“Easy, lass, I need my legs.” Nel tried to extract herself from the girl. “Where's the captain?”
“Nel!” Horatio answered the question. He was flanked by the rest of the crew, Gabbi and Piper trailing close on his heels. “Is that my ship? It is! Nel, you found my ship, you brilliant girl!” And from there Nel watched the captain's face change from exuberance to confusion. He raised himself up on his toes trying to get a better look.
“Who are all those people on my ship!?” he demanded loudly. “Those aren't my crew, they're all here.” He looked back to confirm this. “And what's wrong with them? They look like they're all . . . Nel! Why are there dead people on my ship? No dead people on the Tantamount, it's a rule!”
“Skipper?” Piper queried. “What is going on?”
“And is that Sharpe?” Gabbi said angrily. “What's he doing on our ship? Skipper?”
“It's a long story,” Nel said. “Captain, that cargo we were transporting, the medical supplies . . .”
“It turns people into Draugr,” the captain finished for her.
“How . . . ?” She looked down at Violet. “That missing box, gods below. People here started turning?”
“No,” Piper rumbled. “They did not.”
“Then what . . . Piper, what's happened since I've been gone?”
“Sorry, Skipper,” Violet whispered from down at her knees. “It's all my fault.”
“No, it's not, Violet,” Horatio told her firmly.
“Piper,” Nel encouraged.
“After you went looking for the ship, the Alliance dreadnought arrived,” Piper started to explain.
“The monstrosity,” Horatio muttered.
“Please, Captain,” Piper sighed. “Anyway, the dreadnought was too big to dock but they sent over landing parties. Scarlett met with them.”
“She told them everyone on Rim was going to turn into Draugr,” Violet piped up. “Said they all had to be eliminated.”
“How do you know what she said?” Nel asked.
Violet hung her head.
“She was keeping an eye on Scarlett,” Piper said, sounding reproachful. “Like you told her to.”
Nel sighed and shook her head. One more long conversation to have later.
“All right,” she said. “What happened next?”
“The Alliance sailors weren't happy, they argued with her,” Violet said.
“She must have talked them round though,” Gabbi said darkly. “They went out and attacked one of the slums.”
“Maybe they were trying to take prisoners,” Piper said, “it is hard to say. But it did not go their way. They did not have enough people ashore and they were driven back to the docks.”
“They were driven back?” Nel shook her head. “Even with a golem?”
“The golem stayed at the docks, with Scarlett. Protecting the rest of the cargo we brought, they didn't fight 'til the Alliance had to retreat to the docks. Desperate, Skipper, the people here were very desperate. We thought the Alliance was going to try again, they started landing more of their people on the docks—after they confiscated our cargo I might add. The rest of their ships arrived, the Morningstar and the Loneliness.”
“Heathen,” Nel muttered.
“I didn't see her,” Violet said. “But Scarlett, Onyx . . . they saw me.”
Gabbi hugged the girl. “They almost got her too.”
“Almost,” Horatio snorted. “We convinced them to leave her alone. They chased us away from the docks after that.”
“Thank you for that, Captain,” Violet transferred her affection to her captain's bony frame.
Horatio patted her head awkwardly. “Yes, well, again you're very welcome there, Violet. Anyway, Nel, it looks like someone convinced them to pull out. They've been gone a while now. No way to tell what they're up to. We were the only ship that's been let through the blockade in weeks, apparently. There's nothing here that can fly. Which reminds me, what happened to that tug boat you and Jack took out? The owner has been asking.”
“I know what they're up to,” Nel said grimly. “Violet, go to the ship and find Sharpe and Quill, bring them over here. Get Stoker too while you're there.”
“Who's Stoker?” Violet asked, puzzled.
“He's the Alliance midshipman. You remember the rankings? Good girl, get going.”
“Alliance midshipman, Nel?” Horatio complained. “Who have you been letting on my ship? Gods below, just how many people did you let on? Look at them all! Hells, where did you put them . . . Nel, are they all paying passengers?” He brightened at the thought.
