Rising Tides d-5

by Taylor Anderson

  “Indeed,” Courtney said, somewhat pleased with himself. “An end to this hideous ‘Company’ and its abhorrent trafficking in human flesh must necessarily precede any real progress, but the Alliance does offer an immediate, if modest, ‘safety valve’ to alleviate the ‘oversupply’ problem here on Respite, at least. Over time, a decreased supply of a certain… commodity… within the Empire must necessarily appreciate its value and, eventually, status.”

  Radcliff nodded seriously. “Ingenious and succinct,” he said. “In that respect, on that subject, I have made my decision. With your guarantees of decent treatment and these somewhat unprecedented ‘rights’ you speak of, any Respitan woman who has completed her indenture or is otherwise free of any legal or commercial indebtedness is also free to choose for herself if she wishes to emigrate to the lands or ‘Homes’ collectively constituting these ‘Allied Powers’ of yours.” He glanced again at his wife and grimaced at her apparently. .. more satisfied amusement.

  “I regret, however,” he continued, “that with the exception of a few dubious Company contracts I’m inclined to throw out, you must continue to purchase the obligations of other… persons so… encumbered. Should you choose…” Radcliff’s grimace grew more pronounced as he spoke. It was apparent that he’d never contemplated this aspect of his culture’s “institution” so deeply before. He cleared his throat and marched determinedly on. “Should you choose to retire a… debt with anyone who holds it,” he finally managed, “and they refuse to sell said… debt, for any reason, they shall be liable to a charge of usury.” He glanced at his wife again. “Owning debt is one thing,” he said defensively, “but owning people, quite another!”

  “Thank you, Your Excellency,” Matt said simply. It was a major concession, he knew-one he’d held out for. Despite Courtney’s arguments about “commodities” and “supply and demand,” he would pay the actual value of the obligations of the women Courtney chose-but no more. There must be no “price gouging.” He’d argued that that would imply the owners of the debt truly did consider the women who “owed” it to be their property. The Respitan economy might even take a hit, particularly if a lot of “free” women actually chose to emigrate. By the look of things, they did a lot of the hard work on the island. The signs were that many would, but how would they decide when the time actually came to step aboard a ship crewed almost exclusively by another species and leave behind everything they’d ever known? For that matter, how would his own destroyermen respond if they went from famine to feast virtually overnight? He had no concern that the women would be well treated by the Lemurians, and there’d be plenty for them to do. In that respect, their lives might not even change that much. But they would be free and equal-and they would know what respect felt like.

  Radcliff had extended an olive branch, but Matt could see there was a catch. He waited for the other shoe to drop and when it didn’t, he spoke. “That has nothing to do with the message we received yesterday,” he prodded. “What exactly ‘disturbs’ you about it?”

  “Well… I mean no offense, please understand. It’s just that this apparent armada of yours, advancing toward Respite, leaves me uneasy.”

  “Uneasy,” stressed the militia colonel.

  “I understood you had an… oil collier, a ‘tanker’ squadron coming to supply your needs,” Radcliff continued, “but the message hints at a considerably larger force. Large enough to take one of our biggest ships in tow.” He held out a hand. “Don’t mis-take me, we are all very grateful for the rescue of Ulysses, but let me explain. As you know, there are elements on this island that have flirted with secession from the Empire. I am one of those ‘elements’ myself.” He became agitated and abrupt. “But, well, let it be said: we pray the Empire might be repaired, and Commodore Jenks assures me that you could be of tremendous help in that regard. I do hope and believe you are the friends you seem to be. If the effort should fail, however, if the Empire should continue its suicidal slide, we will secede. We have no choice. Even as we flirt with secession, our beloved Empire, through the Company, flirts with even darker things. We will not,” he added, suddenly forceful, “throw off one corrupted master only to be enslaved by another!”

  Matt was taken aback. He looked at Jenks and knew the man must have explained, but still the governor wanted more guarantees. Upon reflection, he supposed that was reasonable, given Respite’s position. He saw Emelia staring hard at him and realized she was probably the ultimate source of the governor’s sudden apprehension. Oddly, he was pleased. If someone as powerful as Governor Radcliff would listen to a woman’s concerns in this society, even when privately expressed, there might be hope for the Empire yet. He felt another stab of anxious fear and loss. He knew that without Sandra backing him up, he never would have accomplished half of what he had.

