The Gray Ship

by Russell Moran

  "When you return to your families, your homes are likely to be surrounded by TV, radio, and newspaper reporters in brigade strength. Don't be surprised if they aren't sympathetic and understanding of what you've been through in the past four months. They think you've been gone for only seven hours."

  "A few of you have asked me what to say when questioned by the press, by the Navy, or by anybody. I have one suggestion and one suggestion only. Tell the truth, the truth as you saw it, the truth as you understand it. Everybody will want an explanation of what happened. They don't know our dirty little secret. We want to know what happened too! There is no official position of the USS California. I have my story and you have yours."

  "To repeat," said Ashley, "the people who will question you for the next few days or weeks or months, have not gone through what we've been through, the fear, the boredom, the anxiety, the sadness, the anger. And God knows they didn't go through two weeks of barfing and dry heaving as we hunted for the wormhole." That brought laughs and groans.

  "Speaking of telling the truth," Ashley continued," I'm going to tell you the truth. I have never served with a finer group of human beings than the crew of the USS California. We've all been through four months of living without a future, wondering if our lives would ever return to normal. What you people showed me was courage, patience, dedication, and maturity. You people are what this great Navy is all about."

  Ashley then said something that the crew of a warship would never expect to hear, especially from a commanding officer.

  "I love you." And especially you, Jack. Ashley thought

  Chapter 99

  Father Rick and Jack Thurber sat in the ship's library for the next four hours collaborating on their outline of the new history of the World since April 1861. They agreed that the outline would be a randomly picked list of major world events and the characters who shaped them. The details were from articles in wikipedia.com.

  ***

  The American Civil War — 1861

  The American Civil War was one of the shortest wars in world history. It began with the South firing on Fort Sumter, South Carolina on April 12, 1861 and effectively ended three months later with the Battle of Bull Run, known in the South as the Battle of Manassas. Total casualties on both sides were 942. The turning point in the war was the appearance of a strange Union vessel that came to be known as the Gray Ship, also known as the USS California. After her heavy weapons turned the Battle of Bull Run into a complete rout of the Confederate forces, the ship then opened fire on the Army of Northern Virginia, which was camped near Richmond. The ship then fired a missile at the Richmond Armory, completely destroying it along with a valuable cache of weapons and munitions. Part of the Richmond waterfront was also destroyed.

  The Confederate administration briefly considered waging a guerilla war against the Union, but the plans were abruptly abandoned. Robert E. Lee would later write in his memoir that the nation could thank a persuasive colored woman for the South's capitulation. No historian has been able to decipher what he meant, or who the woman was. The Confederate States of America declared a truce, and Davis presented a plan of peace to Abraham Lincoln on August 5, 1861.

  Slavery

  On August 5, 1861, the same day that he delivered a plan for peace to Abraham Lincoln, Confederate Jefferson Davis freed all of his slaves. The next day he announced that slavery was abolished in all of the Confederate States. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution formally abolished slavery in all of the United States. It was ratified unanimously by a vote of the state legislatures.

  The Presidency

  Barack Obama, a former United States Senator, took the oath of office for his first term on January 20, 2009. He was the third African American to be elected President of the United States. In 1921 Virginia Governor Ashley Bardwell had become the first black president and also the first woman to be elected. Her parents were once slaves, owned by Confederate President Jefferson Davis. In her memoir Ashley Bardwell wrote that her parents named her after a sea captain who they had never met.

  Abraham Lincoln died of natural causes in 1899 at the age of 96. The most important part of his legacy was his diplomatic and fair treatment of the Confederate States after the brief Civil War in 1861. He was also instrumental in reconciling the racial animosities that existed because of slavery. He appointed seven former slaves to high posts in his second administration.

  The Gray Ships

  The Gray Ships are shrouded in historical mystery. They were sleek modern vessels that supported the Union in the American Civil War. Much about them is still unknown. Many accounts held that the Gray Ships were not a fleet, but only one vessel, the USS California, and that the ship changed appearance and names every night as a ruse to confuse and strike fear into the Confederacy. It, or they, suddenly disappeared on August 10, 1861 and there were no further records of a Gray Ship sighting.

