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  ROBOTS AND MOON ROCKETS

  The Fairweather Chronicles

  BOOK 4

  by

  Mark Douglas Stafford

  V51026082

  Copyright 2015 Mark Douglas Stafford text and graphics

  Discover other titles by this author at markdouglasstafford.com.

  Other novels by this author

  A Better Way to Stop Pirates, Book 1

  The Secret Invasion of Port Isabel, Book 2

  A Girl called Admiral Fairweather, Book 3

  *

  Dinosaurs Eat Paris

  CONTENTS

  Map

  Frontispiece

  Chapter 1 Holding Back the Tide

  Chapter 2 A Fair Fight

  Chapter 3 The Greater Burden of Sadness

  Chapter 4 Only One Life to Give

  Chapter 5 Riding the Golden Turtle

  Chapter 6 Exploring the Ruins

  Chapter 7 The Chamber under Kidney Reef

  Chapter 8 A Secret Passage

  Chapter 9 Stalemate

  Chapter 10 Darkness attracts Darkness

  Chapter 11 Moon Rockets

  Chapter 12 The Owl Laboratory

  Other books by this author

  About the author

  ‘Learn as if you were to live forever;

  live as if you were to die tomorrow.’

  John Wooden

  (circa 1988, The Machine Age)

  CHAPTER 1

  HOLDING BACK THE TIDE

  Reginald knew what he had to do and was determined to do it, even to the last of his breath. The Serendipity was bottled up in Thompsons Creek by the Happy Trader and he would make sure that didn’t change. He had told Stanley to get help while he held back the pirates then he dragged the bulbous ship onto the narrow sandbar at the mouth of the creek. Stanley would return with help as fast as he could, then the tables would turn. All he had to do was delay the pirates long enough for help to arrive.

  The Happy Trader was listing heavily as she was buffered against the sandbar by the fast flowing river. If he lost ground to the pirates or the towrope was severed, the ship would be swept downstream. If any of the crew lowered a boat or tried to swim ashore, they’d be swept downstream too. They couldn’t crawl along Stanley’s towrope to get ashore because it lay slack on the ground in a tangle of harnesses—if only he had of thought of tying it off to a tree before Stanley left. And they couldn’t crawl along his because it was snared in the gnarled branches of the dead tree lodged in the mud at the mouth of the creek. Some of the crew were trying to get a new rope across to the bank by lassoing a big rock but their attempts were falling short. That meant he would have to fend off the pirates alone until Stanley arrived with help.

  The pirate dogs were howling with frustration, a gratifying sound. One of them, a big black dog with a missing ear, peered at him over the side of the Serendipity. Its skin seemed oversized, hanging in loose bags around its neck and under its eyes. Its pink gums were fenced with pointy picket teeth, some missing. His nose was shiny wet.

  ‘Ahoy there, One Ear!’ Reginald called out. Calling them names seemed like a good idea. If they were angry enough they might do something stupid. ‘I would like to speak to your mongrel captain if I may.’ Few animals scared him and none as small as dogs. A dog wouldn’t be able to bite through his thick hide and he was far too big to be moved if he decided to stand his ground.

  ‘Can… you... hear… me?’ he asked, as if talking to someone with poor hearing. ‘Or do you only hear half… as… well… with one ear?’ He wondered if One Ear was in fact Pirate Pratt. He certainly looked ugly enough to be the notorious pirate captain.

  One Ear dropped from sight.

  Reginald shifted in his harness. His bulk alone was enough to hold in place the Happy Trader with help from the sandbar. So apart from the small discomfort caused by chaffing, he could keep it up all day if he had to. He glanced back at the big rock rising from the murky waters of Thompsons Creek where they swirled into the fast moving current of the Rio Grande. A gibbon was trying to lasso the rock but she was only making half the distance necessary. He still couldn’t see Assam Tortoise anywhere. Assam, who was afraid of his own shadow, was supposed to be in command. He had let everyone down when he failed to free Stanley Horse who would have raised the alarm when the pirates first struck and kidnapped Harry Possum and Sally Sloth. Mayor Lion had charged him with making the Serendipity, Harry’s Baltimore Clipper, seaworthy so it could join chase and bring Harry and Sally back, then made him captain of the Happy Trader, a decision which surprised Reginald greatly.  

