Beyond the Endless Sky

Chapter 17

Clarissa spent the minutes waiting for the meeting in a state of idle terror. Like watching an axe falling to cleave her head from her neck, but unable to do anything to avoid it, all she could do was shake in her magnetic boots and pace the kitchen while she held the sealed mug that held a cup of tea.

"Captain ain't blaming you for the box," Anita said as Clarissa reached the end of the mess hall for the ninth time. "If anything, I expect him to have me flogged. I'm the one who checked the box once the Monastery folk set it in place."

"First time I've ever heard of the box failing," Leslie said. He was sitting, with a cup of the same tea in his hands. If Clarissa were calmer, she might have asked the big man how he had made a pot of tea without the pull of gravity. "Mind you, it's only the third time we've ever done the Monastery Run. But that box is a big black mystery. Makes me worried the captain would rather delay the trip by up to a week just because it flopped around a bit."

"Really makes you wonder what's in it," Tonya agreed.

Clarissa kept her silence — her eyes fixed on the table and her mind only barely following the conversation — as Anita, Tony and Leslie speculated aloud. She didn't know what she could say, and ever since her conversation with Mercy she didn't trust herself to be adequately circumspect.

"It's for the Shield, that much is fairly free to say," Leslie insisted, tapping his finger on the table. The motion thundered like he had bashed a gavel down. "What it is, the captain ain't keen to explain. Rather expect even Clarissa doesn't know, and she's Monastery."

"He's right," Clarissa agreed. "I don't know. Not many do."

"Doubt she knows any more than we do. That box is bound for the Shield, and it's important enough the Monastery don't want it made common knowledge," Leslie said.

"The Shield drifts beyond the endless sky," Clarissa recited, recalling one of her childhood rhymes. "Where the air is thin and auroras fly. Without it to gentle our star's light-"

The captain interrupted her, finishing the poem. "The sky would wander the endless night."

Clarissa turned to see Captain Locklear stride into the mess hall, Mercy and Yannick close behind. She smiled brightly when she saw the navigator, and scooted over just enough to ensure there was space for him to sit beside her, at the end of the table.

"Captain, what's 'night'?" Anita asked, and her question was supported by murmurs of approval from both Leslie and Tonya. Even Yannick seemed drawn to the question, distracted by it for a moment until he saw Clarissa and his eyes widened.

"Night is an old word," the captain said as he rounded the table and sat down. "The Wayfarers have a legend about an island so large half the skies turned dark behind it, and people slept beneath whatever light the distant stars cast."

Yannick stared at the spot beside Clarissa, his eyes wide and his hands fidgeting at his sides. Clarissa gestured to the empty space next to him and waved to him, just as Mercy took the other empty space across from them. The first officer looked from Clarissa to Yannick and laughed. "Yannick, stop shivering at the door and take a seat. Clarissa's going to worry you don't like her at this rate."

Yannick gulped and practically dashed over to the table, scooting into the empty space and hanging his head just over the table. "Sorry, Clarissa. Sorry."

Clarissa shot Mercy a scowl, but the older woman only smirked in response. "Mercy was teasing, Yannick," she said, and gently squeezed his shoulder. "And thank you for yesterday. Think it's been the highlight of my trip so far."

Yannick blushed and hung his head. Out of the corner of Clarissa's eye, she could see Mercy grin and give her a wink, and that the captain had a wide smile on his face.

"Well, I'm going to start with the bad news," the captain said after a moment. "We missed our window for the Whirlwind. Not through anyone's fault, but we couldn't risk riding those winds when the box came loose. Tonya has done what she could to recoup the lost time, but our expected course was to pass behind the Ruins until we reached Idlewind."

"Was?" Anita asked.

"While Yannick was plotting our new course, he noticed we're being shadowed," the captain reported. "A trio of corsairs, one of them looks like that Calmoori ship of the line they lost a few years back. That's more ship than the Banshee can comfortably fend off, and they're well positioned to try and drive us into thin air."

"That's not a death keel for the Child, captain," Leslie said. "We have the edge in both range and speed. I wouldn't count us out in a fight, sir."

"Normally I'd quite agree. But we risked more than I can say when that box got loose. We'd be safer poking powder kegs with a lit torch than to let them rap the hull with round shot," the captain insisted. "We don't have a lot of options left, and most of them are terrible. Yannick believes our best option is to skirt the fringes of the Ruins, and hide there until we drift close to Idlewind."

"We have one other option, Captain," Tonya disagreed.

"Several," Yannick said sadly. "They all take longer."

"Including if we went through the Ruins?" Tonya asked.

There was a pronounced silence following her question. Anita and Leslie both looked like their pilot had gone mad. Mercy scowled as if Tonya were deliberately wasting her time. Yannick gaped in astonishment.

But it was the captain, resting a hand under his chin and grinned, who spoke first. "Yannick, is it feasible?"

"If we make it, yes. No way they could follow, less they followed us through."

"Ha!" Tonya laughed. "In a Calmoori ship of the line? Yannick would have a better odds trying to carry a tune."

"Hey, I can..." Yannick began to say, but he blushed and hid his face behind his hands. "No, she's right."

"You confident you can make it?" the captain asked Tonya.

"Wait, we're really doing this?" Mercy asked incredulously.

"Done it in a windlass, Captain can attest to that," Tonya replied to the group, ignoring Mercy. "The Child is the fattest ship that I've ever dreamed of trying it with, but she's impressively nimble. Give me sleep, coloured smoke, and coffee. And I'll give you a miracle."

"Right then," the captain agreed. "Tonya, Yannick set out course and get to bed. Everyone else, get some rest while you can. I'll take watch. And actually get some sleep, I need you all at your best tomorrow."