we passed reported our position and course. They will find us soon if you don't change course."
"We can go further south, but won't they expect that?" Smythe asked.
"They will, so change course to the northeast," Cameron said.
"That will put us in the Garbage Patch!" he stated.
"Once inside, they won't follow, will they?" Cameron asked.
Waving a hand the Captain said, "There is a great chance of getting the engine intakes clogged. We'd be stuck!"
"I'll help keep the intake clear," Jackie stated.
"All three of us will, and help pick the best path though." Delilah added.
The helm announced, "Captain, we have a ship on a intercept course to the south seven miles out."
"Can you identify it?" the Captain asked.
"Chinese, looks like a fishing vessel, it's a big one."
"Delilah, Jackie into your tails!" Cameron said. All three ran out.
Captain Smythe said, "Helm, slow to three knots, let the pass by in front of us."
"Yes, Captain."
Out on deck as they put their tails on, Cameron said, "I'll take the port side, Delilah get the starboard, we need to destroy their coms first, then sink that ship as rapidly as possible. Jackie shoot the bow and anyone you see on deck."
They then jumped off the side and swam for that fishing boat.
Captain Smythe watched the other ship approach.
"Captain, they changed course towards us and are picking up speed." the helm said.
"They plan to ram," Smythe said dryly.
"Captain, the Connor women just jumped overboard."
"Helm, course North," Smythe said.
"Going north," the helm replied. "the fishing vessel is now 5.5 miles away and closing."
Watching the ship, Smythe saw a bright bolt come from the water and hit the other ship's bridge. Another one came from the other side and hit the bridge. A third came from in front of the ship to hit the bow. The bridge of the ship was now jagged, smoking ruin. There was a big hole in the bow. More bright bolts drove into the sides and bow of the ship. It tipped down and another bolt flashed onto the deck. Booms fell into the water and the ship nose dived, the bow completely under. More bright bolts slammed into the ship, making big holes. Another came from the front wiping out much of the deck and the remains of the bridge structure.
The ship tilled up and the aft end still showing was vaporized by the continuous fire.
"All stop," Captain Smythe said, gaping at how fast that ship was completely destroyed. In a moment, the ship was completely gone.
Searching, Cameron found one man moving in the water, She grabbed his ankle and dragged him under and dove. Going down to 150 feet, she let him go, then met with Jackie and Delilah. They swam back together.
.
Captain Smythe was concerned about sailing through the garbage patch, He also did not want to see a repeat of a ship being destroyed like that. Cameron confirmed with him there had been no survivors. No one lived to say what happened. They had gone down with no one knowing why, except for the few on his ship. He did set a course for the garbage patch, and had a constant looking on watch.
Their first indication they were coming up on the garbage patch was small bottles floating in the water. They then slid over a tangle of rope half floating. A normal propeller driven ship would have gotten tangled up in it. The rest of the day, they saw more and more things floating on the water and had to maneuver to steer around a crate floating just above the surface.
At dinner time, the Helm had to stop and put full reverse thrust on for a moment to clear the intakes. Then moved on at five knots.
At the table, Captain Smythe was notified this happened. "If we cut through the bottom part of the Patch, then I'd sure we can avoid anyone. Any sane captain would have gone south. That's where they will be looking for us," he said.
"Under normal circumstances, yes," Delilah agreed. "These are not normal circumstances. We are being hunted, Captain. The Chinese are using their huge fishing fleet to hunt us. That is so if an 'incident' happens, their government can't be blamed. It's a favorite trick of theirs."
"That is why we took that ship out fast as possible, so they had no chance to report being fired on." Cameron said. "They don't know yet that we know they are looking for us. We also have a reason to be here. Wasn't it one of your missions to come here and do some research?"
"It was, but with graduate students." he agreed.
"We have to move slow anyway, so let's do some research, take videos and use the equipment you have," Cameron told him.
Captain Styles nodded. "Might as well. We're going to need underwater footage. There's also no data on how bad it is in the center of the patch. We do have another three weeks of supplies on board."
