PHILADELPHIA LODGE,
KNIGHTS OF MELION,
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
(JUNE 19, 1923)
* * * * *
Lodge President Ryan Therebel had chosen to break the news, personally.
"Dr. McGee and young Liebenkraft were the sole survivors.
Everyone else either died of ciguatera poisoning, or was murdered. Some, by Von Hauptmann's pirates. The rest, by the degenerate natives of that island!"
"From what the FBI has managed to piece together, Von Hauptmann had spent the World War as captain of a commerce raider called the U-168. After the Armistice, he emigrated to South America. Becoming a 'free-lance advisor' to the Chilean navy on a decommissioned E-class sub (the SS-26) that they had just purchased from Uncle Sam for Antarctic exploration. Unfortunately, for them, he ultimately wound up stealing it, with the help of his old war-time crew! And, they subsequently used it for smuggling all manner of contraband...when not engaged in full-fledged piracy."
"I can only hope you take comfort in the fact that poetic justice swiftly caught up with him. And, once again, please accept my deepest condolences on the loss of your father."
Ash Phillips did not reply. He merely nodded; stood up; and shook the older man's hand before leaving.
* * * * *
THE ISLAND OF KAPU HIVA
(MARCH 15, 1943)
The Salmon-class submarine U.S.S. Razorfish surfaced beneath a starry sky. A few minutes later, the hatch on top of the conning tower opened up. The first two people to emerge from it were a pair of enlisted seamen. One was armed with a Garand M-1 rifle. The other, with an infra-red snooperscope. The two of them performed a slow, clockwise circle before informing those still below that it was all clear.
They were subsequently joined by Captain Hobart Ross (USN), Dr. Ash Phillips, and Alejandro Herrera of Valparaiso, Chile.
Ash looked through the snooperscope after the captain. He then passed the device to the seven foot-tall man next to him!
"There it is, Alika," said the former (using the latter's Polynesian name) in Spanish: "Tomorrow morning, if luck is with us? We'll go ashore; set up camp; then, you can use your ancestral ability to find the ship and salvage it. All in one day!"
"And, if I am required to do more with that ability than just salvage?" replied the Chilean-born Easter Islander: "What, then?"
Ash merely shrugged: "We will have to pray that God is with us."
It was Ash who had explained the historical roots of their strange mission. Including the island's one-time status (according to legend) as the religious center of Mu'u Hiva. A proto-Polynesian counterpart of Atlantis, more often referred to as just "Mu," for short.
"If Dr. McGee wasn't just hallucinating...if Taranga really does exist...she won't like us trespassing. And, in that case? Your ancestral ability is the only thing that might stand between us and total extermination. Comprende'?"
Alika nodded: "Si, senor."
* * * * *
MARCH 16, 1943
The day dawned clear and bright. And, after breakfast in the captain's wardroom, Ash and Alika got up to finalize the preparations for their landfall. The two of them would be in one self-inflatable life raft (because of Alika's seven foot stature). While half a dozen sailors paddled after them in an identical raft. And, both rafts were only half way to shore when it happened.
Taranga of Kapu Hiva made a personal appearance.
Next: WRESTLING WITH A MER-GIANTESS
Giantess World
Chapter End Notes:
Ironic note: the E-class American submarines of WWI, and the Salmon-class subs of WWII, both included individual vessels christened "the Skipjack."