Madness and Brillance - Part 1
Horatio couldn’t believe they were doing this.
He couldn’t believe he was doing this.
A number of days before, the ship of the line Renown had been hailed by the Dauntless, and the commander of the ship, Commodore Phillip Norrington, had come aboard. Immediately upon his arrival, he had greeted Captain Sawyer and asked to speak to him directly about an urgent matter.
Rumors had begun to spread the moment the Commodore and Sawyer has disappeared into the captain’s cabin. In the short hour that the two had spent conversing, the Renown’s crew had decided that the captain had been discharged, that the Spanish fleet was approaching, that the war had ended.
None of them were prepared for the answer.
Finally, about two hours after the appearance of the Dauntless, Captain Sawyer had called the crew and his officers together and had announced with disturbing calmness that a pirate vessel would most likely cross their path quite soon, and furthermore, they were not to attack it or otherwise do it any harm.
When the ship had appeared in nearby waters, Sawyer had sent his third and fourth lieutenants to…negotiate, as he had said. What it was that they were supposed to be negotiating, exactly, wasn’t explained.
Horatio suspected that the pride of the Great Captain James Sawyer refused to allow him to let a pirate ship go without a fight, even if it was merely a verbal one.
So now third lieutenant Horatio Hornblower, with fourth lieutenant Archie Kennedy sitting beside him, was rowing out to the black-sailed vessel of thieves that certainly, he mused, could have easily been captured by a ship-of-the-line, even one with the likes of the Renown’s crew. But instead he was trapped in this absurd bit of negotiating. Why in God’s name would a Commodore tell them not to attack a ship that didn’t even have the honor of containing a real enemy, but merely a band of criminals?
And not only was it absurd, it was annoying. Especially since, as the jollyboat approached the ship, he began to hear the most obnoxious little ditty being played on some sort of flute. He tried desperately to ignore it, but the sound continued to waft down from the deck, twanging at his already strained nerves.
Much to Horatio’s dismay, he soon realized that the tune was much closer to his ear than the deck of the ship they were approaching. “Picked that up rather quickly, didn’t you, Archie?” he commented, holding back a wince of annoyance.
Archie stopped humming mid-note and glanced at him, eyes twinkling. “Don’t tell me you haven’t heard it before,” he said with a small laugh, but Horatio merely sent him a curious look. “It’s a pirate song,” he informed him matter-of-factly. “Well, about pirates, certainly. Somehow I doubt if it was written by pirates.” A smirk.
But the humor was entirely lost on Horatio. “I see.
“Though I suppose you wouldn’t have heard of it,” Archie mused before going back to humming.
“Mr. Kennedy?”
“Hm?”
“Please stop.”
“Yes, sir.” Archie went silent, smirking, and turned his eyes back to the approaching ship.
As the boat reached the side of the ship, a scowling face peered down at them. “What do you want?” the man snapped, not looking at all happy to see two naval lieutenants coming to call.
“We are from the H.M.S. Renown,” Horatio called up. “There are some matters we would like to discuss with you.”
After some grumbling, the man lowered a ladder, and the two lietenants climbed up. By the time they reached the top, most of the crew that was unoccupied had gathered around, curious as to what the two men had come to say. “We are third and fourth lieutenant of the Renown, and our captain thought that some negotiations might be necessary between our two ships,” Archie explained to the assembled men, trying very hard not to smirk. No, really. He was trying.
Horatio took in the motley crew, including the man in front of him, from his clothes so mismatched that he seemed to belong more to a circus than to any ship, to the way he was swaying so ridiculously that he must be drunk – or struck with the plague, Horatio thought dryly – and added, “If you would lead me to the captain of this…ship.”
At those words the man’s face broke into such a broad smirk that it made Horatio’s annoyance, which had been quickly building since he left the Renown, reach a point of agitation. Under normal circumstances, only Archie knew him well enough to notice his discomfort, but this clown seemed to as well, for now he cocked his head to the side and chuckled. “I really hate to disappoint you, lieutenant, but I am the captain.” He made a low, mocking bow. “Captain Jack Sparrow, at your service.”