USS Destroyer Nicolas Rigolio (DDG-978)

Destination: Pagan Island

Commander J. Brown always considered himself to be a man of integrity, his long career had no embarrassing smudges on it. He dutifully followed orders from his superiors and was happy that not one of them ever stepped on his sense of honor and righteousness. That is why he was a little troubled by the mission he was given, an order that came directly from the top. There was no doubt about the validity of those orders, the new President gave them himself over a conference call. Which was unusual in itself, because they should have come from the Chief of Naval Operations. But who was he to question the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.

The most probable reason his ship was chosen was that he could set to sea, faster than all other ships that were currently at Guam's naval base. The target was not far, a little more than three hundred miles since Guam belonged to the same Mariana Islands chain archipelago. In the main, his orders were to go there and subdue a bunch of scientists, no matter how strange that sounded. Of all the orders he’s been given throughout his career, this was by far the strangest. What’s more, satellite images showed him many more ships heading the same way; there was something strange going on that island.

The urgency of those orders made him head out without any functional helicopters for air coverage; they were still ashore, down for repairs and maintenance. The latest military budget cuts were rough on the high maintenance and extremely delicate machines. Even though he did not think they would be needed for this mission, scientists were not really known for their military prowess.

His ship, USS Nicolas Rigolio, was his home for the last five years. This was his last command, in a month he was due for retirement. Considering all that, strange and semi-clandestine missions were not something he welcomed. There were many horror stories of distinguished officers tarnishing their perfect records with one SNAFU at the end. For that reason, he was planning to avoid stepping on any political land mines, and this mission promised to have a few.

The island in question was growing bigger by the minute; the tall volcanic mountain hid the rest of the landmass at first. As the ship slowed down and began circling it, he saw a very unusual sight. There, close to the beach was an enormous building, and he remembered seeing a documentary about it a few months ago. It was some sort of inflatable biodome, for plant research or something. Why was he ordered to take control of it was simply stupefying.

It took some time before the ship dropped anchor and prepared the shore party. He could see that none of the assigned people were happy about it. This was supposed to be a walk in the park mission that had consequently messed up their liberty schedule.

The next thing that happened stopped them all in their tracks. There, rising from the direction of the building was a flying craft that looked like a small flying saucer. Weirder still was its paint job that became more prominent as the craft got near to the ship. Commander J. Brown recognized that the paint job was, in fact, a flag… the same one that his ship was proudly displaying.

***

Pagan Island, Pacific Ocean

They decided that the best way to buy themselves some time was to bluff their asses off, and by that, they meant mostly him. That is why Michael waited until the first Navy ship was prepared to send a landing party before he made his first move. Every minute he could steal, every hour he could borrow, increased their chances to reach the launch time.

He saw through the holo-screens, how all the sailors stood frozen in place, looking at the unusual craft painted in US colors, there was no mistaking those stars and stripes. He signaled Max to establish a radio connection to the ship.

“Pagan Island research station calling anchored United States Navy ship; do you receive?”

It took a little time to get back the answer from the ship.

“USS Nicolas Rigolio to Pagan Island research station, Commander J. Brown speaking, to whom am I talking to?”

“Commander Brown, pleased to meet you, my name is Michael Freeman, and I am the director of this international scientific mission.”

“Mr. Freeman, I’m ordering you to surrender; you and all the people on the island are to be taken into custody under the President of the United States authority.”

“Commander, may I inquire why are you about to break our agreement with the United States government?”

“What agreement?” Commander Brown asked, and even through the radio, Michael could sense irritation in the man’s voice.

“And what kind of craft is that hovering in front of us?” The Commander continued.

“Commander Brown, this is a multinational effort, and our mission is the discovery and application of new technologies, hence the aircraft you see. Additionally, we are researching future crops that will be needed to feed a constantly growing world population. An agreement of noninterference was achieved between all signatory countries, and each one pledged considerable amounts of funds to the effort. Now, I have scientists from all over the world complaining about how the United States wants to steal all the research for themselves. They have been calling their governments’ officials ever since our satellites detected your approach, so each country is sending additional ships here, to protect their interests.

Commander, this has all the ingredients to become a huge international incident with far-reaching consequences,” Michael said and crossed his fingers.

The Commander did not respond for a while, and Michael held his breath, praying that the bullshit he had just dished out would make the Commander pause. He’d read Commander Brown’s personnel file and knew that this close to the end of his career he wasn’t about to make a mistake, he hoped anyway.

“I will have to confirm your statements Mr. Freeman, in the meantime, why don’t you land that aircraft on my deck so we can have a face-to-face conversation.”

“I’m sorry Captain, this aircraft rides on an electromagnetic field generated below it, if it came too close to your vessel all that metal would automatically attract it, and it would crash into. Just like a very strong neodymium magnet would. As I said, this is a technology we’ve only just begun to research; almost everything we have is experimental.”

