The elaborately mirrored elevator shuddered gently and slowly started its ascent up the cruise-ship. We all stood silently, then, softly above us the haunting melody of Celine Dion’s ‘My heart will go on” started playing. No one said a word until Portly turned to me and awkwardly broke the silence,
“I love this song.”
Chapter 7
April 20th 2021
0711 hours
Gossamer Muse Super Cruise-liner
The Bridge
Not long after we arrived on the hi-tech bridge of the Gossamer Muse. The Colonel, Captain Li and Li’s second in command were standing on a balcony at the rear of the bridge that overlooked the ship’s exterior deck levels and dual-configuration stacks. The sky above the Gossamer Muse was overcast. Still, in the day-light from my vantage point I could better appreciate the immense size of the world’s third largest cruise-ship.
The deck from stem to stern spanned an impressive seven foot-ball fields and consisted of three distinct levels and containing three Olympic sized swimming pools, a water-slide, and a greenhouse/ topical garden area. To the front of the ship the forward observation decks rose four storeys up from the main deck and formed the back section sloping front face of the vessel where bridge and forward Recreation decks were located.
From the second storey of forward observation ‘tower’ a half-circle jogging track that extended to the inner perimeter balconies of the Gossamer Muse’s forward section. The halved crescent-like platform-bridge hung, free-standing, twenty feet over the main-deck jutting out from one end of the tower and arcing around to the other end of the tower directly below us.
Beneath the inner-rim of the crescent-shaped jogging track a raised swimming pool and large Jacuzzi were located on the lowest exterior deck on either side of the main entrance to the exterior deck levels. An open upward sloping pathway facing to the rear of the ship led to the open deck area. With no doors to seal and too well built to be collapsed by the class of explosives the Chinese team had brought this door way would be the ‘Podies’ only way out of the ship’s interior. If they got this far…
Past the deluxe Jacuzzi and swimming pool toward the stack, beyond the outer border of the jogging track, an un-comfortably large section of the lower deck floor was made of colored glass-tiles. These tiles were what comprised the roof of the magnificent atrium I had partially destroyed in my encounter with the creature.
Further back the gigantic double stack design of the cruise-ship that stabbed through the center of the ship at thirty degree angle effectively separating the lower deck from the higher second deck level. Yet, somehow, it still managed to be stylishly incorporated into the ship’s opulent and over-indulgent design-layout. The lower-half sections of the stack were purposely lined with narrow walk-ways that connected the lower and upper deck. There were even small observation platform areas complete with telescopes that climbed even further up the stacks at certain points.
On the other side of main stacks to the rear portion of the ship’s upper-deck, past the stacks, was divided into three distinct levels that rose to the back of ship culminating at the heliport platform.
On the lowest deck, about fifty-feet away there was another Olympic sized swimming pool in the shape of an oval. The deck surrounding the pool was littered with dozens of over-turned lounge chairs and umbrella tables. Two elaborately designed oriental styled bridges arched over the wide-middle of the oval pool.
Up the stairs to the second level was an even bigger swimming pool surrounded by a few hundred pieces of patio- furniture. This second level had the largest floor area of the rear decks and the immense pool was connected to the upper deck by an insanely spiraling water-slide. Part of the water-slide rested on a tinted glass-dome that housed a size-able in-door garden of exotic tropical flora.
The third and final level had a miniature golf course and a driving range for golfers to keep their golf-swings in shape while on board. Just beyond that was the heliport where we had made our insertion aboard the Gossamer-Muse.
The heliport was a three hundred and fifty metre square platform that could be raised or lowered by an independent hydraulic system.
Soul-train and the others had brought Portly and me to Colonel Bishop and captain Li who stood out on the bridge’s balcony that over looked the ship. Off to the side Li’s second in command Kimo softly spoke, in Chinese, into the COM-link strapped to his wrist. Behind us a frustrated technician named Stevens swore, intermittently, under his breath as he picked through a tangled mess of colored wires gutted from one of the bridges consoles.
“Negative, Li. One: We don’t have proper line of sight on the entire ‘kill-zone’ from the balconies that run along the inner perimeter of the ship. And two: firing from that range reduces the effectiveness of most of our weapons. And we definitely don’t have enough ammo between us to make this into a drawn out affair. And if it should come to that every shot has to count.”
“Very well then,” Li acquiesced, “it is agreed: We hit them hard with every thing we have and try to build a bottle-neck of bodies at the entrance to stop their advance.”
“Have your men line the lowest exterior deck with the last of their remote charges and all the additional explosives you brought.”
Li looked quizzically at the Commander.
“We brought enough explosives to scuttle this ship. Do you not find such an action… excessive?”
“Captain, if these… things manage to over-run our defensive positions it might be the best card we have left to play.”
“You under-estimate our capabilities, Colonel.”
“No. I just don’t know what theirs are yet.”
Li’s brow furrowed in disagreement at the remark.
“Captain Li,” the Commander continued, “Do you know what kind of man brings a gun to a knife-fight?”
Li was confused by the riddle.
“The winner, Captain. You have your orders.”
Captain Li looked to Kimo and rattled off his order in Chinese. Li’s second in command bounded past us barking his new orders into his wrist-COMM in Chinese.
It was then Captain Li saw me.
“Corporal,” he said stone faced, “Where is Sergeant Tan and Jin-Lao?”
I shook my head and started to answer but he already knew. He simply turned on his heels and walked away to the balcony. As he walked he spoke softly into his wrist-COM, to his men, notifying them of their loss. Later I would learn that Jin-Lao was Captain Li’s son.
Since this operation had started less than three hours ago we had already lost four men, three Chinese S.F. and a technician; added to that Huck was wounded.
Soul-train stepped past me,
“Colonel Bishop, Sir, the Podies are definitely on the move.”
“How long till they make it top-side?”
“The sealed doorways and explosives we set down below only slowed them down, sir. Some of them are moving up via alternate routes. It’s a big ship, Sir. Fifteen. Maybe twenty minutes tops.”
Colonel Bishop looked at his wrist-watch
“Lock and load, gentlemen,” he said his voice completely without emotion, “we’re about to earn our hazard pay.”
The Colonel split all the commandos into four four-man fire teams while two roaming snipers manned the highest deck and our two heavy machine gunners positioned on the second deck. We would attempt to halt the escape of the Podies from the ship by ‘maintaining’