High Seas Series
Book Two
The Explorers
Chapter 01
Charles W Bird
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This story is a fictional account of a period that begins after The Carson Family and their many ships had settled in Australia and helped civilization to cling to life after much of the world had suffered from Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) and chronicles what happens to that family, who had saved many youngsters from death or a life so horrible, death would have been welcomed.. While the story is completely fictional, actual names, characters, places and incidents that might coincide with actions, places, people or events have been changed to protect both the innocent and the guilty or are the product of my imagination and used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The actual shipboard processes, however, are based upon experiences of the author.
This story is copyrighted and may not be reproduced by any means without my express, written permission.
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ATTENTION: PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS INCOMPLETE DUE TO THE AUTHOR HAVING MEDICAL ISSUES AND NOSTRINGS WISH HIM ALL THE BEST AND A SPEEDY RECOVERY.
ADVENTURES AT SEA
A hundred years have passed and Jeremy 3 and Tommy 3 Carson passed away and now another new generation of Carsons was growing old. Tommy Throwing Rock Carson, Jr. is President of the company and his brother and Life Partner Jeremy Pei Carson, Jr. is the Company Chief Engineer and Vice President.
It had been a family dream to recolonize North America, a place where their company had fled with all its employees, rescued children and friends many years earlier.
Much of the industrialized world had been destroyed in a terrible rain of nuclear bombs and they knew that many places they held dear in their Family Stories would remain uninhabitable for many generations yet to come.
T4 and J4 were now “hooked to the harness” in command of the Carson Empire. The loss of their Daddies shook them to their very cores, but they had the welfare of their whole families and their employees, whom they considered family also, to deal with. They both stepped up to the plate and there was no hesitation in Carson Shipping.
Their first concern was to get the new port at Onslow up and running. It was to be primarily a fishing port, but also there would be a complete shipyard and repair facility as they were fast outgrowing the facilities at Darwin.
It would a couple of years before the Australian Power Authority would have electric power out to Onslow, so the first thing they needed was their own electric power station.
Barges began to arrive with building materials and rolls of blueprints from various suppliers. Their principle supplier was Gaiun Steel and Shipbuilding and Gaiun supplied an Erector Supervisor to assist in erecting the buildings for the power plant. That had to be first.
As the buildings began to rise above the red soil of Western Australia, Mr. Pei of Gaiun Steel suddenly passed away. He had only daughters and their husbands wanted nothing to do with getting their hands dirty building steel buildings OR ships in the “provinces”.
Both T4 and J4 were quick to spot an opportunity and they offered to buy out the Gaiun Family. Their offer was snatched up so fast, the telephone wires were smoking!
They let the name, “GAIUN” remain as it was well known throughout Southeast Asia. With it came the electrical repair subsidiary, Hainan Electric and that, also, was a great benefit to them. Now, they had not only a large steel fabricator, they had the ability to handle electric machinery from small motors to huge generators and transformers as well as ship’s propulsion motors in many of their ships. Those were large, low RPM motors, ranging from 3,000 horsepower to over 10,000 horsepower.
Even before they could get started on the project at Onslow, the Australian Power Authority issued them a contract for a complete steam/electric power plant at Darwin. The plant was to be mammoth and would include three of what would be the largest turbine generators in the Southeast Asia Area. It also included six huge boilers and an oil pipeline from the port to the plant.
Ian Carson was assigned to manage the new acquisition. Ian was a third generation Grandson of Joel Carson and had no recollection of his life before his Daddy, Andrew Carson had found him sitting on the marble floor of the Carson Headquarters in Darwin. He had been half starved and alone when a nice man picked him up and held him in his protective arms. That man was Daddy Andy and, in that instant, his life began.
Daddy Andy and his mate, Daddy Phil, had cared for him and had made him their own son. True, he had to share his daddies with three additional younger brothers, but he was their first son and they sometimes called him their “Number One” boy.
That he and his brothers were part Aborigine had been ignored and it never even dawned on him until he had become an adult. He did remember his Daddy walking him to school one day and a nasty man had made some remark that he did not understand, nor did he even remember what the words were, only that his Daddy knocked the man into the drainage canal and continued taking him to school remained in his memory of the incident.
By the time he was old enough to understand what had taken place, it didn’t matter any longer.
A NEW POWER STATION
Six years later, the new Darwin Power Station was ready to go on line. The old system was more a flickering headache than it was a power system and the Northwest of Australia was stumbling along with power outages, blackouts and flickering voltage.
The Onslow Project had been postponed because no electric power could be supplied.
The day the huge breakers closed at the Darwin Steam Electric Plant, the electric blackouts and rationing ended throughout Western Australia.
Ian Carson was justifiably proud of what Gaiun-Carson Steel and Shipbuilding had accomplished. Many of the machines that had built the machinery that went into the new power station had been invented by Ian and his staff. They had reinvented what had once been commonplace before the Great Collapse and, now, they could apply those same machines to building Onslow.
Hardly had the breakers been closed when crews were reassigned to complete the long neglected electric power line to the sleepy village at Onslow Point.
Within days, heavy haul trucks were on the road with steel beams to construct a tower line across Southwestern Australia. The power line would follow the coast from Carson Colony south to the Onslow Peninsula. It would supply Onslow and continue on to tie into the Perth Tieline.
It was a period of rapid growth for their adopted country and, at long last, the native population of the Aborigine People was being accepted into Australian Society on an equal basis and the entire country was growing industrially.
To be sure, there were a few “hiccups” along the way, but, by and large, by the time the Onslow Project was completed, the problems of the past were just that, the past, and the entire country was racing towards the future.
It would require another ten years to see the complete Onslow project come on line, a giant shipyard and industrial complex replaced salt evaporating ponds and modern homes replaced the collection of fishermen’s shanties that was once the village of Onslow.
Where there had been a population of less than one hundred people, Onslow was now a small city of ten thousand and was still growing.
The three building ways were occupied with new ships and one of the newest projects was a factory ship to serve the fishing fleet. The ship had been named “THE AUSSIE FISHER” and had a displacement of 50,000 tons. It was the largest ship yet for the Onslow Shipyard. It would be the largest ship in the Carson Fleet and also in the entire shipping industry in the Far East.
A new rail spur was under construction to serve the area and the airport had already been enlarged twice and now a complete new airport was on the drawing board.
The population of Onslow was much more cosmopolitan than any city in Australia had been in the past, ethnic groups from all over the Southeast Pacific Area were represented. The only thing that was common to them all was the language. Australian English was the spoken language of entire area.
The Carsons sent a few freighters on exploration trips into the Mediterranean area, but they found almost no human life in the area, North Africa was a windblown desert and Israel and Palestine had joined as one country. They had nothing to trade, but their population was slowly increasing, so the decision was made to trade in small amounts and hope they would be future trading partners.
Southern France and Spain were locked in a territorial war and had no time or goods to trade.
Italy was divided into three small kingdoms and trade was lively both with the visiting Carson ships and also among themselves.
Greece was a total loss, there was tribal warfare throughout the peninsula and the country had broken up, into a dozen small principalities, each hating their neighbors.
The one surprise was Morocco, it was a constitutional monarchy and was thriving. However, they had little to trade, other than colorful blankets, olive oil and dates. One Carson ship a year satisfied their needs and, while profitable, the rewards were not large enough to warrant an additional visit per year.
A small fleet of three ships had been constructed for the express purpose of exploring the continents of North and South America to discover whether there were areas still capable of supporting human life. One ship was a tanker, one a cargo ship and the last was a combination cargo and passenger ship.
Both Tommy Throwing Rock Carson and Jeremy Pei Carson had carefully groomed their sons, called TJ and JJ in the manner of their Great Grandfathers, to be joint commanders of the expedition.
Both young men took after their ancestors. They had the signature bright red hair and massive build. Both young men stood nearly seven feet tall and were powerful enough to frighten children. They were, however, as gentle as lambs, unless angered, and then, they were as dangerous as a wounded salt water croc!
They had been building crews for the exploration ships for nearly a generation. TJ had been tutored for years in what his Father, Tommy Throwing Rock Carson considered the most important voyage of the century.
