Deadly Apparition

by G. Ernest Smith

  “Exactly! The crew needs to hear from their captain, but he seems to be pretty bad too.”

  “Really? I haven’t seen him in a few days.”

  “Do you think you could talk to him? He doesn’t seem to hear me at all.”

  Lambert nodded affirmative. “I can try.”

  • • •

  Castillo looked at the loaded pistol sitting on his desk. Some called it the coward’s way out, but he was okay with that. He knew what he was. He’d had to face the truth when he was being tortured by the Spaniard. He’d been measured and had come up short. He was not the man he’d always thought he was, a towering figure of strength. When put to the test, he’d folded like a poor poker hand. A hard thing to admit. And now he’d lost everything that had mattered to him. He’d even lost his symbolic bond to his precious wife: his wedding band. It had been on his finger since he had exchanged vows with Liz. He hadn’t removed it even to shower. Now it was gone, savagely cut away along with the finger that wore it. His life was basically over. There was nothing left for him in this life. He couldn’t go on.

  There was a knock at the door. “Don? It’s Susan. Can I come in?”

  Go away, thought Castillo.

  The door handle rattled. “Why’s the door locked? Don? Open the door.”

  Leave me alone, thought Castillo.

  He heard her footfalls as she left and went down the passageway. She returned after a short time, and he could hear a key click into the lock. She must have gotten a key from Taylor. He quickly pulled out his desk drawer and slid the pistol into it.

  The door opened and he heard her gasp. She came to him, knelt down and said, “Don, what’s happening to you?”

  He only glared balefully at her.

  She pulled up the guest chair and sat. “Talk to me, Don. Your crew is worried about you.”

  He started to talk and discovered his lips were glued together because of dryness. He wet them with his tongue, opened his mouth and croaked. His voice wasn’t working either. He coughed softly, cleared his throat and said, “My crew is better off with Taylor.”

  “Don, your crew is falling apart. It’s quite a bit for Taylor to handle. He needs help. The crew respects you.”

  Castillo could not hold her intense eyes. It was like looking into a pair of blue spotlights. He looked at the photographs on his desk and said, “I could have gone to work in my father-in-laws firm, you know. Civil engineering. I’d be sitting pretty right now. I could’ve owned it some day, but no. I was bull-headed. I wanted to be a submarine commander.” He snorted derisively. “And now I’ve led you all to this.”

  “This self pity thing you’re doing, doesn’t do any of us any good now, Don.” She took hold of his face and turned it so she was eye to eye with him. “We’ve all made our decisions. Some good, some bad. But we’ve learned from our mistakes and moved on because it doesn’t help to relive them over and over.” Her eyes went to his family pictures. “You have a beautiful family, Don! You can mourn them if you want, but they’re not dead. They’re alive somewhere! They’re going to feel remorse at never seeing you again, but they will eventually recover and move on. Your little girls will grow up and have families of their own and Liz may find another man like yourself who’ll be a good husband to her and a father to the girls. You have to picture them happy and living their lives. Because somewhere they are! And if they knew you were alive somewhere, they’d want you to do the same.”

  “But I need them.”

  “Yes, and they need you too. But they have lots of loving support don’t they? Your wife has a sister and her parents. It’s not the same as having a husband and father, but they’ll move on with their lives and you’ll have to do that too. You want to know who else needs you? We do!”

  Castillo looked blearily at her, then down at his bandaged left hand. “You don’t know what kind of man I am, Susan, or you wouldn’t say that.”

  Lambert followed his gaze and guessed the problem. “Don, I’m a pretty good judge of character, and I think I know what kind of man you are. You’re kind, intelligent, insightful, caring, generous…firm and forceful when you need to be. A leader! You came face to face with a man that was pure evil, and lesser men would never have recovered from that, but you will.” Lambert’s eyes began to fill and her voice suddenly got tight with emotion. “Don, do you remember when Apparition went critical and we all thought we were about to die? Everything looked very black and I was petrified to my core. We had seconds to live and were facing certain death, but I looked for deliverance, grasping desperately for anything, and I saw you, Don. You were standing there in the middle of the control room, calm and confident, like a shining beacon of hope, and somehow I knew we were going to come through it, and we did.”

