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.Repatriated	By : keithcompany Category: Titles in the Public Domain > Gulliver's Travels Views: 3308 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: This is a work fiction, based on Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
They spent a few days with Arlene while new clothes were made for Dani.
After that they planned a leisurely trip across the length of Blefuscu. They mapped out places Dani could see some exotic, to her, animals, some interesting sights and lots of crowds of people.
There would be a visit to Dollhouse and finally a presentation to court. Ted and Arlene wouldn't reveal many details, but they said there was plenty of time to the next opportunity.
Phoebe's side of the family concentrated on trying to replicate twenty years of research on the giants' part in a couple of nights.
Renee left immediately with the Harryhousen, though. She delivered the rest of her crew to the North Shore, then took her father's vessel to its usual dock near Dollhouse.
She had a list of orders for changes to be made and supplies to be loaded, preparing it for the trip to take Dani home.
And she fumed. All the Lilliputian-sized rooms were removed, ostensibly to increase cargo space. More to the point, it reduced the number of places she and her sisters could stow aboard.
She stayed for a few days to watch the ripout, but the family's private shipyard was as dedicated as the staff at Dollhouse. Renee's supervision was, as Daddy would say, like a birdcage in a daycare. More frightening than useful.
Renee was twelve before she realized that not everyone thought of a giant birdcage when Daddy said that.
Anyway, she did make sure all of Daddy's instructions were understood, then rode off to see her grandmother at home.
Ike welcomed her with a big hug at her knees and brought her inside. She'd heard gossip of a giant young lady and wanted to know everything.
Renee started with the rumors and ended with the vigil to prevent Daddy's escape.
"Good thinking," Ike said, sipping her tea. "But ultimately, you would have failed. You need to surprise your father, not try to outstubborn him."
"Grandma?"
"Listen, little Testtiffie," Testy said. "Your father's not going to go out of the Isles until he can see all nine of you on the deck, waving goodbye.
"That's exactly why Emma and Annette are building the submarine."
"Sub...? What?"
-------------
"Probably the only thing in Lilliputian waters Daddy doesn't know about!" Emma said happily. She led Renee down the spiral staircase cut into the rock. Somewhere under the Keels R Us dockyard was a natural cave that had been tunneled out and made into a slip.
And what looked like a silver fish floating in the dark water.
The shape offended Renee's sailor sensibilities. What should have been a proud prow to cut the waves was a blunt instrument to hide under them.
No masts rose, no sails furled, no oars extended. Just smooth sides and little fins and a humongous rudder.
But as a pirate, the possibilities were more shiny than gold. "Daddy doesn't even know it exists?" She couldn't keep the giggle out of her voice.
Annette and Emma giggled with her.
---------
It was a while before the whole family caught up together again. A huge crowd surrounded the Blefuscu end of the Ferry, their last chance to see the Little Giant.
Dani waved at everyone, walking carefully and deliberately to avoid stepping on any citizens. She walked behind three carriages containing the Fosters born on the isles. Ted and Arlene followed Dani in single file.
A bigger crowd greeted them at the Lilliputian landing. The Royals were absent, waiting impatiently for the Little Giant to be presented to the Court.
Renee had more carriages ready, and got a big reunion hug from Dani.
"How are you doing, Miss Woods?" she asked.
"I'm having a great profession!" Dani confided.
"You mean a Grand Procession," Renee said. Dani covered her mouth in shame.
"No, no, no," Renee said, "no one outside of the family speaks English much. You haven't offended anyone."
"Really?" she asked. "Daddy's always upset if I get things wrong in front of his client."
"Then your daddy should have prepared you better," Renee said. She waved towards Dani's shoulder. She rode there and directed the girl's steps towards Dollhouse.
"Daddy always takes OUR mistakes as his failure to teach us," she explained into the ear beside her. "And he's a Duke, so he's probably more important than your daddy's client."
"Daddy's client is a sultan," Dani said.
Renee shrugged. "Never heard of the office," she said.
At Dollhouse, Renee introduced Dani to the remaining Foster girls and Testy. Dani did a creditable curtsey to the girls' grandmother.
Testy was quite delighted and escorted her to dinner. "It's so nice to see someone who respects the elderly," she said sweetly. And loudly.
The other two giants followed meekly.
-------
The King and Queen were equally enchanted with the new citizen. They immediately created her a princess. "Of Lilliput, Blefuscu and Boommountain!" his highness proclaimed.
"And all the ports between," her majesty added. The princes unrolled a scroll guaranteeing this to be true.
Ted nudged Arlene at the edge of the courtyard. "I think her smile is going to be visible from orbit."
"Only for the next two weeks or so," Arlene judged. "Then only from weather balloons and anything lower."
The royal boys spent the evening making sure Princess Dannyiall had enough to drink, to eat, to play with and shiny things to look at.
They appeared so competitive that the Fosters started to take offense. Ritch, Hort and Phoebe grabbed a couple of people around the knees and reminded them, in low voices, that no one 'owned' the princess.
