First Sighting

"Hoist all sails!" The bosun called as the ship crept out of the safety of the harbor. The men on board were quick to obey the orders. They chanted in unison as they worked the sails, the call and the rhythm setting the pace. There was a chant for leaving the harbor and for coming in. There were many for short hauls, for halyarding , and for the capstan.

Men scuttled up the netting and out onto the yardarms, loosing the sails that would catch the wind. The men below hauled on the lines to put them in place.

The breeze was freshening and the day promising. The perfect day to be off on the sea; to wherever the wind and currents took them. The old men and the young men alike raised their voices in the chant to raise the sails. The broad squares of white cloth boomed as the wind caught them, filling and rapidly baring the ship away into the horizon.

Ryan pulled with the others, raising his clear tenor voice with the others. They were leaving and their song echoed over the sea.


In the Black Ball line I served my time
To me way-aye-aye, hurray-ah
And that's the line where you can shine
Hurrah for the Black Ball Line

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Ryan tied off his line with the others to the chains. Ryan was just a midshipman, only one step above a cabin boy, but he wore his new uniform proudly. He had high hopes to have a commission before to much longer and he went about his work with a spring in his step.

"Mr. Raines!" The bosun hollered.

"Yes Sir?" Ryan hurried over to where the great bull necked man stood, adapting is gait to the particular roll of the ocean.

"You have watch in the nest." The bosun said as Ryan approached him. "Get up there and keep an eye out."

"Yes Sir!" Ryan saluted smartly and hurried over to the shrouds. Grasping the bottom most rope, Ryan began to pull himself up the precarious ladder to the nest, the pitch and roll of the ship becoming more pronounced the higher he climbed. The wind's fingers plucked at his hat and tossed his necktie into his face. He passed the men working on the yardarms, adjusting the tension of the sails for maximum speed, the men called friendly greetings to him as he passed.

Ryan climbed over the railing to the crows nest and took up the glass. There was no land behind them anymore, and none ahead that he could see. The wind raked through his sandy blond hair, his keen green eyes scanning the horizon. Below him he could hear the chanting of the line and he hummed along as he sat his post.

Ryan was scanning the sea when he caught on the edge of the horizon a ship. Bringing the glass to his eye he focused it on the ship. He cold see a field of black, white, and red on the flag or the other ship and his heart leapt.

"Bosun!" he hollered from the top of the mast, "Pirates to the port side!"

Ryan scuttled down the rigging as quickly as he could and took up arms to defend the ship as the Captain called, "Men to the ready!"

The End

"Major! Come on, we have to go!" Steven laid down suppression fire, trying to give his commander a chance to fall back.

"I said get them out!" David squeezed off a few rounds, making each bullet count. Brian was down but alive.

"But David..."

"I said NOW!"

Steve hesitated a fraction of a second more and then ran to the others, helping Mark to carry Brian out of the engagement zone.

David gritted his teeth in pain as one bullet ripped through his shoulder, and another took him in the thigh. He knew that he would not be getting out. David limped backwards, firing off rounds behind him, setting blocks of C-4 as he went.

David felt fire in his lower back and them nothing, he collapsed in the corridor, holding the detonator in his hand. His vision was getting fuzzy, his breathing labored as his life flowed out of the hole in his back.

He blinked, trying to clear his field of vision, his grip tightening on the mechanism that would complete his mission. David heard pounding feet coming and readied himself.

Arianna, I'm coming. he pushed the switch.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steve was at a loss for what to do. David was dead, Brian was in critical condition and Joe was presently AWOL. David would know what to do.

Steve sat down on his commander and friends bunk, and heard a crackle of paper. He reached under the covers and pulled out a sheet of paper, it was covered in Davids careful script.

'Steve, I'm sorry to leave you like that, but I knew it would happen eventually. Don't worry, you will know what you need to do...'

Promotion

It had been seven years since Arianna's death.

David strode through the compound beside his commander. It was one of many bases that he had become intimately acquainted with since the night that he had gone seeking revenge. Seven years of training and missions.

"What is the job Sir?" David directed the question to the man beside him.

"No job son, this time it's different." Commander Hayes mouth twitched in a brief smile.

"Then what Sir?"

"You will see."

Hayes lead David down a side passage towards the barracks, stopping beside a door.

"Captain, you have acquitted yourself remarkably well these last seven years. It is my pleasure to introduce you to your men as their commander."

David's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "My men?"

"Yes." Hayes opened the door to the barracks and barked, "Attention!"

Four young men scrambled out of their bunks and snapped to attention, saluting smartly.

David looked them over. They all looked very young. David briefly wondered if he had ever looked that young to his Commander. "At ease men."

The men fell into perfect parade rest, their eyes trained on the man before them.

Hayes pointed them each out in turn, "First Lieutenant Steven Blackwood, Second Lieutenants Brian and Mark Allard, and Second Lieutenant Joseph Kendrick." Each of the men saluted again as they were named off.

