Seas of the Red Star

by Andrew Gates

  “You can keep your secrets if you like, but be wary. Information does not stay hidden for long on the seas. Sooner or later, someone will figure you out.”

  Ellen disagreed. Unless the captain exposed them, she doubted anyone would piece it together.

  She quickly glanced back to the guard. The Navy man’s head now dangled from his neck. His eyes were closed shut. His breathing was heavy.

  Ellen smiled and slowly stood up from the floor. She shook out her legs for a few seconds, then stepped over to the bars.

  “What are you doing?” Russell asked.

  “Ssh. Keep your voice down,” Ellen replied in a hushed tone. She pointed to the guard lying against the wall.

  “He’s asleep,” Russell noted. A smile lit up his face as if he had suddenly put it all together.

  Ellen grabbed ahold of the bars with both hands and forced them apart. The process was slow, but it worked.

  “I don’t understand,” the boy said as he stood up from the floor. “I thought you said you couldn’t break us out.”

  “Of course I can break us out, but I wasn’t going to admit that while the guard could hear everything.”

  Dave stood up now.

  Once the bars were wide enough, they each squirmed through one by one, trying their best to stay quiet.

  Other prisoners watched in awe as the three of them freely walked past the cells. Dave held his finger before his mouth, hoping that they would all stay quiet. He promptly picked up the guard’s keys hanging on the peg against the wall and looked at them in confusion.

  “I… I don’t understand how these work,” he said.

  “You put the pointy end into the hole and turn,” Russell replied. “Haven’t you used a key before?”

  “Not one like this.” Dave handed the keys off to Russell instead.

  The boy wasted no time releasing his fellow crewmen. Everyone remained quiet all the while.

  “What do we do about him?” Dave whispered, pointing to the sleeping guard.

  “I don’t want to hurt him. He looks like he’s out cold. Let’s just leave him here,” Ellen replied.

  “The sea scorgers aren’t going to like that. They want the Navy dead.”

  “If they have a problem with that, they’ll have to go through me.”

  “Good thinkin’ there, lass,” Ellis said as he stepped out from his cell.

  “Aye, you’re a keen sort after all,” added Briggs.

  The final sea scorgers emerged from their cells now. They all stood at attention and looked to Ellen for guidance.

  “Where is the captain?” Ellen asked, noting his absence. Everyone else seemed to be here but him.

  “They took him aside. He must be somewhere else in the ship,” Aiden explained.

  “What do we do with this sea rat here?” asked Thomas, motioning to the unconscious Navy sailor.

  “Leave him,” Ellen said, holding her hands out like a shield. “He is not our concern.”

  “Not yer’ concern maybe, but I’ll see him dead!” Thomas replied. He quickly stomped his way over to the man.

  “No!” Ellen replied.

  “Who be you to give us orders?” Aiden added. There was a tone of aggression in his voice.

  In all the commotion, the Navy man began to stir. He opened his eyes and jolted in shock when he realized what was happening. His face grew pale white in an instant. He stood up and held both hands in the air as a crowd of sea scorgers surrounded him.

  “Oh, please don’t hurt me!” he immediately begged. The man desperately backed into the wall.

  Ellen moved in front of him and turned to face the sea scorgers.

  “Don’t do it,” she said, pleading with the angry men.

  “Move aside, lass. This isn’t your fight,” said Aiden. He held both fists in the air.

  “I told you these two couldn’t be trusted,” added Thomas.

  “Hey, what’s going on down there?” asked a voice from above. The sound of footsteps quickly followed, prompting the sea scorgers to quiet down immediately.

  “Uh… nothing!” the Navy man lied. Sweat dripped down his face. “I, uh, everything is under control!”

  “That doesn’t sound like nothing,” replied a sailor as he rounded the corner to the brig. He froze instantly as he came face to face with a crowd of freed captives.