"But I found her first!" Renee reminded her Mom when she was so cautioned. All three times.
Daddy threatened to take her home, though, and she shut up.
---------
After a week at the Castle, Ted announced that it was time to take Dani home. The Princess said tearful goodbyes to everyone, but she looked happy to be going home.
The Harryhousen was full up with supplies and emptied of daughters. Ted made painstaking searches and insisted that his daughters be visible on the pier.
They were, hugging Dani tightly as she put all her gifts and clothes in the hull. Ted had actually anchored it a good three feet away from the pier to prevent stowaways. He jumped back and forth and swung Dani over.
He took a last look at his three wives and nine daughters, lined up and waving, promised he's soon return, and lifted anchor.
With his back turned, the nine daughters ducked and stepped back into the crowd. Nine look-a-likes stood up on stilts and took up the waving.
The Secret was under the pier, hatch held open by one of Mary's paralegals. The sisters scrambled aboard.
The fishing line tied around the Harryhousen's tiller was rapidly unspooling as Renee dropped through and closed the hatch.
"Hang on!" she shouted. "I think-"
"Shut UP!" Emma and Annette shouted. They grabbed her and threw her onto a bench. The Secret surged forward as she hit the cushions.
Water rushed over the hull and they were on their way.
After the speed steadied, they took turns cranking on the reach rod. It linked to a capstan outside the hull that reeled in fishing line and dragged them closer to the Harryhousen, one turn at a time.
--------
"What are you looking at, sir?" Dani asked.
Ted turned around to face his passenger. "It was too easy," he said, shaking his head. "I keep expecting to see them rush to a chase ship, but they're still on the pier."
Dani smiled and looked forward, watching the sunlight sparkle off the waves. Her only job had been to make sure the binoculars didn't make it onboard.
She didn't know why Captain Renee asked for that, but she'd been insistent. As a princess, Dani was sure it was her duty to listen to lady pirates and help them in their schemes, so she had.
She just wished she could have Renee back for another night. Daddy Duke Ted was nice, and all, but she couldn't hug him in her bunk at night.
--------
Renee worked the reach-rod for shifts twice as long as her sisters. She was proud of the muscles that her fighting and sailing experiences had given her.
The others figured if she was dumb enough to volunteer for twice her share, no one would argue.
They did allow that she had about the best hand on the two tillers, for vertical and horizontal maneuvering. So when they wanted fresh air, they made sure she was well rested and took them up.
The scoop extended out of the water, pointed back to avoid spray.
Renee conned the ship into the Harryhousen's wake to hide it while the other eight pumped the bellows. Room air was circulated and more air was packed into the inflating bladders.
If Daddy started to look back at where the periscope and scoop were, Renee dipped them down under the waves to hide.
Then eased back up, slowly and cautiously. Annette had designed a check valve for the scoop to keep water from flooding The Secret.
It worked almost as well as it was supposed to, so only a few gallons came in every time they dove.
Emma had predicted this, and the same mechanism that pumped the bellows also bailed out the water. Annette had taken this as an insult against her valve and not spoken to Emma for a month.
Now she just grit her teeth and pumped extra hard.
They made up most of the distance to the Harryhousen by the evening. They didn't want to betray their presence before Daddy had sailed out from whatever protected Lilliputian waters. Then it'd be too late to turn back.
So they just took turns keeping the Secret steady in the chase position, and underwater, while the others rested.
If Renee had been at the tillers, she might have interpreted the sudden shift in the Secret's navigation. But Leann had finally convinced her older sisters that she could handle the ship, and she had the conn.
Ted had dropped some sail and his boat slowed. The Secret was no longer towed through the water, but her inertia carried her forward like a little silver torpedo.
"Huh," Leann mused. "I wonder what happen-"
THUNK!
The sickening collision rolled everyone out of their cushioned seats to the back of the seat before them. When they recovered, everyone could tell that they'd lost forward motion...
------
Ted hung the lantern over the side and thought he was being attacked by a barracuda. Then he recalled that in these waters, the barracuda were no bigger than fingerlings.
So, a pilot whale? Something new? Or something from the 'real' world that worked its way in, just as he was trying to work his way out?
Then he saw the rivets....
"Girls!" he said in 'that' tone.
------
Light started to shine through the portholes in the turret. They all looked at each other. "Busted," four of them intoned.
"Emma!" Renee hissed. "You go first!" She pointed at the turret and the hatch.
"Why me?"
"You're his favorite!"
"YOU'RE his FAVORITE!" Emma, Janet and Julie replied.
"He doesn't have a favorite," Mary said.
"Then you go!"
"I'm not going up there first!"
"Let's send Leann!" Louise said.
"It's not my fault we hit the thing!" Leann protested, tears in her eyes from guilt.
"No, but you're the smallest. He never beats the baby."
"He never beats anyone!" Leann said.
"Not til now," Renee said. The boat started to rock in a distinctly non-wavey action. There was a knock. Shave and a hair cut.
"Two bits," the girls intoned solemnly.
