Pinkbeard's Revenge Part 2

Posted on 30 Aug 2018 @ 5:39pm by Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Ensign Miraj Derani
Edited on on 30 Aug 2018 @ 5:40pm

3,302 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: USS Galileo A - holodeck 1 Deck 5
Timeline: MD145 - 1800

[ON]

Previously on Pinkbeard's Revenge...

The two ships crashed together, and the experienced boarding crew of the Pirate ship sent dozens of lines across the gap between, them, catching in rigging and on the gunwales of the Victory, and then they were swarming across, scuttleing across like rats, or swigning over the water beneath, whilst others hauled on the lines to pull the ships together, and hold them there. Miraj drew her cutlass and screamed, "NO QUARTER!"


And now the conclusion...


Miraj's words were cut off as the Marines and shooters aboard Lukes ship fired sending the ship into a fog of war, "NO SURRENDER!" He shouted as he and his officers stormed into the fray. Within minutes the top deck was an array of men shooting, shouting and swining cutlasses cutting each other down. Luke had already taken out half a dozen pirates his shirt ripped and blood stained. "MIRAJ!" He demanded.

She heard him call her name. She may have tweaked the controls so she could beat every holographic opponent despite her utter inability with weapons. But a real one would wipe the floor with her. She had no intention of going anywhere near Luke.

She satisfied herself with shooting a sailor swinging across from the Victory. He dropped with a scream into the water, some hundred feet below. Miraj tossed the flintlock pistol over her shoulder and pulled another from her bandolier. "Hey, Amaranai? Whats the best way to take a security officer alive?"

Amaranai had been battling the various sailors as they attempted to flank Miraj, keeping the young woman from being surprised by an attack. She ducked to flip a sailor onto the ground and then stabbed it once it was grounded. She heard the commander's call for Miraj and looked to the pink-haired girl to see her reaction. Then she heard the question.

"I wouldn't recommend the straight approach," Amaranai started. "You need to try to surprise him."

She paused.

"Of course," she added as she started to defend herself from another sword. "You could always just go talk to him."

"There'll be plenty of time to talk." Miraj shouted back. "When he be kissing the gunner's daughter, or be at the long end of a short plank."

"Staines!" Miraj yelled out. "Take some men! Fire their powder room!" The sailor nodded and began to disengage his current battle with a young midshipman, by headbutting him and then slashing his throat while the young man was stunned, and pulling a couple more from their own duels. They headed for the stairs down.

Luke and his Officer were battling top deck, cutlass in his right hand and pistol in the other. Shooting down one man with a well aimed shot and slicing the throat of another his entourage surged forward. Neither crew was winning. "Rally some of the gun crews start firing the cannons I dont care if it tears both out ships apart they are not leaving this ocean" He ordered his officer doing as he asked.

As if the smoke cleared by some divine intervention Luke could make out a group of pirates heading towards the downward stairs one brandishing Bright Pink hair the other look very much like his Assistant Chief "Damn Traitor" He said almost chuckling to himself. Slicing a path towards the stairs where the group had disappeared he followed them down.

Miraj gave a grim smile. Luke had followed Staines into the bowels of Victory, where there would be tight quarters. She gestured to Amaranai. "Now we follow. I'll go down those stairs. You go down those." She pointed to a hole int the main deck in the shadow of the foremast. "I'll distract him, and you can take him out."

Amaranai looked to where Miraj had pointed and then held up her hands and stopped Miraj.

"Whoa," she said. "I am not going to take out my immediate supervising officer." She paused. "This is your battle and your problem. I'll head down and distract him and you can have your own fight to take him out."

Miraj looked vexed. She couldn't take Luke in anything approaching a fair fight. "Fine. I'll figure something out. But your distraction will have to be pretty damn spectacular."

Amaranai wasn't really sure how she was going to keep Luke distracted because she had a feeling that Luke knew what this was all about and any distraction would get him guessing Miraj might do something. But still, she was not ready to take her own Chief down.

