Chapter 7: Appearances and Intentions

Taja smiled to herself. Her passengers were not the hard bitten spacers she had expected. This Captain Sparrow seemed almost a fop. It was clear that he was a drunkard, what with the way he staggered and reeled with nearly every step. How had the likes of him gotten the upper hand on the Mhinm? The ensigns were nothing new. She had sailed with them to Montressor and had gotten to know them fairly well in that short time. Lh'aer'ri seemed brave enough but he was clearly the sort to leap and then look. All balls and few brains. Alamimo was just a girl. Smart but not enough experience. If the Empire was counting on their sort then the war would not go well. That girl with Sparrow was out of her element. Anamaria was it? What kind of name was that? She couldn't be more than sixteen. Sparrow didn't seem the sort to like them young. Still, there was no accounting for taste. Amelia had certainly gotten soft. Perhaps that could be attributed to her marriage. Doppler was an attractive man but far more bookish than what Amelia had gone in for in the past. Taja wondered now if Amelia had been testing her about the course the other day or had she really thought they were to the north? Ridiculous. Certainly they were to the south. What was in the woman's head?

Now there was this foolishness of a concert for the crew. Doppler appeared to have a talent for the flute and Ensign Lh'aer'ri played the fiddle. Amelia would accompany them on her lapsicord. The crew would, doubtless, enjoy the distraction. Taja shook her head with an ironic smile as she finished getting ready for dinner. She longed to be aboard a frigate again. Then she could have a proper cabin and enjoy the ministrations of a servant. Such little things and yet they were a great pleasure to her. For now, she was content that the cruise was going as well as could be hoped. She donned her hat and stepped from her sleeping cabin into the working cabin which was once more laid out for dinner. Dinner and later the concert. She shrugged and pushed aside what tomorrow or the next day would bring.


Delbert opened the concert with a solo that blended seamlessly into the next song with the accompaniment of Amelia and Ensign Lh'aer'ri. They were good. Anamaria had heard the Dopplers play before but she was surprised that Lh'aer'ri could play any instrument without hands. It wasn't long before the entire crew was listening intently. Even the roughest looking of the bunch seemed to have been taken in. Anamari was tapping her foot in time with the third song when she felt Jack touch her elbow. She turned to see him lear at her with the roguish glint in his eyes she knew so well. It would be clear to anyone that saw it what was on his mind. How could any woman not be drawn in by those eyes of his? No one would blame her for slipping away with him. Anamaria smiled back and though she would regret missing the concert, she followed close at Jack's elbow. They made their way to the aft hatchway and descended the narrow stairs Into the dimness of the hold. It was lit only by a few lamps but the two made their way easily to the low companionway that would lead to the bow.

Through the dark just ahead they could see a pair of spacers with their faces turned up listening to the concert. Jack paused just before stepping into the light. Anamaria felt his posture change and heard something slip from his pocket. She heard the soft pop of a cork and knew it was a bottle. The spacers had heard the pop also and were instantly on their guard frowning into the shadowed companionway. Anamaria slipped both hands around Jack's arm and drew up close to him as they stepped into the small space in front of the armory door.

"Who goes there?" demanded the spacer on the right. He was slim with a reddish hue to his scaly skin. The other was heavier and darker complected with a smooth, nearly textureless hide.

"Jus' me, lads," Jack said taking a quick drink from the bottle adding a sway and a lazy wave of his hand.

"What'er ya doin' down 'er?" the dark one demanded.

Jack's gold laced smile broadened as he glanced down at Ana. She drew in tighter to him and giggled girlishly.

"We were jus' lookin' for somewheres a li'tle more private 'an our cabins. Savvy?" Jack said drinking again and casting another lear down at Ana.

The two spacers exchanged a knowing glance but the one on the right drawled, "This area is off limits to civilians."

"Terribly sorry, mate. I didn't know," Jack said with a placating wave of the bottle. "If I see one, I shall inform you immediately."

This puzzled the spacers. They frowned but otherwise did not move.

"Seems the concert is a grand, high toned fancy to-do up on deck," Jack went on. "How is it that two upstanding gen'lemen, such as yerselves, did not merit an invitation?"

"Someone has to keep this area off limits to civilians," the spacer on the right said frankly.

"It's a fine goal, to be sure, but it seems to me that a door such as that," Jack pointed to the heavy, armor plated hatch behind the spacers. "renders a guard somewhat superfluous."

"Oh, aye. The door is stout," said the spacer on the left. "But there ain't no lock what can't be picked."

"An' what's beyond the door is what we're guarding," said the spacer on the right.

"No we're not," said the dark skinned spacer. "We're 'ere to guard the door."

"But it ain't the door what's valuable," replied the red spacer. "What's inside the room is what's valuable."

"It is. But the door is guarding that." The dark spacer turned and rapped his knuckles on the metal facing. "See? Solid as a duckette. We're 'ere to guard the door."

"But the door i'n't valuable. We're 'ere to guard what's beyond the door," asserted the red spacer. "Someone could come take the door away an' we wouldn't be no worse off so long as there was someone to be sure the stuff beyond it weren't touched."

"You just made my point fer me," the dark spacer said drawing himself up with a condescending smile. "We're 'ere to guard the door. The door is here to guard what's beyond it."

"But the door ain't important." the red spacer asserted again. "The contents of the room is what's important. So long as that stays where it's s'posed to be we don't need the door."

By now both Jack and Ana were staring at the two. This was evidently a complex argument they must have debated before and it seemed that it would continue for some time yet.

"But," said the dark spacer, seizing the verbal high ground. "With you and me 'ere, there ain't no way for someone to come down 'ere and take the door away. And since the only way into the room is this door, the contents of said room are safe so long as you and I stand fast and make sure the door don' go nowheres."

"What about the portholes?" the red spacer began with the air of someone about to outflank an adversary.

"I think," Jack said before the red spacer could continue his thought. "I think that the guarding of the door and the guarding of the contents of the room beyond are, in fact, one and the same task."

"What do ya mean?" the dark spacer asked. The red one looked on with interest.

"Obvious, I would say. The door is an inanimate object and therefore has no sense of duty. No sense of elan. No sense of esprit de corps. Nor any other sense at all. Something without sense can not guard anything. It can protect or bar entrance to the room beyond but it can not act against anyone or anything that might attempt to enter said room by means of stealth or naked force. Even fully clothed force would be ignored by the door. Therefore, it is essential that guards be posted. Men, such as yerselves, have stood watch over the precious things of kings and queens for ages. The door is not precious, even to itself. So it must be that what is beyond the door is what you guard but the door must be there and therefore you also guard the door."

Anamaria was almost sure she could hear the clicking of gears as the two spacers tried to make sense of what Jack had just blathered. Finally they squinted up at him with dawning smiles.

"So what yer sayin'" said the dark spacer.

"Is we're both right," said the red spacer.

"There ya' go lads!" Jack beamed. He raised the bottle to his lips in a toast then handed it to them. "Drinks all 'round, mates. There ya' go."

They were all chuckling merrily as they settled into a long conversation. An hour later the two pirates ascended to the main deck where the trio was just playing their last song. Jack and Ana sidled through the crowd until they were standing next to Ensign Alamimo.

"Did you get it all?" Jack whispered to the young officer. She gave him a sly, devilish smile for reply.