Calm Sea, Turbulent Ships

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 19, Post Number 451

-On board The Traveling Merchant, midday-

Victoria had been referred to this client by her old pal Captain Kooh. Apparently he knew an ex-navy colleague who needed a little extra muscle and Victoria was looking for some work that did not involve fighting demons. Victoria was hired because the client was shipping a cargo of valuable food and salt through shipping lanes where pirates were known to look for merchant ships to prey on. Victoria had been hired as extra muscle to supplement the crew, which was full of merchants and short on fighters. The ship had a complement of about four dozen fighting men and two dozen cannon for self-defense; twelve cannon were stationed on each side of the ship. The Traveling Merchant was a merchant vessel, not a full-fledged combat vessel.

The Traveling Merchant's captain, a tall, lanky fellow by the name of Captain Mercator, was not expecting any significant pirate activity today because only hours ago a navy patrol had swept through the very lane that the ship was traveling through now. However, he did not believe that the pirates would stay away for very long after the patrol, so he had put out a call for any fighting men and mages willing to sail on this voyage. Captain Kooh had suggested that she take this job and Victoria, wanting to change things up a bit by going somewhere where the undead or demons were unlikely to appear, agreed. Now she was part of the hired muscle patrolling the deck of The Traveling Merchant and feeling the wind blow through her long brown hair.

Dressed in her green t-shirt, black skirt with black bike shorts on underneath it, and white tennis shoes, Victoria also wore her Azure Armor and Bandolier to be ready for action because when pirates attacked she would not have time to suit up and arm herself. If the pirates came calling the brunette was already geared up to repel them. She and the other hired guns had been given orders from Captain Mercator himself to shoot to kill any pirates who tried to board or succeeded in boarding the vessel. Victoria had no problem with those orders, especially since the captain had made it clear that the pirates who prowled the Calm Sea were unpredictable when it came to taking prisoners.

The midday sun was beating down on the open deck of the three-masted ship as the blue-uniformed crew worked the sails and the men in the crow's nest kept an eye out for trouble. The sea was calm; the worst that happened was the occasional high wave that threatened to splash over the railing, but otherwise the Calm Sea lived up to its name. That was good news because this was only the second time the brunette had been out at sea and she was not keen on being tossed around by turbulent waters. It was an easy job so far, but that was because they were not in the danger zone yet. The Traveling Merchant was roughly 60 kilometers from the danger zone where pirates were most likely to strike.

Victoria listened to the dull roar of the waves splashing against the side of the ship and kept patrolling the deck until she was scheduled to be relieved in four hours. It was dull and tedious work made even duller and more tedious by the unrelenting sun beating down on her. Her armor was not helping things either because it had accumulated four hours' worth of heat buildup, but she could not afford to take it off because pirates could appear at any moment and it would take a lot of time to put on, time that she might not have to spare. There was always a cheeky pirate captain or two who would try to attack at unexpected times and from unexpected angles.

Victoria had expected a seagoing vessel to be a little more... lively, for lack of a better word. TV and movie Lacrimas had always shown the crew of a vessel singing or playing instruments, but TV and movies were not exactly a good guide to how things worked in real life. This was one of those times where the expectation did not match the reality.

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-Four hours later, late afternoon-

Victoria had been relieved of guard duty for the time being and was below deck in the galley eating a plate of baked fish with some of the other hired guns who were off duty. Others were sitting at a corner table in the back and either playing Texas Hold 'Em or standing and watching the action unfold. Victoria was not about to throw her Jewels away on that game, so she kept to her baked fish and mug of coffee. She was here to earn money, not to give it away.

So far the voyage had been a peaceful one with no sign of pirates. The greatest enemy the hired guns had to fight was boredom and there was plenty of that to go around. There was nothing to do but walk the deck and try not to get heatstroke since there was precious little shelter from the unrelenting sun and everyone had forgotten to bring sunscreen.

Victoria was drinking her coffee when a lot of cheering erupted from the corner. Someone had just won a big hand and another player did not take well to the loss. However, there were no signs of impending hostilities, only a grudging respect for the winner.

"Damn it, Captain! You took me to the cleaners! I had three of a kind Aces! That shoulda won the hand!" A lanky brown-haired man wearing olive green fatigues lamented to a red-haired man wearing a brown bush hat and an eyepatch. The redhead simply put a cigarette in his mouth, lit it, and smiled.

"I told you you were gonna lose, Ken." The man said casually. Ken took a moment to get over his frustration, then calmly pushed the winnings over to the captain. He got up from the table and went elsewhere to calm down. Victoria looked towards the man and saw that he was now holding court with the men around him, who were all wearing olive green fatigues like Ken. The captain himself wore olive green fatigues with a brown bush hat and a black eyepatch over his left eye.

as he and some others settled in for another game he was regaling the men with all manner of stories like the time he had taken cover in a trench to avoid artillery fire and found that a shell had dropped into the same trench only two meters to his left. He scrambled as far away from it as he could get before it exploded, but to his immense relief it did not detonate. Examination after the battle by an Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician with nerves of steel revealed that the shell that had landed in the trench was a dud.

Victoria went back to her fish and coffee and finished both within six minutes. She took the plate and mug to the galley sink and washed them herself, then put them to the right side of the sink on a blue-and-white draining towel that had been left for that exact purpose. The brunette had dried her hands and was about to take her leave of the galley when she heard a high-pitched whistle.

"Hey you!" The captain's voice called out to her. Victoria clenched her teeth and turned around to find the captain staring at her with a single blue eye.

"Hey lady, wanna join us for a game of Texas Hold 'Em?" He asked with a smile. The cigarette was hanging out of the right corner of his mouth as he spoke to her.

"No thanks, mister. I'm here to earn money, not to throw it away." Victoria turned down the man's request. The men beside him began to laugh at the candor of her answer and the captain himself smiled.

"Heh heh. You're probably one of the smartest people in the room, lady. But I don't really care about saving money. Once we buy replacement weapons and ammunition after getting paid, we tend to spend the rest of it on booze, cigarettes, and women." The captain complimented her for her good sense before explaining that he was not interested in saving money.

"People like us don't tend to live to retirement age, so we figure that we'll have what fun we can before we die." He added. Murmurs of agreement rose from the men around the table. Victoria looked at the men and saw that they were rough-looking and hard-living men who had been in battles all around the world. They had seen a lot of rough things and had been through a lot of rough things. They did not seem like the type to follow the stock market, watch soap operas, or play golf in their spare time.

"I see." Victoria replied laconically. The captain kept his eye on her and asked a question.

