TIME SHIP (Book Two) - A Time Travel Romantic Adventure

by Ian C. P. Irvine

  "I will then show you some pictures of the largest boats in the world today, so that you can see how far they have advanced since your time, and how big they are in comparison with yours."

  "Next you will see pictures of airplanes and submarines, vessels which can fly in the sky and swim underneath the sea..."

  James Silver laughed, "You jest woman. This is too much. How can a boat fly in the sky? Or swim underneath the sea. This is madness!"

  "Nevertheless, I will show you it Mr Silver. I will show you the truth, and you can decide for yourself what to believe or not. Then I will show you pictures taken over forty years ago in 1969 when mankind first landed and walked on the surface of the moon."

  "Then, I will find and show you some pictures of modern warfare, and the destruction that the modern navy and military aircraft can exact on each other. Not as a threat, but purely to help you understand what you would be up against, should you chose to leave the bay and confront them for yourselves."

  "Aircraft?" the Captain asked, interrupting her.

  "Yes. The craft that can fly in the air. There are several different types - balloons, passenger airplanes, jets, rockets and helicopters. You already know all about helicopters…"

  "That I do! I wounded one with my pistol!" and the Captain and Silver nodded at each other and laughed.

  Sally smiled, shook her head slightly, and then continued.

  "Yes. You did. Unfortunately. Well, I will show you aircraft. And, lastly, I will then make a call on a cell phone, and request for an aircraft to fly overhead and fire a rocket at the cliff on the other side of the bay. I want you to see for yourself, the destructive power that you would be facing if you decide not to surrender and then have to fight our navy..."

  "Miss Sally, I must warn you! We have many cannons and guns. The Sea Dancer is one of the most powerful warships in the Caribbean… But enough of threats - I do not wish to alarm you. Tell me, what is a cell phone? It has been mentioned before, but..."

  "It is what you took from the doctor on the boat and threw into the sea. In today's world, almost every person carries a small device that allows them to talk to almost any other person on the planet, regardless of where they are," she said.

  "You..." Silver started to speak, but Sally cut him off.

  "No, I don't, Mr Silver, I do not jest. When I make the call, I will let you listen to the voices on the phone, and you can decide whether I am jesting or not! So, shall we begin?"

  "Please, Miss Sally. We are ready."

  It took an hour for Sally to complete her lesson 'Introduction to the 21st Century '101' ', by which time Captain McGregor and Silver were completely speechless. Silver found it all hard to take in, constantly challenging what he saw and claiming that it was a trick, and that Sally was the devil's agent. Captain McGregor, on the other hand, absorbed everything that was thrown at him, not necessarily embracing it all, but not denying it either.

  They found it hard to grasp that what she showed them and called London, was in actual fact the London that they had both visited at various times of their lives. They could not fathom the sight of so many buildings all together in one space.

  Then she showed them the pictures of New York, and the skyscrapers that went up, and up, and up.

  After that, they watched mainly in silence, as if in some way their spirits had been broken or they had given up the last vestiges of their defense.

  When the time arrived, Sally took less than ten seconds to find a piece of video on YouTube of the footage of the first moon landing, called 'Neil Armstrong - First Moon Landing 1969'. It showed the rocket taking off for the moon, the moon landing, a moon walk, and then the return to earth and the splash down in the sea. It only lasted a few minutes but the impact it had on the two men was amazing.

  A sparkle began to return to the eyes of the Captain.

  "Can I sail to the moon, too?" he asked.

  "Unfortunately not. Only a few people have ever been, and no one has been there for many years. It was too expensive to send people there, so they stopped. But, one day, I believe that you will fly in an airplane, if with your help, we survive the next few weeks."

  "Above the clouds?" the Captain asked, smiling.

  "Yes," she replied, and the Captain clapped his hands and laughed.

  James Silver shook his head slightly.

  "You will never persuade me to fly. If God had wanted us to fly, he would have given us wings!"

