by Adam Carter
“This? I found it in your stores.”
“You stole it from us?”
“It’s like a ninja catsuit, right? You have ninja catuits in your storeroom, Miss Arowana.”
Arowana had not explored enough yet to know what they had, so reasoned she was likely telling the truth. “Why are you wearing it?”
“Because the robes dragged me down so much. If I’m going to be of any use to you, I need to be flexible.”
“Being flexible doesn’t mean pouring your body into a ninja catsuit.”
“No? But the way you dress …”
“What’s wrong with the way I dress?”
“Well, I … you know.”
“No, I don’t. I dress in black and cover myself up.”
“I’m covered up. More than you, you can’t even see my face. I know what colour skin you have, so if you’re talking about looking obscene you shouldn’t start with me.”
It was an argument Arowana did not want to have. “I take it you’ve decided you’re going to stay with us, then.”
“If you’ll have me.”
“I think Gordon wants to kill you.”
“I don’t want to kill her,” Hawthorn said, getting back to his feet. He still looked downcast, but his fury had abated. “You’re right, Iris. Getting there with you wouldn’t have helped Beth any. And, Cass, I understand why you wanted to leave Themisto. If you don’t believe in their religion, there’s nowhere else to go.”
“Oh, I believe. I just didn’t want to stay there my whole life. Adventure, excitement. That’s the life for me, Gordy.”
Arowana could not help but liken the girl’s attitude to the way she had assumed Hart had been, back when they thought she had joined the pirate crew voluntarily. “What skills do you bring?” she asked.
“Skills?” Cassiel asked. “Uh, I can pray real hard.”
“And I have a flute,” Harman said.
“What?” Arowana turned on him. “No one said you could stay, you idiot.”
“My dear, your complexion radiates passion when you’re angry.”
Arowana blinked. She could not believe he had just said that. “You’re being thrown off at the next stop. Wherever that is.”
“Even to be made to walk the plank by such beauty would be a death worth …”
“No pirate jokes.”
Harman silently conceded.
“If he wants to stay, let him stay,” Hawthorn said. “I don’t care any more. Something tells me we should be filling this ship with crew anyway. If we had more people aboard we might have been able to do something more for Beth.”
“That’s good logic,” Arowana said, “but we don’t even know him.”
“I know him,” Cassiel said. “He was arrested for spying, but I doubt he was actually doing anything. I can vouch for him.”
“That makes me feel so much better.”
“First skill revealed,” Cassiel said eagerly.
“Second skill,” Arowana said, “is to learn the meaning of sarcasm.”
“Seems we’re all making friends in here,” Wraith said as he entered the room. He was physically and emotionally exhausted and leaned against a chair just to stop himself from collapsing. His shirt was covered with blood, as was his face where he had wiped the back of his hands. His eyes, Arowana noted, were so drained of energy they were practically dead.
“Beth,” Hawthorn said. “Wraith, is she alive?”
“She’s alive.”
“Thank you.”
“She’s alive,” Wraith repeated, “but I don’t know whether it wouldn’t have been kinder to have let her die.”
“What do you mean?”
“I stopped the bleeding in both wrists, I cauterised the wounds. They’ll scar pretty badly, but she won’t lose the use of her hands. Physically she’s not too bad, just having a blood transfusion now. Mentally, though … I’m not sure she’s even with us any more.”
“She’s upset,” Arowana said. “She’ll recover.”
Wraith exhaled deeply. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe my years in training to be a doctor don’t count for anything because you want to believe she’ll get better.”
“I get it,” Cassiel said. “Sarcasm. Skill two acquired.”
Arowana shot her a glower.
“I want to see her,” Hawthorn said.
“Sure. Just be warned it won’t be pretty.”
“Then you’ve never looked into her eyes.”
At any other time Arowana would have berated Hawthorn for a comment like that, but this time it did not even occur to her. Hawthorn’s actions had been quick enough to save the girl’s body, so now he needed to see what he could do about saving her soul.
It was something only he and he alone could do.
*
Hart was lying in the infirmary bed, her back propped up against the headboard, her bandaged hands resting in her lap. The infirmary was a large area filled with equipment and narrow beds, but that came from the sword-ship being a military vessel. Hart was the only current patient and was swallowed by the great room, and Hawthorn had never seen anyone who looked more lost. Her arm was connected to tubes which supplied her with blood and other fluids she needed to help her recovery but all she could stare at were her bandaged hands. She would not be able to see the injuries yet, but she would know they were there. Hawthorn could only imagine how destroyed she would be when she finally got to see the damage herself, but that was why he had to be there for her.
