Solar Minimum

by Greg T Meyers

Veronica lay back on her bed looking at the ceiling in her new cabin aboard the Alexander. Hengist insisted that she be given the former captain’s cabin which was the largest and most elegant of all the compartments on board. The cabin was in the aft of the ship and in traditional styling for captain’s quarters, it had full stern wrap around windows, providing beautiful views—beautiful that is if you were in a beautiful port. The world outside the stern windows this night was completely dark and menacing, not just because it was approaching midnight but also because the memory of the rubble and ash now called Tangiers was haunting and also the knowledge that the ship was floating on a thick oil bed of death.

  Lying on her back she reflected upon the equally dark bloody dinner she had just come from and recalled how hard she fought back vomiting as she watched Warin’s neck gape open at the slice of Hengist’s blade and a shower of blood cover the table. She closed her eyes trying to wipe the dark memories from her mind and tried to think of something pleasant. She remembered the peaceful days of working in Gus’s office and how exciting it was to be the admin of a U.S. Senator—the most senior U.S. Senator. Her thoughts wondered across the ocean to Kensington Palace, the King, the Duke and dear Corinna. She smiled as she remembered her first night at Kensington when she thought she was a prisoner and how rudely she had treated the Duke of Devonshire. As she mentally floated through her few months in the palace she inevitably remembered the night the Fenrir found her and she groaned out loud in anger as she considered all the painfully dark memories she had surrounding Toprak Esir.

  She opened her eyes and much to her surprise, she saw Kensington Palace perfectly illustrated and in amazing detail painted on the ceiling of her cabin. She scanned the entire ceiling and the whole of it was an elegant mural and as she studied it in its entirety, she noticed it depicted a story—much like many murals did, except this mural wasn’t some obscure fable, this was her life from the moment she first encountered Toprak Esir!

  It seemed to begin at her dormitory at Berkley and she noticed the place where she broke with Toprak—or so she thought, but then she noticed the mural even depicted the Harvest Festival in Sonoma County where she first met Matthew. However, as she analyzed it further, it also depicted her childhood and the death of her parents when she was seven years old, something she thought only a handful of people living knew about. Veronica quickly went from curious to angry and then to deeply wounded.

  “Who are these people?!” she said out loud as a tear rolled out of the corner of her eye and came to rest in her ear making her shiver. She sat up on the bed wiping her tears but then finding it difficult to study the mural in an upright position; she lay back down and cried more as she saw the silver Cadillac Escalade her parents were killed in back in 2022 when they were gunned down on Peninsula Drive in El Cerrito, California while she was sitting in the backseat. For a while she couldn’t see the mural through the blur of her tears and her chest shook as she held back a flood of sobs that desperately fought to get out of her trembling mouth.

  She rolled over and wiped her tears on the silk bed cover, leaving large water stains that grew larger and larger as it drank her tears making dark circles. Looking back up at the mural she saw a tall ship that preceded the depiction of the murder of her parents with the name Ronnie on it. She narrowed her eyes looking for more clues as to what it meant. She remembered that Hengist’s flagship name was the Ronnie but as she studied the mural further she determined the name was referring to the title of the story since it became obvious that the name and the surrounding images signaled the beginning of the mural. Near the tall ship was some kind of landmass that looked strangely familiar to her. She could not place it but then as she studied it further she began to recognize, “East Tilbury?” she said out loud.

  Sheerness was an island at the mouth of the Thames in London that the very ship she was now on had passed during her first night as they left London. It was also recognizable to her from an accurate but crude illustration in the Winston Chronicle that she had studied so faithfully while at Kensington. It was then that the pieces began to fall together and why she was so vitally important to Hengist.

  Since the Winston Chronicle was nearly committed to memory she quickly placed the pieces of history together. In the fifth century Hengist and Horsa invaded England with the true heir to the English throne—the Princess Ronni and how Hengist married her by force, thereby ensuring his legitimacy to the throne. Ronnie was the old world version of Veronica and circling the mural from beginning to end she saw it was a circle; beginning at the invasion of England and the marriage of Ronnie and then ending with it.

  Veronica’s sadness quickly left her and was replaced with anger and iron resolve, “I’ll be dammed if history will repeat itself in this century!” she said just as she heard a knock at her cabin door.

  She then heard Lyle’s voice through the door, “Lord Hengist my Lady.” Lyle was Warin’s steward but now he appeared to be attending Veronica.