“Fine, I will contact you soon Mr. Freeman, USS Nicolas Rigolio out.”

In the conference room, everybody was looking at Michael as if he had grown another head.

“What?” He asked looking back at them.

“You don’t really think they will buy that story?” His father asked.

“Well, it will take some time to verify any of my claims, especially since Max is making their transmissions very garbled, and in any case, he took the time to insert fake agreements in various governmental agencies all over the world. If they check their files they will find that substantial grants were given to Pagan’s Island’s research group; we only need to keep them confused until tomorrow.”

Six hours later, another ship came close to the island and it was flying a Russian flag. This time Max was the lead, speaking in perfect Russian as he tried to defuse the situation using similar tactics, and surprisingly it worked. It helped that Michael called Commander Brown and asked for his assistance so that no Russian sailor would be permitted to set foot on the island. He appealed to the Commander’s sense of duty to protect US interests.

For a while, it was fun listening in as the two captains bickered over who was allowed to do what; in the end, they cordially said their goodbyes, without reaching any agreement.

While time was ticking away, the two ships stayed anchored close to the island, trying to inform their superiors of the developing situation, and awaiting further orders. As Michael predicted, everybody was staying put, trying to avoid being the cause of an international incident.

Unfortunately, by that time, night had fallen and the Russians decided to make their move. There was a black Russian zodiac boat making their way towards the secluded cove on the island. It was carrying ten soldiers, wearing camouflage uniforms.

Max surveillance drones could see as good at night as in the day, so there wasn’t any chance for them to sneak up on the island.

Michael couldn’t be a part of their welcoming committee since he had to have an eye on the entire situation. But Tyron, Pete, and Al could, and they dealt with their unwanted guests accordingly.

He watched from the conference room everything that happened. Max was relaying live streams from the team’s helmet cameras and showing them on separate screens. It was not the same as being there with the team, but it would have to do. Tyron and the others were not even hiding, just waiting in optimal positions on the beach. Of course, full holographic camouflage that the battle-suits provided was active, so they did have a bit of an advantage there. As soon as the zodiac was close enough to the shore, they acted.

Ten members of the Russian party were hit by tranquilizer darts before they could even utter a single word, let alone transmit an alarm to their ship. The team picked up all the darts from their bodies and sent the inflatable boat back toward the Russian Navy ship.

When it was halfway towards it, Max called the Russian captain, while everybody was listening to his performance, their CEIs automatically translating words into English.

“Pagan Island research station calling RFS Igor Kolicin.”

“RFS Igor Kolicin here, what do you want?” The Russian captain briskly answered.

“We noticed one of your zodiacs floating on the water; I must caution you that it is in a very dangerous location. There are poisonous gases coming from the volcano that often affect that area. When this mission was established, even some of our scientists were caught up in it. The symptoms cause temporary paralysis and unconsciousness that can last for several hours. Do you require any assistance? We could ask the American captain to help you with the retrieval,” Max said in a helpful voice.

The Russian captain's response was immediate. “Nyet, it is only a boat that fell off the deck, we will retrieve it ourselves. RFS Igor Kolicin out.”

Michael smiled at the Russian captain’s brisk tone and turned to the others.

“They have less and less patience, we must begin the next phase. Max, start contacting TV stations.”

This part of the plan was the one he hoped would give them the most advantage… if it worked. It was a series of clips and documentaries about their precarious situation. Max did the whole production with the help of Emma and her team of psychologists. The short films were about the idyllic island, with numerous images of children smiling and playing. Everything expanded on a narrative they have already shown previously with the documentaries. The films told a story about their mission to help the world; emphasizing the cures that the Genesis Corporation discovered and shared with the world. They all ended with the coming of various countries’ naval ships, and their demands. It was made to pull the heartstrings of any demographic; the videos went to every TV and radio station in the world, and the Internet was flooded with them. In no time, they all went viral, yet again utilizing the new emerging fad of human interaction with the world.

It was the biggest media campaign ever inflicted on the human race; in a few hours, the whole world would know about Pagan Island. Moreover, that was but a first step in this phase. Usually, it would take weeks to arrange something like this and to build its momentum. But they didn’t have time, so in a matter of hours, they needed to make people aware and to incite an emotional reaction. That meant spending horrific amounts of money on TV stations and any advertising outlet they could think of. He only hoped that it wouldn’t produce the opposite effect since they were in truth, force-feeding information to everyone.

Michael felt as if he was in the eye of the hurricane. By Max’s updated projections, they would need at least twelve more hours. And that was by doing many things barely above minimal safety levels. They could theoretically launch in ten, but their chances of reaching orbit would then be far from ideal. Despite the image of confidence he was projecting, deep inside he was not sure if they would be given the needed time. That’s why he was walking down to the engineering level, seeing the new shift replacing the people that were almost asleep on their feet. His only wish right now is that he wouldn’t fail them.

