Chapter Ten: The Boardwalk

I anticipated NiGHTS' explosive response; holding her still was like restraining a wildly flaming missile, and upon breaking loose of its mountings, it could do nothing but rocket off into the distance, leaving you spluttering exhaust and fumes in its wake. I did not, however, expect the purple projectile to come barreling towards me. In the blink of an eye, I was brought to the sudden revelation that yes, there was one thing NiGHTS could do more irritating than grabbing an arm and dragging me around by my heels-- grabbing me around the waist and towing me through the air along with her!

NiGHTS had a very comfortable sense of balance in midair, and an incredible tolerance for the gravitational forces exerted on her. As the jester skipped erratically through the air, looping around like a maniac and making enough noise to match, I experienced the incredibly uncomfortable feeling of undulation from multiple to negative G's in the middle of her maneuvers, NiGHTS' unearthly strong grasp the only thing keeping me from smashing pancake-flat against the ground. I squawked and protested as best I could, but NiGHTS was a little too out of her head with happiness to care as she rattled off all manner of praises in a nearly rabid expression of liberation.

NiGHTS whirled past Silver Crescent; the admiral, noticing my position, acted astoundingly fast, shooting his hand out with perfect precision and wrenching me out of the jester's grasp. He pulled me around and shifted me back onto my feet beside him; I stumbled backwards and would have fallen over had Silver Crescent not seized my shoulder and held me steady while my vision stopped spinning.

In a few moments NiGHTS returned, a little less loopy but not a bit less cheerful. She emitted a mirthful sigh, resuming her normal posture.

Silver Crescent raised an eyebrow. "Are you quite done now?" he asked in an irked tone.

She sounded as bubbly as ever. "Oh, I'm great now! All that staying around in one place, I just needed to stretch myself out again…"

"You couldn't've been in there for more than five minutes," I growled, giving her a venomous glare.

"Five minutes in the same place, I know, it's terrible!" NiGHTS moaned, looking distraught. Her smile bounced right back. "So, are we gonna keep going or what?"

"Keep going?" This time it was I questioning her sanity. "Oh, I don't know, let me push all the blood back into my head first!"

NiGHTS looked confused. "I'm sorry, why did you move all your blood around again?"

"Humans are not built for aerial stunts like you are, you twit," Silver Crescent said sternly. "YOU were a little too inebriated with flying around to notice, but had I not pulled Narrator away from you, you very well might have killed him by flying him around like that."

"Really?" NiGHTS made a face. "Well, how else am I supposed to show my gratitude, give him flowers or something?"

" 'Thank you' will do perfectly fine," I said. "What I really want to know is, how the hell did you survive getting smashed into that building?"

NiGHTS laughed. "If I was that easy to get rid of, don't'cha think I would've gotten done in years ago? I would've beaten that Maren for you and continued on our way but I got a little sidetracked when I got captured."

"Who captured you, those guards?" Silver Crescent asked. "I would imagine someone of your strength would be able to beat them…"

"Not all three at once, especially when they jump in from the rear," the jester said flatly. "Unlike you, Mr. Trigger-Happy, I don't really like fighting that much, and I'm not too good at it either."

"A soldier who cannot fight is as dangerous as a Fright who can," the admiral growled. "I'll be keeping my eyes on you, NiGHTS… if anything should happen to Narrator, there will be hell to pay for both of us."

"I will take utmost good care of him," NiGHTS promised. She turned to me. "There's a big lake or something a few blocks from here with a bunch of ships and stuff in it. Sound interesting?"

"The marina?" I nodded happily. "Sounds great. We should go check it out."

"Do you warrant this wise, Narrator?" Silver Crescent said cautiously. "I would rather not have a repeat performance of our last act…"

I nodded. "Tell you what, SC—if we get into trouble, I'll call you. Got it?"

The admiral shrugged. "Good enough. I'll probably be in the area anyways, I have a bit of paperwork to attend to, and if what Mayaren says is true, Saki's been prowling around for me as of late, and it is probably better that I not keep her waiting much longer…"

I chuckled. "Good luck with that, Silver Crescent."

He sighed, smiling weakly. "You know how Florens are, my friend. Take care of yourself, and don't get into too much trouble. Cheers." The admiral vanished in his signature flash of light.

