Free Destiny: Book of Light by Paul Allen Page A

captain, we're going to have to pull that out."
    "I know Sean, James will you get the whiskey from the store, I can't do it sober."
    A wave of pain, passed through all of them with the sound of the stick ripped from his leg. The captains scream faded and he passed out. The deck was clean, the stick was out and wounds were tended to. They left the captain in his bunk to sleep it off and they retreated to the lounge in the next room to relax with the bottle of whiskey, all except Tim who cursed under his breath in the bridge as he navigated the pass. The blood seemed to wash away from memory as the whiskey flowed.
Another bottle was brought up as a game of poker ensued. Soon the wounds seemed to be relieved. Another bottle. The captain woke, and already drunk, joined the social gathering. Stakes were high as Sean thought about how the type of card player reflected the personality of a person. He was great at reading people, very tactical and new when to pick his battles. The captain was a muscle player, trying to be aggressive and intimidate people. It worked on all except Sean. The stakes were high, tensions were high and the room dense with smoke as James, the last of the crew, went all in against the captain. With the flop turned, he was out with a pair of eights facing a pair of queens. The game had more or less gone as if it was everyones last day to live, mainly because of recent events thought Sean. He was now head to head with the captain. Tension was high and both had about the same amount of chips. It moved on the way it had begun, the captain trying to intimidate with big bets and Sean picking his battles and sneaking the smaller hands. For four hours they played and at that point they still had about the same amount of chips. The crew were asleep, when they both decided to go all in and winner takes all on the last hand. It was close.
    The next day a beautiful blue morning was sitting up waiting for them to awake. As Sean stirred the captain went up to the bridge to relieve Tim.
    "About bloody time, I was nearly dreaming with my eyes open. I think I can see the end of the pass on the horizon, you see?"
    "Ya Tim, I see. Thanks for taking the shift, I needed a bit of time for myself."
"No hassle cap, wake me if you need me."
    The ship was usually run like clockwork, with regular shifts alternating between on watch, on duty or off. Now with the recent loss to the crew the shifts were going to be very widespread and the general chores cut back. They would all have to pitch in just to keep the ship running, and at that, no matter how much work they put in, they were going to be seriously affected by the losses. There was no option but having to pick up more crew members at Woshell but they didn't have enough money to pay for a crew. Without them they would never make it to Brima but more immediate problems lay on the horizon. They were going to be passing through the Denshir Islands. The fiercest mercenaries, criminals and just general thieves called these islands home. This was going to be like hopping on one leg, as fast as you can through a minefield, while trying to balance a bath of acid on your head.
    The captain huddled in a corner, nursing his usual strong, black cup of coffee while wallowing in a cloud of smoke from his cigar. His face looked wrinkled in concentration, as some of the others tried to busy themselves, to take their minds off the anticipation. The air was close in the living quarters and the tension could be cut with a knife. James attempted to build castles out of cards which seemed like an impossible task with the currents rolling the ship about, but he told the others that was the challenge in it. Sean sat in a corner smoking one of the captains cigars and wondering why all captains he knew smoked cigars. The others had a game of closest to the wall going. This was where a line was drawn three meters from the wall and each person had a go of flicking a coin and try get it closest to the wall.