Miraj nodded, and grabbed a convenient line hanging from one of her yards, steped back for a run up and then swung over the dark smoke covered water below, shots whistling past her, and landed on the deck of HMS Victory. She drew a cutless and shoved it in the vague direction of a nearby jack tar. The simulation settings obliged her lack of skill, and he fell over. She turned and gave Amaranai a wave. "Come on, scurvy dog!"

Amaranai watched as Miraj flew across the water to the Victory and started attacking the men on the deck. There was no time like the present for Amaranai to learn how to fly. She grabbed a rope and took her own flying leap onto the Victory, knocking two men down in the process and ramming her sword into them while they were on the ground. She made her way to the stairs and started down to find Luke.

In the bowels of Victory Staines and his fire crew had fought and dodged around the gun crews, using the smoke and noise and confusion to their advantage to make it to the powder store. "Now lads, nice and long with those fuses, we're a distraction, not a suicide squad."

"Oh no, but this is a firing squad," Luke said from behind the pirates. Along the way, he had rallied several men whom now had loaded muskets pointed at the saboteurs. "Step away now and we'll spare you lives. The only enemy here is your captain, help me apprehend her and your entire crew will receive a full pardon, a large sum of gold and the opportunity to serve our king as privateers." He offered.

Staines glanced over his shoulder at the open powder magazine. "Are you sure you want to shoot us?" He conwagged a warning finger at Luke. "How large a sum of gold."


"The crowns pockets are deep, enough to set you up a nice home and have some left over for a good month of drinking. The money you earn from privateering will set you up for life" Luke shrugged "Then again, you could just set that match and blow us all to kingdomd come!"

The pirates gripped their cutlasses, shuffling uneasily, waiting for violence to break out.

"Whilst thats a generous offer, and no mistake," Staines said. "I'm not ready to trade a comfy birth and a share and a half to go back to being Able Seaman again. "

"Then it's our graves you be digging! FIRE!" He shouted the men reacting Luke was beyond caring either he set the powder off by gunfire or the pirates at least this way he controlled the cards. Charging through the smoke his weapon discharged and cutlass raised he began cutting men down furiously and mercilessly.

The pirates gave as good as they got as the musket balls tore into flesh and wood, and mercifully, missed the powder. Staines lunged for Luke. As the master at arms, he was well trained with a sword, and had more than enough experience with close quarters fighting to press the attack and drive Luke back, sending short jabbing thrusts at his face and belly.

The initial push from the Pirates caught even Luke off guard and he found himself losing ground for the first few minutes. As the battle raged on and lesser men cut down it was clear the pirates and Luke's soldiers were well matched. "Why doesn't your captain face me herself!" Luke shouted parrying a few well placed shot one glancing of his elbow blood staining the torn tunic.

Because their captain is not a moron, Miraj thought. Facing a trained marine in combat? She'd last exactly ten seconds. And only then because he would be pulling his blows. She was only going to take him on once she was sure his attention was elsewhere (or, preferably, asleep) . The plan was simple. Amaranai would distract him so she could get close enough to brain him with a cannonball set to stun. She signalled her friend, and then grabbed a cannonball. Her personal settings would allow her to knock him out with a single cannonball blow. It was one of the many settings that let her play all the tropes, and now she was going to use it to full effect.

Amaranai saw the signal and went after Luke and his "minions". The pirates were not an easy takedown and it tired her out quickly. However, she did take them down. Amaranai made her way to Luke, and, after hearing his question, decided to answer herself.

"She's saving herself for the one on one," Amaranai started. "Once all the lackeys are out of the way."

Of course, Amaranai was simply keeping Luke distracted and she hoped that she wouldn't have to face the higher ranking officer too long before Miraj put her plan into place.

"Besides," Amaranai continued. "You wouldn't get a chance to fight me."

With that, she swung her sword out to meet Luke's and she had this sense of fear and elation at the same time.

Luke smiled "You really want to die?" He let out a laugh before lunging forward with his own sword. He knew Amaranai was not smeone to under estimate with a phaser but with a sword he believed he had the upper hand. "You chose the wrong side this time" He said attacking her with a flury of slashes and jabs.

