The Marine

Standing on the deck of Frontier Run, five young Marines watched as a bipedal goat shoveled pickled eggs down his throat.

The captive had claimed to have been starved and this seemed so as it not only finished off two full barrels of pickled eggs but even drank the vinegary water the eggs had been in.

Seeing this, Bill heard Ricky whisper to Sasha: “It’s a talking goat!”

And not to be outdone in amazement, Ranse whispered to Fia: “Are goats supposed to eat eggs?”

After finishing the two barrels at lightning speed, the goat man started laughing and crying again.

“Yagigigigi!

Thank you, kind Marines!”

Nodding his head, Bill spoke up first: “It’s our pleasure, Mr.?”

“No ‘Mister.’!

My name is Miyagi, and I’m a trained aspiring Doctor!”

Indicating that he understood, though there was a contradiction there, Bill nodded again and said: “I see, so Mr. Miyagi- “No Mister!” -ok then” Bill said, slightly annoyed but still polite: “Miyagi, what were you doing tied up on that pirate ship?”

 Looking somewhat embarrassed, the goat exclaimed: “Those humans tricked, and then bound me up! I’ll tell ya, I should have known better, but I thought I was so near my destination that I could take me chance.

Besides, they were so so weak!”

 Hearing this, Bill had several questions, but he couldn’t leave the pirate ship unattended for long. So, he asked his questions bluntly: “I’m going to have a few questions for you, firstly why did you think they were weak?”

To this questions, Miyagi smiled slightly and said: “Well, of course they were weak! They’re unknown human pirates and I’m a mink, minks are natural fighters you know?!

If I wasn’t trapped, I would have brilliantly shown off my natural technique!”

When he said this, the others smirked while Bill was barely able to keep a straight face because the idea of a five-foot tall goat wearing a doctor’s coat kicking pirate butt was pretty funny.

“I see, and where were you headed?”

Smiling to this question brightly, the goat mink replied: “I was headed to Torino Kingdom! I’ve read about its amazing medicinal flora!

I just need one more ingredient to finish my amazing super wonder-drug!”

Nodding his head once again, Bill looked over to Ricky and asked: “About how far do you think we are from the Base near Torino?”

Thinking for a split second, Ricky answered somewhat unsure: “Maybe ten days? I’m not sure now that we’re towing that brig, but the log should adjust to it soon.”

Bill gestured at he agreed and turned back to Miyagi.

“Well, you heard it, you can sail with us for the next week or so and get off there. I’ll ask around to see when the next Marine ship is headed that way, perhaps they’ll take you.”

After he said this, the mink thanked him kindly but seemed more wary than before. Despite noticing the look there was still one more question that had to be asked: “Not a problem, now, why were you tied up like that?”

Hearing this question, the goats smile completely faded and he answered solemnly: “Why do you think? They were going to sell me to the highest bidder…

It wouldn’t have worked” said the mink, shaking his head and continuing: “I would have gotten free, but now I understand why we’re told not to come down and sail on the ocean… it’s… terribly risky.”

When the mink stopped talking, he looked up and saw five frowns, but it was naturally Bill who continue to speak: “What do you mean they were going to sell you, have you committed any crimes?”

Bill knew that debtors and criminals were sold for the price of their labor and being no fool he could see how a system like that was bound to be abused, but in an archipelago world, warehousing criminals was just not an option for islands outside of the major Kingdoms.

Work camps were morally gray at best, but if the only alternative was capital punishment… well… everything was a tradeoff, Bill thought.

Shaking his head, still somberly, Miyagi simply replied: “I’ve only left my Dukedom a year ago, and I’ve committed no crimes. Those pirates wanted to sell me to the black market, and then if I were weak, I’d go to a human zoo.”

When Bill asked the location for this market, Miyagi simply answered that he would have no idea, and had only heard the stories from other minks.

Unconsciously, Bill looked toward the pirate brig and thought there was interrogations to do.

Slavery was illegal. It was a crime to hold the guiltless in captivity. The law was very clear on this.

But more than that, Bill believed in the human spirit and that man was born free, it didn’t matter whether or not these were not humans, they were sentient creatures who should also be afforded those rights.

It was unacceptable, and that this piece of information would be something he couldn’t let be overlooked.

Thinking this, he looked out at the horizon and wondered just what else could be going on in those places where the authorities couldn’t see. Bill knew that while he couldn’t be everywhere, he could at least affect his surroundings for the better.

Though he thought this, Bill didn’t let his outward mood change, and he bent down and tapped the mink of his shoulder and said with a smile of his own: “Well, I’m glad we made it in time. I’ll see to it that these slaver pirates get the justice they deserve.

But let’s talk later, if you want to become a better doctor, I may have an offer you’d like.”

After saying this, Bill instructed Fia to help Miyagi with whatever he’d need and to show him to an empty cabin, and with Sasha and Ranse jumped back over to the pirate ship.

Looking around, Bill found that not much had changed in the last hour. Most of the pirates had stopped moaning but there hadn’t been much in the way of movement.

Knowing what he knew now, Bill was not keen on treating these men nicer than he had to, and so he told his Lieutenant Commanders to bind the pirates on deck tight, while he brought up the rest.

Two by two, Bill grabbed injured pirates and threw them up the stairs, only making sure not to directly kill them; he didn’t care about their injuries.

