Deadly Apparition

by G. Ernest Smith

  He’s also decided to rifle the shipboard guns. He’s created more cutting heads using the rest of the diamonds we purchased, and enlisted the help of about ten people. He has plans to rifle the barrels of the muskets and other black powder guns we have too. In the world we came from, flintlocks reigned supreme for about 200 years. Then the percussion cap was invented. Here, we will never see a flintlock rifle or musket because we have made the leap to cap and ball technology. Eric was able make a working percussion cap from things he bought from an apothecary in Galle. Potassium chlorate, Sulfur and powdered flint. He made a paste out of this stuff using resin from a tree in our jungle here. The outside of the cap was actually formed of paper treated with resin so it would not be affected by moisture. He modified the flash pan and hammer of the gun to accept and detonate the cap. It works quite well and will fire even in the rain. It also shortens the loading time of a black powder weapon.

  Oh, and also in Galle, we found a vendor selling coffee. We bought all he had, eleven bags of coffee beans. Susan is thrilled to have coffee again. I’m not sure how long eleven 35 pound bags will last her. Her garden is beginning to produce tomatoes. They’re delicious and Jonesy has big plans for them. She’s enlarged her garden now and is trying to grow things we’ve found in the markets: onions, radishes, cabbages and something called cobe. There are a lot of gardens being grown on the island now.

  That’s all for now,

  Don Castillo, December 20, 1588

  Dear Liz, Kelly and Robin,

  We had a very nice Christmas. The Reverend Matthew Olson held a special Christmas service and Crystal and Douglas played and provided a musical program on guitar and harpsichord. Did I forget to mention that Crystal has a harpsichord? Mason found it in a market somewhere and bought it for her. She plays very well. She also organized a choir and they sound very good! They’ve really worked very hard and have a superb sound. They performed ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ and a variety of Christmas songs and one original written by Mr. Douglas and sung by none other than Mason Taylor. He has an exceptional voice!

  That’s all for now,

  Don Castillo, December 28, 1588

  Dear Liz, Kelly and Robin,

  Big news! Crystal and Susan are both pregnant! Doc Aultman has examined them in his little clinic and pronounced them healthy. It seems like the fates have joined the four of us somehow. We are destined to travel through life on parallel paths.

  We’ve made some money transporting things, like a freight company. Many vendors want things hauled, spices mostly, so we’ve taken on some cargoes and were paid quite well. As administrator and self-appointed negotiator, I’ve drawn up legal contracts and bills of sale for everything should we ever be legally challenged.

  We may have found our niche in this world as a maritime freight company. Maria Guerrero has excellent charts and has great skill as a navigator. She’s very good with a sextant and has taught five other people how to use one. We’re the most reliable shipping company available.

  Wally Anderson has expressed the desire to build a foundry! He says we need to be able to produce high quality steel and other alloys. That way, we will always have the best tools and weapons. I said fine, but just how are we going to do that? To have a foundry you need a furnace that will generate about 2000+ degrees of heat which means blowers and forced air. I don’t see how it would be possible. He said he could do it if we could harness a river. (?) We don’t have any rivers here. Just some streams. He’s going to work on it.

  That’s all for now,

  Don Castillo, February 11, 1589

  Dear Liz, Kelly and Robin,

  I knew this was going to happen!

  We’ve attracted the attention of the French. This is, after all, French Polynesia. Some French official, a Monsieur Arnaud Somebody, paid us a visit, looked at our work here, you know, with weapons and the writing of technical papers we’re doing and said we should be under French “protection” at once. He drew up a treaty for me to sign. I’m not a lawyer but I took one look at it and refused. It benefited France greatly, but not us. In exchange for French protection, we would have to turn over everything we produce here to them.

  When I refused, the Frenchman said, “But these waters are dangerous! Spanish and English privateers are everywhere. Without France’s protection, you will not last.” I told him we’d take our chances.

  About a week later, our ship, New Adventure, was on a run to the Dutch East Indies and a ship approached them at sea. I was not aboard, but according to Tanaka, it flew no colors and began to close on them, demonstrating hostile intent. By this time Tanaka had perfected his big swiveling bow gun. When the ship had closed to within a mile and a half, Tanaka opened fire. He had the distance, but missed. The second shot was fired when they were just over a mile away and it was a direct hit to their foc’sle, shattering their bowsprit. I think it shocked them. They left the area. Tanaka has plans now to build a second swiveling heavy gun mount on the stern.

  Our population is about 260 now. Many of our young men are finding wives in some of the ports we visit, and I’ve run out of my marriage certificates. But I discovered that Lauren Gastmeyer is a very fine artist. She’s done some beautiful drawings of the local birds and flowers, and she’s agreed to pen some very professional looking certificates for me. I can’t get over all the talent around me!

  Susan and Crystal are both due the same week in September. It should be interesting.

  That’s all for now,

  Don Castillo, March 30, 1589

  Dear Liz, Kelly and Robin,

  I could see this coming!

  The French have tried to take us over by force! They showed up with two warships off our eastern coast. Two warships was a little too much for us to handle, so I called up Mason. He had the watch on Kansas. I told him to put a fish into the smaller of the two ships. And use a dummy head. He said, “Right away! What do you want to do about the other one?”

