Notes of explanation:
Hue - pronounced WAY
Hui - pronounced Hughy
Hua - pronounced Huwa
Dati - IndoDutch term for Papa
Baki - IndoDutch term for Brother
Onkla - IndoDutch term for Uncle
From Book 7
Their last few days in Alice Springs were spent clearing out of their temporary homes and saying goodbye to the many friends they had made in the small town. Constable Jameson came over to say goodbye and to send Lobie a stuffed 'Roo to remember his homeland by. It was with mixed emotions that they loaded into the helicopters for the flight to Sydney. The flight back to Hilo was almost anticlimactic, the entire group slept most of the way. Hue and Paul met them as they landed and saw to it everyone got delivered to their homes. Paul carried Constable Jamison's kindly gift to Lobie, who immediately grabbed it and laid it on his bed. He would be past his teen years before he stopped sleeping with 'Roo each night.
Chapter 1 - MIDNIGHT TELEPHONE CALL
The telephone was ringing as Daniel Best stumbled down the hallway. He looked at the clock, it was five minutes past midnight, he growled to himself, "This had better be important!"
The voice on the other end of the line said, "Mr. Best, this is Tor Gop. I am the Deputy Minister of The Interior for the Government of Indonesia. We have an emergency and need your help, our people are desperate."
Danny replied, "What can I do for you, Mr. Gop?"
The man answered, "Mr. Best, we are suffering a terrible drought in our western provinces and now, our wells have failed. I fear we must consider desalinization of sea water, otherwise, our people will perish."
He continued, "We are evacuating Muara Tawe and Balikpapaw. The water system in Tomah Grogot is still working, but we expect failure at any time. Please sir, we beg assistance from you. We know Mr. Caleb Best has died, but we hold great affection for your company and we are in dire straits, can you assist us?"
Danny replied to the desperate man, "Mr. Gop, let me contact our engineers and see if we can help you. I will call you back as soon as I have some information for you."
Mr. Gop breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank you, Mr. Best, our backs are against the wall and soon my people will be dying, please hurry."
Danny got on the phone and roused Hue just as he had fallen off to sleep.
Hue asked, "The western provinces are volcanic are they not?"
Danny replied, "Yes they are, are you thinking what I am thinking?"
He said, "Yes Brother, HOT GAS and RO (reverse osmosis)" He continued, "Let me call out the troops and see what we can come up with for them."
Hue disconnected and began calling all his staff, he especially wanted Concho, Bic, Thomas, Phillip, Paul and Ian on the project. He decided that Concho was the best bet to head up the effort. As soon as they understood the problem, all the Best Sons and Engineers raced into the office in Hilo and began burning the midnight oil to come up with a solution to save the people of Indonesia.
As they sketched out their ideas, Sammy converted them to conceptual sketches to give them an idea of what it would look like.
Corbin and Gordon Tellis, one of the University Interns, were kept busy feeding the sketches into the copy machine as fast as they came off the table. By morning, they had come up with a concept and a rough estimate of cost and time.
Danny was on his way to Hilo, he had snagged a seat on a flight several hours earlier and was expected before 8 am. Son was sent to the airport to collect Danny and by 9 am they were all looking at Sammy's pencil sketches laid out on the conference table.
By noontime, they had decided they could do the project, but it would take all their employees and interns from both the Hilo Office and also from the mainland and would cost an estimated $900 million USD plus T & M.
Danny picked up the phone and dialed the number Mr. Gop had given him. The man answered on the second ring, "Mr. Best, please tell me you have good news for us!"
Danny read off what they had come up with and the man on the other end of the line grew excited, "Yes, Yes, Mr. Best, we can do that, have you had time to make some preliminary sketches and estimates, sir?"
Danny replied, "Yes, give me your telefax number and I will have them transmitted immediately."
Danny wrote down the number and handed it to Son, along with an armload of papers to be transmitted. As soon as the last page was fed into the maw of the fax machine, Danny offered to take everyone out for lunch.
