The Sky Pioneer Stuff
Mar. 3rd, 2012 03:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
enkerzedwell, here it is. next part might take a while longer to write because of uni.
The Sky Pioneer: Chapter Two
“So who did we lose?” Piper asked as she sat on the bottom of the staircase, away from the noise of celebration in the mess hall. She had been there briefly to congratulate everyone for successfully defending the ship, but was not feeling very hungry.
“One of Ian’s, ma’am… Merrick,” Wyatt reluctantly answered.
Piper shook her head. She had known Merrick to be only friendly member of Ian’s gang. Tough and menacing, they were true mercenaries, the muscle of the ship, but with Merrick gone they were now indeed all just a bunch of vicious snakes. His presence would be missed.
“Anyone else?” Piper said.
“No ma’am, it’s just him. Some of the new recruits got a few scratches and Riley has a head wound, but he’ll be fine. I still can’t believe what he did.”
Piper smiled slightly. “Impulsive for a married man, ain’t he?”
“Crazy is more like it! Poor Isabella would have a heart attack if she knew what he did.”
“I hear that.”
Riley, Riley, Riley, the only married man on the ship and quite young at that. A very earnest man, though most definitely to a fault, Piper thought. It seemed that whatever he did, whether it was moving cargo or doing maintenance and repair jobs on the ship, he did it with absolute seriousness. He had been on the ship for a year now, not one of the original crew members like Isaac, Wyatt, Anthony and Penny, but long enough to become too familiar with the dangers of the sky and he would risk it all for his wife, Isabella.
Everyone knew that Riley only worked on the Gloria to be able to smuggle medicine for his wife, though he would never admit it and no one held it against him, even if it meant less money for everyone else. Lost in a pirate attack, Piper would always explain. So much about Riley was so well known now, even intimate details such as him and Isabella being childhood sweethearts, that his welfare was considered by some to be a matter of duty. Though there was never much that could be done to help once he started to act out of his heart, and forgot how to think.
Isabella’s a lucky woman, Piper thought as she listened to the crew cheering Riley’s name. As pleasing as it was though, there were more important matters to think about right now.
“Once all that merrymaking’s over, get some people to clean up the cargo hold and move all the crates back into place,” she said.
“Aye ma’am… er, what about Ian?” Wyatt replied.
“He and his are bastards, but they’re a tight bunch, so give him a few minutes, for Merrick. But make sure they do their business before the party’s over.”
“Oh, right ma’am. That’s what I was afraid of actually.”
~~~~~ 1
Due to the captain’s strict no-alcohol-aboard-the-ship policy, everyone had to make do with water or the odd flask of liquor smuggled in from the last port of harbor, but the crew’s spirits ran high nevertheless. The new recruits were particularly celebrated for surviving the battle, no matter what little they did, and were now being congratulated with handshakes and claps on the back, as though they passed some sort of test.
By some small mercy, Riley was no longer being lifted into the air and paraded about the mess hall as thirty voices around him chanted his name. He was glad for the opportunity to slip away into the kitchen and get away from the noise for a moment. Most of all, he was glad that none of the crates of medicine were destroyed, though some were damaged.
He sat at the bottom of a stove and closed his eyes as he laid his head back to rest, thinking of Isabella.
She had never been happy with the way he obtained the medicine for treating her illness, but then again it was never really a matter of choice. The right kind was never available from other frontier towns, so it had to be the big cities; places that mattered and were likely to have them in stock.
Without any kind of wealth or helpful connections, signing up to serve on a merchant vessel was also the only option Riley had. It was either that or turn to a life of crime. Riley chuckled at his own imagination as he pictured himself as a bandit, marauding across the land with a pistol in each hand. I would have damn well done it too, he thought soberly. If it wasn’t for the captain…
“Hey Riley!” Penny chirped cheerfully as she walked into the kitchen, carrying a stack of food stained plates.
His thoughts interrupted, Riley looked up as though waking from a dream and replied, “Oh, hello Penny. Do you want any help with that?”
Penny had just set the plates down in the sink while Riley was talking.
“Never mind,” he said.
“The others say that you tackled a guy that had heavy amour and a big damn flamethrower, is it true?” Penny asked as she hunkered down next to Riley. He wished that she did not do that. It was like she had no sense of personal space.
“Well… yeah, that is true, but…”
“And you blew up their ship too! Aw heck, I wish I was there to see. It must have taken some real balls to do it, eh?”
“Penny, it was dangerous. I don’t think…”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m just a kid. The captain said that too. To heck with her I say; I should have been there! I mean, c’mon, you know I ain’t a slouch in a fight.”
It was true. Penny had, for some baffling reason, an extreme proficiency with firearms. Much more than anyone at her age should have had. Even more baffling was her skill in dismantling machinery. Give her half a day and a team of heavy lifters, and she could have, no, she HAD, stripped down one of the Gloria’s primary rotor towers for extremely thorough maintenance jobs. Riley would not have been surprised if Ian and his band of mercenaries actually taught Penny some of their skills. What her life was like before coming aboard the Gloria, Riley never cared to ask; anything to avoid initiating a conversation with her. The girl was simply too strange.
“Hey, that’s one of them new folk,” Penny said as she looked out of the kitchen door.
Curtis and Marcus were standing just outside, talking to each other. Riley heard Curtis say, “You lost it?”
“No, I said I couldn’t find it. Someone else must have taken it,” Marcus replied.
“Okay, I suppose I could find it later… but tell me, how did it handle?
“Real swee’, defini’ straigh’ shoo’er it is,” Ian said, seemingly emerging from nowhere. “B’ ah prefer mah sho’gun. Sentime’al value, ya know?”
Curtis stood confused as Ian held out the rifle for a moment, inspecting it. With a typically chilling smile, he returned the rifle to Curtis and then went back the way he came.
A few seconds later, Wyatt entered the mess hall and caught sight of Ian walking towards the crew quarters. Wyatt hurried his way through the mass of celebrating crewmates and caught up to the mercenary boss at the door. “Ian, the captain says…”
“Stow it, ah know what she wants,” Ian interrupted as he stepped into the crew quarters.
Wyatt followed inside to tell Ian what the captain wanted anyway, but as soon he saw what was happening at the far end of the room, he cursed himself for forgetting. Marching past rows of bunk beds were the four remaining members of Ian’s gang, each carrying a gun, and one was hefting a metal storage chest under his arm. Stenciled on its lid in thin black ink was Merrick’s name. They walked past Wyatt without even sparing him a glance as they exited the room, with Ian leading the way. They were going to send off one of their own.
~~~~~ 2
The mood died immediately as soon as the mercenaries stepped out into the mess hall, their faces expressionless. Older crew members noted that even Edward, the typically wild and almost hyena-like member of Ian’s gang, was marching in solemn silence.
