“An impression you got when you were rude to us right after a fight,” Gray growled over his shoulder. He took the girl from Silva, who’d passed her up from below. Turning, he set her on the deck and glared at Jenks. He pointedly didn’t salute the flag or the Imperial officer. Jenks stiffened, but then beamed at the girl before him. At the signal of another officer, the drums rolled loudly and the trumpets blasted a rapid and again tantalizingly familiar fanfare.
“Your Highness!” Jenks exclaimed, going to a knee and sweeping off his hat when the trumpets subsided. Everyone in the vicinity did the same, leaving the Americans standing awkwardly beside the girl.
At that instant, Silva stuck his head over the rail and gawked around, festooned with the evidence of his wounds. His hands were bandaged and blood seeped through the cloth of his white tunic. The garish black patch covering his eye, and the gap-toothed grin that split his bearded face gave him a decidedly piratical air. Faced with an opportunity, he proceeded to prove that nothing could temper his customary irreverent exuberance. “Goddamn,” he muttered in the silence, “the skipper just hops aboard and a whole shipload o’ limeys surrenders to him!” Jenks’s face flushed.
“Silva!” Matt hissed.
“Rise!” Rebecca Anne McDonald said loudly, forcing down a giggle. Behind her, the rest of the occupants of the launch continued to arrive on deck-all of them, even the Lemurians, saluting the flag.
Jenks’s face turned even redder, if possible, perhaps with shame over his pettiness. He stood, followed by his officers, and took a step forward. “I’m so glad!” he said to Rebecca, ignoring the other visitors. “Surely it’s a miracle. We’ve found you at last! We’d nearly lost hope, searching much farther and longer than most believed you could possibly survive. Thank God I decided to search among the Ape Folk, thinking they may have taken you in. Only chance brought us to their huge ship, which told us strangers were also searching for others of their kind in waters you may have reached! I believed it possible they may have found you and hurried here, but I honestly cherished little remaining hope!”
“You have found me,” the girl agreed, “and I give thanks for your diligence. Sadly, of all those who accompanied me on that ill-fated voyage, only one remained to aid me. Injured though he was, I could not have survived without him. Alas, even he was denied this happy reunion.” Rebecca spoke of O’Casey, who’d begged her not to mention him, since he was, after all, a wanted man. But she was determined that he receive his due and, ultimately, a pardon. What she’d said would suffice, however. For now, she’d let him remain anonymous.
“A noble man, surely,” Jenks commiserated, “but at least the Empire has you safely back! Their Majesties will be so relieved!”
“How are my parents?” Rebecca asked anxiously.
“Well enough when we left, five months ago, though desolate with worry and grief. Your father blamed himself, you see, for sending you to stay with your uncle, the governor of the Western Isles.”
“He sent me to protect me!” the girl insisted.
Jenks glanced at his other visitors again, perhaps wondering how much they’d learned about his nation. “Of course, but…”
Matt cleared his throat. “Excuse me, please. This is all very touching and even fascinating, but”-he pointed toward land-“we’ve recently fought a great battle against a rather large fleet of Grik. I understand you know about them?”
Jenks seemed annoyed by the interruption, but nodded. “From legends, the old logs of the founders.” His eyes went wide when Lawrence scrambled aboard. Wide with surprise, but not shock or horror, Matt noticed.
“The young lady… Her Highness… said you know about his people,” Matt said, pointing at the tiger-striped creature gazing about with open curiosity. “I even gather you’ve been on expeditions to some of their lands. What do you think of them?”
Jenks waved his hand. “Formidable predators, but relatively peaceful. Slow breeders-there aren’t many of them on their rocky, jungle isles-mildly intelligent and capable of limited cooperative behavior, but incapable of speech.”
Lawrence bowed low and said, “How do you do?”
Jenks’s mouth clamped shut and he goggled at the creature before him.
“I must present my particular friend Lawrence,” Rebecca added quickly. “He contributed as much to my survival as any other. He speaks very well indeed, as long as he needn’t use Ms or Bs or other such words that require… lips like ours, I suppose. I haven’t learned much of his language, I’m afraid.”
