Garcia thought of his own career. One where he’d opted out of the mainstream Surface Warfare Officer community to pursue a career of taking new systems and ships to sea for operational tests and evaluations. He had never been in a combat situation until last month, when the North Koreans attempted to board and capture Sea Base. The emotional feeling afterward showed him why people like Holman sought out the dangerous challenge of wagering their own war-fighting skills against any opponent regardless of their level of competence.
Holman had seen the age of warfare change a lot in his years, Garcia realized. The man had been around for the Cold War and then the War on Terrorism. The admiral had seen warfare go from fighting an enemy who was easy to find and hard to kill, to an enemy that was hard to find but easy to kill. Now, they were face-to-face with the Chinese. Was warfare about to change again? He thought of the Gulf Religious Wars as some called it. The Persian Gulf War was another name.
“… the Rivet Joint?”
Garcia jumped. “I’m sorry, Admiral, you were garbled.” “Hank, are you listening to me? I get the impression that either you’re asleep or daydreaming; if you’re doing either, then go back to your stateroom and do it there. I asked if the fighters and the Rivet Joint had linked up.”
Garcia put his hand over the mouthpiece. “Commander, what’s the status of the reconnaissance mission?”
“We have data links with Weasel, sir. Major Johnson’s formation is flying escort. The British fighters are four hundred miles ahead orbiting and waiting to take over. We have…” Garcia nodded and made a chopping sign across his neck. He repeated the information to Holman.
“Keep an eye on the aircraft orbiting over the coastline, Hank. According to the information from the RJ and confirmed by the Taiwanese, those aircraft are the new Chinese J-12 stealth fighters.”
“Yes, sir. We’ll watch,” Garcia answered, knowing all they could do was watch. Then, he thought of his laser cannons, wondering just how effective they would be beyond the curvature of the earth.
FIVE
Andrew stepped onto the main deck of Sea Base. He had walked from Altair, which held the forward starboard position of the eight ships holding aloft the Sea Base canopy. As he traveled from one of the Fast Sealift Ships to the other, he glanced often at the bottom of the dark gray canopy that stretched outward as far as he could see. He wondered if he would find his compartment where he had dropped off his seabag in the vast metal jungle, but God’s Will would take care of that small problem.
When he reached the Algol, he opened the hatch leading upward and climbed to the top of the canopy onto the huge flat deck of Sea Base.
The devil-man Taleb had told him the top of Sea Base was four stories high from the main deck of the ships. He looked down. This is the main deck, he thought, taking a small bit of pride in remembering the Navy term without having to search for it in his mind. It had taken a month of listening to Steve Bucket talk about his years in the Navy. A month to teach him about the maelstrom of sea life he would have to face. Knowing the test of his faith was to be performed here.
He wondered if the times of confusing nautical terms with landlubber talk — he smiled — were gone. Andrew walked along the side of the ship, keeping a couple of feet between him and the safety lines marking the edge of the deck. He knew others who believed in the sanctity of the Holy Spirit would be here, even if they worshipped the same Lord and God in different manners. Eventually, the evil ones who forsake the Lord, those who were nothing more than Satan’s spawn, would discover him — one of God’s angels in their midst. He shut his eyes and sent a short prayer of thanks to God for this opportunity to prove his faith.
Splashing from the ocean drew Andrew to the edge of the deck. He grasped the safety lines and nervously glanced down at the water. The water bubbled and cascading upon itself as weaving dark shapes drove against each other at the surface. The turmoil ceased abruptly and the area of disturbance disappeared, melding into the waters around it.
Dark shapes appearing beneath the surface briefly before disappearing beneath Sea Base — these would be the sharks he’d overheard sailors talking about in the berthing area while he was stowing his seabag. Sharks had appeared soon after Sea Base was raised, and now they swam beneath this man-made evil wherever she went.
If anyone in God’s Army doubted his father’s vision, the presence of the sharks and the death of Joshua on board Sea Base would have erased the doubts. No one but his father would have had the vision to recognize this Navy experiment for the threat it was to global anarchy and the next coming.
Epiphanies were more than religious visions. This one washed over him. It was a combination of his father’s vision, Steve Bucket’s knowledge of the United States Navy, and him walking the deck of this huge experiment of American technology and projection of Navy might that allowed the true threat to be seen. The threat was not just Sea Base. The threat was not just the U.S. Navy or the Navies of the world. The threat was that control of the seas truly ensured global stability. Armies won wars, but Navies ensured stability throughout the world. They isolated pariah nations and kept the global economy moving. He looked along the safety line running from over a thousand feet aft to a thousand feet from where he stood before it curved right and left, heading toward the runway that marked the center of Sea Base. He uncurled his fingers from the safety line, and then gripped it again. Sea Base represented all of this epiphany in its hugeness. Stability threatened the vision of God’s Army. The destruction of Sea Base would start the dominoes of anarchy falling.
Unconsciously, he straightened while he gave thought to this epiphany. His hands rested on the safety line, the grip loosening. His eyes narrowed and his lips pursed as Andrew tried to determine how he was to use this knowledge that God had just now bestowed on him. Another series of splashes from below drew his attention.
He leaned forward, gripping the safety line firmly. His head and shoulders stuck out from the side of the ship, his body pushed against the safety lines. A slight breeze rode across the ships underneath Sea Base, starting from the rear of the ships. The breeze bathed his face with a mixture of oily smells and the garbage that was continuously dumped unceremoniously into the ocean beneath. The odors assailed his senses, causing him to shut his mouth as if somehow this kept the smells away. A shiver ran up his body. This was God’s way of offering one more proof of the danger Sea Base presented to his father’s vision. God was calling to him.
Along with the realization that Andrew was the angel in the midst of the devil’s workshop came an unanticipated thrill over the adventure of what awaited. He had never seen so many powerful things in the few hours he had been on board. This ship. Sea Base.
Laser weapons and things called rail guns. Later, he might try to find out how they worked. A weapon carried its own seed of destruction. The congregation would never believe America had a ship the size of this. Then, he wondered, is Sea Base really a ship, or a metal island as he overheard one sailor call it?
Until this mission, Andrew had never been near the water other than the rivers and ponds of West Virginia. Was he capable of fulfilling his father’s instructions? Would he disappoint God’s will and be unable to send to the devil those who’d killed his anointed brother? He would pray. Through prayer, God’s will be done.