Aye Aye!

Many vessels on the seas of 1710 refused women on account of 'lack of strength' or perhaps a reluctance to carry 'unnecessary temptresses'. One vessel refused these rules. Aboard the Hydra, men and women worked enclosed by lumbers of freedom.

However, to the eyes of others, Hydra was a monster. One of the greatest works of trouble to ever plague the Seven Seas. She took from the Monarch George's Fleet and hoarded her sugar, rum and gunpowder for sale to vagabonds, malefactors, and scoundrels on shore.

As spoken by the Master of the vessel, any gold was allocated to the crew equally, Hydra herself would take a share as any new hull was not cheaply found.

Hydra had a cook aboard, as every boat that was larger than a raft had to. Hydra's cook was Nessa O'Breanne. No stronger, stouter, or hell-bent of a woman had ever been seen between the tallest cloud and the deepest caves.

"Ello Ness!" The Hydra's quartermaster greeted her one morn.

"Tom." Nessa growled back, her meaty hands wrapped around a fat hock of goat.

"Word from the Master, we have to halve the grub once more before we stop at the Nassau docks, orders are to stop at the Old Rum stash beforehand and drop off some cargo."

Nessa heaved an angry breath. Angry at the quartermaster's words but unable to argue. Rather than speak out of turn, she reached for her butcher's blade once more and slammed the goat leg down forcefully on her wooden board.

'A crew of one, me. Alone and exhausted, tucked away... All these hungry mouths and only one me! What does that fool expect me to do? Summon meats and flour from seawater?'

Her hands busy, her thoughts turned to her past, and how the Hydra had saved her.

To grow up surrounded by wheat and fattened beasts was to grow up happy - greatly cared for and never hungry.

Nessa's mother had been an unfortunate cook, the products of her labour were often as repugnant as they were hard to chew. By the age of twelve, Nessa took her post by the oven. Her mother acceped the strange arrangement gladly, apparently she expected Nessa's help and had been almost annoyed at Nessa's apparently prolonged 'slothful' nature towards 'women's work'.

Nevertheless, her mother's place at the oven was well and truly taken, much to her father's joy.

Nessa and her father were parallel creatures, both so entranced by the natural world.

"There cannot be any argument, they are God's creatures!" he would remark joyfully. Usually, the comment would accompany a strong pat to the shoulder of some cow, horse, or other large brute that they cared for.

So the peace they crafted lasted, on that small farm, far away from the rest of the world. They ate well, they prayed well, and they laughed well.

They had assumed that no force could tear them apart.

"There! Starboard! Sugar schooner!" The lookout shouted from the crow's nest.

Nessa clenched her teeth, her hand clutched her blade tensely. She held her breath, she hoped the Master of the Hydra would not call for...

"Upper deck, prepare to board that schooner!"

'Phew,' Nessa thought. A call for the upper deck meant she was spared from the fray and free to water down her goat stew sans swordplay. A schooner was not a large vessel to tackle, the threat of the Hydra's cannons should have been enough to scare the crew out of balance. They would hand over sugar and rum to merely escape. A very easy catch.

As she felt the boat turn, Nessa heard the Hydra's ropes creak and pull on her beams.

"Hang on for us, you old woman," Nessa muttered to the boat.

Nessa had known her heart was an unruly one from the very start. She could safely say she felt more respect and fondness towards the farm stock than those boys who came to court her.

She had assumed that she had not met her 'true' one yet, and that thought sent her through to her twenty-second year, calm and unvexed.

A ball, hosted at the townhall proved to be her defeat. Such an event was a yearly occurance, and one Nessa felt was dreadful. At twenty-two, she would soon be seen as an old lonely woman, and her status would soon lessen. She had to marry soon.

Stood at the townhall's steps, Nessa meddled the blue cotton of her dress.

"Careful, you'll wear a 'ole through that," a happy chuckle sounded a step from her.

Nessa jumped, she turned to face the sound.

There stood a beauty. Eyes as green as the land she loved stared back at her. Nessa's heart stuttered. She was the most handsome woman Nessa had ever seen.

Black locks bounced atop her head as she laughed once more, she had spoken to Nessa.

"Uh,"

"Told ya," the woman stepped closer, Nessa could smell her, she wanted the woman to stay close.

"To be careful," the woman then took Nessa's hands. They felt so soft on her own.

Eyes met once more.

Nessa's unruly heart sang a dreadful song of love.

"ALL HANDS! ALL HANDS!" the quartermaster bellowed from above.

Nessa's heart dropped. That was the call to arms she had hoped to steer clear of. She cursed under her breath.

'Can these fools not take a schooner unescorted by the damned cook! What do they expect to feast on at the end of the day? Seawater? What waste of the small epoch God gave me as a mortal...'

Nessa's angry thoughts were soon stopped when she approached the hatch to the upper deck. Through the wooden square holes flowed blood, red and fresh.

