Amazon Airship Pirates

7. A Reunion

After a few minutes, having nothing else he felt inclined to do, Charles rose to his feet. His guards approached him to suggest that he should eat, and he realised that he was hungry enough to appreciate a bowl of rice and stew from the pirates' communal refectory. As he nursed a beer and a few uncertain thoughts, he was approached by various pirate-mechanics, who proved determined to talk to him even when he confessed that he could tell them little about his father. They told him tales of testing and flying airships which impressed him despite himself. They were brave, but not foolhardy, and were clearly determined to make the best airships that ingenuity could devise - even if most of their materials were, as they freely acknowledge, misappropriated in one way or another.

Then, after his new acquaintances returned to their work, Charles took a short and aimless stroll around the village, then made his way back to the room assigned him, thinking to recover his book or perhaps to make some notes about what he had heard. When he arrived there, though, he found Moira and Sui Pai already present, lounging on the bed, clad only in light yellow linen petticoats.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Dartington," Sui Pai said.

"To what do I owe the honour of this visit?" Charles enquired ironically.

"Oh, we are always given light duties for a day or so after going out on a raid," said Moira. "An' it turns out that guarding Mr. Dartington is considered light duties."

Charles realised that his guards of the morning had indeed slipped away. "Very well," he said flatly.

"Oh, do not be a bore," Moira said. "Kick your shoes off. Lie here with us. Talk awhile."

Charles could see no reason to refuse, and soon he was lying between the two women. "Did you know that Miss Elphinstone has decided to throw in her lot with your band?" he asked them.

"Miss Emma? No." said Sui Pai.

"That was sudden of her," said Moira.

"It seems that she feels she is too disgraced ever to return home," Charles explained. "In fact, she has decided to take up the life of a pirate woman ... in every respect, already."

Sui Pai was the first to grasp the implication. "Miss Emma fucked you?" she asked.

"No!" Charles replied instantly. "She has given herself to... someone called Luke. One of the mechanics from the shipyards."

"The American?" Sui Pai asked, and Charles nodded.

"You know, I thought he was a man-lover," Moira said.

"Ha. No. Sailor." Sui Pai responded.

"A

man-lover

?" Charles said, stunned.

"A sailor... Yes, well." Moira nodded at Sui Pai. Then she looked at Charles. "Don't pretend to be so shocked, boy. I thought such things often happened in your posh schools."

"Not to me," said Charles. "It's not my taste. And it's unlawful!"

"The law here is the pirate law," Moira said, "and pirates don't like to punish a man for doing what so many do. As to tastes, well, it seems that a crew of men stuck on a ship with nought but each other for weeks at a time sometimes find that they've more open tastes than you'd think."

"So this Luke has..."

"Most likely dabbled," said Moira. "There was a fellow I'd swear he was sweet on. But that doesn't mean he can't be a fine lover for Miss Emma."

"How you feel 'bout that?" Sui Pai asked, staring hard at Charles. "Her fucking men here, an' not even you? You jumped up for her, waved that spanner at us, played big hero for her."

Charles drew breath and made an effort to focus his thoughts. These two might still be his captors, but dealing with them made him consider matters from viewpoints that he'd never otherwise have considered, and he felt oddly compelled to honesty. "I don't know," he said. "I suppose that I wanted to be her hero, you know? I wished to be a

romantic

hero, perhaps. We were together on that ship, and that has

implications,

if one has read too many novels. Except that she was on her way to her wedding, so I don't know what I hoped, even disregarding her chaperone. And anyway, she is more than a year older than me, I believe..."

"So what? We are maybe eight, maybe ten years older'n you," Sui Pai observed sardonically.

"Yes well. Forgive me, but ours has never been a

romantic

association," Charles said.

"La, sir, you break my heart," Moira said with a sneer.

"And now Miss Elphinstone has destroyed her chance of returning to civilisation with me, as heroine and hero of this tale," Charles went on. "And I find that, well, I do not know her. So how can I love her? I am not enough of a poet for that. So whatever the madness of her decision, I cannot play the outraged lover."

Moira and Sui Pai looked at each other with raised eyebrows. "Maybe he is a clever boy," said Sui Pai.

"Maybe he will become someone worth calling a man," Moira said. "Someone with good sense, not just strong arms."

"Thank you. I suppose." Charles muttered.

