Voyage

by E M Gale

  “Well, nicely done,” said Cleckley.

  I nodded and looked through my haul: four new swords–they looked like they were good quality; three new knives; and a packet of throwing knives. I had pulled a few of those out to examine as Rob, Mark and a few technicians walked into the bar, their shift having just ended. They stopped, looked at the trashed table and chair, and then noticed me, Cleckley and the weapons on the table.

  Rob stalked over. “What happened?” he demanded.

  “Ah, you know”–I waved my hand around, not really realising I was still holding the throwing knife–“stuff.”

  “Are you OK?”

  I thought for a moment, noticed the throwing knife and put it away. “Yeah, other than I’m in kinda a bad mood.”

  He nodded, slowly. “OK… are you staying in the bar?”

  I nodded.

  “Can we join you?”

  I nodded.

  “Are you allowed weapons in the bar?”

  I shook my head.

  “Would you like a drink?”

  I nodded.

  “OK,” he said, giving me a strange look. Then he went up to the bar, and kept looking back at me as he spoke to the bar staff.

  “Do you think any more pirates will attack?” I asked Cleckley.

  He shrugged. “I hope not. Is that why you’re keeping the weapons?”

  “That, and I’m far too lazy to take them back to my quarters.” I leaned forward to whisper to him. “Don’t mention anything about time travel to the others.”

  “Oh, honestly, Clarke, I’m not going to do that!”

  Rob and Mark came up to the table with a round of drinks.

  “Ninjas!” said Rob with a stupid grin.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Ninjas!” he said again, passing me a fresh glass of wine. I just stared at him. “Teleporting ninjas!”

  ‘Oh, I see.’

  “They weren’t ninjas, they were just pirates who wore black,” I said.

  ‘Damn, I bet the catering staff are going to put some rumours around about this fight. They like rumours.’

  “They said you fought them! Are you sure you’re OK?” he asked.

  I nodded.

  “How did you defeat them?” asked Mark.

  ‘Oh, what is this?’

  “I hit one with a chair and kicked the other one.”

  “And that stopped them?” he asked incredulously.

  ‘Um…’

  “And then the big, strong mercenaries rushed in and saved me.”

  “Huh,” said Mark.

  “Been a lot of pirate attacks lately,” mused Rob.

  “Yeah, we got about a hundred pirates in the brig.”

  “Oh?”

  “It’s not that many, Clarke,” said Cleckley.

  “We’re going to auction them back at–ahem–”

  ‘Oops!’

  “–forget I said anything.”

  Mark was looking at me suspiciously now. “I think we should leave this ship, it’s dangerous.”

  ‘Ah. Well… about that.’

  “Not a good idea,” I said.

  “Well, I think we should put it to a vote.” He sounded peeved.

  ‘Hmm, this isn’t good.’

  I looked at Cleckley. He didn’t seem to have any useful ideas.

  ‘Why am I looking at him anyway? Honestly!’

  “Well, either which way, there is no way I’m leaving this ship at the next port. No way at all,” I said, shaking my head emphatically.

  “Why?” asked Mark.

  ‘Ah, well, there are pirates there and who’s been fighting pirates? Me. What if one of them has the bright idea of auctioning me off?’

  “Pirates,” I said darkly.

  “What about them?”

  “Auctions,” I added forebodingly.

  “Eh?” said Mark.

  Rob laughed. “And if the place is true to its name, six thousand prostitutes.”

  I just stared at him.

  “The king of Denmark, I think, tried to tame the pirates by importing six thousand prostitutes.”

  “That’s the sort of history you know?”

  He shrugged. “We got to pick what we learnt. And anyway, how is that worse than having a good understanding of medieval military tactics?”

  I pointed my index finger at my chest. “Me?”

  “Well, who else was explaining to me what peasants were armed with in the medieval ages?” He grinned.

  ‘Oh, yeah, I remember that.’

  Mark was looking from me to Rob.

  “Am I the only person who doesn’t know where we’re landing next?” he asked.