"What a boring guy," NiGHTS stated staunchly. She extended her hand to me. "Let's go check the marina out."

I was nearly as eager as NiGHTS was to explore. "Hell yeah, let's go." I took her hand, and we were off.

We made fast progress, and within a few moments we were at the marina. It was just as large, just as grand, and just as fantastic as every other part of the city was. Masts of ships of all kinds, all sizes stood like a forest of dark timbers, ropes and furled sails flapping in the breeze. The piers were an endless mesh that stretched on and on, curving right over the horizon it seemed. The lurch and roll of the waves made a soft and distinct melody, rocking ships back and forth in their moorings.

While NiGHTS pushed me along the waterfront, whirling in and around all manner of obstacles (there were plenty enough to evade), I took careful inventory of the ships I passed by. I saw schooners, barks, and many other small ships I could not so clearly identify. Some were fishing vessels, some pleasure craft, and at least a few were racing sloops, built trim and sleek for maximum speed. I noted a catamaran here or there, one great outrigger spanning two hulls. All of these were sailing vessels, or at least, they all had sails.

A giant wharf approached from the distance, lined with larger ships. Several had two masts, reaching high up into the sky. I counted a few with three sails, and unless I looked a little quickly (being in the middle of a loop at the time), I thought I saw a ship with four. These, surely, were the clippers, the great merchant-ships of times past. Here they sat, ready for voyage, but quiet in their seclusion, long since abandoned by their crews and the count of time.

NiGHTS did not share my interest in the relics of ages past. Come on, come on, they're all exactly the same, she said, tugging me away as I tried to drift nearer to investigate them. I protested to her poor generalization, but she brushed it off, being very firmly affixed that anything that could not be played with was of absolutely no consequence and did not demand much attention. No need to waste time here.

I wanted to turn around and double back towards the clippers, but the moment I saw what lined the next wharf up ahead I immediately lost all interest. As soon as I came close enough to pick out the finer details I came to a stop in midair and soaked in the view. NiGHTS was a little irked (as I could hear her discreet muttering in the back of my head) but granted me the courtesy of observing what I considered to be the highlight of my dream as of yet

If it was anywhere at all, then this was it—Battleship Row. Tied neatly in place along three long piers were every kind and make of fighting ship that I knew of, and quite a few that I didn't, arranged in tidy rows, ordered as though in a museum. Near the shore was a trireme, the many-oared warship of the Greeks; astride it, a Spanish galleon, sporting a hull lined with gun hatches for its many cannon. There were a few more wooden ships—HMS Victory I noted, its yellow-striped sides visible clearly from the air, as well as the smaller but no less prominent Constitution, in notably better shape than I had seen her in Boston (she was undergoing serious renovation at the time, and this was the first time outside of pictures from the nineties I had seen her with her masts intact). I espied the Monitor and Virginia, the first modern ironclads (one a pyramid-shaped block of iron, the other a low iron bow with a single two-gun turret atop), calmly astride one another, their past animosities put aside at dock. The Maine capped off the row, in more solid condition than one would imagine her rather explosive end would have left her. Two thousand years of naval history, boiled down to perhaps a dozen small ships. That was only the first pier…

What's that big one over there? NiGHTS asked. She directed my eyes over towards the second wharf (if a decking a few miles long could be called such). My vision affixed on a large battleship, towering keep of its pagoda seeming to split the skies around it. I checked its decks and the rear of the ship, searching for flags or markings, and then its side. World War Two vintage, by the looks of it—definitely Japanese, it's got the rising sun on it, and the bow markings seem to agree. Probably one of those big Japanese battleships, the Yamato or Haruna or something.

No, no, the BIG one! THAT one! NiGHTS pulled my hand up, pointing on a looming shape at the very far end of the wharf.

