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Back to Part 024 – Forward to Part 026
Four years before
Loaded with cargo, brimming with passengers, the Rose set out from New Archer. The Rose was in the throws of a shift change, the fresh crew coming in to replace the night team. Tre had just been relieved from the helm when Logan found him. Hands on her hips, she looked up at him, her eyes narrowed. “I need your help,” she said.
Tre raised his eyebrows, looking down at the human.
“Something’s going on in the cargo bay. I need you to be big and imposing.”
Tre deflated a little. He always had to be big and imposing. Logan led the way, stamping through the crew quarters, weaving in and out of the shift going off duty, and the shift coming on. Tre did a lot less weaving; he found he rarely had to.
Logan came to an intersection down in the stacks of crates in the cargo bay. She waited, turning her head occasionally. Tre stepped forward, and she held her hand up, keeping him back. Then, Tre heard it, a small creak, the sound of someone shifting very carefully on wood. Logan pointed, her eyes wide but focused, and crept back to where the sound had come from. Tre padded around the back side of the crates, keeping an eye on Logan while scanning the shadows for the source of the sound.
They both paused at the same time, catching a shape in the shadows. Logan made signals with her hands, pointing with different fingers and waving them in different directions. Tre shook his head and shrugged a little. Logan rolled her eyes, and then darted into the shadows.
There was a scream, short and surprised, and the shape stumbled out of the shadows. Tre stepped in front of it, and the shape, a grey blur, collided with his massive fame, and fell backwards, tumbling to a stop. Tre picked it up and looked it over.
The shape was a girl, cat of some kind. Tre held her by the nape of her coat, a slightly-too-big army number, and she twisted in his grip, her tail between her legs. She whimpered from behind long white headfur.
Logan jogged out from behind the crates, giggling her adrenaline away. “Ha! That was great! Did you see the look on her face? You were like BAM!” She mimed Tre pushing the girl down. Tre rolled his eyes and sighed. He held the girl up to his eye-level. She turned away, blinking back tears.
Logan tilted her head, stepping around to make eye contact with the girl. “Hey, kitty cat. What are you doing on my boat?”
The girl whimpered again, squeezing her eyes shut.
“Stowaway,” Logan said, as if Tre did not understand. Then, switching to Merchant, said, “Let’s throw her overboard.”
Tre growled, looking at Logan. The girl squeaked, tensing in his grip.
Logan grabbed the girl’s chin and turned her so they were face to face. “You didn’t answer my question.”
The girl whimpered again. Logan squeezed, extracting a cry out of the girl. Tre growled, this time much louder, snarling at Logan. The human stepped back. “Fine,” she said. “Still, we need to take her to Cait. She’ll want to know.”
Tre nodded, but he waited for Logan to walk in front of him. When she was a good distance out, Tre set the girl down, letting her walk for herself. He kept a hand on her back, guiding her up the steps and out of the cargo bay. The girl looked up at him, but Tre just pushed her forward.
Logan stopped at a hand, Dima, and watched him take care of a short repair on a door. They talked back and forth a moment, Tre waiting with the girl a good distance back. Billy descended from the guest quarters and approached Logan, walking her through a list of supplies. She signed off on a clip board, and then continued back to the bridge.
“Who’s this, then?” Billy asked, looking down at the girl. “You’re not with the guests.”
Tre nodded.
“Ah,” Billy said. “Well, good luck, kitten.” He smiled down at the girl. She pulled into herself. Tre nudged her forward.
Up on the bridge, the helmsman, Mara, and the navigator, Kass, discussed their current route, pointing out other ships on their monitors. There was a short line waiting to get to the captain, all of business that had to be checked off. Logan dismissed them, opening the door to the captain’s office.
“Logan,” Cait said. “I do not know if you noticed, but there is a little button on my door that signals you are interested in seeing me. Although, it is a new invention, so maybe you have not discovered it as of yet.”
“We found this.” Logan motioned for Tre, who scooted the girl forward. Cait looked her over.
“Indeed you did. Thank you, dear,” she said.
“She’s a stowaway,” Logan said, stepping forward.
“I gathered. Thank you. There is crew to be managed.”
“Cait, we should-”
Cait set down her pen and stood. “Thank you, Logan. You have crew to manage. I will deal with our guest.”
Logan balled up her hands, and then stalked off the bridge. Tre turned to leave.
“Tre, dear,” Cait said, lowering her voice. Tre turned back to her. “Would you fetch some tea?”
Tre nodded. Cait closed the door to her office.
Cait nodded at the girl to sit down in the chair in front of her desk. Cait sat as well, and signed off some of the papers on her desk. The girl fidgeted in her chair, watching Cait’s every move.
Cait looked at the girl again. “Cxu Parlas ni Mercxanton?”
The girl’s ears perked, but she didn’t say anything, staring with blank fear at Cait. “Hua bu hua Lingguohua?”
