Chapter 13: Sink or Swim: Part 1: The Master's Ship
On board the war ship captained by the infamous Slade Wilson, the rowers, all slaves and Christians, were trying to row back home following a victory against the Dominion.
"To port!" Slade cried out. "To port, now! Hard to starboard!"
Slade then came down and addressed his second in command.
"Secure the slaves." Slade said calmly.
"But captain, please!" An elderly slave said. "We'll drown!"
"If this ship goes down, then you'll go with it." Slade replied coolly.
One of the slaves in charge of securing the barrels, Hal Jordan, looked around and 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 Jonathan, Martha, and Oliver.
"And now," Clark called out. "The amazing Bruce and Lois will juggle six rolls!"
Conner peaked inside to see how they were.
"Six?!" Lois called out. "I got juggle six!"
"Sure you can." Bruce said as he tossed a tray of freshly baked rolls into Lois' hands as she shrieked and began juggling them as the curtain opened.
"Oh hot!" Lois called. "Hot! Hot! Hey, I'm doing it!"
"See?" Bruce said with a smile.
"A little trick me and Bruce came up with called 'Hot Tossed Buns'." Clark said with a smile as everyone applauded, including Conner, who accidentally let go of the rope holding the curtains open, and it closed on Lois and Bruce.
"Sorry!" Conner called out as she helped them out.
"And now..." Clark said. "Our main attraction. A story for the amazing Jonathan and Martha!"
Everyone cheered and sat around the two.
"Thank you." Jonathan said with a smile. "You know, your show reminded me of a man Jesus talked about."
"Was he a juggler?" Conner asked.
"No." Jonathan 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 Jonathan went over to it.
"Jonathan..." A voice whispered weakly. "Jonathan . . ."
Jonathan opened the door as Hal Jordan lay weakly on the street.
"Hal?" Jonathan 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." Martha said sympathetically, but Clark had something besides the poor man's troubles on his mind.
"Me and Conner's father was on a slave ship." Clark said. "Joseph Kent. Did you know him?"
"Kiddo, there are hundreds of ships and many of their slaves are Christians." Hal said plainly.
"But still!" Clark insisted. "He could've been on your ship!"
"You should pray he's not." Hal said. "Slade 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!" Oliver called out.
"But what can we do?" Lois asked.
"We're going to do what we can with what we have." Jonathan 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.