Voyage of the Dead by David P Forsyth

Author:David P Forsyth [Forsyth, David P]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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The Navy’s radioed response came within an hour. An exception to the exclusion and quarantine zone would be granted. The Sovereign Spirit and her little flotilla would be allowed to approach Southern California under escort by the Coast Guard cutter Stratton. They were directed to head straight to San Diego, where a discussion of their intentions would take place. Somehow this message did nothing to calm Scott’s nerves. In fact, the idea of sailing into San Diego harbor began to sound like a lamb walking into the butcher shop. It was time to prepare for the worst case scenario. Scott asked Captain Fisher and the chief engineer, Paul Lunt, to meet him in the Engine Room to plan some mischief.

“Okay,” said Scott. “We need to prep some demolition charges.”

“What do you mean?” asked Mr. Lunt.

“We need to be prepared to disable the engines, in case the Navy wants to take this ship away from us,” Scott explained. “So I want real demolition charges planted on the port and starboard engines. Somewhere that will make a big bang and take them out of action, but not blow up the whole ship. Then I want to shut down the center engine and remove some critical and hard to replace parts. We’ll hide them and plant some more explosives to destroy the hidden parts if that becomes necessary. The idea is to convince the Navy that this ship will never be useful to them if they try to take it away from us by force. Got it?”

“You want to blow up my engines?” asked Paul with a desperate tone in his voice.

“They’re my engines,” replied Scott with a voice of steel. “And I don’t want to blow them up. But I will, if that is what it takes to keep possession of this ship. My ship. Understand?”

“Yes sir,” Paul answered. “But do we have to do it for real? Can’t we try to fake them out first?”

“What do you have in mind?” asked Scott. He prided himself on always being open to others’ ideas. “Is there something critical you could blow up and easily replace later?”

“Yes, sir, I think there is,” replied Mr. Lunt. “The transmission gears. The ones for the port and starboard engines aren’t even made anymore except by special order. We replaced them at great expense last year, if you recall. But I saved the old gears as emergency spares because they still had a little life in them. So I can reinstall the old ones and hide the new ones. Then we could destroy the old ones without damage to the actual engines, if we have to.”

“Brilliant!” said Captain Fisher. He glanced at Scott, who nodded, and confirmed his initial reaction. “Do it.”

“What about the new engine?” Scott asked. “What can we do convince them it’s toast too?”

“Well,” replied Mr. Lunt, “We could blow the transmission on that one too, and I do have a spare. But they might have some in San Diego too. It’s brand new. Off the shelf in a major harbor with shipyards like San Diego.

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