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Browncoats at World’s End
Chapter 30: Recovery
-
She was gone. Jack Sparrow could not believe Anamaria was dead, plunged into the ocean along with her ship. She was dead because of the Kraken and Jones, and he couldn’t help to think she was dead because of him. She and the others fought to keep the Kraken from taking The Pearl once again. If his ship was in the back of the fleet instead of the front, or if Anamaria, Sao Feng, and Zoe hadn’t also insisted in leading, then there was possibility her ship would still be intact and she would still be alive.
Now, Sparrow, don’t ye be thinking like that. The inner workings of his mind told him. We don’t know if she escaped with the others. There was that possibility, but then there was the possible and most likely chance she went down with her ship. He knew Anamaria was a proud and stubborn woman. He knew she would have at least stayed behind until after she made certain the rest of her crew had escaped.
Her crew, Gibbs was on her ship when the battle had begun. He was thinking about Anamaria, he had forgotten about his first mate. How could he forget one of his most loyal crewmembers and friend? It was Gibbs who had helped him organize a crew to go after Barbossa and help him retrieve his stolen ship. It was both Gibbs and Anamaria who convinced the rest of the crew to sail back to Port Royal to prevent him from being captured and sent to the gallows once more.
Jack had experienced devastation before. He was devastated when he found out what some of his earlier tasks for the East India Trading Company, bringing in slaves was the worst. He could never remove the bit of guilt he had felt knowing that he had assisted in the selling of people’s lives. He wished he had found out about it before the third time. The third was also his final and incomplete. He set the people free.
That task earned him his second form of despair when Cutler Beckett had him branded and ordered Jack’s ship to be set fire to and sank. That was when Jack made his first mistake. If he could turn back time and do things all over again he wouldn’t have made such a deal with Davy Jones. He loved his ship. He didn’t have anyone he really cared about back then and didn’t realize how much he loved life even more.
“Which ship did he sink?” The voice of the shorter marine cut into Jack’s mind. He had nearly forgotten the two men were standing right next to him.
“He said something,” the other man said. “Sounded like Hannah Aria.”
The shorter man furrowed his brows. “Is that the name of the ship?”
“I wouldn’t know.” His friend shrugged. “That’s what he said.” He tapped Jack on the shoulder. “Was that the name of the ship?”
Jack swallowed back every foul word he wanted to spew at the two idiots. “I don’t know the name of the bloody ship, or who was on it.”
The taller man frowned. “But you said.”
Jack stepped away from him. “I said a small prayer, in Latin. You should as well, seeing that monster.” He couldn’t believe the questions they were asking. They were in the middle of a battle and all they seemed to care about was the name of Anamaria’s ship.
“We never really got to see that monster in action before,” the shorter man tried not to flinch at Jack’s tone. “We never had spy glasses on us when it attacked.”
“Barely could see anything.”
Jack glared at them. “Best you keep an eye on something. You don’t want to be fumbling for spyglasses and whatnot to watch a great beastie attack when your enemy could be right behind you, with a knife in their hands.” He ran his finger across his neck. “Now do ye now?”
The two marines just blinked.
“Of course ye don’t, not when ye are the pride of the royal navy.” He turned back to the sea and the war and stared through his spyglass again. He saw the crew on one of his fleet ships surrender to the royal navy, who had boarded and fought against them. “Seems we have taken over another ship.” He turned to a few other ships there were at least two other pirate ships being boarded by the navy and two navy vessel being over run by pirates. “A few more other sword fights and pistols. Now lets see what squid lips is up to, eh?”
He found the Flying Dutchman where he had last seen the rotted ship. The triple cannons of the ship was firing against the fleet, including at one merchant vessel that had been given it’s own cannons to fire back. Jack pulled his slips back into a scowl when he saw the foreboding tentacle of the beastie slither up from the surface and slide up against the hull of the ship.
“Can’t fight fare can he?” Jack felt his hands tighten around the spyglass. “As soon as someone gets near him he has to send his pet after it. Bloody coward.” Jones has fought against him before, but it seems as once the chips are down is when Jones summons the Kraken.
“He summoned the Kraken again?” The taller marine asked.
“That is what I just said.” Sparrow put the spyglass away. The time for idle chatter had come to an end. He was going to find Beckett, and steal the heart and he didn’t care how many people he had to fight to get to the fop.
