SULA’S SONG : Part 63 : DECISIONS, DECISIONS : A World of Sea tale (Work In Progress)
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SULA’S SONG : DECISIONS, DECISIONS
Part 63
by
De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)
149971 words presently written, WORK IN PROGRESS
Copyright 2022
All rights reserved. This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.
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Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights. They may reblog the story. They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. I will allow those who do commission art works to charge for their images.
All sorts of Fan Activity, fiction, art, cosplay, music or anything else is ACTIVELY encouraged!
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NEW TO SULA’S SONG? READ FROM THE BEGINNING.
PART 1 is HERE
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The story was, as expected, pretty bad. At the end of the tally of ships damaged by attack, panic or both, it was Captain Aril who summarized, “Basically, the actual fire attack did major damage to nine ships that are, thanks to pressurized water fire fighting gear, going to be pretty easy to repair. None sank and none took major hull damage. That was the good news.
“The bad news is that ships trying to get away from the smoke had, what? Seven with severe rigging damage and minor hull damage from collisions and another eight that got rigging damage from bowsprits breaking it loose in very near miss situations.
“You have most of the rigging and minor hull damage repaired already. Three of the burned ships really need a building raft to repair properly. Personally, I would raise ONE of our building rafts and set to work!”
One of the listeners raised his hands for recognition and Captain Edvard called on him, “Captain Norin! What say you?”
Standing by his seat, he asked, “How do you plan to defend that raft? We only have the two and they are in basically the same spot. That will make them prime targets.”
Captain Mogar responded, “They already are prime targets. My guess, from what I have seen of them, the Borens would try to capture our rafts. Whether they kept them where they are or float them into Boren waters is a moot question. The thing that is NOT a question is whether they would try to use them against us. We know that they would.”
Hulden added, “That brings up a really good idea that we discussed on the way back here. WE can capture the last one of their private rafts! We could sever its anchorage hawsers and tow it into OUR waters. We were thinking of anchoring it at Sanch's Shallows. That would make it handy for us to use. We could use it for both repairs, war construction and as bait!”
“Bait? What do you mean, bait?”
Hulden snorted, “What do I mean? First, it will be a long way from OUR Gathering Rafts. Second, we are going to have to start making some serious weapons of our own. Better to make them on the Boren raft than ours. They are sure to strike at our production center. They might even sink it! If they do, they will be sinking their own raft! That is what I mean by bait!”
Captain Allison agreed, “The basic strategy is a good one. It will require us to engage at least several of the Boren fleet ships in the process. I KNOW that some of you want to give them back what they give us, I mean sinking them and either killing or leaving the survivors to drown.
“THAT IS SOMETHING THAT YOU MUST NOT DO! The Dark Dragon is here to restore the Ten Great Laws. Nothing else. We can fight by any means at our disposal. If we break those laws, that ship over there will attack us with the same efficiency that they are now using against the Boren fleet.”
“With that in mind, I move that we organize our first independent strike against the Boren fleet by taking that last privately held construction raft and bringing it here for our own use!”
With some grumbling about the restrictions on how they had to attack, the motion passed and committees were formed up to deal with the details. This was not going to be some strike concealed by the dark of the moons.
A separate committee was formed to deal with critiquing and setting up the logistics of the new defensive formation for the fleet at night. That was not going to be simple clear weather sailing! It was going to be far more complex than what they had been doing, sticking together as an organized group.
Far to the south, holding a course that only a few knew, the World Strider was being host to a convocation of Captains. The huge GREAT CABIN was crowded, each one supplied a stool which gave them a comfortable seat and ensured that all were below Karl on his high throne.
He had some of his animals circulating among the Captains, delivering packets of parchment. Done with the task, they quietly returned to Karl's throne, where leads were attached to their collars and they sat on the upper two steps of the dais until their services should be required again. One had served before and listened with care, having ideas of her own. Those had been shared among the rest of the World Strider's animals, who all now listened to everything that could be learned.
Karl opened the meeting by saying, “You all know of our War with the Corlis fleet. This meeting is to tell you all of the present situation, which has both good things and some problems.
“The war opened well, in spite of the loss of the whole battle group at their Gathering. Their fleet was thrown into disarray and shortly divided into three smaller groups. We were besieging the parts with one battle group to each part, intending to simply starve them into submission by keeping them from redweed harvesting and skelt fishing. As you all know, without those two things, people will starve, no matter what else they eat. That plan was working well.
“Just in case, we were building a substantial number of new fire-sloops and catapult bearing ships to use to attack and reduce any of the groups that did not wish to surrender to us.”
Karl gave a winning smile and lifted his hands in a gesture of humorous resignation. “Unfortunately, someone in the northernmost group of the Corlis fleet actually learned to THINK. We did not see it happen and the reports of our spies in the fleet have limited reliability. They broke the siege, destroying the entire battle group.
