Deadly Apparition

by G. Ernest Smith

  “I think we’re in luck,” said Castillo. “I don’t think they’ve ever seen Europeans before.”

  “That’s good,” said Lambert hopefully.

  Most of the villagers stopped what they were doing, cooking, weaving, cutting and came over to the Kansas group. One of them said something to Taylor. Taylor just smiled and waved. These people were caramel colored, had broad faces and were all small of stature. At 6’ 3” Mason Taylor was a giant among them. They were all bare chested, even the women. They only wore loincloths made of some kind of hide. Some of them wore a mocassin like foot covering.

  “They’re like children,” said McConnell as one of them plucked at her blouse and made a curious face.

  Eventually a squat thick-waisted little man approached them. Castillo guessed him to be in his fifties, but he could be wrong. He wore a band around his head adorned with red feathers and another one around his waist and had two black swirls tattooed on his chest. This had to be the chief, thought Castillo.

  He led them into the structure at the center of the village. They went in and it was very dark. Hardly any sunlight penetrated the large room, and it took a while for their eyes to adjust to it. There was a large woman with great ponderous bare breasts sitting on a reed mat. She also had red feathers on her head and a garland of flowers around her neck. She seemed to be tattooed over every inch of her body. She looked to be about sixty, Castillo guessed. There were four men sitting on her right and two men and two women sitting on her left.

  “I think this is the tribal council,” said Castillo.

  She said something to them and gestured at the mats in front of her. Castillo took this to mean sit. So they all sat down cross legged. Castillo opened the first box they had brought with them. He took out black Kansas ball caps. He passed them out to the Kansas crew. They all put them on their heads, then he counted out ten more and passed them to the queen and her council. They all accepted them, sniffed them, then donned them the same as the Kansas crew had done.

  “Why are we doing this?” whispered Lambert.

  “This is our bonding ceremony,” said Castillo quietly.

  “Since when?”

  “Since I made it up. About an hour ago.”

  Lambert giggled.

  The queen, if that’s what she was, barked orders and servers came in and with something in cups. Each person got a cup of…tea? Castillo tasted it experimentally. No, it tasted more like broth.

  “What is this?” asked Lambert.

  “Don’t ask. Just smile and drink up.” Castillo smiled broadly.

  The queen held up her left hand and pointed to Castillo. Castillo waved at her and pointed back.

  “I think she wants to see your hand,” said Lambert.

  “Oh!” Castillo got up and went to her and let her look at his mangled left hand. She held it gently and turned it over looking at it from both sides and said something to the man next to her. He said something back. Castillo could imagine the conversation. Musta hurt! Yeh, like a bitch!

  Castillo opened up the second box and pulled out a jug of English ale. He walked around and filled all the cups. “I don’t know if they’re going to like this. It’s kind of an acquired taste.”

  The village council took sips of it and smacked their lips curiously. The queen set hers aside. Castillo opened the last box and withdrew a sheathed combat knife. He withdrew the knife from the sheath and allowed them to see the polished blade. They were taken aback by its stainless steel beauty, murmuring to each other. Then Castillo sheathed the knife and made a great show of bowing to the queen and presenting the knife to her.

  She took it and unsheathed it with a look of awe. Then she began to chatter excitedly and barking commands. Soon men came in with a young girl. She was pushed forward. She looked to be in her early teens and very frightened.

  “Oh…my…God!” said Lambert slowly.

  “What?” asked a clueless Castillo.

  “You gave her a knife, and she gave you a girl!” said Lambert.

  “A girl?” asked Castillo.

  Lambert elevated her eyebrows. “Yes. A girl!”

  “Oh!” It slowly dawned on Castillo. “Wait! No no! We really don’t need a girl right now, but it’s kind of you to offer.” He shook his head and made negative gestures.

  The queen raised her voice and yelled something at him.

  “I don’t think you can refuse, Don,” said Taylor. “This is part of their code. To refuse is to dishonor them.”

