Chapter 18: Escape

Extra Month #2, Day 27,

Day 273, Year 0001 DA

Katia

While Walter was concentrating on the sloop I had been watching the two big ships opening their gun ports, and when the cannons rolled out, I waited until the last second to turn the ship into their arc. The nose dropped down into a troth and the two broadsides went over us and slammed into the sloop, and she disintegrated under the combined firepower of the two man of wars.

"Quickly, fire on them before they can reload," I shouted as I felt a sting in my back. Reaching back, I felt a slight dampness and pulled my hand back. It was wet with seawater.

Walter climbed up onto the flying bridge, and I heard that big gun open up. I danced with glee as the bullets chewed up the side of the ship. Walter concentrated on the center mast and hit it nine or ten times while I watched the radar for any ship closing on us. I heard a loud snap and looked up in time to see the two hundred foot mast twist and fell towards the far side of the ship.

"Eat big hairy grass eaters dung you bastards!" I shouted as I turned the ship towards open water. We past between two sloops that turned to chase us, and I giggled as I headed into the wind and their great big sails lost the wind.

Walter came down and stood beside me, and then he was hugging me. "You did good babe," he said.

"Told you I would. Can we go home now?" I asked.

"Not yet, I want to see what they do first, and there is the other ship of the line out there," he said.

"We need Mike and the 'Mike's Girls, ' out here as well. It's just too much for one ship and two people to do," I replied as I kissed him.

"I know. Be right back," he said and went back up above.

The ships following us opened fired with their bow guns, and I jerked the wheel to the left and our ship darted out of the way of the incoming rounds. Twin geysers of water shot up into the air. With an evil grin, I flipped the lights on and pointed my ass at them, unfastening my blue jeans; I dropped them and bent over as I patted my ass. Behind us, I could hear them cussing but there were a few whistles as well. With a smile on my face, I was pulling my pants and panties back up when Walter fired the big rifle. The sudden discharge only feet above me startled me, and I almost lost control of my bladder as I yiked out in fear.

"DAMN YOU! WARN ME NEXT TIME!" I shouted as I took control of the boat again.

"Sorry love," Walter said and fired again. I heard an explosion and looked behind me as the bow disintegrated on the enemy ship.

"What did you do?" I shouted up to Walter.

Walter slid down the rails to the stairs laughing. "My round went down the barrel of the cannon, and it exploded," he said, and we watched the sloop start drifting away.

"Walter," I said.

He started to look at me when my knees went weak.

Walter

I looked over at Katia when she softly said my name, and I saw her collapsing. Swooping in, I picked her up and set her in the chair. When I pulled my hand out, it was covered in blood. I flipped the autopilot on and the ship headed west at sixteen knots. I set the collision alarm for six hundred feet, and picked Katia up again. Carrying her downstairs, I laid her on the bed to examine her. Using my knife, I split her shirt up the back, and I saw the small hole in her skin oozing blood.

Grabbing the medical kit, I pulled out some supplies as I checked her back once again. I couldn't see anything in the bloody hole when I wiped it clean. With tears running down my face, I put a pressure bandage on her. Reaching in the kit, I pulled out one of the prefilled medical syringes full of penicillin and gave her a shot. I tucked her into the bed, and was getting up when the alarm sounded. Running up stairs, I looked at the radar and saw a ship heading towards us on a 45 degree angle to our port. Reaching over, I shut all the lights off, and turned away from them.

I watched on the radar as I increased the speed of the ship and watched as the ship behind me did the same. In the distance I could see a flare of fire shooting up into the air as the sloop went up in flames. Turning a little to the south, I angled for home.

"Walter, got your ears on you SOB?" said a voice through the marine radio.

I grabbed the mic, and said, "Mike, where are you?"

"About a half mile behind you and I'm going to kick your ass," he said.

"Shit, I thought you were one of the pirates, I will slow down for you," I replied as I reduced speed and watched in the distance as Mike turned his lights on and off. Flipping mine on and off, I let him close with me.

"Where's Katia?" Mike asked as he pulled up beside me. Nikita was standing at his side glaring at me.

Looking at Katia's twin, I felt a black ball of fear in my gut as I raised the mic to mouth. "Mike, she's hurt, I didn't know she had been until after we were running. I was taking care of the sloop that was following us. When I came down, she just collapsed in my arms. I got to get her to Amanda to work on," I said.

"Damn it Walter, I should kick your ass. This is one of the stupidest things you have ever done," he snapped.

"I didn't want her to come. She snuck aboard, I wanted her safe back at the caves," I snapped in the mic.

Mike leaned over and said something to Nakita, and she started tossing the bumpers out. Mike brought his boat closer, and Nikita jumped to the bow. She grabbed the railing and hung there.

I slapped the boat into auto and ran to her, and yanked her aboard. "Are you nuts?" I shouted.

"She dies, I cut your dick off and feed it to you," she snapped and went below.

"Shit!" I said and went back to the controls.

"Yeah Walter, she is pissed. You know the saying about twins. How they are closer than other siblings. She felt you leaving, and wanted to follow right away, but I had to put spark plugs back in my boat. So I am going to kick your ass when we get time," he said over the radio.

"I see that," I replied as I checked the radar and sat down in the chair.

"How did you do?" Mike asked.

