“Of course not, Captain. But I think your prediction is far-fetched.”
“Oh, do you? Well, I’m reading each and every bulletin as they come in and I’m telling you that the future of Florida is bleak to say the least. They are butchering all the humans they can find, why do you think we would suddenly be singled out for preferential treatment?”
The Commander could not think of an answer but looked uneasy.
“Exactly,” the captain sneered in contempt. “So, we’re going to do this my way and then tell Washington after we’ve contained the disease. Now, we’re going to search this ship from top to bottom with small groups of armed men. We’ll need to be armed, as this is not going to be popular with the men. They already resent us for having the protection of the hazmat suits, while they’re left exposed to the deadly contagion. But once they’ve had chance to absorb the facts I think they would prefer to have a ship clear of the plague carriers, doesn’t that make sense?” he asked rhetorically. “We shall sweep through the craft, and our speed and guile will see us victorious before there is any subverting resistance to our plan—”
“Our?” the doctor asked indignantly.
“OK — my plan.”
“It’ll be a logistics nightmare, captain,” Commander Roscoe said. “How are we going to dispatch the victims without other crew members getting wise to the plan?”
“No one said it would be easy, Commander. We’ll isolate the men with tasks and exercises to keep them busy and to stop the spread of rumors.”
“Now,” he continued. “It’s up to the individual to come forward and tell us honestly if they think they have contracted the Black Death. They should come forward if they have any of the following ailments, aches, pains, headaches and other flu-like symptoms. How honest they are going to be knowing that in all probability they have caught the plague and are going to be incarcerated until their painful death, is anybody’s guess. They’ve no doubt heard about Gomez so they know the disease is on board and that they may be contaminated as we speak.”
“Is there anything we can do to contain the spread?” asked the Commander reasonably. “Containment must be the sensible way forward.”
The captain fumed. “Do you think that I would not have done my research? Do you think that I’m that much of an idiot? Let me tell you, an infected carrier can sneeze the tiny droplets twenty feet easily, can you imagine how quickly that would spread around this ship? It’s my thinking that it already has. Worst scenario is that all the men not wearing these suits will be dead or dying within the next twenty-four hours, Am I right, doctor?”
As much as he loathed the captain and his vile plan, he could not fault his thinking and nodded his assent. “Thank you. So, as you can see, we will be lucky to have enough crew to man this vessel back into a non infected port, and—”
“You cannot take this ship into port that would be disastrous!” exploded the Commander. “We must stay away from populated areas. It would be utter madness!”
“You will not speak to me in such a manner or I’ll have you charged for insubordination!” The captain’s face flared red and angry. “I’m the Captain and you will follow my orders. You’re dismissed, Commander, confine yourself to quarters.”
“But—”
“I said dismissed!”
The commander turned and shuffled from the bridge. He was devastated, not for himself and the public humiliation that he had endured, but for the safety of the men on the ship and the public at large. If they were to dock in a safe port and if just one man had a microscopic amount of the contagion upon him then there would be another outbreak. No, the captain’s plan appeared absurd, he thought. He clambered down the metal stairway with difficulty as his bright orange hazmat suit filled the gap. He sweltered inside the suit, but understood that it was his only protection from the infectious crewmen. He passed some seamen who glowered at him and half-saluted him. He felt their hatred and ill-disguised contempt.
18:11 PM
On the bridge, the captain’s mood hadn’t changed. “Does anyone else want to countermand my orders?” He looked around his fellow officers, weaklings to a man, he thought. He despised every one of them. None were career sailors, all having gone to university, paid for by the navy, living the life of luxury. The taxpayers financing their higher education, while they learned a trade that would set them up for life back on Civilian Street, doing the minimum time allowable then off to rake in the dough.
He shook his head in disgust. Was he the only one who could see what the useless layabouts had planned? The flyboys were even worse. They cruised through college, got to tear around the skies in the high-powered jets, and had the pick of the females at any port they visited — the pilots being the elite prize for the girls ever since that stupid film, ‘Top Gun’. No, the lazy pilots would do the barest minimum to keep up their flying hours, while performing the least amount of service to their country in return for their top class education, and then stroll into a plumb job with any major airline, who were always desperate for the navy-trained flyers for their lucrative pilot jobs. It made him sick, he looked around the room and could not see one officer who had ever seen any action and in all probability had signed-on, not expecting to. They too wanting the free board and lodgings, three square meals a day, that the navy offered, then they too would walk into high paying jobs back in civilian life, as corporations loved having high-ranking navy boys on their staff.
He abhorred the men who’d faint at the first sign of any real trouble, who preferred to be behind the scenes on the aircraft carrier, instead of being in the thick of the battle like he had. The atrocities he had witnessed first-hand, the awful inhumanity man could inflict upon fellow man had left him doubting even God. If any of them had seen the cruelty he’d witnessed, it made his proposal look like a walk in the park.
He saw that all eyes were upon him, awaiting his next order. “Doctor, some help here, if a man is not going to willingly volunteer that he has the plague, what visible signs should we be looking out for?”
“Well, obviously the sub epidermal hemorrhaging—”
“In English, doctor,” cut in the captain.
“The darkening of the skin. It starts in the extremities, so you may be able to detect darkening of the finger-tips, possibly the end of the nose, and the tips of the ears.”
“Good, good, anything else?”
“Sneezing, of course.”
“Yes, yes, anyone that is seen sneezing will be detained and put in isolation, anything else?”
“Swelling of the glands particularly the neck and under the arms. Anyone seen scratching or agitated by these areas of their bodies ought to be suspected of incubating the plague.”
“Good, there’s a list to be getting on with, gentlemen, go to it, let’s clear this old tub of the virus and if that means destroying the host, so be it. I’m the one issuing this order, so any fallout will come down on my shoulders. But you’ve heard the doctor, we will not have enough men to sail this boat to safety within the day. So let's get rid of the chaff and get this tub back on course, back to a ship-shape fighting machine. And if you need any more motivation, your reward will be your own survival, dismissed.”