GOD of a man

“A weapon; the only truth about it’s existence, it’s used to kill in the name of country, colour, religion, caste, for greed or pride. What an irony it knows none.”

Chapter Six: Why do we need guns?
Dated: 26th February, 2425

Diatoms, one of the tiniest entities among the varied wonders of nature, so minute and inconspicuous in their presence if you are not a diatom yourself, chances are you’ll miss their existence altogether. But sometimes it’s not the size rather the virtues that determine the way destinies unfold and future is constructed. In spite of all it’s vanity, pride and greed, human genius has a history of surprising the staunchest of it’s critics with its masterly utilization of nature’s creativity, between varied degree of crude to shockingly other worldly.

“The Phantom of the South” the one that never reached it’s home, finally found a new home among the last few souls on this earth. It’s another matter the same souls had all but one reason for all the affection, adulation and attention it was enjoying at that moment, the purpose of stripping it of whatever useful remained on it.

In the dying moments of 25th February, 2425 Steve brought the first sign of cheer on the wailing faces, making them forget the tragedy that had just stuck the last human city of Hatsu Saisho just a few hours ago. Everybody was relishing the thoughts of the opportunity those sacrifices had created for the humankind. But the battle was far from won as everybody realized in a few hours time. The boat, it’s motor and fuel were all there inviting to be exploited but the only glitch was, the motor just won’t work.

“Why doesn’t the damn thing start?” Shoji Ono, the impatient of the two twins asked.

“Looks like it’s fuel injectors are clogged and the motor is rusted. It’ going to take a lot of work to get it fixed,” Larry Chapman, the expert that he was at mechanical works, replied.

“No point explaining it to him, his brains rusted too,” Shoji Nakata, the quieter of the two had a dig at his brother.

“Yeah, and you can use his to take the rust off. It’s coarse like a scrub,” Ono returned the shot.

“Oh C‘Mon now, will the two of you stop your bickering and for Henry’s sake, let me think of some way out to fix this stuff?” Larry reprimanded them.

“Sorry teacher,” Nakata, who was learning the mechanical repairs from Larry, replied.

“Why do we always say, for Henry’s sake? Who was this Henry?” it was hard to keep Ono quiet though.

“You don’t know about Henry? Perhaps your mother still thinks you are too young to know the story yet,” Larry replied as he started opening up the motor piece by piece and continued, “Henry was..”

“How’s everything going over here,” Joseph’s voice interrupted their conversation as he along with Steve and Robin arrived to take a stock of the progress if any, Larry might have made in getting the motor working.

"Good Morning Mr President,” Larry exchanged pleasantries with Joseph and then the others and continued, “No luck so far. Looks like the motor’s fuel jets are jammed and the motor is rusted.”

“What does that mean?” Joseph asked a question he himself knew was pointless as this was to be natural. Radioactivity may have eliminated life everywhere and stopped the degeneration of animal and plant bodies for years, but it certainly didn't stop the physical forces that are omnipresent in the environment from doing what is their true nature.

“I think we should get on with our job of sending our teams to the ship to collect whatever we can before it sails out of reach,” Steve’s maturity put things in perspective as he continued, “Larry can keep working on the motor and if he can make it work again, it will make our job easier but we cannot afford to loose time waiting for it to happen.”

“I think Steve’s right,” Robin made his presence count, “Is there anything you need from us Larry?”

“I definitely will need a few things, new seals for sealing the various parts of the motor, new engine oil and stuff,” Larry replied.

“Look I cannot guarantee if we will find any of those on board the ship and weather they will be in workable condition, so you better think of some alternatives as well,” Joseph replied. “Gentlemen, lets get on with our part of the job now,” He continued as they all left Larry, his disciple and his happy-go-lucky brother to take care of their job while they organised teams to exploit HMAS James Martin.

“Good Morning Gentlemen,” Susan Chernova, the doctor at the hospital and Larry’s wife arrived at the scene just as everybody else was leaving. “How’s everything sweetheart?” she asked Larry after the others had left.

“The motor’s sick. Can you prescribe some medicine?” Ono joked.

“Yeah, she has Onomania,” Nakata took another dig at his brother.

“Oh shut up you two,” Larry rebuked them and explained the problem to Susan in precise. “I don’t think we’ll get anything for the sealing from the ship, at least not in workable condition even if we get some engine oil,” he finished.

