A/N: I’m pretty sure most Pirates fans know that Chow Yun-Fat is playing Sao Feng in the third movie. Don’t have much to go on how he will be dressed, except for the claw. I know he will probably be a lot cooler looking in the movie. His ship’s name and the red sails were also mentioned in the sources I found online.
Chapter 13: Interrogation.
-
Malcolm Reynolds glared at the red and blue coat-wearing soldiers as they locked the iron shackles around his wrists. He had no idea what was going on nor what possible crime he may have committed, unless it wasn’t being honest about his name, but there was no way they could know that.
“What is the meaning of this?” Gavin had asked the question that lingered on Malcolm’s mind. “What have we done?”
“What are the charges?” Simon asked once the shackles were locked onto him.
None of the soldiers paid any attention to him and instead were patting him down, and searching around in his pockets.
“Commander, I believe the doctor here asked you a question,” Malcolm addressed Commander Wilson. “Seeing as we are being arrested it would seem like the logical thing to do is tell us why.”
Commander Wilson approached him. “Do you not know?”
“If I knew I wouldn’t be askin now would I?”
“We paid for our right to dock,” Simon said and flinched when one of the soldiers removed his identicard.
‘Shit,’ Mal thought. ‘Now we are really going to be discovered’ Even if there was no possible way they could read the cards there was a possibility they will discover Mal’s and Zoë’s papers. What is worse is the fact these were easy to carry paper screens with their info. Inara insisted they have something a little more tech savvy than actual papers, and a few months after the Miranda incident he agreed.
“You have been found to be harboring a pirate,” the commander explained, his eyes went wide when one of the soldiers removed Zoë’s gun. “And carrying…weapons. What kind of gun is that?”
“It isn’t what you are used to,” Mal said when he felt his own gun being removed. “What do you mean by harboring a pirate.”
“One of your crew has been found with a pirate brand upon him.”
“One of my crew?” He glanced over to Zoe and Simon who appeared to be as confused as he was. Gavin looked like had the faintest idea of what was going on, but was still partially in the dark.
“What do you mean by brand?” Zoe asked.
“I think you should know about brands, girl.” Commander Wilson talked down to her. “This kind of brand is the first letter of the word pirate, but I doubt if you knew how to read.”
“What did you say?” Zoe tried to throw of the soldiers holding her. “You primitive Xiong mao niao.”
“Sorry girl, I do not speak any of your tribal languages.”
That was it. Mal stomped on the foot of the soldier on his right and threw his body against the man on his left before he charged forward. “You show some gorram respect, boy. She is an amazing woman; an excellent soldier and she and I have both seen a lot more blood and battles than you ever will. Do not ever insult her again.”
“You are not in the position to give me such demands.” He shoved Mal to the arms of another group of soldiers, one of which shoved the blunt handle of his bayonet into Mal’s stomach, earning a grunt from him.
“Who had the brand?” Gavin asked. “And how did you find out?”
“A gangly man upon your ship had the mark,” Wilson explained. “We also found an old pirate flag tucked away. Were you hiding what you truly are?”
“You were on our ship?” Simon asked.
“Who told you to get on board my boat?” Mal asked and was met with another jab in the gut. “Who is in charge around these parts?”
“The orders came from Lord Beckett.”
Now Mal had a name. “Good, now take me to this Lord Beckett so I can straighten things out.”
“Lord Beckett is an extremely busy man.” It seemed a lot of high-ranking officials were too busy to talk in Port Royal.
“Commander?” One of the soldiers held up Mal’s gun. “He might want to be informed of this.”
“I am certain he would very much want to be informed of this.” A man, not a soldier, but a man dressed in black approached them. He kept his long dark hair tied back into a ponytail. His lips were pulled back into a sneer.
“Mr. Mercer?” Commander Wilson turned away to face the newcomer. “Are you certain?”
“I have a feeling he will want to see all the more unique members of this Captain’s crew.”
-
Jack rummaged around the single cabinet and shelves trying to find two decent glasses for the two of them to use, and in a short amount of time. He knew Sao could be temporal at times and Jack couldn’t risk having the other pirate change his mind.
