The Old Friends of Emma Elphinstone

(A sequel to my previous Amazon Airship Pirates series, as promised, and another exercise in steampunk erotica. Well, I try to set the steampunk up properly before moving onto the erotica part – but we get there eventually.)

"So, cadet," said Sergeant Tarani, "what is your assessment of yonder craft?"

Emma Elphinstone squinted in the direction indicated by the sergeant, doing her best to make careful observation through intervening wisps of morning cloud. "It bears Company colours, of course," she began carefully. "Two engines – a lengthened, slender hull structure, and somewhat stream-lined gondola..."

"And the tactical implications?" the sergeant demanded in the voice of an expensive schoolmistress.

Emma smiled briefly; she was being treated as more than a gun-girl. "It might be expected to be swifter than our craft," she ventured, "but it must be heavier per cubic yard of gas, so we should have greater vertical manoeuvrability..."

"Indeed?"

"Yes," Emma asserted confidently. "Except, of course, that we have the new quintuple-expansion engines. And that is not one of the Company's newest craft. So we will likely be swifter as well as more agile."

"Very good." The slim, rangy Bengali sergeant granted Emma a brief smile of her own – though her smiles always had a grim edge, thanks to the knife scar on her cheek. "But in noting our advantages, you fail to mention the fact that makes them most worth exploiting. That yonder is a light craft, with no deck atop the hull, let alone fore or aft positions."

"Ah. So we can strike from above in complete safety."

"Nearcomplete, girl. Never assume that some Company fool with a rifle might not manage a shot at us."

Emma took her gaze away from the Company airship to examine the sea beyond. "Is that island uninhabited?" she asked.

"Yes." The sergeant smiled, no more coldly than usual. "So you know what tactics we will use?"

"Given that their craft is so tastelessly ornamented? Of course. We may hope for excellent plunder and perhaps a ransom action."

"We always hope," the sergeant said. "And yes, Davis and Khorian are at the harpoon guns." She stepped over to a nearby speaking-tube, and removed its cover. "Dive to the attack!" she commanded.

The pirate airship dipped nose-down, and its propellers began to roar at their greatest speed. Seconds later, it became apparent that the Company crew had seen them, as the prey attempted to flee – but that was much too late, as the pirates closed the distance in seconds. Soon, every marking on the decorated vessel became clearly visible to Emma.

"Harpoon one, aim and hold," said the sergeant, then "Harpoon one, away!"

A jagged-tipped spear leapt from the prow of the pirates' gondola. It was an easy shot; the harpoon ripped a great rent in the side of the Company vessel's main hull, weakening it and letting some gas out, but not enough to send the vessel crashing down.

"Miss Fong, bring us above them!" the sergeant ordered, and seconds later, the pirates were hovering over their opponents.

"Will they strike their colours?" Emma asked.

"Almost certainly," Sergeant Tarani answered. "The naïve may believe the evil stories that the Company spreads about us, but we make sure that their crews know the truth – that they will be treated fairly if they surrender without a futile fight. And at this moment, they are leaking hydrogen – one incendiary rocket from us would bring them down in a fireball."

Emma shivered, despite herself. "Would we truly do such a thing?" she asked.

The sergeant shrugged, but then smiled her scarred smile. "To idiot civilians? In this circumstance, if they resist further, we will simply use another harpoon, and send them down slowly. Retrieving them from the sea would be hard work and dangerous and less profitable, but within our capacity. But just wait one moment..."

And indeed, seconds later, the Company airship turned sluggishly in the air and began to descend toward the small, uninhabited island, shadowed all the way by the pirates. When it arrived, its crew threw out anchor-lines, and then vented most of their hydrogen, as the pirates watched. Only then did the sergeant order a final descent, followed by anchor-lines of their own. An advance party dropped on ropes to complete the securing of the craft, overseen by pirates stationed prominently with guns in the gondola above. Then, with their airship a mere ten feet above the ground, more pirates descended. Emma was among them, clad like the others in black cotton gown and leather armour, taking a deep breath before she used the rope-descent art that she had been practising in safer circumstances for weeks.

The raiders surrounded the Company craft, guns on display, and its crew emerged, hands raised in ostentatious surrender. Sergeant Tarani studied them, and identified their captain.

"I will imagine that you have passengers," she barked. "Where are they?"

