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Wears-Only-Ropes was seething. After a short orientation with some other new argonian crew members, the Dominion had completed it's trip from the mainland back to it's island cove that functioned as it's home base. It had surfaced with the morning sun and she stepped out of the top hatch with the others, then walked along the back of the ship to where long plank had been lowered from a dock. From there she was given another orientation and assigned to Food Prep, which wasn't even a shipboard duty.

She'd watched from an open mess hut as altmer and argonians came and went from between the ship to a stone building that served as the ship's headquarters. All the while she was skinning vegetables and cutting meat. She knew that what she really should do was to bide her time and learn more about the ship before she struck.

But she couldn't do it. She couldn't wait while the souls of her dead friends were screaming in her mind. Instead, she waited for the earliest opportunity when she planned to sneak aboard and do all the damage she could. If she could sink the thing, that would be best.

During her orientation she'd learned of the color-coded tags the argonians wore around their necks, indicating their duties. She tore her brown tag off.

"Recruit? What are you doing? Put that tag back on!" shouted her superior in the hut, a female certainly younger than herself.

Reluctantly she tied it back around her neck. It felt like a stone. "Dammit, I should be on the ship!"

"Relax. You'll get your chance. But there's a lot to learn before you can do much good aboard the ship. In the meantime the mess hut's as good a job as any you're likely to get while they teach you."

"But I already proved I know as much about ships as any argonian!"

"Not this ship I bet! Now get back to work. Lunch will be soon and we've got a lot of cooking to do before then."

She went back to work, but she would keep a close eye out for any chance.

It came in the early afternoon. An odd alarm began to sound, and the altmer gathered most of the argonians and led them out of the cove. Apparently some sort of security ward had been breached. She watched as the majority of the workers ran out to find the menace, and she noticed there was no one standing guard at the ship.

She took some sauce that was at least approximately the color of the red engineering tags and smeared it over her own tag when her superior had left for a few minutes. Then she walked purposefully down the dock as if she had every right to be there. She climbed down into the ship without a clue what she was going to do. She then took off her tag - at close range it wouldn't stand up to scrutiny anyway.

She passed some argonians, proceeding towards the back of the ship where she knew the propulsion system must be. If there were anything explosive or truly damaging on the ship, that would be the most likely place.

"Stop!" said an altmer voice in Common. "You, female! Where's your tag?"

She turned around with a confused look on her face and mimicked feeling for it. "Sorry, it must have fell off somewhere."

"Who's your boss?"

"I'm in engineering," she said. She knew the altmer were termed the bosses here, but she didn't know them by name yet.

The altmer's eyes narrowed. "Who is your BOSS?" he asked again, hands raising and a blue glow beginning to issue from them.

She was out of time. If she was going to do any good down here at all, it had to be now. She turned and raced through the twin hallways that ran the length of the ship, switching from one to the other, and dropped down the first hatchway to the lower level she came to, not looking back.

Red lights began to flash and a klaxon sounded. She began turning every dial and every valve she could find randomly, but then running on as the altmer and some other argonians came after her. She knew she was approaching a dead end, but maybe she could find something important she could break before she got there.

She saw another argonian ahead, apparently mending a pipe and she grabbed for a large wrench in his back pocket.

For a moment he looked as confused as most of the other crew she'd passed had been, but this one was sharper than most. As she grabbed for the wrench, he spun around and wrapped his tail around her legs, sending her to the floor. She scrambled to get back to her feet, but he was on top of her before she could get leverage. But Wears-Only-Ropes was sea-hardened and desperate. She bit the tail, hard, and heard the argonian scream. She was up in a second, continuing her headlong race to the back of the ship when the spell hit.

As her feet left the ground in the ball of force that now held her, another altmer came up behind he first and she felt the ball disappear as she crashed back to the floor. Another spell hit her instantly, then all went black.

********************************

Ra'Jirra awoke at first light, and left Dar'Amon sleeping while she completed her morning ritual, though the salt water was a rude awakening as she scrubbed her teeth. The Alfiq was still sleeping so she changed back into her bikini. She was adjusting the straps when she noticed he was watching her.

"Good morning, you perv."

The cat smiled guiltily then yawned,"Good morning to you too."

"Think of any plan overnight?" she asked as she began to drag the CATv3 back towards the water, which was blessedly closer with the tide.

"Afraid not. You?"

"Nope. But we haven't much time. The Hammerfell ship will be leaving tomorrow and could well be here tomorrow night. We've got to try something!"

Dar'Amon jumped atop the CATv3 as a wave came up, avoiding getting wet.

She pulled the craft deeper into the water before she got aboard and turned the switch. It came to life and began sputtering as she let it idle.

"I'm going to try circling the island from a long way out. Hopefully we can find where it's at."

"Sounds like a good plan."

"Okay, hold on!"

Dar'Amon tucked himself firmly between her legs and she started off quickly, heading for the island they'd spotted earlier.

She opened it up and they crossed the distance quickly, but remained far enough out to sea that they should be little more than a speck in the ocean to any spying eyes. She backed the speed down and turned to circle counter-clockwise.

"See anything?"

