Originally posted on the I.N.V.S.P. thread. Enjoy! Spoiler: Chapter 1 Loxie smiled as her bare feet hit the deck soundlessly. There was no sense in waking the crew at this hour of the morning; if she hadn't had a watch to do, she would still be up in her hammock sleeping. She flicked her hair over her shoulder and tied a bandana over it to keep it out of her face. Grabbing her boots, she stalked silently to the door and slipped out. Once on the deck, she pulled her boots on and went to relieve the current watch. “To the quarterdeck then,” she whispered under her breath, turning to the rear of the ship. At the helm was the ship's doctor, Midnight Star. Her parents had named her after a star that only showed up at midnight on Alpha 36, a planet in the Quaron Galaxy. Unfortunately, the name of the star was too long for most to remember, so she went by Midnight Star, or more commonly, Star. Loxie straightened her back and tucked her hands behind it. This may be a pirate ship, but Loxie had first sailed in the Royal Alparnian fleet and old habits die hard. “What's the status of the ship then, Miss Star?” Star looked over, her eyes bright in the surrounding darkness. “No activity as of yet Loxie. I've been following the Captain's orders and kept us pointed towards Betelgeuse. We should reach our next target tomorrow, nearabouts noon.” She gave the wheel a small twist to the left, correcting her position. Loxie smiled at the informality. First Mate of the ship and she still got no respect. She didn't begrudge them though; most of the crew reserved their respect for the Captain. She was the one who raised this ship and crew from nothing and kept it going when the crew was in despair. “Good work Star. Go get some rest. It'll be a big day tomorrow. And wake Smurf. I could use some tea to help me wake up.” As Star bounded down the steps, Loxie fitted her hands around the wheel. It was fashioned after the pirate ships of old, a wooden circle about a meter in diameter with wooden handles circling it at evenly spaced intervals. Most of the ship was copied after the old wooden galleys that used to be the height of technology: three masts soared above her head, each fitted with square sails and the deck was wooden. There were differences however: the rest of the outside of the ship was made from a high quality titanium polymer which wouldn't break, no matter how many shots was fired at it. The masts were made from the same material and the sails filled with solar energy, not wind. The energy from the sails powered the thrusters at the stern and the cannons resting on each side of the ship fired laser charges, not cannonballs. Yes, the differences were great, but they were necessary to be a pirate in this day and age. Correcting her position, Loxie gazed up at the stars surrounding the ship. Despite the hour she had had to wake up, she was glad she did: the view was spectacular. Stars that would be invisible on-planet with an atmosphere obscuring her view were bright and shining. A noise behind her made her turn. A nearby star had just emitted a solar wind. She smiled. With this to ride on, they would arrive at the planet sooner than expected. She closed her eyes, enjoying the warmth from the solar wind. A door closing caused her eyes to snap open, just in time to see Smurf climbing the steps, a steaming mug in hand. “Mr. Smurf, I see you have my tea.” “Yup.” He held out the tea and Loxie grabbed it gratefully, formality dropped at the sight of a hot drink. “Careful, it just came off the stove a minute ago.” “Sorry for waking you.” Loxie fished the bag out of the mug, then quickly blew on her fingers to cool them. She then pinned it to the mast so it could be dried and used again. Nothing on the ship could be wasted, especially during long voyages. Smurf shrugged. “It's alright. I was up anyways.” Loxie glanced at him as she took a quick drink. “Still missing her?” Smurf had a girl back on Vidia. Normally, he was his usual self, cooking fabulous meals and cracking jokes with the crew, but sometimes, you'd catch him looking towards home. All of us did, many times a day. “Her, my family, my house, everything.” Smurf leaned on the rail and was silent for a few minutes. Loxie left him alone, allowing him the silence he obviously needed. Suddenly, he straightened up. “Heh, one more and I can go see them. And, I'll have treasure to bring them!” Loxie saluted him with her mug, her other hand still wrapped around the wheel. “That's the spirit Smurf! Now get back to bed. You'll need you rest for tomorrow.” He smiled at her and with an “Aye aye,” headed below. Smurf's visit, besides bringing her a good cup of tea, had also brought thoughts of home. The crew was from the Kingdom of Thera, on Planet Vidia. We hadn't really had much to do with each other before the Captain put up a notice on the town's Spam board that she was looking for a crew. Pretty soon, we were signing