Terror in the Pacific

  TERROR IN THE PACIFIC

  A novel by

  H. Nelson Freeman

  Terror in the Pacific

  Copyright © 2018 by H. Nelson Freeman

  All rights reserved. Copyright under Berne Copyright Convention, Universal Copyright Convention, and Pan-American Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  ISBN: 978 1791394677

  Cover design by H. Nelson Freeman

  Acknowledgments

  A very special thanks to all of the wonderful men and women of the Iowa Writers Corner for their full support, encouragement and assistance in writing.

  To Birdie Hawks for her daily support and help.

  To Maggie Rivers, whose expertise made this and my other of novels a reality.

  To Dawn Hall, thank you for your invaluable help on editing this novel.

  To my Brothers in Christ, Mickey Carvour and Dick Johnson, Giants of men.

  Also by this author:

  Mission: East Solomons

  Mission: Santa Cruz

  Mission: 1st Naval Battle of Guadalcanal

  Mission: Tassafaronga

  Mission: Kula Gulf

  Mission: Kolombangara

  Molech’s Fire

  The Reluctant Knight

  A New Horizon

  Two Crews in One

  VX

  Mission: Tokyo Express

  TERROR IN THE PACIFIC

  A NOVEL BY

  H. Nelson Freeman

  Nunc autem manent fides, spes, caritas (amor), tria haec; maior autem horum est caritas. Scripsit Paulus Author a Deo.

  And now abideth faith, hope, charity (Love), these three; but the greatest of these is charity. Written by Paul, authored by GOD.

  Holy Bible

  Prologue

  From out of the black, star sprinkled skies a high explosive, four-point-seven Japanese Naval shell, hit the port motor whale boat, tightly stored in its cradle. The wooden hull of the boat provided sufficient resistance for the ignition train to function and detonate the shell. The explosion demolished the boat, sending shards of wood and pieces of metal sizzling in all directions. Several pieces of the metal and jagged, but sharp shards of wood, pierced the forward stack. No serious damage resulted from the early detonation, which failed to slow the charging destroyer. The USS HAMMER DD-542 had become a terror to the Japanese in the South Pacific.

  The Captain, Lieutenant Commander Donald O. Jackman, stood at the back of the bridge where he could see everything that controlled the fight. His mind was like a game plan in operation. In his mind’s eye he saw the enemy in relation to his position and directed his firepower accordingly. He had zeroed in on the most immediate threat, a Japanese Mutsuki class destroyer. Its four-point-seven inch shell weighed in at forty-five pounds and packed a solid punch.

  “OOD have Fire Control concentrate on that destroyer off the port quarter.”

  That brought the four barrels of the five-inch main armament to bear on the enemy can. Without warning the Gleaves class destroyer cut loose with a broadside of four shells, each weighting in at fifty-four pounds each. The shells landed along the hull of the Mutsuki, it was enough hellfire and brimstone to convince the enemy captain to turn away. When he did, three type ninety-three torpedoes were launched.

  The port lookout yelled, “Torpedoes in the water from that destroyer at three-zero-zero degrees.”

  The Captain looked at the OOD, he saw pure terror in the young man’s face as over nine tons of ship-killing torpedoes raced toward the ship.

  TERROR IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Hey Del, thanks for helping me get off work today. What’s the plan for celebrating your birthday?”

  “Don’t really have a plan, I wasn’t sure Grandpa would let us both off at the same time. We just received the final okay to start the new model drone production from DOD.”

  “Don’t worry about the new project, this only comes about once a year, and tomorrow we’ll be up to our ears in work, you know that. Besides, your gramps would give you about anything, he thinks the world of you.”

  “Yeah, I suppose so. But I won’t take advantage of his good will.”

  “He knows that too, it’s one of your redeeming qualities. Now it being your birthday, name your present.”

  “First, I’d like to spend the morning at the Museum of Science and Industry, they have some new displays on aeronautical engineering and I wanna see if we can use some new ideas for the new drone model. After that I thought we could grab a movie.”

  “Which one? I saw that new submarine movie with Gerard Butler is out now and I hear it’s a good one.”

  “That’s a good idea. Speaking of subs, how about we go through the U-505 while we’re at the museum? I learn something new about German engineering every time I visit her. It’s hard to believe we have that sub, she came so close to being scuttled,” said Del

  “I gotta admit, the German’s built a tough cookie with her. I read somewhere that the Germans fielded the Type IXC model in 1941 and they had a test depth of seven hundred feet. Comparable American submarines only had test depths of three hundred feet.

  “Guess what? The U-505 is a Type IXC sub.”

  Speechless, Mike looked at his friend.

  ****

  As Del prepared for a day of leisure, the elder Crown sat in his office at Crown Electronic & Engineering Company. He leafed through the old pages of an old Navy Cruise book from World War Two and stopped to look at a photograph. There was a younger Michael Crown squatting in the front row of the after engine room group photo. A deep sob grasp his throat as he recalled learning that he was the only survivor of the after engine room gang.

