Deadly Apparition

by G. Ernest Smith

  “What kind of boat?” asked Lambert.

  “I don’t know. I hope it gets here in time.”

  The clopping of the horses began to slow. From a gallop to a trot, then to a walk. Castillo looked out the windows of the coach. On the right of the elevated road was the cove with the dock and about twenty hostile looking men. Their weapons were all on the ground. Six black clad Kansas crewmen had them surrounded. Castillo shifted over and looked out the left window. There was an embankment down to the water’s edge littered with the bodies of English soldiers. Their brown leather doublets were stitched with bullet holes oozing blood. He could see the two inflatables about fifty yards off shore heading in toward the beach.

  “Okay, guys, let’s get Mason down to the water’s edge and into an inflatable.”

  They carefully inched the unconscious Taylor out of the coach and down the hillside to the water’s edge. Castillo was dismayed at the sight of the inflatables with so many wounded laying in them. Lauren Gastmeyer looked unconscious and ghostly white and Trent Kenaston had his head tilted back and his mouth agape, looking lifeless. There were two other men looking pale and sickly their Navy whites with blossoms of red on them. They gingerly lay Taylor in the floor of one of the boats and McConnell got in with him, keeping her hold on his neck.

  “Okay,” said Castillo. “Go! Go!” He stepped clear of the water. His feet and lower pant legs were soaked. “Maria, get ready. They’re coming to you!”

  “Yes, sir!”

  He heard her in the background barking orders. “Pilot, take us up! Come to course two four four! Make turns for four knots!”

  Castillo shaded his eyes with his right hand and watched the distant western horizon, waiting. Finally, he saw it. About five miles out Kansas broke the surface with her sail and turned toward them. What a welcome sight! He got a lump in his throat and was suddenly overcome with emotion. Then was surrounded by his crew! Where had they all come from? He hadn’t seen them approach. They were all looking at him pensively.

  “Is that our boat?” asked Lambert.

  “Yes,” answered Castillo. “That’s Kansas. Isn’t she beautiful?”

  “No, not that. That!” She pointed.

  There was a single masted ship approaching. A sloop. It was about sixty feet in length. It was pulling into the cove. “Yes,” said Castillo. “I believe that’s the transportation Admiral Drake arranged for us.”

  They all scrambled up the embankment and down the other side to the dock and watched the sloop pull in, throw lines and dock. The tiller man yelled, “Commander Castillo!”

  “Right here!” called Castillo, raising a hand.

  “Admiral Drake said to ride you and your people to your ship.”

  “Yes, we’ve been expecting you.”

  One at a time crewmen boarded the boat. There wasn’t enough room for everyone to sit, so many had to stand.

  “What about Eric?” asked Lambert. “We can’t leave without him…and his men.”

  Castillo looked down the access road for any sign of a coach. The air was thick with tension. Eight members of the Kansas assault team kept their assault rifles trained on the angry looking men on the shore and the road.

  “Eric, where are you?” asked Castillo into his communicator. Nothing. “Eric?” He waited. Nothing. Then to Lambert. “I hope he hasn’t run into trouble. I don’t know how long we can wait.”

  “We can’t leave him!” said Lambert emotionally.

  “I know. I don’t want…”

  Suddenly Tanaka’s voice was in his ear. “We’re on our way, but there are a lot of soldiers coming in wagons. They’re right behind us!”

  “Okay. We’re ready to cast off as soon as you’re aboard. Hurry!”

  Castillo and Lambert climbed the hill and looked down the road for any sign of a coach approaching. Finally they saw it. It came around the bend with horses at full gallop. It got closer and closer and then slowed and finally came to a stop. Tanaka and his men piled out, then they reached inside and two of them slid the body of Deangelo out. They carried him down the hill and tenderly placed him on the deck of the boat.

  “Everybody!” screamed Castillo and beckoned to the assault team. They all turned and ran for the boat just as they cast off. They all made the leap across the gap from dock to boat. One of the English soldiers on the ground leaped to his feet with a rifle. Tanaka leveled the assault rifle he was holding and…

  POP!POP!POP!