-
Elizabeth Swann knew she shouldn’t be crying, not when the battle was under way. They had to continue fighting and she shouldn’t be crying for friends who have been lost until after. Elizabeth fought to keep the tears that were stinging her eyes from leaking out of the corners of her eyes. She wanted to step away from the railing, yet her feet were rooted into the deck.
“Shed a few tears now,” Zoe Washburne placed her hand on Elizabeth’s back. “Shed a few now and then cry later.”
“Thank you,” Elizabeth felt the tears roll down her sunburned cheeks.
“Don’t thank me,” Zoë’s expression remained unchanged. “This isn’t mercy. Wipe you cheeks and prepare a rifle.”
Elizabeth nodded before she wiped away the tears. She looked up at Will when she felt her fiancé’s hand on her shoulder.
“This is for them.” His face had the same sorrowful expression as hers. “You know that. Even if what I am saying sounds stupid.”
“Fighting for friends who have fallen is never stupid,” Zoe said. “Neither is saying it when we all know it. Now, everyone get back to their posts.”
Elizabeth grabbed her rifle. She was ready to load it with enough shot and powder and shoot it at another barrel or crate full of gunpowder. They wouldn’t be able to do too much damage to the
Kraken in this way; cut of all its tentacles and it still would survive. There had to be a way to kill the main body. She could shoot at the water, but that would not do too much damage.
She glanced back at where The Luna Ghost was destroyed. Where there was once a mighty and beautiful ship, all that was left was debris floating amongst the waves. She stared down at the water lapping against the hull of the Haven and wondered where the beast was.
There was something else in the water. She blinked to make certain she wasn’t seeing things and she wasn’t. There were five people floating next to the ship, swimming closer to the hull.
“There are people overboard.” She called out to the rest of the crew without removing her gaze from those in the water. “They are trying to climb aboard.”
“Give them a line,” Zoe ordered.
Elizabeth did not move. She was ready to lead a hand to the pirates. She had recognized them as those from Anamaria’s ship. In fact one of them was Gibbs and he was struggling to stay afloat and depended on the woman he was swimming with. Woman? Elizabeth couldn’t believe. She wanted to and felt her heart was about to leap out of her chest.
“Anamaria, Gibbs.” She shouted to them as a rope was lowered down.
Anamaria stared up. “You have to haul us up together. Gibbs broke his arm.”
“We’ll do what ever it takes,” Elizabeth said. She felt new tears form in her eyes.
It took several people to pull both Gibbs and Anamaria out of the water. The other three survivors had started to climb when they stared to haul people and by the time the lowered the line for the last one he was over half way up the side of the ship.
“I thought you had died,” Elizabeth said when she draped a blanket across Gibbs’s shoulders. “When the Kraken destroyed your ship and I didn’t see you in any of the long boats.”
“I made sure my crew was able to escape first,” Anamaria pulled her own blanket tighter around her shoulders. “They were to fill the long boats first. After they were filled and after that monster went after one of them was when we decided to try to swim.”
“I thought you would be the type to go down with your ship,” Elizabeth said.
Anamaria smiled weakly. “I am a captain, but I am not suicidal.” She turned to Gibbs. “Mr. Gibbs needed someone to help him swim with that arm.”
“I fell behind,” Gibbs said. “You did not honor the code.”
“You know they are more like guidelines.” Anamaria’s response earned a smile from the older man.
“How is your arm?” Elizabeth asked.
“The pain is indescribable,” Gibbs frowned. “It hurts even more when I try to move it. Tis a good thing I can’t move it at all.”
“Don’t try to move it,” Zoe kneeled down next to them, along with the teen-age member of the crew who was carrying a strange bag. “Thank you Jarvis.” She said to the youth. “The rest of you need to stay to your posts. That giant squid is already going after another ship.”
Elizabeth felt a new sense of alarm from her words. “Is it going after the Pearl or The Empress?”
Zoe shook her head. “After one of the other ships.” She opened the strange bag. “This belongs to our doctor. We are lucky it still aboard. While the rest is fighting, Elizabeth, you are going to help me treat these folk.” She turned to the other three men they had rescued. One of them was from her original crew. “Any more broken limbs?” Both men shook their heads. “Gavin, how are you feeling?”
