by Jamie Davis
“Aye, ma’am,” the two men said in concert.
“Very well. Percy, escort these two down to the junior officers’ cabin. I think it’s an excellent idea that they share one between them. Show them where to stow their gear, then take them up to the bosun for assignment to their new duties. Also, advise Mr. Bowcott to cast off. I’ll be up on deck with the course heading before we clear the harbor.”
“Aye, Captain.” Percy gestured to the passageway and stepped back while Stefan and Rodrigo struggled once again to go through the door simultaneously.
Cari covered a slight grin with one hand. This was certain to make the coming voyage interesting. In a way, she found herself looking forward to it.
Grabbing her hat, Captain Dix, the Dread Pirate Cari, headed up to the quarterdeck to assume command of her ship.
The Vengeance was ready, heading off on its next voyage.
Epilogue
Hal and Mona chatted idly as the car pulled into the driveway, following their pleasant weekend away. The two of them were always so relaxed after these little jaunts together.
As the vehicle docked itself, Hal noticed that Cari’s car was parked in her usual spot.
“That’s strange,” Mona said as she grabbed her purse and stepped out of the car. “Doesn’t Cari usually have sparring practice on Monday afternoons?”
“It must have been canceled,” Hal responded as he closed the car door behind him.
Hal knew something was wrong as soon as he heard the chime of the message board when they entered the house, indicating there were unread messages waiting for them. It wasn’t like his daughter to leave the message center unchecked. Most of them were likely from friends of hers anyway.
“Cari, we’re home!” Mona called up the stairs. When there was no response, she called again, “Cari? Are you home?”
When there was no answer, she glanced at her husband.
Hal stepped over to the message board and selected the most recent unplayed message. One of Cari’s Renaissance Faire friends appeared on the screen (Hal could never remember her name). He watched intently as the message played out.
“Hey, Cari, just checking in to make sure you’re okay. It’s not like you to skip out on the Faire like this. Stella thinks you might have invited a boy over. If that’s the case, I totally get it. Call us. I want details!”
The board went blank as the message ended. Hal had already turned to run up the stairs. Mona beat him to it.
“Cari, where are you?” Mona yelled to the empty house, panic clear in her voice.
Hal reached the top of the stairs just as Mona rushed into Cari’s bedroom. Hal was about to follow her when he noticed his study door was ajar at the end of the hallway.
“She’s not here, Hal. We need to call the police,” Mona said, pulling out her phone.
Hal didn’t hear her. Cari never went into his study anymore. Not since she used to visit him there before bedtime. If she’d gone in there while they were gone, he worried what she might have discovered if she poked around in his things.
His suspicions were confirmed as he pushed the door all the way open. There, on his computer, was a familiar message.
It was a message he hadn’t thought he would ever see again and certainly not addressed the way it was.
Welcome back to Fantasma, Cari Dix.
Have you read the Accidental Traveler trilogy about her father, Hal?
Get started here with book 1 - The Accidental Thief.
Accidental Raider
Prologue
“Hal, hurry up,” Mona said from behind him. “Who knows how long Cari has been in there.”
Hal tapped at the old mechanical keyboard, attempting to force the game program “Fantasma” to restart.
“I’m trying Mona, the program isn’t responding and now the OS is hung,” Hal responded. “I’m going as fast as this old hardware can handle.”
Hal had lovingly restored his old computer with Cari 10 years ago as a fun “father-daughter” activity. He had a soft spot for this machine and often complained about newer technologies to his wife, Mona, but he definitely didn’t miss the slow load times and crashes that came with the old hardware.
Mona paced behind him. She had already changed into her old hunting outfit, including black leather pants, knee-high boots, a black silk blouse and forest green woolen coat. She had her repeating crossbow slung across her back and what he liked to call her utility belt, with its myriad of pouches, wrapped around her waist. The whole ensemble still fit her very well even after fourteen years.
“Mona, it’s going as fast as it can. The system has to reboot. There appears to have been some sort of forced update to the game.”
“Update? I thought that archaic machine was too old to connect to the net anymore.”
“It shouldn’t be able to download anything, but an update was loaded somehow. A new Fantasma game file with additional DLC packs are now installed. I didn’t put them there. I have no idea where they came from. No one except me should have access to anything on this particular computer.”
“That means the update came from the other side,” Mona said. “It must be Tildi or another mage accessing the system. When I get my hands on who did this, I’ll make sure they never interfere in our lives again.”
“If it had been Tildi, she would have sent word to me directly, not activated the system this way. It’s as if the whole thing was automated somehow to update at some future time and place.”
“Did you call Colin? Maybe he knows what’s going on. You know he still checks in on things via that store of his.”
“I tried him first of all. I got his holomail outgoing message. It says he’s out of town until next week. I don’t know why it didn’t forward to his personal comm, but I left a message anyway. Hopefully, he gets it. I haven’t talked to him in years, but I hoped he’d know who’d run the update sequence from the other side.”
Mona stopped her pacing and stared at the old flat screen monitor. It went black and then a prompt appeared. Hal entered his password and hit enter. The startup sequence began.
