Chapter 20
"No, don't kill them. We need them alive to turn over to the officers on Rhitan. We can't stoop to their level."
The facade of Zarabeth's seemingly calm exterior was only betrayed by the slight trembling of her hands as she reached out to stop one of the smugglers from being shot then and there, her eyes scanning the four men they'd captured as they knelt in surrender, hands bound securely behind their backs.
The fight had been over before it'd even started, the overwhelming number of Nomie's people and the rescued crew quickly forcing the brigands into submission.
Halting to stand in front of Felix, Zara couldn't help the pity that began welling up in her heart.
The things that had driven him to this breaking point, perhaps he'd been shoved away from his own destiny. It made her wonder how much would be different if his own heart hadn't hardened against them.
Forcing her eyes back toward the people behind her, Zara knew they had to act quickly. Their timing meant everything. As of now, there was no reason for the rest of the smugglers down below to suspect anything was amiss. They were still flying towards Rhitan.
"Jefferson, Clint, Burton. Pick a cell in the brig to throw these three into and watch over our wounded. We can't leave them unprotected. Gunther, Aston. Please take Mr. Estrada to the Captain's cabin. Lock him up and stay on guard outside. If no one else, we need him to stay unharmed."
"But...But Mrs. Hawkins, he's the reason-"
"Mr. Aston, I know exactly what he's done, what he is, but until his rights to it are revoked, he is an officer of the Royal Navy. Please treat him as such."
"Zarabeth, you don't understand."
Caught off guard by the sound of the first officer's voice, the girl turned to look down at him, taking slow deliberate steps closer as she waited for him to continue. "What don't I understand?"
"You, all of you, we need to leave. Ewen's plan is already in motion. You can't stop him. As soon as those boats leave the Aberdeen, the only thing you should think of is how quickly you can get away from here."
"What makes you so certain his idea will even work?"
"Zarabeth, he's known for stirring up rebellion. He's done it before, on Inyang, Tresslar, he'll try it on Rhitan without a second thought. The capitol isn't as stable as they make you to believe. It will succeed."
"Felix, we won't let that happen. We can't. We will stop Ewen. Aston, Gunther, please." Turning her back to Felix, she bit down hard on her lip to harden her resolve as she listened to him continue to call out to her, his words mixed with fading low growls and desperate curses as he was led back up to the cabin.
Waiting only as long as she needed to be certain that everyone was being taken care of, Zarabeth signaled without a word for the others to follow her, the group silently making their way down into the heart of the ship.
Every electrical sound, every burst of steam or rumbling pipe made Zara instinctively flinch. She didn't know where the whole of the smugglers were, if they were all with the skiffs or milling about the bowels of the Aberdeen. She was only relieved when they'd made it all the way to the release hatches, not a person in sight, but now was the real fight.
Motioning for everyone behind her and Nomie to wait, Zarabeth tried hard to listen through the door separating them from what she assumed was the rest of the smugglers, hearing their voices muffled in conversations one over the other, nothing distinguishable.
Turning back to face Nomie, Zara's voice was barely a whisper so that only she would catch her hushed words. "Signal to your warriors to wait until after we've gone in first. They may not fire right away if they recognize us. We don't want to be the ones to have to shoot first."
"They will not fight as soon as we are inside?"
"Ewen McCoy will not easily give up an opportunity to boast and flout his position. I'm certain we will be safe initially, but we need to be ready at a moment's notice to defend ourselves. It'll buy us some time to assess their numbers, if nothing else. And if a fight does break out, we should try to disable the boats before they can get away. Yes? Ok. We go on three. One. Two."
It didn't fully process until she was actually standing there, gun poised to shoot as she aimed it level to the disfigured face of the smuggler leader, the burst of action pushing herself and those behind her through the doors and into the room only taking mere moments.
The smugglers all stood frozen in place, surprise evident to some degree on every face, alien or human. It was Ewen alone who seemed un-phased by the unannounced intrusion, his permanent smirk as heartless as ever. His head slowly turning this way and that to look over the group standing before him, he made no move as Zara's voice rang unhindered over the walls of the long room.