  Veronica rubbed her eyes trying to defuse the redness caused by her tears and she combed her fingers through her hair in an attempt to make herself appear anything but angry or upset. Before responding she saw the tear stains on the bed cover and she quickly sat down to cover them and said, “Come in my lord.”

  Hengist entered the grand cabin, bowed respectfully and then waited for Lyle to leave and close the door. After they were left alone, Hengist motioned to Veronica if it were alright if he sat. Veronica quickly apologized for not inviting him to take a chair near her bed and Hengist sat down as he noticeably tried to hide the blood stains on his naval jacket.

  He sighed before he spoke and rubbed his sore leg for several seconds. He then looked at Veronica apologetically, “My dear Veronica. I am gravely sorry for the after dinner conversation and sad display of my lack of self-control. You will learn my anger is one of the few things in this world I do not control however; my lack of discipline has allowed me to control the world. I think that is an acceptable exchange don’t you?”

  Veronica was disgusted at both Hengist’s conceit and lack of self-control but since she was beginning to excel at cunning self-control, she maintained her strong composure and nodded humbly at his gross display of brutality.

  Hengist looked up at the mural and then at Veronica hoping she would say something which would have made the purpose for his visit easier to initiate, but Veronica said nothing. He adjusted his posture with a slight grunt as he extended his crushed leg, allowing for improved blood flow and then reached over to the small desk and picked up the captain’s log and handed it to Veronica, “It’s time you had some answers my Lady and perhaps the best place to start is the very beginning—your name. Let me first apologize again for the necessary deception we have inflicted upon you and speaking of names, this ship is not the Alexander. The Alexander is actually sitting at the bottom of the ocean in the port of Tangiers at this moment along with all hands, myself excepted of course. This ship was made for you, which you might have already noticed.”

  Veronica sat up a little more but still being careful to cover the tear stains under her and exclaimed in surprise, “Me?! Why—and why would I notice?”

  Just then Veronica opened the log book and saw that the name of the ship was the Ronni. She looked up at Hengist with a pretended look of confusion.

  “We have been planning this moment for a very, very long time and forgive me if I seem a little over zealous to explain things, but I have dreamed of this moment since I was,” he paused noticeably changing his choice of words and then continued, “well—younger than I am now.”

  With a light of excitement in his eyes he continued at a rapid rate, “You have a grand destiny my Lady and I know that because it has all happened before. Since you are an astute student of history I don’t need to explain that pattern of humanity to you. As the earth circles the sun, circumstances and names change only slightly but the tides remain the same as they pound upon the shore throughout eternity. Try as the world does, we can
not escape them nor change them just as this Solar Minimum has once again forced man to look at himself through the sandglass of time and realize that a single grain that falls is meaningless until the last gain passes and the glass is once again turned and it resumes again—alas, and here we are.”

  As evil as Hengist was to Veronica, he was speaking the undeniable truth especially in light of the world being destroyed in the last 10 days and it did appear that civilization was for all intents and purposes, starting over.

  Hengist repositioned himself every few minutes since there was no comfortable position for his leg as he continued his awkward confession, “There are probably less than 100 people in the world right now who know what has just happened, which means that less than 100 also know what opportunities await those who are prepared and aggressive. As I see it, it is only Toprak Esir and England who are in such a position. However, England has largely been destroyed I surmise due to the vast number of modern developments in that country. Toprak’s headquarters as you may or may not know are located at the old University of Belarus, a very old school with few modern improvements. Our vast supplies and resources have all been preserved and since we have been studying the effects of a solar minimum for several decades we are prepared with all the weapons of antiquity. No one is as prepared as Toprak my Lady which means the entire world is a vineyard just waiting to be squeezed in the wine press, where we alone will toast the sweet taste of domination.”

  Hengist at last gave up on sitting and struggled to his feet. He limped around the room as he tried to pace, “I also was not forthwith in how long we have been watching over you.”

  Veronica once again was angered at Hengist’s casual and even endearing references to her suffering and seemed to be even suggesting that the murder of her parents was remotely associated with watching over her. She involuntarily made a tight fist and hid it in the bed cover.

  Making a return trip back to the chair limping, Hengist continued, “We have indeed been watching you for a very long time.” He cut his next words short obviously not knowing the right words to use and he then moved on to another subject by concluding, “When you sleep tonight, look up at the sky from your bed and you will be enlightened greatly.”

