Disclaimer: Don't own it. Haven't ever.
Chapter 6
Lieutenant Lee walked slowly along the gun deck, savoring the midnight air of the Navy Piers. It was the third night in a row of planning amongst Captain Yuan and his fleet captains, but the room had grown so stuffy that he had excused himself from the gathering. In truth, he didn't think he belonged in there anyway.
Let the old men bluster at each other all night. I'll stick to running my ship.
He didn't know what to do with himself, though. Captain Yuan had lightened his load by creating a new position on the ship. The maintenance officer had taken over the work requests immediately, leaving Lee free to focus on things like tactical planning and preparing the men for war.
He stopped near the number two gun, running a hand over the ornamental dragon head that shrouded most of the barrel. Pointless ornamentation. He had never understood why the Fire Nation insisted on decorating important military things with extravagant gold carvings. All it served to do was make them a target. The removal of unnecessary decorations from the exteriors of all warships in the fleet was one of the first recommendations he'd made to the captain. The old man had said it bore consideration.
With a sigh, he turned away from the gun and walked over to the rail. His hand drifted to a small piece of paper, rolled up and tucked neatly away in a pocket. The communications officer had delivered it just before the meeting with the captains. He'd been able to open it when they launched into one of their rounds of debates, and had been forced to try harder than he ever had before to hide a smile. The letter had come from Governor Qiao. He'd only had time to read it once, but had almost committed it to memory.
Lee,
Thank you for being such a good sport by escorting me back to the ship. You wouldn't believe how much it irked my annoying suitor! Repairs on my ferry will be complete in a couple of days, and I will be returning to North Island a couple days before the council reconvenes. I hope that you would be willing to do me the honor of escorting me to dinner, and maybe showing me your ship afterward? Until then.
Yours, Qiao.
The parchment had been sprayed lightly with her perfume, reminding him of letters that some of the men had received from their wives during deployments. He took out the scroll and held it under his nose. The light scent of lavender and another flower native to her island, one whose name he'd forgotten, drifted up to his senses. For a moment, it felt as if she was standing next to him again, plotting how to irritate someone she didn't really care for.
He shook his head, scolding himself. He was acting like he was in school, experiencing his first crush all over again. Somewhere behind him he thought he heard a scuff on the deck plates, but didn't think anything of it.
Kuruk had chosen to take a walk at the same time as Lee. He'd seen the First walking, and had debated whether to greet him or not. He'd gone with not, hanging back in the shadows and choosing to watch the other man instead.
Lieutenant's in love, he realized as he watched the man pull out a scroll and smell it. His mind drifted at that point, coming to rest on a girl he'd courted in the Northern Tribe once. He wondered if she had ever married, or if she had waited around for him to return from war. A pang of guilt struck him. He'd never once considered that she could have be waiting for him even now, wondering when he would return home.
Movement caught his eye, and his body and mind stopped. It was a natural reaction, mostly, tempered by years of hunting and fighting in the arctic snow. In the dark, he could just make out two men making their way around the gun, seemingly headed towards the First. Something about them seemed off. Slowly, Kuruk reached out to the nearest source of water he could find, which happened to be the gun swabbing water, improperly stowed by the crew of that mount.
One of the men had something in his hand. Kuruk strained his eyes to see what it was, but came up with nothing. Then, the man moved it. Starlight glinted along a thin strip. Realization dawned.
"Behind you, sir!" Kuruk shouted, streaming the water out of the open cask.
The man closer to the lieutenant decided to commit to his attack, swinging his blade in a slash that would have taken the man's head off. But the Lieutenant moved faster than his would be assassin. He ducked down, kicking his leg and a subsequent stream of fire out in a viscous arc. Kuruk admired the move before realizing that the second man had turned to him and was advancing. He couldn't make out faces in the dim light, but he could see the man's sword. It was a cutlass, one of the curved short swords that the North Sea Fleet tended to favor. The steel of the blade was flat gray, trademark of any North Sea blacksmith, and would hold a razor's edge.
With that in mind, Kuruk readied himself. The man advanced slowly, practically screaming inexperience, and gave him plenty of time to whip the water around and lash it across the other man's face. He shouted in pain, then advanced.
Everything had gone crazy in a few seconds. One minute, Lee was smelling a letter from Qiao. The next, some renegade crewman was swinging a sword at him.
It felt as if they were dancing now. Trained for close in combat against an armed opponent, Lee actually enjoyed fighting this close to someone that was trying to kill him. He dodged a thrust, responding with an upward slash of a fire dagger that his opponent barely avoided. A swipe aimed at his chest almost connected, but so did the short burst of fire aimed at the swordsman's feet. The swordsman staggered back, and Lee chose that moment to strike out. He slashed across the man's face, and was rewarded by the sound of sizzling flesh.
The swordsman fell to the deck, howling in pain. Lee kicked his sword away, then turned to the second fight. One of his gunners-the waterbender- was fighting a second man with a sword. The swordsman was clumsy, clearly new to the art, but Kuruk seemed to be having trouble with him just the same. Lee fired off a pair of quick fireballs, throwing the swordsman off balance. Kuruk hit the man in the face with a heavy stream of water a split second later, knocking him down.
Immediately, Lee was on him. He stomped a boot on the man's chest, scorching the deck plate next to the man's head as he went.
"If you don't want to die," he said, "I recommend you stand down."
"You're a traitor to your country," the sailor replied, "I may not have killed you, but the Fire Navy will."
A pair of guards were had arrived on scene, spears at the ready. Lee straightened up when they had secured the swords.
"What are your orders, sir?" one guard asked him, eyeing the two attackers.
