TEOTWAWKI (An Original Novel - Episode 10.1)
They’d sit in the meander bend for a while. They didn’t know where they were going so they had no particular reason to be in a rush to get there. They just wanted to be away from the Barge Barrage. Shelby and the gang, in fact all of the residents of the Banana Slug worked hard to repair the damage and to further camouflage the SmokeShip. The Maggi, and The RowdyBunch were innovative, even some of the parents were useful from time to time just kidding Much of what was ‘fixed’ was stronger and better than it had been before.
“Ok folks” Shelby said. The PostMission Briefing was taking place, where else, but in Ernie's.“We dodged a bullet that time, more like an arty strike actually. It could have been much worse. We have Carl to thank for pulling our fat out of the fire.”
Everyone looked at Carl. Carl? Then they cheered. Carl wasn’t used to THAT kind of attention. He didn’t know what to do.
days later
On one particular day, and it had been a particularly long day. Wilbur and the youngest Mage, Joshua, went to Ernie's to have a drink. Joshua had a milk.
“Ernie” Wilbur said
“Yo!” Ernie appeared out of nowhere. “Whazup?”
“You recall that box of stuff I gave you a while back? Would you bring me a bottle of it please?” Wilbur said.
No more than a minute passed then Ernie handed Wilbur a quart jar of something black, corrosive and nasty looking. Wilbur took a drink, had a mild seizure , smiled and croaked. “smooo-ooo-oth”.
“You know, that’d make pretty good Camo.” Wilbur decided, while sucking down the concoction he had made. It had started life as beer. Not too bad. Nice and black. Perhaps he should call it “Old Oil Change? Yeah. He liked that.. “The wood was good but that would be even better.”
“What the Hell are you talking about?” Yvette, Joshua’s Daemon, asked him.
“Huh?” Wilbur hadn’t realized that he was speaking aloud. “Oh, sorry. Just an old man muttering in his beer.”
“Old compared to who? You young whippersnapper” Shelby floated in. “Did I hear someone say beer?”
“It’s kind like beer.” Wilbur admitted. “sorta.”
“Is there more?” Shelby asked “I need a ‘calm-me-down.”
“Ernie” Wilbur said “Get The ArchMage one of what I’m drinking, please.”
Minutes later the ArchMage had one too.”Cheers”
Two ‘beers’ and a milk clinked glassware.
Shelby took a deep draught, not to be outdone so did Wilbur. Joshua just grinned.
The two old men had minor seizures, they were bonding, then Shelby croaked “Smoo-ooo.”
Wilbur completed the accolade “ooo-ooo-th” with another shudder, then he hiccuped.
“Not bad.” Shelby said “Do I taste torpedo juice in that?”
“Yup.” Wilbur said “It started life that way then I added secret ingredients.”
“Pretty good stuff” Shelby said.
“Thank you this is the batch that I set aside and aged.” Wilbur told him.
Shelby raised an eyebrow. “A week old?”
Wilbur appeared hurt when he admitted. “Ten days.”
“I’ll buy as much of it as you want to sell.” Shelby said “ Now what wuz that bout wood?”
“Oh that” Wilbur said “Well when Ya’ll first rescued me the eyestalk looked just like a floating snag. Imagine my surprise when I saw you inside it! Well those barges gave me an idea. There’s thousands of barges broke loose it seems. We just got hit by a few. Why not use those barges as cover?”
“What makes you think we need to hide?” Shelby took a sip of the black devils brew. He didn’t shudder quite so much this time.
“Oh I dunno” Wilbur did the same “ A little burdie told me?”
“Who you calling a bird?” Yvette asked politely. She rode on Chad’s shoulder when he walked into the room
“Do I smell beer?” Chad asked brightly.
“Ernie?” Wilbur said
“See Senor” Ernie replied.
“Um...sorry ma’am. A little dragon told me” He said.
“There’s a WarBoat floating down the river behind us. It’s looking for us. Too bad for us they have radar. The fog is thick as soup, and the loose barges are slowing them down too, they’d not be able to move much without the radar. Even so, as slow as they’re going they’re moving faster than we are.” Chad said.
“Our surveillance swarm pinpoints them exactly. We even have bugs on board listening to them talk to each other. I understand you used this technique once before ArchMage?” Chad asked.
Shelby Nodded.
“It works well. The war boat has an Agent of Viper on board. The same people who killed me. In fact it’s the same guy who pulled the trigger.” Chad was grim.
“Their radar will shine like the sun when they come over the horizon. That would be less than ten miles from here if their radar dish is twenty feet in the air and you’re standing on deck at water level. “ Yvette said.
We’ll just have to not let them see us.” Shelby decided. “We’ll hide in plain sight.”
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 mile 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 and both ways along the shore. With any luck the little lagoon wouldn’t even been seen by their radar. 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 ahead 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 had a bad experience down 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. Good thing our drones are EMP proof. A real bird would be cooked when it got within fifty feet of that thing.”
No one 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.
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 converted to QEW and transmitted to the Slug. Soon everyone could listen to the soothing sounds of swabbies farting in their bunks if they wanted to. Oddly enough other things were more attractive.
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 interested in the patrol ship, it’s complement and it’s routine 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 on sight with a passion.
Keep On Steeming!
Thanks...I intend to.
There are twenty more chapters to go. I plan on serializing one a day, at least, until completion. I might do the same with other books that I've written.
:))
Smiles!
nice one, just keep doing it..this will go unnoticed :)
chapter 9 gave me fits. dunno why. Hopefully I can do better.