Runnin'

The island that Jeff spoke about was indeed real, hidden between other islands and tucked away among rocks that would tear the bottom out of skimmers that couldn’t raise altitude enough to get over them. Langley made the adjustments to her map while Sabreur stood up on top-deck looking through a hand telescope.

“Appears deserted,” he called down, “save for a skimmer docked near the cliff edges on the western side. We’re out of their eyeshot right now but if we move any closer we’ll be spotted.”

“Right,” she replied, “What’s the skimmer look like?”

“Can’t tell too much from here.”

“She’s an third-generation skimmer,” Jeff said from the back of the helm, “Slow and unwieldy but has a full set of guns and those void rooms the legends always talk about.”

Langley slowly put down her pen and turned.

“Jeff,” she said evenly, “just how do you know so much about the Black Pebble?”

He shrugged and studied a coin that he kept rolling across his knuckles. Stopped when the click of a pistol being readied echoed through the cabin. Up top, Sabreur put the telescope away and peered down the ladder.

“Put it away, missy,” he said slowly, “I was Captain of the ship. Belonged to a merchant family that commissioned it way back when and then kept passing it down because no one had the heart or nerve to dismantle and retire it. I took it when I was your age.”

“You’re insane.”

“Half-elf, love.”

“So how did you wind up being marooned?” That was Sabreur, squatting at the hatch. Langley put her gun away.

“Treacherous first mate. He was a practical person, which should have been a warning.” Jeff thoughtfully stroked his beard. “Practicality and half-elves don’t mix.”

“So part of this adventure is helping you get your ship back.”

“And the treasure love! Think of the treasure!”

He grinned and pulled a flask out and took a swig. Langley frowned.

“I see no reason we should return this ship to you,” she said, “It’d be much better for the world if we simply rigged the thing to blow once we were out of range and dumped you at dock somewhere.”

Jeff choked on the rum. Coughed. Sabreur flipped down into the helm and leaned against the wall next to his sister.

“I would like to see that explosion,” he said, “I bet it’d take out half the island.”

“That based on anything or just a guess?”

“A guess. I didn’t have time to work out the math.”

“Thought so.”

“You can’t blow up my ship!” Jeff howled, interrupting the twins.

The twins just looked at each other. Sabreur smirked.

“I’ll go gather up some people to come with us,” he said, “Sis, how we going to bring the Ark in?”

“Shift generator,” she replied, “Establish a relay once you get into the engine room and we’ll go in. Starling, please stay in the helm as I may require further information from you.”

“You can’t blow up my ship,” he said.

“Oh yes I can. As Sabreur said, it should make a nice explosion too.”

Jeff sighed. This was it then. Time to play the trump card.

“If you do,” he warned, “Crystal will cry for days. She’s got quite a crush on me.”

The corner of Langley’s mouth twitched. Jeff Starling smirked. Tense minutes passed until Sabreur finally established a relay with his twin, giving her something else to concentrate on.

The shift generator was a magnificent piece of work. It was also a dangerous, highly experimental, and unstable piece of work. The body of the machine consisted of an array of mirrors, each aligned to reflect into each other at various angles, which created a field of illusion strong enough to project across the entire Ark. There were, like most of the twin’s inventions, a couple problems. First, it was extremely draining on the engines and could only work for at most ten minutes. Second, it had a tendency to fail without warning. Third, it broke. Often. The twins always kept a spare stack of mirrors to replace the cracked ones after each use and sometimes at random. It was one of the modifications to the Ark that the twins had not obtained a warrant for, mostly because no warrant for such a device existed. They had tried to patent it, many years back, but the instability of the machine had caused the patent to be denied. After that they just gave up trying. The patent office knew Sabreur’s face by that point anyways, mostly because of the firebomb v.2.

Langley had no controls over the shift generator. They were entirely based in the room it was housed as a ‘mancer had to be present to operate the thing. The only sign she had that Sabreur started it was a shimmer that passed across the surface of the Ark and confirmation across the relay that it was running and appeared stable. Then the minutes started ticking. On deck the crew were readying themselves for a fight. Ajiin was climbing into the rigging, one of the more precarious positions on the Ark, but one that would give him a good vantage with his rifle.

