Captain Kate and the Dragon
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Avast me hearties, tis to glory we steer. But I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: The 18th Century.
This is a continuation of the stories about the pirate queen, Captain Kate Beckett. In this tale, Kate, her family and crew sail to China and beyond.
She was fully alert as soon as her eyes opened. Very briefly, she recalled when she was a girl and would wake up slowly, sometimes lolling in bed for ten or fifteen minutes before getting up. She couldn't do that now.
She slipped out of bed and padded silently to the stern windows of her ship. She opened one window. She could smell the salt tang of the sea and the stench of something rotting ashore. She listened intently. There! She had been right.
"You know I hate when you leave me, but I love to watch you walk away."
She smiled to herself and then wiggled her naked ass at her husband, who was still in bed. She walked back to the bed, but instead of getting back in, she began to pull on a pair of baggy linen trousers.
"Not coming back to bed?" He asked.
She shook her head. "I hear cannon fire. From the southeast, I think."
He frowned. "I don't hear anything."
She put on a colorful calico shirt and tied it under her breasts, exposing her flat, muscular stomach. 'That's because you're a man of peace who's spent most of his life peacefully." She wrapped a bright red silk sash around her hips and cinched her sword belt over that. She took another length of red silk and wrapped her chestnut colored hair in it. Due to the heat and the humidity, her hair was far curlier than usual. She pulled on a black, wide brimmed hat that had the brim turned up on the left side. On the hat was a long feather. The man who had sold it to her told her it was feather from the legendary roc, which she didn't believe for a minute. But she liked the feather.
Slipping her feet into a pair of rope soled shoes, she bent to kiss her husband. "You need to get dressed. There could be trouble." When he tried to pull her into bed again, she slipped away. She stopped at a chest of drawers and removed two double barreled pistols which she stuck in her sash. Then she left the cabin, not noticing that her husband had wiggled his naked ass at her as he got out of bed.
She strode onto the quarterdeck of the Revenge and called to the officer of the deck. "Mr. Esposito, I hear cannon fire to the southeast. Please beat to quarters and advise the Witch of that fact."
Mr. Esposito began giving orders.
The Witch of Endor, a rakish 20 gun brig, lay between them and the shore. Her original owner, Captain Will Sorenson, had sold her to Kate when he had decided to remain in India to marry into and serve a Muslim royal family.
Four little drummer boys staggered onto the quarterdeck, still half asleep, and looked at Mr. Esposito.
"Beat to quarters, lads." He said.
The four drummers began to beat their drums.
A sense of controlled chaos overtook the ship and gun crews ran to their guns. Young powder monkeys swarmed up from the magazine with bags of black powder, ready to be rammed into the gun barrels and followed by shot. Other men were issued muskets, boarding pikes and cutlasses. Two dozen men stood by the capstan, ready for action.
Mr. Esposito approached Captain Kate with a watch in his hand. "Ship was ready for action in three minutes and eighteen seconds from the moment you gave the order, Ma'am."
"Thank you, Mr. Esposito." She turned to the signal midshipman. "Any reply from the Witch?
"Ma'am, Captain Ryan reports he was ready for action in two minutes, seventeen seconds."
"He has a much smaller ship. "Esposito grumped.
Captain Kate wisely said nothing.
"Ahoy the deck." Cried the lookout in the crows' nest. "I can see the very tip of a mast, perhaps two miles away. And I can see gun smoke."
Everyone on the ship could hear the roar of cannons now.
Kate nodded to herself. "Mr. Esposito, we'll make use of the spring now to turn us to face whoever it is there."
A spring is a device for turning a ship at anchor. Anchors are dropped, at some distance from the ship, at ninety degree angles from the side of a ship. The capstan can then be used to slowly haul the ship around to face in any direction.
Slowly a ship was seen to come around the point to the south.
"Damn!' Cried Castle, who had joined Kate on deck. "It's a ship of the line. If it's after us, we're dead."
Kate grabbed a telescope and ran to the end of the quarterdeck, clapping the spyglass to her eye, she chuckled. "It's not a ship of the line. It's an British East Indiaman. The stupid bastards have nailed their lower gun ports shut so they can carry more cargo." She looked up at the crow's nest. "Lookout! What can you see of her deck armament?"
"There's bloody little. I count a dozen guns, perhaps twelve pounders. And all manner of cargo on her deck."
Kate shook her head. "What kind of a fool would so disarm his ship in these waters?"
"We'll soon find out, I imagine." Castle said.
As he spoke, more ships rounded the point. These were local craft called dhows. They were individually smaller and less powerful than the Indiaman, but Kate was able to count at least sixteen of them. Had they been able to close and board the Indiaman, the pirates would have overwhelmed the crew in no time.
As soon as the dhows saw the Revenge and the Witch of Endor had their broadsides to them and their cannon manned and ready, they began to veer away and in minutes were headed away as fast as possible.
The Indiaman, seeing they were saved, turned about and dropped anchor between Revenge and the Witch.
"Signal from the Indiaman, Captain. The captain wishes to come aboard to thank us."
