The former Captain Yetna watched the coastline approach. It was evening and the mists that were infamous around this region were drawing in thick and fast -- shrouding the exact point where the safe sea ended and the dead-zone around the Deadman's Coast began. She knew that crossing it was not an either or thing -- there were ships that had sailed within a stone's throw of the coast before being struck down, and others that had merely blundered within eyesight that had been struck. But there was an agreed upon point where it stopped being a gamble and started being a certatiny.
"Do we throw the anchor now?" Chinsara asked, quietly, her voice muffled by the gathering mist.
"Yes," Yetna said.
Chinsara looked from her to Tulon, who had her telescope to her eyes.
"Do it," Tulon said.
Yetna grumbled. "I'm already going to be executed by the Empress for doing this, you can at least trust me."
"Humph," Chinsara said, then put her tropical muscles to work -- her and the other sailors. They all threw the anchor as the sail was reefed and the ship came to a stately halt in the mists.
"All right, Imp," Tulon said, her voice grim. "What's the trick?"
Yetna sighed, then pointed. "There's the coast -- and I think we've come up on the right latitude...there! There it is!" She pointed and they all peered into the mist, at the faint glimmer of light that shone along the rising hills of the coastline. It was the reason for the coast's name -- those glimmering lights looked an awful lot like a male, tempting them to approach, to rest their weary bodies, and find some comfort.
It was always a temptation that led to fire and ruin.
Yetna looked away from the coast to Tulon. Her...for lack of a better word...comrade was looking drawn and tight lipped at that faint glimmer. "The deadlights shine near the entrance. We now need to get prepped for diving. We dive, then we follow the Imperial markers." She sighed. "A lot of divers got themselves killed to plant them."
"I thought that diving didn't work -- the Deadman's Coast kills you even if you approach under the water," Chinsara said.
"The Imperial Diving Corps went in again and again -- probing. We had the women to spend." Yetna shook her head. "Three whole ships, parked outside, trying to recreate the route that the Empress took. There's no landmarks under the sea, naturally, everything shifts around, reefs grow and die, the silt is everywhere. It's worse, with the tides. But we found the route she had taken, and we planted permanent diver markers. We follow them, we can get to the coast. Once you're
on the shore
, you're safe."
Tulon nodded. "Get everyone ready." She turned back to Gyre. "Gyre, are..." She frowned. "Gyre, are you
asleep
?" She stepped over to the alien man, to the...Starship, Yetna supposed he was called. She grabbed his head, then shook it, viciously. His head flopped around and then his eyes opened and he frowned at her.
"No," he said. "I'm not asleep. I'm just trying to retarget some very confused, very old grazer turrets before they vaporize our-" He winced as the water about fifty yards to the right of their ship exploded outwards, as if a whole barrel of gunpowder had been set off beneath the waves. The mist swept out along them, scalding hot even with the distance between them and the impact point and every woman on the deck ducked low, hissing. "...ship."
"What the hell is a grazer?" Yetna hissed, sticking her head up and above the edge of the railing.
"There are three of them on the coastline that are still active," Gyre said, his eyes closing. "Give me a second. Don't dive until I say so."
"You..." Tulon growled, then shook her head and stepped back, frustration clear on her features. She crossed her arms over her chest, stepped backwards, then thrust herself against the mast. She glared at Gyre, while Yetna and Chinsara both looked back to the coast. Chinsara put her hand over her eyes, as if to shade them from the blazing sun -- despite the fact it was late at night and the only light was the moon overhead and the glimmering deadlights.
"So, what's your story?" she asked Yetna.
"I'm a turncoat Imperial captain. You?" Yetna asked.
"Whore," Chinsara said, her voice cheerful. "I ride that alien's dick, and my Queen rewards me later with money, maybe even land, a title, a stake in some trade or another." She shrugged. "Seemed like a worthwhile way to use my body."
Yetna nodded, her eyes flicking along Chinsara's form. Even in the evening light, her tropical colors made her a bright, eye catching sight on the ship. And she had a figure that rewarded her coloration. Yetna found herself licking her lips, slowly, her eyes settling on the thick tail that Chinsara sported. It had been...quite a while since she'd been with a woman who had a tail. Chinsara giggled. "Eyes up, Captain. I never said I'd fuck you."
