Captain Horatio Hornblower (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
captainhornblower) wrote2012-06-14 09:04 pm
captainhornblower) wrote2012-06-14 09:04 pm
Sixteenth Dispatch - [written]
To the crew of the Britannia:
We sail on the sixteenth as planned.
To interested parties:
Today is the last day I will allow new crew members to sign the muster list. My officers need time to relay important instruction before we sail.
- Hornblower
[In the face of everything? The threat from the Malnosso over this missing member of their own? Charged with unnamed crimes? And a ticking clock for how long they have to obey?
...It's better, Horatio thinks, to be away from the village. He has no place in the politics of this group. What they do is their choice. He will, though, be trying to protect his crew. It's a gamble, but it's one he's willing to take.]
[Filtered, Jilly, 25%]:
[He's slightly learned to filter!]
Miss Jilly,
I would like to request your presence on board Britannia for her maiden voyage.
Horatio
We sail on the sixteenth as planned.
To interested parties:
Today is the last day I will allow new crew members to sign the muster list. My officers need time to relay important instruction before we sail.
- Hornblower
[In the face of everything? The threat from the Malnosso over this missing member of their own? Charged with unnamed crimes? And a ticking clock for how long they have to obey?
...It's better, Horatio thinks, to be away from the village. He has no place in the politics of this group. What they do is their choice. He will, though, be trying to protect his crew. It's a gamble, but it's one he's willing to take.]
[Filtered, Jilly, 25%]:
[He's slightly learned to filter!]
Miss Jilly,
I would like to request your presence on board Britannia for her maiden voyage.
Horatio
[voice - filtered - 25%]
But he doesn't want to hear the answer.]
Please.
[voice - filtered - 25%]
I can't.
They need you, Horatio. To keep them afloat.
But what if something happens? Here?
[voice - filtered - 25%]
The most he can do is repeat her question, meant for her as much as hers was meant for him.]
What if something happens here?
[voice - filtered - 25%]
[she's not bragging. She's not arguing. Maybe others see cowardice. She sees intelligence. What chance to any of them have against the Malnosso? Against the droids, they'd need super powers. Weapons of a caliber the Malnosso (possibly wisely) had kept from them.
She never doubted his ability to fight, or his courage. But she'd talked with them enough to know that he would be best on water...whatever else happened. Her, though...]
I can't fight. And I won't. Even if worse comes to worse. I'll hide. [it's a promise, not fear]
But there's more ways to help than fighting, and I wouldn't be able to do that. On a ship, I'd just be in the way. [She'd be someone else he had to look out for]
[voice - filtered - 25%]
[But he knows he can't compel her. Even if he tried...
He's done that before. Made someone flee when they did not want to. Begged and pleaded and been so stupid that he'd gotten her killed.]
Whatever happens... [for there is fear. so much fear that something is coming.] keep yourself safe, Jilly.
[If something happens to her because he has turned his back on this place? Even out of hoping to save the lives of those who will come with him for whatever reasons? If something happens to her, he will know where he stands with God. Her. His friends. And his crew.
If there is any hope for him, he will not lose those few valuable things.]
[voice - filtered - 25%]
Come meet me.
[Drusilla would still be gone. The Malnosso had given them six days. The night should be safe]
[voice - filtered - 25%]
[The offer surprised him enough to shake him back into some formality.]
[voice - filtered - 25%]
[there's a smile in her voice for the first time since their conversation had started.
The decision wasn't light for either of them, but it didn't need to stop there.]
At the docks. Now.
[voice - filtered - 25%]
[Because how could he argue? Not when she sounded like that.]
[voice - filtered - 25%]
[even with the teleporter, it isn't really a short trip out to the docks. And it really is late. But now that the idea is in her head, she's wide awake and set on her course.
It takes her a little while to leave...she has one thing to prepare, after all, and a coat to bring even considering the lovely weather. She remembers the last time she was unprepared on the Britannia and she'd rather not repeat it. But it's not long before she quietly lets herself out of House 7 and heads down towards the sea, her satchel over her shoulder and a thermos of hot coffee in her hand.
...After all, she doubted either of them would be able to sleep tonight with current events jumbling about in their heads]
[action]
It was a thought that plagued every step he took, but he did take those steps. He pulled on his coat, righted his queue, and set off for the docks.
He tried, more for his own mind than anything else, to imagine how he might explain this situation to, say, Maria or Mrs Mason. There was no way that did not make him sound like a rake. Meeting a young girl by the docks, alone at such an hour. Yet he took every step faster than the one before it.
When he finally reached the docks, he looked around, looking for her. He knows he might have beaten her here. If he has, he will wait. For as long as it takes.]
[action]
Her step is light despite the weight of their earlier conversation, and the stars overhead light up the clear night sky enough to see her smile when she steps close.
Wordlessly, she unscrews the top of the thermos and hands it to him before reaching into her bag for a mug for herself.
...he wasn't going to get it all for himself]
[action]
He takes the lid in silence, eyes downcast. For a moment, his thoughts and worries and fears and... everything... bow his shoulders, but he tries to pull himself up again. He can't act like that in front of her. She can't know that he's running.
At least... he can't admit it to her.]
[action]
It's why she'd wanted him to come in the first place.
She doesn't draw attention to it, however. Instead, she pours the mug for herself before offering him the rest of the thermos, nodding in the direction of the docked ship]
Permission to board, sir?
[action]
Once it's loose but not free, he offers his hand to help her down.
A few minutes of him rowing, and they'll be alongside the Britannia.]
[action]
[action]
[It's said with a soft smile, and he doesn't even think about the impropriety. He carefully stands and leads one of her hands to find a rung of the rope ladder hanging down the side of the ship.
She's climbed it before, but in daylight, and the candles lighting Britannia are not that bright.]
I'll follow.
[action]
[his touch is the first time, in all of this, that it actually occurs to her to question what they're doing...to remember that this isn't home and Geordie and a city where they could be as recognized or anonymous as they wished.
He touched her hand, and she felt the first nagging concerns...before he spoke and she shrugged them away. After all, he was smiling, which was exactly what she'd set out to do. And it was Horatio. There was nothing to worry about.
So she smiles and nods and pulls herself up the ladder. It's slower than she might be in sunlight, but the distance between the rungs is predictable and it doesn't take her long before she can hoist herself over the railing and on to the safety of the Britannia's deck.]