Chapter Text
Chapter 3
Amelia found Willy Taylor precisely where Captain Arrow had told her he would be. He was living with his new bride on her family’s newly renovated estate, on Montressor. William’s family, Arrow had told her, was newly elevated to the nobility thanks to the lifetime of service his grandfather, Admiral Taylor, had given the Royal Navy. They had plenty of money due to the prize money system and some wise investments, but no real social standing or legitimacy with the noble class. To remedy this, they’d arranged a marriage for William within a month of his birth, long before he’d met Amelia. His bride to be was the daughter of Viscount Windsor, a dying old man who’d waited too late in life to father more than one child. He’d also squandered the family’s wealth and left them in a hideous amount of debt by financing a series of losing teams in professional solar surfing. In fact, were it not for the arranged marriage, his daughter Sarah would be as poor as Amelia had been before joining the Navy. ‘But, Amelia thought to herself, ‘I will not stay my vengeance just so a spoiled little rich girl can stay a spoiled little rich girl.’
She watched the estate and the young couple for an entire week before she made her move. Her best chance came at dawn each day, when the young couple would walk the estate’s garden together. Amelia, clothed in black and moving like a shadow, climbed over the wall at midnight and settled into a hedge beside the path to wait for them. Dawn broke clear and cold, for it was winter on Montressor, and she saw the young couple on the path, regular as clockwork. Willy had Sarah on his right side and was whistling as they walked, just as he’d used to do walking the wharf with Amelia during his sham of a courtship. Amelia took a steadying breath, drew a pistol in each hand, stepped into the path, and fired without a word. She’d chosen the worst moment, however, as Sarah stepped in front of William to kiss him just as the pistol shot sounded. The shot took her low in the back and exited her stomach, embedding in William’s shirt but no farther, its energy expended. “NO!!!” Willy shouted, as the sound of the shot and the blood on her dress assailed his senses. “SARAH!! SARAH STAY WITH ME!!” he screamed over and over as he lowered her to the path, her breath rapid and shallow and her eyes fluttering with pain. He pressed his hands over the wound even as he knew he couldn’t keep her blood from pouring out.
Amelia saw her first shot take the girl, so she advanced towards Willy, unwilling to miss a second time. She wanted him to see her now, wanted him to know why he’d lose everything as she had. But her desire was for nought. He’d cared so little for her and was so distraught now that there was no recognition in his eyes even as he saw her face. “Mercy…” he begged, voice hoarse from his earlier shouting, “Mercy…please. She’s pregnant.”
“I don’t care,” Amelia said, cold fire in her eyes even as she lied to him and pulled the trigger. Her shot took him between the eyes, as did the next. And the next. And the next. She emptied both pistols into what was left of his skull before collapsing by the woman, Sarah, and trying to bandage her with the bloody tatters of Willy’s shirt.
The renovations Willy had paid for to the Windsor estate got Amelia arrested even as they saved Sarah’s fading life. The entire estate, including the gardens, had a state-of-the-art security system which had summoned help as soon as the first shot was fired. The police and med droids arrived only moments after she’d finished firing into Willy’s corpse. Amelia was taken first to the local jail, but before they could even process charges against her, the Royal Marines arrived. Admiral Taylor had been notified of his grandson’s death, and of the loss of the child Sarah carried. With his influence in play, the local police had never so much as questioned Amelia before she was removed from their custody.
Amelia received no sleep for the next four days, being either beaten by Marines or moved from one holding facility to the next, always in the dead of night. The exhaustion and the guilt for shooting the woman began to make her delirious, so she didn’t even question the impossibility that occurred on the fifth night. That night, two marines who looked exactly like Captain Arrow and 1st Space Lord Admiral Smollet came into her cell, dropped a dead body that looked vaguely like her but thinner and sickly, and stuffed her into a duffel bag and walked her out of the jail. Since she knew this must be a hallucination, Amelia wasn’t terribly disturbed by any of this. She simply stayed calm, begged the goddess Isis to forgive her for the life of the unborn baby she’d killed, and hoped that wherever she would end up next they’d get it over with and kill her because she was so very tired.
