“The stars aren't out tonight”, he
noted as he stared up at the empty black sky. Here and there, he
could spot a faint twinkle, but on the whole the sky was darkened by
clouds. “I hope this is not an omen”, he thought, taking a deep
breath and returning to the helm of the ship.
He knew they were after him. Three
nights ago, he had narrowly avoided detection by one of their ships,
and chalked it up to coincidence, but just last night he had spotted
a different ship, and then he had been sure. Luckily, they didn't
seem to be paying a lot of attention, he had merely lowered his sails
when they were near, allowing him to slip by unnoticed in the dark.
Though he wished they would stay out of his business, they had helped
him in a way: he could deduce that they must not have found the Black
Ship yet, or they could have simply followed it rather than searching
aimlessly for him, so he could use their positions to narrow his
search. Between his own investigation and what he had learned from
the others, he no longer needed the stars tonight.
Still, Pack couldn't help but feel
apprehensive. His determination had brought him this far, but
boldness was not something that came naturally to him. If any of the
rumours about the Black Ship were true, he doubted he or his crew
were ready for them. Even now he felt ill at ease, and he had his
memories of Lapse to give him strength. He took a quick glance out
towards the horizon, looking for the black sails, but the waters
remained eerily calm, as though even the sea itself was waiting for
what was about to happen. He shook his head to put such thoughts out
of his mind and went to find Minute, whom he instructed to gather the
crew for the evening's address.
The crew filed in without a word. They
were usually well-disciplined, but tonight the silence was so
complete that he could barely bring himself to break it.
“My friends”, he began, surprising
himself a little, “if my calculations are correct, tonight will
will find the Black Ship.” He paused, but no one spoke. They
hardly dared to breathe.
“Your support during this difficult
time has been invaluable.” he continued. “It is no exaggeration
to say that without you all, we would not be here. I could not have
done this alone, and for that, I thank you.” Some of them turned
to look at each other, but still not a whisper rose from the crowd.
Pack cleared his throat. “...But I cannot ask you to put
yourselves in danger for someone you barely remember. The
responsibility to save Lapse is mine and mine alone. After I finish
speaking, I want you all to go below deck and bar your doors, and
don't come out until night falls again. I will settle things with
the Black Ship myself.”
This time there was a murmur from the
crowd. “But boss-!” Snag protested.
“That is an order”, he stated
firmly. “Snag,” he continued, softening his tone, “if
something should happen to me, I'm putting you in charge. Take the
ship and get as far away from here as possible. Without me around, I
think you should be able to handle it.”
Snag stared at him, dumbfounded, his
mouth hanging slightly agape.
Silence fell over the deck of the
Devotion. “Look!” Someone cried, pointing past Pack to the
horizon.
Sure enough, as the first rays of light
peeked out beyond the sky, a black sail was clearly visible in the
distance.
“Now go!!” Pack bellowed, and the
crowd scattered immediately, scrambling and fumbling towards the
hatch to the lower deck. Pack himself darted to the helm, and
steered the ship hard toward the ship with the black sails. Slowly
but surely, the gap between the two ships became smaller and smaller.
“I'm coming, Lapse”, he said solemnly, “one way or another.”
As the sun rose higher, he could see
the Black Ship just ahead, but just then, he caught a glimpse of
another ship off the starboard side in the corner of his eye. He
quickly turned the other way, and there was another one off the port
side, and yet another one was closing in on him from behind! “Not
now!” he cried, pounding his paws on the wheel. The ships were
quickly overtaking him, and they closed in from the sides, blocking
the path in front of him. As the channel in front of him disappeared
before his eyes, he had no choice but to reel in his sails and bring
the ship to a stop as the Black Ship pulled away.
A familiar face came aboard his ship:
“What were you thinking, Pack?” Corsair asked him.
“Going after the Black Ship alone?”
Lay appeared from the other side, puffing her cheek. “How stupid.”
“I can't believe it, Pack”, Sister
said, from behind him. “I thought you had it all figured out, but
you don't. You don't understand anything.”
“Can't we talk about this later?”
he begged them. “We need to keep going!”
“I knew we couldn't rely on you to
handle things yourself.” Minute said, arriving from below deck.
“We left things in your hands, and now the Black Ship is gone.”
“We can still catch up to it!” he
insisted, though it was completely out of sight now.
“You're even more of a screw up than
I am, boss”, Snag jeered, cruelly.
“How could you?” Pack demanded of
him. “I put my faith in you!”
“And we put our trust in you, in
error. To think I let you waste my star charts on such a foolish
endeavour”, Quill shook his head.
“It wasn't foolish!” he protested,
unable to believe what was happening. “There was good logic behind
it!”
“The simple fact is that I'm a winner
and you're a loser”, Corsair said, holding his nose up high, “and
that's how it's always going to be.”
“That's right!”, Sister and Lay
chimed, in unison, hanging off his arms.
Then they all started to laugh. All of
the people he had thought were his friends were pointing and laughing
at him. He tried to back away, but they were all around him,
laughing at what a fool he had been. The sound flooded his ears,
until all he could do was slump down to the deck and curl into a
ball, covering his head. Still they laughed even harder as he tried
to block them out.
Suddenly, a deep voice cut through the
laughter. “Who is it who matters most to you?” it asked him.
“Her, or you?”
“Her, of course!” he told the
voice, still not looking up.
“I wonder.” the voice responded.
“Are you really sure of that?” Pack couldn't tell where it was
coming from.
“It's true! I would do anything! I
would... I was...” but the laughing droned him out. His heart
sank into his stomach as he realized what they were getting at.
Everything fell silent, but he was in even more pain than before.
“...On that night, I chose myself.”
He admitted, in a voice scarcely above a whisper. “I was more
concerned with how other people saw me than being there for her. But
every night since then I've regretted it. Not a night has gone by
where I haven't thought about the laughter and the companionship and
the warmth of her arms that I should have had. And even worse, I
know that she's out there somewhere, frightened, lonely, and alone,
and it's all my fault. That's why I have to find her and bring her
back. It doesn't matter what people think of me. She always cared
for me, and that's enough.”
He opened his eyes. It was dark, and
his tormentors were gone. The deck of his ship was empty, apart from
a thin, dark-furred creature. His heart nearly jumped out of his
chest as he thought it might be Lapse, but he quickly realized it was
not. This creature had black fur that was much shorter than Lapse's
fluffy coat. “For your sake, I hope that's true”, it said, and
turned to walk away.
“Wait!”, he cried. “Do you know
where to find Lapse?”
“I can do nothing more for you”,
the creature replied, turning back towards him. He had piercing,
yellow eyes, that seemed to stare right into his heart. “You have
met your darkness. Perhaps that will help you. Perhaps not.”
“Now what should I do?” he pleaded
desperately.
“If I knew that, things would be very
different.” The black-furred creature disappeared into the night
without another word.
“Boss!” Snag called, running from
below deck. “Are you all right?”
“Snag? I thought I told you to-
Wait, it's nighttime again?”
Sure enough, the rising sun was
completely gone, as though it had never been there.
“Who were you talking to, Boss?”
Snag asked.
“Did you not see anyone else here?”
He scratched his flat ear sheepishly.
“Sorry Boss, I heard you talking to someone, so I ran up to see who
it was, but you were all alone when I got here.”
“And Corsair? Sister? The Black
Ship? You saw none of them?”
Snag shook his head and shrugged.
“So... it was all just to make me
realize my failings” he said, stroking his whiskers with his paw.
“The Captain of the Black Ship... just who or what is he?”
“Boss?”
“Now I know what I have to do”. He
walked casually to the helm of his ship and slowly turned the wheel
all the way around.
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