Within the Water

by Kelly Fallows

  Ben shot him a glare before replying in a strained voice. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Good, then perhaps we can sort this mess out.’

  ‘Of course, Captain,’ Ben replied sarcastically.

  Duncan sighed.

  ‘You’re right – I’m sorry.’

  ‘Don’t… I should be able to control my temper by now.’

  ‘What set you off?’

  ‘This whole mess. I shouldn’t have got us involved.’ He paused. ‘I shouldn’t have got her involved.’

  ‘Zhe?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘The clothes? They’re…’

  ‘You noticed?’

  ‘Didn’t realise you kept any of that stuff.’ Duncan hesitantly broached the subject.

  ‘I couldn’t just throw them away. Besides, they’re useful for Zhe now.’ He sighed as he looked over to Zhe, who stood hesitantly by the bed. Damn, I really did scare her, he thought remorsefully. Making a decision, he walked over to her. She shied away as he got closer, until the bed prevented her from moving further away. Slowly, he reached out to her, gently putting his hand under her chin and lifting it, making sure she was looking into his eyes.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he told her sincerely. ‘I had no right to shout at you. None of this is your fault. I hope you can forgive me, but, even if you can’t, you have no reason to fear me. I will never hurt you.’ He looked deep into her eyes to make sure she understood him before letting his hand fall away from her face.

  Ben turned around to face Duncan, ‘I think—’

  ‘Captain to the bridge!’ Sophie’s voice blared out of the comm., cutting him off.

  He leaned over hitting the control on the wall replying, ‘Be right there.’ Turning back to Duncan he glanced meaningfully in Zhe’s direction; Duncan got the message immediately allowing Ben to race up to the bridge.

  ‘Captain, we’ve got an Imperial sub a little ways out, off the starboard bow.’ Sophie informed Ben as he came up the steps on to the bridge.

  ‘Has she seen us?’

  ‘Not yet, but she will. There’s no way to avoid it now.’ Sophie’s answer was greeted with silence as Ben stood staring intently at the screens.

  ‘Hold your course.’

  ‘Err, Captain, that will take us right by them; practically into them,’ she stated.

  ‘If we turn away now, it looks like we’ve got something to hide.’

  ‘But we have.’

  ‘Yes, but we don’t want them to know that,’ Ben explained.

  ‘Oh,’ Sophie muttered, turning back to the console.

  ‘What’s happening up here then?’ Ash asked, rushing onto the bridge.

  ‘Soph spotted an Imperial sub… by the look of it I’d say a Class C.’

  ‘And we’re still heading towards it?’ Ash commented, looking over Sophie’s shoulder.

  ‘Yeah.’ Sophie’s tone clearly showed that she still thought it a foolish idea.

  ‘Well, isn’t that just—’

  ‘This is the commander of the Imperial sub Valiant. In the name of the Republic, identify yourselves.’ The officer’s order came over the radio, clear and crisp, cutting Ash off mid-sentence. All standing on the bridge of the Coelacanth turned to Ben expectantly.

  ‘This is the Dante. What can we do for you commander?’ Ben replied cheerfully.

  ‘What is your business in these waters?’ the officer demanded harshly.

  ‘Trading. We’re carrying cargo back to Eckarna from Hintle,’ Ben lied glibly, with a practised ease from years of working in the business.

  After a short silence, the officer ordered them to prepare to be boarded for an inspection.

  ‘An inspection? Oh, just wonderful.’ Ash’s sardonic comments broke the tense silence that had followed the officer’s statement.

  ‘Stop being so pessimistic, Ash; after all, we have nothing much to hide.’

  ‘Nothing much to hide?!’ Ash looked incredulously at Daniels. ‘Oh no, just a few highly valuable documents and a slave girl!’

  ‘Hmm, Zhe could be a problem, Ben,’ Duncan added, having come up onto the bridge in time to hear about the inspection.

  ‘I’ll talk to her…’ He paused before looking at his first mate, ‘Looks like I just gained a wife.’

  ‘A what?’ Sophie spluttered, momentarily taking her eye off the Valiant to stare at her captain.

