Disclaimer: I own nothing apart from the plot and all future OCs
A/N: This is one of my longer chapters, because I promised action, and there will be, after a boat load of intro before all the good stuff happens.
Oh, and I'm cutting out most of the minor characters out of this fic because I'm planning on more than one OC, and writing them with all the original characters is gonna take a lot of time.
And I'd thought that with Sweden as a neutral country and all, they would be allowed to deliver cargo to Germany. (The Atlas is a cargo ship, after all.) The Russians needed supplies from the Ottoman Empire during Behemoth, and they were already at war during that time, so yeah. I'm still not fully sure about much of the history I've researched for this fic, so feel free to correct any mistakes.
Thanks to all the people who viewed and reviewed this story so far, it helps a lot!
"Mr. Sharp, Dylan, Deryn!"
Deryn sat up from bed, hands immediately searching for her rigging knife. She found it below the cot she slept in and held it tight in her hands. "What's happening?"
Dr. Barlow was standing at her desk, the practiced mask of aloofness plastered onto her face. Deryn had learned that whenever the lady boffin never showed even irritation on her face, that she was holding in very strong emotions.
And calling her barking Deryn out loud was a clue too.
"Wake Aleksandar up and return here; and do so covertly, Mr. Sharp." The woman's tone made Deryn scramble out of bed and pull her suitcase open.
Deryn dug around for her bindings and wound them around her chest until they pinched much more than she was used to. Her hands found one of her old Midshipman jackets and she threw it over the shirt she'd worn to bed. The rigging knife she tucked into the band of her trousers, the leather sheath's familiar weight on her hip a comfort.
The door to the stateroom was locked, and after a good scan of the room, Deryn noticed the little key on the desk. She grabbed the key in her hand and inserted it into the lock.
Just as the door clicked open, Deryn spared a look back at Dr Barlow. The lady boffin was digging in one of the desk's drawer's again, the woman's back to the opening stateroom door. Deryn pulled the key from the lock and stepped out into the corridor.
Alek's room was just beside theirs, and seemed like a large broom closet, not a Swedish cargo airship's stateroom. Deryn gave the fabricated wood of his door a sharp knock then jiggled the brass handle. Locked.
Deryn was glad she kept the key now, and inserted it into the lock.
She had only been in Alek's room once during their trip, when she helped him rescue a message lizard that had managed to jam itself into the message lizard tube in the stateroom. Deryn had commented that it was small then, but it was when she swung the door open that she realized how small it was.
The door's edge banged against the iron bedframe of the bed, sending a sharp ring throughout the little room. Deryn was certain that the sound reached the end of the corridor, where crew members keeping watch on the cargo in the airbeast's gut surely heard them.
Deryn swore and stepped into the stateroom. Dr. Barlow was going to skin her alive for this.
"Mein Gott!"
"Change," Deryn mouthed, gesturing to her clothes. Alek scrambled out of bed and Deryn turned, opening the door a squick. The corridor was empty.
Apart from the fact that the bed was close enough to the door to be hit when it was swung open too hard, the small space of floor that served as all the room was only about two feet wide. Alek was quickly changing in that small space, and when Deryn stepped away from the door, one of his elbows jabbed her in the back.
"Sorry," Alek whispered and tucked the hunting knife into his belt. The boy grabbed Bovril from the foot of his bed where the beastie was still sleeping. Whatever the Loris was about to say was muffled between the folds of Alek's clothes.
Deryn stuck her head out the door and looked out into the corridor. She focused on the shadows that crisscrossed the corridor, her eyes straining to make out the strange shape of a crew member. When she was certain that nothing was hiding in the shadows, she got out of the room and gestured for Alek to come out.
When they reached the next stateroom, Dr. Barlow barely looked up at them. This must be some mission. Dr. Barlow never missed out on a chance to get mad at them before.
The lady boffin looked up from the codes she'd written and regarded them sternly. "Don't think I didn't hear that bang from the other room, Dylan. I'm still reprimanding you for it, but at a later date."
Deryn nodded. It wasn't the first time the lady boffin had postponed scolding them for more important reasons.