As Larry got down with what he was doing, opening up the motor, Susan got lost in deep consternation as if she might be the only one to come up with the solution to the problem, pretty much like, “That’s what the doctor ordered.” And perhaps she just might.

“I have an idea sweetheart,” Susan said after a long considerate thoughtful silence, “It iss crude but it just might click.”

“I’ll take that. Anything sounds good at the moment,” Larry expressed the desperation of the situation in those few words.

“Oh C’mon now, just hear me out first,” Susan complained.

“I was only joking love, perhaps out of the frustration of the situation. What is it that you propose, except if it’s about marriage? We are both grown ups now, lets not repeat our mistake again. What are we going to teach our kids?” Larry joked.

“Excuse me. You were the one who went down on his knees, I was the one lured by your false smiles and love charms” Susan took a jibe.

“I had dropped my penny and was just looking for it. The next moment you were there jumping up and down and around in circles shouting, Yes I will, I will, and were all over me. I didn’t even know what was happening until I was raped,” Larry replied.

“Look who’s talking now. The one who wouldn’t go back to his scube till I kicked him in it every evening, and the one who wouldn’t let me finish my sleep and woke me up like a cock before the dawn breaks,” Susan replied as she gave him two thumbs down and stuck her tongue out to mock.

“Should I have the rest of the day off sir?” Nakata took his jibe at the two.

“Shut up kid,” Larry replied, “So what’s it darling?”

“Well, I was thinking, you need something to seal the engine parts so that it doesn’t leek. If you don’t find anything from the boat, I have an idea. We can dig out a few fresh bodies, take their long bones out and get the spongy bone tissue out of them. The spongy tissue is made up of calcium and minerals. We can wash the other tissue out of it’s pores and then if you’ll layer the engine parts with it and tighten the screws, it will collapse and seal the joints, and the minerals won’t degenerate when the engine heats up.”

“That sounds brilliant. But won’t the oil still leak? If it’s spongy, it will have air cavities,” Larry was impressed but had his doubts.

“We won't wash it with ice water but the sea water. It will have minute, microscopic entities called diatoms. Their outer layer is made of Silica which is again a hard mineral and heat stable. They will block the airspaces if any,” Susan finished.

“That’s a wonderful idea. I knew I made the right choice when I married you,” Larry was excited. He rushed Ono to Joseph and the congress to get their permission for digging the bodies and taking the tissues. The permission was granted and hardly twenty four hours after having been buried Frank was dug out again along with a couple of others who had just recently died.

“Nakata, in case we are not able to find any engine oil for the motor on board the ship, we’ll need to cleanse the one that we got out of this motor. We will have to centrifuge it to settle the suspended engine rust impurities in it,” Larry continued working on the motor. “I want you to put this oil in a tightly closed container, hold the container securely in a piece of cloth tied to a string and swing the container around in circles as fast as you can. This is our only way and hope of centrifuging out the suspended impurities.” Improvisation is the hallmark of human ingenuity.

While the mechanic and his disciple were busy working on the motor, the first team of men under the leadership of Steve was dispatched to the phantom and another one was waiting under the command of Robin Sutherland. President Joseph was the last one to sail across to the ship, enjoying his new status and role of The President. Two more motor boats were despatched from The Phantom to the shore.

“Wow these are monsters,” Joseph exclaimed as he arrived at the ship and his eyes fell on the two LCM-8s that were stored on board the landing heavy class of ship, HMAS James Martin.

Like their parent ship they too had an external coating of Silicon carbide to increase their longevity. Their interiors, just like The Phantom, had been painted in the best of paints, which may have eroded over the years due to environmental factors, but was still good enough to protect them from massive damage. The only problem was, just like the motor boats, their engines were no good to be run. They too had to be oared back to the mainland. More people were needed and the number of oars was limited. The first of the two was pushed into the water as more help was called from the shore. Twelve sturdy men aboard three motor boats were set the task of vigorously oaring the big one towards the shore, toeing it behind three motor boats. Once the first one was toed and pulled up the shore, twelve fresh men were entrusted the same job for the second LCM-8.

Meanwhile, the rest of the men on-board spread out in teams, fishing for anything usable that could be found. Joseph meanwhile was waiting for the boats to return from the shore so that the fuel drums could be sent to the shore, one by one, on each motor boat. Risk of putting extra weight and drowning the boats was intentionally avoided. The men who worked hard in oaring the stuff back to the shore were rotated to preserve their energies as well as refresh their muscles.