Marcus watched them walk past one by one as they left the mess hall. He had first seen them when he joined the crew and always made an effort to avoid them. He never had any positive experiences with mercenaries, for they were always a dangerous lot and Ian’s gang was no exception, but this somber procession was just downright peculiar.
When they were all gone, the silence remained. No one felt like celebrating anymore. Marcus was about to ask Curtis what it was all about, but the head chef simply shook his head and preemptively said, “Just help me clean up the place. The party’s over.”
Ian gave a brief nod to the captain as he ascended the staircase to the upper level. Though his scarred face showed no emotion, there was a look in his eyes that made him seem, for a moment, almost human; not like the smug snake he usually was. Piper nodded back and kept her head bowed respectfully as the other mercenaries walked past.
She often related each of them to some kind of vicious animal: Hank, the battle-scarred, one-eyed war dog; Oti, a silent crow darker than the night; Targo, a murderous and soulless falcon; and Eric, that cackling red-haired hyena with his ridiculous mohawk. At this very moment however, they were simply humans grieving the loss of a precious friend, for Merrick was the noble eagle of the bunch, the only kind heart amongst a band of villains. And one less mercenary to pay for, Piper reminded herself in an effort to remain emotionally detached. It was not easy.
Ian opened the door to the cargo hold and walked forwards until he was standing in the middle of the platform. The others arranged themselves in a line behind him and, as one, they all snapped a salute. Lying on his back at the edge of the platform was Merrick, his eyes closed forever beneath his large framed glasses and his arms folded over his revolver carbine. A dark hole in the middle of his armoured vest marked his fatal wound.
“His first bullet wound,” Hank said, echoing everyone’s thoughts. Merrick had always seemed to be unnaturally lucky, never suffering a single wound from any fights. Now this one, this first one, had killed him. An armour-piercing rifle round to the heart, Ian surmised after the battle. Damn unlucky.
“Who will help me carry him?” Ian finally said after a minute of silence.
“I will,” Targo replied.
No one argued. It only seemed right after all. Where Targo had absolutely no sense of morals, Merrick was always there to remind him of what was right and wrong, like an idealistic younger brother. They had even been mistaken as brothers in the past.
Ian, the only one without his personal weapon, stood at Merrick’s side whilst Targo crossed over to the other. Together they bent down and hooked an arm over their necks, then stood back up, carrying their fallen comrade between them. Ian took Merrick’s carbine in his free hand and turned to descend the stairs to the lower floor of the cargo hold. It was then that he noticed that something was wrong.
“Was that you?” he asked Targo.
“No, I thought it was you.”
They both looked at Merrick and heard him groan again. Almost dropping him, Ian said in an alarmed voice, “Quickly, put him down!”
“I don’t believe it,” Hank breathed.
“I thought you said he was dead!” Eric said in an accusatory tone.
“He was dead, I checked his vitals myself!” Ian snapped as he gently lowered Merrick to the floor.
Oti watched impassively, but was no less glad. It seemed that the boy’s devilish luck yet persisted.
~~~~~ 3
The crew was still cleaning up the mess hall when Piper arrived. Ignoring their salutes, she simply told Penny to follow and then left as quickly as she appeared. Penny wondered if she was in trouble for something and tried to remember exactly what as she followed in the captain’s footsteps.
Walking down the dim corridor and past the stairs leading to the upper deck, Piper turned right and opened the door to the infirmary. Not sure what to make of this, Penny slowed down to ask why they were here, but the captain simply beckoned for her and stepped into the room.
Though sunlight streamed through the window at the opposite end of the room, the captain took a gas lantern off its hook in the ceiling and lit it as she set it down on a metal topped bench. Wrinkling her nose at the smell of burning gas mixing with chemicals in the air, Penny walked into the room and was about to ask why she was here again until the captain turned around and showed her back. The sight of it made Penny gasp a little.
The back of the captain’s sky blue shirt was almost entirely covered in patches of brown and black, and there were holes in some places where the fabric had weakened from heat. Beneath these holes, the skin showed bright pink and some areas were wet with pus.
Piper opened a cabinet and took out a tub of dark green paste. “I want you to rub this on my back,” she said brusquely as she unscrewed the lid.
“Was that from the guy with a flamethrower?” Penny asked.
“Yes, now stop talking and take this already- WAIT. Have you washed your hands?”
Penny shook her head and went to the sink. Piper began to unbutton her shirt and tried to remove it as delicately as possible, but it was an agonizing task until Penny was done washing her hands and helped to remove the burned shirt. The pain was not so bad during or even nearly half an hour after the battle with the pirates, but now that the anesthetic of adrenaline was no longer in effect, it became torturous and intolerable.
Lying down on her belly in one of the two beds in the room, Piper sighed with relief as Penny rubbed the dark green paste over her back. It stung, but the cool sensation was soothing. Working by the light of the lantern, Penny hummed tunelessly as she applied the paste to the worst affected parts of the skin. After a while she said, “I wonder who you would have asked if I wasn’t around.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” the captain replied.
“I don’t mean anything by it, I’m just wondering. Isaac would seem like the obvious choice but someone has to fly the ship…”
“Alright, what was THAT supposed to mean?”
As soon as the words left Piper’s mouth, both she and Penny could hear the door to the cargo hold slamming shut, followed by running footsteps. Ian burst into the infirmary and went to rummage through the cabinets, dimly aware of the captain and the teenager staring in bewilderment. After finding what he was looking for, Ian stood up and said before rushing out of the room again, “Merrick’s alive.”
~~~~~4
“Penny, is something the matter?” Piper asked when she saw the look of concern frozen on the teenager’s face.
Her mouth was hanging open as though she wanted to say something before Ian left. With him gone, Penny turned to the captain and asked, “Did something happen to Merrick?”
Piper wondered how she should reply. Putting it bluntly would have been the ordinary thing to do, but after seeing Penny’s expression it became apparent that a little more tact would be required. It should not have required much thought since Merrick was well liked amongst the crew, even if he was a mercenary.
Piper briefly thought about whether she was losing her connection with the crew before saying, “Whatever it is, Ian seems to be taking care of it.”
Penny frowned. “Don’t lie to me cap, I saw them walking out of the bunk with Merrick’s stuff. They only do that sort of thing when one of them… you know… just what happened?”
Piper sighed as she realized that there was no other choice. Bluntly it is then, she thought before replying, “He got shot in the chest during the fight. Ian checked him and said there was no way he could have survived a shot to the heart, but apparently he did. Anyhow, there’s nothing we can do about it so can you keep working on my back… Penny?”
Penny rushed out of the infirmary and down the corridor where Wyatt and a group of others were walking towards the cargo hold.
