The Galleon of Athena, after sealing the third Relic of the Sea, was now heading for the South Pacific and Captain Meko Kaire was already a little anxious to return home. That had come as a huge surprise when he'd first met Nicol a few weeks ago, along with his first mate, when he'd seen the island on which he himself had been born listed among the Seven Civilizations.
"That can't be right." he protested when he saw the list of the seven places they would have to visit.
"Is there a problem, Captain Kaire?" Nicol asked, looking for anything out of place on his carefully made list.
"This island in the Polynesia is in the archipelago where I was born and raised." said Kaire. "If there were any Poseidon Relics there, I would know about it."
"The Gemini Saint's notes are quite accurate."
"I know every inch and every grain of sand on these islands." pondered Kaire.
"'There are more things in heaven and Earth, than are dreamt of in your philosophy', Captain."
Both Nicol and Kaire looked at Geist, still very serious.
"Maybe there are secrets that not even you can imagine."
Kaire looked at that list a little confused, and weeks later he looked again, but this time with a certain nostalgia and lightness in his chest. However, just before he went to bed, when the lantern-lit list left his thoughts, he heard far away a beautiful, melodious song.
During that change of shifts, the Galleon crossed through an incredible fog in the middle of the ocean, a very rare phenomenon that the rising night practically hid from the crew. Seiya had left the quarterdeck for the main deck, heading for the lower galleries, when he heard the same curious and beautiful melody, of delicate vibratos in chromatic melismas. Geist was already in the lower galleries coordinating the shift change when she and many of the sailors stopped what they were doing to better pay attention to that corner of the seas. In her sickbay, June also found the song curious and wondered if it was one of the sailors pretending to be a singer.
Lunara was already lying on her small mattress on the floor, when a soft, whispery voice whispered in her ear, as it did every night so she could sleep. The little girl smuggled her music player along with her overcoat, and every night she slept to a light beat, spaced and quiet.
But then she was hearing the wrong tune.
"Captain's log, this is Captain Lunara speaking. Good morning, sailors. Oh, I forgot the day. Caham. Captain's log, day seventeen of voyage, Captain Lunara speaking. Good morning, sailors. This is my logbook and I'm Captain Lunara, the best captain of the seven seas. Today I'm going to unfurl the sails and soon we'll be arriving at Captain Kaire's home. I mean, I'm the Captain. Captain Kaire can be the co-captain. Or my first mate. Oh, but then Geist won't like it. He better be the co-captain. Anyway, my friends, we're coming to the co-captain's home. Is everyone there as big as he is? We'll find out in the next captain's log. Captain Lunara out. Over and out."
Lunara released the button on the recorder, finishing her fake logbook. She was still lying on a tiny mattress on which she slept at night to wake up at the first light of the morning; and as soon as she woke up she would pull out her music player. For that morning, as soon as she finished her logbook for her imaginary crew, she realized that there was a certain fuss around the boat. She got to her feet, stretched, and hid the music player on a loose board under her mattress.
She went out to the pantry, where the crew usually ate a very thick piece of bread and drank some kind of fruit extract to get them through the morning and sometimes the day. That's when she noticed the first sign of a day that would be much longer than usual: the galleon's head cook, who served the day shift, was sleeping on top of his desk.
"How lazy." Lunara said, and then helped herself to the bread and juice.
The clamor of the boat, like a certain excited din, could still be heard through the wooden walls of the Galleon. In addition to the five main officers, the Galleon also had a crew of nine or ten brave sailors who helped in the operation, mainly so that there could be that change of shifts.
The little girl finally climbed the stairs to the lower galleries and came out on deck to a full-on racket; the first thing she saw, and which was unthinkable, was that the ship's helm was completely unoccupied and turning from side to side, attending only to the moods of the sea.
She looked around and saw a large group dancing in circle very excitedly among themselves near the forecastle. She ran to them and saw that, among them, June was the most animated clapping, singing, pulling rhymes and throwing sailors to the center of the circle to dance. Lunara had never seen the Chameleon Saint so loose and she was torn between the excitement that filled her and the shock of what was happening. But then her little eyes noticed Seiya hugging the keel of the bow with one arm and letting the other sway with the wind that blew the hair from his face.
"Seiya! Hey Seiya, what are you doing?" cried the little girl, climbing onto the forecastle.
But the boy seemed intoxicated with enormous happiness, singing amusing rhymes to the ocean loud and clear, his chest full and high. He didn't seem to listen to her, lost in the madness of the seas.
"Oh, Seiya, that song is terrible. What's going on with everyone?" she asked.