Many of the pirates had broken arms and internal bruising, the man who fired the cannon got it the worst with a broken femur which seemed to have caused him to go in shock. He was alive, but whether he would live Bill couldn’t say.

And truthfully, he didn’t feel much about it either way.

He would always try to do the right thing, but in matters against organized violence, the perpetrator could only take their lives into their own hands.

Finishing up, there turned out to be forty-two pirates, which was a good number because Frontier Run could hold about fifty in its holding cell.

Given that these men were only barely stronger than the average South Blue Marine and the holding cell was a seastone/steal alloy, there was no threat of them breaking the ship.

Plus, unlike the HINA, Frontier Run even had a sink and toilet in the holding cell and made it much more convenient to transport criminals.

After throwing the last remain pirates up, Bill walked to the main deck and was surprised to see Miyagi bandaging his former captors.

He had planned to have Sasha administer first aid but seeing as the mink had bandaged ten men in the time it took Bill to gather the others, he didn’t say anything besides: “Good on you, Miyagi.”

Hearing this, the goat smiled and said back: “If you were telling the truth, then these people have a terrible time coming for them! And this is what a doctor should do.”

Taking those that were bandaged over to the Run, Bill started to get their first plea attempts.

He heard all kinds of things ranging from ‘they made meh do it’ to ‘you broke me ‘abc’ is that your justice, Marine?’

Bill had run across pirates blaming the Marines before and was always amused by it.

These men were opportunistic thieves and scoundrels, and was the Marines fault? Paying them no mind, Bill only thought that no matter the world it was the least qualified people who usually did the finger pointing and complaining.

As the last pirate was thrown in the hold cell, Bill went back up to the main deck and found Ranse and Ricky had already started to tie up the pirate brig’s sails.

Looking on the deck, he saw that Miyagi was eating again and Fia could be heard in the kitchen presumable preparing even more for the starved mink.

The ship was going to be towed and the best way for that to work was for it to be as light as possible, but that was probably not going to be worth the effort with only five of them.

He would go over and raid the ship of whatever they could use, and likely the others had the same idea because he found Sasha coming up the brig’s steps holding a large crate.

“Anything good?” He shouted over eyeing the large box.

“Only food for now.” She answered back.

Nodding that he understood, Bill helped tie the two ships together and started going through their catch.

After a few hours of searching the sun had started to fall beneath the horizon. Needless to say, they hadn’t found any great treasures.

On this small-time pirate ship the most expensive thing were the cannons and a stash of fabric that was probably worth a few hundred-thousand Beli.

The fabric was obviously stolen and so it would have to be turned in to the local Marine base for its owner to have the option to retrieve it. Meaning that they would only get a small fraction of its value as a recovery reward.

All told, Bill and the others figured the brig to value about 3m Beli, added to the bounties for the pirates they could walk away with 10.5m Beli.

That sounded like a lot until Bill considered that the cheapest seastone haul frigate would cost his new venture 100m Beli, he had not paid Ranse and the others, and he still didn’t have direct instructions on what the percentage of his funds he would need to send back to the Science Division.

All in all, the greatest potential gain Bill could see from this capture was currently sitting on a lounge chair rubbing his big furry belly on the deck of Frontier Run.

Sasha was decently trained as a battlefield medic, but she was no doctor, and looking over at the mink Bill conspired how he would get the goat to join them.

Thinking back, he had tried to get Samantha, Tom, and Jerry transferred to Procurement's, but Sentomaru had shot him down claiming they lacked personnel.

This was understandable after seeing the state of affairs for the Science Division, but it left Bill with a critical need.

He needed a doctor, a proper Doctor.

Thinking no time better than the present, Bill called over to Miyagi with a “Hey”.

After eating his body weight in leafy greens, Miyagi was blissfully relaxing and only slightly turned his head to the large Marine.

“Yes?” He spoke.

“You said you wanted to become a better doctor, well, we’re not actually normal Marines you see.”

Stopping for a second, Bill saw that Miyagi wasn’t going to respond and so continued: “We’re from the Science Division, and our department leads the way in technological innovations... but that includes medicine too.

So, I was thinking if you- “Yes” said the mink cutting him off.

Being cut off, Bill gave the goat a raised eyebrow as it kept talking: “You need a brilliant mind like mine, I understand.”

Still rubbing his belly, Miyagi asked serenely: “How long does one have to serve in the Marines if one joins it?”

 “Uh, it’s a six-year contract. You can’t share everything you learn while serving, but most skills are allowed to be used in private life afterwards.”

As if he didn’t hear Bill’s full explanation, Miyagi continued: “You saved me, oh I would have gotten free, but you did save me.”

Then sitting up from the lounge chair, the goat gave Bill a deadly serious look at said: “What was your name, human?”

Replying that his name was Bill Ox, Miyagi nodded seriously and said: “I owe you a debt, I’ll follow you as a terrific doctor for six years in order to repay it.”

Thinking that this was far easier than he imagined, Bill didn’t look a gift goat in the mouth and giving his best smile said: “Great! Welcome aboard!”

Calling to the others, Bill told them Miyagi would be their departments doctor, and as the goat was being welcomed his mind moved to what would have to come the next day.

Interrogations.