Voyages of the Ocean's Salt: Battle of Brothers

BX 1*

A young woman awoke with a fright at the sound of shuffling in her quarters. Caught standing before the foot of her bed was the young man she noticed earlier that day, the one with earnest, laughing eyes. He surrendered his open palms out in front of him, slowly bringing up his finger to his lips, giving her a playful wink. Frozen with surging adrenaline and curiosity, she watched the young man slowly creep across the room, his eyes locked on her, making his way closer to her uncle's bed. The young man applied something to the dentures that laid upon the table next to the bed.

"It's only a bit of light-hearted fun," he whispered, creeping back to the door.

"Truly, I'm sorry for waking and frightening you. I trust we'll have a proper introduction in the morning," he said, disappearing out of the room.

She looked toward the dentures, wondering if she should undo whatever damage that was done or at least inspect what had been done. Despite this, she curled over in her bed, smiling to herself, giddily awaiting the excitement tomorrow morning would bring.

"NEVER RIGHT!" the captain's voice bellowed from his cabin.

He came storming out his quarters with the young woman following closely behind him, hopping ahead every few steps or so to have a good look at the captain's face. Bits of foam poured out the side of the captain's mouth, trailing behind him on the ground.

"The captain's literally foaming at the mouth!" one of the crew members laughed, eyes shifting toward the spectacle.

Crew members choked down their laughter, pretending to continue their duties whilst spying out the corners of their eyes. The woman saw the young man from the previous night turn from his place at the ion oars toward them. His young, handsome face broke out in a cheeky grin as he leapt over the banister of the rowing deck down to them.

"That's not fair captain," he said, pointing to the woman, "She told on me."

"You knew?!" the captain turned to her for a moment before shifting his attention back to Never Right. "I don't need her telling me anything - coating my dentures in freeze-dried shaving gel has your name written all over it."

An outburst of laughter erupted throughout the ship as the crew could no longer hold back their amusement. Never Right held out his arms outstretched wide.

"Happy Birthday Captain."

The old man spat out a wad of foam from his mouth before his stern old face crinkled, breaking into resigned chuckle as he walked forward into Never Right's hug. The rest of the crew whooped and hollered, shouting forth their birthday well wishes.

"Alright, that's enough. Get back to your stations everyone. We have a tight schedule if we want to make up for lost time on this shipment," the captain ordered, wiping the foam that was continuing to pour out of his mouth.

"Thank you for keeping my secret, m'lady," Never Right bowed to the woman. Looking upon her in a better light, he saw that she was barely yet a woman with a fresh face and the innocence of girlhood lingering. She was pretty in an unremarkable way - easily overlooked but growing in loveliness for those who paused to dwell on her.

"This is my niece, Anabelle," the captain said, "She boarded yesterday while we were at Baxion Port. She will be accompanying us from now on and is under my guardianship, which means-" he turned sharply to Never Right, "no funny business, you hear?"

"Aye aye sir," Never Right smiled. "Glad to have you aboard Miss Anabelle. It'll be nice to have a lady's touch around here." Never Right bowed again before climbing the rope back up to the rowing deck.

"Uncle," Anabelle said, "who is that man? Why did you call him Never Right?"

"He's a good sailor, good man too. He refuses to tell us his real name - just insists we call him Never Right. I picked him up from a bar, drunk out of his wits about four years ago. Been with me ever since," the captain paused, the vision of the young man drowning in an empty mug of despair flashing before him.

"He was just a kid, about your age at the time," the captain said tenderly. "To be in that place when you're that young - I just couldn't just leave him there."

"I wonder what happened," she mused.

"Well, we sailors have a code not to interfere in each other's personal lives. But if you're curious enough, go ahead and see if you can crack him and find out his story," he winked, spitting out another gob of foam that was drooling out. "I'd rather you spend your time with him than any of the other men on this ship."

"But you just told him -"

"That was mostly for the others listening in," he headed back to the captain's quarters to clean out his dentures. "Believe me - they haven't taken their eyes off you since you stepped on board. Can't blame them, starved of feminine wiles for who knows how long. Keep a healthy distance from them. With Never Right, he'll be keeping his distance from you."

Anabelle looked up to where Never Right sat rowing. He had a kind face, strong deliberate arms and a chest that seemed too big for the rest of his body. He felt the young girl's gaze at him and turned, meeting her eyes. She didn't turn away. Instead, she stared at him unapologetically for a few moments before giving him a wide grin and walked away. Never Right wasn't sure what to make of her but he admired the girl's tenacity, resuming his rowing with slightly more vigor.

AndLady Space looked down upon the pair and was pleased with her twisting ways.

Appendix:

*The Xoxas Catastrophe being such a traumatic moment in the history of the universe, the Intergalactic Consociation of Intelligent Societies agreed and passed with an astonishing 87% approval the motion to begin a new tersec dating calendar that marked the tersec of the catastrophe at 0X, the years preceding leading up to the event with BX (standing for Before Xoxas), and the years following with AX (standing for After Xoxas)