"We have two," the captain replied.

"Only two?"

The Company captain smiled bitterly. "This is ahoneymoon voyage," he explained. "The lovebirds wished to see some of the moreromanticislands."

"Ah." Emma, who had come to know Tarani well while in training, noticed that the sergeant's expression suggested a hint of sympathy for the captain. "I wondered why you were so far from your usual routes. Someone believed Company claims about the limits to our range and the safety of the skies, I fear. But please, bring our guests out."

One of the Company crew leaned through the main hatch of their craft, and Emma caught some remark about matters being as safe outside as inside. Then, after a few moments, two young European civilians with furious scowls, a man and a woman, stepped into the daylight. The man was well-made, a little above average height, dressed simply in tropical white; the woman wore an incongruously fashionable dress in blue silk, cut to emphasise her equally fashionable figure, and wore her blonde hair in artfully arranged ringlets.

"Good afternoon to you," Sergeant Tarani began. "I am afraid that you find yourselves prisoners now. But have no fear; whatever you may have heard, we are no monsters, and you have value to us for ransom..."

"Audrey!" Emma cried. "Audrey Moorcroft! And George Lorrimer!"

Startled, the sergeant stopped talking and stared angrily at Emma. But the cadet pirate did not notice this, as she was staring fixedly at the new prisoners. They in turn looked at her in confusion.

Slowly, the woman drew breath. "My lord!" she said, "Emma Elphinstone? Is that truly you? We were told that you weredead!"

Emma blinked at that. "Were you indeed?" she said. "And yet, my parents know that is untrue. They replied to my letter with an offer of ransom..." She laughed curtly. "It seems that I have shamed them beyond hope," she said more quietly. "So they tell the world that I am dead..."

The young woman, Audrey, was clearly paying little attention to all this. "Is this some manner ofjoke?" she demanded. "If it is, I must say that it is a joke in very poor taste indeed!"

"It is no joke," said Emma, as the other pirates looked on. It seemed that even their sergeant was too surprised and fascinated by this turn of events to interrupt. "As you can see, I have... I have changed allegiance. I have thrown in my lot with Captain Rukh and her band."

"You claim to be apirate?" the young man demanded.

"Iama pirate," Emma said.

"Oh, but this is so... So typical of your foolishness!" Audrey said.

"I beg your pardon?" Emma said, herself momentarily startled.

"You stupid, stupid girl! You always sought to distract attention from others!" Audrey said. "You could never behave in a sensible fashion! You complained about every social duty, you made cow-eyes at George whenever did not think I was watching, and now you interrupt our very honeymoon, dressed like a dock-front slut..."

Emma had barely heard the last few words. She found herself staring at Audrey's face as anger boiled up in her, and suddenly, she moved without conscious thought, bringing her gun up to a firing position and pulling the trigger in a single motion. With a hiss of compressed air, the shot took Audrey high on the left breast, the dart burying itself half an inch in her flesh. Audrey stared at it for a long moment, then shifted her gaze to Emma, who had dropped her gun in shock at her own action.

"What?" Audrey began, and then "How... You?"

Then, she folded slowly at the knees and collapsed to the ground. Something in Emma's awareness noted that Audrey could make even a fall into unconsciousness appear elegant.

With a scream of wordless rage, the young man, her companion, rushed at Emma. Before he could reach her, however, Sergeant Tarani stepped forward smartly, and swept his feet out from under him with a low kick. He landed flat and was winded, and when he recovered his breath and made to rise, he found himself with the sergeant's heel firm in his back.

"Murderous slut!" he snarled.

"Easy, boy," the sergeant said. "That was brave of you, but the dart was drugged, not poisoned. Your sweetheart there will be awake again and insulting us all in an hour or thereabouts."

"Whores!" the young man howled.

"Steady, boy," said the sergeant, pointing her own dart-gun at his face. "Neither Emma nor myself have ever spread our legs for pay, but there are some women here who were once forced into that profession by circumstances. You would best not irritate them too much."

Something in her tone was convincing, and the young man made no more attempt to move while she signed two of the pirate crew to bring cords, bind him, and carry him away. Meanwhile, she turned to Emma.

"You, however, are adamnedfool, cadet," she said. "I can see that there is a history here, but that is no excuse for you to waste a dart and injure a prisoner."