  I told him that we could handle that one. The French warships put boats in the water and started sending soldiers ashore. When the first two boats were almost ashore, the smaller of the two ships was struck. It made a mighty boom! We could hear it from across the water. The boats stopped, the soldiers stood up and watched as it rolled onto its side and slipped beneath the surface. Anyway, after they made their landing, we surprised them with an ambush. They quickly surrendered. They realized they were no match for our firepower. A few of them were wounded. We used the same trick to capture all the soldiers in the third and fourth boats too. Then a bunch of us put on their uniforms (they smelled awful) and returned to the first ship and pulled another ambush as soon as we were aboard. We were successful, but we lost a young man. His name was Sinclair and he was shot in the back by one of the French sailors. The bullet struck him in the head just beneath his helmet. I really regret that. It’s a brutal world here, and many have fallen needlessly.

  We had a funeral for Sinclair and the many Frenchmen who died too on the ship we sank. I’m sure most of them were honorable men simply carrying out orders.

  Well, we have two ships now and many French prisoners. I was not sure what to do with them. We already have some French speaking men in our little community, so they helped me communicate with them. Some of them had no desire to return to the French Navy. They had been pressed into service and wanted to join us, so I let them stay. The others we took to a port in Australia and put ashore. I’m sure I’m going to hear about this from the French. I’ve assigned a dive team to go look at the sunken French ship and salvage whatever they can off her.

  That’s all for now,

  Don Castillo, June 7, 1589

  Dear Liz, Kelly and Robin,

  I’m a father! Again! Susan gave birth to a little girl, 6 pounds, 8 ounces on September 14th. Susan wants to name her Anna Lee after her mother. Mason and Crystal had a little boy, 7 pounds, 3 ounces, they’re going with Anthony William. We’re talking about building a school. We’re going to need one. There are many pregna
ncies here.

  On a more serious note, an island girl here was raped by one of the Frenchmen who joined us. We’ve not had much in the way of a government up until now, but I can see we need something. I’ve appointed Chief Brown as head of our police force and Mason Taylor as head of our judiciary. So, their first job is to try the Frenchman and decide on his guilt and his punishment.

  I received a diplomatic pouch from France. Tanaka was given it when we were at one of our regular stops with New Adventure. Our other ship we have named New Hope. The pouch had a letter in it from the French Defense Minister. It was in French so I had to have it translated. It said that by sinking his majesty’s ship and stealing another one, the township of Bloomberg has declared war on France. We must surrender to French authority at once or there would be dire consequences.

  I wrote a letter back in English stating that France committed an act of war on the sovereign peace-loving people of Bloomberg when it violated our international waters and sent soldiers to our shores. Our two countries are currently in a state of war! If you wish to sue for peace, we are willing to discuss the terms of your surrender. I told Tanaka to carry this pouch back out the next time he goes out.

  Meanwhile, Tanaka is busy outfitting our new ship, New Hope, with a heavy bow gun and stern gun.

  We recovered some valuable things from the salvaged French warship. For some reason, it was carrying gold bullion and some ship building tools, saws, hammers, nails, etc. We could use all that stuff.

  Wally Anderson says he would like to locate a foundry on New Zealand where there is a good strong river he can harness.

  That’s all for now,

  Don Castillo, September 26, 1589

  “Respond to Castillo did the French?” asked Goolong, looking up to Davenport.

  “Yes, the following year. Show I you, you want?”

  “Yes, grace!”

  Davenport picked up the reader and pressed a few onscreen buttons. “Oh! Read this one first. Odd it is!”

  Dear Liz, Kelly and Robin,

  CATS ARE MARSUPIALS! CATS ARE MARSUPIALS! CATS ARE MARSUPIALS! When I found this out I screamed it as loud as I could. I checked this out with different hunters and trappers. House cats, tigers, lions, leopards are all marsupials. Like kangaroos. They give birth to these little hairless things the size of your thumbnail. They stay inside the mother’s pouch and attach themselves to the mother’s nipples, then when they grow big enough, they come out of the pouch.

  This is proof to me that we are in a different parallel world to our own. Kansas’s presence could not have caused this! This condition existed before we got here! This is an enormous load off my mind. Just to know that we’re not affecting anyone’s future. I mean any one I know and love. We’re affecting the futures of people in this world of course. But we’re always affecting the future wherever we are and whatever we do.

  I’m just so happy to have proof of our dimension jump. Everyone I told about this greeted it the same way, with complete and utter joy. Except the Frenchmen, of course. They think we’re all a bit mad.

  This kind of releases any restraints on us, although, to be honest, we haven’t demonstrated a lot of restraint so far.

  That’s all for now,

  Don Castillo, March 13, 1590

  Chapter 24

  “Most odd!” remarked Goolong.

  “Yes,” agreed Davenport.

  “Is what kind of ship Kansas?” asked Goolong.

  “A military underwater antiship,” replied Davenport.

  “Eliza! An underwater antiship in 1588!?” Goolong looked doubtful.