Likewise, Jeremy Pei Carson tutored JJ in all manners of engineering, it would be on JJ’s back that no shipboard breakdown would stop the voyage.
Critical spare parts were already collected and stored on the Joel Carson III, along with sufficient raw materials to fabricate almost anything that could break down on any of the vessels.
While the brothers carried joint command of the small fleet, they commanded no vessel or groups of warriors. They were the heart and the brain of the effort and, upon their shoulders rested the success or failure of the venture.
As the sailing date approached, Tommy ordered the tanker to be loaded with diesel fuel for the ships and the small boats loaded on the Joel Carson III and the Tommy Carson, the passenger/freighter. The tanker, The Jeremy Carson, had a few small boats in davits lining the upper deck, but they were not built to accommodate the CROCKYDALE Warriors, they were for the movement of civilians being rescued from beaches and islands, should they come across any survivors of the last centuries.
Sailing day finally arrived and streams of men and women began walking up the gangway of their assigned ship, there were a number of teens who thought they were sneaking on board in the crowd, but the Gangway Watch on each ship was told to be looking the “other way” as they crossed the “Quarter Deck”.
Quarters had been set aside for those youngsters who were “sneaking on board” and there were stewards just inside the hatch, where all those boarding had to enter, to lead the youngsters, who could show no boarding pass, to their quarters.
There were even those who were sub-teens, no youngster was turned away. All would be given useful duties to perform and their parents would be notified of their inclusion in the crew after the ships had sailed.
The ships sailed as the sun was setting on the western horizon, the ship’s horns and emergency hooters were bellowing full blast as families stood on the pier watching their loved one sail off into the unknown.
Once at sea, a complete roster would be transmitted back to Carson Headquarters and posted for families to see the names of their children who had managed to sneak on board one of the ships. It was more than “just a few” the list required nearly an hour to transmit! And, even at that, they still missed a few!
VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY
They had already visited nearby lands on a regular basis, so their first landfall was to be Hawaii. It was from Hawaii that many of their forbearers had jumped off for Australia so many years earlier.
They all had family stories of those who had been left behind and it was hoped that the descendants of those left behind might be reunited with their families.
The ships steamed at the speed of the slowest vessel, the tanker, The Jeremy Carson. It was a twenty-two day voyage to Hawaii, they were in no hurry and there was no emergency to encourage them to waste precious fuel to steam faster.
The morning of the 23rd day found all hands at the rails as the coast of Puna came into view. They traveled around the point, headed for Hilo, the major town on the island of Hawaii.
The passenger ship, The Tommy Carson entered Hilo Bay, blowing its whistle and hooter continuously to attract attention of anyone living nearby.
A small crowd was seen standing on the beach, it looked to be no more than 20 people. Crockydale Warrior Captain Joseph Great Rock selected 10 of his Warriors and they all rode the boat down to the water. The warriors had also been trained on the oars and they soon had the small boat headed for the beach.
Captain Great Rock stepped ashore and announced, “We are from Australia, the Carson Family has sent us to find you and ask if you wish to join us in Australia.”
A man, who appeared to be the group’s leader, stepped forward and replied, “We are happy here, we have shelter and food and we have made a life for ourselves. There are some younglings, however, who may wish for the adventure of joining with you. We will not prevent them from going, that is not our way.”
Four boys stepped up to the Warrior Captain and one boy, who was obviously their leader, said, “Pliss Sar uses go yus, uses see nu stuffs un places. Wes be gut fishmins un huntmins. Uses gots own spears un fish spikes.”
The people told them that only the Big Island of Hawaii had people, the bombs had killed everyone on Oahu and on the rest of the islands the people had starved. They had been able to rescue a few, but most of the other islands now contained only ghosts and bleached bones.
The four boys were helped into the boat and they rowed back to their ship. The boys were both excited and sad. Sad because they were leaving their families and all they knew, but the new adventure had them excited and squirming on their seats. They rode the boat up to the boat deck and were helped out onto the deck of the ship, which looked monstrous to them.
The Warrior Captain, Joseph Great Rock, took the four boys and led them to the infirmary to be checked out before introducing them to his cousin TJ Carson, the ship’s Captain.
The boys were both frightened and attracted to the huge man with the flaming red hair, who was “bossman” of the huge ship.
TJ explained to them that they would be going to school to learn to read and write like everyone else on his ship. The boys did not know what reading was, but they knew about picture writing on rocks. They were, however, eager to please this giant of a man who towered over them and had treated the so well, much unlike their own people had treated them on their home island.
So it was that four Hawaiian boys joined the crew of The Tommy Carson. They would have plenty of adventures and learning experiences before they reached the next landfall in Central America.
Their first adventure took place that same afternoon, after the doctor had looked them over, they were taken to a small room, where warm water sprayed out of holes in the wall and soap leaves were made into small blocks for washing. Flush toilets were a mystery and the galley was magical place that spit out wondrous foods that they had never heard of, let alone, ever tasted!
By the end of their first day, their heads were swimming and they were exhausted. They had hardly put their heads down on the soft white things the other boys called pillows, and they were asleep.
The next morning, their adventures would begin in earnest, they were going to school! Little did they realize that their adventures were going to take them far away from the islands of their birth and to places that would seem magical to those they had left behind.
It took the boys the entire voyage to the west coast of Central America to understand that the odd shapes on the pages of books were words and that they told a story, like the Shaman told them stories that meant things.
The adults teaching the class enjoyed working with the new boys, the four boys were obviously very intelligent and they picked up information like magnets.
By the time they reached Central America, the teachers were being pushed for MORE and FASTER! The most feared words the teachers now heard were, “WHY” and “HOW”!
The teachers were not absolutely sure, but they strongly suspected that the four boys communicated without words, perhaps mind to mind. The longer they were in class, the more sure the teachers became.
They tried an experiment, they told one boy something and then told another boy something exactly the opposite while he was away from the group. There came an immediate howl from all four boys and the teachers hurried to apologize, before any damage was done.
The boys WERE Telepathic, of that, there was no question! As their voyage continued, they discovered that the gift might not be confined to Hawaiian boys and they wondered if their own boys might be telepathic as well.
They conducted experiments on all the ships and discovered most of the boys were telepathic, some were more accomplished than others, but they all had the gift in one degree or another!
It did not appear that any of the girls had received the gift of telepathy, but precognizance would soon make its appearance among the girls. It sorta made sense, they were the child bearers of their species and was natural that all the boys made sure the girls were safe!
CENTRAL AMERICA
They approached Central America at Nicaragua, just south of the Mexican Border. They found no sign of life until they approached Puerto Caldera in Costa Rica. There they discovered a thriving fishing community that used huge dugout canoes far out to sea. They had both paddles and sails and carried as many as 20 fishermen.
The fishermen spoke a guttural English as well as their native Indian language and they appeared to be well disposed towards the visitors, inviting them to come into their harbor and visit their village.
The Crockydale Warriors were a little hesitant, they had read in the history books that some natives of Central and South America had once been cannibals and, when they asked the native fisherfolk about that, the natives were horrified.
One of the Hawaiian boys had attached himself to Warrior Sergeant Alex Carson Jumping ‘Roo. He looked up at his “hero” and said, “They tell truth, Papa… oooops.” The Sergeant wrapped his arms around the boy and said, “Thank you, son, that is a big help.”
The boy did not know whether to scream in joy or to cry, so he did both. Sergeant Alex had already asked permission of his Captain to adopt the boy and permission had been granted.
A boy, who was a long way from home and his family, suddenly had a new Papa and a new place in life. His telepathic powers would grow with use and, by the time he was fully adult, he would be able to skim the minds of any human and communicate with a “sensitive” over long distances. “Truth Telling” was one of his major powers, a power that not every boy had. They had all been forced to hide their mental powers from their people back in Hawaii as they were feared and resented, even by their own families.
“Lepo Alex Jumping ‘Roo would become the first Sergeant of Telepaths and would lead a squad of ‘paths wherever the Crockydale Warriors served. His Truth Telling abilities would soon be in major demand and the new boys discovered they honored and wanted by everyone on the ship!
