{"id":581,"date":"2016-11-09T13:25:50","date_gmt":"2016-11-09T18:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bethturnage.com\/?page_id=581"},"modified":"2016-11-09T13:25:50","modified_gmt":"2016-11-09T18:25:50","slug":"pirates-luck-chapter-fivelet-em-take-prisoners","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bethturnage.com\/?page_id=581","title":{"rendered":"Pirate’s Luck: Chapter Five~Let ‘Em Take Prisoners"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pirate's<\/a><\/p>\n

Let him die.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe did not just say that,\u201d said Arekan. He knew the first mate was a hard man, but he didn\u2019t think Grokin would be cold hearted enough to let a member of his crew die.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m afraid so,\u201d said Egren. He had pressed a button at his neck on his spacesuit, and Arekan could not hear Grokin. \u201cOur first mate has a \u2018let \u2018em take prisoners\u2019 policy. It deters those that try to use extortion to get our goods.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCreator,\u201d muttered Arekan. He peered out over the edge of the hatch to see Obon clutching the swaying tether. \u201cWe need to get him up here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s exactly what those pirates want. They\u2019ll be right in back of him to board this ship with us too afraid of killing our own man to do anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019m not going to leave him to his death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arekan started the wench that held Obon\u2019s tether and oxygen supply.<\/p>\n

\u201cThad, don\u2019t!\u201d <\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t listen. Leaning out of the hatch he pulled in the oxygen supply as the winch hauled Obon and several pirates up to the ship. <\/p>\n

Egren propelled himself into Arekan and tried to yank him away from the hatch. Arekan swayed at the impact, but he pushed Egren back refusing to let go to the line. If it tangled, and choked off the air, Obon was just as dead as leaving him with the pirates.<\/p>\n

But Egren was just as determined to stop Arekan as the young man was to help Obon.<\/p>\n

Again, Egren launched himself at Arekan, though in the low gravity atmosphere, his movements were slow. Arekan picked up his left leg and kicked Egan as hard as he could while he clutched the oxygen line. <\/p>\n

Arekan flew into the bulkhead when he made contact with Egren, dropping the lines in his hands. They snaked back out in the black with Egren hit the winch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the hell is going on down there,\u201d said Grokin. \u201cShut the hatch!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, sir,\u201d said Egren. He moved toward the controls. Since he was closer to the panel than Arekan the hatch was going to close despite Arekan\u2019s best intentions. And Arekan didn\u2019t see anyway to save their crewman in their present circumstances.<\/p>\n

All the horrible events of the past few days crowded Arekan\u2019s thoughts, and anger rose in him at the utter unfairness of it all. He shouldn\u2019t have lost his home, his father, or the life he was born to. Arekan shouldn\u2019t have to tear his ideals into tatters or blacken his soul just to survive. And in one split second he decided that he wasn\u2019t going to let that happen. He wouldn\u2019t watch the careless murder of his crewmate even if he hated him.<\/p>\n

It was an impulsive move, but all it took was one good push off with his arms and legs and he was outside the ship clutching to Obon\u2019s lifeline. He wasn\u2019t tethered, and the he only had the emergency oxygen in the spacesuit. But he worked his way, hand under hand, pulling himself down by the strength of his muscles toward the brigands that restrained Obon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat in the seven hells!\u201d yelled Egren. \u201cGet back in here you idiot. I have to close this hatch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arekan ignored Egren and looked down below his legs to see the three men clustered at the further end of the tether. <\/p>\n

Every opponent has a vulnerability. These were his teacher\u2019s words in his head and Arekan scanned for what he could use against his newest enemy. There was one, endemic to all spacesuits with an external oxygen supply and that had to be his target. If he could add the element of surprise he might have a chance. Arekan palmed the controls of the hand jets, and mentally reviewed his spacesuit training from his home ship. These jets were meant for steering, not long jaunts through the black, and their use had to be conserved. <\/p>\n

What he had in mind was going to test the capacity of the hand jets.<\/p>\n

He took a couple deep breaths, and then let go, simultaneously flipping his feet over his head and firing the hand jets. <\/p>\n

He shot toward the three men, and just as he expected, surprised them with his reckless move. Arekan collided with one of the pirates, who thankfully clung to the tether. Otherwise, they both would float into the black. He yanked at the man\u2019s air supply, severing it and the pirate panicked. His shipmate saw his distress, and reached to help him. This provided the opportunity Obon didn\u2019t waste the opportunity to resume his frantic climb of the tether and Arekan flipped again and reached for the tether so he could follow Obon. <\/p>\n

But he overshot, and suddenly he was tumbling away from the tether. With his heart beating furiously in his chest, he watched his rotations, just as he was taught, and then at the critical moment as he came to point to the tether again fired his jets.<\/p>\n

But in his inexperience he missed his target again, and in one last desperate time he fired the jets they didn\u2019t respond. Used and spent, they could not save him now. The black stretched in front of him, stars of unimaginable distance piercing pinpricks of light in the velvet canvass. For a few seconds Arekan contemplated the vastness of his grave.<\/p>\n

Then his body was jerked back, and he twisted to find Obon clutching his boot.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet over here, you moke, and grab this line. We don\u2019t have all day to get back to the ship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blowing a sigh of relief, he stretched his arm and grabbed the tether. At the further end, the pirate whose oxygen line was ripped struggled against his fellow giving Arekan and Obon precious time to make their escape.<\/p>\n

