Edmund yawns. The night watch shift is pretty dull. Not much happens if you're in the middle of the ocean. Surely the English also sleep at night. Besides that what English skipper in his right mind would attack a ship that is part of a small fleet of ships in the middle of the ocean. Apart from being greatly outnumbered, the English would also have been spotted miles away, their ship sank before they even could have tried anything. Dawn is breaking. Just another hour or so and then it is time for bed. Edmund yawns again. Thinking of sleep makes sleepy. Turn around and make another round. A crashing sound. The young sailor rubs in his eyes, shakes his head. He must have been dreaming already. Did two people just come falling from the sky? He looks up at he mast. They couldn't have come from there; he would have spotted them earlier if they had been in the mast.
Jeffrey grunts. Crashing onto hard surfaces is his least favorite landing. And in this case it also means that they're not where they wanted to go.
"Where are we, Bogg?"
"Indian Ocean, December 1666, red light."
Indian Ocean, then this is probably a ship because he doesn't feel as if he is actually in the ocean himself. He rolls onto hands and knees before he finally opens his eyes. The first thing he sees is a pair of shoes standing in front of him. He turns his head to look up at the person they belong to. He stares into the face of a boy about his own age.
"Hi."
"Hello," the owner of the shoes responds.
Bogg and Jeffrey quickly scramble up.
"You know you're not supposed to be on deck at night."
"You're on deck," Jeffrey quickly retorts, before Bogg can warn him off that a smart mouth is not the smartest thing on a ship in the middle of an ocean.
"I have the night watch." Edmund shivers and pulls his cape closer around him. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, the kid got a little seasick. So I brought him above deck to get some fresh air."
"The boy hasn't been on board long then."
"Who are you calling a boy?"
Jeffrey feels the night watch man assess him, and he shivers. He's not sure whether it is from the cold or under the scrutiny.
"We just boarded," Bogg replies.
"At the Cape?" Edmund sizes him up too.
"Yeah, at the Cape. They were taking in fresh food, fresh water and fresh men. We thought we'd join."
Edmund nods. "We left the Cape a week ago. He should be used to the sea by now."
"I think the not so freshness of the food got to him." Bogg makes an apologetic smile.
"You should take him below deck. There are plenty of buckets there he can throw up in."
"Will do, right away." Bogg puts a hand on Jeffrey's shoulder to steer him to the lower deck. They don't get very far as they run into two other men.
"Sailor, what are these two men doing on the forecastledeck?" one of them asks Edmund.
"Just taking a stroll, sir."
"A stroll, at night?"
"It's nearly dawn, sir."
"I can see that, thank you, sailor. And what was the occasion for this stroll?" he turns his attention to Bogg and Jeffrey.
"A little seasickness." Bogg pats Jeffrey's shoulder and gives the men his best kids-'ey-what-are-ya-gonna-do smile. Jeffrey rubs his stomach and tries to look sick.
"You shouldn't have come aboard if you can't stand the sea," the man says to Bogg.
"I meant the kid," Bogg replies.
"I know you meant the kid." He returns a friendly smile. "What are you doing on board? Are you stowaways?"
"They boarded at the Cape," Edmund replies.
"Really? This is the first time I see them."
"First time they take a stroll at night, quartermaster. But I saw them, they properly mustered at the Cape."
"Then why didn't the bookkeeper write them up?" the quartermaster asks. Edmund doesn't know the answer to this question. He gives Bogg and Jeffrey a look.
"Because the bookkeeper ran out of ink," Jeffrey ventures.
"He ran out of ink?"
"Yeah, completely out of ink." Jeffrey, Bogg and even Edmund give the quartermaster affirming nods, assuring him that lack of ink was the problem.
"Right. What's that?" the quartermaster points at the omni and takes it from Bogg's waist band. "I assume you don't have a chest, otherwise you would not be carrying around a valuable like this. I'll take this for safe keep."
"I need to have that back, please," Bogg starts.