  Cleckley just smiled at his drink when Mark looked at him.

  “No-one’s supposed to know, therefore none of us know,” I said.

  ‘Yeah. That’ll cover it.’

  “Well, where are we landing?” The question seemed to be directed at me.

  I sighed.

  “Tortuga,” said Cleckley.

  “Oh, I didn’t know that, Cleckley. I would just like to state for the record that you told me.” I smiled at him innocently.

  “It doesn’t surprise me that you knew.”

  ‘Why?’

  I looked at him but he didn’t see fit to enlighten me. He just smiled and looked inscrutable.

  “Oh. So what’s Tortuga?” asked Mark.

  I smelt Anna and Jane heading up the corridor and watched them enter the room and pause to regard the debris.

  “It’s the famous pirate bay!” said Rob.

  “Sshh,” I said and elbowed him.

  “Ow! You must be getting big muscles swinging swords all day!”

  “Oh, did I hurt you? Are you OK?”

  ‘Have I hurt him? Cleckley said I’m getting stronger. I hurt Connor unintentionally and I brained myself on the head earlier by accident. What if I hurt him?’

  “I’m fine, Clarke.”

  “Cleckley, check him out, would you?” I turned back to Rob. “Are you sure you’re OK? Let me see.”

  “I’m fine, Clarke,” he said in a confused manner.

  I put my hand out to roll his sleeve up and check–I was expecting a huge bruise–but I stopped my fingers before I did so; I didn’t want to hurt him again by accident.

  “He’s fine, Clarke,” said Cleckley. I thought he was trying to calm me down.

  I leant back and chewed worriedly on my knuckle.

  ‘What if I don’t know my own strength and continue to hurt people by accident?’

  ‘Then again I managed to fight the assassins without hurting them. Well, they’ll have bruises, but they don’t have broken bones and it’s far better than what they would have done to me.’

  “You sure you’re OK, Rob?” I asked again as Anna and Jane walked up to join us.

  “Yup.”

  Cleckley was looking sympathetic, Rob was looking confused and Anna was scowling at me.

  ‘What have I done to upset her?’

  “What are they?” asked Jane, in a clipped and condescending manner.

  “What?”

  She pointed at the weapons on the table.

  “Ah, my toys! Don’t touch! They’re sharp!”

  “Why are they in the bar?”

  “Ah… well…” I coughed.

  She stared at me.

  “Y’know, pirate assassins, bar brawl, um, yeah.” I waved my hands at the kindling.

  Anna put her hands on her hips. “First we have to go to find a weapons dealer in Antigua Nuevo, now you’re bringing swords to the pub!”

  ‘Meh.’

  “I wasn’t the person who brought them here.”

  “Put them in your quarters,” suggested Jane.

  “But there’s no wine in my quarters,” I explained reasonably.

  “Grunts aren’t allowed weapons in their quarters. Or in the bar,” said Anna.

  ‘What, has she been reading the rule book?’

  “Huh, well, what do you know,” I said, s
hrugging.

  ‘OK, I did know that. They made me read it. Twice.’

  “So why do you have them?” she continued.

  “Whoa! What’s with the third degree?”

  “Clarke, four swords! On the table!” yelled Anna.

  “Plus one on your back,” remarked Jane.

  “Well, I could put them on the floor, but you might kick them and cut your foot,” I said to Anna. “And anyway, you never know when you might need a good sword,” I muttered.

  “Well, you shouldn’t have them in here.”

  I sighed. “Ah… it’s OK, they’re not mine.”

  She looked confused at that. “Whose are they?”

  “The pirates’ obviously. I confiscated them.”

  “Are you going to give them back?”

  I stared at her. “What a truly strange question.”

  “Well… if they’re not yours, shouldn’t you?” She was sounding confused now. I thought she was having difficulty getting her moral code to marry up with the situation.

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  I couldn’t believe this. “Because they will just try to kill me with them again, obviously.”

  Her eyes went wide at that. “They tried to kill you?”

