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The New Ship of Captain Clegg.

As Theta Sigma, known to his new crew as Captain Clegg surveyed the coast only 4 miles from the port town, he had to admit that his plans were going well. Getting the Raven to the coast without being seen had been difficult at first and had required surprising his new crew with his knowledge of navigation, but star navigation was so easy the Time Lord was surprised the humans had such a limited knowledge of it.

Clegg and his crew had been waiting for some time for the landing party led by Frost and one of the elder seamen who had joined the new pirate group to return to their quiet little pocket of the coast with news of how large the port was, what kind of ships there were available, and which one they should take to begin their new pirate career. Clegg was looking forwards to finding out which ship was suitable, but it was a pity he and his crew had to make do with something as slow as wind power for piracy; if he had the right resources and materials, not to mention time, he and the crew could build a submarine of some sort, but there was no way he could do that without real facilities, and besides how would he explain to his crew what he had in mind?

A submarine vessel with torpedoes and powered by a clean fusion Omega drive would definitely make the piracy career for himself and his crew flourish - all he and his men would need to do was follow ships unseen and then sink them, dive down and recover the loot and cargo on the seafloor unless it was perishable. If he had access to the TARDIS he could certainly make it happen more quickly, and then he and his crew could remain pirates for a long time without anyone being able to stop him. But he couldn't do it, he didn't have the TARDIS, and even then he would need to return to England to recover the ship and keep it nearby in case he needed to escape. But he could finalise his plans soon once he was sure about what he needed to do. In the meantime, this would have to suffice. It was just...ridiculous that he, a Time Lord who was used to advanced science and technology, being forced to rely on primitive ships like the Raven for piracy. Speaking of the Raven, Clegg knew the ship would not last long. It was a miracle the ship had managed to get them here at all.

Standing on the quarterdeck of what remained of the Raven, Clegg had to admire the speed his men had gone just to strip the ship of everything it had barring the ballast. All the still working guns had been removed from the ship, and much of the sails had been taken down along with the rope before being moved to the shore where it would remain in storage for the time being until the new ship was brought to this point along the coast which was fairly remote, and according to the scouting parties sent ashore there were no inhabitants living here. He and his men had the place to themselves.

Clegg, but it wasn't all fun and games.

Abercrombie and the others who had refused to join the crew of pirates had all been killed by having their throats slit from ear to ear. It was a gruesome death by anybody's standard, blood spurting out of their wounds, but it had to be done. Not only were Abercrombie and Waters dangerous to keep around longer than they should, but they were a waste of resources and they were also a security risk. Who was to say someone couldn't slip up and accidentally leave the cage unlocked? It was easier and simpler to just have them killed as soon as possible. But as a Time Lord, a being who came from a race many millions of years older and more sophisticated in culture and civilisation than the humans, despite his desire to be a pirate, Clegg felt a little disgusted with the way it went even if it solved some of his more immediate problems. Abercrombie and the others had been killed fairly quickly once Clegg had worked out in his mind how big a problem, it would be to keep them alive and under his brief protection. He had more than enough on his mind as it was. This raid had to succeed. He and his men needed a new ship, desperately, to replace the Raven and the less distraction he had the better, and if Abercrombie or one of the others not involved in the mutiny escaped, warned someone…..

Clegg glanced at the blood stains still on deck - no one had bothered to wash them down since there was no point - and looked ashore as some of the boats ashore were being offloaded with the latest pieces taken from the Raven, and saw men bringing pieces of wood and plants to the boat to be used as fuel for the fire that was going to be used during the night raid. He glanced upwards towards the crows nest and made a decision. After climbing up the rigging like a spider after months of practice, Clegg found himself in the crows nest. The man who was in the crows nest was one of the older seamen, and he looked like he was dozing already.

"Busy?" he asked dryly.

Merry jumped. "Captain! I was-"

"About to sleep. Don't do it again, not unless you want the navy on our case," Clegg said even as he wondered just how to handle this situation; he could have been as brutal as any other pirate, but he had no intention of being so brutal with his crew, though he would have to see about making their punishments more psychological than Abercrombie's brutality. "Have you been keeping an eye out?"

Merry was still clearly embarrassed by being caught dozing. "Aye, sir," he said, "no sail."

Clegg knew he was telling the truth, but he looked out of the horizon to be on the safe side. "No sign of Frosts' boat?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"No, sir," Merry replied. "It's very quiet apart from our boats."

Clegg nodded. "I know, but keep watch anyway. I'll send someone up here to relieve you, give you time to either rest or join the rest of the salvage crew."