"Go now," Renee ordered. Sixteen hands urged the youngest daughter to the turret. She sniffed and bowed to the inevitable.
Renee ducked the kick and thwacked her one on the knee. Leann wiped her face and stood. The hatch undogged easily and rose up.
Daddy loomed overhead. Dani, too. The princess held the lantern and looked over Daddy's shoulder.
He held the turret steady in one hand. The other was fisted around a few loops of fishing line.
And he looked maaaaaad....
"Hey guys!" Leann said, forcing a smile. "The secret tunnel in the wardrobe DIDN'T lead to Narnia! It leads to the Harryhousen!"
Daddy didn't laugh.
"All hands on deck," he ordered. His voice was as hard as the hull. Leann scrambled through the hatch and stood carefully on the deck.
Ted lifted her to the Harryhousen's cockpit. Dani made room for her on the forward bench.
Soon Renee was lowered to stand by the other eight. Daddy wrestled the Secret up onto the fantail and looked it over.
"Is it watertight?" he asked.
"Yes, nicely," Emma said. "Except when we take air on through the snorkel." He nodded.
"How much air?"
"Designed for six hours with a full crew, it turns out to be about an hour's worth," Annette said. She tried not to sound smug about the failure of Emma's design. Her sister still glared at her ear.
"Propulsion?" he asked.
"Fishing line," Renee said. "There are plans for lateral oars, but for now we just let you tow us after."
"Pretty," Dani said. She wasn't sure why everyone was so upset, but she could feel anger and anxiety around her. "Isn't it pretty, Mr. Duke Ted?"
"It is," he said with a sigh. He glanced at the sun. "But it's far too late to take them back. And with no propulsion..." He shook his head. "I thought I'd covered everything."
He cut the fishing line off of his tiller and dragged the vessel under deck. It ended up tucked into the bulkhead side of Danielle's bunk.
As it was designed to hold Arlene, it was still a bed for Dani.
Then he stomped back to the tiller.
Ten faces regarded him from the bench as he looked over his illicit crew. "You guys are all grounded," he said.
------
There was a long lecture about hiding. Daddy looked as afraid as he'd been since Emma's kidnapping.
"I wasn't just trying to keep you guys from getting hurt," he said. "I do NOT want any of you ending up in a research lab. So if anyone sees a human vessel, the first thing you say is HIDE!
"And then everyone less than three feet tall drops what they're doing and hides in the secret passage under the mast."
"You know about that?" Annette said, scandalized.
"I searched it three times before leaving," he growled. "Better go make sure there's food and water in there."
Nine girls scrambled for the ladder.
---------
Ted was putting on a lot of sail to make up for the delay to, as he put it, board stowaways.
Renee could help with the tiller. The other sisters threw themselves into the galley, producing food and cleaning pans and making sure Daddy didn't have a reason to throw them over the side.
He was making noises about keelhauling any time anyone looked like they were happy to be aboard.
"Is it really bad," Dani asked on the third day. "That they're here?"
"Danielle, do you remember the first tribesmen you met?"
"Yes," she said softly, rubbing her feet.
"Imagine if they were as big as you, and you were as small as Leann."
"Oooooh. That would be... Bad."
"So you cannot, please, tell anyone the girls are here.
"I'll get you to the Navy or someone's coast guard. Then we'll go back to Lilliput. But don't tell anyone about Lilliput until long after I've gone back, okay?"
"I promise," she said.
--------
The adventure of the Return of The Rescued Princess was very nearly a short-story.
Shortly after the dawn on the tenth day after they left port, a big shiny beach appeared out of nowhere, right in front of the prow.
Renee squeaked in surprise and leaned hard on the tiller. The amplifying mechanism whirred and the vessel heeled over. To point at a bigger shiny beach.
"STARBOARD!" Ted shouted. Renee ran around to the other side and leaned against it. Dani grabbed it and pulled.
The ship resisted the reversal. It finally started to turn, but very late. Ted swung into a seat near the prow, legs out. He kicked against the shiny material and helped change the ship's heading.
The inertia still carried it forward through the water. There was a horrible scraping sound as the very tip of the beach slid down the hull.
Then they were free.
Ted dropped the sails and threw out the anchor.
Dani and Renee relaxed and looked at what they'd nearly hit.
"That's our plane!" Dani said in surprise.
------
Ted swam up to the side of the boat and climbed aboard. "That's definitely the rock I crashed on. There are bits of my old hull down there."
"This?" Renee said. "But you crashed north of Boommountain. Way north. We sailed south from Lilliput!"
"Yep," he nodded. "I think this is the anchor to the gateway." Ten faces looked at him in confusion.
Janet's suddenly lit up in understanding. "It's like a pocket universe!"
"Oh, don't bring fantasy into this," Louise snarled.
"She's right," Daddy said.
"I knew it!" Janet crowed.
Daddy reached over for the floatation ring. He picked Janet up off the bench to put her on the deck. "You're the rock. The float ring is Lilliput."
"Aw!" she protested. "I'm always the rock!"