"You must be a tough customer if you took this job. What's your name, lady?" He asked.

"Victoria Sheridan." She answered. The one-eyed man thought about it for a moment and then blinked.

"Wait a minute. I've heard the name Sheridan somewhere before." He said to her. Now Victoria was interested in what he had to say. Had he met her adopted father somewhere in the past?

"I knew a Sheridan. I knew a guy named Lawrence Sheridan." He said to her. Victoria's interest increased when he said that. He got up from his seat and strode over to the brunette, then examined her face closely with the cigarette seated firmly in the right corner of his mouth. She did not know what he was hoping to find by examining her so closely.

"Are you his daughter?" The captain asked point-blank.

"I'm his adopted daughter." She answered calmly while looking him in the eye. The captain stepped back and blinked.

"That you are." He answered cryptically. He turned to the men and spoke.

"Gentlemen, you're in the presence of Lawrence Sheridan's adopted daughter!" The captain proclaimed. The men could not believe what they had just been told.

"What's your name?" Victoria asked the captain.

"Oh, right! I forgot my manners! I'm Captain Carl Henderson, but people just call me Captain!" The one-eyed redhead finally introduced himself to the brunette.

Captain Henderson:

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"OK, Captain." Victoria said simply. The Captain smiled.

"You said you're his adopted daughter, right?" He asked. Victoria nodded.

"How did you meet Lawrence?" The redhead inquired. The Captain's men stopped shuffling cards and focused on Victoria, who remained calm despite the multiple eyes boring into her. They probably thought that she was a fake trying to name drop Lawrence Sheridan for some credibility in the mercenary world. The brunette knew that he had done some mercenary work, but she had no idea that he was a big name in some circles.

"It started one night when I was ten years old. I was living in Capital Crocus, but my house wasn't some million-Jewel pad with a two-car garage. I lived in the bad part, the part of the city that's so bad the police don't go in without a lot of backup. I was running the back alleys with some friends looking for food when we were attacked by slavers." Victoria started the story of how she had met her adopted father. It was an unpleasant one of running for her life while the others had been rounded up and shipped off to wherever they would sell for the highest price. Victoria hesitated for a moment before continuing.

"We had just found some decent food in a trash can when these sketchy-looking guys came up to us. They pulled out weighted nets and shackles. Things went to shit in a hurry... a lot of my friends got captured right away because it's hard to fight someone with a two-foot height advantage and weighing at least one hundred pounds more than you. Anyway, I was somehow able to get away and tried to run for it, but those guys caught up with me and soon I got cornered in a dead end." Victoria continued the story, condensing it so that Captain Henderson and his men got the relevant parts without needless commentary. Some of the men winced about the part where Victoria and her friends had found food in a trash can. Others kept a straight face... they had probably had to do the same thing themselves before they joined the captain's unit.

"Back then I was just a four-foot-tall street kid with her back to the wall facing down four burly dudes with weighted nets and shackles. I didn't have my magic yet and there was no way in Hell I was gonna be able to beat them all without a weapon. There weren't any weapons. I stood with my back to the wall and four slavers approaching me and taking their sweet time about it. They knew that I wasn't going anywhere." Victoria recounted the part where she had been cornered in a dead end with no way out but through the slavers. She recalled the terror she felt and recalled the twisted joy on the faces of the slavers. She also recalled hoping against hope that someone would rescue her.

"I was convinced that I was going to become just another statistic, another missing street kid no one gave a shit about. But someone stepped up right when I needed them the most. He came to my rescue and slipped up behind a slaver. He cut the guy's throat with a big knife before the slaver could even scream. The other three slavers didn't last much longer." Victoria recounted the abrupt reversal of fortune that prevented her from becoming just another statistic added to the tally of missing children that no one paid attention to because they were not from a rich family.

"My rescuer was some tall, burly dude with short blond hair who was so muscular that he could lift and throw a motorcycle at someone if he wanted to. He also had some scars on his face. He wasn't exactly a knight in shining armor, but at that time I didn't care. He was my hero. It's no exaggeration to say that he saved my life." Victoria finished the story of how she had met Lawrence Sheridan. The captain smiled again.

"That sounds a lot like how Lawrence operates. He's really quiet for such a tall and muscular guy. He also carries a big knife around and he knows how to use it. Anyone within arm's reach of him while he's holding that knife is as good as dead." The captain said. It was Victoria's turn to smile.

"Lawrence is rough around the edges, but he's a good guy. He took me in and taught me how to read, write, and do basic arithmetic the best he could. He also taught me the finer points of vodka. He gave me his last name so that people wouldn't think that I was an illegitimate child. Most of all, he taught me magic so that I'd never be cornered in a back alley again." Victoria told the group. Most of the men chuckled about the vodka part. Captain Henderson laughed too.

"You're the real deal alright. You know things about him that few other people do, things that you can only learn about him from being around him." The captain gave his verdict on the veracity of Victoria's claim to being his adopted daughter. Now that the captain had said once and for all that she was related to Lawrence Sheridan, the men seemed to warm up to her. That was good.

"I don't think that Lawrence ever planned to adopt and raise a girl, but he did the best he could. He stepped up when no one else would. He saved me when I needed rescuing the most and I'll never forget that." Victoria commented further.

"Speaking of Lawrence, how's he doing nowadays?" The captain asked.

"I don't know, Captain. He left me when I was 17. I've been looking for him ever since." Victoria answered truthfully. The redhead blinked with his remaining eye.

"Do you think he went to go back to work, Captain?" A man in olive green fatigues with short brown hair and a clean-shaven face asked the captain.

"I don't know, Mike. I didn't think that Lawrence was ever gonna retire. He always said that the only place he ever really felt alive was on a battlefield." Captain Henderson answered the man's question. Victoria knew exactly where her adopted father was coming from. The brunette felt the same way and took the most dangerous jobs she could find for high pay. For awhile Victoria was starting to lose that thrill-seeking tendency thanks to the influence of Ryo, Gaia, Itori, and Abigail Windstrider, but she had never fully given up her thrill-seeking ways. Now they were starting to come back with a vengeance.

Why else would she willingly sail on a merchant vessel that was sailing into shipping lanes that pirates were known to frequent?

Victoria had called it a vacation from fighting cultists and their summoned demons. However, her idea of a vacation did not match the normal idea of a vacation. Most ordinary people went to a theme park or to Crescent Island whenever they wanted to get away from their troubles. Not Victoria. She found the most dangerous places in Earthland to go and explore for a vacation.