"Ewen McCoy, you and the whole of those with you are under arrest for kidnapping, hijacking, attempted murder, and treason against the royal family and their rule over this system through Rhitan. Surrender now and all of you will remain unharmed. But we are not inclined to hold back any means of force if you resist."
Zara wasn't entirely sure where the courage to say all of that came from, but she chose not to question it, simply letting her mind simulate whatever Amelia would do or say in this same situation.
Her solid grip on the gun kept her hands from visibly trembling, relieved that her voice was also steady enough to hopefully fool the smuggler into believing that she was in complete confidence of her position.
Without the slightest sign of initial reaction, the room was dead quiet for a few agonizing moments, the sensation all at once broken just as quickly as Ewen's bellowing laugh overtook the silence.
No one knew how to react. Even his own men stared in confusion at him as their guns lowered a little.
"I-I thought it was you, but that getup! Played a little dress-up while you were gone, did ya?"
The smuggler took another moment to catch his breath as his hoarse laughter died down to a low chuckle, his look unchanged aside from the gradual hardening in his eyes. "Oh...Oh sweetheart. You've no idea what you're dealing with. You should have just stayed dead."
"Don't test me, Ewen. I will shoot you here and now. Order your men to stand down."
"Not likely, my dear. Wouldn't look very good for my image if I surrendered to a little whelp of a girl like you."
With a single motion of his hand, the alien man closest to him moved toward one of the three skiffs ready to be launched.
"Lucky for me, I'm a businessman at heart. I always make sure I have a little...insurance on hand."
"Zarabeth!"
The composure she'd managed to keep for so long instantly crumbled as the small form of a boy was dragged out from the bottom of the boat, the gag in his mouth hardly removed before he'd called out to her in desperation.
"W-William?"
"Zarabeth! They're gonna kill-"
His words of warning muffled by the cloth forced back into his mouth, the cabin boy's violent kicking and writhing was met with only a small smirk as he was thrown back between the benches of the skiff.
"You...You vile, lecherous, scum of-"
"Careful, wench. There's a young one in the room. He's gagged not deaf."
"Let him go Ewen! It's over. The ship's ours and Rhitan is being warned of your plan as we speak. There's nowhere for you to go."
"Warned. By who? Not one of the navy dogs. Did you send one of your new friends down instead? Useless move, lass. You really suppose the royal family will listen to a handful of illiterate forest sprites? Their word means nothing. Not to them."
Nomie stepped out from where she'd been standing just behind Zara, her pointed ears folding back a little as she forced her words through her teeth. "Listen you creature. The highest seats will listen to us. They trust our word more than you believe."
The smuggler chuckled low in his throat, his yellowed teeth bared at the alien girl from across the room before turning his attention back to Zarabeth. "You think they care? About you, or them, or any of us? Well you're wrong! They don't pay mind to any of us who're not with them on their all-powerful platform. That's why we have to do this. No else is seeing fit to listen to us low-end scum. So we just gotta be a little louder."
She didn't know what this whole thing was accomplishing, the situation leaving Zarabeth desperately hoping for some idea to occur to her as she continued to speak up against him.
"Don't flatter yourself, Ewen. The only way you gain from civil war would be to fill your own pockets. No one believes for one second that you have even an ounce of pride left in that gargoyle form you call yours. Nothing you ever do is for anyone but yourself."
"Oh-ho! Hear that gentlemen?" His demeanor unchanged, the smuggler turned to the men standing poised around him, casually still motioning over at Zara with the barrel of his pistol. "This little spitfire just called me a liar. Am I? No? Then she's the one lying. What do we do to liars, cheats...stubborn girls?"
Zarabeth's knuckles went white with the pressure on her fingers as she clenched them around the gun, poised to pull the trigger the instant it was needed, the stagnant air separating the two parties now overwhelmingly tense in the momentary pause.
"Have at it, boys."