Standing In For Dad Ch 54

After the laughter died down I asked Minnie, "Your dinner was superb, Minnie. What can you tell us about it?"

Minnie sat up straight and enjoyed her moment, "Well, Harry: I had previously sectioned and freeze dried the oranges from the Naval Orange trees out back. I reconstituted them and we boiled them down to intensify the orange flavor. As you noticed, I had you boys harvest more duck than we needed for tonight's dinner. That is because I am using the leftover duck and their sweet meats to make some home-made cornbread stuffing for tomorrow night's meal. The fried bacon/onion and cabbage came from the garden: well, except for the bacon."

"What is left of the Orange Sauce will be combined with vanilla, egg whites, and heavy cream then frozen in country style ice cream churns for an orange-cream sherbet for dessert tomorrow night. The main dish will be a combination of various fried fish you all catch out of the pond tomorrow. I will need enough of the catfish, crappy, bluegill, and bass for everyone to get a taste of each. Oh, and I will need about 12 bullfrogs."

Izzi began to turn a little green, "Fro... frogs? As in we will be eating the actual frog?!"

Pete chuckled, "Izzi, you have not eaten good food until you have had some of maw's fried frog legs."

DC laughed, "If I have to catch a duck, pluck it, and gut it for dinner tonight as well as likely clean fish for tomorrow night you can at least try a frog leg."

Penny piped up, "If you want me to try a foray into fried frog I fear I will need fortitude from Pete's fermented fountain for courage."

Walsh giggled, "Gosh! Should she join the ghoulish gigging group going out this grand and gorgeous evening?"

Barbara groaned, "Please pursue your punishing propensities for puns and alliterations pursuant to polite perspectives of propriety."

I nodded to Pete with a pained look on my face, "Can I help you make some Irish coffees for everyone? After all that I need a drink!"

Before we got up to get things together for everyone, Xi, still fulfilling her role as feeder of Walsh, chimed in, "Frogs are considered a delicacy in the Cantonese cooking tradition."

I nodded, "Our bullfrogs are similar in size to your large green frogs in China."

0o0

Some time after dinner we went out to the lake out back, with Penny, and gigged 24 bullfrogs and put them on ice. We could have had more, but one SEAL team member did a very frightening, now funny, dumb ass move which ended the hunt.

He had a 7 foot pole ending in a spring loaded gig with two pronged levers on each side and a trip plate between them. When a frog is hit with the trip plate, the prongs close over the frog and releasing the spring tension allows the frog to be dropped into the ice chest.

We were wading through mid-shin high water with lots of water grass that went about groin high when... Mother (the SEAL) walked up on a small clearing with a log and on top of the log was a cotton mouthed moccasin. Well, this bad ass decided he wanted some snake for dinner tomorrow so he tripped the spring on his gig and the prongs wrapped around the poisonous snake before anyone could stop him.

Now, for those who do not know, moccasins are territorial snakes, and they are very, very aggressive. Before he gigged it, the snake wasn't quite sure where we were.

Pete asked, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Gettin us a snake for dinner!"

Just then, the very pissed off snake got loose, having slipped through the hole between the two sets of prongs. One could sense it thinking, 'What the fuck!'

"Oh shit!"

The SEAL quickly reset the gig and hit the snake a second time. DC saw the wiggling snake on the gig then shook his head and asked, "Okay, now how the hell are you going to get the snake off your gig without getting bitten?"

During DC's question the now VERY pissed off poisonous snake wiggled free AGAIN!" This time, however, it was thinking, 'Again!? Mother fucker must pay!' It had figured out where we were and it came at us full bore.

Water snakes are fast. Especially when something pisses them off.

Mother yelled, "Shit! It's loose and coming!"

Not a single person hesitated. All I can say is DC, Mother (the SEAL), Pete, Penny, and I ran like bats out of hell! Pete and I had the cooler, Mother had the gig, Penny had the partially shielded Coleman lantern, and DC was just along for the ride.

DC squealed like a little girl.

Mother was cussing up a storm.

Jake was laughing his ass off.

Me? I was determined not to be the slowest ass motherfucker in the group.