Maybe the brunette should do what normal people did and book a stay at Crescent Island some time. It would be much more relaxing than fighting pirates. It would also do wonders for her lifespan.

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The captain, seemingly satisfied to learn that he was dealing with Lawrence Sheridan's adopted daughter and not a fake, turned back to the card table and was about to shuffle the cards when he turned back to Victoria to ask her something.

"You sure you don't want in on the hand that's about to be dealt?" Captain Henderson asked. Victoria shook her head.

"I'm sure, Captain. I don't need to blow my pay before I even get it." Victoria answered. Some of the men laughed at that answer and others nodded in agreement. A few others glumly looked down and looked like they wished they had not wagered their pay on card games.

"OK then, Victoria. You're about to miss all the fun." He said, turning back to the card table and dexterously shuffling the deck before placing a big black button with a red "D" on it in front of himself. He dealt cards to the six men playing this had and himself until everyone had two cards in their hand. The curious Victoria approached the table and stood off to the right side to watch the action.

Plastic poker chips began to clink as the "big blind" to the left of the captain and the "small blind" to the captain's right paid in to get the pot going. Then the betting began. The captain knocked on the table twice with his right hand, an action known as "checking." The other six men replicated the action and the captain dealt three black cards face-up. They were an Eight of Spades, a Nine of Spades, and a Ten of Spades.

The captain pushed in three red chips marked in denominations of 100. The man to his left followed suit and so did the next man, but the third, apparently not having anything worth keeping, placed his cards face down in front of him.

"Oscar mucked his hand." The captain commented, naming the action of discarding one's cards. Oscar sat there and watched the action as the rest of the men matched the captain's wager of 3 100-Jewel chips to form a small pile near the center of the table. Once the main round of betting was over and no one else raised the captain put a face-down card on the table and flipped it up, showing a Queen of Hearts.

"I've got nothing. I'm out." A bespectacled man with black hair said, mucking his hand. Another man with black hair and a long scar on his right cheek looked at his cards and discarded them. The other three men remained in the game.

"OK gentlemen, let's get to betting." Captain Henderson stated. He picked out five 100-Jewel chips and made a pile of them, pushing them forward with the back of his right hand. The three men met the captain's wager and one of them, a slender man with a short gray buzzcut, added another five 100-Jewel chips. The captain blinked.

"You think you've got somethin', Norm?" The captain inquired.

"Yeah, Captain." The man answered confidently with an easy smile.

"OK then, let's see how far this goes." The captain answered with a smile of his own. One of the other men, a bald man with blue eyes, mucked his hand. The other man, a middle-aged man with a jagged gash running diagonally across his left cheek, stayed in and matched Norm's bet. The Captain matched it and Norm checked.

Captain Henderson and the other man checked. Once no more betting happened the captain drew a face-down card and flipped it over. It was a King of Hearts. Five face-up cards were on the table.

The captain stacked and pushed forward ten 100-Jewel chips. Norm followed suit, but the last man bowed out and mucked his hand.

"OK, it's just you and me, Norm." The captain commented. Norm kept smiling.

"It's just you and me, Captain." Norm replied calmly. Norm pushed in all his remaining chips. The captain blinked.

"You got something, dontcha?" The redhead asked. Norm never quit smiling.

"I do, but you're gonna have to pay to find out what it is." Norm answered calmly. A boisterous round of talking ensued. Victoria's interest was piqued... she wanted to see how this hand played out.

"OK then. Show me whatcha got!" The captain said, pushing in all his chips. He then put his hand on the table, which contained a Ten of Diamonds, a King of Diamonds, and a King of Spades. The onlookers began to cheer, but Norm motioned for silence and they obeyed.

"Three of a kind, huh? Not bad." Norm said calmly. He laid down his hand, which contained a Seven of Spades, a Ten of Hearts, and a Jack of Spades. The captain looked at them and blinked.

"Damn. You got a straight flush with a Seven-Eight-Nine-Ten-Jack combo, all Spades. You really did have something." Captain Henderson admitted defeat. Norm leisurely raked in all the chips while smiling from ear to ear. The captain stood up and puffed on his cigarette.

"Well, I'm out. I'm gonna go have a drink or two. Who wants to join me?" Captain Henderson asked. At least a dozen hands shot up, including Victoria's.

"OK guys, I'll break out the whiskey!" He said. The men cheered as the captain sauntered over to the refrigerator none the worse for wear after his loss at Texas Hold'Em. Bottles clinked as the redhead retrieved a few dark bottles of Wild Crow whiskey and walked over to an empty galley table to distribute them to the waiting men, who were beginning to take seats at the table. Victoria sat on the far left end of the table and patiently waited to receive her bottle of whiskey. It took the captain a few trips to the refrigerator, but eventually Victoria got her very own bottle of whiskey.

The captain noticed Victoria clutching it and blinked.

"I didn't know you drank whiskey, Victoria. I thought vodka was your favorite just like it is with Lawrence." He said to her as she casually opened her bottle.

"Vodka is my favorite, Captain. However, I'm not terribly picky when it comes to alcohol. Whiskey's always a good choice." Victoria replied casually. The men around her smiled.

"That's Lawrence Sheridan's adopted daughter all right. I wonder if she has his tolerance for alcohol." Captain Henderson mused aloud. Victoria smiled mischievously.

"Wanna find out?" Victoria asked him. Normally she did not drink while on the job, but this time she would make an exception. She already had drank on the job while with Itori in the Phoenix Mountains some time ago, so as long as she kept those breaches few and far between she could get away with it.

That was her story and she was sticking to it.

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The men around the captain and the brunette took an interest in the unexpected challenge. Victoria knew that she had a good chance of drinking Captain Henderson under the table and was willing to wager on it. The captain looked at her with his one good eye and studied her, unable to believe that she was challenging him to anything.

"Heh. You're his adopted daughter all right. You've got guts, lady." Captain Henderson said to her. Victoria was sort of flattered by the compliment, but she was not interested in his appraisal of her courage. She was interested in whether he was willing to put his money where his mouth was and take her on in a drinking contest. The captain had wanted to see if her alcohol tolerance was as high as her adopted father's. Here was his chance, but she was not going to do it for free... he would have to pay for the chance.

"You wanna have a drinking contest or not?" Victoria repeated the challenge. The men turned from her to the redhead. He studied her for a moment before closing his eye.

"Nah. I've already lost enough money for one night. Besides, we've gotta be upright enough to patrol the deck. Captain Mercator told me that in less than twelve hours we'll be in pirate territory." Captain Henderson turned down the challenge.

