by P. S. Power
“Yeah. I was raised in the woods, up in Lairdgren County? It turned out that my father is in line to take over as count there some day. He’d abdicated his position, but the old Count Lairdgren hadn’t actually put that through, leaving a request with the new Count that he not be let out of the job. So… We had to leave being simple country folk. My Aunt was kind enough to let me come here. I… Don’t really fit in up in Noram. Not in polite circles. I was trained to be a woodworker, not to have fine manners and all that. I hope I don’t seem rude…”
He was trying to set the page correctly. Giving the idea that he was perhaps a bit simpler than he truly was. That would explain his not having a lot of magic, even knowing a Wizard like he did. It was a bit thin, but given the five seconds he’d had to think of it, he thought it was fairly sharp. It was even the real story, more or less.
Royce laughed a bit. It wasn’t nasty sounding or anything.
“I’d heard about that! You seem perfectly polite to me, though. Well-spoken as well. I had to go to special lessons to learn to speak this way. It’s pretty different at home. You aren’t the only one that comes from a place other than the Capital.” There was no hint of suspicion as the fellow turned leading them down the corridor.
The smaller men were, half subtly, moved to the front again. He actually ended up in the back of the group, next to the very large man.
Laughing himself, trying to smile, he faked up a sigh.
“That one… My Aunt, another of them, is Countess Thomson. She secretly put in a highly-trained school mistress, so that my brother, sister and myself could learn different languages and get something near a good education, even out in the forest. I should have realized how odd that was, but it was truly isolated. The other students learned all the languages as well, if to different levels, so it just seemed normal to us at the time.” Diana and Will had been pushed hardest that way, but it wasn’t totally wrong. They had six or seven kids there that could have been dropped anywhere in the world and managed to make their way.
Which was actually something to keep in mind, if anything ever came up. He knew commoners that could go places and communicate, at need.
There was a gentle snort, next to him. The deep voice of the man actually friendly.
“Have you ever gotten to the Capital up there? I hear that they’re going to be putting up their new wall river soon. It sounds impressive. It’s going to have lights and is able to speak, to play songs and such, or so I’ve heard?”
One of the other men, the good-looking blond one, glanced back at them.
“It really does sound good. That isn’t going to be set up for a few days or we could have put in there for our liberty. They have a nicer port. More built up, I mean. This place is actually fine looking, now. Cleaner than most, with a lot of green around it. Afrak is pretty good for that as well. Right Pony?”
The small dark man, looking ready to wet himself, ducked his head.
“True, msaliti. It is… place of much, much green.” Then the tiny man hunched over, as if expecting a blow to come.
Then, he’d just rather outed the other man as a traitor. If in a different language. One that Will just happened to speak and the others there didn’t. It was helpful of him. Also a thing that had happened on purpose. That was the sense from the smaller man, who’d worked out that Willum had admitted to speaking all of the other languages of the world.
The conversation shifted a bit then, toward women.
Royce led that portion for them, as they walked, moving through the large ship at a good pace. It wasn’t confusing or anything, since they were probably taking the most direct route to wherever they were heading. Given where the front of the craft was, and the fact that they were going the other direction, it wasn’t going to be the bridge.
“The Afrak women are all right. They don’t really do anything with men, and seem to like them small. Are the women around here friendlier than that? I can’t say I’ve ever been here before, to be honest. An oversight on my part, I’m certain.”
Making a considering face, Will was able to nod.
“They really are, actually. Their look is a bit different, but if you don’t mind that, they’re a very friendly and affectionate people. The women go around half dressed, most of the time. It would help to pick up even a few words of their language, but I can give you some basic lessons toward that end? A few words to smooth the way? I’ll be here as well, to act as a translator, but it’s harder to get a woman into bed if you can’t do it alone. We don’t have prostitutes here… But you really won’t need them with even a little bit of preparation.”
That was true, really. While it was odd to just walk up to a person and ask for sex, they’d likely do it with you, if you did. At least if they weren’t too busy. Of course, you might end up with several of their friends joining in as well, if you didn't phrase things right. Will hadn’t really gotten that about them at first. They didn't have relations constantly or anything like that, but if you asked, or offered, their custom was to make sure you weren’t left alone.
They chattered about women, and interestingly about men and how that was different from home. At least for the men from Noram. That lasted, right until they were taken into what appeared to be a holding cell. There was a nice chair, which was the one that he’d seen on Alice’s handheld. He knew, since it was both orange and had the woman still in it. Surrounded by five tense looking, but shielded men. One woman as well. They all had weapons out and were pointing them directly at the blonde woman. The door was sealed behind them. Only Royce had come in along with him. The man hadn’t even pushed him inside or anything like that.
“Sorry about this, Countier Lairdgren. It isn’t personal, I assure you. We simply… The short story is that we’re stealing this ship. We simply needed a place to put off our crewmates and the Admiral. We’ve grown tired of being in the service. I hope you understand? At least that we don’t mean you any harm.”
Clearing her throat a bit primly, not seeming at all tense, the woman in the center of the room. Looked over at him, then smiled.
