~~~Constellation~~~
That evening, we gathered together and prepared to leave. I might have been worried were I simply a wooden hulled frigate, but between the moonlight and my draft being measured in dozens of inches instead of feet, I was fairly confident in my ability to reach our destination safely. There was just one problem…
"Get in the boat." I demanded for the third time.
"I am not getting inside of anything that can give the laws of physics the middle finger." Jessica insisted.
"It's a longboat. It does not have fingers, it does nothing other than float on the water, and it does not disobey the laws of physics."
"It was six inches long half an hour ago! If it shrinks back with us in it, you'll have a Honey, I shrunk the kids moment on your hands."
"I have no idea what that means."
"It means," screamed Jessica, "that there is no way I'm getting in that boat."
"Just get in the boat." Christopher called. "It wasn't half as difficult to convince my brother. Besides, this should allow us to travel faster and it definitely holds more food and water than the raft."
Jessica bared her teeth. "I am not getting into that boat of my own free will. You will have to force me inside of it."
With a shrug, United States snatched Jessica off the ground with one arm and slung the sailor over her shoulder.
"Fine, I see how it is. But if the boat shrinks and we get eaten by a fish, or we drown when it rains, or physics decides it isn't going to take this anymore and sends the ghost of Sir Isaac Newton to finish the job, I reserve the right to haunt your ass." Jessica protested as my sister calmly sat down next to a rather morose Chesapeake.
After I finished tying the rope that connected me to my longboat, I frowned. "How does this work exactly? I don't know how to swim." I asked as I toed the water.
Jessica threw her hands up in the air. "You're the boat, you figure it out! Apparently you girls should be able to just walk on top of it."
"Like Jesus?" I hazarded.
She sighed. "Yes, like Jesus."
I tested a foot. The water seemed solid, so I took a few steps out. My feet continued to rest on top of the water, and my confidence grew. I turned around to face everyone in the longboat.
"It does work!" I cried.
Then an ocean wave smacked me in the back and knocked me off my feet. United States burst out laughing, and when I stood back up I noticed that Chesapeake seemed just a bit less grumpy.
~~~.~~~
Three hours later, I was sailing beneath the silent stars. The initial excitement of having legs and using them to run across the sea had worn off, and I was bored. I tried to busy myself with spotting the few constellations I knew, but I stopped once I realized I was confusing Pegasus and Ursa Major.
I was named after the stars on the United States flag, not the stars in the sky. I could find the North Star in Ursa Minor, and that was about it.
What did people do all night? Oh yeah, if they weren't on duty they typically slept. I wondered what sleeping was like. Hm, I wonder what dreaming was like. I looked back at the longboat. The only one still awake was Chesapeake, who was busy glowering the surface of the ocean into submission.
"Hey Chesapeake!" I called. "What're dreams like?"
"I told you I didn't want to talk about it." Was her unhappy response.
"I'm not asking you to tell me what happened in them exactly, I just want to know what the sensation of dreaming is like. I've never had one before, and my crew never needed to discuss what dreams were, just what happened in them."
"Fine. It's… sort of like a daze. Things are happening to and around you, but you can't interact with them until suddenly you can. Then there are the whispers that try to get into your head and tell you who you should be, what you should do. I don't like the whispers very much."
I considered this for a moment. "I don't think I want to dream if that's what they're like."
"You really don't."
"Hey!" Called out a cranky Jessica. "Would you two shut up? Some of us are trying to sleep!"
"Sorry!" I apologized. "You should go to sleep as well Chesapeake, I'm the only one who needs to be awake. My crew and I can keep watch."
~~~.~~~
We sailed south. The wind could have been stronger, but I was a fast ship if I do say so myself, and we made a fair distance. As dawn neared I put us ashore on a mostly-barren rock, who's only notable feature was a slope that led up to a cliff. While most of our group wandered off to explore, Chesapeake pulled me aside.
"I had a nightmare last night."
"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked. This was odd, she hadn't seemed to want to share with me before.
"Not really, but maybe there is a way you could help."
"How?"
Chesapeake began to pace. "Constellation, how far would you go for power?"
I scratched my head. "Uh, when I first fought the French during the Quasi-War, my captain armed me with heavy 24 pounder cannons. It turned out that I was carrying too much weight, and that harmed my performance in battle. Afterwards they were switched out with lighter 18 pounder cannons, and I didn't have that issue in my next battle. So I guess I'd go pretty far for power. The six of us were fairly overbuilt for frigates in the first place, but I wouldn't go so far that it harmed my performance."
My sister shook her head. "That's… not exactly what I meant. What exactly would you sacrifice for power, what pain would you endure?"
I thought about it for a moment. What kind of pain could make you stronger? As a warship I typically wasn't experiencing pain if I wasn't involved in an accident or a battle. The only other time I had truly hurt had been… had been when I was broken up.
Being broken up hadn't made me stronger. It had made me as dead as a warship could be without sinking. I certainly hadn't been made stronger by being torn apart. The other Constellation, the one that was to replace me, might have been made stronger by some of my timbers. Of course I had no way of knowing if any of them wound up as parts of that ship.
It did bring up an interesting thought though. What if I had been taken apart entirely, and then all of my timber was used to make the new Constellation? I guess that would be a painful way of making me stronger, but honestly I'd rather go through something less invasive. Hm, what was less invasive than being completely torn apart, but hurt me as much or more than being damaged in battle?
There were some ships that had been modified to use steam in addition to sail. That certainly would have been an extensive modification, but it would have been worth it. Yes, that was my answer. "Well, you know how steamboats were starting to become more common? Even though it hurt being broken down, I guess the pain would have been worth it if I was being modified to make room for them to put me back together with a steam engine. Does that help?"
For the first time in centuries, I saw a large smile stretch across my sister's face. "Yes actually, that's perfect. Thank you."
