At the Midway

by J. Clayton Rogers

  Which meant no one else had the slightest idea how to operate the balloon. He had to train someone quickly.

  Later in the day, Hart rose from the half-completed wireless set and checked on the men repairing the balloon's envelope, which had been damaged by high winds last time up. The Japanese, dressed only in their loincloths, their skin gleaming with sweat, looked like exotic human mushrooms in the late afternoon glow.

  "Mr. Hot," said Ace, "we about finished. You work the telegraph tomorrow. Who goin' to fly the balloon?"

  Hart looked Ace up and down--not a long process. "Best to have someone on the small side. The weight of the antenna and reflector will put a drag on her."

  "You don't think it will...." Ace shaped his hand into a dying bird and made a fluttering falling motion.

  "I don't think so."

  "I'm small."

  "You're very brave. It's what we call a captive balloon. If anything goes wrong, we can haul you down quickly."

  "Mr. Hot, if anything goes wrong, it will be down here."

  Hart could not help but laugh.

  1931 Hours

  News of Depoy's disappearance brought morale to its lowest. He could not have deserted. There was no place to run. Somehow, the creatures had sneaked up on him in broad daylight and taken him off before he could fire a shot. He'd probably fallen asleep at his post. Yet the effective silence of the deed filled them with cold dread.

  But the main bunker was finished. There would have been room in it for thirty men, had there been thirty men left. In their own grisly fashion, the creatures had solved the problem of space for them.

  To Ziolkowski's thinking, the completed bunker did not absolve them from the need to put up a fight. Cower? U.S. Marines? Only when there were no stones left to throw. They had to prevent the creatures from rampaging willy‑nilly over the island. There were too many vulnerables. The warehouse, with its supply of water casks and tinned food. The distillery, which supplied them with fresh water. Their sea tug, the Iroquois‑‑although stepped‑up on the beach with broken pressure valves, she symbolized hope. It seemed the only way to protect them all was to make sure the marines remained the center of attention.

  The lookouts were dispatched before dark. The sergeant added unnecessary admonition: "Don't leave your holes. I don't care if you've got the biggest load of shit since Creation hod up in you. Stay in, stay awake."

  No one asked questions.

  Lieber was roused from a sandy bed as the last light faded. He would spend another night with kitchen utensils in his mouth. He would not be relieved until sunrise.

  "You've slept all day," Ziolkowski explained. "That's more than anyone else has gotten. I'm leaving one of the lamps with you. Maybe that will help you all stay awake."

  No one could wake up Hart. No one knew if he'd fallen asleep or had passed out. He lay at the far end of the bunker, in the middle of an unconscious huddle of Orientals. Ace had fallen back in a Pietà-like pose, his mouth hanging open, a stupendous snore erupting at regular intervals. Lieber experienced an irrational moment of jealousy. He had begun to think of Ace as his personal manservant, though everything Ace did for him was strictly voluntary. Now the civilian had come along and absconded with him.

  Well... to hell with it. The little Jap was a nuisance, all in all. Always running up from behind, trying to rescue one thing or another. He'd saved Lieutenant Anthony, only to have Anthony die moments later. Maybe Ace was bad luck in disguise.

  Staring at the battle lantern hour after hour, Lieber's eyes met on the flame; it seemed to waver and die. Then someone kicked him and he realized he had nodded off. This happened two more times.

  "Why can't I keep my eyes open?" he berated himself. "Think of what's at stake!"

  He had begun to view the duel between men and monsters as a great Entscheidungsschlacht--a decisive battle between ultimate creatures. The Cataclysm of the Ages was at hand. If he didn't watch out, he would sleep right through it.

  Early that morning he was alerted to a terrible sensation in his mouth. He waved an arm. Someone shook Ziolkowski awake.

  "They're coming?"

  Lieber shrugged. There was no sense in what he was receiving. No attempt at code. What the hell was Kitrell up to?

  What he was experiencing was a scream transferred directly to his tongue. After it had passed, and the fork and spoon regained their former metallic blandness, Lieber sensed the truth:

  He had tasted death.

  XX

  June, 1908  30°45'N, 165°20'W

  From the Deck Log of the USS Florida:

  Mast awarded Seaman McGhin 2/c 10 hours extra duty for unauthorized smoking; Mast gave Ship's cook 1/c 2 weeks restriction for drunkenness; Pvt Danty (Marine) 10 hours slow relief for indifferent performance; at 0800 received dispatch from Opnav (1606 1015) advising no further information re Midway.

  "Dr. Singleton!"

  The doctor's world was limited to the confines of his sea cabin, but that world was revealing a remarkable elasticity and a marked capacity to roll from side to side.

  "Dr. Singleton! Get up! The captain wants to see you."

  The world thundered. Fog collapsed. Mountains floated. Singleton did not want to open his eyes to such sights. But the shaking persisted and the evidence indicated he would have to lift his heavy lids to make it stop.

  Midshipman Davis was looking down at him.

  "Leave me alone, boy."

  "If necessary, I'm to have the Captain of the Marines send in two men to clean you up and bring you topside."

  "That's... outrageous!" Forcing himself up, Singleton shifted his legs over the edge of the cot. A wave of nausea hit and he promptly threw up on the midshipman.

  "It shouldn't present much of a problem, sir," said the exec. "There's a coaling station at Midway."

  "And if it's fallen into enemy hands, Mr. Grissom?"

  "We'd be stranded."

  "We'd be sunk." Captain Oates glared into the cubicle that served as their wireless station. The electrician who had passed on the bad news remained intent on the telegraph, as though waiting breathlessly for word from the Oracle of Delphi. But there were no favorable prognostications. He had finally received a clear, nearly static-free transmission, only to find that the news was bad.

  The collier Daisy Mae had just signaled Oates that she had developed engine trouble and was making for Honolulu. There was little point in the Florida coming about to help, as she was now a hundred and fifty miles astern. The skipper of the Daisy Mae respectfully suggested the Florida make port, too.

  In one respect, this was a relief. They would not have to coal at sea again.

  Four colliers had followed the battleship through the Golden Gate. The Florida had recoaled three times since then. It was a nerve-racking procedure. After a collier was taken in tow, a conveyor rope was secured between its masthead and the stanchions above the Florida's aft turrets. Then a ton of coal divided into eight-hundred-pound sacks was hoisted to the masthead and winched across the four-hundred-foot cableway until the carrier came above the coal hatches. Unpracticed in the method, it had at first taken the crew as much as forty-five minutes to deliver the carrier. Since the Florida burned six tons of coal every hour, this was not a pace that would have kept her going much longer.

  Their timing improved, but other problems cropped up. At one point the towline parted. It had taken quick thinking to devise a "knock-down hook," with the Florida's sea anchor made fast to the superstructure. Lieutenant Grissom, who oversaw the operation, then ordered the cableway lowered and the hook released. One end of the conveyor rope ran off the winch, which was kept running so it could pick up the hook end. Once accomplished, the collier picked up the anchor and the carrier, the Florida took in the conveyor, and the entire rig reset so the coaling could once more proceed. Oates dwelled on the fact that if the hawser had snapped while the carrier was above the quarterdeck, everyone below would have been crushed.

  They had enough fuel to reach the atoll witho
ut the Daisy Mae. But just barely. There were two vital reasons why the battleship required full bunkers and stokeholds the moment Midway hove into view. If a Japanese fleet was present, they would need plenty of fuel for maneuver--and escape. And with the holds empty, the Florida rode high in the water, exposing her red armor belt. A shot below the armor would send them to the bottom.

  It was time to turn back, no question. Even if the Midway alarm had nothing to do with the Japanese, there was no guarantee the bunkers on the island could supply them with enough coal to reach Hawaii. If not, they would have to wait until another collier was dispatched. Inevitably, they would miss the Fleet at Honolulu. Another black mark for the Florida and finis for Captain Oates. This was the navy that urged its men to fire its huge guns even if there was explosive powder loose in the chamber. To risk all--and pay all--was the credo. Oates really had no choice.

  "Signal the Daisy Mae: We are proceeding to Midway."