All the telepaths had such a code of honor that none would ever be accused of telepathic wrong doing and any frightened child knew that a ‘path would protect them or die in the trying!
The ships anchored in the harbor of Puerto Caldera and the crews began going ashore for the first time since they had left their home in Australia. The people living there depended upon the sea for their livelihood.
There was little correspondence with the rest of the small country. With the collapse, travel had almost ceased and all travel for pleasure simply did not exist any longer. The Jeremy Carson was the first ship that even looked like a cruise ship that they had seen in over four hundred years.
The Carson ships replenished their supplies and took on fresh water. They had not been able to run the evaporators much because of plankton beds in the sea, which would have carried over, making the water smell and taste of fish and the radiation detectors told them that the plankton was slightly radioactive.
They traded for a few goods and TJ and JJ had a conference with the town Alcalde. The Alcalde said, “Señors, we have some boys who seem to have abilities like your boys, they hear other’s minds. Our people are afraid of these boys and treat them bad, will you take them and protect them. Give them a chance to grow and become whatever God intended them to be. Some of them like other boys and that is also against our traditions, but one of them is my own son. Please, señores, take my beloved son and the others and give them a home where they can become the men they are supposed to be.”
TJ and JJ were not able to say, “NO” and, the next morning, fifty young boys trooped up the gangway. Not a single villager, except the Alcalde, saw the boys off or even wished them well.
Each boy was met at the Quarter Deck by a boy exactly like himself and was gently led to the berthing space, where he could stow his few belongings.
Then, they were led to the Mess Deck and handed food trays with more food than they had ever seen before and told, if they were still hungry, they could have seconds.
Those few boys who did not speak English were shown mind pictures of more food. There were fifty boys shedding tears like a water fall and had to be led to a table where they could sit down and eat. To be allowed extra food was a luxury none of them had ever before experienced. Their own people had never liked or trusted them, they were complete outcasts. Even their own parents wanted nothing to do with them and did not come down to the ship to see them off.
The adults working the Mess Deck were getting flashes of mind speech and pictures and their own tears were raining down their faces as they served the boys their first meal among them. The boys were overwhelmed with the quantity and the quality of the foods served to them and the love being radiated from the boys who were already on the ship had them in tears.
They continued down the coast towards Panama, they did not expect the Canal to be operating and they were not disappointed, the locks lay in ruins. The surrounding area seemed to be deserted and had a strange green glow at night. None of them wanted anything to do with going ashore there.
At each stop, they seemed to collect a few boys and, more than a few were smuggled aboard by the boys already on the ship. Those adults who were beginning to hear the mind talk of the boys, heard them calling to boys on the shore to come to them and be protected from the people who were hurting them.
Warrior Captain Joseph Great Rock knew that he was a “sensitive” and he heard the boys’ call clearly, when he attempted to join in, he was shaken to his boots, the boys heard him! They welcomed him among them and they were happy for him that he could mind speak with them. He have never been able to transmit before, not even to more powerful mindspeakers.
It was a turning point, like an avalanche, the adults embarked on the small flotilla began joining in the flow of mind talk. Some were better than others and voice communication was not totally abandoned. It was an effort for most adults to mind-speak, although they became better at it with usage. Their adult minds, however, were capable of more complex thought patterns and were able to convey more information to those who were “hearing”: them.
As they cruised south along the coast of South America, they were met with total desolation. They encountered nobody until they reached Peru. There, they discovered a small fishing village near the ruins of the Port of Callao. There seemed to be no adults about and, when the boys attempted mind-speech, they were met with images of people eating other people!
Again, it was the older boys who first detected the obscene and disgusting thoughts of those who wanted them as food for their supper. The younger members of their party had no concept of other people being thought of as food!
They quickly bypassed all of Peru and headed further south into Chile. Again, they again found no survivors, just ruins.
THROUGH THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN
They entered the straits at the Labyrinth and finally reached Canal Magdelena at sunset. At least so far, their old charts were correct, even in the showing of the depth of the channel. The entire area was completely desolate and bitter cold. TJ ordered all ships to stop and, if possible, drop their anchors.
He was not about to negotiate these strange waters in the dark. They had radar and a barely operating sonar, but all they got was returns of rocky crags and bright returns they they could not identify on both systems.
Stories of cannibals loomed up in his mind and he asked the telepaths to come up to the bridge. The four Hawaiian boys were their best mind speakers. Led by Lepo Jumping Roo, the other three, Jod, Gan and Jus could range out their minds many miles in any direction and could detect thinking beings. Most of them, they could actually communicate with.
To concentrate their power, Lepo held out his hands so they could all make a physical connection with each other. The bridge began to glow in a, eerie purple light and the four boys ranged their minds further and further.
As TJ watched, a look of horror came over the boys’ faces and, as one, they screamed an awful, soul wrenching scream and they fell over in a dead faint.
Worried, TJ held the boys as the bridge crew applied cool cloths to their faces. As they began to revive, they all screamed out their horror, shouting, “NO, NO STAY AWAY FROM US, CALL OUT THE WARRIORS NOW!”
So began the Battle of the Phantasms. Soon, faint shapes were whizzing by the ships and diving on anyone standing out on deck, unprotected. Lepo struggled to speak, “pppPapa, gggeettt hhhhelp. Mmore boysss qqquickly!” Sergeant Alex Carson Jumping Roo screamed down the ladder, send the Hawaii boys up NOW!”
The other three Hawaiian boys came running up the ladder at full speed, they sensed their brother was in trouble, BAD TROUBLE! They joined hands with him and still they could not drive away the “night demons”. Alex called down for more boys, he shouted, “We need the best of the best mind speakers, else we all are going to die!”
Six more boys came up the ladder out of breath and Alex pointed to the group being led by his son. The six new boys jumped into the meld and the linoleum on the deck of the bridge began to curl up and smolder!
The adult sensitives joined the boys, adding maturity and strength of purpose to their power and energy. The air in the Bridge was seething with wild energies as they battled the mind demons.
Suddenly, they all felt a release, the energy they were pouring out suddenly was released and the air around them crackled and zapped with blue lightning and the opposing force was gone. All ten boys and the adult sensitives were woozy and near to fainting from exhaustion, they all felt as if they had been drained of energy and were as weak as in empty cloth bag.
The boys could not identify what it was they were battling other than it was something no longer human and was very old and VERY evil. It wanted their souls, their very essence of humanity! The adults called them devils!
All the telepaths on all the ships stood guard for the remainder of the night, the evil presence never returned. None of them believed it was dead and, now that it knew of their existence, they were going to have to be on guard for the rest of their lives.
At first light, the ships got underway and exited through the Estrecho de Magdalena, headed first to the Falkland Islands, once a tiny protectorate of Great Britain.
The Carson Family had once served that tiny speck of land with twice a year service. They planned on offering to take whatever folk remained alive and bring the back to Australia with them. The wind-blown and desolate islands looked to them like they could not support human life, let alone the number of minds they detected.
It was a four day trip, the seas were rough and the small fleet slowed down in order to save their passengers the discomfort of sea sickness. The small outpost consisted of two islands and they stopped first at Saunders Island, before continuing on to Port Stanley.
At Saunders Island, they rescued a small group of survivors, they were starving and dressed only in rags and seal skins. Like in themselves, mind speak was developing in the tiny population, but none of the people of that starving group had any contact with people on the other island. The seas were too rough to risk a small boat between them, so all contact had been lost.
As soon as the survivors were brought on board, the fleet got underway and headed east to Port Stanley. It was only a few hours steaming time and they arrived later that same day.
They left the three larger ships out in the bay and brought The Tommy Carson through the Narrows at Navy Point and anchored the ship at a tumbled down pier in the small town of Stanley.
They blew the hooter and the ship’s whistle continuously for several minutes and Captain Carson called on the loud hailer telling anyone on the shore that they were there to rescue them. He had the four Hawaiian Boys up on the bridge, they were their best mind-speakers and he asked them to attempt to contact anyone in the old town.
The boys sent their minds out from the ship, seeking contacts. Lepo whispered, “Theys afraid Captain, theys been invaded by pirates afer us. Let usins go ashore and meet with them, don’t send no adults, theys all kids like usins.”
