Chapter 9: The Milk Run
Starfox5
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Chapter 9: The Milk Run
"Cadets! Fall in line!"
She growled as she started moving - the instructor was screaming loud enough to hurt her ears. Were they deaf or something? It wasn't uncommon in the Horde, especially among former artillerymen. Or sailors. The big cannons were incredibly loud.
But they didn't need to yell that loud, she thought as she jogged towards the wall across the square. She didn't need to be the fastest, she only needed to beat Kyle, who was still limping from his mishap on the obstacle course, to not be the last cadet of the formation. And she could beat him in her sleep even when he wasn't hurt.
Then she saw Adora, already at parade rest at the head of the line, glaring at her. Scoffing, she sped up. Her friend was always on her case about not making an effort - as if you needed to. She'd seen the actual soldiers - they never gave their all in drills. As long as she did enough to succeed, everything was fine.
She grinned as she took up position next to Adora, elbowing Lonnie out of the way. "Hey, Adora," she whispered.
"Catra!" her friend hissed back. "You need to be quicker! The instructor knows you can do better."
She was about to retort, but then Kyle finally arrived, and the instructor started screaming again, and her ears hurt once more. As if they would win the war by standing extra-straight in formation! All that would do was to present the princesses with better targets! She suppressed a chuckle at her thought.
"Cadet Catra! Did I say something funny?"
She froze and clenched her teeth. Damn. The Instructor had noticed. "No, Force Sergeant!" she yelled.
"Then why were you grinning like a demented rebel? Huh?"
She stood ram-rod straight, as their first instructor - who had been a deaf former artillerywoman - had called it. "I don't know, Force Sergeant!"
"If you can grin like an idiot, you can do pushups - all of you! Give me thirty, everyone!"
She hissed as she dropped down and started doing pushups. This was bad. And so unfair - everyone would be on her case for this as if it was her fault that the instructor was an arse.
"I told you!" Adora whispered next to her.
"Shut up!" she hissed back.
"If you can still whisper, you can do ten more!"
She suppressed a growl. This was Adora's fault! Not hers!
In her hammock on the Dragon's Daughter IV, on the way back to Salineas, Seacat sighed without opening her eyes. Another weird, stupid dream. She had never been a soldier, much less a Horde soldier. And she'd never been drilled like this - the closest she had come to such exercises was observing some Horde scum walking in formation in the naval base they had left yesterday. It was better than dreaming of the dead Horde fishman, but still...
It was all Blondie's fault. If the woman hadn't insisted, even drunk, that Seacat was her missing, dead friend, she wouldn't keep having such weird nonsense dreams. She'd give the princess a piece of her mind next time they met - and not the piece of her mind that kept dreaming of her!
"And this is how the propulsion mechanism looked, yes? Yes! Oh, I see! They must have managed to find a solution for the fouling. Something to prevent the impurities found in seawater from building up inside a crystal-laced matrix when the water's partially steamed while being funnelled through it. How ingenious! I'm almost jealous! Field trip log, day seven: First results have appeared but require further examination and research!"
Seacat glanced at the others in Mermista's throne room while the hair princess was talking to herself - or to the thing in her hand. Mermista was closely paying attention but trying not to look like it, lounging on the throne - but the way she tightly held her trident betrayed her. Sea Hawk was smiling at the princess and acting as if he didn't notice.
Brain Boy was nodding along with the hair princess, but the shrimp looked lost yet trying to fake it. And Blondie…
...was looking at Seacat with a smile on her face.
Seacat quickly looked away, then clenched her teeth for her stupid reaction. People could look and smile at her how much they wanted to; that was no skin off her butt. She felt her cheeks heat up a little and drew a hissing breath as she stood straighter, pushing her chest out.
Seacat had no reason to be embarrassed - she had every reason to be proud, instead! They had returned with vital information for the Princess Alliance! A harrowing adventure, indeed, as Sea Hawk had told it - even if the frigate he had set on fire probably hadn't burned down to the waterline.
Then she realised that she was standing ramrod straight - just as she had been standing in line in her dream.
She forced herself to slouch a little and shifted her weight, then put one foot in front. "So… what can we do about those ships? As they are, they'll sail circles around the Salinean frigates."
"Oh…" The Hair Princess looked as if she hadn't even considered that. That wasn't a good sign. "Well, I guess… the mechanism that provides propulsion by pumping water through the ship requires both a sort of fuel and air - the additional air intakes at the stern lead to that conclusion. Otherwise, they wouldn't really be necessary. Although I wonder why they didn't add the air intakes on the front of the ship."
"That's called the bow," Seacat told her.
"Right, the bow." The princess blinked. "Did you ever think of putting a giant bow there? To shoot giant arrows at the enemy? I just did, and it sounds like a fun thing!"
"That's called chase guns, and we've had them for a while," Mermista cut in. "Back on topic: How can we counter those ships?"
"Well, as I said, they need some sort of fuel and air, according to my preliminary calculations and deductions. And, as the grate on the water intake on the front - the bow, sorry - shows, the pump mechanism is also susceptible to foreign objects. Whether they could damage the mechanism or would merely reduce its efficiency remains to be discovered. In any case, clogging the intake should greatly hamper the whole propulsion system," the Hair Princess rambled on. "As would, presumably, clogging up the air intakes. They probably are quite close to the actual mechanism, by the way, and must be rather voluminous - otherwise, from an efficiency point of view, it would've been much better to add intakes in the front as well."
"Clogging up the intakes, hmm?" Sea Hawk was rubbing his moustache, Seacat noticed. "That sounds like a daring plan!"
"You'd need to get very, very close," Seacat pointed out.
"Exactly! A harrowing adventure!"
"I don't think that we're that desperate yet," Mermista said.
"Coulda fooled me," the shrimp mumbled under her breath - Seacat overheard her, of course - which prompted Brain Boy and Blondie to frown at their friend.
"Not to mention that we'd have to face their guns to get close enough to clog their pipes," Seacat added. "Best case, that's two chase guns handled by their best gunners. Worst case, they turn and give us a broadside." And even average Horde gunners wouldn't miss too much at point-blank range.
Sea Hawk, of course, looked even more eager.
"And even if you can manage, you're just one crew. We'd need at least one ship per enemy frigate," Mermista said. "Small ships with expert sailors willing to face such odds…"
"Exactly!"
"Well, I could help with that!" Hair Princess piped up.
"You could?" Mermista looked surprised.
"Sure I could! A catapult to deliver the payload, and you won't have to go near the enemy at all!" The princess's hair tentacles were moving rapidly as she started sketching things on a whiteboard nearby. And on the wall next to it. Mermista wouldn't be pleased.
"A catapult! That could be used with different payloads, right?" Sea Hawk asked, beaming at the princess.
"Sure, I guess," the Hair Princess replied without looking up from her scribbled notes.
"Perfect! This might revolutionise boarding tactics!"
"No!" Seacat blurted out - together with half the people in the room.
An hour later, the meeting had broken up. Officially, at least - it had become a research and development session, as the Hair Princess called it, long before that, of course. Seacat didn't care either way. As long as the Alliance found a way to stop the Horde frigates - preferably without sending brave sailors, like Seacat herself, to their doom - she was fine with it. Although she wasn't looking forward to having a catapult installed on the Dragon's Daughter IV. That was as bad as hiring Sea Hawk to transport a cargo full of oil drums.
"That was very brave of you," Blondie interrupted Seacat's thoughts. "Sneaking into the naval base like that…"
Seacat narrowed her eyes a little, then grinned and shrugged. "What can I say? We're the best!" They had done well, after all.
The shrimp frowned a little at her boasting, Seacat noted, but Blondie smiled. "Though now it's our turn. We'll have to find out what fuel those frigates need."
Seacat hid her frown. If she had paid more attention to the warehouses in the base, she might've found out that information as well. She should have, in any case, but she had been too focused on the ships. Sloppy. And now Blondie would have to do a spy mission. "I still say we could sneak into the naval base again."
