The Silent Voyager
    It was a warm sunny day as the SS Voyager was cruising about 50 miles off the coast of California.  The Newly built American cruiser was carrying a type of nerve gas capable of being dropped on an enemy army.  This gas, FC 15 contained a chemical that could easily subdue an enemy army and put them to sleep for up to 36 hours with them not able to remember a thing!  The ship was built to transport some of the USA’s most powerful and dangerous nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.
    
    The ship had reinforced titanium-steel alloy about eight feet thick, able to withstand a direct hit from a standard torpedo.  The ship was about 150 feet long by about 70 feet wide.  There was no bridge on this ship to be vulnerable to an enemy attack; instead, to Navigate, a handful of $120,000  forecaster shadow radars were positioned all around the waterline of the ship.  These radars (OH 8-16) produced a total 3D panoramic view of the outside for up to 20 miles.  Each one of these expensive radars could take up to fifty .50 caliber shells before being rendered useless.  If you were to see the ship, you would believe it resembled a big, black box floating in the water.

    In the dining hall sat Captain Rinu eating a hearty meal of eggs and bacon.  
    “Hello Captain!” shouted 1st mate Doug G.
    “Hello 1st mate!” responded Rinu.
    “How about you take my Nikon camera to the deck to snap some shots of the ocean and dolphins so my wife will see where I have been for five full months.  This time we have spent out on the ocean was something I could not tell her.  You know one of those top secret deals.”
    “Yes, I I captain!”

    The Captain sipped his coffee and dismissed the newly promoted 1st mate.  With eager excitement, Doug ran to the deck.  No sooner had he been gone for 30 seconds Doug came bellowing down the stairs, “Japs, Japs!”  Rinu ran up to the deck.  As Rinu looked out to sea, a Japanese sub sat about 50 yards out in the water.

    A translator was on board.  The Japanese captain spoke a funny language for some time and finally the translator spoke, “I hear news of your cargo.  Surrender it now or be sunk.”  By this time half the crew was on deck listening to the words.  Captain Rinu was almost laughing at the words but he held his composure.  But not for to long.  Soon he burst into laughter for he knew no standard military weapon besides that possessing nuclear power could sink the Voyager.  The sub disappeared beneath the glassy ocean surface only to reappear about 25 yards away.  Only now a German-made 30 mm deck gun was aimed at the hull to be followed by another German-made gun a .50 caliber machine gun.  By, now it was clear the Japanese were hostile.  Rinu ordered his men below.  As Doug was going down to his quarters, he heard several .50 caliber shots and his heart sank.  He knew the truth.  Quickly he dashed up to the deck to find his beloved Captain Rinu near death.  But as he wept no sub appeared to be in the water.  But a sub on the starboard appeared and fired seventy .50 caliber shots at the hull.  With the ship dead in the water, Doug knew a torpedo to the stern would disable the ship from a getaway.

    Captain Rinu spoke before his final breath, “Get the ship away from this cursed location.  You now assume my position.  Now go on get the cargo out of here!”  A final breath was taken and Rinu had passed.  Doug ran below deck and ordered the ship a quick getaway.  The engines were started and at a few knots an hour, the ship was gone only to be pursued by TWO Japanese subs.  The OH 8-16s detected a torpedo and gave an alert along with an alarm.  This torpedo was only about 15 yards away and closing fast.  Doug ordered the speed up by 15 knots an hour, any faster and the turbines would blow.  With only seconds to impact 5....4....3....2....1 BOOM!!!!!  A cataclysmic blast knocked the ship off course by 30 yards, not to mention the crew.

    Doug went to the deck to find another torpedo about 20 yards out.  This torpedo was about 20 feet long and about to hit the ship broadside.  Doug thought, “This torpedo must produce nuclear energy.”  Doug suddenly found himself jumping from the boat instinctively.  5...4...3...2...1 BOOM!  Doug hit the warm, salty water.  As Doug resurfaced he attempted to look at the ship only to have his view blocked by a huge mushroom cloud that must have been visible for at least 20 miles.  Doug saw the bow fall beneath the water.  The shock would have killed any sailor still onboard.  Just then Doug realized that the cargo could be released into a mini-sub.  Then he swam with all his might to the stern where the cargo was kept.  Doug grabbed some debree and swam to the bobbing stern.  Doug clammered around suddenly finding where the cargo was kept.  “Luckily, the FC 15 was still in tact. I wish I could say the same for the mini-sub.  The blast totally obliterated it.  

    As Doug pondered ways to leave the wreck site, he found a small cruising boat on the horizon a few miles out.  Doug frantically yelled, “Help Help!  Yeah, like they can hear me!”  A box with an explosion symbol floated in the water about 20 feet away about 20 feet away.  But a cooking pan lay in the path to the box.  “Maybe if I can reflect rays of sun the people on the boat may see me or the rays.”  Doug picked up the pan and attempted to reflect some rays.  Five minutes passed and you would think the boat would come unless he was scared of what he saw.  Frustrated, Doug swam to the box and took a look.  “Well it may be good if I sat on something while I try to make an atomic bomb!!”  A piece of metal floated in the water .  It was about 5 by 4 feet.  Doug thought, “It may be good if I sat on something so I will be comfortable.”  Doug opened up the box to find a flair gun with three flairs.  

