The Dread Pirate Molly Hawke Ch. 03

There were odd looks and questions from the others at breakfast. Mostly it was her hair and her breasts which were different on her, but the golden eyes which looked at them from Jody's face said that Pok had always had that hair -- at least from the first time that he'd laid eyes on her the previous day.

And then there were those horns on him, small as yet, but they seemed to Bess to be growing the longer that they talked.

"Have you decided what you want to do?" Clayton asked, already knowing the answer somehow.

"Yes, Jody replied, " Pok told me as much as she knows and, well I'd like to come along if you need a hand with anything. I'll do what I can to earn my keep."

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The beginning

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They were only a crew of four on a boat designed for a wartime crew of about twenty-five, but they were pumped now.

"The ones made for war, the real ones," Bess began, "what weapons they have?"

"Besides the torpedoes," Clayton began, "they'd have, I dunno, one flak cannon to defend themselves from aircraft."

He looked at their faces and shrugged, "Something like flying demons, ok? Machines that could fly with a man inside to control them. And I'd guess that they also had other cannons, small ones."

"Like swivel guns?" Bess asked, but he shook his head, "No, these were autocannons. They fire small shells," he indicated the approximate sixe with his hands, "but they would shoot quickly. Why do you ask?"

"Pok and I are a little worried about the pirates that she saw. If you're a rich person, you don't care and you can buy what you want or need. But poor people, out a long way from big towns on the water, being a pirate is all there is, when you're not fishing. I think that whatever Pok saw, there are more than that. We can outrun them, but not if they block the way, Claytan."

She looked out at the horizon, "If it were me, and I saw this boat move so fast, well I'd want it. I think that I would only need to see it one time and then I'd be thinking of ways to force it to heave to. Pok and I can help, but I think we might need something better."

That's why I want to go see the place that Pok saw from the air," Clayton replied.

They finished loading up over the next two days and sailed out into Malaspina strait, headed south until they were in the Strait of Georgia. Clayton was mindful of seeing any other ships now and wanted to be over the horizon from any settled place on the water. He took them farther, past Valdes Island and Satura Island, working his way through Haro Strait and coming around the southern tip of Vancouver Island and into the Strait of Juan de Fuca before he turned north. As they passed the ruins of old Fisgard Lighthouse, Clayton began to grin, knowing that what Pok had seen had been correct.

He was looking at a lot of ancient naval hulks as he slid slowly under a canopy of trees which had grown right up to the shore line in the centuries since the place had seen any use.

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They were there a month, scouting around and finding things, such as fuel filters and more diesel oil. It wasn't all that pleasant because they knew that there were human settlements not too far off and they had to be careful with their cooking fires, lighting them only after dusk. Their mare however, was pleased at finding her hooves on solid land again, though perhaps not as pleased as Clayton was the day that he stumbled upon the armories and magazines of ammunition. "All I have to do now," he said, "is find something that these were made for which still might work."

It took two weeks of mostly searching, but they did find two weapons. Finding them was one thing, however, and it was the easy part. Moving them and getting them set up was something quite a bit different. The larger one was only getting it out of storage and onto a cart for the mare to pull. But there needed to be some changes made to the boat to get it mounted.

The smaller one was more of a hair-puller, being already mounted on a coastal patrol ship which was sitting tilted at an angle and capsized next to the remains of a pier. At least it had been covered well. It took a lot of rigging ropes and sweat from all four of them to get it off and in place on their boat. After they were in position, Clayton worked like a fiend to prepare them and move some ammunition over for them.

"I do not want to say much because I am sure that you know your business," Bess said to him carefully one evening as she stood next to him with her arm around his waist, "but what good are these against cannons and carronades, if that is what Pok saw?"

"How many rounds can a black powder cannon fire in a minute?" he asked.

"With a good crew who know what they're about," she said, "two, and maybe three, if the gun is not too big and it cold to start with. How many can these shoot?"

"The smaller one? Say three hundred a minute as a safe rate, though the drum only holds sixty shots.

He laughed at the way that Bess stood there with her mouth open.

That's why I wanted this one. It's a double unit 20 millimeter Oerlikon. There are only four of us, right? So sixty from one and then we switch guns for sixty more. The big piece there on the rear deck, that's the sweetheart."

He pointed, "That one's a rare find, I think. It's a 40 millimeter Bofors gun. You lay it on the target right, it's good for four miles. That's my problem now. I need to find a better way to aim it besides just pointing it and pulling the trigger. The shells are in those four-shot things and they weigh a bit. It shoots two a second, so that's a lot of work just to keep it fed."

He looked over at her, having almost forgotten her original query, "Uh, did I answer your question?"

