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Adjusting to the Alternia's new crew members has been difficult. Vriska terrifies me, and goes out of her way to torment me when she can. She finds it fun. Fortunately, the religious girl devotes a lot of time to distracting and tempering her. Our first mate had recruited Kanaya as a chaplain. What the hell use would a chaplain be on a pirate ship? But the captain trusts Terezi completely, and I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Terezi's choices in general were unfathomable. Like Nepeta. The girl is technically an adult, probably, if you squint. I have only really her word for it that she's useful in a fight. I suspect that wasn't the reason our first mate had picked her. The other two keep to themselves a lot. They, at least, were both sailors before, and apparently old friends. Maybe more. I've only seen the guy when we're on break in our bunk-room, and I haven't spoken to the girl at all. I don't know either of their names yet.
Karkat is, when I think about it, pretty strange in his decisions. Very, very few ships have women on their crew. Most people think it's bad luck, but evidently he doesn't. It's a pretty big ship, with lots of space for our plundered riches. When we first got it - back then it was just me, him and a bunch of people who are now feeding the fishes - he designated two bunk rooms, one for the men, and one for the ladies. The rule has always remained the same, that we are absolutely forbidden from going in each other's rooms, if anyone's watching. At least I'm safe from Vriska when I'm in my bunk. She never knows when Equius or Sollux or, hell, Karkat himself are in here and she's not going to want to get herself kicked off the only ship in this archipelago that'll have her on board.
Yesterday, we were cruising close to a small chain of islands. Equius came up to the helm.
"Captain," he asked, his voice contemptuous. He was kind of stuck-up, despite his appearance. "Not that I'm questioning your judgement, but why are we sailing so close to deserted islands? There is surely nobody to prey on out here."
"That sounds an awful lot like you are questioning my judgement," the captain replied, not looking away from the shore. He was good at dealing with sarcasm and passive-aggressiveness. He's spent the last three years living with Terezi, after all.
"All I mean is that I don't understand."
"Course you don't. These islands aren't deserted. Well-known naval secret. All kinds of folks - merchants, pirates, whatever - hide stuff here when they don't want it found. You wouldn't know to look at it, but there's ships coming and going all the time. Like that one over there."
"Where?"
"Off on the horizon, moored by that island. See it? Tavros, take the helm, will you? And hand me your spyglass."
I did, and he peered through the lens at the ship. "Huh," he said. "A royal naval vessel. Probably out searching for contraband. Like they'll find any." He handed the glass back to me. "Gonna be armed. What do you think, can we take 'em?"
"I think..." The captain would often ask me things like that. He never cared what I actually thought. He'd made up his mind already. I just had to guess what he was thinking so I could agree. He's not really that complicated, though. "I think our new crew should get the chance to, uh, stretch its legs, cap'n."
"Good answer," he said, patting me on the shoulder. I had to hand onto the wheel to stop myself falling over. But then, with two peg legs, I had to do that all the time. He continued. "We'll hide behind this island. Wait for them to cast off, give 'em nowhere to hide."
A natural philosopher busied herself with collecting samples on a remote island. Over the last two years she had petitioned the monarchy - or, more accurately, the bureaucracy - to allow her to take this expedition to the archipelago known only as the Veil. Ultimately, they relented, granting her a place on a navy vessel that was being sent to the chain in search of smugglers. Spending the weeks on a military ship staffed by men had been difficult for her, but she had a cabin to herself that she spent most of her time in, and it had been worth it to pursue the dream.
Here she was at last, studying the beautiful flora and fauna native to these islands, from the colourful flowers to the birds with interesting beaks to the gigantic tortoises that amused her so much. These were the days she'd cherish for the rest of her life.
The call came to return to ship. The marines had combed the island and found nothing, so they were moving on to the next one. Jade gathered up the cages and pots she'd filled and hurried back to her cabin.
Through a porthole she watched the coast slowly drift away. Every time she regretted not being able to spend more time on the island finding more undocumented plants and creatures, but each day gave her a whole new bounty to explore.
She set about writing about all the things she'd collected and seen on the island. It was laborious work, but she went about it with enthusiasm and glee. Nobody had ever studied any of these things before. She was the first. She had discovered them and got to name them. It was her hope that she would go down in history, remembered as one of the great naturalists of her time.
There was some commotion from the deck. People were running around the ships corridors. Could it be a storm? She looked again out of her porthole. No, the sky was clear and the sea calm. But there was a ship out there.
A very unfriendly-looking ship.
I looked through my spyglass. The marines were mobilising on board - they must have seen us. I reported this.