"Thank you, sir," Merry replied, trying to hide his relief since he had been up in the nest for the last few hours and the lack of anything to do besides watching the horizon was tedious, even for a man of his experience.

Clegg nodded and went back down to the quarterdeck to arrange the change of lookout. He had a bit of flak at first, but when Merry came down after someone volunteered to do their duty the old seaman went to work with the salvage.

By the time Frost and the scout crew returned, three hours had passed and most of the salvage had been finished. The young seaman came onto the ship, stared at the empty places where the guns had once stood proudly and quickly hurried over to Clegg.

"What did you find?" Clegg asked when they'd moved to the camp.

Frost unrolled a piece of paper on top of a barrel. Clegg's eyes scanned it thoughtfully, it wasn't a very good drawing, but it didn't need to be. When he had sent Frost and the others to the port town, he had asked them to write a simple but accurate drawing of the port as they gathered information of the town, learnt where the barracks for soldiers were, the strength of the defences and how many ships were in the port, what type they were, and which ones were less heavily guarded.

Clegg studied the map while others came and stood around their captain to wait for his decisions. But Clegg was more interested in other matters.

"How big is the port?"

"It's quite large," Frost replied, "the larger ships are clustered around here," he said, gesturing with his hand where the larger ships were in the port.

"Hmm, well, we might have to forget stealing one of those ships, with the number of men and marines they have onboard," Clegg muttered for everyone to hear, but they didn't realise he had made a plan for those ships already. "What about frigates?"

Frost pointed, "There are quite a few here. I don't know how many of them are fully crewed."

"It's likely all of 'em are crewed," Miller, one of the older seamen commented - all of the crew were overjoyed about having the chance to finally speak to their captain as equals.

Clegg nodded in agreement as he studied the map. "What about other ships?"

Peel, who was another of the older seamen on the Raven, had gone with Frost and the others to learn more about the ships in port. "We saw schooners, a few sloops and a Brigantine."

"What we want is a ship powerful and strong enough to fight in a battle, but easy to navigate in these waters. Which ship do you recommend we use?" Clegg asked, directing the question towards the older seamen.

"A schooner is light, but a Brigantine is perfect for longer battles," Miller replied. "It's also larger and better manned than a schooner or a sloop."

Clegg nodded thoughtfully, pondering for a moment, and then he asked. "Can we fit any of Raven's old guns to such a ship, or is the ship already armed?"

"It's already armed, but we can fit a few other guns to it."

Clegg absorbed all this information, plans and counter plans forming in his head. "What do we know about the fort and the barracks?"

"We couldn't get into them, but we got one of the soldiers drunk and asked him for details," Peel said.

"There's supposed to be a concealed entrance to the fort that's apparently meant to be a way out in case the fort is attacked or on fire or something," Frost said, "but when we went there to see for ourselves we couldn't find any sign of one."

The more Clegg thought about his plans he realised that the fort was going to be one of the biggest problems he would be facing. The fort would be on the lookout if his plan to get one of the ships out failed, so putting it out of action was vital for his plans. It looked like they would need to find a way to get into the fort as well as the barracks.

"Where are the barracks?" He asked.

Frost pointed to a spot on the map. It was quite easy to reach since it was nestled deep in the town, but maybe they would have to do some work to the town itself to distract and panic the residents while dealing with the fort. A plan was beginning to form in Clegg's mind, but he would need to be very careful about how it worked out in the long run, so much hinged on this plan succeeding.

"What else did this soldier say?" May asked curiously as it was obvious Clegg was thinking.

"Not a lot," Frost admitted. "He was so drunk we barely knew what he was saying."

The meeting went on for another hour with questions and answers passed around, and all that time the ideas in their minds of how they could get their hands on another ship were gathering pace, but their leader was for the most part silent as he considered the plans in his head. But he had ideas in mind for the town, the navy ships in the harbour, and the fort and the barracks, and the ship they needed to take.

Finally Clegg asked something that had been on his mind for a short period. "Are there any new ships in the port?"

"Yeah, there's a few ships, here," Frost pointed on the crude map, "a few brigantines. We also found out they're not fully crewed yet."

"That makes them ideal, then," May commented.

The Time Lord wasn't worried about that too much. "There aren't many naval ships, and I doubt we can fight them all off," he commented thoughtfully before he looked around at the men clustered near him. "I need to be alone to think, continue with the salvage but also load as many pistols and muskets as you can. But don't bother hanging around ready to go out for a fight. I need to think about what we can do."

Once he was alone, the Time Lord rubbed his eyes and thought about what he'd learnt, and while he brooded he realised what he would need to do. He would need to be split the crew up, send them into different groups and make sure they were under disguise so then they could be sure of escape.