"Shut up," he snarled. She smiled and assumed the Lilliput Posture of Patriotism. Dani giggled.
"If I may continue?" he said. She wiped her face straight. "Okay." He held the ring in the air over Janet. "When we said around Lilliput, we're in a tiny little dimension that doesn't exist on the same planet as Janet."
"I’m the rock," she reminded everyone.
"Shut up," Louise, Annette and Emma told her.
"When we sail to the edge of the magic that protects Lilliput," he said, walking two fingers over the float, "we're usually just forced back." His fingers staggered back drunkenly.
"But when conditions are right, we pass out of the edge and come out here." The fingers hopped down to where Janet stood. She raised her hand and high-fived Daddy's thumb.
"When conditions are right, we sail close to the rock..." He fingerstepped closer, she hip-checked his knuckle. "Then we appear in Lilliputian waters."
"So what does that mean?" Emma asked. "For Miss Woods?"
"It means, the plane stayed here where the crew and passengers could be rescued," Ted said. "And she went to Lilliput."
"They're okay?" Dani asked.
"I'm going to search the plane," Ted said. "But it's on the rock pretty solid. So they would have had time to inflate the floats and the rafts and send a radio message and light all sorts of beacons. I think the chances are pretty good."
He grabbed an empty bag from below and gaged the sun's position. "If I'm not back in two days, you need to set sail and try to get back to Lilliput," he told Renee. She was in charge as he left the vessel.
"It'll be safer for you all than trying to navigate the Pacific. Or trying to rescue me from...whatever might happen."
"Yes, sir!" Renee said, snapping off a salute. "Orders received and understood, and will comply."
"Now try that again without crossing your fingers," he said softly. She winced and repeated her promise. He nodded and dove.
They lined the rail to watch him climb in through the open door at the front. Then they wandered around, trying to see in all directions at once.
Ted was back in half an hour. "Well, not only are all the floatation devices missing, but so is the black box! They had plenty of time to do a rescue AND wonder what the hell happened."
"So where are they?" Emma asked.
"Sad to say," he said with a smile, "they've probably given up the search. But we should be able to get into the major shipping lanes from here."
"Do you know what heading to take?" Renee asked. "I mean, you WERE lost when you crashed."
"I was not!" he replied, scandalized.
"Wait, you mean you sailed all the way through an ocean, the world's biggest, emptiest ocean, and hit the one rock here on PURPOSE?"
"You're grounded again," he snarled. "Okay, let's make sail and avoid hitting the plane..."
Everyone turned as his voice dropped off. Then they followed his gaze.
The rock was gone. The plane went with it. Empty ocean surrounded them in all directions.
"Wait, what happened?" Mary asked. "Did we drift back into Lilliput again?"
"Maybe," Ted said absently. "I'm not sure if the rock travels between the dimensions..."
"Are there helochoppers in Lilliput?" Dani asked.
"No," Ted said. Dani pointed her finger. A red and white helicopter was coming straight towards them.
"HIDE!" eleven people shouted at once. Dani jumped up and down on her feet as the Malone girls scrambled for cover. Ted turned the ship towards the helo, hiding the cockpit until they were below.
The copter dipped a bit as it flew over them, but kept on going past. It circled the general vicinity of the missing airplane.
"Damn," Ted muttered. "I was hoping they'd missed that."
"Are we in trouble?" Dani asked.
"Princess, you can NOT be in trouble." He watched the craft circle a few more times, then it came closer to them. He didn't recognize the model, but it had been twenty some years since he'd seen modern technology.
It stood off to one side and Ted told Dani to stand up and wave. The pilot waggled his tail, then started moving slowly to the north.
"Where's he going?" Dani asked.
"He's going slow, so he wants us to follow," Ted said. He waved and set course for the chopper's tail.
When they were sure he was going in the right direction, they moved a bit higher and a bit faster.
Soon after that, a vessel appeared on the horizon.
"Man," Ted whistled. "That's a YACHT!"
"Daddy's boss!" Dani shouted, clapping her hands.
"Who's your father's boss, Danielle?" Ted asked.
"A sultan," she said, matter of factly. "He runs Broonie."
"Brunei?" Ted guessed. He glanced over to see the helo landing on the yacht. It was enormous, coming towards them with a bow wave you could surf on. "Handy," Ted said.
--------
A professional crew of Australian seamen brought the Harryhousen alongside the Sea Sovereign. Ted handed Dani to one. They passed her hand to hand across the wet deck, up the ladder and over the rail.
Her feet didn't touch ground until after her mother was finished hugging her, with her father hugging them both.
"All's well that ends well," Ted said. He asked the sailors to cast him off. They looked confused.
A boisterous man at the rail invited Ted aboard. He was terribly apologetic but he had to insist. Ted shrugged, made sure his boat was made fast to the cleats and climbed up.
There were some ecstatic thanks from Dani's parents, then the girl was ushered below decks to see the doctor.