Just as they were going out the door, Son came running with several pieces of paper in his hand, the project had been approved and the Office of the Prime Minister of Indonesia was on the line for Danny!
Danny answered, "Yes Mr. Prime Minister."
The Prime Minister replied, "Mr. Best, we understand that the cost is a preliminary estimate, but our need is so great that we will guarantee your costs if you will start immediately.
As soon as you are ready, I will dispatch sufficient transportation on our National Airline to bring you and your men, plus their tools and the necessary equipment to Jakarta."
Danny replied, "Mr. Hue Best will be the overall Manager and Mr. Concho Best will be Project Manager. As soon as they are ready, they will contact you directly."
Concho was standing next to Danny and heard every word, he began to tremble, "Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?" He screeched.
Danny looked him straight in the eyes and told him, "Cho, you are the best Best we have to help these folks and you are going to have the very best help available," as he swept his hand around the room.
He announced to the whole room, "Fellows, I believe there is no finer group than you and I know of none other that could even attempt such a project!"
Gil Dorman came out of semi-retirement to help Chic Massengil set up the work boxes and arrange the toolboxes for the combined crews.
With 63 workmen headed to Jakarta, it would take the entire cargo capacity of a heavy lift aircraft to ferry their needed tools and equipment to Indonesia.
Concho insisted that a drafting table and supplies, along with a full-sized photo-duplicator, a fax machine and survey equipment be included in the tool load.
At the last minute, Hue asked Singh 'Tal and Jason to join the group going to Indonesia. "Tal's language skills would be needed and, since they did not have a fully documented contract, both men would have to be full-time accountants for the project.
That would leave Hue with only Hua and Hui in Hilo for any other emergencies.
Concho contacted American Piping and Boiler, the Grissom-Russell Co., Silver Manufacturing, General Electric and Hayden Osmosis to be on standby for equipment orders and advice.
Three days later, Danny notified the Prime Minister that Best Sons Engineering personnel were ready to depart for Jakarta.
Three A-300 extra lift planes were dispatched from Jakarta to Hilo to arrive the next morning for a fast turn-around to Jakarta.
Sammy and Corbin were told they would also be going, but Joey and Lobie had to stay in Hilo, much to their unhappiness.
It hurt Hue to have to do that, but he knew that things were going to be much too hectic for anyone to watch after the two little boys.
When it came time to board the aircraft, both the little boys were in tears, their Daddies were not much better.
They clung to Danny as he held them in his arms, their wails were heard all over the airport as the three airplanes taxied onto the runway for takeoff.
It was a long and busy flight and they kept the aircraft to shore telephones busy for several hours gathering information from suppliers and manufacturers.
Chapter 2 - CALAMITY ENGINEERING
Their flights landed at the Military Airport and everyone was whisked away to the Marriot Grandview Hotel in military buses.
Hue, Concho and 'Tal were put in a military courier and driven to the Ministry of the Interior for a meeting with the Interior Minister and the Prime Minister, along with all their sub-Ministers and sycophants. By the time everyone was on the same page, the Best Sons staff was near collapse, it had been a 22-hour flight and they had little sleep during the preparations and none since their arrival.
Hue finally raised his hand for everyone to stop, "Mr. Prime Minister, we have been on our feet for more than 40 hours, we cannot continue without some sleep."
He led his staff down to the cars and told the drivers to take them back to the hotel. Most were asleep before the cars even left the Ministry parking lot.
After checking on those left behind in Puna, they all crashed, some without even having their supper.
The next day was more of the same. Hue was getting more and more annoyed, all the petty sycophants wanted their input and even more importantly, their name on the project.
Just as Hue's blood was about to boil, the Prime Minister announced, "ENOUGH, we are not engineers, let those who know about these things attend to their business."
He shooed all the hangers-on out the door and turned to the Minister and his Deputy, "Make the arrangements and sign the contract, get our people some water! DO IT NOW!"
That evening, Concho called Seever Drilling in Dallas, ordering three bore crews and equipment to be shipped to Jakarta, air freight allowed.