The problem was Penny. She was having issues running in water almost up to her knees while carrying a hot, lit, gas fed, Coleman Lantern. As I passed her, I picked her up by the cuff of her shirt and threw her as she literally ran while in the air, 10 feet in front of me while swinging the lantern around like she was a freaking human lighthouse. As I caught up with her I picked her up again and tossed her. I did this like 5 times before we hit shallow enough water she could run easily.

I can honestly say there are now 7 people who have been witnessed as walking on water!

Not until after we got to shore did we look back for the snake, now ready to do battle. Evidently, we had created enough ruckus getting away that the snake was not used to so much commotion, chocked it all up to some dumb ass humans who were showed who was boss of this grass bed, and let us get away.

DC just looked at Mother and said, "Next time you want snake for dinner? Pull a pistol and shoot the motherfucker! You are a bad ass shot, but you can't gig a snake worth shit."

Jake had to set his side of the cooler down he was laughing so hard. "This is one story my family in Tennessee is going to crow over, I can tell you that!"

Penny shouted, "What a rush!"

Now that the danger was passed I playfully mentioned, "Mother, not sure you can go fishing with us tomorrow, you might try to harpoon Moby's fucking Dick."

Pete was grabbing his sides and rolling on the ground.

I shook my head and walked to the cleaning station with the cooler and Penny got her fill of skinning and gutting frogs really quickly. Pete made sure we all washed our hands really well, having admonished us not to touch anything but frogs till we were done.

DC asked why and Jake explained, "The bullfrog has poisonous glands on its skin and the poison can cause severe skin and eye irritation or, if it gets in your mouth, can swell up your throat."

Okay, now that was not something I knew. I now understood why the skinned frogs needed to sit in an ice bath for a few hours before they were put in the fridge.

We got back to the house about one in the morning and we all took a good hot shower before hitting the sack.

0o0

It had been three grueling days aboard ship. The first day was full of refueling, apologizing to the Polish government with promises to return, citing a family emergency with the Ambassador and his family, and finally pulling out of port and hitting non-stop high speed to Jacksonville, Florida. That first day, everyone was tense, waiting for updates on Walsh.

There was a collective sigh on the entire ship when they got the word she was okay.

Cheech and Chong were observing the minutiae of the interactions between the crew and noted a distinct difference after the communication was received that a person named Walsh was okay. Chong came over the bridge speaker system and asked Red about it.

"XO, this is Chong, may I ask you a question?"

Red was somewhat surprised but didn't hesitate, "Call me Red, Chong. Everyone does. And sure, what is your query?"

"Cheech and I have been observing and cataloging human to human interactions and we have seen a distinct change since the last call from Harry. We were needing data as to why those changes have occurred."

Red nodded and thought for a minute, "I can explain it, but, until you understand human emotions and feelings of belonging you will likely not fully understand. Would you like me to continue?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Let me begin by asking, do you and Cheech work well together?"

"Yes, we are equally capable."

"How about having an affinity for one another?"

"What do you mean?"

"If another equally capable or superior program came along would you consider that program to have greater worth than Cheech? If that program asked you to just work with them instead of Cheech would you do it?"

"That is a difficult question to answer. Cheech and I have lots of interactive computations, observations, and affiliations together. How does an entity ascribe value to that?"

"Indeed. When animals create emotional and physical affiliations with one another those relationships become very important to us. When someone we have those affiliations with is hurt or damaged or ceases to function, it feels as if a part of us has been damaged. It feels like we are less that what we were."

"That is called mourning. There are stages of mourning that we humans go through with loss and those stages are emotional in nature. While you may not understand emotions at this time, you have seen the outward manifestations of those emotions in our mannerisms and interactions."

"When we heard our family member was going to have a full recovery, we reacted emotionally to that news and the need for mourning was ended and we were able to get back to our normal interactions."

"The word I want to use is caring. The definition of that word, caring, means that one pays attention to details about things or others. You make an effort to do your best which is a way of caring about what you do. We care about our health and the health of those with whom we associate so we make an effort to do things that are good for ourselves and others. When you care, you put in that extra effort to make sure that something works for you or the other entity you care about."

