Travis's ship, the Wind Shadow, has sailed into the midst of a pitched sea battle. One of the participating ships is a New Atlantean vessel, and thinks Travis is reinforcements; he's not, his forces are at war with the Atlanteans and captured that ship. Travis and his crew take the Atlantean ship, which was carrying captured slaves; but then they get a call--a shout, literally--from the other ship, the pirate vessel of the dread Hawkins the red-hand, Cap'n Hawk, the scourge of the Skartarian Seas, otherwise known as the Sea Snake! Travis has never heard of him, and isn't that impressed; but wonders if he can't use the pirate against the Atlanteans.
The Cap'n isn't adverse to making a deal with Travis, but wants an ace up his sleeve, and has his men kidnap Tara while he and Travis are hashing out the details. He'd planned on keeping her as insurance, with a bit of ransom for good measure, figuring Travis wouldn't dare attack while they held her. Yeah, not so much: Travis has himself launched at the pirates by catapult, then shoots Hawk's sword with the always-handy .44 Automag! Not to be left out, Tara gets to slug Hawk as well.
Hawk graciously decides to let Travis and Tara go, after all, he was merely, um, testing them, to insure Travis was the legendary Warlord. And he was still down with rescuing slaves for sacks of gold, so Travis did win an ally. A slimy, untrustworthy bastard of one, but still.
And also this issue: another installment of the Barren Earth, in which the captured bug-headed alien Qlov seems far less threatening when it repeats the word "Qlov!" excitedly. And seems to be wearing slacks. ("The City in the Sky!" Written by Gary Cohn, art by Ron Randall.)
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