Chapter 10: The Captain's Cabin

"Captain, something is bothering you," Anamaria said. She had followed Amelia to her cabin when the loading had finished and Amelia had not objected to her company.

"Bothering me? Nonsense." Amelia was dismissive of the idea. She leaned over the charts Jack had taken from the freighter comparing them with her own.

"No. Not nonsense, Captain," Anamaria countered. "I can tell. You walk different. You have a harder look in your eyes. I see things like that."

"Nothing is bothering me," Amelia denied it. "I'm like this after a battle is all. I have work to do. You should find something to occupy yourself. See if Mr. Sparrow needs help and give him some, even if he doesn't."

"You're upset about what Jack tol' you to do," Anamaria persisted.

"Anamaria," Amelia straightened up and turned her gaze on the young woman. "Leave this alone."

"You have no one to talk to. Talk to me."

"Really, child, you are tasking my patients." Amelia flipped to a new chart with more force than was strictly necessary.

"I'm not just one of the crew, Captain." Anamaria stepped a little closer. She wanted the captain to tell her what was wrong and was determined to get the woman to loosen up enough to let it out. "I'm a woman too. I know what it is like to be among men always. You have to be stronger than they expect or they won't respect you. You can't let them see past the surface. I know it. And I know something is troubling you."

"You mean aside from you pestering me?" Amelia snapped.

"Yes."

Amelia sighed in resignation. "I don't much care for killing men when they are no longer a threat. It goes against everything I fought for in the war against the Armada. It goes against the way I was raised. To kill in battle is one thing but what we did today was murder."

"What we did today was get a step closer to rescuing your husband." Anamaria's voice was smooth and calm. "If you can't do things like that you won't be able to do anything to free him."

"That, if you will pardon my phrasing, is wale snot." The Captain turned back to the charts. "I can do it as I proved. I just..."

"Just?" The young woman prompted.

"What about my men?" Amelia very carefully turned another page in the charts. Her voice had no tone to it. "They are good spacers. I selected each of them and told them what I was going to do and why. They each volunteered to follow me. To ask them to follow orders that put them in a position of committing murder is unconscionable. Unforgivable. Then we looted that freighter and I saw what they were carrying when they came back. Some of them had stolen jewelry and other souvenirs. Even Closton. I've known that spacer for fifteen years and he has been the soul of honesty. He goes on one mission with Jack and suddenly he's a pirate. I fight pirates! I kill pirates."

"I'm a pirate," Anamaria calmly told her. There was no reproach in her words.

"That's different."

"How?"

"You were a pirate before you joined my crew." Amelia straightened and faced the young woman again. "You won't be changed by looting or murdering the defenseless. I like you, Anamaria, but the fact is you are a pirate. These men are not. I do not wish to make them into the thing we all fought against for so long. But I can not think of any other way to rescue Delbert. So because of my need and my weakness and with the excuse of preventing a war I have perhaps sentenced them to be corrupted into that which they hate."

"Captain, what would you do with ships when you captured them during a time of war?" Anamaria's tone was speculative.

"If they were serviceable we put prize crews on them and sent them back to the nearest port where they would be assessed and then sold. Part of that money would go to the officers and men of the ship that had captured the prize."

"And what will you do with the cargo you took today?"

"I had planned to... I see what you are getting at." The Captain's tone was nearly resentful. "I know that giving the money to the men is like awarding them prize money but it's different."

"Only a little." Anamaria laid a finger on her chin in thought. "If you wish to keep your crew from turning pirate you could do something about how the money and the souvenirs are split between them."

Amelia considered this line of thought for a moment.

"I could award them a portion of the money minus the amount of the souvenirs. But the remainder would have to be kept aside somehow."

"Could you store it in the ... the...planatoy?" Anamaria was embarrassed at her mispronunciation.

"Planetoid," Amelia corrected her but shook her head. "No. the men might think I was hoarding it for myself and that might cause resentment. I can't keep it on the Smollette either." Amelia sat down crossing her legs and leaning back in her chair to think. Anamaria kept silent. She watched the captain work her way through the problem and saw the subtle changes take effect. Amelia was herself again. She was no longer in doubt nor suffering from self recrimination.

"Please send Mr. Strode and Mr. Closton to me at once," Amelia suddenly ordered as she sat forward and opened a drawer.

Later that evening when most of the crew was in the mess Mr. Strode explained that the cargo would be sold and that any souvenirs must be claimed so the price could be assessed. He explained how the men would receive their due share of the prize money and that the remainder would go into a fund administered by Closton, Strode and one other representative from the rank and file of the crew. That money would be set aside until the mission were completed and would go to the crew in the form of a pension. Or it would go to the family of any crew member who did not survive the venture. Though this did not meet with enthusiastic cheers there were nods of approval all around. Except for Jack.