"You probably could," Blondie admitted, "but then who would fetch the materials Entrapta needs?"
Someone with a slower boat. Which might mean the princess's devices wouldn't be ready in time for the next battle. If they were too slow, a possible Horde blockade might stop them entirely. There were good reasons for Sea Hawk and Seacat not doing the spy mission, but she didn't like them anyway. "Well, don't get caught. Wouldn't want to have all our work be ruined."
Blondie snorted. "We won't!"
"And if we are, I'll get us out," the shrimp butted in. "I can move us across the entire Fright Zone in a single teleport," she boasted.
"Yes, you're really good at running away," Seacat told her with a wide smile that grew even wider when she saw the princess scowl.
Seacat spotted Blondie before the other woman reached the pier that the Dragon's Daughter IV was tied to and sighed. She knew that walk: All determination and stubbornness. Like Mermista when she was angry. No, actually it was different. And she hadn't seen Blondie like that before, had she? So why...
"Hello."
And there she was. Seacat forced her stupid thoughts away. "Ahoy," she replied with a grin.
"Permission to come aboard?"
Oh? Had she been reading up on sailing? "We're no fancy navy ship with all that stuff. Hop on deck."
Blondie did. She wasn't jumping as easily as Seacat, or with as much style as Sea Hawk, but it was still impressive. Sort of.
"I thought you were planning your spy mission," Seacat said. Just as she was preparing the ship for their own mission."
"Well, I told them all I knew. I was never actually in the Horde Supply Corps, so that wasn't all that much," Blondie said. "Glimmer and Mermista will be sorting it out."
That made sense. Mermista knew all about the Horde supply routes by sea, and the shrimp would know about the landlubber side of the war. Or should - Bright Moon had been on the frontlines for years, after all, and the shrimp apparently was the commander of their army.
"So you came to help me get the ship ready because you were bored." Seacat nodded as if that was obvious.
"No!" Blondie blinked. "I mean… not that I won't help, but I wasn't bored."
"You weren't? Those were some of the most boring meetings I had ever seen," Seacat lied. She had seen and attended far worse.
"Really?" Blondie looked surprised, and, for a moment, Seacat thought she would call her on her claim. Then the other woman shook her head. "No, I came for another reason." She stood a little straighter and narrowed her blue eyes slightly, facing Seacat. "Why are you needling Glimmer?"
Oh. Seacat narrowed her eyes in turn. Defending her best friend, was she? "Someone has to, to keep her head from getting too big." And it was fun to see her all worked up, of course.
"She isn't like that!" Blondie protested. "She works very hard. And she cares about everyone."
This time, Seacat huffed. "She's a princess and thinks she knows best."
"Well…" Blondie looked quite cute with that scrunched-up expression, but she couldn't deny this, could she? "But that's still no reason to make her mad!"
"It's also funny." Seacat bared her fangs at Blondie. "And she needs to learn how to control her temper before she becomes queen. I'm actually helping her."
Blondie opened her mouth, then closed it before opening it again. "That's… That's…" Suddenly, she frowned at Seacat. "You're just doing this because you think it's fun, aren't you?"
Rats. Seacat took care to shrug in an especially bored-looking way. "You can have more than one reason for doing something, can't you?"
The frown didn't vanish. "Yes. But you're doing it because you think it's funny."
Seacat was frowning herself now. "Well, it is funny. You should try it yourself," she added with a slightly forced grin. She had no reason to feel bad - it was funny, but also needed. Two birds, one stone or something.
Once more, Blondie gaped at her. Then the woman sighed and closed her eyes, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Glimmer doesn't think it's funny."
"That's part of why it's funny," Seacat retorted. "Don't you think it's at least a little funny?"
Blondie shook her head with a stern expression. Still, Seacat had seen a hint of a smile and a little red blush appear for a moment before vanishing again. So she smiled widely at the other woman until Blondie sighed.
"I didn't actually come here to talk about you and Glimmer, you know?"
"No, I didn't," Seacat replied. "Why did you do it, then?"
"I thought it was a good opener."
Seacat snorted. "You should've opened with 'Hey, can I help you?' instead."
"Then you'd have me sweep the deck for an hour."
Seacat smirked. Of course she'd have done that - who would turn down free help? "So, why did you come then?"
Blondie sighed again. That was a bad sign. "What you did was very dangerous."
Seacat shrugged. "Someone had to do it. Might as well send the best, so it actually gets done."
"Yes, but… Look, we've got a good plan, but we might be a little too late to stop the Horde frigates."
Seacat clenched her teeth. "We'll try anyway!" The Horde would take the kingdom over her dead, floating - or sinking - body.
"Yes, but… What I meant was that you're doing dangerous missions. You might…" Blondie took a deep breath. "...you might die on one of your missions."
"Yes," Seacat said, nodding. She tried to appear confident and casual. She didn't want to die, but war was dangerous. Of course, so was she. And anyway… "The same goes for you," she pointed out.
"Oh, I'm She-Ra, I'm very hard to kill. It's you I'm worried about."
Did she just…? Seacat felt her tail poof up as she clenched her teeth and growled at the idiot. "Worry about yourself, first!"
"But…" Blondie looked confused. "I didn't mean you're helpless or weak…"
"Of course not!" Seacat scoffed. The woman just had to double down on the insult, had she?
"But… you're usually alone out there, with no one except Sea Hawk, and in a small ship. I'm fighting with Glimmer, Bow, Perfuma, Netossa, Spinderella and sometimes Frosta. And Bright Moon's army, of course. If I should get hurt - which I haven't yet, not really - there are lots of people to help and save me."
"And you're facing the entire Horde," Seacat shot back.
"Not the entire Horde - they have to garrison a lot of territory, and we keep them off-balance with raids all along the border, so they need to use even more soldiers to guard their supply lines."
Seacat rolled her eyes. "And they don't raid your supply lines?" The Horde soldiers were scum, but they weren't stupid.
Blondie grinned. "They try, but they don't have princesses. They need a lot more troops to stop one of our raids than we need to stop one of theirs."
"They have the bug woman," Seacat retorted. And that woman looked like she could take on an army by herself.
"Ah… Scorpia rarely appears on the frontlines."
"Then she must be up to something worse."
"Well, we'll see. Scorpia isn't your typical Horde soldier."
"Of course she isn't. If she were, we'd have lost the war already. At least on land." Seacat bared her fangs at the other woman in a sneer.
"Hey!" Blondie frowned at her in return. "Anyway, I'm just saying you're taking bigger risks than we do. Especially with those super-ships the Horde has now."
"So? We've taken even worse risks." Hell, Blondie had been there - well, present - in the Battle of Salineas!
"What? But…" The other woman pressed her lips together for a moment, visibly trying to calm down. "Look, I'm worried about you."
"Worried about me? Or about your friend?" Seacat huffed and crossed her arms.
"I'm worried about you no matter what." Blondie glared back.
Which meant she still thought Seacat was her former Horde cadet friend. "Well, you don't have to be. We're going on a milk run. Even with cargo, we can outsail the Horde frigates."
"You were saved by a raincloud last time," Blondie retorted.
"We were caught in a bad spot with the wind blowing from the wrong direction," Seacat told her. "But even then, we could've escaped if we had known how fast the Horde frigates were. Now that we know, they won't catch us downwind like that again." The Dragon's Daughter IV would start evading much sooner, and they'd pick a route that wouldn't let the Horde ships use their sails to best effect.
"And what if the wind turns?" Blondie shook her head. "It's still more dangerous than what we're doing on land."
"Yeah, because ships can so easily hide in the brush or in a building and ambush you."
"We've turned the last such ambush back on them," Blondie said, glaring. "I doubt that they'll try that again anytime soon."
"Why not? They've got soldiers to spare, and they only need to get lucky once."
"That also goes for you!"
"It's not the same on the sea." It was different. A different war.
"Why not?"
