Free To Ocean's End by S.M Welles Page A

use of fossil fuels, nuclear energy, and anything else the quasi-children deemed bannable. But maybe that wouldn’t be a bad thing. Put some real appreciation in everything humanity built, instead of banging out one structure after another, then demolishing them once they stopped suiting our needs.
    Port Chesapeake was dominated by solar panel rooftops, a shoreline full of wind turbines, and the bay was dotted with a mix of functioning and shut down water mills. The functioning ones generated electricity and pushed drinkable water to purifying facilities. Many a home had light shining from within. Yep, this was one of the ritziest places on the planet now. This much technology concentrated in one spot was very rare.
    It wasn’t quite 6:00AM. No dock workers manned their posts yet. My crew was full of big boys that could tie up a steam frigate themselves. I putted along the no-wake zone and slid open a window. Cool, salty air filled the wheelhouse. It calmed me, even with the red sunrise on my back. We’d have to make this stop quick. The clock was ticking away with a maniacal grin. I didn’t want to go into lockdown with a hurricane blowing over my head.
    I flipped a couple pinky-sized levers and leaned towards the com horn, a piece of brass that looked like the end of a trumpet, which was connected to a sound system that carried my lovely voice all over the ship. The two levers I’d flipped would guide it to the cabins. “Everyone up. We needed to cremate Jersey and Mike before the storm can force us to stay put.” I swiped at the row of levers, cutting my voice from carrying anywhere. Radios existed again, but that’s how old my ship was. I really didn’t want strangers tearing up my ship to install a contemporary one when this one worked just fine.
    *     *     *
    Mido whipped up some eggs, Canadian bacon, and toast. Smelled great, looked great, tasted great. With twelve people on board, two dead, Scully and Cancer hunkered down in the cabins, and Mido cooking away, that left four people wolfing down breakfast at the table. O’Toole never sat. He was too fidgety and easily distracted. He preferred nibbling at his food while hovering behind Mido. Wasn’t too annoying for my cook. O’Toole was pretty good at not sneezing or dropping crumbs on food on the counter queued to be cooked. That and he liked to throw pieces of food down the back of Mido’s tank.
    Jessie huddled near the fridge with a ceramic plate held close to her chin. Sam had already offered her a spot at the table but she’d refused. He left her alone after that. So did everyone else. Sam and Rammus were the only men openly indifferent to her presence. Sauna snuck hungry glances at her, but I knew he wouldn’t do anything stupid. He was a good kid. Jacobi, the one who’d complained about my gun yesterday, frowned every time he looked at her.
    My cargo pushers and sole surviving techie finished their meals as Mido sat down to his own breakfast. I got up, allowing the four men to scoot off the semicircular chair one by one. I put a hand on Sauna’s shoulder before he could get up. In addition to being a brilliant techie, he was the one who raked in all my delivery orders. He was a Dominican kid barely past twenty. Short, real suave with the ladies, and really smart. He’d been with me five years now. I almost hadn’t hired him because I didn’t think he’d been mature enough back then, but we went down to my engine room and he floored me with his mechanical skills. Now if the crew and I could stop finding him jerking off all the time... At least he knew how to talk smooth and use his charm when it came to making money. “Sauna, find us some work that sends us to Europe or northern Africa. I also need you to find us two techies. Make sure they can sword fight. Present them to me when you get back.”
    “You got it, Captain.” He got up and thanked Mido for the food, then led the way to the main deck. Jacobi gave both me and Jessie