"Fair point." Victoria conceded. She needed to be sober too so that if pirates came along she could blast them out of the water. Besides, it would be better for Captain Mercator if his hired protection was not three sheets to the wind when trouble did show up. Suddenly a slender man with short brown hair and a blue uniform strode in.

Speak of the devil...

"Gentlemen." Captain Mercator addressed everyone present in a deep, commanding voice. The men playing cards stopped their game and the drinking men set down their whiskey bottles. Victoria set down her whiskey bottle as well.

"We will be approaching the shipping lanes that pirates frequent in approximately twelve hours. I will expect every one of you to be ready for combat by the time we get there. That is all." Captain Mercator said before spinning on his heels and walking out of the galley. Captain Henderson blinked. He had expected the ship's captain to make a lengthy speech, but instead Captain Mercator had said what needed to be said and left before anyone could really settle in to hear him talk.

"Uh, well folks, there you have it. Straight from Captain Mercator himself." The surprised mercenary captain told his equally surprised men. Victoria blinked.

"OK." Victoria finally mustered a response to the captain's brief "speech" to his hired protection.

"I guess we'd better call it a night then." Captain Henderson suggested. Not sure what else to do but to comply, the men awkwardly agreed and began cleaning up their cards, poker chips, and alcohol bottles. Victoria took hers to the sink, dumped it out, and washed it out before tossing it in the trash. She hated to waste good whiskey, but the brunette needed to be sober for the hours ahead.

"I guess I'd better get ready to be on deck. I'm on duty again in eight hours." Victoria said to the mercenary captain. Henderson's men began filing out of the galley and Victoria brought up the rear of the departing hired guns. At least she would not make Sabertooth look bad by drinking on the job.

The brunette headed for her quarters below deck to get what sleep she could before she had to work the night shift.

-On deck, eight hours later-

Victoria was walking the deck as part of the night shift. The clear night sky was full of stars, but they were hard to see because of her current position standing beneath the sails and the rigging. It was oddly quiet with only the sounds of the ocean and the faint rustle of the sails blowing in the wind. Victoria walked out from under the rigging towards the right side of the deck, or the starboard side as it was called in nautical parlance.

Victoria walked up to the railing and peered beyond the horizon. It was not like she had expected a pirate ship to announce its presence with a pyrotechnics show worthy of a Steel Matron concert, but she had been hired to look out for pirate ships, so that was what she would do. The brunette took a long look at the horizon and saw nothing but inky darkness and dark water. Overcome with more than a little apprehension, she quickly stepped back from the railing.

If this was what life at sea was like, Captain Kooh and Captain Mercator could have it.

Having stepped away from the railing, Victoria resumed patrolling the deck alongside a few of Captain Henderson's men plus the merchant crew's night shift. All in all there were about three dozen people on deck, meaning that while a pirate ship could slip by them, it was not terribly likely that one could slip by three dozen people standing watch. It could not evade everyone unless it was one of those super-duper modern vessels with adaptive camouflage, mages making it invisible with their magic, or a literal ghost ship that could appear and disappear at will.

The brunette had a feeling that any pirate vessel they encountered would be none of the above. It would be just a bog-standard wooden vessel powered by wind blowing in its sails. There was no such thing as ghost ships.

Victoria made a lap of the deck in about fifteen minutes due to the foot traffic and stood back under the rigging for a few seconds to let one of Captain Henderson's men pass by while making his rounds. She had seven hours and forty-five more minutes of this before she was relieved for an eight-hour break. Once that eight-hour break was over she would be back on duty for another mind-numbing eight hours of guard duty.

Man, this was so monotonous.

At least the pay was good.

The thought of the high pay was the only thing keeping Victoria going as she continued to patrol the deck and watch for any pirate vessels trying to make a surprise attack.

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-Below Decks-

Once she had been relieved of guard duty for eight hours Victoria made her way below decks and entered the nineteenth cabin on the left side of the hallway. It was Victoria's assigned cabin. Despite the reluctance of Captain Mercator to put her with one of the mercenaries he had no choice because of the scarcity of cabins. The brunette was OK with that. She had gone through a lot worse in Capital Crocus than having to share a cabin with a man.

Victoria opened the cabin to find not just any mercenary, but Captain Henderson himself waiting for her. He was lying on the top bunk on the left side of the room reading a "gentleman's magazine" with a blonde in black lingerie posing on the hood of a white sports car gracing the cover. The brunette did not mind the captain's choice of literature too much. She was not a puritan who saw sin lurking behind every bush; she drank vodka by the bottle, so she had no right to lecture anyone about vice. Victoria was more concerned with getting some sleep before another eight-hour shift patrolling the deck of the merchant vessel.

Victoria climbed into the bottom bunk and faced the left wall to try and sleep for awhile. There was no telling how many times she would have to carry out the monotonous routine of patrolling the deck in the blazing midday sun, getting something to eat in the galley, working the night shift, then going to sleep in order to wake up and do it all over again the next day. She also had no idea how long this voyage was going to last. The brunette would grin and bear it for the sake of a good payday.

No one ever said that protecting a merchant vessel would be easy.

After staring at the left wall for a half-hour and trying to sleep she finally managed to go to sleep. At least she was roommates with Captain Henderson and not another guy. She could trust him not to do anything sketchy.

-Eight hours later-

Victoria woke up to the sound of knocking on the cabin door. She sat upright, straightened out her shirt and skirt, and reluctantly got off the bed to answer the door. She opened it to find one of the captain's men on the other side. He looked a lot like the "Norm" dude who had taken all the captain's money in poker hours ago with a timely Straight Flush, but she was not sure if it really was him or not.

"Hey lady, where's the cap-" He started to ask before Victoria cut him off.

"Right there." Victoria said, jerking her thumb back towards the captain, who was still in his bunk reading "gentleman's magazines" and had accumulated a sizable stack of them off to his right. The man looked over Victoria's shoulders and saw the captain.

"Oh, thanks!" He said before going to speak to the captain. Victoria waited until he was out of the way, then started towards the upper deck to begin her shift. Hopefully she would not be too late to begin her shift and risk getting part of her pay docked.

-On Deck, five minutes later-

Victoria met up with the man she was going to relieve and exchanged pleasantries before starting her eight-hour shift in the midday sun. She had a feeling that someone was constantly calling in sick to get out of guard duty, but she could not prove it. Oh well. It was time to earn her pay.

She showed up on deck mere seconds before Captain Mercator himself. The man did not notice her as he strode towards the front of the ship and no one ratted her out for being late, which was rather fortunate. Victoria did not think that she would benefit from that grace again, so she had better be on time for all future shifts. The brunette began to patrol the decks and look focused on the task, at least long enough for Captain Mercator to go below deck again.

