#58:Banana Slug -WarBoat

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a day or two later

“A ship just popped up over our Northern Horizon. It’s still fifteen miles or so away.” Yvette told Chad. “The sound signature is large engines but not enough ‘hull slap’ to indicate a tug pushing a barge, as if there were any still running. The Surveillance bugz cross referenced perfectly. That’s the WarBoat we were speaking of earlier.”

“Huh” Chad said “very interesting”

He called Shelby. Shelby called for a slug wide ‘shut down’. When ‘the man’ got to within a few miles of the Banana Slug everyone was to turn off the lights and go to sleep. Of course no one was going to do that. They’d turn off the lights alright and lay down and apparently go to sleep but then they would enter Virtual Reality to watch. That was perfectly acceptable. They made no noise nor shone any light while in VR.

The Banana Slug was still in the Meander Elbow. There was a pile of barges stacked up in front of the entrance. With any luck the little lagoon wouldn’t even been seen by their radar, all they would see would be barges like thousands they’d seen before. With a little MORE luck, provided by a cloud of SSmoke, it was guaranteed.

“My look at that” Chad said “Isn’t it pretty?”

The oncoming ship was still an hour away. The DroneScouts that Shelby had sent ahead to investigate showed that it was lit up like a HonkyTonk on Saturday night. Every light on it was lit. Radar and sonar were operating at full blast. A number of Rigid Inflatable Boats preceded it and on both sides. They were examining the river VERY closely. They were probing the water with the Navy equivalent of fish finders.

Perhaps it'd had a bad experience up the river and didn’t want to repeat it, or perhaps it was looking for them.

“It’s loud too” Wilbur said “Even I can pick it up on my instruments. Don’t those big Cats sound purty? The amount of power for the sonar he’s using is ridiculous. One Cat is running full blast just to supply the juice. If anyone here is pregnant they’re getting a sonogram when it goes by. It’s putting out a lot of watts of Radar too. ”

Shelby looked alarmed

Wilbur said sheepishly. “Figure of speech. All they’ll see will Barges...either with radar or sonar. We’re in their shadow.”

Shelby was relieved.

No one else seemed to be very concerned. SSmoke had almost magical properties with sound and light. They were invisible, sitting on the river bottom, underwater, at night, under riverbarges. The Barges were backup...always have a plan B.

Shelby asked. “Joshua?”

“Yes Master” Joshua replied

Shelby grinned. That was good, the boy was coming along. Joshua needed some sand. He was too passive. “How soon can you slap together a drone carrier?”

Shelby didn’t bother to elaborate. In fact he really didn’t know exactly what he had in mind. It was more fun to toss an idea to that gang and see what they did with it.

“Already done that Master” Joshua said. “It drops mites, cyber-mites that is.”

...............

No one noticed one more SeaGull, especially at night. At the moment there were maybe a hundred flying around the Cutter as it made it’s way up the river. The noise and the light attracted them.

One more SeaGull. This one was different from the rest. It had passengers. All SeaGulls carry mites, this one carried cyber-mites. Thousands of tiny, almost microscopic, cybernetic insects were dropped upon the unsuspecting cutter from the disguised drone carrier.

The mites had the capability to pick up audio and video. Soon the ship was infested bow to stern. In every crack, behind every door, inside every clothing seam, behind every collar flap and in most people’s hair, a cyber-bug dug in like a chigger and camouflaged itself. The bugs were invisible to less than half an inch away and didn’t do anything to call attention to themselves. They didn’t itch like lice or ticks.

The cyber-mites were totally passive. They just sat there, and watched and listened, and took active measures to avoid detection. Everything they saw or heard was transmitted via QEW to the Slug. Soon everyone could listen to the soothing sounds of swabbies farting in their bunks if they wanted to.

The citizenry of the Banana Slug listened, and they listened. The Cutter came and went.

Booooooring. Nothing was heard of interest.

When the Cutter was far enough away the Banana Slug resumed it’s creep downstream, no one paid the Cutter much mind.

Except for Karl.

Karl was not Carl although they existed in the same body. Carl was a natural Schitzophrenic and Karl was his alter-ego. Karl was interested in the patrol ship, but Klink drew his attention like a moth to a flame. Something about Klink reminded him of a past that he, oh so badly, did NOT want to remember. He’d worked for literally half his life to forget some of the things that were trying to burrow out of the suppressed memory section of his mind. He did NOT want them to reveal themselves.

He hated Klink with a passion.

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The Next Episode
#59 -Interlude : Lotta Water
The Previous Episode was
#57: Banana Slug -Old Oil Change…
The First Episode was
# 1 : Prologue…
..............
Book One: SoulStone
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