Robin was leading his men in searching the ship for any types of clothing items, utilities like ropes, ladders, utensils etc. While everything natural had been destroyed over the time, the one thing the environmentalists world over dreaded and objected to in their hay-day, synthetic or plastic origin stuff was all still intact and in most cases, usable. Rubber shoes, synthetic jackets and work wear, sheets of synthetic cloth, anything usable was collected and dispatched ashore. Even the dead were not spared. If there was something on their rotting bodies that was usable and unadulterated, it was stripped. Even the watches and items of jewellery were not spared. It was more like pirates looting a ship then a humankind facing extinction looking for bits and pieces to survive on.

Steve and his team were searching for tool items, solar equipment, computer equipment, chemicals if any were found. Anything that was not too bulky to be ferried across to the shore and could be stripped down was sent. The stripping continued for three days as the distance between the ship and the shore remained constant as if nature was helping the mankind in it’s endeavours.

On the fourth day, it was decided to take down anything that was wooden in origin, be it doors windows, items of furniture. As the stripping continued, Steve found Joseph standing next to a door that was locked. He had a strange fascination for that door the moment he had arrived on the ship. Perhaps the fact that if was locked with three huge locks and then the entrance had been blocked with boulders and stuff made it more intriguing and perhaps the reason for his curiosity, or maybe something sinister was pulling him towards him.

“You’ve been watching this door for three days now. What makes it so fascinating for you?” Steve asked.

“I don’t know, but I do want to know what lies behind it,” Joseph replied, his eyes fixed on to something distant that was beyond the visible range of everybody else standing there at that time. “Why does it have to be so heavily guarded, so furiously blocked from approach, so disliked, more like it being excommunicated?”

“Don’t worry we’ll find out soon,” Steve replied as he looked at the faded signboard that must have once introduced and announced it’s presence to one and all.

Soon the moment came when the suspense was about to be lifted for Joseph and all. The blockade was removed, locks couldn’t be broken but the door was brought down. It was the armoury.

“Wow!” Joseph exclaimed as his eyes lit up with excitement as he witnessed for the first time in his life, big rockets, missiles, anti aircraft gun bullets, weapons of all shapes and sizes. His next words froze in time and never came out of his mouth as he touched the tip of one of the torpedoes with the warmth of a mother touching her new born child for the first time.

“No wonder we didn’t find even a single weapon anywhere else on the ship. They were all stocked here,” Robin said.

“I can’t even imagine how much they must have hated them, so much so as to have them blocked out of their sights, as if to deny their existence altogether,” Steve remarked.

After a few minutes of awe-struck amazement and silence Joseph finally made his first statement, “Get as many of them transported ashore as is possible. Leave the rockets, missiles and torpedoes. We cannot transport their firing units. Pick up all the smaller firearms, guns, carbines, M-16s, pistols and their ammunition.”

“What!?” Steve nearly shouted in bewilderment, “Are you nuts? Why do we need the guns?”

“I agree! What for?” Even Robin felt offended by this suggestion.

“I know we don’t need guns today, but who knows about tomorrow?” Joseph argued without realising the idiocy of his statement.

“Need ‘em against whom? Haven’t we already learned our lessons? Why do you think all the guns in Hatsu Saisho were destroyed in the first place? Don’t you remember how a few days back the only gun we had left nearly took two young lives before eventually being the cause of death of our previous President?” Steve replied.

“But,” Joseph was struggling to find a reason as he fumbled with words in replying. “We can use them for hunting or just entertainment. Besides I am.. I am concerned our future generations will loose the knowledge about weapons” Joseph corrected the last part of his speech lest he was to offend those present there.

“Hunting? The lead will poison the meat that we hunt reducing it’s volume. And entertainment? Are we sadists? Who will be responsible if the same are used to eliminate the ones meant to be entertained? Have we got too many in Hatsu Saisho?” Robin’s reply ended the discussion as everybody left that room untouched and stripped of nothing, just the way it originally was when they opened it, still an outcast.

