Chapter 10

The attitude on the ship was tense as they got underway.  It took only a matter of minutes for the news of the cruiser to travel to those who had missed the little event and a quiet murmur settled over everyone.  These were men who were rather experienced in terms of aerial combat, men who had actually signed up for exactly that reason, and yet there was still reservation in them.  To Levi, this was a good thing.  He had generally seen three reactions to combat in his life: pure cowardice, this reserved tension, and pure battle lust.  Cowardice periodically saved a life.  The reserved attitude generally saved many lives.  Battle lust, on the other hand, generally cost people their lives.  He was glad Simon wasn’t running his ship like their late commander had back in Anchor.

“I think it’s best if we run at full throughout the night.  Put as much distance as we can between us and where we were spotted.”  Simon was glancing over their course map, laid out upon the center console in the bridge.  “And I’m thinking about swinging a bit to the west here.  It’ll keep us a bit further away from the nearest bush.  More open space, less places for them to hide from us if they come.”

“I suppose you’ll be lettin’ me back in the engine room, then,” Quincy asked.

“Why would I do that,” asked Simon, distracted.

“Because, if you’re wanting this bucket to run at full strength all night long, you may need someone with my particular skills down there to make sure it can handle the strain.  That engine’s not as new as it used to be, after all.””

Simon sighed and rubbed his forehead for a time.

“Alright, fine.  Get down there.  But let’s not flip the thing off this time, okay?”

“Fair is fair.”  Quincy smiled, turned, and exited the bridge.  Levi watched him go, wishing he hadn’t.  The old man had the strange ability of making situations seem a little less tense than they really were.  Abigail, however, had lately developed the opposite trait.

“You took a random shot at a pirate ship, and then get upset when its friends may be chasing you.  This is your fault, Mr. Spriggs.  Yours as well, Levi.  Of all the things to do.  You’re supposed to be protecting us, not shooting at anything that moves.  I was for continuing the other day, but this is different.  We should head back toward Walton Harbor and wait for all of this mess to settle down.”

“If they’re any good, lady,” Simon said, turning on her, “there’s already a number of ships on our trail.  Turning around would simply allow them to catch us faster.  I, for one, don’t want anything like that to happen.  Americans, anyway, don’t surrender.”

Abigail’s face flushed a slight red and she clenched her fists.

“I swear, you randomly shoot into the stormy skies at ships that may or may not be pirate in nature, swagger about like you own the place –”

“Which I do,” Simon pointed out, though Abigail paid him no mind.

“ – and then you go lecturing me on the wise course of action.  That’s ridiculous.  We should have simply stayed with the crash victims, and then gone back with them when we had the chance.”

“Abigail, that would’ve have fixed anything.  You and Quincy, first and foremost, need to get to North Mine.  I’m getting you there because I said I would.   And the pirate problem here in Franklin Reach is obviously a little bigger than I gave it credit the other day.  But I still believe this is one of the safest places on this world to be.”

“Besides, Ms. Graner, pirates will have a tough time taking this girl down,” Hank said, smiling around at the crew.  He obviously enjoyed life among the airmen.  “It’ll be okay.”

“I wish I had your optimism, Hank, I really do.  Unfortunately, it’s now too late to do anything more than run.  Thanks to Mr. Spriggs here.  But fine.  I’ll be in my cabin if I’m needed.  Be sure to get me once the pirates start shooting up your men; I am a doctor, after all.”  With a flurry of her dress and coat, Abigail turned and left the bridge, her anger obvious in the way she walked.  Levi just shook his head.

“That good for nothing woman doesn’t understand what it is we’re even doing for her, does she?  We’re out here risking our lives just so she can make some job appointment and there so goes yelling at me.  I mean, seriously.”  Simon was shaking his head, obviously also angry if not as much so as Abigail.

“She was promised a leisurely scenic trip up to a mine where she could do her work.  Do you think we’ve lived up to our end of the bargain?”