Okay. Amaranai had to admit, she was not very good with a sword. She was passable against the computer created pirates, but Luke was something different. He was really good. She heard Luke's taunts but instead of saying anything, she simply kept her onslaught up, hoping that Miraj would get to Luke before he managed to cut her down.

Despite her lack of confidence in herself, that Luke could see from the way she fought his deputy put up a stunning fight. She managed to break through his defence on a few occasions and now he sported cuts on his side and bloodstained holes in his shirts. He hadn't even realised he had taken his mind of Miraj until the fight with Amaranai was almost done.

Miraj was impressed. Even though Amaranai was clearly no regular fencer, she was holding her own against Luke. Even so, Amaranai wasn't there to beat him, just distract him. And when he lunged for Amarania, Miraj made her move, both hands wrapped around the canonball, pouncing forward to smack it into his skull.

There wasn't much strength behind the blow. But she didn't any. With a light tap, the stun charge stored in it, went off, dropping Luke like a stone. Miraj stood over her fallen foe, grinning. "Oh no she didn't." She told his unconscious body.

Miraj let the stun-ball fall to the deck with an iron thud. "Right. We have the captain. Mr Sabatini!" SHe bellowed.

"Aye sir." The first mate appeared.

"We have our captain. Strike their colours, and round up the rest of his crew. Then we make this one walk the plank." Miraj ordered

When Miraj finally managed to knock down Luke, Amaranai was happy. As Miraj began barking orders, Amaranai dropped her weapon and leaned against a crate on the deck. As she was catching her breath, she noticed that it hurt to breathe. Deeper breaths to calm down, Amaranai started to check herself and found that she hadn't noticed that Luke had gotten a perfect strike to her side.

"Ugh," she grunted. "Jerk got me good."

She paused for another painful breath.

"Did you turn the safeties down?"

Miraj rushed to her side, wincing at the red line across Amaranai's torso, just above her hip. "Not so much." She ripped her shirt at the sleeve and pressed the wadded up linen against the cut. "Maybe its because you and Luke are real, rather than under computer control. Do you need to go to sickbay?"

Amaranai was grateful for Miraj helping her and shook her head and then took a sharp breath when the girl pressed her cloth against her side.

"No," she said. "I may as well be around for the end."

Miraj looked doubtful. "you sure?" She asked, as some of the pirate crew dragged away an unconscious Luke.

"I'm sure," Amaranai said with a pained grunt. "I'm fine. I'll see the doc when we're done."

"Good," Miraj offered Amaranai her hand and helped the other woman to stand. Together they moved slowly over to the gunwale. The defeated crew were all sat before the main mask, covered by the watchful eyes, and loaded muskets, of the rest of the Hades scurvy dogs. Two more hands were removing a section of the rail, and running out the gangplank, weighting the deck end with a brass monkey.

Luke's hands were bound and he was dumped before he was unceremoniously awakened by a bucket of bilge water to the face and a relatively gently kick in the ribs. "Wakey wakey, sleeping beauty," growled Staines, his wounds hurriedly bandaged, and leaking slightly.

Awoken by the sudden freezing and horridly smelling bucket of water Luke slowly pushed himself to a sitting position. "Your captain to afraid to fight one on one then what a bunch of cowards, you have no honour" He said spitting at the mans feet.

"Um, Pirates?" Miraj pointed out from her perch on a nearby canon. "Of course we don't have honor. And hell yes im afraid of facing the trained and battlehardened marine in single combat. So i did it the pirate way." She tossed her stun cannonball up in the air lightly. "I cheated."

He rolled his eyes "Miraj, if you wanted a punching bag you could have just said. I get you're upset but hijacking my personal time and walloping me with a cannonball?" That thought made him chuckle "Besides I though their was like a pirate code or something!"

"Its really more like guidelines," Miraj had a wicked smile on her face. "And you were twenty minutes into my personal time, so I took steps."