  “Well, shit! What are we going to do with a little girl?” Castillo looked helplessly to Lambert.

  “Feed her?” said Lambert.

  Chapter 22

  Castillo reported to the crew that it was a done deal. They had communicated with the village chieftan, or whatever she was, and conducted a bonding ceremony, and they now had a new home. They also introduced their newest member. The young girl’s name was Mapua and she had large brown sad eyes. Lambert took her aboard Kansas and made her a bed in her stateroom using blankets and a pillow, but she was horrified by her strange surroundings and began to cry. Lambert sat on the floor with her, cradled her in her arms, sang softly to her and rocked her until she fell asleep.

  The following morning they began to unload tools. They didn’t have many. Kansas’s damage control team had four axes, a cordless reciprocating saw, a cordless drill, a cordless Jaws of Life and various sledge hammers and pry bars. All these things were designed to free trapped crewmen from collapsed bulkheads and machinery, but they would never be used for that. The crew would make use of them now to build their new community. There was a good spot on the southeast side of the island which had a natural harbor. It would be perfect to shelter boats.

  The whole crew pitched in and began to clear trees until by week’s end they had a modest clearing. Their newest crew member turned out to be invaluable. Mapua showed them edible fruits and berries. She also taught them how to dig a root that tasted like sweet potato and how to make a good fishing net. With her help they ate well. Jonesy lamented that he had no more tomatoes or tomato sauce and the closest ones at this time in history were in Central America. But he was very inventive with what he had and was able to create dishes that tantalized.

  In the coming weeks they began to build domiciles out of bamboo similar to the natives, but a lot more solid because they used cable and wire from the comm systems on the ship to secure the corner joints. They also built two good sized rafts of bamboo. They used the rafts to transport building materials from all over the island to where they needed it. Some people were assigned the task of building bamboo furniture; simple tables and chairs. Others cut bamboo to uniform lengths for walls, using axes and the one power saw. When the first home was complete Castillo did a walk through. It was a solid little house with three rooms, two doors and three windows. It was very primitive, but they were living in primitive times. There was no running water, no electricity, a dirt floor and no glass in the windows. But it would be good protection for someone. He suggested they anchor it to the ground, so they made anchors out of piping they cannibalized from the Kansas living spaces and anchored it firmly to the ground.

  They had to stop their furious building activity to bury Norm Bloomberg. His kidneys failed, he slipped into a coma and a week later he was gone. It was a sad day for everyone. A piece of them was gone. That night they sat around a fire, drank the last of the ale and whiskey and told Norm Bloomberg stories.

  “At least we were able to lay him to rest in our new home,” sniffed Lambert.

  “Yes, too bad he couldn’t enjoy any of it though,” replied Castillo. “I think he was the true renaissance man. He seemed to know about just about everything.”

  “Yes. He knew about everything.” She sighed. “Except maybe the dangers of obesity.”

  Castillo shamed her with a look.

  “Well, it’s true! His health problems were caused by his size. He loved food and drink a little too much. Oh that reminds me. We’re hosting the villagers n
ext week. Where’s Mapua?” Lambert began to look around.

  “She’s over there next to Crystal.” Castillo pointed.

  “Oh.” Lambert said, “Mapua,” and beckoned to her.

  She ran over to Lambert, smiling and said “Yes, Zoozan?”

  “We’re having a dinner. Big dinner! Seven nights.” She held up seven fingers. “You bring everybody! Okay?”

  “Everybody! Okay! Me bring in zeven nights!” She smiled held up seven fingers and raced off.

  Castillo’s mouth fell open. “How much English does she understand?”

  “A lot I think.”

  “She learned that much in two weeks?”

  “Yes!”

  “You taught her?”

  “As much as I can tell, no one taught her. She learned it all from hanging around and watching us…and listening!”

  “Oh, my God! Are they all that smart?”

  “Could be.” The flickering firelight danced in her eyes.

