There was only a brief opportunity to mock Sir Robert before he was shunted aside and the captain of the pirate ship Black Jack's Lady appeared. The Dread Pirate Elektra wanted the cache of Second Republic technology Sir Robert had informed her our heroes had, but was not surprised to find that it didn't exist. Sir Robert was duly consigned to the brig.
The pirate's gannock engineer, Shung Shong, attempted to conspire with Halley, but their plot was foiled by Captain Elektra.
The liner was of course taken as a prize, but Elektra was willing to drop her prisoners on Ravenna instead of out the airlock. First, however, she needed to dispose of the liner, which meant a trip back through the jumpgate to Barter.
The first night of captivity was December 25, the Feast of Revelation, so of course a party was called for. Our heroes used their various skills to ingratiate themselves with the pirates, but did not actually stage a takeover of the ship. The dashing pirate first mate, Royce, told the story of how he and the pilot Terel Dow began their life of piracy ("Me an' the pilot were the only men left alive onboard a Hawkwood ship during the Emperor Wars, and we figured there was more profit in going rogue than in returning it.").
Jaana got some salve for her alarming skin rash from Thomas and Theodore, the cute twin pirate medics, that helped a lot, or at least masked the symptoms well.
The Hawkwood garrison on the Delphi side of the gate had no particular reason to cause trouble, and were easily put off by feigned communications difficulties.
Although Matsushida was dubious about the wisdom of a prolonged alliance with the Dread Pirate Elektra, Gwen closeted herself with Electra and a few bottles of wine and emerged with a deal that would get our heroes delivered to De Moley in style and Elektra some heretical but fun Halley gadgets. Matsushida's questioning of the crew indicated that Elektra had split with the Charioteers over matters of principle and not been thrown out for spacing paying passengers or any such, but the information came from Terel Dow so he remained dubious. Nevertheless, Gwen prevailed (as always).
With the aid of a few more bottles of strong wine, Matsushida pried loose the story of how Sir Robert had invented the Second Republic cache to keep from being spaced. He also discovered that Sir Robert carried a broken Jumpgate amulet like the ones that had been linked with so much trouble on Pentateuch, but took no action at the time.
Inbound from the jumpgate, they passed an outbound Engineer ship that frantically tried to reverse course and follow them, but was on the wrong side of a 0.2c velocity differential.
On Barter, Elektra sold off the captured liner. Most of the proceeds were immediately eaten up by taxes, bribes, fees, and miscellaneous costs of doing business, but the remainder was still enough to fund a considerable amount of piracy.
Gwen and Matsushida sold the person of Sir Robert Griffin Hawkwood to a somewhat reputable Muster ransom broker for 1200 firebirds, which they turned over to Elektra, since she had done all the hard work of capturing him.
On the way out, they passed the Engineer ship as it was coming in, once again zipping contemptuously past it at 0.2c.
During the flight to Ravenna, Halley completed a lightning shield for Elektra, pleasing her greatly and fulfilling at least part of the bargain.
Finally, our heroes reached Ravenna, and the welcoming arms of Gwen's family. Very welcoming, in many cases, as Matsushida and his skin-tight duelist's outfit attracted many offers to test his swordsmanship. No evidence came to light that he was anything but mostly faithful to Gwen, however.
<<Captured By A Jerk [Index] Footprints In The Sand>>This file was last modified at 1635 on 22Jun99 by trip@idiom.com.