After three full loops around the ship's deck she settled into the routine and Captain Mercator disappeared to do whatever it was that captains did.

-On Deck, seven-and-three-quarters hours later-

It was only fifteen minutes away from her shift being over when someone in the crow's nest shouted down to the crew.

"UNKNOWN VESSEL OFF THE PORT SIDE!" A blue-clad sailor shouted. Victoria and the other hired guns hurried to the left side of the ship to prepare for what might happen. She could not make out any identifying flags or sail colors, but then again some pirates were more practical than their more theatrical brethren. While some pirates liked to sail up to their prey with visible flags on full display, others preferred a slightly stealthier approach by pretending to be an innocuous ship before running up their flags and opening the cannon ports once it was too late for their chosen target to run.

At least that was how it went on Lacrima shows and movies. Some of them showed the more theatrical pirates with black skull-and-crossbones flags, tricorner hats, the works. However, Lacrima shows and movies were hardly good educational tools because they were geared more towards entertainment and making money for their creators than they were imparting useful knowledge.

Victoria stood at the railing and waited to see what would happen before bringing out her Light Machine Gun. She would not fire until there was positive identification. That and as mighty as the LMG was, it had a certain effective range beyond which hitting something was as likely as her giving up alcohol.

The mystery ship was heading straight for them and was not giving any kind of identification. No signal flags, no attempts to communicate, nothing. Victoria was not liking this. Maybe she had encountered some of the more intelligent commerce raiders who sailed the seas looking for loot. Oh well. That was nothing that the judicious application of firepower could not solve.

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The unknown ship continued to approach and the hired guards waited for someone in authority to give them a command, any command. Did they stand down or did they ready their weapons for action? Victoria, not having been given the order by either Captain Mercator or one of his lieutenants, stood at the railing and watched the unknown ship continue its approach.

Victoria heard a lot of commotion to her right and saw that Captain Mercator himself had appeared on the deck with a pair of binoculars in hand. He stood about three meters away from Victoria and used the binoculars to get a look at the oncoming vessel. His face was inscrutable as he surveyed the situation; he had probably practiced his poker face in order to keep his crew from panicking at the first sign of trouble. Victoria watched the crew on board the oncoming vessel bring up a piece of black cloth from below decks and the men near the sails work to run up a flag.

"Pirates." Captain Mercator tersely predicted. Victoria used her improved eyesight to catch a glimpse of the flag as it was being run up. It was black with white markings of some kind, but since the flag was currently folded she could not tell what exactly the markings were. After the flag in question ascended about twenty meters the blowing wind caught hold of it and straightened it out for the brunette and everyone else on board to see.

It was a skull-and-crossbones!

"PIRATES!" The lookout in the crow's nest shouted. The pirate vessel began to turn about to match speed and direction with The Traveling Merchant. Captain Mercator turned away from the railing and issued an order to the crew and to the hired guards.

"TO ARMS! TO ARMS!" He bellowed. The ship's crew and the hired guards all scrambled below decks to get their weapons and ammunition while Victoria remained on deck alongside the captain. The captain looked at her with a stern gaze.

"I already have a weapon. Watch!" Victoria said. She raised her hands and brought out her Rocket Launcher, an action which impressed the captain.

"So you do, Miss Sheridan." He replied calmly and turned back to watch the pirate vessel complete its maneuver and present the starboard side to the merchant ship. Victoria watched as well and noticed that the over two dozen cannon ports on the starboard side open up and the the cannons were moved forward into firing position. Captain Mercator remained calm as he watched the sight.

"Do you care how the pirates are dealt with?" Victoria asked him. The captain turned to look at her.

"Not particularly. Deal with them however you see fit." He answered. That was all the Sabertooth mage needed to hear.

"OK, I'm gonna try and knock out some of those cannons 'cause we don't have the firepower to match theirs." Victoria answered, raising the Rocket Launcher to her shoulder and aiming carefully at one of the numerous cannon ports. She took a breath and held it, then looked behind her to make certain that no crew member or any of Captain Henderson's men were standing behind her when she fired. Once she saw that it was all clear she focused on a cannon port, aimed, and fired a rocket that flew straight into the port, hitting the cannon and blasting a hole where it used to be.

Victoria heard screaming after the blast and knew that she had taken out a cannon but had not killed its crew. The brunette felt sick to her stomach. She took a deep breath and focused on the next cannon port. This time she could see the crew frantically loading the weapon in an effort to take her out before she could fire again, but it was too late. Victoria fired a second time and hit the cannon, causing a large explosion that drowned out the screaming of the weapon's crew.

This was not even a fight. This was more like murder.

The pirate vessel continued to sail alongside The Traveling Merchant and ready for a full broadside from the twenty-something remaining guns, so Victoria had to continue disabling cannon in her own destructive way. Victoria aimed and fired again, taking out a third cannon along with its crew and blasting a hole in the side of the pirate ship. Now pirates armed with muskets were hurrying on deck to try and pick off the mage who was blasting holes in their ship with an anti-vehicle weapon.

It was at that moment that the ship's crew and Captain Henderson's men arrived to support the brunette with a mix of bolt-action rifles and automatic weapons. The Traveling Merchant's defenders opened up with their weapons about the same time the merchant ship's cannons opened fire. Victoria was now in the middle of a naval engagement with pirates.

The pirates recovered from their shock and returned fire with musket and cannon, making it more of a fight and less of a lopsided slaughter. However, it would not remain that way for long. While the merchant ship did not possess as many cannon as the pirate ship, they began to target enemy cannon to try and level the playing field. Meanwhile the defenders were trading fire with the pirates on deck, a large number of which were gathering to reinforce their brethren for a sustained exchange of gunfire

Seeing that this was not going to be a quick fight but a protracted battle, she dispelled the Rocket Launcher and brought out her Light Machine Gun, then dropped to the deck to avoid a musket shot that was fired in her direction. She got back up and looked for the nearest target, which did not take long to locate. A pirate wearing a tricorner hat and black clothing armed with a musket caught sight of her and aimed, but the brunette was quicker to fire. She aimed and fired a Five-Round Burst to the chest that quickly dropped him for the count.

Victoria ducked under another musket ball that lodged itself in the deck near her feet, indicating that the shot came from above. She looked up and soon spotted the offender high in the rigging of the enemy ship. She could not get a good shot at him and did not want to catch a shot to the head from the other pirates while trying, so she focused on the threat ahead of her and engaged it instead.

