Of course there are dragons in the oceans! Ask any competent old, grizzled sailor. But there is a trick to get them to tell you the truth. First buy them their favorite drink. Second  ask politely but quite: "Well, now without fibbing and don't tell me any sailor's yarns, hand on your heart, is it true that there are dragons in the oceans?" I´ll guarantee it works like a charm.

Unknown Origin

 

You may take the most gallant sailor, the most intrepid airman, or the most audacious soldier, put them at a table together- what do you get? The sum of their fears.

Winston Churchill

 

 

 

The dwarves were well surprised. It wasn't every day that a pretty young human thing walked into an iron foundry. Strictly speaking, neither my presence nor that I was human, much less that I was young and pretty, impressed any of the grim-faced dwarves in front of the large cauldrons of molten iron.

The obvious disappearance of all that boiling metal into nowhere? Now that was impressive. I didn't miss the opportunity to finish with a little joke: "It's pretty hot in here. Or am I?" Unfortunately, none of the casters understood the joke and just stared at me uncomprehendingly. Disappointing, indeed.

Mariette remarked encouragingly, "My mistress, you shouldn't try to be funny. It doesn't suit you." The other two snipes just giggled. Philistines. I could probably kiss a career as a comedian goodbye, even in Maronde. My strengths were obviously not in this direction and the ungrateful and overcritical audience spoiled everything for me. Hmpff. Cultural philistines!

 

After we had recovered somewhat from the carousal at the dwarfs', i.e. unrestrained boozing, and there was no longer any immediate intention of suicide, I waited impatiently for my iron and steel. There was a major construction site to be completed and as soon as the first columns of my workers and slaves arrived at the Pebble I wanted to have completed the vast majority of the constructions that required the blatant use of impressive magic. Above ground, that is. Underground, I didn't need to hold back.

In a month, I wanted to see my first ship on the water. And go on a cape...er...recruiting trip with it. A navy needs sailors, after all.  Sailors, as you know, are found in their natural environment. On the water or in the pub.

The sight of the water coming into the harbor basin after I had turned the causeway back into a breakwater was a spectacle in itself. The wild sea literally pounced on the concrete floor and surged against the quay walls with awe-inspiring force. I was able to complete the moorings and the wharf just in time before the first crews arrived to erect the harbor buildings and the entertainment district.

As soon as the first shipbuilders and shipyard workers arrived, I began rigorous training. Building ships with metal and in compartments with the same components over and over again. I drove people until they could assemble a ship blindfolded. And I produced the individual parts in mass. Five times the number of each part was always produced and only components that passed the quality test were used. Bad components were immediately returned to the process and recycled. I would produce ships as if on an assembly line. The record for a Liberty-class freighter was a good five days from keel laying to launching. With streamlined workflows, standardization of components, and assembly of prefabricated sections, I hoped to achieve a one-week build time per ship. I wanted to reach my goal of 250 ships within a year.

Each of my ships required around 2500 tons of steel. That would be 12500 tons per week. A total of 625 kilotons. More or less. The dwarves will be delighted. Shmaybee?

For my fleet, I had chosen a destroyer. One of the reasons was, I had plans for it. Which saved me a lot of time and work. Only the 3D puzzle of the individual compartments and the writing of the building instructions was necessary. Whereby I could rely on a CAD program which did most of the steps on its own and only left the complicated rest to me. Argh.

By necessity and convenience, I would build a fleet of old United States Fletcher-class destroyers. Standardized. Without variance. All the same.

A length of 115 m, width of 12 m, draft of 4.4 m, water displacement of 2500 tons. I would make a few modifications to the armament, crew and propulsion. The engine would be a large diesel block. Sealed. Magically beefed up a bit. Hard to break and if it did fail beyond repair the entire block would be replaced or the ship sunk. This would save a lot of engine mates. Half the crew would be Marine infantry. My people, loyal to me. For armament, I didn't need torpedoes or depth charges. Bofors and Oerlikons were more than adequate for my purposes. The places which became free with it, should serve a possible armament on magic weapons. So far everyone had been horrified when I mentioned magic weapons on ships. Naval warfare seemed to concentrate on ramming and boarding. Cannons existed, but only on the battlefield rather than on ships. That would probably change quickly, though. And I could always add in something with more oomph if necessary. The destroyer's main weapon was its speed of a good 35 knots and its independence from the wind. The armor due to the metal construction was almost excessive. As long as no one built stronger armored ships or used magic for protection, the armament was superior to anything that existed here so far.