"We're fighting ships, not soldiers." Unless they were fighting a boarding action, of course.
"So? One unlucky hit and your mast goes down, and you're helpless!"
So, Blondie had been studying naval warfare or something. Or she had paid more attention to Seacat's stories at the Princess Prom than Seacat had expected.
"One unlucky hit and you're out. Or one of your friends."
"I'm very tough."
"Tough enough to bounce a cannon shell off your hair poof?" Shells that could wreck ships didn't care about tiaras.
"Well… I've never tried that. I mean, I've never had to try. Wait! Are you making fun of my hairstyle?"
"Is this a serious question?" Seacat cocked her head with a grin.
"My hairstyle is perfectly fine!" Was Blondie finally getting angry?
"Perhaps in the Horde."
"Hey! No one else had my hairstyle!"
"I think I'll have to raise my estimation of our enemies' intelligence, then." She bared her fangs at the stupid, stubborn woman.
Suddenly, Blondie was laughing. After a moment, Seacat joined in. She couldn't help it, for some weird reason.
"I'm just worried about you," Blondie said after both of them had calmed down again, leaning against the railing.
"But you expect everyone else not to worry about you?"
"I'm She-Ra. I'm supposed to protect everyone else. That's my destiny."
"Who said that?"
"Li… that's not important." The woman shook her head. "I'll fight, and we'll win."
"Yes, of course." They had no choice, after all.
"But I worry that, well…" Blondie trailed off. "If we couldn't…"
"Couldn't what?" Seacat narrowed her eyes again. Couldn't have sex? Or couldn't 'remember'? If this was just another attempt to make her believe that she was a former Horde scum...
Blondie stared at her for a moment, wetting her lips. Then she sighed. "Just don't die."
Seacat scoffed. "Don't worry."
Blondie's chuckle sounded very forced.
One of the worst parts of a milk run was the boredom. Seacat was reminded of that fact a few days into their cargo trip. The wind was blowing steady and from behind them, the course was easy to keep, and there were no enemies on the horizon. Which meant there was nothing to do. Well, not nothing - you could always clean or fix something on a ship, so she was currently splicing rope - but nothing that really required her concentration.
Or Sea Hawk's. Which was worse.
She suppressed a sigh when she saw the captain approach her on the foredeck. "Hey! Everything shipshape?"
"Of course," she replied. As if she'd accept anything else.
"Good, good!" He leaned against the railing across from her, then looked at the horizon, then at the top of the mast.
"What?" Seacat asked, rolling her eyes.
"What?"
"What do you want?" she asked again. It wouldn't be a good thing - Sea Hawk rarely needed to work up to a talk with her. He was more the 'blurt it out' type.
"Ah." He beamed at her. "Since the sea and the wind are currently favouring us, I thought we could have a talk or something!"
"The weather can change in a heartbeat," she reminded himself.
"If it does, we'll be at our posts in a heartbeat as well!"
"Right."
"Anyway!" He took a deep breath, then coughed into his fist. "I was wondering about your relationship to Adora - She-Ra."
"There is no relationship," she replied at once.
He raised his eyebrows at her but didn't say anything.
Frowning - and clenching her teeth - she added: "She's talking to her missing friend, not to me."
"Are you sure?"
Seacat narrowed her eyes. What exactly did he mean? Was this a hint that he believed Blondie's absolutely stupid claims? Or was he just asking if Blondie might be talking to Seacat instead of this 'Catra'? "She still thinks I'm her missing friend. And she's oh so afraid I'll die before I 'remember'."
"Well…" The captain drew the word out. "She's been sticking to her story."
"Which makes no sense." Seacat scoffed. "You know the Horde - they don't send cadets into battle." The scum had no honour, but some lines they didn't cross. If only because sending children into battle meant fewer adult soldiers in the long run.
"Mistakes do happen."
"So, this Catra mistakenly arrives at a force that's about to attack a village, and instead of, well, sending her back, they let her join them?" Seacat scoffed. She wouldn't have joined butchers about to massacre a village. Cadet or not. "I think the girl deserted and got killed by some monster, and they covered it up so her fellow cadets wouldn't get any ideas."
Sea Hawk nodded, but she could tell that he wasn't convinced.
"I'm not Catra," she said, baring her fangs at him. "I'm Seacat."
"Of course!" He flashed her a smile. A genuine one. "But… are you worried about her?"
"She's She-Ra. Legendary Princess of Power." Seacat rolled her eyes. "She can throw some of those Horde bots."
"And bounce shells off her face," Sea Hawk said. "Or so the legends claim."
Seacat snorted. She'd believe that if she saw it - not that she wanted to see Blondie get hit by a shell. A boot to the head, on the other hand…
"I just noticed that you've been spending more time with her than with anyone - except for me and Mermista, of course."
She scoffed. "She's the one following me around."
"When she's not carrying you to bed." The captain grinned at her.
She glared at him in return. "You won't ever let me forget that, huh?"
"Of course not!" He chuckled, then shook his head and sighed. "Although you should consider that the war's growing worse. In the last year, the Horde has made more headway than in the decade before."
Since the Princess Alliance had fallen apart, in other words. "Is it really that bad?"
"Yes. They've been building up. New and more weapons. The frigates are just one part of that. Bright Moon's been hit by more of those giant walking bots they have, and they've been fielding mobile cannons."
"Mobile cannons?"
"Yes."
"But… the recoil would wreck any skiff they mounted it on!" It had been tried before, after all.
"They don't shoot while flying - they set down for that."
"Oh." That would be… ugh. She winced.
"Yes. So… perhaps… think about not being too stubborn to miss out on something…" He tilted his head in a not-quite-shrug. "...beautiful?"
He patted her head and left to return to the bridge before she could think of an answer.
Perched on the top of the mast, Seacat narrowed her eyes. Was that…? She squinted, then nodded. The Sea Gate's slight glow was unmistakable. "Salineas ahead!" she yelled down to the captain.
"As expected!" he yelled back. "We've made good time!"
They had - despite the heavy cargo they were transporting back to Salineas. But they weren't in port, yet. They hadn't spotted any Horde ships on their trip, so the new frigates had to be somewhere - and blockading Salineas was an obvious move. The enemy ships would be able to intercept arriving ships easily - or, at the very least, drive them away - and sooner or later, the Salinean navy would have to give them battle or see the kingdom starve.
But if there was a blockade, they should've seen the pickets guarding the western approaches of the kingdom already. This was the obvious route to take, most of the other routes locked by reefs and the Maelstrom, so where were the Horde sailors?
"Do you see any sails?" Sea Hawk, of course, knew this as well.
"No!" she yelled back, clenching her teeth. She used her telescope to scan the horizon - none. Wait… "There's one!" She adjusted the telescope, which was a little tricky doing one-handed, and got a clearer view of the sail. "It's a Salinean sloop."
"Alright." He didn't ask if she were sure, of course.
Seacat felt relieved - trying to outrun a new Horde frigate with a cargo hold full of metal and other materials would have been a little difficult, even with the wind blowing from a favourable direction. But she couldn't help worrying, either.
If the Horde frigates weren't blockading Salineas then where were they?
"Landing operations?"
"Yes." Mermista wasn't happy. She was very unhappy, in fact. And not at Sea Hawk, for a change. "The Horde has launched a campaign up the Northern Coast, supported by several landing operations to encircle and take port after port. If they aren't stopped, they'll soon control the coast up to the Northern Sea."
And cutting off Salineas from support by the Alliance - with so many ports, the Horde could easily control the sea up to the Kingdom of Snows.
"We didn't know - we were at sea for the last few days," Sea Hawk said. "But surely, we can stop them before they advance too far! If they conduct landing operations, they are vulnerable to a naval attack!"
"We can't face their frigates and hope to defeat them," Mermista said. "We lost two frigates on patrol already. I've called back the entire fleet until we can counter their advantages." She smiled for the first time since they had arrived in the throne room. "Which is why your cargo was so essential."
