#adventure in the great wide somewhere series

So, who wanted a Book of Mormon Age of Sail AU? (Me. I did. So I wrote one.) One chapter of an unknown number in an interconnected series, in this part Captain Nabulungi engages in a gam with Lieutenant McKinley and offers a trade…

Adventure In The Great Wide Somewhere (Part 1.)
Age of Sail AU, inspired by the true events of The Essex, HMS Bounty and HMS Pandora (for further information read Nathaniel Philbrick’s In The Heart Of The Sea and Caroline Alexander’s The Bounty.)

“What do you mean ‘most of your crew can’t swim’ do you know how stupid that is?” Captain Nabulungi asked the moment the door to the captain’s cabin had been closed behind her. She knew better of ship discipline than to publicly berate the commanding officer in front of his crew and she was already pushing her boundaries by insisting that all gams between Lion Queen andThe Moroni took place on Lieutenant McKinley’s vessel, instead of her own.

Until she could trust him she wasn’t having him on board Lion Queen; she needed those maps her castaways had firmly in her possession before she’d hand them over to anyone. She had started to become attached to them at any rate, the taller was a strong navigator – finer than any she’d known since Ghali – and the shorter was, entertaining. He made her smile. She wasn’t about to hand them over to authority without reassurance. And the knowledge that this Lieutenant had a ship full of sailors who could not swim didn’t fill her with confidence.

Lieutenant McKinley looked like he was regretting sharing that particular facet of his crew’s deficiencies.

“We were mustered on short notice Captain, upon hearing reports of the sinking of The Utah, she was last sighted in this district. I ask again, have you any news of her, or have your crew reported any flotsam that could be of a brig of her calibre?” He looked tired as he asked, but her resolve did not waver.

Her answer was technically truthful, she had learned the difference between a lie and a slight of hand early in her nautical career – as cabin girl she had more than once found herself in compromising positions on the orders of her captain, and she had learnt to maintain her innocence even with her hands on the sea chest in question – and this Lieutenant had asked of The Utah and of flotsam spotted in the vicinity. He had not asked about castaways or whether Gotswana had spotted the whale which corresponded with her guests claims of being stove in.

“Perhaps-” she didn’t know why she was offering an alternative but the Lieutenant’s face had fallen further, “-perhaps if your crew learn to swim then my crew may, chance, upon a memory.”

She turned her most winning smile on him. Sometimes, when you were dealing with sailors the smile of a pretty girl was as effective as any weapon. This Lieutenant however seemed unaffected by her smile, but frowned thoughtfully at her words

“My crew can all swim,” she said with a shrug, “They will teach you.”

She outlined her plan. They could moor together at the nearest island – visible on the horizon, with a good bay wide enough for both ships and while some crew from The MoroniandLion Queen could go ashore to collect fresh supplies, the rest could teach in the bay. “Less sharks in shallow water,” she said with a grin, surprised when he smiled back at her - “There are sharks everywhere” – that, she supposed, was true. It would not take more than a few weeks at most, she knew her crew to be more than capable and Kimbay had taught Nabulungi more than she cared to admit. Her crew could take an untrained crew and turn them into something capable. She would have to keep her castaways below decks, but that would be a small price for them to pay in the end. She had books. They would be entertained. And the taller had to copy his maps for her in payment for safe passage.

“Are you offering a trade? If you can teach my men to swim, then you will give me information about the whereabouts of The Utah and her disappearance. Excuse me Captain-” Nabulungi was impressed, despite herself that he did not stumble once over the word and call her ‘miss’, she knew that women did not serve whichever institute he originated from, but he respected her authority, greater than his own, at least on paper.

“- But I do not see how you benefit from this trade. And that makes me suspicious. As I am sure you can understand.”

So, he wasn’t as desperate as he sounded. He had some savvy. Perhaps she could entrust her cargo to him, once she had what she wanted.

“There are pirates in these waters,” she said, simply.

He didn’t react, after all this district of the sea was notorious for its danger – it was simply chance that The Utah had been stove by a whale as opposed to raided and set afire, her crew still aboard. The Admiral was in this waters too, and he was worse than any whale. Ships went missing all the time, flotsam washed up and reports of loss were rife in every port along the coast. There were not normally search parties. Nabulungi wondered why. From what her guests had revealed, there had been nothing special about The Utah, and no secrets in her crew or mission. She was a trading ship. Nothing more. And now she was at the bottom of the ocean, along with so many others. Lieutenant McKinley’s desperation to find this one ship in particular was a mystery

Nabulungi had always loved a mystery. She wanted to know what filled the blank spaces of the map, she always had.

“There are pirates in these waters, and if my crew trains yours, then you will be indebted to me. There are certain, delays on my ship-” the surviving crew he was searching for attending her papers and filling in the gaps in her own charts, but Lieutenant McKinley did not need to know that “- that mean we cannot move far from our given course. Should your ship with your crew and your weapons be on hand we are granted protection.”

She was being completely honest.

She thought she would hammer the message home.

“We will both be sarer as a convoy, you see Lieutenant, I cannot stop myself from helping you.”

Just as she took responsibility for the wellbeing of her crew, so did he. She had phrased her offer just so to ensure that he appeared to have all the cards, and had to offer very little in recompense.

“Will you stay for supper Captain?” He said, leaning against his desk. The formal set of his shoulders dropped, the discussion, the parley was over. He had made his decision, whichever it was. And it was for her now, to wait.

“No, I must return to my own people and my own ship.” She turned, her hand on the handle – one flimsy door that stood between her and the open sea. Sometimes Nabulungi thought that she had been born loving the sea. She breathed salt and bled brine.

“Signal me at dawn once you have made your decision. It is a foolish thing, not to be able to swim when you are surrounded by water on all sides, Lieutenant.”