“No, Captain,” Nel sighed, “we're not getting paid this time around.”
“Seems like lately we never get paid,” Gabbi muttered. “Won't be able to stock the ship at this rate.”
“Jack's been finding all sorts of ways round that,” Nel said.
“Huh?”
“Never mind, later.”
Violet was back with the other three trailing behind her. Sharpe's arrival was met with thinly veiled hostility.
“We have a problem,” Nel said brusquely. “The Alliance thinks people on Rim are infected, same as Grange.”
“Ah.” Sharpe blinked, considering this new information. “That is a problem.”
“The locals threw them off Rim,” Nel said. “They've gone to regroup.”
“And what will they do?” Quill asked. He pointed to Stoker. “You are the Alliance monkey, you must have some idea.”
“Your mate's a real charmer when he wants something, Castor,” Stoker commented. “Can't say to be honest. Getting hard for them to contain the situation. If I was in charge I'd be starting to get worried. If things have spread to Rim, who's to say it hasn't got to Thatch as well.”
“It hasn't,” Sharpe declared firmly. “And there's no way it could have.”
“You and I know that, mate.” Stoker shrugged. “But frightened imaginations run wild.”
“Hells,” Sharpe muttered.
“Figure they'll start calling in more ships,” Stoker added. “They'll have to, can't keep it bottled up on their own any more.”
“Who're you?” Horatio pushed himself forward. “What were you doing on my ship?”
Stoker looked Horatio up and down, eyes settling on his hat. He saluted. “Captain Phelps, I presume? Midshipman Stoker, formerly of the Falchions Rise, Alliance Air-Corps. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir. Grand ship you captain there, made the trip from Grange faster than any I've sailed on. Was an honour to sail under her colours, sir.”
“Oh, well, thank you, my boy, much obliged.” Horatio faltered under the praise, unable to hide his delight. He tipped his hat at Stoker before leaning back and whispering to Nel, “This one has good taste, what did he say his name was? Never mind, get it later, I want to keep him.”
Nel grimaced, shaking her head.
“We should have a little time before the Alliance floods this place with ships,” Sharpe spoke up.
“You I don't like though.” Horatio adjusted his hat so he could glare up at Sharpe. “Not any more. You're an ungrateful little bilge rat, after everything I did for you, assaulting me and my crew and setting fire to my ship.”
“Aye, Captain,” Sharpe sighed, bowing his head. “I'm all that. I'm sorry for the way I went about things. I needed your ship—I had a planetful of people to rescue.” He pointed to where the people from Grange were still filing off the Tantamount.
“Really,” he said, “it was all for the children.”
“Children?” Horatio echoed.
“Aye, Captain, children,” Stoker confirmed the story. “Orphan children, not a living parent amongst them.”
Quill snorted derisively.
“Don't you start, Loveland,” Nel warned him. “I can't believe I'm saying this, but his reasons were better than yours.”
“Loveland?” Stoker repeated.
“What of it?” Quill snapped.
“Nothing,” Stoker said. “It's a lovely name, rolls o
ff the tongue.”
“What reasons has he got?” Gabbi demanded, pointing at Quill. “He never does nothing for nobody.”
“I have a bone to pick with you, chubby one,” Quill glared.
“Chubby? You mouthy skink, that's the last meal you're ever getting out of my galley.”
“For that I thank you,” Quill hissed.
Gabbi scowled. “Thank me? Now I know I'm hearing things.”
“Shut up, all of you,” Nel said. “We don't have much time. Not enough for you all to be fooling like this.”
“Why? What's going on?” Gabbi asked.
“Sharpe,” Nel said. “Tell them what happened to the Falchions.”
Sharpe's eyes darted from one person to the other. “We were rammed.”
“We already knew that, Nel,” Horatio said.
“By what?” Nel prodded.
Sharpe winced. “Another ship?”
“No,” Nel growled, “try again.”
