What needs to be done

Relieved that the trip back to his schooner had been without incident, Brenan allowed himself to return Tyler’s wave and then the others onto his ship, using the gangway rather than trying to get them to climb up its side. There would be time enough to train them in such matters later on, Brenan reasoned, and right now there were still more pressing matters to attend to. He still needed a gunnery officer, having a man or a woman who knew everything about the guns below deck and how to train and lead the crew when it came to the application of said guns were fairly vital at any time, but especially so when they now ran the risk of finding themselves being hunted by the Veer.

Apart from that, having one more experienced fighter apart from him and Red would probably be a good idea. And he needed to both get supplies for him and the rest of the crew and actually acquire a job of some sorts so that he could actually make some money, as well as take care of his own needs by getting laid so that he wouldn’t behave like a complete ass again when Red and Cindy joined up with them.

But before he would be free to do something about the sexual frustration that the last couple of days had brought with them, Brenan knew that he would have to try and do something about the Veer agents, it would greatly increase their chances of getting away without Sasha having been discovered if he could confuse them a bit, hopefully managing to send them off following the wrong set of tracks and perhaps even succeeding in bringing about some of the vicious infighting which the Veertorian intelligence community, now there was an ironic term, was extremely keen.

Of course, doing that would take up so much of his time that Brenan was unlikely to get to go visit a whore or see if that cute barmaid would repeat her offer. No, if he wanted to do that, then Brenan would have to delegate the purchase of supplies to his crew, and that couldn’t be done as Sasha was a wanted woman who shouldn’t be walking about town, James and Julien weren’t experienced enough to carry out the purchases, and Kyle and Tyler would undoubtedly struggle to avoid being offered a Lantian discount, which was when you paid twice as much money for half as many goods.

“Kyle and Tyler, this is James and Julien Caruthers, and the woman’s Sasha,” Brenan began as the five other people aboard ship gathered around him and eyed each other nervously, though Sasha was unsurprisingly enough the one who received the most quick glances and nervous smiles as all four of the young men tried to come to terms with her beauty, and as he noted the glances that she was the recipient of, Brenan thought that not having to worry about such things was just one of the reasons why he was glad he didn’t have a daughter.

“I’ve signed them on as part of the crew,” Brenan went on to explain, deciding that he could make do without finding out what Sasha’s last name for a little while longer.

“Julien, James, Sasha, these two are Kyle and Tyler Jones, your fellow crewmembers,” Brenan guessed that the nervousness that didn’t come about as a result of Sasha’s presence was due to the Jones’ brothers mixed heritage, as their somewhat odd appearance was a bit unsettling if you weren’t used to it and they in turn probably had enough experience with bigotry to be a bit unsettled by any new acquaintances, and Brenan would have been extremely surprised if it turned out that there was a strictly medical cause for Tyler’s stutter, “they might not look particularly beautiful, but they’re experienced sailors and they’ll show you around the ship and start teaching you to pull your weight around it while I take care of some unfinished business.”

“Tyler.”

“A-a-a-aye c-c-cap-t-ta-ta-in?” Tyler’s stutter had become a lot worse than before, no doubt thanks to Sasha’s presence.

“Take Sasha below deck and show her around, try to tell her as much as possible about everything,” Brenan reasoned that he might as well push Tyler in at the deep end and find out later if he’d managed to keep his head above the surface, “I don’t have the time to tell you why, but it’s imperative that she doesn’t venture back up into the open, is that understood?”

“Y-yes captain!”

“Good lad,” Brenan smiled at how Tyler almost managed to defeat his stammer, “Kyle, you’re in charge of instructing Julien and James. They might not know much about life at sea, but they seem smart enough and know better than to talk back instead of listening.”

“Aye captain!” Understandably, Kyle looked fairly disappointed at not getting to instruct Sasha, who would find herself being the only woman aboard until the rendezvous with Red and Cindy.

“Good,” Brenan nodded and made sure to try and look satisfied with their quick responses to his orders, “I don’t rightly know when I’ll be back.”
The others nodded and watched Brenan depart via the gangway.