Nothing.
“What about Latanian?”
The girl nodded.
There was a chime, and Cait stepped around the desk to open the door. Tre stepped in and set down a tea service.
“What did you do to the poor dear?” Cait asked. “She’s terrified.”
Tre pointed to himself, and then shook his head.
“Really?” Cait said. “Well, that is disappointing. Thank you, helmsman. Enjoy the rest of your break.” She closed the door again.
Cait poured the girl a cup, and then her own. She sat down again, and took a long sip, letting the flavor linger. “Drink,” she said. “This is often the best part of my day.”
The girl took the cup and sipped, watching Cait as she did. When the tea fully developed, her eyes widened, and she took a deeper sip.
“I am Captain Cait Molyneux,” Cait said, and the girl choked on her tea.
“What?” The girl said between gasps.
“I would tell you you have wandered on the wrong boat, but I do not think that is true.” Cait set down her tea cup, but kept her fingers on the rim. “How long have you been with us?”
“Just since New Archer,” the girl said.
“A couple of days back.” Cait turned the cup on its saucer. “Well done.”
“Are you going to throw me overboard?”
Cait sighed. “We are not barbarians, nor are we pirates. And since those two are the only ones who would behave in such practices, and since I am neither, I will not throw you overboard. I may put you to work, to pay back the resources you have taken from me.”
The girl sat back in her chair, the weight of the ocean lifted off of her.
“What are you running from?”
The girl looked at Cait. “What?”
“You are afraid of being thrown overboard, which is a fear I would guess is not new. But you risked getting on a strange boat at penalty of death.”
The girl played with her hands. “You wouldn’t-”
“Do not presume I am enjoying wasting my time.”
“There’s a revolution coming,” the girl blurted. “They’re going to take over New Archer.”
“Who?” Cait leaned forward.
“My friends. They’ve been working on it for months. They were going to do it and I didn’t want to get killed, but they’re very serious about it, and I-” Tears welled in the girl’s eyes, and she wiped them away with the back of her hand.
Cait nodded. She stood. “It was supposed to happen already?” She asked the girl.
The girl nodded.
Cait stepped outside her office, and leaned over Kass’s shoulder.
“Captain,” she said. Kass was bear, on the Rose with a work visa from one of the interior states of the 21 Kingdoms. Cait found her to be generally agreeable, and a hard worker.
“Could you fetch any news off the Relay about New Archer?”
Kass punched some buttons, and the Relay returned one headline at first, and then another, and another, and another. Cait and Kass scanned over the stories together. Three groups in the city had banded together and over-threw the New Archer government. Shots had been fired, though reports disagreed whether the revolutionaries had fired any themselves. They were currently occupying the government buildings, awaiting a surrender from the government. She gleamed three names: Fink, Crash, and their leader, Manni.
“Are they alright?” The girl asked, peeking out from Cait’s office.
“It appears that way,” Cait said, sitting down. “Non-violent, it looks like, on their part.”
The girl nodded. “Manni hates violence.” She smiled just a little.
“What is your name?” Cait asked. She leafed through a few of the papers on her desk.
“Xiphos,” the girl said. “Xiphos Haari.”
“So what do we do with you?” Cait asked, and the girl sat up.
“I-”
“I will put you to work. What can you offer me?”
Xiphos fidgeted. “I know a little about medicines. I used to make them for Fink and Crash and Manni when they got sick.”
“Is that so? Perhaps that is a little too much too fast. We do have plenty of floors that need to be cleaned.”
“Okay!” Xiphos said, nodding. “I’ll do it. Thank you, sir.”
Cait called Tre back up to the bridge. “Where will I be sending you when we get to our next port?”
Xiphos looked away. “I don’t have a home,” she said.
“You are an orphan?”
“No,” Xiphos said.
Cait took a sip of her tea. “Then we will talk about home when we get to our next destination. In the mean time, Tre will be your direct report. He will tell you what to do. If anyone on my boat gives you trouble, you let him know. He may be imposing, but he is a dear.”
Xiphos nodded.
Tre appeared at her door again, and Cait explained the situation. Tre nodded dutifully. He looked down at Xiphos, and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. Xiphos sank under the weight.
“Very good,” Cait said, when she was finished. “Now, if you could wait outside a moment, Miss Haari, I need to speak to my helmsman here.”
Xiphos, eager to please, disappeared outside the office, the door closing behind her, and as the Captain talked about her first mate inside, Xiphos tried to get her giddiness under control.
[g]
PSST! If you’ve been enjoying the series so far, please stop by and drop me a vote on top web fiction. You may do so with this link. Thanks! It’s much appreciated.
oooh the start of Xiphos! Aw, she’s so cute. and young. AND Fink, Crash, and Manni. This section was probably the most enjoyable (for me) yet.
Also, why is Logan such a jerk? I suppose someone has to be.
I told you you’d like it! =D