"No, sergeant," said Emma, who had taken up her gun again and was huddling it to herself, clumsily and nervously. "I am truly sorry..."

"You will be – I will ensure that," Sergeant Tarani replied. "To begin with – your friend there is no longer capable of walking. So you will pick her up and carry her, without harming her. Alone."

Emma said nothing, but stepped forward to the inert Audrey, seeking as she did so to recall the lessons she had received in procedures for medical emergencies. She carefully extracted the dart from her victim's breast, then, clumsily, she hoisted Audrey up and draped the unconscious woman over her shoulders, and began to stagger slowly back to the pirate airship.

Securing Audrey to a lifting-rope, following her up to the gondola, and then carrying her to the prisoner-cabin, used some minutes. She took a moment to place Audrey comfortably on a bunk, and then turned to find George Lorrimer staring at her in total confusion as two burly male pirates watched him with amused expressions.

"My lord," he muttered. "Emma – what happened?"

Emma chose not to reply, but simply left the cabin to listen to an extended expression of Sergeant Tarani's anger.

However, she returned perhaps four hours later, by which time the airship was well underway. Audrey was awake, as promised, and she and George sat together on the lower bunk bed, huddling nervously. Emma was the third pirate to enter the room, behind a tall, muscular Englishman and Sergeant Tarani.

"George, Audrey," she said, "I have come to apologise for my actions earlier."

"You –apologise?" Audrey sounded stunned.

"Yes," Emma said, "I do. That shot was an act of childish ill-temper. You were no threat, and I had no cause for anger. And meeting me as you did must have been a great shock to you. I am truly sorry."

"And now you expect forgiveness?" George all but snarled.

"No. Of course not. You have been kidnapped for ransom, and you see us as criminals. Of course you despise me." Emma shook her head. "Nonetheless, an apology seemed in order. I will leave you now." She turned back to the door.

"Wait!" Audrey suddenly commanded, and Emma turned to look at her again. "You still speak of yourself as one of this ... thisgang."

"Yes. I have thrown in my lot with them. I am one of the terrible Amazon Pirates now. At least, I am seeking to learn how to be one. I am sworn to oppose the Company and all who serve it, by fair means or dubious."

"But... But how did this happen? Why did you do such a thing?" Audrey's expression was aghast.

Emma drew breath, and sat on a convenient stool. "I was captured during a raid," she said, "and then I had the chance to consider my prospects. I would like to say that I had already seen how corrupt and vile the Company has become, and perhaps I understood a little of that. But in truth, I simply could not bear the prospect of returning to my old life, with the tainted reputation of one who had been alone in the hands of the pirates to boot. You two are truly married now?"

"Of course!" Audrey snapped.

"You are lucky. Your families are allied, and that alliance doubtless needs strengthening. So you could follow your hearts. But I was to be traded likecattle, to a thoroughly unpleasant man three times my age."

"So you took to crime to escape your social duty?" Audrey managed a sneer, but Emma laughed lightly at that.

"Yes," she said, "I suppose that I did. But I have taken on new duties. And at least my new life is exciting."

"Youenjoypiracy and kidnapping?" Audrey asked.

"I do, yes," Emma said with another laugh. Audrey's manner was beginning to grate on her sensibilities, and she could not resist a small game. "And there are other aspects to the pirate life," she added. "To be honest," her voice dropped to a murmur, "I seem to have taken rather happily to fornication."

"I beg your pardon?" Audrey sounded simply puzzled at that.

"Oh, I am sorry to shock or horrify you," Emma said, enjoying the experience of making an outrageous joke of a simple truth, "but pirates are terrible libertines. There is a terrible amount of copulation in this band..."

"But why should that appeal to you?" Audrey still sounded simply puzzled.

"Oh, you must understandthatby now," Emma said mischievously. "I hear that you have been married for a full two weeks, after all. And I am afraid that amoral fornication is just as pleasurable as performing your marital duties, my dear old friend."

"I really do not know what you mean," Audrey said firmly. Emma sat back, puzzled at the other woman's exact response – or rather, perhaps, in some way, her lack of response. Suddenly, however, the conversation was interrupted by a bark of laughter from across the room.

