Come Alive Ch. 10

Chapter 10

The first blast slammed Time Bandit so badly that Dina lost her footing and fell to the galley floor; she pulled herself up and the first thing that registered was the smell -- 'what is that...kerosene?' She had dropped a mixing bowl full of dry ingredients to make bread and now the entire galley looked like a winter landscape...but her medical training kicked in. 'Assess yourself,' she reminded herself as she felt her joints, then her head. Her left hand came down covered in blood.

She dashed into the forward head and found a minor laceration on top of her head, so she sprayed some hydrogen peroxide on the cut and tried not to scream when the burn hit. She daubed some Neosporin on a gauze pad and smeared the ointment into the wound -- when the realization hit her...

'Where is Henry...?'

...then...

'...and Rolf?...Where is he?'

She made her way to the companionway steps and saw Rolf bent over Henry's unconscious body before she started up the stairs...

...when another colossal roar hit...

...followed by another blast...

This time she just managed to hang onto a rail, then she pulled herself up the steps into the cockpit...

...just as the roaring began again...followed by three or four more blasts...

Yet these didn't seem as intense like they were further away.

Then a four engined turboprop flew by, but this aircraft was flying low, very low, like maybe twenty feet above the surface, and it wasn't close at all.

Then the roar again, only this time off to the left -- and she turned in time to see two small jets -- were they fighters? -- ripping through the sky as they headed south.

"Henry!" she heard Rolf say, "can you hear me?"

She made it to Henry's side, saw blood coming out of Rolf's right ear, then...out of Henry's right ear, too. Clyde was on his side too, inert -- but breathing.

'Sonic booms,' she told herself, but the aircraft had to be very, very close overhead to do this kind of damage. She looked up the mast and saw that the mainsail was scorched near the masthead, and the instruments clustered up there were simply -- gone.

She turned her attention to Henry just in time to see his eyes fluttering, then opening a little.

"Help me get him up," she said -- before she realized that Rolf couldn't hear. She tapped him on the shoulder and got his attention: "Can you hear me?"

He shrugged. "I can't hear! What happened?"

She started pulling Henry up to a sitting position and Rolf pitched-in.

"Henry?" she said, "Henry, can you hear me?"

"A little...it sounds like you're miles away...what happened?"

"Aircraft," she said loudly, "sonic booms...knocked us down...you hit your head."

Taggart pushed himself up onto the seat behind the wheel and began taking a mental inventory of things he had to do quickly, then he manually scanned through several VHF frequencies looking for an explanation...Then, on channel 16 they heard: "All civilian vessels head to the nearest port, repeat, all civilian vessels head for the nearest port immediately..."

"What the fuck?" Taggart said as he moved over to look at the chart plotter. "Warning, loss of signal..." was prominently displayed in the middle of the screen so he instinctively looked up at the masthead. "Okay," he sighed as he took in the damage, "Off we go into the menu system, now where was that page...there it is: go to secondary GPS antenna..."

The display fluttered for a second or two, then came alive...the signal appeared good and he could navigate with confidence until he updated his paper plot down below at the chart table.

"Rolf?" he asked, but the boy pointed at his ears and Taggart nodded. "Dina, go down and check the bilge for any running water."

"Alright, I'm on it."

Taggart patted the seat next to him when Clyde lifted his head and looked around, but the old boy wasn't having any more of this bullshit -- and with his tail planted firmly between his legs he ambled down the companionway steps and disappeared into the aft cabin. Dina came up and flashed him a 'thumbs up' and he nodded as he picked up the radio's mic.

"Pan-pan-pan, this is Sailing Vessel Time Bandit, position North 58 53 22 East 18 37 22. We have been overflown by supersonic aircraft at extremely low altitude, with two injuries onboard as a result. Pan-pan-pan-any station-out."

"Time Bandit, make for safe harbor at Lervassa, be advised medical personnel will meet you that location. Stay off the air and do not proceed any further south from your current location. This is HMS Helsingborg, please acknowledge."

"Helsingborg, Time Bandit is en-route Lervassa, received advisory to proceed no further south. Over."

"Helsingborg receives, out."

Taggart tried to shake the cobwebs out of his mind, tried to think what could be going on...

Then he saw Dina had the binocular out, and that she was looking intently at something to their south...

"What do you see?"

She turned and handed him the binoculars, her expression grim. "Look around 170 magnetic," she advised.

