Khikall and I had spent the better part of an hour watching the soldiers try different attempts to get on board. Thankfully – for their sake – none of their attempts caused any damage. Although, they had worked out some strange rubberized suits and were starting to put them on to attempt boarding again.

By this time eight ships had entered the cove and were spaced evenly around to cut off any retreat. They even had a few blocking off our escape over the island and below it. Not that that would be a good idea given all the gun emplacements. They even had three triple deck airships blocking the exit to the cove as a backup.

I guess I should be impressed that they thought my little ship was this big a threat but it annoyed me more than anything.

I felt the ship jostle and I turned to see three men had jumped aboard wearing the rubber suits. I reached over and pressed a button on my console, switching the defense from electric to thermal. Khikall just watched curiously to see what I had done.

Like the cooktop to a stove, the armor plates began to heat up. Slowly at first but then they started taking on an orange glow as they got hotter. The men were hurrying to try and pry the deck hatch open before the heat melted their suits.

“Captain, look,” Khikall said, pointing to a row of buildings farther up the dock.

When I looked, I spotted a disturbance, about a dozen Legion troops were getting their asses handed to them by a lone man. That man was of course Barcos. He beat the last man senseless and ran down the dock as other soldiers fired magic and ranged weapons at him.

None of the attacks landed as Barcos ducked and dodged like he had eyes in the back of his head. The remaining soldiers on the dock scrambled to put up a fight but with the thick rubber suits, they weren’t able to hold him up for more than a few seconds.

“Ship, disable lockdown protocol Alpha-Charlie, and prep for immediate combat departure,” I stated, strapping myself in even tighter.

“Combat departure?” Khikall asked, watching and copying my actions as he brought up flight controls.

“It’ll give you a hundred and twenty percent thrust and remove any safety locks I put in place to keep us in the air. Try not to kill us and get us to the ocean as quickly as possible,” I replied.

By this time the errant soldiers had abandoned their attempts at getting in, jumping for safety toward the dock with still smoking feet. Too bad Barcos was running straight for them with a big smile on his face.

I winced as the man-made three quick movements, knocking all three men out without even slowing. He jumped onto the deck and I saw his eyes go wide as he danced from foot to foot from the heated deck. It took a lot longer to cool down than it did to heat up. I remotely opened the hatch, another upgrade I added from the initial testing of the vessel, and he sped inside.

“Find a chair and strap yourself in, this next part is going to get rough,” I said over the intercom. I didn’t wait for a reply, “Go,” I stated to Khikall.

The ship thrummed as we practically leaped out of the docking cradle. Khikall did a rising corkscrew that left my stomach feeling like I had been on the world's worse rollercoaster and we plummeted out of the sky like a dart.

“Push it faster!” I yelled as the G forces shoved me back into the seat.

All I got back was a grunt but the ship rocketed down at its maximum acceleration.

“Captain, I don’t think I can pull out of this dive at this speed.”

“Don’t pull out, go into the ocean, the ship can handle it.”

I actually didn’t know if the ship could handle an entry into the ocean at this speed but I hoped it could. Cannonballs were whizzing past us as we fell. I wished I could shunt power to sections of the shield to reinforce it but they had never been designed to do that and even an upgrade wouldn’t change that at this point. I did make a mental note to design that feature into any future overhaul though.

The cannonballs exploded as they struck the surface of the ocean ahead of us, causing waves and sprays of water. This actually helped our cause as instead of the Retribution slamming into a wall of water we were only roughly shaken about by Poseidon’s kiss.

The ship still shook violently, throwing us against our harnesses and breaking my collar bone from the impact. I grunted from the pain but quickly cast healing on me and Khikall as I checked the ship's integrity. It was holding but some of the locations had turned yellow, a sign that not everything was as it should be.

“Keep us below the surface until we’re within the rock field,” I told Khikall as I unstrapped and made my way to Barcos to see if he needed healing as well.

I found him, flopped over unconscious, in one of the flight chairs. He was lucky, the chair had only partly ripped from the wall. I unstrapped him and used Healing Touch as I moved him to another chair and strapped him back in. I doubted our erratic maneuvering was over and to prove me right, the ship jerked violently as a cannonball exploded in the ocean above.

The shield had to be turned off as it wouldn’t function for long under the water. Leaving it on would have just drained our power reserves. The same applied to the cloak. The water would just make it useless. That only left the water as a buffer and I could already feel the ship starting to rise like a bobber. It wasn't like it had ever been built to act as a submarine, and buoyancy was buoyancy.

