Captain Jansen and the Phoenix

Chapter 3

About two weeks after the incident with Tarja, Ruud, who was on lookout duty, yelled,

"Pirates!" Instantly, the whole crew sprang into action, some of them hurrying below deck to ready the cannons, others loading their pistols or drawing swords. The pirate ship approached quickly. Floor leapt up to the upper deck by the ship's wheel. She faced into the wind, toward the pirate ship, a determined expression on her face.

"Bring it on!" she said, her lips curving into a grin. The Phoenix drew closer to the Night Temptation, and she saw Tarja standing on its upper deck, sword in hand, her redcoat blowing in the breeze. They locked eyes for a moment, and then Floor gave a little toss of the head and looked away. Sharon came upon deck. The pirate ship came closer and closer and soon was almost within shouting distance. The Phoenix came forward a little more, guns at the ready. The pirates fired off a round of cannonballs, which struck the sides of the other two ships, spraying shrapnel and splinters. One took a large chunk out of the Night Temptation's railing, sailed over Marco's head, and disappeared over the opposite side of the ship. More shots were fired, some from the pirate ship, and some from the other two. One of the Phoenix's cannonballs made a hole in the side of the enemy ship, but almost immediately, another cannonball did the same thing to the Phoenix. Floor looked down and saw that Sharon had disappeared. A shot rang out above her head and she looked up. Sharon was up in the ratlines, hanging on with one hand and firing her pistol with the other. Her beautiful black curls whipped around her face, and Floor once again wished she had never cheated on the other captain. More shots rang out, and a few of the pirates on the other ship fell. The pirates were starting to board the Night Temptation, and there was a lot of fighting on the deck. Floor saw a particularly big, ugly pirate fighting one-on-one with Charlotte, their blades dancing around each other, clangs and clashes ringing out. Then Charlotte stumbled and fell to the deck. The pirate raised his sword to finish her off, but Floor was already there, thrusting her sword in the way, giving Charlotte time to roll out from under it and get to her feet. She quickly stabbed the pirate in the back, and he fell. The second mate turned to thank Floor, but the captain was already busy with another pirate. The ship lurched as two more cannonballs struck the sides. Another whistled past Floor's left ear, missing it by less than two inches. She slashed at the pirate she was fighting, her sword slicing through the air and grazing his cheek. He yelled in pain and outrage and attempted to stab her, but she parried, twisted out of the way of someone else's sword, and stabbed him instead. More pirates were on the ship now, on both decks, a few in the ratlines, one pinned to the mast by the blade of somebody's dagger. Floor found herself back-to-back with Tarja, both of them fighting pirates with their swords.

"Where's your co-captain?" Tarja yelled above the noise. Floor scowled.

"Up there shooting stuff," she yelled back, pointing up to Sharon in the ratlines. Then she quickly had to block a sword that almost sliced her head off. If Tarja said anything, Floor couldn't hear, because another cannonball hit the ship, knocking her to the deck. Her head struck the wood, and she lost consciousness.

When she came to, she was lying in a berth in the sick bay. Someone had removed her bandanna and her belt, and they were lying on a table at one side of the room. Floor sat up. Her head ached, but it wasn't bad. Troy, the ship's medic, came over to her.

"Easy, Floor," he said. He was the only member of the crew besides Sharon who was allowed to call her by her first name. "How do you feel?"

"I'm fine," Floor answered. She swung her legs over the side of the berth and stood up. "See? Fine. Now, tell me everything. How long was I out? What happened? Who won the battle?"

"About an hour, there was a fierce fight, and a lot of people were wounded, but we did," he answered. Floor grinned and pumped her fist in the air, then saw that Troy was not smiling.

"What is it?" she asked. Troy pointed to another berth. Floor turned and looked in the direction he was pointing, and saw Sharon lying very still, her forehead bandaged. Floor ran over to the berth. Sharon's face, neck, and arms were covered in little cuts and bruises, her corset, boots, and bandanna had been removed, and there was a reddish stain on her shirt. Floor stared in horror at her, clutching Sharon's hand. "No," she whispered. "No, please."

