Bactine (17 page)

Xandree shrugged. "This man says he has the right to be on board and verify the contents of all compartments. Ulaman asked him for identification which the man refuses."

"Does this happen often?"

"No."

Daniel did not wait for an invitation: he went over and stood next to Ulaman, towering over the two. "Good morning, Ulaman. What is the matter here?"

"Daniel. Why are you here?"

"Bad night, nothing important."

The man in beige glared up at the security man. "And who are you?"

"Daniel Zacharias, in charge of security on this ship. And you are?"

"My name is not important," the beige suit snapped at him. "I have orders to check the ship."

"Orders from whom?"

"That is none of your business." The beige suit assumed a very hostile stance, as if he wanted to box Daniel off the ship.

"Daniel, stand down," Ulaman said, "this has nothing to do with you, I am sure."

"This man here wants business on the ship, captain, and I am here to safeguard it. So it is my business. If he can't show evidence why he is here, he has no business here."

Ulaman looked at the man in beige. "Mr. Zacharias is right. I command you to leave the ship, before you will be forcefully removed. Sir."

"You would not dare," the beige suit hissed.

"Do you want to find out?" Daniel said as he took off his coat. He put his hand on the shoulder of the man and pushed down ever so gently.

The man resisted the pressure, but he was no match for Bactine and enhanced muscles. He pulled his shoulder from Daniel's hand and stepped back. "You will regret this, mister. Your size does not impress me, nor does your strength. You will be sorry." The man turned and paced off, leaving the ship.

Ulaman's face showed relief and also worry. "I am not sure if we did the right thing, Daniel."

"If something goes wrong, blame me. I physically challenged the man, Ulaman. It's my job."

They went into the galley where Xandree made some strong sturt, the coffee replacement.

Daniel again evaded the question about his presence. He blamed it on some insomnia biting his heels, which was accepted as a valid reason. "And a good thing your insomnia happened this morning," Xandree commented.

They sat and talked while the morning was unfolding. Suddenly Ulaman's hydger started its noise. He took it, frowned at the display and went outside to take the call, leaving Xandree and Daniel wondering. When he came back, he said: "The Seigner wants to see me. He is sending the mouse over to pick me up."

"Do you know why?" Daniel asked the captain. "Anything to do with the incident this morning?"

"He did not say. He did not look or sound annoyed, but then, he is very good at that. We'll see."

"Call me if you need help, Ulaman," said Daniel.

"I will."

When the mouse, Mr. Gaguran Slindris, arrived, several crewmen had come aboard to do maintenance on the ship. They all stood at the railing, watching Ulaman walk off with the Seigner's serving man to where a carriage would be waiting.

The crewmen had already heard about the mysterious visitor that had left in ill spirits and the guessing game was on, of course. Everything from a secret inspector to a spy was brought up as a possible option. The crew was finally chased off to work by Xandree. Daniel grinned to see how her mere presence had a big influence on the crew. One word from her was worth a hundred light-hearted threats from Ulaman.

Daniel excused himself and headed up to the silent bridge. He walked around it, watching the area from up there. Inside he watched the maps and the ship's logs, written in Xandree's tiny hand.

The incident of the morning worried him. The early morning presence of Huajo Dogom ko Tzuy worried him also. The way his thought dragged him back to Rhonda worried him most. Not at ease with himself he stumbled down the stairs to the deck and went to find Xandree. "Do you have a moment?"

"Of course. What's eating away at you?" The woman had an uncanny eye for that.

Daniel told her about meeting Huajo early that morning.

Xandree looked at Daniel for a while before speaking. "Seigner Dogom ko Tzuy often is out there. He is an insomniac. The ghost winds alone know how he survives without sleeping normally. He is also troubled by the pain in his bones. Everyone knows about him. And Daniel... if you need to talk about the other thing, you can talk to me too."

"What other thing?"

"The reason you did not sleep this night. You always sleep. There is something that kept you from it, and that is a worry. It is not good to carry your worry around. Talk about it, to get it out of your way." She looked Daniel in the eye. "Your secret is safe with me. If you want to talk."

Daniel nodded. "You are right. There is something that's bothering me." He sighed. "I may take you up on your offer. Thank you."

Xandree nodded. "I'll be here to listen, Daniel."

Ulaman and Xandree had almost had to beat Daniel off the ship in the days that the Pricosine was being loaded up. Daniel had become paranoid for a while, with the encounter of the beige suit.

Ulaman had explained that he'd had a good talk with the Seigner. It had nothing to do with the stranger; instead they had discussed Daniel and his work. "The Seigner seems satisfied with you, Daniel. You will be stuck with us for a while longer. He said he will confer with the president of the Society if they should bring in more people like you."

Daniel was relieved to hear that Clelem had not mentioned a thing about the incidents around his daughter being on board.

"Bring up the gangway!" Ulaman yelled into his tube. "We're leaving!"

The crew worked their routine, and soon the Pricosine's bow pointed towards the wide open ocean again. Daniel stood at the bow, enjoying the freedom. The wind bashed at his head and took all the troubled thinking away from him. They were heading for the city of Cathru with a load of wheat, half a cargo bay filled with jugs of wine and a stack of large chests containing household merchandise.

The first day went by with the only thing worth mentioning being fabulous progress. The Pricosine was cutting through the water at phenomenal speeds. Compared to a shuttle, Daniel considered, this meant nothing, but the thrill of seeing the water speed by, seeing the water's wildlife rush by, that was something you could never experience in space.

