Indian Ocean Drama - 3. Orc Chapter 3

“Good evening, at the top of our news tonight, Australia is in crisis with Singapore, after an incident that took place in Singapore less than a week ago.

Information is a little sketchy at present, but what we have learn is that Sir Lewis Shaw, the IOTA Administrator, travelled to Singapore, at the request of the Federal Government, to represent them at the planning meetings for the coming APEC meeting.

It is believed that during his stay in Singapore, one of his staff was arrested by the local authorities and detained for questioning. It is believed that Administrator exceeded his authority, when demanding that his staff member a Staff Sergeant in the Australian Army, be released.

It is not known how, but the staff member was released by an unknown person and dumped at the front of the High Commission in Singapore, with a lot more injuries than he had before. The Administrator had his staff member treated at a private hospital, before rushing him to the Administrator’s private Jet, and flew out of Singapore.

The office of the Governor General released a statement this afternoon, stating that the Staff Sergeant was recovering in Darwin Private Hospital, after having surgery to remove his damaged spleen, and that Sir Lewis Shaw, has resigned as the IOTA Administrator, effective from lunch time yesterday, WA time.

It is believed that the former Administrator has fled the country, in a private jet, owned by his husband, Mr Sebastian Wagner, and their location is currently unknown. The Governor General has announced that under the directions of Her Majesty, the Queen, Lewis Shaw will be stripped of his Life Peerage of Baron of Rottnest, and his Knighthood, but he has retained his first award of Commander of the Victorian Order.

The former Administrator and his husband, have done a lot of work and spent a lot of money into promoting more tourism into the Indian Ocean Territories, but the future of tourism is now in grave doubt, after the private flights of Wagner Air, from Darwin and Broome, to Christmas Island, the Cocos Keeling Islands, and the Chagos Archipelago have been stopped and permanently cancelled…”

“Well, if they are going to treat you that way, why not hit them where it hurts, financially, and see if they can keep up with the demand for tourism in the region” Sebastian snarled, before turning the news off. I went back to reading a book that had been keeping me busy, although I had no idea what I would do in the future, now that my life in Australia was over.

“How about we head for a very remote location, where we won’t be disturbed for a long time?” Sebastian asked me about ten minutes later, “Do you mean FI?” I asked, and Sebastian smiled and nodded his head, “Sure why not, I could do with a change of scenery and temperature” I responded, and Sebastian lifted the phone and pressed the number for the Bridge.

“Captain, we are changing course, to the Jetty at FI” I said to the yacht’s Captain, “Very good sir, I have always enjoyed visiting that place, we will be there in just over two weeks” the Captain replied, which made Sebastian smile, as they ended the call.

“Well in two weeks, we will have disappeared to a remote region of the world, and no one will be able to disturb us” Sebastian said to me. “What will we do once we are there, we have to keep busy somehow?” I asked, and Sebastian thought about this for a while, before answering.

“How would you like to become a fulltime sheep farmer, I had an email from Tom and Margaret two weeks ago, apparently the farm managers that are supposed to be looking after my farm, have just up and left, with only a few hours’ notice. Tom and Margaret have reluctantly returned to the farm to manage things, until we find replacement staff, even young Jose has returned home to Northern Chile” Sebastian stated.

“Ok, why not, I am happy to get my hands dirty for a change” I responded, “Good, because you definitely will do that. Apparently, the previous managers have left the farm in a real bad way, so there is a lot of hard work ahead of us. We will need to call into Cape Town to collect a whole lot of supplies on the way past, which will mean a few extra few days of travelling” Sebastian said to me, just as there was a knock on the door, and I called out “Come In”.

“Sir, I have a fax that the Captain has asked me to deliver to you” Mrs Cooper said to us after she entered our suite, and Sebastian stood and accepted the fax, and read it before handing it to me. It was Sebastian’s young cousin – Xander, who said that he is missing the family and is requesting to join us and do his studies by correspondence.

“Thank you Mrs C, I will deal with this personally, oh and tell your nephews to pull out their cold weather gear, as we are heading to FI, to stay for a while, and to keep it under wraps, as we want to be staying there, with only two couples to know we are coming” Sebastian said, “Very good sir, I have always enjoyed that place and it’s people” Mrs Cooper said before leaving.

Opening his laptop, Sebastian logged into his email account, and opened a new email. “To Tom and Margaret, thank you so much for taking over managing the farm, while I make arrangements for new staff. We will be arriving at FI onboard the MV Huon and will dock at the farm jetty in approximately 18 day’ time. Please keep this information to just you both and Eric and Mary, we will be bringing plenty of supplies with us, regards Sebastian & Lewis”.

Once that email was sent, Sebastian sent an email to the grammar school that Xander is attending in Switzerland, letting them know that due to illness in the family, he was requesting that Xander have leave from the school for an extended period, and that he would make all the travel arrangements shortly.

The third email was directly to Xander, “Hello mate, message received, and yes you can be with us, I have emailed the school to say that due to a family member being ill, I have requested leave from the school for you. I will email you the travel details, once they are set, we are on the yacht now, travelling to Cape Town, then onto you know where, but do not tellanyone. See you when you arrive in South Africa. Love, Sebastian, Lewis and the twins”.