  He then resumed, “I suppose you also should be brought up to speed on what has happened to the United States of America. At this moment civil unrest there can now officially be called a war between many different factions and splinters of the former Federal Government. It is unclear who has any advantage but it scarcely matters since it will all be laid waste in the next few days. Once that happens, what we will be left with is a scattered and scared people in a vast country of ash; underscoring again our position of strength.”

  Hengist paused as he was lost for a moment in his thoughts and then with a soft and shallow laugh he continued, “Before you think we have all the answers I must insist we do not. For example we didn’t know that the full Minimum would lay waste the world in such a manner. To be completely honest, we did know there would be complete crop failure which is why we have enough food reserves to supply the entire company for two years. We also know that the King was also storing food since he was the only other world leader who knew of the possibility of a minimum event. However it is probably all destroyed now.”

  Veronica interrupted Hengist’s monologue and interjected, “Underscoring again your position of strength.”

  Hengist smiled, “Our position of strength my Lady.”

  Since Hengist was volunteering answers, Veronica was anxious to start filling in the missing pieces of her understanding and began with her list of questions, “I’m sure you were behind the European embassy bombings, why?”

  Hengist’s smile remained on his face since talking about himself was one of his favorite topics, “Well, that plan was put in place over 10 years ago and once you get something like that rolling it’s impossible to stop. Not that it matters anyway really. Mother nature will kill and destroy the majority of everything on that side of the ocean shortly so in a way, we have been merciful to a few who will not have to run from place to place seeking refuge only to burn in an earthly hell in the end. The scene here in Tangiers was beyond belief as everything erupted and people fled as they burned.”

  The look on Veronica’s face was one of horror. Hengist quickly apologized then continued, “Our initial plan was to only arouse panic and civil unrest making it easy for the Vice President to instill military rule over the country in preparation for our arrival where we would have then awarded a sub-kingdom of sorts upon the Vice President. Yes—we were supporting your Vice President and sadly he is still waiting for Horsa to come to his aid—and not that that matters since we were just going to kill him in the end anyway.”

  Hengist laughed out loud at his own twisted version of irony and not being able to stand any longer, resumed his seat and continued in a very tired and unemotional tone as if he were very board, “Then we were also behind the Muslim European invasion with the plan of letting them disrupt the European countries while we came in behind and cleaned up. We chose the European embassies so that the blame would be placed on the Muslims. I laughed for days when your Vice President declared neutrality, not having the walnuts to make any kind of stand on his own.”

  Veronica back tracked slightly still trying to connect the dots, “And by cleaned up you mean destroying the Muslim armies once they exhausted themselves doing all your work?” she said in a disgusted tone.

  “Exactly,” Hengist chuckled, “You wouldn’t believe how easy it was to get every single Middle Eastern nation in a united lather over the infidel Christians. It was like a single spark in a powder keg.”

  The hour was getting very late and Veronica was having trouble keeping her focus and was growing weary of having to sit in a single position on the bed. But there was one last question she had to know, “So tell me about the harbingers.”

  With all her questions, Hengist was starting to believe that Veronica was warming to Toprak and hopefully to himself. He eagerly responded prefacing his remarks that they would be hard to believe, “Toprak has never used modern communication unless we could be very sure it was meaningless data, like the pentacodes sent to a harbinger. Traditional communications such as letters and face to face dialogue are ignored these days and virtually impossible to trace. We have been able to go largely unnoticed in the world using it; all the while we were thought as being stupid.”

  He laughed and continued, “However, it was necessary for us to send urgent communications from time to time and during the Russian wars we came across a particular man who taught my brother all he knew about magic.”

  Veronica laughed but then considered all that Toprak was able to do in such a relatively short period of time, she coughed and tried to recover as best she could without offending Hengist.

  Hengist nodded in agreement with a smile returning to his face, “I too laughed at the time but when I saw the outcome I reconsidered. I tried my hand at the magic but not everyone has a disposition for it, however, Horsa is a master and once you meet him you will quickly see why. Over the past 10 years as the Minimum has increased, my brother’s skills have been magnified and was able to enchant weak minds and in doing so he was able to see and hear what they see and hear. At first it wasn’t real-time and the harbingers would need to herald near a five-point star—inverted of course, such is the type of magic that this is. But now, a harbinger is able to herald in real time and we can be a fly on the wall everywhere we have a harbinger.”

  Hengist yawned, “I need to be getting back on shore but I wanted to officially apologize and enlighten your world before I retired. Remember what I said about looking up before you sleep tonight and we will talk in the morning about your important role in the world’s history.”