The man in charge spoke some commands in what sounded like French. The crew dispersed. Except for two really big men standing at the top of the ladder, blocking Ted's path to his boat.
They didn't look particularly Australian, either.
Ted turned to his apparent host. His first thought was that it was the largest baron he'd seen in twenty years.
He was confident, but not quite as confident as Ted's friend, the king. Something about the way he moved, about the way he gave orders and watched for obedience made Ted think of a grand vizier. Or a yard foreman.
This would take careful handling.
--------
Down in the boat, they lost sight of everyone through the little spy scopes mounted in the mast housing.
"Where's Daddy?" Louise asked. She didn't try to fight for one of the scopes. The only sister she might have a chance at dislodging was Leann.
The two youngest just tugged at elbows for second hand information. There wasn't any.
"I see the backs of some really big guys," Renee reported.
"Daddy's really big," Leann said.
"Never thought I'd say this," Emma said from her eyepiece. "But these guys can beat Daddy up."
---------
Daddy didn't return to his boat for the rest of the evening.
Strange men tied the Harryhousen up really well, then different men came aboard and searched her. The girls watched closely through various peepholes.
They were confused about the food, dismissive of the Secret, and very interested in the bedsheets of the two bunks.
Some light was shined on the beds and they seemed disappointed not to find what they were looking for.
They finally left an hour or so after the sun went down.
Emma insisted that everyone eat before Renee could even begin to share her plan.
"What makes you think I have a plan?" Renee protested.
"Duh!" eight mouths remarked.
"Okay, well, yeah. Obviously, they're keeping Daddy-"
"Food!" Emma insisted.    Renee ate with obvious impatience, which naturally slowed down her sisters. She growled. Louise laughed.
"Okay," she said when they finally gave her their attention. "They're keeping Daddy hostage somewhere. First we need to find out where."
"We're going to search a giant yacht?" Denise asked.
"We're tiny!" Julie protested. "And that's a lotta yacht!"
"Yes, but we only have to search the portholes!" Renee said. They stared. "Okay, chances are, they don't have a brig on a pleasure ship. So any place they stow Daddy will have a window. We find the window, we find Daddy."
"Chances are?" Mary asked.
"Well, yeah, there's a chance he won't be. But there's a better chance, then, we'll find where Dani is! We find her, she tells us where to find Daddy."
"But we can't quite reach the windows," Janet pointed out.
"Sure we can!" She brought out a loop of fishing line. "We go along the top deck, lowering someone to each porthole. They peek in, we moved to the next. One team of four on each side.
"One dangles, two handle line, one's a lookout."
"That's eight," Annette said. "Where will you be?"
"Scouting," Renee said. "Just... Getting the lay of the land."
"What if we fall off?" Leann asked. As the smallest, she already knew who would be 'dangling' on her team.
"They anchored the yacht," Renee said. "We just swim back to the Harryhousen and hide."
There were no other candidate plans offered, so they accepted hers.
Getting aboard the yacht was easy enough. Daddy'd always said he was impressed with how Lilliput gymnasts could jump over their own heads.
He'd tried to explain why he couldn't do anything nearly as impressive. The idea of muscle-mass ratios took some effort to understand, but they eventually did.
The giant's daughters couldn't quite jump twice their own height, as their school peers could. But they had greater height to begin with, and when fully grown, could jump twice as high as anyone but a professional acrobat.
With that and the ability to use handholds that humans could barely feel, they swarmed up the ladder and snuck over the decks.
Renee made a few curt gestures, ordering people to port or starboard.
Her siblings rolled their eyes, nodded in agreement that they'd go do what they'd already planned to do, and made a few gestures of their own.
She muttered quietly to herself as she stalked off.
---------
The interior of the yacht was unlike any boat or warship she'd ever been on. It was more like the palace. Far more glass than she'd have allowed on any command of hers.
She slipped from hiding spot to hiding spot, moving quickly when no one seemed to be looking. There were white-uniformed people everywhere, but they only paid attention to the people in more formal attire.
At least, she thought it was formal. The women dressed in ways that reminded her of the King's parties, but the men wore bland, dark clothes, without hardly any military regalia.
They were all discussing things in a language Renee couldn't understand. She moved through the party to the belowdecks. The ladders were easy enough to get down, just step and jump, step and jump.
She was looking for a guard. There was a burly man sitting on a mechanical chair in the hallway one deck down.
But there were four doors he could conceivably be guarding. She wondered how to tell which-
"Dinner," someone called behind her. She crouched behind the decorative cylinder on the wall as someone in white moved past with a tray.
The guard stood and barked something. Renee rolled mental dice that came up sixes. She took the chance and crept behind the purser or whatever.
He stood while the guard looked over the tray. There was a metal-on-metal sound, then he knocked on a door.
"Dinner, sir. Do not resist."
"I'm docile!" Daddy shouted back. Renee scrambled behind the dinner guy's legs and through the door. The guard would be watching Daddy for some sign of violence.
Inside the cabin, she saw a chair to her immediate left and ducked beneath it. She listened to the conversation.