"I am sorry, Cadet Elphinstone," said Sergeant Tarani, "forgive me the interruption to a personal discussion, but it seems clear to me that your old friends here have yet to consummate their union."

"What?" said Emma, suddenly stunned. She stared at Audrey and George, and was bemused when Audrey did not meet her gaze. George looked outraged, but at Sergeant Tarani.

"It seems that we are truly fallen among whores as well as thieves," he declared.

"None of the band are in that profession these days," said the sergeant lightly. "And I told you that neither Emma nor I have ever tupped for money..."

Then Emma burst out laughing, rocking back and forth on the stool for a moment, then stood up. "Oh, really!" she said, "this is rich indeed!"

She stepped across the room to the tall English male pirate, who was looking on with a small smile. Then she flung her arms around him, and kissed him on the mouth. After several seconds, while still embracing the man, she turned her head to look back at Audrey and George.

"I amverysorry," she said. "You were correct in one matter, Audrey. I did on occasion contemplate George there with ... with strong feelings. However, it is only since I fell among pirates, and learned what mycunnyis for, that I have understood those feelings myself. They were, I fear, pure immoral lust."

"Oh, really, you silly girl..." Audrey began.

"Yes, really. But have no fear,old friend. I understand now that my feelings for George lay entirely in my cunny. And now it appears that he would be little use for that." She glanced at George, who was clenching his fists and clearly close to an angry outburst. "Sergeant, Gregory – may I suggest that we leave this happy pair together? Who knows – perhaps the thrill of danger will inspire them!" She broke her embrace with the Englishman, but clasped his buttock with one hand, directing him towards the door. He left the room first, then Emma stepped into the doorway. The sergeant stood to one side, watching the prisoners carefully.

"Oh, and perhaps I may offer one more piece of advice, sweet Audrey?" Emma ventured. "A useful suggestion, given to me by a woman of great experience. Try jiggling your titties in his face. Few men can resist that!"

And then she left. Sergeant Tarani followed along immediately, and shut and locked the door, leaving Audrey and George looking aghast at each other.

They were not to see Emma again before the airship's journey ended, almost two days later. Within minutes of its landing, they were escorted to a room, plainly but not uncomfortably furnished, in a wooden building – as they saw when they were permitted to remove the blindfolds they had been given.

"Were those really necessary?" Audrey said, angrily contemplating the band of black cotton.

"Be brave, my love," said George. "It shows that they truly look to ransom us. They do not want us returning to civilization with any great knowledge of their den."

"That is quite true," said Sergeant Tarani, from where she stood in the doorway with arms folded. "You are now prisoners for ransom. Here is further evidence..."

Another member of the pirate band had now entered the room – a small woman in her thirties, holding a box made of brass and teak, with a lens on the front. With a courteous murmur, she directed it at each of the two prisoners in turn, and they heard the clicking of a shutter.

"That is a small camera," George Lorrimer observed.

"Yes," said the sergeant. "We have a taste for the latest and most elegant inventions here. Your portraits will be despatched to your families as proof of our claims."

George scowled, but the sergeant smiled casually in reply. "We have no desire to make you uncomfortable for discomfort's sake," she continued. "In fact, we can offer you a little relief. We are not lacking in water here; if you would like to bathe, that can be arranged."

Audrey and George looked at each other. For a moment, they paused, but then they muttered words that admitted that this idea was too attractive to refuse.

"Well and good," said the sergeant. "You may bathe together if you wish; the bath is fully large enough."

"That sounds barbaric and undignified," said Audrey with a curl of her lip.

"As you wish," said Sergeant Tarani. "But we have but one bath. I assume that the lady takes priority?"

With an arrogant flick of her head, Audrey acknowledged the point, and the sergeant detailed two pirate guards to escort her two doors down the corridor outside, leaving George locked in the bedroom alone. Audrey was directed into the bath-room as the guards remained outside.

"Good afternoon, Audrey," said the one person who was waiting for her in the bath-room.

"Emma!" Audrey exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

Emma smiled. "You will doubtless require some assistance," she said, "but we do not employ many servants. It would hardly be the pirate way. So duties such as this are shared out – or issued as punishments to idiots who have, say, wasted a perfectly good dart on an unresisting prisoner."

"Oh," said Audrey. "There must be many such punishments possible," she added after a moment's thought. "And yet, you are assigned to attend to me."