  He got up and limped toward the door but before he exited he turned around, using the door lever as a crutch and said, “Perhaps I should tell you that since you are such a vital part of Toprak’s mission, you could pr
obably kill my own brother and I would not harm you. I tell you this because I do not want you to feel like you are a prisoner on the Ronni. The ship is yours my Lady; it has your name on it—after all. When I leave the ship you will be second in command under the new captain Jedrek—Warin’s Chief Officer and I am bestowing upon you the title of The Lord’s Emissary.” Hengist smiled and added, “My emissary that is.”

  He then limped over to the bed and bent down and kissed Veronica’s cheek as Veronica said nothing and watched him limp back across the cabin and out the door. Once the door was shut, she lay back on her bed and took a deep sigh, disgusted at both his arrogance and his confidence. Looking up there was the mural again like a haunting ghost and she shook her head and got up off the bed and determined that she needed a breath of air before retiring and she left her cabin and walked up on deck.

  The night air was thick with humidity but thankfully she could not smell the shore since the wind had shifted and was now blowing off the Mediterranean. Standing at the stern of the ship, she heard two voices rising up from below decks and as they grew louder and closer she could tell it was Hengist and Jedrek discussing the plans for tomorrow. Not wanting to be seen, mostly because she couldn’t take another minute of Hengist, she tip-toed around to the opposite deck and hid behind the mizzen sail that was flapping loosely in the light breeze.

  As Hengist was about to go over the side to the waiting pinnace he turned to Jedrek with final instructions, “So, just to recap captain. Select your minimal crew from those you can trust with your life and send the rest to shore tonight. Me and my men will all be back on ship by 1300 hours. Have her ready to sail for Belarus at that time—no delays.”

  Veronica heard Jedrek’s boots knock together as he saluted Hengist and replied, “Yes my lord.”

  With that, Hengist went over the side to prepare his men for a voyage back home to Belarus, no doubt to rally his resources for the final military operation the world would know for quite some time since it was Toprak’s plan to capture and subdue it.

  Just as Veronica was about to walk round the deck to the companionway back to her cabin she heard Jedrek talking to someone else and she froze and listened.

  “I’ll be dammed if I’m going to send my crew overboard so his beloved guard can get out of this hell-hole while my men sit and rot on this god-forsaken spit of land!” Jedrek drew his sword and turned around as he heard Veronica stumble over the loose ropes at her feet. Already angry and frustrated he pointed his sword at the flapping mizzen and yelled, “So help me I will run you through you filthy dog—eaves-dropping on me?”

  Jedrek was alone, talking to himself, and Veronica came out from behind the sail with her hands up as if Jedrek were holding a gun and out of habit from watching too many movies said, “Don’t shot, it’s me.”

  The combination of seeing Veronica with her hands raised and telling him not to shoot at the point of a sword made Jedrek laugh, “Lady Veronica, my apologies. I was not aware you were on deck. I understand you are now the Lord’s Emissary.” He bowed very respectfully and said, “Welcome to Toprak Esir.”

  Veronica thanked him and walked over to the taffrail watching Hengist row back to shore with a small oil lamp as it bounced up and down on the tide. Jedrek joined her and let out an involuntary sigh as he contemplated what he had to tell his crew—that over half of them would be put on the disease-ridden shore until Toprak could come get them again. He knew it was a death sentence and he wondered how he would maintain control of the crew after the announcement was made.

  Still looking at the pinnace, Veronica rested her elbows on the rail and placed her hands under her chin, “I don’t envy the night ahead of you. I only hope I’m not part of the crew going ashore.”

  Jedrek turned to Veronica, “You heard no doubt?” He shook his head, “I don’t know how I’m going to do it. The men will wildly protest,” then he sighed again, “This is the stuff mutiny is made of. Even if I could arm the men who are staying, there would not be enough to hold off the mutiny. And considering all we have are hand weapons, it is complete suicide.”

  Veronica didn’t respond and for several minutes, they just stood watching Hengist as the pinnace reached the shore. Soon more lights could be seen traversing the beach as the small army, Hengist’s private guard prepared for boarding.

  As Veronica thought through the events that were soon to be upon her, she concluded that this might be her only chance at escape. She was on a ship with enough supplies to get back to England and it was as good a situation as she could hope for if she could ever convince a Toprak officer to disobey orders, this was it.

  “How about you just let them choose,” said Veronica as she waited for Jedrek’s response. What he said next would indicate whether she was saved or doomed. However, she remembered what Hengist said as he left that he could never harm her and so she relaxed and took courage.