  “I had nothing to do with…”

  “Don, I’m convinced that you did have something to do with it. Whether it was divine intervention or fate, somehow we were meant to be here at this moment.”

  Castillo cast her a doubtful look. She could read his expression like a traffic sign.

  “Okay,” she said, “believe what you want. But your life isn’t over. How old are you? Thirty seven? You have a new family now with 113 children, yes, even the civilians. And they regard you as the father figure. They’re depending on you.”

  He looked at her and for the first time saw her in a new light. She was very smart and perceptive, and he had never before noticed how attractive she was. She had these marvelous high cheekbones and enormous expressive blue eyes and sculpted eyebrows. “You shouldn’t stand so close to Crystal all the time.”

  She gave him a look of puzzlement.

  • • •

  The men trying to tow Kansas had given up. Lieutenant Tanaka watched the big screen as two men stripped down and got into the water.

  “They’re looking under us to see if Kansas is hung up on something,” said Taylor.

  Lambert walked up. “What’s going on?”

  “They can’t figure out how Kansas is riveted to this one spot.”

  “I can’t either,” said Lambert, shrugging. “But I talked to Don this morning.”

  “Do any good?”

  “I don’t know. He’s a wreck!”

  “I know. I’ve never seen him like this.” Taylor and Lambert stepped aside to allow a watchstander through. “But it’s understandable. A lot of people are struggling with this. Some are in denial and think this is just a temporary thing, and we’ll figure it out any day now and go back to where we belong.”

  “What are we going to do, Mason?” She searched Taylor’s face. He had a strong chin and seemed so earnest, but a lot of Navy officers were that way. She watched him struggle for an answer.

  “I don’t know, Susan. I’m going day to day right now.” Taylor took a step back and nearly tripped over a multimeter someone had left on the floor. “Who left this here?” He kicked at the meter, frowning. “People are getting pretty lax. It’s against Navy regulations to have something like this in a passageway unattended.” He glared at two nearby crewmen and one muttered something.

  “What was that, Mr. Harris? Did you say something?”

  The young watchstander glared insolently at Taylor. After a few seconds he broke his silence. “I said, ‘What Navy?’, sir. The U.S. Navy doesn’t exist anymore. Not for us anyway. Why are we even bothering with watches. Look!” He pointed to the big screen as more people arrived outside on the aft deck of Kansas.

  Kansas had become a bunker and they were under siege, and a siege mentality was setting in. They were all probably thinking the same thing, thought Taylor. How long could they hold out here? They were almost out of food.

  Taylor heard a familiar voice coming from behind him. “The Navy may not exist for us, Mr. Harris, but your shipmates still do.” It was Castillo. He was dressed in fresh khaki and the swelling had gone down in his face. “Please, pick up the meter before someone trips over it. We must be more vigilant than ever. The only ones looking out for us now is…us. We
must treat each other as shipmates and something more. Family! We will obey all Navy rules and regulations unless it does not make sense to do so. Then we’ll discuss it as a crew and decide if there is a better way to do something.” Harris, smiled sheepishly, stood and retrieved the meter at Taylor’s feet. Castillo observed the men working on Kansas’s deck hatch with pry bars. “I think we’re attracting too much attention here. It’s time to leave, Mr. Taylor. Set the maneuvering watch.”

  “Yes, sir,” chuckled Taylor. “What’s the matter? Couldn’t find a razor?” He reached out and touched Castillo’s stubbly face.

  “I want all crew members to stop shaving immediately. We’re going to have to fit in with the locals here. How many do you see that are clean shaven?” He pointed at the bearded men outside working on Kansas’s hatch.

  “Good idea,” said Taylor. He picked up a receiver and dialed to the address system and said, “Attention all hands! Attention all hands! Set maneuvering watch! Set the maneuvering watch!”

  Lambert went up to Castillo and smiled. “You look better. How’s your eye?”

