NB New Direction - 20. NB ND Chapter 20

“Is it really possible for them to do that?” Kyle asked me as we walked back inside, as he had guessed correctly like I had, and I heard chuckling coming from the loud speaker. “That is very sneaky Commander” I said as I sat down, “For the others in the room, your administrator went to the stairs to look down into the bay, where he guessed right, when he saw a giant grey shadow in the water, we are currently sitting in the bay, with about two metres of space between our hull and the bottom of the bay” the commander announced.

“Holy … oops sorry Reverend, wow that is incredible, I would never have thought a sub could slip into the bay like ours” Lt Commander Robertson said, and Annette just smile, as did Kyle and I. “Who is this speaking?” the Sub Commander asked, “Former Lt Commander Lyle Robertson of the Australian Navy, sir?” Lyle replied formally announced.

“I know of you, Lt Commander, your name was mentioned just a few months ago, in a conversation about promising officers, who have left the service early” the Sub Commander stated, “As I have of you sir, one of the leading and experienced Sub Commanders, since the end of the Korean War” Lyle replied. “Ok, lets’ stop this conversation for now, what are we going to do about these navy vessels heading our way?” I asked.

“Excuse me Huon, I mean administrator, I have an idea that may be of our advantage” Judy began, “Commander, this is Mrs Judy Chakma Patwary, a Canadian ex pat, who was living in Bangladesh with her husband, when the Earthquake there hit the region, my best friend – Kyle and I, were also in Bangladesh at the time of that earthquake, but on a river boat.

Judy is an experienced Engineer, while her husband Jai, is a doctor, both are now permanent residents of the island, and members of the shire council, the other council members are Reverend Annette Davies, Mr Chris Roland, our Customs & Quarantine Officer, and Dr Margarete Stromberg, our newly appointed Environmental Scientist.

Also present are Captain Paul Kingsley, of the MV Ocean Explorer, Flight Officer Lentz, our Senior Helicopter Pilot on the ship and here on the island, plus Lt Commander Robertson, who is the skipper of the patrol boat, and my administration assistant, Kyle Davies and myself” I said making all the introductions.

There was silence, and this got me a little confused, “This is the XO, the Commander will be with you in a few minutes, bye for now” came an unexpected voice and the phone connection ended. Moments later, there was a knock on the door and Kyle went to answer it, returning moments later with a soggy looking stranger, who was drying off with a towel.

“I decided to come and speak to you all in person, now let’s drop the introductions for now and get on with this matter, Mrs… I believe you had something to say” the Commander said as he finished drying his hair and most of his uniform of excess water. Kyle appeared with a few more towels, to assist the commander with drying off.

“It is Judy Chakma Patwary, I am an engineer, and I may have a partial solution about aerial support, as you see we do have two helicopters here, the smaller one is based here, and the bigger one is temporarily based on the ship, so we have plenty of Aviation fuel. There is one section of the island, were we have a straight stretch of road, it is gravel, but it is fairly flat and even, and it is 970 metres long, as I measured its distance the other day” Judy said.

“That is fairly short for a standard runway, but it depends on the aircraft” Stephan added, “We do have plenty of cement bags, so we could use the cement to mix with the gravel to form a fairly stable road base for the aircraft to land, it is already fairly solid rock, with some loose gravel on top, so we may be able to establish a runway in two days” I commented.

“Ok, I recommend that you get right onto that, and we can provide some extra manpower for that job, in the meantime, Lt Commander, can you carefully move the patrol boat to the other side of the jetty, without scraping my submarine, so we can get in and out easier, and Captain, I wold like you to keep the MV Southern Explorer exactly as it is, as it blocks the view of the sub in the bay from the ocean quite nicely” the Commander said.

“Right let’s get onto it then, and see if we can spring a few little surprises for our unexpected visitors” I stated, marking the end of the meeting. “I hope this doesn’t end up being another Falklands type war situation” Annette said to me after most of those gathered had left the building.

“Don’t worry mum, I am sure that we will be fine” Kyle said smiling, to boost his mum’s moral. Captain Kingsley continued to unload everything that he had for the island, including Annette’s new church, which the large helicopter carefully lowered into position, and Annette raced to the back door to check it all out, with Kyle and I following.

