Storm Ports

by Robert James Allison

  Chapter Three

  The next morning Mike and Joshua sat in the presidential office around a small conference table. The office was located on the bottom floor in the front corner opposite the dining room. Although he had been offered a tour of the island, he had forestalled it until afternoon. He now had a good idea of how to set about solving this problem and he wanted to get it in the works. He knew already last night after dinner that he had the solution and just before bed he was turning over how to put it together.

  “Mike, are you sure you don’t want to look around the island this morning so you could get a better idea of our situation before trying to solve all of our problems?”

  “No need for that. As I said yesterday. I think I have a pretty good picture of the situation already. And the solution, but I need to use a phone for a few calls,” he said, as he took out his smartphone.

  “But, Mike, this isn’t just, as you say in America, ‘another walk in the park’. We’ve struggled with this problem for centuries. And that cell phone won’t do you any good—we have no cell service on this island.”

  “Yes, I understand, Joshua. I only need this to look up the numbers. Do you have a phone that I could use?”

  With an air of indifference Joshua slid a phone toward him and replied, “Here you can use this all you want. Our phone service beyond the island is via radio-telephone and it is pretty good, but takes some getting used to. If you prefer I can make the connection for you and then leave and come back later.”

  “No, that won’t be necessary. You might be interested in hearing what is happening,” Mike replied seriously, ignoring Joshua’s shortness, as he picked up the phone receiver and the radio operator came on the line.

  He told the operator the number in the United States that he wanted and waited. It was the number of an acquaintance he had made years ago. Dan Bonnard. Dan was an astronomer for the government and recently retired. He had met him at a trade show that he put together and thought he might be useful on this job. He waited for the connection to be made and was rewarded with a prompt answer by a rather gruff sounding voice.

  “Hello.”

  “Mr. Dan Bonnard?”

  “Yes, but I’m not interested in what you are selling.”

  Quickly, Mike said, “I’m not selling anything, Mr. Bonnard. My name is Mike Maltby. We met a few years ago at a trade show. I put it together and drew every star gazer in the country to see the latest equipment.”

  Bonnard responded cautiously, “Oh, yeah, I remember that show, but not your name.”

  “You may never have known it, but I was there. Like I said, it was a big show. I drove a red BMW at that time. I was the show organizer and promoter.”

  “Yeah, okay. Sure, I’m tuned in now. So what can I do for you?” Bonnard replied, still sounding skeptical.

  “Well, at that time I got the impression that you were pretty good on navigation, is that true?”

  “I know some navigation from looking at stars all of my life, but I’m no expert.”

  “That isn’t the impression I got. You gave some lectures out there and demonstrated some technics many had never heard of before. You must be better than fair at navigation.”

  “Well, I suppose you have a point there, but what has that to do with anything?”

  “It just so happens I need someone who is good in navigation. I am calling from the island of Keykan in the South Atlantic and they need a navigational system that will help them keep track of their fishing boats. It seems that a combination of fog and violent storms causes their small sail-type fishing boats to be blown so far off course that they can’t always find the home island before the sea gets the better of them.”

  “Pardon me for my bluntness—Mr. Maltby is it?”

  “Yes, Mike Maltby.”

  “Well, as I said earlier, I’m tuned in now and I remember hearing some things about you. I don’t care for your style. I’m not into money-making schemes and I don’t really have any desire to make money for you,” he ended in a short-clipped tone.

  Mike laughed and said, “Fair enough, Mr. Bonnard, but those were the old days. People change. Haven’t you changed over the years?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact I have.”

  “Well, I’ve changed, too. I deal for different reasons now, not money, and I’m not making a dime out of this deal. You won’t either by the way, but I thought you might want a few days or weeks all-expenses paid on this lovely island doing your fellow man some good,” as he spoke he looked at Joshua with a questioning look and Joshua nodded his assent.