She stood on her tip-toes and kissed him, "I think so," she laughed, "So with these, we can sail with our heads up and not feel like we need to hide?"

He nodded, "Something like that."

In the end, he found a way to remotely control the Oerlikon, though he had to install and connect a separate generator to power the servo motors which kept the thing on target as the boat moved over the swells of the waves. The Bofors was going to be a single --shot thing, he decided, though he found a hydraulic unit to ease the movement and aiming of the thing.

He was just finishing up with it, running the engine which drove the hydraulic pump to allow the gun to be turned or elevated easily when he noticed her so he reached over and shut the engine off as he wiped his hands with a rag. He looked over at someone.

Pok stood there with her pert and very small breasts and her long flaxen hair.

"Clayton?" she asked in a tiny voice which reminded him of the sort of tone that a little girl might use if she was asking for something, "Pok can ask you something?"

He smiled and nodded, "Sure."

He felt a little bit of foreboding, but he liked her so much when she was like this. "What's on your mind?"

She looked as though she was almost about to squirm visibly so he turned to face her, not wanting to miss a second of this -- even if it was a performance, though he suspected that it wasn't.

She was capable of the sort of guile that most other female demons could work at times, but he knew that at other times, Pok could be very pure and just as childlike as she appeared to be right now. It was at times like these that she reverted to her original manner of speaking and he loved it in her.

"Pok and Jody finish jobs and, ... work so hard lately and, ... not have much time and ... "

Clayton couldn't help it. He had no choice, smitten as he was with her when she was like this. She looked so uncomfortable that he put his arm around her. He couldn't help himself. "Go on, Pok. I can see that you want to ask something very much, but, ..." he sank down to one knee next to her and she put her arms around his neck with a soft little smile.

Pok want be in sunshine with boy. All jobs finished. Can we?"

He had to look down then or he'd give himself away. He knew what she was asking and he didn't mind at all. It was just the way that she was going about asking him that made him reach for her and pick her up as he straightened.

She settled into his arms comfortably and pressed her face under his jaw for a moment. A second later, she was hugging him tightly and he knew from that how much she loved him as well.

There wasn't a direct connection between them. She wasn't mated to him, but to her, he was her best friend's male and she loved him carefully within that fence.

What they had like this was fun and it allowed for them to be friends as well as providing for interludes such as this and what sometimes followed.

"Of course you can, Pok,"he smiled and the way that she looked at him and the happy little smile which she returned to him twisted his heart. He set her down on her feet once more and she leaned forward then and whispered, "Never think I that Bess will find a male like you. You good for Bess. Make Pok happy too. Pok love you."

"I love you, Pok," he said and he kissed her cheek and when she drew back to smile at him, he kissed her lips for a moment as he let her go and she turned away then and flitted off into the trees. He heard her happy laughter and he knew that Jody must have been waiting for her to come back.

Clayton he dropped the rag and bent down to pick it up again and he looked at their boat. After a moment, he smiled. A man with a witch for a lover might be said to be playing with fire. He wondered what the saying might be for someone who had fallen for the witch and had gained one demon friend who seemed to be turning at least a little human and her human lover who now grew to resemble a demon.

He had no idea, but they all seemed to be happy, he decided.

Jody and Pok were lying in the grass together, more in love than ever.

"Why did you ask him like that?" Jody asked Pok and she chuckled as she held onto his little horns, "Because I know that Bess can see us here. I hope that it will be one of those days where she just suddenly wants us all and throws her clothes off.

I always laugh until I can't even stand up, and and it if is one of those days, I'll go to bring Clayton too 'cause we'll need him then or we won't have anything left for each other."

Jody nodded, smiling, "I was watching. I always like to see you do that. You can talk him into anything."

"Almost," she chuckled,"I just play the lost little girl and he loves that so much, I can talk him into anything but me because he still won't fit there.

If its not one of those days, then I tried, right?"

"Yeah," he smiled. "I love those days because Clayton eventually gets in on it and we all end up really soggy but happy.

The only bad part is stopping for dinner.

You want to do me this time?," he asked her and she nodded.

Pok sat up and pointed her tail at the bay. Her stinger shot out after a second and then she waited until the unguent began to seep from it. She leaned down to kiss Jody and then he spread his legs, looking up hopefully.

A minute later, she was over him, beginning to thrust as his legs rose even higher.

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When Clayton sat Pok down to show her how the weapons had to be used, she had a tough time staying focused. He knew that she was no dummy, but there were also safety concerns attached to the things so it was important. He thought that this might be a problem for her, so he'd put a bit of thought into it.

"You can never shoot as much as you want to," he said, "You'll wear it out and we can't carry a boatload of stuff for it to shoot, so think about that."