Wyatt waved and said, “Oh hey Penny, are you here to help clean…”
She barreled past and burst through the door to the cargo hold before Wyatt could finish his sentence, leaving him baffled.
Penny shouted Merrick’s name as she ran in and up a staircase to the platforms. According to Riley, everyone except for him and Marcus were gathered on the upper level during the battle. She was immediately stopped as Edward moved to block the way at the top of the stairs.
“What’s going on?” Wyatt asked as he walked into the cargo hold.
“Git er out a here; git em all out a here!” Ian snapped as he pressed a treated wad of linen down on Merrick’s chest, trying to prevent him from bleeding out.
Penny mouthed wordlessly as Edward took her by the arm and said with an apologetic look, “Sorry little lady, you heard the boss.”
Taking charge of the situation, Hank followed Edward and Penny down the staircase, and said in an authoritative voice, “Everyone leave and do not come back until we give you permission to do so.”
Wyatt walked back into the corridor before Penny was released by the doorway.
“Please leave, Penelope,” Hank said tersely he stood ready to close the door.
Filled with the greatest amount of reluctance and frustration at not seeing Merrick, Penny left the cargo hold and joined Wyatt who stood waiting with the others. They both shared a look of consternation before turning to trudge down the corridor.
~~~~~ 5
Piper stood by the door of the infirmary, watching as Wyatt, Penny and several other crewmen ambled through the corridor. There was a thoroughly dispirited mood in their mumblings and shuffling steps. Piper was about to ask what happened in the cargo hold, but decided against it as she quickly became self-conscious of her own appearance.
Ignoring the stinging sensation in her back, she tied off the end of the bandage she had been roughly wrapping around her body and pulled her shirt on. There were probably some areas that were still exposed. She could feel the fabric of her shirt sticking to where the green paste on her back was not covered properly.
Wyatt and the others passed by with a halfhearted salute, which Piper returned with an equally halfhearted nod. Penny turned to enter the infirmary and said, "Sorry about that cap', I was just a bit worried for Merrick."
"How is he?" Piper replied.
An irritated frown crossed Penny's face. "I didn't even get a look before Ian kicked us all out. Damn him, it's not like we would a done any kind of harm!"
"Well, it was probably for the best. A chest wound is nasty business and having more people around usually ain't much help. Trust me, I would know about that."
Penny continued to frown as she looked at the captain, squinting as though she was staring into the sun. She did not seem to be feeling any better.
Piper cleared her throat and continued, "So I think I might have missed some spots on my back. Can you get another roll of bandage and cover them up?"
With little else to do, Penny murmured a noise of assent and proceeded to rummage through a cabinet as Piper took off her shirt again then sat down at the edge of a bed. She thought about the conversation they were having before Ian's sudden arrival.
"What DID you mean about Isaac?" Piper asked.
"Huh? Oh, right, I thought he'd be better suited for this kind of thing because you two are like a couple," Penny replied whilst rolling a strip of bandage across Piper's back.
Her honesty was almost brutal in its bluntness. Piper would have been taken aback had she not expected that kind of answer. As such, she replied in an unperturbed manner, "And why do you say that?"
Penny shrugged. "I don't know; it just seems like it. You two are together most of the time on the ship and all of the time off the ship. What else is there to it?"
"Well I suppose when you put it that way."
Piper deliberately left her sentence incomplete to enjoy the look on Penny's face as she tried to figure out how to respond. It was not a denial, but not a confirmation either. Isaac would be entertained to hear about this, Piper thought with amusement.
Eventually, Penny finished her work and helped the captain get dressed before leaving. Piper was still buttoning her shirt when she stepped out into the corridor and opened the door to the navigator's room. It was about time to gain some situational awareness.
~~~~~ 6
“Where are we?” Piper said as soon as she entered.
“About a day away from town if we can keep flying at normal speed,” Anthony’s voice sounded from beneath the floor. “Isaac actually managed to keep us on course.”
Piper walked over to the centre of the bare room and crouched down beside the grilled hatch in the floor. Anthony’s bearded face turned upwards and widened with a smile as he saw the captain.
“Good job you did with them pirates,” he said.
“Yeah, it really was quite a job. How are you holding up? I was afraid one of those cannon shells might hit you,” Piper replied as she settled into a more comfortable sitting position.
“Aye, they did take a few shots at me, but I’m fine as you can see. I would a joined the fight too, you know… but the last time I did that...”
“Hey, let’s not remember that.”
“Sorry.”
An uncomfortable silence settled. Piper looked around the room and thought of its details or more rather its lack thereof; anything to distract her from the unwanted memories surfacing in her mind. Her eyes eventually settled on the wide window panel in the side of the room, and the sky beyond it.
Wispy clouds drifted by like frail ghosts in broad daylight, almost completely transparent in the bright blue air. It was a sight Piper had once yearned to see and could only dream or imagine, but now she was accustomed to it and the sky had long lost its enthralling mystique. It became as mundane as the earth of the farm she grew up on.
Piper shook her head at the thought. I’m thinking about it wrong, she silently berated herself. The farm was a small and static world, but the sky is vast and always changing; sometimes gradually and sometimes suddenly, but always certainly changing. It’s a fickle and constant realm.
Piper wondered what Anthony thought about the sky having spent much of his life in it, or so he had often said. Perhaps he was also a dreamer once, seeing the sky as the embodiment of freedom or some other romanticized ideal.
“So who made that big damn explosion?” Anthony said, breaking the silence.
“It was Riley, can you believe it?” Piper replied.
“What, you mean to tell me that dunderhead was actually in the fight… what would Isabella think?”
“Funny you should say that, Wyatt said the same thing. By the by, there was also a victory feast afterwards and I’m scratching my head as to why you weren’t there.”
Angus groaned. “Nobody told me anything about a feast, dagnabbit! What did I miss?”
“Maybe I should get one of the newcomers to be your messenger boy,” Piper replied with a laugh. “Keep you in touch with happenings around the ship.”
“I thought that was your job.”
Though it irritated the burns on Piper’s back, she laughed again and Anthony joined with a gruff chuckle. After the tension of the pirate attack and Merrick’s current situation it felt good to relax, if only for a little while.
“Well I suppose it’s time I got on with it then,” Piper said as she stood up and took her leave.
The captain looked back at the sky one more time before closing the door and walking out into the corridor. Room could use a little decoration, she concluded.
~~~~~ 7
Marcus stared out the window as he waited for the cooking pot to fill with water. Compared to dusty little towns, or the oppressive shadows of massive steel mountains and city walls, the sky was truly a wondrous sight. It felt liberating to be close enough to touch the clouds.
So where to go from here? Marcus thought pensively as he closed the tap when the pot was half full.
