“Have you called anyone on the radio and reported our situation?” Ansuya asked.

  Charles shook his head, “Honestly, I had a hard enough time trying to figure out how to steer this thing. I don’t read Chinese and with the captain of the ship unconscious down in the hold, I was pretty much on my own.”

  Ansuya looked at the degree heading from the helm and current speed. They were cruising just over eighteen knots and heading at a steady one hundred and ten degrees. She nodded and directed Amanda to the wheel, “Amanda, don’t move from that spot, and do exactly what I say.” The young black-haired woman gripped the wheel hesitantly and waited for anything further from the elder.

  Ansuya walked over to the map table and using a compass and protractor she plotted the fastest course to San Francisco. “Amanda, turn that wheel left till it reads one hundred and four degrees, then hold it steady.”

  Amanda nodded and slowly turned the wheel. The numbers on the digital counter moved back from one hundred and ten and slowly moved down to one hundred and four. Amanda breathed a sigh of relief and held the wheel steady.

  “Charles, have you tried to wake up William, or the others?” Ansuya asked firmly.

  The black man shook his head, “No Elder Ansuya. Like I said, I was the only one conscious on this boat and I felt like I needed to get back up here and steer this thing.”

  Ansuya nodded, “That was the appropriate and prudent course. But now since Amanda and I are here you can go and collect the remainder of your pack. Go see if you can wake up William and find Katherine, and Nicolas. You said Aceso was still in the room they had you in?” Charles nodded. “Good, see if you can wake her up as well, if she was left alone in there.” Charles nodding, slinging an AK-47 over his shoulder and disappeared through the bridge hatch.

  Ansuya watched him go and then turned to Amanda. The girl was standing rigidly at the helm wheel. Her knuckles were a pale color as she gripped the wheel hard. Ansuya placed a reassuring hand on the girl’s shoulder, “The wheel isn’t going anywhere Amanda. You don’t need to grip it so tightly.”

  The girl didn’t seem to hear the Elder, but her fingers loosened their grip on the wheel considerably.

  Ansuya moved to the radio and scanned the posted frequencies. It had been a long time but when she was little her mother had insisted on her learning at least some Mandarin. She was really rusty and the characters seemed like they wanted to make sense but they were hard to decipher.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  She picked up the radio and dialed in an emergency frequency, at least that’s what she hoped she was doing. “Pan-pan. We are on board a Chinese cargo vessel. The crew is dead or wounded. We need medical assistance and a port pilot to guide the vessel into San Francisco harbor. Pan-pan, the ship has power and can navigate but crew is dead or wounded, requesting port pilot for safe passage into San Francisco harbor. Pan-pan.”

  Ansuya let go of the mike key for the radio and waited. She was fairly sure this was the emergency channel. But she had no way of knowing if the radio antenna had been damaged or if she was transmitting to anyone that might help. If the coordinates she had used on the map were correct then they were only eleven hours away from San Francisco Bay. They would need a port pilot very soon or they could cause some very serious damage in the bay and harbor.

  “This is Commander Simmons of the US Coast guard calling unidentified vessel using this emergency channel, identify yourself, over.”

  Ansuya arched an eyebrow as she picked up and keyed the mike, “My name is Ansuya Das and I don’t know the name of the vessel. We were rescued from a capsized yacht off the coast of Taiwan. We were able to barter passage back to the states on board this vessel, over.”

  “Ansuya, you said the crew is dead or wounded? What happened? Can you give me your position? It should be marked on a map or have a digital readout somewhere on the bridge, over.”

  Ansuya bit back a sharp response. The Commander was only trying to be helpful, but she wasn’t as helpless as this guy was assuming. She couldn’t pilot the boat into San Francisco herself, which is really the only reason why she was using the emergency channel in the first place. She checked the map and the position of the ship.

  Returning to the radio mike she keyed the frequency open, “Commander Simmons, we are currently at position zero nine S W C ninety eight degrees, twenty two minutes easterly by eghty five degrees, fifty seven minutes northing, heading one hundred four degrees east, over.”

  “Roger,” Commander Simmons replied over the radio. “I have you at zero nine sierra, whiskey Charlie, nine eight two two easting by eight five five seven northering, over.”

  Ansuya keyed the mike, “That’s a good copy Commander Simmons. What is the ETA for a port pilot?”

  The radio was silent for a moment, “Ansuya, we are going to send a medical team on a helo out to your location, ETA ninety minutes. Just sit tight and hold the ship on course if you can. Help is on the way.”

  “Roger, copy all. We’ll see you in ninety minutes. Out.” Ansuya hung up the radio mike and heaved a sigh. Well, this was going to be fun. With all these dead people on board, the enslaved girls in the cargo hold and the only survivors being a group of English speakers that somehow knew how to handle weapons and commandeer the ship. This was going to take a lot of explaining, unless…

  “Amanda,” Ansuya said calmly, “There is a lot of work to do. The best way for you to help is hold that wheel on a one hundred and four degree heading, and if someone calls on the radio, call me on the ship’s intercom.”

  Amanda looked at her with a confused expression but nodded in the affirmative.

  Ansuya nodded then looked around the bridge. There had to be an inter ship intercom system somewhere. Looking along the walls, she found it and pulled the handset from its cradle on the wall. “Charles, I need you and William to get moving. We are going to have company here in ninety minutes and there is a lot of work to do before then.”