Title: The Black Pearl
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own Barbossa or his crew
Chapter 3: The cursed ship
Cassandra shared a shocked glance with her colleagues. Somehow, impossibly, the
amulet had brought them back in time to when the original crew was alive. Although
if the legend was to be believed the term alive could only be loosely applied to the
crew of the Black Pearl. Right now, however, they had a much bigger problem.
Barbossa was renown for both his cruelty and his lack of patience. She needed to
come up with a good explanation about what they were doing on his ship before he
grew angrier and decided to kill them. Choosing her words carefully she said to
Barbossa, "I realize that this must be a bit of a shock for you. To be honest it's a bit
of a shock for us too. You see we come from the future and in the future your ship
wrecked on an island in the Caribbean. My team and I were excavating the remains.
We were exploring the cabin when I found this," she said holding up the amulet,
"along with a text. When I read the text aloud the amulet brought us here. I am truly
sorry for our intrusion." Barbossa was silent for a long moment then reached out a
hand for the amulet. Cassandra handed it to him and he studied for a moment before
returning his attention to her. "And how far from the future are ye?", he asked, From
his tone Cassandra gathered that he didn't believe her story, at least not completely,
but he hadn't dismissed it entirely either. "From the early 21st Century, 2003 to be
precise.", Chris answered. "An what do ye think ye know about m'ship and crew?",
he asked, "I'm sure that such an expert archaeologist like yerself would know the
tale.", he said sneeringly. Cassandra wasn't sure if that tone was because he
believed that a woman couldn't be a competent scientist or if he simply thought she
herself was so incompetent that she didn't know. "I'm sure ye've heard the stories."
"The curse!", she exclaimed without thinking. She seemed to be doing a lot of
things without thinking lately, she told herself angrily. If she thought more before she
acted then she and her friends wouldn't be here. "I'm familiar with the legend of the
Black Pearl, but I don't know many of the details. Besides, it's just a story." "Just a
story? Do ye really believe that Dr. Martin? I think ye'll change yer mind in a few
hours when the moon comes out. Moonlight shows us as we truly are." "Then the
curse is real then?", Cassandra asked, interest and curiously overpowering the
feeling of fear and dread. "Aye, tis real, though I've spent many a year wishin' it
weren't." "What exactly is the curse? And why was it placed on you? The legend
speaks of a cursed treasure, but it is very vague." "Why do ye want to know so
badly Barbossa demanded suspiciously. "Intellectual curiosity", Cassandra
answered with what she hoped was a disarming smile. She wasn't good at charm, but she wanted to know about the curse and she didn't want to anger the pirate
captain, especially since she and her friends seemed to be trapped aboard the Black
Pearl indefinitely. Barbossa considered her request for a moment before gesturing to
one of the two chairs by the desk. Cassandra sat in one and Chris and Will stood
behind her partially out of protectiveness and partially out of curiosity. Barbossa sat
across from her and pulled something out of his pocket which he placed on the
deck. "Do ye know what this is?", he asked. Cassandra studied it for a moment
before answering, "It's some kind of gold coin. I'm not sure of its origin." The coin
was golden and very ornate, but there was something else about it that caught her
eye. In the middle of the coin was what appeared to be a black skull. "This coin
comes from an island in the Caribbean. I see ye've noticed the skull. That's the
symbol of the curse that was placed upon it. For ten years me and m' crew have
suffered from a terrible curse doomed to remain undead till we return it. I guess the
heathens didn't like us stealin' their gold.", he said with a mirthless laugh. "Wow,
that sounds pretty rough.", Will said, "Steal a bit of gold and you wind up cursed for
life." Cassandra winced, knowing if you worked very hard you might be able to
convince yourself that Will's comment hadn't been meant sarcastically. However
she doubted that Barbossa would make that effort. She sent Will a sharp warning glance. Fortunately the cursed pirate captain merely said ironically, "Aye tis a bit
unfair." Chris asked the obvious question, "But how can you hope to ever break the
curse? I mean if you have to return all the gold won't it take you a while to find it?"
"No, that's the easy part.", Barbossa said dismissively. "That coin there is the last o'
it." "Well that sounds easy enough.", Chris said lightly, "Take the gold back, drop it
off, and then sail off and go and party. "Well, o' course it ain't that simple. Luckily I
got ye to help me.", Barbossa said with a wicked smile. "Help you?", Cassandra
echoed. She had no intention of helping the cursed pirate captain with anything.
"Aye, yer gonna help me break the curse. Ye and the blood in yer veins.", Barbossa
said, his wicked smile growing. Cassandra fought with her growing terror as three
pirates entered the cabin. "Take 'em to the brig.", Barbossa ordered. Cassandra and
her friends put up a good fight, but they were quickly overwhelmed. Chris was
knocked unconscious and dragged to the brig by two pirates. Cassandra and Will
were roughly shoved into the cell and Chris was thrown in behind them. The door
was slammed shut and Cassandra and her friends were left alone with the brig's
only other occupant.
A/N: Can anyone guess who the other person is?
A/N: I apologise to everyone who is having difficulty reading the text. For some reason my computer refuses to double space in HTML format.