  Jedrek turned to look at Veronica after several long minutes and said nothing as he took her by the arm and escorted her back down to her cabin. Once inside, Jedrek shut the door behind him and then walked over to the very chair Hengist was sitting in earlier and motioned Veronica to sit on the bed. She timidly followed his orders unsure of what was happening. Despite his firmness he was respectful and kind and after she was seated he began to whisper.

  “My Lady—you certainly do not know what you have done. There are potentially more harbingers on board and what you have said is certain death. I brought you down here only because of all the cabins on board, yours is the most secure from harbinger’s ears, but we are still at great risk,” he then leaned closer to Veronica and whispered, “My gut has had enough Toprak for a lifetime—what did you have in mind?”

  Veronica hadn’t really thought too much further ahead other than refusing to vacate the ship but as she quickly thought through the implications she whispered, “The world no longer has any weapons that can reach us from shore, all we need to do is weigh anchor and sail—right? Hengist will never catch us, especially if the winds pick up like they usually do at night here in the strait.”

  Jedrek thought through what Veronica was suggesting trying to think of every worst-case scenario he could. The plan was valid and could possibly work but Toprak’s reach was extremely wide. Even if they escaped tonight it was certain Horsa would eventually find them, he always did. After a few minutes he turned to Veronica and whispered, “Where would we go?”

  “England,” said Veronica. I can promise you we will have the full protection of the King.

  Jedrek nodded as he was still thinking through the scenario, “There are three major problems we need to address. First—raising the anchor is a very noisy business and Hengist will certainly hear and know exactly what is going on and there is a very good chance he could have a detachment here before we win it. Second—if the wind doesn’t rise tonight, we will be dead in the water waiting for Hengist to behead us.”

  “And what’s the third?” said Veronica unconcerned so far.

  “Harbingers—with the Minimum in full bloom they continually herald. I do not know how many we have on board. Several men have come and gone in the past twenty-four hours and there is a very good chance we have more than one with us. It’s the Toprak way,” he said somewhat deflated. “There is a good chance Hengist is already alerted to our plan and is sending troops at this moment.”

  Veronica began to smile; knowing that her plan would work and she turned and placed her hand on Jedrek’s knee, “It’s going to work. I’ve read that in old tall ships when they needed to weigh anchor quickly they would just cut it.”

  Jedrek shook his head, “That was when the cables were made of hemp, our cables are made of steel. It would take hours to hack through them.”

  “Only a few hours? Perfect, we must get started right away,” said Veronica taking command. “And I know how we can tell who the harbingers are since they all respond on a pentacode. All you need do is present them with one as the commanding officer and they should activ
ate.”

  Jedrek sat for a few minutes thinking through what Veronica had said then nodded in agreement adding, “What about the wind?”

  Veronica sighed, “For that, we’ll just have to hope there is still a God in heaven that cares about this earth and hope he is on our side.”

  It was a very risky proposal but since the alternative for most of the crew on board was certain disease, hunger and death, it would be easy to get a majority. Jedrek and Veronica looked at each other as the weight of what they were about to do settled deeper and they waited for the activating courage to reach their hearts.

  With a nod, they both got up and walked up on deck to first make sure they were not already exposed to Hengist by way of a hidden harbinger and they could see the activity on the beach was much the same and there wasn’t a pinnace full of angry men rowing toward them.

  Having an idea, Veronica motioned for Jedrek to wait a few minutes before making a move as she ran back down to her cabin and returned with a folded piece of paper and handed it to Jedrek. Unfolding it he read what she had written.

  12345

  Lord Hengist has demanded that his personal guard have precedence over this crew and he has ordered that over half of you must go on shore to tempt your fate with disease, starvation and possibly death while he and his men sail for Belarus and at some future time return for you—if there be anything to rescue at that time.

  It is the design of the Captain and His Lord’s Emissary to sail with the tide for England and safety. Any crew wishing to withdraw shall be allowed to disembark peacefully.

  If you wish to go ashore, take one step forward and pass this note to the next.

  After reading the note Jedrek smiled and then nodded in agreement. Both he and Veronica then walked down to the gunroom and called all hands to assemble. Before circulating the note, Jedrek pulled aside his Chief Officer and First Lieutenant and showed them the note, motioning them to not respond verbally. Jedrek watched as they read the note first waiting to see if they responded to the pentacode at the top of the page and then if they were with he and Veronica or not. Both men nodded in agreement that they were in the affirmative with their Captain and Jedrek leaned over and whispered in each of their ears, “If any man speaks out, you are to run them through immediately do you understand me? We cannot have any disturbance.”