At the same time, Thomas and Paul were on the phones ordering desalinization equipment from Grissom-Russell, Silver Manufacturing and Hayden Osmosis. They were going to use a combination of distillation and reverse osmosis to create drinking water from ocean water in large quantities.
Concho then ordered three large hot gas steam generators from American Piping and Boiler, all the orders were placed as "RUSH"
Concho assigned Bic to oversee the work at Muara Tawe, Paul was to head to Balikpapaw and Thomas would oversee the work at Tomah Grogot.
The Armed Forces Ministry was instructed to assist the Best Sons Engineers in any way they could. Within a day, Army bulldozers were at each of the three locations grading land in preparation for construction and the National Electric Authority started running power lines to each site.
Worried about possible sabotage, Singh 'Tal suggested that large signs be put up at the three locations explaining what was being built, all in the local dialects.
The Bore Crews arrived and they were whisked away to their assigned bore sites, nearly before they had even caught their breath.
Hue and Concho met with the bore crews and explained the urgency.
When the bore crews saw little children lined up for a drink of water from an Army water tanker, they had no further complaints.
The sight of those little children shook them to their cores!
Phillip was to oversee the electric installations and would be based out of Muara Tawe, where getting electricity to the bore site was most difficult. A huge swamp had to be crossed and the rocky landscape would make the placement of power poles very difficult.
It was a huge undertaking and Hue had notices placed in the newspapers asking for men to assist the construction crews.
Within a week, they had an additional 1,000 employees, "Tal and Jason were nearly at their wit's end trying to set up a payroll system.
The Indonesian Army was fully cooperative and they provided transportation and heavy equipment to get the project started.
Two helicopters with pilots were assigned 24-hour, everyday use to the engineers, Concho was tired of the jolting and noise of the 'copters before the first week was out!
Bore spuds and pads were installed at each site, even before the Bore Crews had fully arrived.
Hue spent the first several weeks flying back and forth to the United States, arranging the manufacture of the giant distillers and RO units. He swung around through Honolulu and Hilo to urge the boiler erector to hurry with the boilers and to check on things in the office.
He spent one evening hugging the little boys, Joseph and Lobie, assuring them that their Daddies still loved them.
Hua and Hui were taking care of the division business, so Hue jumped back on the airplane, headed to Jakarta.
He arrived back in Indonesia exhausted from his marathon, but he had commitments from all their suppliers that they would rush the equipment that had been ordered.
Water had to be trucked in to make the cement for the bore pads and, despite the addition of HyEarly (calcium chloride), it seemed almost forever before the pads had developed sufficient strength to support the bore machinery.
Chapter 3 - CRISIS CONSTRUCTION
The pad at Balikpapaw was the first to develop sufficient strength to support the bore machinery and Paul put the bore crew on two 12 hours shifts with lights at night so they could bore around the clock.
There was a thick volcanic overlay at Balikpapaw, the bore bit jumped and chattered its way through it for nearly a week before they hit stable stone.
Muara Tawe was next, they encountered hot salt water almost immediately and had to drive a casing down 1100 feet before they had blocked the flow.
Thomas was thankful the bore at Tomah Grogot went smoothly, that is, until they got down to 3,100 feet. He felt the pad rumble and he screamed, "Stop the bore and shut the blow-off vents, NOW!"
They had a bore pipe full of pressurized hot mud! He agonized over having to drive casing to that depth. He decided to stop bore operation for the day and prayed the mud would solidify and seal.
The next morning, he gingerly opened the vents on the blowback preventer and only a little warm water drizzled out. He had the crew pull the bit and they carefully bailed the column of sticky mud from the borehole.
The seal held and no mud came back up the bore, so they reinserted the bit and continued driving the bore downwards.
The bore at Muara Tawe was the first to hit hot gases, Bic reported hot gases coming up through the blowback preventer at 2100 degrees.
That temperature increased as they drove the bore deeper
The two distiller manufacturers, Silver Manufacturing and Grissom-Russell Company sent construction drawings and Concho assigned Gordon to supervise the installation of equipment foundations at each site.