  The Serendipity had drifted to a stop directly adjacent to where Reginald stood on the muddy trail running beside the creek. Water reeds, oblivious to the unfolding drama, shivered in in the gentle breeze and flashed silver in the afternoon sunshine. The Serendipity’s deck was above eyelevel so from where he stood he could only make out the tips of ears and wagging tails as the pirates moved about. He couldn’t guess how many were on board. It might only be a small party of pirates who happened upon the ship somehow and seized the opportunity, the rest being out at the reef as Flossy had assumed.

  In the bright afternoon light, the ship was beautiful and looked complete in every detail. When he had last seen her, the Serendipity was still in drydock resting on her keel and held upright with thick timber beams. Assam’s work ramps cluttered the ship’s deck and the unfinished rigging looked like an untidy spider’s web. Now she was afloat he could see just how much care Harry had taken to reproduce the Baltimore Clipper’s streamlined design. She sat lightly on the water, barely causing a ripple. Everything about her suggested she was built for speed and long voyages on the open ocean. The lower hull was sleek, dark and solid. The upper hull was like polished cream railed above by dark timber. Two tall masts, which swept back towards the helm at a gentle angle, towered proudly over her narrow deck. A dangerous looking harpoon gun had been mounted to the portside gunwale, a short distance back from the prow. If the pirates decided to use it he would make an easy target.

  The only odd thing about the Serendipity, a thing that didn’t seem to fit her streamlined and graceful countenance, was her masthead; a hastily carved boar’s head hanging under the bowsprit like an afterthought. The short curly tusks and deep scar disfiguring its snout made it clear that the black boar was the model. He didn’t think Harry would like it.

  Reginald wondered where the boar had gone, and all the work teams that had toiled all night to make the ship seaworthy by first light. He hoped they hadn’t been harmed. When Mayor Lion had arrived with Iscariot Snake he transferred captaincy of the Serendipity to the boar and to Assam, the Happy Trader. The boar then ordered him to tow the fully loaded Happy Trader up the fast flowing Rio Grande from Curiosity Quay to Thompsons Creek so both ships could begin the chase together. It was a ridiculous idea and difficult and dangerous and wasted a great deal of time, and Reginald had argued against it, but the boar wouldn’t see reason. With Stanley’s help he had complied because the Mayor had placed the boar in command, and the Mayor, he was sure, must have his reasons. But when they finally arrived at Thompsons Creek they discovered the Serendipity captured by pirates and so he prevented them from leaving by blocking using the Serendipity to block the creek’s mouth like a cork in a bottle and sent Stanley to Port Isabel for help. The pirates weren’t at sea at all, it was all just a ruse to steal the Serendipity from under their noses, in replacement of their ship, the Interloper, that Harry and Larry Monkey tricked them into running aground on Kidney Reef, which was embarrassing to them and funny to everyone else. Harry and Sally were probably on board, if only he could get to them. He just need to buy some
time so Stanley could return with help.

  Another dog looked down from the side of the ship, its long pink tongue wagging, its head tilted to one side as if it was sizing him up. There was unmistakable intelligence in its eyes, as if it was trying to solve a puzzle. It looked younger than One Ear and boisterous, like it couldn’t wait to get started.

  ‘How ‘bout you?’ called Reginald over the swaying reeds. ‘Can you speak or has a cat got your tongue?’ He emphasised the word cat, secretly pleased by his own wit. In most places cats and dogs still didn’t get along. ‘I would like to speak to your captain, Waggles. I assure you I am quite comfortable and prepared to stand here all day, I don’t mind a whit. I wish to parlay and have things to say.’

  Waggles dropped from sight. Two more dogs appeared and looked down at him: one with red fur, the other cream coloured and shaved short. The face of the shaved one was covered in ugly red blotches. He wondered whether one of the dogs was Pirate Pratt. He had never heard an actual physical description of the dread pirate, just stories about his gruesome exploits. It was surprising, now he thought of it, that someone so infamous would not be immediately recognisable; that no one seemed to know what he looked like.