  As the rest of the crew assembled, Veronica was sitting elegantly on the only chair on the gun deck as she was introduced as His Lord’s Emissary. The crew, all men, smiled at her warmly and saluted. Jedrek then turned to his Chief Officer waiting for his signal that all men were accounted for and he nodded in the affirmative.

  “Men, it has been a pleasure sailing with you and I pray we may continue to do so for a long time yet. However, I have been given orders that will greatly displease over half of you. Which half I have not decided nor do I desire to choose. I will be passing a note presently with our orders and instructions on how to respond. If any man speaks out, they shall feel the point of my sword,” said Jedrek as he drew his sword and handed it to the Chief Officer and then handed the note to the first man.

  Veronica and Jedrek watched as the first man read the note and saw his face turn to disgust at what Hengist was proposing. He then passed the note, each man following the same expression and action choosing to remain on board and sail for England. After the first 100 men, the note was passed to a short crew member whose eyes immediately opened wide and he groaned when he saw the pentacode. The Chief Officer quickly walked over to the man but first looked at Jedrek for approval and then thrust his sword through his gut. The harbinger bent over and became silent then fell to the deck. The Officer picked up the note and handed it to the next in line where upon he also groaned out loud and the officer quickly slit his throat.

  After all 307 men had read the note, there were only five men that stepped forward desiring to be put ashore. They had learned that they had a total of six harbingers on board, all were now lying dead.

  Silence was the strict command and Jedrek ordered 20 men to begin cutting the anchor cables by hand, each taking turns as they got fatigued. The remainder of the crew was assigned the duties of making ready the ship but with the order to not spread the sails until the last minute. For those who desired to be put on shore, they were all tied and gaged so that they would not call out to the beach and spoil the escape with the assurance that they would be safely put in a pinnace as they sailed on the tide.

  The work of cutting the three inch steel cables was very slow and tiresome as each man sawed with a diamond-tipped hacksaw until his strength left him and he was relieved by the next man. After three hours, the first cable was cut and the crew slowly let it sink into the sea. With the other cable nearly cut, Jedrek ordered all hands to their stations as the pinnace containing five men was put over the side with the painter line still attached as the Ronnie sat waiting for the early morning breeze to begin.

  Minutes turned into hours as all hands grew very anxious waiting for the breeze to pick up. Hour after hour and still no breeze—then just as it appeared that they were all about to be discovered by Hengist in the early morning light, the captain’s pennant began to flap in the morning breeze coming off the land and steadily grew, strengthening by the minute. Jedrek gave the silent command to spread the canvas as every sail unfurled and the ship shook into motion and quickly reached eight knots.

  The command was given to cut the painter line so that the men in the pinnace could go freely to shore and no sooner was it cut that the men still bound and gagged in the pinnace began to show signs of distress, trying to get the Ronnie’s attention. The Captain just stood and watched as Veronica wondered what they were doing and what they wanted. It quickly became obvious what the excitement was about as the pinnace began to sink.

  “Aren’t you going to throw them a line? They are sinking!” said Veronica in alarm.

  “It wouldn’t make much sense to throw them a line after I punched holes in their boat now would it?” replied Jedrek calmly.

  Veronica was enraged but was still talking quietly so that her voice would not carry on the wind toward the beach, “You what?! We gave them our word of safe passage—they are going to die!”

  “My Lady—the moment they took a step forward they became dangerous to us. We could not let them get to shore and alert Hengist. If this breeze fails, we are all dead men, it is only you who will go free,” said Jedrek as Veronica turned and walked below decks in disgust.

  As the sun began to rise over the rubble of Tangiers, the Ronnie was reaching 20 knots on the stiff morning breeze as the beach disappeared in the distance. Through his binoculars, Jedrek could see early morning movement on the beach and it quickly turned into alarm as dozens of men could be seen waving their arms in distress when they realized they were being left to the fate they wished upon their fellow soldiers.

  They had made their escape and Veronica’s plan had come off perfectly just as she said it would. Jedrek called to his Chief Officer with the order to set a course for England and to send the Sailing Master down to his cabin and added, “This watch is yours. I am going to get some sleep and I will relieve you at 1400.”

  The Chief Officer saluted, “Yes sir,” and Jedrek retired below deck.

  Laying in his hammock the Captain was nearly asleep when he heard a knock at his door and in a somewhat disoriented state said, “Enter.”