“I have a few scrapes and bruises,” Gavin smiled as he pulled his blanket tighter around his shoulders. “I will live.”
“Can you still fire a cannon, swing a sword, and shoot a gun?”
“I can do all three and dance,” Gavin said. The other two men nodded.
“So can I,” Anamaria said.
“Once we get everyone all patched up,” Zoe handed Elizabeth a small sealed bottle. “The brush is attached to the cap. Swipe the brush against all the cuts you see. Unroll the sticky bandage to keep the padding against the big cuts.” She handed the younger woman a roll of strange white material and a stack of thick pads that felt like wool.
“You have done this before?’ Elizabeth asked after she had figured out how to open up the vial. The brush was attached to the inner bottom of the cap and when she removed it she could see the bristles were soaking wet.
“Not very often,” Zoe smiled weakly as she opened another bottle and shook out two pale yellow pills into her hand. “Swallow these. They will help with the pain.” She handed them to Gibbs.
“What are they?” He asked as he accepted them into his hand of his good arm.
“It says Curkontvika,” Zoe read from the label. “Mixture of words from different languages. I believed the translation was for healing root weed. It comes from the root of a plant that was from China of Earth that Was and re-grown during the terraforming process. Basically it’s the generic form of Velisma.”
“What?” Gibbs raised his eyebrows at her.
“Something stronger than ibuprofen but less medical warnings, like acetaminophen.”
Elizabeth cast her a confused glance. “We still don’t understand.”
Zoe shrugged. “Aspirin. What ever you use for head aches.” She blinked. “Willow bark?”
“Ah,” Gibbs smiled and nodded before he swallowed the pills.
“Hopefully the pain will be gone soon,” Elizabeth smiled. The injured members would certainly heal faster with the advanced medicine.
-
Barbossa clenched his teeth from the destruction he had seen. He had watched as the Kraken finished it’s work on the second ship it had attacked; only appearing a bit more battered and burned than before. The tip of one of it’s tentacles was only hanging on by a sinew a flesh, one well aimed cannon ball and it would have been torn clean off, not that it would matter much. The beast would still be attacking another ship once it was done.
“When the hell are we going to see some action?” Jayne Cobb paced around the resurrected pirate, using his boots to create an echoing stomping sound.
“Until we either come across one of the navy’s ships,” Barbossa answered. He would have normally ignored the presence of someone pacing around him, but Cobb proved to be as loud and obnoxious as he was idiotic. “Or if we attack the Flying Dutchman or we foolishly go after the Kraken.”
“Why would that be a foolish thing?” Jayne asked. The man was armed to the teeth. He had attached sheaths and holsters to his belt and had them loaded down with pistols and knives. He carried around a rifle. “Once ya figure out how to kill it.”
“That is where the problem lies,” Sao Feng said. “We do not know how to kill such a beast.” He glared in annoyance at Jayne before turning to Barbossa. “You have listed the other options. I am
favoring in going after Davy Jones, but I wish to hear your choice.”
Barbossa ran his fingers against his chin and through his beard. Half of their fleet was already engaged in battle against the navy. The other half was either going after Jones or were still deciding on which course of action to take. “It be best to ignore Jones fer now. At least until Jack returns with the heart.”
“You have this much faith in Sparrow?” Sao arched an eyebrow.
“Tis not about faith, but more of experience. This is a man I have twice sent to die on an abandoned island and who had twice escaped. This is a man who will always get what he is determined to go after. He will get that heart and destroy it.”
“The beast will be confused when its master is dead,” Sao stroked a finger down his own display of facial hair. “It will make it easier to kill.”
“We got one.” Jayne shouted in triumph and pointed towards the battle against the naval fleet, one of the enemies’ ships was sinking. “Nice to see that we can score a point.”
“It is still only one ship,” Sao pointed out. “Best to not get your hopes to far up.”
“I admit that I am one of the least positive people round these parts, but I take me when I get
em.”
Barbossa shook his head. “We are still loosing.” He pointed to a merchant vessel that had recently surrendered to the Navy. “They have taken over two of our ships and sank two others.” He pointed back to Jones’s ship and the Kraken. “Jones and his beast have sunk two more of our ships. We have only sunk one of theirs.”
