They were less than a day out from the first of the Florida islands when the alarm went up.
"Ship off port bow.", Mike called from where he was standing guard. The ship approaching them was also a sailing vessel. The men of the Tradewind came to immediate alert. Jack came onto deck to watch the approaching ship. He pulled out his field glasses and studied her.
"The Sea Grate", he observed, reading the ship's name. "What do we know about her?"
"Haven't heard anything, Captain.", Aaron replied. "Maybe she's new to the coast. She's a big one, 3 masts, going to have a large crew aboard."
Sally quietly donned her armor and weapons. Wasteland or water, she wasn't going to be caught off guard. She was wearing her lighter leather armor, more suitable for the quick moves she would have to make at close quarters than heavy power armor. The men had also donned light leather armor as soon as the ship had been spotted. Their weapons were always close at hand.
The ship hailed the Tradewind. Captain Jack replied, but as it approached he grew ever more uneasy. Something was not right. As the Sea Grate pulled close he caught the surreptitious signal of the Captain.
"Pirates", he called to his men, even as the pirates broke out their weapons and fired on the Tradewind.
Sally rushed from the cabin to take part in the fierce battle. The men of the Tradewind knew what she was, had heard the tales, but none of them had ever seen her in battle before. Now they would learn how she had won her reputation.
She moved like a shadow from cover to cover, making no sound, only the bark of her combat rifle speaking for her. Leaving the guards to repel the invaders she grasped a line and flung herself over the short gulf of water onto the deck of the other ship. With the agility of a mountain cat she leapt toward the machine gun mounted in the crow's nest, spewing death on her mates below. Climbing the lines like a shadow, she didn't even slow down as she took the hits from a pirate's fire. Twisting on the line she jerked out her rifle and blasted him then slammed the weapon back into its scabbard to resume her climb.
Near enough, she flung a nuka-grenade into the box and loosened her grip, rappelling swiftly from the blast. The wind rushed around her as she flew down the rope. Suddenly the blast wave hit her, knocking her from the rope and hurling her to the deck. She grunted as she slammed down, pain blasting through her. Ignoring it she rolled to her feet and headed for the hatch the pirates were pouring through. She swept the combat rifle from its scabbard, firing with swift deadly accuracy as she went, leaving a trail of bodies. Her blood boiled with the fury of battle. She didn't slow down to check her kills.
Jack caught a glimpse of Sally as she slammed into the deck, hit by the blast wave. She leapt to her feet and plunged into the hatch leading below, even as the top of the ship disappeared in a ball of flame and the huge mast toppled seaward. He rushed toward the hatch, only to be accosted by another pirate. Sally was on her own.
The sounds of battle ceased as rapidly as they had begun. Only the moans of the wounded and dying, the crackling of fire, the creaking of the damaged ships, now broke through the sounds of the sea. Jack looked around. Aaron was bending over a man on the far side of the ship. Only his own men seemed to be moving around, putting out fires and checking for life among the pirate's bodies. He hurried toward the hatch where Sally had disappeared.
He followed the trail of bodies down the stairs. He stepped into a doorway and stopped dead at the tableau before him. Sally crouched, taut as a wire, before a small boy. Her helmet was pushed back, the red hair wild about a scarred ivory face hard as stone, her eyes cold as a wasteland winter, her armor splattered with blood. The boy's eyes were riveted on the knife held inches from his scrawny chest, blood dripping from the blade.
"Boy!", Sally's voice was cold and hard as diamond. "What are you doing here?" The boy squeaked, but didn't answer. Jack didn't move or make a sound.
"I asked you a question, boy! If you value your life you'll answer me!", she snarled. The boy gulped.
"I don't want to be here. The captain took me off the dock."
"He took you?", Sally asked. "You're not here because you wanted to be a pirate?"
"No.", the boy sobbed, struggling to be brave. "I just want to go home."
"Where's your home, boy?", Sally asked in the same hard voice.
"Tallaha Island.", the boy gasped between sobs.
"How old are you, boy?", Sally demanded.