  “Sir, the Master is not on board,” said the Chief Officer.

  “Are you sure?”

  The Captain thought for a minute and then recalled that he had not seen Bart on deck recently and concluded that he must be on shore determining that Hengist probably withheld him so that Jedrek would not sail without him—and he certainly would not have sailed if he would have known his Sailing Master was still on the beach. Jedrek was only a marginal navigator and as a recently made captain he would have become more skilled sailing with Bart. Jedrek sat up in his hammock and rubbed his eyes, “Well—there’s the first chink
in the plan.”

  He got out of his hammock, walked back on deck and looked up at the thinning red sky as they slowly came out from under the shroud of heavy smoke as they left the Strait of Gibraltar and sailed out into the wide open Atlantic. The sky was still overcast due to the vast amounts of smoke in the upper atmosphere since most of the world had been burning over the last week, but the cleaner air was refreshing and he took in a deep cleansing breath. Looking down at the compass he knew for certain that they needed to start sailing northward but a general direction wasn’t nearly enough to get them safely all the way to England especially since he knew they would have to stop at least once along the way for fresh water—if it could be found.

  In the middle of the afternoon watch Veronica came on deck, surprised to see the dim sunlight, but compared to the depressed skies above Tangiers it seemed to lift everyone spirits, “Good afternoon Jedrek, how are things?”

  Jedrek was standing near the helmsman staring at the compass obviously in a fair amount of distress, “Good morning my Lady, we are making the best of things. We do not have a sailing master so we are navigating as best we can.”

  Veronica stood for a minute observing Jedrek as he stared at his compass, “Are you attempting to navigate with that?”

  Jedrek looked up feeling like he was about to be intimidated by a woman, “Unless you have any other ideas.”

  Veronica walked over and opened a small square box sitting in a water tight compartment next to the helm and took out a sextant, “This would be more beneficial I should think,” as she held it up to her eye focusing on the horizon and making some adjustments.

  Jedrek was both surprised and intimidated as he watched her, “So you know how to navigate with a sextant—what are you some kind of sailing hen?” he said slighting her.

  Still peering through the sextant and ensuring the mirrors were parallel she ignored his slight and then wiped the lens with her blouse, “I’ve never done it before in practice but I know how they work. What time is it?”

  Jedrek looked down at the instrument panel of the ship and responded, “Fourteen hundred—two o’clock.”

  Holding the sextant back up to her eye and taking a measurement she asked, “Do you know if we are in the Greenwich Time zone?”

  This was something Jedrek absolutely knew and he responded confidently, “Yes we are, however on our way north we will skirt -1 hour continually.”

  There was a navigation table behind the helm and she walked over and lifted the lid of the table and shuffled through a stack of naval charts and pulled out the one which showed the Strait of Gibraltar and set it on the desk, “Do you know how long we have been out of the Strait?”

  Jedrek walked over to observe what she was doing, “About five hours I should think,” he looked over at the helmsman who nodded in agreement.

  “So I think the only thing we need to know now is how fast on average have we been sailing these past five hours since leaving Tangiers,” said Veronica somewhat confidently.

  Jedrek turned to look at the helmsman who responded, “Seventeen knots sir—my Lady.”

  Jedrek watched Veronica make a mark on the chart then scribble several mathematical calculations and then made a measurement and drew a line, “We are here—approximately,” she said looking around for land making sure she did not make a gross mistake.

  How can you be sure?” asked Jedrek.

  “Well, it’s a guess but an educated one. I just used dead reckoning based upon our last known location in Tangiers and extrapolated it based upon speed and direction—a little algebra.”

  Jedrek was impressed, “And what was all the tinkering with the sextant?”

  “Oh—that will allow us to determine our latitude as we move north once we come in view of Polaris but just now I was marking the degree of the solar noon, just a double check against our electronics—they appear to be accurate, so we can rely on them,” said Veronica as she walked over to a deck chair and sat down, rolling up her jeans, enjoying the hazy sun and the refreshing spray on her face.

  She closed her eyes just as a voice called down from the crosstrees, “On deck there—raft in the water at two points of the bow!”

  Jedrek and Veronica rushed over to the side and through the binoculars could see a small raft containing at least 10 men all waving their arms signaling the Ronnie to stop. Jedrek turned to Veronica and said, “They appear to have been shipped wrecked but we’re not picking them up, I don’t want a knife fight on my deck.”