  One night after the landings on Guadalcanal, the ship rode into a surface battle with Japanese ships off Savo Island in the Solomons. An enemy destroyer launched a heavy torpedo which crashed into the after fire room blasting the ship in half. Mike Crown was injured and nearly died, the rest of the men in the space were killed. Later, the Navy confirmed to Crown that most of the crew perished except those few that were thrown into the warm waters and him. After recovering from his wounds and thirty days survivors leave he was sent to a ship on the east coast, where he spent the rest of the war.

  Following that worldwide conflict, he went to college and studied electronics, mechanical engineering then added aero-structure design. With the backing of the local bank, he was able to start the Crown Electronic & Engineering Company.

  He tried to recall the events of sixty years earlier, but they were buried too deep, like his shipmates at the bottom of Iron Bottom Sound. Mike put the book away, he had punished himself enough for being one of a very few to live. With a heavy heart he left work early and went home to Lorrain, his lovely wife.

  The next day, properly refreshed, Del and Mike were still talking about the previous day’s good times as they worked on an electrical problem in a new drone model. Apparently, an electrical engineer had mixed the wiring sequence, requiring some corrections. Del reached into the panel opening brushing against a fully charged high energy electrical circuit. Everything went black.

  Mike jumped back as
his friend was thrown head long into an open electrical panel being worked on. A tremendous flash accompanied by the loud buzzing growl of electrical discharge bellowed from the box. Everyone shielded their eyes from the brilliant fireworks. When they looked, the board was gushing flames, which brought an electrician who cut the power, and another flushed the area with a carbon dioxide extinguisher.

  Mike looked horrified at the burned-out board but didn’t see his friend. Everyone began searching, but Delbert Crown was nowhere to be found. The Fire Department and police flooded the area looking for the body of the missing man. Del’s father, John, was summoned to accompany him and a board member to the Crown home, where they spent a time with John’s wife, Maureen. The family was quickly escorted to a conference room to comfort the seriously impacted Michael Crown, Del’s grandfather who rushed back to the plant at the news of an accident. He was choking a deep sob back when the family, and his faithful wife, Lorrain, rushed to his side.

  “Oh, dad!” John said, holding his parents closely. John’s wife, Maureen, wrapped her arms about the three of them. All four fought but failed to withhold the streams of grief gushing from them. Mike stood by, unable to intrude on the family loss, until Maureen looked up and motioned him to join them. He had long been considered family, and his presence brought a sense of ease to their pain.

  A week later a memorial was held at their church, following a brief service they went to the basement where the friends and relatives gathered to mourn and remember Del. A board with dozens of photographs of the young man was set in the corner and a slide program was running on a computer. Michael Crown sat against a wall, his head hung into his chest, sobs occasionally softly escaping his lips. He looked up at the pictures, his wounded mind taking comfort in the images of his beloved grandson.

  As he watched the people around him, he pulled an old wrinkled, faded, black and white photograph from his pocket. Mike had carried that photo, hoping someday to see his friend again. Mike was a good looking sailor in his chambray shirt and dungarees, and standing by him was another figure, equally handsome, Morgan Newman. He looked closely at the young man standing next to him. He struggled to pull the voice of Newman from the deep recesses of his mind. It sounded exactly like Delbert’s voice. “No,” he said, it’s not exactly like Del’s.

  Lorraine asked, “What are you looking at with such a serious face, dear?”

  Mike took a short time to collect his thoughts, then he said, “This was taken in nineteen-forty-two, just before our ship was sunk. Morgan, his name was Morgan Newman he said. He had a strange past about him, but he lit the fires in me for electronics and aeronautical design. Morgan was a Machinist Mate in the engine room with me, but he was light-years ahead of the times in the fields of electronics, aircraft structural design and mechanical engineering. Nobody could understand many of his explanation’s, not even the electricians, sonar and radar electronic experts. I’ve never spoke of this, but we were sanctioned to build a drone for surveillance on that ship. When we were hit by the Japanese torpedo, it blew the ship in two at the after-boiler room and the drone and all related equipment and drawings were lost. The one thing I remembered was how much I hated to get in that water, it was common knowledge there were a lot of man-eating sharks there and they had gathered during the ship battles to feed on men and parts of men. I saw more than one shark surface under a body part and grasp it in its teeth, then pull it down below the surface.

  Maureen’s eyes were wide as saucers, her hand over her mouth, trying to hold her stomach down. John asked, why are you telling this now, you never talked about the war?”

  “I never talked about it because of the horror of it all, and some of it was highly classified. You will never understand unless you experience it yourself. But it’s now relevant, because of Morgan Newman. I now understand some things that have been nagging me for sixty-seven-years. I don’t know how, and probably will never see the end of it, but I know in my heart that Morgan Newman is alive and somewhere, sometime, we will meet again.”