  For a while they sat in silence, thinking to themselves. Sally let them be, giving them time to grasp everything and contemplate what they had just seen and learned.

  "Please show me again the USS Nimitz, your carrier of metal birds."

  "Okay," Sally replied, calling up an image of the USS Nimitz, the largest type of aircraft carrier in the world.

  "And how large is this if you were to compare the Sea Dancer with it, side by side?"

  "Do you know how heavy your ship is? How many tons?"

  "No."

  "How long is it?"

  "It is 110 ft in length, one of the longest vessels in the Atlantic!" he said proudly.

  "Not any more it is. There are ten ships the size of the USS Nimitz, and as it says here below the picture, each one is 1,040 ft in length at the waterline, and 1,115 ft in total length."

  The Captain laughed loudly. "And what, pray tell, is the goliath made off? No forest is big enough to provide sufficient timber for such a ship!"

  "Metal."

  The Captain laughed again loudly and stood up, clapping his hands together. "That is NOT possible! If you knew anything about the sea Miss Sally, you would know that it is not possible to build such a monster and make it float! Ships made of metal would surely sink! …And have you not considered that there is also no city or country in the world capable of producing enough metal to make such a ship? Now I know that you are in jest!"

  "I am not in jest...I'm not joking. This is the truth. Most ships are made of metal today, and they all float. The sea water supports them as they would do any other ship. One day, perhaps, you shall see one for yourself! Now, to complete your education, I suggest I call to request a demonstration of our modern military naval power, and then we should head to the beach to watch it. Since, thanks to you, my phone is now lying at the bottom of the bay, we'd better go to the main office and I'll borrow another cell phone from there."

  They followed her out and to the main office of the resort, where she waved for them to take a seat, and she pulled a company cell phone out of one of the desk drawers.

  Going into memory, she dialed the preset number for the police headquarters in San Juan, and after explaining she was calling from the Blue Emerald and requesting to speak to the Superintendent, was immediately put through to his office, which then directed her to his cell phone. When the Superintendent answered, he spontaneously dived into an explanation of his activity since the doctor had called him that morning, and she found him difficult to interrupt.

  "Miss Davis? How are you? How is everything? I want you to know that I have been in contact with the W.H.O. and they will be sending an emergency team over from the U.S. within a few hours. The U.S. Army is also preparing to deploy, and our police force will be building a wall of steel and barbed wire around the resort within the hour, and medical supplies and coffins will be dropped on the beach in thirty minutes time. Please tell the doctor that the Governor has agreed - I am in his office as we speak - to effectively establish a state of emergency on the island, but we shall not explain the truth to the press as of yet. The official reason will be because of the terrorist attack you are currently experiencing. We are also currently looking into the possibility that these individuals are related to an Islamic sect, or possibly a branch of the U.S. Klu Klux Klan that has recently been making terrorist overtures to..."

  "Superintendent! May I interrupt! That is all excellent news, but I am calling on rather an urgent matter with which I need your immediate assistance. I am currently with the two pirate leaders in th
e resort office and I need to request some help from you. By the way, I am now convinced that these people are pirates. Forget the K.K.K. or anything to do with Muslim fundamentalists. You don't need to pursue any other routes of investigation. You may however want to research what happened to a Captain Robert McGregor on a ship called the Sea Dancer from the year 1699. See what pops up in history. ...No, it sounds ridiculous, but the doctor and I are now sure that this is who we are dealing with...Please, let me continue! We are still hostages of the pirates, but I believe we are close to persuading their leader that we are actually in the twenty-first century and that it is no longer the year 1699. I have spent the past hour convincing them of this. I believe they are very close to agreeing to work with us to resolve this crisis, understanding that their lives are in as much peril as ours. However, they have agreed to allow me to demonstrate something to them that I need to request your help in arranging, as soon as possible...in fact, within the next twenty minutes if possible?"