  Castillo reflected on it. These people could be very intelligent.

  “What are you thinking about?”

  “Oh, nothing. We’re taking Kansas out tomorrow to a neighboring island. We’re trying to locate a good source of bamboo. We’ve used up most of the construction grade bamboo here. It shouldn’t take more than a couple days. You want to come?”

  “No. Think I’ll stay. I’m working on my garden plot. I’m going to try and grow some of those turnips and beets we got from Scotland and Jonesy says he has some tomato seeds for me.”

  “Okay. Give some thought to a name.”

  “Name?” asked Lambert blankly.

  “For..our place.” Castillo was still seeing blankness in Lambert’s eyes. “Our little settlement here.”

  “Oh!” Lambert reflected briefly, then said, “Why not Bloomberg? It sort of sounds like a city, doesn’t it?”

  “Bloomberg! Sure! I’ll run it past the crew and see what they say.”

  • • •

  The following day the crew secured their dugout canoes and bamboo rafts to the deck cleats on Kansas’s aft deck and they left the island behind. The weather was good so the submarine ran on the surface. If they detected a ship on radar, then they either diverted or submerged and ran just beneath the surface. No one would be able to see Kansas. They would only see her trailing canoes and rafts being pulled along the surface apparently be a mysterious sea creature.

  They saw not a single ship before they reached their first stop. It was a small island called Gatuama about 150 miles away. There were natives there, but they did not seem aggressive. The crew found a great deal of high quality construction grade bamboo, so they warily harvested as much as they could. In two days they loaded both rafts and then constructed two more rafts and loaded them too. With their heavy load of bamboo they began their trek back to their home island, but they hadn’t traveled far when something got their attention.

  “Two ships, sir,” said the radar watch stander. “…74 miles.”

  “Which way are they heading?” asked Castillo, frowning at the radar plot.

  “Uh…the lead ship is steering 166 and the other ship is steering an intercept course of 112.”

  “They’re going to cross our path, aren’t they?”

  “Yes, sir. It looks like we’re all heading for the same spot of ocean.”

  Castillo carefully watched the two ships. When they got to within 24 miles, he ordered Kansas to periscope depth. He watched the camera screens from the photonics mast and saw one ship closing on another.

  “That first ship looks like a Spanish Galleon,” said Tanaka. “Not enough guns to be a man of war. I’ll bet its a silver ship coming from Central America. This is a major route for them. They haul silver and sometimes sugar and tobacco.”

  “What about the other ship?” asked Castillo.

  “That looks like an attack vector. I’d say he’s probably a French privateer. Can you get a close up on his flag, sir?”

  Castillo zoomed in on the flag flying from the second mast. It appeared to be a red heart on a black background with a single drop of blood coming from it.

  “Yep,” said Tanaka. “A pirate!”

  “I thought they flew the jolly roger,” said Taylor.

  “That didn’t come along ‘til later, sir.”

  They watched as the two ships closed on each other. The Galleon was a good sized four master with an elaborately carved and painted figurehead and high stern castle and fo’csle trimmed in red and black. The other ship was three masted, but was all black, had a much lower silhouette, almost no stern castle at all, but two gun decks and two flying jibs. It had lots of firepower and looked fast! They were still a few miles apart.

  “He’s going to disable the Spanish ship, steal the cargo and then kill the crew.”

  “Why would they kill the crew?” asked Taylor.

  “No witnesses,” said Tanaka.

  Castillo was staring hard at the screen. Taylor could see wheels turning.

  “You’re not thinking of intervening, are you?”

  Castillo said nothing. He pursed his lips.

  “Don,” said Taylor in exasperation, “every time we get involved with these people, it has disastrous consequences. Need I remind you…” Taylor stopped because Castillo had held up his hand.

  “Eric,” said Castillo, “do you think you could command that pirate ship?”

  Tanaka’s black eyes popped wide. “By myself?”