Forcing a smile, Hawthorn said, “Knock knock.”
She looked up but did not otherwise react.
“How are you feeling?” When she did not reply, Hawthorn added, “Wraith says you’re going to be all right.”
She closed her eyes tightly.
“Beth, talk to me.”
“Thank you for saving me, Gordon,” she said in a hollow voice. “I’m sorry I’m taking up space.”
“If there’s one thing we have here it’s plenty of space,” he said as he sat beside her bed.
“I’ll be out your hair as soon as I can walk.”
“You’re not in my hair, Beth. And you’re not leaving my side until we find your parents.”
Her eyes became terrified, her entire body tensed. “No, no, I can’t go back home, Gordon. Not after everything I’ve done.”
“What? Your family will understand, that’s what families do. They probably think you’re dead.”
“Then let them keep thinking I’m dead.”
He did not know what to say to that.
Hart looked back to her hands, shame resonating through her body.
“I don’t know what it’s like to go through what you’ve been through,” Hawthorn said. “Actually, I’m rather glad I don’t. But I’m here for you. You’re going to get through this and I’m going to help you.”
“For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to die. And then, just as I was about to be executed, I suddenly understood what it meant to be alive. I didn’t want to die, Gordon, and you saved me. You told me things would be all right.” She looked back up at him, her pretty eyes almost empty, save the faintest glint of hope, or perhaps prayer. “Are they, Gordon? Are they going to be all right?”
Hawthorn wanted to lie, to say anything which might make her feel better; but her eyes told a story he had simply refused to acknowledge. When he had first met Bethany Hart he had mistakenly believed she was an innocent in need of saving. Then he had discovered she was a victim whose innocence had been forcibly ripped from her. He did not know whether he would ever fully understand everything she had been through, but he knew enough to know he had both underestimated and overestimated her. Bethany Hart had ceased being a frightened little girl a long time ago; and the only person who could save her was herself.
“Your scars will stay with you,” he said, “as a reminder of your dark past. I hope they’ll allow you to move into a brighter future.”
“Is that your way of telling me things are never going to be good a
gain?”
“It’s my way of saying your future is what you want to make of it, Beth.” He instinctively went to hold her hand in his, but that would have only caused her agony.
“Gordon, you’d make a terrible fortune cookie.”
“I’m not good with words and I’m hopeless with women. Put the two together and it’s a wonder any sense comes out at all.” He had half meant it as a joke, although Hart did not seem in a mood to smile. “Beth, will you agree to stay with us a while? You don’t have to go back to your folks straight away, not if you don’t want to. Stay with us here and heal.”
“Are you sure that’d be OK with your girlfriend?”
“I think Iris would welcome another girl to talk to.”
“I don’t know. I … Would there be enough for me to do around here?”
Hawthorn thought back to the talk with Cassiel and Harman, when they had asked them about their particular skill sets. “You fix things, right?” he said. “Up ‘til now that’s been my job, but if you took over the mechanic role it’d leave me free to be pilot.”
“Mechanic?” For the first time since Hawthorn had walked in, her eyes lit up. “I could do that. What do you have to work with?”
“I haven’t finished inventorying everything. That could be your first job. Oh, and see if you can find any more missiles. It’s a little bit of a secret, but we don’t have many left and it’s not like we can pop back to Carpo for more.”
“You don’t need to pop back to Carpo. If you have some missiles for me to look at I can retro-engineer one. All I’ll need after that is a warhead and a workshop and I can whip you up whatever missiles you need.”
Hawthorn smiled. “You, Bethany Hart, are the answer to all my dreams.”
Her face fell slightly.
“I meant in a work capacity,” he added. “You’re just what this ship needs. And you’re already more useful than the other two.”
“What other two?”
“I’ll tell you about it when you’re up and about. Now, rest up. Doctor’s orders.”
Hawthorn rose, hesitated as he debated whether to kiss her on the forehead before deciding to do it anyway. She was hot, her brow was sweaty, but Wraith had cleaned all the blood away.
“I’ll get better,” Hart said. “And then I’ll get to work.”
It was good to see her passionate about something, even though Hawthorn knew she was going to throw herself into her work and block reality out as much as she could. If that was how she intended to cope with everything that had happened to her, though, it was a good enough start. Hawthorn could work on things from there.
He found Arowana in the corridor, leaning against a wall as she waited anxiously for him. She raised an eyebrow when she saw him.