"Escort these men down to the brig, and hold them under guard until the captain is ready to deal with them."
"Aye sir."
The guards hauled up the two men and forced them towards the nearest deck hatch.
"Are you all right sir?" Kuruk asked when they had gone below. Lee turned around and faced the gunner.
"I wouldn't be if it weren't for you. You have my thanks sailor."
"What was he talking about, sir?"
"What do you mean?"
"He said you were a traitor. That the Fire Navy will kill you? What was that about?"
Lee sighed. Whatever leak had brought the rebellion to the attention of his crew, it had come at a bad time. Well, he thought, it's out of the bag now.
"Tell me, can you keep a secret?"
"As well as anyone, sir. Five years of torture saw to that."
"I see. Well, there's a rebellion brewing. The North Sea Island colonies are going to separate from the Fire Nation, going to become independent. The Captain and myself could be considered the first men in the council's new navy."
The waterbender stood there for a moment, staring at Lee with the same hard expression. He was beginning to wonder if he should prepare to defend himself when the kid snapped out of it.
"Me too, sir."
"Excuse me?"
"You need sailors, sir. People to lead. Consider me your navy's first one."
Lee was taken aback, but tried his usual best not to show it.
"Why? You have no stake in this fight."
"Because I'm a waterbender? Or because I'm not from the islands? Either way, sir, it doesn't matter. I'm with you to the end."
"What in the name of Koh happened on deck tonight, Lieutenant?"
After seeing Kuruk off, Lee had been summoned to the captain's cabin. The old man was angrier than he'd ever seen him before.
"We have a leak, sir," Lee replied, deciding to tell it to him straight, "a pair of crewman got word of the rebellion somehow, and attacked me thinking I'm a traitor."
"Where are they now?"
"Under guard in the brig."
The captain stood up, walking over to the long, red tinted window that dominated one bulkhead.
"Did anyone witness your attack?"
"Yes sir. The waterbending gunner helped me take down the attackers."
"Pity. That means we can't make them disappear."
The comment shocked Lee. It was a side of the skipper he'd never seen.
"Sir?"
"You're familiar with standing order one nine zero, correct Lieutenant?"
"Of course, sir."
It was hard to serve in the Fire Navy without ever having heard of Standing Order 190. It had been issued by Fire Lord Sozin in response to a mutiny onboard a Southern Raiders frigate. Records of the incident had been purged from the Fire Navy's archives, so no one except anyone that had been there knew exactly what happened. The order, however, was something that was universally known about the incident.
Order 190 had come straight from the Fire Lord, stating that anyone threatening mutiny on board a Fire Navy ship was to be removed as a threat. In essence, they disappeared.
"Sir," Lee said, hesitant to continue for fear of setting the captain off even further, "we can't keep that order. The men need to be punished, but making them live in fear of disappearing for grumbling about the officers over them is wrong."
"I know, Lieutenant. I have no plan of keeping that order in effect, and I have informed the other captains of the same. I guess we'll just have to bring back the classics then. What do you think, Lieutenant? Would an example be better set by a good, old fashioned flogging, or would a keelhauling be in order?"
Lee shuddered at the thought. He had witnessed one flogging during his naval career, early on. A non-firebending crewmember had insulted an officer, and had been sentenced to twenty lashes on the quarterdeck in lieu of an Agni Kai. In recent times, the Navy had followed along the lines of Fire Lord Ozai and had taken to branding men that were due to be punished. He had never, however, seen a keelhauling. He couldn't even remember ever hearing of one during the Hundred Year War.
The barbaric process of a keelhauling was well known to sailors and officers alike, as Fire Navy regulation still permitted it as a punishment. A length of rope was thrown over one side of the ship and pulled under, up onto the opposite side. The line was tied to the sailor due for keelhauling, and he was thrown overboard. A team of deck crewman would then proceed to haul the man under, dragging him along the keel of the ship. There had been cases where they had hauled too fast, with the man coming up without limbs on the other side. In other cases, where the team hauled too slowly, the man would drown before reaching the other side.
"Honestly, sir, I think a flogging would be a far more appropriate punishment for the men. I don't see any justification for bringing back keelhauling."
"You're probably right. We'll do away with the regulation permitting that when the time comes. But flogging it is. I'll draw up the sentencing letters."
Lee nodded. He didn't want to see the men flogged, but in his heart he knew it was the right thing to do. Discipline had to be maintained on the ship.
"Is there anything else you require from me, sir?"
"Yes, actually. As you're aware, the next meeting of the Five Island Council is in three days. I hope you didn't have any plans for the next few days."
"Well sir, Governor Qiao has requested that I give her a tour of our vessel the day before. But other than that, I really don't have anything planned."
"That is acceptable. I informed all the department heads to have their men assembled on the gun deck tomorrow. We are going to address the men and get this revolution out in the open. Let them make the choice for themselves. We'll work the flogging into it, let them know what waits for them if they don't take the peaceful option."
"Peaceful option, sir?"
"Yes. I plan to offer the men a choice. Those for us can remain, serving with us until we're either free or dead. Those that don't wish to betray their country can leave peacefully and go back to the Fire Nation. Anyone that stays to try to sabotage my ship or attack my crew will be treated as a full on enemy combatant, regardless of former status."
"Sounds good to me, sir."
"I was hoping so. Now, keep at those tactical plans Lieutenant. We'll be going up against Commander Long when the time comes for action. He's one of the best the Navy's got, and he has some sharp crews under his command. There's not a lot of time to prepare, and we need to be ready to go."
"Aye, sir."
"Go get some rest, Lieutenant. We've got another full day ahead of us tomorrow."
