The Martian Pendant (24 page)

Two days later, they were back at 50 degrees south, and that night, after steering northwest parallel to the island’s east coast, they met the oiler awaiting them. The water was rough, but luckily nothing like the mountainous seas that had driven them on their sail eastward. It was a struggle, nevertheless, to bring the heavy refueling hose over by motorboat. At one point the little craft was threatened with being crushed between the two heaving ships, but at the last moment, the peak of a swell caused both ships to separate further, allowing enough space to avoid impact. When the fuel tanks had finally been filled, the crew dropped the
Kyoto Maru’s
fueling hose, leaving the Japanese to reel it in. No time was lost in heading directly away from the island, using the other ship’s radar shadow as long as possible.

They turned north at daylight, setting a course that would take them well east of the Fiji Islands. The weather progressively deteriorated over the next ten days, until once again they were being buffeted by winds and swells, but coming from the northeast. This finally let up as they neared the Equator, well west of the southern part of the Marshall Island chain. With subsiding winds, the cloud cover that had followed them for 5,000 miles finally cleared. The ship was there for all to see, but aside from a few curious fishermen, who in their catamarans would match the freighter’s cruising speed for miles on end, they had little company, except for playful porpoises breaching and then surfing down the ship’s bow wave.

Those on watch had their attention riveted to the skies during the day, but no aircraft were seen. They had no way of knowing then that while the air search was well to the west, they had already been spotted by GeoSat, which, as it passed far overhead, had detected radiation from the ship’s cargo. When the data from the satellite was received in Buell’s Culver City facility, it was promptly downloaded into the Cray computer there. The analyst, perusing the printouts that day, remarked about the faint signal, previously not recorded over that area of the Pacific. He attributed the signal to drift of radioactive fallout from one of the U.S. atomic tests that had ended just six weeks before, at Eniwetok and Bikini Atolls, to the north. The trade winds would be expected to cause the fallout to drift westward from there.

Coincidentally, it was then that the freighter’s course was altered in that direction for another two days, after which they again continued north, now west of the Marshall chain for another thousand miles. In that way, it was calculated, they would avoid discovery by not sailing into waters over which active air traffic between the United States and the atomic testing headquarters on Kwajalein Island in the Marshalls was continuing.

When they were due west of that atoll, the ship’s nuclear cargo was again detected in GeoSat’s next transit over that area. This second discovery caused a stir. The signal was then 700 miles northwest of the initial pickup. Although it was only a few hundred miles from the sites of the atomic testing, it became obvious--because its “signature” was identical to that of the first sighting, and because it was not going in the direction of the trade winds--that it was from a ship rather than drifting fallout.

The question was raised about the presence of nuclear-powered submarines or carriers in those seas, but the Navy Department confirmed it had no craft in the western Pacific at the time. In turn, the Navy was informed that the sightings must mean the presence of the fugitive American freighter. It wasn’t long before the air-sea search effort was shifted in that direction.

When Naval Intelligence was informed of the heading of the
American Traveler
, they contacted their opposites in Yokohama, to enlist support in the search. While giving assurances of their cooperation, with the promise of ships and aircraft, the Japanese officer in charge hastily called the Prime Minister’s office, informing them of the potential loss to Japan of the promised nuclear and metallurgic secrets. A hastily coded message was sent by radio, with instructions to change course west due to their being discovered. This would take them south of Guam, at the southern tip of the Marianas chain. From there, with the search focused well to the east, it was assumed they would have smooth sailing up the middle of the Philippine Sea west of Japan’s Ryukyu archipelago to their goal, Nagasaki.

Aboard the hunted ship, Captain Chalmers was puzzled. The whole plan of the voyage had been based on total secrecy in arriving in Japan. There, the Martian materiel was to be secreted as promised, never to be released as long as super-powers capable of unleashing nuclear war on one another existed. Certainly the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States fulfilled that condition. After unloading in Japan, the
American Traveler
was to be scuttled in secret off Honshu’s east coast, disappearing into the abyssal depths of the Japan Trench. No trace of the ship likely would ever be found, and even if stumbled upon somehow, no salvage equipment existed that could ever raise her to verify the absence of her precious cargo.

The Captain was a devout Catholic, and like most of the faithful, even those of exceptional intelligence, he had bought into the concept of Papal infallibility, at least in matters of faith and morals. That made his mission the same as Pius XII’s mission of peace on earth at all costs. But how could the Pope’s plan work when the entire world would be aware that the alien technology would be in the hands of the Japanese? His fear was that the neo-militarists among them would be able the use the nuclear secrets and the Impervium to create a new Japanese war machine.
A fusion-powered and armed Imperial Navy, built with impervious armor! He could only imagine the reaction of the U.S. and the Soviets. The Pope’s intended legacy of world peace could become the inheritance of Armageddon.

It was with these fears that he determined to defuse the international crisis that was sure to occur, and at the same time fulfill His Holiness’ last wish: a peaceful destination for the potentially earthshaking technology, one that would be free of explosive international acrimony, and which would put the secrets of the Martians out of reach of contesting world powers for a hundred or more years. Wouldn’t that be long enough?

They were then on a heading that would allow them to round the island of Guam in just two days. Soon after it was taken over, the ship had been rigged with explosive charges in the bilge to scuttle her when the time came. He resolved that would happen much sooner than the Japanese or the Vatican Camerlengo expected. Two potential problems were recognized: a boarding party, now that they were in waters frequented by small craft, and complications with everyone escaping safely. That day he had the crew stage a lifeboat drill, making sure that his passenger participated, and thereafter he tripled the watch, his crew heavily armed.