  …the soldier fell. Wagons pulled up behind the two coaches and men piled out. They took aim at the boat.

  “Everyone get down on the deck!” ordered Castillo. They all did.

  POW! POW! POW!POW!

  Bullets began to impact the gunnels of the boat. Then an arrow shafted the tillerman steering the boat. It entered through his back and exited his stomach. He grimaced and fell, holding his stomach. Tanaka stepped up, handed his assault rifle to Castillo and grabbed the tiller, steadying the boat and steering a course for the channel. Another arrow flew by narrowly missing Castillo’s head as he laid down deadly fire.

  POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP!

  Another three crewmen joined in. Adding to the barrage.

  POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP!

  POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP!

  When they finally stopped about twenty English soldiers and two horses lay wounded or dead and the remainder of the soldiers had taken cover behind the wagons.

  They cleared the cove and began to steer for Kansas. Tanaka gave orders to the boatmen, but they didn’t seem to understand, but eventually through much screaming and pointing, they understood and resheeted sails and tightened the downhauls as they made their turn across the wind. Castillo saw something come alive in Tanaka’s face as he steered the sloop and inspected the set of the sails.

  • • •

  Doc Aultman was nothing short of a miracle worker. He set up surgeries in the infirmary and in the ward room. He knew the blood types of everyone except Lauren Gastmeyer and one of the injured civilians, but he had enlisted blood donors from the crew and was ready to transfuse as soon as the injured came aboard. Taylor was near death when Aultman got to him. He carefully closed the hole in his neck artery, dressed his wound and began transfusion, then he went to the next injured.

  A bullet had struck Kenaston and traveled through his thoracic cavity and come to rest…where? Aultman did not have an X-ray machine so he didn’t know. Tanaka got a brilliant idea! He had an instrument that was used for inspecting compressor blades in the engine turbine. It was a snake-like borescope with a light at the tip of it. They sterilized it as best they could and Aultman was able to insert the device, find and extract the bullet and inspect damage with minimal invasion. Aultman was very pleased with the device.

  Lauren Gastmeyer was another difficult case. She had taken a bullet to the back. It had passed between two ribs right next to the tenth thoracic vertebra, and from her heart palpitations, Aultman was afraid it had done heart damage. With the borescope, he could see the bullet. It had nicked the left ventricle but had not penetrated. He extracted the bullet through a small incision beneath her rib cage.

  Aultman tried to save the life of the tillerman who had caught an arrow, but was unable to. There had been too much damage to his liver and kidney.

  Everything else was an assortment of leg and arm wounds. There were seven injured in all. Aultman reported to Castillo that everyone would survive, but all medical supplies were almost exhausted. They were out of pain killers, antibiotics and anti-inflammatories.

  The first thing they did was have a burial service at sea for Bud Unger and Tony Deangelo. Everyone attended except for Taylor, Kenaston, Gastmeyer and Bloomberg, who were all too weak to move. Castillo took these deaths hard. These two fine young men had died because of him. He had not taken the advice of his XO and had stubbornly insisted on the ill-fate
d venture that led to their deaths.

  Castillo dropped in on Taylor, who looked lethargic. His skin was clammy, and his eyes were rheumy, not their usual clarity, and a white bandage stood out in stark contrast against the skin of his brown neck. Crystal McConnell was sitting with him, holding his hand. When Taylor saw Castillo, he smiled weakly. “H’lo, skipper.”

  “How you feel, big guy?”

  “Been better.”

  “He has to get better,” said McConnell. “So he can serenade me. I want to hear Are you Lonesome Tonight.”

  “Did you show her that…video?” he said groggily.

  “What video?” asked Castillo innocently. McConnell giggled. Castillo perched on the side of Taylor’s bed. “I haven’t heard your input on where we should go to establish our new society.”

  “You want…my opinion?” Taylor tried to act surprised.

  “Yes. You have some kind of uncanny ability to see the future. You’ve been right twice now. Do you have a crystal ball?”