"You'll get it back when we reach Batavia." The quartermaster turns on his heels and walks away, followed by his second man. Bogg wants to jump after him and grab the omni, but he thinks better of it. Penalties for violence aboard ship are usually pretty severe, he would have to grab the kid and omni out immediately to avoid that, and there is a red light to fix. Getting the omni back can wait a little while.
"Thanks." Jeffrey turns to Edmund. "For a moment there I thought he was gonna throw us overboard as stowaways."
Edmund shrugs. "What would he care whether you are stowaways or not. You are two sets of hands that can do work on board and the Company doesn't have to pay you any wages when we reach Batavia."
"When do we reach Batavia?" Bogg asks. He'd like to have the omni back soon rather than later.
"February." Edmund pulls the cape around his shoulders and starts to descend the stairs to the main deck.
"February? That is two more months."
"Hmm. Be glad we're not sailing along the coast as they did in the early days, it would have taken another four months to get to Batavia."
"Great."
"Well, look on the bright side, Bogg." Bogg throws his companion an incredulous look. To him a 17th century ship is familiar and it almost feels like home. Other than that he cannot think of a bright side to it at all, particularly not for a thirteen-year-old boy. "This way we have plenty of time to figure out what the red light is about." Bogg gives a wry smile. The kid has been voyaging too long, he's developing a dark sense of humor.
"Okay, let's start. What have you got?"
"Well, considering this is a ship in the Indian Ocean sailing for Batavia, I would say this was a merchant ship of the VOC, the United East Indies Company."
"I know the kind. They always carried a lot of goodies."
Jeffrey frowns at his friend. "You're not thinking of looting this ship, are you?"
"On my own? I'm not stupid. Even if I was captain of my own pirate's ship I'd think twice before attacking a ship this size in the open ocean. It's probably carrying at least 40 cannons, and a bunch of people that know how to use 'm. I bet half the ship's crew is soldiers."
"You seem to be knowing more about this ship than I do."
"Yeah, but you probably know all about the VOC."
"Founded in 1602 to stop the different Dutch merchant companies from competing against each other. It was given the monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia. The company got its start up capital by giving out shares to the company, which led to probably the world's first stock exchange."
"See, all things I didn't know."
"Sure, but I can't possibly know what's supposed to happen to this ship. I actually only know about the Batavia. That shipwrecked off the Australian coast in 1629, followed by the most horrific mutiny in history. One of the ship's officers and his followers murdered 125 of the shipwreck survivors."
"Let's be glad we're not on that ship."
"I've thought of another thing. If this is 1666, we're in the middle of the second Anglo-Dutch war."
"That's not good. If we get caught in the middle of a sea battle ... I don't know."
"I think most battles were fought in the North Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean," Jeffrey assures him. "In the peace treaty of this war England took claim to territory around New Amsterdam, later that became New York."
"So the Dutch lost."
"No, they pretty much won the war."
Bogg frowns as he takes this in. The winning party gave up territory? He only remembers winning parties taking the loot, not giving it up. What did the Dutch get in return? Then he shakes his head; that's all in the future. He should focus on the here and now. He wonders what could be the matter. The omni says something's wrong, but sadly, omnies never say what's wrong. Even if it could, it was taken from them before they could have checked. It is now up to personal ingenuity to find out what's going on, and to get the omni back.
Slowly the ship is coming alive. Bogg and Jeffrey observe as the sailors and cabin boys set to their morning chores. Bogg suggests to go below deck to the orlopdeck where the crew and soldiers are staying and gather some information from them. Jeffrey puts forward that the red light may have something to do with one of the passengers or higher officers. After all, famous people are more likely to make it into the annals of history than the unnamed Joe's that stay below deck. And the omni gives a red light when things are going on that don't concur with the annals of history.
Besides he wants to try and find out where the omni is.
"They're probably less likely to be suspicious of a kid."
Bogg doubts that, but they agree to each go their way and meet back at the forecastle when they have something interesting to report.
The gundeck and the orlopdeck are both packed with people and their belongings. The smell is worse than he remembers. But then, the ship he sailed with carried less than a hundred men, and they would produce less stench than the two hundred packed up in here. Talking to the crew he finds out little more than he already knew. He learns that the ship's name is Gerechtigheid, and who the skipper and commander (head merchant) are. Nothing much. He returns to the main deck. Perhaps the kid has had more luck.