"Lunara..." he began in D major.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Little one, my aurora." he rhymed, and she could see that he was improvising terrible lines.
"Oh no, Seiya."
She left the forecastle and went into the cabin of the only person who wouldn't be carried away by all that nonsense: Captain Kaire. She crossed the deck of dances and sorrows, climbed the quarterdeck and crashed into the Captain's cabin screaming for him, to get out, to help, that everyone had gone mad.
"Leave me alone!" Kaire shouted from inside.
"But Captain, your ship is crazy!" she said.
"My ship!" repeated the Captain, and so, like a lunatic, he was screaming without ever leaving his cabin.
Lunara was a little lost, as it seemed that madness had attacked her Captain as well. She then descended from the forecastle and noticed, glued to the ship's rail, very serious and contemplative, the immediate Geist. She ran to her, for surely she was the only one who could have been sane on a wild night like the one that had apparently attacked the ship.
"Geist, everyone's gone crazy!" she began.
Geist had her eyes focused on the horizon line that divided ocean and sky; her eyes, always so hard, were framed by a sad, arched brow; she had one hand resting on the wood of the rail, as if to keep her balance.
"Geist, answer me!" asked Luna.
But Geist seemed unable to answer and simply left her talking to herself, stumbling, shoulders hunched, toward the stairs that led to the lower galleries. On the way, she caught sight of a giggling, passionate couple near the pantry, a scene that would have demeaned her a day before for her inappropriate behavior on the ship, but which she didn't even notice, and crossed to her small but private cabin.
She closed the door behind her and immediately let out the tears she had been holding so tightly in her chest. She gripped a column beside her with one hand and brought the other to her eyes, as if to force the tears back into her body.
"Keep it under control." she said to herself.
She took a deep breath, with courage, and stepped hard inside the cabin to her bed, as if trying to compose herself, but if the first two steps were decided, on the third she hesitated, as a huge pain rose in her chest, causing her to fall in bed crying.
"Under control." she stammered, completely out of control.
And then she punched the bed and got up furiously.
"I am the first mate of this ship. I need to focus on my work."
And the feeling came again in the chest, like an avalanche. She clenched her fists, trying to contain it, but it was impossible; the sentences could always start out very harsh, but they ended up choked and in tears.
"Captain's log, supplement. My heavenly friends, everyone is crazy on this ship! I don't know what happened, but I woke up this morning and Seiya was singing horrible songs hugging the mast, June is dancing around with the sailors who should be tending to the food, Geist is crying and the Captain doesn't want to leave his cabin screaming madness from inside. I think the worst has really happened: you really are hearing the voice of Captain Lunara from Athena's Galleon."
The little girl pulled her mini-elevator onto the mainmast and climbed it quickly to have some peace in the crow's nest, as well as try to guess with her atlas and nautical chart where the hell they were and how many leagues they had deviated from course. When she reached the top of the mast, she saw that her crow's nest was taken over by an amused sailor who was absolutely amazed looking into her golden binoculars, as if looking into a kaleidoscope.
"Oh, my lil'Athena, come down soon, girl." said Lunara, helping the woman to sit comfortably in the small elevator and releasing the stool, which quickly descended to the deck; the sailor even gave her an amused good-bye before disappearing.
There were no stars in the sky at this time of day, and all Lunara had to orient herself to was the direction of the wind and the gentle current of the ocean to guess, even if it was just a little, where they were. But when she put her eyes on the golden bezel, she saw on the horizon stark white rock formations on the high seas: jagged blocks of ice that, she knew, were even larger underneath. And it is obvious that the Galleon was sailing directly in that direction, albeit slowly. But even slowly, it was very dangerous.
"Damn, we're going to crash! And I can't even reach the helm to steer this boat."
Not only that: the proximity of those huge ice floes suggested that the course had deviated so far that it was possible that they had returned to the Indian Ocean, where the Antarctic ice floes most often headed; it would take a major course correction if they wanted to reach the South Pacific, Galleon's next destination. But then it was as if no one really cared because, from the top of the crow's nest, the laughter and singing of June's music circle and her dancers clearly reached little Lunara.
And the ship slowly approaching the ice floes.
She finally had an idea.
She flew down with her chains through the sails and went straight to the anchor hole: she would anchor the ship in that part of the sea and find a way to wake up the crew so they could do something. She didn't even think twice and threw the anchor overboard and waited for the boat to stop; the chain dropped, dropped and dropped in the depths of the ocean, and Lunara watched those thick chains rushing down, hoping they would stop at once and the boat could stop.