  “Your wife, too, if you have one and if you want, but this isn’t a holiday. Someone with know-how needs to develop and erect a navigational system to keep track of these little boats. So what do you think? Can it be done and will you do it? Oh, by the way these people have very limited money resources and their ships are sail powered only. GPS probably isn’t going to work for them unless you’ve got some mighty powerful units in mind that don’t require much in the way of power, are practically free, aren’t affected by violent weather—and are easy to operate.”

  There was silence on the other end and Mike thought the connection might have broken. But then he heard Bonnard say, “What they need is a SIGS.”

  “A what?” he asked. He hadn’t heard that acronym before.

  “A SIGS. It stands for a Satellite Integrated Guidance System. It’s like GPS but more localized and you can fine tune it, but it sure isn’t free or even close. SIGS is expensive stuff. It uses a powerful transmitter to bounce a beam off a satellite. That beam is received on board the ships and bounced back to the satellite with onboard transponders. The transmitting station figures the location of each ship in relation to itself and displays coordinates on a tiny screen on the receiver telling each ship where it is in relationship to the main transmitter, which of course, sets on the home island, as close to the port as possible. Similar to the way air traffic controllers identify and locate airplanes by their transponders. Very little power is needed by the receiver/transponder because the home unit does all the work.

  “It would really be better than GPS for these boats, because it isn’t so much telling the ship where it is in relation to everything else, but just where the home station is, which is all they are interested in finding. Weather won’t have any effect on it and the home station can increase or decrease power at will, re-directing, and fine tuning the signal if necessary. Can’t do that with GPS. With GPS you are stuck with whatever is up there at any given time, and which satellites you can acquire. The more satellites the better, but at least four. This system only needs one satellite. Plus, with GPS you have to input that mapping data into the system and that takes money plus connections to get into the system. In the United States we have good coverage, but that’s not necessarily true for every part of the world. SIGS is best for your situation, but later on, maybe in a few years you could incorporate GPS into the system.

  “However, in addition to all the expense, you need permission to use a communication satellite in your area, of which there are three, but they all belong to the United States. The birds are encrypted and unless you have the codes your signals will not be re-transmitted through the satellite to the ground, or ships in this case, and back. Plus, you would need battery-operated, mini-receivers with transponders, that actually have more range than GPS, but as I said before, they need minimal power to operate. They aren’t easy to come by. The military is experimenting with them and the supply is very limited. GPS receivers won’t work, they do different things than you want and use more power to load data that you don’t need anyway. With these babies you just switch them on when you need them and they lock onto the satellite or vice versa…then you are home free, or at least you know where home is.”

  Mike responded with enthusiasm now, “You say the military is experimenting with them now. The army? Is the army using them?”

  “Yes, but like I said, they aren’t very available. The military is o
nly experimenting with them. Specifically the army is looking for something in addition to GPS that is proprietary and the use of which can be denied to enemies in case GPS fails or the signals are blocked.”

  “Are they by any chance manufactured by the Johns Company?”

  “Yes, are you familiar with them?”

  “I’m familiar with the Johns Company and I know they manufacture equipment like you are talking about. I didn’t realize it was the same equipment, but now that I know, I think I can get what you need and maybe for free.”

  “For free! You must be nuts. Those babies go for at least a hundred grand a piece!”

  “If they are what I’m thinking about it is more like a hundred and fifty grand a piece, but I can get them, and I think for free. So what else do you need?”

  Bonnard replied in an incredulous tone, “Well, assuming you aren’t as crazy as you sound, we still need the main transmitter. That would be really expensive. It is uses a satellite dish receiver, has a powerful directional transmitter, and requires a mainframe computer to store the charts and calculate positions.”

  Mike thought for a minute and then asked, “Are you familiar with radio telescopes?”

  “Yes, of course. Why?”

  “In Hawaii right now the United States government is scraping out a radio telescope. They come with a mainframe computer don’t they?”

  “Normally,” Dan responded.

  “Could you convert a radio telescope to use as a navigational tool, such as you say is needed for this SIGS?”