Jeffrey in the meantime has been trying to get to the aft. The soldier guarding the stairs to the quarterdeck, however, refuses to let him pass.
"Aside, I have business with the quartermaster." He stands up straight and tries to seem broad by putting his hands in his side. The soldier doesn't flinch. He doesn't even reply. "C'mon, people more important than you are waiting for me," Jeffrey adds.
"You don't have business with people more important than you," the soldier says. "They have business with you. And when they do, they will fetch you. Run along now."
Jeffrey moves a little out of the way, leaning against the banister in such a way he can keep his eye on the soldier and still seem casually minding his own. He starts to fret about how to get up the stairs. Passing the soldier is probably the biggest problem. Once he is up the stairs he can run into a cabin, and the soldier will probably have to return to his post, to keep others from running up the stairs as well. From thereon Jeffrey can snoop around the cabins and find out who or what is amiss with history, and where the omni is. But first, up the stairs.
He is in luck as a small riot breaks out near the main mast. The soldier on the stairs is directing his attention to that, rather than to him. Then he steps away from the stairs to break up the fight that is about to start. That's the moment Jeffrey's been waiting for. He speeds up the stairs onto the quarterdeck, where someone picks him up in mid flight.
"Wrong way, young lad."
"But I have to ..."
"Crew stays before the main mast."
"But I'm a passenger."
"Uh-huh. And which one of the passengers are you? Are you the governor's wife with fingers so fat she can barely hold on to her fork anymore, or her skinny maid, who probably can use her own fingers as needles when she is sowing?"
"I am her son."
"Of the maid?"
"Of the governor's wife. I am the governor's son."
"I can see the resemblance." The man holds Jeffrey at arm's length. "Her and her big round, red face and the blond hair, and you, not at all like that." He lets go off one of Jeffrey's arms and holding the other one tight, he escorts him back down the stairs. "Stay there."
Plan foiled. Jeffrey sticks his hands in his pockets and kicks at some imaginary dirt.
"Hello again. Recovered from your seasickness yet?"
Jeffrey looks up. It's the night watch man from before. In the daylight Jeffrey can take a better look at him. He has long chestnut hair, bound together in a pony tail in his neck, and wears a wide shirt and vest. If someone had put him and Bogg next to each other and told Jeffrey 'pick out the pirate', he would asked if he could just flip a coin.
"Oh, I'm all right. I'm Jeffrey, by the way."
"Edmund. Trying to get up the poop?" Edmund nods to the aft.
"Yeah, I really had to go."
Edmund frowns for a moment and then it sinks in what the boy could be talking about. "Crew latrines are in the beak head. Mind you, if I had the chance, I would try to use their facilities too. Ours just aren't ... Well, it's one of those things they don't tell you about before you sign on. What it is like to share two heads with two hundred men."
"Life as a sailor not as glamorous as you thought it would be?"
"Never thought it would be glamorous. Only ones going on about how wonderful life at sea is are the drunken sailors."
"What shall we do with the drunken sailor," Jeffrey sings.
"Haha, sounds nice. You should sing that some time, to keep moral up."
"Hmm. And what have you been up to?"
"Sleeping. I always sleep the day after I had the night shift. And I usually have the night shift, so I sleep most of the days."
"You're not sleeping now."
"Wouldn't want to miss midday meal." Edmund produces a fork and starts cleaning it on his shirt.
"I could eat." Jeffrey suddenly realizes how long it's been since he's eaten, and how hollow his stomach is. After nearly a year and a half of voyaging he is used to eating at irregular intervals, and having to go without food for short periods of time. He can handle it. But when someone mentions food, his stomach rumbles.
"Do you have a fork?"
"No."
"Can't eat without a fork." Either the sad look in the boy's eyes or the really loud grunt from his stomach make Edmund reach out. "Come along, perhaps someone has a spare fork you can borrow."
At the forecastledeck Edmund joins five other men gathered around one pot from which they all pick their meal. Jeffrey hovers around them listlessly.