The Captain was not enthused about Lepo’s plan, but he finally agreed and the boys were taken in the rowing boat and deposited on the beach. Those on the bridge could hear the boys sending out their message and they were shocked when they heard an agonized mental wail asking for help. Someone was hurt and very frightened!
They saw the four boys take off running in the direction of a tumbled down warehouse. Their boys remained out of sight for a long time and Captain Carson was debating sending troops in to extract the boys.
Just as he made the decision to send in the Warriors, the boys reappeared. They each were carrying a small person and they were leading a group of children and young adults down to the beach.
Everyone sighed in relief and four boats were ordered to the beach to collect the ashore party and refugees. Lepo had sent a tight mental message to him only that the villagers had beaten off an attack of pirates and these were the only survivors. They were all wounded and would need care in sickbay immediately.
The doctors were notified to be standing by as the injured were brought onboard in Stokes Stretchers as none of them were capable of walking, let alone climbing a rope ladder.
Lepo must have contacted his “gang of mindspeakers” because, as each person was brought on board the ship, there was a boy right there to be with them. They brought another 50 refugees onboard. All of them injured and suffering from the cold and lack of food.
As yet, no girl had developed mind-speak. That would come later.
When all the survivors were on the ship, Captain Carson threaded his ship out of the harbor and as soon as they were on the open sea, he brought their speed up to 15 knots and headed west for the coast of South America. The seas were rising and he was sure there was a storm brewing. He was correct!
THE HURRICANE
They set course northwest in an attempt to shelter in Buenos Aires before the main part of the storm reached them. The ship was capable of about 22 knots, but anything over 19 knots set them to bone rattling pounding, so he kept them just under that critical speed all the way to Rio Plata. The rest of the fleet was right behind therm.
They slipped into the bay at the mouth of Rio Plata just as the storm broke over their heads. Rain pelted down along with blasts of sheet lightning and high winds.
The Captain maneuvered the ship and the rest of the fleet followed him to the protected waters of Bahia San Isidro. As soon as they entered the harbor, the seas calmed and the wind speed dropped to almost zero.
There, the ships dropped both anchors, fore and aft, to prevent dragging. They waited out the fury of the storm for three days and nights as high winds whistled through their rigging and heavy rains assaulted them. The downpour was so heavy they could not tell night from day and the main deck could not be seen from the Bridge. The Captain had to forbid anyone going out on the open decks, it was just too dangerous and anyone being washed over the side had no hope of rescue.
On the fourth day, the winds began to abate and the rains became more gentle and forgiving. By the next day, patches of blue sky could be seen and sunlight began to peer through holes in the clouds. The storm was over.
The town’s people had seen the ships racing into harbor, the first ships that did not seem to be pirates or slavers that their only visitors they had seen since the Great Collapse. Captain Carson asked his “right-hand mind boys”, the Hawaiian Boys, to come up to the Bridge. He asked them to attempt to reach the people on the shore and give them “the spiel” about being rescued.
He could see a crowd of about fifty people on the old pier and he hoped that more people than that had survived. He was later told that cannibals had come out of the pampas and they were all who had survived.
The survivors were sure their own last days had arrived as soon as the vestiges of the storm dissipated.
The survivors told of terrible escapes from cannibals and pirates, some had fled from as far north as central Brazil. They were told that much of Brazil was in flames from volcanoes and Rio de Janeiro had become a rotting swamp as earthquakes had caused the city to sink into its bay.
They had no knowledge on any of the towns further north nor of the small countries along the coast. They had heard only tales of mass destruction of the magical land of Los Estados Unidos.
After they had taken aboard all the refugees, they again began following the coast to the north. Every place they looked had been visited with total destruction, not even the dogs had survived.
They went as far as Columbia without finding a single survivor. The boys drove their minds outwards and could not detect a single spark of intelligent life.
They made a hard decision, they must turn away and hope for people who had survived along the coast of Europe. They did not know that groups of survivors were beginning to thrive along the Gulf Coast of North America, but, as it turned out, those folk were in little danger and would thrive on their own and would be discovered on subsequent voyages when an attempt to re-colonize North America would be attempted.
EUROPE
They plotted a course that would take them across the Atlantic Ocean to the British Islands and the Baltic Sea. Even though it has passed into the summer season again, their crossing was violent and all the passengers and crew felt like small pebbles in a very large jar. Even so, they all agreed that it was worth the effort on the chance there might be some survivors they could rescue.
They ran into sea ice off the southern coast of Ireland and could proceed no further. They found they could slip into the English Channel between England and France as far as Amsterdam. The North Sea was a solid sheet of ice as far as they could see and they discovered a few people along the coast of The Netherlands and France, but none of them wanted to leave.
A few folks along the southern coast of England wanted to leave and those few were safely brought onboard the ships.
They could go no further, they were forced to turn around and head south towards the Mediterranean Sea. A few of the French people wanted to go with them and the picked up a large number of people at Lisbon.
The Gates of Gibraltar were blocked by warships flying no flag they recognized. They were not shot at, but the ships made it very plain that they would not be allowed to proceed.
They anchored off the coast of Morocco near Rabal, and held a “council of war”. They were unwilling to deal with Africa, the nations of that land had been overrun by Muslim Fanatics even before the Great Destruction and they did not feel safe dealing with any of them. Many years later, they would learn that it had been a trap, had they entered the harbor, they would have been set upon and every one killed. Worse, their course would have been “backtracked” and their families and friends back in Australia would have been attacked by those wishing more slaves to do their “dirty work”.
THE DECISION
They held their first ever meeting by mind contact and made the decision to head for home. They would round the Cape and head into the Indian Ocean before heading for home in Australia.
They had been gone from home now almost three years and they all wanted some dry land under their feet and family members in their arms. They were out of many sizes of clothing and the doctors reported that medical supplies were dangerously low. They had collected three thousand survivors and food supplies were running low as well as fuel for their ships. Nearly all their bunks were now occupied, sleeping arrangements were getting critical.
Once the decision was made, the ships got underway and headed south along the coast of Africa. They did perform mental scans as they passed by, but they found nothing friendly on those shores.
Once they rounded the Cape of Good Hope, they struck out across the Indian Ocean with their course set for Darwin. As they got closer the more powerful of their mind speakers began straining to be the first to contact HOME.
A group of ten boys, led by the Hawaiian Boys, were the first to gain contact. The first person they discovered was THE CARSON Himself! To those children, Jeremy and Tommy Carson were deities and to have actually made mind contact with either of them made the boys heroes!
It was a grand day when the four ships steamed into Darwin Harbor, people from all over the country were gathered to watch the ships come into the harbor and tie up at the piers. All the recued folk lined the rails to catch a first glimpse of their new home. The ships were blasting their hooters and whistles and the crowd roared back their own welcome.
It was a holiday atmosphere in the harbor, flags and banners were being waved in welcome to the new arrivals and children were carrying baskets of fresh fruits and candies as their gifts of welcome to the recued children.
They let the children run down the gangway first, where they were met by children just like themselves. All the children seemed to have better mind capabilities than did their elders and the air above the throng of children turned purple with the happy mind to mind energies being expended by the excited children and teens.
The Welcome Gifts were eagerly eaten by the newcomers and many lifelong friendships were begun in those few moments of genuine welcome. The first genuine welcome they had ever experienced anywhere!
The rescued adults followed their children down the gangway, while the crews secured their ships. The adults were welcomed no less enthusiastically than were their children and, when the crew came down the gangways, their families literally mobbed them! The mental disturbance was heard as far away as Sydney!
There would be more rescue voyages in the near future, but this voyage was the very first attempt and it was a resounding success! The fact that mind to mind contact, a thing always theorized, but never attained until this voyage, only made the excitement more intense.
Those who were becomming proficient at mind-speak knew their days of pulling the “wool” over their parents’ eyes were over, but the sheer joy in knowing an absolute love made up for it. New couples among the newly rescued youngsters were immediately apparent. No more would they have to endure the guessing game of does XXXX like me or not!
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TBC
A new era is opening for those at Darwin and Carson Shipping is poised to return to its world-wide shipping business.
