Deep Space Adventures - 12. DSA Chapter 12

“You can come out now, we are inside cargo bay of the shuttle,” my father announced from the door of the cabin, and we followed my father upstairs, and towards the back of the yacht, where we stepped off the yacht, where the senior officer of the shuttle greeted us.

“Right boys, we need to get the prince to a safe location, which means, returning to the Navy base at the Sahndrol Islands. We need to contact your parents and get them to collect you from somewhere,” Dad said to my friends, “The airport would be the best place that I can think of, Father,” I suggested.

“Commander, arrange with the airport for clearance to land for a short while, so we can drop off some passengers, then we will head to the islands,” my father said to the senior officer, who did as requested, while the boys used their mobiles to contact their homes.

Once the boys were safely inside the airport terminal, we set off for the Sahndrol Islands, this time landing at the Naval base where Ambassador Denham resides and where there is accommodation available for us, and we ended up staying there for nearly two weeks, before we received word that it was viewed that the threat was now over.

Just as a precaution, we and Ambassador Durham, hitched a ride with the Canadian Navy to Nova Scotia, before we flew to Montreal, then onto Bermuda on a commercial airline flight, but flying in business class, much to Isaac’s horror. When we arrived at Bermuda Airport, we passed through customs quickly and a car from New Zealand Embassy drove us home.

Returning home, with just six weeks of holidays remaining, our family decided that it might be a good idea to head out to space, where it is a lot safer for the family, and so Mum contacted Ganymede, to request for the closest space vessel to come and collect us, and take us to the Space Research and Training Academy on Mars.

Mum was informed that a brand-new vessel, that has just completed space flight trials between Mars and Jupiter, is currently at the academy, and will be sent to collect us, arriving at 11 am Bermuda time, and will land at the Space landing bay just off from the airport at Bermuda, and we were informed that the URP shuttle based at the Sahndrol Islands, would be escorting the new ship as it approaches Bermuda.

With the Ambassador staying with us overnight, he spent a lot of time communicating with the Capital at Ganymede, as well as speaking to someone locally, which I was not sure what it was about. At dinner time that evening, Ambassador informed our family that he suspects that there is someone at the Airport, who is tipping off the group of people who attempted to kidnap us two weeks ago, and that he had some plans in place to try and catch them.

He said that after breakfast tomorrow, two undercover police officers will arrive, and they would be dressing similarly to Isaac and myself, and will travel with the Ambassador to the Space Landing pad, leaving at 9.45 am, where the URP shuttle will make and approach, and briefly land.

Meanwhile the Bermuda Police have a new 16 metre vessel that will be dispatched from Hamilton, on what will look like a routine patrol, around the North side of the islands, while a visiting Royal Navy Offshore patrol boat that is based in Portsmouth, will do a patrol from around the South side of the islands.

With no flights in or out of Bermuda from 9.45 am till midday, Ambassador Durham has also chartered a helicopter which was shipped to Bermuda, having flown out from Orlando, Florida, and landing on ship already in transit and 450 kilometres east of Florida, bound for the Mediterranean.

Just as the ship was passed 175 kilometres due South of Bermuda, the Sikorsky helicopter took off from the ship and landed safely at the Bermuda Airport, with just 140 kilometres of fuel remaining.

Ambassador Durham was not only paying for the charter of the helicopter, but also the service of the chopper pilot for 8 hours a day, from the time he left Orlando. The helicopter will have a police officer who has light aircraft pilot training and two officers onboard, to monitor events from the air.

When the two very young-looking officers arrived the next morning, we were surprised that they were even old enough to be in the police force, which I guess was a good advantage for us.

As per plans, at 9.45 am the Ambassador and the two police officers who are pretending to be Isaac and I, headed off in the family motor yacht, heading for the landing bay on the other side of the harbour, and less than five minutes later, the URP shuttle arrived and landed at the Space Landing bay as planned.

At home, the family eagerly watched from inside the guest house which is closer to the water than the main house, and much to our surprise, Ambassador Durham was correct, as a speed boat appeared from the direction of the causeway to the north of the house, and it was on an intercept course with the speed boat.

As this was happening, the police patrol boat, which had travelled to behind Rouge Island in Ferry Reach, late yesterday afternoon, was now speeding up and heading for the causeway, to intercept the speed boat if it reverses its course. Meanwhile the Navy patrol boat was approaching the Castle Roads passage, blocking any exit chances from that direction.

Once the speed boat was clearly heading for the family yacht, we heard via the radio, from the police officers that were monitoring evens from our home, that the helicopter has a clear view of everything from a height of over 1,000 metres, were the sound of the chopper is very faint.

When the URP shuttle took off again, the family yacht changed directions, and headed East towards Well Bay, just behind Nonsuch Island, and hopefully by the time they arrive there, the speed boat would have worked out that they were being chased, and all would be good.

After passing north of the stationary Naval destroyer, with the speed boat just a few nautical miles behind them, with them not looking at slowing down their chase, the Navy went at full speed to try and cut them off, with their two rigid dinghies also deployed, so go around behind them.

What we had not expected was the sound of automatic gunfire starting, first from the speed boat, then from the patrol boat, with return machine gun fire, and unexpectantly the speedboat turned and was heading straight for the navy patrol boat, weaving in and out to try and avoid the machine guns, while they continued to fire at the navy ship.

What seemed like hours, of gun battle, was really only about fifteen minutes, and when the speed boat caught on fire, as it continued to head for the navy ship, the men onboard jumped off their speed boat, and the Naval patrol boat had to quickly run to avoid a collision.

Once the speed boat had rushed past the patrol boat, they followed in pursuit, now that it was well alight and without any driver, and heading for the south west end of Nonsuch Island, meanwhile the two rigid dinghies, picked up the five men that were in the water, putting an end to the threat on our lives, just as the speed boat exploded just a few hundred metres away from shore, which made Isaac, my brother and I to jump in fright.

After the yacht returned to the house jetty, the police prepared to leave property, and a short while later the helicopter arrived and landed on our front driveway, where the remaining police officers climbed out, and the pilot headed into the house at my parent’s invitation.

Because the helicopter had to wait for another cargo ship that is West bound from the Mediterranean to Florida, who would allow for the helicopter to hitch a ride, the pilot would be staying in our guest house, as our guest, which he was very pleased with, as he wanted to spend some time exploring Bermuda, before heading home to Florida.

When the Navy patrol boat moored at our jetty, and the senior officers came up to the house, we were informed that the Bermuda Governor, had requested a more permanent presence of the Royal Navy, especially now that the UN compound is situated here, and so the Navy would be staying on for a while, with Coney Island being suggested as a possible new Naval base for the Royal Navy, or maybe back to the original location of Morgan’s Point.

Because of all that has been happening, the new vessel was made to delay its arrival until 11.30 am, just over half an hour before the next flight international flight arrives from New York, which has been delayed by 15 minutes.

The family and Isaac had already packed and are ready to spend some time in space, and with the attempted abduction drama ending just half an hour after it began, we had nearly an hour to settle our nerves, before the helicopter will fly us directly to the Space landing bay.

Ambassador Durham informed us that he would be leaving just before the other ship arrives, and that the shuttle would arrive about fifteen minutes before. “Tell me Lucas, do you know anything about this new ship that is coming to collect us, as it sounds very mysterious,” my mother asked the Ambassador.

“Well Ma’am, all I know is that it is a special kind of ship, I have not seen any pictures or plans of it, so I have no idea what it looks like, I guess we will just have to wait until it arrives,” Lucas replied, giving a big grin, which hinted that he knew much more than he was saying.