  ‘A… wife, Ben? Are you sure?’ Duncan began.

  ‘It’ll work,’ he replied confidently, as he walked off the bridge to find his “wife”. ‘Trust me. She in the spare cabin, Dunc?’

  Duncan nodded, although Ben was already heading there. He took a deep breath before turning to Ash and Sophie. ‘Well, make ready; this is going to be an interesting inspection… Blue?’ he called into the comm., ‘you and Simon got all that I hope.’

  ‘We’re happy to welcome Mrs Daniels aboard, Dunc.’

  ‘Aren’t we all,’ Ash muttered heading up to the cargo bay.

  ***

  ‘This is your entire crew, Captain…?’ the Imperial officer asked Daniels, on stepping from the Valiant into the forward cargo bay of the Coelacanth.

  ‘Captain Stevenson, sir, and, yes, this is my entire crew,’ Daniels replied easily, gesturing to the group assembled behind him, ‘and our single passenger should be joining us in a few moments.’

  ‘Passenger, Captain? And what business does a freight sub, authorised only to carry goods, have carrying passengers?’ the officer asked pompously, referring to his electronic pad for the details of the Dante.

  Daniels simply smiled, ‘I’m sorry, Officer, when I said passenger I was, of course, referring to my wife – she’s hardly a crewman, you see.’

  The sound of the main hatch being opened prevented the Imperial officer from making any comment, but more importantly drew undue amounts of attention to Ben’s “wife” from the Imperial officer and his troopers.

  ‘Ah, there you are darling,’ Daniels called across the bay to Zhe, holding out his hand for her to take. Owing to the amount of attention that the officer was giving to Zhe, he fortunately missed the looks of surprise, bordering on astonishment, that graced the faces of the Coelacanth’s crew. The woman who walked into the cargo bay couldn’t possibly be Zhe, they thought to themselves. This woman seemed far too confident as she crossed the bay to take Ben’s outstretched arm and link it gracefully with her own. Smiling slightly at the Imperial officer, she gave him a small curtsey before turning to look up at her “husband”.

  ‘You must forgive my wife, sir, but she is unable to speak.’

  ‘Unable to speak?’

  ‘Yes,’ Daniels replied tersely, wishing very much to avoid dwelling on that subject if possible.

  ‘Right, well…’ the officer looked momentarily flustered at this pronouncement before turning to his troopers and giving them orders to search the entire sub.

  Relief briefly flooded through Daniels as the Imperial officer turned his attention away from them and to the Coelacanth before he remembered the rest of the “cargo” they were hiding. They weren’t in the clear yet, he reminded himself. Glancing down at Zhe, he thought back to the few minutes he'd had before the arrival of the troopers to get her to play along:

  ***

  Zhe jumped and backed away as Daniels walked briskly into the cabin, he shut the door carefully behind him and stood for a few moments looking intently at her. Taking a deep breath, he began walking towards her, and when he was only a few steps away from her he stopped, noting sadly that she hadn’t looked at him since he stepped into the room.

  ‘Zhe…’ he began, ‘I need you to do something for me, well for all of us actually.’ He paused, trying to find the right words to continue with. ‘Look at me,’ he told her softly, lifting her chin until she looked at him, ‘We have Imperial troopers coming to look over the
Coelacanth and if they find you, they’ll put two and two together very quickly, and realise that we attacked the Serronous.’

  He let that little exaggeration sink in. He was certain they couldn’t possibly know what they had done yet, but having a slave girl on board would still be highly suspicious, especially without a licence. Zhe, if possible, looked even more terrified at the thought of the troopers getting hold of her – runaway slaves weren’t looked upon favourably, and there was no telling what they would do to her.

  ‘Now I’m sure you don’t want that to happen anymore than we do. So, to throw suspicion off, I need you to pretend to be my wife… Not an ideal plan, but there you are.’ He looked her straight in the eye before continuing, ‘This means that you have to stop behaving like a slave; you need confidence. I don’t want to see any fear on that pretty face of yours. You won’t have to talk, but you need to be convincing in this. You got that?’

  Zhe nodded her head, still looking terrified at the prospect of what she was about to do.