“A-ha,” Jack called out in triumph when he finally found the second glass he was searching for. “Here we go.” He set down the taller of the two glasses, made out of actual glass in front of Sao and set the small tin cup on the other side of the table. “The guest always, and I mean always gets the better glass.”
“I don’t believe I need a large glass,” Sao said as he sat down across from Jack. The man wasn’t as irate as before and hopefully when Jack figures out what he had done to really anger the Chinese pirate he would find away to make them square once more and back to just being thorns in each other’s sides.
“Right, just a little.” Jack removed the cork from the bottle and closed his eyes. The aroma of such rich liquid made him feel like he was going to fly through the air. He opened his eyes when he heard Sao clearing his throat. “Sorry.” He poured just enough from the bottle to coat the bottom of the glass.
“If we were meeting on better terms I might have shared a bottle of Da Qu with you.” Sao said before he sniffed the liquid. He immediately blinked; his eyes had watered up.
“Bit too strong for you, mate?” Jack poured a little of the nectar into his own cup.
“None of your so called spirits are too strong for Sao Feng.” He took a sip from the liquid and paused.
“Savor it.” Jack said before he sat down.
Sao swallowed the rum, his fingers brushed against his own throat and his chest. “Quite strong,” he coughed. “And something has been added, makes it quite tolerable.”
“So you like it?” Jack took the smallest sip possible from his cup. As soon as the warm liquid touched his tongue he was in ecstasy. The richness and boldness of the drink teased his taste buds the same way a Tortuga wench would tease Jack to get him into bed with her. He fought every urge to gulp it down.
“I forgot how it warms your insides.” Sao drained the rest from his glass. “This is good.”
“Now to help jog my memory,” Jack pulled Sao’s glass towards him and poured more of the dark liquid into it. “This isn’t about how I kept dodging your most daring, most devious, most dashing certainly most dastardly attempts of you trying to catch me for The East India Trading company, now is it?” Jack recalled how after he made the deal with Jones he, Barbossa and a few others had tried to make money in the China Sea, and the company had paid several pirates, Sao included, to try to catch him.
“That was understandable,” Sao took a sip. “It was how I grew to respect you in the first place.”
“Not about the Jade Guild and it’s clearly not about the Empress’s sails.”
“None of those reasons,” Sao shook his head. “Except maybe my old ship.” He picked up his glass. “That did hurt me, but this cut even deeper, this cut to my blood and soul.” He brought the glass to his lips.
Jack watched him drink and took another sip. “This wasn’t about that time in Burma either, was it.” He hoped there was only the one time in Burma. He could only remember one where he started a bar fight to try to escape from Feng and left the pirate to take care of the fight.
“You really are Yu bun duh.” Sao slammed the nearly empty glass down. “I am talking about Lady Phoenix.”
“Oh,” Jack’s eyes widened at the mention of the woman he had met before he burned the black sails of The Empress. She wore a dress of sunset colors: red, orange and gold, the bottom of the gown and the ends of the sleeves was styled in feather like fringes. She a wore a belt of feathers around her waist that made it look like she had actual tail feathers. More golden feathers adorned her hair. She caught Jack sneaking around her home and read his fortune. He was tickled when he found out his animal was the rat, but then she wanted more. He recognized she had a connection with Feng. He knew she was his mistress. “I never touched her.” He held up his hands.
“I found her crying.” Sao glared before he drained his glass. “You have hurt her.”
“I knew she was yours and I respect you too much to touch her. She was crying because I refused.” He began to refill Sao’s glass.
“Arrogant as always,” Sao snatched the bottle from his hands and filled his glass himself. “She mentioned a kiss.”
“And that was it.” He poured a little bit more into his own cup before he took another sip. “And if you must know she kissed me.”
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right here?”
“Because if you just kill me right now you won’t have a nice long sword fight and be able to stab me when you defeat me.” He paused when Sao took another drink. “And that is the way you want to kill me, that is the way I want to kill you if the circumstances should arrive if I ever want to kill you.”
“You know me too well.”