He adjusted focus, then looked at the compass readout and swung it to 170 degrees, and what he saw left him breathless...

"Are those depth charges?" he whispered.

"Look up a little, in the sky."

There was some kind of dogfight going on thousands of feet above the sea, only with missiles being fired instead of machine guns, and as he watched he saw one aircraft simply explode and cartwheel into the sea.

"What the Hell," he whispered, "is going on down there?"

"There have been many reports of Russian submarines trying to penetrate this area, many in 2014..." Dina said.

"Yeah, I remember something about that."

"Well, Sweden has been making more noise about joining NATO ever since, and the Russians have said they would retaliate..."

"But Russian fighters overhead? I thought I read those Russian sub reports were bogus?"

"Well, those on the left thought they were. It seems they might have been wrong."

"See if you can pull up the BBC World Service down below..."

"You'll have to show me how."

"Never mind. You better get Rolf below and look him over, and see if Clyde will stay with him."

"Okay."

Taggart stood and grabbed Rolf by the arms and pulled him into a hug, then he tussled the boy's hair before Dina led him below. He turned his attention to the chart plotter and began laying out a course through the maze of rocky islets, then turned on the autopilot. With that done he went to the chart table below and pulled up the plot on the duplicate display, then he flipped on his SSB radio and hit preset 2 -- and the voice of the BBC came in loud and clear.

"The Russian advance into Ukraine appears to be just a first move, Brett. We now have reports that Russian troops have been massing on the arctic borders of Norway and Sweden. Estonian troops have reported at least one Russian incursion..."

Taggart turned off the radio and shook his head as he made his way back to the cockpit; once back behind the wheel he picked up the binoculars and scoped out the scene. One surface ship was on fire, two other ships were dropping depth charges, and he guessed the action was taking place less than ten miles away...

Dina came up, still looking upset. "The cellular phones are down; no signal."

"I managed to get the BBC..."

"Yes, I heard. Someone has apparently called the Russian's bluff -- and now they have responded."

"You seem unusually well-informed."

"My ex-husband works in the Ministry of Defense."

"Oh?"

"This kind of thing. This kept him up all night. I thought it was just paranoia."

Taggart sighed. "It is -- until it isn't. Then everyone goes around pointing fingers..."

"I hate politicians," she said.

"How's Rolf?"

"I suspect both his eardrums are perforated. You? Just the right ear. Rolf must have turned and been facing the sonic wave as it hit."

"Can it be fixed?"

She nodded. "With ease, assuming we can get you both to a competent medical facility."

"Okay, so we go to this port, Lervassa, then we..."

"I looked at the chart," she said, "there are no facilities there. This is okay, but I suppose they just want us out of the way for now."

"Yeah, well, I want out of the way too."

"We could go back to Stockholm, get across to the new boat by car...?"

"We'd lose a lot of gear from this boar if we do," he advised.

"Okay, we go to this Lervassa and if medical people meet us then we see what they can offer. If nothing effective we continue south, but we stay very close to the coastline. There are bigger cities, better hospitals further south."

"Okay. We should be there in less than five hours...depending on what speed we can make through all these rocks."

"I need to go below. Very big mess in the galley."

"Are you okay? I see you have a scrape on your head."

"It is alright, but we have no fresh bread tonight."

Bathed in a sudden blinding flash, they both flinched then turned towards the sound of several large explosions -- they saw the sea erupt behind one of the Swedish destroyers, then two missiles streaking along just over the sea...headed for the two Swedish ships. One missile missed and continued towards the coast, the second exploded in the air just above the destroyer closest to the Bandit; when it emerged from behind a curtain of swirling black smoke half the ship seemed to be on fire.

"Turn off the radar when you go below, would you?"

"Yes, but why?"

"Some missiles seek out radar signals."

Her eyes went wide as she disappeared below; he confirmed the radar on his console was set to off then relaxed. He scanned the way ahead -- first on the plotter then through his binoculars -- until he noticed his hands were beginning to shake. He looked at his watch and dashed below, grabbed his meds and a Coke and slammed them down, then got back to the wheel just in time to watch the autopilot signal 'Approaching Waypoint' -- before it settled in on the new course.

Three hours later he turned into the inlet where the chart indicated Lervassa should be, and moments later the situation came into sharp relief. A field hospital had been set up and helicopters were bringing in sailors plucked from the sea; he approached the long finger pier in the middle of the inlet and several sailors grabbed their dock lines and helped get Rolf up to the nearest medical tent; Dina left with him as a naval officer approached Bandit...

