Hellfire - Tyranny

Chapter 1-1

1

Drake winced as the dressings over the wound in his chest were removed. He glanced down and scowled as he saw they were well on their way to healing. They had no right to be. He’d taken three bullets to his chest only two days before, yet the wounds looked as if they’d been healing for closer to two weeks.

The reason they were so far along in the healing process was the ship he was on. His ship. The Dagger. It was far more than it seemed to be and had greatly accelerated his healing when he’d been shot. Without its help he might even have died.

It wasn’t the fact the ship had healed him that he had an issue with, it was where the energy to provide that healing had come from. The ship had taken it from members of Drake’s crew, without their knowledge or consent, and pushed it into him. He’d been in no state to prevent it from happening, or even have been aware of it, but he still hated knowing his health came at the expense of his crew.

One of the crew whose energy had been leached was Jacobs who was now helping to change the dressings on Drake’s wounds. Not that Jacobs was a medic. In fact he was the ship’s cook, but he was the only person on the ship other than Drake who knew its secret. The only member of the crew who knew the Dagger was in reality a hellship.

Jacobs was also the longest serving member of the crew by years. He’d been part of the first group Drake had recruited just after he’d been forcibly joined to the hellship Azimuth, back when Drake had just renamed the ship the Dagger.

It was through Jacobs’ rapid falling under the influence of the hellship that Drake had learnt the dangers of keeping any crew member aboard for too long. Unfortunately it had been too late for Jacobs who now could never leave the ship for long, and wouldn’t ever want to. Drake carried a lot of guilt over that.

“Ow!” hissed Drake as Jacobs probed at one of the bullet holes.

“Sorry, Captain, but I’m a cook not a medic! I’m not used to the meat I handle answering back!”

“If I could show this to any of the medics without having to explain how wounds I got two days ago are so well healed I would. As I can’t I’ll have to make do, but could you at least stop treating me like meat that needs to be tenderised?”

Jacobs chuckled. “Well, maybe you should have one of the medics hang around. Keep them aboard the ship long enough they’re stuck here like me. Then you’d get proper medical attention!”

Drake sighed. That wasn’t even slightly funny but he certainly wasn’t going to censor Jacobs. With a word or even just a thought he could ensure Jacobs never made such a joke again, but that was something Drake had vowed never to do. It was bad enough Jacobs was stuck joined to the hellship. Drake owed him every bit of dignity and freedom he could get.

“Sorry, Captain. You know I’m just teasing. If I couldn’t make my jokes I wouldn’t really be me anymore. I do appreciate the reason I still can is because of you. I know you blame yourself but like I keep saying you really shouldn’t. You had no idea what would happen to me. I know you’d never have allowed it to happen if you did. The way you’ve treated all your crew since then shows that.”

“Thanks, Jacobs, I guess I’m just touchy. You know how much I hate the idea of the energy for this healing coming from the crew. Coming from you!”

“Now Captain, what’s a little bit of life between friends?”

“If I could return any of it you know I would.”

“I know, Captain. The ship doesn’t work that way. Anyway, I’m more than glad to have given you some life as it’s kept you alive, and it’s not just my bond to the ship which makes me say that.”

“Really?”

“Of course! I don’t think you’ve thought it through, Captain. I have. What if the ship hadn’t saved you? What if you’d died? The only reason the ship we’re on acts like the Dagger and not the hellship Azimuth is you!”

“The Dagger is the hellship Azimuth!”

“No. It really isn’t, Captain. It’s nothing like a hellship, despite the quirks which leak through occasionally. You know that. You know what an uncontrolled hellship is like. You learnt that the hard way when you encountered the Azimuth the first time, before it found you again and was stupid enough to force you to be its captain.

“With you as its captain this ship is the Dagger, a mostly normal ship where people can live normal lives. If you’d been killed you know the hellship would have been unleashed again. It would be like every other hellship out there, causing misery and death wherever it went.”

“I hadn’t thought that far ahead. You’re right. That’s exactly what it would do.”

“And what do you think would have happened to me?” Jacobs tilted his head to the side. “Some of the rest of the crew might manage to get clear, somehow get off the ship as it started to change and they realised what it was. If it took time to get back up to its full strength, at least.

“But me? I wouldn’t be going anywhere. I’d be stuck here aboard a fully malignant hellship. One with a grudge to bear against you which I’m sure it would take out on me. We both know that’s not something we’d wish on our worst enemies.”

“Yes. You’re right. I’m sorry, I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

“Well now you have, so stop moping around about the fact you’ve stolen a little bit of energy from us. Focus on all the misery the Azimuth can’t cause while it’s slaved to your will. Focus on what you saved me from. And not just me…”

Jacobs trailed off and Drake grimaced again.

“I’ve been trying not to think about the others. Damn the Commander. Why didn’t he let me leave them behind when I asked? It wouldn’t have been many of the crew and it would have saved them from being sucked into the Azimuth’s influence, from being stuck like you.”

“From what I heard the Commander didn’t seem to be particularly rational. The only way you might have succeeded would have been telling him what type of ship he was really on sooner, but we saw how that ended when you did.”

Jacobs gestured towards the wounds in Drake’s chest. The wounds inflicted by the Commander when he’d learnt he was aboard a hellship. After shooting Drake with a weapon concealed in his arm the Commander had turned the gun on himself, taking his own life. Sometimes Drake was pleased about that, other times he wished he could take out some of his irritation on the man who’d caused so many of their problems.

“I still feel bad, though,” said Drake. “And at some point I’m going to have to explain what’s happening to them. It’s not fair to leave them confused when I can help.”

“Maybe, but not yet, Captain. They’ve passed the point of no return but they’re a long way from being fully under the ship’s control. They won’t be ready to hear what you have to say yet. It’s not a good time.”

“Will there ever be a good time?

“Eventually.” Jacobs shrugged. “Ultimately they won’t care about it. More importantly they won’t be able to tell anyone else about it. You still have the rest of the crew to look out for.”

“At least with the Commander gone I can let anyone else go that needs to. I’m not going to risk leaving it so late next time either, though I have plenty of time.

“I think I have, at least. There should still be plenty of time to get Jensen and the others off the ship now but they fell much more quickly than I’d expected. I still don’t know why for sure, but I think it was those areas of space we were travelling through. Every time we entered them I felt a pressure, a pain, that no one else seemed to be aware of.”

“You felt that too, Captain?”

“What? You felt it?”

“I did, I thought it was just… well, I thought it was just something strange to do with me being linked to the ship.”

“I think it probably was, but not in the way you thought. I’m pretty certain the time spent in those regions is what led to the others falling under the Azimuth’s influence so quickly.”

They fell silent for a couple of minutes as Jacobs put new dressings in place, though truth to tell Drake was reaching a stage where he probably didn’t need them. He was wearing them more as camouflage now than anything else. If anyone else in the crew noticed the dressings he could say the Commander had struck him and bruised him. If anyone saw the healing bullet holes that would be much harder to explain away.

“There you go, Captain. Not bad for a cook, even if I do say so myself.”

“Thank you, Jacobs.”

“Will you be needing anything else, Captain? I’ve got some food roasting in the oven and I don’t want it to burn.”

“No, that’s all. Thank you!”

“Any time, Captain. Though, thinking about it, I’d kind of prefer it if you didn’t go getting yourself shot up again any time soon!”

“You and me both!”