"Princess Entrapta must be glad to finally have the materials to finish her work," Sea Hawk said, smiling himself.
Mermista grimaced for a moment before she nodded. "I suppose so."
"Oh! This is just perfect! The density is in the green range, too! And there's enough for several tests! Oh, and this! What's this?"
'Glad' wasn't the right word to describe the Hair Princess's reaction. 'Ecstatic' would be better. Or 'hyper'. The princess was all but bouncing around in the room she had obviously transformed into a laboratory or workshop… Wait, now she had taken a leap and bounced off the wall to get behind a stack of metal plates.
"Hello, Entrapta. You've got the cargo, I see," Mermista said.
"Yes, yes, I did! Thank you so much!" The princess used her hair to jump over another stack and land next to Sea Hawk, wrapping him up in purple tentacles. Like a demented squid. "And you!"
Before Seacat could react, the princess moved over to her, and Seacat found herself wrapped in hair. Tightly wrapped. "Hey!"
"Thank you!" The princess whirled, moving back towards her bench. Seacat felt herself dragged along and was about to use her claws to get free when she was suddenly dumped on the floor - which was littered with parts, one of which dug painfully in her rump.
"Ow!" she complained, but it wasn't like the princess even heard her.
"Those are the last high-tensile components I needed!"
"So you can build your countermeasures, then?" Mermista asked.
"What?" The princess looked up but didn't remove her mask, which made her look like one of her creepy bots. "Oh, yeah, sure. That's easy, just have to use the chemical converter over there. Shouldn't take more than a day to convert the base material."
"So you're working on the catapults?" Sea Hawk asked.
"No. Should I? Those are easy, anyway, and a mature technology." This time, the mask slid up, and the princess's confused expression was clearly visible. "Your yard workers should be able to build as many as you need."
Seacat wasn't the only one who blinked. "You've already finished the countermeasures?"
"The design, yes. Others can build it - it's not First One's tech. Oh, did you know that if you do everything yourself, you hurt the economy of your kingdom? People need work or they'll leave, which reduces the amount of taxes and customs you receive, which reduces your research and development budget!"
"Err, yes," Mermista replied. Sea Hawk nodded.
"I had to learn that for myself." The princess pouted, then beamed. "But that's all in the past now that I have the new materials!"
"So…" Sea Hawk spoke up. "If you're not working on the counteragent or catapults, what are you working on?"
"Happy you asked!" The princess jumped up and landed next to a covered board. Her hairs grabbed the cover and ripped it away, revealing a whiteboard with…
"You're working on a propulsion system?" Seacat asked.
"Yes!" The smile widened even more. "With this - once it works - your frigate will be the fastest on the seas again!" Then she frowned. "Well, for about half an hour so far."
Oh.
A few days later, the Salineans were still working on the catapults. Apparently, it was a little harder than the Hair Princess had claimed. Especially since the 'mature technology' actually meant that no one had constructed catapults in a century or so, what with everyone using guns on ships and for sieges instead.
"Should we go seek cover?" Seacat asked as she watched three sailors handle a catapult on a small platform on the shore near the Sea Gate.
Mermista glared at her. "This catapult was built exactly to Entrapta's specifications."
"I thought all the others were built to her specs as well," Seacat replied.
"They were supposed to," Mermista admitted. "But there were a few problems with the building process."
And with quality control. Like sinking the boat the first catapult had been mounted on. Seacat was very happy that she had managed to stop Sea Hawk from volunteering their ship for testing.
"But it's all fine now," the princess went on. More loudly, she added: "Fire when ready!"
"Aye, aye!" the commander of the catapult crew replied before turning to his men. "Alright, you scallywags! The princess herself is watching! If you mess up, she'll have us all keelhauled!"
Seacat snickered at that - and at Mermista's expression. "Great discipline, princess."
"Keelhauling isn't actually practised any more in the Salinean Navy," Mermista replied with a deep frown.
"But do they know that?" Sea Hawk asked.
"Yes. They should, at least."
In Seacat's opinion, some of the Salinean sailors would deserve to get keelhauled, if only to encourage the others. Like the crew on the slow frigate in the Battle of Salineas. The catapult crew there, though, threw their backs into it. Two used a crank to pull the arm down, and the third carried the payload - a dummy cask - to load it.
This time, the arm didn't break, and the catapult didn't flip over either. It worked as advertised, sending the cask flying in a high arc.
But it didn't come near the target. Not even close.
"They need more training at aiming," Sea Hawk commented. "It's not like aiming a cannon."
Mermista frowned.
Seacat did so as well. It took weeks to train a gunner so they could hit anything from a ship at sea. She didn't think it would take less time to train a catapult crew - quite the contrary, actually.
And they didn't have the time. Not with the Horde rolling up the coast.
It took the princesses a little longer to realise what Seacat already knew, but after a day's worth of training - which resulted in another catapult self-destructing and one botched shot almost hitting the Sea Gate - Mermista announced that the catapult project would be abandoned. "We won't be ready in time. We need to use our current weapons instead of new ones," she said in her throne room after dinner.
"Technically, it's not a new weapon at all, but a very old one. Salineas was once protected by numerous catapults covering the approaches," the Hair Princess retorted. "Catapults of various sizes, even! And installed on ships."
"Very old or new, the thing is, our sailors aren't trained to use catapults. And I cannot send them into battle with weapons they don't understand. That would be murder," Mermista told her.
"Well, actually… Oh. You were using hyperbole, weren't you?"
"Yes,* Mermista replied through clenched teeth.
"Thanks! Socialising log day thirty-one: I correctly identified hyperbole."
Seacat didn't know if she should laugh at the princess or pity her. There were more important concerns, anyway. "What are you planning then? Shoot the casks out of cannons?"
"That won't work," Mermista replied.
"Have you tried it?" Seacat asked.
"Yes! The pressure from the cannon's charge is too much for the cask!" The Hair Princess made a gesture with her hands that indicated an explosion. "I constructed a cask that was tough enough to withstand the pressure, but that meant it was tough enough not to break up upon hitting the water, which kinda defeated the purpose of shooting it in the first place. I'm trying to calculate the right structural strength so the cask will only just survive the shooting and will be so damaged, it'll break as soon as it hits the water, but it's a very fine line - and the standardisation of Salinean cannons leaves a lot to be desired!"
"At least our cannons don't blow up if they're handled a little roughly," Mermista shot back.
Sea Hawk cleared his throat. "As much as I like explosions and catapults, what are our plans now to battle the Horde frigates? Is your new method of propulsion ready to be tested?"
"Yes! It is!" The princess beamed at them. "I just need a volunteer!"
"Not the Dragon's Daughter IV," Mermista snapped.
"But it's ideal for my tests! Light enough so the propulsion booster will show its true potential!"
That sounded worrying. And the gleam in Sea Hawk's eyes was even more worrying.
"No." The Salinean princess looked grim. "We'll need the ship in top shape to lead the battle against the Horde."
Seacat clenched her teeth. She knew what that meant. "You're going to swarm the frigates and pour the stuff into the sea at close range." So close, the Horde frigates would have an easy time aiming their guns.
Mermista nodded. "I don't like it, but it's our only chance."
Seacat didn't like it either. Not at all. But the princess was right - they had no choice.
"But… I just need a little more time to finish my device!" the Hair Princess protested. "Your chances of survival would be much improved with it!"
"We don't have the time. If we don't stop the Horde now, they'll take Seaworthy, and with that port in their power, they'll cut the alliance in half. There's not much north of Seaworthy that could stop them."
"But…" The Hair princess shook her head, her tentacles flailing around, "That's… your chances of survival are far too low! It's irrational!"
"Our chances of survival might be low, but our chances of success are better. And it's our only option," Seacat said, chuckling without any humour. Even the weird princess who was often more like a bot than a person knew how bad this was.
Sea Hawk, though, was beaming. "Huzzah! A daring, desperate gambit awaits us! Adventure!"