Basically, even such a "small" destroyer was like shooting bees with anti-aircraft guns. Completely exaggerated. If I had a free hand, my choice would have been a corvette of the Swedish Visby class or the Taiwanese Tuo Chiang class. Significantly less demanding in terms of the most important resource that was needed. Personnel. Seamen, like good workers or soldiers, do not hang on trees to be picked like fruit. On closer inspection, there is indeed a special kind of seafarer who dangles from trees. Strung up pirates who had no luck. And overripe carcasses only make good crew in movies. Now, while a smaller corvette would have been more comfortable, I'd be fine with an obsolete destroyer design. For simplicity's sake, I would have only one type of ship. Any larger class would be completely pointless. I didn't need cruisers, battlecruisers, or battleships. What would a Bismarck, Hood or even a Yamato be for? Anything that was an enemy on the seas of Maronde was hopelessly outclassed. It would take years, if not decades, before the local shipbuilders were advanced enough to even begin to pose a threat to my ships. And I was quite confident that I had this danger under control. All it would take to sink a battleship was a biplane with a bomb or torpedo.

 

Maybe I wasn't entirely sincere either, there would be a second class of ship. Let's say, a kind of experimental ship on which I tried out various things that were unsuitable for mass production. My own little ship. With significantly improved propulsion system. And armor. The standard destroyers had improved diesel engines, but propulsion was still based on propellers. My flagship got a magnetohydrodynamic and a waterjet drive as redundancy. Not really useful without magic. With magic - hellishly effective. Fast and silent. State of the art combined physics, engineering and magics. Along with the magic armor and reinforced armament, my personal yacht could take on 50 of my destroyers at once without breaking a sweat. And honestly, it was quite unlikely that so many of my ships would fall into enemy hands. Not with all the precautions I had planned to prevent just that scenario. But if they did, there were enough hurdles to make it difficult to use the ships against me.

 

Of course, the understandable question arises, why a fleet at all? Why no armored divisions? Why no air force? Why not a wolf pack of submarines? The answers are simple and at the same time complex.

Necessity. The geography of my national territory made it imperative that I maintain a fleet to effectively protect my sphere of influence. Similarly, Britain had needed a fleet to rise to a world power and protect its own island. Without a fleet, just to give one example, the British Empire would never have been possible. Britain, as an island, was always dependent on trade by sea. Without a fleet, these trade routes could never have been protected.

Tanks are excellent at advancing quickly and deeply over land and conquering large land areas. But without a very large army I would not be able to hold these lands. I would get as far as Moscow and then just die in the mud and ice because I simply would not have enough soldiers to keep what my tanks had bought me. Pointless waste in my eyes. Besides, tanks would not really be suitable for driving around on islands. And if I didn't intend to overrun and occupy other countries with tanks anyway, then I didn't need to construct landing ships. Relatively simple, isn't it?

An air force would have become necessary if I had to make an alliance with the Elves. Large areas of land are much easier to monitor and control by air than by troops. Probably I would have constructed tanks as well. The construction of airplanes was within the range of my abilities. I wasn't a specialist, but what I didn't know in advance I could fix with magic. And purely to counter the possible threat of someone smart enough to put a battleship in front of me, I would build a small air force. If it wasn't easy to recruit sailors, it was impossible to get ready-made pilots. I simply had no one to fly the planes I could build.

U-Boats? From the coolness factor certainly a must-have for any fleet. Stupidly, there was a catch. The purpose of a submarine is to prevent the enemy from controlling the seas and to disrupt the supply routes. With a fleet of U-Boats I could not protect any nation. The wolf packs had their purpose, no disagreement from me, but in my situation underwater units were of no use at all. And I don't think the concept of deterrence as a result of a guaranteed nuclear retaliatory strike by SSBN would get any attention here on Maronde. At least among the various nations. I'm sure the gods were a little more nervous than the typical monarch. So no wolf pack U boats stalking underwater and then coming down hard on the enemy. Or was it coming up high? Not sure. That being said, I would also have to crew the boats somehow. And submariners were a special breed of sailor. Where would I get them if not steal them? Training the necessary amount myself would take a long time.

