“Who is, probably, going to keep on being the skipper,” Kuzma said. “With some security onboard, of course.”
“I am sorry I am late.” The skipper of the ship was medium height with dark black hair and a heavily muscled body. “One of the water pumps is still not working. I was discussing it with the chief engineer.”
“You’re actually right on time,” Kuzma said. “All right, everyone, Captain Vladan Sava, skipper of the… akuba…?
“Perhaps ‘Money for Nothing’…?” Captain Sava said. “It is the rough translation.”
“Skipper of the Money for Nothing,” Kuzma said. “From left to right, Captain Behm of the Sea Hooky. Captain Poole of the Noby Dick.”
“Yo,” Gary Poole said, waving. The skipper of the awkwardly-named 73' Arquela was tall, still quite emaciated, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a broad-brimmed straw hat. “So wish tradition let me change the name… ”
After Sophia had decided it would honor the owners to keep the name “No Tan Lines,” the tradition had stuck fast. Captain Poole just happened to draw a very short straw.
“Captain Richard Estep of the N2 Deep. Captain Elias Rostad of the One Toy Two Many. And Captain Richard Purser of the Finally Fishin’.”
“It is good to meet you all and I look forward to helping in this endeavor.”
“Captain Sava,” Kuzma continued, “who is an experienced master mariner, thank God, has agreed to assist the efforts of Wolf Squadron. The Money will begin to act, immediately, as the Flotilla One’s flagship. However, all personnel onboard are currently suffering from malnutrition due to lack of stores. We have stores already delivered to the Pit Stop which will be transferred, however all excess stores should be moved to the Money beginning immediately after this meeting. Anybody going to say they don’t have excess? And, yes, I know you’ve got your little stashes, I’m talking regular excess?”
“Plenty,” Behm said. “We were getting ready to shift some of it to the Pit Stop anyway.”
“We will also begin rotation of personnel to the Money for crew rest,” Kuzma said. “I know you all could use some time in a bunk that’s not rocking quite so much.”
“All for that,” Sophia said.
“With the exception of the Lines which I’ll get to,” Kuzma said. “You’re going to get screwed a bit; sorry, Lieutenant.”
“No worries,” Sophia said.
“The first boat to unload will be the Lines. Soph, what’s your fuel status?”
“Not full,” Sophia said. “Close. More than three-quarter’s tank. We unrepped from a sailboat we found that still had onboard.”
“That should be enough for this,” Kuzma said. “Lines will then proceed to 30.532,-28.169 where we have report of a small tanker. I’ll send a prize crew and another security officer with you to check it out. If it’s diesel, we’re golden. If not, you’ll need to rendezvous with the Pit Stop at another freighter we found. That had plenty of diesel in its bunkers. This ship is going to need way more than the Pit Stop had to deliver.”
“What about Squadron?” Behm asked.
“As in getting it from squadron, or their situation?” Kuzma said. “They unrepped to the Grace and Alpha from the Iwo so they’re in good shape. If necessary, we can run the Pit Stop up to the Iwo to unrep but we should be able to get it from the freighter. Best would be if the tanker has diesel. From the reports, it sounds like it’s one of those small tankers that is used to resupply local ports. Sometimes it’s gas, sometimes its diesel. You never know.
“Once we have this boat fully resupplied and refueled, the squadron will form a rough line perpendicular to the Equatorial Current. The Large will take and hold the center point with the Money and any other support type vessels we recover in trail. Small boats will spread out on either side, each with a packet to cover. The ones to the center will come in to the Money for off-load of recovered personnel and materials. If we can get a supply ship like the Grace at some point, they may be taken aboard for repair. Start ripping out any parts you find. We’ll find a place in the support zone to hold and inventory them. Vessels will stay inboard for a few days after recovery doing local support. Including ‘fishing ops.’ Turns out the subs have been using their active to knock out schools of fish. They generally get more than they can use. Most of you have cold fish storage. We’ll scoop up their excess. That is the general outline of the plan until we’re recalled to squadron. Lieutenant Smith, do you have any questions?”
“No, sir,” Sophia said, trying not to sigh. She knew they were planning on rotating people to any big vessel they found, and she’d been looking forward to a few days off. But…
“Get with Gary on your security and prize crew,” Kuzma said. “They’re already detailed off. If you don’t have anything, we need to get cracking on finding some fuel.”
“Will do, sir,” Sophia said, standing up. “Have a nice chat.”
* * *
“Okay,” Sophia said. “Here’s the thing with tankers. You really don’t want to fire onboard.”
The “augmentation” for Rusty was a former Army armor cav sergeant named Cody “Anarchy” Mcgarity. With a nickname like “Anarchy” she wasn’t thrilled to have him as a clearance specialist but he seemed more on the ball than Rusty. It’s possible that Rusty was just fine before his experiences onboard the Voyage but he was not the sharpest tool in the shed. Maybe it was drinking too much ammoniacal urine.
She’d already circled the vessel named the M/V Eric Shivak and she knew two things. One, it was diesel. Two, as usual, there was a leak somewhere. It wasn’t just a tanker, though. There were two ship containers chained down on the deck.
“So… Melee?” Mcgarity asked. “Half-life Two faiclass="underline" No crowbar.”
“We’ve got about six,” Rusty said.
“And some hammers,” Sophia said. “And Halligan tools. This is more a Faith deal than mine, but you really want to avoid fire and sparks. However, there are no evident infecteds so you may get lucky.”
* * *
“Three KIA,” Anarchy radioed. “All appear to be former infecteds. Crew boat is missing. Plenty of supplies left onboard. I think some of them turned and the rest abandoned ship. Ship’s clear. Well, we didn’t check the containers but they’ve got seals on them so they don’t look like they’ve been opened.”
“Roger,” Sophia said. “Sending over the survey and prize crew.”
* * *
“Mixed groceries, general stores, some parts including auto parts,” Captain Hebert said. The “captain” had been a mate on a freighter that had abandoned ship when the crew started to turn. “And the main bunkers are full which is a relief. The spillage was minor. It’s got more pure fuel than the Grace. Not as fancy but it’s what we needed.”
“Can we unrep from it?” Sophia asked.
“We can tank you up right now,” Hebert said.
* * *
“You know,” Paula said as the two boats got back underway to rendezvous with the flotilla. “We haven’t known Hebert all that long. We didn’t even leave Rusty and Anarchy aboard. What’s to keep him from just taking off?”
“You think there’s not going to be a fast attack following him around?” Sophia said.
“Oh, yeah, those.”
* * *
“Flotilla Ops, No Tan Lines,” Sophia radioed.
“Lines, Ops, over.”
“One tanker tack islands-support-boat full of goodness delivered,” Sophia said. “Orders?”