F R E E    on   the   S E A

 ARKON CH-08 Vostok Cargo Team

          Tuesday, 0900, Arkon Star

ATTENTION  ALL HANDS -  NOW  HEAR  THIS -  

SET THE SEA  AND ANCHOR  DETAIL -  

APPROACHING VANCOUVER HARBOUR.

Stakka read the captain's note out loud to his three teammates gathered in his cabin after dinner. It said, "Meet me at the forward Smugglers hatch at 2030 hrs. tonight. Myself and the bosun's mate will escort you to the Joy Luck 8."

Fortunately the bay was calm tonight and they had no trouble navigating the 500 meters to the Joy Luck 8. In silhouette from the pier lights it was awesome, nearly 400 meters long and 30 meters high, it was a 4 masted steel hull clipper ship from the past. When they were 50 meters away, they stopped and Captain Jenkins took a small flashlight and made 3 one second bursts 3 seconds apart. A darker spot appeared on the hull and two single flashes were returned. They approached and climbed up a short rope ladder to the interior and turned to wave goodbye to Captain Jenkins who said, "Good luck!"

When the hatch was closed a dim red light came on and a voice from the darkness said, "My name is Alexis. Welcome aboard. This is my assistant Tanya. We will show you to your quarters and the toilet facilities. When reveille sounds at 0600 in the morning, we will show you to the mess deck and after that we will have an orientation with Captain Kuznet."

"Thank you for the introduction," said Stakka, "My name is Stakka and this is my friend Renka. And over here we have Loki and Nobi. Lead on to the bunks and we will follow."

       Wednesday, 0600, Joy-Luck-8

ATTENTION  ALL HANDS -  NOW  HEAR  THIS -  0600 HOURS -  REVEILLE,   REVEILLE -   ALL  HANDS LAY   BELOW   TO   THE.  MESS   DECK FOR   BREAKFAST

A few minutes later there was a knock on the door to their four bunk cabin. Alexis said, "It was dark last night and I'm here to show you again to the toilets." Stakka open the door and said, "Thanks, okay team, grab your toothbrushes and let's go."

When they returned Tanya was waiting for them. She said, "Okay, if you're hungry follow me and I'll show you to the mess deck and the procedure for getting food. It is very similar to a cafeteria."

After breakfast Tanya said, "I will show you to the captain's secure conference room and we will begin our brief orientation." As they entered the room Alexis said, "There is coffee on the Side Bar and if you wish to smoke, sit in the back under the exhaust canopy. The captain will be here in 20 minutes."

"This is cool," said Loki, "Does anybody have a Red Ringer to share?" "I got one," said Renka, "We can have one Toke each with our coffee and save the rest for lunch." Tanya and Alexis each pulled out a little wooden pipe and said, "Do you mind if we join you?" Alexis pulled a little pinch of cannabis tobacco blend from a pouch and stuffed it in his pipe. He passed the pouch to Tanya who fixed her pipe. "Is this okay on your ship?," asked Stakka, "It seems more disciplined than our ship." "The captain does not mind, if we are not doing critical or dangerous work and do not relax to excess," said Tanya.

ATTENTION  ALL HANDS -  NOW  HEAR  THIS -  0800 HOURS -  MUSTER ON STATION AND CONTINUE SHIPS WORK - STEVEDORE WORK CREW MUSTER ON THE FORWARD LOADING HATCH

It was shortly after this that Captain Kuznet entered the room and said, "Good morning team, welcome aboard." They all swiftly stood up and replied, "Good morning captain." He said, "At ease. This will be an informal meeting."

"We are happy to have you join us in this operation. Captain Jenkins speaks highly of you. The first part of the orientation I will just ramble on a bit and then you may ask some questions."

"The main problem we are working on is the global food supply: it is becoming more erratic and unreliable. Whether this is due specifically to the cooling trend we have experienced since 2008, which has gotten much colder since 2021, or soil depletion, salinization or lack of farmers with good agricultural skills, or some other cause, we have to address the issue. We have been running the shipping office in San Fran for two and a half years now. In the early days we would send a two-person team to the interior of Central Valley to discover some reasons for the poor quality product coming to Market. After the first two teams failed to return, we stopped. Then we sent in a trusted local team and they came back with the farmers excuses. The excuses didn't match what little we know from textbook agricultural knowledge so we're assuming the farmers are not well educated in their field of business. They are simply trying to stay alive any way they can. Our local team also said there are gangs in the Central Valley that prey on foreigners from east or west that fall into their traps. So this is what happened to our first two teams.

"Generally what we have been doing is picking up frozen and dried vegetable and animal products from San Fran and taking them to the next port where they may or may not sell. Usually goods that don't sell on the American coast will sell on the West Pac Asian coast. There we pick up low-cost electrical and mechanical products for sale in America. Things that can easily be repaired locally. In itself this is not a high profit business, but it does provide a convenient cover for research into the interior status of North America."

"Thank you for that background Captain Kuznet," said Stakka, "I think our mandate from Captain Jenkins covers most of your issues. I will just outline it briefly."

"We will set up a small weather forecasting station that will provide cover for some other activities. After the weather forecasting is operational we will start a small local ganja grow. This will give us the opportunity to get acquainted with the Boss Chaco organization. We will survey the small farmers in the Central Valley 150 km north and south from Sacto and see how sophisticated their crop growing skills are. We plan for a co-op office a hundred kilometers north of Sacto and another one 100 kilometers south for easy access by farmers all over the valley."

"Depending on what we find with the farmers, we will nudge one of them into setting up a primitive Co-op to help them improve yield and crop rotation policies among themselves. We might even guarantee they will make some minimum profit from the Russian buyers if they follow the Co-Op crop rotation directions and products planted. We will try to source genetically modified super soy seeds and other safe GMO's."