She nodded, her nose almost touching her little sketchbook and he just said, "Hey, come here and I'll show you."

They stepped onto the deck and he pointed, "See that old tug way over there, the gray one?"

She looked up at him, "All of the boats here are gray, Clayton. What is a tug?"

He managed to make it clear to her and then he opened a locker on the deck, pointing it out to Jody.

"There's your ammunition. Take one clip and carry it -- without dropping it or banging it over here. He showed them how to load and then he taught her how to aim using the positioning controls and the huge sight which looked to her more like a metal spiderweb, but she finally said that she had it on the target, so he gently laid her fingers on the metal rod which was the trigger.

When she pulled it, the gun pounded out four shots in two seconds and there were new holes in the side of the old tug a split-second later, each shell exploding deep inside the old hulk, which rolled over like an old walrus and broke apart.

It didn't matter. Pok was happy, screeching and flapping, fully prepared now to listen to whatever he said about that gun and its care and feeding.

Bess had seen it all and she nodded, smiling, "I want to learn the other one."

So he had three of them for pupils after that.

"Remember that one in four shots will leave a white line in the air," he said ,"Use that to aim with and you only shoot in little groups, not hold back the trigger until it's time to change the drum. This is old and the metal is brittle. You can't ask it for heavy service now."

Somewhere not long before the point where the boat had been dry-docked, Clayton guessed, there had been a commercial radar unit installed. That was all he knew besides the fact that it still worked. So as he taught Bess to load and reload the Oerlikon, he also taught her how to "drive" the boat, reckoning that she had a lot of knowledge -- she only needed something a little faster.

As she got the hang of it easily enough, he added laying the Oerlikon gun onto a target while she was looking at the radar screen. There was no solid or electrical connection between the two actions, but she was able to develop a feel for it and she surprised them both a few times by laying the unloaded gun onto a target and then when she said to him that she was sure, they went out on deck and looked through the sight on the gun. Far more often than not, the gun was pointed at the target.

"Before you get really puffed up about it," he said cautiously, "You should know that the farther away you are, the less likely you are to be right, and also the movement of the waves and any stress in a tense situation won't help you either."

He looked away then, following the flight of a gull for a moment. "Other than that, Bess, you'll be an amazing shot with that thing."

"As good as you?" she asked.

"You're better," he smiled as he turned back. "I've used them all before. I can't hit a barn to save my life."

Bess stared at him, "Where did you ever get to use things like these?"

He smiled as he looked down, "You ought to listen better," he said quietly, "I told you that I was a huge fan of pirates and privateers when I was a boy. I didn't plan it, but I became one when I grew up. I've done this before, building up a boat and arming it. I used to run with half the cutthroats in the old naval yards on the east coast for about five years. The selection of boats is a lot better there, but you won't find one as fast as this."

There was a bit of a silence then as he listened to the gulls call to each other.

"So I am in love with a pirate once again?" Bess asked and he replayed the sound in his head to examine it, seeking to know if she was upset and if so, just how much.

He shook his head as he looked up, "No, Bess. You're in love with an ex-pirate. I gave that up. They catch everybody eventually. I was just the guy who kept everything working on the boats. When I'd had enough of it and I thought that my luck would turn one day, I took my share and I walked away. When I was far enough, I bought a horse and just headed as far away as I could. Now?"

He sighed, "I just want to go home, live there quietly with a good woman and make her as happy as I can."

Bess laughed as she walked over to him, "Then I think you need to find a good woman."

He shook his head and put his arms around her, "I don't think so. I'm sure that I've already found her. It's only been a little while, but you're more solid all the time. You don't fade away and fade back in as much."

That night, Clayton brought a few more clips for the Bofors gun on board as well as a rifle and some full magazines for it that he'd found in the armory. What bothered him was the sight of the rifle lockup racks lying open. Someone had obviously been here before him.

After dark, he helped load the mare on board. True to her word, Bess did seem to be able to calm the horse and getting her aboard again turned out to be a non-event this time. He sought for and loaded more shells for the guns into storage, deciding that they likely couldn't come back here.

Near dawn the next day, Pok took off and flew south to get a look at what lay ahead. She was back inside of twenty minutes to report that she saw no ship traffic for as far as she could see..

"Let's go then," Clayton smiled and he had the three diesels running contentedly inside of two minutes.

"Two stops at the most to find more diesel and then we're home, or what will be home," he said, looking at Bess, "Unless you want to do a little plundering along the way. You know, just for old time's sake.

We could find the place where Jody's from. He'd love to see Pok shoot the shit out of everything his stepbrother owns."

Bess thought about it for a moment and then she rolled her eyes and just told him to sail on.

The End.