  “I couldn’t, but I know someone who could. His name is Tom Solley. He was with me at the trade show. Tom could do it. He is an electrical engineer as well as astronomer.

  “Another guy who was at that show was John Benson. He is a computer expert. He could program that mainframe to make egg nog,” Bonnard said excitedly.

  It was clear that Bonnard was getting into this project. Mike figured that since Bonnard was retired, things had probably been a little boring around the backyard barbecue of late.

  “Okay. I’ll get you your radio telescope and mini-receiver/transponder packs. Will you line up these other two guys and get them onboard? Same deal for them, no pay, but a free vacation with their entire family if they want. I’ll check back with you in a few hours and let you know more of the details,” he said and hung up without more. He never wasted time on amenities when he was cooking a deal.

  Joshua had his mouth open again. It was starting to be a habit.

  He scrolled through the contacts on his phone and picked up the receiver to have the operator to call another number.

  After a few minutes the phone was answered and he said, “Wes Johns, please. Mike Maltby calling.”

  After a few minutes of silence he heard the amiable voice of Wes Johns, “What’s up, Mike? Got another deal cooking?”

  “Yep, sure do, Wes. I wanted to get you in on the ground floor. You still trying to sell that worthless mini-navigational system of yours to the army?”

  “Yes, they are experimenting with it now, but I can’t get them too excited,” Wes droned out.

  “Do you have an exclusive contract with the government on that, Wes?”

  “No. I only wish I did,” he answered dismally.

  “Well now, just suppose you unloaded a few hundred of those little items and put them into another country’s ships as support for a localized navigational system? Do you suppose that the United States government might think that you were getting ready to give this other country an exclusive contract? You think that would get them off dead center?” Mike said slyly.

  “It might, but what other country and how much would they pay?”

  “The other country is called Keykan. It’s located in the far South Atlantic and they won’t pay you anything, Wes. You will be lucky if they don’t charge you to use those contraptions. You are the one who wants to get the United States off the fence, not the people of Keykan. They are willing to help you do that, but they aren’t going to pay you for it,” Mike said adamantly, looking at Joshua with a wink.

  After a period of silence, Wes said, “Mike you sly old dog. You’re making money off of this aren’t you?”

  “Not a penny, Wes, I promise, but you will when the United States starts buying your little navigational things. The catch is that you have to avoid giving them an exclusive. You have to leave a loophole so that you can keep the people of Keykan supplied and the units maintained. You’ll be saving some lives, too, Wes. So how about it. Are you game?”

  Wes was silent for a while and finally said, “Man, Mike, that’s a lot of money. Several hundred of those receivers would amount to millions of dollars.”

  “Yeah, but I’m guessing you have them in stock, just gathering dust on the shelves in anticipation of the Unites States buying them up or some other country. So what are you going to do with them if no one bites? Not likely anyone else is going to take them off your hands and I know you well enough to know that you won’t sell them to another country for military purposes even if you go broke. Now Keykan wants them for peaceful purposes, they are losing fishing boats and men to some nasty storms down here and they need navigational assistance. None of the equipment will be used for military purposes and we will guarantee that in writing—they don’t even have a military. They are so small and poor no one is interested in conquering them. I’m also willing to bet you haven’t got any millions of dollars in manufacturing those receivers, either. Maybe in research and development, but not in the hardware.”

  “What about a transmitter and satellite access, Mike?”

  He knew he had Wes then and said, “Not your worry, Wes. I’ll handle that. So, are you in or not?”

  “Okay, I’ll do it. But only because you have never led me astray before and I like aggravating those boys in Pentagon,” he ended with a laugh.

  “I’ll get you the details later, Wes, and thanks.”

  He hung up and looked at Joshua who had his mouth even farther open now. He next called Washington, DC and asked to speak with William Donaldson, in the Secretary of State’s office.

  “William Donaldson speaking.”