"Well, Karkat," said Terezi, "it looks like you've finally got the notoriety you've been looking for all these years."
"Are you sure they didn't just see the flag?" Equius asked, pointing at it. A black flag emblazoned with a horned skull. It was a bit of a giveaway.
"Why are you even still up here?" Karkat said. "Right, here are my orders. Terezi, you go take Nepeta, Aradia, Sollux and the two lovebirds down to the cannons, get them loaded. Tavros, I want you, Equius, Vriska, Gamzee and Kanaya to get some grapples and prepare to board."
The crew got to work. As the captain pulled us in alongside the royal vessel, both sets of cannons opened fire. With the cover of cannonfire we hooked onto their ship and swung across, forcing the sailors into a swordfight. Well, they had swords. Of our lot only Vriska was fighting with a cutlass. I like to use a quarterstaff. Gamzee fights with a club, Kanaya uses a chain and Equius is a straight-up brawler. Once the fight had begun in earnest the rest of the crew joined us, with their own exotic armoury. The navy is trained in swordfighting at most. They couldn't handle us. Most of them were killed, the rest took the dinghy they had stowed away and fled. We had the ship to ourselves.
Aradia spoke. "Captain, what's the protocol now?"
Karkat shrugged. "Search the ship, take everything that isn't nailed down, then take the nails." He looked around at the assembled crew. "What are you waiting for?" We scrambled below deck.
There's usually not much to find on military ships. Rations, maybe a few personal belongings. The captain tends to have some decent loot. I went down to the cabins with Nepeta. You never know what you might find.
"Hey, Nepeta," I asked. "Why did you join the crew?"
"Cause I wanted to see the sea!" She shouted cheerfully. I'll say it now, she is adorable.
"Yeah, you've got a motivation, but, uh... you're really young. You must be, what, sixteen?" She nodded enthusiastically. "It's a really dangerous job. What if you died?"
"I won't die. Terezi will protect me."
I gave her a weird look. Did they know each other? Before joining the crew, I mean. How did they get into such an arrangement?
I got distracted when one of the cabins was locked from the inside. "Either they climbed out the porthole or someone's still in here," I said.
"Well duuuuh, stumpy. Let me handle it." She put on one of her strange gauntlets with the long claws and started to pick the lock. She must be good with her hands. The door was open within a minute. Inside, we found a young woman cowering with the corner, her arms wrapped around a finch cage.
"Captain!" I called. "I found someone below deck. I think she's a scientist or something."
We brought her forward. Nepeta had tied her hands together, though I don't think she'd have tried anything funny.
"Is she dangerous?" He asked. She didn't look it. "Is she useful?" Again, no. "I don't care then. Do whatever you want."
I took her to the side of the deck and untied her, with some difficulty. "Sorry about this, lady. It's just what we do."
She looked at me with fear in her eyes.
I was merciful. I gave her all the water she could possibly want and decided not to burden her with any sort of boat.
Jade choked as she washed up on the shore. She wasn't a good swimmer, but the currents had been helpful. She'd nearly drowned twice. Her soaked clothes were in disarray; her wet hair stuck to her face uncomfortably. And everything she'd done, everything she came here to do, was gone. In the distance, she saw the ship she was on going up in flames. She didn't know how much, if any, of her work got saved, if "saved" could apply to being taken by those monsters. She supposed she was lucky that this was all that had happened to her. Pirates could do a lot worse.
She wouldn't cry. She was a grown woman. Adults don't cry.
She concerned herself with what she would do now. She could survive on this island, sure, but she needed to get back to civilisation. Perhaps her work wasn't completely unsalvageable. If nothing else, she wanted to go home.
She kept herself occupied by building a bonfire with as much green stuff as she could find. That should give a nice signal. The island was densely forested, so she wasn't at risk of running out there.
Jade lit her signal, and sat beside it on the beach. And cried.
Not far away, the Sassacre made its way to port. Its captain, a privateer by the name of Egbert, was taking two passengers to their destinations - a noble young lady preparing to find her feet in the colonies, and an infamous criminal that he had captured with great difficulty.
"John," said the elegant lady. "What's that over there?"
"Where?"
"To the left."
"Port."
"That's a port?"
"No, left is port." He peered into the distance, and saw a rising trail of smoke. "Hmm. Could be a signal fire. Someone's in danger."
"How dramatic."
"All in a day's work, Rose."
"That's Miss Lalonde to you."
"Whatever."
The captain steered his ship toward the signal. He liked to think of himself as a hero of the seas. This is just what he does.