“And taken over two of theirs,’ Jayne smiled weakly. “And seems were ‘bout to sink another one.”
“The Kraken is attacking it’s third ship,” Sao said.
Barbossa turned back to The Dutchman and the Kraken. The monster’s tentacles were wrapping around a third ship, despite it’s attempt at trying to fight back.
“It is going after the rest of our fleet,” Sao said. “Not going after The Pearl or the rest of us.”
“That is interesting,” Barbossa wondered what the pattern was. Jack’s ship was the most likely target, yet the monster wasn’t going near it. Was it because Jack wasn’t aboard? Jack wasn’t on Anamaria’s ship, yet Gibbs was. Did Jones believe they were trying to confuse him and he believed Jack was on The Luna Ghost? That may explain why Anamaria’s ship, but not the others. The only thing the other ships had in common was the fact they were attacking The Dutchman.
“What is it?” Sao had seen Barbossa’s expression change.
“We need to tell everyone to stop attacking Jones,” Barbossa said. “The Kraken is protecting its master.”
“I thought it went after whoever this Jones guy wants it to go after,” Jayne asked.
“Aye,” Barbossa nodded. “Most likely both.”
“Even if we could get that bird to tell everyone there is no certainty that will keep Jones from releasing the Kraken onto other ships.” Sao said. “We need a better plan. How to kill this monster now.”
“Tearing off it’s own arms won’t stop it,” Barbossa nodded. “We need to get to the middle.”
“We can’t get it to bite something with a lot of boom,” Jayne shrugged. “If Serenity was here we could whip something up in it’s cargo and drop it on the monster.”
“You’re amazing ship is not here,” Barbossa snapped and was ready to tell Jayne what else he thought of him when Sao placed a hand across his mouth.
“He’s right.”
Barbossa removed the hand of the Chinese pirate. “Aye, but he isn’t helping.”
“Actually he is,” Sao grinned. There was a glint in his eye. There was an idea brewing in his head. “There is a great amount of explosives aboard these ships. We have to gather it together and light a fuse as the beast is attacking, make certain the crew escapes before the fuse is ignited.”
It may work. “Someone has to be willing to sacrifice their own ship. It would have to sink a bit, get low enough to near the Kraken’s mouth before it could explode.”
“That is true,” Sao frowned slightly.
“So who we going to convince to give up their ship?” Jayne asked. “Cause I kinda like the idea of blowing this thing into fried fish, as long as I don’t explode.”
Sao drew in a long breath and sighed deeply as he stared down at the deck and then looked up at the sails of his ship
“No,” Barbossa already had an idea of what Sao planned to do. “Sao, ye don’t have to.”
Sao placed a hand against a mast. “It would be unfair to try to convince someone else, especially since this was my idea.”
“You love this ship.”
“Who doesn’t love their ship?”
“So wait,” Jayne held up a finger. “Does this mean this is the ship that is going to explode?”
Barbossa didn’t even bother to answer him, or even turn around to glare at him.
-
The orders for a change in shifts came through and Malcolm Reynolds found himself on the deck of the Intrepid along with the others who were on cannon duty along with him. He knew why the change. It was certain to make sure each soldier saw the same amount of action.
The best part of the change was that it provided Malcolm with a better view than he had on the gun deck. He had run to the prow of the ship to get a better view.
There were two ships sinking, one belonged to the navy, the other belong to the other fleet, the same fleet Malcolm should be fighting with. He saw several battles aboard vessels from both sides.
“No,” he shook his head. The battle seemed to be at a stalemate, but with that monster it end up in the favor of Jones and Beckett. “I’m not going to loose another one.”
“Loose another what?” A chilling voice asked from behind Malcolm. It was a voice Mal hadn’t heard since he had left Port Royal. Well since he left the office of Lord Beckett.
“Answer the man, Mr. Core.” The second voice was even colder than Beckett.
“Is it Mr. Core?” Beckett asked when Mal felt a hand on his shoulder pull him back and force him to turn around. “Or should I say, Captain Malcolm Reynolds?”
Mal stared down the men who cornered him. He recognized Beckett and Beckett’s assistant. The man dressed in black was the one who turned him around. The third man was Commander Hamiton.
“Oh bloody hell.”
