Forty Years of This [Monster Hunter World]

Chapter 38

The airship looked just as it had as an ocean faring vessel. It was in one piece, and though the inside was gutted and replaced with light catwalks and thin curtains instead of walls, it could still, in theory, land in the ocean and be fine. The only visible difference now was the great balloons that would take it aloft. The Commander, the Research Master, and the head airship engineer were standing on the bridge overseeing final checks.

"I cannot help but notice that the Quartermaster is following my brother around like a lost puppy." The Research Master pointedly observed. Just that morning she'd received word that the Quartermaster would be joining them on this flight, and she had her suspicions that it wasn't entirely for business.

"He likes to know how to do his job." The Commander shrugged, folding his arms in front of his chest. "Your brother, the Analytics Director, has had more involvement in this than any other quartermaster, so it only makes sense to have him show him around."

"My parents love each other very much. Or they did when we were young. When you live as long as we do, love takes many different forms over the years, and one of those forms is a comfortable distance." She paused to watch her brother for a moment and let her words sink in. "They would have never been able to work together as you and the Quartermaster do, not because of fighting or anything that would seem to get in their way, but because they would have been blinded. Much like you were at the arrival of your grandson. Be very careful, Commander, to not let your affections blind you to your duties."

Grinning, the Commander turned his head towards her. "I know my blindspots, Research Master. I know I'm blind when it comes to what I want, and I'm blind when it comes to... certain things regarding those I love. But that's why I have people advising me. That's why I requested more hands to help the Quartermaster-- so he would have people keeping him in check. I may have the final say, but I'm only the Commander because the people here want me to be. I should have put the Quartermaster up here on a test flight long ago, but I was blind to it. He doesn't like change, and he sticks to his schedule like his life depends on it some days. I humored him in that. I am weak when it comes to my family. And this may have been a bad time to get him up here with both of us here, but between you and the Analytics Director, I think you'll keep us in check."

The Research Master watched the Commander with a brow raised. He was babbling, and he didn't babble often. "You have an ulterior motive, Commander. Tell me, and give me the true reason, why did you bring the Quartermaster with you on this trip?"

The Commander balked and stared at her blankly while he tried to figure out both what she'd meant and how she'd seen through him. When he didn't answer, she waved her censor and asked again. "You don't change plans on impulse. Not typically. This trip has been planned for quite some time. So why did you wait until the last minute to inform me that the First's Quartermaster would be joining us?"

Bashfully, he ducked his head and looked away. Embarrassment burned beneath his collar, but he held his composure. "By posing it as a whim with practical benefits, I was able to get him to leave Astera with me if only for a while. Neither of us can go on hunts like the rest of the hunters, nor can we go out on resource missions. For the past two decades, we've more or less been stuck in one place."

"Half of your life in one place." She nodded slowly. "I am certain that my crew will hold you both accountable. There will be no lack of work to be done."

One of the crewmen approached the head engineer who then turned to the two commanders and said, "Ma'am, the ship is ready to fly whenever you are. At your word."

She smiled at him, then after a languid pause lifted a small hammer to her censor and tapped it. It rang like a chime, and the crew began to slowly toss sandbags off the edge of the ship for it to take flight. Below deck, the Quartermaster, the Analytics Director, and the Tech Chief himself were running over the systems of the ship, watching it for undue strain and mismanaged cargo. They'd never done anything quite like this before, and though the crew had secured the cargo like an ocean faring vessel, theirs was an important duty that could not be shirked.

The ground below them slowly fell away, and the Commander couldn't help but be filled with nostalgia for every time he'd flown with a wingdrake. Of course now he had no control of the ship and only the vaguest understanding of its propulsion, and more overwhelming than the nostalgia was the sheer admiration and awe building in him for the ingenuity and wonders his people were capable of. He'd felt it before when the Forgemaster had created the waterwheel and turned Astera into a modern town rather than an outpost, and he'd felt it when they'd first wrangled the wingdrakes, but each time it hit him it hit stronger.

He was proud. Immensely, indescribably proud.

Wingdrakes flew about the airship like curious birds following a boat out to sea. He recognized the green-yellow ones native to the forest and the pink ones they found in the wildspire. He was surprised when they didn't fight beyond a few pecks and squawks, but off in the distance was something far more dangerous. They heard the rathian's roar long before they saw her, and the Commander grinned. It was his turn to be useful on this trip.