Big Damn Project

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It was late when Toby hobbled down to the crew quarters. Where the needle had been in his arm still ached, and he had to walk slowly to combat the dizziness the lack of blood caused him. But Billy seemed to think the girl would be alright, and if Toby had learned anything on this boat, it was that Billy was usually right about those things. Now, he looked forward to sleep, and pushed himself forward, one step at a time, closer and closer to his bunk.

Auburn sat on the couch, alone in the low emergency lighting. She stared down at the Relay receiver, fidgeting with her hands. She looked as tired as Toby felt. She looked up as he stumbled into the room, her eyes brightening behind her brown hair. He flopped down on the couch next to her, put his arms around her and nuzzled in to her shoulder.

“They wouldn’t let me come see you,” Auburn said, putting her arm around Toby. “Also, did you pass out or something?”

“Shut up,” Toby said weakly.

Auburn smiled. “Did you pass out?”

Toby closed his eyes. “There was a lot of blood.”

“Hmm.” Auburn kissed the top of his head. “There’s a girl in there, right? Is she okay?”

“Yeah,” Toby said, dreamily.

“And she came with Burian Lake?”

“Mm mmm.”

“And every seems okay with Burian Lake being on the ship?”

“Yes.”

Auburn let her head fall back against the couch. “Okay then.” She closed her eyes, and within a moment, both of them were asleep.

Xiphos, mostly by accident, watched the whole conversation from just outside the crew quarters, standing in the shadows. She leaned forward a little when they felt silent, and tried to listen to their breathing. Maybe they were asleep. Maybe-

“Whatcha doin’, creeper?” Billy stood behind her, hands behind his back, looking over her shoulder.

Xiphos slapped her hands over her mouth and stifled a scream. She turned to Billy, her hands balled into fists, straight down at her sides.

“What are you doing?” She asked sharply, whispering as loud as she could.

“Didn’t I just ask you that?” Billy cocked his head.

“I was coming down to get something to drink and they were, like, having a moment, and I didn’t want to interrupt, okay?”

“Sure,” Billy said. “Anyways, Cait wants Officer Pervy on the bridge, so get up there.”

Xiphos pointed a finger in Billy’s face. He just laughed and slapped her on the back, pushing her towards the bridge.

“So when did you become jealous of Auburn?”

“Oh, I hate you so much.” Xiphos narrowed her eyes, walking ahead of Billy.

“Am I right?”

“I am not jealous of Auburn. AND BEFORE YOU SAY ANYTHING I’m not jealous of Toby, either.”

“Mm hmm.”

“What?” Xiphos spun around, letting Billy catch up with her.

“I was just agreeing,” Billy said innocently. “So which one do you plan on stealing?”

“We are so in a fight right now.”

They stepped on to the bridge, and Xiphos could see the fight between Cait and Captain Lake already in progress. Cait stood on one side of the bridge, right outside her office, her arms folded across her chest. Tre stood by her, looking as if he was trying to edge further and further in front of her. He mirrored Cait’s stance, his eyeing Lake with sharp concentration. Captain Lake and his partner stood on the other. All attention turned to Xiphos and Billy as they entered, and it seemed to make the tiger, Lake’s partner, relax, as if the brief distraction was stopping the fight entirely.

“Oh, hello,” Captain Lake said. “We met earlier, but we were never introduced.” He took a sheet of paper out of his pocket. “You must be Ensign… She Fos?” He looked Jace, who rolled her eyes.

“It’s Zy Fis, sir,” the Xiphos. Lake stuck out his hand, and Xiphos reluctantly shook it.

“A pleasure,” Lake said. “Cait was just telling me how we were going to work together.”

“I was just telling you that you would help us find Logan Vu, and then I would wash my hands of you,” Cait said, her ears back in attack position, her voice sharp. “Secondly, while you are on this boat, you will call me ‘captain’.”

Lake smiled, as if he were watching a Relay Program. “Understood!”

Xiphos fidgeted as the tension in the room became too thick to breathe. She raised her hand. “So, uhm, I have a question. Why aren’t we dead yet?”

“Yeah, She Fos makes a good point,” Billy said. “Aren’t you THE Burian Lake? The pillaging, raping, killing Burian Lake?”

Jace snorted. Cait seemed to mirror Jace’s reaction, rolling her eyes and looking away.