  ‘You there, Red. And you, Blotch Face. I would like to negotiate the terms of your unequivocal surrender with your captain. Was that him I saw earlier? I’m not moving, so the Happy Trader’s not, so you’re not! And while you’re fetching him, bring out Harry Possum and Sally Sloth. If you’ve harmed either in any way I’ll come up there and show you why elephants aren’t usually invited aboard oceangoing vessels. It has something to do with them sinking like a stone under the weight.’ He said this while rubbing a tender spot on his shoulder with his trunk. It had been chaffed on his way upriver by the towrope harness he still wore.

  Red and Blotch Face disappeared from view and no other dog appeared. The air was dank and still in the shadows. The tree reaching over the path where he stood was in full-leaf, its upper branches rustling unconcernedly in the breeze. Mosquitos buzzed around him but none were able to penetrate his thick hide and so didn’t bother him in the slightest. The mangroves on the opposite bank were tall and patient, as if they too were happy to wait things out. Clouds with dark centres were gathering above, hinting at afternoon rain. The weather could change quickly this time of year as if it couldn’t make up its mind what season should hold sway. Spring was looming but winter was stubbornly refusing to give way.

  This was going well. The dogs seemed confused and disinclined to act. Perhaps they were intimidated by his size and defiance. Perhaps they saw no way out and wanted to negotiate terms of surrender like he had proposed. It didn’t matter which, both would cause delay; the longer, the better. The delay would buy Stanley more time to bring help and the Happy Trader’s crew more time to get ashore. The longer he could stretch things out, the greater the chance of pulling off his audacious plan. When Pirate Pratt made himself known, he would draw out diplomatic discussions much longer than necessary. He was a scholar and a teacher. Dialogue and the exchange of ideas were his stock-in-trade and diplomacy its close cousin. After all, what was diplomacy but saying in a hundred words what could be said in ten. He would talk at length with Pirate Pratt and negotiate Harry’s and Sally’s release. They’d have to surrender the Serendipity, of course, but in exchange things would go easier for them when they faced a public trial for their numerous and well documented atrocities. Not the least of these, the destruction of Port Isabel East Public School. A school, they would be shocked to learn, that was very close to his heart. Why, if he had of been inside when the cannonball exploded the charge of murder would have been added to their long list of crimes. Things would have then become much more serious indeed!

  The sun was shining warmly through a tumbling gap in the dark-hearted clouds. It was as if they were jostling above to watch the drama unfold below. The crew of the Happy Trader had given up trying to lasso the big rock and were fussing with a harpoon gun mounted to the ship’s prow instead. This strategy seemed more likely to succeed. As long as the harpoon bit deeply into the riverbank, a small animal could climb across towing behind a thick rope. With a second rope tying off the Happy Trader, he could remove his harness so he was free to talk or fight. When the dogs finally got themselves organised they would find a large party of grumpy animals waiting. By the time they were half way through diplomatic talks, Stanley would arrive with help and all that would remain were the details of Pirate Pratt’s unconditional surrender. Harry and Sally would be released unharmed and the Serendipity returned to its rightful owner. All would end well and he and his friends would celebrate over dinner at the Stinging Nettle, laughing at all the fuss the pirates had caused but glad that by working together they had overcome the pirate menace and cleared the way for the beginning of Harry’s great adventure to explore the world in the newly finished Serendipity and return Flossy safely to her parents. He too would be on his way, first to Twin Rivers in the North then outwards to find out what had become of the House of Owl.

  A dark cloud occluded the sun causing the shadows around Reginald to deepen ominously. There was a scuffling noise on board followed by growls and barks then dogs began dropping over the side of the Serendipity like stones and dogpaddling ashore, heads held high. There were so many and there was so much splashing that Reginald quickly lost count. There wasn’t much he could do anyway but wait to see if they wanted to talk like civilised animals or attack like wild ones.