The Graveyard of Empires - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The Discussion of Plots Most Nefarious

Blackburn woke up alone, and he didn't like that much. It made him nervous to have Lady Sterling creeping around when he wasn't there to keep an eye on her. Four days they'd been in this ship, the drives cranked out to full speed to get them across the expanse of the Pacific. He got up and stretched. Amazing what a few days of decent food and hot baths would do for a man's outlook. He smelled Victoria's perfume and grinned wolfishly to himself. Getting well-fucked every day didn't hurt either. She might be a proper English lady of some kind, but she screwed like minx with her tail on fire.

He went into the washroom and rubbed hot water on his face, through his curly hair and made it lie down in some kind of order - he would need to trim it soon, or start wearing a kerchief on his damned head. He pulled on a shirt and some pants, went out on deck belting on his sword. Even in the middle of nowhere he didn't like going around unarmed.

The sun was bright enough to make him squint, and he held up a hand to shade his eyes as he came out into the day. Even at this height it was hot, and it must be murderous down close to the water. The air was still and hazy, and he didn't like that. They were sailing right in the middle of monsoon season, and all they needed was for a storm to blow up and wreck them out here in the middle of nowhere.

He climbed up to the helm and found Zheng at the controls, just watching with the wheel locked down. There was no reason to take the wheel unless there was something to run into. Zheng smirked at him. "Good nights' sleep? I could use some myself. Come take the wheel."

"Sure," Blackburn said, yawning. "Her Ladyship been in yet?"

"Aye, came to check the course, sniffed at me and fucked off." Zheng shook his head. "She says we're going to some shit down in Mexico. I say this whole thing smells bad. We can just pitch her overboard and take this ship and go anywhere we want."

"With nothing?" Blackburn said. "Much better to be off with a pile of gold."

"Sure, you think we'll ever get it? I don't. That bitch is planning to scuttle us the first chance she gets." Zheng yawned. "Just remember I said that when I'm right."

"I will," Blackburn said as his mate sauntered off the bridge and headed below. He checked all the instruments and corrected their heading a bit. At this speed they went off course rather quick, and you had to watch it. Spend too long staring at the horizon and they'd end up in Argentina.

It wasn't long before Victoria came in, looking small and smart and put-together even after four days of being on board a ship and taking his cock everywhere it would fit. She wore a white shirt, tight black pants and a black vest. Her tall boots sounded like tiny hooves on the decking. She wore a shiny, nickel-plated pistol snugged into a holster across her belly in a gambler's draw. The wide-brimmed black hat completer her look, and he found it stirred him even as it annoyed him. "Good morning, your Highness," he said.

"Good morning, Mister Blackburn," she said, just as if they were meeting in church and she hadn't spent last night riding his cock like a runaway bull. "I trust we are still on course."

"You checked it yourself," he said. "You know we are. Be there pretty soon - another day or so. What's this town's name again?"

"Las Penas," she said. "You remember that."

"I do, I just like asking you the same questions over and over to see if you give the same answers." He chuckled.

"Now what kind of liar would I be if I forgot which lie I was telling?" she said. "Keep up like that, and I may take it as an insult."

He snorted. "I come all this way at your say-so, you'd better take more than that."

She smirked. "I seem to remember taking quite a lot."

"Indeed, I hope that's lingering in your mind." He pulled her in and gave her backside a squeeze.

There was a quick sound and he felt something sharp up under his chin where he couldn't see it. He swallowed and she giggled rather menacingly. "Please do remember, Mister Blackburn, that I am an agent of the Crown, and not a pirate doxy. I have enjoyed letting you bounce off me to your little heart's content, but it would be a mistake to think of that as implying any rights or freedoms regarding my person you would not expect from any proper lady." She gave him a small poke with whatever it was. "Do you understand me?"

"Well, you don't seem to understand me much, lady. Otherwise you'd have it in your head that poking me with some little lizard-stick isn't going to do much but make me hard." He grinned at her.

Her free hand, covered in a smooth silk glove, slid down and caressed his cock through his pants. "Oh, I see it is," she breathed archly. "And who is to say that is not exactly what I had in mind? Hmmm?" She took the knife or pin away from his skin, and by the time he looked down she'd hidden it away, so he wasn't even sure what it was or where she got it. "Pity you have to watch the helm. We'll have some more fun later, but by nightfall things will get a good bit more interesting. I promise."

She went off, straight-backed and proper as you like while he looked hungrily after her. "You keep promising, missy, and sooner or later you'll have to pay up."

---

He was inside her when the alarm sounded. She was crouched on all fours, taking every inch of him as he pounded away inside her, when the siren went off and he heard the men coming awake, running feet. Victoria flipped her hair out of the way and pouted. "Well, a bit early."

He grabbed her hair and pinned her down. "Who is?" he growled, his cock throbbing inside her.

"Unh. Your other ships, you idiot. Did you think you were going to take California with this scow?" She squirmed. "Now get off me before I make you."

"Not likely," he snarled. He gave her five more hard strokes, then pulled out and dragged her around. She made a half-annoyed sound as he fed her his cock and stroked his come out onto her tongue. He rubbed some of the mess on her chin and then got off the bed. "There, some grease for your silver tongue." He grabbed his pants as someone started pounding on the door.

"You better get out here!" Zheng yelled. "We ran into a whole damned fleet!"

Blackburn stared down Sterling as he pulled up his pants. "All stop and bring us abeam," he said through the door. He reached for his shirt. "They're here to meet us, not fight."