  Stepping out on the bridge, he let the clean wind smack him with brisk bursts. The final degree in his decision was supplied by something that had nothing at all to do with Midway. The young whaler they had rescued was not yet entirely coherent. His ranting about sea monsters could only be the result of his wound and long exposure. Oates could console himself with the fact that this detour had at least resulted in the saving of a life.

  But whose life? The boy had given them his name and a scratch-pad autobiography. Yet his story concerning the fate of the Lydia Bailey cast a doubtful light on his every word. What had really happened out there?

  The ship's surgeon marveled at William Pegg's recuperative ability. "It's a shame about his hand, captain. He'd make a fine recruit, otherwise."

  "And his hand...?"

  "No monsters, sir, please. A shark did that. I've seen it before. The boy will live, and that's miracle enough. Fever's broken already. If it weren't for all his talk about sea serpents, I'd say a week more in sick bay would fix him up. Sea monsters sinking a one hundred and eighty-ton whaler! I hope he's not permanently demented."

  The fact remained they had found Pegg where whaling ships were rarely seen. The boy had told him about the damage to the pintles. It had thrown them off course by several degrees longitude. And the whaleboat they found him in not only confirmed his occupation and the type of ship he came from, but looked as though it had been in a battle. Before leaving it behind‑‑there was no room for it on board‑‑the bluejackets had noted the peculiar marks on its side. It certainly appeared as if something huge had nibbled at the gunwhale.

  But all this only made the boy's story more intriguing, not veracious. The weather had been extraordinarily calm for weeks, now. William had lost track of time, but guessed he'd been adrift for ten days or more. Even so, it was doubtful the Lydia Bailey had been lost in a storm. A storm that severe would have also capsized the whaleboat. Oates racked his mind for an answer, and soon hit on an unsettling possibility. In his delirium, William might have transformed an unknown menace into monsters. Something so horrible the lad could compare it to nothing else. Something as awesome... as a Japanese battle fleet.

  That was why he needed Singleton. Oates did not consider him a charlatan. He possessed too much knowledge, was known for too many notable accomplishments, to be a fake. He also was a walking lexicography of technical jargon. If he did not know something, you would never know it by the way he spoke. With the conviction of science he could explain to William the impossibility of his delusion. Perhaps then the boy would be able to recall what had really destroyed his ship.

  "Mr. Grissom!"

  "Yes, sir."

  "We're a fine target in these white ducks. How much battle-gray do we have in our paint lockers?"

  "Enough to cover the ship twice, sir. Seems someone thought we might get into a fight."

  "Then let's use it. Organize details. Every man available."

  "Aye aye, sir. If I may ask--"

  "I know as much as you do. I'm only eliminating a risk."

  "But if we go into battle...."

  "The Bonhomme Richard was a wooden ship and she accounted herself pretty well." Noting Grissom's pursed lips, Oates added, "If we run out of coal, we can stoke the boilers with our 'armor.' Where there's a will, Mr. Grissom...."

  "Yes, sir," the exec grinned wryly. With a nod of commiseration, Oates again turned to face the sea head-on.

  Oysters and packets, sailors and tunny. I have it all, and none is for me.

  Every day the beast grew more voracious. There was no end to the feeding. The faces in the boiler fires had begun to coalesce into a single molten visage that winked again and again, a jester of endless pranks. Standing back, Gilroy looked at the other boilers to either side of him. He wondered if they contained beasts like his. One hundred and forty-three degrees Fahrenheit. That's what the thermometer had said last he saw it. He gazed at the other stokers and coal‑passers. They dragged themselves back and forth across the sizzling deck like prisoners shackled to dead men: themselves. They slow‑marched with their long‑handled scoops, thumping the wood ends in a dirge drowned by engine noise. Their skin was smothered in a mascara of coal dust. Minstrels of Hell… plug, plod, ages and ages… the undead Hell. Their bodies had become dark solitary caves; their contrasting eyes were bored, fearful creatures, peaking out.