And then the chain stopped running hard; the heavy anchor had found the ocean floor and now it was only a matter of time before it docked somewhere and the ship could stop. She set off from there to the forecastle, took Seiya off the rope of the jib, where he was performing musically, and looked hopefully at the slowly approaching blocks of ice; the ship clearly slowly braking until it came to a complete stop.
"Great, first step of the plan is done!" she said to herself.
When all that fuss passed the ship and the stars appeared in the sky, they could fine-tune and set sail for the South Pacific. Now he had to find a way to wake up the Captain, who had locked himself in his cabin.
Returning from the jib to the central pole, Lunara was surprised by June, who took her by the hands and threw her into the middle of the circle where everyone was singing for her to dance.
"Dance, Luna. Dan-dance, Lunara!"
In chorus, under laughter and amusement. Lunara protested and crawled out of there, slipping under the legs of an inattentive sailor, who died laughing at the sight. She got up, went to the deck to try again to wake up Captain Kaire even if it was at the base of the slap, when she saw Seiya reappear singing.
"Shave his belly with a rusty razor!"
And he repeated and repeated the silly verses with his arms loose at his sides; Lunara was pushing him away from the helm, where he insisted on returning to command the 'aircraft', as he called it, when the door to the Captain's cabin burst open, revealing the sullen, lunatic figure of Meko Kaire.
"Which belly do you think you're going to shave? No-one's gonna steal my coat? No one will take my ship! I'm the only Captain! There will be no riot!"
Lunara left Seiya aside to try to get Captain Kaire's attention, who didn't give a damn about her.
"Captain, Captain! Captain Kaire! Listen to me, everyone is crazy! Captain, I need your help!"
But as the Captain left, he went back in, locking himself back in the cabin, roaring several paranoid curses. Lunara screamed outside until she fell to her knees and tired of knocking on the door that refused to open. It was terrible to be the sole owner of her sanity, for she was a little girl; again she had to stick with Seiya, who insisted on steering the ship as if it were a dancing truck at the helm.
"Get out of there, Seiya." she complained.
"I'm the Captain!"
"You're not!" Kaire shouted from his cabin, his voice muffled by the locked door.
"Oh, Seiya, you're crazy."
"Lunara!"
"What?." she replied, trying to get him out of there. "Ah, would be so good if you were fine, I really need someone at the helm. But not dancing like that, Seiya."
"Sing with me, Lunie!"
"I don't even like music." she lied.
"Lunara, can I ask you something?" he said, all dumbfounded hugging her.
"What is it, Seiya?"
"Do you want to be my little sister?"
"Oh, Seiya." she really wanted to, but what an inopportune moment.
"I even forgive you for having poisoned me."
"You're talking a lot of nonsense!" said Luna.
"No nonsense, Shiryu told me that it was you who poisoned me a lot that day. The Death of the Black Death Terror."
Lunara's mouth dropped open to see that, even in the face of that inebriated madness, Seiya had actually given her a great idea.
She was going to poison everyone.
"Captain's log, supplement. This is the craziest day ever. Captain Lunara has decided she's going to poison the entire crew of Athena's Galleon! They're gonna kill me, but if it goes wrong, they're gonna die. But it ain't gonna go wrong. I remember that recipe well and I've already rummaged through June's sickbay and found some stuff for my magic potion. It'll work. Oh, Lil'Athena, it better work. If this is the last logbook on this tape, then it all went wrong. It went terribly wrong. Yahoy!"
Like a mad scientist, Lunara was looking at the vials that June kept neatly tucked away on her shelves, when she found some extracts that, if not exactly the ingredients of her Black Death potion, were similar, thanks to the descriptions June attached in each bottle on the roots, origins and effects of each ingredient. Lunara threw what she needed into a jar and was satisfied, but then a new problem appeared:
"Damn, there won't be enough. And I already used everything June had. Hey. June!"
Brilliant as she alone, Lunara soon realized that she didn't need to poison everyone, just the person best able to bring them out of their maddened state: the medical officer herself.
"If it goes wrong, she dies. If it works, she kills me." said Lunara, walking up the stairs with a poisoned arrow in one hand and the antidote in the other.
June was still dancing on the circle on the deck and, as soon as she saw Lunara, she ran towards her and the little one took advantage of the momentum to stick her in the leg with the arrow embedded in it; June was silent for a second looking at her pierced thigh, until she looked at Lunara's extremely embarrassed face, who couldn't explain what had happened or the reasons for it. And then June burst out laughing and pulled the little girl into the middle of the circle, where she twirled her around with her arms, cackling like a madwoman.