“I have an idea that I want to run past you, for the past few months I have been busy working on designing and building a new home for us, but with the events of the past few days, has sort of put that on hold for a while, but not for ever. I know the homestead at Douglas is solid, but old and tired looking, so I am thinking that we could build a village, consisting of homes built from shipping containers.

I have been looking into different designs since we left Darwin, and there are three ground level designs that I like very much, and they are solid and able to withstand the very harsh climate that the FI provides. You remember last time we visited the farm, that I took you for a drive out to the farm jetty, near the northern boundary, that area is deep enough for the MV Huon to get to.

We can set up a new village in that area, about 6 kilometres south east of the jetty, where there is a wide point, at the top end of the Douglas River, where it widens out into a large bay, it is well out of sight from neighbouring farms, and well away from any roads, so no one will notice that it is there” Sebastian informed me.

“I like your idea of a new and modern village, but who will be living there apart from the family, and maybe our personal staff?” I said. “Well, you know that Tom and Margaret are back on the farm looking after it for us, I heard from them, that Eric and Mary have put their B&B home up for sale, as they want to retire, so I was thinking of inviting them to join us, along with Tom and Margaret.

We will have Xander with us, plus, Mrs Cooper, and her nephews, Wyatt and Xavier, and we can build guest accommodation, for when your brother – Jeremy and family come to visit, along with Kylie and her family, and Margaret and her family” Sebastian said. “Ok, but it sounds like a heck of a lot of work” I commented, “That is the beauty of shipping containers, they can be made into almost anything, including horse and stock stable and storage sheds” Sebastian replied.

“Ok, that sounds good, so what about this mystery new home that you have been secretly building, is that movable too?” I asked, and Sebastian laughed, “Actually yes it can, to almost any location where there is enough deep water” Sebastian replied, and this statement got me really confused.

Are you ever going to tell me what this new residence is, and where it is now?” I asked sounding very frustrated, which I was, and Sebastian chuckled at this.

“Yes, it requires water, but it is not a ship, or a floating barge, and yes my love you will get to see it very soon” Sebastian replied, and I sighed in protest at the confusing response given.

“All I can say for now, is that while I was visiting the South West of WA, I came across this amazing and very popular tourist attraction, and that is what gave me the idea for the new house” Sebastian added. Later that evening, I was doing a search on the internet, of popular tourist attractions of the South West, when Sebastian walked into the suite. “What are you doing, my sweet?” he asked me.

“Searching online for popular tourist attractions that involve water” I responded, as I saw something about a 1.8 kilometre - long jetty, in the town of Busselton, which is the longest jetty in the Southern Hemisphere.“Well this looks interesting, and it is over the water, but…” I started to say and stopped when I saw what else was part of the Busselton Jetty tour.

“Yes, my sweet, you were saying?” Sebastian said as he walked over and looked over my shoulder. “It says here there is an 8-metre deep observatory near the end of the jetty… this wouldn’t by any chance be the idea that you got for our new home?” I asked, and Sebastian just laughed out loud. “You got it in one” Sebastian said as he walked over to the lounge and sat down.

“Holy crap, really? So how deep does this underwater home go to?” I responded in shock. Same as that observatory, eight metres, with three levels, plus another three levels above the water” Sebastian responded. “Ok, hand over the plans Mr, I want to see what it looks like” I said to my husband in a threatening manner, and Sebastian chuckled as he stood up and walked over to his filing cabinet, and pulled out a folder, which he handed over to me.

I was originally going to have it go deeper, and higher, but decided against it, in case of water depth issues, so I joined four sections together to make two levels, with a connecting central lounge area on both levels, then from then on it is all one section per level” Sebastian said as I unfolded the plans.

“Holy smokes, are really going to live underwater?” I asked, “Well not us, as you will see, the executive suites are above the water, on the second from top floor, with suites for each of the twins, plus the third suite that will be Xander’s suite, and there are two large and two small lounges, all for just us five.

With level one being the bottom level, there are 4 VIP suites on level two, as well as 12 staff cabins, and our administration offices are on level three, just below the surface” Sebastian said to me, “Have the twins seen this yet?” I asked, “Yes from nearly the beginning of the project, they are looking forward to it” Sebastian replied.

“This water level, has a swimming pool?” I asked sounding a little surprised, “Yes a heated pool, since we will now be in a cold climate, and that level is actually one metre above the water, the administration level just below it will have narrow windows, looking out just above the water” Sebastian said.

I was going to ask some more questions, when there was a knock on the door, and Sebastian called out to come in, and it was the twins, who saw straight away what I was looking at. “So, you told him, at last eh?” Joachim said to his older brother, “About time you did bro” Louis added.

“So where is this going to go?” I asked, “Yes, we were wondering that too” the twins chorused, “Well, I was thinking, since we are going to build a village on the farm, how about we put it in the bay just across from the village” Sebastian suggested, as he retrieved a map of the Falkland Islands, and spread it out on the coffee table, so everyone could see. The map was of just the top Western quarter of the East Falklands, with Goat Point and Riocon Grande Farm being on the Eastern edge of the map.

