You wake to find yourself tied to a chair in the middle of a circle of hard faces. At their fore stands a rather striking woman in airman’s garb. She has scarred hands and kind eyes, but the respect she elicits from the other pirates suggests the kindness is purely ornamental. This is the captain, then.

“Well well,” she says, “you have been a nuisance. Those papers we were able to recover, well, tantalizing, but not nearly enough. That took some guts. I could almost like you.”

She smiles. You smile back. Maybe this isn’t going so badly. A moment later her boot collides with your chair and you’re toppling over backward. Your head collides with the deck with a thump. Your eyes swim with pain. A hazy shape with a cascade of dark hair kneels over you, light glinting from something in her hand.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“I will know the location of the Source!” she screams, pressing the knife to your throat. “I will journey past the horizon, I will speak to storms, and there will come a day when my boots need never again touch the ground! This will happen! You will tell me what you know, airman!”

Well. This is unfortunate.