Date: Tue, 13 Dec 1994 21:22:10 -0600 Reply-To: Joshua A Reyer Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Joshua A Reyer Subject: Dragon's Luck, Part One X-cc: Chandra Reyer Dragon's Luck Part One By Joshua A. Reyer Greetings, again. This is the continuing story of Immortal Daniel Crosby. The story uses the movie universe rules, but has no characters from the movie or the series. Please e-mail comments. ************************************************************************ The Yellow Sea, three miles off Shandong Province. 1608 A.D. Daniel looked out at the mass of land that was their destination. It was large, formless, and very green. Daniel took in a deep breath. The salt air invigorated him. He hadn't realized how pungeant London had been compared to the wide sea. He felt a hand on his shoulder. Daniel inwardly cursed himself. All during the year-long trip he had tried to build up an ability to sense other people, so that he could not be snuck up on, yet he had not succeeded. He turned and saw the captain of the ship, a powerful man of 50. "Well, Daniel, lad," the captain grinned. "How ya holding up, now?" "As well as can be, sir. No offence to your ship, here, but I'll be glad when we reach land." "Aye, I see," the old captain slapped his back, "we can't all be the lovers of the sea. Do you plan on gettin off then, when we put to port?" "Aye, sir. I just want to say thank you for putting me up for the past year." Over the voyage Daniel had proved himself to be a good worker. He almost became the captain's lackey, in an effort to avoid situations that might warrant flogging. There was still a bit of the proud nobleman in Daniel, he didn't plan on ever experienceing the humiliation of a beating. "Well, Danny, me boy. I'll be sorry to see you go." He began to say something else, but cut off, something catching his eye. "Hul-lo, what's this?" he muttered, pulling his eyeglass from his belt. He peered into it. "Danny, ring out "On Deck". We've got to take care of some "problems" 'fore we put to port." Daniel rang the bell and soon all the ship's men assembled on deck. Daniel took his place among them, and then the captain began his speech. "Mates, we're about three miles off the port of our destination. About 1 mile and a half away, there are some junks who are going to try to keep us from going into that harbor and deliver our goods. "Now, we all know that gunpowder is the province of His Majesty, and we all love King James." Here some snickers from men. "But, down in the hold is a half-score of arquebuses, bought dearly and at great price. The officers will each take one. You other men, take what weapons we have. I want us going at full sail. We fight the slant-eyes only if we have to. I'd like to outrun them, understand?" There was a chorus of "Aye, sir". Then the captain jerked his head and the men scattered. Daniel ran down to his cabin and grabbed the sword McHenry gave him. He stuffed it through his belt and returned up to the deck. The junks were closer now, and he could makek them out clearer. They were tall, and definately closing on the English ship. "Nay, Daniel," Jenks, the first officer, grabbed his forearm, "takes this. We won't get close enough to use that knife of yours." He handed an arquebus to Daniel. Daniel took it reluctantly. It was a long and unwieldly musket. And unreliant. Daniel didn't trust this knew addition to technology. But he took the musket anyway. The officers lined up on the deck, ready to fire on the junks when they were in range. Although he wasn't an officer, Daniel took his place among them, leaving the fast speed of the ship to the more capable hands. "Remember, lads," the captain said, "we needn't kill those savages. The report of our arquebuses should be enough to scare them off." The wait was long, it seemed like forever. "Why are these Chinese men trying to cut us off?" he whispered to Jenks. "Shhhh," Jenks responded, and for a moment, Daniel wondered why they were whispering. "English ships have no license to land in Chinese harbors. So we have to force our way in." Daniel was surprised, but made no comment. He shrugged and aimed his arquebus. Soon, the leading junk was in range. It aimed toward the English ship, trying to force it to veer off course. "This is it, men, break their nerve!" the captain called out. The officers readied their guns. There was a loud crack, then a scream, as an arquebus misfired, exploding into one of the officer's face. The scream was drowned out as 8 other muskets fired. There was an explosion from one of the junks, and something landed at Daniel's feet. He looked and realized it was filled with gunpowder. A firework! He realized his musket was still unfired. He threw it away, but it was too late. The firework exploded, and Daniel's arquebus with it. Daniel covered his face, and felt the explosion sear his arms and hands. The shock wave knocked him back into the mizzenmast. With shock, he realized the ship, his forearms, and his clothes were on fire. Frantically, he tried to beat the flames down on his clothes, oblivious to the pain. He felt someone push him and then he went over the side. His first clear thought was that the water splashing against his skin, dousing the flames. He was also conscious of his skin blistering, yet healing. He floated down, his clothes dragging him deeper. Daniel was surprised, and a little delighted, when he realized he could move completely naturally under the water. No holding his breath, no closing his eyes. It was just as if he was on land, only he was floating. He experimented with this before heading for the surface. He burst threw the water and found himself quite a bit aways from the fighting ships. The English ship was not faring well. Portions of it was openly aflame, and it was doing little to return the favor to the junks. "Oriental buggers," Daniel muttered, and began the long swim to shore. Daniel was exhausted when he finally crawled onto a dock near the port town. There were banners all around describing the town's name, shops, and other places. The whole village smelled overwhelmingly of fish. It was night. Daniel stumbled down the dock, making for the dry land. Reaching it, he collasped in exhaustion, slipping into unconsciousness. ************************************************************************* Well? Whaddaya think? Sorry this took so long to get out! =========================================================================