  Before Ellen could say another word, all hell broke loose. The prisoners ran after the Navy man, shouting and stomping all the while. Others pushed past Ellen and grabbed onto the guard. Ellen did not bother stopping them this time. She knew the situation had quickly escalated beyond her control.

  Dave stood idle, simply taking in the action around him. It seemed he did not know what he was supposed to do.

  This is our chance, Yuri said to her.

  What do you propose?

  The prisoners are going to take over the ship. I say, use this confusion to find the ship’s captain. This prisoner escape is our leverage. Make him bring us to the Governor.

  Ellen had to admit, Yuri’s idea was sound. She just had to make sure she found the captain before any of these sea scorgers fucked it up.

  Without wasting another second, Ellen jolted past the crowd and made her way up the staircase. A dark passage awaited her at the top with rooms on both sides of a thin hall. Another staircase going up stood at the opposite end. Navy sailors flooded out the rooms all at once, some half-dressed, others ready to go. It seemed like a battle was about to unfold. The Navy men held whatever weapons they could find, knives, swords, axes.

  Oh, this is going to be fun, Ellen joked.

  Still want to go non-lethal?

  Absolutely. These people are innocent.

  I agree, but I don’t see how that’s going to work here. You’re in a narrow hallway. This is the definition of a bottleneck scenario.

  Have you ever read about the Battle of Thermopylae?

  I’m an AI. I don’t need to read about things. I just know them.

  But you’re familiar with the battle?

  You’re referring to the battle between the vastly outnumbered Greeks and the Persians. The Greeks used a narrow passage to funnel the soldiers in one by one and took care of them with their superior fighting skills.

  That’s the one. I’m thinking it’ll go something like that.

  You do realize the Greeks eventually lost that battle, right?

  Yeah, but it took a few days for that to happen. We won’t be here that long.

  Suit yourself.

  Ellen counted six men in total. With the hall as narrow as it was, the men could only walk two at a time. The first two in front both wielded swords. She positioned herself in the center of the hall and waited as they slowly made their way to her.

  Ellen took a deep breath and raised her fists. This was not going to be easy.

  One of the men in front raised the sword above his head and took off at full speed, shouting at the top of his lungs. Ellen waited for him to reach her, then spun out of the way at the last second as the man brought the sword down. He missed his target and continued forward. Ellen shot her foot out and held it still, prompting him to trip and fall down the staircase. She could hear his body toppling against the metal steps.

  The next man did not run as quickly, but was nearly on Ellen now. She crouched to the floor as his sword slid through the air, just barely skimming the tip of her brown hair. She jumped up from her crouched position and slammed her head into the man’s stomach. With her enhanced strength in this low gravity, the blow was considerable. The sailor doubled back and could not help but release the sword from his grip. Ellen caught the weapon in the air before it even touched the floor. The man stammered and eventually fell.

  Now armed, Ellen took note of the sleek sword in her hand. She swung it around a few times, getting used to its feel. It was surprisingly light and nimble.

  Two more sailors were nearly on her now. One held an axe in his hand. The other, a knife. Ellen held the sword high. The two men stopped a few s
teps before her and grinned.

  They’re looking forward to this, Yuri noted.

  Ellen did not respond. She took another deep breath.

  Before she knew it, both men ran forward at the same time, swinging their weapons wildly at her. Ellen immediately began blocking their strikes with her sword, but with two targets to fight at once, it was not easy to keep up. Her eyes darted this way and that, trying to track the movements of both men simultaneously. Eventually they backed her into a wall.

  For a moment, both men raised their weapons at the same time. This was her opening.

  Ellen raised her right knee to one of the men’s pelvises. She heard an intense cracking sound as they made contact. The man doubled over and dropped the knife from his grip.

  Meanwhile the other man swung the axe through the air. Ellen dodged the swing and intercepted the man’s arm with her own. Her forearm collided against his humerus and snapped it instantly. The man shrieked and dropped his own weapon to the floor.

  Both injured men, now pale white in fear, turned and stumbled up the staircase at the other end of the hall. Four down. Two to go.

