Flash fiction

Athletes practice their sports; I write to random prompts. I’ve been doing this more of late as I prepare for my first flash fiction meetup later this week. So, the other day the following prompt appeared on one of the sites I frequent: “Seventeenth century pirates pass through a time portal and find themselves nearby a modern cruise ship. Tell us what happens next.” I had 1,000 words to spend and allowed myself an hour before I needed to get back to my “real writing.” I hope you enjoy my take on this prompt.

The Apparition (or Captain Cooper’s Close Call)

Captain Angus Cooper threw off the covers, rewarding the slow dog with a sideways kick in his rush to the cabin door as the blast of sound continued to assault his eardrums. “What in the name of heaven and hell is that noise?” It came from nowhere and everywhere at once and then it stopped abruptly.

“Hard a-port!” The shout came from Pritchett, the former British Navy sailing master who had chosen The Code over being set adrift in a small boat with the other officers of the King’s Sloop Chrysalis and now served as her quartermaster and de facto second in command under the flag of the Jolly Roger.

Two men strained to turn the vessel, facing but not seeing each other as they muscled the great wheel around. The sailor facing the stern hesitated as he glanced up in horror, earning him a cuff from Pritchett.

Turning about, the Captain could not immediately discern what had caused Pritchett to order the abrupt turn or the helmsman to lose his composure. Then, as the intervening fog bank moved in the slight breeze he thought he caught a glimpse of a cresting wave. He ran to the taffrail, leaning out as far as prudence and a death grip on the log box allowed and straining his eyes to determine what the errant wave signaled.

As the shifting rudder made itself felt and his own ship began to heel in response he turned to shout over his shoulder, “I’ll have the crew on deck if you please, Mr. Pritchett!”

Turning back, he was struck speechless even as the ship’s boy ran to roust the crew. The wave had grown to rail height as it rushed toward him, already halving the distance between Chrysalis and…

‘By the saints in heaven,’ he thought as he beheld what seemed to be a great white cliff, no less imposing than those at Dover and the more dangerous as it moved past his single-masted command at a rate never before seen on sea or land. He realized the present danger was from the wave which was quickly bearing down on the starboard quarter. 

“Ease your rudder!” he shouted and then, “Hang on if you’d see another dawn!”

 The sloop hung drunkenly for a moment before starting back to vertical and had almost gained an even keel when the immense curling and churning wave overtook them, lifting and bludgeoning the stern, buckling the knees of several men just making the deck from below. Cooper reeled sideways and hugged the rail as the white water breaking over the stern threatened to carry him away.

Shouts and a few screams mixed with the sounds of crashing water and groaning lashings as the wave engulfed them, loose gear clattering and thudding until the breaker passed overboard ahead. The ship wrenched down by the bow and then the stern as the body of the wave passed underneath. Regaining his feet, Cooper saw the masthead whip forward then back, lines straining and blocks swinging crazily.  

The Captain was heartened to see the bo’sun urging men to the pumps, the rocker arm already seesawing as sailors alternated riding the handles down and the first gouts of bilge bubbled up across the deck and out the scuppers. Satisfied that his crew had the immediate emergency well in hand, he returned his gaze to the cause of the near calamity, studying the behemoth as the shifting fog revealed it to his disbelieving eyes.

The momentary view only served to increase his confusion. A ship it could only be but of this size? As the expanse of freeboard passed ahead and the stern came into view, he read off the name Pacific Empress and the homeport New Orleans, LA.  He recognized no such ship or port and what yard could have spawned this monster whose first weather deck sat higher than the Chrysalis’ masthead and with tiers of open-railed decks above seeming to rise to the sky?

He continued to watch as the fog closed around it and peeled his eyes to catch brief glimpses as the breeze tried and failed to clear the mist. Now a rushing sound ended his reverie and he returned his attention to the sea, noticing for the first time the churning wake that now made the sloop corkscrew sickeningly with the combined effects of the moving sea and the burden of seawater below that had come with the bow wave and that the pumps had not yet cleared.

For the next hour captain and crew labored to return the ship to normalcy, pumping bilges and snugging stretched lines, hanging clothing to dry and restoring equipment that had gone adrift. Entering his cabin to change, Cooper found the windows smashed and called in the boy to accomplish the task of hanging soggy charts to dry. He moved in a cloud hanging his own clothing, stunned by what the men were calling The Apparition.

Some time passed before a knock at the half-sprung door announced a messenger.

“Mr. Pritchett’s regards, Cap’n and the bilges are inspected, dry and tight. All men present and we’ve returned to track. No sign of the…er…”

“Very well, carry on.” Cooper went to close the door and found himself standing in the open frame, squinting past the men on watch in the direction IT had disappeared, wondering.

 

In the bows, two men worked with needles and bone shuttles to repair the torn bowsprit net. The younger looked over his shoulder and shook his head in disgust.

“What?” asked the older man.

“Seems to me we let go a whopping prize, is what we done.”

The wizened seaman laughed. “Son, we’re buccaneers, not fools. We make our fortune by the prizes we take; we keep our heads by the ones we let go by.”

The young man stared off after the lost prize until his partner punched his shoulder. He shook his head, grinned and returned to the task at hand.