“I had nothing to do with your bargain, brother.  I just want to get this job over with.  It’ll only be too soon when I finally get rid of your guests, Levi.”

“Sorry you feel that way,” Levi replied, though his heart wasn’t in it.  He had talked tough, but he wasn’t so sure about what they were doing now.  Running from their current position all the way to North Mine was possible.  They were about a day and a half out, give or take a few hours and the Iron Dove was anything but a slow ship.  But if their pursuers, which were more than likely actually back there somewhere, were able to employ a Cirrus cruiser, then there’s no telling what other kind of ships they had bearing down on them.  Those things weren’t cheap, after all.

Levi slept that night as best as he could, stirring and rolling, trying to drown out the noise of the roaring engines.  They were generally quiet, but then they generally didn’t move along at full power for ten hours, either.  He had experience in this matter, however, and soon found himself drifting away.  It was strange, he thought, as his mind methodically shut his body down into a state of hibernation, that he hadn’t yet experienced the sense of action and adventure that he had been expecting.  He was strangely numb to all the happenings.

He awoke with a jolt, sitting upright so fast he almost flew from the bed.  A massive bang had sounded from the rear of the ship, disrupting his slow slide into slumber.  Breathing hard, he looked about, quickly reorienting himself.  This had always been the worst aspect of flying, at least for him.  Sleep was so hard to get and he hated that “almost asleep but not quite” feeling that you were constantly in while moving through the air.  His mind quickly told him that the noise was nothing more than an engine backfiring.  It was to be expected; they were probably running rather hot by that point.  He ran his fingers through his hair, a mighty sigh issuing forth as he roused himself to stand.  He would be getting no more sleep, he was sure.

It was dawn, he saw, as he glanced out a window.  So they had made it through the night without incident.  That wasn’t a terribly big surprise, but pleasing all the same.  It was hard engaging in the air during the night; too many logistical problems, first and foremost being visibility.  He had been in a number of night-time aerial fights and he knew that it was both maddeningly frustrating and frightening.  He didn’t really want to do any of that again.

He spent about an hour below deck in the galley with Quincy, absently chewing on a piece of tough sourdough bread while staring off into nothing, expecting any moment to hear the battle siren.  The older man, obviously aware that Levi was only there in body and not mind, said little and respected the silence.  There wasn’t tension, though.  Quincy didn’t appear to be too overly concerned about their state of affairs and, as such, neither was Levi.  It was interesting how that worked.  Finally, in order to distract himself, Levi turned to the man beside him.

“So, Quincy, what are your thoughts on all of this?”

“All of this?  What do you mean?”

“Walton Harbor exploding, wrecked airships, being chased by pirates; all of that.”

“Are you sure we’re even being followed,” the man asked, a curious grin upon his face. “I’d think if they were behind us they’d have been spotted by now.  The skies are awfully clear today, after all.  But we haven’t seen a single speck back behind us.”

“I suppose it’s better to be safe than sorry.  Maybe you’re right.  Maybe the gun intimidated them.  Lord knows it turned more than a few German ships around back in the day.  Speaking of which, what were you doing back during the war?”

“The war was actually a boring time for me, son.  Not much happening.”

“You weren’t doing anything?  A man of your skill would’ve obviously been useful to the military and I’m guessing there were a hundred different places you could’ve worked.”

“As it happens, though, I was stuck in the basement of a small building in a small university out West.  I had been contracted to do some of the hands-on work with the research going on down there.”

“Oh?  What were you researching?”

“Depended on the day, mostly,” Quincy said, deflecting.  “Heh.  Once I remember working on this complicated gyro system for a couple weeks.  Took a while to get the thing all balanced and I had no idea what it was for.  A few days later, I was told it was to be part of an automated carpet sweeper.  So that’s what I was doing.”

“Sounds good to me.  I never liked sweeping the carpet, anyway.”