Langley gently eased the throttle forwards. They’d stowed the sails so it was all engine power. The shift generator didn’t mask noise but usually this was not a problem as the few times they’d used it to sneak up on foes they were too confused by the idea of an invisible engine to realize what was happening until it was too late.

She chewed her lip as they got closer. The Black Pebble had a few sentries posted and out of the corner of her eye she could see Ajiin from the rigging sighting on one.

“The crew is probably all in the cave,” Starling said quietly, “so if you remove those three you’ll be safe.”

“Right,” she whispered back and started to edge the Ark closer. The sentries had heard the engine by now and were walking to the edge of the ship, pointing in their direction and talking among themselves. One made a sign to ward off evil and drew his sword. Langley chuckled.

“Are we… invisible?” Starling finally asked.

She didn’t get a chance to really reply.

“Hey Langley,” Sabreur said over the relay, “we’re, uh, oh bog.”

Another shimmer passed over the Ark. The three sentries started shouting and one took off running for the helm. There was a bang and he toppled to the deck while Ajiin started reloading.

“Not anymore!” Langley shouted to Jeff and jammed for the throttle controls. Hit it a bit too hard. The Ark surged forwards and swearing, Langley killed the speed but didn’t hit the reverse to stop it fast enough. Instead, she pulled the wheel hard to the side and the Ark turned and slid into the side of the Black Pebble. The impact sounded like a barrage of cannons and almost everyone was thrown to the ground.

“Whoops,” Langley said, picking herself up.

“WHOOPS?!” Sabreur shouted into the relay, “What do you mean, whoops!? What are you doing to our ship?”

“Nothing!”

Ajiin was no longer in the rigging. Langley’s stomach twisted into knots and she turned and ran to the edge of the helm, looking for where he had fallen. She saw him floundering in the water, trying to stay afloat and appearing to be failing.

“Not good,” she said, “I’m going to regret this. Starling, you have command!”

And she leapt off the side of the helm, slid down onto the deck, shedding her hat, pistol, and rapiers as she did. Then she sprinted across the deck and dove over the edge into the water.

Ajiin latched onto her as soon as she got close, one hand closing about her shoulder. The other was tucked up close to him, his rifle cradled in the crook.

“Just drop it,” she yelled at him, coughing as his weight pulled her under.

“Not losing my gun,” he said and Langley heard pain in his voice, “Besides, can’t use it to swim anyways. Think it’s broken.”

“Sun, wind, and rain.”

He got a better grip on her shoulder and she started paddling towards the Ark. Some of the crew had noticed their Captain’s dive and thrown down a ladder. Langley hoisted Ajiin up first, nearly swallowing more seawater in the process, before climbing up herself. Ajiin was pulled onto deck where he sat there, gasping and coughing.

“Fell from the rigging when we hit,” he said, “landed against the side of the Ark and then into the ocean.”

“Captain,” another crewmember said, “We’ve got all three sentries down. We’re searching the rest of the ship for anyone else onboard now.”

A pony-tailed head appeared from the ladder leading to below deck and then Sabreur emerged. Ran over to his sister.

“Everyone okay?” he asked.

“Just Ajiin is hurt.”

He nodded. Noticed his sister’s lack of being at the helm and frowned.

“Sis,” he said slowly, “Dare I ask who is at the wheel?”

“Starling.”

“Oh,” he replied in a small voice.

Langley carefully took Ajiin’s wrist and pulled it away from his body. He hissed as she put two fingers on the arm and after a moment she let go.

“Definitely broken, but not badly,” she said, “we can ‘mancy the bones back together enough so that the break will heal cleanly but you’re going to be unable to use it for a while. Get him to his cabin and we’ll be right down to patch him up.”

She gestured and two crewmembers helped Ajiin stand. With a sigh, she turned to her brother.

“I’ll need your help, you know.”

“And someone has to stay at helm,” he replied miserably, “We’re just going to leave Jeff up there, aren’t we?”

“Yep.”

“Afraid of that. Who are we taking with us into the island instead of Ajiin now?”

Langley sighed and thought for a moment.

“Crystal has a crush on Jeff,” she said thoughtfully, “but I think we can fix that. We’ll take her with us.”

Sabreur was at a loss for things to say. The necromancer had been onboard long enough for him to know that when a plan involved her it was never going to be a boring adventure. He sighed, shoved his hands in his pockets, and followed his twin to tend to Ajiin.

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