HoloPirates: A Tale of Adventure

Negotiating

"So, as it seems, we are at an impasse." He said, spitting a glob of what looked like fish oil on the platform.
"Yeah I'd say." I said. "But we can make this really, really easy if you just tell us who you are and who you're working for."
He sighed, scratching one of the fins on his head as if he was thinking, and then, he turned to me, having a near murderous gleam in his eyes.
"My name is Philip, young man." He said. "Philip Calloway, but you may call me either Mr. Philip, Officer Philip, or Mr. Calloway. Any of those are fine. Anything, except 'Mr Fish-Thing'.""
"Alright, Mr Calloway, who are you working for?"
"That I cannot say at the present moment, but I feel it better if I speak to them first."
"Well talk to them!" I said, still holding the artifact over the side of the platform.
He nodded slightly, then pulled out this big, spiraling, pink and white hermit crab shell out of his pocket and held it up to his face. He spoke into the shell, but the language that he spoke sounded completely foreign to me, not to mention that he was speaking at no more than a hushed whisper. When he was done speaking, another voice, this one much more gruff and angry sounding, came out of the hole in the shell. As they were going back and forth in their conversation, I looked over at Marine, Jansen, Amelia, the Storyteller, and the girl with the mask, who had come up on the deck and was watching the entire ordeal. I gave them all a reassuring nod, trying to let them know that I had the situation under control, and when I did, Philip looked back at me, slipping the shell into his pocket.
"Well, we have good news, and bad news."
"Give me the bad news."
"Aye then. We cannot allow you to go straight through the Rifts, but, for the good news, we are requesting that you dock at our city and join us for our festival."
I was caught so off guard at the statement that I was struck dumb and speechless. I looked over at my friends again, and Marine shrugged her shoulders while Jansen gave me a small nod.
"Festival?"
"Aye, you know what a festival is, right?"
"Aye, I know what a festival is. I'm just trying to figure out how there is a city underwater."
"Our entire city is protected by a massive air pocket that encapsulates the city. Trust me, you will be safe with us while you and your crew attend the ceremonies, and we will perform any necessary maintenance and restocking of your ship." He said. "Now, does that sound a fair deal to you?"
I turned to Marine, and when we locked eyes, she gave me a smile and a nod.
"Aye, that sounds good."
"Aye, just follow after my ship."
Philip briskly turned on his heels, then walked straight into the door that he had come out of, disappearing within the internal mechanisms of the crab. I hurried myself off of the platform and onto the deck of our ship, where Jansen and Marine caught me in their arms.
"Micheal, I have a really, really bad feeling about this." Jansen said.
"Aye, this got something fishy about it, pardon the pun." Marine added.
"I know, but if all we have to do to get through this is just us attending a ceremony, then I'm all for it." I said. "I mean, come on, it's a festival, how bad can it be?"
"They could be cannibals, or rapists, or cannibalistic rapists." Jansen replied.
"Well, if they're cannibals, then we're safe, cuz they would eat fish, right?"
Jansen opened his mouth to say something, but after thinking over what I said, he gave me a toothy smile and turned to Marine.
"He has a point. Let's just see what they want, and if there's trouble, then we'll book it out of there, okay?" He said. "And if its all fine, then we enjoy a nice little festival, say goodbye, maybe swindle a bit of gold here and there, and then we boogie out."
"Exactly." I said. "Let's follow after that guy."
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
"How much further do you think its going to be?" Marine asked, holding the sextant in her hand.
"I don't know." I said, grabbing the sextant and holding it up to my eye.
When I looked through the telescope of the instrument, I didn't see the purple blob with orange specks that I had seen through Amelia's monocle, but not too far ahead, maybe a thousand or so feet away, the tunnel of the Rift opened up into a massive, and I do mean massive, chamber. This thing had to be at least ten times the size of Los Angelos and the surrounding cities, and in the very middle of the chamber, there was an absolutely enormous rock formation, filling up most of the bottom of the chamber, and situated on top of the rock formation were millions of buildings, surrounding a large mountain that had numerous large buildings perched along the sides of the mountain. Perched on the very top of the mountain was an enormous building, almost like a government building, but I couldn't make out any specifics of either the city or the government building.
"Holy shit." I said.
"What is it?" Marine asked.
"Philip wasn't lying. There really is a city down here."
"How big is it?"
"It's HUGE!" I said. "Los Angelos is nothing compared to this place."
"Wasn't Los Angelos massive?"
"Yeah it was, and this is so much bigger!" I said. "Its like an entire country down here!"
She looked through the sextant, and when she saw it up ahead, she gasped.
"You're right, it is huge." She said, and I noticed her hand slowly going to the sword that was hanging around her belt.
Before she could grab the hilt of her sword, I grabbed her hand and held it away from her sword, and I felt the blood rise to my face.
