Night had set over the island of St. Martin, and the majority of inhabitants had decided to retire for the evening. The only people still awake during this time were the British soldiers that were stuck with guard duty and those that were inside of the most popular tavern on the island, the Rusty Anchor. It wasn't really a place of ill-repute. Sure, it wasn't filled with aristocrats and officers that spent their evenings drinking madeira and listening to music, but it wasn't filled with degenerate criminals and drunks that spent several days drinking whiskey or partaking in the pleasurable company of women either. It was a modest place right in the middle where common people could enjoy themselves for the evening, drinking rum.

Carina still hated working there.

It was a decent job. The pay was good, the customers weren't absolute drunks, and her role was limited to merely serving drinks as opposed to the tavern wenches of other establishments that served much more than that. But that didn't change the fact that she would give anything to be doing something else. This job was just a means to an end, a temporary way to provide a living for herself until she got enrolled at university to pursue her one true passion: science.

Carina had a fixation on astronomy and mathematics for the longest time, ever since she was a child. She loved to stargaze, and was one of the few children that didn't ditch school and would always be attentive in class. She always got the highest marks among her peers, creating a strong sense of jealousy among the other girls and even some of the other boys. But she didn't care; she loved learning and would take any opportunity that presented itself to further her education.

But basic schooling was as far as she really got. Back in London, she attempted to get herself enrolled in multiple universities, but attempts were all they were. They all rejected her, not because she wasn't academically gifted, but because she was a woman. That fact didn't anger her as much as just confused her. She was just as qualified as any studious male was to study science and the arts, so why wouldn't they accept her? Does her effort count for nothing? Carina would always be confused by this, because in her heart she knows that she's meant for more than household duties or devoting her life to God.

So, after her mother died, she left England, discontent with the powerhouse of the British Empire and sailed westward to the Caribbean Islands. Most of them were under the jurisdiction of the British Crown - St. Martin included - but Carina figured that her chances were better off here at finding a university that would accept her than back home.

There was a small, private teaching institution on the island that was only for a select few, and all of them men. Earlier that week, Carina had attempted to find an unorthodox solution to further her education. She made her way past the marketplace to get to the hall, and she stood outside as she peeped through a small hole in the building's side. The professor was education the students on long division, and from the look on his face, it seemed as if he was having difficulty in teaching them the concept. Carina looked at the chalkboard, and saw the equation that the students were attempting to solve.

It was so. Damn. Easy.

"Heh," Carina scoffed, not realizing she had said it aloud, "It's two, you idiots."

The professor looked around, dumbfounded at what he just heard, as he stumbled backwards slightly.

"Who said that?" he asked aloud, trying to pinpoint the location of the feminine voice, "Come on, who said that? Women are not allowed in here!"

Carina's eyes widened as she realized that the professor was onto her. Quickly, she grabbed the bottom of her dress and started to make for the tavern at the other end of town, all the while she hears the professor's voice behind her shouting, "Witch! Witch!"

As she kept on running, Carina feared that soon the guards would be upon her, but fortunately there hadn't been a single Redcoat to hear the professor's ignorant accusations. She sighed a breath of relief as she made it back to the tavern, putting her back against the wall and closing her eyes for a moment.

Sadly, there would be no luck of her finding an opportunity here either.

Days had passed, and Carina was now sitting in her room at the tavern, one of the few benefits of being a full-time employee for the owner, Mr. Woodhull. He was a very nice man that allowed Carina a place to stay and a steady pay in exchange for working for him and teaching his young daughter how to read. Mr. Woodhull had a cousin that was magistrate of a small town in the colony of New York called Setauket, and he said that he received a letter from his cousin earlier that day saying that there was an all-female seminary in a place called Germantown, Pennsylvania that she could attend if she wished. Carina was excited at the prospect, and thanked Mr. Woodhull extensively before she retired to her quarters and started preparing for bed.

Carina realized that she would need to save up some more money if she were to depart for the American Colonies. She had spent a ton traveling from England to the Caribbean, and given that America was His Majesty's most lucrative of colonies, it would be a mint. So, she would have to wait a little bit longer before she could embark on her journey.

She reached under her bed, and she pulled out a small book. The book itself was leather-bound and had a blood-red ruby adorning the front. It was old, dating back hundreds of years, containing words and charts beyond all imagining. This book belonged to the astronomer Galileo Galilei.

It was also the only thing she had from her father.

Her fascination with astronomy had started ever since she received this book. Carina never knew her father; he had died before she was born, searching for the legendary Trident of Poseidon. The book came to be in his possession at some point during his life, and after he died her mother gave it to her as a reminder of him. But more than that, it set her on her path to study the constellations and all things science because she wanted to find a way to make him proud. From what she remembers of what her mother told her about him, she told Carina that her father loved to stargaze too, looking up into the night sky and trying to make out the constellations that the stars formed. His favorite had been a choice one, one that was dubbed the Brightest Star of the North.

Carina.

As the years went by and Carina got older, she perused more and more through the diary's contents, and then she became fixated on something that Galileo himself had been fixated with: the Trident of Poseidon, the very thing her father had died searching for. Unlike others who believed the Trident to be merely nothing more than myth, and the few that believed that it's mythological power was real, Carina was convinced that the Trident did indeed exist, and that it was of great historical significance more than anything else. The real reason for why she wanted to advance herself through education was because she wanted to be the one to find it. She felt that, with the combination of a proper education and Galileo's diary, that she would be able to do what her father could not, and in her own way she would make him proud of her.

"I will find the Trident, father," Carina said to herself, "I swear it."

A/N: Hey guys! Spent here. Just to let you know, the real story will get rolling next chapter as we finally get re-introduced to Captain Jack Sparrow once more. I felt the need to write this and the previous chapters like I have in order to establish the new context for which I'm placing the events of the film. Next time there will be plenty of Jack, Henry, Carina, Gibbs, plenty of rum, and a couple of more surprises in store for you readers. Thanks for sticking with this story guys, and stay classy!

-Spent