“Not much water there,” Curtis commented.
“Yeah, I’ve always thought soup would be better with less water and more flavour,” Marcus replied.
“You ever cooked for thirty mouths?”
“Well… no, I can’t say that I have.”
“Add some more water.”
Curtis’s words were chiding yet neutral in tone. A nonchalant sort of person, Marcus had determined upon first impressions. His view was helped by the chef’s careless mentioning of why the ship had been taking in new recruits, even men with little or no experience such as Marcus himself. Wondering who he might have replaced as the chef’s assistant made his gut knot with unease.
Just how many outlaws are there in the sky? Marcus thought as he looked out the window again whilst filling the pot with more water. Damn it, I thought I could get away from all that.
The pot was almost overflowing when Marcus finally took notice and closed the tap. Tipping some water out, he placed it on a stove and stood by as Curtis brought the ingredients. When he tipped them into the pot, his right sleeve pulled back far enough to reveal a tattoo on the back of his wrist. Not seeing it clearly before it got covered again, Marcus asked what it was.
“Oh, this? Just a little souvenir from life before joining the crew,” Curtis said as he revealed the tattoo. It was a single word written in cursive writing: MUERTO.
“What does it mean?” Marcus replied.
“It means I came from Texas.”
Curtis said no more as he pulled down his sleeve and covered the tattoo, but it was all he needed to say for Marcus to drop the matter.
“Hey Curtis, what’s cooking?” Wyatt said as he sauntered into the kitchen without warning.
“Get out of here, you’re too hairy,” Curtis promptly replied.
Wyatt ignored the chef and leaned directly over the cooking pot. “Oh, is that beef soup?”
“There is going to be hair in the soup and it would be your fault. Leave.”
“Ah, beef soup! Haven’t had that in a while… hey Penny, guess what we’re having tonight,” Wyatt said as he strolled back out of the kitchen.
Marcus looked into the pot and, sure enough, there were several bits of hair floating on the water. “Does he do that a lot?” he asked.
“Yes,” Curtis replied and left it at that as he used a fork to remove Wyatt’s hairs from the soup.
~~~~~ 8
“Had fun?” Isaac said when he heard the door open.
“Plenty,” Piper replied as she stiffly made her way towards the captain’s seat.
The mere act of sitting caused the burns on her back to flare up again, making her wince in pain. Hearing this, Isaac turned to look and his eyes widened with surprise at the captain’s appalling state. Her hair was frayed, her vest was missing and there were bandages visible underneath her shirt.
“It looks like you’ve taken a walk through hell,” Isaac said as he returned his focus to the helm.
“I just about did. It was a damn tight scratch, you know,” Piper replied and continued on to recount the battle in the cargo hold.
Having a penchant for storytelling, she unabashedly exaggerated some details such as the number of intruders and how hard the new recruits fought back, though only a few even had firearms. For the most part however, no embellishment was required as other details, described the way they happened, were incredible enough on their own.
“I don’t believe it,” Isaac said in response.
“It’s true, Riley did knock them pirates out of the sky,” Piper replied.
“Not that, I was referring to how heavily armed they were. I mean a cannon, a powered suit and a flamethrower? We had less on our side in the old days!”
“Oh, I haven’t thought about those days in a while… anyway, you know how I got my backside all burned up? Well, Penny thinks that you should be the one to help me with the bandages. Says it’s because we’re like a couple.”
Piper let the words hang in the air for a moment before continuing, “So what do you say? I actually wouldn’t mind letting you help change the dressings.”
“No,” Isaac flatly and predictably replied.
“Too bad, you might have liked what you seen.”
“I’ve seen burns before, they’re disgusting, and you know I don’t swing that way.”
“I know,” Piper said with an impish grin. “Relax, I’m just teasing.”
“I gathered that. Anyway, I’m getting a little bit of unsteadiness here. It’s not too much of a problem right now, but I think we should make an early landing for maintenance.”
From banter to business, just like that, Piper thought as she considered Isaac’s words. What a pity.
“Check with the engineers,” she replied. “No wait, is there even anyone in the engine room? Check for that.”
“Very well… bridge to engine room, is there anyone there?”
There was no response. Isaac looked back at the captain and gave an exaggerated shrug. Piper sighed and clapped a hand over her eyes.
“They’re probably still in the mess hall,” she mumbled. “Just wait for a while; I’m sure somebody heard what you said.”
~~~~~ 9
Wyatt ran up the stairs to the upper deck and turned in the opposite direction of the bridge after reaching the top. He hurried towards the engine room at the very end of the corridor and barreled through the door as Isaac repeated his question.
Thumbing down a switch next to a device on the wall, Wyatt spoke loudly so as to be heard above the noise of the engine, “Sorry, I was waiting for Ian to finish with his business in the cargo hold. Still haven’t had a chance to clean up the place yet.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Isaac replied. “I just need you to see if there aren’t any problems where you are.”
Wyatt frowned as he turned around and realized that amidst all the tangle of brass pipes, valves, levers, pumping pistons and rotating cogs surrounding the massive boiler of the ship’s steam engine, Penny was nowhere to be seen.
She had left the mess hall earlier without saying a word and Wyatt assumed that she would be here, tending to the heart of the Gloria. As this was most clearly not the case, there could only be one other place on the ship where she would be. I wonder what’s on her mind, Wyatt thought as he began checking the gauges and regulators around the engine.
The wind howled, the air was wet with cloud mist and the rotor towers droned incessantly as their gargantuan blades chopped through the sky. It was cold, damp and noisy, but out here on the topmost part of the ship, it was Penny’s most favourite place in the world. Here she felt as though she could speak to the wind and it would speak back to her in its own way.
“You let Merrick get hurt and I don’t like that,” she shouted into the sky as she pulled her thick jacket down tighter. “But Riley seems to be happy that none of the medicine got damaged, so that’s good. I wonder how Isabella’s doing these days.”
The wind roared in reply, unchanging in its furious tone.
“I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.”
Penny walked to the front of the Gloria, as far as she possibly could without falling into the sky, and looked out towards the blazing sunset horizon. The world below seemed curiously flat like a painting on some colossal canvas, and fields of clouds floated on an invisible sea like islands of cotton as they stretched into the distance.
Penny pulled down the scarf around her neck and pushed up the goggles covering her eyes as a cloud approached, touching her freckled face as it passed by. Her eyes were closed and she sighed as she raised her hands towards the sky, stretching her arms up as high as she could to embrace the wind. It streamed through her fingertips and wrapped itself around her entire body.
After a moment of utter stillness, she breathed in as much air her lungs could hold and threw her arms down as she let out the longest and loudest shout she could muster, as though attempting to imitate the howling wind.