  “No,” replied Taylor. “Jus’ a Crystal.” McConnell beamed. “I wanna go somewhere far from Englan’ and Spain an’ Europe. Somewhere nice. With good weather an’ good fishin’. An’ somewhere a black boy can walk down the street with a white girl…an’ not get shot!”

  Castillo laughed. “Deal!”

  “Don’ we hafta go ta Turkey so Susan can have coffee?”

  “No, she withdrew her request. She said she’s gotten used to tea now.”

  “So, where we going first?” asked McConnell.

  “Bermuda! I’m going to take them in order from east to west. Bermuda was requested, so we’ll check that out first.”

  “What else have you got?” asked McConnell.

  “Tahiti, Virginia, and Pitcairn Island”

  • • •

  The scarred and battered crew of Kansas bid goodbye to the English Channel and Kansas entered the Atlantic. Castillo relaxed the rules on alcohol and many got drunk that night, and there was music on the messdeck with performances on guitar and harmonica. They all felt a close personal connection to each other. It was the kind of thing survivors feel after they’ve come through something horrific. The bond people have when they’ve come face to face with their own mortality.

  Kansas at top speed could reach Bermuda in three days, but Castillo did not want to push his ship at top speed. The reactor had a long life ahead of it, but there were components which wore out and should be replaced and serviced at regular intervals. Things like bearings and seals and lubricants. Castillo had to make Kansas last without benefit of a shipyard, so they went slowly and reached Bermuda in a week.

  Bermuda was a tropical paradise with bone white beaches and iridescent aquamarine waters and tropical vegetation that beckoned. Every direction looked like an exotic travel poster. They took turns going ashore, but one of the inflatables hit a hidden reef and sprung a leak. There seemed to be reefs everywhere. They found game on the island. Large sea birds mostly. They harvested about fifty of them. Enough to fill Kansas’s meat locker. That night they applied a patch to the damaged inflatable and dined on chicken marinara. Everyone knew it wasn’t really chicken, but it was damn good!

  On the third day two Spanish ships sailed into view. Castillo read that both the Spanish and English liked to use Bermuda as a stopping point when coming from the New World to replenish their water and food supplies. At least Kansas did not have to take on fresh water. She had two desalination plants to make her own.

  The crew took a vote and decided Bermuda was too close to Europe for comfort and not for them. They moved on. In a little less than two days they were off the coast of Virginia at the mouth of the Chesapeake. It didn’t look anything like the place they had left a few months ago. It was all wilderness. They went ashore and Chief Brown gave lessons to the Kincaid brothers on firearm safety and then equipped each with a rifle. They were thrilled and set about hunting deer, rabbit and turkey. They were very successful. Castillo one day found himself standing on a beach watching some small wading shore birds. He was crying. He couldn’t help himself. It was the same beach where two beautiful laughing little girls had frolicked.

  Lambert found him, a forlorn solitary figure standing on the beach. “You’re the one who requested Virginia, weren’t you.”

  “Yes,” replied Castillo, wiping his eyes. “I had to see it one more time. I can almost feel them here.”

  They held each other for a long time saying nothing. When Lambert turned her face to Castillo, he could see she was weeping too. Then something unexpected happened. He kissed her. He didn’t know why. And she returned the kiss passionately. They parted and he searched her face. He was very conflicted about this. It felt like an act of betrayal, but it also felt so right. He had never been very good at expressing his emotions, but he knew he was violating his wedding vows and his promise to Liz, but at the same time acknowledging his love for the amazing woman at his side. The silence was now embarrassing.

  “I…uh…,” began Castillo.

  “Shhh!” said Lambert, taking his hand. “No apologies, please.”

  It’s as if she could read his mind. “How did you get so smart?” asked Castillo.

  “I dunno. Just…born that way, I guess.” She laughed. They walked hand in hand down the beach toward the small group of crewmen there. “Do you think this would be a good place to set up our colony?”

