Beyond Frontier - 6. BF Chapter 6

I also noticed two very unhappy men standing in the distance who I presumed to be from the Logistics company, but I ignored them as I watched as most of the crew helped to off-load the supplies, with the media being held back by the local Police. I decided that it was best to just leave, and head to an island somewhere for a few days.

“What now, boss?” Jasper asked me as he arrived on the bridge.

“I was hoping to give the crew some shore leave, but with the media around I’m not sure if that is a good idea,” I replied.

“Well, how about we go and hide somewhere remote and get some transport into town after dark?” Jasper suggested.

“Do you know of a place?” I asked Jasper, who smiled and nodded his head. I stood to one side for him to take the helm.

I switched the radio to PA and picked up the mic. “All crew prepare for immediate departure,” I announced, before switching the radio back to VHF. Soon after Simon appeared. “So, does this mean no shore leave,” he asked me, sounding a little disappointed.

“There will be, but not till after dark,” I replied, as I sat in the second chair and watched as Jasper piloted the vessel out of the marina, and changed to a North-East direction. “Are you going to tell me where we are going?” I asked Jasper, who just smiled.

“We will be there in less than two hours,” Jasper replied, and I gave up trying to get any information from him, and headed downstairs.

“Where are we going now?” Simon asked me as I reached the main deck, and entered the dining area.

“No idea, and the skipper won’t tell me. All he said was that we will be there in less than two hours,” I replied as I headed up to the lounge to relax. When we started to slow down, I head up to the bridge, where I saw that it was nearly dark. I could tell that we were heading South West from the last of the daylight to the West. “Now are you going to tell me where we are?” I asked Jasper.

“We are now directly across from Learmonth Airport,” Jasper replied with a big smile.

“You mean the RAFF base? How far is that from town?” I replied.

“Only 35 kilometres. If you start walking now, you will get there by dawn,” Jasper replied and my mouth dropped open in shock at what he had said. Simon who had arrived in time to hear this, burst out laughing.

“Very funny. So how are we going to get back to town?” I replied.

“Easy! The skipper had me organise a taxi mini bus, so it should be there in half an hour for us,” Simon replied.

Jasper switched the radio to PA. “Attention deckhands. Prepare with the anchors, and get a dinghy ready,” Jasper announced, before facing me. “We just did a rectangle. We went 30 kilometres North East, then 20 kilometres South East, followed by 50 kilometres South West. Once the crew have left, we will go ten kilometres to the Bay of Rest, which is a little protected bay that we can hide in for a couple of days,” Jasper explained to me, and I stood up and moved to the navigation display to see what it looked like.

“That is good thinking, Bud. That will do us nicely till Sunday, and hopefully the media will have presumed that we are heading back down the coast,” I responded.

“That is what I am hoping too,” Jasper added.

“Dinner is almost ready by the way,” Simon announced before he headed back downstairs. Once we had anchored, we all headed down to the main deck for dinner.

“We are anchored just off the coast, opposite Learmonth Airport, which is a RAAF base. A taxi will be here in half an hour for those who still want shore leave,” I announced to everyone.

“I have booked three motel rooms at a local resort for those who choose to stay overnight,” Jasper added. Toby and Alex, Kirk and Leon plus Lisa and Rebecca put their hands up for the accommodation.

“Good. Now it is Thursday evening. The four stewards have till 0800 Saturday morning before I want you back to start getting the vessel ready for the guests. Toby and Alex, I need you back by 1800 tomorrow for deck watch. Jasper, Simon and Finn, you can have shore leave from 0800 tomorrow till 1200 hrs Saturday.

Mathew and I will have shore leave from when Toby is back, so he can take charge tomorrow evening, and we will be back Saturday at 1800 hrs. Everyone clear on that? Deck watch will be required from sundown to sun up while we are here. That’s the reason for the roster for all senior crew. That’s all,” I announced.

I placed the roster that I had quickly made up on the table so the senior crew could study it, which had Mathew and I on watch that night, Toby and Alex on watch the next night, and Jasper and Simon on watch on Saturday night. The roster included the times each crew member had shore leave. After dinner, the stewards quickly packed an overnight bag before Simon took them ashore in the dinghy, and by then Mathew was on deck watch. I headed to my cabin to get some sleep, before taking over from Mathew at midnight.

The next morning, I was on watch when I saw Mathew taking Jasper, Simon and Finn ashore at 0800. When he returned there was just us two on the vessel. “Strangely quiet with all the crew on leave,” Mathew said to me as he arrived on the bridge with two cups of tea in hand.

“Yes, it is, but it will be the total opposite by Sunday lunchtime,” I responded before taking a sip of my tea.

“We have just under twelve hours before Toby and Alex get back, what are we going to do?” Mathew asked me.

“I want to do a check that the two research work rooms and offices are ready to go. I want to check that the winch is working, so we can get the mini-sub down from mid-deck, and maybe hose down the decks to get the salt water off the decks,” I said to my boyfriend.

“Oh! So, no time for some fun?” Mathew asked sounding disappointed. I chuckled at the question, knowing what Mathew had in mind.

“Yes, I am sure we will have some time for some hot sex, lover boy,” I replied with a big grin, and we both laughed.

Once we had finished our drinks, we headed down to the galley to make some breakfast, but Mathew insisted that I sit down and relax, while he made a cooked breakfast for me. “Did you lock the external door when you came back inside?” I asked Mathew as I watched.

“No, I didn’t, sorry. I didn’t think of that,” Mathew replied, so I stood up and headed to the external door, which I found wide open. I quietly closed it and locked the door, before pulling out my phone and calling Mathew, but he didn’t answer, so I went into the closest research office and grabbed a radio.

