Of course, it was not all fun and games, as Li has certainly related - I had to remain hidden while New China assaulted the crew upstairs, but they did not find us, of course... well, save one crewman, who came downstairs to shirk his duties as Mahmoud and I moved to attack. He was preoccupied in the way that men often are when alone, and I had the advantage... until I tripped, and he noticed, bulging eyes catching me. I giggled gently, and spoke in semi-slurred Cantonese.
"Oh..." I played dumb, pretending I was tipsy. "I am so sorry, I have had too much to drink and must have boarded the wrong ship..."
"Well, that is alright, miss," he replied, and I thought I had him convinced. "I will not te-... Wait a second, you are not drunk! You are not staggering!"
Realizing I had nothing to fall back on, I reverted to my deadliest weapon - my own body. I am not proud to say I bared my chest for the creep, but it certainly worked. He was just distracted enough for Mahmoud to sneak behind him with his bayonet, and slash his throat. Never let it be said that womankind is not a dangerous breed of human, and that I am not a particularly dangerous woman.
We had thought this would be the last of the madness after the crew was taken out. We were wrong, on two counts. First, we did not anticipate that we would potentially lose a member of New China in the attack, which distressed Mahmoud somewhat until we reassured him that the man had attacked of his own will. Second, we did not expect anything to happen after we obtained control of the Dark Mistress. Perhaps we should have known better - it is always in the calmest of waters that a shark strikes, after all.
It was evening, and pitch black, as we all were gathering ourselves to plan for what to tell the Mainland about our capture of the ship. That was when we all heard a noise from beneath - not in the storage of the ship, but from under the bottom of the hull. It began as a soft thumping, and then the boat ever so gently rocked.
"What the Hell was that?" Francis asked nervously, peered from the engine room in concern. "Did you hear that?"
"We all did," I confirmed, watching Mahmoud load his rifle in nervous anticipation. Then one of the New China associates came to me, and pointed at the distance, worry in his eyes. We looked to the horizon, and saw beneath the waves around 20 dark shapes, large and shark-like, converging on the ship from all sides.
"Are those... sharks?" I asked, confused as we all peered over the sides. "They do not look it... but I cannot tell, let me see..."
I should not have leaned further forward, because at that moment something from beneath hit the boat with great force, slamming into it and nearly throwing me over the side. I was saved from being tossed into the water only by my quick reflexes in gripping the railing, and slowly began to pull myself up onto the deck. Unfortunately, something grabbed hold of my ankle, and began to pull back. It was like a hand or a talon, slippery and relentlessly strong. I remember shrieking in fear as the men on board grabbed my arms and fought with the thing, eventually succeeding.
"Mei-lin, are you alright?" Mahmoud and Francis were besides themselves with worry, while Li peeked back over the edge to see what they had fought with.
"I am alright," was my shaken response. "What was that? What had me?"
Before anyone could reply, we saw movement from the corners of our eyes, and something leapt onto the deck, dripping seawater and reeking of fish. It was twice as large as a man and muscular, and its frame was similarly anthropomorphic, but to take a second look revealed instantly that this was no man. A man does not have scales that shimmer like an oil slick, or gills at his neck and fins on his back. A man does not have lines of strange, glowing points down either side, or teeth that resemble needles. And a man certainly does not look like a horrendous half-amalgam of fish and human, with webbed and clawed paws and eyes that bulge from the sockets like two malformed full moons, catching the light and reflecting it with a keen, but dark, intellect.
It paused to glance at us, gauging our motives, then made some sort of demoniac clicking noise and proceeded towards us as several more of its kind crawled and leapt, dolphin-like, onto the bridge.
"Dear God! Shoot them!" I cried, backing away and already proceeding to pull a dagger from my gi. Then the New China members surged forward, eager to protect us, and a rough, inhuman croak of a voice suddenly broke the silence.
"Do not shoot. Surrender peacefully, and no harm will come..."
We looked to the creatures, realizing they had spoken, and one of their number stepped forward in a sort of hopping gait. It was a tealish-grey in color with a pallid belly, and with one of its bulging eyes cloudy from blindness. A long, ragged scar ran vertically over the useless eye, and several more crossed one another across its otherwise smooth scales.