They shared a chuckle but the silence quickly settled in again.  Oddly enough, there wasn’t a whole lot to talk about that wasn’t overly depressing.  After a time, Levi stood and made his way up to the main deck, where a number of men moved about, most acting as lookouts.  They had slowed a bit from their nighttime speed, which was good because otherwise the winds on deck would’ve been overwhelming.  As it was, there was simply a good breeze.  Levi pulled his coat close and moved over to the railing.  The fields of grass below flowed by, one seamless ocean of yellow going on forever.

The ocean was marred only by the relatively close bush; still a few hours ride away.  It was called a Baby Bush because it was rather small when compared to the others.  It was speculated that it was simply newer and still growing while others said it was a different, but similar, species of plant.  Levi didn’t really care one way or another.  It was the size of a small forest instead of a mountain range, like its larger brothers, and was typically the dens of pirates that plagued these northern routes.  There were a number of them littered across the plains and if the captain was clever enough, it was possibly to move from one to another during the night with minimal exposure during the day.

About five years ago, in fact, a rather small Baby Bush was caught on fire to deny it to the pirates in the area.  The southern horizon had glowed for a month as the massive conflagration raged.  It had, in truth, been somewhat of a rash decision and, as such, not well planned.  Ash from the fire had drifted north and blanketed a number of towns like snow.  It had taken another few months just to clean up the mess.  There had also been, Levi recalled, a small protest because the fire destroyed the habitat of many different animals.  It didn’t last too long, however.

Besides concealment, there was another reason they were generally left to pirates: they weren’t very profitable.  Their sap was rather underpowered and had a relatively short shelf life.  As such, Hannan didn’t really have much to do with them.  The Guard supposedly had a few reserve mines running at some of them, in case of national emergency, but Levi had never heard if this was actually true or not.  He doubted it, though.  Baby bushes weren’t safe places to be.

The door leading into the bridge flung open and Abigail strode out, an indignant look upon her face.  She was followed in short order by Simon.  Levi smiled; Simon yelling after one of Levi’s guests out onto the deck was becoming a daily occurrence.

“Blast it, woman, will you just let me talk for one second?”

“And why would I want to listen to anything you had to say, hmm?  Go away.”

“This is my ship!  You don’t tell me to go away, I tell you to go away, so… maybe you should just go away.”

“Very clever, Mr. Spriggs.  I’m sure your parents are very pleased with you.”

“Hey, don’t be bringing my parents into this.  Just because you’re an uptight German witch doesn’t mean you can insult my folks.”

“It’s not my fault they brought you into this world.  They have to shoulder some of the responsibility.”

“Yeah?  Well at least mine didn’t get the hell blasted out of ‘em in the war.”

With blinding speed, Abigail’s hand flew through the air and contacted with Simon’s face.  Even in the windy environment, the crack of the slap could be heard loud and clear.  Simon stumbled back a bit, having obviously not seen that coming in the least.  Before he could speak, though, Abigail quickly turned and walked up to Levi.

“Mr. Wyman, I ask that you please keep Mr. Spriggs away from me for the remainder of this trip.  Thank you.”  And with that, she turned and re-entered the vessel.  Levi looked over at Simon, who was now rubbing the huge red handprint on his face.

“What in the world did you do to her?”

“I was just trying to apologize.”

“Then you need to work on your approach a little, I think.”  Levi sighed and shook his head.  “You can’t just be all bull-headed with everyone you interact with, you know?  You occasionally have to show people a little respect.”

“And that’s what I was tryin’ to do.  She came into the bridge, looking for you or Quincy I think, and I told her that I’d like to apologize.  I said I was sorry, even said I was under a lot of stress and didn’t mean it.  Then I put on a little bit of the Spriggs charm to seal the deal.”

“Well there’s your bloody problem.”

“What, my charm?  Aww, come on.  It’s second to none.”

“Let me guess, there was mention of her breasts?”

“…Maybe.”

“I’d just like to say that you completely had that coming to you.  I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: you’re an idiot.”