"How long will it take to get back to San Diego?" Cameron asked.
"Right now best guess is two weeks."
"Then we keep going and get what we can along the way."
.
The next day, they were in an area of 'open' ocean. The water was glass smooth. It was also cloudy. Normally, in open ocean, one could see a hundred feet down. Watching over the side, Cameron had a hard time seeing 20 feet down.
"It's plastic soup, not water," Delilah noted.
"Look, it's deep too," Cameron said, noting a darker cloud pass under them.
"At least there's nothing solid near the surface," Jackie called from the bow.
"This is gross," Wanda said, looking over the other side.
Pointing out, Jackie said, "Hey, we got duckies on the water!"
"Ducks?" Cameron asked "How did ducks get out here?"
"Not real ducks, rubber bath duckies," Jackie said with a giggle.
They cruised though a small loose patch of rubber duckies.
"Is there anything that isn't out here?" Wanda asked.
"If it floats, I bet we'll find it here someplace," Delilah told her.
They plowed along through not so bad, and worse areas of pollution, and even passed a dead seal. Cameron went over to peek in a window of the bridge. "Find any other ships around?" she asked.
The helmsman shook his head. "Had a brief contact to the north 12 miles out. He was heading west. That was a couple hours ago."
"How large was it?"
"Container ship sized, it was big. Fishing boats don't come here," he told her.
"Let's hope not," Cameron replied.
The Captain was getting ROV footage of the debris that was suspended in the water and camera footage of what they were sailing through.
Another day of sailing through garbage, and they came upon a 'garbage island'. Sailing around it, the Captain got plenty of pictures. This wasn't an island with trees and beaches, it was all trash. Low to the water, it did raise Maybe a couple feet in the middle, but was a half mile long, and going around it they found it was nearly a mile wide.
An SOS came in. A fishing boat had it's propeller jammed fifteen miles to their south. It was immobile. Cameron had to grin. It had been most likely looking for them and got tangled up in the garbage. Wisely, the Captain didn't respond to the SOS call. He kept going east.
It took another four days to clear the garbage patch. The day after that, they were in the economic zone of the US. They were overflown by a helicopter. Later in the day a Coast Guard ship came close enough to hail them and identify them.
In clear water and with a Coast Guard ship nearby, Captain Smythe sailed for San Diego. Just outside the 12 mile limit, another Chinese fishing boat tried to come after them. The Coast Guard ship warned them away several times. Cameron, Jackie and Delilah were ready to plasma the ship, but another Coast guard ship came up and the boarded the fishing boat and arrested the crew. Good, they didn't have to sink it.
.
Making port in San Diego, They had an unexpected visitor come see them. No more had Captain Smythe had his ship tied up and the brow down, when a Detective from San Jose came aboard and wanted to see Jackie, Duncan, Wanda and Randy.
"Randy decided to stay on that island," Duncan told the Detective.
"Yes, he met a girl there and didn't want to leave her," Jackie agreed.
The Detective said, "I'm Detective McMillan, we have a man in custody and would like you to come to San Jose and identify the man who left you on that island, and give us your statements about how you were left there."
"We'd be happy to," Wanda stated. Duncan and Jackie agreed.
"Officer, we can take them," Cameron said, "Just show us the way."
"Lodging has been arraigned for you," the detective told them, and pulled out a map with directions. "You will be staying here, and this it the directions to the precinct house we need you to be at to give statements and ID the perpetrator."
.
Cameron drove them to their lodging, which everyone figured would be a hotel. Cameron stopped partway down the driveway. She backed up to the mailbox to check the address. "Delilah, is this correct?"
"Yes, according to the directions, this is the place."
The place in front of them wasn't a hotel, it was a mansion. Long driveway, huge house with a circular drive in front with a fountain in the center.
Staring at it, Wanda asked, "We're staying here? Who's the rich guy?"
"I hope McMillan got the address right," Duncan noted aloud.