"Excuse me," the man said to Taggart. "You are the captain of this boat?"

"Yes," Taggart replied.

"Could you come with me, please?"

"Uh, look, I don't want to leave the boat alone..."

"These men will guard your property. Now, please, this is most important..."

Taggart followed the officer to some sort of hastily set up operations center, and all conversation stopped when Taggart walked in. One of the men, an older sort with the insignia of the United States Navy on his jacket, walked over to him:

"You Taggart?"

"Yes indeed. And you are?"

"Not here."

"Okay, Mr. Not Here, what can I do today to make you angry?"

"Just tell us what you saw out there."

"At least one aircraft downed by a missile, and a ship hit by another missile."

"The missile that hit the ship? Could you see it?"

"Of course..."

"What I'm looking for here, specifically, was the missile subsonic?"

"Definitely. I looked like some sort of cruise missile."

"What did the impact look like?"

"In the terminal phase, the missile went from sea-skimming to about a hundred feet above the ship, then it detonated."

"Terminal phase...sea skimming...you seem to know a little about these things."

"I write code, sir."

"Oh, I see. You're not in the reserves or anything like that, are you?"

"No sir. Actually, I'm ill..."

"Yes, yes, I know all about that stuff. What are your plans now...?"

"I want to get around to the coast just north of Gothenburg, pick up some property there, then we're..."

"Yeah, I read about that in my briefing paper on you."

"On me?"

"Just routine, once we knew you were a U.S. registered vessel we pulled up your information."

"Ah, yes. Total Information Awareness, wasn't that the name of the program? Know everything about everyone? Wherever they may be?"

"Yup, that's the one. Your tax dollars at work, Mr. Taggart."

"Well, I seem to have a blown-out eardrum. If you don't need me anymore, may I leave now?"

"In a minute. What are your plans now...?"

"Head south as soon as possible. I have a medical check-up scheduled in Copenhagen next week."

The man shook his head. "I wouldn't go there right now. As a matter of fact, I'd keep away from the Baltic generally now..."

"What about the Kiel Canal?"

The man shrugged. "You know, if Ivan decides he wants to roll into Poland or Finland, this thing is gonna turn real ugly, real fast. I'd suggest, strongly, that you head back to the states. Failing that, get as far west as you can, maybe think about the Caribbean, someplace like that."

"What are you suggesting?"

"That if the Russians won't stop this bullshit and come to the negotiating table, things might get seriously fucked up. We're already flying re-supply missions into Germany and the UK, the Germans are invoking Article 25 and mobilizing their reserves...well, you get the picture, right? All things being possible at this point, Europe may not be the best place to hang up your spurs, Mr. Taggart."

"I see."

"Well, my aide will see to it that your ears are taken care of. After that, if you decide to head south just keep as close as you can to the beach, and report anything that looks, well, funky."

"Funky?"

"Like it doesn't belong there?"

"Ah, that kind of funky. Got it."

Two hours later he walked out the pier to Time Bandit, and he found Dina setting up plates on the cockpit table, Rolf sitting there with his ears packed in gauze.

"How's the spud?" he asked as he came up the stern steps.

"His ears will heal in a week or so, but I am not so sure about his mind."

Taggart nodded. "It's a lot to take in."

"What about you?"

"Same. Doc said to give it a few days, no rupture."

"And...what about you?" she repeated, trying to get him to open up.

"Me? I'm copacetic. What's for dinner?"

"Are you hungry?"

"Sure, why not? Nothing like a little world war to whip up an appetite."

She stopped what she was doing and looked at him. "Do you think there will be war?"

"Seriously?"

"Yes, of course seriously."

"No chance. Why? Because there's just no money in it -- for anyone. The Russians will thump on their chests for a few days, demand relief from sanctions, then -- when that doesn't work -- they'll figure out that sanctions are infinitely preferable to nuclear winter and then everyone can get back to swindling one another for fun and profit."

"I don't know why I even bothered to ask."

"So...dinner?"

"Salmon bisque and a salad. Do you feel like eating tonight?"

"A half a bowl of soup sounds good. Any bread left?"

"A few pieces from yesterday."

"Sold! -- to the bald, skinny guy in row one!"

She sighed, then shrugged her shoulders: "All life is a joke to you, isn't it?"