  "And what is this demonstration that you are requesting?" the Superintendent asked, intrigued.

  At 11.30 a.m. Sally, the Captain, the doctor, James Silver, Richard Tyler, and a third of the pirates whom the Captain felt comfortable in releasing from their duties as hostage guards, all stood in a line on the beach, the doctor instructing them to maintain distance from each other, and to ensure that from now on they did not touch one another.

  The Captain's men had been told to expect a surprise: a demonstration of power by the King whose palace they had attacked. They were told not to be frightened, merely to observe the power of the King: the men would not be under any direct threat.

  Sally's request for a military jet from the Puerto Rico Air National Guard to fly over the resort had been denied. Not because the Governor did not want to help, but simply because they did not have any jets in their air force. However, when the purpose behind the request had been explained, the Governor had placed a few calls, and an alternative was arranged: a flight of two F/A-18 twin-engine supersonic Hornets from the USS Ronald Reagan, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier, which had left harbor in Florida only yesterday where it had been sheltering from the hurricanes, and was still close by in the Caribbean.

  As the group of assembled men stood watching the piece of uninhabited headland on the other side of the bay, the two jets burst overhead at several hundred miles per hour. The wall of sound that they created almost flattened the men, who saw the jets disappear into the distance even before they had managed to look up and focus their eyes on whatever it was that had passed over them. In the distance, they saw the white vapor trails of the aircraft curl around as the aircraft came back towards the island. Once again they passed overhead, this time slower than before, and the sailors were able to look up and identify them as great metal birds that flew on rigid wings and roared like gods in pain.

  Several of the men broke ranks and ran back into the trees, and two men fainted. Captain McGregor ducked, as did all the others, but when he stood up again, his lips had begun to curl up into a grin. When he turned to see Silver's reaction, it was very different: Silver was shaking, and his face was as white as snow, the pupils in his eyes tiny pin-pricks that almost disappeared in the center of his eyes.

  "Prepare yourself," Sally warned them. "They are coming back one more time, and this time they will show you an example of the weapons that they carry."

  Three minutes later, the two Hornets flew over again, this time higher than before. As they passed over the resort, each plane fired an air-to-surface missile that roared loudly but traveled too fast to be seen. Their impact on the headland however, was nothing short of impressive. Two massive explosions rocked the ground on the other side of the bay, with a deafening display of fire, smoke and flying rocks and debris which peppered the waters of the bay with loud splashes as they fell.

  Within seconds the jets were gone, leaving behind them only thin vapor trails which curved upwards in the sky as the jets climbed higher and higher until they disappeared from sight.

  All but two of the rest of the pirates in the bay who had witnessed the explosions turned and ran, joining the others in the trees, their muskets and their cutlasses drawn.

  Only Silver, Tyler, two pirates and the Captain stood remaining on the beach with Sally and Dr Mitchell.

  Sally turned to look at Captain McGregor. He was standing shaking his head, the smile wiped off his face, which was now as white as Silver's.

  Sally was just about to speak with the Captain when one of the few remaining sailors standing close to the Captain fell to the ground, shaking. The doctor hurried over to him, and discovered that he was shaking, not from fear, but from fever.

  Slipping on some plastic gloves which he took from his pocket, the doctor pulled up the pirate's tunic and prepared to examine his armpits. Sadly, there was no need. It was immediately apparent what was afflicting the sailor: the patient had several large swollen glands raised above the skin. Pulling down the tunic from around his neck, the doctor found further swollen glands just above his collar bone.

  "Sally, Captain McGregor," the doctor whispered quietly, just loud enough to be heard. "Please observe. We have another victim of the bubonic plague. These are the classic inguinal buboes that are typical of those infected by bubonic plague. Sally, we need the medicines now! When are they going to arrive?"

  "Apparently any time now. The Superintendent promised them..."

  Even before she had finished speaking, the sound of approaching helicopters was heard.