    “One possibly in the tube of the gun” Doug thought to himself.  Doug grabbed the gun and positioned the gun at a 45 degree in the air to the boat on the water.  “Here goes nothing.”  Doug squeezed the trigger. THUMP a small rocket whizzed up to around 600 feet in the air and exploded with and awesome display of pyrotechnics.  Doug waited.  “I wonder if I need to fire another.”  Doug carefully loaded another flair.  He aimed it straight up in the air and fired.  Big mistake, the hot ashes and sparks fell back and landed in Doug’s eyes and face. “Oww oww!!”  He thought about dipping his face in the water but his head told him not to because of the way the salt water would treat his eyes.  Doug could still see faintly out of one eye.  Doug took one and left one flare.  

    Carefully the flair was loaded.  Doug thought, “Maybe if I save this one I can make a sort of explosive device.”  So Doug removed the flare and placed it on the floor of metal in which he sat.  “I need a paper towel roll.”  Doug paddled his “raft” to the part of the boat.  Luckily the bathroom was right where the ship had broken.  “Eureka, there’s one!”  Doug went on board and grabbed it.  Suddenly Doug thought, “The boat out on the ocean would probably not come with any explosive devices as I have already tried.”  

    Doug swam and tried to find the mini-sub.  He saw it or what was left of it and swam to it.  Doug took off the propeller, engine, and a tank of gas.  Luckily these vital parts were not in an unworkable condition.  He placed all of these pieces on his raft.  There Doug sat fooling and fiddling with the wires attempting to figure out how to correctly wire the thing.  But after about two hours he finally had power.  The now motorized flank of metal could get Doug to the far-off boat.  At his happiest, Doug found a problem.  “How the heck am I supposed to steer this thing?”  After some mental debating, Doug reached a rational decision.  “I will have two paddles.  One will be on each side.  To steer I will move one forward and the other back.”  Doug was proud of himself for figuring this way of turning on water.

    “Well, here we go”, Doug boasted to himself.  Doug hopped aboard and sat down.  He fired up the engine and he was off.  For some reason unknown to him his raft did not sink.  “Wow!” Doug shouted I must be giong 15 miles per hour.  As the raft went along, the ocean spray hit Doug right in the sore spot on the face.  He was already too far from ground-zero to turn around so he decided to endure the agonizing pain.  He was about one mile form the still bobbing ship when the small boat started its engines and began to move in his direction.  “Wow, this is great”, Doug shouted.  “I still better not stop so the man aboard that boat will know I am still alive and well.”

    Doug now knew he would be witness to the events that had happened to the Voyager.  Doug would be able to testify in court and bring the Japanese bad guys to jail.  “I thought the Japanese and Americans were at peace!  Some how I don’t think it was the Japanese government’s big idea.  Maybe they were terrorists of Japan.  I guess I won’t know until I get back to America.”  By now the small boat was about 500 yards out.  Doug’s heart lept with joy as the man on board waved.  Doug took his hand off the “steeres” and waved.  A quick jerk made Doug put his hands right back on the paddles.  Doug began to slow down by turning the engine on and off.  Just as he expected the craft slowed down to have the person on the boat yell, “Hola.”

    Doug knew little Spanish .  But what he did know was something that came out sounding like this,

    “Me ship went BOOM!  Need help to mainland.  Me no speak any Espnol.”  
    “Me speak little english,”
 spoke the Mexican.
     “I will take you to mainland.  Come aboard.”
    “Thank you” Doug stuttered with his overwhelming happy self. So he threw himself aboard.  Doug found a warm leather seat in the back and sat down.  Under the seat Doug found a First-Aid kit.  “Mind if I use?”  “No No, go right ahead I see you are quite injur.”  Doug popped it open to find a bottle of hydrogen peroxide along with some gauze.  He took the gauze and poured some peroxide to it.  Slowly and cautiously, he dabbed it to his face to feel a cool relaxing sensation.  “Too bad my eye can’t have peroxide put on it.  As the boat tilted side to side Doug fell asleep with the gentle rocking motion.  Fifty miles was reduced to about five miles when Doug was awaken by the Mexican who he soon found to be called Sanchez.

    “The shore is only about five miles away.”  Doug got up to see the shore.  “Wow, its been a full five months since I’ve seen the beautiful California coast.

    Sanchez pulled the boat to his private dock and they got out.  “Here is phone. Call who you need to.”  Doug phoned the CIA.  “Yes, my name is Doug, Doug Goodman.  I was aboard the SS voyager when it was sunk.  Please come pick me up, my address is..... “Sanchez what is your address?”  “It is 677 Pepper Drive.”

    “We’ll send an unmarked Mercedes CLK Touring car to pick you up.”