Until she faltered and fell hard to the floor, very dizzy and sick, although she still kept the breathless smile on her face. At the helm, Seiya was still singing and Kaire's madness in his cabin could be heard even from there. The sailors circled June's body and danced their legs back and forth to the rhythm, like a cabaret.
Lunara knelt in front of June and ripped the fabric from her leg, so that she could see that from the wound, a yellowish stain began to slowly spread over her body.
"Oh, the color is weird." she commented, with the antidote in her other hand.
The poison had to be allowed to spread far enough so that when she used the antidote to remove its effect, there was absolutely nothing left in June's body, neither her poison nor whatever that intoxicating effect had been.
While June suffered on the floor, the party ate freely across the deck; lots of singing and dancing from a disproportionately happy crew. But Lunara stayed by June's side as she was covered in a very strong shade of mango until there wasn't a single part of her body that wasn't that weird shade. The little girl stuck the antidote in the same place as the wound, hoping it would work, and held her hand.
The minutes passed very slowly and, in the third song that Seiya was singing while playing at the helm, June finally started to lose her mango color to return to her normal skin color. She started breathing normally again and slowly her eyes opened, little by little.
"June." Lunara called, hoping she was free of her madness.
June was soon surrounded by the singing sailors, to which she reacted with extreme confusion.
"What happened?" she asked.
Lunara finally hugged June to the ground, thanking her so much that she was back to normal, but the Chameleon Saint looked down at her arms and noted the color tone of her skin with great amazement. Lunara had to explain everything little by little.
As soon as June heard little Lunara's desperate and wild tale, she noticed her color slowly returning to normal, but she found each sailor and officer exactly as she had described. Crazy, each in their own way.
"What happened last night?" Lunara asked.
"A song. A beautiful song on the high seas."
"A song?"
"Yes, but we don't have time now, night will soon fall, let's go to the sickbay."
"Are you going to create more of these poisons?" Lunara asked.
"Of course not." replied June. "I know exactly what we can do to bring them back without their skin turning mango."
"Sorry."
"Come!"
The two descended, dodging dancers and poets, and ran to the sickbay, where June nearly went mad a second time because of the mess left by the little one; the vials all off the shelf, out of order, the labels stained and leftover poison on the table. Lunara might not have taken it right then and there, for June knew better than to waste time.
"Captain's log, supplement. My friends, what a fascinating development. It actually worked! June is back and now she's synthesizing an antidote for everyone at the Galleon...
Drop that recorder and help me!
Oh, I'm sorry. Captain Lunara signing off. Over and out!"
Together, the two synthesized a liquid imbued with herbs and even June's Cosmo, which she said was able to cut through the hallucinogenic effects the crew seemed to be experiencing. She made all the doses they needed and, together, they applied one by one to the crew.
"Where's the first mate?"
"Crying in her cabin."
"Crying?" June asked in disbelief, then let out a smile. "I need to see this."
Together they went to Geist's cabin, which was located in the lower galleries, to find the door closed, but the sobs from within could be heard spaced out. The two opened it and found Geist kneeling on the floor, hugging the pile of clothes that made her pillow, tears in her eyes; when the first-mate found the two at her door, her eyes seemed to be pleading.
"He won't forgive me." she said.
"Now, woman, pull yourself together." June said, approaching her with the dose.
"I love him." said Geist, crying.
"Get over it."
And then he applied the dose to the girl, who didn't even seem to feel any pain, because what really hurt was the tightness in her chest.
"We'll be waiting for you on the deck." June said, standing up. "Come on, Luna."
And they left, spearing all the sailors of the Galleon. Everyone calmed down within a few minutes of the application and, as June knew, it would still take a few hours for everyone to normalize, as its solution was much less aggressive than Lunara's poison, but at least no one would turn mango color.
June and Lunara were in front of Captain Kaire's locked cabin, Seiya looked passed out beside the helm and the sky already announced the fall of night. Silence reigned throughout the Galleon of Athena, but the Captain continued to rage his paranoia inside the cabin.
"I can hear the silence outside. I know you're plotting! But come on, I'm Captain Kaire. Come on, I'm ready!"
The two looked at each other.
"We have to get him out of there." said Luna.
"But if he leaves and we use the dose on him, he'll be sure he's having a riot and that we're attacking him. And he's a Silver Saint, we don't stand a chance against him."
"What do we do?" Luna asked.
June looked at Seiya and had an idea.
"Fetch your chains, Lunara."