"Sorry, sir, the guard took the knife and fork."
"Well, as long as it's not spaghetti, I'll be okay, right?"
"It's a selection of sandwiches, sir."
"Oh, BABY! I haven't had a real sandwich in... Well, never mind. Um... I don't suppose?"
"The captain did get word of your superstition, sir."
"It's not a superstition. It's just, weird stuff happens if I don't eat on my boat."
"Whatever," the man said, "the captain fears he cannot indulge that and will have to put up with any weirdness."
"Okay. Fine." There was some shuffling and then the door shut. Daddy started eating.
Renee eased out into sight. Daddy glanced at her, unsurprised. He was tucking into a loaf of bread that was bigger than she was and refused to be distracted.
But he did pat his lap with one hand. She rushed over and climbed up. He pat her head, she hugged at his chest.
"Renee, it's been less than half a day!" he protested. But he didn't pull her off. That big, warm arm wrapped around her and pinned her in place.
"We didn't know what happened!" she said. "It was all we could do to find you!"
"Well, I should have expected this. At least part of it." He put the sandwich down and lifted her to his cheek. "But I think it'll be okay." They hugged for another moment.
Renee noticed there were four sandwiches on the tray. Along with... "Is that a potato chip?"
"Yes," he said. "G'head, try one."
Frankly, she wasn't sure she liked the flavor of the chip. But Daddy had gotten more and more nostalgic for them over the years.
So she sat and nibbled and smiled and he smiled back and she waited for him to say something and realized he was waiting for her to say something but she couldn't imagine what.
"What?"
"Where are your sisters?"
"Looking for you."
"Where?"
"Oh! Can you open your window?"
"A crack," he said. He stood and pulled the curtains back from a small porthole.
Leann was plastered across the glass, upside down and looking completely miserable.
Ted nodded and slid the glass slightly to the side. She pushed off with her arms and swung to the opening. He grasped and righted her and lifted her inside.
"Did your sisters make you hang upside down as you searched?" he asked. She started to open her mouth to spread the blame. "Or, did you turn yourself upside down when you heard my voice, to get them in trouble?" She slapped her mouth shut. Then she spread her arms wide, pouted her lip and said, "Ah wuv ooo!"
He held the fishing line steady while the others slid down to the porthole one at a time. All eight girls came down to his waiting palm.
Leann had identified his room quickly, and they'd gotten the other team's attention.
Ted sat on the bed and hugged all his girls at one, four under each forearm, baby cupped in the middle.
Then he sat through a report of the Harryhousen's search and their hiding and several very exciting near-misses as they looked all over the yacht for him.
He listened with rapt attention, occasionally glancing at the team leaders, Emma and Mary.
When Julie indicated being in great, great danger, Mary held up pinched fingers to indicate only slightly so.
Janet claimed to have been only a hand's breadth away from a stomping foot, but Emma indicated a miss by a mile.
Ted sat through it all.
When they were finally caught up, Renee tugged his sleeve. "You said you should have expected some of this? Some of what?"
"Ah..." He got comfortable. "Dani's father works for a sultan. He finds attractive or talented performers for the sultan's harem."
He paused for a moment. The girls blinked. "Oh, right. You know four men and two women with harems.
"Well, the US is a bit conservative. And ignorant. They hear 'harem' and they think of white slavery, kidnapping, prostitution.
"So, the sultan hears that his employee's family's plane went down. He sends his yacht to join the search.   There's a storm. A bad one, scatters the survivors...."
He paused and looked them all in the eye, especially the sensitive Denise, "Everyone on the plane survived. It was close. Dani's grandmother is still in the hospital on Oahu. But they all lived." Denise nodded and wiped her face, crisis averted.
"Anyway, the sultan isn't here himself. He put his younger brother in charge. Brother made a lot of bold statements about how they're helping find Dani, her mom and her grandmother.
"Kinda backfired. They hear a young girl of a king's pimp is missing, his brother, who has a checkered past, is looking for her... The plane goes missing from time to time. The rock that all the survivors mentioned isn't on any chart.
"Anyway, they're looking for someone to blame, so the American public doesn't-"
There was a knock on the door. "HIDE!" Louise whispered urgently.
--------
The guard stuck his head in. The 'guest' sat calmly on the room's only bunk. "Sir," he said, "the girl's father would like to speak with you."
"Send him in," the man said amiably. He waved towards the chair opposite the foot of the bed.
The guard hesitated. "Look, if I'm a nice guy, he's in no danger. If I'm a bad guy, it'd be stupid for me to confirm Ari's suspicions. So he's in no danger. Please. I want to hear how Miss Woods is doing."
He nodded and backed out. Peter Woods came in. Both men watched the door close. "Hi, uh, Duke?"
"That's what they call me," Duke said. Peter nodded and offered his hand. They shook. "How's Danielle?"
"She's.... " Peter paused. He rubbed his chin. "She's fine. The doc checked her out. And she seems happy. But her stories... They, uh, they keep cutting off in mid sentence."
