Beneath The Endless Sky

As The Cannons Howl and Crack

Mercy frowned, troubled, as she considered Leslie's glib remark. There was the possibility, as remote as it might seem, that Nottle knew what he was sending them into. Which would mean that both she and the captain had been played.

"Newly minted ship with a crew desperate for work, and Nottle goes eight days out of his way just to hire us. There's a lot of coincidence and good fortune to believe in, Captain," Mercy mused aloud. "Perhaps there's an ulterior motive to hiring an outsider for the job."

Vincent pursed his lips and looked out at the skies towards Olencia. "The trouble with that suspicion, is the motive Nottle gave us is extremely convincing. We both know having his ship in these skies would have half of Olenica mobilized. And if the Matilda had been found by Olenica, it wouldn't take them long to deduce the island's existence."

"So whatever their motives, it isn't cut far from what we know?" Mercy asked.

"I think so. But we can always interrogate Nottle when we get back," Vincent said. "Anita, could we tow the Matilda? I imagine Captain Preston might be grateful enough to open her purse. Failing that, the Wayfarers would pay well for the prize."

"A prize?" Mercy asked. Captured enemy ships were called prizes, but only by navy sailors. "We aren't privateers, captain. Selling this boat without giving her captain first bid would make us pirates."

The captain mouth wrinkled and his brow furrowed, as if he had just tasted something distinctly unpleasant. Anita, meanwhile, was looking up and down the length of the Matilda, and shaking her head. "Afraid we ain't likely to tow this thing all the way back to the Roost. Drummond's Spite is definitely in our reach, but I ain't thinking our return there would be well-received, captain."

"That's a very polite way of saying we'd be shot on sight," Mercy remarked.

"We could also make it to Ysevar. Reckon it's the closest reputable port to us," Anita added.

"Ysevar's a nice city, but it's on Olenica. One misstep at the port authority and we spend the next few decades forgotten in a dank dungeon. And some Olencian Czarina turns my ship into a yacht."

"Then we don't have enough fuel to tow the Matilda to anyplace that won't shoot us or lock us in prison," Anita concluded. Mercy laughed, finding something unusually appropriate about their circumstances.

"I'm beginning to worry I'm bad at making friends," Vincent mused.

"I reckon it's worse than you suspect, captain," Mercy said. "You're also very good at making enemies."

"Har har. Well, if we can't take the Matilda with us, we'll have to transfer the lenses to the Child," Vincent said, with that slight change in the tenor in his voice that came when he shifted from making conversation to giving orders. "Anita, go open the Child's cargo bay doors, I don't think we'll fit that largest lens in anywhere else. Mercy, Leslie, the Matilda's cargo doors are probably the best way out. You may need extra cabling. This isn't a Wayfarer vessel, so I doubt the outside hull has metal plates for your boots to cling to."

"What will you be doing, while we do all the heavy lifting?" Mercy asked with a grin.

"We're in the free float of the far skies. The cargo literally weighs nothing," Vincent retorted. "And I want a longer look at those log books."

"Aye, sir." Mercy saluted, with a flick of her fingers off the brim of her hat, and lead Leslie back down the stairwell. Once down, she moved over to the cargo doors, climbing up the wall to unclip the chains, and pushed against the top of the door until it began to open.

Once Mercy had the door open enough to climb through the top, she went through and set a clip against the door chains, and stopped to inspect the outside of the Matilda's hull. She could see several metal hoops along the sides, in line with the deck beams, but there were no metal plates to let someone walk along the hull in free float.