Continued

So, back to what happened. We got on the ship. Everyone started piling from the boat and onto the ship, climbing up the rigging with some difficulty. Once there, I lit a smoke bomb Aleck had sent me and a cloud of smoke blinded the guards. They were quickly and quietly disarmed, and I ordered a few men from the ship to make sure they didn't escape, the rest of us (about 15 people, 10 of us armed) split up into two groups and stealthily circled the deck of the ship. The remaining guards were rounded up and placed into custody. I sent a few men to send up signals to the merchant ship and then called Aleck, "everything's going well. Most of the soldiers are probably below deck, though. Send the chloroform."
"Roger that, sending in ten seconds." Oleck and I together opened the hatch that led inside the ship.

"Hey! Prisoners escaping!" Oleck called out, "all hands on deck." Then, as if by magic, ten open bottles of chloroform appeared at the bottom of the stairs. We closed the hatch and reinforced the door so it couldn't be opened from the inside. "So this is the future?" Oleck asked, pulling a gas-mask over his face.

"Pretty much."

"Do you all wear these in the future?"
I laughed at that, but shook my head. We heard people banging at the door from the inside, and some coughing. After a few minutes, all was quiet. We opened the hatch, and bodies were strewn all over the floor. Oleck was horrified.

"Don't worry," I reassured him, "they're just sleeping." We stepped carefully over them, and into the prisoner hold. Finding the key was easy enough. Victory was almost in our grasps.

And then I opened the first cell. Hungry, tired, exhausted prisoners poured out. Utter chaos was the result. People were sh0uting cheerfully, pushing, shoving. I tried to give a few of them guns, but mostly they were just ignoring Oleck and me, "Aleck," I spoke into the microphone, "I need a loud speaker!" I heard one word, coming from the lips of almost all the prisoners, "water"

"Ten seconds until next charge is complete....OK, here's your megaphone." One appeared literally right in my hand.

"Listen everyone!" I called out desperately, "everybody needs to be quiet, and head to wherever the water reservoir is stationed! There will be weapons there to defend yourselves with! If you want freedom, you will fight!" I lowered the megaphone, "get those weapons on deck onto the water resevoir, ASAP." I ordered to Patrick.

"ASAP, sir?"

"As soon as possible."
"General!" I looked over in surprise at the man who had just said that, "some of the soldiers have escaped."

"Oh, no. We've got to hurry this up then." I grabbed Oleck, "have you found your father yet?"

He looked around frantically, and then his eyes grew wide, "he's not here!"

"I'm sure he's close. He was a special prisoner. They might have kept him somewhere else."

He nodded hopefully, and we left into another corridor.

Oleck stopped running, "gunshots." I paused. There were definitely shots being fired, but then, after just a couple seconds, the shots stopped. We kept running, frantically and randomly, through room after room. "There he is!" sure enough, there, in a lone cell, stood someone who I can only describe as a combination of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The shouting was loudening upstairs, and then doors burst open.

"Get the prison door in it." British soldiers came piling into the ship.

"I can't find the key!" Oleck held a chain of keys.

"Keep trying." but it was too late. The British soldiers we could hear the soldiers getting closer, "keep trying," I repeated, "and take this." I handed him my time machine-watch.

"You need that." Oleck shook his head.

"Stand really close together." I ignored him, "get close to your father and press 'enter'."

"I can't leave you here."

"No, you have to. I can get out of this." (Don't ask me what I had in mind), "You need your dad alive." Oleck accepted and walked up to the cell and tried the keys again.

I walked out to 'greet' the British soldiers.

"Surrender! You're under arrest for treason."
"Treason is a point of view." I stalled, glancing behind at Oleck, who was still working on the lock.
"Disobedience will result in punishment."

"You're not taking me alive."

Then the soldiers saw Oleck working on the lock, "step aside."
"Never,"

"Step aside now."

"You'll never take me alive." I pulled out my gun and aimed. One of the soldiers fired at me, but Oleck and his father were gone. I smiled and nodded, and the soldiers looked back at me with bewilderment.

"You're under arrest."
"Oh," I clutched my side, where I had been shot, "alright."

Oh, shoot. I have to go. I'm at a hospital right now. I'd tell you more but, well, I will tomorrow.