"Ah, brave heart, sweet boy," Moira said with a smile. "If Miss Emma has Luke, you have us. That's no bad deal, I think you'll find." And with that, she kissed Charles on the mouth. "Now, what say you take some clothes off, an' we remind you of that?"

Charles sighed. "I do wonder if I can find the slightest moral excuse for that," he said.

"Oh, mayhap." Moira smiled. "You never know; perhaps we will fall in love with you, and change to your way of thinking, and help you escape." She laughed when she saw Charles look startled. "I ha' read one or two novels myself, you see. I know how this might be supposed to go."

"I suppose that might be the plot of an adventure tale," Charles agreed.

"But with less fucking," said Sui Pai from behind Charles, reaching round his waist to begin unbuttoning his flies.

"Low women like us might be in a novel," said Moira, "but if we took a shine to the hero, an' there was any hint that we were less than saintly, we'd have to be dead by the end. Terrible sad, of course."

"To hells with that," said Sui Pai, reaching though the open flies to grasp Charles's cock within his drawers. Charles gasped, and Moira took the opportunity to kiss him on the mouth once again. He explored her mouth with his tongue, enjoying the sensation, and then realised that he was most likely doing this because of something that Emma had said to shock him. But Moira responded in kind, and smiled broadly when their mouths parted, so he decided that this was not among his worries.

"I think that you

are

learning," Moira said.

"I hope..." Charles muttered uncertainly.

"Good. Look, I show you more," Sui Pai. "Moira, you get naked."

The three separated and Charles began to undress, although he had only shed his shirt by the time that Moira and Sui Pai had removed their petticoats and drawers to stand completely naked. Sui Pai indicated that he might as well pause there, as Moira lay back on the bed and spread her legs, and Sui Pai put herself between them. Then she glanced back at Charles.

"Come," she said, "learn."

And so, Charles joined her in contemplation of the intricacies of flesh concealed within Moira's red triangle of body hair. Then Sui Pai's mouth swooped in, and Moira gasped happily.

"See?" said Sui Pai. "That part - that little part

there

- very sens-sit-tive. You want to make a woman happy, you must know that. But

very

sens-sit-tive. Don't do too much."

Charles followed her instructions and her lead, and a few minutes later, Moira was quivering and moaning softly. Sui Pai told Charles to stop for a moment then, and they took it in turns to explore Moira's secret parts, kissing and caressing the intricacies that Charles now knew were present. Moira's moans grew slower but deeper, until Sui Pai laughed, raised her head from the task, and inserted two fingers of her right hand deep into Moira's deep, moist channel. Charles took a hint and took his tongue to the adjacent area.

Suddenly, Moira gave a sharp cry, and her hips bucked. Charles looked up at her, concerned that he might have done something wrong - but beyond her naked breasts, he saw that she was smiling happily. She sat up a little and tousled his hair with an appreciative murmur.

"You learn okay, boy," Sui Pai allowed. "You show me how well later. But now..."

"Now?" Charles asked.

"Don't try to hide it, boy. You mus' be hard now. Moira got a lovely cunny, don't tell me you aren't ready." She stood by the bed, unashamedly naked, and gave one of her rare beaming smiles. "So now, you fuck me."

Charles acted without thinking, standing and dropping his trousers and drawers together. His erection sprang free, rock hard, and Sui Pai smiled again.

"Sit!" she commanded, and Charles obeyed. Sui Pai produced a condom and fitted it with casual ease. Then she all but jumped to a position astride his thighs, her legs around his waist. Lifting herself a little, she reached down with one hand to grasp his cock and guide it to her own ready entrance, and drew herself onto him.

"Oh..." Charles gave a deep-throated gasp, "Yes..."

"Looks good," Moira said. She was kneeling behind him now, and she laid her arms on his shoulders as she observed matters. "Still thinking of trying to escape, Charlie boy?"

Charles said nothing, instead shifting his hips to move inside and against Sui Pai, but the thought crossed his mind that if...

when

he returned to civilisation, his life would probably one day involve marriage to a respectable virgin. In which case, he would have a certain amount to explain to that young lady, and a certain amount that he would want to teach her...

"Why you grinning?" Sui Pai asked.

"Do you need to ask?" Charles temporised.

"I think he likes it," said Moira.

"You are credits to your former profession," said Charles, then "Ow!" as Moira pinched his nipples.