“That’s better,” she said as she covered up her face again.
The Sky Pioneer: Chapter Two
“So who did we lose?” Piper asked as she sat on the bottom of the staircase, away from the noise of celebration in the mess hall. She had been there briefly to congratulate everyone for successfully defending the ship, but was not feeling very hungry.
“One of Ian’s, ma’am… Merrick,” Wyatt reluctantly answered.
Piper shook her head. She had known Merrick to be only friendly member of Ian’s gang. Tough and menacing, they were true mercenaries, the muscle of the ship, but with Merrick gone they were now indeed all just a bunch of vicious snakes. His presence would be missed.
“Anyone else?” Piper said.
“No ma’am, it’s just him. Some of the new recruits got a few scratches and Riley has a head wound, but he’ll be fine. I still can’t believe what he did.”
Piper smiled slightly. “Impulsive for a married man, ain’t he?”
“Crazy is more like it! Poor Isabella would have a heart attack if she knew what he did.”
“I hear that.”
Riley, Riley, Riley, the only married man on the ship and quite young at that. A very earnest man, though most definitely to a fault, Piper thought. It seemed that whatever he did, whether it was moving cargo or doing maintenance and repair jobs on the ship, he did it with absolute seriousness. He had been on the ship for a year now, not one of the original crew members like Isaac, Wyatt, Anthony and Penny, but long enough to become too familiar with the dangers of the sky and he would risk it all for his wife, Isabella.
Everyone knew that Riley only worked on the Gloria to be able to smuggle medicine for his wife, though he would never admit it and no one held it against him, even if it meant less money for everyone else. Lost in a pirate attack, Piper would always explain. So much about Riley was so well known now, even intimate details such as him and Isabella being childhood sweethearts, that his welfare was considered by some to be a matter of duty. Though there was never much that could be done to help once he started to act out of his heart, and forgot how to think.
Isabella’s a lucky woman, Piper thought as she listened to the crew cheering Riley’s name. As pleasing as it was though, there were more important matters to think about right now.
“Once all that merrymaking’s over, get some people to clean up the cargo hold and move all the crates back into place,” she said.
“Aye ma’am… er, what about Ian?” Wyatt replied.
“He and his are bastards, but they’re a tight bunch, so give him a few minutes, for Merrick. But make sure they do their business before the party’s over.”
“Oh, right ma’am. That’s what I was afraid of actually.”
~~~~~ 1
Due to the captain’s strict no-alcohol-aboard-the-ship policy, everyone had to make do with water or the odd flask of liquor smuggled in from the last port of harbor, but the crew’s spirits ran high nevertheless. The new recruits were particularly celebrated for surviving the battle, no matter what little they did, and were now being congratulated with handshakes and claps on the back, as though they passed some sort of test.
By some small mercy, Riley was no longer being lifted into the air and paraded about the mess hall as thirty voices around him chanted his name. He was glad for the opportunity to slip away into the kitchen and get away from the noise for a moment. Most of all, he was glad that none of the crates of medicine were destroyed, though some were damaged.
He sat at the bottom of a stove and closed his eyes as he laid his head back to rest, thinking of Isabella.
She had never been happy with the way he obtained the medicine for treating her illness, but then again it was never really a matter of choice. The right kind was never available from other frontier towns, so it had to be the big cities; places that mattered and were likely to have them in stock.
Without any kind of wealth or helpful connections, signing up to serve on a merchant vessel was also the only option Riley had. It was either that or turn to a life of crime. Riley chuckled at his own imagination as he pictured himself as a bandit, marauding across the land with a pistol in each hand. I would have damn well done it too, he thought soberly. If it wasn’t for the captain…
“Hey Riley!” Penny chirped cheerfully as she walked into the kitchen, carrying a stack of food stained plates.
His thoughts interrupted, Riley looked up as though waking from a dream and replied, “Oh, hello Penny. Do you want any help with that?”
Penny had just set the plates down in the sink while Riley was talking.
“Never mind,” he said.
“The others say that you tackled a guy that had heavy amour and a big damn flamethrower, is it true?” Penny asked as she hunkered down next to Riley. He wished that she did not do that. It was like she had no sense of personal space.
“Well… yeah, that is true, but…”
“And you blew up their ship too! Aw heck, I wish I was there to see. It must have taken some real balls to do it, eh?”
“Penny, it was dangerous. I don’t think…”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m just a kid. The captain said that too. To heck with her I say; I should have been there! I mean, c’mon, you know I ain’t a slouch in a fight.”
It was true. Penny had, for some baffling reason, an extreme proficiency with firearms. Much more than anyone at her age should have had. Even more baffling was her skill in dismantling machinery. Give her half a day and a team of heavy lifters, and she could have, no, she HAD, stripped down one of the Gloria’s primary rotor towers for extremely thorough maintenance jobs. Riley would not have been surprised if Ian and his band of mercenaries actually taught Penny some of their skills. What her life was like before coming aboard the Gloria, Riley never cared to ask; anything to avoid initiating a conversation with her. The girl was simply too strange.
“Hey, that’s one of them new folk,” Penny said as she looked out of the kitchen door.
Curtis and Marcus were standing just outside, talking to each other. Riley heard Curtis say, “You lost it?”
“No, I said I couldn’t find it. Someone else must have taken it,” Marcus replied.
“Okay, I suppose I could find it later… but tell me, how did it handle?
“Real swee’, defini’ straigh’ shoo’er it is,” Ian said, seemingly emerging from nowhere. “B’ ah prefer mah sho’gun. Sentime’al value, ya know?”
Curtis stood confused as Ian held out the rifle for a moment, inspecting it. With a typically chilling smile, he returned the rifle to Curtis and then went back the way he came.
A few seconds later, Wyatt entered the mess hall and caught sight of Ian walking towards the crew quarters. Wyatt hurried his way through the mass of celebrating crewmates and caught up to the mercenary boss at the door. “Ian, the captain says…”
“Stow it, ah know what she wants,” Ian interrupted as he stepped into the crew quarters.
Wyatt followed inside to tell Ian what the captain wanted anyway, but as soon he saw what was happening at the far end of the room, he cursed himself for forgetting. Marching past rows of bunk beds were the four remaining members of Ian’s gang, each carrying a gun, and one was hefting a metal storage chest under his arm. Stenciled on its lid in thin black ink was Merrick’s name. They walked past Wyatt without even sparing him a glance as they exited the room, with Ian leading the way. They were going to send off one of their own.
~~~~~ 2
The mood died immediately as soon as the mercenaries stepped out into the mess hall, their faces expressionless. Older crew members noted that even Edward, the typically wild and almost hyena-like member of Ian’s gang, was marching in solemn silence.
