Blue

It starts when they free a mermaid entangled in a net. Well, at least that’s what Faia says but really, she knows it started much earlier than that.

As she and two other pirates dive in, the mermaid struggles harder and all Faia can think about is how bloody difficult it’s going to be to cut the mermaid out. Blades in hand they begin to methodically saw away at the rope, much of it twisted cruelly around the mermaid’s bright blue tail. The rope will leave bright red marks, Faia knows, bubbles streaming steadily out of her nostrils. The pirates try to work quickly - before their breaths run out -  then, finally, with one last hack the mermaid slips free and Faia kicks up, sucking in a lungful of air as she breaks from the water. At the same time, the mermaid surfaces and Faia is met with dark bottomless eyes framed by equally dark hair. The mermaid’s eyes are wide and a little fearful and Faia feels the air in her throat catch; she cannot help but notice how beautiful the mermaid is.

She hears the other two come up and with that, the mermaid dives quickly back under water, iridescent scales glinting in contrast to her brown skin.

“That’s the fifth one this week,” Amy spits, face thunderous.

“Come on,” George says, “We should head back.”

They paddle themselves to the ship and wait for the mechanical board to lower itself down. On board the crew and captain looks at them expectantly, Captain Stubbs’ face is creased with concern.

 “We freed her and –”

“And this is disgusting!” Amy cuts George off, “This is bullshit, everyone knows those nets aren’t there to catch fish why are people letting them kidnap merpeople? How could anyone approve this?”

There are angry mutters around the ship.

“Why don’t we fight them?” Amy asks and her anger is as obvious as her red hair.

Captain Stubbs shakes her head, “We will but not yet. We can’t rush into something like this, especially not against Terra’s technology.”

Amy opens her mouth but Captain Stubbs silences her with a look. “Start the engine, I want this ship out to open sea now.”

The crew scrambles and Faia ducks down below deck to take up her position beside the old motors. She flicks open a key pad and punches in a few commands, making sure that everything is running as it should – the stolen motors are dated tech and have an annoying tendency to short circuit when you most need them to work – and before long they’re zooming away from the nets.

As the motors chugged and the machinery around Faia clanked, she found her thoughts drifting to the mermaid with eyes as deep as the ocean itself. 

+++

Experimentation. Dissection. Torture. It’s all Faia can think of while she lays in her hammock surrounded by uncommonly quiet pirates. They’re all thinking about the discovery they had made earlier in the day. A secluded laboratory on the middle of a forsaken island, it was where the merpeople were being taken to. That or sent to the underwater mines, Faia thinks, she can’t imagine the grief of an entire people. She feels nothing but anger in her bones.

+++

It is months later – fifteen different harbours, eight ship repairs, two dozen nets, a dozen freed alive and five Rebellion meetings later – when Captain Stubbs and her crew on board the Restless are attacked. A Terra ship looms out of the horizon and catches easily enough up to the Restless, the ships old motors no match for the fully upgraded ones of the enemies. Captain Stubbs prepares her crew for battle and the canons are loaded swiftly, orders are screamed and power is redirected to the canons.