Chapter 13: Sink or Swim: Part 1: The Master's Ship
On board the war ship captained by the infamous Sebastian Shaw, the rowers, all slaves and Christians, were trying to row back home following a victory against the Dominion.
"To port!" Shaw cried out. "To port, now! Hard to starboard!"
Shaw then came down and addressed his second in command, Selene.
"Secure the slaves." Shaw said calmly.
"But captain, please!" An elderly slave said. "We'll drown!"
"If this ship goes down, then you'll go with it." Shaw replied coolly.
One of the slaves in charge of securing the barrels, Warren Worthington, 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 Warren tossed a barrel over when no one was looking, jumped on to it and hung on for dear life until the ship was far enough away that he could get away with flying off.
()()()()()
Meanwhile, at the farm, the kids were putting on a show for Charles, Moira, and Hank.
"And now," Scott called out. "The amazing Kurt and Jean will juggle six rolls!"
Alex peaked inside to see how they were.
"Six?!" Jean called out. "I can't juggle six!"
"Sure you can." Kurt said as he tossed a tray of freshly baked rolls into Jean's hands as she shrieked and began juggling them as the curtain opened.
"Oh hot!" Jean called. "Hot! Hot! Hey, I'm doing it!"
"See?" Kurt said with a smile.
"A little trick me and Kurt came up with called 'Hot Tossed Buns'." Scott said with a smile as everyone applauded, including Alex, who accidentally let go of the rope holding the curtains open, and it closed on Jean and Kurt.
"Sorry!" Alex called out as he helped them out.
"And now…" Scott said. "Our main attraction. A story for the amazing Charles and Moira!"
Everyone cheered and sat around the two.
"Thank you." Charles said with a smile. "You know, your show reminded me of a man Jesus talked about."
"Was he a juggler?" Alex asked.
"No." Charles 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 Charles went over to it.
"Charles…" A voice whispered weakly. "Charles . . ."
Charles opened the door as Warren Worthington lay weakly on the street.
"Warren?" Charles asked in surprise.
()()()()()
After some food and rest from the gang, Warren 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." Warren explained.
"Oh Warren." Moira said sympathetically, but Scott had something besides the poor man's troubles on his mind.
"Me and Alex's father was on a slave ship." Scott said. "Christopher Summers! Did you him?"
"Kiddo, there are hundreds of ships and many of their slaves are Christians." Warren said plainly.
"But still!" Scott insisted. "He could've been on your ship!"
"You should pray he's not." Warren said. "Shaw 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!" Hank called out.
"But what can we do?" Jean asked.
"We're going to do what we can with what we have." Charles 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.