Marcus watched them walk past one by one as they left the mess hall. He had first seen them when he joined the crew and always made an effort to avoid them. He never had any positive experiences with mercenaries, for they were always a dangerous lot and Ian’s gang was no exception, but this somber procession was just downright peculiar.
When they were all gone, the silence remained. No one felt like celebrating anymore. Marcus was about to ask Curtis what it was all about, but the head chef simply shook his head and preemptively said, “Just help me clean up the place. The party’s over.”
Ian gave a brief nod to the captain as he ascended the staircase to the upper level. Though his scarred face showed no emotion, there was a look in his eyes that made him seem, for a moment, almost human; not like the smug snake he usually was. Piper nodded back and kept her head bowed respectfully as the other mercenaries walked past.
She often related each of them to some kind of vicious animal: Hank, the battle-scarred, one-eyed war dog; Oti, a silent crow darker than the night; Targo, a murderous and soulless falcon; and Eric, that cackling red-haired hyena with his ridiculous mohawk. At this very moment however, they were simply humans grieving the loss of a precious friend, for Merrick was the noble eagle of the bunch, the only kind heart amongst a band of villains. And one less mercenary to pay for, Piper reminded herself in an effort to remain emotionally detached. It was not easy.
Ian opened the door to the cargo hold and walked forwards until he was standing in the middle of the platform. The others arranged themselves in a line behind him and, as one, they all snapped a salute. Lying on his back at the edge of the platform was Merrick, his eyes closed forever beneath his large framed glasses and his arms folded over his revolver carbine. A dark hole in the middle of his armoured vest marked his fatal wound.
“His first bullet wound,” Hank said, echoing everyone’s thoughts. Merrick had always seemed to be unnaturally lucky, never suffering a single wound from any fights. Now this one, this first one, had killed him. An armour-piercing rifle round to the heart, Ian surmised after the battle. Damn unlucky.
“Who will help me carry him?” Ian finally said after a minute of silence.
“I will,” Targo replied.
No one argued. It only seemed right after all. Where Targo had absolutely no sense of morals, Merrick was always there to remind him of what was right and wrong, like an idealistic younger brother. They had even been mistaken as brothers in the past.
Ian, the only one without his personal weapon, stood at Merrick’s side whilst Targo crossed over to the other. Together they bent down and hooked an arm over their necks, then stood back up, carrying their fallen comrade between them. Ian took Merrick’s carbine in his free hand and turned to descend the stairs to the lower floor of the cargo hold. It was then that he noticed that something was wrong.
“Was that you?” he asked Targo.
“No, I thought it was you.”
They both looked at Merrick and heard him groan again. Almost dropping him, Ian said in an alarmed voice, “Quickly, put him down!”
“I don’t believe it,” Hank breathed.
“I thought you said he was dead!” Eric said in an accusatory tone.
“He was dead, I checked his vitals myself!” Ian snapped as he gently lowered Merrick to the floor.
Oti watched impassively, but was no less glad. It seemed that the boy’s devilish luck yet persisted.
~~~~~ 3
The crew was still cleaning up the mess hall when Piper arrived. Ignoring their salutes, she simply told Penny to follow and then left as quickly as she appeared. Penny wondered if she was in trouble for something and tried to remember exactly what as she followed in the captain’s footsteps.
Walking down the dim corridor and past the stairs leading to the upper deck, Piper turned right and opened the door to the infirmary. Not sure what to make of this, Penny slowed down to ask why they were here, but the captain simply beckoned for her and stepped into the room.
Though sunlight streamed through the window at the opposite end of the room, the captain took a gas lantern off its hook in the ceiling and lit it as she set it down on a metal topped bench. Wrinkling her nose at the smell of burning gas mixing with chemicals in the air, Penny walked into the room and was about to ask why she was here again until the captain turned around and showed her back. The sight of it made Penny gasp a little.
The back of the captain’s sky blue shirt was almost entirely covered in patches of brown and black, and there were holes in some places where the fabric had weakened from heat. Beneath these holes, the skin showed bright pink and some areas were wet with pus.
Piper opened a cabinet and took out a tub of dark green paste. “I want you to rub this on my back,” she said brusquely as she unscrewed the lid.
“Was that from the guy with a flamethrower?” Penny asked.
“Yes, now stop talking and take this already- WAIT. Have you washed your hands?”
Penny shook her head and went to the sink. Piper began to unbutton her shirt and tried to remove it as delicately as possible, but it was an agonizing task until Penny was done washing her hands and helped to remove the burned shirt. The pain was not so bad during or even nearly half an hour after the battle with the pirates, but now that the anesthetic of adrenaline was no longer in effect, it became torturous and intolerable.
Lying down on her belly in one of the two beds in the room, Piper sighed with relief as Penny rubbed the dark green paste over her back. It stung, but the cool sensation was soothing. Working by the light of the lantern, Penny hummed tunelessly as she applied the paste to the worst affected parts of the skin. After a while she said, “I wonder who you would have asked if I wasn’t around.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” the captain replied.
“I don’t mean anything by it, I’m just wondering. Isaac would seem like the obvious choice but someone has to fly the ship…”
“Alright, what was THAT supposed to mean?”
As soon as the words left Piper’s mouth, both she and Penny could hear the door to the cargo hold slamming shut, followed by running footsteps. Ian burst into the infirmary and went to rummage through the cabinets, dimly aware of the captain and the teenager staring in bewilderment. After finding what he was looking for, Ian stood up and said before rushing out of the room again, “Merrick’s alive.”
~~~~~4
“Penny, is something the matter?” Piper asked when she saw the look of concern frozen on the teenager’s face.
Her mouth was hanging open as though she wanted to say something before Ian left. With him gone, Penny turned to the captain and asked, “Did something happen to Merrick?”
Piper wondered how she should reply. Putting it bluntly would have been the ordinary thing to do, but after seeing Penny’s expression it became apparent that a little more tact would be required. It should not have required much thought since Merrick was well liked amongst the crew, even if he was a mercenary.
Piper briefly thought about whether she was losing her connection with the crew before saying, “Whatever it is, Ian seems to be taking care of it.”
Penny frowned. “Don’t lie to me cap, I saw them walking out of the bunk with Merrick’s stuff. They only do that sort of thing when one of them… you know… just what happened?”
Piper sighed as she realized that there was no other choice. Bluntly it is then, she thought before replying, “He got shot in the chest during the fight. Ian checked him and said there was no way he could have survived a shot to the heart, but apparently he did. Anyhow, there’s nothing we can do about it so can you keep working on my back… Penny?”
Penny rushed out of the infirmary and down the corridor where Wyatt and a group of others were walking towards the cargo hold.
