Chapter 13: Sink or Swim: Part 1: The Master's Ship

On board the war ship captained by the infamous Lex Luthor, the rowers, all slaves and Christians, were trying to row back home following a victory against the Dominion.

"To port!" Lex cried out. "To port, now! Hard to starboard!"

Lex then came down and addressed his second in command, Mercy Graves.

"Secure the slaves." Lex said calmly.

"But captain, please!" An elderly slave said. "We'll drown!"

"If this ship goes down, then you'll go with it." Lex replied coolly.

One of the slaves in charge of securing the barrels, Hal Jordan, looked around at the frantic pass. He knew no one would miss a slave in this storm, in fact, they probably wouldn't care, so Hal tossed a barrel over when no one was looking, jumped on to it and hung on for dear life.

()()()()()

Meanwhile, at the farm, the kids were putting on a show for Clark, Lois, and Kell.

"And now," Garth called out. "The amazing Dick and Imra will juggle six rolls!"

Ayla peaked inside to see how they were.

"Six?!" Imra called out. "I can't juggle six!"

"Sure you can." Dick said as he tossed a tray of freshly baked rolls into Imra's hands as she shrieked and began juggling them as the curtain opened.

"Oh hot!" Imra called. "Hot! Hot! Hey, I'm doing it!"

"See?" Dick said with a smile.

"A little trick me and Dick came up with called 'Hot Tossed Buns'." Garth said with a smile as everyone applauded, including Ayla, who accidentally let go of the rope holding the curtains open, and it closed on Imra and Dick.

"Sorry!" Ayla called out as she helped them out.

"And now…" Garth said. "Our main attraction. A story for the amazing Clark and Lois!"

Everyone cheered and sat around the two.

"Thank you." Clark said with a smile. "You know, your show reminded me of a man Jesus talked about."

"Was he a juggler?" Ayla asked.

"No." Clark chuckled. "But he did put on a show every time he prayed. You see, among the people that Jesus talked to, there were religious men called Pharisees. They worked very hard at doing the right thing, but sometimes they overdid it. One day, Jesus told a story and made sure the Pharisees were listening.

"He began by saying, 'Two men came into the men's court of the temple, to pray. One was a Pharisee. The other was a tax collector who worked for the Romans. The Pharisee stood on his own, where he thought he'd be noticed.

"'"Oh lord," the Pharisee called out. "I thank you that I am not like other people! Greedy, dishonest, and wicked! Or like this tax collector! I fast twice a week! And I give a tenth of all I earn to the temple!"

"'And while the Pharisee prayed, the tax collector didn't even look up.

"'After the Pharisee finished, the tax collector whispered, "Oh lord, have mercy on me. I know I'm not good."'

"Jesus told the people that it was the tax collector, not the Pharisee who went home forgiven."

Everyone nodded understandably. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door as Clark went over to it.

"Clark…" A voice whispered weakly. "Clark . . ."

Clark opened the door as Hal Jordan lay weakly on the street.

"Hal?" Clark asked in surprise.

()()()()()

After some food and rest from the gang, Hal was well enough to talk.

"And then after the fire, I became part of a group of Christians who were sentenced to life on a slave ship, if you could call it life." Hal explained.

"Oh Hal." Lois said sympathetically, but Garth had something besides the poor man's troubles on his mind.

"Me and Ayla's father was on a slave ship." Garth said. "Joshua Ranzz. He may have even been with our brother Mekt! Did you know either of them?"

"Kiddo, there are hundreds of ships and many of their slaves are Christians." Hal said plainly.

"But still!" Garth insisted. "He could've been on your ship!"

"You should pray he's not." Hal said. "Luthor would rather starve the slaves than feed them. There are hundreds of people still on that ship, and all of them are in worse shape than me."

"We've gotta do something!" Kell called out.

"But what can we do?" Imra asked.

"We're going to do what we can with what we have." Clark said plainly with a sly smile. "In other words, I think it's time we took our show on the road."

This is one of my favorite arcs, and I hope you like it.