Nightsea Outlaw

Alex jumped the last few rungs of the ladder, landing on solid ground for the first time in three days. Mari stepped down next, not far behind him, as the rest of his newly minted crew joined them. A figure in what he could only describe as a bright yellow hazmat suit approached him, its face hidden in a cylindrical helm with only a silvered single rectangle for looking out and a small grate for breathing. The figure stopped a few meters away, hands on hips as it looked over the ship.

"You're riding in one of the newer models, aren't you?" His suit muffled his voice. "I didn't think we'd see any of those for at least a few months. What kind of pilot did you have on it to wreck it so quickly?"

Alex's ears burned, and Sayed let out a little laugh behind him.

"We ran into some troubles getting it off the ground," Alex said, crossing his arms. "The engines were left running for a long time before we picked it up."

Click. Hiss.

The man reached up and loosened his helmet, rotating it forty-five degrees before picking it up. Pressurized air hissed out from the helmet as he pulled it off and held it at his side. Old grey eyes looked between Alex and the ship, and the man flashed his teeth through his short grey beard. His eyes wrinkled at the sides as he reached out a gloved hand to Alex, and Alex instinctively shook it.

"Call me Gel," he said. "I'm the boss here at Dock Eight."

"Alex." Alex held the grip firm.

"How'd you acquire this ship, if you don't mind me asking?" Gel asked, holding on strong to Alex's hand.

Alex looked him square in the eye, but he remembered what Li Wen had told them all at the start. Dry Turtle was a place that didn't care who you were or what you did so long as you paid the fees. Alex smirked, but he already knew how he would respond.

"We won it by luck." Alex shrugged. "But the previous owner did leave it sitting. I wouldn't mind you looking through the entire thing and making sure it's ready to sail."

"So you won it in a game of chance?" Gel asked, letting out a low whistle.

"That's one way to say it." Alex tightened his grip. "The circles we run in tend to make everything high stakes. The opportunity was there, so I took it."

"You thinking about taking it to Magnus Hortus?"

"We may," Alex said. "I don't think many people can resist that message."

"Hah, that's the people that believed it anyways, though if you've been off islands for a while, you'll see soon enough."

That caused Alex to hesitate. He loosed his grip as he locked eyes with the man. He had confirmation that the message was broadcasted to a large portion of the Erth, but that the message was met with disbelief shouldn't have been surprising. If he hadn't found Roald's ship or been to Diamond Peak, he might have doubted some random screen appearing in front of his face was anything but a hallucination.

"I guess we'll see for ourselves," Alex said. "Thank you for working on the ship."

"We'll look at your ship and get you an estimate in a few hours," Gel said, releasing his hand with a smile. "Until then, feel free to head into town and enjoy yourselves. I guarantee you'll find something fun."

"How do we get into the city?" Erin came forward. "These docks seem to be far away."

"There's a shuttle that runs back and forth on the regular," Gel said, walking forward and putting his hands on his hips as he looked the ship up and down. "You should see the station on the far side, out that way."

He cocked his head to the west, and Alex looked out over the docks. Several large metal and wooden hulls blocked most of the view, but he could see several groups of people making their way to the west. It reminded him of going to the Renaissance Festivals in the United States. The people's attire certainly evoked the feeling.

"Alright," Alex said. "We'll be back in a few hours."

When they were a short distance away, he raised a hand to stop the group. Once everyone was gathered, he got ready to throw out his plan. He didn't want to leave the ship alone, and while there was some trust that the crews would take care of it, Alex would feel better that there were some eyes on the ship.

"Jean, would you be alright with watching over the ship?"

Jean was the one person in their group who didn't need to eat. His entire body was a skeleton below his neck. Jean frowned for a moment but then flashed Alex a smile.

"I see the problem," Jean said. "I'll keep watch if you promise to bring me back a delicious meal. I may not need to eat, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy an excellent meal."

Alex smiled. "I promise."

With that done, Alex left with a reduced group size. Now, he only needed to find a way to keep Sayed busy. Sayed was the real problem they would face on Dry Turtle. When Li Wen mentioned that slavers operated on the island, Alex knew Sayed would cause some conflict. Not that the swordsman would be wrong. Hell, Alex would agree with him that something should be done. However, if they came out on the opposite side of the Port Authority, he didn't like their chances of escaping with just one engine.

He kept an eye on Sayed as they approached the shuttle stop, but Sayed seemed no different than he normally was. He smiled, bent down to make quips and short stories with the group, and did not present a single hint that he was hiding a secret intention of running off to free every single slave on the island. For a moment, Alex was sure he had nothing to worry about and that Sayed would be fine.

Then, the group of slavers approached their stop.