“Shows what you know, Jenks,” Gray jabbed.
Matt sent him a stern look before turning back to Jenks. “The creatures we fight are a different version of Lawrence: bigger, stronger, just as formidably… armed, but who breed like rabbits-you know rabbits?” Jenks nodded. “They breed like rabbits and have mastered ships like the one they stole from your ancient squadron. Now they have cannons, and their only purpose seems to be eradicating all other life they encounter. With me so far?” When Jenks nodded again, Matt continued. “We killed a hundred, maybe a hundred fifty thousand of ’em here a few weeks ago and we lost a lot of people doing it. We have a lot of work to do and not much time to do it. We have to take the fight to them, or someday they’ll be back.”
“My heartiest congratulations for your victory,” Jenks said. “And, of course, you have my country’s most profound gratitude for rescuing and protecting Her Highness.”
“Thank you, Captain…”
“It’s ‘Commodore,’ actually,” interrupted one of Jenks’s officers. Like the others, he’d remained silent so far, wearing a variety of expressions. There’d been no real introductions on either side and Matt suspected Jenks’s officers were as surprised by this breach of protocol as he was. But things were moving fast.
Matt frowned. “Look,” he said, “my point is, if they roll us up, they’ll keep going. Eventually they’ll find you too.”
“I’m confident you’ll make short work of them, Captain,” Jenks said, somewhat condescendingly, “if the carnage I saw on the little island where I met Mr. Gray is any indication.”
“That fight was against three ships, Jenks,” Gray growled. “ Hundreds of ’em came here.”
“Hundreds of their ships,” Matt confirmed, “each filled with hundreds of their warriors. Creatures that look like Lawrence here, but who fight with swords and spears, and now cannons too.”
“I’m afraid that can be none of my concern, Captain.”
“Maybe not yet, but if we lose, it will be someday. Guaranteed.”
“Perhaps. What are you suggesting?” Jenks paused, his mustaches twitching over a smirk. “Surely not an alliance?”
“Essentially, yes.”
Jenks shook his head. “I am sorry, Captain Reddy, but that’s simply impossible. Our duty was to find the princess and we’ve done so. Her safety is thanks in large part to you, I confess, but our duty now is to return her where she belongs. I’m sensible to the possibility that your arguments may even have… merit, but I don’t have the authority to get involved. You must understand, my squadron has been engaged in this search for quite some time; time it has been unavailable for… other pressing duties. We have even suffered the loss of one of our number, to a leviathan”-he glanced curiously at Gray, as if wondering whether the Bosun had deliberately misled them when they met-“so I seriously don’t know what difference my three poor ships might make to your cause.” His face betrayed the belief that his “poor” ships would probably make quite a difference indeed. “In any event, even if I had the authority I’d be obliged to refuse. As I’ve clearly stated, my duty is to return Her Highness to the bosom of her family and no other consideration can prevail.”
Rebecca had listened with growing astonishment. Suddenly, she spoke and all eyes fell on her diminutive form. “Then I will give you something to consider, Commodore Jenks: I refuse to abandon my friends, my saviors, while it is in my power to aid them. They are not proposing an alliance only with you, you silly man. You already refused Mr. Gray’s request for aid when your small squadron might have made a difference. I have proposed they seek an alliance with our country!”
“Ridiculous!” erupted the other officer who’d spoken before, and Matt looked at him again. He wore a mustache much like Jenks’s, but so did many others. It seemed to be the style. Unlike the others, he seemed stuffed into his uniform and wore little braid. The braid was unique, though, the gold laced with red. It still struck Matt odd that an apparently comparatively junior member of Jenks’s staff would be allowed to speak so freely.
“Perhaps…” Rebecca sighed, regarding the man as well. “Perhaps honor has become so devalued in my absence. Nevertheless, I will seek an alliance on their behalf and ours. Not only is it the right thing to do after all
