PodCastle 383: Abandoned Responsibility
Show Notes
Rated PG-13
Abandoned Responsibility
by G. Scott Huggins
“Ah, Captain.” The pirate bowed. His accent was crisp and strange, and the crowd hushed as they strained to listen. “I thank you for your hospitality—”
Haraad cut him off with his usual tact. “The captain . . . has better things to do. I’m his son. And we aren’t rescuing you, pirate.”
The stranger’s odds would have been better a year ago, with the captain, but he had taken sick. And Haraad was just enough of a sailor to see Ekkaia safely back to the Grove. But there was no way for this man to know that.
The stranger’s face fell. “I was afraid of that,” he said calmly. “I don’t suppose you’d believe me if I told you that our, ah . . . situation . . . has changed?”
The crowd laughed, Haraad loudest of all. It was an oily, ugly sound. But even Responsibility felt the laughter well up in her for an instant. Pirates change? One might as well ask the sunspike to move! Ever since the First Fleet split, the Near Islands had been rife with pirates. It did not look good for the pirate, alone on a Century Ship.
About the Author
G. Scott Huggins
G. Scott Huggins teaches history at The Independent School of Wichita, Kansas. His most recent publication is the standalone short story “When the Fleet Comes,” available on Amazon from Digital Science Fiction.
About the Narrator
Wilson Fowlie
Wilson Fowlie lives in a suburb of Vancouver, Canada, and has been reading stories out loud since the age of four. He credits any talent he has in this area to his parents, who are both excellent at reading aloud. He started narrating stories for more than just his own family in late 2008, when he answered a call for readers on the PodCastle forum. Since then, he has gone on to read dozens of stories for PodCastle, as well as all of the other Escape Artists ’casts, and many other fiction podcasts all over the web. He does all this narrating when not reading copy for corporate videos, and acting in local theatre productions.
