Chapter 7
Distress Signal
Mathew awoke to the sound of quiet voices and saw two people huddled around a dim light. It took him a moment to remember he was sleeping in one of the bunks on Eddy's frigate, Kevin and Eddy were listening to the radio. Mathew bounced out of bed and hurried forward to find out what was going on.
"The United states of Earth has declared war on Nation Pacifica," Eddy said. "Kevin heard it on the sailboat radio and woke me so we could listen on a better radio."
"HUNTA is rolling across the continent," Kevin added. "Nobody knows exactly where they are."
"Does anybody know approximately where they are?" Mathew asked with a worried frown. "Helpful Unified Nuclear Tactical Advantage is the strongest land army on the planet."
"Somewhere between Oklahoma City and the Rocky Mountains is the best we can find out."
"Use says it's part of Operation Freethem," Eddy said with a sarcastic tone.
"On the bright side, convoys of cargo ships have broken through the United States naval blockade with more ships loaded with emergency supplies to help China recover from Typhoon Terrible."
Kevin reached for the dial and began searching for more news. "The United States of Earth is going to seize the ships and their cargo as war contraband," he said, turning the dial in search of another broadcast.
"Emergency!" A voice cried out over the radio. "Our convoy headed for China has been spotted by the Use Navy." The voice was able to blurt out the convoy position and then static drowned out further reception.
"Use jammed their radio broadcast frequencies," Eddy said turning toward the ship exit. "I'll go find the Admiral."
"No need for that," the Admiral said entering the ship. "What's going on?" He then sat down in the navigator's seat and listened to them retell the news, turning on the digital wall map and focusing on the convoy position as he listened. "How did the negotiations work out last night?" he asked, turning to Mathew.
"The submarine crew will come ashore after breakfast but President Bushleeg wouldn't talk to me," Mathew quickly summarized.
Admiral Castro absentmindedly turned the radio dial looking for more news, he changed the map view to Central North America and then back to the Pacific. "Prepare the ship for take-off. You leave as soon as Leona arrives with the list of materials for the new headquarters building."
"Yes Sir," Eddy responded as he slid into the pilot's seat.
"Please be prepared to set your joy beams to full power,” the Admiral continued. “Use will broadcast doublespeak from all their media outlets to convince people that emergency relief supplies are illegal war contraband but in my book it's piracy with one hand and extortion from suffering people with the other."
"Okay. Weapons set to full power," Eddy responded with a positive tone. Even so, he gave the Admiral a long questioning look.
"They will steal the relief aid and sell it to those in need for as much as they can get. Try not to hurt anybody but keep in mind this piracy will give them much needed war money."
"How?" Eddy asked.
"They'll park in the harbor waiting for prices to go up. Many storm victims will die for lack of food and medicine before the United States of Earth will be convinced it is receiving the best price. Most leaders of that country have no morals other than more money."
"Admiral," Eddy cleared his throat and fidgeted in his seat. "I fought Doom Cloud but I've never fought people. Star Song gave me advanced flight training. Are you telling me to turn this ship full force against an enemy, like I did before?"
The Admiral put one hand on Eddy's shoulder and stopped him. "Burn two meter diameter holes below the water line of every pirate ship, maybe they'll get the message. Warn them by radio when you arrive. Do whatever it takes to free the convoy. Don't endanger this spaceship. Am I clear?"
"Yes. I understand, more storm victims might die than pirates." Eddy answered, quietly, feeling trapped in an equation with death on both sides.
"Drop Kevin and Leona in Nation Pacifica, find the exact location of HUNTA, then take Mathew to the western desert Nations, where you will search for native americans."
Eddy nodded his understanding. The Admiral couldn't miss how miserable Eddy looked, he put an arm-hug over Eddy's shoulder as he turned to Mathew. "Do you know where to go to meet up with native americans?"
"I've never tried, Admiral. A group of younger people with one elder leader traveled through Nation Pacifica after the United States invaded. They told us they were from the four-corners region, just inside Use."
"Pacifica stops at the top of the Rocky Mountains but some of the desert Nations straddle the line," the Admiral pointed out.
"It might be a good idea for me to go with them," Leona said walking forward from where she had been listening by the door.
"It will be dangerous," the Admiral said turning to her. His eyes were sparkling as he gave Eddy a final encouraging pat on the back. "On the other hand, I'm sorry I have to stay here and miss it," he crinkled his face into a mock frown and spread arms. Everyone knew he meant it; Inocente wanted to go with them.
"The last time you said those exact same words I found you as a stowaway in the cargo hold of this very ship." Eddy said with a laugh.
"It's different this time. As soon as I'm out the door, begin take-off procedures. I'll make sure no one is near the ship." The Admiral strode purposefully to the door, where he stopped, "Do whatever you have to do to keep that cargo away from the pirates. If holes below the water line don't do the trick, I'm as sorry for them as you are." He briefly locked eyes with Eddy, saluted, and then disappeared out the door.
