A Trip To Tuanaki

Chapter 2

It's nearly midday by the time the Nameless sails into the port of Aparo. Mal has been alone on deck since he took the watch from Gunny, and nothing eventful has happened so far. However, they've now reached the point in the day where Mal will have to prove to yet another port official that he is, in fact, allowed to captain his own ship.

Mal leans over in the direction of the speaking tube that allows him to send his voice directly into his own cabin. Gunny won't be inside, of course, but if he makes himself loud enough she'll get the picture. "Gunny!" he shouts, cupping his hands around the mouth of the pipe to block out the wind. "Bring me the shipping manifest!"

That order of business settled, Mal turns to survey the port. Aparo is a thriving mid-sized island, and their port facilities are just as busy as you might expect. One of the unique features of Aparo's port, the multi-tiered docks made possible by the Aparo Institute of Research, only serves to make the scene more complicated to follow than a standard Pierson port. Instead of a single raised walkway with smaller jetties branching out at regular intervals, the Aparo docks are a maze of scaffolding and tie-downs in the oddest of places. Only on Aparo, with so many tinkerers skilled at making the impossible an everyday reality, could such a mad creation have lasted.

"Here are your papers," interrupts a voice, and Mal turns to find a woman offering his shipping manifest. But it's not Gunny, it's Alice, who must have been in his cabin when he just shouted into it. Certainly Mal has seen very little of her since they left Huana, but that's not exactly surprising when he gave her a private cabin to hole herself up in. After Mal takes the papers from her, she walks towards the rail to get a better look at the port. "Is this Aparo?"

"Yes. We're sailing for that harbormaster's station there," Mal explains, pointing to the platform standing unusually clear of scaffolding. "Then they'll give us a slip, and we can go about our business."

"Which is what, exactly?"

"First of all, we need more water."

"Didn't you get any when we were just in Huana?"

"Of course I did."

"Then what's the wrong with it?"

Mal takes a slow breath, trying to keep from snapping at his customer. This is why we don't take passengers, he thinks. Aloud he says, "We'll need more. We don't carry much more a few days' worth at a time."

Alice frowns. "Why not?"

"It's heavy," he says matter-of-factly. "Anyway, before the harbormaster gets here, you might want to go back to the cabin. That shipping manifest doesn't list a passenger, so if you stick around up here you'll have to properly act like crew. Which means not standing around and just watching the conversation."

"Oh, don't worry. I'm better at eavesdropping than that," she declares with a smirk. "But I'll leave you privacy for your clandestine dealings with the harbormaster. Shout if you need anything — except, maybe a little less deafening next time?"

"Sorry," Mal says with a sheepish grin. Alice just laughs, which thankfully settles the matter as she willingly disappears a moment later. Then, all that's left is waiting for the harbormaster to send a representative to the Nameless.

Unfortunately, from the instant the man places his boots on the deck, Mal knows that he's going to make the process more painful than necessary. First the man makes a show of looking around the deck for someone who isn't an elf, and then his first few sentences to Mal are painfully well-articulated. When Mal announces himself as the captain, it throws a wrench into the works. However, the inspector quickly falls back on the old favorite of Aparo, and transforms himself back into an officious bureaucrat who insists on checking every single thing not once but thrice. It's slow and methodical, noticeably slowing down the process, but Mal's attitude never wavers from polite attentiveness.