  He cleared his throat. “Governor Radcliff, you have my personal guarantee, upon my honor as an Officer and a Gentleman commissioned into the United States Navy, that my country… the Alliance we represent… has no territorial ambitions here. We’re engaged in a terrible war with an unimaginably brutal foe thousands of miles from here, and that’s where I’d be if the criminal Billingsley and the ‘Honorable’ New Britain Company hadn’t abducted… some of our people as well as your Imperial Princess, and perpetrated an unprovoked attack on Allied persons and property. We now know that not only Billingsley but the Company he serves was responsible for that, so we’re at least as much at war with the Company as you are. We’re natural allies in that respect, but we expect no further assistance from you than that war will require. To that end, Mr. Bradford will hopefully conclude negotiations for basing and quartering treaties to support the logistical requirements necessary for that operation.”

  “As I said,” Jenks explained, “their ‘Task Force Oil Can’ will arrive, and most of its elements will move on to New Britain, escorted by Icarus and assorted Allied warships. Achilles and USS Simms will follow almost immediately in our wake with a couple of fast, ‘razeed’ oilers. All that will ultimately remain here is a communications facility-to transmit and receive the amazing messages you admired-and some support personnel to ensure a steady flow of supplies to support the campaign Captain Reddy described. It really is that simple, and that’s all there is to it. I have seen their real war and their real enemy, gentlemen, and claiming Respite for themselves is not even on their horizon. They don’t want to be here.”

  “But what constitutes the ‘end’ of that ‘campaign’?” Emelia suddenly blurted. The men looked at her, stunned, and in the governor’s case, clearly somewhat angry. Emelia defiantly held her ground.

  “The destruction of the New Britain Company, ma’am,” Matt said simply. “And frankly,” he added after an introspective pause, “getting even. Saving your country after that is up to you.”

  CHAPTER 21

  North of Tjilatjap (Chill-chaap)

  S anta Catalina ’s engine room telegraph rang up “Astern Slow,” and Dean Laney stood up from the rough box he was sitting on. (Strangely, though a few chairs had survived the “lighten ship” purge, every single chair, stool, or anything even vaguely comfortable to sit on in engineering had vanished.) Thinking dark thoughts, he winced at the resurgent piles that had begun tormenting him again. As quickly as he could, he moved to shift his own lever in response. “Astern slow!” he shouted at the ’Cat throttlemen.

  The ’Cats’ll love The Thing, Laney thought. If it works. He crossed his fingers. The best ’Cat snipes understood turbines now, but they knew those were beyond their capability to build from scratch-at least in the near term. The compound engines they’d been making worked well, and so did the huge, crude, bulky, triple-expansion monsters being built for the “flattop Homes,” but this was the first “American” reciprocating engine they’d ever seen. They were familiar with the principle, but this machine represented the virtual “state of the art” of its type.

  With mutual encouraging blinks, two Lemurians turned the grimy wheel on the main valv
e. High-pressure steam hooshed into the first massive cylinder of the triple-expansion engine dominating the compartment. The three big piston rods twitched. Then, with a mighty, joint-sore shudder, accompanied by hoots of glee, the crankpins slowly moved the webs that in turn spun the shaft. They were all one huge casting, but at that moment they seemed separate entities, working together like long-lost friends. With the first piston approaching the bottom of its stroke, the valve chest vented the now lower-pressure steam into the next, even larger cylinder, pushing that piston down. Just before the first one finished its stroke, the third and largest piston tasted low-pressure steam once again and helped heave the first one back up-to start the process again.

  The hoots became a cheer, and even Laney’s face creased into a grin. Over the noise, they heard cheering all over the ship. Steam hissed here and there, but not from any major leaks Laney could see. Certainly not in the lines, which had been his biggest concern. The shaft was turning, and ’Cats scampered to spew oil on anything anywhere that they hadn’t been able to get at before. The bottom shaft webs and rod caps had been in the water, and they got liberally doused when they came up. There was a diminishing rumble aft as the stuffing box and shaft bearing returned to their duty and oil was sloshed on them as well. It’ll be an oily, slimy mess down here, Laney thought happily, until we can secure and wipe some of This shit up.