The two chained up Seiya's unconscious body and knocked on Kaire's door.
"Captain! This is June, I managed to capture Seiya! He's the mutineer but we put him on chains! Come and see!"
Silence on the other side of the door.
Heavy footsteps on the wood. June had Seiya's body on her lap, covered in chains, and the dose was in Lunara's hands. As soon as the door opened, Meko's bulk moved forward to see Seiya's body all chained up; June threw his body so that Meko could hold it and, at the same moment, Lunara applied the dose to his hip. He complained in pain, but thought it was the loose chains from Seiya's body, which he received in triumph.
Captain Kaire started to enumerate Seiya's crimes, when his voice broke and he fell unconscious like all the other crew. June and Lunara looked at each other and smiled.
Mission Accomplished.
In the course of the hours, little by little everyone woke up from their madness. There was a lot to clean up, a lot to fix, the ship needed to be maneuvered to the South Pacific, the anchor needed to be hoisted again and all this was done before the Captain even gave any order, as Geist woke up earlier and realized the chaos in which they were.
And while the deck was being cleared by the dancing sailors from before, the Captain summoned his officers to an extraordinary evening meeting in his cabin, where he learned from Lunara's and then June's words the incredible events of that very long day.
"I also remember hearing that strange song." Kaire commented, walking inside his cabin. "Mermaids."
"Mermaids or sirens, Captain?" asked Geist.
"Good question, first-mate. The truth is, we will never know." he replied. "Glad you were alert, Ensign Lunara."
She nodded, pleased, when the Captain then asked her.
"Now, what I don't understand is how we all went crazy with the songs of the sea and you weren't affected."
Lunara looked at the Captain a little embarrassed before confessing:
"It's just that I was listening to music before bed and I don't think I heard the song of the sea."
"Listening to music?" asked the Captain very seriously.
"Yes, captain." replied Lunara, very embarrassed. "I have a very small music player, just for me."
"Immediate Geist, what do the Galleon rules say about music players on my ship?"
"Forbidden, Captain."
He nodded and then looked at Lunara very seriously. The Captain held out his hand, asking her to give him the small player she had, along with her small headphones. She very awkwardly took it out of her overcoat and gave it to her Captain, in front of the eyes of all the officers.
The Captain took the headphones out of the player and pressed to play the last track so everyone could hear it over the player's speaker.
"Captain's log, supplement. My friends, what a fascinating development. It actually worked! June is back and now she's synthesizing an antidote for everyone at the Galleon...
Drop that recorder and help me!
Oh, I'm sorry. Captain Lunara signing off. Over and out!"
As he listened, Captain Kaire's face was divided between surprise and grace, while Seiya laughed next to Lunara, who nudged him to stop laughing.
"Captain Lunara?" asked Kaire.
"Yes, captain. It can also record." she said, embarrassed.
Kaire was smiling with the device in his hands, but Lunara was a little shriveled in her chair with embarrassment. The Captain got up and went to her, pressed to record on the device and spoke in his thunderous voice.
"Captain's log, supplement. Captain Meko Kaire of the Galleon of Athena speaking, and I hereby inform you that the regulations for music players are revoked on my ship, so that Ensign-Engineer Lunara can hear her songs before bed. Unless, of course, my first-mate objects."
The Captain then approached Geist with the recorder, and she spoke a little embarrassed into the microphone.
"I don't.
Let it be recorded that she does not object. For my part, I would like to add to this relaxation of the rules a direct recommendation from the Captain. Ensign-Engineer Lunara performed her role in an exemplary manner aboard this Galleon and, thanks to her ingenuity, we are all again fit for our duties and heading towards our destination. So I would personally like to promote her to the rank of Lieutenant."
Lunara's mouth opened immediately as her little eyes gleamed enormously; her dream of becoming a Captain had just gotten closer and no one would call her Ensign Lunara on that ship anymore. She tried in her own way to contain herself, but she clearly seemed to jump in her chair for joy when Captain Kaire handed her the player-recorder back.
"Very well, Luna." he said.
She smiled along with everyone.
ABOUT THIS CHAPTER: How not to make a chapter where everyone goes crazy on the high seas? In addition to bringing greater importance to Lunara so that the reader sympathizes more with her, as she is a new and original character. The idea comes from classic Star Trek episodes, but it also comes from famous and classic sailing stories, such as the Odyssey itself and the Sirens' song.
NEXT CHAPTER GIFTS OF A WAYFARER
The crew of The Hope of Athena finally arrive at the islands where Captain Meko was born.