"Bad water and poisonous serpents; hurricanes and shipworm--" (or, another entrance post!)
In Lieutenant William Bush's world, things happened for straightforward, logical reasons. He never claimed to be particularly good at mathematics, but he did expect the universe to operate by good common sense, for a plus b to equal c. And yet here he was, sand beneath him, a tropical sun blazing overhead, ears filled with the sound of ocean lapping gently on a beach when he was quite certain that where he was supposed to be was the Renown's wardroom, racing away from the tropics and all the godforsaken trouble they had brought him in the last few months.
He remembered the trial - good God, of course he remembered the trial, and thought it probable that he would never forget it - in Kingston, he remembered leaving behind a newly promoted and grieving Commander Horatio Hornblower and a dead and buried Archie Kennedy with an undeservedly blackened name. He remembered the unexpected storm the Renown had encountered on its return voyage, going to the wardroom to collect his coat, hitting his head on something -
And then he had woken up here. He didn't know what to make of it. He didn't know even how to begin to make something of it.
But there was little he could do about that at the moment. He sat up, brushing the sand from his jacket. He replaced his lieutenant hat squarely on his head and looked around curiously. "Good bloody hell..."
He remembered the trial - good God, of course he remembered the trial, and thought it probable that he would never forget it - in Kingston, he remembered leaving behind a newly promoted and grieving Commander Horatio Hornblower and a dead and buried Archie Kennedy with an undeservedly blackened name. He remembered the unexpected storm the Renown had encountered on its return voyage, going to the wardroom to collect his coat, hitting his head on something -
And then he had woken up here. He didn't know what to make of it. He didn't know even how to begin to make something of it.
But there was little he could do about that at the moment. He sat up, brushing the sand from his jacket. He replaced his lieutenant hat squarely on his head and looked around curiously. "Good bloody hell..."