"Men," Hayes continued, "This is your new Commander Major David Cole."

David's head whipped around to look at his commander. Hayes threw him a wink and then faced the men again. "Major Cole will see to your specialized training."

Hayes turned to David, "Carry on Major."

David snapped off a sharp salute and watched his commander walk out the door. He turned to look at his men. "Lets get to know each other. Let's start with you." He nodded to Steven.

The End of Innocence

"Come on Ari, this is the fifth time I've left you a message. Did you forget your phone again? Call me back." There was a smile evident in the message.

David hung up the phone, still smiling. Arianna could be so scatterbrained sometimes.

They were both Seniors this year, they were planning to go to collage together. They had both gotten in to Columbia University. David was saving up so that he could ask her to marry him.

At ten o'clock David was starting to get worried about her. He scooped up his keys, quickly making up his mind to go look for her. David drove her familiar routes to and from her job and the school, scanning the area for her car. He spotted her car near the alley near their favorite coffee shop.

David walked towards the shop, but stopped when he heard a noise coming from the alley. David poked his head in the opening and stopped cold. Arianna was lying on the ground a short way from the mouth of the alley, breathing heavily.

David rushed to her side. There was a wide gash in her side. He dropped to the ground next to her and placed his hand over the wound, trying to stem the flow of blood. "Ari, Ari! Wake up!"

Arianna opened her eyes briefly and a ghost of a smile played on her lips. "David..."

"Shh, don't talk, I'll get you to the hospital." He stood up with her in his arms.

"Ari, who did this to you? Ari, please wake up."

Arianna stirred a little, trying to form coherent words through the haze of pain. "Grant.... Brenna."

David drew in a breath sharply in shock.

"I Love you... David." Arianna sighed and closed her eyes for the last time.

Meeting Of Fate

At 16 David was well liked. Not quite popular, he was to aloof to have that classification. He was kind, but kept mostly to himself. He had landed at last in Seattle with his Uncle and Aunt after his fathers death a few years before in a plane crash. He had bounced from family to family, school to school until he arrived where he was.

A handsome boy, with a tragic past was all the girls needed to know to make them sigh over him. His intelligent cobalt eyes and black hair were the topic of many conversations.

Tall and slender David was a runner, his physique was well defined. He liked the physical exertion and the solitude that came with the sport. The school coaches were constantly trying to recruit him to one team or another.

David sat in the back of all his classes, his ever present sketchbook on his desk. He sat bent over it, his hair falling into his eyes, ignoring the girls that always chose to sit next to him. He never volunteered in classes. It was a waste of time. These people were not going to teach him anything new. Anything that he wanted to know he looked up in the library or on the internet.

David was walking out of his History class when he rammed right into someone that was coming in the room, knocking them down. He automatically reached down to help the person up. A cool hand grasped his firmly and stood up with his help.

"Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going." the girl said.

"No it's my fault." David smiled at her.

"My name's Arianna. What's yours?"

"David."

"Nice to meet you David."

""Nice to meet you too Arianna." David said. She had a pretty name

Going Away

David was six the day that his father took him aside and explained to him that it was time for his mother to go away. James had watched the ever diminishing brain scans over the last few years, and hope hand diminished with it.

"But dad, you said she was only sleeping and that she would wake up. He had just been reading a volume of Tennyson to his mother.

"I know son, I always hoped that she would, but she's not. And it is time for her to go to heaven." James embraced his son.

David looked at his father quizzically. "What is heaven dad?"

James swallowed hard, "Heaven is where you go when you die. People become Angels."

David's brow furrowed. "So mom will be an Angel?" He had heard about Angels. They were some type of ghost, but better. David pictured wings and a halo on his mother.

"Yes she will."

"Will she come to see me?"

"I don't know son."

"But if mom is an Angel then she will be doing good right? She will be awake even though she is dead?"

"I think so." James embraced his son.

David looked at his mother's face, "I think mommy would be happy as an Angel."

Here But Not Here

David smiled up at his father; proudly showing off the kite that he had made. His little hands were sticky with glue, and there was paper everywhere. String was tangled up on the floor next to him.

"It's beautiful David, lets go show your mother." His father picked up his young son, only four years old and carried him with his prize in to see his mother.

A heart monitor beeped quietly in the background, a hiss of air from the compressors accompanied it. The room was large, light and airy. David scrambled up into the bed next to his mother. "Do you think that she will wake up today Daddy? It would be a good day for it. The first day of spring."

David had never seen his mother awake, but his fathers assurances that she was only asleep, and that one day she would wake up was enough to make him happy, and to hope that it would be today.

"Perhaps it will be today, perhaps tomorrow. C'mon son, lets go put that kite up into the sky."

"Okay! I'll be back later mom." David kissed her cheek and patted her hand and ran out the door with his father following.

James looked back on his comatose wife. "Please wake up soon," he whispered and went to join his son.