Stories tagged “ships”
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desperate passage
June, 1875 The Inscrutable rocked gently in the harbor. Ropes creaked and strained, as gray water and cold rain splashed against the hull. Her captain looked across the rail at the hopeful few who had made it past the barricades, and now waited on the ...
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The Road Home
Believe me when I tell you, we come here by necessity and not by choice or design. This place is foreign to us. My own best diplomat took one look into the long blue void and had to be sedated. They call it sky sickness; it’s just unnatural to be in ...
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Oliver Deals With Victoria
Oliver looked into the suddenly blue eyes of his friend and realized that she had changed over. “Victoria?” Victoria grinned at him, coldly. "Exactly what do you mean by “both my personality’s like to behave themselves̶...
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The End of Lake Herman Road
At the end of Lake Herman road the salt marsh gave way to a water-bound repository for sea faring relics. The behemoths of metal and paint rested in stoic silence amidst the late afternoon fog, waiting for time to pass and fate to be meted out. Their e...
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Company
On a paranoid impulse I glanced over my shoulder and bolted down the old road, keeping close to tall brush along the road’s edge. Time wasn’t the only thing messing with my head; the road decided to play distance tricks with me, much to its...
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impressionable
Ineffable was first. A wrong turn while in Bristol with my Nan, a sudden flurry of man-o-war uniforms, and away. Mary Louise, forty guns, took us on the return – the rum, the ship, and me, Nymph out of Barbados, Little Turk of Guadeloupe, Grampus on ...
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No Matter How Many
Shrill watched the great war ships as they bobbed towards land for a while, and then stepped down from the wall. “There must be something we can do!” His commanding officer, a man with more scars than years, laid a heavily gloved hand on hi...
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Fighting Fire With Fire
Dense smoke floated heavily on the sea air while cannons barked and cannon balls whistled through the air. The calm of the sea was disproportionate to the battle that raged in it. Two ships faced off. One bore the flag of the East India Trading Company...
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Silent Runnings
The sea was calm, and quiet. Only the sound of the gulls above broke the silence. They knew what was coming, and as loud as they could, sent out a warning. Two ships, gliding silently through the waters were on a direct course for each other. Their we...
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Lessons Learned
Boah knew better than to test the captain’s orders, especially ones so specific and simple. He had already filled the quota of 50 passengers, so he hardly noticed the tall pale man who blocked his return to the ship. He was about to push past whe...
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Shanghaied
My head felt as if it were to explode with every pulse of the blood in my veins. I opened my eyes and attempted to evaluate my surroundings. I was in a room, lit only with an oil lamp, casting oddly flitting shadows on the wooden walls. My first impuls...
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Rope Ladder
The sinister man summarily shoved me out the door to the room. My head was reeling—all the documents that had to be forged, all the money that had to have exchanged hands, all the relatives back home…I mentally initiated a curse upon the crimp who ...
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Up the Sails
A strong yank from above halted my fall and jolted me to attention. Hoisted up, I stared into the face of an old man from one of the tribes in the Oregon Country, the features of his countenance worn by the march of time. “That’s a nasty fa...
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Pine Tree
I opened my eyes, incredulous. The Englishman, who seemed loth to spare his charges any opportunity for humiliation or physical injury, merely stared for a moment before shaking his head and wandering off, finding some other poor soul to abuse. “...