  Japan

  In November 1940, the Roosevelt Administration negotiated a treaty with the Japanese Empire. In exchange for Japan's abandoning its claims in China and Korea, the oil embargo would be stopped. Japan also agreed to remain neutral in case of hostilities between the United States and Germany. Yoshuri Yamato, one of the Japanese negotiators, was an historian and an expert on the brief American Civil War. Relying heavily on the memoirs of Robert E. Lee, he wrote a book entitled, Strategic Capitulation: When Peace Overpowers War.

  Germany

  After Japan signed the treaty with the United States, Hitler declared war on America in January 1942. Germany had been secretly working on an atomic bomb. The United States had abandoned its Manhattan Project after signing the treaty with Japan. In May, 1945, a German battleship off the United States East Coast fired a V2 rocket bomb with a nuclear warhead. It was targeted to hit Washington D.C., but, because it had a rudimentary guidance system, the rocket missed its target and landed in a rural area of Pennsylvania. The officer in charge of the operation, Luftwaffe Colonel Kurt Schweightkopf, was a history buff. He had always been fascinated by the stories about the Gray Ships in the American Civil War, and how the use of swift and violent force could bring about peace. As a result of Germany's action, all neutral nations declared war on Germany, including Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland and Japan. In December 1945, Hitler was assassinated by one of his own body guards. The Third Reich was disbanded, and the new German government sued for peace.

  ***

  “But there was no surrender at Appomattox,” Father Rick said to Jack. "I wonder how Great Grandpa Sampson made it to Iowa. If he didn't, how am I here?"

  "We're all amateurs when it comes to time travel, Father. Maybe there is such a thing as a parallel universe. We left 2013 and returned seven hours later local time. But even though the calendar says 2013, it's not the same one we left."

  Chapter 100

  Any time an unforeseen major event involves a ship of the United States Navy, a Naval Board of Inquiry is convened to sort out the facts. Typical events that would result in a Naval Board of Inquiry would be a grounding, a fire, a sinking, or a collision. When a ship goes missing for over seven hours, that event more than qualifies for the appointment of a Board.

  The Naval Board of Inquiry into the Disappearance of the USS California convened on April 24, two weeks after the California came back to 2013. The Secretary of the Navy appointed Retired Rear Admiral Floyd "Hoss" Miller, the first Commanding Officer of the California, to chair the Board. Eight other admirals served on the panel.

  Ashley had met Admiral Miller once, at a Change of Command ceremony. She admired and respected him. At a dinner with him and his wife Kay, and Miller regaled her with stories about the early days of the California. Retired admirals can sometimes be stuffy, even pompous. That wasn't Hoss Miller. He is the kind of person you think of as an old friend after meeting him once.

  The Board convened behind closed doors in a conference room at the Navy Department in Washington. A team of investigators fanned out to interview each sailor on
the ship. Because there were over 600 stories to be told, if each crew member testified it would go on for months. They would call witnesses as they deemed necessary.

  The first witness was Captain Ashley Patterson, as she expected. She didn't feel nervous at all. Maybe these guys can help figure out what happened, because she sure as hell can't.

  According to procedure, a lawyer from the Judge Advocate General's office was appointed to sit next to Ashley and advise her. His name was William Braden, and he held the rank of Commander. He immediately got on her nerves when he whispered in her ear. Do these guys feel important by whispering in people's ears, she thought. But she realized that it was his job to look out for her legal rights. If he'd only stop whispering.

  Promptly, at 0915, Ashley began her testimony. She told THE STORY.

  As the hours went by, she was interrupted several times by questions. Everyone was impressed by her simple, direct answers.

  Ashley didn't hold back. She told everything. Well, she did edit out a few scenes with Jack Thurber. Ashley was at the microphone for seven hours, including a one-hour lunch break.

