by Chanel Smith
“We’re well aware of that, Captain,” Ellen answered.
We were led into a hallway and down it to cell number three. The elderly man was just as the jailer had described him. He was sitting in the corner of the cell, on the floor, staring straight ahead and moving his lips like he was having a conversation with someone; however, there was no sound coming from his mouth.
Captain Norris looked from me to Ellen, but said nothing.
“I’ll handle it, Captain,” Ellen smiled. She called out to the man using an even tone. “Mr. Hillary, might I speak with you?”
The man continued staring straight ahead, not showing any indication that he had even heard her.
“Mr. Hillary,” Ellen said in a louder and sharper tone.
The man’s head turned and his lips kept moving, but he did not answer her.
“I want to speak to Edmund Hillary!” she commanded.
“You’ll speak to me!” the spirit’s voice snapped. “If you speak to anyone at all, sorceress. You will address me as Pharaoh.”
“I will not address you at all. I will only speak to Mr. Hillary,” she responded.
“Mr. Hillary is indisposed at the moment,” the voice snarled.
“I want to know why Mr. Hillary has chosen to hijack this ship,” she said.
Both Captain Norris and I looked at her with our mouths agape. Hadn’t she told us that she thought that the spirit possessing the man was the cause?
Ellen saw the unasked question in our expressions. “If I ask the spirit, he won’t tell me, but if I ask Mr. Hillary, the spirit will give up the information that I need.”
“I don’t follow.”
“Trust me,” she replied.
“Mr. Hillary didn’t hijack this ship. I did!” the spirit screamed.
“I’m sorry, who were you again?” she asked in a flippant tone.
“I’m Pharaoh and I have taken control of this ship in order to do battle!”
“You’ve made a grave error,” Captain Norris broke in. “This ship is not equipped to do battle.”
“For a captain, you’re lacking a great deal between your ears. My battle is not with the weapons that you mortals use.”
Captain Norris started to respond, but Ellen held up her hand. I was a little shocked by the gesture, though I shouldn’t have been. Ellen had been in control of things since we’d broken into the captain’s quarters.
“With whom is Mr. Hillary so upset that he would need to hijack a ship?” Ellen asked.
“Mr. Hillary has done nothing of the sort. It is I, Pharaoh, who have taken command of this ship in order to battle Avatea!” he screeched.
“Battle for what?” Ellen asked.
“The souls that were taken from me.” Mr. Hillary’s face turned away from us and his form returned to the state it had been in before.
“Which souls?” Ellen asked. “Mr. Hillary, which souls?”
After several minutes of trying to regain his attention, it became obvious that Ellen was going to get no more from him and we were led back down the hallway away from cell number 3.
Chapter Seventeen
Bridge of the Eucalyptus, early Tuesday morning
“I must say that was the strangest display I’ve ever witnessed in my life,” Captain Norris commented as we left the brig and started back along the corridor to return to his cabin. “Is that poor man really possessed by a spirit?”
“Yes,” Ellen responded.
“I’m in entirely new territory here,” Captain Norris admitted. “You’re going to have to tell me how we are to deal with the situation and what is to be done.”
“I’m afraid that I don’t have an answer for you yet, Captain,” Ellen replied.
“That’s not exactly what I wanted to hear,” he growled.
“Look, I know that you’re used to having clear, concise reports that are full of facts to work with. Believe me, Monty and I would love to have that luxury too, but most of the time, our job is more like piecing together a puzzle until we get enough of it put together to get the big picture,” Ellen countered. “Right now, we have a few scattered pieces and we need to try to fit them together.”
We all remained quiet until we arrived back at the captain’s quarters.
Stepping inside, the captain rubbed his hands together rapidly and then waved us toward a couple of chairs. “Makes me long for a fireplace like the old timers used to have. I would have never imagined that it would be cold pulling duty on a cruise ship that only sails during the summer.”
A crew member appeared in the doorway. “Captain,” he said. “Mr. Dawson directed me to come tend to you and your guests.”
“I’d like the hottest coffee you can come up with,” Captain Norris replied. “You two?”
“Sounds good to me,” I replied. I nodded toward Ellen, who I knew didn’t usually go for coffee. “Tea, Babe?”
“You know what?” she responded. “I don’t usually drink coffee, but for some reason, it sounds really good right now.”
“Three mugs and a pot then,” Captain Norris ordered. “And see if you can some rolls, cold cuts and fruit while you’re at it. Actually, the sun will be up in a half hour or so. Perhaps you’d prefer breakfast? Send someone to track down Billings too. I need to know how he plans to pull off breakfast this morning.”
“Aye, Captain,” the crew member said before hurrying out of the captain’s quarters.
“Fortunately, most of our cooking is done with gas, so that part of the operation isn’t completely shut down, although I suppose the large percolators that are used to make coffee for the passengers won’t be working. Hell of a lot of things you take for granted until the power goes out.”
Captain Norris rubbed his eyes and then looked up at Ellen. “Okay. How about we talk this out? Tell me what facts you know, what we just learned, what it means and what your experience tells you ought to be done. That’s how I taught my officers to think when I was a skipper in the RAN.”