“Boss to Galley. Intruder alert. Lock down all the doors and stay hidden in the dry store,” I whispered into the radio, and there was a little period of silence, before he answered.

“They are already up here. They didn’t see me. I heard them coming up the stairs and ducked into the store and locked it,” I heard Mathew reply.

“Are you able to sneak upstairs and lock the door to the bridge, so they don’t get up there?” I asked.

There was another delay in getting a reply. “Just done that, while they were rummaging through the guest cabins. There are three of them. I think they are reporters,” Mathew replied.

“Make sure the other doors to the bridge are all locked, then find your phone, and call Jasper. Tell him we have three intruders,” I instructed Mathew.

“Will do. Oh, I have a missed call from you. Sorry about that,” Mathew replied.

I stepped out of the research office cautiously, and heard loud banging coming from upstairs, which I guessed was the intruders discovering the door to the stairs to the bridge was locked, which made me smile a little. I moved forward and quietly entered the galley and dining area, and taking a quick look at Jasper’s cabin I saw his belongings had been thrown everywhere. I checked the ladies cabin, and the same was done there. I quietly closed and locked the stairway door leading to the mid-deck, and placed a chair under the handle, so it couldn’t be forced open. This would leave the intruders only one way to get out, and that was via the aft doors, between the two multi-use rooms.

Next, I locked the two doors leading down to the hulls, in case there was someone down there, before I heard banging coming from the bridge stairs door. It lasted only about a minute, before the place went silent again. So, I headed aft again to the research area and stood at the rear door and listened. I could hear a lot of loud talking going on. I took a quick look out the side windows and spotted an aluminium tinny heading back to shore, with four people on board.

Quickly I raced forward to the galley and grabbed the radio from there. “Mathew, they have left. You can come back down to mid-deck,” I said on the radio.

“Jasper to Boss, are you both ok? Over” Jasper said which made me jump with fright, as I removed the chair and unlocked the door.

“I am fine. I am just going to check on Mathew. There were 4 intruders. They trashed some of the crew cabins. They are now in a tinny making their way back to shore. Where are you guys? Over,” I responded as I climbed the stairs. On reaching the top Mathew wrapped me in a tight hug.

“We have arrived with reinforcements. We are staying out of sight near their vehicle. They won’t be going anywhere in a hurry,” Jasper replied.

“Ok, copy that. Let me know when you need the dinghy. Over,” I responded.

“Will do. Over and out,” Jasper replied.

“Let’s go and see what mess they have made. They have trashed the ladies’ and Jasper’s cabins, and they have knocked over some chairs in the workrooms and offices, but not touched the equipment,” I said to Mathew, who was still clinging onto me, not wanting to let go. Together we checked the guest cabins, which I was pleased had not been touched, but the multi-use room that was being used for accommodation had been trashed.

“Jasper to boss. We have them all in custody. They looked a little shocked when we jumped out from nearby bushes. They had no chance of getting away. I will be on the beach in a few minutes. Over and out,” Jasper said on the radio. I didn’t bother to respond, as we headed downstairs and outside to get the dinghy ready, which I was pleased had not been damaged. Once we had collected Jasper and a police officer, we returned to the vessel, and using his mobile phone, the officer took photos and video clips of each room that had been ransacked.

When I unlocked the access doors to the two hulls, we were surprised to see one man sitting on the steps waiting to be let out. He didn’t look very well. Jasper helped the officer to escort him back to shore, and returned on his own, where he found us sitting in the dining area having a cup of tea to try and relax.

“We forgot to lock the aft external door after Mathew came back from dropping you guys off,” I said to Jasper.

“They snuck in while we were preparing breakfast, which I had to abandon, when I was alerted to the intruders,” Mathew added.

Jasper stood up and went into the galley and threw out what was in the frying pan, in case it was tampered with. Getting a fresh frying pan he began to make a fresh batch of breakfast for all of us. We sat down and ate in silence, until Jasper’s mobile rang. “Jasper Adamson speaking,” he said into his phone, and after a few minutes of listening, he nodded his head. “That is great. Thank you for all your assistance with this. Goodbye,” he said before hanging up the phone, and continuing to eat his second breakfast. Eventually he stopped when he saw both of us staring at him, and he chuckled. “That was the local police. They were able to get hold of a local Justice of the Peace, who has ordered they be remanded in custody till the next hearing next week in Perth. They will be flown to Perth tomorrow, and remain in custody till mid next week,” Jasper said to us, which I was pleased to hear. “They each have been charged with three counts of criminal damage, trespassing, and threatening to do bodily harm,” Jasper added.

“That would be for what I heard them say to me through the door. That they would rip my bloody arms off if I don’t unlock the door,” Mathew said to me.

“Yes, that is it,” Jasper replied.

Once we had eaten we moved the vessel to the Bay of Rest before we got to work to clean up the mess that the intruders had made in the crew cabins and the research areas. Afterwards we sat down to relax in the lounge area and decided to watch a movie on the big screen television, opting for a comedy to lighten the mood. After the movie we washed down the decks before heading to the galley for some lunch, which was interrupted by my phone ringing. It was Simon calling.

“Ok Mr. What have you done with the vessel? We have returned and it’s not here,” Simon said, sounding a little annoyed.

“That would be because we have had intruders this morning, not long after you guys had left. We are a little further south of the airport, at Bay of Rest,” I replied.

“Oh ok. The taxi driver knows it and said we can get to it. So we will be there soon,” Simon said and he ended the call.

“Time to get the dinghy going again. Some of the crew are back early,” I announced to Jasper and Mathew. I headed down the aft main deck to take the dinghy out to collect the crew that had returned, which was only Simon and Finn. Once we were back on board, we all went to the dining area where Jasper and Mathew were chatting.