  When they returned from lunch, Admiral Miller thought he would break the tension with some humor.

  "Do you have your flux capacitor with you, Captain?" asked Miller.

  "Yes Sir, I do," said Ashley without missing a beat, "but it's on the blink. I'll have to get it to a flux capacitor repair shop."

  The room broke out in laughter.

  "To summarize Gentlemen," Ashley said, "at 0309 on the morning of April 10, 2013, the California slipped through a time porthole, a wormhole, and found itself in the year 1861. We spent just shy of four months in 1861, going through all of the experiences I've discussed today. Then, at 1400 hours on April 10, 2013, we came back."

  "Captain," said Admiral William Ferguson, "there is one thing that concerns me, well, one of many. You engaged in combat operations. You fired nine Tomahawks and dozens of Harpoons and Hellfires. But Captain, you had no orders of engagement. You had no authorization." Braden, her appointed lawyer, leaned over to whisper in Ashley's ear. Would it be inappropriate if I broke this jerk's nose, Ashley thought.

  "I'll be happy to answer that Admiral," said Ashley, interrupting Braden's whispers. "I acted on direct orders from the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln."

  "Captain, if I may," said Admiral Dwight Bushley, "I've read your personnel record, and I've been listening to you all day. You are one remarkable officer. But you've been telling us that you met with Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and Robert E. Lee, engaged in wartime naval combat operations, and you did this all within seven hours, local time. Captain, I'm having a very hard time believing this story."

  "You're not alone, Admiral. I have a hard time believing it too. Sometimes I expect that I'll wake up from a dream like Dorothy in Kansas. But it did happen, and it wasn't a dream."

  Admiral Miller called the day's meeting to a close.

  Chapter 101

  The Naval Board of Inquiry reconvened the next day, April 25 at 0900 hours. The Board would continue its investigation for a month, until May 22. They heard from 175 crew members, both officers and enlisted. The only ones they didn't call were those who had no operational contact with the events in question.

  They focused on the testimony of Lt. John Thurber, and admitted his book, Living History – Stories of Time Travel Through the Age, into evidence. Jack described his research for the book and his own experiences with time travel.

  Jack was followed by Father Rick, who stunned the Board.

  "Great to see you again, Padre," said Admiral Bushley. The chaplain had served under Bushley on the USS Independence, and they became friends. "A straight shooter if there ever was one," Bushley whispered to Admiral Miller.

  Father Rick held up two books, The Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson and the one volume set of Bruce Catton's The Civil War.

  "Have any of you gentlemen ever heard of either of these books?" asked Father Rick. Everyone at the table shook their heads.

  "I can't believe anybody could write an entire book on the Civil War. It was such a small part of our history," said Admiral Ferguson.

  "I suppose you could say that, Sir, because your understanding is that the war lasted only three months and total casualties were only 942 on both sides," said Father Rick. "I had these books with me on the morning of April 10, 1861 and 2013. In the 2013 that we left, both of these men were famous as were their books, and the authors earned fortunes from the book sales. The history of the Civil War was different before we hit the wormhole. It lasted for four years and there were over 620,000 casualties on both sides. Just after the end of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. You never heard of these books because they were never published, post wormhole, in the 2013 in which we find ourselves. These books are relics from a different time, a different 2013."

  "I need a drink, Hoss," Admiral Ferguson whispered to Admiral Miller, "I need a fucking drink."

  ***

  The Board also heard from expert witnesses, people with no personal knowledge of the facts they examined, but who could explain phenomena, both physical and psychological. They struggled to find an explanation for the unexplainable.

  One expert, NYPD psychiatrist Dr. Benjamin Weinberg, was the man who had corroborated with Jack Thurber, on his book on time travel. "Benny the Bullshit Detector" sat in front of the microphone.