  Footsteps echoed from down the steps. Ellen quickly turned her head to face the source of the noise. Before she knew it, her sea scorger friends had arrived. They crowded into the narrow hall behind her.

  The remaining two sailors froze in fear. Whatever confidence they may have had mere seconds ago was erased from their faces.

  The sea scorgers are going to kill those men, Yuri warned.

  I know.

  “Run!” Ellen shouted to the Navy sailors. She motioned to the staircase at the other end of the hall.

  The two men, whether out of fear or confusion, listened to her order. They promptly turned and sprinted up the steps. Ellen followed behind, still holding her sword in hand. She could hear the loud footsteps of the sea scorgers at her back.

  Once at the top of the steps, the hall opened to a wide space. Ellen paused as she arrived, taking it all in. The room resembled the bridge of a spaceship. There was a helm, several seats, a variety of levers and knobs. Small slits in the walls provided visibility to the world outside. This was a far more advanced vessel than the Red God’s Gleam. The technology here was easily a century or two ahead.

  A familiar man stood with a pistol to Captain Azzorro’s head in the center of the room. Ellen recognized this as the man who she had negotiated with to take them captive. Other men lined the walls, each with a firearm pointed in her direction.

  “Hold fire,” she said, putting her hands in the air. She took a deep breath. She could feel her heart racing.

  Suddenly her sea scorger friends arrived, making a whole lot of noise at once. A few startled Navy men let out a shot. Ellen instinctively dropped to the floor, miraculously unscathed. The same could not be said for some of the men at her back.

  “Hold!” shouted the man with a gun to Captain Azzorro’s head. There was a tone of anger in his voice.

  The Navy men held fire. Ellen stood back up and took a few calm steps forward.

  “There is no reason to fire!” she said, glad to see that this man seemed to agree with her. “I do not want more blood spilled.”

  “I will hear your pleas,” replied the man holding Captain Azzorro, “but only if I like what you say. You may be a valuable captive, but you are not worth the lives the men on this ship.”

  “I understand,” Ellen said. She calmly set her sword down on the floor and walked his way. “You see, I come to you unarmed.”

  “You can stay right there.”

  Ellen stopped moving.

  “Now kick it.”

  Ellen kicked the sword forward, far out of reach.

  “Now, Corporal Ellen Milsen, what is it you wish to tell me?” the man continued. He gulped. Ellen wondered if this was some sort of nervous tick.

  “Release these men and take Dave and me to the Governor. In exchange, we will not hurt you.”

  There were laughs around the room, though the man in the center did not share their sense of humor. He stared Ellen in the eyes, then nervously glanced at the swarm of sea scorgers at her back. Though his crew may have thought this an easy fight, this man clearly had his doubts.

  He paused as the laughter died down. The entire ship grew silent around him.

  “You agree to stand down?” he clarified.

  “I do,” Ellen confirmed. She looked back to the sea scorgers and nodded her head, making sure they understood the arraignment. Then she looked back to the man. “We will leave in peace.”

  “We can put the men on the lifeboats. We will not take them to port.”

  “That much is fine. They can find their way to safety. Just make sure they are unharmed.”

  Faint mumblings followed from the crewmen. Some seemed visibly upset by this arraignment.

  “Captain, are you sure this is a good idea?” one of the Navy men finally asked, interrupting the conversation. “We can shoot them now and put an end to this!”

  “They broke from the cell and got this far into the ship on their own. No prisoners have ever done that before. I would not be so brash, Cunningham,” the man replied.

  The Navy crew seemed to shut up after that.

  Good job. You’ve scared their captain, Yuri noted.

  That explains why he’s so willing to comply.

  “We have a deal, sir,” Ellen said, getting them back on topic. “Release these men. You will not be harmed.”

  The man slowly nodded his head as the sailors lowered their firearms. Ellen took a deep sigh of relief.