“Fair enough,” Ellen responded.
“I want you to start off by telling me how you knew to talk to Mr. Hillary and not address the spirit.”
“It’s simple, really,” she replied. “Arrogant people can’t stand to be ignored or turned away. They want to be the center of attention and they’ll brag about themselves and build themselves up to draw that attention. It’s the same with spirits, especially ones like this Pharaoh.”
Captain Norris smiled. “You know, you’re right, but I never thought of doing that before. I usually just charge in bullheaded and force what I want. That’s a pretty neat trick.”
“She’s full of them,” I laughed. “This one was a new one for me too.”
“Okay...” Captain Norris drew out the word as he considered his next question. “He’s in a battle and he needed this ship to fight it. Explain that.”
“Spirits draw energy from their surroundings in order to gain power. It is obvious that he needed a great deal of power in order to do battle. In essence, he had hijacked the energy of the ship and has pulled it into the vortex to isolate it where he can make use of its power.”
“He’s battling someone named Avatea,” I added. “I’m not making a connection.”
“What in the South Pacific is related to Egypt?” Captain Norris asked. “If he’s calling himself Pharaoh, it must have something to do with Egypt, right?”
“Not necessarily, Captain,” Ellen responded. “He might have just assigned himself that title because of his arrogance. It sounds powerful and inspires awe.”
“So, this might not be related to Egypt then.”
“Probably not.”
“Do we know anything about this Avatea?” he asked, looking directly at me. “Who or what might want to fight this person or spirit?”
Neither Ellen nor I had an answer for him, but we were saved for a moment because the coffee and cold cuts had arrived. The heat from the coffee felt good going down and the food helped fight back the cold as well.
“Captain Billings says that he will be here in a moment, Captain.”
“Very good.”
For a few moments, it was quiet while we ate, drank and let our brains sort through the events that we’d witnessed.
“I don’t suppose there is any way of knowing who the souls that were taken from him are,” Captain Norris commented after a few moments.
“I would say that figuring out who this Avatea and who those souls are is the crux of our mystery,” I suggested.
“Agreed,” Ellen and the captain responded, almost in unison.
“Captain,” Billings said, arriving in the doorway of the captain’s quarters. It was quite obvious that he was flustered by something. “I apologize for the delay. I’ve been sorting through reports and trying to figure out how to deal with all of it. I’m fielding a thousand questions about serving breakfast and…”
“Hold on a moment, Billings,” Captain Norris said. “Stop, take a breath and give me your reports one at a time.”
“Aye, Captain,” Billings replied, following the captain’s directions.
“Now,” Captain Norris said after allowing Billings to regain control. “You have only two items to be dealing with at the moment. The first is figuring out how we will serve breakfast without power and the second is the distribution of keys for the locks. Let’s just focus on answering each of those questions in turn.”
“Yes, Captain, but there are complications regarding the execution of both of the orders.”
“What sort of complications?” the captain asked.
“Captain,” he said, “I think it would be better if I showed you.”
Chapter Eighteen
Bridge of the Eucalyptus, early Tuesday morning
“I sent crew members to start awakening persons to help distribute keys to the passengers as you ordered, Captain,” Billings said as we came to a door down in the crew berthing area. “When no one responded to their knocking and calls at the door, they went in and tried to awaken them by shaking them physically. They got no response.”
We entered the crew berthing behind the door that Billings had opened. All of the bunks were filled with crew members sleeping soundly.
“At first, the crew members that found them thought that they were dead, but after they checked them more closely they discovered that they do have pulses and are in a comatose state.”
None of us said a word for a few moments. Captain Norris and Ellen reached out to check a couple of the sleeping sailors for a pulse. When Ellen felt the sailor’s pulse she looked at me with an odd expression, but still said nothing.
“I began to wonder if there was some sort of poison, chemical, gas or some other toxin that had caused this, so I immediately dispatched crew to check the entire ship’s crew and passengers and to bring me a count.”
“How many?” Captain Norris asked.
“I was still getting reports when I came to your quarters, Captain,” he replied.
“Alright then,” the captain said. “Let’s go back to your office and find out how much of the ship is affected.”
“Actually, I had set up in the third deck conference room so that I could organize the keys and bring in the head cooks to brief them. Of course, most of my cooks are also not present because they were on rest until time to start breakfast and couldn’t be wakened.”
“Okay, then we’ll go to the third deck conference room and sort this out.”
There were several crew members waiting for Billings to return when we entered the third deck conference room.
“Gentlemen,” Captain Norris said, taking over as he entered the room. “Please give your count to Mr. Billings and then continue on with your duties or return to your quarters until you’re called.”
“Wait!” Ellen cut in. “I think that until we know more about what is going on, we shouldn’t allow anyone else to return to their quarters and they should not fall asleep.”
“Please explain, Mrs. Drew,” Norris responded.
“I’d rather not involve everyone,” she said, looking around at the crew members who were staring directly at her and wondering why she was there.