  Everyone stood and other sat silent at his story. “Are you sure Morgan survived, Dad?” Maureen asked.

  “The Navy told me they listed him killed in action in that battle. I was in a medical station on Tulagi for a short time, then transported to Brisbane, Australia where I spent a few weeks in a hospital. From there I was sent home for thirty days survivor’s leave. My next posting was a destroyer in the Atlantic, where I was on another destroyer until the end of the war. I came home and after the war the military was severely downsized. That gave me the chance to go to college where I got my degrees, then I opened Crown Electronics.” Lorrain and I started a family and the rest is as they say, history.

  Mike Crown got a weird look on his face just then and he murmured, “Maybe.”

  ****

  Two days after the service, Mike called his Pastor, “Pastor Michael, can you find some time where we could talk? I have a lot on my mind and I need some help.”

  “Mike, you and your family have been faithful servants of the Lord, and I always have time to visit with you. Let me know when you want to get together.”

  “How about now, I have more than a heavy heart.”

  Come right to the church office, I’ll be waiting.”

  “Thank you Pastor.”

  “Anytime, I’ll be waiting.”

  Twenty minutes later Mike walked into the eighty-five year old brown stone church. He threaded his way to the church office and behind it, the Pastor’s study. Inside, different Bibles and rows of books on each part of the Bible along with reference material lined the office. One section alone was set aside for the book of Revelation, and at least a dozen reference and instructional books. He had no idea the last book of the Bible was so extensive.

  “That’s my favorite book in the Bible,” the pastor said.

  “Why’s that, Pastor?”

  “The entire Bible instructs us on how to live and approach that book. If you recall, I did a long Bible study on the Book of Revelation, and I told you then, we had only scratched the surface.”

  “I remember that, and part of that is what’s driving me today. I was wondering if could find some answers there.”

  Pastor Michael pulled a well-worn Kings James version from the shelf. He turned to the last book, opening it to chapter one. “Where do you want to begin?”

  “The Patmos vision.”

  “If you recall, John was in prisoned on Patmos for testifying and spreading the word of God. God sent an angel to John and he joined with Jesus in Spirit.”

  “Yes, that’s when he began his journey into the past and into the future.”

  “Yes, but it’s important that his was done IN THE SPIRIT.”

  “Does that mean there is no travel in human form?”

  “It’s not needed, the Spirit allows traveling from this world to elsewhere. Why is this of such importance to you?”

  “You’re going to think I’ve gone off my rocker but, is it possible for a man to physically move in time?”

  “As you know that has not occurred yet, but the future is a different thing, especially where God is in charge. In His realm, absolutely, if it’s His desire. But I’m sensing you’re having thoughts of man traveling in time in the here and now.”

  “Yes, but I’m not nuts. I guess I’m hoping it’s possible.”

  “Tell me what you’re thoughts are, Mike.”

  “Could Del have been sent into the past or the future?”

  “In today’s world, in a word, no. At least not without the hand of God being involved.”

  “Is there any way for us mortals to know?”

  “Possibly, if it’s in His plan, and then it will be in his time, not ours.”

  “Then I won’t see it happen?”

  “I can only say, I don’t know. But you must have faith in God and must be willing to abide by His wishes whatever they may be. My advice Mike, is to pray for guidance and understanding and lay it all at God’s feet. Then His will
determines what will be.”

  “Thanks Pastor, you have given me plenty to think and pray about.”

  “We all have that, Mike. Join me in pray and let’s leave the future in His care.”

  Following the meeting with Mike, the Pastor closed the church for the day. He headed home with a lot of questions on his mind. Later that night after he and his wife retired, he waited until she was in a deep sleep. He slipped out of bed and went to his study. Sitting at the desk, he prayed for enlightenment, then turned to the Book of Revelation, chapter one.

  Mike left the church feel better, but anxious. He was still perplexed, still convinced that Delbert wasn’t dead.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Morgan felt like he was spinning. He opened his eyes to see what he thought were stars and multi-colored clouds of gas whirling about him. Deeply frightened, he closed his eyes again. After what felt like an eternity, he reopened his eyes a little to see a blurred light off to one side, and he felt chilled. Waiting for a few minutes for the nightmare to end, he looked again, the weak, yellowish light was still there and he was still cold. Looking around he saw cardboard boxes, and men curled up here and there sleeping on pieces of cardboard.

  After shivering in the cold for half an hour he struggled to get on his feet. His head hurt worse than any headache he had ever remember. Checking his clothing, he found them tattered and burnt. He sniffed his skin and thought to himself, ‘I smell like an overdone chicken.’

  A man lying on a piece of cardboard turned over, “Hey, how did you get back there? That’s a dead end, and I wasn’t sleeping. You weren’t there when I laid down. How did you get by me?