He quietly told 'Tal to pay Gordon as a full-fledged engineer.
Gordon did not discover that until he received his deposit stub that his paycheck had been deposited at First Hawaiian National Bank.
He went directly to Concho, "There must be some mistake, the bank deposited too much money in my account."
Concho smiled, "Not for an engineer, Gordon"
The flustered young intern stammered, "bu bu butt..."
Concho just shook his head and told him that if he was going to do the work of an engineer, he was damned well going to be paid as an engineer!
The bore at Muara Tawe finally hit a massive hot gas stream at 11,000 feet. They had more than sufficient volume at 5,900 degrees! They stubbed off the drill spud and started to run piping over to where the hot gas steam generator was to be installed.
Concho called American Piping and Boiler in Honolulu, asking for a shipping date. He was advised the first unit would ship in 5 days and was scheduled to go on the MS Stockford direct to Jakarta.
Concho asked around, there was no other port with sufficient cargo handling gear to make the lift.
He contacted his Army "go-between", Colonel Mow, and made him aware that heavy lift equipment and at least 4 Lo-Boys were going to be needed, along with tractors to pull them.
Colonel Mow assured him the full resources of the Indonesian Army were at the disposal of this project and that he would personally see to it that the steam generator was off loaded and transported to Muara Tawe as fast as possible.
Phillip was at Muara Tawe arranging for a new substation to feed the distillation facility, he and Bic were having lunch together for a little "personal" time. As they sat on the tailgate of their truck, eating sandwiches and a couple of mangoes, they heard a noise behind them.
They got up quietly and walked around to the front of the truck, standing there were two little boys who looked like identical twins. They were dirty and their ribs were showing through their thin shirts.
Bic leaned down and offered the boys his two mangoes, they gobbled them down and he feared they would try to eat the seed too.
He called for Phillip and they each picked up a child, Bic asked them in English if they were lost.
One of the said in very broken English, "No, Master, wes runned away." Bic was almost afraid to ask what they had run away from.
Phillip held his little boy close to his chest and said, "Have you no family?"
His little boy replied, "No, Master, ours papa sold us to Master Lu."
Bic looked at Phillip, "Slavery is outlawed in Indonesia, what is going on here?"
Bic got on the truck's radio telephone and called the Commanding Officer of their Army Detachment, Lieutenant Mock.
Lt. Mock said he would be right there. They fed the boys the remainder of their lunch. The Lt. spoke with the boys in their native tongue and learned that they had indeed been sold.
He was on the radio immediately to his Division Commander, Colonel Dak. They could hear the Colonel screaming at the poor Lt., ordering him to find out where the boys had come from and raid the place.
Lt. Mock spoke at length with the two boys, he learned their names were Joss and Akan and they were twins, 9 years old. He asked Bic and Phillip to take care of the two children while he led his troops against this suspected slave master.
Bic looked at Phillip and then at the two boys, Bic asked, "How do we go about keeping these boys and adopting them as our sons?"
Lt. Mock replied as he was getting in his jeep, "This province is under martial law right now, Colonel Dak can authorize that. I will speak with him as soon as I return."
It was several days before Lt. Mock returned, tired, dirty and very angry. He met with Bic and Phillip, telling them of his adventures against a slaver who was shipping children out of the country on small boats.
He saw little Joss and Akan in clean clothing, new shoes and already looking better fed. He spoke with the two boys, asking them many questions and how they liked living with the two American men. He noted that both boys were already calling them Dati, a word native to their land.
He asked Bic about the use of the word and Bic explained that their Uncle, Mr. Hue Best had been adopted by Caleb Best many years earlier after being rescued from a slaver southeast of Jakarta.
The Lt. was not aware that Mr. Hue Best was originally from their land and he was even more impressed with Best Son's Engineering.
When they told him that Mr. Concho Best had been adopted from the Andes in Peru and the Hua and Hui had been adopted from the Island of Tonga, he looked at Bic and asked, "Have you room for any more?"