[email protected]
This story is a fictional account of a period that begins after The Carson Family and their many ships had settled in Australia and helped civilization to cling to life after much of the world had suffered from Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) and chronicles what happens to that family, who had saved many youngsters from death or a life so horrible, death would have been welcomed.. While the story is completely fictional, actual names, characters, places and incidents that might coincide with actions, places, people or events have been changed to protect both the innocent and the guilty or are the product of my imagination and used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The actual shipboard processes, however, are based upon experiences of the author.
This story is copyrighted and may not be reproduced by any means without my express, written permission.
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ATTENTION: PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS INCOMPLETE DUE TO THE AUTHOR HAVING MEDICAL ISSUES AND NOSTRINGS WISH HIM ALL THE BEST AND A SPEEDY RECOVERY.
ADVENTURES AT SEA
A hundred years have passed and Jeremy 3 and Tommy 3 Carson passed away and now another new generation of Carsons was growing old. Tommy Throwing Rock Carson, Jr. is President of the company and his brother and Life Partner Jeremy Pei Carson, Jr. is the Company Chief Engineer and Vice President.
It had been a family dream to recolonize North America, a place where their company had fled with all its employees, rescued children and friends many years earlier.
Much of the industrialized world had been destroyed in a terrible rain of nuclear bombs and they knew that many places they held dear in their Family Stories would remain uninhabitable for many generations yet to come.
T4 and J4 were now “hooked to the harness” in command of the Carson Empire. The loss of their Daddies shook them to their very cores, but they had the welfare of their whole families and their employees, whom they considered family also, to deal with. They both stepped up to the plate and there was no hesitation in Carson Shipping.
Their first concern was to get the new port at Onslow up and running. It was to be primarily a fishing port, but also there would be a complete shipyard and repair facility as they were fast outgrowing the facilities at Darwin.
It would a couple of years before the Australian Power Authority would have electric power out to Onslow, so the first thing they needed was their own electric power station.
Barges began to arrive with building materials and rolls of blueprints from various suppliers. Their principle supplier was Gaiun Steel and Shipbuilding and Gaiun supplied an Erector Supervisor to assist in erecting the buildings for the power plant. That had to be first.
As the buildings began to rise above the red soil of Western Australia, Mr. Pei of Gaiun Steel suddenly passed away. He had only daughters and their husbands wanted nothing to do with getting their hands dirty building steel buildings OR ships in the “provinces”.
Both T4 and J4 were quick to spot an opportunity and they offered to buy out the Gaiun Family. Their offer was snatched up so fast, the telephone wires were smoking!
They let the name, “GAIUN” remain as it was well known throughout Southeast Asia. With it came the electrical repair subsidiary, Hainan Electric and that, also, was a great benefit to them. Now, they had not only a large steel fabricator, they had the ability to handle electric machinery from small motors to huge generators and transformers as well as ship’s propulsion motors in many of their ships. Those were large, low RPM motors, ranging from 3,000 horsepower to over 10,000 horsepower.
Even before they could get started on the project at Onslow, the Australian Power Authority issued them a contract for a complete steam/electric power plant at Darwin. The plant was to be mammoth and would include three of what would be the largest turbine generators in the Southeast Asia Area. It also included six huge boilers and an oil pipeline from the port to the plant.
Ian Carson was assigned to manage the new acquisition. Ian was a third generation Grandson of Joel Carson and had no recollection of his life before his Daddy, Andrew Carson had found him sitting on the marble floor of the Carson Headquarters in Darwin. He had been half starved and alone when a nice man picked him up and held him in his protective arms. That man was Daddy Andy and, in that instant, his life began.
Daddy Andy and his mate, Daddy Phil, had cared for him and had made him their own son. True, he had to share his daddies with three additional younger brothers, but he was their first son and they sometimes called him their “Number One” boy.
That he and his brothers were part Aborigine had been ignored and it never even dawned on him until he had become an adult. He did remember his Daddy walking him to school one day and a nasty man had made some remark that he did not understand, nor did he even remember what the words were, only that his Daddy knocked the man into the drainage canal and continued taking him to school remained in his memory of the incident.
By the time he was old enough to understand what had taken place, it didn’t matter any longer.
A NEW POWER STATION
Six years later, the new Darwin Power Station was ready to go on line. The old system was more a flickering headache than it was a power system and the Northwest of Australia was stumbling along with power outages, blackouts and flickering voltage.
The Onslow Project had been postponed because no electric power could be supplied.
The day the huge breakers closed at the Darwin Steam Electric Plant, the electric blackouts and rationing ended throughout Western Australia.
Ian Carson was justifiably proud of what Gaiun-Carson Steel and Shipbuilding had accomplished. Many of the machines that had built the machinery that went into the new power station had been invented by Ian and his staff. They had reinvented what had once been commonplace before the Great Collapse and, now, they could apply those same machines to building Onslow.
Hardly had the breakers been closed when crews were reassigned to complete the long neglected electric power line to the sleepy village at Onslow Point.
Within days, heavy haul trucks were on the road with steel beams to construct a tower line across Southwestern Australia. The power line would follow the coast from Carson Colony south to the Onslow Peninsula. It would supply Onslow and continue on to tie into the Perth Tieline.
It was a period of rapid growth for their adopted country and, at long last, the native population of the Aborigine People was being accepted into Australian Society on an equal basis and the entire country was growing industrially.
To be sure, there were a few “hiccups” along the way, but, by and large, by the time the Onslow Project was completed, the problems of the past were just that, the past, and the entire country was racing towards the future.
It would require another ten years to see the complete Onslow project come on line, a giant shipyard and industrial complex replaced salt evaporating ponds and modern homes replaced the collection of fishermen’s shanties that was once the village of Onslow.
Where there had been a population of less than one hundred people, Onslow was now a small city of ten thousand and was still growing.
The three building ways were occupied with new ships and one of the newest projects was a factory ship to serve the fishing fleet. The ship had been named “THE AUSSIE FISHER” and had a displacement of 50,000 tons. It was the largest ship yet for the Onslow Shipyard. It would be the largest ship in the Carson Fleet and also in the entire shipping industry in the Far East.
A new rail spur was under construction to serve the area and the airport had already been enlarged twice and now a complete new airport was on the drawing board.
The population of Onslow was much more cosmopolitan than any city in Australia had been in the past, ethnic groups from all over the Southeast Pacific Area were represented. The only thing that was common to them all was the language. Australian English was the spoken language of entire area.
The Carsons sent a few freighters on exploration trips into the Mediterranean area, but they found almost no human life in the area, North Africa was a windblown desert and Israel and Palestine had joined as one country. They had nothing to trade, but their population was slowly increasing, so the decision was made to trade in small amounts and hope they would be future trading partners.
Southern France and Spain were locked in a territorial war and had no time or goods to trade.
Italy was divided into three small kingdoms and trade was lively both with the visiting Carson ships and also among themselves.
Greece was a total loss, there was tribal warfare throughout the peninsula and the country had broken up, into a dozen small principalities, each hating their neighbors.
The one surprise was Morocco, it was a constitutional monarchy and was thriving. However, they had little to trade, other than colorful blankets, olive oil and dates. One Carson ship a year satisfied their needs and, while profitable, the rewards were not large enough to warrant an additional visit per year.
A small fleet of three ships had been constructed for the express purpose of exploring the continents of North and South America to discover whether there were areas still capable of supporting human life. One ship was a tanker, one a cargo ship and the last was a combination cargo and passenger ship.
Both Tommy Throwing Rock Carson and Jeremy Pei Carson had carefully groomed their sons, called TJ and JJ in the manner of their Great Grandfathers, to be joint commanders of the expedition.
Both young men took after their ancestors. They had the signature bright red hair and massive build. Both young men stood nearly seven feet tall and were powerful enough to frighten children. They were, however, as gentle as lambs, unless angered, and then, they were as dangerous as a wounded salt water croc!
They had been building crews for the exploration ships for nearly a generation. TJ had been tutored for years in what his Father, Tommy Throwing Rock Carson considered the most important voyage of the century.