  “No, we were discussing the proper use of Fourier transforms, what did you think pirates do, Anna? They seem to like trying to kill me.”

  ‘Oops, said way too much.’

  “And don’t you start,” I said to Rob, who was looking concerned all over again. “I’ve had enough of people yelling at me for one day.”

  “But won’t the captain tell you off for keeping the weapons?” asked Anna.

  I shrugged, then looked at Cleckley.

  “It’s not like he’s short of them,” he said.

  “But it’s got to be against the rules, even if you were attacked.”

  ‘Why must she always follow the rules? If she wants to, I suppose it’s her choice, but why must she always try to make me do the same?’

  “I will probably get in trouble over this, but the major hasn’t arrived to bawl me out yet, so…” I shrugged. “Anyway, I got me a great excuse: there’s been loads of pirate attacks lately, I didn’t want to go unarmed.”

  “Shouldn’t you not be drinking then?” suggested Jane acerbically.

  “Nah, they might not attack.”

  “You can’t really fight with those things, can you?” asked Mark. I looked at Rob.

  ‘Did he not tell Mark about my sword-fighting then?’

  Cleckley smothered a laugh. “No, not at all,” I said. “I’d probably cut myself if I tried. It’d be tragic, blood all over the place,” I added, shaking my head, picking up my wine.

  “You seem very blasé about this,” said Mark.

  “I’m having a bad week.”

  “Aren’t you worried?”

  “About what?”

  “Pirates.”

  “Not today.”

  ‘Hmm, I’ll worry about that at Tortuga.’

  ‘I wonder, if we auction back the pirates, will they come after me for revenge? Perhaps we could arrange it so that they aren’t released until after we’ve left Tortuga. That’ll probably cost extra. But they aren’t going to bother chasing me across the galaxy, right? They’ll be far too busy trying to earn back their ransom to whoever paid it. Although what happens to them if no one pays their ransom? Hmm…’

  “I wonder what happens to the ones nobody wants?” I mused.

  “What?” said Anna.

  “Pirates,” I explained, since she hadn’t had the benefit of my internal monologue.

  “What are you talking about, Clarke? You been hit on the head or something?” asked Mark.

  “Yes, I have concussion.”

  “What?”

  “Or I skived off work or something,” I explained, waving my hand around vaguely.

  They all looked confused–well, Cleckley didn’t, but then he did know what I was talking about.

  “Look, just forget about me, talk amongst yourselves.”

  Anna was still frowning at me and Rob looked worried now.

  I smelt the major and some marines heading up the corridor. I sat up straight just before they walked into the bar.

  “Clarke, my office, now,” the major said.

  “Yes, sir,” I said resignedly, pulling myself to my feet.

  He glanced at the table. “Bring a sword.”

  I was confused by this.

  ‘I’m in trouble for having weapons, right? So why should I bring them with me? Technically, I’m not supposed to have weapons unless we are under attack or I’m practising.’

  “Really?” I queried.

  “Yes,” he said, looking very serious.

  “Huh.” I had no idea what was going on, but I didn’t like it. My friends were staring at me. I pocketed the throwing knives and picked up two of the swords and followed him out of the bar.

  He didn’t say anything to me until we got to his office and the marines had been stationed outside. “You don’t have to hold the swords, just have them handy.” He glanced at my back. “I see you came to the same conclusion, then.”

  ‘So, he trusts me to be alone with him, me armed, him unarmed… or at least not visibly armed. Well, that’s nice.’

  I put the swords on his desk as he walked around and sat behind it. I stood before it.

  “Clarke, who knows you’re here?”

  “Well… everyone who’s seen me here.”

  “Who else?”

  “Um, no one.” I frowned in confusion.

  He sighed. “Someone sent those two assassins, and I now have suspicions about the other recent pirate attacks as well.” He gave me a significant look, but I didn’t know what he was getting at.

  “What suspicions?”

  “That they were aimed at you personally.” He was watching me closely.

