“Doctor…”
“Yes, Captain?”
Circling like a typhoon, the captain paced around the catch, her boots crunching on the scattered scales as though on shards of broken crockery. She maintained her distance with a learned suspicion, ready to jerk away should the catch, despite being inert, betray any inclination to spasm, twitch, or snap its jaws. The captain’s precautions were well-measured; this was no ordinary catch. Even the rats, usually as undaunted and ravenous as hyenas, kept to the shadows, huddled in the safety of their number, hissing at this deviant and unworldly spawn of the sea.
It was the longest time before the captain again spoke. When she did, her heavy Slavic accent trembled. “Doctor… Would you… This catch…
“Is it… edible, would you say?”
The ship rocked, bruised timber groaning, the storm outside battering the bulkheads relentlessly. In the darkness of the orlop, the ship’s lowermost chamber, three lanterns flickered in the humidity of their bearer’s breath.
The light of the lanterns’ aura was cast upon a single form: the catch. Dense rope had been bound around its tail. It hung upturned, dripping, swaying like a convict from a noose. Akin to the head of a mop, its matted hair smeared the grime and rat droppings around the deck in time with the ship’s sway, cleaning a patch on the floor the size of a dinner plate.
On the captain’s insistence, the latches to the orlop had been locked, a barrel dragged in front of the door. She ordered the two men standing behind her, “No one learns of this. No one. Not the crew. Certainly not the passengers. The mood among them is combustible enough, what with rationing, our making port delayed, and this storm only delaying us further. To add this to the fire…” She shook her head. Turning away from the catch, albeit never entirely, she addressed her chief mate. “We are certain no one saw it, yes?”
The chief shrugged, sniffed, contemptuous gestures. A bead of cold residual rain trickled down the slope of his long English nose. The captain offered him her handkerchief before seeking further assurances.
“And Harper and Finch? They assisted you with pulling it on board. I trust you made it clear that not a word of this be spoken—”
“Your devoted chief mate has seen to every eventuality, my captain,” the chief muttered with not unintentional mordancy. He snatched away the handkerchief, putting it to use. “Harper and Finch are aware of
