Recently I was writing some more Dragon related parts of this story and wanted to get back to happenings in space. This week I've getting a lot of space stuff down and desperately want to get back to the Dragon side. Yeah I'm fickle.

Chapter 32

Surfs Up

"How do you know there is going to be a tsunami?" Calla was worried as Peter Moke led the young girl back to the bridge.

"I get the feeling there are a lot of things about our base you don't know about yet" Peter replied "we've got access to seismic and ocean movement sensors for a distance of about three thousand kilometres all around us."

"How long have we got to get off the ship and get to a safe distance from shore?"

"Why would you want to get off the ship?" Peter asked with genuine surprise.

Calla thought briefly about what her companion had just said and thought maybe this was the safest place to be when the wave hit; even if the ship did become the world's biggest surfboard. It would also explain why Peter was leading her further upstairs. When they reached the bridge, the first thing Calla noticed was all work had stopped and all the people she had seen before were standing out on the port wing with the Wood Duck of Curiosity, all looking out to sea.

"Bow ramp to bridge; any sign of movement yet?"

The voice had come from a two-way radio attached to Peter's belt and was recognisable as coming from Willow Pascal.

"Not yet but it shouldn't be long" Peter replied "Last report had it slowing but still travelling at around seven hundred kilometres per hour. Are you guys all set?"

"The ramp is up and the inflatable seals are at 65%; we'll be ready" Willow noted.

"Seal; does she have an inflatable penguin too?" Calla asked with a cheeky grin on her face.

"Not that kind of seal" Peter chuckled.

"I think I can see it" one of the gathered people noted.

The only sign visible so far was an almost insignificant lifting of the horizon but as time went on, Calla saw the obvious receding of the shoreline as the water drained away. A few nervous noises were emitted by the gathered throng as the White Breasted Nuthatch of Fearful Concern kicked a certain Wood Duck to the kerb. The ship began to creek as the supporting water flowed out from under the ship but within a few minutes, the flow had reversed direction and the levels began to rise.

Using her binoculars and turning her attention inland, Calla watched as her families tents were twisted and crushed by the rolling water. All her gear was safe in her back pack but she now needed another sleeping bag. The edge of the water crept on into the trees behind the beach as the ship continued creaking and began to vibrate.

"Any minute now and we'll be off" Calla declared nervously as her right hand gripped the railing so tightly, it was as if she were trying to crush it.

"I strongly suggest you stay here with us" Peter said, misunderstanding what she meant.

"Seals holding" Willow's voice on the radio informed them "Some leakage but nothing the pumps can't handle."

The deep roar created by the moving water had built up so gradually, nobody could say exactly when they had first noticed it but it had now become s loud, no one could hope to be heard without raising their voice substantially. As time and the sea rolled on, the level had not quite yet reached halfway up the ship's hull, but almost all of the nearby trees had all but disappeared below the water before being torn up and swept along with the flow.

Eleven minutes after the wave had first struck, Calla finally noticed that the ship had not moved a single discernible inch.

"HOW COME WE'RE NOT MOVING YET?" she shouted over the din.

"DON'T WORRY; WE'RE WELL ANCHORED" one of the group replied to her.

Calla could not believe what she was hearing. From her former home on the high ground behind Raglan New Zealand, she had seen firsthand what the powerful water wall of a tsunami could do, but there was no deigning the facts; the ship was still not moving. It took a full twenty minutes for the water level to peak but it had only receded slightly when the second surge hit. Twenty five minutes and two more waves later and the water finally began to drop. Tonnes of material and trees slowly moved back across the shore and out to sea. Unfortunately for everyone most of the debris would wash back ashore for weeks or even months, making life very difficult for all concerned but especially anyone on one of the small sailing vessels.

"Bow ramp to bridge; is it all over?"

"Looks like it Willow" Peter replied "but it will take hours for all the water to drain away. We'll head up to the bow and see how it looks."

Peter ordered most of his group to stay and continue their tasks in the superstructure while he took a few forward. Calla went with Peter along the port side while the two others walked up the starboard side. Looking down as they went along, they could see each of the ships legs was covered with debris which would make it very difficult to get down.

"Base to ship are you receiving; over" Peters radio crackled to life again.

"Still alive and still on the shore; over" he replied.

"We estimate the water reached about eight to ten kilometres inland. We've already started clearing the road again but doubt we will reach you before nightfall; over."

"Rodger that base. I don't expect we will be able to leave the ship for a few hours and will keep you apprised; over."

"Good luck Pete; call us if there's trouble. Base out."

"Looks like I'm gonna have to spend another night here" Calla resigned herself.

As they approached the bow, the hatch to the stairs opened up and Sarah Spencer stuck her head out.

"Hello; fancy meeting you here" she grinned as she stepped out on to the deck.

Emerson and Jeana Davy followed close behind as the parties met up.

"Hello Peter" Jeana greeted "I see you've met our tiny intruder."

"Tiny intruder" Emerson chuckled "I'm gonna remember that one."

"How are things down below" Peter asked.

"A bit wet but it's not too bad; Sid and Amos are already working on some modifications to the inflatable dam so it should seal more effectively next time" Jeana informed him.