  “Yes. Call they it a submarine.” Davenport took the reader, began to look through the entries, then handed the reader to Goolong. “Respond the French here.”

  Dear Liz, Kelly and Robin,

  We’re at war with the French!

  We found ourselves surrounded one morning. Wally Anderson was on duty in Kansas. He called up and told me there were French warships on the horizon, eight of them. I told him to wait and see what they wanted. Looking back, that was a stupid decision. We’re at war! With the French! And they take war very seriously. One ship came up and opened fire while I was looking at her through my binoculars. The first salvo mostly missed us, but two shots landed in our settlement and took out a house on the edge of the village. I told Anderson quick put a fish into that ship, use a dummy head. I’ve discovered that if we use dummy heads, there’s minimum damage to the ship and its worth more for salvage.

  The ship was struck before she could reload her gun batteries. A second ship fired a salvo at us, but never landed a shot in Bloomberg. I ordered that ship torpedoed too. Finally I just said torpedo all of them. To which Anderson replied, “But we only have five more dummy loads left.”

  Okay, I told him, then sink five more ships and we’ll try to take the other two. One by one the French warships were struck and began listing heavily. You could see men running and screaming on the decks, trying to get boats in the water. The two untouched French ships fled. A good decision on their part!

  The house that was hit was not occupied. The owners had gotten up early to go get a bath in the stream.

  There were about 800 survivors from the wrecked French ships. We rounded them up and loaded them onto our third ship, New Fortune, and took them all to a port in New Caledonia.

  Wally Anderson has started building his foundry in New Zealand next to a raging river. We’ve hauled several loads of brick and stone for the furnaces.

  Oh, and we’ve started building a school. We have twelve children here now and many more to come. The Machuans have kind of taken over that project.

  That’s all for now,

  Don Castillo, June 1, 1590

  Dear Liz, Kelly and Robin

  Our population is at 1251 and climbing rapidly.

  Word has spread about our stand off with the French and everyone wants to join us. People are showing up in boats almost everyday. They want our protection. I guess the French, well, all Europeans actually, have made a lot of enemies. They are Polynesians mostly, but many others too.

  I fear we’re going to outgrow our little island. We may have to start another colony and probably the best place would be where Wally is building his foundry in New Zealand. It’s beautiful there. There are tall majestic gray and purple snow capped mountains and beautiful beaches.

  Oh! We have a guy who wants to jump off one of those mountains. His name is Sebring. He’s not Navy. He was a QVR guy, and he was a private pilot. He used to really enjoy flying. He misses it so much he decided to build his own glider out of bamboo and sail cloth. According to all his calculations, it should fly, but he can’t find a good launching point. He wants go to New Zealand and jump off one of those 10,000+ foot peaks.

  That’s all for now,

  Don Castillo, September 2, 1590

  Dear Liz, Kelly and Robin

  I know I haven’t written in a while but I’ve been very busy.

  Our population is up to 2000+ now and we’re getting ready to move to New Zealand and set up there.

  We’ve been getting lots of work. Shipping! We only send out our three ships in convoy now, shadowed by Kansas. It’s safer that way. We’ve only had to sink one ship though. Three French warships came at us in the Spice Islands. The wind was against us, making maneuvering hard. New Adventure opened up on the first ship with its bow gun. The other French ships were attempting to bracket us by spreading out. I was aboard Kansas at the time. I really didn’t want to use a warload ADCAP on a single ship so instead, we “broke polar ice”. We retracted all masts and antennas, buttoned up tight, matched speed with one of the ships and slowly came up under him until we heard the polar ice crack. Pop! We cracked the hull of that wooden ship like it was an egg and it went down.

  Maria Guerrero is pregnant. Did I tell you that she and Wally Anderson got married? I really didn’t see that one coming.

  Something else I didn’t see coming. Tanaka asked to talk to me in private one da
y about an important matter. An important matter? When we got alone, he asked for Mapua’s hand in marriage. I was stunned! Tanaka and Mapua! I said, “Of course not, Eric. You’re twice her age!” He said okay, thanked me and left. I thought originally Mapua was about 12 years old, but she was closer to fifteen, sixteen now, almost seventeen. Her people are small in stature, so although she’s only 4 foot 11 inches tall, she may be fully grown. I asked Tanaka how old he was and he said thirty, he had a birthday last week. That’s the kind of guy he is. He has a birthday and doesn’t tell a soul.

  I told Susan about this and she said, “Well, I saw that coming, didn’t you?” I said no and she said I was impossible!

  I’m really conflicted about this whole thing. I regard Mapua as my daughter and Tanaka is like my son. But the air changed between Tanaka and me. He was a lot more terse and a little too respectful. I didn’t like it. It made me very uncomfortable. I began watching them together and that’s when I noticed the furtive looks he gave her and the adoration in her eyes when she was with him. Yes, I’d seen that look before. I was up against something huge here. They were in love!

  I’m aware that in some cultures girls are married off when they’re twelve, but not where I come from. It’s just hard for me to come to grips with. But in the end I consented. Mapua is a young woman and of legal age in most states in the U.S. When I told Tanaka, he hugged me. Hard! I thought he was going to break my ribs!