Tales from the Captain’s Table (5 page)

Unfortunately, the Pelagian liquor seemed to be having a much stronger effect on Deanna than on anyone else. The tipsier she got, the more friendly she became.

And that, apparently, was the weakness that Torr’ghaff was looking to exploit.

“So, you are uncharacteristically modest for a woman who commands so much fear, Arr’ghenn, heh,” he said, leering again. “You allow me to prattle on about my triumphs, and yet, heh, you let your adjutant speak for you when you are asked to boast about your own.”

Deanna grinned sloppily. “Better to allow the legends to arise on their own, I always say.” She put one hand on Keru’s shoulder, and rubbed the other over his upper chest. “Besides, Keru always makes my exploits sound so much better. And what’s the use of having a big strapping adjutant if he can’t regale you with your own tales of terror and treachery from time to time?”

“Your mate laid hands on another man in front of you and you did
nothing
?” Klag asked, his voice registering astonishment. He took another swig from his tankard.

Riker smiled. “I’m not concerned about my wife, nor about any attention she may have paid Commander Keru during their deception. The roles they were playing there had little to do with reality.”

Klag wiped foam off his upper lip. “Can you be so certain?”

Riker looked over at Picard and grinned. Klag’s question had brought a smile to the
Enterprise
captain’s lips as well, and Riker was glad to have received a respite from Picard’s earlier disapproving gaze.

“Captain Klag, I believe that Commander Keru would be likelier to accept a romantic overture from
you
than from my wife,” Riker said. “Though you might be the one whose clavicle gets broken during that particular liaison.”

Klag raised an eyebrow, but didn’t reply.

Riker continued.

“So, legend or not, I’d like to know what
really
happened to the Treasure of Pamplin Rock, heh,” Torr’ghaff said, leaning over his plate.

I saw Deanna and Keru exchange a glance, and knew in that moment that something had gone very wrong.

“The treasure is as safe as all our other booty,” Keru said. I could see the tension in his posture.

“No matter what truce we call tonight, nor what liquor you pour us, you can’t expect me to reveal
all
my secrets,” Deanna said, leaning forward a little shakily. She plunked her hand on the table, as if to emphasize her point. “After all, we’re still pirates.”

Torr’ghaff clamped his gnarled turquoise hand down on top of my wife’s hand, and leaned in closer, an angry expression on his face. “Whoever you are, you’re
not
Arr’ghenn, neh. The Treasure of Pamplin Rock was captured by Green Beard Grooo’lk not three
quell
s ago, heh.”

Deanna seemed to sober up quickly as she yanked her hand quickly away. “My mistake. I thought you were talking about the
earlier
treasure. The one they never reported as missing.”

In an instant, the others in the room had stood and drawn their cutlasses and daggers. Torr’ghaff stood as well. “Your mistake was in thinking we would be fooled, neh. Now you
and
your strange ship will be ours, heh.”

As Keru stood, he grabbed the edge of the heavy wooden table and upended it away from him. The food, drink, and dinnerware scattered, even as three of the pirates jumped back to avoid being pinned beneath the table itself. Keru and Deanna had their own weapons in hand before the table had even hit the floor.

Since my hands had been tied in front of me to allow me to eat, I quickly wrapped my arms and bonds around the throat of the pirate nearest to me, choking him from behind. He stabbed backward with his blade, but I sidestepped his clumsy slash and managed to fling him toward one of his crewmates. Unfortunately, that man was already swinging his cutlass, and the pirate I had thrown was directly in the sharp blade’s path.

The blade nearly decapitated my opponent, and he went down with a spray of purplish blood. I whirled just as another pirate took a swing at me and blocked the blow with my forearms. I straight-legged him with a quick V’Shan kick I’d learned from Lieutenant Taurik, and the pirate went sprawling backward.

I barely had time to see that Deanna and Keru were holding their own against their foes as I dived for my attacker’s fumbled weapon before he could recover it. Unfortunately, both of us slipped on the pool of blood from his nearly headless crewmate, and slid into each other.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Deanna sparring with Torr’ghaff, their blades sparking against each other. I could hear Keru and several others fighting behind me, near the stateroom’s doors, but since my attention was focused on my own immediate survival, I couldn’t see how he was doing.

Though I managed to grab the cutlass, my footing was unsteady on the slippery deck. My opponent, now divested of any weapon save his wits, swept his leg out, tripping me backward. I crashed to the deck, dazed, and the cutlass went flying.

A moment or two later, I recovered, but my opponent was on me with fists swinging. I took several blows, but managed to twist to the side, bringing him down to the deck with one good, hard punch. As he howled in pain, I extricated myself and bolted for any weapon I could find.

Just as I grabbed a metal fireplace poker and turned, brandishing it, I saw Keru throw one of the pirates through the doors of the stateroom. But that moment of triumph went sour when I saw that Torr’ghaff had disarmed Deanna and even now had a blade pressed against her throat. A line of conspicuously red blood already trickled down her neck.

“Drop your weapon or I take the head of your false queen as a trophy, heh!” Torr’ghaff growled. “And then I will dice her body for chum, heh!”

“Get back to the ship!” Deanna yelled.