Wyatt waved and said, “Oh hey Penny, are you here to help clean…”
She barreled past and burst through the door to the cargo hold before Wyatt could finish his sentence, leaving him baffled.
Penny shouted Merrick’s name as she ran in and up a staircase to the platforms. According to Riley, everyone except for him and Marcus were gathered on the upper level during the battle. She was immediately stopped as Edward moved to block the way at the top of the stairs.
“What’s going on?” Wyatt asked as he walked into the cargo hold.
“Git er out a here; git em all out a here!” Ian snapped as he pressed a treated wad of linen down on Merrick’s chest, trying to prevent him from bleeding out.
Penny mouthed wordlessly as Edward took her by the arm and said with an apologetic look, “Sorry little lady, you heard the boss.”
Taking charge of the situation, Hank followed Edward and Penny down the staircase, and said in an authoritative voice, “Everyone leave and do not come back until we give you permission to do so.”
Wyatt walked back into the corridor before Penny was released by the doorway.
“Please leave, Penelope,” Hank said tersely he stood ready to close the door.
Filled with the greatest amount of reluctance and frustration at not seeing Merrick, Penny left the cargo hold and joined Wyatt who stood waiting with the others. They both shared a look of consternation before turning to trudge down the corridor.
~~~~~ 5
Piper stood by the door of the infirmary, watching as Wyatt, Penny and several other crewmen ambled through the corridor. There was a thoroughly dispirited mood in their mumblings and shuffling steps. Piper was about to ask what happened in the cargo hold, but decided against it as she quickly became self-conscious of her own appearance.
Ignoring the stinging sensation in her back, she tied off the end of the bandage she had been roughly wrapping around her body and pulled her shirt on. There were probably some areas that were still exposed. She could feel the fabric of her shirt sticking to where the green paste on her back was not covered properly.
Wyatt and the others passed by with a halfhearted salute, which Piper returned with an equally halfhearted nod. Penny turned to enter the infirmary and said, "Sorry about that cap', I was just a bit worried for Merrick."
"How is he?" Piper replied.
An irritated frown crossed Penny's face. "I didn't even get a look before Ian kicked us all out. Damn him, it's not like we would a done any kind of harm!"
"Well, it was probably for the best. A chest wound is nasty business and having more people around usually ain't much help. Trust me, I would know about that."
Penny continued to frown as she looked at the captain, squinting as though she was staring into the sun. She did not seem to be feeling any better.
Piper cleared her throat and continued, "So I think I might have missed some spots on my back. Can you get another roll of bandage and cover them up?"
With little else to do, Penny murmured a noise of assent and proceeded to rummage through a cabinet as Piper took off her shirt again then sat down at the edge of a bed. She thought about the conversation they were having before Ian's sudden arrival.
"What DID you mean about Isaac?" Piper asked.
"Huh? Oh, right, I thought he'd be better suited for this kind of thing because you two are like a couple," Penny replied whilst rolling a strip of bandage across Piper's back.
Her honesty was almost brutal in its bluntness. Piper would have been taken aback had she not expected that kind of answer. As such, she replied in an unperturbed manner, "And why do you say that?"
Penny shrugged. "I don't know; it just seems like it. You two are together most of the time on the ship and all of the time off the ship. What else is there to it?"
"Well I suppose when you put it that way."
Piper deliberately left her sentence incomplete to enjoy the look on Penny's face as she tried to figure out how to respond. It was not a denial, but not a confirmation either. Isaac would be entertained to hear about this, Piper thought with amusement.
Eventually, Penny finished her work and helped the captain get dressed before leaving. Piper was still buttoning her shirt when she stepped out into the corridor and opened the door to the navigator's room. It was about time to gain some situational awareness.
~~~~~ 6
“Where are we?” Piper said as soon as she entered.
“About a day away from town if we can keep flying at normal speed,” Anthony’s voice sounded from beneath the floor. “Isaac actually managed to keep us on course.”
Piper walked over to the centre of the bare room and crouched down beside the grilled hatch in the floor. Anthony’s bearded face turned upwards and widened with a smile as he saw the captain.
“Good job you did with them pirates,” he said.
“Yeah, it really was quite a job. How are you holding up? I was afraid one of those cannon shells might hit you,” Piper replied as she settled into a more comfortable sitting position.
“Aye, they did take a few shots at me, but I’m fine as you can see. I would a joined the fight too, you know… but the last time I did that...”
“Hey, let’s not remember that.”
“Sorry.”
An uncomfortable silence settled. Piper looked around the room and thought of its details or more rather its lack thereof; anything to distract her from the unwanted memories surfacing in her mind. Her eyes eventually settled on the wide window panel in the side of the room, and the sky beyond it.
Wispy clouds drifted by like frail ghosts in broad daylight, almost completely transparent in the bright blue air. It was a sight Piper had once yearned to see and could only dream or imagine, but now she was accustomed to it and the sky had long lost its enthralling mystique. It became as mundane as the earth of the farm she grew up on.
Piper shook her head at the thought. I’m thinking about it wrong, she silently berated herself. The farm was a small and static world, but the sky is vast and always changing; sometimes gradually and sometimes suddenly, but always certainly changing. It’s a fickle and constant realm.
Piper wondered what Anthony thought about the sky having spent much of his life in it, or so he had often said. Perhaps he was also a dreamer once, seeing the sky as the embodiment of freedom or some other romanticized ideal.
“So who made that big damn explosion?” Anthony said, breaking the silence.
“It was Riley, can you believe it?” Piper replied.
“What, you mean to tell me that dunderhead was actually in the fight… what would Isabella think?”
“Funny you should say that, Wyatt said the same thing. By the by, there was also a victory feast afterwards and I’m scratching my head as to why you weren’t there.”
Angus groaned. “Nobody told me anything about a feast, dagnabbit! What did I miss?”
“Maybe I should get one of the newcomers to be your messenger boy,” Piper replied with a laugh. “Keep you in touch with happenings around the ship.”
“I thought that was your job.”
Though it irritated the burns on Piper’s back, she laughed again and Anthony joined with a gruff chuckle. After the tension of the pirate attack and Merrick’s current situation it felt good to relax, if only for a little while.
“Well I suppose it’s time I got on with it then,” Piper said as she stood up and took her leave.
The captain looked back at the sky one more time before closing the door and walking out into the corridor. Room could use a little decoration, she concluded.
~~~~~ 7
Marcus stared out the window as he waited for the cooking pot to fill with water. Compared to dusty little towns, or the oppressive shadows of massive steel mountains and city walls, the sky was truly a wondrous sight. It felt liberating to be close enough to touch the clouds.
So where to go from here? Marcus thought pensively as he closed the tap when the pot was half full.
“Not much water there,” Curtis commented.
