Arrows & Bracelets
Volume 1
A Wonder Woman Series
All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by...
That old maritime verse from earth entered Captain Diana of the Amazon's mind as she conducted her latest mission of inter dimensional exploration (and/or extra dimensional patrol; she was the appointed guardian of...everything after all). Wonder Woman had traveled to a fantasy world like Middle Earth (she was a Tolkien fan after all) to explore her father Zeus's infinite creation in greater detail. Given that she originated from an island world that used ancient weaponry and very much appeared like something out of mythology or fantasy Diana didn't have to do much extra to effectively blend into a world like this. The ever handy wonder plane was still ever at her beck/call (although it was usually hidden in the multiversal background for a mission like this), but for the medieval like creatures in this world to see such a thing could alter their natural course of evolution; and Diana being a scientist inasmuch as being a warrior did not want that. She tried not to culturally contaminate any world if it could be helped.
Why Captain Diana, and the thought of that old Masefield verse running through her mind at that exact moment? It was really quite simple. She'd had the wonder vehicle (her mobile operations platform) magically produce bags of gold (she'd never had to worry about money for operational needs) and then used that to buy an old sturdy sailing ship. She'd then hired a crew of certified scoundrels, as Star Wars might have called them, and set sail for the great beyond. She'd been in this reality for a month now but had only been at sea with her crew for a day. She'd bought the ship from her first mate, then captain/owner. He'd been willing to take a demotion and sell his ship to her after the small fortune she'd given him for it. He'd obviously wondered where all the money had come from; he'd never know. And of course and not to her surprise she'd instinctively named the ship the Argo. Whether or not these were the next Argonauts was another matter entirely.
"Winds are at our back now captain and should stay that way," said Polgar, that first mate that had both a questionable and varied past. "Good," she replied; they stood at the stern wheel together. "We'll make good time." She hadn't used the lasso on any of them; she'd been afraid it would have taken forever to get through all of them if she had. There was no doubt they'd been killers thieves and whatever else they'd needed to be in order to survive. It hadn't been different from earth in many respects. Could she use the wonder plane to make infinite money? Yes. Why didn't she to end earth poverty forevermore? Answer: the Star Trek prime directive was her real honor code as WW. Lame; hypocritical? Not in the slightest to her. Why? No matter how well intentioned a being's motives might be if seemingly benign actions were done without due thought to a species' evolution it could prove to be a disaster. She was a scientist and had to remember that in all of her actions as WW. And magical interventions could affect those natural courses most of all - and not in a good way. If people hated her for it she could live with it and would; she'd been WW for many decades and had gone by the prime directive since the 60s show had come out. And WW going by that brilliant fictional directive in a real life manner had done more good than harm in her view. Earth had seemed to agree; they'd made more movies comic books games TV shows and so on about her after she'd chosen to follow this directive more directly then before doing such. And her almighty father hadn't disagreed either; he too seemed to be a noninterventionist most of the time. Must run in the family...
Together captain and first mate looked at a map; sundown was near and they wanted a better idea of where they were going before that happened. They were sailing west across a relatively calm sea to reach a continent to explore it. There were rumors that it had many natural/valuable resources and cultures there that had had very little contact with the world beyond it. The port city they'd set sail from had a bunch of would be adventurers that still wanted to reach this landmass but they'd ultimately been reluctant due to the overall lack of success that had taken place. Of all the known ships that had attempted exploration there - private and state sanctioned - none had returned. That could have been for any number of reasons, but they'd all been mortal crews. Another thing Diana had done to earn this crew's trust was to "show off" her skills/powers. She'd spent the first week doing just that in various fights. There was magic in this world, along with demons and wizards and all of that jazz, but to most of the commoners they were just stories. Diana had proven her celestial nature to them either way. And from what Diana had seen of this world thus far they hadn't seemed anti woman by any means. Women had evident power and authority in the port city alone and she even had female crew members aboard the newly christened Argo. This had all somewhat surprised her with irony given earth's many anti woman views and sentiments that still rang true in the current era, which was much more technologically advanced with smartphones and the internet compared to this medieval world where gunpowder/firearms didn't exist yet magic did. She found such multiversal contradictions fascinating, as Mr. Spock would famously say.
"We should reach the target continent's outermost coast in a few days," Polgar said. "This is based on what we've heard from the many rumors." She nodded, understanding that rumor constituted most of what they knew about this unnamed landmass. This was what had drawn her to a job like this; the many unknowns. They were quite literally sailing right into the heart of it; she loved unraveling mysteries and defeating ignorance with knowledge. While not a religious being she was definitely spiritual by nature. Whether this was by her father's design or not didn't matter. But by exploring the multiverse in all ways possible this deepened her tie to her father, along with everything else in creation.
They spoke on heading matters further. She couldn't wait for night; the stars had been marvelous so far, but to see them at sea would be the most amazing of all; there would be no light pollution of any kind. That and the gentle motions of the calm sea for now would help facilitate a contemplative experience. She loved living in such moments. If she could make them last than she would.