“Oh, this is wonderful, fully furnished and everything, including a new computer, printer scanner, chairs, lounge, and coffee table. Thankyou Huon, this is wonderful” Annette said as she turned and gave me a kiss on the cheek, before she headed next door to the meeting room and bathroom. The meeting room had an enormous table in it, with 6 chairs around it, and a small desk and chair in the corner.

From the meeting room, we made our way into the Church its self, or the Sanctuary section of it, as I flicked on the lights to reveal a large stain glass window, located behind the alter, with a light behind it, to light it up features of the window, just in front of the window, hanging by chains, is a very large cross. The pulpit lectern on one side and the choir chairs and small organ on the other side, finished it off nicely, with thick carpet included.

Kyle unlocked the front doors, which had airlifting struts, to make it easier to open, and pushing them open, he grabbed one of the side doors and swung it around, so it locked the roof and floor doors into place, before walking to the other side, to do the same with the other door. “Just as I had imagined it to be” Kyle said smiling as he looked out towards the town square, the adjustable shelter was being build.

“We will have to have a special Consecration service, before I can hold a Sunday service here” Annette announced, as she looked out to the town square which will be her congregation seating area. Just at that moment, the large helicopter took off from the ship, carrying its next load, which was a 6 x 5 metre container, with large vertical slots on each side, with a cable coming out from the middle of one side.

When the chopper approached the church, and began to lower the container, onto the back of the church building, Annette’s mouth dropped open, “An extra present, from Sebastian, what’s a church without a church bell” I explained to a very shocked Annette. Once the container was in place, the crew began to place the bolts into the bottom corners, to secure it to the church roof, while we walked around to the back to have a look at it.

Kyle spotted the steel gable with a handle on the end, and couldn’t resist being the first to ring the bell, as he pulled on the cable firmly, and it made a loud thud noise, which made me laugh. “I had Sebastian wrap the clanger in packing blankets, just in case you tried to do that” I announced to Kyle as Annette began to chuckle, and Kyle didn’t look at all pleased.

When the workers had finished securing the bell tower to the church, they pulled out two packing blankets free, and this time Annette was the first to reach the cable and gave it a good tug, which resulted in an unexpected two bells ringing, which made Annette smile, and have tears in her eyes at the same time. “I hope this new ministry brings you lots of joy, and happiness for the future” I said to Annette as I stepped towards her and gave her a big hug.

On hearing the bells ringing, a lot of the island residence came to have a look at the new church, which they thought was very unique and special. “Sebastian is chartering a boat to come out here on Friday, so as to be part of the consecration ceremony, he will be bringing the twins and Mrs Cooper and an old friend of hers. They will be staying for the weekend” I announced.

“I hope all this Military drama is over by then” Annette added, me too Rev, me too” I replied. Sebastian had organised for two more buildings to be added to the hamlet, one being a research centre, the other being a multi-purpose area, to be used for recreation or for science research, whatever it is needed for, plus two more twin cabins.

For the main village, apart from the new church and the adjustable covered town square area, there is an additional private lounge room, that is to be placed opposite the double cabins, an extra-large machinery shed, to accommodate plenty of vehicles, plus a fully kitted out, mechanical workshop, also there are two extra twin cabins to be added, and another flag pole, this one to be placed next to the administration building.

While this was all being unloaded, Kyle and I jumped onto a quad bike and made our way to the road upgrades, to turn it into a runway, with the two buggies and the other bike already up there. Luckily it is still all very low vegetation in the area of the runway, with just half a dozen shrubs and tree saplings needed to be relocated, so as not to obstruct the runway. Rocks were being cemented into place, to line the now widened road.

Smaller stones and gravel gathered from other parts of the islands road, plus plenty of beach sand, all mixed with cement, was laid on the new runway, and the vehicles were used to compact down the sand, and by the end of the day, most of the work had been completed in establishing the islands runway.