  Veronica was in shock and then remembering what Jedrek did to the crew members who wanted to return to shore, she turned to him angrily, “We most certainly are. We are over 20 miles from the coast; they will most certainly perish if we abandon them. You are Toprak and your training is plain enough but I am not.” Veronica yelled to the helmsman to come about and then gave the order for the sails to be furled so that the ship could slow down and pick up the shipwrecked men.

  Jedrek rolled his eyes and shook his head and then ordered for his crew to stand by as he prepared a rope to be thrown to the raft. He was dressed in his Toprak uniform and was easily identified as the Captain of the ship and leaning over the rail he called out, “You there—where are you out from and where are you bound?”

  Then men looked surprisingly well and said that their ship went down in the night and they had been drifting since about midnight, “We were six days out of Lisbon on our way to America.”

  “America, why America?” yelled Jedrek holding onto the line waiting for their response before he threw it to them.

  The men on the raft were quiet as they all looked at each other before responding slowly, “We hear it is safe there—have you not heard what has happened?”

  Jedrek threw them the line and as they pulled themselves toward the Ronne he replied, “Yeah—we know about it.”

  The first man on the raft started to climb up the rope as Jedrek and several other crew members pulled him up on deck followed by the others. As the last man was pulled over the side, the man who appeared to be the leader of the group extended his hand to Jedrek and said, “God bless ya,” as he stuck a knife into Jedrek’s gut and the rest of the men did the same to the crew members who were standing nearby.

  With nearly a full complement of 300 men on board, the skirmish was quickly put down and within a few minutes there were thirteen dead bodies on the deck and seven wounded. All ten that came on board were dead and three Ronnie's. It all happened so quickly that Veronica just stood in amazement as she watched the crew carelessly throw the ten shipwreck victims overboard while they respectfully covered their own dead with sails and got the wounded below to sickbay as if it were a normal routine. She then considered whom she was sailing with and realized this was probably nothing out of the ordinary for Toprak.

  Within a few minutes, black body bags were brought up from the cargo hold and Jedrek and the two other men who Veronica did not know were zipped up and with everyone on deck standing at attention, they were slid down the gang plank and into the sea. Not being part of the Toprak army, Veronica wasn’t sure what she should do so she stood with her hand over her heart as one by one the bodies made three splashes.

  After the very brief ceremony—if it could even be called such—the First Lieutenant approached Veronica and saluted her with a closed fist to his chest, “The ship is now yours my Lady,” as the crew was still following strict Toprak protocol.

  Veronica was at a loss for words. Everything was happening so fast and while the crew was now looking to her for orders, she was still wondering how Jedrek knew the men in the raft were hostile, “Wait!” cried Veronica as the Lieutenant was walking away.

  “How did the Captain know—about the men in the raft?” said Veronica as she bit her bottom lip in an attempt to maintain composure as she now realized that the death of 13 men was her fault.

  The Lieutenant turned on his heel and thought for a moment, “I’m not sure he altogether did my Lady, however given the state of things, de
sperate times create desperate men and right now this ship looks like floating salvation. He was just being careful.”

  Veronica then felt all eyes upon her as they waited for her to assume command. The Toprak men were extremely disciplined and while she thought she could easily be over powered by the crew she felt they were more committed to their own well-being. In another age this crew would have turned pirate but there was nothing left in the world to plunder and the only real treasure was food. She looked around the deck and into the faces of her crew. Most of them were in their late twenties and early thirties from every nation in the world it appeared but most looked European.

  Veronica took a deep breath feeling a noble resolve swell within her and assumed command of perhaps the most powerful ships in the world at that moment as well as a seasoned army of 300 souls with enough provisions to supply them for a year or more—certainly enough to circumnavigate at least once.

  She stood up on the forecastle skylight and yelled, “Gentlemen. I have been taught a cruel lesson at the expense of our Captain. I assure you that won’t ever happen again. My disposition has always first bent toward kindness but from this point forward, no quarter will be given to any person, ship or floating piece of dung that shows the slightest foul intent.”

  The deck erupted in grand approval and whistles as Veronica continued to speak, “I do not know what arrangement you had with Hengist and Toprak Esir but if you sail with me today, you do so as free men and we will fight in the preservation of freedom and for England.”

  The deck erupted again with loud cheers as Veronica yelled above the roar with Jedrek’s sword pointed toward the sky, “We sail for England! Bend every sail and helmsman; place us on a north by northeast course.”

  “North by northeast—yes my Lady,” replied the helmsman.

 

 

 

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