No, my destroyers are, small and nimble, cheap and quick to produce AND excellent at protecting power. The appropriate choice for the circumstances.

 

As for the name or convention - sailors are superstitious people. Well, I'm not a sailor and I'm not superstitious.

 

But I also saw no reason to challenge fate unnecessarily.

 

The " Kaiserliche Marine " of German nation or even more terrible the " Kriegsmarine " would make bad namesakes for my fleet. Even if superstition does not play a role, it makes no real sense to choose the name of something that has never had any real success. I don't really know anything about seafaring, but I can judge if a concept or a procedure has been successful or not. It is only my assessment, but I think the incompetence of any German navy, parts excepted, may lie in the fact that no one really had a good strategic idea of what to use the naval forces for and how to use them. Any tactical advantage, be it technology or personnel, fails if the strategic direction is wrong. My impression is that these navies were always subordinated to some political and ideological reasons instead of serving a clear objective. Purely egomaniacal reasons probably played no insignificant role either. We must have many more and much bigger battleships than the others! It would be unfair to say typical male braggadocio and dick-length comparison. In fact, women instead compare the size of their breasts and their looks. Ego is ego, after all. Nevertheless, my assessment contains enough truth to be debatable. The fact is, both the "Kaiserliche Marine" and the "Kriegsmarine" lost in their wars in the end. What they did manage were tactical victories. No more and no less.

In both cases, egomaniacs have not been able to keep their pride in check long enough for a war of aggression to become winnable. Germany paid for its stupidity both times. And yes, even if both times Austria somehow played a role in the outbreak of war, in the end it was Germany as a state that started it. Waiting to be attacked also has its advantages. Better to learn from the mistakes of others - but if we don't learn from our own mistakes we better try something else.

Therefore, as much as I may like Germany's history, my navy is simply called " The Fleet." Done. No poppycock. No unnecessary bric-a-brac.

 

What applied to The Fleet also applied to the naming convention of the ships. What there wouldn't be was pure numbers. No Z-123. A ship must have a name.

From the first time I heard the name, I knew that if I ever had the embarrassment of naming a ship, it would be:

 

Kobayashi-maru¹Yes, the one and only! Always remember, if you can´t win - cheat!

 

There was only one class of ship in this fleet, and the Kobayashi was thus the namesake for the entire class. Even if it was a cribbed Fletcher. I didn't really need to fear a lawsuit in a maritime court.

Every ship would get a Japanese name and end in -maru. Somehow I was looking forward to the arguments: "But -maru stands for cargo ships! That's an illegal deception! You won't get away with it!" Sigh. Fine, just sue me. Hehehe.

 

A month later, the Kobayashi-maru was launched and ready for sea trials. They say a sea cruise is fun, a sea cruise is beautiful. Ahoy!

 

... at least as long as you're not constantly hanging over the railing due to seasickness and are allowed to enjoy your breakfast, lunch and zwieback backwards a second time. To vomit. Literally. Kind of? I'm dying. Shoot me and tell my mom I love her.

My wives coped with the swell significantly better than I did. Which was probably because they all could and had prepared for it. Only I did not have two weeks of adjustment on rented sailing ships to harden. That's what happens when you know what's coming, prepare the necessary training but then are too busy assembling the ship. I feel sick. Why don't you let me die? Maybe submarines wouldn't have been such a bad alternative after all.

 

After three days, I had finally earned my sea legs. Hell on earth couldn't be worse than those three days.

 

The tests at sea served to verify that I hadn't assembled something completely incompetent. And, of course, that my "adjustments, improvements and surprises" worked as I had planned. I was unlucky with the propellers. Instead of the 35 - 40 knots I had hoped for, the Kobayashi-maru managed just 30 knots. Completely unsatisfactory. Back to the drawing board, young lady! Yes, Professor.

