I am riding the ferry, going from San Francisco to Oakland. It is a sunny, slightly hazy day and, with a disjarring jolt of the scene, it becomes apparent that the ferry has been hijacked. Several people are being held hostage, including a friend of mine, AB. 

For some reason, the hijackers have sneaked a tiger on board the ferry, and AB is convinced that he will be fed to this tiger by the hijackers, in order to make a point to the feds who are no-doubt desperately negotiating via radio. Rather calmly, AB tells me that he's made a will concerning his assets, but he wishes to dictate to me some last-minute changes. AB has had a fight with his half-brother BO and wants to adjust his will accordingly. Rather desperately, I'm trying to convince AB that all will work out well, and that he won't be fed to some man-eating tiger. 

The scene shifts somewhat, and I'm now on the 'bridge' of the ferry, trying to steer it into port. Needless to say, I'm not doing a very good job, but it seems the hijackers - now dubbed pirates in my mind - don't think they could do any better. For some reason, part of the Oakland port is enclosed, and it's rather like trying to park an overlarge SUV into a narrow garage - much careening into walls, but no real damage. 

In the meantime, I talk to the hijackers, who apparently haven't fed anyone to the tiger yet, and learn that they are (or believe they are) from the 18th Century. The female leader of the pirate crew insists she is Marie Antoinette and, facing a certain lack of other options, they have turned to piracy as a means to survive. Unfortunately, they weren't savvy enough to tell the difference between a cargo ship and a passenger ferry and, whilst this chatting was going on, the ferry's passengers have all decamped via the life boats, leaving the hijackers with rather a lack of hostages.

I'm not sure why, but I feel sorry for these so-called pirates. I convince them to hand me their weapons (two knives, and nothing else) and once the coast guard boards (which took some sincere fast-talking on my part, as there were convinced the incident was a hoax) I told the authorities that Marie and her three brigand-ish companions were other passengers on the boat and that the hijackers had gotten away in a boat of their own. My sympathy for the 'pirates' had extended to point to which I didn't want to see them caught. I'm not sure why I want to protect them, but I am distracted by the very shiny long-bladed knife I had taken from one of them...