I leaned forwards, squinting. I couldn't tell from the distance. If scale was anything to judge by, it was huge—even out at the edge of the wharf (a few miles back), it seemed ominous compared to the ships in the foreground, all of which were pretty sizeable. I began maneuvering closer to investigate. The swastikas sported on some of the ships I passed briefly attracted my attention—yes, that was the Bismarck beneath me, and that smaller one next to it, Admiral Graf Spee maybe, I'd need to look closer to know for certain. That would be later, though. And as tempting as those aircraft carriers looked, I was a little more intrigued by the large ship looming at the edge of the wharf, which I was beginning to suspect was two or three times the size of anything else (flattops included) that was anchored out here. As a matter of fact, looking at the ship's silhouette, the four turrets laden with what looked suspiciously like giant mass drivers, the racks of defensive missiles and squat, aft-set control tower, I was beginning to think that perhaps I knew a bit more than I would think about this one in particular…

We flew quite fast, and it took only a few moments to span the miles of woodwork below. My eyes were affixed on the ship. Flagship Pride never looked better. Three glorious quarters of a mile long, armed with twelve supersize plasma drivers, rows and rows of smaller artillery and air assault weapons, and the ever-ubiquitous air-defense missiles, crammed anywhere they could be reasonably fitted, the Pride spearheaded Armada assaults on Genesis and Calrossa, acting as a floating base of operations for the fleet's planetary conflicts. Her sweeping, open bow, an appreciable landing pad for anything smaller than a grandship, and voluminous hangars belowdecks allowed her to carry a full escort of battleships, cruisers and fighter squadrons. The Pride's gargantuan generator, fed by a mass of Powerstone the size of a Volkswagen, allowed her to cruise up to thirty-five knots under full load and Power-Jump from one sea to another, giving the Armada an immediate presence in any body of water large enough to contain her massive displacement. Although thirty years in the making since the present date, Flagship Pride was built for the modern age, fitted with a sophisticated weapons system capable of protecting the ship from any manner of aerial assault the Dark One might dare to—

You're being boring again, NiGHTS reminded me quietly.

I blanched. I had forgotten that irritating notion that she could listen in on my thoughts. Can you not leave me alone for fifteen seconds, NiGHTS?

The jester giggled. Your friend told me not to leave you alone again…

I ducked in closer to the Pride, reaching out for one of the handrails on the ship's side near the stern. I caught it and spun around. NiGHTS released me, and I tumbled out onto the ship's deck.

For a floating object, the Flagship was quite steady; you couldn't feel the roll of the ship beneath you, probably as she was a little too hulking to be moved by such feeble forces as the ocean. I still nearly fell over and had to catch the handrail to keep from collapsing. "Such urgency in evicting me," I said to NiGHTS, who was hovering comfortably a foot off the ship's deck.

The jester shrugged. "I figured that if I didn't let you go, you'd pull yourself off and knock us both around. You're a lot harder to contain than most Visitors are, probably because you fight against me so much."

I sighed. "Oh, I'm sorry, I want to do intelligent things in the air, like sightsee, rather than just fly around."

The jester yawned rather offensively. "Boring, boring, boring," she chided again. "If you keep this up, you'll be as lame and bah-humbug as Owl!"

I considered for a moment. "Speaking of him, when is he supposed to show up? Silver Crescent said he would a while back…"

NiGHTS giggled. "I've been trying to keep him guessing," she said deviously.

I gave her an odd look. "You've been deliberately bouncing me around so that he can't catch up?"

NiGHTS nodded. "If he showed up, between the two of you I'd bore to death!"

I sighed, turning to face towards the ship itself. The corridor we were standing in was about ten feet wide, large enough for supplies and personnel to be shuttled from one end of the ship to the other in Armada vehicles, and layered with sturdy Red Oak wood for better traction. Behind the walkway were some of the ship's secondary guns. Staggered in a pyramid set against the main structure of the ship's tower were three turrets, each mounting a single cruiser-size plasma cannon. There was another cluster of these further forwards, as well as a good half-dozen smaller turrets mounting paired anti-aircraft guns, and of course, several armored missile racks, the potent weapon's nosecones protruding a few inches from their housings. Looking down the long length of the ship's hull, towards the large deployment deck that took up nearly half of the ship's total size, I could see her forward gun mounts, three great turrets in a triangular arrangement, each mounting three battleship-class plasma cannon.

"This thing is huge," I marveled, glancing down towards the stern of the ship, her rear batteries (which were every bit as formidable as the ones on her sides). "Compared to the battleships I've seen, it's a leviathan."

NiGHTS nudged my shoulder. "Umm, Narrator, hate to interrupt your little fancies here, but there's something you should probably see over here…"

I turned around, casting my eyes towards NiGHTS, and then skywards. I was horrified at what I saw. A great pale white ship blotted out the skies, looking every bit like a phantom of death.