"Cadets! Fall in line!"
She growled as she started moving - the instructor was screaming loud enough to hurt her ears. Were they deaf or something? It wasn't uncommon in the Horde, especially among former artillerymen. Or sailors. The big cannons were incredibly loud.
But they didn't need to yell that loud, she thought as she jogged towards the wall across the square. She didn't need to be the fastest, she only needed to beat Kyle, who was still limping from his mishap on the obstacle course, to not be the last cadet of the formation. And she could beat him in her sleep even when he wasn't hurt.
Then she saw Adora, already at parade rest at the head of the line, glaring at her. Scoffing, she sped up. Her friend was always on her case about not making an effort - as if you needed to. She'd seen the actual soldiers - they never gave their all in drills. As long as she did enough to succeed, everything was fine.
She grinned as she took up position next to Adora, elbowing Lonnie out of the way. "Hey, Adora," she whispered.
"Catra!" her friend hissed back. "You need to be quicker! The instructor knows you can do better."
She was about to retort, but then Kyle finally arrived, and the instructor started screaming again, and her ears hurt once more. As if they would win the war by standing extra-straight in formation! All that would do was to present the princesses with better targets! She suppressed a chuckle at her thought.
"Cadet Catra! Did I say something funny?"
She froze and clenched her teeth. Damn. The Instructor had noticed. "No, Force Sergeant!" she yelled.
"Then why were you grinning like a demented rebel? Huh?"
She stood ram-rod straight, as their first instructor - who had been a deaf former artillerywoman - had called it. "I don't know, Force Sergeant!"
"If you can grin like an idiot, you can do pushups - all of you! Give me thirty, everyone!"
She hissed as she dropped down and started doing pushups. This was bad. And so unfair - everyone would be on her case for this as if it was her fault that the instructor was an arse.
"I told you!" Adora whispered next to her.
"Shut up!" she hissed back.
"If you can still whisper, you can do ten more!"
She suppressed a growl. This was Adora's fault! Not hers!
*****
In her hammock on the Dragon's Daughter IV, on the way back to Salineas, Seacat sighed without opening her eyes. Another weird, stupid dream. She had never been a soldier, much less a Horde soldier. And she'd never been drilled like this - the closest she had come to such exercises was observing some Horde scum walking in formation in the naval base they had left yesterday. It was better than dreaming of the dead Horde fishman, but still...
It was all Blondie's fault. If the woman hadn't insisted, even drunk, that Seacat was her missing, dead friend, she wouldn't keep having such weird nonsense dreams. She'd give the princess a piece of her mind next time they met - and not the piece of her mind that kept dreaming of her!
*****
"And this is how the propulsion mechanism looked, yes? Yes! Oh, I see! They must have managed to find a solution for the fouling. Something to prevent the impurities found in seawater from building up inside a crystal-laced matrix when the water's partially steamed while being funnelled through it. How ingenious! I'm almost jealous! Field trip log, day seven: First results have appeared but require further examination and research!"
Seacat glanced at the others in Mermista's throne room while the hair princess was talking to herself - or to the thing in her hand. Mermista was closely paying attention but trying not to look like it, lounging on the throne - but the way she tightly held her trident betrayed her. Sea Hawk was smiling at the princess and acting as if he didn't notice.
Brain Boy was nodding along with the hair princess, but the shrimp looked lost yet trying to fake it. And Blondie…
...was looking at Seacat with a smile on her face.
Seacat quickly looked away, then clenched her teeth for her stupid reaction. People could look and smile at her how much they wanted to; that was no skin off her butt. She felt her cheeks heat up a little and drew a hissing breath as she stood straighter, pushing her chest out.
Seacat had no reason to be embarrassed - she had every reason to be proud, instead! They had returned with vital information for the Princess Alliance! A harrowing adventure, indeed, as Sea Hawk had told it - even if the frigate he had set on fire probably hadn't burned down to the waterline.
Then she realised that she was standing ramrod straight - just as she had been standing in line in her dream.
She forced herself to slouch a little and shifted her weight, then put one foot in front. "So… what can we do about those ships? As they are, they'll sail circles around the Salinean frigates."
"Oh…" The Hair Princess looked as if she hadn't even considered that. That wasn't a good sign. "Well, I guess… the mechanism that provides propulsion by pumping water through the ship requires both a sort of fuel and air - the additional air intakes at the stern lead to that conclusion. Otherwise, they wouldn't really be necessary. Although I wonder why they didn't add the air intakes on the front of the ship."
"That's called the bow," Seacat told her.
"Right, the bow." The princess blinked. "Did you ever think of putting a giant bow there? To shoot giant arrows at the enemy? I just did, and it sounds like a fun thing!"
"That's called chase guns, and we've had them for a while," Mermista cut in. "Back on topic: How can we counter those ships?"
"Well, as I said, they need some sort of fuel and air, according to my preliminary calculations and deductions. And, as the grate on the water intake on the front - the bow, sorry - shows, the pump mechanism is also susceptible to foreign objects. Whether they could damage the mechanism or would merely reduce its efficiency remains to be discovered. In any case, clogging the intake should greatly hamper the whole propulsion system," the Hair Princess rambled on. "As would, presumably, clogging up the air intakes. They probably are quite close to the actual mechanism, by the way, and must be rather voluminous - otherwise, from an efficiency point of view, it would've been much better to add intakes in the front as well."
"Clogging up the intakes, hmm?" Sea Hawk was rubbing his moustache, Seacat noticed. "That sounds like a daring plan!"
"You'd need to get very, very close," Seacat pointed out.
"Exactly! A harrowing adventure!"
"I don't think that we're that desperate yet," Mermista said.
"Coulda fooled me," the shrimp mumbled under her breath - Seacat overheard her, of course - which prompted Brain Boy and Blondie to frown at their friend.
"Not to mention that we'd have to face their guns to get close enough to clog their pipes," Seacat added. "Best case, that's two chase guns handled by their best gunners. Worst case, they turn and give us a broadside." And even average Horde gunners wouldn't miss too much at point-blank range.
Sea Hawk, of course, looked even more eager.
"And even if you can manage, you're just one crew. We'd need at least one ship per enemy frigate," Mermista said. "Small ships with expert sailors willing to face such odds…"
"Exactly!"
"Well, I could help with that!" Hair Princess piped up.
"You could?" Mermista looked surprised.
"Sure I could! A catapult to deliver the payload, and you won't have to go near the enemy at all!" The princess's hair tentacles were moving rapidly as she started sketching things on a whiteboard nearby. And on the wall next to it. Mermista wouldn't be pleased.
"A catapult! That could be used with different payloads, right?" Sea Hawk asked, beaming at the princess.
"Sure, I guess," the Hair Princess replied without looking up from her scribbled notes.
"Perfect! This might revolutionise boarding tactics!"
"No!" Seacat blurted out - together with half the people in the room.
*****
An hour later, the meeting had broken up. Officially, at least - it had become a research and development session, as the Hair Princess called it, long before that, of course. Seacat didn't care either way. As long as the Alliance found a way to stop the Horde frigates - preferably without sending brave sailors, like Seacat herself, to their doom - she was fine with it. Although she wasn't looking forward to having a catapult installed on the Dragon's Daughter IV. That was as bad as hiring Sea Hawk to transport a cargo full of oil drums.
"That was very brave of you," Blondie interrupted Seacat's thoughts. "Sneaking into the naval base like that…"
Seacat narrowed her eyes a little, then grinned and shrugged. "What can I say? We're the best!" They had done well, after all.
The shrimp frowned a little at her boasting, Seacat noted, but Blondie smiled. "Though now it's our turn. We'll have to find out what fuel those frigates need."
Seacat hid her frown. If she had paid more attention to the warehouses in the base, she might've found out that information as well. She should have, in any case, but she had been too focused on the ships. Sloppy. And now Blondie would have to do a spy mission. "I still say we could sneak into the naval base again."
