“You made this suit, this helmet and this seat in that time?” the rabbit asked. “I’m impressed.”
“No, I made the seat then,” Evan said, stepping into the launching pit. “I made the suit and the helmet when I made the flamethrower. Have fun.”
“If I end up in the drink I’m coming for you, Evan Mayerle,” the rabbit hissed as Evan timed the roll and hit the launcher.
The black blob was fired into the air and as it flew across the gap two knives appeared in its hands. It hit the mainsail of the oncoming caravel face first but the knives went through the canvas like butter and it slid downward leaving two gaping wounds in the black sail. The last that could be seen of it was as it flipped off the base of the sail and into the crowd below it. As it landed, there was an inhuman scream.
“Poor bunny,” Commander Mbeki said. “He didn’t last long.”
“I think that was whoever he landed on,” Evan said, as a spurt of flame licked upward and caught the sail. It was quickly involved and turned to ash before their eyes. “You might want to have the captain sail out of range for the time being.”
The wind was fair from the caravel and it carried the occasional sounds of screaming, pleas for help and from time to time someone leapt over the side, apparently preferring the briny deeps to whatever was going on on board. The ship had almost immediately lost way and now rocked from side to side in the waves, its helm clearly not manned.
The captain joined them and shook his head when blood started running from the scuppers.
“I’m glad he’s on our side,” the skipper commented.
“I don’t think he is,” Evan replied. “But he owed me a favor.”
“Shall we send over a prize crew?” Commander Mbeki asked. The last, badly aimed, ballista bolt had sailed off into the distance some time before.
“No…” the commander said after a moment’s thought. “I’m not sure that any sane human should see what is on board that ship.” He eyed the orcas and an occasional raylike thing that were coming up and glancing at the ship they were supposed to be following. “But I’m not sure that he should have to swim back.” There were flames licking from the aft of the craft by then and he shook his head again. “Let’s lay her alongside, near the bow, and recover our… friend.”
They jockeyed the ship over, carefully, and threw grapnels onto its bow to pull it alongside. Fire parties stood by because the aft had become fully involved, but shifted as they were that was downwind and for the time being the fire was held there.
As they pulled alongside the rabbit jumped from one ship to the other, a gap of more than three meters, which should have been impossible.
“Well,” he said brightly, taking off his helmet, “that was fun. Let’s go find me some more orcs to play with!”
“It was crewed by orcs?” Commander Mbeki asked as a division under Chief Brooks boomed the caravel away and the clipper got back under way. Some of the crew from the burning ship had climbed aboard and were lined up against the starboard rail under guard.
“No, they were their marines,” the rabbit replied, pulling off the fire-scorched black suit. “I just kept telling myself it was a cruise of telemarketers and there just didn’t seem to be enough of them. I haven’t had that much fun since the last real telemarketer died of old age. I didn’t track the bastard down until he’d keeled over from the heart attack. They said he’d seen a rabbit and that was it for him. The bastard.”
Not a sound was heard from the ship as they sailed away, leaving behind a crowd of confused orcas.
Joel had watched the entire “battle,” more of a massacre, from his battle station on the quarterdeck. He found it interesting, and instructive, that the enemy ship was there. Finding one ship at sea was not easy; as sailors said: “Lord, the sea is so large and my boat is so small.”
It was an unlikely coincidence to find one of the New Destiny fleet placed right across their path. About as likely as rounding out a busted flush on a one card draw.
Which meant that it probably wasn’t coincidence. Which meant that the vague possibility that there was an agent on board had gone from “vague possibility” to “high probability.”
Furthermore, they had known more or less the ship’s exact location and plans. That meant that the probable agent was among the officers, probably one of the primary navigational officers, either the captain, Commander Mbeki, Major Freund the navigator or one of the three lieutenants.
The rabbit was an outside possibility, as well. As an AI it could have an internal navigational system and even communications. He wished that he knew more about it, but everyone with prior experience had left with the dragons.
His hunch was still Commander Mbeki. But it was only a hunch and while he was willing to pay attention to his hunches, he wasn’t willing to concentrate on them.
He needed more information.
“Orcas approaching to port,” the masthead lookout called.
Martin had been pacing up and down the quarterdeck, waiting for word on the attack upon the UFS ship. He had spread the ships on a long line across the anticipated course of the dragon carrier and the caravels had only had occasional visual contact for the past three days. The lookout had reported possibly seeing some smoke early in the morning, but from what was impossible to determine.
Each of the ships, though, had a small pod of orcas attached. The orca sonar could transmit across significant distances and he was using that to keep in communication with the dispersed fleet. Why some were returning to his ship, however, remained to be seen.
He walked to the front of the ship and looked down at the pod that was riding in the bow wave. Suddenly he saw Shanol veer off and head in the direction of the oncoming orcas.
He waited impatiently for the leader whale to return and then walked back to the maindeck as Shanol and a smaller orca coasted to the side of the slow-moving vessel.
“What’s up, Shanol?” he asked, leaning over the side of the gently heeling caravel.
“Your ‘unarmed carrier’ just took out the ship that was in its way like it wasn’t even there,” Shanol replied.
“What could have happened?” Martin asked. “They didn’t even have the dragons with them!”
“Well, it’s pretty hard to tell from down here,” the orca leader said, sarcastically. “I had Maniillat report back in person.”
“They didn’t board or anything,” Maniillat squealed. “The carrier never got near them until the ship was already st-stopped. Some of the sailors jumped over the side but they were just screaming about a fire-breathing imp.”
“They couldn’t have summoned anything,” Martin snapped. “They don’t have the power available. The only one that might have is Talbot, and he’s already at the mer-town.”
“Well, whatever it is took your ship out and the carrier is already past your line,” Shanol replied. “What now, fearless leader?”
“Head to the mer-town,” Martin said after a moment. “Time to start phase two.”
“Yeah, well I hope phase two works out better than phase one,” Shanol replied.
“Yeah,” Maniillat squealed. “And no fire-breathing imps.”
The skipper was walking down a lower deck corridor when he saw sailors bracing themselves against the bulkhead ahead of him. He wasn’t close enough to have caused the reaction and he didn’t understand the beads of sweat on their faces until he saw the rabbit coming around a corner.