up, whether because we had nothing better to do or wanted to make some money or were just looking to make friends. Pretty soon, we had a crew together and our ship, the glorious Saber was ready to sail. Unfortunately, Loxie had let it slip to Droid, a cybernetic lion, that they were starting a pirate ship and he followed suit. The Flash had set sail a few days after us. Loxie smiled at the memory of the battles we had had when we had disputed over a prize. They were a pain to in the neck but this voyage wouldn't be half as fun without them. A bright spot to her right drew Loxie's attention. The small artificial Sun that circled the deck was just rising. When it cleared the rail, it would be time to wake the crew. Spoiler: Chapter 2 The sound of an air horn ripped through the crew's sleep quicker than a laser through paper. Loxie smiled as a few of them fell from their hammocks to the floor while others merely sat up and stretched. “Wake up ye scurvy dogs! There be treasure a head and preparations to be made!” When the crew, the men and women whom Loxie had begun to call her friends, didn't move any faster, she blared the air horn again. “Anyone not deck side and in top form in five minutes scrubs the floors for a month! Now move your sorry arses before the Cat moves them for you!” Convinced that the crew was indeed moving faster, albeit not by much, Loxie went topside, hanging up the Cat o' Nine Tails as she went. This particular whip had nine cords extending from the handle and had been around since ancient naval days. Never had she once had to use it and she never wanted to. It did make a good scare tool though. Captain Marushi was on the quarterdeck, sword and laser pistol strapped to her waist, hat on her head. “Morning Miss Loxare. How be the skies today?” “Fine as ever Captain. A solar wind came up behind us during the Four to Eight watch so we'll be at our target destination well before noon.” Loxie still had the wheel and would until Star got onto the deck. The Captain nodded. “Excellent. Keep towards Betelgeuse. Our prize is on the far side. Oh, and send Crown to my cabin with a plate of cookies and a Dr Pepper if you would.” The Captain smiled, then descended the stairs to her cabin. “Aye Cap'n!” After a few minutes at the helm, Star took over and Loxie went in search of Crown. He was in the galley, cooking breakfast. “Sorry Loxare, but if I don't watch this bacon, it'll burn.” He gazed around the room, searching, until his eyes lighted on DarkTraitor trying to snatch a few fried potatoes. “Stop that!” Loxie winced as Crown's spatula came down on the offending hand. “Grab those cookies and a Dr Pepper from the fridge and take them to the Cap'n's quarters.” Crown had been on the ship for a while, joining the third time they went back to Thera to resupply. Nobody knew why he was named Crown; he had never really said. It was his name, and that's all there was to it. Loxie took one look at the sudden mischief in DT's eye's and said, “I'm going with him. If I leave him alone, he'll end up flirting with her again.” DT reached out and grabbed Loxie's hand. “Jealous, Loxare? I know we used to be together-” “And now you're with Star. So stop flirting with the Captain, it's rude.” Loxie stated flatly as she pulled her hand away. DT frowned. “We're not 'together', we just enjoy giving each other long...” his attention started to drift, “...warm... hugs.” Loxie, already halfway out the door with snacks in hand, called back, “Hurry up, or I'll tell Midnight what you just said.” As DT rushed to catch up and grab the snacks out of Loxie's hand's - “Let me carry that” - Loxie thought back to when DT first joined the ship. The name “Traitor” suited him, if only because he used to be a pirate on the Saber's rival ship, the Flash. After being held captive for a while, he grew tired of being left on deck alone during battle while the others were in port and signed on with Cap'n Marushi. Ever since, he's been flirting with half of the female crew mates. Loxie had even allowed herself to be pulled along for a while before she decided she had better things to do with her time. “Captain?” Loxie knocked on the ornate doors that separated the Captain's room from the rest of the ship. Marushi opened the door so quickly that if Loxie hadn't pulled her hand back in time, she would have knocked on her face. “Um... Snacks are here.” “Great!” Quickly emptying DT's hands, the Captain tucked the bottle of Dr Pepper under her arm and grabbed Loxie's. “Where did you put that map of the Florian system? I still can't figure out your method of organization.” Loxie grabbed a roll of paper from the shelf. All of the maps were triple-copied onto separate memory drives of course, but Loxie liked the feel of paper. “That's because I just changed it to alphabetical order yesterday.” The Captain had had trouble with Loxie's previous system because to understand it, a person would basically