  “No, of course not. I was just thinking it would be very nice to have a ship we could use to sail into a trade port and get supplies. It’s just too difficult with Kansas. But it all hinges on one question. Can you command that ship if we took it over?”

  “Um…yes!” replied Tanaka, nodding positively. “Yes, I can, sir!”

  “Good! Then we’ll have to disable it some way and overwhelm the crew with force.”

  “I can’t believe I’m saying this,” said Taylor. “But why don’t we just pop up next to them on the side away from their target. We can catch them looking the other way.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Tanaka. “That’s a very good idea! They usually have enough men to man one battery of guns. They’ll have their starboard battery fully manned, the side toward the Spaniard. The port side batteries won’t be manned at all. And it won’t be easy to move everyone to the other side and prime the port guns.”

  “Okay, we’re going to cut lose our load of bamboo,” said Castillo. “It’s going to slow us down.”

  “But we need it, sir,” said Anderson.

  “We’ll come back and get it,” said Castillo. “How much scuba gear have we got on board?”

  “Scuba gear?” Taylor and Tanaka exchanged puzzled glances.

  • • •

  Kansas slowed to a stop while Chief Brown, Tanaka, and Anderson exited the lockout trunk on Kansas in scuba gear and made their way to the ship’s sail with their support equipment. When they were in position and lashed down, Kansas resumed speed and closed on the French privateer. When Kansas’s sail broke the water, it was twenty feet from the hull on the port side of the privateer and just as Taylor had predicted, the entire crew was looking the other way. They were all sizing up the fat Spanish plum in the water a few hundred yards away. All gun crews were at the ready on the starboard side.

  Brown, Anderson and Tanaka each threw a line with a grappling hook and climbing stirrups over the port side rails of the ship. Then they swung down and began climbing. Kansas surfaced completely and Castillo, Taylor and two other men came out of the hatch wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles. They were 25 feet above sea level and able to look down on the weather deck of the privateer. It had tan decks and was about 180 feet long.

  Soon a man walked by, looked up and screamed in horror at the ominous men dressed in black looking at him from a black tower coming out of the sea. Men turned around and began shouting orders and running. A man raised a rifle and was shot…

  POP!

  …and fell. Another man
raised a rifle and another…

  POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP!

  …and they both fell. One more man tried it…

  POP!

  … and met the same end. The pirates were horror-stricken by the masked invaders in black climbing over the rails. Five men rushed them with cutlasses…

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

  …and all five fell. Now the French crew was petrified with terror. Nobody moved. They only stared in naked fear. Tanaka pulled off his scuba mask, pointed his rifle and began barking orders.

  “Unsheet the mains and heave to!” He immediately ran into a problem. Most of them only spoke French.

  But one man clearly understood him. He began running around on the deck and casting off sheet lines. The sails began to spill air and the ship slowed.

  Twenty more Kansas crewmen scrambled aboard, and then they began sorting through the French crew. Tanaka had to figure out who to keep and who to get rid of. He discerned who the captain was. All he had to do is bellow, “I’m going to cut off the balls of your captain!” There were enough English speakers there who understood him. Their eyes went to one large bearded evil looking man with a scar on his cheek.

  Tanaka pointed out to Castillo about twenty men he didn’t want and Castillo put them into the dugout canoes and on a raft and towed them to within sight of land and cast them off.

  Taylor expressed surprise at how hard-hearted Castillo had become, and Castillo expressed surprise at how tepid Taylor had become.

  There was a great deal of surprise when they finally returned to the settlement of Bloomberg. Tanaka pulled the French ship into the little bay and dropped anchor. The sun glistened on its black lacquered rails and yards and it swung easily on its anchor as they put boats in the sparkling light azure colored water. Kansas went to its normal parking spot off shore and disembarked all personnel except those on watch. Then the ship was submerged.

  “What a beautiful ship!” exclaimed Lambert, standing on the beach. “Where did you get it?”

  “Found it!” said Castillo. “That’s Eric Tanaka’s first command.”