“She’s fine,” Hawthorn said. “And, if not, we’ll make her fine.”
“You’re a good man, Gordon Hawthorn.”
“If I was any good I would never have allowed her to go to that confession.”
Arowana shook her head. She kissed him and Hawthorn allowed the embrace to linger. “Stop beating yourself up,” she said as she pulled away. “And don’t kiss me on duty. We have a crew to consider now.”
“Hey, you kissed me. Or was that a test to see whether I’d pull away?”
Arowana tried not to laugh. “You’d better not pull away. Ever.”
“I don’t know. I’m going to be spending most of my time with Beth now, and Cass has a major crush on me.”
“I think I’m going to enjoy having a crew, just about as much as you’re going to enjoy sleeping on the sofa.”
Hawthorn laughed, but as Arowana headed back to the others he couldn’t think why he was laughing. “Hey, Iris, you realised I was joking, right?”
Words and women, he reflected, were indeed his two major failings in life.
*
“Oh, Most Holy Father, please judge this man fairly and bestow your mercy or punishment upon him as you see fit.”
Ariel watched Father Dumah work. The bald, half-naked pirate Damian Sturgeon was bound to the cross with enough rope to corral a herd of bison, but he was still struggling. While Father Dumah splashed holy water in the raging man’s face, several other acolytes held the man’s arm steady while Ariel herself positioned the nail and brought back her hammer.
“Damn you all,” Sturgeon raged. “Get your putrid hands off me.”
“The Lord is mighty,” Dumah intoned, “the Lord is merciful, the Lord knows what’s best. Amen.”
“Amen,” chorused the priests and acolytes who had come to witness the event.
Beneath her robes, Ariel smiled, but no one could see it. “Don’t worry, Mr Sturgeon, the pain won’t last long – God willing.” With all her strength, she brought the hammer down, for the first time in her life genuinely believing the man they were crucifying actually deserved his fate.
Also available by the same author in e-book and paperback:
Dinosaur World books:
Excavating a Dinosaur World
Dinosaur Fall-Girl
Dinosaur Plague Doctor
Ike Scarman & the Dinosaur Slavers of Ceres
Dinosaur Prison World
The Dinosaur That Wasn’t
Awfully Wedded Strife
Tales of a Dinosaur Prison World
Deities of a Dinosaur World
Return to the Dinosaur Prison World
Nikolina Finch & the Dinosaur Utopia
Of Stags, Hens & Dinosaurs
Dinosaur World Gladiator
Dinosaur World Massacre
Dino-Racers
Dinosaur World Unscripted
Christmas on a Dinosaur World
Utara the Savage
Sheriff Grizzly:
Book 1: Sheriff Grizzly
Book 2: The Horse Thief Honey
Book 3: The Coyote Colt Kid
Book 4: Joins the Circus
Book 5: The Haunting of Athelstan Swift
Game books (300 paragraphs):
Lost Treasures of a Dinosaur World
The Underworld Horror
Knights of Torbalia game books:
The Return of the Stolen Jewel
Into the Massacre
March of the Demon Trees
The Thief of Tarley Manor
The Class War
Hero Cast trilogy:
Book 1: The Villainous Heroes
Book 2: The Heroic Villains
Book 3: The Forge of Heroes
Jupiter’s Glory:
Book 1: The Dinosaur World
Detective books:
Detective’s Ex
One-Way Ticket to Murder
Who Slew Santa?
The Curse of the Genie’s Detective
The Woman Who Cried Diamonds
The Murder of Snowman Joe
The Murder of Loyalty
The Prostitute Butcher
Operation WetFish, Vampire Detective:
Book 1: The Power of Life and Death
Book 2: Chasing Innocence
Book 3: The Hunt for Charles Baronaire
Book 4: Christmas on the Kerb
Book 5: A Necessary Evil
Book 6: No Comment
Book 7: Fear and Ecstasy
Book 8: Call of the Siren
Book 9: Happy Families
Book 10: A Step in the Right Direction
Book 11: What Money Can’t Buy
Book 12: ‘Tis the Season
Book 13: The Power Trip
Book 14: Trust and Betrayal
Book 15: A Gathering of Minds
Book 16: The Pain of Life
Miscellaneous:
Holding the Nuts
One Week to Love: Speed Dating of the Gods
The Trojan Ant
Gauntlet of Daedalus
Visit: https://www.facebook.com/OperationWetFish for news, illustrations, previews and short stories.
and the Priests