  ‘Good. Take a few minutes to collect yourself, then come and join us all in the forward cargo bay,’ Ben told her, striding out of the cabin and praying that the Fates were going to be kind to him.

  ***

  ‘Well, Captain Stevenson, everything appears to be in order,’ the Imperial officer stated, looking for all the ocean as though he knew something was amiss, but – being unable to find any proof, although not for want of trying – he was obliged to let the Coelacanth and her crew go.

  ‘Thank you, Officer, glad to have been able to oblige,’ Ben replied with a bare hint of sarcasm.

  ‘Indeed. I expect you will be docking at Eckarna in two days,’ he stated rather than asked, giving the firm impression that this would not be the last time they heard from him.

  ‘Yes sir, providing there’re favourable seas, an’ all.’

  The Imperial officer gave a sharp nod of recognition before turning to Zhe. ‘Mrs Stevenson,’ he murmured, inclining his head slightly before sending his men back to the Valiant. He made one last sweep of the cargo bay with his eyes before turning to depart. ‘The Republic stands,’ he intoned staring straight at Ben as if daring him to declare otherwise before crossing back into his sub.

  There was a marked silence following their departure, where even the Coelacanth herself seemed to let out a deep breath once the Valiant was clear and on her way, leaving behind a very relieved band of pirates.

  ‘The Republic stands,’ Ben repeated the dictum dryly to the closed hatchway.

  ‘Especially when everyone else has the good sense to duck,’ Duncan couldn’t resist adding.

  Slowly, identical grins found their way onto the captain’s and first mate’s faces before morphing into laughter.

  ‘Ben, that has to be the most ludicrous tale you’ve spun… and it worked!’ Duncan congratulated his captain.

  ‘And you, my dear, were spectacular,’ Ben said gallantly turning to Zhe, taking her hand and kissing it causing a deep blush to creep over her cheeks as well as a small shy smile to appear on her lips.

  ‘You two are stark raving mad,’ was all Ash had to say on the matter, watching Ben and Duncan laugh and joke like this was the best thing to have happened.

  ‘Mmm,’ Sophie murmured in agreement. ‘I’ll just get us back on our way then, shall I?’ she asked as she marched off to the helm, followed by a bemused Simon.

  Blue just shook his head at his crewmates before slapping Ben on the back, ‘Well, that fish brain of ye’s has saved us again, Cap.’

  Ben watched Blue leave before straightening himself out and looking at Duncan. ‘Aside from that pillock of an officer having no more capacity to think than a damned fish, that was a close call, Dunc. Patrols like that, out here – they know.’ While his boat had been under inspection, Daniels had begun to consider whether this was in fact a coincidence or something more. He came to the conclusion that this was mighty suspicious.

  ‘Already? Ben, that’s not possible. That can’t be possible; the Serronous went down with all hands… It’d take days to figure out what happened and whether anything was taken,’ Duncan reasoned.

  ‘She went down with all hands before,’ Ben stated ominously.

  ‘No way. You saying Devonport slipped off?’

  ‘It’s possible.’

  ‘No way in hell, Ben. There wasn’t a sub around for miles.’

  ‘Wasn’t there? I don’t recall Sophie checking that.’

  ‘Of course, she…’ Duncan paused, ‘she didn’t, did she?’ Ben just shook his head.

  Zhe stood forgotten, watching this exchange, wondering just how these two men could go from laughing and joking to this in a matter of minutes. The silence began to grow thick; Duncan looked at Ben, waiting for the decision that could either bring them one whirlpool of trouble or ultimately save their skins.

  Ben looked up and locked eyes with his friend. ‘We’re gonna have to look at those recordings.’

  ***

  Ben stood in the navigation (or nav.) room, unconsciously tapping the disk against his hand. He didn’t know just what kind of information the disk contained, but he would bet his life on the fact it was dangerous. Minister Devonport wouldn’t be carrying simple governmental documents; no, it was something big. Rose’s manner when telling him about the job just wasn’t right; he knew then that something was wrong. Trouble was, he had made a decision when he started in this business that when the Guild gave him a job, he delivered; no questions asked. But now…

  ‘Captain?’ Duncan’s call pulled him from his thoughts.