  “No,” replied Castillo. “We’re going to have a problem with the English here. I don’t think they would actively hunt us, but you never know. We killed a few of them during our visit, including their lord admiral.” He looked up at a gull screaming overhead. “And then there’s the slavery thing going on too. Some of our crew will be very uncomfortable here. We should move on.”

  “Where to next?”

  “Tahiti.”

  “Let’s go!”

  It took three weeks to reach Tahiti because there was no Panama Canal. They had to go the long way; around Cape Horn. When they took their first look at Tahiti, it was another one of those picture postcard places with coral reefs and palm trees and water that varied from light azure to aquamarine and shimmered in the sunlight. When finally they sent a shore party out led by Chief Brown, they were attacked by fierce tattooed warriors. They flooded out of the jungle without warning in great numbers and hurled spears at them. The crew quickly scrambled back into the inflatables and launched. Two people were injured by the spears and the inflatables were pierced. They tried to make it back to Kansas, but the inflatables were losing air too quickly. Chief Brown knew they were not going to make it. They were going to have to swim for it through shark infested waters with people who were bleeding! The tattooed warriors came after them in outrigger dugout canoes.

  Brown’s inflatable was almost awash. Water was pouring in. When the first canoe got close enough, Brown shot the lead warrior in the chest, then the next one, then the next until they were all laying wounded in the bottom of the boat, then he handed his rifle to another man and directed him to shoot everybody in the second canoe. Brown leaped into the water, swam to the first canoe, climbed in and emptied it of people, then he began paddling. He reached the inflatable just as it was disappearing under the waves. He fished Kansas crewmen out of the water and into the canoe. Someone did the same with the second canoe until everyone in the water had been rescued.

  They returned to Kansas where Doc Aultman went to work on the injured. He pronounce that the injuries were not too serious. They had lost their inflatables but had gained two dugout canoes. The only problem was there was no place to store them, so they tethered the canoes to Kansas with long lines. Kansas could tow them. Kansas could still dive, but not very deeply if they wanted to keep the canoes. Castillo did not consider it a great loss. The inflatables were temporary short term vessels anyway and the propane cannisters were almost spent. They had gotten a lot of use out of them. Castillo later read that the Spanish explorer Jaun Fernandez had visited Tahiti in 1577 and there had been a disagreement about some
thing and bloodshed. The natives probably thought the Europeans had returned with their bearded faces and their strange boats.

  They decided to go next door and take a look at Pitcairn Island. It looked very forbidding. Not like a tropical paradise at all. There were steep cliffs that rose straight up out of the water. No place to land a small boat. Castillo could immediately see why the Bounty mutineers liked it. It was isolated and built like a mighty fortress. They could see what was coming from a long way off and hold off an assault easily from here. But it didn’t appeal to anyone. They decided to continue their search for a new home to the west.

  On their eighth day after Pitcairn they found an island identified on modern charts as Sarno Island, a part of French Polynesia. In the world they had come from Sarno Island had a major city, Simone, with a population of 200,000, but now it was almost bare of any people. It was about 54 square miles and had a small village of Polynesians on the north shore where there was a protected cove. It was every bit as lush and beautiful as Tahiti. They loaded up their dugout canoes and went ashore. Cautiously this time. There was fresh water streams and coconut trees and a tree that bore fruit which looked like small bananas. For the next two days all took turns coming ashore, walking on the beach and smelling the fragrant orchids that adorned the trees. When they took a vote it was unanimous. This was the place.

  “But it’s not a done deal yet,” said Castillo. “I need to go have a meeting with the chief of the village on the other side of the island.”

  Castillo decided to wear his Navy dress white uniform. Most of the dirt had come out of it when it was washed. He wanted to impress this Polynesian chief as best he could. Castillo walked into the village one night with Tanaka, Anderson, Brown, Taylor, Lambert and McConnell in tow. The village consisted of an assortment of huts with walls made of…bamboo? And palm frond roofs arranged in a fan like shape to come to a point. There was a larger structure in the center of the village which Castillo assumed was a general meeting place. Castillo knew that these people had been watching them. He recognized a couple faces he had seen shyly looking at them from behind palm trees.