Agree to meet Davies' men

“Sure, I’ll look them over, but if they are as good as you say, why would they want to sign on with me?” Brenan could tell Davy was expecting your question and had an answer that he might not like.

“Here’s the thing, might as well tell you now you know as soon as you get a good look at them.” Watching you closely in the dim cabin light he went on. “They’re half-breeds. Their mom was some fisherman’s dumb lonely girl and she found herself a half dead Lantian man bit bad by a shark.” Brenan nodded in understanding. Lantians were mostly human he reckoned, but air breathers hardly ever saw any. From the moment of the Landing, the Lantians took to the deep seas, they lived far below the waves in the calm waters of the deep.

“And by the time she nursed him back to health she couldn’t see how damn ugly the thing was and so she ended up knocked up by him.” Brenan finished the story for Davy. He had heard of similar tales, the Lantian woman entangled in a trawler’s nets that was kept by the crew for their pleasure. Or the shipwrecked mariner saved by a fish-girl and kept on some remote atoll raising his half-breed family by himself, cause the girl couldn’t stay out of water for more than ten minutes before her lungs dried out.

“That’s about it Bren, but these are good lads – they mostly took after their mom, so they look and act pretty normal like.” Brenan didn't take long thinking over the options; if they sailed with Wild Oscar then they couldn’t be all bad.

“All-right, Davy, where are you hiding these two?” The grizzled man gave him a smack with his good hand and smiled in relief.

“You won’t regret this Brenan, that is Captain Brenan.” He smiled as he moved to the door “I’ll send them around soon as I get back to the shop.” That was a good sign Brenan decided. Some Lantian halfies were so sensitive to light that they never went out in the midday sun. There was no place on his ship for sailors who couldn’t stand the sun. On the other hand he mused, it wouldn’t hurt to have some crew with better night vision for any late night rendezvous that he may have.

As Brenan waited for the two men, he took another tour of the schooner. Making mental notes of things that needed replacing. She was 20 meters long on the deck, an extra six if you count the bowsprit and nearly five meters wide at the beam. Her main mast was set nearly middeck and leaned a little to the aft. She had a gaff rig mainsheet that was mended in several places, but still serviceable and room for a three and a half meter square topsail above that. Her foremast was about halfway between the mainsail and the bowsprit and she carried a smaller gaff rig sail and three flying jibs that reached out to her proud bowsprit. Brenan had yet to see here under full sail, but he was enough of a seaman to tingle in anticipation.

Below deck the hold was divided into three main rooms. The rooms were fairly well lit from the midday sun that streamed in through the open hatches and portholes, and Brenan surveyed the area with a sense of satisfaction. The fore room had two narrow bunks for officers and the arms locker was built into the forepeak. The room was clean and the bunks were neatly made, but the two small glass portholes set into the hull over the bunks badly needed a good cleaning, both from the inside and out. The cargo hold room was essentially empty except the for two masts that passed through the hold down to the keel and the six foul-smelling water casks sat at the far end of the hold. Yesterday Brenan had made it a point to order new water casks to replace these offensive relics. Even with the best water casks ships water became foul on long trips, and in Brenan’s opinion good water was even more important than good food.

The galley was built into the back end of the main hold (he needed to hire a cook too he realized) and the food locker was across from the galley, but other than that the hold was reserved for cargo. Two old hammocks hung neatly on the sides of the hold near the portholes, and Brenan made a mental note to buy more of those. Lockers were built into the walls for storage of extra sails, ropes and pitch as well as personal items for the crew, and more storage was available under the steep steps circling up to the fore and aft hatches.

The bilge was accessed through a hatch set between the two masts; Brenan opened the heavy hatch and nodded in satisfaction at the row of lead blocks that were set into the floor of the bilge. The narrow crawl space at the bottom of the ship was not nearly as rancid as most ballast holds, and the extra weight of the lead ballast helped balance the unusually large spread of canvas that the schooner carried.

A narrow corridor led between the galley and the food locker to the captain’s cabin. The cabin had better lighting than the rest of the hull with glass windows on the sides and aft walls of the hull. A second hatch to the bilge below was set into the decking and Brenan opened this hatch as well to check for any accumulation of water down below. Davy had assured him that the calking was sound, but Brenan knew better than to take any man’s word when he could verify the information easily for himself. As promised there was less than a few centimeters of water sloshing between the ballast blocks. Not even enough to pump he noted with satisfaction.

Moving once again to the deck Brenan looked over the side at the waterline on the ship. He should be able to load almost ten tons of cargo and still keep her fit and trim. If he found a vault, he might have to dump some of his cargo in order to load all the contents, but any preserved vault-tech he could find would be worth more than its weight in gold and spices, so that didn’t bother him at all. The schooner’s two six-pounders sat between the main and fore masts, and there were two other gun ports further aft if he wanted augment the firepower that he carried.

Some men, Brenan knew would celebrate the purchase of a ship by bringing a keg on board and opening the ship up for any friends family or even possible recruits, but he wanted to be alone with the ship for this first evening. Brenen spent the next few hours looking over every centimeter of the schooner and the small ship's boat that sat keelside up on her main deck. In a way he felt like a bridegroom on his wedding night, lovingly caressing and exploring his new bride.

Long after the sun went down Brenan found himself sitting atop the main-top spar watching the night sky. Pandora's two moons were clearly visible moving across the starry heavens, the two moons were just over half full and Brenan watched as the small fast-moving hunter moon overtook the Buffalo moon. Usually the smaller satellite would pass the larger moon either above or below its much larger brother but Brenan took it as a good omen when tonight the Hunter struck the Buffalo moon squarely amidships.

Brenan had a peaceful smile on his face as he slid down the backstay to the deck below. He had a lot to do before he could set sail, but for the first time in his life the hunger that drove his actions was barely noticeable.