In the morning Clegg went to speak to his men. Everyone was taking advantage of the time and the rare opportunity to step foot on dry land to have some decent food and drink.

"I've thought of a plan," Clegg announced to his crew, "we're going to sneak into the harbour under the cover of darkness. We are not going to split up in groups to take on the fort, the barracks, or the ships. We're just going to sneak onboard one of the ships and we're going to sail it out of the harbour before sailing it back here. Once we've arrived we dispose of the old crew and move everything onboard."

"Have you thought about which ship we're going to take?" May asked.

"No, but I'm going to go to the town today and find out which of the Brigantines are suitable," Clegg replied, "Frost and Peel are coming with me. While the scouting mission was good and brought a lot of information back, I want to check which ship is suitable myself. May, I'm leaving you in command until I get back," Clegg issued his orders. "Keep watch over what's left of the Raven, and if you see or hear anything in the woods or nearby, don't fight it, but try to hide."

"Do you think there will be any trouble?" May asked.

"I don't know," Clegg replied, "but it's best to keep your guard."

As they rowed towards the port town and entered the harbour, Clegg was pleased with the lax security from the fort. It wasn't as big as he'd thought it would be, but it was still a formidable enemy if this went wrong. The cliff the fort was built on had basically been flattened by the stone walls and slate roof of the fort, but Clegg could see the black lines of the guns as they jutted from their gunports. The harbour itself was bustling as the ships rocked in the swell and the waves. There were a few navy ships in the harbour at anchor, a few frigates and the larger Man of Wars. As the boat circled the harbour to take them close to the Brigantines that were apparently under crewed. There weren't many of them, but they only needed the one.

Finally, they came upon one that was really far out of reach of the naval ships and the fort. Clegg studied it closely as they rowed closer, his eyes scanning its lines, the two masts and the sleek shape of its hull. This one was ideal.

"They're not well armed, are they?" Clegg commented as he counted the guns on one of them, and when they passed her by he noticed the name, the Seal.

"Still more than a schooner, or a sloop," Miller replied.

"Yeah. But lets hope we don't need to take on anything bigger, I doubt we could handle it," Clegg said.

Frost was looking around. "We think we'd better move on," he said, "we might be getting attention."

Clegg nodded, and they began rowing again. "How do you fancy the ship we just saw?" he asked the other two.

"I think it's a good choice, it's closer to the entrance of the harbour, easy to reach, and further from the navy ships than the others in anchor," Miller said thoughtfully.

But Frost needed to point out the flaw that Clegg had noticed the moment that he'd seen the ship. "But its on the other side of the harbour, we'd have to row over an open space where anyone can see us."

Clegg began looking around for inspiration, and he smiled as it came to him. "One boat can row towards the ship, the men on that can begin the attack by boarding the ship, dealing with whoever is onboard. As long as none of our number are killed, we can sail the ship and move it out of the harbour and we can join with the other boat."

Miller nodded as he began seeing the plan. "Then we sail the ship back to where the Raven is," he finished.

"Yes. Then we set fire to the Raven, bury or destroy any trace of our presence, but we use that part of the coast to resupply with the basics before we set sail for the open seas," Clegg said. The three pirates stayed in the town for another couple of hours, so they could learn a bit more about the Seal. After leaving his two shipmates behind, Clegg went to a few of the offices where the merchant ships were managed, and he used his Time Lord hypnotic skills to get some information about the Seal from them. When he was finished, he headed back to the boat where Frost and Miller were waiting for him.

"Right, I think I've seen enough. Let's get back. We can finalise the plan along the way."

As they rowed away from the port, Frost said, "You were gone a long time. What were you doing?"

"Checking some things out about the ship, like how many crew members were onboard it," Clegg replied.

Miller shook his head, and spat in the water, "We know the ship is new. There can't be no more than 12 men 'aboard her."

"13, actually," Clegg grinned. "I…. spoke to the managers about a job, and they told me there was around a dozen men on that ship."

Miller scratched his cheek. "That's better than a larger complement, but we can do it."

"It would still have to be done carefully," Frost said, "we can't let them make a single sound."

Clegg grunted as he pulled back on his oar to maintain the pretence that the effort was getting to him, but with his respiratory bypass system he was able to be better regulate how much air he was able to take into his lungs and his control over his hearts allowed him more efficiency when it came to rowing.

By the time Clegg, Frost and Miller had finished making their plans, they were halfway there, so silence had fallen over the boat as everyone was lost in their own thoughts. As they travelled down the coast, Clegg's mind went back over the recent months - it was so hard for him to believe he had appeared to look like someone different to what he looked like now, the regeneration was fully settled, though he'd had months of brutal labour to push the nausea past. He glanced upwards into the sky, wondering for a moment about the Time Lords.