On the Eastern edge of the point in the bay, there is a couple of sandy beaches, with a bit of a steep climb to the top, where we will build a ramp and stairs, for easy access, and also a small jetty will be built so we have a place for the boats to get to and from our home, which you can see has to landing jetties, so depending on the direction of the wind each day, will depend on where the boat is stored or tied up” Sebastian said.

“You said there is accommodation for 12 staff, where are we going to get them from?” I asked, “I have already spoken to Mrs Cooper, Xavier and Wyatt, they have seen the plans, are happy to stay employed with us no matter where we go, although Mrs C isn’t so sure about living underwater.

The 2nd Engineer, 4th Engineer, 4 Hospitality and 3 Galley crew from the yacht are also happy to join us, so that fills up the 12 positions, with Mrs C being the Chief Steward and Housekeeper, while Xavier and Wyatt looking after us five, the rest will look after themselves and any guests that me may have from time to time” Sebastian responded.

“Can we make one of the small lounges on level five into our executive dining room?” I asked, and the twins nodded their head in agreement to the idea, “Well looks like I am out voted on that so, yes we will do as suggested” Sebastian said, which I was pleased about.

After nearly eight days at sea, we arrived in Cape Town, and Sebastian gave Mrs C instructions, to get herself and her nephews, clothing to suite the colder climate of the Falklands, and anything else that they wanted for their new quarters, when we get there.

Sebastian, had already been in contact with a building firm in Cape Town that builds homes out of Shipping containers, and he put a rush order of 4 homes, plus horse stables, and a semi open area between them, storage and machinery sheds, also with a semi open area, and 2 smaller guest cabins, which would be shipped directly to the FI as soon as possible, and in the mean time we would remain onboard the MV Huon, berthed at the jetty.

Sebastian had also arranged for their new home, which has been completed for a month now, to be shipped to the Falklands, from Darwin, and it would be two weeks behind the arrival of the MV Huon. On that same ship will be two twelve - metre long, aluminium multi hull boats, with two 355 horsepower engines, that has a below deck cabin, with dining seats for six & a table, plus a small kitchen area, and a bathroom.

On deck there are seats for the skipper and 8 passengers, and these two boats would be ideal of transporting people from the main island to the observatory tower. For our first day in the Cape, Sabastian and I just did a few tourist things, taking our time looking at the different sites, and enjoying the foods of South Africa.

When we arrived back at the yacht, there was a local newspaper on the coffee table, that wasn’t there this morning, and I picked it up and sat down in the lounge to have a look, and I was shocked to see what the headlines read. “Prominent Historian and Author cries Foul play”.

“Australian history author, Philip Folkman, has announced that while doing research on his newest book, the War History of the Indian Ocean Islands, he has found evidence that former Administrator Lewis Shaw and his staff member, who was seriously injured, while attending planning meetings for the APEC Meetings, were setup by a crime gang, so as to put pressure on the Australian Government, to loosen their trade tariff’s for Singapore and Malaysia.

It is believed that Mr Shaw’s assistant, a Staff Sergeant in the Australian Army, was set up and charged with Inappropriate Behaviour, after an unknown person accosted him on a park bench and ran off when a group of men saw the act and then began kicking the daylights out of the Staff Sergeant.

When Mr Shaw was informed, he went to the police station, and on seeing his assistant’s injuries, Mr Shaw demanded that he be taken to hospital for treatment, which was refused. Sometime after the High Commissioner made the same request, the Staff Sergeant, was dumped on the side of the road, outside of the High Commission gates, and he was immediately taken to the Private hospital for treatment, for a broken rib, bruised kidney’s and some cuts and bruises.

When Mr Shaw went to visit his assistant later in the day, the Staff Sergeant had disappeared, with no records of him ever being in the hospital. Mr Folkman states that he has a written and signed statement from the treating doctor and nurses, at the private hospital, plus a copy of the Staff Sergeants medical file and X-ray film & report, stating the day and time that he was admitted into the hospital, and the time that he was discharged into the custody of the Special Police.

After intervention from the Governor General of Australia, the Staff Sergeant was once again dumped outside the High Commission gates, and the doctor that works for the High Commission, diagnosed another broken rib, two missing teeth, a dislocated finger and more bruises, that were not there when he was in hospital.

The Staff Sergeant was rushed to Darwin Hospital on arrival from Singapore, by private jet, where he had his spleen removed, and his finger put back into the correct position, and he is still in hospital, recovering from his injuries.

Since the incident, and Mr Shaw’s forced resignation, his husbands Jet Airline service, that provided transport to tourists from Darwin and Broome, to Christmas and the Cocos Keeling Islands, plus the Chagos Archipelago, has ceased operation, which has resulted in a huge drop in tourist visitors, which is greatly affecting all the island groups financially.

Mr Folkman called the Federal Government to have a full coronial tribunal investigation, to get all the facts for this incident, as well as to compensate the Staff Sergeant for his injuries, and reinstate Mr Shaw’s full honours, that were wrongly stripped from him. Attempts have been made to contact Mr Shaw for comment, but his whereabouts is unknown.”