Duke nodded. "She has secrets to keep." He waved at the chair. "Sit, please."
Peter looked at the chair, then shook his head. "I, uh... Well. I certainly appreciate... WE appreciate you getting our, uh, our daughter..."
"Peter?" Duke asked.
"What?"
"I have nine daughters. One was kidnapped." He pointed at the chair once more as he swung his legs off the bed to sit on the edge. "Sit down, let me tell you something."
Peter stared at the other man, shaking his head very slightly. Duke shrugged.
"Okay. You were out of your mind with worry and grief for a while there. Frustrated that you didn't know where she was. Guilt-stricken because you weren't there when you needed her.
"Now that she's back, you're still not at peace. You're terribly worried that she was hurt. Maybe molested. Maybe raped. You don't want to say anything, even to ask. Part of that's a sort of superstition. If you never ask, it never happened.
"And if you do ask, you might not like the answer you get.
"So, you try to sneak up on it. Slip it into conversation. What you hope is that she'll spell it out. Daddy, I was never raped, no one ever even saw me in my underpants.
"But you can't tell her what you want to hear. Then you can't trust the answer you get."
Peter sank slowly into the chair, his mouth agape. His eyes were locked on Duke's.
Beneath the bed, all eyes were on Emma, the kidnap victim. She stepped forward, behind Daddy's leg. She touched his calf with one hand. "I never knew," she whispered.
Duke leaned forward. "Dani fell out of the plane and floated on the waves for a day. She washed up on a beach where pygmies took her as a slave." He waited for a second. Peter stopped breathing. His mouth worked for a moment.
"But they used her as a beast of burden, Peter. No nudity. No beatings. They did poke her feet when she didn't obey fast enough. But she's a smart girl, she learned to obey really quick. So no permanent damage was done."
Peter relaxed. His whole body sagged. "But how....?"
"Oh, my daughter rescued her. Sailed in, killed everyone that hurt your daughter and took her to a safe place."
"Mostly true," Renee whispered with a nod. Around her, everyone on the islands was a pygmy. And if they didn't die in the raids, they probably died when their neighbors took the island.
And Peter probably really needed to hear about full and complete revenge, anyway.
--------
Dani's dad covered his head for a while and started moaning. Or crying. The girls got a little uncomfortable under the bunk. They tugged Emma farther back in, away from discovery, and gave her about eleventy billion hugs. All to be forwarded to Daddy at the earliest opportunity.
Daddy handed Peter a bottle of water from his tray and a napkin. Peter mumbled thanks, then all sounds stopped. The girls froze, wondering what had happened.
"What did you do to your sandwiches?" Peter asked. Team Malone paled at the realization the man was talking about them. They'd worked up an appetite on the search and even Daddy couldn't eat all four sandwiches. So they'd flipped the hood,as it were, and explored giant cold cuts, giant vegetables and giant dressing. And chips.
It must have looked like a mouse frat-party on the tray.
"Um, I'm sometimes a picky eater," Daddy said. "And, well, I haven't got a lot to do in here."
"I, uh, I'm sorry about that. I didn't think Ali would..."
"It's alright," Daddy said. "I would like to get this all cleared up and get on my way, soon as possible, but I don't want to leave anyone holding the bag."
His foot twisted a bit on the carpeted deck. "Besides, I missed a meal on the Harryhousen. Weird stuff is going to start happening."
"I, uh, I don't believe in superstitions," Peter said.
"We do," nine silent smiles said.
---------
Renee, Emma, Mary and Annette squatted under the fire extinguisher and pushed up. It slid out of the mounting and tipped away from the bulkhead. They let it fall. The others ran out of hiding to join the eldest, pushing it along the deck to the rail.

Renee stayed on the end closest to the fishing line tied to the handle. She made sure no one would be fouled and signaled for a final push. Then they ran clear.
There was a small splash as the canister hit the water. It sank like a stone.
The line snaked up and over the side of the ship, down into the interior. It had gone unnoticed as the girls strung it up and down the vessel.
Small objects were pushed into the air, tipped off tables, smashed on the deck.
One lucky angle whipped a serving platter of deviled eggs into the air, smashing one man's face and his wife's cleavage.
The bitter end wasn't tied off so there was nothing found to explain the damage.
Again.
-----------
Dani insisted and her parents both took her to visit Duke. Though they tried once more to convince her it was just a name, Duke, not THE Duke. She rolled her eyes and said, "Yes, Mom."
The guard saw them coming and swiftly opened the door. Then went back to trying to figure out how his shoelaces had fallen into twelve pieces.
Duke took the chair, letting the family sit on the bed. "Tiny!" Dani observed. "We're in a room as big as Arlene's whole house!"
"Who's Arlene?" Katherine Woods asked. She was facing Duke when she asked.
"A marine biologist I know," Duke said easily. "She looked Danielle over for any wounds we might have missed when we took her home."
"Where's home?" Peter asked.
Duke shrugged. "That's a secret that's not mine to tell."
"It's a good secret," Dani insisted.