What were they doing back home? He had no doubt that the citadel was just as orderly as ever, with Time Lords going about their everyday lives with the same calm that had been the blanket of their race for centuries. Clegg had no doubt that one day, maybe a few years from now, he'd return to the TARDIS and leave the planet. He had no intention of leaving the time ship by itself for a long period of time, not unless he wanted the TARDIS to die.

Clegg shook himself out of those thoughts since they wouldn't do any good for him in the end. When the party returned to the camp the pirate crew had set up a few days before, and Clegg saw that the camp was still undiscovered by the soldiers, and they spent the next hour telling them the plan and getting suggesting ideas, taking some and discarding some before they got themselves sorted out with food and drink - Clegg made sure none of them drank any alcohol, they would need to be completely sober for this mission, and while there were protests, they obeyed but Clegg knew better than to trust them to listen to him. From what he'd read about pirates back on Gallifrey, he'd learnt that they were a law unto themselves, and one of the best ways of maintaining order was to be harsh with them, but since Abercrombie had driven the crew to mutiny in the first place Clegg didn't want to go the same way.

In the end the crew split into groups - one group would remain with the Raven while the other group would board three different boats and would head out to their new ship. They had spent the best part of the afternoon napping in order to save their energy so they wouldn't make any mistakes, and now they were ready.

Getting back to the harbour was relatively easy - to save their energy, they had simply searched for a decent enough wind, and they hoisted their sails to propel their boats towards the port. Granted, pulling their boats into the wind when they needed it was hard, but it wasn't difficult and apart from a few intervals of rowing their boats, the pirates only needed to eat a bit of fruit to keep their energy going.

In the bow of the first boat, Clegg was monitoring their progress as the pirates went deeper into the harbour - he was worried at first when the boat was quietly rowed into the harbour under the guns of the fort, but by being discreet and a little bit casual the boats carrying the pirates went unnoticed. As the boat neared the Seal and wasn't far from the Brigantine's bow, Clegg turned around to face his men. He could barely see them in this light, even with his Time Lord physiology, but he could hear their voices lightly in the telepathic regions of his mind.

"Swimmers, get ready," he whispered, his voice so low it was amazing it could even be heard, "get out now. We'll wait for a few minutes for you to get closer to the ship before we arrive. Ready?"

"Yes, sir," the men chanted quietly, and they passed under the sail obscuring them from view. Clegg smirked when he heard the sounds of quiet splashing as the men got into the water and started to swim. Clegg waited for a minute before turning his head to speak over his shoulder. "Start rowing," he ordered and the boat pushed off again.

The plan was straightforward enough - the swimmers were composed of men who were among the most experienced members of the Raven's former crew. They had been seamen on ships that had seen more action than the Raven had prior to the French attack, they knew that one foolproof way of boarding a ship was to simply get out of a boat and swim gently towards it. Clegg had taken advantage of that knowledge and expertise to capture this ship. When the boat neared the bow and circled it to pass out of sight of the fort on the hill, Clegg could hear muffled thumps on the deck of the ship and guessed that the advance guard had succeeded in their task. When the boats were tied up to the side of the ship, Clegg quietly ordered the boarding parties to climb up before he grabbed the last rungs of the ladder himself and started hauling himself up, but he ordered a few men to go into the rigging to keep an eye on the ship from a higher level in case one of the men who'd been on the ship saw what was going on and tried calling for help. Clegg had made sure to have a few of his men hiding around the quarterdeck to keep watch in case that happened, and to differentiate from anybody else the pirates would wave their hands for a moment. These men in the rigging would also keep watch on the anchor crew in case one of the men onboard the ship tried to stop them.

The quarterdeck of the Seal was similar but less complex than that of the Raven, and there were fewer guns denoting the ship's status as a merchantman rather than a fully fledged warship. Clegg looked around the deck as his crew finished climbing up and shimmied over the handrail.

"Go below and kill whoever you find," Clegg ordered, "cover their mouths and noses to cut out any noise, we can't afford anyone on one of those other ships becoming suspicious. The rest of you, heave up the anchor and prepare to set sail, but do it quietly."

Not bothering to see his crew work on the deck, and after blowing out the ship's lights, Clegg descended quietly into the bowels of the ship and quickly came across two men lying asleep in their hammocks. Looking around to make sure he was alone, he closed his eyes and focused on the flow of time in the immediate vicinity. Once he was sure that he'd succeeded, Clegg stabbed the two men, one at a time and clamped his hand over their mouths to stop them shouting out.