"She was badly wounded," Troy said. "Someone stabbed her right through the stomach. It's amazing she's even still alive, though I fear she does not have long to live. I'm sorry, Floor." Floor turned away so he wouldn't see that she had tears in her eyes. She blinked hard to force them back. Troy laid a hand on her shoulder. "She was a hero," he said quietly. "She took down the pirate captain by herself before she was stabbed." Floor nodded.

"For someone who doesn't like to fight, she certainly is brave." She wiped her tears away. Troy stepped over to the berth and began tending to the wound on Sharon's stomach, which was bleeding right through the bandages. Floor caught sight of the cut and pressed a hand to her mouth. It wasn't large, but it was bleeding heavily, and Floor knew it was deep and very serious. She gripped Sharon's hand tightly.

"Floor, there's nothing you can do for her," Troy said as gently as he could. "Why don't you go on deck and see what's going on out there?" Floor nodded, grabbed her things from the table, and left the room. She emerged on the deck, where several members of the crew were working on cleaning up the ship. Charlotte was climbing down the ratlines after stitching a tear in one of the sails. She spotted Floor and hurried over to her.

"Captain Jansen, glad to see you're alright." Floor barely nodded at her. She walked around the deck, looking everything over to see what things would need to be purchased at the next town they visited. This was usually Sharon's job, but since Sharon was barely even alive, it fell upon Floor to carry out her duties, in addition to her own. Marco approached her, looking sad.

"Marco, what is it?" Floor asked.

"Well...we're missing four of our crew, and several more are wounded," he said in a low voice.

"Who's missing? Come with me," Floor said, and they went below decks to her cabin.

"Alright, so, let's see. Emppu and Ruud are both missing, so are Kai and Merel. Robert's wounded, Jukka got hit over the head with a pistol,but I think he'll be fine soon," Marco said, counting on his fingers. "That's six. Oh, Jeroen and Timo both got hurt, too, and so did Martijn. And Sharon, so ten, total. Out of 29, that's a lot."

"Nineteen?" Floor cried. "That's all we have left to run this ship?" Marco nodded. Floor stared at her hands. "Wow...What are we going to do? Nineteen people can't run a ship."

"We'll do our best, Captain," Marco promised. "But you're right. It's not really enough. Maybe Tarja can-"

"No!" Floor said. "We are not asking Tarja for anything. We'll manage somehow, even if I have to do everything myself." Just then, Charlotte burst into the room.

"Captain Jansen, there's a man from the Phoenix who wants to talk to you." Floor hurried up onto the deck. Tuomas was standing there waiting for her.

"You wished to speak with me?" she said.

"Yes, I needed to ask you something. Where's Tarja?" he asked. Floor blinked.

"I don't know," she said. "Why are you asking me?"

"Because I can't find her anywhere on the Phoenix. I thought maybe she was over here," he answered. "But you haven't seen her?" Floor shook her head, starting to feel worried. She might be angry with Tarja, but she still cared for her, at least a little. Then suddenly, she thought of something, something truly awful. Sharon had been stabbed...Tarja was now missing...

"She isn't here; go back to your own ship," she said coldly to Tuomas, then turned on her heal and marched across the deck to the trapdoor. She climbed down the ladder and hurried into her cabin, locking the door behind her. She needed to be alone to think.

That stab wound on Sharon's stomach was about the right size to be from Tarja's sword, she thought, the idea of it making her feel sick, not to mention absolutely furious. Would she have killed Sharon? Or tried to kill her, anyway? It does seem like the sort of thing she might do. She was jealous of Sharon. She could have stabbed her during the fighting while Sharon was distracted. Her mind was spinning, her thoughts swirling around and around until she could barely think at all. The only clear thing was, Sharon is dying, and possibly because of Tarja!