“They then used their tactics and numbers to free the remaining two parts of the fleet and rejoined the parts to make a not really well organized single fleet. However, they have attended to resupply fishing for redweed harvest and skelt fishing on a large scale.
“I know this for certain because I do have a captain who runs the supplies north. He is a cautious man who posted a high lookout at the top of a whipstaff. The high lookout not only reported what he saw, he assisted in keeping them from being seen. The supply ship returned with reliable news.
“We sent that mixed fleet that we had been building north. It was commanded by an able spy of ours who escaped from the Corlis fleet after the attack on their Gathering. He was chosen for knowing well how their thoughts work.
“You have all heard about the disaster that attack became. That was due to a new vessel entering the fray. Purportedly, it came from a secret fleet up in the Dragon Sea, though we did not learn that until later. In your packets, you will find all that we know of that vessel. Study that information well. I shall want your thoughts on how to deal with it.
“The attack fleet was intercepted while on its way north. That ship and two from the Corlis fleet struck at our attack fleet. It appears that about half of the fleet was either captured or sunk. In spite of that reverse, they persisted, setting up and executing a strike at the Corlis fleet.
“The spearhead of the attack went almost exactly as planned. Instead of the panic that was expected, several ships executed a turn, tacking into the wind in an organized fashion and met the spearhead directly, forcing it to break to the north and south. Only the southern action was visible to my watcher.
“As the spearhead broke to the south, catapult fire from the Corlis fleet took out some of the jibs of our ships, causing loss of control and confusion. One of the ships from the previous attack closed in on them and did much rigging damage and apparently put several into a sinking condition.
“That was when that big black ship closed in from the east, out of the sun, and trapped and smashed the rear of the attack. Our watcher did not stay to be caught. In spite of its size, that big black ship is very fast.”
Karl leaned back on his throne and casually stroked the head of one of his animals. “The Corlis fleet has not had it all their way. On the recent Moonsless night, we had a good solid strike against them. When our ships left, we had no casualties of any sort. The same cannot be said for the Corlis fleet!
“They had nine ships afire and seven more damaged by collisions caused by panic. They did have the toxic smoke of nine burning ships to avoid! That panic was not wholely unjustified!”
One of the assembled Captains, leafing through his packet, raised a hand for recognition. After he got it, he stood and shook his head, “We were not the only ones to use the Dark of the Moons. I see that you have informed us about the sinking of the Norden Group's building raft at the same time that we were hitting them.
“Is this not a serious disaster? How shall we make more weapons without a building raft to make them on?”
Karl nodded, beaming as he leaned forward intently, “Excellently asked, Captain Greis! The new weapon is a small, extremely simple dory built boat with some special design and building features. Essentially it is a very cheap device for using anhydrous drier in strong alcohol and light oil to create a large fire that will spread widely! They are so simple that they can be made on shipboard! The only real limit to making them is the available supplies!
“Those ships who will undertake this task, will receive supplies to work with and provisions for your crews.
“I have been candid with you because I want your ideas. While we are awaiting the banquet that is coming, I want you to confer with each other. We are seeking ideas for neutralizing that ship. If we can capture it, that would be best. Anything that might sink it is good too. Any weapons that might harm it are worthwhile.
“Now, let us go up on deck while our banquet is laid.”
“Who the hell is that?” You said as you moved closer to Jaehyun.
He looked around. “Who?”
You pointed to the DJ booth. There was a girl leaning over the side of the booth trying to talk to Johnny. “Her. Who is she?”
Jaehyun watched them for a couple seconds before turning back to you. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen her before.”
“Something about her is familiar but I don’t know why.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like, her face isn’t familiar but the way she moves is? I don’t know, I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before.”
He looked at you.
“Sorry, I know that doesn’t make sense.”
He shook his head. “I think I know what you mean.”
You nodded at him and watched the girl for a few more seconds as you danced to the music. You were aware that Jaehyun was watching you, and you leaned back to him. “She needs to go away.”
Jaehyun looked at you questioningly.
“It’s getting close to midnight and she’s monopolizing Johnny.”
Jaehyun checked his watch. “Shit, you’re right. She’s about to ruin all our hard work.”
You leaned in closer, and you hadn’t realized before that Jaehyun smelled so good. Probably because you had never been this close to him before. No, you had been but you were drunk the last time and didn’t remember. You shook your head and remembered what you were talking about.
“He-- he said he was definitely going to ask her out?”
“Yeah. I--” Jaehyun’s ears were pink, and you hoped it was from all the dancing. He shook his head. “I told him he should ask her out and he said he already decided.”
You nodded. You felt less convinced than you had earlier but you wanted to believe it was going to happen.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I just…” you sighed. “I don’t know. I wish she’d go away. Why does she want to talk to him so bad? And why is he smiling?”
I had to google that word cause I'm an old lady pardon me 👵
YEA, TOTALLY LOL
I like that I made her remove herself from the situation cause that girl couldn't have kept quiet and the Shelliott flirting COULD NOT BE DISTURBED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES
