14 Battle Finale

"Raise the spotters bridge!" Elsa stomped her foot on the main deck and a spiral staircase flowed out of the deck ten meters high. The railings were augmented in beautiful snowflakes and geometrical patterns that twinkled brightly in the diminishing sunlight. "First Officer, now is not the time for frivolity." I scolded. She just gave me a wry smile, shrugged her shoulders, and gave a small flick of her hand that sent a rainbow hue of colors to the snowflakes. It appeared to me she was sending a message to our enemy that... she was still a woman,

she still has a sense of her own style no matter how misplaced,

and that she was absolutely crushing them.

The message I got was, I'm still the Queen, Captain.

Well, message received. It is her ship after all.

"I've spotted the Duke, Sir!"

The Duke, ugh. That weasel just came along to gloat presumably, and now found himself in a bit of a jamb.

"He seems to be having a heated discussion with the Captain."

Ah, conflict. I'm sure the Duke was pressing him to attack. His pride had been severely damaged by the Queen when she told him they would no longer be doing business together. I wonder if he has an ace up has sleeve...

"Lower the bridge." Instead of it just going back into the deck, it dematerialized from the bottom up, and popped like a firecracker when the last of it was at the top. If nothing else she was consistent.

"Prepare to attack...Now!, Combat speed!"

It was head to head, a game of high stakes chicken. But why were they doing this? there was no way for them to bring their cannons to bear this way, they're too slow to ram why would...

"Hard to port!" Cried Hjalmar, but it was too late. Two large doors covering a set of gun ports fell into the sea, showing his ace. Two nine barrel cannons fired as soon as the doors cleared the ports and eighteen cannonballs in a spread pattern were headed our way.

It only took one to make its mark. at first it bounced off the deck of the fore castle, then into the pilots wheel. I had managed to take a step back before the wheel exploded, Elsa was not so lucky.

A large shard of the wheels housing struck Elsa across the left shoulder. Being somewhat locked into the thruster tubes, she stayed at her post. But now she had fallen over and was bleeding profusely.

We had been ratted out, and we were dead in the water. The slight bit of good news is that their super weapon was a one-shot affair and it would take a few minutes to either reload or bring their normal complement of cannon to bear.

"Elsa, can you hear me?! We need a storm now! ELSA!"

"Elsa!, NO! her sister was now running from the bow sprint to here. Normally I'd be saying something to the effect of stay at your post, but now this was her post. "Elsa, PLEASE!" "Huh? wha?" Elsa was delirious.

"First, if you don't create a storm right now, we are all going to die."

She managed to create a howler like the one on the day of her jailbreak. This would buy us some time. Once the swirls of wind and snow started the sails on the Weselton ship cracked like thunder, and the ship started to push away.

"Keep this up for as long as you can, Number One."

This is where I wish Anna had more powers than just destruction.

Wait a second, she does have a helpful power. Now if it will just work. "Anna, I need you to cauterize Elsa's wound."

"Wait, WHAT?! I've never done anything like that before!"

"Anna, today has been filled with firsts, no reason to stop now. If you can't help your sister, all of us are going to die. As well as citizens of Arendelle."

I hated putting that kind of pressure on her, but that's what captains do. I needed her to give one hundred and twenty percent right now.

"Rune, Torkel, give us a hand. Hold her down, she must be held still."

"OK, Anna,...this is your moment."

She put her hand over the wound and looked back at me while tears were streaming down her face.

"Hold the wound closed while applying heat, and it has to be hot enough to burn."

Between the screaming and the smell of burning flesh, we nearly lost our helpers. Seeing the Queen this way was stomach churning.

To think that a month ago, I would have been reveling in my delight to see her writhing in pain, while I kicked her over the side. Now I can hardly bear the thought of her suffering.

The pain brought Elsa around but she was very weak, when Anna lifted her hand up, an impression of her fingers was left indelibly into her shoulder.

It worked. Anna had concentrated the heat right along the wound, sealing it without further damage. I was very proud of her at that moment, but it was short lived. We still had the issue of a warship that was going to be on top of us soon.

Elsa's head cleared a bit and the sisters could embrace once again. Not a dry eye on board. But I had to think, and I would have to come up with a stunner.

"Elsa, can you cover us? I want to make us like an iceberg."

"I'll try."

This time, instead of being in the eye of the storm, it was on top of us. The ship was sinking down with the weight of the snow and ice on top of us. "That's enough" and we were in an igloo of sorts.

"Now Anna, melt us a hole big enough for Hjalmar to fit thru to the top." Anna had been working on a technique known as the "Lite Drill". It was a shaft of very intense fire that came from her hand in a very narrow beam.

Gran Pabbe had been instructing her on the technique just before we had to rush off, now we needed it and I hoped she wouldn't set us or the ship on fire. She held her hand against the dome, swung it in a circle and cut the opening. The plug fell to the deck with a thud. Elsa had seen what we were up to and made a small ladder for Hjalmar to climb. He started for the opening and I grabbed him by the shoulder. "Wait. Geirr, get me an empty flour bag from the hold. He showed up with the white bag. I quickly cut two holes in it and shoved it over Hjalmar's head. "Now go take a look." Both women let out a quick snort.

"Their coming, Sir. About twelve minutes out."

Now for the coup d'état.

"Anna, when I give your the signal, I want you to use the lite drill in a zig-zag pattern like this." I gestured with my own hand at the snow wall. I wish it would've been me who would be doing this, as it was sure to send many to their death. Anna had enough for several lifetimes today.

"There lobbing a few rounds at...pfft, pfft ppfft." But the cannonballs where just sinking into the snow, along with Jaly getting a mouthful. They would have to try and board us. "Jaly, tell us which side?"

"Port Sir, towards the stern."

Perfect. "Come down Jaly. Be very quiet, everyone." What seemed like forever passed.

We could hear the snow creak under their foot steps as I got Anna in place. "Rune, you ready?"

"Yes Sir."

When the first soldier poked his head down thru the hole, Rune plunged his sword straight up through him. NOW ANNA!, give it everything you have!" The lite and noise was very intense.

Sounds of boiling water, splintering and burning wood. The quick succession of pop noises as bags of powder sitting next to their cannons went off.

Men screaming. "You must not stop, Anna". I kept pushing her, how much more could she possibly stand?

As she was cutting thru the ship, she was also cutting the snow dome, which now exposed the horrific damage it has caused. The ship had fallen apart, cut into several large chunks. She had managed to nick the powder magazine, making an ear ringing and somewhat delayed explosion.

Three skiffs survived, filled to the brim with men. They were giving up, their little boats making for shore.

It was over.

"First Officer, raise the mast and strip the ship." With that all the magical parts of the ship were gone. We would be going home in our ugly shoe box. But we would be going home.