Episode 12

The Drill (Part 2)

Gecko parried and thrust, running the dog through. He paused as the dog slumped to the ground, and looked around, wiping his cutlass, breathing heavily. The boarding had been short and brutal. Men and women littered the deck. Sand, blood, debris. Casualties mostly blue armbands. Some of them moaned, stirring fitfully.

Duke and a couple of others finished their duels. The remaining sailors surrendered, and some of the marines tied them up. The Pegasus’s medics were already tending to the wounded, enemy included. Belowdecks, though, the cannons were still firing.

“The captain and the rest of the officers have retreated to closed quarters,” the rhino said, joining Gecko and the others. “We have the gun decks. Watch for loopholes and traps. Duke, you’re on point.”

The dozen of them lifted their neckerchiefs, and the sergeant pulled back the main hatch and dropped in the stinkbomb. A long moment later there was a muffled crump, and after another moment Duke leapt into the hole.

Reload. Again. Reload. Again. Reload.

The gun crews worked feverishly in the gloom. The light from the gun port streamed in again. Tortoise was holding the linstock waiting for the order to fire and then he was lying breathless on his shell covered in splinters, the terrible rending roar ringing in his ears.

Someone was screaming. “Loose cannon!” Killara shouted hoarsely.

“Douse powder! Douse powder!”

The pirate ahead of Gecko slipped on the dried peas and Gecko caught him as he fell.

A pistol fired, light flaring for a moment, and the marine slumped in his arms. Gecko let him fall and flattened himself against the wall. He quickly slithered along and stabbed his cutlass through the loophole, feeling it go in: a gurgling cry and the sound of the pistol hitting the deck. The stench of gunpowder.

He quickly swept the floor with his tail, and the five of them cleared the hatch to the next gun deck, Gecko now on point. He looked back to see more marines pouring onto the deck, the leaderless enemy gunners surrendering. Cutlass in hand, he leapt down the hatch.

Tortoise knelt beside the powder boy. The cannon had completely crushed his legs.

Sven gripped Tortoise’s arm. “I don’t wanna die,” the little monkey pleaded.

“Don’t worry,” Tortoise said. “The medic will be here soon and she’ll know what to do.” By the time he’d finished the sentence, Sven had closed his eyes and slipped into a deep and dreamless sleep.

“‘Ware the dogs!” Juanita cried. Tortoise looked up. Several enemy sailors had jumped through the gaping breach in the freeboard from a hole in the other ship’s gun deck. Tortoise grabbed one of the swords from the wall and stepped in front of Sven and the cannon.

There were five of them. One came at Tortoise, two at Juanita.

Tortoise parried the snarling dog’s flurry of blows, but was driven back and fell backwards over the cannon as it rolled forward, landing next to Sven. His cutlass clattered free.

The dog loomed over him as he clutched for the cutlass, the sailor raising his own. The dog suddenly stiffened with a cry and fell forward onto him. Tortoise pushed the body aside.

Gecko! His friend reached down and gripped his hand, pulling him to his feet. They turned.

Killara, who must’ve been knocked aside by the cannon as it tore free of the carriage, was pulling herself to her feet holding her side with one hand while the other brained one of the dogs with a piece of broken timber. He fell silently to the deck.

On the other ship, the gunners were crying quarter and surrendering, and the remaining sailor gave himself up.

Tortoise and Gecko finished helping clean and reset the gun deck and left Miguel and the other chippies to their repairs. They limped up to weatherdeck with Penguin, Penny, and Dee. Penguin and Killara were badly bruised, with deep splinter wounds, but, except for Sven, it seemed everyone they knew was safe, and the ship’s casualties were relatively light. Somber, they emerged amidships into the late afternoon sun to find Molly dressing down several sailors.

“Sometimes in life you do what you’re told or you die. On this ship, in battle, you always do. Do you understand me?”

Molly looked around at everyone, meeting everyone’s eyes.

Silence.

“Excellent. As you were.”

“What happened?” Gecko asked, after Molly had left for the other ship.

“A mistake,” the tall one said. One of the others muttered something and they stalked off.

The five of them went over to the backboard gunwale and watched the prisoners being processed. There were hundreds of them. Some volunteered to join the Pegasus, and a few were accepted. The others were searched for intelligence and loot, and organised into work gangs for transferring supplies under the watchful eye of the marines. The Invincible was still seaworthy, and the crew and their ship would be released in due course. Unlike some pirates, the Pegasus didn’t bother with a fleet unless they needed one.

The captain and other officers, they also learned, were being interrogated at length in the captain’s quarters on the Invincible. Tidings of the war, or something else? No one was sure.

There was a sudden stir among the Pegasus’s crew standing on the Invincible’s quarterdeck. One of the pirates darted down onto the main deck, ran lightly across one of the planks connecting the ships and leapt onto the deck of the Pegasus.

“We got Worley!” the rat exclaimed. “Lieutenant Worley! We got him alive.”

Next episode: The Storm