Question For The Captain

The dinner party enjoyed a glass of port as dessert while a couple of crewmates removed the dirty dishes. The conversation was light, everyone tacitly agreeing to let Noah ponder the earlier discussion.

“So, Noah,” Hannah said, “this Brereton… kingdom or whatever, you know, your homeland across the great ocean - where is it exactly? I’ve only ever heard of the big port city there, Tyumen? I couldn’t name more than one or two kingdoms or commonwealths overseas, and half of the places may be mythical.”

Hyvin nodded and said, “Being from the east - or at least the eastern islands of Tembina here, we may know a bit more of those lands, although travel is vanishingly rare. Maybe twice a year the massive ships arrive from over the ‘Sagara Luas’, what we call the great ocean to the East. So I’ve met a few sailors from Rzenow, very pale men who wear huge hats. And I know Tyumen is the main port for travel here to the west like Hannah says, but there is an island called Hamga Roa that apparently is ruled by a wise thousand-year-old king who can’t die but can never leave his throne?”

Everyone looked at Noah, who smiled thinly and placed his glass on the table, saying, “Brereton is a very small kingdom further away from Tyumen. More north, on the main continental landmass.”

Captain Amaruq looked at him and said, “I have to admit, I’m very interested in the great ships that do the ocean journey. I’ve seen one, but it was at a distance, years ago. Seemed to have 5 masts, square rigged, and was twice the size of even the big whaling ships here. How do they find trees big enough for masts that size?”

“I spent most of my time reading and trying not to vomit, I’m afraid I don’t know anything about the ships,” Noah shrugged apologetically, but just as Hannah opened her mouth to speak again, he continued, “but that reminds me Captain, you said you served on a ‘carrack’? What kind of ship is that?”

The conversation shifted as the officers explained, in great detail, how the humble cog needed more sails than one mast could support and how important carvel planking was to the ship designs that came after. Noah nodded along, asking enough questions to keep the sailors happily arguing about the ‘ideal’ ship.

It was only an hour before midnight when the party wound down, and the three guests thanked the captain for her hospitality.

Captain Amaruq was smiling fondly at them, the extra glass of port perhaps making her a bit more relaxed than she often was with the crew, as she closed her door. Hyvin retired to the small quarters she shared with Hannah, but the red headed first mate walked up on deck and Noah followed her.

“Whew, fun dinner, neh?” the woman said as she stretched in the cool night air. She gave Yutu, slowly walking a circuit of the boat while on first watch, a nod. The Thuule man nodded back, then gave Noah a shy smile while his eyes lingered on the steward.

“It was, I truly enjoyed it,” Noah said. He paused, waiting until Yutu was well out of earshot before continuing, “Hannah, uh, if it’s not impolite, I wonder… does the captain not like men? I mean, you know, sexually?”

Hannah went still, then gave a short laugh before shaking her head, “No, sorry! Not laughing at you. Just surprised by the question is all.” Noah’s face twisted in a grimace and she added, “Why do you ask?”

“I just, uh I don’t know. I really admire the captain, and sometimes I think she looks at me in a way, and when we talked once she... but she had been drinking so maybe it didn’t mean - ok I sound crazy or just massively conceited, actually by the gods I sound so arrogant just saying it out loud I’ll just shut up now?”

Noah trailed off and Hannah smiled affectionately at how the handsome man looked so young and uncertain. “Well, I’m not sure it’s for me to say who Cap’n does or doesn’t like, but I know she has lain with men. As for our current voyage… our captain has a very serious view of her duties. As she should. And, let’s say, hypothetically, that knowing her as long as I have, I think she takes it a bit too far at times. Maybe she denies herself things she would probably love because she thinks it’s the proper thing to do. Even if the whole crew would love it for a leader as good as she is to let herself enjoy life. Not work quite so hard as she does. Relax a bit, or be relaxed.”

Hannah gave Noah a slow nod, her smile growing at his expression. “Well, I’m off to bed, I’m so tired I’ll probably pass out the second my head hits the pillow. Hope there isn’t a battle or anything until morning, I’m sure I’d sleep through it. Oh, and I know you have the night off duty, young man, so maybe you should relax too. Do whatever you want to? I mean, if no one is going to knock on your door for service your time is your own.”

And with that, she walked away, feeling rather pleased with herself.

Amaruq dried her face on a towel in her room, getting ready for bed. Her hair was loose, almost all the way down her back, and she noticed a few extra grey hairs as she peered into the small mirror above the wash basin. She shrugged to herself as she wiped off the touch of eye makeup she had applied for the meal; she was approaching 40 summers now, and she couldn’t be surprised to see age creeping up on her. It hardly mattered, who was going to notice? The crew? Surely to them she was just The Captain, more an extension of the boat itself than a human.

Ok, it wasn’t quite like that. Unlike in the navy, on the larger ships during the war, when the officers had indeed been like distant angry gods more than women doing impossible jobs in times of devastating loss. She smiled to herself, wondering where this feeling was coming from. She did keep herself a bit removed from the crew, as a captain had to, but she was not in any way as aloof as she would have been had the Nawyet been an actual naval warship. It wasn’t a desire on her part to be remote, it was just best for the crew and herself to remain at least somewhat formal.