“Willum Baker? You’re the one that Patricia was telling me about?”
It was probably giving away too much really, saying that. Will focused his mind on the weapons first, holding them in the off position. There were six of them after all, which was doable, but he needed to do the same to the shields, which would be spreading himself pretty thin. Then, thinking about it, he came up with a plan.
Doing that part one person at a time.
“Ma’am? I don’t know anyone by that name, I’m afraid. Patricia… No, that doesn’t ring a bell.”
The woman in the chair made a hard face then.
“Well, fuck. I meant the one that made the new flying river for Rick and his crew up in Noram. You aren’t a builder then?”
He nodded, moving a bit closer to her, around the chair. No one even tried to stop him. He needed to see how they had her tied in place though, before moving. The answer to that was, as it turned out, not at all. She wasn’t even sealed into the chair, which was part of the ship. That could have been hard for some to get out of, after all. Not impossible, but even slowing her down for a few moments might have helped. It was clear that she was being taken seriously though. They had six armed and shielded people on her, surrounding her constantly.
That meant something, he was willing to bet.
Tilting his head back and forth a bit, he wrinkled his nose up.
“Eh… Not really? I can make some copies, in a pinch? I’m supposed to start on that part of things soon, actually. Building like that. For now though, I can’t help you with that. Sorry.”
There was a sigh from the woman then.
“Oh. Well, worth a shot. Anyway, I guess we should get things underway then? At least set the crew off before you kill me, hmm?”
The lady didn't seem that worried for some reason. Then, she was right not to be.
Willum looked at the people, then shrugged.
&nbs
p; “Ah… Before we do any of that, would it be all right for you to guard the door, Alice? There are two more in the hallway, with hostages.”
Everyone else looked at him funny, except the Ancient, who smiled. This time it didn’t seem all that tense at all. There was nothing hidden in it, just a grim pleasure in what was about to happen.
“I can do that.”
Then the room erupted, as he moved, striking the closest person to him, Royce, in the head, taking him down instantly. His fist was harder than iron when he hit something. His whole body was, actually. Being able to move eight times faster than everyone else in the space didn't hurt either. The trick was making sure he got their shields off in time, without losing his focus on their weapons as they moved around. Ducking mainly.
Alice moved in front of the door, but passed through it instantly, to engage the men in the hallway. Only one of them seemed to have a weapon out, meaning the unarmed woman was wrestling with him, preventing anyone from being too easily killed. The other man tried to run, it seemed. While wearing the three smaller men, who were doing their very best to slow him down. It didn’t totally work, but after a moment, the seven inside the cell going down, Will had enough focus to spare, so shut off the shields and weapons of the men out there.
It was instructive.
For one thing, it was very clear that Alice Orange wasn’t just an Ancient. She was a very good fighter as well. Stronger and faster than most, very clearly. The other main point was that the exercise wasn’t one. At least she made a real point of killing both the men in the hallway. If it was for his benefit, then she was working pretty hard to sell the whole thing to him. Willum got the idea, and took out the unconscious people in the room with him before they could recover. Staving their heads in for the most part. It didn't take long. They smashed like ripe fruit under his fists.
When they stopped, everyone being dead that needed to be for the moment, the Admiral smiled at them all.
“Good work. We have a ship to liberate. Baker, can we count on you to help with the shields? Someone smuggled a wand on to shut those down and took the under crew before we knew anything was going on. Then they killed anyone with an orange stripe who wasn’t with them. That was a mistake. I might have let them go if they’d just taken people hostage. This happened in space, so fleet rules apply. That means they’re all going to die. I take it you don’t have a huge issue with that?” She glanced at the bloody mess in the cell area.
It was kind of telling that way.
“I can handle the shields. You should grab the ones that these msaliti had. That was pretty good, by the way. I wasn’t certain of the whole thing until you managed to drop that bit.” Then he spoke the word in Afrak, getting a wide-eyed look from the small man who’d tipped him off.
Alice moved then, grabbing what was needed from the corpses.
“Force lances mainly. That and air chokes. We don’t go into space with anything stronger. We’ll outfit with both. The chokes are useless in small spaces, since it will keep us from breathing as well. Then, no one said that these people were being smart. If they wanted to jump ship that badly they should have just done it. It would mean the end of their careers, but… So does dying.”
The other men nodded, since she was talking to them, mainly. Her people. Commoners, which would mean afraid. Shy as well. Even if these three were brave enough to have left their homes and gone into space. Even if they were shaking at the moment, that didn't mean cowardly. Just a bit unsteady, most likely. Even against a man with a shield on, they’d tried to fight. They’d been banged up at the same time as well.
Will dug out one of his healing amulets, smiling. Grimly, since they had people to kill that day. Being truly pleasant would seem wrong. Evil, probably.
“Each of you take one of these. That will leave Alice and I without one, so if we’re too injured, it will be up to you to make sure we get one. We’ll go in first. I’ll handle the shields. You three need to stand back and try to hit anyone I point at with a force lance. If we need to go hand to hand for any reason, let the Admiral and I handle that?” He felt his face tighten then, as the lady nodded at him.