“Yes I do.” Jack tried not smirk and instead leaned back and set his feet onto the table.
-
Lord Cutler Beckett sealed the death of another man with a stroke of a quill. That is if someone would call a pirate a man. The man would be hung tomorrow along with five others at ten in the morning. With the heart of Davy Jones in his possession he was scheduling hangings for every day. Norrington’s gift had been proven useful. There were other things he could use Jones for to benefit the East India Trading Company and himself.
He stared up from his desk when he heard a knock at his door. It was most likely Mercer, or Swann, coming in for his daily whimpering about the safety for his daughter. He already met with Norrington when the commodore came to give his status report after docking at Port Royal, and they wouldn’t meet again for another few hours.
“Who is it?” Beckett said.
“It is I, sir.” It was Mercer. “A new ship docked into port recently. We found a man with a brand upon it and a rolled up tattered pirate flag stored away and out of sight.”
“And what else?” Beckett asked. Mercer wouldn’t have come to give him such a report unless there was something more to this ship and it’s crew.
“Half the crew are quite fascinating,” Mercer said as he entered the office. “Unusual way of dress and accents and they were carrying weapons such as these.” He placed what resembled a pistol on Beckett’s desk. Its barrel was shorter than most pistols and body was wider, blockier. There was no gilded touch to it, nearly all metal with wood paneling in the handle. “They also had these with him.” He slapped a full written parchment down. The paper was only half as long and not nearly as wide as the rest of the papers on Beckett’s desk. The columns of words were divided with colorful lines and there was small detailed painting of a man on the top corner.
“This is something of interest.” Beckett reached out to grab it and instantly pulled back. The rows and columns changed and so had the images.
“Some of them have been practicing witchcraft.”
“Witchcraft?” Beckett tried not to snort at the thought. “This is the age of reason. We cannot always assume the unexplainable is caused by witchcraft.” He touched the parchment again. The grain of the paper was very fine, almost as smooth as glass. Once again the words and images changed.
“’Course it aint witchcraft.” A strange voice answered. “I would expect someone with a lord in the title to be smart enough to figure that out.”
“I see,” Beckett didn’t even look up at the stranger. He was trying to read the information on the paper. It was an identification form of some sort. Beckett found the name under the small picture. “Is this one yours?”
“Probably. If it aint a woman then it’s me.”
“Malcolm Reynolds is it?” He stared up to see the new man in the office, being kept at bay by a few soldiers and their bayonets.
“Captain,” the stranger said. He was a tall man with hair that was a shade of brown so light it was almost blond, and a serious look on his face. His cocky stance was almost identical to Norrington’s posture when the commodore gave him the heart. He was dressed in a dark red shirt, tan breeches, a pair of boots and hat with a feather. The most noticeable piece of clothing was the long coat made out of brown leather. “Captain Malcolm Reynolds.”
“Very well, Captain,” Beckett read more of the form. “Born in Shadow in…” That couldn’t be correct. The date had to be wrong. It was from the 25th century. People from the future do not casually show up in Port Royal. Then again people do not arrive in Port Royal with such manner of speech, clothing and strange weapons and papers. “Is this date of birth correct?”
“Yup,” Reynolds seemed to enjoy the shocked expression Beckett was displaying. “And to further your jaw hitting your desk, Shadow is another planet.”
“Born on another planet,” Mercer snorted. “Preposterous.”
Beckett raised his hand. “I believe he is telling the truth.” He pointed at the form. “It would explain this. It’s technology, advanced technology from the 26th century?” He looked up at Reynolds to see if he was correct.
“Yeah,” Reynolds sighed. The man was trying to hide that fact and it seemed up until now that he had succeeded.
“He is telling the truth?” Mercer asked
“Clearly,” Beckett mused. “ You have seen Davy Jones and his crew, Mr. Mercer. Your mind should have opened up a bit more.” He stared at Reynolds. ”Tell me how you happen to travel to this time.”
Reynolds sighed again. “We were delivering an experimental cargo for a client when a certain idiot decided to play with it. Next thing we know we wake up on a beach, and our ship is missing. We find this other ship and were told to sail it someplace to find answers. We got them, told to find someone who can help us and suggested we go to Tortuga to hire some crew. More complications arose and now I’m standing in your pretty little office.”