Diana noticed the officers’ side
arms, but thought little of it until just before the afternoon watch, when crew showed up on deck with submachine guns slung across their chests and took positions along the railing. That evening at supper, there was little talk, as the Captain and the First Officer grimly downed their food.

The fare was much tastier than usual, fish with spices and fresh fruit picked up the day before from natives in outrigger canoes off that little atoll they had passed. She was puzzled at the officers' apparent lack of savoring what was the best meal of the voyage.

She asked, “What’s going on? Until now, you seemed in fact to enjoy the blandest of foods, and would even carry on a conversation. And what might be the purpose of the submachine guns? Pirates worrying about being pirated in turn?”

The Captain, who had grown to respect Diana during their month at sea, put his fork down, nodding to his fellow officers, and then replied,
“I’ve decided to let you in on our secret. We’re concerned with the possibility of hostile boarders who would frustrate our plans, which include scuttling this vessel when the time, or I should say, when the place is right.”

She dropped her fork with a clatter, exclaiming, “What? And lose this precious cargo? All the work of our expedition is to come to nothing? People have already died for this discovery. You must have lost your minds!”

“No, my dear, we’re quite sane. This is just another way to fulfill the Pope’s original plan. We had to have the help of a neutral government to refuel us in secret in order to make this long voyage. To secure their participation, the Vatican promised to deliver the alien technology to Japan, on the condition that they isolate this cargo for a hundred years, until such time when the concept of ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ is history. There, the alien secrets would be safe from the prying of Cold War adversaries. Currently we’re concerned about the Soviet Union and the United States, but for the future, what about China?

“According to the treaty made in secret between the Japanese and the new Papal Nuncio to Tokyo in September, they would not be free to release the material to their scientists to unlock the secrets until the year 2058. Now, radio intercepts tell us that GeoSat has detected us, allowing Americans to pinpoint our course toward Japan. We also have evidence that certain militarists among the Japanese plan to unlock all these secrets immediately for their own expansionist ambitions.”

Her response came only after a long pause. “What of the anthropological specimens? Can’t we unload that part of the cargo? Surely the fossil remains are harmless, aren’t they?”

“Militarily, yes, but from a strictly religious point of view, they’re poison. Acknowledging that human beings from outer space exist would completely discredit
Genesis
, as set forth in the Old Testament, wouldn’t it?”

“But,” she said, “beings of advanced intelligence did come from another world. The very presence of that spaceship is certain proof of that. How does that fit into religious teaching any differently than
Cro-Magnon
man already has? The Bible does state that creation took place on earth in six days, but that doesn’t exclude simultaneous duplication on Mars, or for that matter, on a million other planets in the Universe.”

“You have a point, Miss Howard, but you’re missing the most important one. The Papal plan is to rid us of the dangerous alien technology, as well as anything that could upset God’s law here on Earth. And I have to agree, the evidence that the Martians were human, as you tell me is the case, and that they may even have been our ancestors will prove too much for the people’s beliefs in the status quo. And I don’t merely refer to Christians. What about our nearly billion Muslims?”

“Then you intend to send everything to the bottom? What of the Impervium fragments already being studied in the U.S.? And the photos of the fossils we’ve mailed home?”

“Well, my dear, it’s unknown what knowledge will emerge from all that. But I do know that your fellow paleoanthropologists are going to be skeptical of everything until they can study the actual fossils. You can’t isotope date photographs, can you?  And the metallurgy? They’ve had that material for months, and our sources inform us that nothing has been forthcoming. We know from them that your people have been unable to do anything except cut it. At this rate, it may be a hundred years before anyone on earth will be able to understand any of the secrets.”

Diana envisioned almost all her life’s work being lost because of the religious convictions of others. It was then that she decided to transfer what specimens and photos she had in her trunk to one of the lifeboats. She wasn’t sure which one the Captain would assign her to, but she was certain that when her cabin was searched, and no sensitive material was found, she would be suspect. She thought of dividing the specimens, putting half into each boat. From her experience in the lifeboat drill, she knew of plenty of places aboard them for hiding bones and packets. After some deliberation, she decided to keep the collection together, and take her chances at being assigned to the boat she planned for her discoveries. One complete skeleton would be hard for even the most skeptical of her colleagues at home to ignore.

The safety of the fossils, her photographic evidence, and the book containing insights into the Martian language had, on that side of the world, become almost her whole life. The thought did occur to her
that she might not even be taken aboard either lifeboat as the ship sank.
They may have needed her as a hostage when they first took over the ship, and for that purpose they might still need her for their escape. It didn’t occur to her that she hadn’t been sent ashore because she was a very attractive woman, as the First Officer, Lopez, had noticed.

During the next two nights, Diana made furtive visits to the starboard boat, gaining access by lifting a flap of canvas covering the partially open craft, and then secreting fossil bones beneath the canned provisions stowed under the seats and under the little foredeck. The jawbone and her linguistic book, along with her photos wrapped in plastic, were then carefully stuffed into her life-vest, from which some of the kapok flotation material had been removed. She really wanted to include the skull, but its bulk would betray her. No one would be the wiser, the way she did it. She was worried about the loss of the vest’s buoyancy, but planned to have an extra l
ife preserver on hand just in case. Everyone leaving the ship would already be wearing flotation, and wouldn’t need a spare vest, a fact that helped her with her conscience. As dedicated as she was to her discoveries, she didn’t want more lives to be jeopardized for those dead relics.

The freighter had picked up speed during the second night on their westerly heading, in hopes that a few extra knots would help them elude discovery. That night at supper, the Captain was absent. She asked the First Officer why he wasn’t presiding over the table.