 

Navigation, on the other hand, was a complete success. Better than expected. Nowadays, navigation on ocean-going vessels is a matter of satellite-based positioning. In the early days of seafaring, navigation at sea was tricky. Visual contact with the shore and maps with the outlines of the coastlines was the beginning. Particularly experienced peoples could guess their course and position quite accurately based on currents. Over time, sailors learned to navigate based on the sun, moon and stars. At some point, the compass and the globe were added. More or less accurately, one's own speed could be measured. The sextant. More accurate nautical charts. Watches. Gyro compass. At the end of this development is the meter-precise satellite navigation.

 

 

 

Oh, by the way. Maronde has no satellites with high-precision cesium clocks in orbit. Kind of an unfortunate coincidence. A pity, too. And not feasible for me in the short term. Maybe later. Onward you sky climbers, go rocket scientists. Ah yes.

 

But what I had was magic. My solution was not perfect. Not at all. But it didn't need to hide either. The idea behind it exists in almost every game where you have to build something and explore the map for resources. Including the fog-of-war. Everything my destroyer "perceived" was transferred to a magic map. With the relative position of the ship. I had rough maps of the area around the Pebble, the coast of Nagronde, and the islands that were now mine. Enough clues to not go completely into the blue. As a special trick I had thought up that I could merge and synchronize the maps. After each trip, The Fleet would have better and better maps. After much thought, I added the feature that each of my ships could see exactly where another was. A risk I was willing to take.

 

Except for the fact that the Kobayashi-maru was not as fast as I had hoped, the propulsion system worked remarkably tolerant and low maintenance. All that was necessary was to refill the reservoirs of the operating fluids every now and then and to fill up the tank in time. Disadvantage was frankly, if the machine was broken, then no repair at sea was possible. At least when I was not on site. It helped only off into the dock and exchange. In return, it was extremely difficult to get at the secrets of the drive due to the "sealing".

 

 

 

The Oerlikon and the Bofor? Like a dream. Very mature design. What was bitter was that I had to do without RADAR lock-on. Loading, aiming and firing was a manual affair. As they say in the United States? Democracy!

 

My kind of "democracy" was impressively quiet ... thanks to magic noise cancellation. I added it after standing right next to the guns during the first test fire. Shamefully embarrassing.

 

I still had to test the aiming accuracy. But the initial results painted a promising conclusion to the shake.

 

"Captain. Two ships off the port bow. Coming up fast. Closer ship is a pirate galley. Other ship is a merchantman from Nagronde."

 

"Navigation. Are both ships within our borders?"

 

"Aye, captain. Both ships are within our territorial waters."

 

"Flag mate. Hoist the Joli Rouge."

 

"Aye, aye Captain! Hoist the Pretty Red."

 

"First Officer. Clear ship for action!"

 

"Aye, aye captain! Ship ready for battle. ALARM! CREW TO BATTLE STATIONS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! I REPEAT: CREW TO BATTLE STATIONS! THIS IS NOT AN EXERCISE!"

 

"""AYE AYE! SHIP READY FOR ACTION!""

 

"First Officer. Tell the Marines to get ready to recruit!"

 

"Aye, aye Captain! Prepare marines. MARINES STAND BY TO BOARD! WE ARE RECRUITING!"

 

"""AYE, AYE!"""

 

 

"First officer. We'll take the merchant first. The pirate won't escape us."

 

"Aye, aye captain! The trader first. Engine room. Engine AK ahead! Helmsman. Course for the merchantman!"

 

"Aye, aye! Ahead full." "Aye, aye! Course merchantman."

 

"Captain. We are passing the galley."

 

"Bow gun. Lay the masts flat. I want to see how accurate the gun crew is."

 

"Aye, aye captain! Target masts and lay them flat."

 

"Captain. Galley following us port aft."

 

"Very good. The recruiting office will be pleased. Eva will have her hands full."

 

"Yes, Captain."

 

Boom

 

 

"The gun is barely audible. Adjutant. Test for noise attenuation in combat successfully completed."

 

"Yes, captain. Note test noise attenuation successful."

 

Boom Boom

 

"Hit. Jib mast hit. Targeting mainmast."

 

"Excellent. Carry on."

"Aye, aye captain."

 

"First officer. Reduce speed and cut across to the merchantman's course. Let's see how the gun crew handles it."