  “It still hurts, but it works.”

  • • •

  When Kansas began to move under the men, their first reaction was one of amazement. A few men jumped into the water, but nine men stayed on deck and cast perplexing looks at each other. The ship silently did a pirouette, slowly turning 180 degrees until its bow was pointing south. Then it began forward motion. The men riding Kansas saw a frothing angry white trail stirring behind the ship. It was such a frightening sight, seven men jumped off, but two stayed. As Kansas picked up speed, the small barnwood skiffs tied to Kansas’s tailfin began to bobble and collide on the boiling water. Two of the skiffs broke apart and the third filled with water and the line holding it snapped. The two remaining men on Kansas’s aft deck hunkered down and pulled their coats tighter against the stiff breeze coming down the deck.

  After a time something truly amazing happened. A voice spoke to them from above. “Hey!”

  They looked up to see two men at the top of the tower behind them. Where had they come from? They were talking to them, but at first they didn’t understand them. Were they speaking English?

  “Name…Casteeyo…yours?”

  I think he wants to know our names, thought one. “I bae Will,” he said. “An’ ‘e bae Kevin.”

  The man on the tower said something else he didn’t understand. He was speaking English, but he had a funny accent. Something about inside. Inside what? Then another amazing thing happened. A round door opened about ten feet away and a man stuck his head up and beckoned to them.

  “Thahr bae a man in ’er, Kev,” said Will with astonishment. “wot think yae?”

  “Daemon cast, Will. A trick!”

  “Look not a daemon tae me.”

  “See many, do yae?”

  Will jumped up and went up to the round hole and looked in. There was a man there with his hand extended. Will edged closer cautiously and looked down into the hole and saw a ladder made of metal and a floor down below. And he could see the face of a pretty lass smiling up at him.

  “Dinna do ‘t, Will!” screamed Kevin hysterically. “Bae a trick!”

  Will took the offered hand and stepped onto the ladder and descended.

  Kevin fretted and scowled, but finally got up and went to the hole too.

  • • •

  “You’re on a ship,” said Lambert a little too loudly as if they were deaf. They only stared back at her dumbly. One of them rapped knuckles on a bulkhead as if testing it. The other stared in slack-jawed awe at an overhead light.

  “I recognize these guys,” said Tanaka. “They were the first to find us and explore.”

  “Maybe that’s why they were the last to leave.” Then to the nearest one, she asked, “Why didn’t you jump?”

  “We kinna swim,” he replied.

  Lambert decided that these boys didn’t have much. The one in the black woolen sweater had holes in the knees of his pants and in the elbows of his sweater. His right boot was held together with several wrappings of twine. His name was Will. The other one, Kevin, had a gray coat of heavy canvas-like material with patches sewn over the holes. They had stubbled, dirty faces and smelled like a barnyard. Maybe everyone was malodorous in this century. The boys…if they were boys…they seemed young, 17 maybe…were different in their demeanor. Will smiled a broad smile at her with a space where there should be an incisor, whereas Kevin looked grimly about him, distrustful of everything. She would bet that they’re brothers. They had the same fine flaxen hair and ruddy complexions.

  “Are you hungry?” She asked them. “Would you like to eat?”

  They seemed to understand that fine. Kevin brightened slightly. She led them down the passageway and down a ladder to the messdeck, only losing them once when they passed a large computer screen. They stared in reverence at the bright display with symbols, numbers and letters streaming across it.

  “Hell’s ‘ammer!” said Will. “What bae?”

  “That’s a status screen,” said Lambert. “It helps us run the ship.” She could tell by his look that he had no idea what that meant.

  “Yahr speech bae strange. Wot country yae?” asked Kevin suspiciously.

  Here we go, thought Lambert. “We are from a powerful ally of Scotland. The United States of America.” She beckoned to McConnell. “We have several Scots on board. See this lady? Her name is Crystal McConnell.”

  Kevin’s face lit up. “Of Tess McConnell’s clan in Doogan?”

  “Sorry, no,” Crystal replied sweetly. “Different clan.”

