Well, tomorrow it's Happy Birthday to me as I turn 53. Ruth and Jarred called and invited me to dinner at a Sri Lankan restaurant (not the Astronauts in the story, the real ones they are named after). So tomorrow I will be a little older and a little fatter.

6 A Night on a Haunted Ship

The closer the family came to the rear of the ship, the more Calla could feel the tension rising inside her. The first door they found on the starboard side was slightly ajar but when Maynard tried to push it open, he found the hinges were corroded and completely seized. With a little effort, he managed to squeeze his way around the door and shone his torch along the passage.

Inside it was dry, but there was the distinct aroma of moisture and rot in the air. A passage stretched away before him with doors leading off on his right side. Inside the first doorway was a stairwell with steps going up into the superstructure.

"Looks fairly safe" Maynard told his children.

Emerson and Calla followed their father around the immovable door and up the first flight of metal stairs. Most of the cabins and compartments they passed on the lower decks were by no means empty, but were mostly strewn with useless and broken junk. None of the cabins yielded anything of interest and most of them smelled horrid. The galley had been totally stripped of all burners, cooking utensils and ovens, and the officer's quartes had been trashed a long time ago. It was clear that looters had once gone through the ship searching for anything useful.

Eventually the three explorers found the bridge and the adjacent captain's cabin. These locations had also been ransacked, but Maynard still turned up some very interesting discoveries. In amongst the mess was the captain's safe; abandoned, looted and left wide open. Papers and logbooks the looters must have considered worthless, lay strewn on a writing desk and all across the floor.

"We'll bed down here for the night" Maynard declared.

At their father's direction, Emerson started clearing out the Captains sitting room at the back of the wheelhouse while Calla retrieved any bedding she could find in reasonable condition and not crumpled on the floor. As they worked, Maynard took the opportunity to clear off a desk in the chart room and sort out some of the logs and manifests; he held high hopes of discovering some kind of revealing and useful information within those papers.

After about an hour, Maynard's eyes were beginning to droop from reading so much by LED lantern. Calla and Emerson had heated up some of their supply of canned beef and vegetable soup on a small gas camping burner, and the aroma from the next room was simply too much for Maynard to ignore.

"If all goes well, we should find some fresh food on shore tomorrow morning" Emerson lightened the sombre mood as his father sat down on the floor.

"Tropical fruit would be good" Calla nodded "but more seafood? Not so much."

The contents of the small pot began to bubble so Emerson stopped stirring and tuned down the blue flame. He did not need to make any request for help as his eager sister held out the first bowl. As soon as the chunky soup had been served, Calla passed it to her father and picked up the other two bowls. All conversation ceased for the next ten minutes as the crew of the Star Runner enjoyed their first meal on a steady surface in many days.

"What have you found in all those papers you've been pouring through Dad?" Emerson eventually asked.

"A lot of deceiving information and inconceivable acronyms" Maynard replied "But one thing is certain; the only oil in this tanker was its own fuel."

"Maybe we should go exploring down below" Calla suggested eagerly.

"Not until the sun is up again, so wind up your torches to a full charge and then get some sleep. I'm going to have another look at those manifests."

"Okay Dad" Calla sighed and began to create a little sleeping space for herself in the corner.

Emerson helped his sister clean up while Maynard returned to the chart room to do some more study. Half an hour later, the confused captain put down a logbook he had just flicked through and thought deeply about what he had seen in its pages. No matter how hard he tried to make sense of it all, he definitely had more questions than answers."

"I've found a couple of..." Emerson started but then whispered when he saw his father raise a finger to his lips.

"...pillows."

Emerson had been looking through some nearby cabins and did not notice Calla had moved into the chart room to be with her father. The young girl was now sleeping soundly on an old couch while Maynard continued to pour though the piles of paper on the table. Emerson carefully lifted his sister's head and slipped one of the pillows under it before offering the other to his father.

"No, I'm fine" he waved off the offer.

"So have you worked out what the ship was carrying?" Emerson spoke softly.

"At a guess, I'd say it was a ship load of acronyms. Do you know what S.R.B. stands for?"

"Hmm... Seventy Rampaging Buffalo?" Emerson offered.

"I highly doubt that."

"Singing Round a Bonfire perhaps."

"I think it means Seriously Remedial Brother" Calla chimed in.

"I thought you were asleep" Emerson huffed.

"With you whispering like a fog horn?" she sniffed "Whatcha reading Dad?"

"I think it's the ships manifest; a list of the cargo it was carrying."

"So definitely not an oil tanker then?" Calla yawned.

"No sweetie, but... oh!" Maynard stopped when his reading light suddenly went dull as its charge finally gave out.

"Here ya go Dad" Emerson the swapped the dying lantern for his torch.

"The young man sat back down next to his sister on the couch, folded out the crank handle of the light and began to charge it up as his father continued reading.

"Many of these manifests have the names of companies I've never heard of; Ad Astra, Blue Origin, Thales Alenia.

"Could be anything" Emerson shrugged.

"Here's one I recognise, Boeing; they used to make aircraft."

"So the ship was carrying planes?" Calla asked.

"Or something even more bazaar, listen to these names; SNC Space Systems, Orbital ATK, Arianespace, Aerojet Rocketdyne and more. These papers mention things like E.P.D's, P.A.M's, E.S.S.M's, Centripedal Rings..."

"CENTIPEDES!?" Calla flinched.

"Cen-tri-pe-dal" Maynard repeated "There's even something called a Rapid Pulse Plasma Borer."

"Not to mention S.R.B's" Emerson added.

"Forget your S.R.B's" Calla declared excitedly "That plasma thingy sounds interesting; I wonder if it's still on the ship."

"I seriously doubt there is anything of value left anywhere on this ship" her father noted "The cabins look like they were looted years ago. The hull would be sitting much lower in the water if the hold was full, but we'll see when we check it out in the morning. So let's try and get some sleep for now."

"I wonder how Mom is doing" Calla thought out loud as she lay back down and closed her eyes.

"I'm sure she's fine dear; we'll hook up the radio and see if we can contact her sometime tomorrow."

"Thanks Dad" Calla smiled as she drifted off.

The weather was very humid and although the temperature dropped a little during the night, it was not enough to make sleep very comfortable. It felt good to lie on a surface that wasn't moving, but everything still seemed to be gently rocking back and forth inside Calla's head; a few days at sea will do that to a body. She slept quite soundly but bedding down an hour or so after sunset meant she was fully rested and waking up well before sun rise. The sound of scurrying rats did not help matters either (rats; why did it have there have to be rats).

And the good news is... I did get the laptop seen to and so I've started a new HTTYD epic.

Bye for now, Marty.