Arekan\u2019s arms were straining against working hard in the weightless atmosphere, and every movement seemed unbearably slow. But finally both he and Obon were at the hatch, and an exasperated Egren pulled first Arekan, then Obon in. <\/p>\n

\u201cDo you think you can reel in that tether now?\u201d said Egren sarcastically to Arekan.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure,\u201d said Arekan with a smile, and he started the winch to pull up the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot that way,\u201d said Egren impatiently. \u201cPull the damn thing in so we can get the hatch shut.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arekan did as he was told, pulling the line in by hand. The tubing snaked floating through the airlock, getting in the three mens\u2019 way, but then it went taut.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh hells,\u201d swore Egren. <\/p>\n

Arekan didn\u2019t know what was going on, but the looks on both Egren and Obon\u2019s faces something very bad was happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cShut the hatch,\u201d yelled Egren.<\/p>\n

Arekan, closest to the control panels, hit the door to close and moved achingly slow. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to seal,\u201d screamed Obon. \u201cWe won\u2019t be able to open the inner hatch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAye, we\u2019re dead men, for sure,\u201d said Egren.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the hells are you talking about?\u201d said Arekan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t be able to open the inner hatch,\u201d growled Egren.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we will,\u201d said Arekan. Immediately he went to the controls for the inner hatch and pried the panel open.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d asked Obon.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father called it mischief,\u201d said Arekan. \u201cToday, I\u2019m calling it survival.\u201d It was tough working with his gloves on but he remembered the hard lesson of his induction into the Heavenly Court. He pulled at the control filiments, and pulled hard enough to cut them in half.<\/p>\n

\u201cAye, I see what you are doing, boy,\u201d said Egren. \u201cCaptain, seal the inner doors of the cargo bay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the hells is going on down there?\u201d growled Etharin. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re about to be boarded,\u201d said Egren, \u201cAnd Thad is blowing the inner hatch so we can get inside the ship. So, unless you want all our oxygen out in the black, close the damn inner seals!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll get Grokin\u2019s whip for this,\u201d snarled Etharin. <\/p>\n

Arekan was only half listening as he worked to twist critical filiments together to make his plan work. He was down to the last four, twisted two together, then held the last two. <\/p>\n

\u201cIs the outer hatch closed yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as it\u2019s going to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen hang on, because when the inner hatch opens, we\u2019ll be fighting the air rushing out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hatch blew open and a sudden whoosh of escaping atmosphere pushed them back. Arekan was first through, since he was closest and he pulled Obon and Egren in. Together, the three of them manually pulled the hatch closed.<\/p>\n

Arekan was breathing hard and he realized his air in the suit was nearly spent. He unlatched his helmet and threw it aside and continued to help yank the door into place. Finally the seal popped closed. <\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, Blade,\u201d said Egren. \u201cNow your work really begins. In about ten minutes those pirates will pry open both outer and inner hatches and gain the ship. You damn well better be as good as you think you are, because you\u2019ve pissed them off good and they won\u2019t be handing out mercy. You take that door, and hold them back, while I get the others here to help.\u201d <\/p>\n

Arekan stripped his bulky spacesuit and retrieved his sword from where he left it on a crate. Both Egren and Ogren left him alone in the hold,holding his sword at the ready crouching behind a crate. <\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t have to wait long. His jacked opening of the inner hatch worked against him this time, and the hatch opened with three spacesuited men spilling into the deck. Seeing past them, Arekan saw they had pulled in the offending tether, so they didn\u2019t suffer the same problems of being pushed away from the door by the atmosphere rushing to the vacuum of space. <\/p>\n

They stripped their suits and let them drop to the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cTell the captain that he can dock here, and we\u2019ll load the good directly to the ship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another relayed this information through a communications device while the other two began to spread out to examine the cargo. <\/p>\n

Three against one was not good odds and Arekan was beginning to think that Egren wasn\u2019t going to return soon enough to do any good. <\/p>\n

He had to get these three separated. <\/p>\n

Stealthily he moved through the stack of crates to the furthest end of the cargo bay to where some of the lighter cargo sat. With a hard shove he unseated the crates sending them crashing to the deck. Quickly rushed footsteps came toward Arekan and he readied himself by planting his feet firmly.<\/p>\n

A pirate entered the row where the boxes crashed, and Arekan scooted around the stack to the man\u2019s back.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey,\u201d said Arekan. The man turned and Arekan turned the hilt of his sword and butted the man in square in the chin. He stumbled back, slipped on some spilt oil on the decking and hit his head on another crate. <\/p>\n

Arekan never thought he\u2019d be grateful for the filth of the ship. <\/p>\n

Then he turned and stared in the face of another pirate.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou the blade?\u201d the man said with disbelief in his voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a sword, so yeah, I\u2019m the blade.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood,\u201d he laughed. \u201cThat\u2019s going to make our job easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chapter Six ~ Crimes and Punishment<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let him die. \u201cHe did not just say that,\u201d said Arekan. He knew the first mate was a hard man, but he didn\u2019t think Grokin would be cold hearted enough to let a member of his crew die. \u201cI\u2019m afraid so,\u201d said Egren. He had pressed a button at his neck on his spacesuit, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":413,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-581","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bethturnage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bethturnage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bethturnage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bethturnage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bethturnage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bethturnage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/581\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bethturnage.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bethturnage.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}