need to memorize the name of every star in the universe. Marushi smiled through a cookie. “Thanks. Want one?” She held out the plate of cookies. Loxie grabbed one, then said, “Crown wanted me to let you know that breakfast would be ready in fifteen minutes.” Biting into the cookie, she couldn't resist a sigh of pleasure. The chocolate chips were still warm. “Alright then. Have Lesumax and Excasr set up the table on the deck. You know the one.” Loxie bowed with an “Aye Captain,” before leaving the room. The table was a heavy affair, with enough seating for the entire crew and more. There were indents carved into the wooden surface, and globs of Plymodian space jelly in each indent to hold the cups and plates in case a solar wind rocked the ship or the ship came under attack. Lesumax, Loxie's older brother, was strong despite his skinny arms and protected the Captain during battles. He almost never took off his Gir jacket and was probably the most agile and flexible of the entire crew. As brother and sister, their relationship was better than most siblings they knew, but they still exploded into loud and often embarrassing arguments. More often though, they were wrestling for fun like they used to do when they were children. Excasr was the movie maker of the crew. He was never without his camera and released films on special occasions like holidays. He was one of the younger members of the crew, but in Loxie's opinion, that didn't diminish his usefulness in battle in any way. Both of them had joined the crew later, Excasr sometime before Crown did and Lesumax on the last resupply. Lesu wasn't happy at having missed so much on the ship, but Loxie's ship logs had kept him filled in. “Lesu, 'Casr, Captain wants you to set up the table!” Loxie called into the mess hall where Lesumax was organizing his cards and Excasr was playing video games. Lesumax started packing up quickly, but still got in an obligatory, “I'm the older brother, you can't order me around.” Excasr saved his game, hand poised over the power button while the save bar crawled to completion. “I'm the First Mate. Try me.” Loxie smiled at the banter. It would never turn into an argument unless one or the other felt they had been insulted, but both of the siblings were pretty forgiving of each other. “Hurry up or I'll keelhaul the both of ye.” Knowing that her threat wasn't needed but was fun to say anyways, Loxie went back up on deck before proceeding to the mainmast. Not only was she the First Mate, she was also navigator and as navigator, she needed to check out the view from the crow's nest and take their position before breakfast. Climbing hand over fist up the ratlines got her up the crow's nest in under a minute. She grabbed the mask that supplied oxygen to her off of the mast: the artificial gravity wasn't as strong as it could be and air up at the crow's nest was thin. Alright. There's Betelgeuse straight ahead. Vidia is off to port side and Callox to starboard. After struggling a few minutes with the trigonometry she needed, she finally decided that they would arrive at the target at about 11:42, approximately 18 minutes ahead of the expected time. That meant another 18 minutes to complete their job before the planet exploded. As the smell of bacon rose up to the crow's nest, Loxie pulled off her mask, grabbed the ratline and swung herself down. Spoiler: Chapter 3 “Breakfast!” Crown called as he kicked open the door, plates stacked high with bacon, eggs, toast, hashbrowns and other breakfast foods balancing precariously on his arms. The crew assembled on deck in record time, faster, Loxie noted reproachfully, than they had when she had woken them. Every spot on the table was soon filled, with only a few punches thrown in competition for seats near the Captain. Crown set the food on the table, his knives gouging the table as he sliced at grabbing hands. “No eating until the Captain fills her plate!” It wasn't a rule, but the first time the Captain had arrived to an empty table, Crown had taken out his knives. The Captain opened her door in the same way Crown did, but she didn't have the excuse of having full hands. She simply thought it was fun. She had had to forbid the rest of the crew from doing so however; the doorways were getting damaged and repairs were expensive. She sat down and filled her plate. Once she set it down, Crown set his knives down and anarchy descended on the deck of the Saber. With liberal application of slaps, punches and elbows, Loxie had managed to get her usual mountainous amount. The crew swore that both of her legs were hollow, and one of her arms too! Once she had sat down on the Captain's right, Crown sat next to her, his plate full to brimming. Across the table, Lesu was stealing food from others' plates while they were concentrating on filling them. Even Star, who didn't eat as much as the rest, was pushing and shoving to fill her plate. She would give