“That’s right, Capt’n, bloody Spanish pieces of eight. Looks like right out of the mint.” Toby’s elevated voice boomed from the speaker on the bridge of the African Star. “And these two men, you should see them.”
A moment of silence passed then the captain responded, “Secure them… As soon as Gerard gets to the engine room advise when he can kill power.”
***
Samuel Gerard, the Chief Engineer, with Engineer’s Mate 2nd Class, Gustafson, left the rest of the boarding party at the main cargo deck after climbing the latter from their launch and immediately headed for the engine room. Toby and two seamen continued to the bridge. The layout of the ship, though different from the African Star, had some similarities. The bridge perched atop a tower-like superstructure aft that rose fifteen decks above the empty cargo deck. The engine room lay six decks below, in the bowel of the ship. The loud clatter of hard soled boots on metal stairs echoed from the steel walls as they climbed deeper into the ship.
A stale smell that he didn’t recognize grew stronger as they rapidly descended. It wasn’t the foul odour of putrefying flesh that he was half expecting to find - the smell of decomposing crewmen that were inexplicably absent from the vessel. It made Gerard nervous. He was sure there was something sinister down there and his imagination was beginning to play tricks on him. Carefully now, one step at a time, they worked their way down straining to hear the faintest sounds. The low throbbing beat of the mammoth engine smothered everything. You could feel it in the bulkheads and grating of the stair tread. That was to be expected. But the smell, what was that, rotting fruit?
Then, in the dim light of the stairwell Gustafson’s eye caught the flash of reflection through the grating from the deck below.
“Hey chief, what is that?” Gustafson asked, pointing in the direction of the shiny silver coin.
Without waiting for an answer, Gustafson rushed down and picked it up. “It’s just some kind of foreign coin, Spanish I think from the writing on it,” he said and put the coin in his pocket.
Fifteen or twenty minutes after leaving the others up on deck they were at the main control console and in another five they had gone through the shut-down sequence. The engine coasted to a stop. The deafening thunder was replaced with the sound of the ship flexing with the roll of the sea.
“Engineering to the bridge… Toby, are you there?” The engineer called into the com. “We’re dead in the water, sir.” He waited a moment for a reply but continued without one. “Any other orders while we are...”
Before he could finish the sentence Gerard suddenly turned. Gustafson grabbed a heavy pipe wrench for a weapon and bolted toward the door.
“That sounded like a bulkhead hatch sliding open,” he yelled.
Comments