  They were supposed to inspect each clump of coal to make certain it was not dynamite in disguise. Thus far, two illicit explosives had been found on the Florida. Both had been discovered before the Fleet rounded the Horn. Rabid anarchists and fanatical union miners in West Virginia were among the chief suspects. But no one knew for sure. There were thousands of avowed anarchists in the United States, members of a world‑wide movement intent on not just bringing governments to their knees, but on abolishing them altogether. They saw the Fleet as the ultimate symbol of unnatural authority. They would have fervently applauded any setback it encountered.

  There had been no time to search the coal before their hasty departure from San Francisco, which meant the stokers had to be doubly careful. A difficult thing, with sweat in their eyes and every joint aching. But one stick alone, even soggy and broken, could destroy the five‑million dollar battleship. If the unionists were the ones responsible for sowing bombs in the Fleet, the irony was lost on the black crew; they were common laborers, just like the common laborers trying to blow them up‑‑for the good of all common laborers. The end result was a massive increase in common labor. The stokers went half blind picking through the coals. The electric torches bolted above them offered more shadows than light.

  To Gilroy, watching, participating, the entire procession was twisted into a turgid, narcotic farce. Sometimes he laughed lazily at the idea that he was a part of it. But every time relaxed acceptance of his fate came within reach, something happened to snatch it away. It was intolerable. Simply unacceptable. All he wanted was to be left alone. But the world shouldered in, told him he could not relax. That he could not just drop down and die. Not yet. There was no charity in this, only greed. The world wanted every last ounce of life out of him. Of will. When he had become a hollow pit, then would it let him go?

  So began his grand search.--a search as profound in its way as the deepest peregrinations of great philosophers. On every trip back to the bunkers his eyes darted further up the heaped coal as he prayed for a glint or gleam that would say: Here I am, your passage to the greater world. The downy pillow of oblivion. Feed my explosive heart to the boiler. Sacrifice me to the beast. Your freedom‑‑

  A hard earthy thing beat his shoulder. It was the chief engineer, demanding his attention. He had to shout directly into Gilroy's ear. It was the only way one could be heard over the din.

  "Hey! You got the gawks again, Gilroy?" 'Gawks' was the chief engineer's flippant term for a heat stroke. He'd suffered it himself on more than one occasion and knew first‑hand the desperate gape, the conviction of death. He was glib because he could think of no other way to approach it. The stokers did not see it that way. To them, t
he chief was just another son‑of‑a‑bitch warrant officer. He wrapped his hand around Gilroy's brow. The stoker did not move. He knew the chief was testing his skin. If it was cold and clammy, he would know Gilroy was only suffering from heat exhaustion. The remedy would be simple: a visit to the cool air topside. But if he was exceptionally hot, if his pulse‑‑which the chief could feel through his temples‑‑was racing at one hundred and fifty or one hundred and sixty beats per minute, he'd know they were dealing with deadly hyperpyrexia.

  After several moments, he shook his head and removed his hand. "I don't know, Gilroy."

  "What?"

  Leaning to his ear, the chief shouted, "I can't tell. You're fucked up on something, aren't you?"

  "Naw, Chief. I'm all right."

  "Like hell. I see your lips movin' all the time. What the hell are you doing? Singing to yourself?"

  "I'm just breathing, Chief."

  "That's damn peculiar breathing. I've got my eye on you, Gilroy. You hear? You hear? I want you to drop dead before you fuck up on me. You hear? You hear?"

  "I'm all right, Chief."

  The boiler room was a wicked parody of tall Palladium music halls. The loudest sounds echoed with hypnagogic intensity. Thick chains shouted overhead. Gilroy turned his back to the chief. The beast was calling. Even the chief must know the beast had to be obeyed.

  As word was passed of the work details, rumor seared the ship: battle.

  There could be no other reason for hiding the glorious (if besooted) white flanks of the Florida under drab gray. Only the officers knew of the cablegram from Midway. The ordinary bluejacket thought they had been banned from San Francisco. They had been no more unruly than other crews, so this had to be punishment for all the time they'd spent in the Observation Ward. It was the ship, not the crew or captain, that they held accountable. There was no way on earth they could eke out another knot or make the wood shields gleam like true armor. Black gangs excepted, most sailors possessed a deep loyalty, if not love, for the ships they were stationed on. The men of the Florida, however, pounded the decks in loathing. And now... fear.