The seven days since they had regained control and forced out the actual pirates, led by Wallace, were gone in a blur of action and in action. In the madness of that night of liberation, the remaining crew had won freedom and lost an element of humanity. That night, they all become feral, with the pack mind of wolves and lions, and the weak human prey was cast overboard. It did not matter if it was a dead body or a live prisoner. The ships' crew acted like sharks in well-chummed waters. The so-called legitimate officers of the Steamspire Royal Trading Company were all demonized as Priates.
Kincade stood on deck, and the ships and crew he helped to liberate moved around him quickly and purposefully. As they did, Kincade closed his eyes, he felt the wind on his face. The scenes of that night came to him, and he smiled. The feelings of rage, fear, and triumph were all within him.
After the end of that night of liberation from the liberation of the so-called legal oppressors, Kincade was seen as mostly useless and generally ignored. The crew had quickly organized themselves, appointing a Captain to lead and then selecting the best person suited for one or more ship's positions before they set course to the nearest safe harbor. Kincade's luck had held, and it turned out to be Wellington, New Zealand.
And now the ship was passing out of the Cook's Strait into the harbor, and a crew member was taking the soundings call out the deeps of the harbor entrance. Some may consider the harbor as deep water, but, in truth, the channel still had a significant reef to navigate. And the calls were coming back from the line dropped into the depth of the dark green sea. The practice reminded Kincade of the first peoples of this land, the Maori, who had myths that held this port was once a lake that had trapped two Taniwha, great sea dragons, who wanted to roam freedom one of the Taniwha created the harbor when it broke free of the lake carving a channel, creating the headlands and the connection to the sea.
As the ship rounded into the harbor, Petone's foreshore was crammed with ships and boats, and even from here, several kilometers away, the look of industry, smoke plumes mixed in the air from numerous smoke stacks and industries. But Petone was not the goal today; the ship and the Captain, a man called Martine, six-foot blond and unshaven, had demanded they tie up at the wharves, city side of the Q-shaped harbor opposite to Petone, to Kincade's left-hand side he Mt Victoria or Dupa Bay came into view with only a few white wooden houses popping out of the district. Yet it was still more bush than not. Next to that were the Cuba Street warehouses and workers' homes and tents.
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From his position on the ship's deck, Kincade watched people moving and hauling with a barrow. More than a few iron steam cranes and smaller haulers, three-wheeled machines with counterweights attached to the back, allowed the operator to counter the forces of nature created when lifting and stacking cargo before the distribution and transport companies took control of the goods.
In a few places, he saw his suits! Unmissable in design, unlike the smaller haulers, they did not have a small boiler on the back, working instead by pneumatic forces to augment the strength of the average worker, making them into single human cranes: his work, but Harry's salesmanship. Kincade felt no sorrow for what was about to come.
"What ya go'in do?" John asked, appearing from nowhere. Kincade looked down, and for a moment, the feeling passed.
"Start my life again. Then, finally, marry my fiancé, restart my business, and take a scoundrel to account." Kincade replied coldly without joy or venom in his tone, just flat pronouncements of fact.
"Sounds like you have it all sorted then!" John replied.
"What are you thinking of doing?" Kincade responded.
"Captain has said I could stay on, and he would teach me to be a sailor properly. I accord'in to him I already earned me a mess of tattoos to show my worth to any that wants to see. I could get a rooster, pig on my feet, and even an anchor 'cause we stand our ground." John said prodly.
"Well, it sounds like you have a full life planned and are off to a fine start." Kincade said before continuing, "It's February. It is time for a wedding, and the last of the summer tea and dinners before the autumn chills start." Kincade mused.
"And?" Offered John.
"Well, this year that has passed has seen so many things happen to me, and yet I have mostly been in a single room with a guy who helped then turned me into a madman," Kincade said quietly to John.
"Arrr, get over yourself. I say find a good barber, get a haircut and a shave, then go see your nice women." John said
"You're right. I will do just that. You are quite wise, young John," Kincade said.
"Before I left for sea the first time, my gran took me to a preacher, one of them good ones. They stand on the street corners and tell you things for a few coppers. But, he said, no matter what I do to remember. Revenge has a cost, and you pay with your soul. And a rat like me wouldn't have a big one, so I shouldn't look for it. Revenge, that is." John finished just as the ship tied off against the wharf.
"Fine advice," Kincade said, then leaned down and hugged the boy.
The ship sailed to the city side of the harbor, and without a word to the crew, Kincade jumped the rail and placed his feet again on the Wellington sidewalks. His home.