Page created by: Jilli
© WebPages by Jilli 1997
All rights reserved
"PIRATES"
by: RAY PIERSON aka MID_KNIGHT
The tall ship cruised the dark green water of the Sargasso Sea. In it's sunken holds sat fortunes unimaginable, not to mention rats of equally unimaginable proportions. Rich bounties of gold, platium, silver and other Earthly metals now resided in this place. All the treasure was plundered from the holds and misfortunes of other sea- faring vessels.The sky was clear, and the wind strong. The kind of weather that held great promises of a safe, not to mention profitable, trip south. The voyage home.
THE SHIP'S name was the WILLFULLY INTREPID. Not many men had ever gotten close enough to discover it's name. The ones who did usually didn't live long enough to relay it. You see the W. INTREPID employed a most diabolical method of acquiring it's prey. It disquised itself as a friendly vessel in distress. Springing on it's prey as soon as it was within range of it's massive armory.
The W. INTREPID was a pirates ship, and a very stout one. Boosting fifty cannon that blistered her hull both above and below deck. Her contruction was of the world's incredibly strong 'iron wood', making her practically invulnerable to the conventional weapons her opponents trained on her. The crew was well seasoned, disciplined and loyal to her captain.
The W. INTREPID was returning to it's home port in the Caribbean after nine months at sail. Her crew was exhausted, guns almost empty and hull taking on water, after several terrible poundings the Spanish Navy had given her. Her time at sea at been profitable, to say the least, but had taken its toll.
All seemed well until the lone sailor mounted precariously in the ship's crows nest started screaming something that was difficult to understand for the crewmen on the deck below. He was pointing wildly, arm waving toward the southwest.
The other sailors first turned their pale eyes on him and then toward the southwest. Their mouths fell open, hands crossed chest and prayers passed lips, while still others just stood there, looking in awe and dumb struck at the southwestern horizon. Someone called, "GET THE CAPTAIN ON DECK!!".
A lone man scurried below deck, the others stayed put, their eyes still solidly transfixed on a sky that they were all certain no other sailor had ever seen, or seen and lived to tell about it!Dark red and phosphorescent green clouds were boiling in the south- western sky as they moved in on the ship and they were moving quite fast, lightning possessed by every color of the rainbow discharged down to the frothing sea below.
The Captain appeared on deck and was immediately struck by the awe of the rapidly approaching storm of color and electrical violence. Fortunately, his awe was broken by deeply rooted instincts of command and some self-preservation, and he bagan barking out orders.
"Bring her about 200 degrees Helmsman! Deckmaster get those sails trimmed! We need to make flank if we are going to out run this one!", he commanded. "AYE SIR!" was the response from the men. The sailors on the deck took off in a myriad of directions, each knowing his job and moving as quickly as possible to do it.The Captain turned and quickly climbed the ladder to the bridge in order to be next to the Helmsman, also the view of the incredible storm was better from the higher deck.
The odd storm closed in on the ship, the colors of the clouds and the sea danced madly across the spectrum. The masts of the tall ship then came ablaze with the ghostly glow of Saint Elmo's fire as the very sun's illumination took on a sickly green-gray hue.
The W. INTREPID'S attempt to outrun the storm was in vain, it overtook the ship within minutes after the Captain had given the order to run. Not a drop of rain fell on deck. The winds that blew so solidly only moments earlier were now gone, and all was still. The storm had engulfed the ship in a web of complete and utter silence. Awestruck again, the Captain looked up at the now bright green clouds that filled the sky as they began to change color again. As they did a strange feeling came over him, he had the most unusual impression that something in the strange clouds was looking back at him. He was almost certain that there was an intelligence of some sort within this phenomenon.
Not more than a few seconds after he had pondered the designs of this odd storm, it's true nature was revealed. A large metallic mast lowered itself from the amorphous clouds. From either side of the mast beams searingly bright light fired. The twin light beams struck the W. INTREPID'S main deck just over the cargo holds. The deck didn't even have time to catch fire, the beams of light cut a perfect circle in the strong iron wood.
The mast then lowered itself through the freshly burned hole in the ships's once strong deck to the cargo hold below. It remained there for only a few moments and then withdrew silently back into the strange clouds. Instantly the clouds began to disperse, the sunlight began to shine yellow again.
The treasure was gone, even the rats had been taken. The hull was now completely empty, hollow in fact. All the walls that parti- tioned off the hull into sections had been taken as well.
The W. INTREPID was in trouble. The weight of the treasure gone, along with all the ship's below deck ballast, she began to rise out of the water as helpless as a toy boat in a bathtub. The weight of her tall masts now making the ship top hopelessly heavy.
The Captain knew this was the end of his fine ship. From where he was standing on the bridge he had been able to see right down into the hold while the sky mast was there. He had seen all the treasure he and his men had fought so very hard for glow the same green as the cloud, for a moment, and then vanish like smoke into the strange mast. His swift mind had ben able to realize what this meant to his ship besides the financial repercussions.
"Abandon Ship!!!", he yelled to the men around him. "Pass it on!!" As the words were passing his lips the W. INTREPID rolled onto her side with a tremendous crash. The crew didn't have a chance. The empty hold filled with water in seconds, the large hole in the deck aiding this event with deadly consequences. The ship sank to the bottom, the vacuum it created as it sank dragging her helpless crew down with her.
THE smooth composite alloy of the Starship's hull parted the atmosphere of the little planet with the ease of a scalpel. It's name was the U. DIPERTNI. Never in it's long career as a pirate ship had anyone ever seen it, or any part of it and lived to relay it. The U. DIPERTNI headed Northwest toward it's home port, it's cargo holds full of Earthly metals.
written by: RAY / MID_KNIGHT
e-mail: rpierson@superlink.net
Page created by: Jilli
Sign Our Guestbook
View Our Guestbook
