Pirates of the Sky

"So it's really gone?"

"Yes, Ransom, for the thousandth time, it is really gone."

"I mean, I know I wasn't paying attention but that's quite a big thing to miss."

"I know."

Ransom and South were chained and bound in a cell within the bowels of the pirates' elaborate airship. Hauled from the deck of the Titanic, rather unceremoniously, the two had then been tossed into the shabby and damp cage and left there. Around them, in other cells, were the nobles and gentry of the passenger rosters, many of them young women clad in expensive dresses who were crying into the arms of other women, with a few moustachioed gentlemen also crying into the arms of other women.

"So I doomed to this hell-whole of a universe, then?"

"What makes you say that?"

Ransom and South didn't look at each other as they talked. They sat slumped against the back wall of their cell and stared out to the corridor beyond the iron-bar door.

"All my research, the only remains of my Drive, all my materials... gone."

"Well, you're not the only one."

"It's alright for you, you actually live in this universe. Or use to, until we changed it so much. I doubt it's very recognisable now."

"Pirate airships and a Titanic in the Caribbean? No, not part of my history books."

"I don't like this universe."

"So you keep saying." South was becoming tired with his friend's constant moaning and complaining. Ever since they had been locked in the cell, Ransom had whined about his predicament, about being stuck in a universe that was not his own.

"Do you know why?"

"No, but I have a feeling you are going to tell me anyway."

"It's too colourful."

"Of course it is," South said absent-mindedly. Then he suddenly clicked. "Wait, what?"

"Too colourful. I didn't really notice it until now, maybe I was just too busy. My universe, it's black and white. Strange, that."

Before the conversation could move any further, a short pirate, no taller than 4 foot, appeared at the door of the cell, rattling his sabre along the metal bars.

"Right, 'Mister Word Man', you're time is up."

Ransom and South both sat in silence, staring at the short pirate. It hadn't dawned on them before but the pirates didn't really look like pirates at all. Rather than clad in a leather coat and heavy boots, he was decked to the nines in a smart pinstripe suit, complete with spats. It was an interesting mix of pirate and gangster, with the suit and spats and sabre and red bandanna around the head. And by interesting, I mean very peculiar indeed.

"I'm guessing it's me, then?" Ransom said finally as he rapidly flipped the pages of his book across his thumb.

"Makes sense," South said with a smirk, "All you're science is fiction."

"Don't be jealous, Dr. South," Ransom said, and smiled back, laughter breaking out between the two of them.

"Hey!" squawked the pirate, "You lot are meant to be scared."

Ransom pushed himself from his fee, dusting the dirt and mud from his white linen suit.

"Do I get to meet the Captain of this fine vessel before I meet whatever terrible fate you might have in store for me?"

"Oh, we ain't going to kill you, not until Captain Capone has met the 'legendary adventurer and author extraordinaire Ransom MacIntyre', that is."

"Captain Capone?"

South just buried his face in his hands in shame. "You've got to be kidding me."