“Hells,” Sharpe sighed. “We were hit by a rock, an asteroid.”
“That's impossible,” Stoker retorted. “I knew those men, there's no way they'd get sunk by a ploughing asteroid. No way!”
“Well, we were,” Sharpe told him.
“How?” Stoker demanded.
“Heathen,” Nel said when Sharpe hesitated in his answer.
Stoker stared at her. “I don't understand.”
“I do,” Horatio said.
Nel had expected that. And in a way she was pleased the captain had been able to put it together, and fast. One of his better days.
The captain waved to her. “Nel, you tell them. I promised.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Nel sighed. Steeling herself, she spoke, “Heathen's a thaumatic.”
“A navigator?” Stoker asked.
“No. Further up the line.”
“How far?” Quill said, his eyes narrowing.
Nel met his eyes. “Far as they go, Quill.”
“I'm still lost,” Stoker said.
“She wasn't navigating the Loneliness,” Quill ignored him, following the thread of the conversation. It was taking him longer than the captain to put it together but his reptilian eyes were narrowed in dark suspicion.
“Because she couldn't,” Nel said.
Quill's fanged maw opened in a silent expression of shocked comprehension. “Her powers are skewed,” he said to Stoker, raising his voice so others could hear. “Grossly. She could never navigate a ship, she'd rip it to pieces, even one like the dreadnought. But she could push something massive and solid. And, more importantly, she could steer it.”
“Or aim it,” Nel finished.
“Gods below,” Stoker whispered. “Skipper, I've heard of people like that in the Alliance. There aren't many but . . . gods below, they call them . . .”
“Planet killers,” Sharpe sighed. “We really need to leave. Now.”
Chapter 11
Violet's legs ached. She'd been running messages over what felt like half of Rim since the skipper brought the Tantamount back. Now she was trailing the captain on his inspection of the ship. They'd fixed what they could, strengthened the rigging, reinforced burnt timbers, repacked what little stores they'd managed to salvage and scavenge.
It made Violet claustrophobic to think of all those people packed down in the hold together. Two days like that, barely able to move, all pressed up against each other. It would have driven her mad.
But it was a good thing Quill and the skipper had done, Violet realised. She'd seen the faces of the people they'd brought in. And looking at the faces of the children, the only ones still alive, she'd suddenly realised something. Why the captain was such an old man with all his lines and wrinkles.
It was responsibility that made you old. Responsibility for the ship and the crew. Their ship had carried that medicine that was responsible for what had happened to those folk on Grange, so in some ways they were responsible for looking out for them now.
It was what made the captain look so old sometimes. It made Violet feel old when she looked at those children.
If she wasn't careful she was going to grow another tail. Couldn't have that. She'd be old before her time at this rate.
“She's a good girl,” the captain said unexpectedly. “One of the best.”
Violet blinked. The captain was fanning himself with his hat, looking around the hold. He was smiling.
“She's a fine ship, Captain.”
“Aye, she is, lass. Breaks my heart to see her hurting like this,” the captain sighed. “And I think we'll put her through more before we're clear of this.”
“She can handle it, Captain,” Violet said. “She's a hard one.”
“Aye,” the captain chuckled. “Just like her skipper. Speaking of which, I need a word with her. I think we're done here, Violet.”
“You don't need me for anything else, Captain?” Violet asked.
“No, lass, not right now. Though I imagine there's someone else who does. That's why you're lurking around, Mister Sharpe?”
“Aye, Captain,” Sharpe's voice came from behind Violet, making her turn. “I was wanting a word before we all parted ways.”
“The last time you were on my ship you stole her.” The captain frowned at him. “I trust there'll be no repeat of that.”
“No, Captain,” Sharpe promised. “Got my eye on another. Not as pretty as the Tantamount, but she'll do the job.”
“We'll see,” the captain said. “I'll be with Nel if anyone asks, Violet.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Sharpe waited 'til the captain was gone.
“You used me,” Violet said before he could start.