And if that meant she could not, or should not, have the same privileges of the sailors in a small few ways, that was a fair trade.

Hearing footsteps in the corridor, Amaruq paused. Speak of the devil (the cute, tempting, guileless devil), and he appears. Or at least, walks into his room by the sounds of it.

But. What if she just… knocked on the wall to Noah’s room?

No. That was absurd, he was off duty and she had just had an extra glass of fortified wine with her meal. Stop being a foolish woman, dammit. Maybe when she got to Currielle, she would take some of the money she assiduously saved and visit one of the expensive paramours that worked the more discreet covetous houses. Find a handsome young man - maybe there was a fancy courtigiano with green eyes? - and keep it simple. No strange attachments, no unexpected emotional… yearnings. No moral obligation to keep him safe, even from himself.

Yes, rather then worry about all of that foolishness it would be infinitely better if she just focused on the crew and her job as their captain. The situation with the steward disembarking at the Empty City was more than enough to think about for now. Amaruq looked at the reflection in the mirror and the woman there nodded seriously. You had to assume she was right, she was the captain after all.

Chuckling, Amaruq thought about the dinner itself. The talk with Noah went about as well as she could reasonably have hoped. The man certainly took the warnings and offers to heart, and even as Amaruq was now beyond certain he was keeping some fairly serious secrets to himself the main thing was he was crew and she would fight to keep him safe.

Putting her service medals and pins away, Amaruq picked up her uniform jacket from her bed where she had placed it and hung it properly in her wardrobe.

She did not often bother, but since she had been wearing her jacket out of habit Amaruq had worn suspenders under it rather than a simple sailor’s belt. A vestige of when the Kuniq navy had been almost entirely male, and mostly skinny boys with no hips to boot, but the traditional uniform changed less quickly than the average sailor had. Her simple white uniform shirt underneath was unbuttoned most of the way down already, the captain’s room being on the warm side even without her wearing an undershirt.

A knock at her door, and she called out, “Yes?” in the crisp voice she learned from every captain she ever served under.

“It’s just me,” Noah said from the passageway, “I had a quick question for you if you have a moment.”

Amaruq felt a smile spread across her face as she did up a couple of buttons on her shirt. She had tugged half the shirt out of her pants, but was otherwise presentable as an officer. Her loose hair would be unacceptable in the navy unless the boat was actually on fire, but after a split second the captain resisted the urge to quickly pull it back into a pony tail and tuck it away. It was just Noah, and this wasn’t the bloody navy.

As she opened the door she noticed his gaze flicker to her unbound hair, parted in the middle and so running like a curtain down her front, long enough to cover her chest. For a moment they looked at each other, then he said, “Mind if I come in? I’m sorry to intrude but it’ll only be a moment.”

“Of course, come in Noah,” she shook her head and stepped back to let him in. He took a few steps as she closed the door, her mind resolutely refusing to even guess as to the reason for his presence. “Do you have a question about the Empty City? I think we covered everything but I’m more than willing to wrack my memory again if you’d like.”

Now the steward shook his head. “No, thank you though. I’m not on duty this evening,” he said, as if confirming that to himself.

“No, of course you are not. Why, has someone approached you?” Amaruq felt a twinge of annoyance that one of the crew might seek his attention, but mostly she was surprised as the sailors to a woman (and man, mustn’t forget Yutu and his obvious satisfaction the other day!) had seemed very mindful of the steward’s schedule and limits.

“Sorry, no, did not mean to give that impression,” Noah said quickly, “I just wanted to point it out, I guess?” He trailed off, suddenly looking hesitant, and Amaruq felt her blood quicken.

She licked her lips, suddenly unable to keep her thoughts from straying to dangerous waters. “I see, I guess. So, er, what was your question then?” A small, very unhelpful, part of her mind told Amaruq that it was good that her hair was covering her front like it was, as her nipples had suddenly stiffened in a way that would have been very obvious in just her thin white shirt.

Noah took a small step toward her, and said, “In the past you mentioned things about the navy I found curious.”

Off balance, the captain said, “Indeed?”

He took another half step closer to the captain, now close enough that Amaruq had to look up at him. Close enough to grab his head and pull him down to a more reasonable level.

Noah nodded seriously. “You kissed me, when I asked you about the past. But you said it wasn’t right, how a captain would take the boys, and I agree it sounds bad if they didn’t have the power to say no. But I have to admit I am intrigued, about being a steward and taking care of a captain, properly. What would she want her own personal steward to do for a night? Would she demand impersonal service, use the boy as a tool to sate her desires, or would she be soft with him and teach him how to please an older woman who knew what she was about?”

A moment passed, and then another. The she-wolf in her breast howled, and Amaruq unhurriedly reached out and took hold of Noah’s shirt. She pulled him closer, enjoying the desire and uncertainty she saw in his eyes.

“Well. I can help you with that, certainly.”