“How much longer?” Mona asked. “You know the time differential is chaotic. We’ve been gone all weekend here. If she’s been there the whole time, she could have been there weeks or even months. Anything could have happened to her by now.”
“I checked her closet; her favorite sword and dagger are missing. I think she must have been geared up for the Ren Faire when it caught her.”
Hal had long ago upgraded the program to allow portal travelers to Fantasma carry clothes and items back and forth. He remembered his first time there when he’d showed up in peasant rags and nothing else.
“Watch the screen, Mona. Call me when Fantasma boots up. I need to get geared up, too.”
His wife nodded and resumed her pacing in front of the desk. Hal left the office and rushed to his bedroom. The antique wooden chest at the foot of their bed was open. Mona had scattered a lot of his stuff around it while digging for the things she needed.
Hal put on a black leather jerkin and pants. Pulled on polished leather boots and wrapped the black cape across his shoulders, attaching the clasps to hold it in place. He pulled his two daggers from the bottom of the chest and slid them into their scabbards on his belt. He attached the double four-pack of throwing knives to the leather baldric hanging diagonally across his chest.
He stood and twisted from side to side then took a few steps. The pants were a little tighter than he remembered and the jerkin had been hard to slip on, but his gear still fit pretty well, considering how long it had been. Hal knew he could buy new clothes and equipment once he got to Fantasma. He made a final check of the contents of the chest but didn’t see anything he’d need beyond what he already had.
Joining Mona in the office again, he watched as the computer finished loading Fantasma. Mona reached out and tapped several times, cycling through the initial prompts so she could get to the final load screen.
Are you su
re you wish to enter Fantasma?
Press enter to continue.
“Yes, dammit,” Mona hissed at the inanimate object. “You stole my daughter.”
She stabbed her index finger down on the enter key before Hal could stop her. He’d wanted to have a plan in place before they left. Now it was too late.
The familiar flashes of color on the screen drew his eyes until he couldn’t look away. Hal didn’t resist, he let the colors pull him in. Soon, he felt the sensation of falling backward into the blackness. The wave of darkness washed over him. The world around him disappeared. Hal’s final thought as he lost consciousness was of his daughter.
“Hang on Cari. We’re coming for you.”
Chapter 1
Cari Dix reached up and traced the faint lines of the scars on her face. The mirror in her cabin had been a gift from her crew after they’d taken out their fifth raider ship. While it was nice to see her reflection again after so long, it was bittersweet.
She’d changed since she’d come to this place nearly a year before. The battle scars were just part of it.
The healing potions and spells from the temple priests had done their work. They made her well again after her injuries following the Crown Prince’s rescue. That fight had nearly killed her.
Despite the magic, though, nothing healed perfectly, and there were always scars. Inside and out.
“Mom would be so pissed.”
“What was that, Cap’n?” Percy asked.
The ship’s cabin boy stood ready by the door with her cloak in his hands, waiting for her to head up onto the main deck of her ship, the Vengeance.
“Nothing, Percy. I was just talking to myself. What was the report on the ship the lookout spotted? Is it the one we’ve been chasing all these weeks?”
“We’re still a bit far off, ma’am. Mr. Bowcott thinks it might be the ship we’re after, but he can’t be sure until we get closer.”
“I guess I’d better head up to the quarterdeck and have a look for myself, then. Lead on, Mr. McShea.”
Percy led the way up onto the main deck then waited at the foot of the starboard ladder. Cari nodded and climbed up to the quarterdeck to join her first mate and the rest of the command crew. She peered out at the horizon and spotted the speck of sail that was the ship they chased.
“My spyglass please,” she said, holding out her hand.
Percy slapped the leather-wrapped brass cylinder into her palm. Cari took the telescope, extended it to its full three-foot length, and scanned the horizon line until she found the other ship. It leaped into focus and she stared at the image, watching the scurry of activity on the opposing ship’s main deck.
Lifting the glass to scan the sails on their quarry, Cari spotted the black and red checkered flag flying from the foretopmast. It was a raider ship, probably the one they were looking for. There’d been a ship raiding merchantmen and farming communities up and down this stretch of coast for weeks.
“She’s a big one. Mr. Bowcott, how many guns do you think she has?”
“Lieutenants Claridge and Dumont were just discussing that with me, Cap’n,” the first mate said, indicating the two dashing young men standing behind him. “We figure if she’s armed based on her size, she could have as many as thirty-six cannons, say fifteen or sixteen to a broadside, with maybe a stern and bow chaser or two.”
“That outguns our twenty-four guns, but not by too much. Let’s see if they can outrange us. What say you, Stefan?”
Lieutenant Stefan Claridge, late of the Duke of Tandon’s personal guard, was now the Vengeance’s primary gunnery officer. He grinned in response to her question.
“We’ve got the new rifled guns you designed, ma’am. That gives us the range and accuracy advantage. We can rake their decks and sides without taking a shot in return, I’m sure of it.”
“You can do all the damage you want with those popguns of yours, Stefan,” Lieutenant Rodrigo Dumont laughed. “It always comes down to my boarding crew and me to make the final assault. We’ve got their number. Once we come alongside, I could lead the attack with just a dagger. I wouldn’t even need my sword or pistols.”