Lake, still smiling, nodded. “Burian Lake isn’t real,” he said.

“Oh, well,” Billy said. “If you put it like that…”

“Burian Lake is the collective fear of governments and people and sailors and merchants. Burian Lake, simply put, is a rumor. All it took were a few really well put together raids with my partner here,” he motioned to Jace, “and the rest worked itself out. A boat sinks due to captain error, but the captain was drunk at the wheel and doesn’t want to admit it, so he blames pirates. I get on the Relay and say, ‘Hey, Burian Lake here, I sank his ship’. Repeat for a decade, and Burian Lake is the scariest person in the world. He also happens to share a name with me. Good taste, I bet.”

“So you never killed anyone?” Xiphos asked.

“I’ve rarely seems him shoot a gun, even,” Jace said. “Doesn’t like violence.”

“It’s so much easier to tell someone I’m Burian Lake than it is to kill them. Usually they bring me what I want and I tell them they were lucky.”

“Not a single person?” Cait asked.

“Once a guy died from a heart attack,” Lake said, his smile fading. “That was awful. But, nope. Any kills to my name were done by much scarier pirates. I do have a Sword of One Thousand Lost Souls, though. Got it after I caught wind of the rumors.” He beamed proudly. Cait narrowed her eyes.

Outside the eye of the Rose, dawn was starting to break. In the distance, the Kelonio flashed code at her. Billy caught it out of the corner of his eye. “They’re worried about us,” he said. “Does our signaler work? I could send a message back.”

“Should,” Lake said. “Jace’s work never leaves a boat entirely stranded.”

Billy set to work at the helm, readying a light signaler just above the eye. He turned back to Cait. “So, what am I telling them?”

“The truth,” Cait said. “The Travelers are on the mystery boat, and we are helping the crew of the boat they were previously on with a medical emergency. If they ask, we are having minor technical trouble and we should be up and running soon.” She gave Lake a quizzical look. Billy began tapping away on the light’s shutter key.

“Yeah. Right. My partner, Jace, can help you out with that.”

Jace stepped forward and nodded to Cait.

“Xiphos, you and…”

“It’s just Jace, sir,” she said, reading Cait’s hesitation.

“You go with Jace and get us back online.”

“Sir.” Xiphos followed Jace off the bridge.

“And what are our plans, Burian?” Cait asked.

“The Prime Meridian,” he said. “If Vu is going anywhere, she would go there. Lots of people there to decode a map like the one she has.”

“The once we are up and running, I want you to get us there.” Cait turned to the hatch and started to exit the bridge.

“So did you mean that, about killing me?” Lake followed her, but kept a respectable distance.

“This is not a conversation we are having now,” Cait said. She walked down the hall, a strong, purposeful stride, but more importantly, away from Lake. For a moment, Lake stood awkwardly in the middle of the bridge.

“Sit down,” Billy said. He wrote down code from the Kelonio on a scrap of paper. “You and I have a lot to talk about.”

Cait ended up at the cargo bay, up on the third deck, watching down. The docking ring stood open in the floor close to the engines, and light from Lake’s ship poured up. Jace and Xiphos emerged from the docked boat, both carrying little lanterns, and then opened up the engines. Cait nodded, if only to check off an item on a list in her mind. Their voices filtered up to her, Jace’s confident though somewhat monotonous tone mixed in with short, excited bursts from Xiphos. These two bounced back and forth for a moment, and then a third joined them.

Cait strained to listen, trying to pick out its owner, but it was talked over by an fourth voice, and then a fifth, until half a dozen voices spoke over Jace and Xiphos. Cait’s head started hurting, a stabbing pain in the front of her skull. She winced, holding her head, gripping the guard rail on the walkway. She closed her eyes, but white light strained through, and she felt faint, and there was a hand on her back-

“Cait?”

Everything stopped. The migraine subsided, and she cautiously straightened up. Billy stood next to her, his hand still on her back. He watched her through worried eyes, and Cait felt ashamed for making him feel as such.

“I-” She started, but couldn’t quite make out the rest.

“We’re going to the infirmary,” Billy said. Steering her with one muscular arm, he guided her to the infirmary. Cait didn’t fight it.

[g]

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Back to Part 046 – Forward to Part 048

Tags: adventure, anthro, Boat Story, fiction, furry, serial, web fiction, weblit