  A steady, thrashing, whumping sound came from aft, and he knew the screw was beating at the water. The bow was still stuck lightly in the silt and the hull began to groan as the engine strained to pull it free. The telegraph rang up “Astern Full.”

  Laney blinked. “Damn. I thought the Skipper was going to try to ease us off, not horse her.” He didn’t reflect on the fact that Lieutenant Commander Chapelle had suddenly become the “Skipper” as soon as the engine came to life. He answered the ring, then turned to the throttlemen. “Open her up, boys!”

  Dark smoke piled into the still, humid air. Russ Chapelle couldn’t hear much over the cheering, but he could feel the life returning to the old ship beneath his feet. Her bow was still stuck, however, and the deck shuddered with restrained energy. Sammy was his talker, stationed near the speaking tubes, ready to shout if anyone reported a casualty. So far, the old girl was holding together. Russ remained anxious, but wasn’t surprised. Most of the Navy ’Cats on this expedition had been involved in refloating Walker, and the little guys had really learned their stuff.

  “Full astern,” he ordered. Ben Mallory looked at him nervously. “Don’t worry,” Russ said. “I know what’s behind us. I won’t crack us up.” Santa Catalina was about four hundred feet long. With her stern swung out from the beach, there was a shallow sandbar studded with ancient drowned tree trunks little more than a thousand feet aft. The vibration began to build and the cheers started to ebb as murky water churned around the laboring screw. Then, suddenly, something gave. Maybe it was suction, or the ship was still too heavy forward, but without warning, the old freighter just seemed to ooze away from the beach. There was a slight dipping sensation as the bow abruptly discovered that nothing supported it but water, and Chapelle instantly rang “Stop Engine” on the big, dingy brass telegraph.

  “Lookouts!” he shouted at the bridgewings. “Range estimates every fifty… uh, tails!” A “standard tail” was close enough to a yard that he wouldn’t need to convert it. He moved the wheel experimentally. They had tested the steering engine…

  “One hundred yards!” called the port lookout, estimating the range to shore and using the accepted Navy measurement.

  “Around nine hundred!” came the range from starboard, looking aft. He couldn’t see for himself, but he was relaying the estimate of another lookout on the aft deckhouse, above the fantail.

  Russ began turning the wheel. “I’m giving her ‘right standard rudder,’ ” he explained to Ben. “I hope that even with the engine stopped we gained enough steerageway to bring her stern around.” He grinned. “Slow and easy, that’s me! Hell, I’ve been conning a ship with no engines at all lately! That makes you start thinking ahead!” That was also why Tolson hadn’t come any farther upriver. Without engines, if she got into trouble in the confined space, she was stuck.

  “You’re doing fine,” Ben assured him. “Just remember, this rusty old tub of yours isn’t what’s important.”

  “She’s more important than you think,” Russ retorted. “But don’t worry, I won’t break any of your toys.”

  “Two hundred yards!” called the lookout. “Stern started to turn, but the current stopped it.”

  Russ rang up “Astern Slow” and the vibration beneath their feet resumed. “I don’t think I can turn her into the current,” he said aloud, maybe to Ben, maybe to himself. “But maybe I can hold her by the tail while the bow swings out.” He looked at the starboard lookout. “Range?”

  “About seven hundred. The… ah… closing rate? It is less.”

  “Good,” Russ replied. He rang “Stop Engine” again, and spun the wheel before ringing “Ahead Slow.” The vibration ceased momentarily, then resumed with an entirely different resonance. He glanced at Ben with a self-deprecating grin. “Should’ve brought a couple of bridge officers along! Frankly, though, I don’t think anybody ever thought we’d really be steaming this bucket out of here.” He shrugged. “I didn’t.”

  Ever so slowly, Santa Catalina coasted to a stop, her screw partially exposed, ponderously slapping the murky water. Just as slowly, she began to move forward-leaving only the slightest wake to wash over fascinated, watching eyes.