  "Dr. Weinberg, thank you for joining us today," said Admiral Miller. "We've asked you to testify because you have a reputation for judging the veracity of witness testimony, and you've also had input into Lt. Thurber's book on time travel. So let me ask you a flat out question. You've heard the testimony of dozens of crewmembers of the California. Do you find their testimony to be honest and straight forward?"

  "Admiral, I look for signs of lying. I have about a dozen things that I look for, including perspiration, voice, physical mannerisms, and eye contact. I've developed a reputation for spotting lies and helping prosecutors put together cases."

  "Is that why you're known as the "bullshit detector?" asked Miller.

  "Yes," said Weinberg, chuckling, "it's my favorite title. But to answer your question Admiral, not one person I've observed and listened to in these proceedings is lying. That's my opinion. If they're not telling the truth they are amazingly talented psychopaths, and you don't find that many psychopaths together in one place, or on one ship."

  "Dr. Weinberg," said Admiral Miller, "do you believe these stories?"

  "It isn't my job to believe stories or not to believe them, Admiral," said Weinberg. "It's my job to assess whether the witness believes his own story. But I will say this. I don't know much about this time travel stuff, but ever since I worked on that book with Jack Thurber, I've noticed that I've developed an obsessive compulsive disorder. I never step on a crack…it may be a wormhole."

  "Thank you Doctor Weinberg," said Miller. "We may ask for more of your help."

  The next expert they called to the stand was a Dr. Jerome Suydam, a professor of Psychiatry from the University of Chicago. His specialty is group hysteria. He testified that large numbers of people can show signs of hysterical reaction when faced with traumatic events. He discussed eyewitness testimony from groups who witnessed an accident, only to find that actual taped evidence contradicts what they believed they saw. It was his opinion that the crew of the California suffered from mass hysteria, causing all of them to believe a strange story.

  "Doctor," said Admiral Blake Jones, who also held a law degree, "we have heard testimony from 175 different individuals and over 400 written affidavits from crewmembers of the California. These people have talked about hundreds, maybe thousands of experiences over a four month period, and you're saying that they're thinking the same thoughts?"

  Suydam mumbled about his long experience, the classes he's taught, and the books he'd written.

  Jones leaned over to Admiral Miller and put his hand over the microphone. "Where'd we ge
t this asshole, Hoss?"

  Miller just chuckled and said, "Thank you Dr. Suydam. We have no further questions."

  After Suydam stepped down, the Board heard from a MIT physicist who testified that a wormhole was a theoretical possibility. The man was obviously more comfortable with numbers than words, so he was excused after 30 minutes of testimony. But he did make an impression. Time travel is a theoretical possibility.

  ***

  Lt. Jg. Nancy Forsyth was called to testify. It was the most dramatic testimony to date. Because of her expertise in design and presentation, she was asked to show selected photographs and video clips taken during the California's four months in 1861. On a large screen, she displayed dozens of photographs, including pictures of Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet with Captain Patterson and her fellow officers. She also showed a video clip of Lincoln talking to Captain Patterson. She then clicked to photos of Robert E. Lee taken by Lt. Conroy. Forsyth also discussed architectural photographs. Using pictures taken by the SEALs on their recon mission, she highlighted the Charleston waterfront, comparing them to current day photographs.

  Forsyth's slide presentation was so dramatic no one asked questions. The drama increased when the next witness was called.

  Professor Thomas Pendleton of Cal Tech is the nation's most recognized expert on photographic evidence. He has testified many times before Congress and government investigatory bodies. Pendleton had examined every photograph from Forsyth's presentation as well as hundreds of other photographs taken by California crewmembers. He compared photographs of Lincoln to the existing photographs taken with nineteenth-century cameras.

  "Gentlemen," said Pendleton, "the person you saw in those photographs is Abraham Lincoln, not a likeness, but Abraham Lincoln himself. And the people Lincoln is shown with are Captain Patterson, Lt. Thurber, Chaplain Sampson, and Commander Campbell. I'm a man of science, so I can't give you a clue as to how this happened. All I can tell you, as an expert on photography, the photos are real."