Fire on the Water 1; excerpt from Alliance Evolution
The ship worked its way south through the channel. It was wide and calm at this point, but there were some narrow parts coming up before long, as they worked their way through some islands. Zhan told all of his captains of the horrific passage to the south, so of course several of them had to try it. It was a much shorter route, going to Shanghai, and the northern passage was very long, and no easy run either.The captains had learned to time the tides from entry to exit. Done right, it was a smooth sail. Now that they had it worked out, it brought them out right where they needed to be to catch the current that took them straight across to Shanghai on the shortest route. They learned to judge the height of the water on certain rocks to tell them where they were on the tide. Sometimes they sat and waited until the tide was right, then shot through with no problems. Once in the open, they headed straight west until they felt the tug of the current that went in an immense circle in the open ocean. From Shanghai they rode it north to the long chain of little islands, where it curved east and then southeast, right into the entrance to the inside passage between the big island and the mainland. Then they pushed south to where it opened out, and they could run hard for Rivergrass.
The ship was the Wisdom, and its captain, Yan, was experienced on this run. It had been a safe run so far. They were shadowed by dolphins and passed a large pod of the black and white animals that seemed to be native to these waters. They were smaller than the numerous and varied whales they regularly saw, and they noted that the even smaller dolphins avoided them. On a couple of trips, they had seen them snatch seals right off of low-lying rocks. Clearly, they were predators.The channel out took a sharp right turn, some ways south of the islands, that gradually widened until they hit the open ocean. They had learned that the north side was shallower, but still very deep, and the south side that Zahn had hugged was incredibly deep, and subject to the violent upwellings that he had experienced. They held to the middle of the channel and had no problems. As they approached the end of the channel, the captain felt uneasy. He had no idea why, but he called to the watches to look sharp. They sailed closer, and closer to the open ocean, and the channel opened wider as they went.
Two watchers shouted down at the same instant, "Ships at the entrance!"
Yan saw them, four fast corsairs, with massed armed men at the railings, two coming from each side of the mouth, and turning to intercept. "Weapons and all hands on deck!" he bellowed. There was no doubt of their intent. He had a following tide, so he had speed and maneuverability, but four ships... If he ran ahead as fast as he could, he might just squeak through between them. If he tried to turn around, they would catch him. He couldn't let them board, their numbers would slaughter his crew, and take his ship. The worry for the headlong run between them was fire arrows.
"Buckets to the deck! All the buckets we have and fill them with sand! All sail!" The deckhands put every bit of sail out to catch every morsel of wind. They were running a gauntlet.Yan had fire arrows as well, and he hoped to distract them as they went by. He also had a couple of catapults to throw fragile pottery balls filled with a flammable oil, but their effective range was limited. If they were close enough they could even be thrown. That was his last hope to drive the ships off. Win or lose, this would be a battle to tell at home, if they survived. It would be a knife fight at sea. As they grew closer, there were a few ranging arrows fired at them. They fell short. Yan didn't bother to respond. Let them give him the range. He looked about the deck and saw that everything was as ready as could be.Then he had a thought. If he cut quickly, at the last possible minute, to one side, he might catch them off guard. The ships on the other side wouldn't be able to fire across their own ships...He ran to a spot between the two sets of rudder men. Wait, wait, the arrows were getting closer. "Hard left!" The ruddermen leaned all their weight into the long arm for the rudder, pushing almost to the breaking point. The ship seemed to pause for a second, then heeled as she began to spin. Yan waited for breathless moments until he was sure they would clear the pirate ships.
"Hard right and put us alongside that bastard!" He ran to grab two of the pottery balls from their straw filled boxes. "Fireballs and fire arrows!" he screamed. The ruddermen brought the ship around right next to the southernmost enemy ship. Pottery balls flew across to the enemy deck, bursting on impact, and the fire arrows landed in the pools of oil. The flames ran in all directions, catching everything on deck. Fire arrows also rained on the other pirate of the south pair, and two sails were burning. "Hard left! Leave them to burn!" Their ship spun southward, away from the flaming vessel.Yan took a moment to assess what the other ships were doing. It looked like the two northern ships were tangled up together. They must have panicked, and both spun towards each other. The remaining southern ship was hidden behind the pyre that the first ship had become.Yan decided to run while the running was good. If the other southern ship tried to pursue, they could probably outrun it. The northern two would take a few minutes to get untangled.He shook his head. He was thankful that Zahn bought well founded vessels. Making right angled turns at full sail and speed would have torn cheaper vessels apart. He'd seen it.He ran the ship southwest, to put as much distance between them as possible, just clearing the southern headland before reaching for the open sea to the west, and the current to Shanghai. When he was sure that he was out of sight of the pirates, he pushed north along the outside of the big island to an inlet that became lots of little inlets. There was a large village there, and he put in. He dropped off one sailor, Shan Yu, to get word to Zahn of the attack. Then he sailed out to catch the current to Shanghai[TV1] .
[TV1]This is slightly better in terms of structure and pace, but draw it out much more, it’s all too rushed.
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