-
Chapter 30: Recovery
-
She was gone. Jack Sparrow could not believe Anamaria was dead, plunged into the ocean along with her ship. She was dead because of the Kraken and Jones, and he couldn’t help to think she was dead because of him. She and the others fought to keep the Kraken from taking The Pearl once again. If his ship was in the back of the fleet instead of the front, or if Anamaria, Sao Feng, and Zoe hadn’t also insisted in leading, then there was possibility her ship would still be intact and she would still be alive.
Now, Sparrow, don’t ye be thinking like that. The inner workings of his mind told him. We don’t know if she escaped with the others. There was that possibility, but then there was the possible and most likely chance she went down with her ship. He knew Anamaria was a proud and stubborn woman. He knew she would have at least stayed behind until after she made certain the rest of her crew had escaped.
Her crew, Gibbs was on her ship when the battle had begun. He was thinking about Anamaria, he had forgotten about his first mate. How could he forget one of his most loyal crewmembers and friend? It was Gibbs who had helped him organize a crew to go after Barbossa and help him retrieve his stolen ship. It was both Gibbs and Anamaria who convinced the rest of the crew to sail back to Port Royal to prevent him from being captured and sent to the gallows once more.
Jack had experienced devastation before. He was devastated when he found out what some of his earlier tasks for the East India Trading Company, bringing in slaves was the worst. He could never remove the bit of guilt he had felt knowing that he had assisted in the selling of people’s lives. He wished he had found out about it before the third time. The third was also his final and incomplete. He set the people free.
That task earned him his second form of despair when Cutler Beckett had him branded and ordered Jack’s ship to be set fire to and sank. That was when Jack made his first mistake. If he could turn back time and do things all over again he wouldn’t have made such a deal with Davy Jones. He loved his ship. He didn’t have anyone he really cared about back then and didn’t realize how much he loved life even more.
“Which ship did he sink?” The voice of the shorter marine cut into Jack’s mind. He had nearly forgotten the two men were standing right next to him.
“He said something,” the other man said. “Sounded like Hannah Aria.”
The shorter man furrowed his brows. “Is that the name of the ship?”
“I wouldn’t know.” His friend shrugged. “That’s what he said.” He tapped Jack on the shoulder. “Was that the name of the ship?”
Jack swallowed back every foul word he wanted to spew at the two idiots. “I don’t know the name of the bloody ship, or who was on it.”
The taller man frowned. “But you said.”
Jack stepped away from him. “I said a small prayer, in Latin. You should as well, seeing that monster.” He couldn’t believe the questions they were asking. They were in the middle of a battle and all they seemed to care about was the name of Anamaria’s ship.
“We never really got to see that monster in action before,” the shorter man tried not to flinch at Jack’s tone. “We never had spy glasses on us when it attacked.”
“Barely could see anything.”
Jack glared at them. “Best you keep an eye on something. You don’t want to be fumbling for spyglasses and whatnot to watch a great beastie attack when your enemy could be right behind you, with a knife in their hands.” He ran his finger across his neck. “Now do ye now?”
The two marines just blinked.
“Of course ye don’t, not when ye are the pride of the royal navy.” He turned back to the sea and the war and stared through his spyglass again. He saw the crew on one of his fleet ships surrender to the royal navy, who had boarded and fought against them. “Seems we have taken over another ship.” He turned to a few other ships there were at least two other pirate ships being boarded by the navy and two navy vessel being over run by pirates. “A few more other sword fights and pistols. Now lets see what squid lips is up to, eh?”
He found the Flying Dutchman where he had last seen the rotted ship. The triple cannons of the ship was firing against the fleet, including at one merchant vessel that had been given it’s own cannons to fire back. Jack pulled his slips back into a scowl when he saw the foreboding tentacle of the beastie slither up from the surface and slide up against the hull of the ship.
“Can’t fight fare can he?” Jack felt his hands tighten around the spyglass. “As soon as someone gets near him he has to send his pet after it. Bloody coward.” Jones has fought against him before, but it seems as once the chips are down is when Jones summons the Kraken.
“He summoned the Kraken again?” The taller marine asked.
“That is what I just said.” Sparrow put the spyglass away. The time for idle chatter had come to an end. He was going to find Beckett, and steal the heart and he didn’t care how many people he had to fight to get to the fop.