"Nothing yet," Dar'Amon answered.

They continued around the island at roughly the same distance when they rounded a reef. Inside was a cove that was unmistakable even if not for the low form of the ship they saw near a pier. Figures were moving back and forth. Ra'Jirra turned the craft around and retreated back the way they'd come.

"We need to hide the CAT," she said, and Dar'Amon spotted a low shelf of rock jutting out over the water.

"What about underneath that shelf? Should be completely out of sight from the island."

She nodded and steered the craft towards it, finally stepping off into thigh-high water where she moored it to some other rocks.

"Tide?" she asked Dar'Amon.

"It's pretty well high tide now. It will have nowhere to go but down to the level you're standing on, if you're worried about it getting crushed. Just leave enough slack that it can go up and down and it should be fine."

She nodded and tied it off, before taking Dar'Amon and wading out from under the shelf. She came out into the sun carefully, but she could see no one around.

"I think we should split up, Raj," he said as she set him back onto the beach.

The jungle here was dense, but lacked the sulphurous smell of Argonia and she felt it was probably less lethal than the mainland.

"Yeah. You're my secret weapon, Dar. They're altmer so they're bound to have wards up."

"Probably not for my size though. I could go in and scout first."

Ra'Jirra shook her head. "No need. We know where our target is. I'll climb up around the cove and come at it from the other side. Give me an hour to get around, and then come in from the other side."

"Not sure what I can do really, but I'll do what I can," he said and she headed towards the jungle."

The tangle of plants and vines she had to work her way through told her she had been wise to stay in her close-fitting bikini rather than the loose khaki outfit she had kept in her backpack, though a run-in with a bramble bush had left it somewhat tattered by the time she made it to the far side of the cove. She approached carefully, trying to stay near brush or trees where perhaps a ward spell wouldn't notice her.

She was in sight of the ship and the out-buildings when she felt a tingle and a klaxon began to blare.

"Damn. Well, it was bound to happen," she thought. She considered her options, and put the gun back into the backpack which she stuffed under some brush. She certainly did not blend in here, with her yellow fur and white tattered bikini. She would be caught, undoubtedly. But as Geeus had said, the argonians were merely working for the altmer. Killing them would simply be wrong if she didn't have to.

She saw a large contingent of argonians led by a few altmer coming her way from her right. In front was the dock and the ship. She began to run, her knife out. Those searching for her apparently didn't see her as she left the jungle and ran towards the dock, but a large argonian blocked her path.

She slashed at it with her knife, hoping to scare it out of her way, but it didn't budge. Instead it ran right at her and she dodged to the left, feeling a talon snag her top. Her inertia left no alternative. The bikini top snapped and she felt her right breast freed from the constraint.

"Well, modesty be damned, I've got a job to do," she said to herself as she piled headlong into another argonian standing on the ramp to the ship. The argonian fell to the side into the water but Ra'Jirra continued on, fairly leaping down into the doorway.

The interior of the ship was unfamiliar to her, but there was a clamor coming from the stern of the ship, so she headed towards the bow. She saw only one argonian, a female who looked stunned to see a khajiit.

"Sorry snakeskin," she said as she brought the hilt of the knife down hard just behind the base of the Argonian's head.

She hoped she had applied the right amount of force and hadn't killed her, but there was a fine line between the two. Plus, if she accomplished what she hoped to, it would make no difference.

She entered a room that narrowed from front to back and she knew she was near the nose of the ship. Many oddly shaped canisters lined the walls with two tubes projecting out towards her. The canisters had a profile that reminded her of the bullets for her gun, and the flat end of them bore the unmistakable glow of a soul gem.

There was magic here, but it didn't take her long to realize what she was looking at. This was the weapon that had destroyed the ships. These things were some sort of projectile bomb. The logical way to destroy the ship was here. If she could get one of these things to explode, they would doubtless destroy the others as well. The combined explosion would be catastrophic. Of course, she'd be in the middle of it.

She considered her death for a moment. She heard voices approaching, and stopped thinking about it. She unstrapped one of the canisters from the wall and picked it up. It was surprisingly light.

Two argonians approached her, one baring a wicked knife that dwarfed her own. She noticed the other one was rubbing the back of her neck. She felt a little good about that, though if what she planned would work, she would be gone in a moment along with everyone else on this ship.

"Back," she said, lifting the canister over her head. "Or I'll throw this thing with enough force to blow us all to the afterlife." She had just a little hope that she could get the argonians off the ship before she tried it.

The argonian hesitated. Then an altmer came up and she knew she was out of time.

"IDIOT!" the altmer said, trying to get past the two argonians. "She can't..."

And then Ra'Jirra threw the canister as hard as she could at another against the far wall.

It made quite a loud noise, but no explosion came.

"Ha!" the altmer said, though she had seen an instant of panic on his face. Then another argonian came up behind him as the first two backed away.

"Get her Pak-sha, before she does any real damage."

The new argonian was large. Very large. She dropped her knife and held her hands up, but it didn't stop him from coming. He grabbed her roughly and dragged her back out of the ship backwards, with an arm like iron wrapped around her middle. She felt like a sack of potatoes with a tail.