"Thank you, Mr. Esposito. Please signal him to come aboard."
Kate watched as the Indiaman's captain's gig was lowered and the oarsmen and several passengers clambered aboard. Kate thought the gig's crew were rather sloppy, which she blamed on poor training and discipline by the captain. She was starting to form a low opinion of the man.
Soon, the captain, resplendent in a blue uniform with much unauthorized gold braid, came aboard, followed by a tall, suntanned older man dressed in a fine green broadcloth suit. Behind them were two oddly dressed Asian men in saffron robes.
"My thanks to you, captain, for saving us. I'm Captain Hubbard of the Honorable East India Company's ship, King Alfred." The man was addressing Castle which made both Rick and Kate smile.
"Good to meet you, sir. "Castle replied. "But the captain is my wife over there."
Hubbard turned towards Kate and then laughed. "You're having a bit of fun with us, are you, Captain? Sure, your doxy is not the captain."
"I'm Captain Kate Beckett and this is my ship, the Revenge."
Hubbard's face went pale. "Kate Beckett? The infamous pirate queen? We'd have been better off with Arab pirates."
"Not at all, Captain. I have no wish to trouble the Honorable Company."
"Well, the Honorable Company wishes to trouble you, my lass. They wish to stretch your pretty neck as do every other honest person. The man whose daughter you kidnapped, Sir William Bracken, has become the private secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty. They've posted a reward of fifty thousand pounds for your capture, and twenty thousand for the return of Lady Priscilla to her husband, Lord Desmond."
"La!" Said a new voice.
Hubbard turned to find two young women, no, they appeared to be young ladies, coming up from below decks. One was an attractive blonde and the other a stunning redhead.
"And who might you be?" Hubbard demanded sharply.
"Lady Priscilla Bracken. Note the use of my maiden name as I am not married to that creature Desmond."
"Bah." Cried Hubbard. "You're naught but some whore. No lady would live a pirate's life. And your pirate life will soon end and the end of a rope, slut."
Priscila walked towards Hubbard with a smile on her beautiful face. Then she kicked the captain in the crotch. "Please convey that message to my father and that Desmond thing."
Hubbard tried to say something but failed, being bent over and short of breath.
"Priscilla! I'm trying to have a conversation with the captain." Kate said sharply. "Now, Captain Hubbard, as I said, I have no quarrel with the company. You need assistance which I can provide at a price."
"Pay a pirate for help! I'll die first. I'll see every one of you scoundrels hang and hang slowly. I'll see your bodies rot and…."
Before Hubbard could finish the sentence, the older man with him struck Hubbard across the jaw, causing him to drop like a stone. The man turned to the bosun in charge of Hubbard's gig. "Dawkins, I believe the captain has suffered from sun stroke. Please put him in the gig and keep him there." He threw the man a gold coin. "Be a good fellow."
Dawkins smiled. "The captain'll be in good hands, sir."
The man turned to Kate and doffed his hat. "I believe we need to negotiate. I'm Edward Pellew. I left Cornwall for India thirty years ago as a teenage clerk for the Company. Since then, I've become quite wealthy, and accustomed to negotiating with all manner of people. My wife and four children are aboard King Alfred and I have no intention of letting that idiot Hubbard get us all killed by Arab pirates or anyone else."
Kate smiled. "I'm glad to make your acquaintance, Mr. Pellew. Perhaps we could adjourn to my cabin and have a cooling drink?"
"I thought you'd never ask, Captain Beckett."
Once settled in their cabin, Kate described what she had seen of the King Alfred. "Your mainmast is obviously damaged as is your rudder and much of your rigging. And it appears that most of your guns have been dismounted and I'd guess, used as ballast?"
Pellew nodded. "The pirates shot at our masts and rigging so as to be able to capture us. They don't want to sink a valuable ship by shooting at the hull. I assume the shot to the rudder was just luck, or a very good shot." He shook his head. "Hubbard insisted on filling the gun decks with cargo so he'd make more money. I complained, but he insisted that since we were in a convoy, three other Indiamen and a Royal Navy frigate, we'd be fine. We were fine until four days out of Bombay when a storm scattered our convoy. We've seen nothing of the other ships since then. We were attacked by those damned pirates two days ago. All that idiot Hubbard could do was sit in his cabin, drink rum and blubber. I should have thrown him overboard." Pellew smiled at Kate. "So, Captain Beckett, what about ten thousand pounds in gold for your help in getting King Alfred shipshape again. And capable of fighting?"
Kate smiled back. "I assume that a great deal of the ship's deck cargo is Hubbard's personal property, to be sold in London for his own profit?"
Pellew nodded. "As permitted by the company, although the amount of cargo is far more than I've ever seen a captain carry."
"Suppose I were to take the captain's personal cargo? Do you suppose it's worth ten thousand pounds?"
"Oh, but you're a canny negotiator, Captain Beckett. I think he said it was worth eight thousand, but I'd be more than happy to pay you two thousand pounds to cover the rest."
"Excellent, Mr. Pellew. I think we have a deal."