  “Lookouts and leadsmen to the fo’c’sle!” Chapelle ordered. Sammy loudly repeated the command through a rusty speaking trumpet on the starboard bridgewing. Sammy was shaping up to be a pretty good bosun’s mate, Chapelle thought. Too bad he couldn’t blow a pipe.

  “You want me to take the wheel, boss?” “Mikey” Monk asked. He’d suddenly become Chapelle’s exec.

  “Not just yet,” Russ replied. “If anybody’s gonna crack this egg, it better be me.” He cast a look at Ben. “I don’t think the good major will shoot me if I do it. He might if I let somebody else, and I’d probably have it coming.” He called out to Sammy. “What’s our depth?”

  “Five fathoms, Skipper,” came the reply. “Get deeper now,” Sammy added hopefully. He was watching a ’Cat stationed just aft of the forward crates, holding up the number of fathoms with his fingers as they were relayed to him. Ahead of the ship, several hundred yards, the steam barge putted along, testing the waters with its own lead, prepared to wave a red flag if the bottom came up.

  Russ grunted, estimating just about zero margin for error. With her present load, Santa Catalina drew nearly twenty-four feet. Five fathoms was thirty. The ship wasn’t particularly heavily loaded, and she’d made it into the lake half full of water, so it seemed reasonable she could get out again, especially riding higher. But Russ didn’t know what the channel had done in the year and a half she’d been on the beach, or what the tide had been like when she came in. New snags or sandbars might have formed; even the channel might have shifted. That didn’t matter, since he didn’t know the channel anyway, and they’d just have to grope along, but a sandbar could be bad.

  Slowly, slowly, they steamed to the south end of the lake, creeping along just fast enough to keep steerageway. The jungle closed in as they neared the river channel, clutching at them as they passed, it seemed. Clouds built up and they proceeded even more cautiously through an afternoon downpour. At one point, through the nearly opaque rain, Moe used his keen eyes to spot the red flag on the barge waving frantically, and Chapelle called down to reduce speed even more. They couldn’t stop because the current would move them unpredictably, so they began preparations to moor. Then word came that the depth at the river mouth was four fathoms- Santa Catalina ’s exact depth.

  “Okay,” Russ said, licking his lips. He’d spent a lot of time poring over a yellowed Solunar chart on the wheelhouse bulkhead. The next time the tide would run higher than it now d
id would be at 0126 on the morning of November 12. He didn’t want to wait that long. “Dump the guns,” he ordered regretfully. The old freighter had been armed with a dual-purpose five-inch gun forward, and a three-incher aft. Both were badly corroded, their bores pitted beyond serious use, but he’d hoped to save them. Still, they’d been dismounted and rigged to go over the side in a hurry, prepared for this very eventuality. The ship needed only a few inches, and hopefully the guns would provide them. Massive splashes preceded a slight lurch aboard the ship, and tentatively, Santa Catalina eased forward.

  Except for the drumming rain, the lethargic throb of the engine, and muted reports from Sammy, standing soaked on the bridgewing, there was complete silence on the bridge. They felt the slightest, prolonged, quivering shudder through their shoes as the keel kissed the bottom and slid through the silt. He hoped the rusty hull and ancient rivets would stand the strain-and they wouldn’t discover a random rock or boulder.

  “Ahead one-third,” Russ ordered, hoping increased inertia would carry them across. They were committed now. They’d make it or get stuck, probably for a couple of weeks. There was little more they could do to lighten the ship, not without dipping into their precious cargo itself. He risked a glance at Ben and saw that the flier’s knuckles were white as he gripped his hat in his hand, poised as if preparing to wipe sweat from his brow with an imaginary sleeve.

  He’d never seen Ben like this before-this… intense. He sensed what the man was straining against: the horror that after all they’d been through, fate might still steal their prize. Even now, on the brink of success, after all they’d struggled for and lost, a simple capricious sandbar might rob them of the unexpected-unimagined-treasure stored in those moldy wooden crates. Maybe for the first time, Russ truly understood what the planes meant to Ben; what they might mean for all of them.