"What's with him?"
"He hasn't got a fork," Edmund replies.
"Can't eat if you haven't got a fork."
"He can sing, though."
"Oh, yeah? What can he sing?" The man turns his head to Jeffrey.
"Drunken sailor," Jeffrey says. And then quickly, before the man can take that as an insult he starts to sing. Everyone continues eating, no one seems to be paying attention to his singing, but he continues because it takes his mind of his empty stomach.
"Bravo. I liked that." The man applauds. "For that, you may borrow my fork for a few bites."
Jeffrey manages to say thank you while grabbing the fork from his hand and digging into the pot. The sailor meant 'a few bites' quite literally and takes his fork back when Jeffrey goes in a fourth time. The others have to laugh about the disappointment on his face. Edmund lets him have his fork when he's done eating. There's still enough left for Jeffrey to have a good meal. He wonders what Bogg is doing and whether he got the chance to eat. He returns his fork to Edmund, who gives it another run on his shirt.
"So what do you do all day?" he asks.
"Well, I sleep. The others hang around on deck when the weather is good, and below deck when the weather is bad. You can stay here, there are usually some plays going on in the afternoon. Just be careful not to be picked as a participator." Edmund smiles and gets up. "I'm going back to my hammock."
Jeffrey decides to look around for Bogg. It doesn't take him long to find him.
"Any luck this morning?"
"Marginally. I managed to win a fork playing cards this morning. Got one for you too. Sorry I didn't find you before they served the meal."
"That's okay. I sold my song for some food."
"You sold your soul?"
"Song."
"That sounds better, but also weirder."
"I sang a song and then someone gave me his fork to borrow," Jeffrey explains. "A fork that was a lot cleaner than this one, by the way."
"Don't complain. You know, it's illegal to gamble on board these ships, so I put myself at great risk trying to get you fed. A little appreciation would be nice."
"Thanks, Bogg. I appreciate the fork. I'd also appreciate the use of a chisel to chisel off the food residue, and what else it is that's on this fork."
Bogg rubs his hand through the kid's hair and gives him a friendly push. "There probably is a smith on the main deck, why don't you ask him."
-oOo-
Jeffrey appreciates Edmund's advice not to participate in the plays. They all end with the victims getting smeared with all kinds of icky stuff, of which tar must be the most pleasant. Other entertainment is found in the form of music and song. Bogg seems to have become some kind of entertainment himself. Narrating stories of other times he sailed the seven seas and the spectacular attacks by pirates he witnessed first hand. Leaving unclear on which side of the attack he fought, his audience is in awe nonetheless. Jeffrey, in the meantime, racks his brain trying to figure out a way to get unto the quarterdecks and into the cabins there. The quartermaster has taken the omni up there and he must get it back. But how? He decides he will ask Edmund. He came across as a smart guy who knew the ship and the people on it. Perhaps he knows how to get the quartermaster to give them back the omni, before they get to Batavia.
It's warm on the orlopdeck, warmer than above deck in the sun. Jeffrey starts to sweat even worse. The place smells worse than a pigsty. It makes him sick to his stomach. Definitely not the sea that causes seasickness. He swallows a couple of times to keep his lunch down. With renewed resolve he steps onto the deck.
Two men are playing chess by an open hatch through which light and fresh are stream into the confined space. He ask them where he can find Edmund.
"The night owl? Over there, in the darkest part."
Despite the smell and heat more people have decided to stay below decks. Some are playing boardgames by open hatches, others are talking or even making music. How any one could sleep through all this? Well, if you're tired enough, you could probably sleep through anything. He finds Edmund, in the darkest part. There is still enough light to make out his features. He must have been sleeping rough. His shirt got undone and exposes part of his chest. Jeffrey stares at it. It's not a man's chest, hairy, like Bogg's. Or even smooth, as that of a boy. Edmund wakes up. As all people seem to wake up when someone is staring at them.
"What?" he asks eying Jeffrey.
"You're a girl."
-oOo-
A/N: The name of the ship is Gerechtigheid. In English: Justice.