I guess it was preferable to what could have happened. If we had sprung a leak, the ship would have taken on water until the drive systems could no longer compensate for the weight and we would have sunk to a watery grave. I was so glad that hadn’t happened.

I sighed in frustration as I hurried to the command room again. My guess is this was going to be a long day.

I want to say that my plan was a masterful stroke of genius, that we had got away scot-free, and left the Protectorate ships behind but that would be a lie.

The Retribution surfaced about halfway between the island and the rocky debris field that surrounded it. Despite Khikall’s best efforts, we were struck by multiple incoming projectiles as the ship surfaced. The ship rocked as we increased speed, pulling ahead of the smaller faster ships that were following us.

I had chosen not to return fire because I didn’t want to make an enemy of an entire country. Not that they weren’t already doing a good job of that themselves. If push came to shove I would retaliate but the shield was holding and we were getting away. The larger ships were out of position and unable to even attempt to chase us down. Which was good. If they had we would have been screwed.

Even the smaller ships were losing their advantage as we pulled ahead, making it impossible for them to fire a broadside at us while still maintaining their speed. I was glad nobody on their side had realized the usefulness of ball turrets.

The retribution plowed into the smaller rocks that floated in the debris field, shoving them aside as we pushed deeper into the cover of the rocks. The enemy ships had slowed significantly, trying to readjust their course and follow our trail. But before they could do that I told Khikall to angle us behind a larger rock and slow us down so I could engage the cloak.

The enemy ships must have realized we were up to something and tried to fire on us. It was a wasted effort on their part as their incoming fire clipped rocks and exploded, sending even more debris tumbling about and making it harder for them to follow.

As soon as we crossed behind a larger rock, I shifted the shields to the cloak. Khikall slowed the ship and changed our heading to an almost vertical one, getting us off of the same plane we had entered on.

I let out a sigh of relief as I slumped in my chair. “Well, let's not have to do that again.”

“Agreed,” I heard Khikall reply.

I looked over and finally noticed how tense the former pirate captain was.

A few minutes later, Barcos strutted into the room as if nothing had happened.

“Well, was it worth us almost getting killed or captured?” I demanded angrily.

Barcos had the gall to snort. “Captain, if I thought we were in danger of either of those possibilities, I wouldn’t have suggested we come here. And yes, I got Em’ah’s location. Before you ask about my method, I owed the man for leaving me stranded for ten years. Nothing serious would have come from it if he hadn’t been under orders to try and seize this ship.”

“Still,” I glared at the man, “don’t pull a stunt like that again unless you inform us first.”

Barcos finally looked chastised at my words. “Well, I would have if I had planned it. As soon as I spotted him, my anger and resentment bubbled up and I just acted. It shouldn’t happen again, Captain. Oh and thanks for not leaving me behind.”

I grunted in reply and got up from my chair. “Khikall, find us a place to stop and rest. Then Barcos can tell you where we need to go next. I’m going to get some food and then get some sleep.”

I saw Barcos slap Khikall on the shoulder and smile, then I had an evil idea and smiled myself. I stopped before walking out of the command room. “Oh, and Barcos,” the man turned to me, “you are not allowed any alcohol until we reach this next island as punishment.”

The look on his face was almost worth the entire hassle of this trip and I smiled as I walked out while he tried to cajole me into easing up on his punishment. I just ignored him and told the ship to lock down the alcohol supply cabinet.

***

Other than Barcos’s never-ending complaints about being denied alcohol, the trip to the next island was mercifully quiet. That was really the only good thing about it.

The island was huge and sported three large ports and four other cities. It wasn’t the capital but it was among some of the larger floating islands in the Isle of Mist. This posed a few issues. First off, Barcos had no clue which city this Em’ah was in, only that she was acting as a merchant. Which meant we needed to search every merchant in every city until we came across her. The next issue was monetary. While I had a decent amount of money, if I had to keep the Retribution docked for any length of time, that money would be burned through quickly.

Luckily the second issue had a simple solution. I had Khikall fly us over the island and find an out-of-the-way spot. He was surprised to learn the ship had its own landing struts. I was surprised to learn that their ships didn’t and almost always required a landing harness. Advantage Retribution. Then came my next little surprise as I engaged the illusion generator.

“Alright, the ship should be safe here. As much as I hate to do this, I think when we get to a town, we need to split up to search as quickly as possible. I don’t want to spend three months on this island looking for one possible crew member. So every day we will meet up after, at a designated spot. Sound good?”

Khikall nodded, while Barcos was licking his lips in anticipation of finally being able to drink again. I sighed, “let's get this done so we can get back to hunting pirates.”