 

"Aye, aye captain. Reduce speed. Course abeam. Engine room. Reduce to 5 knots. Helmsman. Steer course abeam."

 

"Aye, aye! Five knots ahead." "Aye, aye! Course abeam."

 

"Lookout. Distance to target?"

 

"Captain. Target 2 km abeam."

 

 

Boom

 

"Hit, Captain. Main mast hit. Targeting remaining cross mast."

 

Boom

 

"Hit, captain. Last mast hit. Target no longer moving."

 

"Excellent work, bow gun. My compliments to the gun crew. First Officer. Go alongside and board. Request crew to surrender, if crew fights we'll throw them overboard."

 

"Aye, aye captain! Move alongside and board. Call for surrender. Helmsman. We're boarding, go alongside. Marines. Board as soon as ready."

 

"Aye, aye! Alongside to boarding go." "Aye, aye! Boarding."

 

"Enemy ship! Enemy ship! We are boarding you. Surrender at once! If you resist when we board, we will use our weapons ruthlessly! I repeat, surrender immediately!"

 

 

I was sick to my stomach. But the captain has to radiate absolute calm on the bridge. Even if there was pure chaos on the bridge - I was the rock of calm. Oh boy, was I sick.

 

On the maiden voyage, I had two crews on board who relieved each other daily in their duties. One day ship's crew and the next day marines. Today, Arina was the commanding officer of the Marines.

 

The three paladins and their squires put up a fight and charged our boarding party with swords drawn. So far I had not seen Arina in a real fight. Only during the practice fights at the training I had received a rough view of what she was capable of.

Oh boy, was that girl a mean, nasty pussy. What I saw could best be compared to "the cat playing with its food." At the risk of sounding redundant, with her cat-like agility Arina dodged sword blows, slipped under the paladins' guard, and slashed gaping wounds into flesh with her two daggers in visible delight. I won't hide it - watching her mangle the religious pack made me horny. Really randy.

 

Ok, the amount of blood was a bit repulsive. The fight, on the other hand, was awesome to watch. Until a paladin ended it prematurely and tried to use magic. Arina rammed a dagger into his right eye all the way into his brain. The sudden oversaturation of iron was the probable cause of death. I am not a doctor, but I think the diagnosis is sound. My kitten dodged the nearest paladin by crouching and twisting upward like a corkscrew within his guard, the second dagger found its fatal way from below through his throat into the interior of his skull. As in the first case, the pathologist would probably record the extra iron as the cause of death. How quickly and suddenly a life can end. Surely his mommy cries for her boy.

 

The rest stretched out their arms and surrendered. Pathetic. Why even bother if you are not ready to fight to the end? Yes, yes, I know, to fight on another day. But the intelligentsia could have come up with this clever idea from the very beginning. Anyway. My moshing was not decisive for the fight. And we weren't done here yet. There was still one pirate we had to take care of.

 

"Put collars on the crew and then order them to sit on the bow deck. Secure the cargo. Signal the other ship 'Parley' and have them dock on the port side of the merchantman. Time for some fun and games, my pretties. You've earned it."

 

"""AYE AYE CAPTAIN!"""

 

 

Being in command has its advantages. Not just on a ship. My eager, sweet minions. You can't help but love them.

 

The galley finally docked on the opposite side of the Kobayashi-maru. A bit hesitantly it seemed to me, probably it's not that often that pirates are invited for a chit-chat.

 

"HarHarHar! Men look what we have here! Gracey O'Malley, the triple fucking bitch of a hairy skank! Come on Missy, get on your knees and say Please Please!"

 

Ah, yes. A doozy of a bitch, right out of a picture book. Dirty, cowardly and mean. Yes, that's how a pirate boy must have been!

 

"But, but Captain Pirato. Why so rude right away? Shall we introduce ourselves first? I am ..." and of course El Pilates couldn't resist interrupting me.

 

"Fuck you, doll! I'll call you whatever I want. To me, you're Gracey O'Malley, the thrice-damned Witch of the Sea. First I'm gonna take your ship, then I'm gonna take your booty, and then I'm gonna put you over my knee and fuck your brains out. You hear me, men? When I'm done with her you'll all get a piece of Gracey O'Malley's three holes!"