Likewise, Jeremy Pei Carson tutored JJ in all manners of engineering, it would be on JJ’s back that no shipboard breakdown would stop the voyage.
Critical spare parts were already collected and stored on the Joel Carson III, along with sufficient raw materials to fabricate almost anything that could break down on any of the vessels.
While the brothers carried joint command of the small fleet, they commanded no vessel or groups of warriors. They were the heart and the brain of the effort and, upon their shoulders rested the success or failure of the venture.
As the sailing date approached, Tommy ordered the tanker to be loaded with diesel fuel for the ships and the small boats loaded on the Joel Carson III and the Tommy Carson, the passenger/freighter. The tanker, The Jeremy Carson, had a few small boats in davits lining the upper deck, but they were not built to accommodate the CROCKYDALE Warriors, they were for the movement of civilians being rescued from beaches and islands, should they come across any survivors of the last centuries.
Sailing day finally arrived and streams of men and women began walking up the gangway of their assigned ship, there were a number of teens who thought they were sneaking on board in the crowd, but the Gangway Watch on each ship was told to be looking the “other way” as they crossed the “Quarter Deck”.
Quarters had been set aside for those youngsters who were “sneaking on board” and there were stewards just inside the hatch, where all those boarding had to enter, to lead the youngsters, who could show no boarding pass, to their quarters.
There were even those who were sub-teens, no youngster was turned away. All would be given useful duties to perform and their parents would be notified of their inclusion in the crew after the ships had sailed.
The ships sailed as the sun was setting on the western horizon, the ship’s horns and emergency hooters were bellowing full blast as families stood on the pier watching their loved one sail off into the unknown.
Once at sea, a complete roster would be transmitted back to Carson Headquarters and posted for families to see the names of their children who had managed to sneak on board one of the ships. It was more than “just a few” the list required nearly an hour to transmit! And, even at that, they still missed a few!
VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY
They had already visited nearby lands on a regular basis, so their first landfall was to be Hawaii. It was from Hawaii that many of their forbearers had jumped off for Australia so many years earlier.
They all had family stories of those who had been left behind and it was hoped that the descendants of those left behind might be reunited with their families.
The ships steamed at the speed of the slowest vessel, the tanker, The Jeremy Carson. It was a twenty-two day voyage to Hawaii, they were in no hurry and there was no emergency to encourage them to waste precious fuel to steam faster.
The morning of the 23rd day found all hands at the rails as the coast of Puna came into view. They traveled around the point, headed for Hilo, the major town on the island of Hawaii.
The passenger ship, The Tommy Carson entered Hilo Bay, blowing its whistle and hooter continuously to attract attention of anyone living nearby.
A small crowd was seen standing on the beach, it looked to be no more than 20 people. Crockydale Warrior Captain Joseph Great Rock selected 10 of his Warriors and they all rode the boat down to the water. The warriors had also been trained on the oars and they soon had the small boat headed for the beach.
Captain Great Rock stepped ashore and announced, “We are from Australia, the Carson Family has sent us to find you and ask if you wish to join us in Australia.”
A man, who appeared to be the group’s leader, stepped forward and replied, “We are happy here, we have shelter and food and we have made a life for ourselves. There are some younglings, however, who may wish for the adventure of joining with you. We will not prevent them from going, that is not our way.”
Four boys stepped up to the Warrior Captain and one boy, who was obviously their leader, said, “Pliss Sar uses go yus, uses see nu stuffs un places. Wes be gut fishmins un huntmins. Uses gots own spears un fish spikes.”
The people told them that only the Big Island of Hawaii had people, the bombs had killed everyone on Oahu and on the rest of the islands the people had starved. They had been able to rescue a few, but most of the other islands now contained only ghosts and bleached bones.
The four boys were helped into the boat and they rowed back to their ship. The boys were both excited and sad. Sad because they were leaving their families and all they knew, but the new adventure had them excited and squirming on their seats. They rode the boat up to the boat deck and were helped out onto the deck of the ship, which looked monstrous to them.
The Warrior Captain, Joseph Great Rock, took the four boys and led them to the infirmary to be checked out before introducing them to his cousin TJ Carson, the ship’s Captain.
The boys were both frightened and attracted to the huge man with the flaming red hair, who was “bossman” of the huge ship.
TJ explained to them that they would be going to school to learn to read and write like everyone else on his ship. The boys did not know what reading was, but they knew about picture writing on rocks. They were, however, eager to please this giant of a man who towered over them and had treated the so well, much unlike their own people had treated them on their home island.
So it was that four Hawaiian boys joined the crew of The Tommy Carson. They would have plenty of adventures and learning experiences before they reached the next landfall in Central America.
Their first adventure took place that same afternoon, after the doctor had looked them over, they were taken to a small room, where warm water sprayed out of holes in the wall and soap leaves were made into small blocks for washing. Flush toilets were a mystery and the galley was magical place that spit out wondrous foods that they had never heard of, let alone, ever tasted!
By the end of their first day, their heads were swimming and they were exhausted. They had hardly put their heads down on the soft white things the other boys called pillows, and they were asleep.
The next morning, their adventures would begin in earnest, they were going to school! Little did they realize that their adventures were going to take them far away from the islands of their birth and to places that would seem magical to those they had left behind.
It took the boys the entire voyage to the west coast of Central America to understand that the odd shapes on the pages of books were words and that they told a story, like the Shaman told them stories that meant things.
The adults teaching the class enjoyed working with the new boys, the four boys were obviously very intelligent and they picked up information like magnets.
By the time they reached Central America, the teachers were being pushed for MORE and FASTER! The most feared words the teachers now heard were, “WHY” and “HOW”!
The teachers were not absolutely sure, but they strongly suspected that the four boys communicated without words, perhaps mind to mind. The longer they were in class, the more sure the teachers became.
They tried an experiment, they told one boy something and then told another boy something exactly the opposite while he was away from the group. There came an immediate howl from all four boys and the teachers hurried to apologize, before any damage was done.
The boys WERE Telepathic, of that, there was no question! As their voyage continued, they discovered that the gift might not be confined to Hawaiian boys and they wondered if their own boys might be telepathic as well.
They conducted experiments on all the ships and discovered most of the boys were telepathic, some were more accomplished than others, but they all had the gift in one degree or another!
It did not appear that any of the girls had received the gift of telepathy, but precognizance would soon make its appearance among the girls. It sorta made sense, they were the child bearers of their species and was natural that all the boys made sure the girls were safe!
CENTRAL AMERICA
They approached Central America at Nicaragua, just south of the Mexican Border. They found no sign of life until they approached Puerto Caldera in Costa Rica. There they discovered a thriving fishing community that used huge dugout canoes far out to sea. They had both paddles and sails and carried as many as 20 fishermen.
The fishermen spoke a guttural English as well as their native Indian language and they appeared to be well disposed towards the visitors, inviting them to come into their harbor and visit their village.
The Crockydale Warriors were a little hesitant, they had read in the history books that some natives of Central and South America had once been cannibals and, when they asked the native fisherfolk about that, the natives were horrified.
One of the Hawaiian boys had attached himself to Warrior Sergeant Alex Carson Jumping ‘Roo. He looked up at his “hero” and said, “They tell truth, Papa… oooops.” The Sergeant wrapped his arms around the boy and said, “Thank you, son, that is a big help.”
The boy did not know whether to scream in joy or to cry, so he did both. Sergeant Alex had already asked permission of his Captain to adopt the boy and permission had been granted.
A boy, who was a long way from home and his family, suddenly had a new Papa and a new place in life. His telepathic powers would grow with use and, by the time he was fully adult, he would be able to skim the minds of any human and communicate with a “sensitive” over long distances. “Truth Telling” was one of his major powers, a power that not every boy had. They had all been forced to hide their mental powers from their people back in Hawaii as they were feared and resented, even by their own families.
“Lepo Alex Jumping ‘Roo would become the first Sergeant of Telepaths and would lead a squad of ‘paths wherever the Crockydale Warriors served. His Truth Telling abilities would soon be in major demand and the new boys discovered they honored and wanted by everyone on the ship!
