Galaxy Pirates

Chapter 39: Freedom in the Pirate Empire

The gruesome words of Captain Sinbad regarding Violet's sweetheart, was not the only occasion to make her doubt whether she had made a rightful choice. In fact, it was just the beginning – she was soon to find out that, even when she had spent such a long time with the Young Captain, his personality was still far deeper than she could possibly imagine.

When the pirates finished with their preparations, they and the Hawthorne family ascended the Crimson Diamond Shark Tooth and set sail towards new horizons. Before they'd cross the Central Intersection of the Seven Universes, however, Arubah demanded to stop on a certain planet under his jurisdiction – Ketuki. It was a place full of many different species: the Radenoids, the Dionoids, the Pegasus, the Herpharus, the Cyan, etc. The majority, however, were the Cyan and the Radenoids. The Captain Emperor wished to fill up his ship with some necessary supplies that could be found only on this exact planet. Once the Shark Tooth arrived there, Violet and her family – Ellie and Gunther (since Marie was sleeping in her cabin at that particular time) – came to witness a certain interesting, if not horrifying, event:

A young man covered in bloody wounds was tied to two posts in the scorching sun so that his already-open injuries would sting even further and cause him excruciating pain. He was surrounded by armed pirate guards of low class, hence even bloodier, more remorseless, and with far less intelligence than usual space-robbers, only able to fulfill the orders given by their authorities. They stood there for various reasons: to not let the said prisoner escape (who obviously had already lost all the hope of escaping), and to not let anyone approach and offer him any kind of help, salvation, or even just show their support. The public of curious by-passers who stopped at this square indeed watched him with lowly pity and apparent fear of the authorities that had imprisoned him. Instead of revolting against such vile conduct and demanding him to be pardoned, their whispers sounded different:

"That is what you get if you revolt against such a peaceful regime..."

"Only the stupid would dare defy the Captain Emperor!"

"He deserves what he's got!"

The situation looked hopeless, more so that the Young Captain whom Violet so adored, watched this whole event with quite a cold expression. He approached the pirate guards standing around the prisoner, and was met by their headman who controlled the affairs of the planet – a captain of one of the smaller Shark Tooth ships, Pitur Glimp. He immediately bowed to the Pirate Emperor of the Seven Universes:

"Ah, you've honoured us with your visit, Lord Captain!"

"Yeah, I just need to refill some supplies before we go to Bakhassa..."

"Oh, you're going to the Bakhassa Universe? That's quite remarkable! We will provide you with everything you may need!"

"That's appreciated, you have my thanks. So then, Captain Glimp, what's the commotion here? I did get the word from Captain Horphius the Lord of Balal that you had some problems with lowly Radenoids rebelling?"

"It's all settled, Lord Captain, everything's fine now! We did have a minor rebellion but we took care of it. That man over there," he casually pointed on the suffering prisoner, apparently only worried about his own skin now that he had to justify himself in front of the emperor, "was the leader of the rebels. He's indeed a Radenoid, and a powerful one, at that. We lost two ships against him but subdued him somehow and we've passed the penalty according to your law".

"Revolt against which paragraph of the Imperial Pirate Code, if you'd be so kind as to inform me?"

"Against the payments section, Lord Captain – the rebels refused to continue paying the tribute".

"On the basis of what reasons?"

"They claimed your code of conduct was tyrannical, Lord Captain".