  "There, over there!" Silver pointed, directing them to two large helicopters coming inwards from the sea.

  "They must have been waiting for the jets to pass over first."

  "Good. Not a moment too soon." The doctor replied.

  Richard Tyler was standing over the sailor who was lying on the ground, shaking and sweating. He was staring at the man, whose face was white with fear.

  It was just then that Richard Tyler sneezed.

  --------------------

  The Blue Emerald Bay Resort

  The Beach

  The helicopters had just landed, and those on the beach were standing watching as several men in biological protection suits jumped down from the nearest one, carrying automatic weapons.

  They were pointing the guns directly at them.

  A loud voice suddenly addressed them over a loudspeaker.

  "Everyone please step back. Maintain at least fifty yards distance from the helicopter. Any person approaching the helicopter will be shot. We will be offloading cotton body suits for the terrorists to wear, and several metal coffins, along with a hundred body bags. We wish you to place the body of one of the deceased into a body bag, and then bring him to the beach. Our men will then load the body bag into one of the airtight coffins and we will take it back to the laboratory. Please burn or bury all other corpses as soon as possible. We have two medical officers who will be joining you this morning, more will follow. Any person who attempts to touch or interfere with the medical personnel we assign to you will be summarily shot. These medical staff are here to help you. Do not touch them, threaten them or interfere with them in any way. Now please, step away from the helicopter, as instructed."

  The group on the beach walked backwards away from the nearby helicopter until Sally nodded that it was far enough. The doctor dragged the body of the dying pirate back from the helicopter by himself, waving away the offer of help from the Captain and James Silver.

  Captain McGregor put an arm around James Silver and guided him away from the rest of the group. They walked along the edge of the shore. While the doctor watched the activities of the helicopter, Sally followed the Captain and his officer with her eyes. Silver seemed to be shouting at the Captain, and the Captain seemed to be shouting back at him.

  For a while the two men stood facing each other, the shorter man, James Silver, clearly very agitated and being visibly threatening to his superior.

  After a few moments the Captain said somethin
g, obviously exerting his authority. Silver waved a fist at the Captain and stormed away from him, hurrying up the beach, through the trees and into the resort complex beyond.

  The Captain walked back towards the helicopter.

  "Is there a problem?" Sally asked.

  "It does not concern you, Miss Sally. Please, explain to me rather the purpose of the display of power from your King?"

  "There is no King, Captain Rob. He is a Governor, the leader of the inhabitants of this island. He reports into the President of the United States of America."

  "And is he the King?"

  "No. There is no King in America. He is a member of the people elected by the people to serve the people, as I believe you were elected by your men?"

  "Does he live in this palace?"

  "No. This is NOT a palace. This is a place where rich people come to spend time and relax and enjoy their holidays."

  "I do not understand what you mean by holidays,...but it is of no matter. My question is, what was the true purpose of this display?"

  "To show you what would happen if you attempt to sail away in your ship. Now you carry the plague, you will not be allowed to leave the bay. I wanted to demonstrate how easy it would be for the authorities of this land to destroy your ship, with all your men on board. With one missile, they would blow your ship to kingdom come. You would not even know that you had been killed, or even see your enemy approaching. Okay, let's agree, that somehow you and your men have been transported from your world into the future. In your world, you were powerful and feared. In this world, you are almost powerless. However, there is a certain irony to this all. Even though you as individuals pose little threat to the modern warriors of today, you are carrying within your blood an unseen enemy that could kill us all. Unless we work together, we will all die. We both now face a common enemy, one which is here now, and which will claim more of our people as each and every hour passes. That man on the beach there," Sally said, pointing at the sailor over whom Tyler was once again standing, "will be dead within a few days. And Richard Tyler now also seems to be infected. He will also be dead within days. As will you and I, and everyone here, unless we all submit to the power of the Governor of this island and let them treat us all with the appropriate medicines."