some of it to whoever got the least. Traitor, having been the first to fill his plate, ran around the table pouring juice into cups set around it. Excasr was leaning on the table so far, both of his feet were off the ground and Rienzel was using a small laser to prevent people from stealing from his plate while he grabbed his food. Once the chaos had died down, Cap'n Marushi stood up. “After breakfast, I want everyone in the meeting room. Ten minutes strategy meeting, then it's back to work! Laggards get shot.” Not one person on the crew took the threat seriously. She probably would shoot them, but she would never have to because no one disobeyed her orders. After a solid half hour of eating, grabbing what little was still on the plates and stealing from anyone inattentive enough, everyone picked up their plates and carried them to the kitchen. Dishes duty rotated every week and this week, Rienzel and Loxie had the job. The meeting took precedence, so after leaving the dishes to soak in hot water they headed up to the meeting room. “Alright,” Captain Marushi said when all had assembled, “We're here today to discuss the looting and pillaging of a certain planet which is about to explode.” Loxie, at the Captain's nod, said, “This planet, Betelgeuse 17, has always been unstable. The few residents living there have already evacuated, but none of them brought many of their possessions. They simply took what money they had and left. However, since this planet is about to explode, the black market will probably pay quite a bit up front for the rare items left behind.” Excasr, being the crew strategist, was next. “What we know so far is that there was three settlements on the planet. Two of them were temporary mining camps, one was a trading port. The mining camps will have nothing useful since the workers who stayed there went home to the trading port on the weekends. So, we're going to loot the trading port. The only difficulty will be the Royal Alparnian fleet. They've decided to patrol the area to prevent any merchant ships from landing on the planet.” Smurf placed his hand on the table, which was what the Captain preferred over raising it. “What kind of wealth are we talking about? How can a small planet like this have enough wealth to attract our attention?” “It's a mining planet.” the Captain said, “The main resources it pulls up is gold and Grellian sludge, which can be used as a power source. Not only that, but with their success in trading, the residents of the planet bought many rare artifacts to liven up their dreary planet. Artifacts that will become rarer if everyone thinks that they've been destroyed.” Excasr nodded, then continued. “Now remember, we don't have much time for this; three hours, max. Each of you will get a portal bag. Just throw stuff in and it will automatically teleport to the Saber's hold. B17 will be very humid and very warm, but since you don't have to carry anything really heavy, it shouldn't be that difficult.” He glanced at his watch, accurate to the millisecond. “We'll arrive at 11:42. That's about three hours.” The Captain smiled. “Perfect. That's just enough time to finish your work.” She turned slightly, she turned to Loxie. “Miss Loxare, stay behind. I need to speak with you.” Loxie smiled as she raised her hand in salute. “Aye Cap'n!” “But Captain, why!?” Loxie's hands slammed down onto the desk. Why would the Captain...? Captain Marushi tapped a few papers into alignment. “I've already given you my reasons Miss Loxare. I will be letting the crew know after the raid on B17. I've let you know because you are my first mate but I don't want you telling the crew. I need to tell them myself.” She set down her papers with a sigh. “That will be all Miss Loxare.” As Loxie turned to go, the Captain said, “You were the best first mate a captain could have.” “And you will always be the best captain, Cap'n.” As the door opened, the hinges squeaked for the first time since this door was installed. Loxie thought they might have been crying. Please feel free to leave CnC.
Oh hey I remember this. Thought it was good the first time, still do now. Wasn't there a second chapter to it already?
This was really great. I just really like your writing style, for some reason. If you do continue this, could you please inform me when there is a new chapter? I seem to forget to check up on stuff like this a lot.
Yes! My computer is just being really slow right now. I'll add it to the first chapter when it works again. EDIT It's up! Can do!
I love this, you are awesome. This is an excellent job of portraying the pirate threads, great job Loxare. Moar should been added. c:
Updating post! Hey guys! Chapter 3 is up in the first post. Enjoy and leave me some CnC if you so desire. Have a good day!
Very nice! My thoughts while reading this were ranged. going from "Yeah you better not steal my food. i'll laser you" to various forms of "Why cap'n why?!"