"It seems that there is a spy among us." Dr. Barlow picked up one of the papers on her desk and showed them a code she'd translated. Diest ist Schneider
Those three words were repeated a few times, once or twice the word kopie ended the string of words. Deryn's eyes flitted to the series of dots and dashes these had come from, then the code Dr. Barlow had deciphered to get the message.
Jaspert had told her that cargo ships always transmitted information about their trip to other countries back to their homelands. But the messages they sent were always in their native language, and no one bothered with codes when all they were talking about was cargo.
The German was simple enough for Deryn to understand immediately. Of course, a boffin and a former prince getting on a Swedish cargo ship wouldn't be hard to notice, no matter how the Society tried to hide it. And German spies were everywhere nowadays; Dr. Barlow had stopped hiring maids to work for her for that very reason.
"He hasn't sent any information away yet, just signals to inform the men waiting in Hamburg. And he hasn't mentioned the airship he's on, a very stupid move, in my opinion—"
Deryn couldn't hold back anymore. "But it could be anyone that sent that message, ma'am. How would—"
"It would be best, Mr. Sharp, to never interrupt me." Dr. Barlow cut her off, "and you do not need to find whoever this Schneider man is, you just have to stop him from broadcasting."
…
Deryn couldn't help smiling to herself as they sneaked down the corridor to the hatch that would take them to the rookery. She knew it was barking dangerous slipping out onto an airbeast at night without anyone knowing, and the rules were basically being ripped to shreds with the airbeast belonging to a different country all together.
It's a good thing I work for the Zoological Society, Deryn thought.
Dr. Barlow had been right; the corridor leading to the rookery was empty. Not even one worm lamp was lit, and everything was bathed in shadows. Only the light from the night sky that filtered through the circular windows showed Deryn indication that they were actually getting close to the end.
The familiar dead end of the corridor was even darker than the rest of the space, and Deryn itched for her command whistle to whistle for some light. But the ghostly green light the worm lamps emitted would be too noticeable, and neither of them wanted to be noticed.
Deryn grabbed hold of metal rungs that ran up the wall of the dead end and pulled herself up, the cold seeping through her gloves and into the skin of her hands. The ladder ran through the airbeast, into its flesh then to its large nose, where the rookery was.
The ladder continued up into the airbeast, the rungs protruding from mottled pink flesh. When the ladder ended, Deryn searched for the hatch. Her hands pressed into the worn surface and pushed, biting her lip at the slight metallic creak. When the opening was big enough, Deryn wriggled through the hatchway, hands grabbing at the roughened floor of the rookery.
Alek followed soon after, swearing when his foot caught on one of the rungs.
The Atlas's rookery was much smaller compared to the Leviathan's, and the smell of fabricated bird clart was almost unnoticeable with only two fabricated birds left in the cages. The floor ended beside one of the cages, and a metal walkway led to the single door that led to the open sky.
"We need to hurry, that German spy could be transmitting our location by now." Deryn quickened her pace, ignoring the sound of metal straining beneath her.
She slid the bolt that held the door in place and the door swung open. Cold night air snaked fingers through her old uniform, and she shivered. She stepped onto the small metal walkway that crew members used to launch the bigger fabricated beasties. The walkway was only two feet wide, and the membrane of the airbeast's nose had no handholds.
Deryn looked down. It's a long drop, and I don't even have a safety line.
The airbeast's clammy skin was pressed tightly onto Deryn's back, the strong headwind keeping her from falling over. Memories of feeding the fléchette bats of the Leviathan pushed any thought of toppling over and crashing into the sea below from Deryn's head. Almost.
When the walkway ended, ratlines appeared in Deryn's view.
The only problem was that there was an eight feet jump between the edge of the walkway and the nearest ratline. Deryn swore, the foul words carried away by the wind.
She'd jumped farther, of course. But it wouldn't do well to suddenly disappear into the gloom and leave the dafty Alek worrying about her.
Deryn looked back. Alek was a few feet away from her, the boy struggling to stop himself from looking down. Deryn took his arm and gestured to the empty space. "Can you jump that far?"
His face paled at the sight of the roiling sea beneath them, but managed to nod. "I suppose so."