"I hoping there won't be a next time Jeana" Sarah noted.

"Don't put money on it" Peter smirked "You'll lose every time."

Jeana went forward and looked over the bow followed by all the others affected by the presence of a Wood Duck. After a quick inspection, she borrowed Peter's radio and gave Willow a call.

"You're not gonna like this Willow, but the bow already has a debris piling up and it's only gonna get bigger."

No reply came over the radio, but everyone heard Willows roar echoing up from deep within the bowels of the ship as the Pink Headed Fruit Dove of Frustration flew out of the forward hatch.

"I guess there is no reason for us to stay down here" Willow decided "We'll be up soon."

With hours to wait and nothing more to be done down in the hull, everyone returned to the stern of the ship and helped Peters team with their work. Emerson was just as surprised as Calla at the change he witnessed up on the bridge. The entire area had been transformed into a sorting assembly line with two people gathering up all the papers and manifests strewn all over the place while three more sorted what was recovered into piles.

"Why are you bothering with all this trash?" Emerson asked.

"Comprehensive lists of what we've got, information about what happened after Professor Adisa and his team left the ship; who knows what we could discover?" Sarah responded.

"And we're pretty stuck up about record keeping" Peter added.

"Well... yeah; I suppose that's true too" Sarah reluctantly agreed.

Emerson and Blue were drafted into helping clear out the cabins by taking junk out to a growing pile on the deck while a very board (as usual) Calla went back to scanning the seas for her father's yacht. Hours passed and the water receded, revealing the incredible mess a series of water surges can leave behind, so work on the cabins was halted and work on clearing the wharf was begun. When Willow finally managed to get ashore and see the ship's bow, she almost felt like crying.

"One container!" she lamented "One lousy container unloaded and now we've got to start all over again."

"No way are we gonna clear this without heavy equipment" Sid noted.

"You know you can count on us to get it done as quickly as we can" Blue tried to console the frustrated Chief Engineer.

All concern about the latest set backs were put aside when Calla shouted down from the bow rail high above them.

"IT'S THE STAR RUNNER" she cried out "DAD'S BACK!"

Emerson hurried around to the port side of the ship while Blue and Sarah followed at a more leisurely pace. Sure enough Calla was right, but the small vessel was still a long way off shore and moving slowly to avoid damage from the floating debris in the water. By the time the yacht had made its way to the dock, Calla had climbed down the forward leg and was bouncing excitedly on the dock. The main reason she was so happy was because she had noticed someone through the binoculars she had not seen for a few weeks.

"MOM!" Calla called out as leapt onto the Star Runner.

"Wait till you hear what happened to me" she said ignoring the fact a lot had happened to everyone "and you won't believe this place; it's like nothing you've ever seen."

"I don't know sweetie" Ursula Linwood replied "I've seen a lot in my lifetime."

"Nothing like this place" Calla smirked knowingly.

Sarah Spencer approached the Star Runner amidships with a slightly worried look on her face but before she had a chance to speak, Maynard anticipated what she was about to say.

"Doctor Deming and the Professor are behind us on the One and All" he said as a look of relief washed over Sarah's face.

"It looks like you came through the tsunami unscathed" she noted.

"Yeah we were all far enough offshore so we just turned into it and went for a vertical ride. I don't think the bow was raised more than thirty degrees, but what about this ship of yours; I expected to see it lying on its side half a mile inland."

"If you thought these legs were impressive, you should see what's below the waterline" Sarah grinned "There's a central core inside each leg and it's drilled down into the sea floor. It isn't perfect, but to move this ship it would take a wave as least three times bigger than the one we just had."

"But what about the rest of the fleet Dad?" Emerson asked with concern.

"If the lookouts saw it in time, all the smaller vessels would have sailed out into it and should be fine but I am worried about the ferries" Maynard sighed "If the tugs couldn't get going fast enough, they're probably all up on the shore now. No point in worrying about it though, we just have to get back ASAP, see what happened."

Maynard's concern put a thought into Sarah's head, so she excused herself and went to borrow Willows radio. She realised they would need land access to the bay near Padang so she called up the base and ordered the road crews to redirect some equipment and personnel to the old south road; if help was needed, Sarah wanted to be ready to get there in a hurry.

So I read now there are some people who want to make Pluto a planet again along with 110 other bodies in the solar system... BORING!

When I was a kid, planets were cool and interesting while everything else was just lumps of rock; but now we know better. Most of the moons around the outer planets are more fascinating than the planets they orbit with vast icy oceans, gravitational stress volcanoes, more water (and possibly microbial life) than we ever imagined and so many other things as well. Pluto too was just an odd rock until we learnt more about it; so it's not classed as a planet anymore... who cares.

As a Dwarf Planet, Pluto is incredible. It doesn't even sit in the centre of its own orbital path; instead it orbits around a vacant point in space. All the bodies classed as Pluto's moons (Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx) also pretty much orbit the same point. The only reason we say they orbit Pluto is because it's the closest of the bodies to the point in question.

So in reality, it looks like there are six bodies (Pluto, Charon and the rest)all orbiting a planet that isn't there.

Now that... is cool. Planet, shmanet.