"I want to believe you, dear," Katherine said. "But you keep not quite telling us what-"
The door swung open and the ship's captain stood there. His uniform was no longer piercing white. A large blue stain stretched from his left ear to his knee. Grey spots tainted the rest of the suit here and there.
He had a black eye.
And he smelled of diesel fumes.
"Breakfast will be served on your dinghy," the man said through clenched teeth. "Call them off."
"Them?" Duke asked. "I always kinda thought it was the Harryhousen. So I'd call her off."
"Then call her off."
"I really can't call her off," Duke said. "I've missed quite a few meals since I was brought aboard. I don't think meals alone will do it."
"Whaddaya want?"
"I think, and this is only a speculation, I think I need to be alone with her. Spend time making sure she's sure she's the only one for me." Duke looked around the room, indicating the entire yacht. "She's probably jealous."
The captain started to rub his forehead.   That smeared greasy blue... something across it. No one drew his attention to the fact.
He stopped and looked to Dani. "Little girl, did this man hurt you? Or allow anyone else to hurt you? In any way?"
"No, sir," she said respectfully.
He looked to the parents. "Do you suspect him of any activity which you want to seem him brought to justice for?"
"Well, not real-" Katherine started.
"No," Peter said firmly. His wife looked at him for a second, then nodded.
"Fine. Sir?"
Duke stood and looked calmly at the other man. "Sir, get the fuck offa my ship."
"Um..." the guard started to protest.
"My contract," the captain said, teeth clenched again, "clearly states that if I fear for the safety of the ship, I can take actions even against the interests of my employer. I fear. For the safety. Of my. SHIP!"
"Yes, sir," the other man said, backing away.   The CO jerked his head. Ted delayed just long enough to give Dani a goodbye hug, whispering, "from the whole family, especially Renee."
Dani hugged him back. Then Ted turned and hurried up the passageway, following the captain.
There was a knot of people at the top of the ladderway. Those that hesitated got a blue stain of their own when the man bulled through.
Then Ted was inspecting his vessel and looking for some sign of-
A tiny hand popped through a little hole at the base of the mast. It signaled everything was OK.
He cast off, raised sail and waved. When they were a dozen yards from the anchored yacht, there was a cry of alarm from the people at the rails.
Ted turned and saw the sun shining off of the downed aircraft. "All hands on deck!" he commanded.
His daughters ran out onto the top of the cabin. "Dani has binoculars," he said. "Everybody wave."
A few minutes later, he heard the engines of the yacht starting up. But before they could get under way, he'd sailed past the rock and disappeared.
------
Two nights later, dinner was over and the sisters were cleaning the galley. Renee took her turn to nap in Daddy's arms as he sat by the tiller.
"How'd you time that so well?" she asked.
"Just lucky I guess," he said. She frowned. Then she twisted in his arms to crawl up his shirt and stare at his chin. "You never count on luck. You welcome it. You use it. But you never depend on it."
"Well..." he said. Then he sighed. Renee waited. "Can you keep a secret?" She nodded. "Arlene and I? We think the spell that protects Lilliput is...alive."
"Alive?"
"Alive. Aware. Some form of intelligence attached. I dunno, maybe there's a control station somewhere. But the actions of the portal? They're intelligent.
"If Dani hadn't been floating in Lilliput waters, she'd have probably died in that storm. Or her mother would have died to try to keep her alive. Or-"
"Or Mom would have had to chose between Dani and Grandma," Renee finished. Daddy nodded.
"So, it saved her. It chose to take her someplace safe. And it chose to let us take her home. And it chose to let us go home."
"But... How'd you know this was going to happen?" she asked.
" Hundreds of years of Lilliput and Blefuscu history, they never saw any sign of man-mountains. After Gulliver really needed to escape, a rowboat 'drifted' across the barrier somehow, and allowed him to go home."
He checked the stars and adjusted the heading slightly. The sounds in the scullery had stopped. Tiny feet padded across the deck to surround Ted's feet.
"For years I thought I was just inattentive when I crashed. But I can remember that I looked up, once, the ocean was clear, then I glanced again, the rock was there. It chose me.
Whales helped Arlene survive, by sending her here. We both figure, the spell has some purpose for us. Maybe it was just to save Dani. Or to unite the isles."
"Or to invent women's liberation," Emma suggested. Ted shrugged.
"We don't know the reason. But we were pretty sure it wasn't evil. And nothing that isn't evil would have kept Dani here."
"I'd have taken good care of her!" Renee protested. "I'd have walked her and fed her and gotten her clothes...."
"Yes, yes," Ted said. He glanced at his wrist, a gesture that meant the same as when Hort, Ritch or Phoebe pretended to check a sundial.
"Isn't it bedtime?" Older girls ushered younger ones off to the bunk. Renee still protested.
"And taught her to read Fuscan, and taught her about boys, and taught her to sword fight...."
Ted smiled and hugged her close. They sailed on through the night, headed almost directly for Dollhouse.
- 9
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- 11
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