She hopped down off her canon. "And the Code does say that those who betray their fellows and cause them to suffer shall be punished by death or marooning. She gestured with a cutlass to a small spit of an island some five hundred meters away, "Now I don't think the safeties will let it get that far, but it would be fun to see you walk the plank. On yer feet, ye poxy sea dog!"

Luke couldn't argue at her comment and before he could in any instance he was dragged to his feet and followed behind Mirajs footsteps, he avoided looking at her rump and grunted in pain as they made their way along the debris of what was his former ship. "I don't know how many times I can apologize," He said being thrust once more forward. "I wont grovel though" He said determined to gauge her responce.

She poked him in the arse with the tip of her cutless. "You don't need to grovel." She said brightly. "You will need to swim, oh, hold on." She signalled to a sailor standing at the rail next to a darkly stained hogshead. "If you would, Mr Bates."

The sailor grinned, and he and a companion hoisted the barrel, shakking the contents over the side. Bloody lumps of meat, lopped off limbs from the fighting, hit the water with a splash.

Dark triangular shapes broke the surface, harbingers of the darker shadows that lifted them, which would snatch a meaty chunk and shake more blood onto the gently lapping waves.

"Walk the Plank, Mr Wyatt." Miraj said brightly. She poked him in the bum again. "We don't have all day."

Luke looked down "Sharks, great." He murmured shaking his head as he walked slowly but confidently down the plank. As he neared the end he turned to face the pirate crew but mostly Miraj "You know I get it, I do but just know its not because I wanted to hurt you" He said "Its because I loved you and know you deserve better, you're young and will find someone much better and more deserving than I" Luke smiled before allowing gravity to take hold as he fell backwards, rather gracefully into the water.

Amaranai had been watching the entire exchange and said nothing. She was ready to end the program if things got out of hand. Like Miraj forcing Luke to walk the plank. Or if the pirates tossed bloody parts into the water to attract more sharks. Or if Luke attempted to apologize and then plunged into the water. Wait. What?

Looking up, Amaranai noticed that Luke was no longer on the plank but there was still that split second before the splash at the bottom.

"Computer, end program," she said quickly.

With that, the pirate ship disappeared and there was a thud as Luke hit the floor. Knowing that Miraj would be upset with her, she quickly moved to her side and pulled her around to face her.

"It was enough," she said to the pink-haired pirate. "I think he learned his lesson."

MIraj gave Amaranai a cross look. "You could have waited until one of the sharks bit his bum." She complained as the force fields in the holodeck returned them all to the same level.

Luke rolled over onto his front and then pushed himself up of the floor "I'm glad you girls had fun" he looked to Amaranai now "Next time someone intrudes my personal time by using their security clearance they may find themselves on the wrong side of the brigs forcefield" He turned to Miraj his expression softening then returning it to its firm nature "And the next time someone uses one of my staff to use their security clearance will find them in a cell next to them" He didn't need to wait for the response and stalked off; for the first time he actually felt mad at Miraj.

Miraj watched him go. "Bite me," she muttered under her breath. "You should have let a shark eat him. Let me get you to sick bay," she said to Amaranai.

Though Luke had a point, Amaranai was still Miraj's friend and did it for her. She knew that Luke could reprimand her or even put her in the brig, like he said, but Miraj was more important than that. Of course, Amaranai could never let Charlotte or Lirha know that. Hearing Miraj, Amaranai remembered the injury. She looked down at her side and while the blood itself had stemmed, there was still some pain, and the hole, naturally.

"Yeah," she said. "To sick bay. Not the shark."

She paused.

"If I'm hurt because of a sword, imagine what could have happened with the shark."

Miraj bit her lip. "Possibly. Maybe I shouldn't have chummed the water. " She offered Amaranai her hand. "You're the best matey a pirate could ask for. I owe you."

[OFF]

Lieutenant Commander Luke Wyatt
Chief of Secuirty
USS Galileo-A

Ensign Miraj Derani
Conn officer
USS Galileo-A

Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin
Assistant Chief of Security
USS Galileo-A

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