27. Walking the plank
A massive thud made everyone look, as far as they were able to turn their heads.
“Ah, look who’s here. It’s my Bagel.” Birkle, the pirate captain, grinned as a large monkey-like animal came walking over. It had just jumped onto the deck. The most remarkable trait of the animal that showed it was not a monkey were its six arms. Or legs. Limbs.
Daniel knew that Bagel in the local speech of the planet stood for Feather. This Feather did not look like it should be messed with. It looked like sixty pounds of bad luck if you did.
“Come here, Bagel,” the pirate captain said. “You may get to play with these people.”
The monkey walked on its hind legs and sat down not far from Birkle. It looked around, and Daniel was convinced it was intelligent. This, however, did not have to be a good thing.
Birkle turned back to Ulaman. “You know, former captain, you are in luck. You and your people look strong and healthy. Fortunately, I am looking for people that can do the odd chore for me. In return for their work, they get to live. Of course, it is obvious what happens if they don’t work.”
He pulled something from his pocket and threw it to the monkey. It caught it and devoured the thing, an apple-like fruit, in seconds. “I am a strong believer in setting examples, former captain. To make a point, so to speak. Things like that speak to the imagination.”
Some of the pirates yelled very descriptive ideas of how to set an example, roaring with brutal laughter, but a fierce look of their leader made the lot be quiet. He reached into a pocket of his coat and took something. It was a piece of red plastic, Daniel first thought, but as it glistened he decided it had to be a ruby. Birkle placed the ruby on Ulaman’s head. “Flat side up, dear former captain, means the example will be dealt with by my little pet here, the Bonto. In a fair fight, of course. Sparkling side up means that the example will be left to the plank.”
Daniel wished he had to wonder what the example would be, but it was plain and obvious. Someone was going to die. He blamed himself for not seeing the faulty course of the ship sooner. It was his job to know, to see and to warn Ulaman in time, and he had failed. Frantically he started to squirm, to get out of the ropes that kept him down.
The pirate looked. “Oh. Look at that. We have a really lively one here.” He smiled at Daniel’s futile attempts for a while, but Daniel got tired and found it was no use. Birkle snarled something in a dialect Daniel didn’t understand. The kick in the kidneys came as a extremely painful surprise. The pirate captain seemed to become impatient. “Come on, former captain…” He slapped Ulaman in the face, making the ruby fall. “Oh. Now that is really too bad…”
Birkle picked up the ruby. “Sparkly side up. Looks like Bagel here is out of luck today.” He leaned over the railing and yelled something about the plank being prepared. This was worrying. The really unnerving part was the cheer from the pirates’ ship. The man in the long coat turned and pointed. “We’ll take him.”
’Him’ was Daniel.
All the crew members of the Pricosine were lined up along the side of their ship, each one kept under control by the ropes and a few pirates. All, except Daniel. Daniel’s ropes were untied, except for his hands that were bound on his back. And the gag was still in his mouth. He had been taken to the pirates’ ship and pushed down to sit on a crate. Birkle stood in front of him.
“You know, if you had not been so wild, maybe you would have been one of the unlucky ones watching how another of you is getting killed,” the pirate said, fiddling with his cap. “Now you are the unlucky one who gets killed. Life is hard, and life on sea is worse. It’s hard and wet. And for some it’s very short.” The man got up and gestured at some of the men around him.
Daniel was roughly pulled off the crate and dragged over the ship, where a plank was waiting. The piece of Polychlon was pulled back, like a slingshot, with two heavy ropes. There was something like an open coffin mounted on the end. That was where the pirates dropped Daniel into, after untying his hands and tying up his feet instead. One villain held his hand over Daniel’s throat and squeezed. Daniel had to fight for air, but as he tried to yank the hand away, two other pirates grabbed his arms and nearly broke them on the coffin’s sides.
Aboard the Pricosine, the crew was forced to watch what was happening. Powerless, unarmed.
Birkle sat on a side of the coffin. “I like you. You fight back. Care to join us?”
“Never!” Daniel tried to say. The pressure on his throat increased.
“I thought so.” The pirate captain got up. “Have a nice death.” He disappeared out of Daniel’s view. A few moments later his arms and throat were released, and a sickening movement of the plank started as the two ropes were cut.
Aboard the Pricosine and on the pirates’ ship there was a loud cheering as the invaders saw Daniel being flung out of the coffin and land hard on the water.
Bilk, in his anger, tried to use his head to punch down the pirates that held him there to watch. One of them went down. The other one pulled a Polychlon dirk from his belt and stabbed the sailor until he was dead.
Daniel woke up. He was floating. He was also extremely cold. He remembered the feeling of being catapulted off the pirate ship, seeing the water come close, and from there — nothing. As he got his head together, he decided that he was floating because of the air-filled pockets that were still in his arms and legs. Bless you, Rhonda.
His legs were still tied. Why the pirates had done that and left his hands free was a puzzle Daniel did not want to solve then and there. It took him a while to get his legs free as his undercooled muscles also ached from the impact on the water, but he got it done. It wore him out pretty well, so he went back to floating again until his breath was less ragged. He peeked at where the sun was.
“Not good,” he mumbled to himself. Evening was not far away. Knowing that was something the experience on the Pricosine had taught him, but it was not much of a help now. He’d have to find a way out of the water. Either to the shore, or on a boat. Daniel looked around. The boat option fell away. He had no idea where the Pricosine was, nor how long he had been floating around.
Again he spotted the sun. He worked his brain hard, trying to remember the map, their course, what was the direction of the sun towards the evening. “Where is that bloody shore,” he yelled out at the sky.
“It is a mere sixty leagues to shore,” Ulaman had said.
Daniel gave it his best shot and started swimming.
It had become dark. He was swimming again. He had taken several breaks, simply because he could not go on anymore, and now he was starting a slight panic. He had not been out on deck enough to thoroughly know the stars and constellations. As darkness set in, he had tried to locate some significant stars, but he was now so tired that he couldn’t see straight anymore. He just swam until he was drained, floated until the fear and despair struck again and swam some more.
This had gone on for a long time, when he heard a rush in the water. Disoriented as he was, he just turned and turned as the rush came closer. Waves washed over him as he tried to scream, already envisioning a ship crashing into him, running him over and leaving him dead.
Instead of the expected massive Polychlon keel, a thick soft bulk pushed into him. He grabbed wildly, panicking that this might be the last thing he would do on this planet. Or anywhere else. His numbed fingers found hold on something hard and solid. Daniel struggled, his mind commanding his almost unresponsive body. It took him a long time, but whatever it was that had bumped into him was now beneath him and it kept him out of the water. He was too exhausted to even worry about how long that would be. He fainted.
When Daniel woke up, there was light. There also was a significant amount of warmth on his back. He turned around to catch the sunlight on his still wet front. He felt a slight tremor below him which startled him. Waves, a bump, climbing, it slowly came back to him. He shivered. He became aware of the rush of waves, the same sound he had heard before the thing bumped into him.
Daniel forced himself to sit up and look. He sat on a Fringy. He was certain of it. One of the animals Ulaman had described to Rayko and himself as she was sailing with the Pricosine. It was one of the fish that looked like a rock and did not dive. At that point it all became too much for Daniel. He broke down and cried. He cried until he fell asleep.
“Hey! Hello!”
The sounds hit Daniel.