-
Elizabeth Swann knew she shouldn’t be crying, not when the battle was under way. They had to continue fighting and she shouldn’t be crying for friends who have been lost until after. Elizabeth fought to keep the tears that were stinging her eyes from leaking out of the corners of her eyes. She wanted to step away from the railing, yet her feet were rooted into the deck.
“Shed a few tears now,” Zoe Washburne placed her hand on Elizabeth’s back. “Shed a few now and then cry later.”
“Thank you,” Elizabeth felt the tears roll down her sunburned cheeks.
“Don’t thank me,” Zoë’s expression remained unchanged. “This isn’t mercy. Wipe you cheeks and prepare a rifle.”
Elizabeth nodded before she wiped away the tears. She looked up at Will when she felt her fiancé’s hand on her shoulder.
“This is for them.” His face had the same sorrowful expression as hers. “You know that. Even if what I am saying sounds stupid.”
“Fighting for friends who have fallen is never stupid,” Zoe said. “Neither is saying it when we all know it. Now, everyone get back to their posts.”
Elizabeth grabbed her rifle. She was ready to load it with enough shot and powder and shoot it at another barrel or crate full of gunpowder. They wouldn’t be able to do too much damage to the
Kraken in this way; cut of all its tentacles and it still would survive. There had to be a way to kill the main body. She could shoot at the water, but that would not do too much damage.
She glanced back at where The Luna Ghost was destroyed. Where there was once a mighty and beautiful ship, all that was left was debris floating amongst the waves. She stared down at the water lapping against the hull of the Haven and wondered where the beast was.
There was something else in the water. She blinked to make certain she wasn’t seeing things and she wasn’t. There were five people floating next to the ship, swimming closer to the hull.
“There are people overboard.” She called out to the rest of the crew without removing her gaze from those in the water. “They are trying to climb aboard.”
“Give them a line,” Zoe ordered.
Elizabeth did not move. She was ready to lead a hand to the pirates. She had recognized them as those from Anamaria’s ship. In fact one of them was Gibbs and he was struggling to stay afloat and depended on the woman he was swimming with. Woman? Elizabeth couldn’t believe. She wanted to and felt her heart was about to leap out of her chest.
“Anamaria, Gibbs.” She shouted to them as a rope was lowered down.
Anamaria stared up. “You have to haul us up together. Gibbs broke his arm.”
“We’ll do what ever it takes,” Elizabeth said. She felt new tears form in her eyes.
It took several people to pull both Gibbs and Anamaria out of the water. The other three survivors had started to climb when they stared to haul people and by the time the lowered the line for the last one he was over half way up the side of the ship.
“I thought you had died,” Elizabeth said when she draped a blanket across Gibbs’s shoulders. “When the Kraken destroyed your ship and I didn’t see you in any of the long boats.”
“I made sure my crew was able to escape first,” Anamaria pulled her own blanket tighter around her shoulders. “They were to fill the long boats first. After they were filled and after that monster went after one of them was when we decided to try to swim.”
“I thought you would be the type to go down with your ship,” Elizabeth said.
Anamaria smiled weakly. “I am a captain, but I am not suicidal.” She turned to Gibbs. “Mr. Gibbs needed someone to help him swim with that arm.”
“I fell behind,” Gibbs said. “You did not honor the code.”
“You know they are more like guidelines.” Anamaria’s response earned a smile from the older man.
“How is your arm?” Elizabeth asked.
“The pain is indescribable,” Gibbs frowned. “It hurts even more when I try to move it. Tis a good thing I can’t move it at all.”
“Don’t try to move it,” Zoe kneeled down next to them, along with the teen-age member of the crew who was carrying a strange bag. “Thank you Jarvis.” She said to the youth. “The rest of you need to stay to your posts. That giant squid is already going after another ship.”
Elizabeth felt a new sense of alarm from her words. “Is it going after the Pearl or The Empress?”
Zoe shook her head. “After one of the other ships.” She opened the strange bag. “This belongs to our doctor. We are lucky it still aboard. While the rest is fighting, Elizabeth, you are going to help me treat these folk.” She turned to the other three men they had rescued. One of them was from her original crew. “Any more broken limbs?” Both men shook their heads. “Gavin, how are you feeling?”