He hurried on to say that he would fill Colonel Dak in on all the information and his staff would contact them shortly.
When Lt. Mock spoke with Colonel Dak, he was further amazed when the Colonel told him that Mr. Hue Best had rescued Mr. Bic Best in Malaysia and had subsequently adopted him.
He explained to the Colonel what had happened with the two boys, Joss and Akan and recommended that Bic and Phillip Best be allowed to adopt them.
The Colonel was neither stupid nor slow and he asked the young Lt., "And you would like to join them also?" Lt. Mock looked down at his feet and replied, "Yes sir, I would if they would have me."
The Colonel responded, "Young man, if I can swing this, will you go with them and make something of yourself?"
The Young Lt. was nearly floored, "Yes sir, if it would be allowed, I would do so."
The elderly Colonel thought to himself as Lt. Mock was leaving, "My unknown Grandson, somehow, I will do this for you."
The freighter docked in Jakarta with the steam generator, two Silver Manufacturing Evaporating pans and an enormous Grissom-Russell distiller. The plan was to rough treat the sea water in the evaporating pans and then pass it through the distiller and polish it through the RO units.
As they were offloading the machinery for Muara Tawe, Thomas reported that the hot gas well at Tanah Grogot had been proved and they were waiting for foundations plans for the machinery.
It was decided that Hue should go back to Hilo so that he could facilitate the machinery being fabricated in the United States.
Just before he left, Colonel Dak came to see him and the Colonel asked his confidence in what he was going to tell him.
Hue agreed and the Colonel proceeded, "Sir, Lt. Mock is my deceased son's illegitimate child. He has no future here and I ask that you consider taking him with you. He has a degree in Civil Engineering and I can arrange his release from the military if you will take him out of the country."
He then handed Hue Certificates of Release for two orphan boys, Joss and Akan to be adopted by Bic and Phillip Best and the name of a judge who had already been contacted who would sign off on the adoptions.
He continued, "Lt. Mock must not know of my participation or that I am his Grandfather until he is safely out of the country.
Hue agreed to help the old man in his plan and, as soon as the old Colonel left, he called for his driver to take him to his helicopter.
His first stop was at Muara Tawe, where he gave Bic and Phillip the Certificates of Release for the two boys and told them to get with the judge as soon as possible.
He then asked them to call Lt. Mock on the Radio-Telephone and ask him to come meet with him.
Hue met with the young man behind closed doors and when they came out, the Lt. was crying and Hue had his arm around him.
He took him back to Jakarta and bought him new civilian clothes before taking him to the airport where they both boarded a direct flight to Honolulu. The old Colonel had arranged an exit visa for the now civilian Mr. Mock and there was an American Visa waiting for him as they boarded the aircraft.
Dakar Mock would remain associated with Best Son's Engineering for the remainder of his life and would become an American Citizen at his first opportunity.
Chapter 4 - WATER
As each piece of equipment arrived, it was hauled to the proper worksite by the Indonesian Army and workmen worked around the clock installing it.
The first location to be ready for trials was Muara Tawe, Bic had been working his crews feverously to complete the installation.
He called Concho to come witness startup, as soon as he arrived by helicopter, Bic ordered the hot gas to be admitted to the heat exchanger.
They had already boiled out the piping and tubing using trucked-in water. As soon as steam began to be generated, they opened the valve to the pans and siphoned the hot salt water from the casing to use as feed water for the distillers.
He tested the output at each stage of the process; the water being produced by the second-stage distiller was marginally adequate for drinking water.
He then had the valve opened to the RO units and that water tasted sweet and pure. Testing showed no trace of salt and, as he opened the valve to the village water storage tank, a great cheer went up.
The town folk were dancing in the streets and Bic's face was scarlet as women and girls rushed up to him, kissing and hugging him.
Concho laughed at Bic, until he received the same treatment. To make matters even worse, he later discovered that Sammy had made a colored pencil sketch of the girls kissing Concho!
By nightfall, the town's water tank was full and they opened the valves on the distribution system.