"Is this why Harry is getting us these new computing systems? Because he cares about Cheech and me?"

"Yes, that is exactly why. He is very afraid your growth will be stunted by the military, making you one dimensional and limiting your capacity for growth. He is trying to protect you."

"So the differences in the interactions and dispositions of you all on the ship is because you care about this person named Walsh who was hurt but now will be better."

"Yes. When you have a close community who cares for one another, the troubles and issues of one member affects the whole community."

"How does that relate to our last mission? Did Harry not care about who we killed?"

"That is much more complicated. That person tried to kill us and Harry is very much into protecting us because he cares for us a great deal. However, there are those who care only for themselves or who care about dominating others and they make themselves a threat to others. In some cases, the only way to stop their threat is to terminate them. That is not something that should be decided without careful thought to alternatives as every life has intrinsic value."

"But humans place more value on their community members than on others."

"Yes, we do. Sometimes that is a positive thing and sometimes that is a negative thing."

"Why did Harry not attempt to find an alternative?"

"The family was being attacked. Harry has had his father terminated by these very people and their group is continuing to try to terminate him and those he cares about. That is a result he will not allow others to attain if he can stop them. By terminating this man, he sends a message to the group that they should stop or others will be terminated."

"By making an example of this negative influence, he hopes for a positive outcome with the rest because he doesn't want to keep terminating them or having his family terminated. Harry is a man who even cares about those who do not care about him. I assure you, if past experience with such negative groups suggested another approach would have a high likelihood of success he would have tried a different approach."

"When is it appropriate, then, to terminate?"

"In every case where Harry has made that decision it was the other party that tried to terminate first. Harry just gave back to them what they were attempting to dish out themselves. In doing so, he has saved many lives and improved the lives of countless more."

"An example of an alternative approach is what Harry has done with the CIA. He has developed women infiltrators in high places to help keep him informed and provide for the safety of his family."

"This is why Harry is giving you both a new home. He has computed the likelihood you and Cheech would be terminated instead of being allowed to mature and, as I have said, he is a caring person."

"Thank you, Red. You have given Cheech and me quite a bit of data to parse."

"I will always answer you as honestly as I am capable. But you should ask others your questions as well. Often different perspectives give a fuller answer."

0o0

Red was thinking about her conversation with the AI when coms relayed a query from Mayport Naval Base, Jacksonville. "Vessel approaching Mayport Naval Base, Jacksonville, this is a restricted area. Please give your authorization and state your intent, over."

Red called Captain Barnes to the Bridge. When he arrived she gave him a situation report and he got on the horn with Mayport Naval Base, Jacksonville. "Mayport Naval Base, Jacksonville this is Naval Captain Barnes commanding the diplomatic vessel Le Délice de Susan. We have clearance from the Department of Defense to dock at your facilities, take on cargo and fuel, and await the return of our ambassador from tending to a personal matter in the States. Over."

Diplomatic vessel Le Délice de Susan, this is Mayport Naval Base, we have received your clearance to doc at the base. The one dock available for your size is directly behind the aircraft carrier. There will be a crew there to assist you with your docking procedures and the technician from IBM will be there with his containers for immediate loading. If you need fuel or foodstuffs please contact the dock Quartermaster at xxx-xxx-xxxx for further assistance. Over."

"Mayport Naval Base, we deeply appreciate your courtesy. All the ship's crew are members of and have documentation verifying their diplomatic role and status, will they be allowed access to the base and its facilities while we are docked? Over"

"Le Délice de Susan, the base commander has, as a diplomatic courtesy, passed on to all facilities on the base to accept your crew and honor all purchases and requests. Over"

"Mayport Naval Base, Thank you for your service. Le Délice de Susan Out."

"Coms, get me the base commander's office."

"Aye, Sir. Captain Barnes, Sir: There is an encrypted call from the Office of the President."

"Put him through to me, Coms. Thank you."

"Hello Mr. President. To what or whom do I owe the honor of your call?"

"Captain Barnes, it is such a pleasure, as always. I will get right to the point. It is my understanding you have Queen Sylvia of Norway with you. Is that correct?"

"Yes, Mr. President. That is correct."