"We will probably be contacted by some representative from Boss Chaco on the co-op project. He is going to want a cut of the action, and we are prepared for this."

"As for coordinating with your shipping office in San Fran, there will be no problem sharing plans and ideas. We will be glad for Sergei and Natasha's advice and experience."

"That does cover everything," said Captain Kuznet. I will leave you with Tanya and Alexis who will show you how to prepare for passing as longtime locals on the San Fran streets."

On the way back to their cabin Alexis stoped at some lockers and picked up two duffle bags. Inside their cabin with the door closed he opened the bags and a terrible smell filled the room. Tanya turned on the exhaust vents with a laugh saying, "This is how Street people smell in San Fran. They are no longer homeless because of all the empty buildings but now they are waterless. Water is very expensive and mostly used for drinking and not bathing." "Even office people seldom take a full shower," said Alexis, "They usually just use a washcloth and soap when they need to. Instead of expensive deodorant they use a swab of alcohol to kill germs and reduce body odor."

Tanya produced 8 shirts from one of the duffle bags, saying, "These should do for several weeks. They have been washed and the patches are fresh. We got them at the weekend Market where we do most of our shopping." Alexis pulled out 4 pairs of heavy-duty looking Levi's. He explained, "The bottom cuffs had a light spray of dog piss which will  fade in coming weeks. People seldom wash their Levi's so they're always a little stiff and these have special Kevlar fibers embedded to provide some protection from projectiles and dull knives. Here are the matching jackets with Kevlar and no smell."

"Next on the menu," said Tanya, "are pre- scuffed used boots. And for dessert we have these hooded full length rain and wind proof capes, with a very light whiff of dog along the bottom. They have special lightweight insulation that is better than normal, and only come in shades of black. The little tears and patches on the outside are fake. Everybody wears these to and from work or whenever they're outside because the weather is usually cool, cold, damp, or raining and windy."

"You might try on your shirts and boots for lunch, but save the pants for tonight," said Alexis, "After lunch we will meet back here and go over some maps and office details."

At lunch break Renka asked Tanya, "Why did you say the Kevlar will protect from a dull knife?" "Well, most street muggers count on waving their knife around to scare people," said Tanya, "And they seldom prepare by sharpening them. If one should use a prehistoric skinning knife with obsidian chips you're out of luck. They would cut all the way through to the bone."

After lunch, back in the cabin, Alexis produced a map that showed San Fran, the bay, the bridges, and Richmond and Oakland across the bay. "This is where our office is, just behind the San Fran piers, he pointed out, and we will go there after dinner tonight when it's dark. We will spend the night there and in the morning Jake, your office manager, will take you across the bridge to the weather station office, here, close to the i80 expressway. We set up the weather station office several weeks ago and it has been opened daily by Jake, who lives closeby, and will be your office manager. There have also been 4 friends of his coming and going in their capes every two or three days, waiting for you to show up and take their place. So anyone observing will not notice a big change in what's going on on that street."

"We we appreciate all your effort," said Stakka, "But isn't this just a little over the top?" "Not really," said Tanya, "pattern changes in activity on the street call attention and inquiries which we don't want. Curiosity put us at the top of the food chain a million years ago and it is still active." "We even have you a room each on either side of the office manager in his apartment complex, where his friends live." "It is a little above basic requirements but the office will reimburse you for the rent," said Alexis.

"Not to change the subject," said Loki, "but do we have time for a quick toke before dinner?" Renka laughed and said, "There's enough Red Ringer left for us and Alexis and Tanya if they would like." "Alexis smiled at Tanya and she said, "Yes, we like very much."

ATTENTION  ALL HANDS -  NOW  HEAR  THIS -  0500 HOURS -  ALL HANDS STOP SHIPS WORK AND LAY BELOW TO THE MESS DECK FOR DINNER

After dinner they changed into their new- old Levi's and checked the room for anything forgotten. They then followed Tanya and Alexis on to the pier with the outgoing stream of ship's personnel going on Liberty.

The Vostok Cargo freight office was located two streets away from the waterfront piers where the ships came in to load and unload cargo. As they approached, they saw a lit sign saying Vostok Cargo, open. Alexis approached the door and pushed the button. There was a click from the magnetic latch being released and they went inside.

A short skinny guy with black hair in a ponytail and a big smile greeted them, "Hi, my name is Jake. I'm your new office manager in Richmond, and this is Sergei and Natasha who manage the office here." "Happy to meet you," said Stakka, "I am Stakka and this is my friend Renka, and over here is Loki and Nobi."

Sergei said, "Let's turn the light out in the front office and go back to the conference room in the rear." "You will notice all the offices have little red LED Night Lights," said Natasha, "and here's the toilet on the right. The conference room is just ahead on the left, with a fresh pot of coffee."

As they seated themselves around the table with their coffee Loki asked Sergei, "Do you know what goes really good with a fresh cup of coffee?" "No, what," said Sergei. "One of these little Blu Zingers," said Loki, pulling out his packet. Everybody laughed at this and Renka explained, "These are genetically improved and have a higher CBD than usual so they will be good for relaxing and early sleeping." "The Red Ringers we had before dinner were really something special," said Tanya. "We have a small number of these seeds to start a little ganja grow after the Weather Watch office gets up and running," said Nobi.

As the conversation slowed down Renka said, "We'd like to share some seeds with you guys so you remember us." She gave little red and blue tubes to Tanya and Alexis, also Natasha and Sergei, and a couple to Jake as well. The meeting broke up and they went to separate little offices to sleep.

            (expect posts Sat 8 am EST)

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