Two of them walked together, one dressed in simple black robes and carrying a book in his hand while the other had chains wrapped around his bare, hairy chest with only a torn pair of brown pants on to cover his bulky bottom. They looked too similar not to be related. They were both clean-shaven and blonde. However, the one wearing black robes had his hair slicked back and greased while the bare-chested one's blonde hair was a wide mane about his head. They were larger than they had any right to be, and Alex guessed they were similar to Goldfist. They were giants of some kind, though only about as tall as a single-story house each.

None of that would mark the two as slavers, except for the chain attached to the person who crawled in front of them, dressed only in tattered rags.

Alex couldn't tell much about the figure. Dirt stains and smudges hid much of their features. However, he could spot a faint glimmer of silver in the parts of the hair that lay exposed beyond the dirt and filth that had accumulated across their body. Maybe they had pale skin, but it was almost impossible to tell.

Alex couldn't take his eyes off the slave as they crawled through dirt and mud, ever scrambling to keep ahead of the two slavers.

He knew a lot about slavery, especially American slavery. Part of his studies to get his degree in Political Science involved studying history in detail, and it was impossible to avoid the stamp slavery had left on the history of the United States during his studies at college. However, seeing a slave in person, seeing how one was treated, made his gut turn in a way that reading an account in a history book never would.

He didn't know if the two slavers could pick up on his discomfort, but they immediately made a line toward him and his crew. The brother dressed in black robes even pulled a whip from his belt and cracked it at the crawling slave. Alex flinched at the sound.

Crack.

"Hurry up, you ingrate!" the man yelled. "We've got to get to market before it closes!"

Alex took a deep breath. He had to remind himself that he couldn't cause a scene. So long as the slavers paid their way, they were allowed to operate in Dry Turtle. He didn't like it, but Erth didn't care if he liked it. Unless he was willing and able to topple the entirety of the city, there was nothing he could do.

He turned an eye to Sayed and saw the man's face turning a dark purple.

Sayed, moreso than any of them, had very strong believes about keeping people caged or restrained. From what Alex understood, it had to do with his people's history. According to Sayed, death was preferable to being a slave. Sayed would start a fight if he thought he could.

"Sayed." Alex raised a hand, putting it on Sayed's shoulder.

"Yes, brother." Sayed's words came out slowly like he was struggling for control.

"Is he alright?" Li Wen asked, her hand on her revolver.

"Sayed," Mari whispered, holding onto Erin's hand.

"I know, but now isn't the time," Alex said. "I understand what you're feeling right now, but if you start a fight, we'll have to run. The ship can't move fast enough to get out of here. That slave will be returned to them, and we'll be behind bars."

"I understand," Sayed whispered, but his face didn't change in the slightest. "I will do my best not to interfere, for now."

Alex didn't comment on the qualifying condition. If Sayed had one liability, it was that he might rush off into action if he thought he could get away with it. While that hadn't caused them real trouble yet, there might come a day when Sayed's antics would get someone killed.

Alex couldn't say much. He sometimes had the same problem, even if he put a little more thought into his actions than Sayed did. Leaving him on the ship wouldn't have solved the problem, or Alex would have done that the second he heard there were slavers on the island. That would leave Sayed to his own devices with no one to watch out for him and keep him out of trouble. If Sayed had seen the slavers with no one else around, Alex would have had no idea what the big man might have done.

"We'll figure something out," Alex said, looking at the approaching slavers again.

They had made it closer to the stop and seemed focused on getting to the same shuttle stop as his crew. Alex bit back a curse, but it would test his ability to get everyone on the same page. He didn't deserve to be called a leader if he couldn't stop Sayed from starting a ruckus here.

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen." The brother in the black robes bowed as he approached before rising again. "Have not the Scions blessed us with almost perfect weather today?"

Thump.

The slave dropped to the ground, panting heavily as they struggled to catch their breath. Alex eyed the slave before looking up at the brother. What does a person say in greeting to scum? He wasn't sure. While he didn't want to cause trouble, that wasn't the same thing as being rude.

"Day's good enough." Li Wen cut in, looking up at the sky before spitting on the ground. "It could be a little cooler, though."

"That's an excellent observation," the man said, looking up at the sky and shading his eyes from the sun. "But the excellent news is that we won't be out in this weather for long. Look to the south; our ride is upon us."

Alex waited a long moment before looking up to the sky. He did not want to cooperate on principle, but his curiosity won out in the long run. He looked up and spotted a long shadow descending from the sky above. It wasn't anything like what he had been expecting.

In a style reminiscent of Sloan's custom-built slipship from Tombstone, the descending vehicle was long and flat, easily wide enough to carry about twenty people inside, with four armored lodestones on its sides. A long mast rose from it, the light sail, and it gathered light to power the slipship in its journey. At the back was a single pilot who manned the wheel and controlled the ship.

Alex followed it as it came down for a landing, its engines humming softly as it kicked up a little dirt and debris around it.

"All aboard for Dry Turtle!" the pilot yelled.