In the middle of his reverie, Max contacted him through his CEI “Michael, I intercepted and blocked a message to USS Nicolas Rigolio, they were just sent new orders to attack at first light. I can block it for some time, but there are a few more US ships on the way, and they will carry the message. What do you want to do?”

He was afraid of that, things were moving faster than they hoped for. “Let’s conduct the interview now, and broadcast it to the whole world, as we discussed. If you need to hijack the signal from every station, do it. We start in fifteen minutes.”

The studio was set up in one of the ship’s empty rooms; it had a pleasant homely feel in the same style as numerous TV hosts were used to. Behind them, the wall was set to project an image of the Navy ships.

Anna would play a part of a host since she was the closest thing they got that could fit that role, and her work in PR did cross over somewhat. Max was prepared to simultaneously translate the video feed into multiple languages.

The numbers below the camera started counting down and when they reached zero, Anna looked at the camera.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am Anna Miles and we are currently on Pagan Island in the Pacific Ocean, which is under a siege by several Navy vessels belonging to different nations. Sitting beside me is Mr. Michael Freeman, who is the director of the scientific mission that has made some groundbreaking discoveries in the last few months. Mr. Freeman, can you please describe the current situation.”

Michael nodded. “As you said, Miss Miles, we are an international scientific mission with the goal to make the world a better place. Some of the most talented people in the world are now residing here, all working together toward that goal. Recently, we made great discoveries in the field of medicine, and we shared them freely with the world. Many people that were suffering from diseases thought incurable are now healthy and well. We also donated hundreds of thousands of ‘OneWorld’ phones to the needy, a product that we developed on this island and distributed with the message of unity among the people of Earth. We currently have dozens of such groundbreaking technologies in development. However, it would seem that our message of peace and progress is a nuisance to some people and certain world powers want to take things we developed, for themselves. That is the reason navy ships are currently laying siege to our island.”

“What are their demands?” Anna asked.

“They want us to surrender all our research to them, and by now two countries have made the same demand, which we cannot possibly fulfill. We are placed in an extremely difficult situation, and I have been informed that a few minutes ago a Chinese Navy vessel is closing in on the island.”

“Mr. Freeman, do you see any way to resolve the situation?”

“I believe that everything can be settled with a compromise, or else this situation could easily turn into a much greater conflict. The tensions are so high that it would take just one of those ships to fire the first shot at another, and then this crisis could easily escalate. God help us… I can see this whole thing starting a global conflict, and in this day of atomic weaponry, we all knew how those could end. In this modern age we are living in, it takes one press of a button and… well, I hope we never find out.”

Al was standing by the door of the makeshift studio, but he had to go outside to laugh because Michael was so sincere in his crying wolf performance. As Max said, in this day and age people had become so desensitized, one needed to kick them in the shins to get their attention.

Michael continued his speech, “I propose a meeting, and it can be as simple as a conference call. We could easily set it up. I am calling on all the world leaders that have ships’ around our island, or on their way here, to join me and talk. That doesn’t take much effort, and could easily provide a solution to this problem.” He turned his head to look directly at the camera. “If you’re watching this, then you have the power to change our future for the better, to avert the situation that can affect all of you. Do not dismiss this as a stunt, this is as real as it gets and the futures of your children are at stake. I have one request of you all… make your voice matter. Call your leaders, send them messages and emails, force those that were entrusted with the power to lead your nations to hear your voice. Ask them to agree to a videoconference, so we can talk to each other. Do it now… or soon it may be too late for us all.”

Anna made the motion of wiping an invisible tear from her eye, “thank you, Mr. Freeman.” She then turned to the camera, “this is Anna Miles, reporting from the Pagan Island under siege. I am leaving you with Mr. Freeman’s profound message; make your voice matter… thank you.”

The red camera indicator light went out, and the sound of laughter and clapping filled the room.

“Michael, don’t ever turn to politics, you can dish out bullshit with the best of them,” Anna said.

Elizabeth was there to hug him, “I almost picked up the phone to call my governmental representative.”

“Well, it served its purpose, even if I am not so comfortable with manipulating everybody, all this political crap does not sit well with me. Max, how are we doing?” Michael asked, still holding Elizabeth in his arms.

“Great, that interview was seen by billions and telephone wires are getting hot almost everywhere. It is just the beginning but already every government in the world is receiving thousands of calls and emails, and that is by the minute. Congratulations Michael, you are the first human being who managed to scare the living daylights out of the entire human race.”

An hour later acceptances for the videoconference started coming in, from ministers and heads of state. The Navy ships would remain where they were, maintaining the status quo and waiting for further development of the situation. The videoconference was scheduled to start in six hours, which brought them much closer to the deadline to launch.

Michael hoped he would somehow manage to squeeze additional hours they needed.