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The sound of gunfire filled the air as the pirates and the crew of The Traveling Merchant traded fire and insults. The occasional sound of cannon fire punctuated the conflict that was taking on all the trappings of a demolition derby at sea. Victoria felt the vibrations of the deck whenever the merchant vessel's guns fired at the pirate ship and did her best to avoid getting hit as the man in the rigging of the pirate ship continued to take potshots at her.

Victoria was shooting at the pirates on the deck and taking quite a few of them down, but it seemed like for each pirate she killed two more took his place. The brunette ducked under a shot aimed at her head and looked to her left to see a few of Captain Henderson's men and Captain Mercator's crew lying on the deck. She then had to roll right to avoid getting shot from above by that annoying sniper.

She had to end the fighting fast. Captain Mercator had explicitly told her to eliminate the pirate problem to minimize the damage to the ship and the crew. Victoria tried to think of a way to end it and soon came up with one that filled her with dread.

She was going to have to break out the Grenade Launcher and use High-Explosive rounds.

Victoria dreaded it because it went against everything Sabertooth stood for. She was supposed to take pirates alive, not blast them apart with high-explosive rounds. But then it hit her.

She had done it before on three separate occasions.

She had already stained her hands with blood.

Why was she hesitating now?

What made the pirates different from mutants or cultists?

Captain Kooh had told her that should they be captured and turned over to the authorities the only thing waiting for the pirates was the hangman's noose, so they were not going to be taken alive. They would fight with everything they had to avoid the hangman. Killing them would be more of a mercy than taking them alive only for them to be hanged.

Victoria felt a growing sense of disgust as she dispelled the Light Machine Gun and brought out her Grenade Launcher. She could feel the nausea building up in her throat. There was no point in worrying about it now. She had already used it three times before, so what was one more time?

Then she had another thought.

Why use high-explosive rounds when she could fire Tear Gas instead?

The brunette raised the Grenade Launcher and aimed, then fired a Tear Gas round that landed in the middle of a group of pirates reloading their muskets and dispersed its gas. The pirates dropped the ramrods for their muskets and hurried away while coughing and wiping tears out of their eyes. Some ran off to the left while others retreated below decks to get away from the cloud. Victoria looked for the next big group of pirates and fired a Tear Gas grenade at them, causing them to disperse and allowing her allies to kill or wound several of them. Victoria briefly wondered about the morality of using tear gas to disable pirates so that they could be killed by her allies and wondered if tear gas being used for that purpose was any more "moral" than using high-explosive rounds to kill them herself.

The brunette was not a very deep thinker and did not dwell too much on morality. She was one of the last people who needed to be lecturing others on morality when she had used high-explosive Grenade Launcher rounds to kill enemies three times before. Victoria just shrugged her shoulders and went on with her job of clearing the decks. When she found the time and opportunity she even fired a few Tear Gas grenades into the cannon ports of the pirate ship.

The tide of battle shifted in favor of the merchant vessel once the pirate ship began maneuvers to break contact and sail away from Captain Mercator's vessel. The pirates fired a few parting shots from muskets and the fighting was over. Captain Mercator and the crew had won.

Now that the fighting was over the ship needed to be assessed for damage and the cargo needed to be checked on. The dead and wounded also needed to be taken care of. The brunette dispelled the Grenade Launcher and stood on the deck as the cleanup began. She waited to see if Captain Mercator had any new orders to give, but after a half-hour without orders she went to the galley and looked for something to eat.

-In the galley-

Victoria walked over to the refrigerator and rummaged around for something to drink that was not alcohol. She paused when she found herself reaching for a bottle of whiskey. She ordinarily did not drink on the job, but she had teetered close to the abyss yet again. She had considered using high explosives on humans. Even though she was not supposed to drink on the job, Victoria's fingers wrapped around the bottle anyway.

Why was she so upset about considering blast the pirates apart?

It was not like the marauders cared about all the merchant ships and their crews that they blasted apart with cannon and musket or hacked apart with cutlasses.

Was she feeling upset because she was feeling genuine guilt or was it because she was afraid of being kicked out of Sabertooth?

She did not know why she felt that way, only that she felt upset. She quit wasting time and grabbed the bottle of whiskey, then shut the refrigerator door. She did not care about food right now, only easing the feeling of being upset. The brunette left the galley and went back to her cabin to either drink, sleep, or sleeping after drinking.

-Inside Victoria's cabin-

The brunette entered her empty cabin to find the Azure Armor sitting in the middle of her bunk bed. She could not believe that she had left such a valuable armor lying around without concern and felt ashamed of that mistake. Next time she needed to keep up with her Azure Armor and to wear it into battle so that she could benefit from its protection. Armor could not protect someone if it was not worn, after all.

Victoria sat down beside the armor and stared at the bottle in her left hand. Was it right to drink it to wash the feelings away? Maybe not. Did she want to drink? Definitely.

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Victoria sat on her bunk for a few minutes trying to decide whether to go ahead and drink the whiskey or to set it aside and face what she was feeling without trying to dull it with alcohol. In the end she just clutched the bottle of whiskey in her hand and sat on the edge of the bed. There was no point in drinking because she would be back on guard duty eight hours from now and she would make Sabertooth look bad by showing up with alcohol on her breath. Victoria considered walking back to the galley to take the whiskey back so that someone who actually wanted to drink it could drink it when Captain Henderson showed up. The one-eyed captain saw Victoria sitting next to the bottle of whiskey and looked at her.

"You gonna drink that?" He asked. Victoria raised her hand to throw it to him and he extended his hands for the catch.

"Take it with my compliments, Captain. Hasn't been opened. Only stared at for the past seven minutes." Victoria replied, tossing the bottle to him. He caught it with ease and quickly opened it. He then began to drink.

"Yeah, I can tell. This bottle's not quite as cold as it was, but Hell, I'll drink it anyway. The water on this ship tastes like piss anyway." Captain Henderson rationalized drinking on the job in a way that made the brunette laugh.

"Too bad they don't have any vodka in that refrigerator." Victoria commented. She was supposed to be taking the moral high ground by refusing to drink on the job, but the moral high ground was no comfort to her, not right now.

"Say, the men said that they saw you firing tear gas at the pirates with a grenade launcher. Why's that?" The captain asked. Victoria frowned.

"Hell if I know. I was trying to clear the decks, but for some reason I used tear gas instead of high explosive." Victoria answered dryly. The excuse was a flimsy one since she could switch rounds at will, but the captain did not need to know that. He chortled and took a swig from the bottle.