"No, just everything that happens outside our little world here."

"So, we are not a joke?"

"You and I? We are most definitely not a joke. Neither is my little spud," he said, looking at Rolf -- who looked decidedly depressed. "Man, I wish Astrid was still here right now."

"I think he's happy she's gone," Dina said.

"Give his nuts a few weeks to recover...he'll be good to go after that."

"No, that isn't it..."

"I know. He wanted things to get serious, but she wasn't having any of it, was she?"

"How did you know that?"

"Because I was sixteen once."

"You? Sixteen?"

"I know. Hard to believe, isn't it?"

"Yes. I could've sworn you were twelve."

"Ouch."

"Anything to drink?"

"Maybe a Coke, and my eight o'clock meds if you can get to them."

Rolf slid close and put an arm around Taggart's waist, so he wrapped an arm around the boy and held him close -- until Dina came back carrying a tray loaded with soup and salad...as well as a few slices of bread. Taggart felt hungry so after Rolf sat up and moved away, he took a spoonful...

"Man, what did you do to the soup tonight?"

"You like it?"

"Yup, it's great."

"A pinch of curry and ginger, and a few cardamom pods," she said, grinning. "I know how you two love Indian food, so I thought why not give it a try."

Rolf shot her a thumb's up after he tried to soup, so she was happy.

"We will have a little darkness tonight, not much, but a little," she said.

Taggart flipped on the plotter and pulled up the tide chart, saw the high was at 0400. "Well, we'll pull out of here around four, head southwest -- towards the coast -- then go straight to Ellös."

"We are not stopping in Copenhagen?"

"We'll have to see what's happening. Maybe after we pick up Bandits."

"The right side of your face...it is burned."

"Yeah, it feels like it's a little burned. Tight, kind of."

"I wonder how close that airplane was?" she asked.

"To fry the masthead like that? Man, I'd say he had to pull up to avoid hitting us. A few of those other jets were almost touching the water when they passed."

"I want to get out of here," Rolf said.

"Hey -- it speaks! Can it hear?"

"A little," Rolf said. "It is hollow, you sound far away."

"You'll be good by morning."

"It is grandma-ma's soup -- it will cure anything. So good tonight," the boy added before he yawned and went below.

"They gave him something to help him sleep," she whispered.

"Better get him another bowl. We'll need him ready to roll in the morning. Well, looky here. I do believe that's Captain Ahab, coming in search of the great white whale."

"What?"

"US Navy captain, headed this way. Better get the boy below before they conscript him to a life of servitude."

"Should I?"

Taggart shook his head, then turned to the captain. "You're welcome to come aboard, Captain."

"Thanks," the man said as he hopped up through the mid-ships boarding gate. "Uh, you're Doctor Taggart, right?" he said to Dina.

"Yes?"

"We got word through to your daughter in Bergen that everyone is okay here. She asked that if there was any danger to her son that he come on home. I can get him over to Stockholm tonight if you'd like."

"Thank you, Captain," Dina said, "but I think he should stay here for the time being. Is there any further news about our Russian friends?"

"No. They seemed to have underestimated NATOs response to the incident here in Sweden; their forces are pulling back right now, though not in Ukraine -- but that was to be expected, I guess."

"So, history will record this one as the One Day War?" Taggart said, smirking.

"More like the Fifteen Minute War, if anyone still cares a year from now."

"How many lost their lives today, Captain?" Dina asked.

"I don't know," the officer sighed, looking away. "Maybe a hundred, maybe...if we're lucky. Ma'am, I hate to ask, but that soup smells bodacious..."

"Would you like some, Captain?"

"If it's not too much trouble, yes Ma'am, that would be great."

She smiled and disappeared below.

"Have a seat, Captain. Need anything to drink?"

"You have Coke onboard?"

"Coke and Dr. Pepper."

"DP! Now you're talkin'!"

Taggart smiled. "Yeah, I loaded about three cases in Connecticut; down to the last case now so I ration my intake."

"Hard to beat an ice-cold Dr. Pepper," the captain said as he took the bowl from Dina.

"Uh," Taggart said to her, "looks like we need a DP up here, too."

She nodded, then brought two up and put one in front of Taggart, as well as one for the captain. She sat and finished her salad, then helped Rolf to his bunk when it looked like he was going to nod off. A minute later Clyde came up the steps and barked -- twice -- and Henry stood and got the leash.