"Trust me, don't draw your sword. They might take it as a threat, and then we'll be outnumbered thousands to one."
"So just be cool?"
"Aye, be cool." I said, giving her hand a squeeze to let her know that it was going to be okay.
She gave me a blushing nod, and I let go of her hand as we followed after the gigantic crab, which was still swimming through the water ahead of us, staying low in the water and using its legs as propulsion. As we kept going through the Rift, I kept stealing glances at all of the crew, trying to make sure that they were okay, but so far, they seemed to be taking it all pretty well, with not too much complaining or fear.
"Marine, I'm going to put the flintlock away. If I'm going to be doing the talking for these people, then I shouldn't be armed to the teeth, right?"
"Aye, good idea. But, bring me two of the other flintlocks. I want them hidden on me, okay?"
"Sure thing."
As we kept following the giant crab, I headed towards the stairs down into the hold, passing up all of the crew that were still attending to their duties. I passed up Cookie, who was still behind the counter cooking, and I turned to the door to the magazine, pushing past the sign that warned against open flames. I opened the door of the magazine, then headed inside and to the gun shelves that held the crew's reserve firearms in the case of an emergency. I hung my own flintlock on the wall, then grabbed two of the more polished ones and hooked them to my holsters and turned around to leave the armory. However, when I turned around, I saw the girl with the mask, the one who had never spoken to us, standing in the frame of the door.
"Hey, you okay?" I asked, feeling a slight sense of unease.
She put her fist against her chest as if trying to clear her throat, and finally, she spoke in one of the quietest voices I have ever heard.
"Thank you." She said. "For saving me. In the prison."
"Oh, of course." I said, giving her a smile. "Welcome to the crew."
She gave me a smile, and the eyes on her mask blinked, making me wonder still how that worked.
"The Storyteller has been helping me to speak. He's very nice."
"Yeah he is." I said. "What was your name again?"
"Chloe."
"Here Chloe. Walk with me."
She took her position next to me, and she brushed the silver hair out of her face, trying to keep the hair out of her mouth.
"So, where are you from? I know that you were part of the SisterHood, but I didn't really know much past that."
"I came from the city of Gemmarum, in the Aurelian Realm." She said, having a tiny bit of difficultly with pronouncing the words. "I was born to the SisterHood, who were trying to overthrow the government of the Aurelians, and they basically trained me to take people out."
"Oh, like an assassin?"
"Aye, like an assassin." She replied.
"So wait a minute, why did the SisterHood want the government of the Aurelians gone?"
"Because they felt oppressed by the Aurelians." She said. "And I used to feel the oppression, until I broke away from the SisterHood and saw it for what it was. All they did was hurt people."
"Where are they now?"
"Well, the Aurelians discovered the hideout and destroyed most of them, the rest fled the island." She said. "Thankfully, I haven't seen any of them ever since."
"Well, I'm glad you're away from that."
"Me too. Again, thank you for rescuing me from the prison."
"Sure thing."
We got back up to the top deck, and now, Marine was waiting for me at the top of the stairs, having a worried look on her face.
"Micheal, you need to come see this, now!" She said.
She reached out, grabbed my wrist, and hauled me up the stairs, leaving Chloe by herself. Both her and I ran, pushing forward across the deck, and finally we got up to the bow, where she pointed down the length of the Rift as I slipped her the flintlocks. However, when I looked down, I saw that the Rift opened into this gargantuan chamber, much like the Rift having walls made out water, but this one was so enormous that I could very barely see the opposite end of it, having to be miles away at the very least. Filling the bottom half of the chamber was the enormous landmass that I had seen in the sextant, and situated on top of it were hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pearly white buildings, all with varying shapes and sizes, and they were situated all over the landmass, leading up to the mountain that dominated and towered over the landscape. My eyes wandered their way up the mountain, past the gigantic white stone mansions with light blazing out of their windows, and I saw that, situated on top of the mountain, just like in the sextant, was a large palace, but somehow, to me, it looked strangely familiar. It donned lots and lots of ornate and well carved columns that spanned the length and width of the rectangular palace, holding up the massive roof that protected the structure. Throughout the entire outside of the palace, there were large metal bowls that fires burned in, I believe called braziers, casting flickering orange light over the entire building. As I kept staring at the palace, I kept racking my mind, trying to figure out why it looked familiar, and finally, after just a few moments, it finally dawned on me. I was staring at a pristine, thriving Ancient Greek city, almost like it was pulled out of time. The only problem with the city was the fact that situated in docks and harbors all around the city were hundreds, if not thousands of the mechanical leviathans, most of which were deactivated for the time being. They all ranged in size and varied in their type, which was honestly fascinating to see. Patrolling around the city edge was a trio of the colossal crabs, their pincers gleaming in the lights of the city and the headlights of the crabs.