“I have a few scrapes and bruises,” Gavin smiled as he pulled his blanket tighter around his shoulders. “I will live.”
“Can you still fire a cannon, swing a sword, and shoot a gun?”
“I can do all three and dance,” Gavin said. The other two men nodded.
“So can I,” Anamaria said.
“Once we get everyone all patched up,” Zoe handed Elizabeth a small sealed bottle. “The brush is attached to the cap. Swipe the brush against all the cuts you see. Unroll the sticky bandage to keep the padding against the big cuts.” She handed the younger woman a roll of strange white material and a stack of thick pads that felt like wool.
“You have done this before?’ Elizabeth asked after she had figured out how to open up the vial. The brush was attached to the inner bottom of the cap and when she removed it she could see the bristles were soaking wet.
“Not very often,” Zoe smiled weakly as she opened another bottle and shook out two pale yellow pills into her hand. “Swallow these. They will help with the pain.” She handed them to Gibbs.
“What are they?” He asked as he accepted them into his hand of his good arm.
“It says Curkontvika,” Zoe read from the label. “Mixture of words from different languages. I believed the translation was for healing root weed. It comes from the root of a plant that was from China of Earth that Was and re-grown during the terraforming process. Basically it’s the generic form of Velisma.”
“What?” Gibbs raised his eyebrows at her.
“Something stronger than ibuprofen but less medical warnings, like acetaminophen.”
Elizabeth cast her a confused glance. “We still don’t understand.”
Zoe shrugged. “Aspirin. What ever you use for head aches.” She blinked. “Willow bark?”
“Ah,” Gibbs smiled and nodded before he swallowed the pills.
“Hopefully the pain will be gone soon,” Elizabeth smiled. The injured members would certainly heal faster with the advanced medicine.
-
Barbossa clenched his teeth from the destruction he had seen. He had watched as the Kraken finished it’s work on the second ship it had attacked; only appearing a bit more battered and burned than before. The tip of one of it’s tentacles was only hanging on by a sinew a flesh, one well aimed cannon ball and it would have been torn clean off, not that it would matter much. The beast would still be attacking another ship once it was done.
“When the hell are we going to see some action?” Jayne Cobb paced around the resurrected pirate, using his boots to create an echoing stomping sound.
“Until we either come across one of the navy’s ships,” Barbossa answered. He would have normally ignored the presence of someone pacing around him, but Cobb proved to be as loud and obnoxious as he was idiotic. “Or if we attack the Flying Dutchman or we foolishly go after the Kraken.”
“Why would that be a foolish thing?” Jayne asked. The man was armed to the teeth. He had attached sheaths and holsters to his belt and had them loaded down with pistols and knives. He carried around a rifle. “Once ya figure out how to kill it.”
“That is where the problem lies,” Sao Feng said. “We do not know how to kill such a beast.” He glared in annoyance at Jayne before turning to Barbossa. “You have listed the other options. I am
favoring in going after Davy Jones, but I wish to hear your choice.”
Barbossa ran his fingers against his chin and through his beard. Half of their fleet was already engaged in battle against the navy. The other half was either going after Jones or were still deciding on which course of action to take. “It be best to ignore Jones fer now. At least until Jack returns with the heart.”
“You have this much faith in Sparrow?” Sao arched an eyebrow.
“Tis not about faith, but more of experience. This is a man I have twice sent to die on an abandoned island and who had twice escaped. This is a man who will always get what he is determined to go after. He will get that heart and destroy it.”
“The beast will be confused when its master is dead,” Sao stroked a finger down his own display of facial hair. “It will make it easier to kill.”
“We got one.” Jayne shouted in triumph and pointed towards the battle against the naval fleet, one of the enemies’ ships was sinking. “Nice to see that we can score a point.”
“It is still only one ship,” Sao pointed out. “Best to not get your hopes to far up.”
“I admit that I am one of the least positive people round these parts, but I take me when I get
em.”
Barbossa shook his head. “We are still loosing.” He pointed to a merchant vessel that had recently surrendered to the Navy. “They have taken over two of our ships and sank two others.” He pointed back to Jones’s ship and the Kraken. “Jones and his beast have sunk two more of our ships. We have only sunk one of theirs.”