"Kinda odd that you'd switch to a less-than-lethal measure after ripping them a new one with a Light Machine Gun." He observed. Victoria frowned again.

"Yeah. I was trying to clear the deck of that pirate ship as quick as I could." Victoria repeated her reason for acting as she did. She was aware of the odd nature of what she had done. Maybe she should have ignored the voice in her head and just kept hammering the pirates with the lethal munitions until the pirate ship became a floating cemetery.

"There's some other reason for you doing that, isn't there?" Captain Henderson asked her, looking directly at her with his one good eye. Victoria could not avoid the subject any longer. She might as well tell him.

"Yeah. I've used high-explosive rounds on humans before. Cultists. Demon cultists." Victoria answered truthfully. The captain took another swig from the bottle and looked at her with interest.

"Go on." He encouraged her. Victoria took a deep breath before taking the plunge.

"It was in the Haunted Guild in the Cursed Lands. I was hired by the Order of Lightbringers to go investigate the Haunted Guild for rumored cult activity alongside a pair of clerics. I arrived and they showed up almost an hour later. They thought that I was a demon and chased me into the guild hall. I had to run for my life and ended up in the basement." Victoria began the story. Captain Henderson took a fourth swig.

"The cult activity turned out to be real. I had to kill some of the cultists to avoid getting trapped between them and the people who were supposed to be on my side. Those clerics were packing serious heat with their Holy magic and they wanted me dead." Victoria continued.

"The deeper into the basement I went the more of the cult's activity I learned about. Eventually I found a cell block, killed some more cultists who tried to stop me, and freed some of the prisoners, all of them young women. One of them told me that the cult had taken them as blood sacrifices to be offered to a demon named Infernal Lord Zupazu. They were due to be sacrificed that very night." Victoria told the captain.

"Wait a minute, how do you know this Infernal Lord Zupazu?" Captain Henderson asked. Victoria frowned. Did he think that she had made a pact with demons?

"I fought him in the tunnels underneath Hargeon Town, in a part that was exposed after some giant sea monster decided to visit the town. Once I got past its minions and before we fought the demon told me his name and offered to help me find my father if only I pledged allegiance to it. I refused. We fought and I won... I banished it from this world for one hundred years... or so I thought." Victoria answered the question, pointing to the Azure Armor sitting just to her right.

"That job was how I earned that armor you see over there. From what I've been told, it once belonged to a man who fought the demons in their own realm and won." Victoria finished her answer. The captain appeared satisfied that she had not made any infernal pacts and looked at her to continue the story she was telling about using high-explosive rounds against humans.

"To shorten the story, I managed to fight my way to the cult's inner sanctum, but they were already in the process of rounding up captives to offer to Infernal Lord Zupazu. I rescued another hostage and I was told that the sacrifice was going to take place in a few minutes. The ritual chamber was locked and the doors were too sturdy to just kick in. Then the doors opened and a bunch of cultists came out to stall for time for the ritual to be completed." Victoria obligingly continued the story. Here came the rough part.

"The ritual chamber began to glow blood red and I thought I heard screaming. I needed to hurry up before the cultists could sacrifice the young women. The clerics turned to me for help and I... I brought out my Grenade Launcher. I warned them that I was going to use high explosive and things were going to get messy, but they told me to go ahead. So I did." Victoria told the captain. She had almost reached the end of the story, but there was still a bit more to tell. She would be glad to tell him... if he were still interested.

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"So? What happened?" Captain Henderson asked Victoria.

"I fired the high explosive rounds at the cultists. It turned out exactly as you'd expect when high explosive grenade launcher rounds go off in the middle of people. It was an absolute mess." Victoria answered the question without any bravado. Even now she could recall the mess she had made on the floor of the cultists' inner sanctum. While no one would lose much sleep over cultists being dispatched in such a manner because of the dire situation, Victoria still had lingering regrets over the incident. She was pretty sure that that would get her kicked out of Sabertooth, but she had dodged a bullet because no one seemed to mind. Maybe it was the urgency of the situation that had led to the breach of the guild's rule on capturing evil beings alive being overlooked.

"So you killed the cultists sent to stall you in a messy way. I take it you saved the people they had taken for sacrifices to this Infernal Lord Zupazu?" The captain inquired.

"Yeah. I blasted open the doors with a rocket launcher and the three of us killed the remaining cultists and saved the young women before Infernal Lord Zupazu could consume their essence or whatever it took for him to return to the physical plane ninety-nine years and several months too early." Victoria concluded the story of the third time she had employed high explosive rounds against human beings. Captain Henderson smiled.

"That sounds like the Lawrence Sheridan solution to problems when time's running out and stealth just isn't an option anymore." He said with a smile that soon vanished.

"I think I know what you're getting at, Victoria. You've seen what that kind of ammunition can do to people and you don't want to see it again unless there's no other choice." He said to her in a serious tone of voice. The one-eyed captain had hit the nail on the head with his second sentence.

"Yeah." Victoria answered laconically. That was exactly it. She had seen what her own weapons could do to people and it unsettled her.

"The worst part about it is that recently such violence is getting easier to justify. I find myself thinking that maybe I should break out the Grenade Launcher for this situation or that situation. I shouldn't be doing that. Not as a member of a Legal guild." Victoria added. The captain's face did not show judgment and he nodded to encourage her to keep talking. She was likely burying herself deeper and deeper with such remarks.

"I'm supposed to deal with evil in a non-lethal fashion. I'm supposed to incapacitate them so that they can be taken to face the legal system. That's how my guild works." Victoria added. Captain Henderson did not look impressed by her guild's stance and took another swig from the bottle before speaking.

"Lemme get this straight. You're supposed to risk life and limb against people who clearly want you dead and you're supposed to use non-lethal measures against them so that they can be taken to face a court." Captain Henderson asked in a tone as dry as Desierto. Victoria nodded.

"I find that to be more than a little unrealistic. Sure, I get bringing them to justice, but sometimes you just can't take them alive, like with the pirates. They know that the only thing they're getting is a short trial and a one-way trip to the hangman, so they're not gonna let themselves be taken alive. And that's not even getting into the people who can buy their way out of trouble like mob bosses or rich people." Captain Henderson opined. Victoria had dealt with organized crime before, so she knew exactly where the redhead was coming from.