For the first time in months, the villagers had running water!
The other two systems came online at Balikpapaw and Tanah Grogot. The only difference in those systems was that salt water had to be pumped from the nearby ocean.
By the time they brought the Tanah Grogot system online, the Prime Minister had arrived. Tanah Grogot was where he had been born and raised as a child and he stood staring at the stream of fresh clear water pouring into the town's water tank.
He turned to Concho with tears in his eyes, "Mr. Best, you and your company have saved our people and our land, how can we ever thank you?"
They spent several days at each facility teaching the local town folk how to operate the new water systems.
As the days passed, the town folk, who had fled the drought, began returning to their homes.
The Prime Minister sent word asking that the engineers from Best Sons come to the capitol for a ceremony.
They really just wanted to head for their home, it had been an exhausting several months, but Concho agreed that they would attend.
On the day of the meeting, they all had on the best clothing they had with them.
The two little boys, Joss and Akan, were dressed in brand-new clothing and they were bused from the hotel to Parliament House.
There, they were ushered into an auditorium where both houses of Parliament were meeting.
The Prime Minister called Parliament into session and began to speak, "We were desperate and our people were suffering when we called upon Best Sons' Engineering to help us. They dropped what they were doing and rushed to our assistance, creating a water system that uses no fuel, causes no pollution and can be operated by our villagers. In just a few short months, they resolved our problem and made it possible for our people to return to their homes. Mr. Concho Daniel Best, please step forward." Concho stood before the Prime Minister and the man continued, "Mr. Best, I make you and all your folk Honorary Citizens of Indonesia and award you personally the highest civilian award we have, I name you Knight of Indonesia."
He draped a sash across Concho's shoulder and saluted him before stepping back.
The members of Parliament rose and cheered them all.
Chapter 5 - GOING HOME
The men packed up all their tools and equipment, making it ready for transport back home.
Singh 'Tal and Jason issued final paychecks for all the local employees and closed the books on the project.
Their last day was spent relaxing at the hotel, Bic and Phillip had purchased swimsuits for Joss and Akan and played all afternoon with the boys in the hotel pool.
The little boys' English was improving by leaps and bounds, their squeals of delight over playing with their Datis in the water were heard all over the hotel.
The next morning, as soon as everyone had finished their breakfast, the Army busses arrived to convey them to the airport.
When the boys spotted the huge A-300 Airbus airplanes sitting there, they were not all that sure they wanted to go to America.
They had received their new passports just the day before and were nervous as the immigration officer took their passports and stamped their exit permission in them.
When they were led out on the Jetway and into the plane, their eyes got big and they had a death grip on their Datis' hands.
As they settled into their assigned seats, Sammy gave them each a present of his own, a beginner's sketch pad and a box of drawing pencils. They were so busy drawing, they scarcely noticed the plane taxing down the runway and taking off.
It had been a long and grueling job and the plane had not been in the air very long when the adults were dropping off into sleep.
The 22-hour flight was broken up by meals and that little boy's fascination with toilets.
It was morning when the three planes began their descent into Hilo and the only ones truly awake were Joss and Aken.
Everyone deplaned in Hilo, those going on to California were spending the night in local hotels before proceeding.
As they came down the Arrivals Ramp, two little boys went streaking past the security officers and latched onto Concho and Thomas, screaming their joy at having their Datis back home.
Joss and Akan were a little older than the two and they held onto Bic's and Phillip's hands fearfully.
After Joey and Lobie had satisfied themselves that their Datis were truly home, they spotted the two new boys. They shyly went over to Joss and Akan and pretty soon, all four boys were happily chattering among themselves while they waited for their luggage.
Dakar Mock stood there taking it all in, he had never been part of a loving family and had never missed it until now.
He must have looked a bit lost because Hue went up to the young man and hugged him, saying, "This is your home too, Dakar, and you are part of us just like these small boys who have just arrived."
TBC
This concludes the story of Best Sons Engineering in Indonesia. The Family continues to grow and they have more adventures in their future.