"Don't be cheeky," she snapped in his ear. "What's past is past. We're pirates now, an' we fuck for free, 'cause we're free to fuck as we choose."

"Whatever you say," Charles gasped. The limber Sui Pai had her knees raised to the level of his chest, her heels gripping his hips as she moved slightly but rapidly up and down on his erection. He fought for control; he now understood fully that a woman could take pleasure from this act, especially if the man did not spend himself too quickly, and whatever he thought of these two women, he found that he did not want them thinking of him as a careless or selfish lover. He held Sui Pai to him, and carefully did not focus on the naked form of Moira, who had now moved to stand a foot or two away from them and who was casually caressing Sui Pai's shoulders.

Through the waves of sensation and attempts to distract himself, Charles became dimly, abstractedly aware of noises in the corridor outside his room - voices raised more in excitement than in anger - but they meant nothing to him; they were a concern for

later

, once his genitals finally defeated his attempt to restrain them and unleashed themselves inside Sui Pai, once he...

The door to the room burst open. "If my son is here, then he is my first concern!" declared a voice that Charles now remembered, not heard for so very long but never forgotten, and then there was a frozen moment, and then a quiet "Oh - my heavens..." from the newcomer.

"Father!" cried Charles, and in that moment, sheer surprise and confusion defeated his control, and he found his cock pulsing with his release into Sui Pai. She looked to see who had entered the room, and Moira too turned to look.

"Oh, my," murmured Charles's father again, removing his spectacles to clean them with a handkerchief. He was much as Charles remembered him, save for the marks left by ten years; wiry and sharp-featured, with receding hair (with a touch more grey in it now), and a face that fell easily into nervous expressions. Behind him, some member of the pirate band evidently decided on tact, and pulled the room door closed. Then the naked Moira let out a cry of "Oswald!", stepped across the intervening space, and embraced Charles's father happily.

Sui Pai gave an ironic murmur of "ha!", raised herself from Charles, and reached for her petticoat. Charles stood up, desperately endeavouring to decide how he could recover some dignity despite his nakedness and his still half-tumescent, rubber-shrouded cock. But his father was not, for the moment, paying him any attention, being engaged in the task of putting his handkerchief away and restoring his spectacles to his face while also returning Moira's affectionate embrace. This gave Charles a moment in which to regain his drawers. By the time that he had them fully on, though, his father was looking at him with a half-smile.

"I observe that you have made yourself at home here," he remarked.

"Father," he said, "I have... No, this is an impossible situation! Forgive me, but I feel entitled to some explanation myself! What is your ... acquaintance with Moira?"

"Don't be a pompous ass, boy!" Moira commanded, still apparently unworried by her own nakedness. "A while back, I was sent as a messenger to Oswald. Well, perhaps I was a little bit of a spy, too."

"A messenger?"

"Yes," said Oswald Dartington, "a messenger from an old friend..."

"From the Captain," Moira declared.

"Indeed," the older Dartington continued. "Laati... Captain Rukh and I had met many years since, when we were both setting out... Oh, do let us sit down and talk in comfort." He placed himself on a chair while Moira finally sought out her own petticoat, and the half-dressed Charles and Sui Pai found themselves seated side-by-side on the bed. "We collaborated on some projects, but then went our separate ways."

"You

worked

with Captain Rukh?" Charles asked.

"Oh yes. She is quite a brilliant practical engineer, that lady... Her airships use a few ideas that she borrowed from me, but as many of her own. But we had not seen each other for years; she had her exciting life while I worked quietly for the Company."

"Not seeing what they were doing with your inventions," Moira said, folding herself up to sit on the floor at Oswald Dartington's feet.

"No," he admitted, looking sad. "I hate to have to admit this, Charles, but the Company is... Well, it is corrupt and self-serving. These people have good reasons to fight against it."

"You - you side with the pirates, then?" Charles said, his mind spinning.

"I do now," his father said. "Although from what I observed, you have thrown in with them somewhat yourself."

"Do

not

tease the boy, Oswald," Moira commanded as Charles sought for words to reply. "We were ordered to distract him, and so we did. He needed a piece of teaching, though, I must say."

"And I am sure that you have taught him very well, Moira," Charles's father said.

"Still working on it," said Sui Pai. "Not too bad, though."

"You still have not explained how you and Moira came to be acquainted," Charles said, seeking to change the subject.