“Well we can’t all be a selfless prince like you, now can we.”

“Right.  Head’s up, by the way.”

“Huh?”

He turned just in time to see Abigail once more coming out onto deck, her hand blurring once more.  This time Simon was ready, though, and he caught her wrist before she made contact.

“Devil woman!  What are you doing now?!”

“How dare you speak of me as some sort of… object.  My body is not your concern.”  She instinctively moved to slap him, but he still had a hold on her arm.  “And let go of me, you pig.”

“Abigail, I’ll keep him away, alright?  Just calm down and do inside,” Levi said patiently.

“Very well,” she said, relaxing.  “But I would request that my transport fee not be paid.  I will not justify his actions by giving him money.”

“Oh no you don’t,” Simon said, wheeling on Levi.  “You’re paying me the original price I gave, no fee removals now.  Especially not after this witch slapped me.”

“The fees still come off as long as there’s no fighting.  You said so yourself.  But you’ll get paid, don’t… What’s he looking at?”  Levi’s focus had suddenly slipped past the two arguing individuals and noticed a lookout seemingly staring intently off into the dazzling blue sky.  Had he not been trained in it, he might have missed it but it was there.  A ship was moving off to the west.  Simon’s and Abigail’s argument suddenly became ancient news as they both stared off into the distance.

“Scope,” Simon yelled, turning to a man down on the forecastle.  “What is it?”

“Airship, alright,” the man replied, his eyes glued to his spotting scope.  “No cargo ship, though.  Mercury class frigate, I’d say.  Ten to twelve miles out, heading… intercept.  Weapons range in twenty minutes on current headings.”

Levi and Simon shared glances.

“A Mercury.  That’s a big ship, Simon.”

“Yes, I recall.”  Simon looked about the deck and realized everyone was staring at him.  “Alright, men, action stations.  Sound the contact siren, essential personnel to the bridge.”

Simon, Levi, and Abigail entered the bridge just as Hank and Quincy hurried through the other door.

“What’s going on,” Hank asked excitedly, the siren already sounding.

“We’ve got a ship off to the west coming in hot.  Radio?”

“I’ve been trying to hail them but no success.  They’re staying quiet.”

“Helmsman, course correction?  We need as much distance between us as we can get; I don’t care if it’s even remotely in the right direction.”

“Winds coming in from the west, helping him come on to us.  I suggest we turn hard rudder and head east as fast as we can go.”

Simon nodded.

“Do it.”

A moment later the ship lurched hard on its side and banked almost a full ninety degrees before leveling out.  The engines roared to full strength one more and Levi could feel the ship picking up speed.  He glanced out the window but the ship was behind them now.

“She can’t run like this for long,” Quincy chimed in suddenly.  “We ran her too hard last night.  We’ll blow somethin’ if we keep this up for too long.”

“How long do you think she can go?”

“An hour or so at full.  Then we’re going to have to do some work before she can go like that.  I’d say another hour of downtime.”

“Not good,” Simon said, staring intently at the map before him.  “How did they get to the west of us?  Ran our engines for nothing.”

“I’m not sure,” Levi said.  “A Mercury frigate wouldn’t have been able to keep up with us.  Maybe they radioed ahead.  Maybe we ran ourselves into a trap.”  The thought was an unsettling one, so Simon simply ignored it.  Instead, he looked back to Quincy.

“An hour of downtime, you say?  Running at full for an hour would give us an additional forty minute lead and they’re already twenty back.  That’s an hour.  That’s a little too close for comfort, old man.”

“Regardless of if you like it or not, that’s what’s goin’ to have to happen.  Otherwise we overheat the engines and we just float here while they come on in.  That doesn’t seem like a terribly good idea, captain.”

“Fine.  We’ll drop down to the secondary when the time comes.  That’s that, then.”

Levi nodded.  He then changed his mind on the worst aspect of flying, deciding that it was this part, instead.

“Now we wait.”