All the telepaths had such a code of honor that none would ever be accused of telepathic wrong doing and any frightened child knew that a ‘path would protect them or die in the trying!
The ships anchored in the harbor of Puerto Caldera and the crews began going ashore for the first time since they had left their home in Australia. The people living there depended upon the sea for their livelihood.
There was little correspondence with the rest of the small country. With the collapse, travel had almost ceased and all travel for pleasure simply did not exist any longer. The Jeremy Carson was the first ship that even looked like a cruise ship that they had seen in over four hundred years.
The Carson ships replenished their supplies and took on fresh water. They had not been able to run the evaporators much because of plankton beds in the sea, which would have carried over, making the water smell and taste of fish and the radiation detectors told them that the plankton was slightly radioactive.
They traded for a few goods and TJ and JJ had a conference with the town Alcalde. The Alcalde said, “Señors, we have some boys who seem to have abilities like your boys, they hear other’s minds. Our people are afraid of these boys and treat them bad, will you take them and protect them. Give them a chance to grow and become whatever God intended them to be. Some of them like other boys and that is also against our traditions, but one of them is my own son. Please, señores, take my beloved son and the others and give them a home where they can become the men they are supposed to be.”
TJ and JJ were not able to say, “NO” and, the next morning, fifty young boys trooped up the gangway. Not a single villager, except the Alcalde, saw the boys off or even wished them well.
Each boy was met at the Quarter Deck by a boy exactly like himself and was gently led to the berthing space, where he could stow his few belongings.
Then, they were led to the Mess Deck and handed food trays with more food than they had ever seen before and told, if they were still hungry, they could have seconds.
Those few boys who did not speak English were shown mind pictures of more food. There were fifty boys shedding tears like a water fall and had to be led to a table where they could sit down and eat. To be allowed extra food was a luxury none of them had ever before experienced. Their own people had never liked or trusted them, they were complete outcasts. Even their own parents wanted nothing to do with them and did not come down to the ship to see them off.
The adults working the Mess Deck were getting flashes of mind speech and pictures and their own tears were raining down their faces as they served the boys their first meal among them. The boys were overwhelmed with the quantity and the quality of the foods served to them and the love being radiated from the boys who were already on the ship had them in tears.
They continued down the coast towards Panama, they did not expect the Canal to be operating and they were not disappointed, the locks lay in ruins. The surrounding area seemed to be deserted and had a strange green glow at night. None of them wanted anything to do with going ashore there.
At each stop, they seemed to collect a few boys and, more than a few were smuggled aboard by the boys already on the ship. Those adults who were beginning to hear the mind talk of the boys, heard them calling to boys on the shore to come to them and be protected from the people who were hurting them.
Warrior Captain Joseph Great Rock knew that he was a “sensitive” and he heard the boys’ call clearly, when he attempted to join in, he was shaken to his boots, the boys heard him! They welcomed him among them and they were happy for him that he could mind speak with them. He have never been able to transmit before, not even to more powerful mindspeakers.
It was a turning point, like an avalanche, the adults embarked on the small flotilla began joining in the flow of mind talk. Some were better than others and voice communication was not totally abandoned. It was an effort for most adults to mind-speak, although they became better at it with usage. Their adult minds, however, were capable of more complex thought patterns and were able to convey more information to those who were “hearing”: them.
As they cruised south along the coast of South America, they were met with total desolation. They encountered nobody until they reached Peru. There, they discovered a small fishing village near the ruins of the Port of Callao. There seemed to be no adults about and, when the boys attempted mind-speech, they were met with images of people eating other people!
Again, it was the older boys who first detected the obscene and disgusting thoughts of those who wanted them as food for their supper. The younger members of their party had no concept of other people being thought of as food!
They quickly bypassed all of Peru and headed further south into Chile. Again, they again found no survivors, just ruins.
THROUGH THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN
They entered the straits at the Labyrinth and finally reached Canal Magdelena at sunset. At least so far, their old charts were correct, even in the showing of the depth of the channel. The entire area was completely desolate and bitter cold. TJ ordered all ships to stop and, if possible, drop their anchors.
He was not about to negotiate these strange waters in the dark. They had radar and a barely operating sonar, but all they got was returns of rocky crags and bright returns they they could not identify on both systems.
Stories of cannibals loomed up in his mind and he asked the telepaths to come up to the bridge. The four Hawaiian boys were their best mind speakers. Led by Lepo Jumping Roo, the other three, Jod, Gan and Jus could range out their minds many miles in any direction and could detect thinking beings. Most of them, they could actually communicate with.
To concentrate their power, Lepo held out his hands so they could all make a physical connection with each other. The bridge began to glow in a, eerie purple light and the four boys ranged their minds further and further.
As TJ watched, a look of horror came over the boys’ faces and, as one, they screamed an awful, soul wrenching scream and they fell over in a dead faint.
Worried, TJ held the boys as the bridge crew applied cool cloths to their faces. As they began to revive, they all screamed out their horror, shouting, “NO, NO STAY AWAY FROM US, CALL OUT THE WARRIORS NOW!”
So began the Battle of the Phantasms. Soon, faint shapes were whizzing by the ships and diving on anyone standing out on deck, unprotected. Lepo struggled to speak, “pppPapa, gggeettt hhhhelp. Mmore boysss qqquickly!” Sergeant Alex Carson Jumping Roo screamed down the ladder, send the Hawaii boys up NOW!”
The other three Hawaiian boys came running up the ladder at full speed, they sensed their brother was in trouble, BAD TROUBLE! They joined hands with him and still they could not drive away the “night demons”. Alex called down for more boys, he shouted, “We need the best of the best mind speakers, else we all are going to die!”
Six more boys came up the ladder out of breath and Alex pointed to the group being led by his son. The six new boys jumped into the meld and the linoleum on the deck of the bridge began to curl up and smolder!
The adult sensitives joined the boys, adding maturity and strength of purpose to their power and energy. The air in the Bridge was seething with wild energies as they battled the mind demons.
Suddenly, they all felt a release, the energy they were pouring out suddenly was released and the air around them crackled and zapped with blue lightning and the opposing force was gone. All ten boys and the adult sensitives were woozy and near to fainting from exhaustion, they all felt as if they had been drained of energy and were as weak as in empty cloth bag.
The boys could not identify what it was they were battling other than it was something no longer human and was very old and VERY evil. It wanted their souls, their very essence of humanity! The adults called them devils!
All the telepaths on all the ships stood guard for the remainder of the night, the evil presence never returned. None of them believed it was dead and, now that it knew of their existence, they were going to have to be on guard for the rest of their lives.
At first light, the ships got underway and exited through the Estrecho de Magdalena, headed first to the Falkland Islands, once a tiny protectorate of Great Britain.
The Carson Family had once served that tiny speck of land with twice a year service. They planned on offering to take whatever folk remained alive and bring the back to Australia with them. The wind-blown and desolate islands looked to them like they could not support human life, let alone the number of minds they detected.
It was a four day trip, the seas were rough and the small fleet slowed down in order to save their passengers the discomfort of sea sickness. The small outpost consisted of two islands and they stopped first at Saunders Island, before continuing on to Port Stanley.
At Saunders Island, they rescued a small group of survivors, they were starving and dressed only in rags and seal skins. Like in themselves, mind speak was developing in the tiny population, but none of the people of that starving group had any contact with people on the other island. The seas were too rough to risk a small boat between them, so all contact had been lost.
As soon as the survivors were brought on board, the fleet got underway and headed east to Port Stanley. It was only a few hours steaming time and they arrived later that same day.
They left the three larger ships out in the bay and brought The Tommy Carson through the Narrows at Navy Point and anchored the ship at a tumbled down pier in the small town of Stanley.
They blew the hooter and the ship’s whistle continuously for several minutes and Captain Carson called on the loud hailer telling anyone on the shore that they were there to rescue them. He had the four Hawaiian Boys up on the bridge, they were their best mind-speakers and he asked them to attempt to contact anyone in the old town.
The boys sent their minds out from the ship, seeking contacts. Lepo whispered, “Theys afraid Captain, theys been invaded by pirates afer us. Let usins go ashore and meet with them, don’t send no adults, theys all kids like usins.”