"Eleven.", he gasped, struggling to stop crying.
Sally lowered her knife and deliberately wiped the blood on the boy's leggings. She waved toward the open door.
"You can see for yourself what happens to pirates." Then she stood, and without looking at Jack, said "He's a brave lad. He's all yours, Jack." She turned on her heel and brushed past him out the door.
Jack turned and followed her, ignoring the boy huddling in the corner. He hurried up the stairs and out onto the deck, where he found Sally leaning up against a wall, shaking.
"How bad are you hurt?", he asked quietly, not touching her. Sally looked up.
"I don't know. I've taken a stimpak. What about you?"
"Just minor injuries, nothing serious. We need to get you back on the Tradewind." Sally shook her head.
"Oh, Jack", she said brokenly. "he's just a boy. Who knows what's happened to him, how damaged he is? I should have killed him, but I couldn't. I just can't. If you think he has to die you'll have to do it. I don't want him to die."
Jack took her carefully in his arms. "He doesn't have to die, Sally. We'll take him back to his home. What happens then, happens. We can't predict the future." Sally leaned on him, accepting his strength.
The boy had slipped up and followed the big man out. He had some idea of hiding but they knew he was here. He shuddered, moving to the side as he passed the bodies of the pirates. He went quietly up the stairway and skulked in the doorway. He heard what the scary woman said. She didn't want him to die!
The boy peered around the doorway at the big man holding the scary woman. She didn't look so big and scary now. He was relieved to know they would take him home. He went back down the stairway to the room he had been hiding in, thinking.
Sally had influenced the history of Tallaha Island that day. A skinny, scared kid would grow up to be a law enforcement official that would help tame an island and scourge the pirates from his part of the sea. He would never forget the flaming haired, frightening warrior who had spared his life.
"Sally", Aaron said urgently, touching her arm. "it's Carl, he's hurt bad. He was strafed by that machine gun, he's gut shot, you've gotta come now." Sally shoved away from Jack and trotted off with Aaron.
"Have you given him a Stimpak?", she asked.
"Yeah, it's all I could do. I tried to stop the bleeding.", Aaron responded. Jack watched her go, the physician persona slipping into place like a cloak, hiding the hurt woman he had held in his arms.
Carl was in bad shape. He was laid out on a table and stripped. Sally cut out the bullets and repaired the damage, with Aaron assisting. After closing Carl and leaving Aaron to watch him she attended to the wounds of the other crew members. She had removed her own armor while Aaron prepped Carl, and was now dressed in the loose garb of the sea. She hadn't worried Jack with the lead still lodged in her body, or the deep bruises forming from her encounter with the nuka-cola blast. She was sure there were internal injuries but she couldn't feel them through the analgesic of the Stimpack.
While Sally and Aaron had been tending Carl, Jack and the less injured members had cleaned up the Tradewind and the Sea Grate, throwing the bodies overboard and making the Sea Grate secure for towing. At least she was still afloat. The boy had been brought over to the Tradewind and put in Hawk's room after making sure all weapons had been removed. They would begin the inventory of the Sea Grate's bounty after everyone had some rest.
Finally Sally sutured the last cut and cleaned the last wound. Jack had insisted on his crew being treated before he had allowed her to take care of him. Fortunately his worst wound had been a clean slice to the forearm she had stitched, even though the hemostatics he had put on it had stopped the bleeding. Jack insisted on having Sally checked. He called to Aaron, who had more medic training than him, to remove the few bullets and some shrapnel that had made it through her armor to lodge just below her skin. None had penetrated deeply. Sally sat tiredly and let him dig them out of her back, then sent him back to watch Carl.
"I'm so tired", she murmured as Jack helped her off the table.
"Go on to bed, hon", he said. "It's getting late. The crew's had a hard day and need their rest, and Aaron will have to take care of Carl tonight, so I'm afraid I'm going to be on duty all night."
"That's all right.", Sally said tiredly. She leaned in to give Jack a kiss and felt his arms around her. The world went lopsided as she swayed, then it faded around her into darkness.