Swallowing his regret though he knew it was necessary for the plan to succeed, the Time Lord left the room and walked around the ship quietly, occasionally meeting some of his crew who had bloodstained cutlasses and knives in their hands. Overall, it wasn't a very long takeover, it only took the pirates about half an hour to make sure they had everyone. In total there were just 13 men on the Seal, and they were so lax and complacent dealing with them was easy.

Clegg reached the quarterdeck and after waving his hand he walked to the anchor crew. May saw him approach. "We're almost finished," the other man hissed. "We just need a few more minutes, how did it go below decks?"

"Well enough," Clegg replied, looking around the port. It was so dark that the sky was so black that the darkness was as thick as a blanket where the Seal was lying. Clegg could see the other ships deeper in the harbour lit up like Plymouth had been when he was first pressed into service. "We're lucky that the Seal's not deeper into the port. Get a few men into the rigging, it's time to set sail and leave. But make sure the crews do it quietly."

May nodded. Clegg watched as his lieutenant passed on the order and had a few men climb up to the masts before he walked to the stern and leaned over the handrail to watch the rest of the port. He and his men needed the anonymity for this to work, and if someone on one of the ships saw what was going on then they'd be in range of the fort's guns.

It took the crew no more than ten minutes for the sails to be set, but Clegg never left the stern so he could see what was going on. He was satisfied that the theft of the Seal was going according to plan, but it wouldn't take much for something to go wrong. With that in mind he called for Frost. When the young sailor appeared by his side, Clegg didn't take his eyes off the ships lying at anchor in the port.

"Make sure everyone's alert," he whispered to the young man, "everything's gone according to plan so far, but anything could go wrong now at this stage."

Even in the darkness he could tell Frost was frowning. "You think one of the old crew's still alive?"

"I don't know, but make sure everyone keeps an eye out," Clegg said, "go up into the rigging, and tell everyone up there to keep watch on the deck to see if there's anyone doing anything suspicious. We can't afford to lose. If we lose this ship, then we're done for. We can't just swim to one of those bigger ships in the port, we'd be vulnerable to their guns, and we'd never get out. Plus, we would never see England again without a proper ship."

It was manipulative of him to say that, but Clegg knew how much the young human sailor wanted to return home to his wife and unborn child. But it was motivation enough for the man to head up into the rigging and pass on Clegg's message. As soon as it was reported that the ship was ready for sea, Clegg left his position at the stern though he ordered another man keep watch on the port harbour. Clegg took the wheel and gently steered the Seal out of the harbour. It wasn't difficult to guide the ship out of the harbour since the ship was close to the mouth anyway, so all the pirates had to do was to silently sail the ship out.

Instead of sailing the ship out towards the horizon, Clegg and his pirates circled the mouth of the port and then hugged the coast underneath the fort. Since the lights on the ship had been blown out, the fort wouldn't see them sail quietly out of the port and down the coast, but it wasn't until they were a mile away that Clegg relit the lights.

As the Seal sailed further down the coast with the boats being dragged behind on their lines, Clegg felt he could breathe again. The hijack had succeeded, and by morning he and crew should have finished the work on getting the Seal outfitted. When the ship finally neared the place the Raven was, Clegg was a little bit afraid that the crew would find everyone there dead. But fortunately the beach was full of cheering men.

They knew that the capture of the Seal was a success. After dropping the anchor, Clegg and the rest of the pirates on the Seal clambered into their boats and rowed towards the shore. As soon as Clegg heaved himself out of the boat and jumped onto the beach, ignoring the water washing over his feet, the pirates cheered harder. Privately he wondered if they would be so cheerful if he bungled up a plan, but he would worry about it at some other point.

"Start loading the salvage on the ship, I want us ready to leave by dawn," he ordered. "By morning the port will know we've stolen that ship," he pointed to the Brigantine lying innocently near the larger Raven, "and I don't want to be here when they do."

1. The Omega Drive is a piece of propulsion technology that found its way in the novel World Game where the Second Doctor who had just been tried by the Time Lords and was given a mission by the CIA to investigate the Players meddling in the Napoleonic Wars. The Omega Drive was used to power Robert Fulton's Nautilus, a primitive hand cranked submarine Napoleon was investing in in hopes of using it against the Royal Navy. The Doctor destroyed the drive, which was supplied to the Player known as the Countess by a sympathetic Time Lord.

2. How many of you noticed the old seaman and pirate by the name of Merry? The name comes from a character in Treasure Island who constantly questioned Long John Silver during the search for the treasure Ben Gunn had already dug up.