Andy

I climbed towards the deck to meet my brother and Will. They both waited for me in expectance, having heard the shots which had so startlingly pierced the night earlier. Jack held to his eye a telescope, watching my movements, to be sure nothing went wrong.

I saw this scene and called up to him. "Jack! There's no longer a reason for you to watch me when I'm right beneath your nose!"

"Oh, right." He pocketed the spyglass and acted as though nothing had happened in one second, and the brought the telescope's lens back to his eye in the next. "But there might be reason remaining for me to keep an eye on The Pearl.—I don' want her to sink before reaching Tortugas."

Will extended a hand for me to grasp as I reached nearly the top of The Dauntless' side and helped me on board carefully, making sure not to lose his grip on my hand and let me fall; since I had almost my entire weight on his arm, and wouldn't have time to catch myself if either of us faltered.

When my feet finally touched the floorboards of our 'borrowed' ship, I stumbled clumsily, but then straightened and stretched, a bit sore from the climb…and something else that I wasn't prepared to yet reveal. Then I nodded shortly at Will for his assistance before taking my place at Jack's side.

Taking the telescope into my own hands, with some disapproval from Jack, I might add, I held it to my own eye and directed it toward the heavens and gazed in search of a sign of the time. When I found what I was looking for, I could tell that the sun would soon rise, and that we'd have to move quickly if we wanted to meet our laid out goal. Before laying the scope again in the hands of my brother, I glanced at The Pearl, drifting just out of reach, tall and still proud, though a few more inches beneath the surface than was supposed to be. Her sails flew dark as the night in a calm breeze, yet something had changed about her other than height. At long last I realized just what it was.

"Jack?" I questioned, to be answered with the unavoidable.

"Yes?"

"I'm taking over as captain of this ship." I found myself saying. Before I could continue, I was interrupted by both my shipmates.

They demanded together, "What?"

Jack spun to look me in the eye and took my shoulders in his hands. "If you…are joking about this…let it be said that—this really isn't the best time to be fooling around!" His teeth were clenched tightly when he spoke.

"No, Jack, listen to me. The Pearl is coming directly for us. I'm only taking over momentarily—until we get enough distance between it and us. Understand?"

There was a speechless pause for and awkward moment until Jack broke the silence with "Yes. I understand completely." He coolly agreed. There was another silence. "But why are you taking command? Why can't I take command?"

"You captain The Black Pearl, not The Dauntless. Let me take care of my own ship."

Will had a questioning expression on his face. "What do you mean?"

"I designed The Dauntless." I gave my answer, turning to face the questioner. "I can captain The Dauntless better than any man alive, because it is most to my understanding. So, if you don't mind, I'd like to get moving 'cause The Pearl's getting faster—and it's almost to us." My last words were hurried as I pointed at the advancing ship, not a hundred yards away and gaining.

Jack

I allowed Andy to take over for a while, since, honestly, I really didn't understand just how the maneuverings of The Dauntless worked exactly. It'd been guesswork I'd used since the start, so it was about time someone controlled the ship who actually could understand how it worked.

Unlike The Pearl, The Dauntless was slimmer, more stream-lined, and lighter than most other ships I'd commandeered. It moved differently, almost more efficiently, but it was therefore so that I had difficulty understanding it.

My sister though, knew everything about the ship—from how much weight it could carry without slowing to the measurements of every cabin, every deck. It was amazing…but, then, I suppose those are the things you should know if you've designed a ship... Which I never have, I might add.

But even still, with The Pearl, I feel freedom. It doesn't matter what the weight or length of my ship was or is. Because as The Black Pearl is mine, I know how to manage and captain it; I know how to maneuver and steer it, and I know how it will respond to each command. That is why I am The Pearl's captain. That is why I'm Captain Jack Sparrow.

"Jack! Can you help Will drop the starboard anchor?" Andy called to me with an inquiry.

"Right…" I started to speak, but let my stream of thought trail off after the first word of my intended sentence. That was because The Pearl had gained on us by at least seven yards in the confusion, and I had no idea why we'd be dropping anchor with a case as such at hand. "Uh—Andrea, you do know that dropping anchor stops the boat—sorry, ship—don't you?" I had to ask. Andy had to be crazy if she wanted to stop. The Pearl could ram right through us: The Dauntless did not have as much speed or protection as my Pearl, so we would be crushed if there was a collision. And that's not exactly a good thing.

Andy turned from the wheel for a second or two to face me, and made eye contact. "No Jack, that's if you drop both anchors. If only one is dropped, then we'll pivot around it until we stop, meaning there's a good chance we'll both take Cortez by surprise and we'll end up with our starboard cannons facing The Pearl."

"I am not gonna let you blow more holes in my ship, if that's what you're implicating to do." I insisted, bent on preventing anything else from happening to my Pearl.

My confusing, complicated sister simply smiled to herself and muttered. "Who said we'd 'blow holes' in that ship?"

I raised a finger and opened my mouth to reply, but found myself lost… "You've lost me."

Again, Andy turned to look at me. "If we turn the cannons about on the port side to face starboard and line them up with the others facing The Pearl, we could tilt the cannons so that their barrels face slightly higher then they already are positioned. Then, we load and fire. The cannons which were moved blast through the wall and therefore fall short. The others fire too high and their cannonballs pass over The Pearl. This will cause a distraction. Cortez will most likely go below deck and prepare some of The Pearl's cannons to fire at us…But remember, when you had defeated Barbossa, you had all the cannons plugged up with rags so they would not fire accurately unless by someone who knew that they were plugged and removed the rags before loading a cannonball. Cortez does not know this. Therefore, his shots shall fall short of us. By the time he realizes what is wrong, we will have drawn in our anchor and be turning back for Tortugas."

Having not understood much more than 'the cannons…fall short' and 'pass over The Pearl' the plan still sounded good to me, as long as The Pearl wasn't hit…and neither were we.

Andy

I observed as Will and my brother lowered the starboard anchor into the sparkling cold depths of the sea. With a resounding splash, the heavy anchor plunged down into the deep as I kept up The Dauntless' speed. This will work. I told myself, though I honestly wasn't all that sure. But we had to try. No matter what, we had to try.