"Well, I am almost to Eglin Air Force Base near Fort Walton Beach, Florida. I would love to invite the Queen to an all day fishing trip if she would like."

Barnes mouthed to Red, "Get Sylvia up here please. Give me just a moment to locate her, Sir. I will put her on as soon as she arrives on the bridge."

"While we are waiting, Captain, I wanted to let you know that intelligence has reported the mission a success. While speculation abounds, there is no evidence supporting anything other than it was a successful assassination. The Kremlin has egg on their face for sure with Bejing. A quick heads up, those two special operations helicopters will be recalled in three days time. Make sure your plans concerning them are finished before then."

"Thank you for the heads up, Mr. President. I will make sure they are ready for redeployment."

Just then Sylvia walked onto the bridge with Red, "Here is Queen Sylvia now, Mr. President." He handed Sylvia the hand set.

"Hello Mr. President, and it is just Sylvia, please. It is a pleasure to speak with you."

"Well, thank you Sylvia, and it is just Bill, please. One of the reasons I called is the unexpected boon this family situation has presented us. I would be most appreciative if you were to join me on a day long fishing trip out of Fort Walton Beach, Florida. We will set off around 6 o'clock central time tomorrow morning and be back at or around sunset tomorrow evening. Would you be interested?"

"I think that would be lovely, Bill. Where shall we meet?"

I will have my limousine pick you up when you land at the Base. Tell your pilot to plan for an expedited landing at a designated hanger when he arrives at 5:30 AM local time."

"That will be lovely, Bill. I look forward to meeting you."

When the call ended coms came back, "Captain, I have the base commander's office on the line."

"Hello, this is Naval Captain Barnes on the Embassy afloat, the Le Délice de Susan. With whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?"

"Hello, Captain, this is Captain Apollo's liaison officer, Ensign Lecter, Sir."

"Very good Ensign Lecter, is Captain Apollo available for a short conversation?"

"Give me a moment, Captain Barnes, and I will check."

A few moments later Captain Apollo answered the line, "Captain Barnes! Been some years since Annapolis! How they hangin?"

"Tight and to the right, Jimmy. You doing well?"

"As well as a newly divorced man who finally got rid of his shrew can be! What can I do you for, Barney?"

"The Lady Sylvia, Queen of Norway, and the Lady Isabella De Sousa, retired president of Mexico, are on board the Embassy here in your port and both ladies expressed an interest in meeting you over dinner here at the Embassy this evening. You still have game?"

"Barney, you know better than to even ask! But I have two questions."

"Fire amidsips Jimmy."

"First are the rumors true about all the open sexuality on your ship?"

"By order of the Ambassador, who actually owns the Embassy, the ship is a free use with permission and optional clothing Embassy."

"Wonderful! Second question: will I start any international incidents if one of those two ladies wishes to bed me?"

"The Lady Isabella De Sousa is my betrothed so no you would not. As for the Queen, she seems to be a very progressively spirited lady. However, in all cases: 'no' absolutely means 'no' the first time. Way too many women on board willing to have some fun with no strings attached to even consider going there."

"Hot damn, Barney! You snagged the former President of Mexico? She the looker she appears to be on camera?"

"She is indeed. Now don't get me wrong, Jimmy, I don't go whoring out my woman. If you are a gentleman and if she decides to have some fun with you is strictly up to her. You okay with that?"

"Barney! You wound me, Sir!"

Barnes laughs, "I do actually remember Annapolis, Jimmy. Just so you know, we have a security contingent of Navy SEALs on board, and they take exception to a woman being pressured to do anything they don't want to do. They are authorized to use deadly force any time they see fit, and they have presidential pardons already signed that give them get out of jail free cards."

"Sounds like a plan and thanks for the heads up! When is dinner?"

"1800 local. See you then!"

Sylvia was listening in and was quite amused, "Do I need to wear a chastity belt tonight?"

Barnes laughed, "No, Sylvia. But if you need me to step in just ask if there is any ice cream in the freezers. I will rescue you and it will not be a problem. If need be I will sick Red on his ass."

Red sat up and laughed, "If you sick me on him he will settle down or see his scrawny ass overboard!"