Twenty years later, on board the RLS Legacy
Captain Amelia Smollett awoke in her cabin aboard the new ship, RLS Legacy, cold sweat pouring down her body as it always did after this particular nightmare. The damn nightmare had plagued her first night aboard any new vessel for the last 20 years, as though her subconscious felt she must be reminded of the enormous sacrifice that Captain Arrow and Admiral Smollett had made on her behalf all those years ago. They had used political influence, threats, blackmail, and bribery to turn the murderer, Amelia Smith, into the lady, Amelia Smollett. And Amelia Smollett turned her dearly bought second chance into hard work which made her the honor graduate of the Fleet Academy and the most decorated young officer in all of Her Majesty’s Royal Navy before the war against the Procyon Armada had ended. A knock sounded then against her cabin door. She knew it would be Mr. Arrow. He was as predictable as the damn nightmare, so she called out to him by name. “Come in Arrow, come in. You already know I’m awake,” she sighed.
“The dream again?” his gravelly voice more a statement than a question. Since the passing of his father 3 years ago and Admiral Smollett 10 years before that, Commander Henry Arrow was now the only other living being who knew that the real Amelia Smollett had died of tuberculosis, her body left in a cell in place of Amelia Smith in order to save her life.
“Yes, the damn dream again,” she said irritably. “And speaking of the hated past, do you think old Long John recognized either of us? It would be quite inconvenient if he suddenly realizes that we know he and those other scum are pirates.”
“I very much doubt he remembers,” Arrow said gruffly. “That boarding action was over 20 years ago, I was a foot shorter, and your hair was black then.” Arrow rubbed the faint scar where he’d had his arm regrown after the battle, wincing though it hadn’t truly hurt in years. His mood brightened a bit as he thought of the old cyborg as he was now, and Arrow chuckled a little as he continued, “It appears that sometime later someone paid him back with interest for my arm. I hope he rusts.”
“Rust or no,” Amelia said thoughtfully, “Silver was the only one of old Flint’s crew who was ever smart enough to look what side his bread was buttered on before trying to eat. I think we can use the man. Have him and young Hawkins brought to my cabin after breakfast mess in cleared away.”
“Aye aye, Captain,” Arrow said. He’d hoped the captain had a plan besides just her orders yesterday for Hawkins to help Silver as the cabin boy. The young man would be 18 in two weeks, and that was a very dangerous age for a boy to have an old pirate as his only mentor.
“Any idea why in the devil she wants to see us so early, Jimbo?” Silver asked in a loud whisper as they neared the captain’s cabin.
“How should I know?” Jim Hawkins replied. “She probably wants to yell at me some more for something that was your fault anyway,” he muttered as he walked next to the old cyborg.
“I doubt that, lad,” Silver sighed. “She’d be a hard woman indeed to give you into my charge and then find fault wit us before I’ve had time to teach you proper.” They reached the hatchway and Silver knocked and announced them, “Misters Silver and Hawkins, reporting as ordered Cap’n ma’am.”
“Enter,” rang out the stern command from inside the cabin. Silver and Hawkins opened the door and strode through to find Captain Amelia seated at her desk. She waved the two spacers to the chairs opposite her as continued to oil and sharpen her saber on the desk before them.
“Mr. Hawkins, let me begin by saying you’ve done nothing wrong as yet,” Amelia began calmly. “I asked you here mostly because I’ll be discussing the direction of your training and education with Mr. Silver. I expect you to observe this discussion and be silent unless spoken to directly, do you understand?”
“Yes Captain,” Jim replied, knowing that no other answer would have been accepted if he wanted to stay for the meeting.
“Very good,” Amelia replied. “Now to the business at hand. Mr. Silver, I’ve a question for you. Do you remember me, Long John Silver? Because I remember you, you pirate filth!” She moved as she spoke, and her saber was at Silver’s neck faster than he could breathe, much less avoid her sword.
“Well now,” Silver chuckled calmly as Jim stared with wide eyes at the cook and the captain. “Didn’t know ye till just this moment and that’s a fact, Cap’n darlin. Seems to me I recall someone else that fast with a sword. Stupid midshipman, years ago. She tried to take me vessel wit just herself and two other mids. Stupid, but fast as the devil’s own lighting she was, just like you are now.” He paused for a moment as the memories came. “Thought I’d done for her with a pistol butt to her thick head…Mr. Arrow was the other mid, the one who lost his arm?” Silver questioned.