  When they reached the messdeck, they were too early for dinner, but chef warmed them two helpings of barley beef stew he had in the refrigerator. They ate it hungrily with saltines. The chef decided they deserved seconds. They repeated the disappearing act!

  Chapter 10

  Simms and Castillo were on Kansas’s sail in the bridge well, navigating down Gare Loch under an overcast sky. Castillo’s hot swollen face felt better in the chill breeze. His left eye was almost fully open now although it was still watering. His disfigured hand was giving him the most pain. He felt sharp stabbing pain in the fingers no longer there.

  “Let’s hole up in Holy Loch,” said Simms. “It’s fairly isolated.”

  “That sounds good,” said Castillo.

  “So…are we completely out of food?”

  “Well, not really. Chef says he has plenty of flour and sugar, but we’re just about out of any kind of fresh vegetables, chicken, beef, that type of thing.”

  “Well,” said Simms. “We might try hunting for meat. There are deer in the Argyll Forest.” He pointed toward shore.

  “Hunting? Sure. We could try that. I’m hoping our two local lads can help us with locating the best markets where we can procure produce.”

  “With what? We don’t have anything to barter with.”

  “True,” shrugged Castillo.

  “These two young men probably think they’ve been impressed.”

  Castillo looked questioningly at Simms. “Impressed?”

  “A few hundred years ago, the British Admiralty was allowed to impress able-bodied men to serve on his majesty’s ships. It’s the only way they could man them all. They shanghaied men from surrounding villages.”

  “Really? They were allowed to do that legally?”

  “Oh yes. It was their version of the military draft.”

  “I’ll have a talk with these two young men and assure them, they’re not being kidnapped.”

  “Do you intend to release them?”

  “Of course. After we get as much information as we can from them.”

  “They’ll tell everyone about their adventure on Kansas.”

  “Probably. But it can’t be helped. I don’t think they’ll be believed, but if they are, we’re not a big secret anymore.”

  “Do you have a plan, commander?” Simms studied Castillo’s face.

  “I have a rough start to a p
lan, but I need to discuss it with the crew. I think we’ll have a meeting tonight.”

  • • •

  Castillo was getting ready for his all hands briefing when there was a knock. It was Susan Lambert.

  “I have someone I’d like you to meet.” She escorted Will and Kevin in and introduced them.

  When Castillo shook their hands he couldn’t help but notice their callouses. These were boys who worked.

  “How old are you boys?” he asked.

  “I’m 15 ‘n’ two ‘n’ Kev’s 16 ‘n’ fahr, yahr lahrdship.”

  Lambert chuckled.

  “Don’t lord, me,” said Castillo. “Just Don. I’m not sure what you just said, but I think someone is going to miss you boys. We should get you home.”

  The one called Will looked pained. “Ahr da was teeken by the press gang last yahr. And ahr ma’s gone, Sahr Don. The gang ceeme back fahr us, but wae wahrn’t thahr. They’ll git us shore next visit.”

  “So…what you’re saying is you have no family and this impressment squad is out to abduct you?” summarized Castillo.

  Will looked perplexed. “Is ‘at wo’ I said?”

  Kevin finally spoke up. “Wae’ve a sister, Maggie, but she lives wi’ the duke.”

  “Could we stay on Kanzits?” pleaded Will. “Wahr good men, sahr. And ‘is is a ship.”

  “But wo’ kind o’ ship has nae sails ‘n’ nae wood?” asked Kevin.

  “‘N’ howzit go?” asked Will. “‘N’ ‘o toed it?”

  “Whoa!” said Castillo. “Too many questions.” He looked at Lambert and said, “Could you take responsibility for these guys temporarily?”

  Lambert rolled her eyes. “Okay.”

  “All righty then. Miss Lambert here will be your mother while your aboard. You can stay with us for awhile and contribute by being our liaison with the local community, and you’ll do everything Miss Lambert or I tell you to do. Agreed?”

  Castillo caught Lambert’s look. She raised her eyebrows and mouthed the word ‘mother?’ Castillo smiled at her. She stuck out her tongue at him.