When she reached the walkway's edge, Deryn pushed the hair from her face. She took a fortifying breath of cold air and jumped, vaulting herself across the empty expanse.
She was floating for a moment, her body lighter than air. Then she felt the airflow pull at her clothes and she slammed against the airbeast's flank, the tiny cilia tickling her face through the ratlines. She felt herself slipping off the side, and she grabbed the ratlines.
The ropes ripped through her gloves, the smell of burning leather penetrating her nostrils. Deryn looked down at her hands. The gloves were far from repairable, but at least her hands were safe.
"Barking spiders," Deryn swore and pulled herself out of the way. She looked across and met Alek's gaze from the other side. She hooked her legs and an arm around the ratlines, the other she extended to him.
Alek jumped, his arms flailing for a handhold. One hand managed to grab a hold of the ratlines and a bunch of the cilia underneath, the other pulled so tight at her outstretched hand Deryn was sure her shoulder would've been dislocated if he'd pulled any harder.
"Are you alright?" He looked shaken, but he managed to give her one of the smiles that sent her mooning like one of the lassies back home. Deryn rolled her eyes.
Deryn spotted riggers at the airbeast's tail, the mass of hydrogen sniffers and their handlers congregating near a tear in the membrane. They were too far to notice them, but it didn't stop Deryn from quickening her pace.
They climbed the ratlines across the airbeast's flank, the ropes growing hot between her ruined gloves. Deryn kept an eye on where she was holding, lest she miss a ratline and go tumbling down.
After what felt like hours, they were finally above the gondola. Deryn gave a whoop of joy and slid down the few feet of rope left, her feet planting on the gondola's roof.
They were directly above the bridge. A glimmer of silver caught Deryn's eye, and sure enough, the source was the wireless antennas.
The wire spread across the bridge's roof, and Deryn counted twelve separate antennas attached. The wire led down into a small slit in the roof, where the wire was spliced into three separate radios. And one of those radios was transmitting very important information.
Deryn pulled out her rigging knife and started cutting the wire where it was spliced with another. Dr. Barlow had assured her that the officers would always assume that it was the wind that had split the wires.
Beside her, Alek kept watch over the signal patch. He kept a hand at her back, just in case the captain suddenly changed course or the engines went full speed. A force that sudden could sent her toppling off the gondola.
Once the wire was cut and Deryn had reassured herself that the German spy had been too late, they made their way back to the ratlines.
Deryn hung limply from the ratlines; relishing the familiar feeling of the wind in her hair and the slight pulsating of the airbeast beneath her gloved palms. They were finally nearing the space between the ratlines when Alek swore. Deryn managed to turn to the direction he was pointing at a second before the motivator engines changed in pitch.
The signal patch was bright red.
Deryn felt Alek's arm reaching across to hold her steady, but she knew it would be too late.
The airbeast surged forward, cilia flapping madly at its flanks. It was slower that the Leviathan but Deryn was hanging on with only her fingertips.
Her whole body was flung to the side. The ratlines burned her exposed palms, the front of her shirt ripping against the rough fibres of the rope. Her fingers were beginning to loosen when a hand clasped the back of her jacket.
Alek swore as he pulled her up, his hand grabbing even the bindings underneath her clothes.
Deryn scrambled to grab onto the ropes. The moment her hands closed around one though, a searing pain rushed through her arm. She looked down at her hands.
The gloves clung to her hands by only her fingers, the material gone when it came to her palms; as though she'd tied on some old fabricated animal hide onto her hands and went on a romp across the whole airbeast's flank. The tough material was burned right through, and blood seeped through the ripped edges. Deryn's left hand had taken the worst of it though, and she could feel a trickle of blood run down her arm as she held her arms up to climb.
"Here," Alek said, pulling the piloting gloves from his hands and handing them to Deryn when he noticed the wounds.
She flexed her fingers inside the gloves and winced. "You'll need to wash the blood out these, mind."
A/N: And there it is! It seemed that Alek almost always gets hurt during action scenes in the books, so I switched their places. This is the first action scene I've written for a fic, so please leave a review and tell me what you think!