  ‘Come in,’ he responded, staring down at the disk.

  ‘Ben?’

  Slowly, he nodded; his crews’ lives meant more than the Guild and he knew he would have to find out what the disk contained before he could protect them. Looking sternly at the door that led onto the bridge, as if it could give him the answers, he came to his decision.

  ‘Call everyone to the bridge. Whatever this is, it’s not going to be a secret any longer on my boat,’ Ben said decidedly as he strode out of the room and onto the bridge.

  ***

  ‘Well, Captain?’ Blue asked as he puffed onto the bridge, being the last of the crew to make it to this impromptu meeting.

  ‘This disk holds the key to why we were boarded. Now, ordinarily, I’d pay it no mind, and think it just bad luck, but something tells me that there’s more to this than the Fates playing games with us, and I aim to find out just what that is. This is big; bigger than anything we’ve dealt in before. As Blue said, someone here has broken the rules – the sort of rules that aren’t meant to be broken. Now, I want all of you to know what we’re dealing with here, which is why we’re all up here. Soph, I want you to play this disk.’ Sophie nodded taking the disk and carefully placing it into the drive.

  Everyone held their breath as Sophie began tapping away on one keyboard then another. The longer this took the more certain they became that things were definitely not going smoothly – something that boded ill for the entire venture.

  ‘There’s encryption on the files, Captain,’ Sophie announced at last.

  ‘That stands to reason.’

  ‘I’ve tried the basic decoding programs, but whoever encoded it knew what they were doing.’

  ‘All right Soph, are there any other ways to get the information off that disk?’

  ‘I’ll try, Captain, but I can’t promise anything,’ she warned.

  Daniels just nodded, ‘Let us know as soon as you find anything. Meanwhile, I suggest we take a detour; we’re not going back until we know what we have.’

  The crew nodded their agreement and returned to their tasks, each giving the screens a last look before heading out, as if willing them to display the information. Daniels just rested a hand on Sophie’s shoulder before going back to the nav. room, leaving Duncan to take care of Zhe for
the moment.

  Chapter Six

  ‘Well, Rose?’ That was all in the way of greeting that the tall, dark-haired man gave Rose as she entered his office. Standing with his back to the room, he stared out of the floor-to-ceiling glass window into the deep blue of the ocean.

  ‘I gave the job to Daniels, just as we agreed.’ As Rose informed him of this simple fact, he turned to face her, pinning her with his ice-blue eyes, a stare that could set a grown man to shaking – those were the eyes of the devil looking straight into your soul, people would later say. But to Rose, or to any who knew him well, that look had long since stopped being effective, though that was not to say that any would want to cross this man.

  ‘Hmm, still not sure he was the best choice… not with his history,’ he commented.

  ‘He will do it and bring it back no questions asked. How many others wouldn’t just read it?’ Rose responded.

  ‘Yes, but how can you be sure some of his old loyalties and sensibilities won’t make an appearance if he finds out what he is carrying? He won’t need anyone to explain the importance of it and he’ll take a dim view of it all.’

  ‘He’ll come down on our side after what they did to him.’

  ‘Your faith in him astounds me, Rose,’ he commented dryly, moving to sit behind his desk.

  ‘Whereas your lack of faith amuses me, Nathan. Had you trusted him in the first place, we wouldn’t be in this situation – he would have done far better than the Jacksons,’ Rose commented, bringing up the old argument.

  ‘Greg Jackson had proved his loyalty time and time again. He was a natural choice,’ said Nathan defending his decision to use his old friend. Privately, he had long since acknowledged that it was a poor decision on his behalf, and the fate of the Jacksons had haunted him for seven years, since the moment Fahlen had contacted him to gloat over their failure and punishment.

  ‘He was too old and all that loyalty didn’t stop his tongue wagging in an effort to protect his daughter, and what good did that do?’ Rose demanded. ‘I’ll tell you what it did, Nathan: it lost us the information, the trust of the present administration and almost prevented us from ever being able to obtain the information again, not to mention the lives it destroyed.’