“Aye, I did,” Sharpe said. “I needed the distraction.”
“Scarlett came after me. She tried to kill me.”
Sharpe winced. “That was a risk. I knew it was a risk and I still did it. I'm sorry, but I had to. If I had to do it again . . .”
“You'd what?”
“I'd still do it.”
Violet grimaced. She could appreciate the honesty. And after seeing the children from Grange . . . maybe she could understand. Maybe.
“You and Vaughn managed to handle Scarlett and her pet rock, I hear.”
“Skipper's a hard woman.” Violet shrugged. “She looks after her crew.”
“Aye, she does at that.”
“Why'd you steal the deed, Sharpe? Captain said you knew it was fake. Why bother if it wasn't the real one?”
“Have you seen the real one?” Sharpe replied.
Violet made a face. “I ain't even seen the fake one.”
“Well, if you get the chance, make sure you read whose name is on it. I'll admit as I'm curious to that, but guess that's gonna have to wait. Captain keeps the deed close, couldn't get if off him if I tried.”
“You should go,” Violet said, turning away from him. “I don't think we've got anything left to say here.”
“Aye, I'm going,” Sharpe said. “You take care though, princess. Remember what I said about this ship, everyone's got a partner. Nel's going to need someone else to balance her out once the captain's gone. I hope you're up to the job.”
Violet heard him leave but didn't watch him go. She kept her focus on what she was doing though her mind wanted to stray. Captain ain't going anywhere, she thought. The skipper neither. Not if I got any say about it.
“I'd like a word with my first officer.”
The captain stood in front of her, hands sheathed in the pockets of his jacket, hat perched and straightened over his stringy hair. His face was more deeply lined than Nel thought it should be, but his eyes were bright and alert.
“Captain,” she acknowledged him, raising a hand to her forehead.
Horatio took a seat on a pile of planking, wooden debris in the process of being pulled up. Stoker and Sharpe had set their Grange crews to work swiftly, putting their mad plan into action.
“You never salute me,” he said. “Can't remember the last time you did.”
“And since when did you ever listen to what I tell you?” Horatio chuckled.
“I always listen to what you say, Captain,” Nel said.
Horatio snorted. “Nel, we put on a fine show but everyone knows it's you who runs this ship.”
“You're the captain of the Tantamount, sir,” Nel said. “The crew and I wouldn't have it any other way.”
“Aye, you're a miserably stubborn bunch, aren't you?” The captain chuckled again. “Gods bless you for that. Do you remember Cauldron?”
“Hard not too, Captain.”
“Ebon Masaius asked whose name was on the deed to the ship. Have you ever looked at it?”
“Captain,” Nel said, “It doesn't matter to me which name is on some scrap of parchment. You're the captain, my Captain, that's all I want.”
Horatio smiled, pleased. “Time was you had another captain.”
“Time was I wore tight pressed whites and saluted every other officer.” Nel shuddered. “You told me not to bring that stuff aboard the Tantamount.”
“How long have you been with me, Nel? How long since I told you that?”
Nel smiled. “A while, Captain.”
“You never talk about your time in the Alliance, not since you signed on.”
“No, Captain,” Nel sighed.
“Gods below, Nel, it wouldn't kill you to confide in someone once in a while. Get drunk some time, let it all out.”
“You asked me to stop doing that as well, Captain,” she said.
“I'm not going to be around forever, Nel,” Horatio said.
“You got money riding on that, Captain?”
Horatio made a face. “Quill told you about that, then. Stupid thing really. I lost at cards to that big gorilla you ran into at Cauldron. What was his name? Brawn. Gods, it was years ago now. And there was you, fresh out of the Alliance and us needing a new officer.”
Nel snorted, not trusting herself to say anything.
Horatio fidgeted with his hands. “Dammit, Nel, this crew bets on everything, you know that.”
“But . . . Sharpe, Captain?” Nel gave her captain a pained expression. “Do you have to pick up every stray we come across?”
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