I thanked the Commander and 32 men who volunteered to help with the labour of the job, and with the ships and island catering staff combined,we put on a large BBQ dinner, down on the beach, along with an impromptu cricket match afterwards, with the HMAS crew verses the Islanders, which the Sub crew won. After dinner, Kyle and I headed to the administration building, to make a call to Sebastian.

“Hey guys, I hear you are having some other unwelcomed visitors in three days’ time” Seb said when he answered the call, “Yes, and I am not to happy about it, but I am glad that our Navy is in the area” I replied, “What’s this I hear about an earthquake in your region?” Seb asked, “It was a 7.8, and was just under 70 kilometres south west of us, so it gave us all quite a good shake, we haven’t had any aftershocks yet, so I am not sure if that is good or bad” Kyle reported, “Wow, that is a big quake, and the second one you guys have experienced in just a few short months, has there been any damage?” Sebastian stated.

“Because all the buildings are steel containers, there has been no damage, and no one was injured, but we do have a surprising improvement as a result of the quake, and that is a warm water spring has opened up inside the lake, which means we now have a permanent waterfall” I answered. “Wow that’s amazing, now you know that I am chartering a boat to bring us to the island on Friday, and because it is a fast ocean catamaran, with a speed of 28 knots, we can be there in half the time.

Instead of cars and trucks, that the catamaran can usually carry, it is going to be mostly empty, so we will be there in 1 day and 4 hours. Because I have sent you two extra cabins for the main village, as well as the two for the hamlet, I am sending you two more permanent staff, Belinda Harris who is a former customs officer, and more recently a security officer, so she will be assisting Chris Roland, and the also Marnie Neilson, who is a Marine Biologist, and will be working with Margarete Stromberg.

Both ladies are from New Zealand, and will be permanent residents on the island, when we arrive, the Ship will still be in port, so the twins and I, plus Mrs Cooper and her friend, will stay on the ship” Sebastian announced to me, “ok no problems, I presume you have informed Captain Kingsley of these plans” I replied, “Yes all organised, I will see you in two days, bye for now” Seb said and he ended the call.

The following day, was spent finalising the runway, which is 4 metres wide, and with overnight rain, the water had soaked into the ground and made it rock hard, which I was pleased about. The Sub Commander came onto the island, to updated me on the progress of the US naval ship and the two presumed French naval ships, which were just over a day away now, and everyone on the island was getting a little nervous.

Annette’s comments about another Falklands type war kept playing around in my head, and it was late in the afternoon, when the Sub commander returned, this time with a smile on his face. “You won’t need to worry about facing theses unwanted visitors on your own, not only have you got my 75-crew submarine, your patrol boat plus your helicopters, but you will also have two platoons of Australian Special Air Service arriving tonight, about two hours after dark” the Sub Commander announced.

“What really?” I replied shocked at the news, “Yes, they will fly over the island at 10,000 feet and drop in quietly at about 2130 hours, I believe you have accommodation at the other end of the island?” the Sub Commander asked, “Yes we do, and yes they can use it, I will get some supplies sent over there right away, we will use the patrol boat to take the supplies to the beach below the hamlet, where there is steps leading off the beach to the hamlet” I replied, thinking of it as the best way to keep it low key.

That is good, the HMAS Jurien, which is a supply ship, will be carrying Av Gas, and a spare helicopter, that will arrive in two days’ time, and it will pick up the SAS soldiers, when it is time for them to leave, the other ship, the HMAS Dennison is another Submarine, and it will be arriving in tonight, and will be go into hiding in that bay near the other accommodation, I have been told that it is trailing behind a Catamaran that is on its way out here” the Sub Commander said.

“That will be the one that my cousin – Sebastian has chartered to come out here, since the ship is already here, is there anything else I should know?” I stated, “Well we didn’t want you to get worried, but we have been tracking two Chinese Naval ships, that have come out of the Java sea and heading this direction” the Sub commander said.

I was not pleased about this new information, and even Kyle looked very shocked, as I picked up the sat phone and dialled the other sat phone that I knew Sebastian would have. “Sebastian. All of this is getting way out of hand, I have the Sub Commander here with me, and he has informed me that two platoons of armed Australian SAS soldiers will be dropping in tonight, and that a second sub it following behind you.