“I see, and you didn’t check any of the men you hired for brands?”
“The idea never crossed my mind. There was nothing on the cortex that mentioned such marks.”
“There are no pirates in the future?” Mercer asked.
Beckett sat up higher. If what Reynolds said was true then his work would be a success. “Is that true?”
Reynolds shrugged. “There are probably some folk who get off on calling themselves a pirate but we don’t brand em and even if we do, they can go and get it surgically removed via a little skin grafting.”
“You were arrested due to an oversight that wasn’t exactly your fault.” Beckett said. “However your own records here are not exactly clean.” He could read off a few of Malcolm’s tasks.
“Can’t really arrest me for crimes that haven’t happened yet.” The other man smiled weakly.
“No I can’t, although I am certain the law abiding civilians would be grateful. Of course you could add a bit more sway.”
“My money is no good here and I don’t think I have much of your money.”
“Not that kind of sway. The Caribbean is nearly swept clean of pirates and soon it will be the entire ocean. I already have the Navy and Davy Jones. It would be a faster chore with people such as yourself.” He brushed his finger against the gun’s handle. “We are not exactly sure how to use these types of weapons and you do and you were a soldier once yourself.”
“I can’t change history,” Reynolds answered.
“Under the crime of harboring a pirate and what you have listed here we could send you to the gallows.” Beckett wouldn’t send people like Reynolds to be hung. They were the only ones who knew how to use the weapons from their time and possibly even make some more. Having them killed would be such a waste.
“I can’t comply with your demands.”
“Then that would be a no?” Beckett waited for the man to nod. “Take him away and bring in the next member of this group.” Reynolds might not tell him what he sought to learn, but that didn’t mean the rest of the time travelers wouldn’t.
-
Jack had to be extremely quiet as he snuck around the cabin. The first part of his plan was a success. Sao Feng never changes. The man always consumes his alcohol rather quickly and he had no idea how strong the nectar was. He was passed out, arms and head on the table and snoring loudly.
Jack opened the door and peeked out. Things were different from what he had last seen. Sao’s pirates had their swords sheathed and his crew was no longer in surrender mode. In fact everyone seemed to be mingling and some have gathered around barrels to play dice and card games.
He sought out Gibbs and managed to catch his eye. The first thing he did was brought his finger to his lips before he nodded towards the inside of the cabin and brought his fist to his mouth like he was drinking from a bottle. He waited for Gibbs to nod before he went on. Jack pointed to the cabin again and used one hand to spider walk down the frame. He held his breath and made swimming motions before he did another spider walk symbol again. He grabbed at the air, like he was holding a rope or chain and brought his fingers across it.
Gibbs nodded again and tapped his hands together and waved his arms. Distraction, of course there was going to be a distraction.
Jack nodded and pointed to the barrel next to Gibbs. It was his first mate’s turn at the game. Jack watched Gibbs grab onto the dice before he slipped back into the cabin.
Sao was still snoring, good. Jack stood by the drunken pirate and raised his eyebrows before he continued to the window.
“Pleasant dreams,” Jack whispered. “Not going to like what happens when you wake up, but we have been through this before old mate.” He slipped through and climbed down the side.
It did not seem to take too much time for him to get to the bottom of the ship and swim across to the Empress, and it seemed like it took the same to scale the side of the fine ship. He just had to find a window to slip into and hope no one sees him.
“Not bad,” He said after he stumbled after he climbed in. “In fact it’s too not bad.” The fact that things seemed a bit too easy, that worried. “Still can’t just stand around.” He headed straight for the door.
“Of all the ships we decide to attack, you had to be on it,” the musical voice froze Jack in his place. “And you are here.”
“I know that voice.”
“And you know me, bao bei.” The scent of orange blossoms filled Jack’s nose before he felt a presence behind him. “Nor should you forget it isn’t wise to make me cross.”
Jack flinched at the presence of sharp blades near his stomach. He stared down to see female hands hold a pair of fans against his stomach.
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