 

"""AYE CAPT'N!"""

 

With so much attention and enthusiasm, an eerie feeling of well-being runs down my spine. Brrrrr. I just grinned cheekily. Did you feel that, too?

 

 

"Well, Captain, if the outcome of our encounter is already determined, why don't we make this a little more exciting? Surely you are not a coward who is afraid of a poor, little, puny and weak woman like yours truly? We fight each other. To the victor go the spoils. The treasures. The ships. The women. Everything! With weapons or without, as you like. My crew against your crew. You against me. Come on, because it's you, if for some unknown reason my crew is stronger than your limp dicks, then it's just our fight that decides in the end. How about Primate Captain Coward? Do you want any rules? You know, it's been soooo long since I've been put over my knee by a big, strong, wild man. I'm almost tempted to lose on principle on purpose."

 

Ok, dudes and dudettes, actually I should advise you not to perform such a stunt. So, don't copy it! Maybe you guys will find a better way than I did?

 

In any case, Kapitano Yerkoffikov was ... excited. Maybe even angry. Or better, genuinely offended? Well, he rumbled and cursed, shouted and grumbled and made a fool of himself for minutes on end. To the relief of his slowly embarrassed team, he finally agreed. What can I say, pride has always been the enemy of cogitation. Many a proud man and woman have jumped to their doom completely stupefied. El Kipper was no exception. Pride makes no difference in gender, believe it or not.

 

We had cleared the main deck. The merchant ship's crew watched us from the peanut gallery seats at the bow. My crew stood at the starboard railing and the pirates at the railing to port. Nicely opposite.

 

The contest could start. Let the games begin!

 

 

Only, it was a humiliating shame. Terrible. Without any charm and excitement. The duels were over in moments. To cry. Not the slightest bit of entertainment.

 

I'll spare myself fifty variations of here: The two opponents faced each other. The fight began ... and ended very quickly. The pirate was enslaved and dumped at the stern. What were these people thinking? That piracy is just something HARHARHAR, HoHoHo and then everyone surrenders? The alternative was, my crew was simply worlds superior.

Even though the fights themselves were rather colorless and bland, one of the girls caught my attention. Again. Women generally pay a lot of attention to their appearance and very early on her long, wild hair caught my eye. Dark blonde, soft hair with wonderful curls and strands. A feast for the eyes. Every time I was around she seemed to sense it. And every time, she looked at me with that calculating, thoughtful look. She was strong and fast, no question about it. Potential. To spur her on, I licked my lips. Later, my little one. Later.

Mariette's fight was fun, to say the least. She selected a handful of opponents. Then she extended her right arm, aimed her index finger like a pistol, and "shot" her pirates unconscious. BangBangBangBang. Then when she blew the "smoke" off her "finger muzzle" I collapsed laughing. La Cuckaracha didn't think it was funny. What is wrong with this world? Doesn't anyone here understand even a modicum of humor?

 

Capitaine Trou-du-cul was drooling in the literal sense. Not a pretty sight. There is something so pitiful about it. And all the time he was yelling Gracey O'Malley this - Grace O'Malley that. It was unnerving. But I also saw no point in correcting him in his current state.

 

To make a long story short. When it was our turn to fight at the end, I shot him, put him out of his misery, threw the body overboard, and addressed the pirate crew.

 

"It seems you have all just become unemployed after your much admired captain jumped ship like a rat. Does anyone feel like working for me? I offer a secure job, good gold, sick pay, paid vacation and a fancy ship as you can see over there. What do you men say - would you like to give up being a pirate and go on a privateer ride instead?"

 

"""AYE AYE KAPT`N O'MALLEY!"""

 

I secretly wondered, who the heck was this Grace or Gracey O'Malley? Mysterious mysteries. At least we had the first "recruits enlisted". Lots to do for Eva, the naughty brat.

 

While the pirate galley contained no special secrets, just some gold and loot, things were a bit different with the merchant ship from Nagronde.

The hold was full of demi-slaves in pathetic condition. And in one cell a female bishop with three other priestesses. The prisoners of the church would certainly be able to tell me an interesting story. But I first had to settle the problem with the slaves who were almost dying of thirst. As a member of the slave traders' guild, I could not let any transport company get away with the fact that the goods were lost during the journey due to lack of care. That is not acceptable at all.