The Captain was not enthused about Lepo’s plan, but he finally agreed and the boys were taken in the rowing boat and deposited on the beach. Those on the bridge could hear the boys sending out their message and they were shocked when they heard an agonized mental wail asking for help. Someone was hurt and very frightened!
They saw the four boys take off running in the direction of a tumbled down warehouse. Their boys remained out of sight for a long time and Captain Carson was debating sending troops in to extract the boys.
Just as he made the decision to send in the Warriors, the boys reappeared. They each were carrying a small person and they were leading a group of children and young adults down to the beach.
Everyone sighed in relief and four boats were ordered to the beach to collect the ashore party and refugees. Lepo had sent a tight mental message to him only that the villagers had beaten off an attack of pirates and these were the only survivors. They were all wounded and would need care in sickbay immediately.
The doctors were notified to be standing by as the injured were brought onboard in Stokes Stretchers as none of them were capable of walking, let alone climbing a rope ladder.
Lepo must have contacted his “gang of mindspeakers” because, as each person was brought on board the ship, there was a boy right there to be with them. They brought another 50 refugees onboard. All of them injured and suffering from the cold and lack of food.
As yet, no girl had developed mind-speak. That would come later.
When all the survivors were on the ship, Captain Carson threaded his ship out of the harbor and as soon as they were on the open sea, he brought their speed up to 15 knots and headed west for the coast of South America. The seas were rising and he was sure there was a storm brewing. He was correct!
THE HURRICANE
They set course northwest in an attempt to shelter in Buenos Aires before the main part of the storm reached them. The ship was capable of about 22 knots, but anything over 19 knots set them to bone rattling pounding, so he kept them just under that critical speed all the way to Rio Plata. The rest of the fleet was right behind therm.
They slipped into the bay at the mouth of Rio Plata just as the storm broke over their heads. Rain pelted down along with blasts of sheet lightning and high winds.
The Captain maneuvered the ship and the rest of the fleet followed him to the protected waters of Bahia San Isidro. As soon as they entered the harbor, the seas calmed and the wind speed dropped to almost zero.
There, the ships dropped both anchors, fore and aft, to prevent dragging. They waited out the fury of the storm for three days and nights as high winds whistled through their rigging and heavy rains assaulted them. The downpour was so heavy they could not tell night from day and the main deck could not be seen from the Bridge. The Captain had to forbid anyone going out on the open decks, it was just too dangerous and anyone being washed over the side had no hope of rescue.
On the fourth day, the winds began to abate and the rains became more gentle and forgiving. By the next day, patches of blue sky could be seen and sunlight began to peer through holes in the clouds. The storm was over.
The town’s people had seen the ships racing into harbor, the first ships that did not seem to be pirates or slavers that their only visitors they had seen since the Great Collapse. Captain Carson asked his “right-hand mind boys”, the Hawaiian Boys, to come up to the Bridge. He asked them to attempt to reach the people on the shore and give them “the spiel” about being rescued.
He could see a crowd of about fifty people on the old pier and he hoped that more people than that had survived. He was later told that cannibals had come out of the pampas and they were all who had survived.
The survivors were sure their own last days had arrived as soon as the vestiges of the storm dissipated.
The survivors told of terrible escapes from cannibals and pirates, some had fled from as far north as central Brazil. They were told that much of Brazil was in flames from volcanoes and Rio de Janeiro had become a rotting swamp as earthquakes had caused the city to sink into its bay.
They had no knowledge on any of the towns further north nor of the small countries along the coast. They had heard only tales of mass destruction of the magical land of Los Estados Unidos.
After they had taken aboard all the refugees, they again began following the coast to the north. Every place they looked had been visited with total destruction, not even the dogs had survived.
They went as far as Columbia without finding a single survivor. The boys drove their minds outwards and could not detect a single spark of intelligent life.
They made a hard decision, they must turn away and hope for people who had survived along the coast of Europe. They did not know that groups of survivors were beginning to thrive along the Gulf Coast of North America, but, as it turned out, those folk were in little danger and would thrive on their own and would be discovered on subsequent voyages when an attempt to re-colonize North America would be attempted.
EUROPE
They plotted a course that would take them across the Atlantic Ocean to the British Islands and the Baltic Sea. Even though it has passed into the summer season again, their crossing was violent and all the passengers and crew felt like small pebbles in a very large jar. Even so, they all agreed that it was worth the effort on the chance there might be some survivors they could rescue.
They ran into sea ice off the southern coast of Ireland and could proceed no further. They found they could slip into the English Channel between England and France as far as Amsterdam. The North Sea was a solid sheet of ice as far as they could see and they discovered a few people along the coast of The Netherlands and France, but none of them wanted to leave.
A few folks along the southern coast of England wanted to leave and those few were safely brought onboard the ships.
They could go no further, they were forced to turn around and head south towards the Mediterranean Sea. A few of the French people wanted to go with them and the picked up a large number of people at Lisbon.
The Gates of Gibraltar were blocked by warships flying no flag they recognized. They were not shot at, but the ships made it very plain that they would not be allowed to proceed.
They anchored off the coast of Morocco near Rabal, and held a “council of war”. They were unwilling to deal with Africa, the nations of that land had been overrun by Muslim Fanatics even before the Great Destruction and they did not feel safe dealing with any of them. Many years later, they would learn that it had been a trap, had they entered the harbor, they would have been set upon and every one killed. Worse, their course would have been “backtracked” and their families and friends back in Australia would have been attacked by those wishing more slaves to do their “dirty work”.
THE DECISION
They held their first ever meeting by mind contact and made the decision to head for home. They would round the Cape and head into the Indian Ocean before heading for home in Australia.
They had been gone from home now almost three years and they all wanted some dry land under their feet and family members in their arms. They were out of many sizes of clothing and the doctors reported that medical supplies were dangerously low. They had collected three thousand survivors and food supplies were running low as well as fuel for their ships. Nearly all their bunks were now occupied, sleeping arrangements were getting critical.
Once the decision was made, the ships got underway and headed south along the coast of Africa. They did perform mental scans as they passed by, but they found nothing friendly on those shores.
Once they rounded the Cape of Good Hope, they struck out across the Indian Ocean with their course set for Darwin. As they got closer the more powerful of their mind speakers began straining to be the first to contact HOME.
A group of ten boys, led by the Hawaiian Boys, were the first to gain contact. The first person they discovered was THE CARSON Himself! To those children, Jeremy and Tommy Carson were deities and to have actually made mind contact with either of them made the boys heroes!
It was a grand day when the four ships steamed into Darwin Harbor, people from all over the country were gathered to watch the ships come into the harbor and tie up at the piers. All the recued folk lined the rails to catch a first glimpse of their new home. The ships were blasting their hooters and whistles and the crowd roared back their own welcome.
It was a holiday atmosphere in the harbor, flags and banners were being waved in welcome to the new arrivals and children were carrying baskets of fresh fruits and candies as their gifts of welcome to the recued children.
They let the children run down the gangway first, where they were met by children just like themselves. All the children seemed to have better mind capabilities than did their elders and the air above the throng of children turned purple with the happy mind to mind energies being expended by the excited children and teens.
The Welcome Gifts were eagerly eaten by the newcomers and many lifelong friendships were begun in those few moments of genuine welcome. The first genuine welcome they had ever experienced anywhere!
The rescued adults followed their children down the gangway, while the crews secured their ships. The adults were welcomed no less enthusiastically than were their children and, when the crew came down the gangways, their families literally mobbed them! The mental disturbance was heard as far away as Sydney!
There would be more rescue voyages in the near future, but this voyage was the very first attempt and it was a resounding success! The fact that mind to mind contact, a thing always theorized, but never attained until this voyage, only made the excitement more intense.
Those who were becomming proficient at mind-speak knew their days of pulling the “wool” over their parents’ eyes were over, but the sheer joy in knowing an absolute love made up for it. New couples among the newly rescued youngsters were immediately apparent. No more would they have to endure the guessing game of does XXXX like me or not!
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TBC
A new era is opening for those at Darwin and Carson Shipping is poised to return to its world-wide shipping business.