The Octonauts and the Pirate Ship Predicament (complete)

Chapter Nine

Tweak found herself in a darkened room that looked like an engineering workshop. There was a table in the centre, with various sheets of creased paper strewn across it. The bin in the corner was full with crumpled balls of paper. It was obvious Nut was either a perfectionist, or didn't get many good ideas. Tweak couldn't help but suspect the latter.

"This is Nut's workshop," Kan said quietly. Tweak heard the distinctive click of a door being locked, and more of the same apprehension raced through her, though she didn't turn around. Maybe they had their own reasons for locking the door behind them. Though she couldn't think of many reasons right now.

Nut didn't seem very at-home in his own workshop. He hovered around the table awkwardly, brushing at various sheets in an attempt to clear up a little. Tweak moved forward to glance at the top papers, and Nut flinched backwards, as if he was scared of her. Why he should be, she had no idea.

"So what did you want to show me?" Tweak queried, directing the question at Kan, since it was pointless to try and ask the quivering Nut anything useful.

"Hector wanted to know if you had any ideas for how we could try and fix up our ship," Kan said calmly, his expression never changing. "Is it worth trying to fix up this one, or should we start afresh and get a completely new one designed?"

Tweak felt a little bit less nervous now. All they wanted was some advice, which she was of course gratified to give. "Well, from my initial impressions of the parts I've seen of your ship, it looks in pretty bad shape," she confessed. "But I might need to see the main ship designs to make any concrete judgements."

"Nut?" Kan prompted, and Nut scurried to the wall immediately on cue, his frightened brown eyes hurriedly searching the wall, upon which many papers were haphazardly pinned. It took around half a minute for the engineer to find the right design. During the time they were waiting, Tweak glanced at some of the papers on the table. The top ones all had sketches of possible ship designs, which had all been scrawled over with thick pencil. Perfectionist - maybe. Patient - definitely not.

"Here..." Nut whispered fearfully as he pushed a small pile of papers towards Tweak, dislodging some of the crossed out designs. Tweak looked over them, noting the haphazard walls marked on them, the tiny cabin spaces in the main building, and the oddly shaped deck.

"Your judgement, engineer?" Kan asked, which Tweak thought was a bit of an odd way to address her, but she brushed it off.

"I think you need to get a new ship designed. Honestly I'm surprised it hasn't fallen completely apart yet. How old is it, fifty years old? Sixty?"

"We got it second hand from an - retired pirate crew," Kan said.

"Well in my opinion, you need to get it completely redesigned and built. You can still have the same structural design, but the rooms need to be bigger and the deck a little bit more streamlined if you're sailing through high winds," Tweak noted. "At the moment you have a little bit too much air pressure pushing against it, that's why it's falling apart so rapidly now."

"Interesting," Kan mused.

"I can recommend you to some very good engineers and architects who would be happy to design a new pirate ship for you," Tweak offered.

"Why thank you, Tweak," a familiar voice came from the door. "That's all we need to know."

Tweak spun around to see the smiling Hector. She doubted if he ever stopped smiling, it hadn't happened properly yet. "Oh, Hector, I - I didn't hear you come in. I thought you were with Kwazii."

"Oh, he's perfectly happy flicking through my pirate memoirs and looking at our treasure trove, as it was," Hector assured her. "It's his turn later."

"Huh?" Tweak said, confused by this last comment. Turn?

"And hiring a new engineer won't be necessary," Hector continued as if he hadn't heard her. "We already have one who is fully capable of the job."

Tweak cast a slightly incredulous look at Nut who was hovering around the table, casting a frightened look at Hector. Hector followed her gaze and laughed immediately. "Oh, you don't think we mean him, do you? He's nothing but a very badly trained trainee engineer. Unfortunately, he's the only one we could get from the Engineering Board at short notice."

Nut hung his head. Hector went back to ignoring him, his intense stare fixing back on Tweak. It was quite disconcerting, having both Kan and Hector staring at her. Hector continued with the same unwavering smile. "No, we have someone much better. I'm assured she's a very good engineer, and an amazing designer."

"I'd like to meet her," said Tweak. "I'm sure we'd get along very well. Is she joining your crew?"

"Oh yes," Hector agreed. "Except - she doesn't know it yet."

Tweak frowned slightly, trying to make some sense of this statement. That was when Kan suddenly moved behind her and gripped both of her arms in a vice-like hold, pulling them painfully hard behind her back and holding them in this uncomfortable position. "What are you doing?" asked Tweak, feeling the fear creep back into her mind. She had known something wasn't right. She had known.

"Well, as we said," Hector said slowly, enjoying the words. "We already have an engineer. Except she's about to find that out."

Realisation hurt. "You mean me?"

Hector smiled wider, if that was possible. "Finally, the penny drops. I am assured you're a fantastic engineer, with very innovative design ideas. Captain Barnacles told me that much. They obviously think very highly of you. We need you to design our ship for us."

Tweak felt slight relief. "Well you didn't have to threaten me to do that. I would be happy to design you a new ship. I like a challenge."

"We're pirates, we don't exactly ask nicely," Hector told her. "And I meant what I said. You will join our crew, and you will design and build us a new ship. Then you will stay with us, as our engineer, so this state of disrepair can never happen again."

"Hate to burst your little bubble," Tweak said disbelievingly, unable to quite take it all in. "But I already have a crew. I'm very flattered that you think so highly of me, but I'm not really interested in leaving the Octonauts. They're my family."

"Who said you would have a choice?" Hector asked calmly.

"Well, I'm not going to leave my crew," Tweak said adamantly. "You can't just force me to join a random pirate crew just because you want a competent engineer for once."

"Oh Tweak. I'm afraid we can," Hector said, gesturing to Kan, who released Tweak's arms, pushing her backwards so that she stumbled into the table. "Luckily for you, you're not the only one who we're interested in converting to our crew. The young cat shows promise, and he will come to us willingly. Especially if his best friend has already gone to our crew."

"Kwazii will never join your crew," growled Tweak. "He'll see right through your schemes. Excuse me, but he didn't even go with his grandfather, Calico Jack, when he asked him. He wouldn't leave the Octonauts. Ever."

Hector gave one of his icy, yet infuriatingly smug smiles. "Why ever not? You already have."

Tweak suddenly knew he held all the cards. "So you're kidnapping me?"

"I'll give you some time to make your decision. However, it's best that we keep you down here," Hector corrected. "We wouldn't want you telling anyone about our little - arrangement."

Tweak felt a sick feeling in the base of her stomach as her captors moved away towards the door, Hector suddenly holding a large rusted metal key. "You can't keep me here!"

"Yes we can," Hector corrected, and the two pirates moved away out of the door. Nut cast a worried look back at her - was that pity in his expression? Tweak suddenly wondered how many times he had been locked down here in her position.

Hector flashed Tweak a final bright smile, then locked the door behind him.

Tweak was left alone, as a prisoner, in an unfamiliar workshop in the depths of a pirate ship.