"They... can speak," I murmured in astonishment. None of us had considered these beasts could be capable of speech with mouths such as theirs, especially after the countless feral beasts we'd seen thus far. But New China was not about to negotiate, and before any of us could stop them they ran at the fish-like amphibian things. "For Father Dagon!" roared the scarred being as it launched into the fray, its fellows about to follow suit behind it with hateful croaks.
"Wait a minute, hang on, we don't need to be violent!" Francis cried, stepping between the two parties. "They just said they don't want to fight..."
"They are clearly intelligent," Muuzaji added from the back. "Perhaps we can negotiate."
The fish-like beings paused, stared at us unblinkingly, then the scarred one turned and spoke to its fellows in a strange mixture of what seemed like frog croaks and hoarse dolphin chirps. It turned back, stepping forward, towering over us.
"We are sorry, humans," it said, lowering on its haunches to our level. "We at first believed you were the vessel of our enemy. Now we are not so sure. We require supplies and aid. Our pod has been splintered, and we suffer greatly for it. If you will aid us, we shall ensure no harm comes to you in these waters."
"How on earth did that happen?" Francis asked warily as the other fish-beings looked Muuzaji and myself over with looks of clear desire. "You guys look pretty tough. Who splintered you?"
"The Pale Viper," the scarred one responded, "And the Oriental Man who runs the Order. They are priests of the God of a Thousand Masks. They attacked our colony, and our number could not cope with their weapons. They had rocks that could burn, but were neither fire nor chemical, and explosives. Many of our number died, and many more were enslaved. We are all that are left, and a mere 20 of us cannot survive another attack. We have attempted to rebuild what we can elsewhere, but we have neither the numbers nor materials without ambushing human vessels. We cannot rescue our enslaved without bolstering our numbers, either. This is why we need your women, and your supplies."
"There are not enough of your own females?" I asked, suddenly nervous.
"No." The others' attention swiveled towards me, and I felt their filthy glances and shuddered as they looked me over. One glance at Muuzaji showed she felt much the same.
"Many of our females were enslaved," it continued. "There are only two in our splinter pod, and they often kill the young. But human females... are compatible."
Something like a smile, I think, crossed its features as it looked at me with a salubrious gaze, the way my customers do... and I felt ill. There was no way in hell I would ever let that thing get its slimy webbed claws on me.
"Look, the enemy of our enemy's our friend," Francis said, stepping forward. "We'll help you take down Ho Fong and the Order, because he's attacked us more than once, too. But you're not getting your paws on the girls, got that?"
"Francis, we're going to what?" I cried, horrified and unsure of these beings. They had attempted attack earlier and clearly wanted to assault Muuzaji and I. How could any of us trust such beings?
"I will not work with them," Mahmoud sneered, grip tight on his rifle, "Unless I may keep an eye on the women. They are dangerous."
"You do not have enough men to attack, and we know the island," the scarred one replied. "We are not pleased either, but the choice is clear. You can either aid us, or we shall both die by their hands..."
It was right, and we all knew it. Mahmoud's expression did not change, but I saw his eyes flicker in thought as he considered the options. Then, he spoke once more.
"I still do not trust them," he muttered, "But they are correct. We do not have enough men to attack the island, or even to defend ourselves from attack, if the entire Order converges on us at once. We have no choice, yes? We, regrettably, need their strength... and after all, they are merely victims."
I reluctantly relented, and from there it was quickly decided that we would have to keep them as allies. The one with the blinded eye, which we quickly came to call Scar owing to his numerous healed wounds, gave us a few strange-looking golden coins with a teal shimmer to them, and explained if we required their help, all we needed to do was drop one into the water and they would come. And so, an uneasy alliance with the Ones from the Deep was formed, and they left peacefully, slipping back into the sea and vanishing beneath its waves. I do not trust those creatures, but I cannot deny they are intelligent and may have knowledge we do not possess. I hope we can trust them to hold their end of the deal, but if they do not...
There is no more time to speak of such matters, so I must put my doubts aside for now. I can already see Grey Dragon Island's smoke from here. Its cinder cone rises above the waters in the far distance, colored bloody red by the rising sun's rays. Tomorrow, we will proceed with our scouting of the island, and if we are cautious, perhaps we will even set foot on its shores. I pray to my ancestors for luck in this regard. We will most certainly require it.
-- Madame Xu Mei-lin, Doubtful but Determined (June 9th, 1928)