“Care to make a wager on that?” Stefan prodded his counterpart.
Cari rolled her eyes. The two of them consistently had one bet or another in play. They competed with each other over everything, but most of their wagers seemed focused on who could outdo the other in some feat of strength or combat.
She knew she should have nipped this in the bud earlier when the competition first started, but it had amused her at first and seemed harmless enough. The stakes had risen lately though, and Rodrigo’s intention to board a Raider ship armed only with a dagger was foolish and dangerous.
“Don’t make me leave the Vengeance to come and save your butt, Mr. Dumont. I’d reconsider your wager before we close with the raider ship.”
Rodrigo didn’t answer her. She let it slide. Cari had learned never to give a direct order that wasn’t going to be obeyed. She’d have to find another way to motivate the two of them to stop this incessant competition with each other.
“Mr. Bowcott,” Cari said. “How long until we catch up with them?”
“That depends, ma’am. They’ve got a lot of sail aloft. Right now we’re a little faster, and we have the wind and the angle to catch them eventually. It might be after dark, though.”
“That is not going to do, Mr. Bowcott. I don’t want to lose them in the darkness. We can’t afford to let them get away again. They’ve been raping and pillaging their way up and down the coast. Nearly every small village and farmstead has been hit along the region of the eastern sea. They’ve taken dozens of prisoners. We have to rescue them before they’re sold to a slaver.”
“Yes, ma’am. Should I have the bosun run up our colors while you take the helm and see if you can shorten the chase?”
Cari realized the crew thought her ship handling skills close to witchcraft. She couldn’t explain to them how her ability to game things here in Fantasma had given her the ability to do many things that would seem impossible to another person.
She nodded. “Run up the colors. Let them know the Dread Raider Cari is on their tail.”
The bosun, Mr. Dawkins, smiled as he pulled out their version of the red and black checkered flag. In addition to the checkered raider pattern on the cloth, Cari had them add crossed cutlasses on it to add her own personal touch. That flag had become known throughout these waters in recent months as one to be feared by other raiders and welcomed by the common folk along the coast.
Cari took the wheel from the helmsman and engaged her seamanship and navigation abilities. She’d reached level two in each skill, so they allowed her to gauge their progress in the chase. Accessing the navigation overlays, she could view potential options that would alter the outcome.
Glancing aloft Cari picked out translucent, glowing vector lines shaded in yellows and green. The green lines represented the optimal wind direction based on her current sail pattern. The yellow were neutral, and if there had been red lines, they would represent winds against their current heading.
She shifted her gaze to the sea ahead of them, this time concentrating on similar blue and purple vector lines overlaying the choppy waters ahead of her. The lines represented the sea’s currents and eddies of various strengths, all of which could either hinder or assist them in their chase of the other ship.
Cari considered the combination of the wind behind them and the sea currents before them while plotting a course in her mind. The course showed up as a glowing golden line leading from the bow of the Vengeance to the raider ship in the distance. As she pulled all three facets of her ability together, the pattern shifted, leading her towards a deep, royal blue current line to starboard. She altered the plotted course in her mind to that heading. Immediately, the golden line grew thicker and glowed brighter than before.
That was the correct course.
She swung the ship in an arc that carried it into the fast cu
rrent parallel to their previous course. As the Vengeance slid into the new course she’d laid out, the combination of the optimal current and the most favorable wind direction above grabbed the ship and propelled it forward at an even higher speed. The bow of the Vengeance knifed through the water in a smooth up and down motion as the ocean current caught them.
Navigation bonus — Ship’s speed boosted 25 percent.
Mr. Bowcott laughed and pointed as the other ship started to lose ground while the Vengeance raced to catch up.
“I don’t know how you do it, ma’am. The bosun and I’d love to know the secret if you’d like to teach it to us.”
“I’m not sure it’s something I can teach you, Mr. Bowcott. It’s just sort of something I can see when I’m at the helm or down in my cabin looking at the charts.”
“Well, however you do it, Cap’n, I’m glad you’re on our side.”
Cari gauged the closing speed now and glanced at the sun moving in its arc towards the western horizon. Guessing at the amount of daylight they had left, she smiled. They should overhaul the ship in front of them with enough daylight left to either fight them or accept their surrender.
“I’ll be in my cabin, Mr. Bowcott. You have the helm. I think we’ll catch them in about an hour and a half. Come get me when we’re just outside the range of our forward chasers.”
“Aye, ma’am. I’ll be sure to send Mr. McShea down to fetch you in plenty of time. We wouldn’t want you to miss the fun.”
As she left the quarterdeck, Cari noticed Stefan and Rodrigo with their heads together, talking in earnest about something. Part of her wanted to go over and ask them what they were up to now. She would likely find out soon enough, knowing those two.
A little healthy competition between the two had been healthy for the crew. It generated camaraderie, and she’d seen the results as their port and starboard gunnery teams competed to see who was most accurate. The boarding party teams compared their results in raiders killed and prisoners freed with each engagement.