Eddy threw the switch to engage the joy generators. A low hum spread through the ship. "Strap into your seats for lift-off," he said listening to his own voice and pounding heart as if they belonged to someone else. Moments later they were inside an invisible blur booming across open ocean. They flew on a straight-line course toward the relief convoy, just high enough to clear any large ship who's path they chanced to cross.
"I don't get it," Mathew said to Eddy. "We're about to meet up with the most powerful navy on earth, yet you and the Admiral are sad faced and worried about them. What about us?"
Eddy was finishing some adjustments to the ship controls and didn't look up as he replied, "This is a very powerful spaceship, it was the Admiral's personal warship until he gave it to me. And the pilot has had advanced melodian flight training."
"And you are the pilot."
"Yep."
"What's advanced melodian flight training?"
Eddy glanced at Mathew, raised one hand, and then closed his eyes. He visualized the relief convoy and sang his inner melody of appreciation and praise for the Sun and Earth. Leona, Kevin, and Mathew clearly heard Eddy's melody inside their heads. They looked questioningly at each other and saw the outside view briefly flicker a blurred opal white, like the inside of an abalone shell.
“That was advanced flight training?” Leona asked.
Eddy opened his eyes, waved yes to Leona, cut back on power, and started a long arcing turn. He calmly slowed the ship into a tightening circle around the two opposing convoys and switched on the radio. "Pioneer Commander Eddy McGregor calling Use naval command. Over." He said into the radio microphone.
"Are we broadcasting on all frequencies they should be monitoring?" He asked Leona.
"They hear us," she answered, nodding positively.
"We are Pioneer Frigate; a heavily armed, admiral class battle frigate," Eddy warned. "Move away from all civilian cargo vessels immediately."
Mathew savored his amazement as he looked out the side window and studied the warship armada, which wasn't blurred since it was in the center of their circular flight path. "Wow!" He exclaimed. "Look behind us."
The spaceship was flying so low and fast that its shockwave was throwing a trailing wave of white-water higher than the large ships they circled. Eddy had set the radius of the circle at twenty kilometers and they were making a full circuit once per minute. The rooster tail of white water behind them was barely settled back to sea level by the time they made a full lap and threw it skyward again.
"Why don't we feel any gravity force in this turn?" Mathew asked watching Eddy lightly touching the ship controls.
"All this has to do with the advanced flight training Star Song gave me before the battle with Doom Cloud. My theory is spacetime has a consciousness dimension our technology hasn't discovered yet," Eddy answered, as he turned on a set of sensors for tracking missiles that might be fired at them. "We're traveling at 7,500 kilometers per hour, I'm lowering the speed and bringing us in a little closer."
Eddy reached for the radio, he paused with his hand in mid-air and turned to Mathew before contacting the warships again.
"I didn't know I was receiving advanced flight training until it was over. If you're interested, I'll show you more about it later."
"Thanks. I'd like that," Mathew said. “Was that song in our heads and almost instantaneous arrival at the fleet really part of your training?” He asked.
Eddy nodded yes as he clicked on the radio.
"This is Pioneer Fleet Commander McGregor speaking. War ships have one minute to begin moving away from the cargo ships bound for China with aid for typhoon victims. My first target is your largest ship. Over and out."
Eddy focused the attack sensors on the largest ship, it was a cruiser and seemed a logical choice as the armada command ship. He showed Leona how to keep the cruiser centered on their navigation screen and explained the weapons control switches to Kevin.
"Leona, you lock the sensor on the ship I aim at. If I make a mistake and head for a cargo ship, you move the sensor to the nearest war ship, I will then adjust to whatever you do. Kevin, you fire on command and I'll switch targets by aiming the ship with Leona's help."
"Look out!" Mathew yelled. "They're firing at us."
Eddy released a cloud of decoy foil and heat flares. He lightly tapped the joy generators and flew straight up into a high loop that took them to the edge of space and back down to sea level, where they flew low over the water, directly toward the navy cruiser. "Ready ... Aiming ... Fire." Eddy's unspoken words rang as telepathic melodian song inside Mathew, Leona and Kevin's minds.
A bolt of golden energy leapt from the spaceship to the navy war cruiser. The entire bow of the cruiser disappeared in a cloud of steam as it fired everything it had at the speed-blurred spaceship, which was already blasting straight up and out of harm's way.
Eddy repeated the looping maneuver and headed straight for another war ship. The joy beam hit ten meters back from the bow and one meter below water line. A cloud of steam billowed around the ship as it vainly fired its guns and missiles at an attacker traveling too fast to track.
The next two passes scored two hits each. Eddy then halted firing and pulled back to the wider circle surrounding the cargo convoy and the war ships. He cut their speed in half and again called to the armada on the radio, "Pioneer Earth Fleet Commander calling Use Navy," he said briefly and then waited for a response.
"There they go again," Kevin yelled as every navy ship fired at them with every available weapon, and kept on firing.
Eddy deftly turned outward from the circle and then upward. He set the joy beam to automatic fire and showed Leona how to keep the focus on only the ships which had already been hit.
"This time the beam is set to hit the ships exactly in the center instead of the bow," Eddy said as they shot straight up toward the top of the atmosphere. "We're going slower so when we come around use that lever, Kevin. I'll skid us sideways as you fire and then I’ll take us straight back up."
