Since it was a democracy Neriena decided to give the crew a say in their fate. She called the meeting while they were in their favorite hiding spot off of the coast of an island that was nowhere near the shipping lanes. Where there were no shipping lanes there were no naval ships, or at least that's what they hoped. Neriena knew better then anyone that they were going to need a lot of quiet time to talk things out. No decision was made quickly in the crew where everyone wanted to drink on a problem and then drink on the solution. Neriena had banned actual physical fighting on the ship but all that meant was that the debate had to be paused so that the people who insisted on fighting could go on shore and sort out their differences.
Neriena was amazed to find how much the men under her command had gone from unwilling pirates to looking for ways to continue with the life style. A few of them were looking at ways that they could go back to main society but many of them had discovered that they liked the freedom and had no desire to leave Neriena. She hadn't expected this and therefore had no plan for the crew staying together.
Neriena ordered that they take newspapers from any ship that they captured, for the purpose of reading what was being said about them, but these newspapers gave them the answer to their problem as well. Technology had been advancing in Europe and the Americas since Neriena had left them and now there were dirigibles in the air. Rare as they were there were already companies allowing them for sale to the very wealthy and bored. Neriena had wealth and could see a new and unpatroled area to branch out into. No one was exploiting it yet but she could see a whole new market. If they were going to be the last of the sea pirates she would see that they were also the first air pirates.
It was a mission that the other pirates trusted Neriena with and that was an honor for her since they really shouldn't have trusted anyone. Neriena was to go into New York City, dressed as a proper lady. To the shock of the entire crew that was what she had been storing in the chest in her room, she had an entire wardrobe of gowns that she had been slowly amassing. The moment the secret was out she put enough to have paid for three times the clothing in the shared pot for everyone to see. The last thing she wanted if they were going to continue working together was suspicions that she was holding out on them. They might fear her but fear would only get her so far before and when the fear was worn out she would have another mutiny on her hands and she wasn't so confident in her ability that she thought she could defeat another. Few captains even survived one of them, Neriena could already count herself among the strong and the lucky. The gesture of her honesty put her crew in a good mood and they cheered when she appeared on deck for the first time looking like a fine western woman.
Walking down the streets of New York again, and in a dress, was a strange experience for Neriena. She had no fear of being recognized and this time her confidence was well founded. She was just another well dressed woman in a street full of well dressed women. She knew better then to go even close to her old haunts around five points, as tempting as it was, she would have been robbed the second that her fine dress appeared among those buildings. She was also painfully aware of the amount of money she was carrying on her person. It was all from her personal share of the treasure instead of out of the common fund, she wanted to have that much control of the vessel at least. It made her feel more justified in being the captain if she was the one who had bought their ship.
The offices of the makers of dirigibles had been mentioned in the newspaper and she found her way to them without too much trouble. There she had more problems then she had expected however. The main problem she had thought she was going to have was was explaining where the money came from but the privileged rich came through many times in such an office and so that was not even brought up. The most questions she got was about being a woman conducting such a large item of business without a man present. She had grown so used to her crew and being in control of everything, or not recognized as a woman at all, that the response caught her totally unprepared.
To be continued...
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