"We'll go see." Cameron said and went down the driveway to park in front of the steps to a tall entry door. The door looked new. It was also eight feet tall. Delilah rang the doorbell.
No one answered.
Cameron tried the door. It opened. She went in and called, "Hello?"
"No one home, and they didn't lock the door?" Jackie asked. That seemed strange.
Looking back outside, Wanda saw a big tall car come down the driveway and stop behind theirs. A woman in a police uniform got out . Wanda's eyes widened. She was huge! Like seven feet tall. The woman bore a big smile and said, "Sorry, I was a little late," and waved.
"Sonya!" Jackie cried and ran back down the steps to meet the woman in a hug. Jackie looked incredibly small next to this Amazon.
"Hey Jackie, I see you got back all right," Sonya said and scrubbed her head. "Hey Delilah, Cameron , Duncan, go on in."
Wanda watched the hug fest as they all greeted Sonya the Amazon. Then Sonya turned to her. "You must be Wanda."
"Yes, Ma'am," Wanda said meekly as she looked up at the red haired giant.
Sonya grinned and put an arm around her. Damn, that hand on her shoulder was big. "Come on in, I just got a few more groceries to bring in.
Jackie, Cameron and Delilah helped, which made Wanda come help too.
"Sonya, you must be doing very well to be able to buy a place like this," Delilah said.
Sonya chuckled. "I didn't buy it or rent it. I just moved in, hoping to get some reaction from the bank that owns it. They haven't said a word, I even have accounts there. It's not like I'm trying to keep a secret of living here. Even the Mayor knows I'm here, he told me to go for it. Two more years of living here and he said it's mine."
Holding the door for the troop coming in, Duncan asked, "Any more free mansions around?"
"Look around," Sonya replied. "What I'm getting is after the PSR came in and drove most of the residents out, there's homes all over the place that are vacant. The city is glad for someone to move in and start paying taxes on these places. The banks are happy to stop paying taxes on the places, and the city has more homes and some farms that it confiscated for back taxes than it knows what to do with. The economy is in the dumps, we're trying to rebuild it. The places to each side of this one are empty too."
"You know Duncan," Jackie said, "Your loft in Secouver is a nice place, but something like this is a lot nicer."
Duncan grinned, "And much more high profile too. You already have a great place, Collinwood."
"I was just thinking of one for you," she countered.
Wanda stared at Jackie, "You have a mansion that has a name? You're rich?" Coming to know Jackie that was the last thing she suspected.
Jackie shrugged. "Yeah, it's not a big deal." Going into the kitchen, she asked Sonya, "Sonya, I'm surprised speculators aren't buying places up to resell them."
"Some are, "Sonya replied. "There's a ton of places empty. We've been trying to find the original owners. Many the Mayor's office have contacted, don't want to come back. Most of them have new lives in Texas, or someplace else and like living there. California has a bad reputation for being very high in taxes and restrictive regulations. We've been working on that too. Even after the PSR was gotten rid of, this state is way too liberal for it's own good."
"Sonya, can you keep up with the taxes here?" Cameron asked.
"I can, being Police Commissioner for two cities pays well, and I don't have many other expenses," Sonya said. "I got my new Excursion from a dealer that went bankrupt. He had a big sale, I got it cheap. Instead of paying for city water, I drilled my own well, and septic. One of Catherine's power cells supplies the electric, so I don't have to pay for that either. It's not like I throw big parties. I don't have to, others throw enough that if I want to go party I just go to one of theirs."
"Living the life, huh?" Delilah asked with a smirk.
Sonya's face softened. "Delilah, you, Cameron and John will always be special to me. Just please understand, I can't go back to Driftwood. At least, not for a while. I lost too much."
Delilah hugged her. "I understand. Know that we will be there for you whenever you need us, OK?"
"OK, so, what are we making for dinner?" Sonya asked, brightening up. "Oh, I hope you all brought your tails, there's a big pool out back just waiting to be used."
.