At the end of the second day, Ulaman called Daniel up to the bridge. "I should tell you that overnight we are entering the part of the ocean that gives us most trouble. The pirates are very active here, so sleep quickly and be awake."

This was not the news Daniel hoped for, but he was glad he was prepared. He thanked the skipper and went to lie down. He was up and dressed long before dusk. He was wearing his military uniform, which was loaded with material he might need for combat. He'd had to become creative: the chemical substances from the water had rendered most of his normal weapons useless.

He was walking the watch, Brinno walking with him. The sailor's trained eyes were scary. "Daniel, there." Brinno pointed to the far distance where the faintest of light was. "Another ship."

"Pirates?"

"No. They don't attack at night."

"Right. Good to know."

Pirates attacked when a large ship was cornering a difficult strait with a treacherous current, Daniel learnt. He was not sure where the ship suddenly came from; it could have fallen from the skies for all he knew. The cries from the crew were clear enough though. As the Pricosine came out of the strait, the short grey ship was upon them. Its sails had the colour of the water and from its bow protruded a kind of ram that approached the hull of the Pricosine at speed.

Lidrin, on the bridge, cursed his entire vocabulary out loud as he tried to turn the giant ship in an attempt to make the damage as small as possible. Avoiding the ram, he knew, would be impossible. This was all he could do.

Daniel ran to where the pirate ship would reach the Pricosine first, blessing his enhanced body for making it a quick trip. As he reached the spot, the ram dug itself into the hull, making the large ship shudder. Several sailors toppled over as the impact was harder than was expected. Daniel spotted men up in the assailant ship's masts, swinging blocks on ropes, throwing them over to the rigging over his head. The men swung over to the Pricosine, uttering loud screams. The first one to land on the deck was close to Daniel and had every reason to regret that. Daniel drove his armoured fist into the man's chest and did not even take the time to watch his victim fall.

A total of thirteen men swung over from the pirate ship. Daniel noticed that there was a small positive thing about their attacked: it was focussed on one spot, so there was no need to protect the whole ship. It also delivered the problem however that the attack was fierce and massive.

The sailors fought well. Daniel however made all the difference. Even when one of the pirates, who had landed high up in a mast, threw down handsful of some strange dust that made the sailors sneeze and gasp for air, Daniel continued the battle. His body simply shut off the intake of external substances and functioned on the air in the pockets of his arms and legs.

He grabbed a piece of rope and flung it upwards. It hit the pirate in the stomach. The man's descent to deck was fast and ended hard. Only three pirates remained, and they made their way back to their ship. Daniel watched them go. Going after them was an option, but he was curious what they were going to do. The battle was won, after all.

The pirates quickly released a kind of bolt at the front of their ship which unlocked the ram. The current that came from the strait immediately pushed them away from the Pricosine and seconds later the gap was already larger than a man would be able to jump.

Daniel turned and looked at the state of the men who had fought so well. Nine of them were wounded but able to walk. Ulaman, who had left the bridge, was covered in red spots, clearly coming from the now dead pirate that lay at his feet. The other men were not injured at all, as by some miracle.

As they started to tend to the wounded, a loud noise, as the tearing of wood, made Daniel look up. He walked to the side of the ship and was just in time to see the remains of the ram fall into the water. It had left a large, gaping hole in the hull, just above the waterline.

"Ulaman, we have a problem," he said.

The captain agreed. "We have to do something about this. If we leave this the way it is, the scum only has to wait for heavy weather and they can fish us up for ransom. Or worse."

"Will we have that chance?"

"In this area the weather is almost as unpredictable as-" the captain looked for Xandree "-a woman."

"That bad," Daniel understood. His mind was already running. "We're to fix that. Have Bilk and Stroro bring hammers and nails or whatever you use to fix up a ship."

"Daniel, don't be a fool, we have not enough material on board to fix a hole that big."

"Just you wait." Daniel ran off and made his way into the cargo bay that held the large Polychlon chests and trunks. He methodically started to tear up four of them that would supply the largest pieces. He hauled them up and dropped them onto the deck, where Ulaman stared.

"Where did you- Don't tell me-"

"Don't ask, Ulaman."

The men put together two pieces of plating that should be large enough to cover the hole. As one group went below deck, making space in the cargo bay so they could reach the opening from the inside, Ulaman arranged for a life boat to be lowered.

One man was up in the mast, keeping an eye out for the pirates, but they were not to be seen. Daniel and Brinno lowered themselves into the life boat and waited for the second plate to be lowered towards them. They manoeuvred the boat to the opening and started to close it from the outside.

A wave hit the life boat as Daniel was reaching out to make the last connection, which threw him off balance and into the water. Brinno helped him scramble into the boat and they laughed, despite the situation.

It did not take them long to close the hole from the outside, and as Daniel had changed into dry clothes again, the men who had worked on the inside had also done their best there.

Ulaman had gone in also, and assessed the situation. "We can't go on like this. I dare only hope we make it back home with that patch." So the ship was turned, the route around the strait was plotted as there was no way they would be able to sail up the stream, and they started the journey back.

As they were going, Daniel was extra alert for another attack. Another of those, with the ship damaged like this, and several men down, would be a terrible thing. There also was a continuous watch in the cargo bay to see if they were taking in water. Buckets were already in place for that occasion. At one time during the trip back, the life boat was lowered again, as the outside patch was loosening because of the constant beating it got from the water. By then they had reached relative safety though, being not too far from shore.