Chapter 4

We slept. God knows how we managed it, but we all managed to catch some sleep that night. Whether it was the exhaustion of battle, or our body clocks telling us we'd been awake for far too long, we all dozed off eventually. It was not a pleasant sleep however, for me, at least. For a start, it was chilly. We were high up, exposed to the elements, with no shelter to speak of. But I've been colder, and in situations worse than this. So it wasn't the weather that disturbed my as I slept. I dreamt. I dreamt about all the events that had happened over the last couple of days. So many things had happened to us in such a short space of time. As I dozed, images of the battles swam in front of my eyes. I could hear Ferdie as a half morphed freak, shooting Dracon fire at the Director. Visser Five, laughing in his Hork-Bajir growl. Maggie was still crying, unable to gain altitude in her heavy eagle morph. Sam yelling, cursing, shouting, encouraging. I saw images of the Skrit-Na space ship on which we were captured. Felt again, the experiences of my first morph. Saw myself walking side by side with Asha, acquiring reindeer and mountain goats. And saw again, Asha falling from the sky, and Sam crying her name over and over again.

The others, I feel, didn't sleep too well either, apart from Ferdie, who could pass out anywhere. Maggie shifted and fidgeted all night, from cold or fear or probably both. Sam, I'm not sure if the sleep had any positive effect on her at all. But eventually the night passed, and we were woken, rather abruptly, by a loud foghorn, sounding just meters away from where we lay.

"Whoever set us up right next to the tannoy can go jump in the ocean," mumbled Ferdie.

"Sorry, Flawless," said Sam, yawning. "Didn't realise that was what it was."

"Anyone got the time?" asked Maggie.

"I think we've slept for a long time," I replied. "By the position of the sun, it's late afternoon again. So we've either slept for no time at all, or for about twenty hours."

"Feels like no time at all," grumbled Ferdie. "God, my muscles are so stiff. I think I might morph. I'm never going to wake myself up in this ridiculous human form. Anyone want to join me?" he said, shooting a hopeful glance at Sam.

"What are you going to morph?" asked Sam. "I don't think a polo pony would go down too well on this ship…"

"Just a crow. Or maybe a ferret. Something small and agile."

"Perhaps we should all get in morph," I suggested. "We can't stay up here all day, we should try and find something to eat."

"Thank god! Philip's on my side at last!" laughed Ferdie.

"Yeah, alright," muttered Sam. "But we're not doing anything stupid. We're not out to spy, or fight. We just want to hitch a lift. We keep hidden. We'll morph crows up here. Mags will have to go beetle and ride on my back as she doesn't have a small bird morph. Philip and Ferdie, you guys demorph once we get on deck and go ferret and wasp. Me and Mags will go hare. We'll split up and try to find something to bring back and eat. Philip - you do the searching as wasp, and Ferdie, you do the grabbing. You won't be able to carry much as ferret, but it's better than being caught as human. And remember, guys, this is a military ship. So behave yourselves!"

We morphed crow, and Maggie beetle, and flapped down quickly to the deck. We were almost as obvious as crows as we were as geese, for although crows are common on land, they are rarely seen near the ocean - and certainly not this far out to sea. A normal sailor probably wouldn't notice, but a Controller might, and this could arouse suspicion.

"Wouldn't it be better if we acquired some officers, and stole their clothes?" said Ferdie, demorphing to human. We were crouched down behind a couple of lifeboats. It was awkward and cramped, and, as we grew, it became very uncomfortable.

"We're not acquiring humans, Flawless," I muttered, gazing out through a gap between the boats across the deck. "How would you do it, anyway? Prance up to him and ask to borrow his DNA? I don't think so…"

It was quiet on deck. There were few personnel about, just a few seamen marching about efficiently, and the odd officer gliding along like James Bond. I expected most were below deck, posted at stations, or in their quarters.

"Ok, there's a doorway inside over there. I have no idea where it leads to, but we'll have to take a chance. Philip and Ferdie, you two slip inside through that door. Me and Maggie'll search round above deck, and we'll let you know if we go inside. Keep in touch by thought speak as much as you can."

We morphed our relevant animals. I went wasp - small, speedy, inconspicuous. Ferdie morphed his ferret - light and supple, good for sniffing out anything resembling food. Maggie and Sam went hare; small, super fast and able to lie low, with excellent senses for listening out for danger, and picking up the scent of anything edible.

--Ok, guys,-- said Sam. --I think it's clear. You two go!--

I hadn't had quite as much practise with the wasp morph as Maggie and Ferdie, but I'd been the first one to try and out and knew what to expect. And I'd managed to navigate the three of us to a toilet, which I'm sure you'll agree counts for something. So it wasn't too difficult to follow Ferdie towards the doorway, apart from the fact that he must have forgotten I was a wasp and bounded ahead wildly, and moaning when he'd lost sight of me.

--Philip, where have you got to?-- he said, scanning the space around him for me. Ferrets have ok vision, better than a wasp's but poor compared to a humans'.

--I'm right behind you, muppet. And stop shooting off like that, you'll get yourself lost. Follow me.--

Ferdie whinged and grumbled a bit, like a child whose favourite toy had been taken away, but reluctantly stepped in line and followed me through the doorway.