“Don’t know him,” he said. “But then, I don’t know all of us. More every day with the lord bastard making ville fight ville. Smoky, give him some water and wine. Let’s see if there’s any spunk still in this pile of fish bait.”
“Aye, Cap’n,” a pale sailor said, and swung around a gourd suspended on a leather strap. He pulled out a cork and carefully dribbled some of the mixture into the man’s slack mouth.
At first nothing happened, then the unconscious sailor breathed in some of the fluid and violently awakened, hacking and coughing for breath. Smoky continued to pour, and the man swallowed some simply to clear his throat. Almost immediately, he sat up fully alert, then bent over and vomited on the deck.
Crossing his arms, Bachman frowned at that. Idiot had to have been sipping saltwater. His guts would be all twisted up inside.
“Got a name, matey?” the captain asked gruffly.
“Giles, lieutenant of the…” He wheezed and gasped. “Got to find them…”
“We’ll find your ship. If you’re a brother,” Red Blade rumbled.
“Blade, blood and bones,” Giles croaked, and took the gourd away from the pale man to drink greedily, excess flowing over both of his cheeks. Lowering the container, he poured some more into his palm and wiped his face.
“Powder and blades,” he finished, placing a fist to his heart.
“Welcome aboard,” Bachman said, and waved off the bosun. As the guard eased down the hammers of his longblaster, the crew relaxed, and Red Blade offered the fellow pirate a hand, easily hauling him erect.
“Damn near went to Davey there,” Red Blade said, offering back the weapons.
Giles brushed them aside and drank some more. “They’re yours. I won’t stand beholden to no man.”
Red Blade merely grunted and tucked the blaster into his boot, then forcibly put the knife into Giles’s belt.
“No man walks naked on the Gibraltar,” he said roughly. “Don’t fuck with me, or I’ll toss ya back.”
“Fair Steven,” Giles said, turning the handle about so it would be easier to grab. “Owe ya.”
“No,” Bachman said, “you owe me. Where’s your ship?”
“Sunk,” Giles said, almost sputtering, hate distorting his ugly face into something worse. He staggered, then stood straight. “Bunch of outlanders got the Delta Blue. Fuckers had rapidfires, grens, plas. You name it!”
Although intrigued, Bachman managed to control his reaction. He had heard such tales before. Outlanders with nuke batteries, MRE packs, whiskey, nukes, airplanes, all sorts of crap. He was too old to believe in lost tech and a world beyond the last island.
“Bullshit,” Red Blade said bluntly.
“On my oath,” Giles shot back hostilely, staggering again. “Brass shells were everywhere from that little blaster. Rad me, I’d give me left nut to have them in my sights again. Draco was the best captain ever!”
“Until now,” Bachman corrected sternly, a hand going for the whip on his belt.
Not a fool, Giles nodded vigorously. “Aye, skipper. But we got to make them pay,” he said, staggering again. Then he started coughing, and the pirate spit bile on the deck.
“Know where they harbor?” a sailor asked.
“Cold,” Giles slurred, dropping the gourd. As it rolled away, he went slowly went to the deck and lay slumped into a heap. A few moments later, he started to snore.
Bachman put a finger on the man’s throat. There was a pulse, weak, but steady.
“Exhaustion and exposure,” the captain declared. “Smoky, haul our brother to my cabin. Wash him off, get some fresh clothes and a blaster, but no ammo.”
“Aye, skipper.” He grinned. “Comfortable, but helpless.”
Red Blade turned to another pirate. “Cookie, get him food. All he wants, a woman, too, if he says he can handle one when he wakes.”
“Done.” He saluted and started for the closest hatchway.
“Everybody to your posts!” Bachman shouted. “Man the rigging and watch for any other survivors! No work for a day to the swab that finds another!”
Whooping in delight, the pirates swarmed into the ropes above, eagerly scanning the surface for any more wreckage or people. When the officers were alone, they spoke low and quickly.
“What do ya think?” Red Blade asked eagerly. “Sounds legit to me. Outlanders with rapidfires!”