“And taken over two of theirs,’ Jayne smiled weakly. “And seems were ‘bout to sink another one.”
“The Kraken is attacking it’s third ship,” Sao said.
Barbossa turned back to The Dutchman and the Kraken. The monster’s tentacles were wrapping around a third ship, despite it’s attempt at trying to fight back.
“It is going after the rest of our fleet,” Sao said. “Not going after The Pearl or the rest of us.”
“That is interesting,” Barbossa wondered what the pattern was. Jack’s ship was the most likely target, yet the monster wasn’t going near it. Was it because Jack wasn’t aboard? Jack wasn’t on Anamaria’s ship, yet Gibbs was. Did Jones believe they were trying to confuse him and he believed Jack was on The Luna Ghost? That may explain why Anamaria’s ship, but not the others. The only thing the other ships had in common was the fact they were attacking The Dutchman.
“What is it?” Sao had seen Barbossa’s expression change.
“We need to tell everyone to stop attacking Jones,” Barbossa said. “The Kraken is protecting its master.”
“I thought it went after whoever this Jones guy wants it to go after,” Jayne asked.
“Aye,” Barbossa nodded. “Most likely both.”
“Even if we could get that bird to tell everyone there is no certainty that will keep Jones from releasing the Kraken onto other ships.” Sao said. “We need a better plan. How to kill this monster now.”
“Tearing off it’s own arms won’t stop it,” Barbossa nodded. “We need to get to the middle.”
“We can’t get it to bite something with a lot of boom,” Jayne shrugged. “If Serenity was here we could whip something up in it’s cargo and drop it on the monster.”
“You’re amazing ship is not here,” Barbossa snapped and was ready to tell Jayne what else he thought of him when Sao placed a hand across his mouth.
“He’s right.”
Barbossa removed the hand of the Chinese pirate. “Aye, but he isn’t helping.”
“Actually he is,” Sao grinned. There was a glint in his eye. There was an idea brewing in his head. “There is a great amount of explosives aboard these ships. We have to gather it together and light a fuse as the beast is attacking, make certain the crew escapes before the fuse is ignited.”
It may work. “Someone has to be willing to sacrifice their own ship. It would have to sink a bit, get low enough to near the Kraken’s mouth before it could explode.”
“That is true,” Sao frowned slightly.
“So who we going to convince to give up their ship?” Jayne asked. “Cause I kinda like the idea of blowing this thing into fried fish, as long as I don’t explode.”
Sao drew in a long breath and sighed deeply as he stared down at the deck and then looked up at the sails of his ship
“No,” Barbossa already had an idea of what Sao planned to do. “Sao, ye don’t have to.”
Sao placed a hand against a mast. “It would be unfair to try to convince someone else, especially since this was my idea.”
“You love this ship.”
“Who doesn’t love their ship?”
“So wait,” Jayne held up a finger. “Does this mean this is the ship that is going to explode?”
Barbossa didn’t even bother to answer him, or even turn around to glare at him.
-
The orders for a change in shifts came through and Malcolm Reynolds found himself on the deck of the Intrepid along with the others who were on cannon duty along with him. He knew why the change. It was certain to make sure each soldier saw the same amount of action.
The best part of the change was that it provided Malcolm with a better view than he had on the gun deck. He had run to the prow of the ship to get a better view.
There were two ships sinking, one belonged to the navy, the other belong to the other fleet, the same fleet Malcolm should be fighting with. He saw several battles aboard vessels from both sides.
“No,” he shook his head. The battle seemed to be at a stalemate, but with that monster it end up in the favor of Jones and Beckett. “I’m not going to loose another one.”
“Loose another what?” A chilling voice asked from behind Malcolm. It was a voice Mal hadn’t heard since he had left Port Royal. Well since he left the office of Lord Beckett.
“Answer the man, Mr. Core.” The second voice was even colder than Beckett.
“Is it Mr. Core?” Beckett asked when Mal felt a hand on his shoulder pull him back and force him to turn around. “Or should I say, Captain Malcolm Reynolds?”
Mal stared down the men who cornered him. He recognized Beckett and Beckett’s assistant. The man dressed in black was the one who turned him around. The third man was Commander Hamiton.
“Oh bloody hell.”
-
