the Dalaverse

Before I finally haul my weary ass to the Bodleian, I shall tease you lot with a tiny opening bit of midshipman lieutenant naval threesome...mess. So far it's just Theo and his memories. This one will be set six months or so before the film -- refresh your memory if need be. Title lyric from 'Red Hill Mining Town.'




“Excuse me, sir, but – is it true?”

Theodore regretted even the slightest moment of disruption in his gazing – such a blue as he’d never seen, and they ought to be coming up on the island soon – but he inclined his head to look at the young midshipman who had come up beside him. “Is what true, Mr. Shipley?”

“That you sailed with Captain Norrington,” Shipley burst out, pronouncing the captain’s name with the same inflection as a priest invoking the Son of God. “Ages and ages ago. Sir.”

Turning his gaze back to the Caribbean, Theodore allowed a twist of his mouth. Eight years and a half years hardly made an age, but in Shipley’s place he would have thought the same thing. If anyone had told him it would be so long before he set eyes on James Norrington again…

“Yes, that’s so,” he replied, lifting an arm to mop his brow. The climate would certainly take some getting used to. “We were on the Kestrel as lads, not much older than you are now.”

“I told you, din’t I?” Shipley shot over his shoulder to his tall companion, whose sunburn was finally fading to the shade of his freckles. Wallis shrugged, trying to make himself look smaller by hunching his shoulders. He was not half so bold as Shipley, or indeed any of the other midshipmen, and had hardly spoken ten words together on the entire voyage. Theodore might think him simple as the other men did, if he had not once caught sight of Wallis’s small collection of books when he had gone to scold Shipley for shirking.

The boy now turned his round, eager face up to Theodore. “They say he holds dominion over these waters like a king. They say he ran Barrett the Red-Armed down with only six guns an’ took not one loss.”

“I don’t put much stock in these colourful appellations – Dread Pirate This-and-Such and Whomsoever the Black. I am convinced the players and broadsheets make them up.”

“Yet you steal my penny novels every chance you get.”

“Only after James has finished with them!”

Clearing his throat, Theodore banished the wayward memories to a corner of his mind. “I cannot speak for Mr. Barrett, but I can tell you the captain is as brave and steady a man as I have ever met.” Steady except when it came to correspondence – though to be honest, blaming James for the dwindling exchange of letters was unfair. Theodore had laboured over what to write for years now, on his own and with the gradual disintegration of intimacy in James’ letters, and he feared much was lost in translation anyhow. He had dashed off a hasty note informing James of his imminent arrival in the Indies, omitting the detail that it was to be as a mere fifth-lieutenant upon a ship with no victories to her name. But the Dowager was quick enough, and it was entirely possible she had beaten the letter’s merchantman bearer here. In a way he wished she had; the thought of the surprise on James’ face after all this time –

“I heard they’re to make ‘im commodore of the fleet,” said Shipley in a conspirational tone.

Theodore raised his eyebrows at this. “At twenty-eight? That’s terribly young for a commodore, even one so well-qualified as Norrington.” Nevertheless, he felt a flood of pride amidst the wash of tropical heat. They had always told him he was destined for great things, but such a promotion, or even the rumour of it, was great indeed.

“Aye, sir.” Shipley would never contradict his lieutenant directly, but it was clear from his expression that he saw no basic difference between twenty-nine and seventy-nine. He glanced at Wallis, who pulled his cap down over his ears. “If you wouldn’t mind, Mr. Groves – if the chance comes up – might you mention a good word of Tom and me?”

According to what Theodore had heard in the wardroom, part of the Caribbean fleet’s problem was an overabundance of youth and a want for seasoned officers, but he nodded gravely and watched Shipley skip off, Wallis at his heels, with real fondness. They were good lads, both of them, even if the one ran his mouth incessantly and the other scarcely opened it. Oddly enough, they suited one another. Not for the first time, he wondered if he and James and Andrew had been so transparent – but he did not care for that line of reasoning and so he shut it down.

In point of fact James would only be twenty-eight for another month. Last year Theodore had forgotten until nearly two months had passed, and by then he’d felt too foolish to bring it up.

“Land ho!” came the shout from the foretop, and Theodore smiled to himself as cheers raced along the decks, shading his eyes from the bright sun and searching for the dull spot upon the horizon. This year, there would be no call to forget.