It starts off well

“So, there you have it…” Brenan wrapped up his slightly censored recount of what he and Sasha had discussed the night before, and now made sure to look each of the assembled crewmembers in the eyes, noting that both Kyle and James both looked pretty shaken by what he’d shared with them, while the others, Mr. Michaels in particular, weren’t quite so disturbed by finding out that they might just find themselves being some of the most hunted men on Pandora thanks to their association with Sasha.

“Anyone of you wants to leave my ship because of this, then that’s fine, but Sasha stays with us, and that’s final.” Growing silent as he awaited their decision, Brenan hoped that he’d chosen his crew well and that everyone of them would now prove themselves to be worthy of his trust.

“I’m staying,” Surprisingly enough, James was the first one to reach his decision, and Brenan just barely managed to hold back a chuckle at the likely prospect of the young man and his brother competing for Sasha’s favour, at least until Cindy showed up to complicate things even further.

As it turned out, Brenan had been correct in his assumption that Julien had already left for Davy’s stables, and at this point the young man might just have set off on his journey across the island, which meant that he would join Cindy and Red in being told about the people who were looking for Sasha until the voyage had already started, which was unfortunate but not something that he could do anything about.

“We’re up against some pretty bad odds, I suppose,” Mr. Michaels was the next to say anything, and Brenan suddenly found himself facing the possibility of having to find a new gunnery officer before the middle-aged man broke out into a smile that was uncharacteristically determined for him, “but then I’m used to that. And besides, it isn’t very nice to abandon a woman who’s in distress. So I’m staying as well.”

To Brenan’s mind, Michaels’ sense of chivalry was gradually becoming less of a quirk and more of a defining feature of his character, to the point where it could rival his absent-mindedness in prominence.

“Me and my brother would have to spend a long time yet before we’d find another captain willing to take us on, and we’re done with this shithole of an island,” Kyle decided, and Tyler backed him through some vigorous nodding of his head, the two brothers’ willingness to stay aboard his ship and their less than charitable characterization of the island causing Brenan to suspect that their Lantian blood had landed them in a fair amount of unpleasant situations during their stay there.

“How dangerous is this situation anyway, Captain?” James looked sheepish enough for Brenan to suspect that the well-read young man was now silently berating himself for not asking that question before vowing to stay aboard the ship. Had this been Veertor’s or Cryn’s navy, then James would now be mercilessly hounded because of how his question suggest a certain amount of trepidation about what they were up against, but Brenan had gotten far enough in his re-emergence as a human being that he let out a low chuckle at the young man’s question and felt everyone’s eyes, even Mr. Michaels’, be upon him.

“Well, we’ve got the thugs such as the ones I took care of yesterday, we’re bound to encounter more like them if the Veer agents ever find about us and manage to pin us in a port somewhere, and they’re annoying more than anything else if you know what you’re doing,” Brenan began his lecture on the different strata of the Veer’s forces.

“And you think that we know what we’re doing?” Kyle asked, betraying that he didn’t possess much faith in his ability as a fighter.

“No, I’m suggesting that you will know it if they ever catch up with us,” Brenan replied, having considered that to be a question that was likely to be asked,” James, don’t tell your brother this, but I reckon that I could probably teach him a thing or two about how to carry yourself in a fight.”

“Now, if they find out about us, and I’m not saying that they will, then the Veer is likely to come after us with a lot of people, and if they catch up with us at sea then there won’t matter much about how good their sailors and marines are at fighting, because we’ll so vastly outnumbered that our only chance is to outsail them and hope either for a storm or nightfall, preferably both.”

“Are you suggesting that we’d sail into a storm?” James balked at the thought.

“Better Tom Jones’ locker than to fail into the hands of the Veer, boyo,” Again, Brenan was surprised by Michaels, this time by how assertive he sounded as he referred to one of the great mythical figures of the maritime world.

“What Mr. Michaels said,” Brenan nodded, “Which leaves us with their agents, who tend to be a skilful lot, and my advice to all of you if you were to find yourself challenged by one is that it’s better to run away to fight another day than get yourself killed.”

Being young men, the Jones brothers and James didn’t look particularly pleased at the suggestion that they should run from a fight, but Brenan acted in accordance with the philosophy that it was best to push on and not leave them with too much time to think about it.

“Their leaders are a more varied bunch,” he began as he characterized the final part of the group that might just come hunting for them, “and they range from agents that have risen through the ranks through a combination of competence and ruthlessness and political appointees, people who know the right people, and they’re a combination of incompetence and ruthlessness. Sometimes, the latter is far more dangerous.”

“Now, if there isn’t anything else,” Brenan rounded up the proceedings, “let’s get this ship ready to set off.”

[Edit: Tom Jones' Locker is very much like the earlier discussion on how the Grinch tried to stop Jesus from being born.]