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
[action]
[action]
They control this place, Archie. They bring in the food, what weapons we have. They can put us under siege for as long as they like, and we do not have the time now to prepare for that.
[action]
He gives a reluctant nod.]
[action]
[Because Archie might decide not to obey. They're not in the Navy here. Horatio has no more authority than anyone else chooses to grant him. There is no Admiralty, no Articles of War.]
But I do want you by my side. If you can abide that.
[action]
[action]
[But any way he looked, he saw the possibility of doom on all their heads. This seemed the best odds.]
[action]
[action]
The most solace I can offer is that... if I am wrong... we will be back within the week. We can provide a second front, if we find it's come to that. We can perhaps surprise them with an attack they did not see coming.
[It's a thin hope, but it is it a hope.]
Either way, we are playing steep odds. I... know that. I admit that.
[action]
Yes, sir.
[action]
God in Heaven, let this not be another mistake to haunt his dreams.]
[action]
But you're still probably right.]
[action]
There is no patriotism. There is no balm to soothe the pain of losing someone dear in combat. In asking men (and women, in this case) to stand and fight. There is no cause.
He can only protect as many as he can. He can only hope to live to fight another day.
Because there is not the rest of the Navy to continue the fight if they fall.
He doesn't look at Archie, doesn't dare. This may destroy any credibility he has as a captain. Certainly as a good man. But they can hate him when this is done. It will still be done.]
[action]
I will...help, in all the ways you need. How ever you need. If you need...an ear?
[action]
...And yet...]
I... well may, Archie. Not... not tonight. [He does not know his own mind tonight. He could not ask someone else to try and parse through it.] But I well may, soon.
[action]
All right.