"Ah, yes," Moira herself said. "The Captain remembered your pa here very well. She guessed that he might not know so well quite what bastards he was serving, or he might want out. Or both."

"Yes," the older man admitted. "And she was not entirely wrong."

"And he was helping them too damned much, with his work. So she sent me into the Company workshops in Delhi," Moira continued. "We set me up as a new maid there. Took a little fixing, but what Company high-up even looks at a maid?"

"Moira understates her own courage and resource," Oswald Dartington said. "If the Company had realised that she was a spy, things might have gone very hard for her."

"Pirate spies don't get a fair trial from the bastards," Moira muttered. "They just vanish."

Charles shivered. The Company had a reputation for

efficiency;

seen in this sort of light, that might well equate to ruthlessness. "When was this?" he asked.

"Around four years ago," his father replied. "Your dear mother had been dead for over three years by then, and you were off in England, but I was still mourning, I fear. One should not mourn for so long... I had buried myself in my work, as a way to distract myself. I had created all too many good vehicles for the Company. And, well, more than one weapon, I am afraid."

"Not your fault, Oswald," Moira said, patting his hand. "They'd worked out how to work you. They kept your mind on the details..."

"Yes, that was it, I fear." Charles's father sighed deeply. "That is why I had never come to see you in England in that time. The Company kept throwing interesting problems to me, and telling me that I was

needed,

and distracting me from what was truly important. I am very sorry, Charles - I can never make amends for that time. But then this brave young woman came along, carefully identifying herself as a messenger from another world..."

"It's a tricky game to play," Moira interjected. "I was lucky Oswald is as good a man as the Captain thought."

"Yes, and Moira became my channel through to the pirates for a while."

"Forgive me, but did your association with a maidservant not attract some notice?" Charles asked.

Moira snorted. "You don't know the Company, boy. Maidservants are the lowest of the low, that's true, but that means that they have their

other uses

. Why d'you think they'd pay the extra needed for European servants on the strength? Not all Company folk like brown flesh."

"Oh," said Charles. "So you posed as my father's chosen mistress?"

"It was a useful tale to spin," his father confirmed.

"More than a tale," Moira added. "Look, Oswald, he needs to know - he must have mostly guessed already, and he'll just get confused and angry if we don't come out with it." She gazed at Charles with a half-smile. "A tale is easiest to make convincing if it's got plenty of truth in it," she told him. "And this was no sacrifice, once I got to know him."

"Oh," said Charles, unsure what more to say, or to think.

"Your mother was three years gone," his father hastily added, "I... I found that I needed to re-engage with the world..."

"Say it plain," said Sui Pai suddenly. "Everyone needs plain fact. You fucked Moira, Moira fucked you. Cheered you up, took your mind off building more guns for Company."

"Yes. No two ways about it," Moira confirmed.

"And now you've... I mean, we're father and son..." Charles said to her.

"Not my first such," Moira said with a shrug. "I used to be a Singapore whore, remember? More'n one of my regular customers thought I was the woman to make men of their sons."

"But - father did not instigate this..." Charles stammered.

"Heavens, no," his father said. "I knew nothing of what was happening here."

"No one did," said Moira, "except the Captain. She didn't even tell us we were going to be fetching Charles out, until we were all but bearing down on that ship. She's been most cautious. I knew that we were talking to Oswald, o' course, but I've always been sworn to keep that very quiet."

"Company spies," said Sui Pai, all but spitting.

"There've been one or two," Moira agreed. "She must think that this was a risky move. I'm not clear what the idea was."

"That is easy," said Charles's father. "I've been working to extricate myself from the Company, ever since you... You contacted me, really. But I think that they must have suspected something, if only from the decline in my work for them. And they would not wish to let me go. And they had a hostage."

"Me?" said Charles.

"Yes, that would be their way," Moira confirmed.

"It was," Charles's father agreed. "Once I had come to see how ruthless the Company is, I dared not contact you too much; you were safer if the Company thought that I had forgotten you, and I knew that you were safe in England at the school and with your cousins. But they must have guessed that I would not entirely have abandoned you, or at least hoped so. It was their idea to bring you out here, and they demanded that I send for you - though they could reach you in England if they wished. They read my mail, I am sure, so I could not warn you. And once you were held in a Company stronghold, close to me, I could never have left them."