“Yeah, I’ve always thought soup would be better with less water and more flavour,” Marcus replied.
“You ever cooked for thirty mouths?”
“Well… no, I can’t say that I have.”
“Add some more water.”
Curtis’s words were chiding yet neutral in tone. A nonchalant sort of person, Marcus had determined upon first impressions. His view was helped by the chef’s careless mentioning of why the ship had been taking in new recruits, even men with little or no experience such as Marcus himself. Wondering who he might have replaced as the chef’s assistant made his gut knot with unease.
Just how many outlaws are there in the sky? Marcus thought as he looked out the window again whilst filling the pot with more water. Damn it, I thought I could get away from all that.
The pot was almost overflowing when Marcus finally took notice and closed the tap. Tipping some water out, he placed it on a stove and stood by as Curtis brought the ingredients. When he tipped them into the pot, his right sleeve pulled back far enough to reveal a tattoo on the back of his wrist. Not seeing it clearly before it got covered again, Marcus asked what it was.
“Oh, this? Just a little souvenir from life before joining the crew,” Curtis said as he revealed the tattoo. It was a single word written in cursive writing: MUERTO.
“What does it mean?” Marcus replied.
“It means I came from Texas.”
Curtis said no more as he pulled down his sleeve and covered the tattoo, but it was all he needed to say for Marcus to drop the matter.
“Hey Curtis, what’s cooking?” Wyatt said as he sauntered into the kitchen without warning.
“Get out of here, you’re too hairy,” Curtis promptly replied.
Wyatt ignored the chef and leaned directly over the cooking pot. “Oh, is that beef soup?”
“There is going to be hair in the soup and it would be your fault. Leave.”
“Ah, beef soup! Haven’t had that in a while… hey Penny, guess what we’re having tonight,” Wyatt said as he strolled back out of the kitchen.
Marcus looked into the pot and, sure enough, there were several bits of hair floating on the water. “Does he do that a lot?” he asked.
“Yes,” Curtis replied and left it at that as he used a fork to remove Wyatt’s hairs from the soup.
~~~~~ 8
“Had fun?” Isaac said when he heard the door open.
“Plenty,” Piper replied as she stiffly made her way towards the captain’s seat.
The mere act of sitting caused the burns on her back to flare up again, making her wince in pain. Hearing this, Isaac turned to look and his eyes widened with surprise at the captain’s appalling state. Her hair was frayed, her vest was missing and there were bandages visible underneath her shirt.
“It looks like you’ve taken a walk through hell,” Isaac said as he returned his focus to the helm.
“I just about did. It was a damn tight scratch, you know,” Piper replied and continued on to recount the battle in the cargo hold.
Having a penchant for storytelling, she unabashedly exaggerated some details such as the number of intruders and how hard the new recruits fought back, though only a few even had firearms. For the most part however, no embellishment was required as other details, described the way they happened, were incredible enough on their own.
“I don’t believe it,” Isaac said in response.
“It’s true, Riley did knock them pirates out of the sky,” Piper replied.
“Not that, I was referring to how heavily armed they were. I mean a cannon, a powered suit and a flamethrower? We had less on our side in the old days!”
“Oh, I haven’t thought about those days in a while… anyway, you know how I got my backside all burned up? Well, Penny thinks that you should be the one to help me with the bandages. Says it’s because we’re like a couple.”
Piper let the words hang in the air for a moment before continuing, “So what do you say? I actually wouldn’t mind letting you help change the dressings.”
“No,” Isaac flatly and predictably replied.
“Too bad, you might have liked what you seen.”
“I’ve seen burns before, they’re disgusting, and you know I don’t swing that way.”
“I know,” Piper said with an impish grin. “Relax, I’m just teasing.”
“I gathered that. Anyway, I’m getting a little bit of unsteadiness here. It’s not too much of a problem right now, but I think we should make an early landing for maintenance.”
From banter to business, just like that, Piper thought as she considered Isaac’s words. What a pity.
“Check with the engineers,” she replied. “No wait, is there even anyone in the engine room? Check for that.”
“Very well… bridge to engine room, is there anyone there?”
There was no response. Isaac looked back at the captain and gave an exaggerated shrug. Piper sighed and clapped a hand over her eyes.
“They’re probably still in the mess hall,” she mumbled. “Just wait for a while; I’m sure somebody heard what you said.”
~~~~~ 9
Wyatt ran up the stairs to the upper deck and turned in the opposite direction of the bridge after reaching the top. He hurried towards the engine room at the very end of the corridor and barreled through the door as Isaac repeated his question.
Thumbing down a switch next to a device on the wall, Wyatt spoke loudly so as to be heard above the noise of the engine, “Sorry, I was waiting for Ian to finish with his business in the cargo hold. Still haven’t had a chance to clean up the place yet.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Isaac replied. “I just need you to see if there aren’t any problems where you are.”
Wyatt frowned as he turned around and realized that amidst all the tangle of brass pipes, valves, levers, pumping pistons and rotating cogs surrounding the massive boiler of the ship’s steam engine, Penny was nowhere to be seen.
She had left the mess hall earlier without saying a word and Wyatt assumed that she would be here, tending to the heart of the Gloria. As this was most clearly not the case, there could only be one other place on the ship where she would be. I wonder what’s on her mind, Wyatt thought as he began checking the gauges and regulators around the engine.
The wind howled, the air was wet with cloud mist and the rotor towers droned incessantly as their gargantuan blades chopped through the sky. It was cold, damp and noisy, but out here on the topmost part of the ship, it was Penny’s most favourite place in the world. Here she felt as though she could speak to the wind and it would speak back to her in its own way.
“You let Merrick get hurt and I don’t like that,” she shouted into the sky as she pulled her thick jacket down tighter. “But Riley seems to be happy that none of the medicine got damaged, so that’s good. I wonder how Isabella’s doing these days.”
The wind roared in reply, unchanging in its furious tone.
“I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.”
Penny walked to the front of the Gloria, as far as she possibly could without falling into the sky, and looked out towards the blazing sunset horizon. The world below seemed curiously flat like a painting on some colossal canvas, and fields of clouds floated on an invisible sea like islands of cotton as they stretched into the distance.
Penny pulled down the scarf around her neck and pushed up the goggles covering her eyes as a cloud approached, touching her freckled face as it passed by. Her eyes were closed and she sighed as she raised her hands towards the sky, stretching her arms up as high as she could to embrace the wind. It streamed through her fingertips and wrapped itself around her entire body.
After a moment of utter stillness, she breathed in as much air her lungs could hold and threw her arms down as she let out the longest and loudest shout she could muster, as though attempting to imitate the howling wind.
“That’s better,” she said as she covered up her face again.
VICTORY
Date: 2012-03-03 05:03 am (UTC)