'Not such an easy catch'

The upper deck was chaos. Swords clashed and gunpowder flashed. Cruel sounds of battle echoed through the salty atmosphere. As soon as she emerged, Nessa was forced to parry a cutlass headed for her shoulder. She executed the manoeuver fast, her opponent's sword was knocked from a sweaty hand. He surrendered and collapsed on exhausted knees before her.

"Schooner was a trap!" the quartermaster shouted to her from across the deck. He was greased by the colour of death, red arms and hands.

"Are you sure?" Nessa shouted through her teeth, her arms spread. She gestured to the unreasonable amount of crew that had boarded the Hydra. There had to be more than forty to the Hydra's twenty.

Cut, hack, push, Nessa found her rhythm. The butcher's blade she clutched proved to be useful for battle. Thoughts of her goat stew below decks were soon forgotten. Sweat, blood, and seawater touched her tongue, and the sky opened for a great storm.

The water washed away many people that day.

"Name's Susan." the woman presented herself.

"Oh," Nessa started to compose herself, "are you summoned to the ball as well?" She nodded her head to the Townhall.

"Dear God, no!" Susan laughed.

Nessa took note of her background. Susan stood on a street corner, adjascent to a venue full of well-born people. A low dress hugged her bosom, and red colourant adorned her cheeks. Several others dressed as she was stood around her.

"Ah," Nessa stated, she had understood.

"Ah." Susan echoed, a shadow passed over her face.

"Probably best that you go 'ave your caper, love." Susan declared.

"Oh yes, and probably best you return to your, well, um..."

"My brothel?"

"Yes..." Nessa's meek reply sat between them.

Susan seemed to frown for a moment. She seemed as torn as Nessa felt. Then, as soon as the manner had appeared, her face drew a cheeky beam.

"Unless, you would prefer to accompany me?" Susan offered.

No offer had been more welcome or agreedable to Nessa's ears before.

"Please..."

The Hydra lost her Master and her Quartermaster that day. The rest of the crew surrendered. Nessa had screamed 'cowards!' to them. She swung her blade, fury hot through her blood.

Yet, her fury could not meet every blade, and she was soon arrested, arms pulled and back pushed.

As she was marched beyond metal bars, Nessa saw the Hydra. The vessel stood proudly atop the sea, empty.

Her cell was closed roughly. Her hands were left shackled.

Her mother and father soon found out why Nessa was suddenly so focused on her frequents to town.

The arguments had been a catastrophy. Her mother refused to let her see Susan. She kept Nessa at her oven. Her attempts to locate a match for her daughter only doubled. Soon enough, her engagement was set. She was unaware of the man's name, not that she cared.

Her father was worse. He cursed her under the Lord and prayed over her when she slept. He refused to look at her.

One dark day, when the sun had fallen and the moon shone, her father stopped, and placed the holy book down.

"Ness, look..." he started.

Nessa turned to look at her father.

"Don't get wed to that sorry case your mother's got for you."

"Do you have any other answers?"

"There's tell of a vessel, an old smuggler's boat taken by...wayward souls."

Nessa gestured for her father to proceed.

"The Hydra. They say women are as welcome as men..."

Nessa scoffed, there were very few places women were as welcome as men.

"They say, the Hydra can be an equal place..."

"Father, sleep calls me. Speak not of myths."

"No myths, Ness. The vessel docks tomorrow. You can choose the way you need to be, or stay."

Her father left, and Nessa began to pack her bags mere moments later.

Three years enclosed by harsh metal. Three years. Her parents had surely heard of her return and abandoned her. Nessa sunk deeper, her head had become a dark place.

One day, Nessa was restlessly meddled her shackles together, when she heard a bold comment pass through from the cell next to hers.

"Careful, you'll wear a hole through them..."

"Susan?" Nessa called, fully expectant on a ghost or other creature.

"The one and only, Ness, dear."

"What? How?"

"Ah, stole one too many purses from men's pockets."

Nessa let out a laugh, a rough sound.

"Yourself?"

"You wouldn't accept my truth..." Nessa spoke breathlessly.

"Try me, dear."

"Well... do you see the vessel from your cell?"

"The Hydra? You were aboard THE HYDRA?!" Susan shouted loudly. Nessa laughed.

"Yes!"

"Blow me down! You are a sort Nessa! Was what those men spoke of true? Was the Hydra an equal place?"

"Yes! Men and women equal, and free to be exactly who they are..." Nessa began to cry. "But not any more. A trap was sprung around us."

"Ah, sorry Ness."

Nessa's tears sank down her cheeks.

"You know what they say..." Susan started.

Nessa could hear the sound of metal from Susan's cell, a small scratch.

"When a hydra looses one head..."

A door swung open and suddenly, Susan stood before Nessa's cell door, a clever metal object poked from her hand.

"They grow..."

She poked the object at the keyhole of Nessa's cell door.

"Two more!"

The door swung open, Nessa jumped to her feet.

"Let's go get your Hydra back, dear!"