"Shot up the war galleon, disabled one of his ship of the lines, and a brigantine. We sank one brigantine and possibly two sloops," I replied as I watched the enemy fleet falling behind.

"You cut them down. Did the boat bombs work?" he asked.

"No. It was too dark. I couldn't tell when the ship was near the enemy. When she blew, all I killed was some fish," I said.

"I was afraid of that. Well will have to use them during the day. What are you going to do on Katia?" he asked.

"Going to get as close as I can to where Amber is, and go ashore with her. Once she is with Amber, I will head for home. I figure we should have at least two days before they can get close to home," I replied.

"How do you figure?" he asked.

"Look at the wind; they have to tack to get there why we can go straight in. I just hope they don't arrive in the middle of a storm. It would be a bitch to fight them," I said as Nakita came up and tossed some bloody bandages in the water.

Nakita

I went below and fear shot through me as I looked down at my sister. Kneeling beside her, I peeled the bandage back and looked at her wound. Opening the first aid kit, I went through the medicines and filled a syringe with an amber colored liquid as I pulled some other items out and opened. Taking the needle, I injected all around the wound and then capped the needle. Tossing it in a bowl, that I pulled from the shelf, I pulled out some more tools in the medical kit and placed them on a sterile pad I opened. I turned the lights on and then grabbed a small flashlight. Turning it on, I held it in my mouth as I picked up scalpel; I cut her skin until I could see the small piece of metal. Picking up some forceps, I pulled the metal out and dropped it in the bowl as I grabbed the needle and thread that was pre made. I slowly stitched up the wound as Katia moaned in pain. Shushing, her, I finished sewing the wound closed and then gave her another shot of antibiotics and covered the wound.

"I'm going to kill him," I said as I sat down beside my sister.

"Not his fault, my fault. I should have worn vest," Katia whispered.

"Yes..."

"No! It's not, and how did you know what to do?" she asked.

My mouth snapped shut and I thought about what I had just done. "I don't know Katia, when I saw you. I just knew. I think it was from the dream last night. I dreamt I was in a shiny room. I was told to lie down on a table and this woman was standing there. I think she was the Mother because she looked pregnant. She touched my forehead and knowledge came to me like a river," I said.

"Sounds like the dream I had too. It was how I know how to do everything in the house. When you described the room, it came back to me. I think Mother has been teaching us," she replied as she rolled over on her back.

"We will have to thank her with gifts on the island. I hope she continues to watch over us. We are going to need lots of help to fight this scum as Mike calls it," as I got up and opened the fridge. Pulling out a bottle of water, I turned to my sister and got her to drink some. Capping the bottle, I set it in the holder and covered her up.

"Sleep, I will be here for you," I said as I kissed her forehead.

"Thank you Nakita," she replied and closed her eyes.

I watched over her as she fell asleep, and then went up above. Walter was staring out into the night as I sat down. "Walter head for home, she will be alright," I said.

"No, taking her to Amber," he replied as he adjusted our heading.

"Walter, I fixed her up. Somehow the goddess had taught me medicine. She will be ok, she just needs rest," I said as I yawned.

Walter

I looked over at her and asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, just get us home. We need to be ready for when they show up. I will not let them have our home to desecrate," she replied.

"As you wish, we will head for home ... and Nakita, I'm sorry Katia was injured. I didn't want her to come with me. She snuck aboard..."

"And you going off on your own would have just gotten you killed. At least some good came of it, you cut them down some. Now we just need to use that big gun of yours and cut them down some more. Think you can do that without getting anyone else hurt?" she snapped.

"Yes I think so. It's going to be tough. Here is what I'm thinking," I said, and I started explaining my idea. I watched as fear raced through her eyes, and then she smiled as she comprehended the whole idea.

"Yes that will work, we will do that. Just leave Mike to me, but you better send for Arthur and Mary. We will need their help," she said as she yawned again.

"I will, go get some sleep," I said as a small yawn hit me.

I said a silent thank you to Rala and Nora for teaching Nikita medicine as I watched her go down the stairs to the cabin. Turning to the microphone, I picked it up and called Mike.

"Mike, she's going to be ok," I said.

"That's good. It means I won't have to hurt you to bad," he replied.

"Mike?" I said.

"What?" he replied as he looked over at me.

"Stick it up your ass sideways. I'm already upset that she was hurt. I don't need your smart ass remarks and besides the day you air jocks can kick my ass, I will hang up my rifle..."

I stopped talking as Mike started laughing. I could hear his deep laugh coming from his boat, and I shook my head at him. Handing up the microphone, I waited for him to call me back. The wind picked up, as the waves started building. I adjusted the boats speed as the waves started getting larger. The Walter's Girl engines groaned as we climbed each wave of water. On the radar the enemy fleet dropped off, one by one.

"Fuck, this is getting bad," I said as I adjusted my ships speed again. The boats engines groaned and the propellers bit down into the water as we climbed again. Nighttime rolled into dawn and I had watched the sunrise burst through the cloud cover to the east. I could tell it was raining, and it was going to get bad on the ocean when it hit us.

Six hours later, the storm continued to build to the south-east as we approached the entrance of the bay. The waves were really rolling into the bay, and we shot through the opening like a thread through a needle. Thirty minutes later, we were in the dock, and had raised the two ships up out of the water after unloading Katia. I turned from lifting Mike's boat, and I hit the wall as Mike punched me. I sat there looking up at him as my anger started to boil.