Meanwhile everybody was still busy stripping every wooden door or object left on the ship and checking for the last minute finds of use. Ono and Nakata, the two twins were also on board today and searching through the corridors on level four, when they found a metal door with a hole through which some light was coming into the corridor, perhaps from the window of the room. The door was securely bolted from the inside and they had to kick it hard a few times before it’s could be broken into. The door opened but the sight that welcomed them was far from welcome. There in front of them was the rotting body of a young soldier sitting on a chair, his hands hanging to his sides and his head tilted towards the door, blown open like a basket, perhaps with the pistol that was lying in a corner in the room, and his tissue stains littered every nook and corner of the walls of his small room that lay towards the left of his body.

Ono couldn’t bear the sight and immediately rushed out of the room and vomited in a corner. Nakata meanwhile was still standing there and carefully screening everything that was in the room. His scanning eyes were soon fixed on a diary that lay open on the table in front of the body. He picked the diary up. It’s pages had turned yellow and were very fragile. The ball point pen ink that was used to write on it was still there, faint greenish yellow to read. The page that was open at that moment was dated 14th February, 2012:

“Hey Suga-cream! A very happy Valentine’s Day to you my life. I wish I was standing right next to you right now, embracing you softly in my arms, kissing your soft moist lips and whispering these words in your ears. I wish we had a few more days to spend together after our wedding four days back. But hey, don’t get mad at me. I am not the one who makes strategies and gives commands. Duty calls and my country needs me. My wife, my life and my breaths will have to wait. Stay strong, like you were when you turned away to wipe your tears and face me again with a forced yet ever so beautiful smile of yours when I was leaving for this trip. Stay strong babe, and give all your strength to my parents. After all I am their only son. Love you my Suga-cream. I’ll see you soon.”

“What are you doing? What’s that? Show it to me,” Ono fired a salvo of questions as he returned to the room to see what his brother was still doing in there.

“Careful Fire Engine! It’s this soldier’s diary. It’s pages are brittle. You can read it when we get back home,” Nakata said.

“What? We are taking it with us? What for? What’s the use?” Ono fired a fresh salvo.

“Nothing! Just to read it for fun or just to know what these people were going through in their lives and what sort of gadgets and things they had,” Nakata replied as the two moved out of the room.

Meanwhile the rest of the teams had already assembled down at the sea and were getting ready to leave the ship of the ghosts, the mighty “Phantom of the South”, for one last time. None of them had ever lived on this ship yet they all had a warm feeling in their hearts. A part of each one of them wanted to stay on this mighty piece of human expertise, the one which told the stories of valour and humanity at the same time, the one that had given so much to Hatsu Saisho without having taken anything ever from it. It was as if they were not just going to leave the ship that never belonged to them, once again on it’s own fate, but as if they were about to chop off one of their own limbs. But they couldn’t have stayed on it forever and that was the sad truth of the moment.

“What’s holding up the two buffoons?” Joseph was heard complaining about the continued delay in return of the Shoji twins.

“I’ll go and have a look,” Steve said as he jumped off the motor boat and back on to The Phantom for one last time to go and see where the two twins were held up and what was holding them.

“Be quick,” Joseph remarked.

“I will be,” Steve replied.

No sooner had Steve left, the two twins showed up for their pick-up.

“What took you guys so long? And what’s that in your hands,” Robin asked.

“Oh! It’s just a diary of one of the soldiers we found in a room,” Nakata replied as the two hopped on to the boat.

“Who are we waiting for?” Ono asked.

“Steve. He left to look for you guys. Now I wonder what’s holding him,” Joseph complained.

They waited there for about ten minutes before Steve finally showed up.

“You guys are already back. I ran all around the ship looking for you guys,” Steve remarked as he approached the boat and noticed the two twins were already back.

“They came back just after you left. Where did you loose your way?” Joseph commented.

“That’s fine friends. Lets get back to our shore now,” Robin cut short the conversation as they started back towards the shore.

“Why don’t you sit down and let the young energy bundles to stand the rest of the way?” Joseph asked Steve as the twins got up to vacate the sitting space for Steve.

“That’s fine. I just want to stand my way back to the shore and enjoy the beauty of the sea around us,” Steve replied.

And the last live souls to have been on HMAS James Martin, the great “Phantom of the South” left it all alone in the deep, cold, heartless sea as the skies that surrounded it darkened with each passing minute. The ship of ghosts was once again left for the ghosts with so many stories lying dead, rotting and untold on-board.