Then he took a breath, and bowed, going low.
“Forgive me, gentlemen. I don’t wish to imply that you could not do it as well. You’re all strong, brave people. I was altered to be very hard to harm and given greater strength and speed than others, that’s all. I mean no offense.”
One of the men, who hadn’t spoken yet, just nodded.
“I won’t complain if you go first, sir.” The other two seemed to agree at least, allowing Will to stand up.
“Thank you. Do we know where they’re keeping people?”
It turned out that the crew was being held, almost cleverly, in seven different locations. The problem with doing that was all in numbers. Every twenty or so people was being guarded by no more than four of the traitors. It actually made taking the spaces they were in pretty easy, really.
On the first one, Will getting what was going on that way, he just removed their weapons and shields from play, then walked into the place, with Alice and the others behind him. Hardy, the chattier of the two crew with them, took down all the captors with his force lance. By himself.
The Admiral moved to the downed men and women, then snapped their necks, like they were chickens.
“No one kills my people and lives to talk about it. The rest of you hold here. If anyone comes that isn’t with us… Kill them.”
How they were supposed to do that, no one mentioned. After all, anyone coming would still have a shield on, which pretty much made them impossible to really take out for long. Not if you didn't have a way of getting around that kind of thing.
It still took about an hour to find and kill the rest of the people in on the poorly thought out plan. Or, actually, Will had to admit that it wasn’t a failure in the plan itself at all. No one could have known that going to Soam would mean that they were going to be dealing with Ancient Taman’s message boy. Even if they had, there was no reason for anyone to think that would be a problem at all. In the main it wouldn’t have been, if they hadn’t been there to do bad things in the first place.
Orange looked at him closely and then at the others with her.
“This had to be done. I know that you all understand that. This isn’t a secret. Talk far and wide about this, if it comes up. People need to understand that taking a fleet vessel has only one consequence. Death. It will make us seem blood thirsty, but so be it.” She glanced at the others, then smiled. “Also… If you could point out that we have special crew whose only task is making certain such things don’t happen? People in secret places, unknown to the rest of you.”
The men didn’t seem to get the idea, until Will changed his clothing, into a fleet uniform, with only one less stripe on his sleeve than the Admiral had herself. Then he shifted to look like himself for a moment, before shifting back for Alice’s comfort. The crew all went wide eyed, but nodded. Then, without explaining anything at all, he went back to what he’d been wearing a few moments before, clothing wise, then leaned in to whisper.
“The names are secret though, understood? So that we can’t be taken first. We’re always here. We’re everywhere…”
Then he shut up. It was vague, and might not make perfect sense, but that was a thing that had actually worked for him a few times.
Telling the men that he didn't want to be named specifically would have them worrying over it and eventually talking, trying to work out what he was going on about. They still would, but now it wouldn’t be about him as much as it would be about the supposed secret guards that were with them all the time. Possibly even being the man or woman next to them as they worked each day.
The men were dismissed. It was done very kindly, however.
“You did good work today. We aren’t all fighters here, but when the moment came, you all stepped up, helped to turn the tide and did what was needed. That won’t be forgotten. Now, I need you to go to you
r main duty stations. I’ll set up a ship wide announcement for that.”
The men went stiff, then turned and walked out. They were covered in sweat, but Alice wasn’t. Neither was Will.
The woman smiled at him. There was a strange, almost playful, feeling to it.
“So, Willum Baker. The Messenger. Among other things. I’m in your chain of command, in case you’re wondering about how I know that. Not horrible here today. A bit slow at first. Do you have a reason for that?”
She didn't seem upset about it, thankfully.
“It’s that I’m in heavy training right now. This case is filled with pain stones, that Taman Baker made, as part of an exercise. If I failed they hurt me. If I’d tried to run, they’d have exploded, killing me. I had just walked out of six hours of that when I saw the ship coming in. Then… Well, I didn't know if it was part of the exercise or not. I didn't want to kill people, if it was just about me learning to be adaptable. It would make too big of a mess to easily explain, if that happened.” It wasn’t the only reason he felt that way, but it was still true.
There was also the part of things where he didn’t really want to just go around being a murderer. It wasn’t always inside of his control, but at the very least he wanted to kill as few good people as he could manage. That sounded weak, so he didn't say it.
The Admiral nodded.
“I have work to do here. We need to have a trial. Also, for you not to be part of that, given the situation. Thank you for your aid. We’ll meet to talk, soon. About putting together that special crew we just made up.”
He bowed to her, and got one back. That was a little odd. He’d gone low, as was proper, but she’d gone lower, for some reason. Not a lot either, which could have been either mocking or saying that she really appreciated his help that day. It was about five degrees more, showing both humility and that she honestly thought he had greater rank than she did, socially. Except that they were on her fleet’s flag ship.
The Queen of the Moon or the King of Noram would have at least matched her. They would have done that if she’d just been the captain of a fishing vessel. So it was odd. The sense from her was relaxed, but it was kind of clear that she understood what she’d done at the same time.