"I once managed to take down some officers in the pay of a crime family in Hargeon Town. I also managed to break up the Corlone crime family in Rose Garden. It took a lot of effort and being taken prisoner in a small room, but I stopped them and got enough evidence of their crimes to end the Corlone family's grip on Rose Garden." Victoria told of two jobs where she did not kill everyone who opposed her. If anyone deserved to die it was the Corlone family for their human trafficking activities. Having nearly been a victim of human trafficking herself, the brunette was naturally disposed toward dealing violently with them, but in the case of the Corlones taking them alive and handing over the evidence of wrongdoing to the authorities did a lot more harm to the crime family than her bullets ever could. The family's holdings in Rose Garden were seized and many of the family's soldiers and lieutenants were either arrested or sent scurrying underground.

Victoria recalled how Francesca Corlone had tortured her in the basement of the Corlone mansion after her father's goons barged into Red Dragon Inn, beat up the guards who tried to stop them, and threatened to kill the inn's patrons and staff if Victoria did not come with them. She remembered being tied to a metal chair and being punched in the face and hit in the stomach with a metal baseball bat. She remembered being tased in the stomach repeatedly and having her legs hit with a metal baseball bat as she hung by her wrists from a rope and pulley. After two hours of the treatment she recalled the lights being turned out and Francesca going on a break, but not before vowing to return and finish the job when the single candle left in the room for light went out. Victoria managed to escape thanks to her special shadow control ability, a heaping dose of luck, and the timely help of a chef in the kitchen and Ted Cranston, a wayward youth who had fallen in with the Corlones looking for work but could no longer stomach being a debt collector for the crime family.

Victoria's thoughts then turned to Francesca Corlone. That blonde bimbo was probably living on the run from the authorities, scared to stay in any one place for too long for fear of either being arrested or meeting up with some angry victims of the crime family who wanted revenge. Victoria imagined that the blonde did not have the same swagger she used to after her father's goons were either arrested or forced to flee to escape arrest. If Francesca were smart she would find somewhere and lay low, but Francesca was not renowned for making intelligent choices.

"Why do you stick with that guild despite what you go through trying to follow their directives?" The captain asked pointedly. The brunette did not have to think too hard on that question.

"Because they took me in after my previous guild disbanded." Victoria answered calmly and plainly.

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"What do you mean?" Captain Henderson asked.

"I was part of a guild that was based in Rose Garden named Black Rose. Having had enough of being on my own, I went to apply 'cause I heard that they could get their members access to steady work. When I went to join they accepted me with no questions asked. I worked for them for awhile and made a few friends and even met some of the last generation of Wizard Saints, but one day I woke up to find that Black Rose had been disbanded." Victoria told the captain, leaving out some details that had no impact on the story she was trying to tell him. The captain took a long drink and finished the bottle of whiskey, throwing the empty bottle onto his bed.

"So what made you decide to go with this guild instead of another one?" The redhead asked.

"I heard that Sabertooth needed some people and since I didn't have any other guild in mind I went to see if they'd take me. When I went to join I met the Guild Master himself, a guy named Ryo Knetegawa. Long story short, they let me join and I've been a part of the guild ever since." Victoria answered the captain's question. The captain did not seem to be particularly impressed with that reason but he did not pass judgment on her, at least not right away. He could believe her or he could choose not to believe her. It did not matter to her what he chose to do. Victoria had told him her story and she was sticking to it.

"Interesting. So you're gonna stick with Sabertooth?" Captain Henderson asked her.

"Yeah. They've been good to me. I've got a place to stay, I've got money, I've got at least one friend and a few people I'm on friendly terms with, I've got a pipeline to steady work, and if I ever get tired of punching evil in the face and want a break I can do some part-time bartending at the Red Dragon Inn and still make money." Victoria explained why she was sticking with Sabertooth despite their stance on dealing with Dark mages and other evildoers. The man nodded.

"I can kinda see why you'd stick with them. You've got a good thing going. Why mess it up? I don't really blame you." Captain Henderson gave his verdict.

"Yeah, my thinking exactly." Victoria replied. She did not care if he gave his blessing or not. She had a good thing going with Sabertooth and she wanted to keep it going for as long as she could.

"I have a question that I've just gotta ask. What are you gonna do if Sabertooth disbands?" Captain Henderson asked her pointedly. The brunette did not take too long to come up with an answer.

"I'll either go freelance or look for another guild to join. Probably the first one if I want to strike out on my own for awhile. Someone always needs another person's face punched in." Victoria answered confidently. There was always a need for someone like her, someone who was not afraid to punch faces in and kill people when necessary. She was sure that if she got tired of roaming alone and wanted to join a guild some guild would let her join their ranks.

"I gotta say that that's not much of a plan..." Captain Henderson started. He then broke into a smile.

"But that sounds just like Lawrence Sheridan. And me. And my guys. We don't have much of a plan beyond doing our jobs, living for today, and hoping to see tomorrow." He said without losing his smile. Victoria smiled a little herself.

"I just play the cards I'm dealt, Captain. I happened to be taken under the wing of a hard-drinking guy who taught me magic and got me started on bartending. I don't have a long-term plan either. I just want to get my piece of the pie and maybe retire someday... eventually." Victoria added. The captain had an idea that he shared with her.

"If you ever get tired of being a mage, you could always join my crew. We don't care how much force you use as long as you get the job done." He offered another route in life.

"Thanks but no thanks. Your guys would probably think I'm coasting on my adoptive father's name to get in good with you. Besides, you guys don't need me taking up space on your roster when there's plenty of better people out there. I'll just stick to being a mage for the time being." Victoria declined the offer. She was too much of a city girl to make it out in the wilderness for any extended period of time. Her survival abilities were limited to the back alleys of a city, where there was always something she needed close at hand if she were willing to steal or scavenge for it. Without that supply network she had no idea how to live off the land like she would have to in a bona fide combat zone.

"Fair enough. But know that if you want a change of pace, you can always look to join us. We don't have a fancy card, but just ask for Captain Henderson. You'll have to complete the training to officially join the team, but you'll at least get your foot in the door." He said to her with no hard feelings for turning him down. Victoria looked him in his one good eye and saw that the offer was sincere. The brunette was glad to know that she had another option if she ever needed it.

"I'll look you up if I ever want to join your crew." She said. It should not be too hard to find a one-eyed red-headed guy running around Earthland. He took off his boots and climbed onto the top bunk, causing it to groan under his weight before he settled down.

"Anyway, I'm back on the clock eight hours from now. I'm gonna try and sleep. Later, Vic." He said before pushing down his bush hat over his one good eye.

"Later." Victoria said to him without the slightest hint of concern for him using a contraction of her name. She had been called a lot worse before. The brunette left her cabin and headed back for the galley. She had decided that she really wanted something to eat.

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