"You probably could," Blondie admitted, "but then who would fetch the materials Entrapta needs?"
Someone with a slower boat. Which might mean the princess's devices wouldn't be ready in time for the next battle. If they were too slow, a possible Horde blockade might stop them entirely. There were good reasons for Sea Hawk and Seacat not doing the spy mission, but she didn't like them anyway. "Well, don't get caught. Wouldn't want to have all our work be ruined."
Blondie snorted. "We won't!"
"And if we are, I'll get us out," the shrimp butted in. "I can move us across the entire Fright Zone in a single teleport," she boasted.
"Yes, you're really good at running away," Seacat told her with a wide smile that grew even wider when she saw the princess scowl.
*****
Seacat spotted Blondie before the other woman reached the pier that the Dragon's Daughter IV was tied to and sighed. She knew that walk: All determination and stubbornness. Like Mermista when she was angry. No, actually it was different. And she hadn't seen Blondie like that before, had she? So why...
"Hello."
And there she was. Seacat forced her stupid thoughts away. "Ahoy," she replied with a grin.
"Permission to come aboard?"
Oh? Had she been reading up on sailing? "We're no fancy navy ship with all that stuff. Hop on deck."
Blondie did. She wasn't jumping as easily as Seacat, or with as much style as Sea Hawk, but it was still impressive. Sort of.
"I thought you were planning your spy mission," Seacat said. Just as she was preparing the ship for their own mission."
"Well, I told them all I knew. I was never actually in the Horde Supply Corps, so that wasn't all that much," Blondie said. "Glimmer and Mermista will be sorting it out."
That made sense. Mermista knew all about the Horde supply routes by sea, and the shrimp would know about the landlubber side of the war. Or should - Bright Moon had been on the frontlines for years, after all, and the shrimp apparently was the commander of their army.
"So you came to help me get the ship ready because you were bored." Seacat nodded as if that was obvious.
"No!" Blondie blinked. "I mean… not that I won't help, but I wasn't bored."
"You weren't? Those were some of the most boring meetings I had ever seen," Seacat lied. She had seen and attended far worse.
"Really?" Blondie looked surprised, and, for a moment, Seacat thought she would call her on her claim. Then the other woman shook her head. "No, I came for another reason." She stood a little straighter and narrowed her blue eyes slightly, facing Seacat. "Why are you needling Glimmer?"
Oh. Seacat narrowed her eyes in turn. Defending her best friend, was she? "Someone has to, to keep her head from getting too big." And it was fun to see her all worked up, of course.
"She isn't like that!" Blondie protested. "She works very hard. And she cares about everyone."
This time, Seacat huffed. "She's a princess and thinks she knows best."
"Well…" Blondie looked quite cute with that scrunched-up expression, but she couldn't deny this, could she? "But that's still no reason to make her mad!"
"It's also funny." Seacat bared her fangs at Blondie. "And she needs to learn how to control her temper before she becomes queen. I'm actually helping her."
Blondie opened her mouth, then closed it before opening it again. "That's… That's…" Suddenly, she frowned at Seacat. "You're just doing this because you think it's fun, aren't you?"
Rats. Seacat took care to shrug in an especially bored-looking way. "You can have more than one reason for doing something, can't you?"
The frown didn't vanish. "Yes. But you're doing it because you think it's funny."
Seacat was frowning herself now. "Well, it is funny. You should try it yourself," she added with a slightly forced grin. She had no reason to feel bad - it was funny, but also needed. Two birds, one stone or something.
Once more, Blondie gaped at her. Then the woman sighed and closed her eyes, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Glimmer doesn't think it's funny."
"That's part of why it's funny," Seacat retorted. "Don't you think it's at least a little funny?"
Blondie shook her head with a stern expression. Still, Seacat had seen a hint of a smile and a little red blush appear for a moment before vanishing again. So she smiled widely at the other woman until Blondie sighed.
"I didn't actually come here to talk about you and Glimmer, you know?"
"No, I didn't," Seacat replied. "Why did you do it, then?"
"I thought it was a good opener."
Seacat snorted. "You should've opened with 'Hey, can I help you?' instead."
"Then you'd have me sweep the deck for an hour."
Seacat smirked. Of course she'd have done that - who would turn down free help? "So, why did you come then?"
Blondie sighed again. That was a bad sign. "What you did was very dangerous."
Seacat shrugged. "Someone had to do it. Might as well send the best, so it actually gets done."
"Yes, but… Look, we've got a good plan, but we might be a little too late to stop the Horde frigates."
Seacat clenched her teeth. "We'll try anyway!" The Horde would take the kingdom over her dead, floating - or sinking - body.
"Yes, but… What I meant was that you're doing dangerous missions. You might…" Blondie took a deep breath. "...you might die on one of your missions."
"Yes," Seacat said, nodding. She tried to appear confident and casual. She didn't want to die, but war was dangerous. Of course, so was she. And anyway… "The same goes for you," she pointed out.
"Oh, I'm She-Ra, I'm very hard to kill. It's you I'm worried about."
Did she just…? Seacat felt her tail poof up as she clenched her teeth and growled at the idiot. "Worry about yourself, first!"
"But…" Blondie looked confused. "I didn't mean you're helpless or weak…"
"Of course not!" Seacat scoffed. The woman just had to double down on the insult, had she?
"But… you're usually alone out there, with no one except Sea Hawk, and in a small ship. I'm fighting with Glimmer, Bow, Perfuma, Netossa, Spinderella and sometimes Frosta. And Bright Moon's army, of course. If I should get hurt - which I haven't yet, not really - there are lots of people to help and save me."
"And you're facing the entire Horde," Seacat shot back.
"Not the entire Horde - they have to garrison a lot of territory, and we keep them off-balance with raids all along the border, so they need to use even more soldiers to guard their supply lines."
Seacat rolled her eyes. "And they don't raid your supply lines?" The Horde soldiers were scum, but they weren't stupid.
Blondie grinned. "They try, but they don't have princesses. They need a lot more troops to stop one of our raids than we need to stop one of theirs."
"They have the bug woman," Seacat retorted. And that woman looked like she could take on an army by herself.
"Ah… Scorpia rarely appears on the frontlines."
"Then she must be up to something worse."
"Well, we'll see. Scorpia isn't your typical Horde soldier."
"Of course she isn't. If she were, we'd have lost the war already. At least on land." Seacat bared her fangs at the other woman in a sneer.
"Hey!" Blondie frowned at her in return. "Anyway, I'm just saying you're taking bigger risks than we do. Especially with those super-ships the Horde has now."
"So? We've taken even worse risks." Hell, Blondie had been there - well, present - in the Battle of Salineas!
"What? But…" The other woman pressed her lips together for a moment, visibly trying to calm down. "Look, I'm worried about you."
"Worried about me? Or about your friend?" Seacat huffed and crossed her arms.
"I'm worried about you no matter what." Blondie glared back.
Which meant she still thought Seacat was her former Horde cadet friend. "Well, you don't have to be. We're going on a milk run. Even with cargo, we can outsail the Horde frigates."
"You were saved by a raincloud last time," Blondie retorted.
"We were caught in a bad spot with the wind blowing from the wrong direction," Seacat told her. "But even then, we could've escaped if we had known how fast the Horde frigates were. Now that we know, they won't catch us downwind like that again." The Dragon's Daughter IV would start evading much sooner, and they'd pick a route that wouldn't let the Horde ships use their sails to best effect.
"And what if the wind turns?" Blondie shook her head. "It's still more dangerous than what we're doing on land."
"Yeah, because ships can so easily hide in the brush or in a building and ambush you."
"We've turned the last such ambush back on them," Blondie said, glaring. "I doubt that they'll try that again anytime soon."
"Why not? They've got soldiers to spare, and they only need to get lucky once."
"That also goes for you!"
"It's not the same on the sea." It was different. A different war.
"Why not?"
"We're fighting ships, not soldiers." Unless they were fighting a boarding action, of course.
