The God Wars

"Do you actually believe this?" Captain Arnold asked Crist once the general returned to the Pima.

"It is a hard pill to swallow, but it does make sense," Crist said smoking a cigarette.

"What do you think we should do? You are the ranking officer."

"Captain," Crist said to the excited captain. "The fleet is under your command. You get me to land and I'll take over any landing operations. However, if you want my advice I say we keep going east. There must be some land out there somewhere."

"Maybe and maybe not. In any event, I only have a finite amount of fuel for the ships and aircraft. Hopefully, we'll catch something on the radar," Arnold responded.

"What about the two Kingfisher floatplanes on this ship? Their range is further than the Avengers," Crist offered.

"It takes a long time to retrieve a floatplane and secure it back onto its catapult. No the range of the TBFs will suffice," Captain Arnold countered.

The two men sat in silence as the bridge crew continued their work. The sun was out in full force and there was not a cloud in the bright blue sky. In another time and place, this would be a wonderful day. Today it was just another mystery as to what was going on.

Finally, Arnold went over to the radioman. "Sparky, have all senior officers of the fleet assemble in the wardroom in two hours." Arnold then turned towards Crist, "General I would like all your senior officers in attendance as well."

"You figure a briefing?" Crist asked the captain.

"Yes, preferably a joint one explaining the possibility that we are lost -- very lost," Arnold concluded.

The radio operator suddenly spun around to address Captain Arnold. "Sir, the John Reynolds has spotted some debris off her port side."

Arnold and Crist both rushed over to the radio. Sparky continued to listen on his end and finally relayed more information. "It appears sir to be from a wooden ship..."

"Maybe we are not so lost after all," Arnold proclaimed.

"Sir, they also say there is a survivor, and he is being sent over to the Respite."

"General, I know that you out rank me. But if you can spare someone to interview the survivor and report back to me I'd be very thankful," Arnold said to the waiting General.

"Not a problem. I can spare myself. I've got a few interpreters over on the Olympus I will take one of them along in case our survivor doesn't speak English."

It was the second time in a matter of hours that General Crist found himself on the Respite. This time he was ushered to the room with the survivor of the wooden boat. With the general was an interpreter Lieutenant Roger Greer. It was because of his extensive range of languages and expertise in linguistics that Crist chose Greer to accompany him.

The doctor showed the two military men the room with the survivor. Nurses were busy setting up an I.V. and taking vital signs. At first neither men could see the survivor because of the mass of medical personnel assemble around the bedside.

After a few minutes the nurses and the presiding doctor walked away to confer with each other. The survivor sat in the bed. A pillow obstructed the face so Crist could not see what the survivor looked like. Finally, the doctor walked over to the two officers.

"Gentlemen, it looks like she'll be all right," the doctor said. "She's conscious but is suffering a bit of shock. Please, do not over task her with too many questions."

"Her?" Crist exclaimed. "You mean it was woman on that boat."

"Obviously, the answer is yes," the doctor replied. "Here are her effects and this might help you out."

The doctor handed over the woman's tunic. It was white with golden scroll pattern on the hem that reminded Crist of Greece. The other object was a tattered fabric with some writing on it. It was writing Crist had never seen before.

"Lieutenant, what do you make of this?" the General asked the interpreter.

"Sir, I am fluent in five languages. But this does not look like any European script in design," Greer replied looking over the fabric. "I did once take some classical languages. If I am correct this looks a lot like Linear A."

"Son, you are speaking Greek to me," the General stated.

"In a sense that is correct, sir. Linear A is from the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete. It has not yet been deciphered."

"Well, maybe we can get something from the girl," Crist said.

"Yes sir, I'll try," Greer responded.

"Lieutenant, I want to stress that this is very important. I need you to do more than try," Crist sternly ordered.

"Yes sir!" Greer said with a crisp salute.

"Good, I need to return to the Pima. I want you to alert us to any breakthroughs," Crist said. "Oh son, one more thing, time is not a luxury we can afford."

General Crist returned in time to join Captain Arnold in the wardroom. All the captains from the various ships in the fleet were in attendance as well as every colonel that accompanied the troops aboard the Olympus. The officers were all either smoking, drinking coffee or both.

"Gentlemen," Captain Arnold addressed the assembled men. Their conversations died down once the captain began to speak. "You may have guessed that we have experienced some rather unusual events today."

Several men nodded their heads. "The general," Arnold pointed to Crist who stood off to one side, "and I have done some investigation. It appears that some new device that was supposed to turn our fleet invisible malfunctioned."

"What do you mean by malfunctioned?" asked one of the captains with British accent. Arnold noted that he had to be Captain Bolger from the Olympus.

"Well, according to Dr. Reno we have been transported to another location," Arnold replied.

"Where exactly is that?" the British captain queried further.

"We do not precisely know where. It could be any where on Earth or, as Dr. Reno suggests, another planet," Arnold answered in a stoic voice.

The assembled officers broke out in questions, disbelief, and just general chaos. Captain Arnold tried several times to quiet down the group but to no avail.

"Attention!" screamed General Crist at the top of his lungs. His harsh commanding voice automatically brought the soldiers to their feet. The fleet captains quickly followed suit.

"Look here," Crist said sternly. "We need you to take this information and present it to your men. We need you to do it in a calm and controlled manner. Plus, we want you to be prepared to keep control of the situation."

"That is correct," Arnold added. "We also want you to assure the men that we are working on finding land and fixing the machine. We will either find out we are still on Earth or we will find a way to return."