Yetna huffed, looking up into Chinsara's eyes. "I'll have you know, men were falling out of the trees to be seduced by me," she said. "Back in the Empire."
"Did they have a way to say no?" Chinsara murmured.
Yetna flushed. "Well..." She looked out at the coast. "I never took any man that said no."
Chinsara watched her silently for a bit.
"I believe you," she said.
Gyre opened his eyes. "Okay," he said. "I think I've convinced the grazers that we're not enemies."
"What is a grazer?" Tulon snapped, stepping forward to stand before Gyre again as he stood. He looked down his nose at her, then looked away. Yetna couldn't tell for sure, but she thought...he might have actually been ashamed of what he had done. But she wasn't going to bet out it, considering he was an alien after all.
"A grazer is a...damn it all, it's a..." He groped for words. "It's a weapon. A shortening of a set of words -- a Gamma Ray Laser."
"Okay, how does it work? How does it kill ships? And can we approach above the waves?" Tulon asked, her voice growing slightly less harsh as Gyre squirmed under her gaze.
"It works by...taking light and then focusing it so that the light all moves in the same direction. You know how the sun warms you up? It's like that, but magnified many thousands of times." Gyre said. "There are many kinds of light -- the kind we can see and invisible kinds, which are all zipping through the universe around us." He waved his hand around. "Grazers use the most energetic -- the most intense -- form of light that we can tap into, focuses it into a beam, and fires that beam at targets. They cut, burn and explode all at the same time. That explosion you saw earlier? That was water boiling by the ton when a grazer flicker-fired at it for a second."
Tulon regarded him. Yetna had no idea what was going on between her ears, and her face betrayed nothing, before she finally said: "And that's what you can fire from your fingers?"
"Grazers and x-beams," he said, holding up his hand. "X-beams use a different kind of light. Less energetic, so it takes less for me to fire them, and they can be fired for longer." He wiggled his fingers.
"Are there any other weapons on the coast that you are aware of?" Tulon asked, her voice more serious, more focused. She was looking slightly less murderous, too. Yetna felt a tiny knot on the back of her neck starting to ease. If Tulon was less eager to stab their only alien, maybe they'd actually survive this mission.
"From what I can tell, that coast has what was once an orbital defense installation," Gyre said, pointing at the mountains that rose in the distance. "Three grazers for close in point defense and a few kinetics. Those kinetics can't shoot at us, they're designed to only fire up into...the sky." He pointed upwards. "That's what orbital defense is, see. It's for defending from things that fall from the sky."
"Like you?" Tulon shook her head, before he could respond, and barked some orders. "Chinsara, Yetna, Leylin, get the anchor up! Ulnd, unreef those sails. We're going to land on the Deadman's Coast."
Chinsara groaned. "We just-"
"Oh quit your complaining," Yetna said, then put her shoulder to the windless.
***
The prow of the boat crunched against the shore and Tulon leaped from the edge of the sandy beach of the Deadman's Coast. The misty air felt deliciously cool against her skin, and her spear felt entirely inadequate in her hands. She lifted her head, instinctively, to where Xan would drift around her shoulders, glimmering and glinting...and instead, saw nothing at all. Her heart clenched and she wanted to scream and cry all at once. She forced those feelings down as Yetna crunched down next to her, holding a captured Imperial musket in her hands. Chinsara stepped down and Gyre followed, leaving the other women on the ship.
"This coast should be safe," Gyre said. "The grazers aren't killing anything until I tell them to start-"
"The Imps come around, I want to have a ship here when we swing back around," Tulon said, her voice flat. She turned to the ship. "If either of you see Imps coming, you are to cut and run. Leave markings on that tree, using the Queen's Code." She said, pointing up at the tree she wanted. Leylin nodded, her eyes glinting.
"Understood, captain."
"Should I fly-" Gyre started.
"No," Tulon snapped, the reaction immediate and entirely visceral. The reasoning only came later. "There's three of us, you can't carry us all. Besides, isn't this place made to shoot down things that fly?" She smirked. "How do you know they won't try and shoot you down for trying to fly around overhead."