"So? One unlucky hit and your mast goes down, and you're helpless!"
So, Blondie had been studying naval warfare or something. Or she had paid more attention to Seacat's stories at the Princess Prom than Seacat had expected.
"One unlucky hit and you're out. Or one of your friends."
"I'm very tough."
"Tough enough to bounce a cannon shell off your hair poof?" Shells that could wreck ships didn't care about tiaras.
"Well… I've never tried that. I mean, I've never had to try. Wait! Are you making fun of my hairstyle?"
"Is this a serious question?" Seacat cocked her head with a grin.
"My hairstyle is perfectly fine!" Was Blondie finally getting angry?
"Perhaps in the Horde."
"Hey! No one else had my hairstyle!"
"I think I'll have to raise my estimation of our enemies' intelligence, then." She bared her fangs at the stupid, stubborn woman.
Suddenly, Blondie was laughing. After a moment, Seacat joined in. She couldn't help it, for some weird reason.
"I'm just worried about you," Blondie said after both of them had calmed down again, leaning against the railing.
"But you expect everyone else not to worry about you?"
"I'm She-Ra. I'm supposed to protect everyone else. That's my destiny."
"Who said that?"
"Li… that's not important." The woman shook her head. "I'll fight, and we'll win."
"Yes, of course." They had no choice, after all.
"But I worry that, well…" Blondie trailed off. "If we couldn't…"
"Couldn't what?" Seacat narrowed her eyes again. Couldn't have sex? Or couldn't 'remember'? If this was just another attempt to make her believe that she was a former Horde scum...
Blondie stared at her for a moment, wetting her lips. Then she sighed. "Just don't die."
Seacat scoffed. "Don't worry."
Blondie's chuckle sounded very forced.
*****
One of the worst parts of a milk run was the boredom. Seacat was reminded of that fact a few days into their cargo trip. The wind was blowing steady and from behind them, the course was easy to keep, and there were no enemies on the horizon. Which meant there was nothing to do. Well, not nothing - you could always clean or fix something on a ship, so she was currently splicing rope - but nothing that really required her concentration.
Or Sea Hawk's. Which was worse.
She suppressed a sigh when she saw the captain approach her on the foredeck. "Hey! Everything shipshape?"
"Of course," she replied. As if she'd accept anything else.
"Good, good!" He leaned against the railing across from her, then looked at the horizon, then at the top of the mast.
"What?" Seacat asked, rolling her eyes.
"What?"
"What do you want?" she asked again. It wouldn't be a good thing - Sea Hawk rarely needed to work up to a talk with her. He was more the 'blurt it out' type.
"Ah." He beamed at her. "Since the sea and the wind are currently favouring us, I thought we could have a talk or something!"
"The weather can change in a heartbeat," she reminded himself.
"If it does, we'll be at our posts in a heartbeat as well!"
"Right."
"Anyway!" He took a deep breath, then coughed into his fist. "I was wondering about your relationship to Adora - She-Ra."
"There is no relationship," she replied at once.
He raised his eyebrows at her but didn't say anything.
Frowning - and clenching her teeth - she added: "She's talking to her missing friend, not to me."
"Are you sure?"
Seacat narrowed her eyes. What exactly did he mean? Was this a hint that he believed Blondie's absolutely stupid claims? Or was he just asking if Blondie might be talking to Seacat instead of this 'Catra'? "She still thinks I'm her missing friend. And she's oh so afraid I'll die before I 'remember'."
"Well…" The captain drew the word out. "She's been sticking to her story."
"Which makes no sense." Seacat scoffed. "You know the Horde - they don't send cadets into battle." The scum had no honour, but some lines they didn't cross. If only because sending children into battle meant fewer adult soldiers in the long run.
"Mistakes do happen."
"So, this Catra mistakenly arrives at a force that's about to attack a village, and instead of, well, sending her back, they let her join them?" Seacat scoffed. She wouldn't have joined butchers about to massacre a village. Cadet or not. "I think the girl deserted and got killed by some monster, and they covered it up so her fellow cadets wouldn't get any ideas."
Sea Hawk nodded, but she could tell that he wasn't convinced.
"I'm not Catra," she said, baring her fangs at him. "I'm Seacat."
"Of course!" He flashed her a smile. A genuine one. "But… are you worried about her?"
"She's She-Ra. Legendary Princess of Power." Seacat rolled her eyes. "She can throw some of those Horde bots."
"And bounce shells off her face," Sea Hawk said. "Or so the legends claim."
Seacat snorted. She'd believe that if she saw it - not that she wanted to see Blondie get hit by a shell. A boot to the head, on the other hand…
"I just noticed that you've been spending more time with her than with anyone - except for me and Mermista, of course."
She scoffed. "She's the one following me around."
"When she's not carrying you to bed." The captain grinned at her.
She glared at him in return. "You won't ever let me forget that, huh?"
"Of course not!" He chuckled, then shook his head and sighed. "Although you should consider that the war's growing worse. In the last year, the Horde has made more headway than in the decade before."
Since the Princess Alliance had fallen apart, in other words. "Is it really that bad?"
"Yes. They've been building up. New and more weapons. The frigates are just one part of that. Bright Moon's been hit by more of those giant walking bots they have, and they've been fielding mobile cannons."
"Mobile cannons?"
"Yes."
"But… the recoil would wreck any skiff they mounted it on!" It had been tried before, after all.
"They don't shoot while flying - they set down for that."
"Oh." That would be… ugh. She winced.
"Yes. So… perhaps… think about not being too stubborn to miss out on something…" He tilted his head in a not-quite-shrug. "...beautiful?"
He patted her head and left to return to the bridge before she could think of an answer.
*****
Perched on the top of the mast, Seacat narrowed her eyes. Was that…? She squinted, then nodded. The Sea Gate's slight glow was unmistakable. "Salineas ahead!" she yelled down to the captain.
"As expected!" he yelled back. "We've made good time!"
They had - despite the heavy cargo they were transporting back to Salineas. But they weren't in port, yet. They hadn't spotted any Horde ships on their trip, so the new frigates had to be somewhere - and blockading Salineas was an obvious move. The enemy ships would be able to intercept arriving ships easily - or, at the very least, drive them away - and sooner or later, the Salinean navy would have to give them battle or see the kingdom starve.
But if there was a blockade, they should've seen the pickets guarding the western approaches of the kingdom already. This was the obvious route to take, most of the other routes locked by reefs and the Maelstrom, so where were the Horde sailors?
"Do you see any sails?" Sea Hawk, of course, knew this as well.
"No!" she yelled back, clenching her teeth. She used her telescope to scan the horizon - none. Wait… "There's one!" She adjusted the telescope, which was a little tricky doing one-handed, and got a clearer view of the sail. "It's a Salinean sloop."
"Alright." He didn't ask if she were sure, of course.
Seacat felt relieved - trying to outrun a new Horde frigate with a cargo hold full of metal and other materials would have been a little difficult, even with the wind blowing from a favourable direction. But she couldn't help worrying, either.
If the Horde frigates weren't blockading Salineas then where were they?
*****
"Landing operations?"
"Yes." Mermista wasn't happy. She was very unhappy, in fact. And not at Sea Hawk, for a change. "The Horde has launched a campaign up the Northern Coast, supported by several landing operations to encircle and take port after port. If they aren't stopped, they'll soon control the coast up to the Northern Sea."
And cutting off Salineas from support by the Alliance - with so many ports, the Horde could easily control the sea up to the Kingdom of Snows.
"We didn't know - we were at sea for the last few days," Sea Hawk said. "But surely, we can stop them before they advance too far! If they conduct landing operations, they are vulnerable to a naval attack!"
"We can't face their frigates and hope to defeat them," Mermista said. "We lost two frigates on patrol already. I've called back the entire fleet until we can counter their advantages." She smiled for the first time since they had arrived in the throne room. "Which is why your cargo was so essential."