After the respective crews and prisoners were supplied and accommodated below deck, I stowed the two ships in my inventory. Then I ordered the ship to pick up speed and set course for home port. The temperature rose more and more the last days. Spring was slowly taking its leave and it was getting warm.

Before we went to sleep I wanted to talk to my wives. At least with those who were not on duty. While I tied Mariette and Constie's wrists as I did every night, I asked them what they thought about the wolf girl.

"You mean Louve, My Mistress? She has a clever head. In the practice fights she is as good as undefeated, it happens that someone beats her once but at the latest in the rematch she has learned enough to win. Why do you ask, My Mistress, do you want to make her a mate?"

"At least that would be a pleasant change from the usual modus operandi of the harem, wouldn't it Constie? Otherwise you are always trying to trick me. Should I make Louve my mate? Her kind appeals to me, and she's not bad looking either."

"Louve is sizing you up, My Mistress." purred Arina snuggled against my thigh.

"What do you mean, Arina?"

"She's thinking about challenging you for alpha. The wolf demi are very pack-oriented and pay attention to hierarchy. She has steadily risen in the ranks. But you've made it clear, the only way to rise to officer is through you. And you have a long string of submissions to show for it, my lady."

"Interesting. So she's faced with the choice of submitting to me to advance in the ranks or challenging me as alpha and taking over everything. I've had Domme to break for a long time. I get moist at the thought, my dears. But now it's bedtime. Tomorrow I have to hold a captain's court. Open up your mouths nicely for your gags."

Having dedicated and submissive wives in bed is truly the most beautiful thing.

The next morning, reality caught up to me again in the form of Mariette. A disciplinary hearing on board a ship, a captain's mast, always applies only to one's own crew and one's own ship. So for me, it meant a court-martial as captain or Supreme Court as ruler. Or I had the matter settled in the arbitration court of the slavers' guild. Wonderful. How did Mariette know such things? But that was to be expected, as my adjutant.

 

I flipped a coin. Heads court martial, tails Supreme Court, and edge arbitration. Seemed fair enough in my opinion. Heads ended up on top and I gathered the crew including passengers on deck. Marines would serve as jury and two of my officers as associate judges.

 

What came out of the trial was on the one hand somehow predictable, but on the other hand also quite strange. Basically, the responsibility was clear. No matter how you turn it around, a captain is responsible for everything that happens on his ship. Always and for everything. The interesting thing was that one of the dead paladins had ordered the 2nd officer to let the "cargo" despair. Without the captain or the 1st officer knowing. Why and why the Demis should thirst nobody could tell me. I could not think of any reason. Things became strange when I realized that the demi-slaves were actually meant for me. Not that they were already my property. The slave traders were trying to bring slaves to Nuldur as if out of their minds to sell them to a crazy unimaginably rich woman. It seemed advisable to intercept as many ships as possible in my territorial waters. As soon as word got out that no one could pass through the sea area unscathed, the remaining shipping traffic would pass through my port. And those who no longer wanted to entrust their goods to the sea would have to take the overland route via the Pebble. In any case, the goods traffic went through me. Whether as a transit point or as a transshipment point. Certainly, this would not please many influential and rich people. But the people in charge of the trade guild as such would like it very much. A lot of gold would flow into the guild. Important people in the guild would become rich and know to whom they owed their sudden wealth.

 

I sentenced the 2nd officer to death and let him go overboard in front of everyone. The 1st officer was sentenced to 5 lashes and the captain to 15 lashes. For neglect of duty. It should never have happened that both did not know what was happening on the ship. Had they known ... the sea cleanses all sins and may the sea have mercy on their souls.

 

 

Three days before we entered the harbor again and ended our maiden voyage, another pirate ship ran across our bow. More recruits. Excellent. Really excellent. I had a strange feeling the summer was going to be good. Crazy.

I could already see the next five ships taking shape.

 

Josei-maru.

Shoujo-maru.

Shonen-maru.

Seinen-maru.

On'nanoko-maru.

 

Sometimes it's good to make a joke. I was curious if anyone understood this one.