Kevin, Leona, and Mathew watched the navigator's screen as Eddy rolled the spaceship over the top of its looping dive toward the military ships. The screen was now divided into six equal squares, with each of the targeted ships shown in one of the squares. They watched in fascination while the ships rendered in each square continuously changed places with each other as the spaceship computer changed firing order depending on their position relative to the targets. A light green line gave Eddy an idea of the optimum approach and a blue line showed the actual course they were flying. Flickering red areas marked the weapon firing patterns of the navy artillery, none of which was coming very close to the evasive path Eddy was flying.
Eddy brought Pioneer Frigate smoothly over the top of the loop and slid sideways toward the green line, which began blinking as they drew closer to it. "Ready ... Aiming ... Fire." Eddy's now familiar telepathic speech rang in their heads.
A golden pulse of energy struck each of the target ships in the final order they had taken on the screen. The firing sequence was fast, even though Eddy had set the impact time longer to allow the joy beam to burn deeper into the center of the ships. The individual beam blasts were so quick it was like watching a single bolt of lightning playing from one ship to the next. Each target ship was buried midship in steam as Eddy wheeled back the way they had come and then blasted straight up. This time he flew to the upper edge of the atmosphere and leveled out.
"Mathew," Eddy said. "You are our negotiator, I think you should try talking to the Use fleet this time."
"Sure," Mathew responded obligingly as he reached for the radio. He paused for a moment to compose his comments and then turned the radio on.
"Greetings, this is Mathew speaking. I am chief negotiator for Earth Base One. Can you hear me?"
"We can hear you. What do you want?"
"Fleet Commander McGregor already told you what to do. He is preparing another move against your naval armada and has kindly offered me a chance to negotiate your disengagement from the convoy carrying relief goods to typhoon survivors."
"We are under orders to intercept all cargo convoys and seize their war contraband."
"We don't doubt that," Mathew responded. "Who am I speaking with, please."
"You are speaking to Fleet Commander Dillinger."
"Well, Commander Dillinger, I must inform you that you are pirates from our point of view. You are interfering with relief aid sent by Nation Pacifica to China and other typhoon battered countries. We will sink all your ships if you force us to."
Mathew clicked off the microphone, "Can we do that?" He asked Eddy, who nodded a solemn 'yes.'
Mathew clicked the microphone back on. "Commander. Pioneers have so far avoided armed conflict with Use because we don't want to hurt anyone. Our problem here is that many more people will be hurt by your piracy than by us sinking your ships. We give you one minute to turn away from the relief convoy. The next ship we hit will be utterly destroyed before it has time to sink. Over and out."
Eddy circled high, like a hawk picking its prey. The pioneers silently watched the ships below on the navigation screen. Eddy grimly moved the target marker over one of the already damaged military ships, it showed as an orange dot on the screen. He steadied the course and began slowly descending on the targeted ship, which, as if aware of its plight, turned away from the relief convoy and back in the direction it had come from. The rest of the war ships turned away as Eddy continued a slow descent toward the cargo ships. He then turned on the radio.
"Eddy McGregor calling relief convoy. Can you hear me?"
"We can hear you!" A jubilant voice responded over the radio.
"Good. Your position is known so there is no need to maintain radio silence. This engagement was the only warning that will be given. Further interference with relief convoys will not be tolerated. All relief convoys report pirates on this wavelength. Over."
"We are grateful for your help. Thank you Captain McGregor and crew. Over."
"Our navigator is about to send you a list of supplies we want loaded on a ship and sent on the course you are following. Will you relay instructions to your home port? Over."
"Can do. Over."
"Materials will be paid for by Admiral Castro. Over."
"Somebody will work that out. Over."
Eddy made sure Leona was ready to upload the material list from the computer. "Prepare to download our list," he said over the radio and signaled Leona, who sent the list on its way.
"That was a brilliant idea," Leona said as each page flashed across screen. "Now we can go straight to find HUNTA without stopping."
Eddy grinned at the compliment and watched the last page of the list as it was transmitted to the cargo ship computer. "Hey!" He exclaimed pointing at the list. "What are those printers and four thousand kilograms of paper for?"
"It's a test," Kevin answered.
"A test?"
"We are figuring United States of Earth's money will be worthless when it collapses."
Eddy and Mathew looked at the broad smiles on Kevin's and Leona's faces, and then at each other.
"The paper is to print up blank Eco Unit Calorie bills for unemployed artists to paint on and make them into money. This is just a start," Kevin said.
Mathew shrugged his shoulders. "I think we'll be hearing more about this," he said with a wink to Eddie.
Kevin started to explain how one kilocalorie equals one eco money unit while Eddy moved the spaceship away from the cargo ship convoy and set a course for Central North America.
"Tell us about it later," Eddy said. "Believe me; I'm curious to hear about artists making kilocalorie money, after we find HUNTA."
"Everybody's eyes glaze over when economics comes up," Mathew said, laughing heartily. "Keep your eyes open, Eddy," he teased, pretending he was afraid they might crash.