Two pirates menaced me with their cutlasses, and I realized that I, too, was backed into a corner. From where I was standing, I couldn’t even reach the window to dive into the sea. Not that I would have, with Deanna in so much danger.

Keru looked to Deanna and myself, and I knew he was calculating whether the chances would be better if he tried to help us here and now, or if he should back off and try to rescue us again later. But he lost whatever moment of initiative he might have had when a roaring pirate charged at him from behind. Keru flipped his sword around and crouched, impaling his attacker and using the thrust, and the man’s forward momentum, to flip his body up over his head and into two of the other pirates.

“You have made a grave enemy, Torr’ghaff!” Keru shouted as he retreated. I was amazed that he still had the presence of mind to continue talking in genuine-sounding pirate-speak.

“After him!” Torr’ghaff commanded the few of his men in the room who were left standing.

The man named Tarrniq, who was apparently Torr’ghaff’s second-in-command, hesitated instead of rushing after Keru. He pointed toward Deanna’s neck. “Captain, Arr’ghenn’s blood is…
red!”

My heart sank even further. Now they knew that she was an alien of some sort. Or, at the very least, they had absolutely confirmed that she wasn’t who she’d claimed to be. I didn’t have long to consider this, though; they soon hustled both me and Deanna out of the stateroom, both of us bound tightly in rope, with several sword-wielding guards paying very close attention to us.

The main deck was a cacophony of war whoops as pirates brandished their weapons and scurried to the ship’s starboard side. Some were grabbing ropes from the rigging and untying them.

I saw that Keru had used one of those ropes himself to swing over to the deck of the
Enterprise,
and members of Torr’ghaff’s crew were now doing likewise. Thanks to several burning torches mounted on the ship’s railings, I could see that the brigands were engaging in a fierce blade-to-blade melee against the small group of Starfleet officers disguised as Arr’ghenn’s crew. I was pleased to note that my people were holding their own, at least so far.

I also noticed that they were undertaking a peculiar strategy. The Starfleet contingent seemed to be gathering toward the center of the ship, disappearing one by one into the hold below. Swinging a huge pole around him in a wide arc to discourage his pursuers, Keru was the last to go down, and as he leapt into the darkness belowdecks, no one could have expected what was to happen next.

The
Enterprise
shimmered for a moment, then became immaterial. Even as the holoemitters were turned off, the pirates suddenly found that they had nothing to stand on. Then they plunged downward, slipping along the sleek sides of the
Calypso II
and splashing into the warm, briny deeps of the Opal Sea.

“Keru revealed the ship to be of Starfleet design?” This time the interruption came from Picard, his look decidedly pinched.

“Only for a few seconds,” Riker said, putting up his hands as a placating gesture. He wondered momentarily if he had made a mistake in deciding to tell this story, but it was too late to stop now.
In for a penny, in for a pound,
he thought, then continued.

The moment that the pirates had fallen off the sides of the
Calypso II,
Keru reactivated the holoemitters and the visual form of the wooden, three-masted
Enterprise
reappeared.

I looked over to Torr’ghaff and saw a mixture of shock and anger displayed across his craggy features. Though he was at a loss for words initially, his loud, commanding voice quickly returned to him.

“Man the cannons, heh! Open fire on that ship!”

The men nearest to him quickly scrambled to get belowdecks, where the artillery was evidently kept, while others busied themselves trying to rescue their fellows who had been dumped into the water.

Torr’ghaff’s plan might have worked, had not the
Enterprise
quite suddenly begun to speed away into the darkness. Within less than a minute, it was out of range of the cannons, and all but invisible under the wan light of three of Pelagia’s six small moons.

I knew that Keru had done what he’d had to do in order to keep the
Calypso II
from being overrun by Torr’ghaff’s pirates, and that he had probably taken every precaution to keep our tech violations from being noticed by the authorities. But I also knew that the next rescue attempt was going to be even tougher—and that Keru now had two people to rescue.

And transporter beams were still out of the question.

Torr’ghaff whirled on his heels and glowered at Deanna. “What manner of magical ship is that, heh? And who are you, really?”

Deanna looked at him defiantly, or at least as defiantly as she could manage given that she was still obviously as drunk as a lord. On top of that, she looked to be suffering from intense nausea.

When she didn’t answer him, he slapped her across the face, hard.

I struggled against my bonds, and the two men who were holding me back. “Leave her alone!” I yelled.

She responded to the slap first by glaring at him, then by projectile vomiting all over his pirate finery.

Looking disgusted, Torr’ghaff turned to face me. “This woman is not Arr’ghenn, and she does not even bleed the proper color, neh. Her ship casts illusions, and is faster than any vessel I’ve ever encountered, heh. Nothing appears to be as it seems tonight, eha?”

He leaned in closer to me, his expression menacing. As was his breath. “I am forced to wonder if
you
are who you appear to be, Fegrr’ep Urr’hilf, heh. This succession of trickery began when we captured you, neh? Perhaps it’s time you
prove
to me you are who you say you are, heh?”

Or who
you
say I am,
I thought. I was beginning to feel very, very nervous.

I swallowed hard, knowing my moment of truth had apparently arrived.

“Get me the
klap’paspech,
heh,” Torr’ghaff shouted to one of his men.

“What is a…
klap’paspech?”
the Rigelian captain asked.