All Aboard!

Chapter 4

Nico looked at Leo with wide eyes, his mouth gaping open. Without thinking Leo gently pulled his jaw up and waited for him to speak. At Leo's touch Nico suddenly found that he could speak again.
"You mean to tell me that this yacht is in actual fact one of the smaller ones of your time and that you are from the future!? How can this be? What sorcery is this?"
'Well like I said this wasn't technically my ship so there are a few things I can't explain. The part I can explain though is that we are able to sail across the seas just like a ship you would be used to except we can also sail in the seas that came before. Well the seas of now would kinda be the seas of before for me and my seas would be future seas for you-- you know what nevermind all that.'
Leo looked at Nico's disbelieving face and had an idea.
'Come with me, I'll show you something that might help!"
And he grabbed Nico's hand and took him to the engine room.

"Where are the furnaces? Where is the coal storage room? Why is there only one girl down here manning the entire engine room?"
Nico looked at Leo with bewilderment in his eyes. He had paced back and forth in silence until he had finally found the words to ask these questions.
'Ships no longer run on steam and coal the way they do now. We have combustion engines that do most of the work for us. This is Clarisse La Rue. She watches all the pressure gauges, the round things with the spinning needles, and opens valves and hatches as need be.'
Clarisse gave Nico a small smile and held her hand out for a handshake. Nico took her hand and bowed his head. Clarise was shocked by the action and Nico immediately dropped her hand at the look on her face.
"I apologize if that was improper of me, I meant no offence fair Miss La Rue."
'Dude I'm not offended that's just so old school! Where did you even learn that?"
Before Nico could answer Leo cut in 'would you believe we're in the 1900s and Nico was behaving in a perfectly normal way for this era?'
Clarise just rolled her eyes and mumbled "Jackson" under her breath.

'Do you believe me now?'
Leo took in Nico's still shocked face but some of the disbelief had left his eyes and Leo was hopeful that Nico would be able to convince his crew to join them.
"I believe that this ship is like no other i have ever been upon. Why did you dock in this town? What is it that you seek?"
Nico looked at Leo like he was seeing him for the first time, searching his expression as though he could read his mind.
'We need at least one full crew to join us as we are planing to sail across the precious metal seas in search of clues that will lead us to the former captain's treasure.'
"So you are pirates in search of buried treasure?"
There was a glint in Nico's eye that Leo recognised as possible mischief, or maybe something else entirely, and he knew he could ask honestly: 'Wanna be a pirate under the dread Captain Valdez?'