Zheng shoved the door open and stood there staring at him. "You knew about this?"

"No," Blackburn said. "She did." He indicated the quite naked Lady Sterling, who made no effort to cover up, just wiped her chin with her thumb and then sucked it clean with a loud smack.

"You're going to trust her?" Zheng said.

"Too late not to," Lance said. He stepped into his boots and grabbed his swordbelt. "Come on, man. We're outlaws, we roll the dice all the time. So let's roll big." He clapped Zheng on the shoulder and then headed up on deck. He took the helm and cut the drives. It was strange, after days, to hear them wind down. In truth, he'd been worried about them for a while, as he was really pushing them and he didn't know what kind of shape they were in.

The night was dark, with the half-moon hiding behind the clouds. For a moment he didn't see anything but darkness, and he cut the lights inside the helm so he would have a clear view. He nudged the engines into enough reverse to slow them down, and cut their speed down to nothing. Once they were dead in the sky he shut down the drive and left the helm, walked out onto deck. The men were gathered, looking uncertain and scared, whatever Zheng was telling them didn't seem to help much.

"Stop terrorizing them, Zheng," he said. He touched the butt of the gun on his hip and wished he had a bigger one. He looked up into the black night sky and saw nothing, and then light blazed down seemingly from nowhere. He put up a hand to cover his eyes, and when they adjusted some he was able to make out a ship - a huge ship. It was easily three times the length of this one, maybe bigger. As lights kept coming on he kept seeing more of it.

Zheng stared upwards, his jaw hanging open like the rest of them. "Holy fuck," he said.

"Indeed," Lady Sterling said, appearing from the aft cabin as neatly dressed as if she were on her way to the theater. "There is no warship in the world bigger than this one. Stand up and say hello to the Avenger, gentlemen." She smirked. "Well, Captain Blackburn, do you like your new ship?"

---

They drew alongside, and then the great gangplank of the warship extended, hissing with steam, and banged down on the deck. The other men stood staring, afraid. They had never seen a ship this big before - hell, neither had he. He'd heard of big ships, everyone had stories about giant airships in Asia somewhere, or in lost kingdoms in Africa, but he'd never heard of one this size. It was a true behemoth.

"Come on aboard, Captain," Lady Sterling said, crooking a finger at him. "All of you. She's been waiting for us." She went right up the ramp, and damned if he was going to stand here while she went on ahead. He put his left hand on his sword and went on up, trusting in Zheng to get the rest of the crew up after him.

Inside it was a marvel, everything new and clean and polished. The floors were sanded, and the lights were down by your feet you they let you see where you were going and didn't get in your eyes. There was a lot of brass and wood, but mostly steel, and he liked that. No copper-sheathed wood nonsense for this ship.

He followed Sterling along the corridors, seeing men who snapped to attention and threw him rather sardonic salutes. They had a rough, bitter look about them, and he was glad for that. "How many men does it take to crew this monster?" he said. He followed her ass up a companionway and down a hall that opened oval hatches on gun mounts. he saw the automated systems for bringing up the shells from the armored magazines and smiled. No accidental ammunition explosions.

"Forty, not including gun crews," she said. "Right now the complement is two-hundred and ninety men. One hundred gunners, forty sailors, and one hundred and fifty marines."

"Marines? Not proper marines," he said.

"I use the term in the classic sense of a fighting man aboard a ship. I'm afraid your crew is almost entirely made up of convicts and men discharged from the navy under less than honorable circumstances." She turned down a wider hall and then went up a short flight of steps. The doors opened and he stepped out into a bridge - not a simple helm but a proper bridge indeed. It was all polished woods and brass, gleaming instruments and wide windows that looked out over the night. he saw the moon glowing reflected in the seas down below.

Eight men stood to attention, one of them barking "Captain on the bridge!"

"Stand easy," he said without thinking. Then he looked at Victoria. "What the devil have you gotten me into?"

"I have gotten you into the command of a ship bigger and more powerful than any other that flies," she said. "On route you will be joined by forty or more other warships of various types - including the one you so thoughtfully stole - and with that fleet you will descend on California and conquer it."

"How the hell does something like this even fly?" he said. "I never saw a ship this big. You'd think if someone made one it would be news."

A new voice joined them. "It vud be noose, but it is ze very kind of noose zat is kept from ze pepple."

Blackburn turned and saw a rather short man come into the bridge. He was bald and bespectacled, with a narrow mustache and a black glove on one hand. "And you are?"

"Doctor Abel Rotwang," the man said in a thick Germanic accent. "I am a mechanician zat has been engaged to make ze repairs and ze improvements to zis vanderful ship." He smiled. "As you say, zis is a very great zing, but zis ship is vun of five such ships zat bombarded Vashington last vinter. Von vas shot down, three are missing, and zis one vas recovered by those who employ us."

"There are three more of these?" Blackburn said, turning on Victoria.

She waved a hand. "They will not be of concern. In fact, they may even help you. But the crucial element is that the United States Government will have nothing whatsoever that will be able to match this vessel. Certainly nothing in a backwater like California. The naval bases there are small and undermanned, with obsolete ships left over from the war. They will not be able to stop you."

Blackburn chewed his lip. He was sure there wa splenty they were not telling him, but he was not going to get answers by asking for them - he would have to play along. He smiled. "I assume you have a course picked out for me, your Ladyship?"

"I do, of course," she smiled that sly smile.

"Well then, go lay it in and we'll be underway." He smacked her backside as she went past him. "Full bloody speed ahead."

Continued in Chapter 8

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