"Princess Entrapta must be glad to finally have the materials to finish her work," Sea Hawk said, smiling himself.
Mermista grimaced for a moment before she nodded. "I suppose so."
*****
"Oh! This is just perfect! The density is in the green range, too! And there's enough for several tests! Oh, and this! What's this?"
'Glad' wasn't the right word to describe the Hair Princess's reaction. 'Ecstatic' would be better. Or 'hyper'. The princess was all but bouncing around in the room she had obviously transformed into a laboratory or workshop… Wait, now she had taken a leap and bounced off the wall to get behind a stack of metal plates.
"Hello, Entrapta. You've got the cargo, I see," Mermista said.
"Yes, yes, I did! Thank you so much!" The princess used her hair to jump over another stack and land next to Sea Hawk, wrapping him up in purple tentacles. Like a demented squid. "And you!"
Before Seacat could react, the princess moved over to her, and Seacat found herself wrapped in hair. Tightly wrapped. "Hey!"
"Thank you!" The princess whirled, moving back towards her bench. Seacat felt herself dragged along and was about to use her claws to get free when she was suddenly dumped on the floor - which was littered with parts, one of which dug painfully in her rump.
"Ow!" she complained, but it wasn't like the princess even heard her.
"Those are the last high-tensile components I needed!"
"So you can build your countermeasures, then?" Mermista asked.
"What?" The princess looked up but didn't remove her mask, which made her look like one of her creepy bots. "Oh, yeah, sure. That's easy, just have to use the chemical converter over there. Shouldn't take more than a day to convert the base material."
"So you're working on the catapults?" Sea Hawk asked.
"No. Should I? Those are easy, anyway, and a mature technology." This time, the mask slid up, and the princess's confused expression was clearly visible. "Your yard workers should be able to build as many as you need."
Seacat wasn't the only one who blinked. "You've already finished the countermeasures?"
"The design, yes. Others can build it - it's not First One's tech. Oh, did you know that if you do everything yourself, you hurt the economy of your kingdom? People need work or they'll leave, which reduces the amount of taxes and customs you receive, which reduces your research and development budget!"
"Err, yes," Mermista replied. Sea Hawk nodded.
"I had to learn that for myself." The princess pouted, then beamed. "But that's all in the past now that I have the new materials!"
"So…" Sea Hawk spoke up. "If you're not working on the counteragent or catapults, what are you working on?"
"Happy you asked!" The princess jumped up and landed next to a covered board. Her hairs grabbed the cover and ripped it away, revealing a whiteboard with…
"You're working on a propulsion system?" Seacat asked.
"Yes!" The smile widened even more. "With this - once it works - your frigate will be the fastest on the seas again!" Then she frowned. "Well, for about half an hour so far."
Oh.
*****
A few days later, the Salineans were still working on the catapults. Apparently, it was a little harder than the Hair Princess had claimed. Especially since the 'mature technology' actually meant that no one had constructed catapults in a century or so, what with everyone using guns on ships and for sieges instead.
"Should we go seek cover?" Seacat asked as she watched three sailors handle a catapult on a small platform on the shore near the Sea Gate.
Mermista glared at her. "This catapult was built exactly to Entrapta's specifications."
"I thought all the others were built to her specs as well," Seacat replied.
"They were supposed to," Mermista admitted. "But there were a few problems with the building process."
And with quality control. Like sinking the boat the first catapult had been mounted on. Seacat was very happy that she had managed to stop Sea Hawk from volunteering their ship for testing.
"But it's all fine now," the princess went on. More loudly, she added: "Fire when ready!"
"Aye, aye!" the commander of the catapult crew replied before turning to his men. "Alright, you scallywags! The princess herself is watching! If you mess up, she'll have us all keelhauled!"
Seacat snickered at that - and at Mermista's expression. "Great discipline, princess."
"Keelhauling isn't actually practised any more in the Salinean Navy," Mermista replied with a deep frown.
"But do they know that?" Sea Hawk asked.
"Yes. They should, at least."
In Seacat's opinion, some of the Salinean sailors would deserve to get keelhauled, if only to encourage the others. Like the crew on the slow frigate in the Battle of Salineas. The catapult crew there, though, threw their backs into it. Two used a crank to pull the arm down, and the third carried the payload - a dummy cask - to load it.
This time, the arm didn't break, and the catapult didn't flip over either. It worked as advertised, sending the cask flying in a high arc.
But it didn't come near the target. Not even close.
"They need more training at aiming," Sea Hawk commented. "It's not like aiming a cannon."
Mermista frowned.
Seacat did so as well. It took weeks to train a gunner so they could hit anything from a ship at sea. She didn't think it would take less time to train a catapult crew - quite the contrary, actually.
And they didn't have the time. Not with the Horde rolling up the coast.
*****
It took the princesses a little longer to realise what Seacat already knew, but after a day's worth of training - which resulted in another catapult self-destructing and one botched shot almost hitting the Sea Gate - Mermista announced that the catapult project would be abandoned. "We won't be ready in time. We need to use our current weapons instead of new ones," she said in her throne room after dinner.
"Technically, it's not a new weapon at all, but a very old one. Salineas was once protected by numerous catapults covering the approaches," the Hair Princess retorted. "Catapults of various sizes, even! And installed on ships."
"Very old or new, the thing is, our sailors aren't trained to use catapults. And I cannot send them into battle with weapons they don't understand. That would be murder," Mermista told her.
"Well, actually… Oh. You were using hyperbole, weren't you?"
"Yes,* Mermista replied through clenched teeth.
"Thanks! Socialising log day thirty-one: I correctly identified hyperbole."
Seacat didn't know if she should laugh at the princess or pity her. There were more important concerns, anyway. "What are you planning then? Shoot the casks out of cannons?"
"That won't work," Mermista replied.
"Have you tried it?" Seacat asked.
"Yes! The pressure from the cannon's charge is too much for the cask!" The Hair Princess made a gesture with her hands that indicated an explosion. "I constructed a cask that was tough enough to withstand the pressure, but that meant it was tough enough not to break up upon hitting the water, which kinda defeated the purpose of shooting it in the first place. I'm trying to calculate the right structural strength so the cask will only just survive the shooting and will be so damaged, it'll break as soon as it hits the water, but it's a very fine line - and the standardisation of Salinean cannons leaves a lot to be desired!"
"At least our cannons don't blow up if they're handled a little roughly," Mermista shot back.
Sea Hawk cleared his throat. "As much as I like explosions and catapults, what are our plans now to battle the Horde frigates? Is your new method of propulsion ready to be tested?"
"Yes! It is!" The princess beamed at them. "I just need a volunteer!"
"Not the Dragon's Daughter IV," Mermista snapped.
"But it's ideal for my tests! Light enough so the propulsion booster will show its true potential!"
That sounded worrying. And the gleam in Sea Hawk's eyes was even more worrying.
"No." The Salinean princess looked grim. "We'll need the ship in top shape to lead the battle against the Horde."
Seacat clenched her teeth. She knew what that meant. "You're going to swarm the frigates and pour the stuff into the sea at close range." So close, the Horde frigates would have an easy time aiming their guns.
Mermista nodded. "I don't like it, but it's our only chance."
Seacat didn't like it either. Not at all. But the princess was right - they had no choice.
"But… I just need a little more time to finish my device!" the Hair Princess protested. "Your chances of survival would be much improved with it!"
"We don't have the time. If we don't stop the Horde now, they'll take Seaworthy, and with that port in their power, they'll cut the alliance in half. There's not much north of Seaworthy that could stop them."
"But…" The Hair princess shook her head, her tentacles flailing around, "That's… your chances of survival are far too low! It's irrational!"
"Our chances of survival might be low, but our chances of success are better. And it's our only option," Seacat said, chuckling without any humour. Even the weird princess who was often more like a bot than a person knew how bad this was.
Sea Hawk, though, was beaming. "Huzzah! A daring, desperate gambit awaits us! Adventure!"
*****