  “Mike Maltby here. How you doing, Don?” He knew Don preferred that first name over William

  “Mike! By golly it’s good to hear from you. What are you up to these days? I heard you retired.”

  “No, not really. I just changed my focus a little. Say, I was wondering—now realize I am only surmising here, and I know you would have to kick something like this upstairs, but listen to this. How would the Unites States Navy like to have a port of call in the far South Atlantic? Say some place they could get fresh fruit, beef, and fish along with some other support if they needed it?”

  Mike continued as Joshua listened attentively, “Now I haven’t cleared this with that ‘port of call’ yet, but if I could, would you be interested?”

  “What’s the catch and how far south?”

  “About as far south as you can get and still have good weather. About a thousand miles east of Brazil, and the catch is they would want that radio telescope that is being scrapped out in Hawaii as we speak, plus its mainframe computer.”

  “Don’t know anything about a radio telescope, Mike, but I know for a fact we don’t have any resources near the area you are talking about and I’m pretty sure we’d like to have.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t expect you to know about the radio telescope, Don. It’s happening though, take my word for it. Oh, and they would want permission and the codes to use one of the three communication satellites the United States has orbiting this area. Could you handle that?”

  “Why do they want that? You’re talking some really classified stuff here, Mike. Way over my pay grade.”

  “Okay, well run it up the flag pole and see if anyone salutes it, Don. But from what you say it sounds like the United States might be willing to go out of its way to have access to resources in this area. A nice stepping-stone between Africa and South America. I’ll
get back to you, and Don, this is on the QT. Okay?”

  “They don’t want any of this for military purposes do they, Mike?”

  “No, they want it for civilian navigational reasons. They don’t even have a military and so far as I know they don’t want one.”

  “Okay, I’ll test the waters, no pun intended, and see what response I get.”

  “Right, thanks, Don. Good-bye for now.”

  He turned to Joshua when he had hung up and said, “The ball is in your court now, Joshua. We all pay a price for what we want. The deal is all set. Mini-receiver/transponder navigational packs, experts to set up the system and if you are willing, a transmitter, computer, and access codes to the satellite. Subject to your parliament’s approval, of course and the Congress of the United States, but I think the latter is in the bag,” he ended in a matter-of-fact voice.

  “I’m astounded, Mike. I never imagined anyone had that kind of power. How can you be so sure that your congress and president, who was less than helpful when I talked with him, will go along?” Joshua said with awe.

  “Not power, Joshua, connections. I just make connections and those connections along with years of dealing with governments all over the world, tell me this one is in the bag.” Leaning back in his chair he folded his hands across his chest and said, “Well, I suppose a tour of your fine island is in order. Nothing more to do right now.”

  “You are finished?”

  “Finished for now. The rest I can handle later when things fall together. Providing you are willing to pay the price. The price to you is allowing the United States Navy access to your port for supplies and some recreation. You and your people have to give up some of your privacy and there is just no two ways about it. That means they are going to have to accept some modernization. If they are willing to pay that price then your solution is at hand, if not, then you can continue to lose men and boats, and I’ll just go back to the oblivion where you found me.”

  “I think we must pay that price, as you say. It is time we came out of our shell. There will be some resistance at first and maybe for a long time. There will be some incidents, I’m sure, but to save the lives of our sailors and preserve our country we must be willing to pay that price. I’ll submit it to parliament subject to your country’s approval and cooperation.”

  “Fine, so how about a little sightseeing?”

  “I would like that and I’ll guide you myself. I hope you will at least stay over long enough to relax and enjoy the beaches. Swimming is the greatest pass time on our island. Maybe we could go up and look over the cattle country and you can give me some tips on that, too,” Joshua said with genuine enthusiasm now.

  “Sure and when I get back to the States I’ll line up some people to help you in that regard. Even if my figures are way off you should still be able to add to your economy with that beef sideline. Enough to improve your power plant and buy the coal necessary to run it full time.”