Captain Norris picked up her signal. “Alright. You are not to return to your quarters or fall asleep.”
When all of the crew members had reported and the three of us were alone with Billings, Captain Norris laid out the question. “Why did I order my men not to return to their quarters and go to sleep?”
“Mostly, not to go to sleep. Being in their quarters would likely prove to bring about the other.”
“Granted,” the captain said, spreading his hands to signal that he conceded the point. “Why can’t they sleep?”
I knew where she was going with her reasoning, but I remained quiet.
“Another way for a spirit to gain power or energy, in some cases and even more powerful energy than electricity and heat, is to draw it from the souls of other beings,” Ellen replied.
“So, stealing all of the electricity and heat from my boat wasn’t enough, now this bloody bugger is stealing it from my crew and my passengers?” It was obvious that Captain Norris was struggling to hold his temper in check as he spat out each word. He sat down, wiped his hand over his bald scalp and then started drumming on the top of the conference table with his fingers.
A few more crew members trickled in with their counts and were given the order not to return to their quarters and not to go to sleep.
“We’ll have to spread the word to entire ship and make sure that we keep everyone busy. I’ll be damned if I’ll allow this Pharaoh to draw another single watt of energy from my boat.” He ordered the next crew member who came in to go to the bridge and request that Dawson come join them.
“I have the final count, Captain,” Billings said after he was certain that all crew members had reported back to him.
“Hold onto it until Dawson arrives.”
There were several minutes of silence in which no one dared to speak before Dawson came through the door into the conference room.
“Pull the door closed behind you,” Captain Norris ordered.
Dawson did as he was told and took a seat, looking around at the other persons in the room. His expression showed his confusion, but it wasn’t a new look for him. He and most of the others had registered that same look on their faces for several hours as they tried to sort out something that was well beyond their understanding.
“I think it is best that Mrs. Drew briefs the two of you on everything that has transpired up to this point, what lies behind it and what all of it might mean. At this point, I am working with Mr. and Mrs. Drew to come up with a solution to our crisis. What we’re dealing with is in her area of expertise and she is a godsend to this ship at the moment if we are to have any chance of coming out of this.” He nodded at Ellen when he finished speaking.
Ellen filled them in on everything we knew and did her best to explain what she could. “I believe that the spirit is using energy from the passengers and crew at this point,” she said as she wrapped up her briefing. “We are still not sure what the spirit’s purpose is at this time. He is in some sort of battle, likely with another spiritual being or entity of some sort, but we are not yet aware of the significance behind this entity who was identified as Avatea.”
Neither Billings nor Dawson spoke. Judging by the pale tone of their faces, I was pretty sure that they wouldn’t have been able to speak if they’d known what to say.
“There you have it, gentlemen,” Captain Norris said after a few moments. “Let that sink in a minute, if it can sink in at all. This is well beyond our understanding, so we’re going to have to trust the Drews to advise us as best they can. In the meantime, we need to organize the manpower and resources that we have and prepare to tend to whatever passengers are still awake. Go ahead and give us that count now, Mr. Billings.”
“The count?” Billings said, looking at the captain with a blank stare. “Oh, yes, the count. Most of the passengers are asleep and a good portion
of the crew as well. All told, there are 1,940 asleep, which leaves 428 passengers and crew awake to either be organized or to be tended to.”
“Well, Mr. Billings,” he said, “that makes the problem of serving breakfast a whole lot easier, doesn’t it?”
Chapter Nineteen
Aboard RAN Melbourne’s helicopter over the North Tasman Sea, Wednesday evening
If there was one thing that Commander Samuels hated more than anything else, it was leading a press conference. Unfortunately for him, he hadn’t been given a choice. As he sat in the helo on his way to Brisbane to conduct the press conference, he let his mind wander back to what had taken place aboard the RAN Melbourne since he’d had any decent sleep. Or, more specifically, the conversation that got him in the situation that he was in.
“Sit rep, XO,” Captain Ellington ordered. They’d connected Rear Admiral Douglas into the call via a secure satellite link.
“Admiral, we were able to start a 2 by 2 grid search in the southeast quadrant relative to the LKC on Tuesday morning making use of the Newcastle and Canterbury. The RNZN assets arrived Tuesday afternoon and started another 2 by 2 in the northeast quadrant. We completed the first quadrant at midnight and the second wrapped up a little after sunrise this morning. There were no echoes that would indicate any sub surface contacts of any significance reported from either grid and nothing on the surface either.”
“What about air assets, Commander?” RA Douglas had asked.
“Air assets have flown spokes out to 100 kilometers in every direction and have reported nothing that even hints that the Eucalyptus was ever in the area, sir.”
“Basically, Commander Samuels, you’re telling me that a 50,000-ton vessel has simply vanished,” RA Douglas had summarized in a stern voice.
“In essence, sir, that is what I’m telling you,” Samuels had replied.
The silence was so long and so profound that Captain Ellington finally had to query if RA Douglas was still connected. “Are you still connected, Admiral?”