“He is. Despite your efforts, we lived and his arm was regrown,” Amelia replied. Her tone was calm and deadly, matching Silver’s cold detachment. “I know what you and the rest of Flint’s rabble intend to do to us once we get you to Treasure Planet, Silver. But I also know that you’ve betrayed other pirates to the crown in the past if given a chance to make a deal for yourself. I believe that makes you smart enough to see that piracy is coming to an end, Silver. I believe you might even be capable of being a good spacer, given an opportunity. So that’s what I’m offering. Opportunity.”
“Well, bless your dear heart, Cap’n darling,” Silver said with a cautious grin. “I ne’er been one to spit on opportunity, and there’s no love lost twixt me and these others. What would you have me do?” he asked cautiously, sensing this might be his only way out of this voyage alive.
“You’re going to help Mr. Arrow and I turn young Hawkins here into the smartest, fastest, deadliest spacer in the history of the Royal Navy. He’ll need to learn maintenance, ship handling, dirty fighting, and the other below deck basics from you.”
“Aye, and then?” Silver asked, having planned to teach the boy all that and some extra anyway.
“Mr. Arrow and I will teach him tactics, strategy, logistics, astrogation, dueling, and ship-to-ship combat for everything from patrol craft to fleet command. If there’s time, I’ll also work on his formal dining manners and give private lessons in swordsmanship, so he’ll prepared for Fleet Academy if we live through this and he wishes to attend,” she said.
“Oh?” Silver asked with a raised eyebrow, “Private lessons on handling his sword, ey?” He winced suddenly, as Amelia put pressure on her saber and drew blood from his neck, creasing the skin just over his jugular. “No disrespect intended, Cap’n,” he quickly added, seeing that she’d found no humor in his lewd suggestion.
“When the time comes, Mr. Silver, you will act alongside Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Arrow, and myself to hold this ship against the planned mutiny you were previously to instigate against us. Mr. Hawkins…” Amelia paused then, hoping the young man would take her next words to heart. “Jim,” she continued, opting for the personal approach, “if you agree to the plan I’ve just outlined, you’ll be doing quite a bit of fighting and killing. There’s simply no other way. Can you live with taking lives, Jim?”
“It won’t be the first time, Captain,” he replied. Seeing that he’d startled both Amelia and Silver with that statement, he chose to confide in them the secret he’d carried so long. “My father didn’t abandon my mother and me. That’s a story mom made up to tell people when she started dating Delbert last year. The truth is, one day I just couldn’t watch him beat her anymore. He beat her every time he drank, and he drank a lot. So, at what should’ve been my eighth birthday party till he started drinking, I grabbed a kitchen knife and cut his throat.”
“Jimbo,” Silver said slowly, “your pa… I done some bad things Jimbo. I done bad things to women, in battles. But hitting women just to hit em crosses a line even the worst pirates can see. You done a good thing for your ma, Jimbo. A real fine thing ya did.”
“Much as I hate being in agreement with a pirate, Mr. Silver is correct,” Amelia added. “You did an honorable thing to protect your mother, Mr. Hawkins.” She turned to address Silver again, having never lowered her sword from his neck. “Now, to conclude our business. Mr. Silver, do you agree to the plan as I’ve outlined it, or do you wish to be thrown in the brig for the remainder of the voyage?”
“Tis a fine plan, Cap’n darlin,” Silver replied. “I’ve one question though: what happens to poor old Long John when this is all over?”
“You’ll receive what is, in my opinion, the over generous share of the voyage’s profits promised in your contract by Dr. Doppler, along with the shares of any pirate you personally capture or kill,” Amelia replied, sheathing her sword as her confidence that Silver would cooperate grew. “Additionally, you’d have honest work available with Mr. Arrow or myself on any future voyages we contract onto.”
“That’s right generous of you Cap’n darlin, it truly is,” Silver said with a genuine smile. “Lots to do now then. By your leave, ma’am?”
Amelia nodded in the affirmative, then spoke, “Mr. Silver, carry out today’s training of Mr. Hawkins. Gentlemen, you’re dismissed.”
“Hop to, Jimbo,” Silver said as they rose from their chairs. “We’ve a great deal to do and little time now lad.”