  “Me? Why?”

  “I don’t know. Who wants you dead, more than usual, at the moment?”

  I sighed and found a wall to lean against. “I don’t know,” I said despondently.

  ‘Given that my future self has been knocking around the galaxy for two hundred years and has fought in three wars that I know of, I think that she may have a few enemies.’

  “Teleporting into a ship is a dangerous move. Unless you have a guidance beacon on ship, it’s pot luck where you land.”

  I shuddered at the images that sprang to mind.

  “Why would anyone risk that?”

  ‘Imagine landing half in half out of a wall? Urgh!’

  “Well, they must have some damn good reasons,” he said. “The ship that teleported them in departed rapidly as soon as it could. We don’t know whose ship it was, and the captives aren’t saying anything.”

  “You interrogated them?”

  “Yes.”

  “They still alive?”

  “Clarke! Of course they are!” He looked offended.

  ‘Ooops.’

  “Sorry,” I muttered.

  He nodded, accepting the apology. “Do you want to talk to them?”

  ‘Huh, well… what can I get out of them that he can’t? They’re hardly likely to tell me anything… unless I can hypnotise them to talk. Can vampires do that? I know that Price and Mr Does It Matter hypnotised people to forget or feel tired, can they get people to answer questions truthfully as well?’

  ‘How do you hypnotise people? I should have gotten Price to teach me that instead of spending my time fighting with him.’

  “Yes, I’ll try. You think that these three pirate attacks were connected?” I asked.

  “Possibly.”

  ‘Hmm…’

  “Wait, if you want me armed, you must think that they might attack again.” I leaped up to vertical. “What if they beam into the bar again? Everyone’s there!”

  “I’ve already sent some marines up there to guard them,” he said calmly, waving me back down. “And some techies to sweep it for a guidance beacon
.”

  ‘What is going on?’

  I started to pace as I thought. “Can I talk to the orcs from the second attack first? Have you questioned them yet?”

  “Not yet. I didn’t think there was anything unusual or worth investigating about that attack until the assassins arrived.” He frowned. “Thinking about it, you fought the boarders from the first attack as well, didn’t you?”

  “Well, yeah, when the alarm went off they were in the corridor right outside my quarters… oh.” I chewed my knuckle thoughtfully. “They did get there pretty quickly. I thought they were on their way to the bridge, but maybe…”

  ‘They were after me instead?’

  “This may all be coincidence.” He smiled. “But I’m sure you haven’t lived this long believing in coincidences.”

  I grinned at that. “Let’s go chat to some pirates, then.”

  * * *

  The major was sensible enough to not send me into the brig to round up my would-be assassins. We moved to a meeting room of some sort where he took up a position in a corner whilst one of the orc pirates who had surrendered to me was escorted into the room. I would have slouched or leaned against the wall, but the major never did that sort of thing. He sloppily stood at ease–obviously he still thought he ought to try to hide his military bearing, but even sloppy his back was as straight as a plumbline and parallel to the wall.

  I was sat behind a desk and frowning at the pirate as he was led in by Gromley and Wright. The orc pirate looked nervous and didn’t appear any less so seeing me. The marines plonked him unceremoniously into the chair and each kept a hand on his shoulders. I stared him out for a bit. His heart rate rose from nervousness. As the orcs had been the first to surrender, I hoped that they might be willing to tell me something useful.

  ‘Well, here goes nothing.’

  “Grogram,” I said—‘Hello’ in orcish. “Why did you surrender?”

  ‘Straight and to the point.’

  “I didn’t want to take you on,” said the orc, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

  “Why did you attack this ship?”

  “We didn’t know it was your ship. We was just told to get the vampire.”

  ‘Eh? Why? And by who?’

  “Why?”

  “Dunno. The money was good…”

  I nodded.

  He shrugged, then grinned nervously.

  “Who sent you?” I asked. He named the captain of his ship, who, most unhelpfully, wasn’t on our ship to question. “Do you know who sent him after me?”