  “Men, escort these prisoners to the lifeboats,” he ordered. The men complied and slowly moved to the sea scorgers. “I will hold your captain here until all are safely aboard,” the man continued. “If any harm comes to my crew, your captain is finished.”

  “I understand,” Ellen said. She turned to face the men. “These men will not let their captain die. They’re too loyal for that.”

  The men nodded back. It seemed they were all in agreement.

  “Very well,” the man responded.

  Good job. That could have been messy, Yuri said.

  There were still casualties.

  It could have been a lot worse. These two groups could have slaughtered each other.

  That much was true.

  So what’s next? Yuri asked, changing the subject.

  Isn’t it clear? Ellen replied. We finally meet the Governor.

  Land Ho!

  Earth Date (Revised Julian Calendar): 01.25.5673

  Location: Unnamed Lifeboats, Taspansa, The Governor’s Dominion

  Russell gripped the side of the wooden lifeboat as it shook in the waves. Aiden and Thomas sat before him, rowing with all their might. Ellis and Captain Azzorro sat behind, staring at the compass.

  “Any idea yet where we are?” Aiden asked. He sounded like it was a struggle just to speak through his deep breaths. They had each taken turns rowing for the last several hours, though Aiden’s shift was admittedly the longest.

  “We be on course, that much I know. How far, now that be a different question,” the captain answered.

  Russell looked back at the other lifeboats following their lead. Some boats were closer behind than others. Every sea scorger aboard looked just as weary as Aiden, some even more so. Russell saw several men about to pass out. One even dangled overboard before being pulled back in.

  No food, no water, no opportunity to stop and rest. At times Russell would kick his head back and open his mouth to the sky, just for a drop of water. But the rain would never satisfy his thirst. It seemed unquenchable.

  A rumbling sound prompted the boy to move his hands from the ship to his stomach. He pressed in tightly, feeling its emptiness. He doubled over, practically bringing his head to his knees.

  “The crew cannot go on much longer, Captain,” Ellis explained, pointing to weary Russell.

  “Those blasted sea rats! They call this ‘letting us live’? The Navy bastards have led us to our de
ath!” Aiden shouted. “We’re lost out here! Lost!”

  “We’re not lost, Aiden. Stow that talk!” Captain Azzorro shot back. “It’s as I said, we be on course.”

  “Where’s the proof?”

  The boat was silent for a moment, but that silence did not last long. Ellis suddenly pointed ahead as a gleaming smile lit up his face.

  “There!” he shouted, leaning forward. “Land ho!”

  Everyone turned to face the sight. Sure enough, the captain’s island stood far off on the horizon.

  “Coral Cove,” Russell said aloud. He felt a smile form on his own face. “Thank the Red God.”

  “Aye, Coral Cove,” the captain repeated. “We’ll find ourselves a mighty warm welcome there. Folks from Coral Cove have little compassion for the Governor.”

  “I can’t wait to step on solid land!” Thomas cheered.

  “What’s our next move when we get there?” Ellis wondered.

  “When we set foot on that land, get yer food and yer water. That be priority. Then, when we’re well and good, we assemble the sea scorgers,” the captain explained.

  “Assemble? What do you mean?” Russell asked.

  “I’ll be puttin’ letters together and have the birds take them out. The Navy wants to display their power with their fancy new boats, well we’ll show them that we’re powerful too. I say, it’s time to unite the scorger captains. It’s time to stop those blasted dogs once and for all.”

  The Governor’s Island

  Earth Date (Revised Julian Calendar): 01.28.5673

  Location: North Docks, Brown Sanctum, Taspansa, The Governor’s Dominion

  The door opened, letting in a cloud of mist from outside. Ellen closed her eyes as the moisture covered her body. She had spent far too long in the crammed confines of this hot steel ship. The mist was a refreshing change.

  Ellen calmly opened her eyes again and stared at solid land beyond the open doorway. She rubbed her face in disbelief. Aside from the uninhabitable Speartip Ridge, Ellen had not seen land in over a millennium. It was strange having gone so long without it. It almost did not seem real.