Ship's Holog: June 2078, fragment #27

For security reasons, the following segment and all other italicized passages in the transcript of this holog were excised for security reasons by the crew of the Veritas from their original holocoms in 2078. They were restored some 25 years later when the voyages of the Veritas no longer needed to be kept secret due to the significant changes that took place in world government in 2102.

At this moment, we encountered the first serious threat to our voyage: the frightening sound of a Coast Guard warning signal, indicating that we were to hove to, and the sight of a New Vermont Coast Guard cutter headed toward us at full speed from the docks of Bristol-Vergennes. Unfortunately, we had no choice but to obey the command from these Authorities, but in the few minutes before the cutter arrived alongside, our crew made certain that all our supplies and other evidence of the purpose and planned duration of our trip (such as our professional quality holocam equipment) were well concealed behind false panels in our ship. We hoped this visit from the Authorities would be just a routine check, as it wouldn’t take much for a sharp Coast Guard inspector, trained to find contraband and drugs, to recognize that the inner and outer walls of our ship left plenty of room for concealment.

We also made sure that we gave every appearance of being out on an extended family outing: below, Anna busied herself at the galley stove, preparing dinner while Harriet set the table; on deck, several of us sat around chatting and knitting; the kids scrambled up from below and ran to the rails, showing the kind of excitement and enthusiasm one might expect children to show at the advent of a friendly visit from the Coast Guard.

“Permission to Board?” called the Coast Guard boat captain.

“Permission granted. Welcome aboard,” Noah replied casually.

The cutter pulled directly alongside and the Coast Guard captain and two junior officers clambered over the rails of our boat and onto the deck.

“Greetings, folks,” the Captain said in a friendly manner. “Where are you headed today?”

“Howdy, Captain,” Noah replied. “Burlington--- to visit friends and family and then up the lake where we’re dropping off two of our family members for a trek to the Algonquin wilderness.”

“Sounds like a fun trip,” the Captain responded. “I suppose you’ll be returning this way after the drop-off.”

This line of questioning was beginning to make us very nervous, especially because while it was going on, one of the junior officers had begun wandering about the boat, poking into corners, and the other had gone down below and was probably looking around and maybe asking questions there, as well.

“Actually, weather permitting, we’re hoping to sail as far as ‘Twentieth Century Land ‘ on Lake Erie. Our twenty-somethings have been bugging us for years to be able to visit the Actual Rock n’ Roll Museum there. They’ve seen it on holopods, of course, but they want to see the real thing. And, we’re all looking forward to the various nostalgic educational and entertainment venues, especially the kids, who want to take the rides on all those old-fashioned 20th century vehicles.”

“Well, now, that’s quite a trip!” the Captain exclaimed. “How long do you expect you’ll be before returning this way?”

This, of course, was the question we’d been dreading. We didn’t want the Coast Guard looking out for us on our supposed return, as the truth was we probably wouldn’t return this way for many years, if ever.

Nevertheless, Noah replied as cool as a cucumber, “Well, if all goes well, I suppose we’ll be back down this way sometime next month.”

“Do us a favor, then: on your way back, give a toot as you pass Bristol-Vergennes, just so we know you’ve made it back this way. As I hope you know, the Great Lakes can be dangerous, because of Mother Nature, as well as pirates. In fact, I’m sorry to say, there’s even been some piracy in the northern part of Lake Champlain of late. For your well-being, we’re being a little more careful about making note of everyone’s coming and going. If we don’t see you a month or so from now, we’ll make some inquiries of Authorities up the line to see where you might be.”

Piracy? Could they be serious? Or was this just an excuse of the Authorities to monitor the legitimate movement of its citizens?

“Sure thing, Captain. We’ll check in on our way back. As for pirates, we’ve got a holopod aboard, so if we run into trouble, we can always holocom for help ”

“That’s fine, providing help can get to you in a timely manner. Some of these pirates are pretty clever and you may not be able to tell the difference between a friendly shipboard visit from fellow travelers and a pirate raid. I’d advise you not to let anyone on-board and to send out a holocom anytime you’re approached by another vessel.”

“Will do, Captain. Thanks for the advice.”

“Oh, and one more thing, just to facilitate our inquiries if it becomes necessary, please check in with Authorities all along your way. That’ll make it a lot easier for us to find you if you’ve run afoul of the weather or worse.”

Worse? Were they trying to frighten us into leaving a trail for them to follow us?

“OK, Captain. We’ll do that.”

At that point, the two junior officers reappeared and reported that all appeared to be “ship-shape” down below. All three re-boarded their cutter and we were away, relieved but unnerved both by the close call with the Authorities and by their warnings about pirates, about which we’d heard rumors, but had dismissed as propaganda to scare New Vermonters from traveling out of the country by ship. Indeed, we hoped that was all that was involved, but a seed had been planted that would continue to haunt us as we traveled.