You Can Be My Friend or My Victim

…

Off-time was rare for Link and Line, especially when the Grand Sails was docked. But, in this instance, the Grand Sails had been forced to remain at Rake Island due to problems with the engine. Link did not know the specifics, being little more than a handyman and assistant supply clerk, but he understood that there was a problem with the feed system used to keep the ship's boiler fueled when the engine was used. It had happened five days ago while they were on approach to the island. Link was looking over the ship's supplies with the captain, trying to help determine if spare parts and such would need to be requested when the ship would have returned to Skyrider Port in the next three days. They had felt the ship exit the Sky Line, and then the ship had lurched when the stern had drifted back into the Sky Line. This, naturally, had enraged Captain Alfonzo, who had immediately marched out onto the deck and demanded a report from the nearest airman. They had found out from Lieutenant Luke that after the ship had exited, they had stowed the sails so the galleon could approach the island using its engine. However, the engine had failed to start, and the wind had forced the Grand Sails back into the Sky Line. From there, the lieutenant had ordered the sails opened again so that the ship could run on the residual winds from the Sky Line until the ship could tack and move away from the Sky Line. Captain Alfonzo had ordered emergency flags run up, and a half-hour later (just as the Grand Sails was falling in irons dangerously close to the Sky Line again), a galleon of the Airliners Company had sailed out and towed them to port. It had not been a very good day for the Grand Sails. Tacking was a very poor method of traveling for a full-rigged ship like the Grand Sails, a galleon is one of the hardest ships to tow by engine even with another galleon, and the only reason that a captain of the Airliners Company (with which the Skyriders had had especially bad relations with due to the Airliners attempting to swindle business out from under Skyriders' feet in the southeast) was because he was feeling especially magnanimous that day.

Needless to say, the captain was quite angry. On any other day, he would have told his airmen to forego the feeding system and start shoveling coal into the boiler. Unfortunately, the latest refit made coal accessible only from a hatch in the floor of the deck above the engine room, and their reserve was too low for them to retrieve coal even if they climbed into the reservoir. Two Skyrider ships, the cutter Nayru's Messenger and the barquentine Airman's Delight, had been docked at Rake Island when the Grand Sails had to be towed in. After speaking with the captains of both vessels, the captain of the Airman's Delight agreed to take on the job that the Grand Sails was supposed to accept while the Nayru's Messenger took word back to Skyrider Port that the Grand Sails needed parts to repair the engine, parts which vessels normally did not carry due to the amount of work it took to replace them.

By the fifth day, the parts had arrived on the Guns of Lightning, a full-rigged frigate which happened to be heading in their direction from Skyrider Port. Most of the airmen had already finished their regular docking duties, so Captain Alfonzo granted the idle members of the crew a bit of shore leave to keep them from getting on each others' nerves (or worse, his). Link took the time to read through a print of the logbook of the Dawn's First Light, a decommissioned airship from about seventy years ago. It had been a vessel from before the airship companies formed, so it was interesting reading about the kinds of shenanigans that Captain Dolise had to put up with in comparison with things he had seen the Grand Sails airmen try to pull. He rarely found the opportunity to read due to his duties, not to mention having to confine himself to his and Line's dim berth. Reading on the weather deck would have been preferable if the wind had not been blowing across the island and over the port, causing the air to smell like livestock feces.

"Link!"

"Dah!" Link shouted in alarm, dropping the book over his face. He pulled up one side to peer at Line standing next to him. "Are you kidding me, Line?" he asked in an irritated tone.

"Oh, sorry," Line replied, giving him a wide grin. "Thought you heard me running down the hall."

Link sighed and removed the book from his face. "I did," he said as he resumed reading. "I just thought it was someone above."

"Hey," Line told him, disregarding the fact that Link did not like being disturbed when he was trying to read. "Guess who's outside."

Link turned his head to stare at him. When Line did not appear to take the hint, Link replied, "No."

"Oh, come on, Link. You can read later."

Link sighed and closed the book, submitting to the idea that he would not be able to read until Line could be satisfied. "Okay, who's outside?"

"It's the Dawn's Ascent. You know, Leeds' and Harrow's ship."

Link shrugged his indifference. Ever since failing to befriend Leeds and Harrow, two airmen on the Dawn's Ascent who were just a little older than them, Line had opened up a prank-filled rivalry with them which usually ended with all three of them in trouble. Link did not know who started the pranks; the jury was still out whether the older kids had been jerks to Line or one of Line's friendlier jibes had provoked them. He had made it a point of not getting involved, especially after the last time left Line face-down in mud with a shaved spot on the back of his head and one boot missing.

Even now, Line rubbed at the spot that Leeds had shaved from the back of his head even though it had grown back five months ago. "What's that for?" he asked.

"Line, I told you before, I don't wanna get involved. You hate them, they hate you."

Line held his hands up. "No, no, just listen. I've got the perfect plan. They'll never know it was us."

"Line, all they have to do is realize the Grand Sails is docked here, and they'll know who did it. They probably already know we're here."

"They're busy swabbing the weather deck. Come on; I'll show you what I've got in mind."

Link relented with a sigh and left his book behind in his hammock. He followed Line up to the weather deck. As he expected, the air reeked of the general filth of farm life. The wind had eased, but the smell was still strong. With most of the crew gone, the only one nearby was the deck's assigned watchman. Captain Alfonzo would be supervising the repairs to the engine, and Lieutenant Luke would most likely be patrolling the island to keep an eye on the crew.

It was not until Link was following Line up the shroud of the main mast that he noticed a covered bucket tied around Line's waist. Already dreading what Line was about to do, he followed through the bottom opening of the crow's nest.

Here, Line set down the bucket and removed the lid. "What do you think?" he asked, showing Link the contents.

Link was not sure what to make of the contents. It looked like balled-up rags floating in water. "So far, I have to say I'm not very impressed," he admitted.

"Smell it."

"Line, I can't smell with cow gas filling the air."

"Oh." Line removed a slingshot from inside his tunic. Then he picked up one of the rags. "I soaked these in raw grog."

"What's that gonna do?" Link asked, watching Line squeeze excess grog out of the rag.

"Just watch." Line then put the rag into the slingshot and drew it. When he aimed forward, Link realized that the three-masted barque docked afore the Grand Sails was the Dawn's Ascent. Line had to aim through the rigging of the foremast and hope the wind did not pick up enough to misdirect his shot.

Line released. His aim took it above the rigging of the fore topgallant mast and out beyond the bow. But the cloth unfolded enough that the meager wind caught it and directed it starboard until it fell below the level of either ship's weather deck.

Link noted the lack of response from the two figures swabbing the Dawn's Ascent's weather deck and commented to Line, "Nice shot. They're ruing the day they messed with you now, Line."

"That's why I brought more than one," Line replied, already putting another rag in the slingshot.

"What's the point?" Link asked.

"If either of them pick it up and happen to run into an officer, the officer's gonna think they've been dipping into the grog against regulations." Link just shook his head.

The next rag sailed similar to the first. However, it remained balled up and arced through the Dawn's Ascent's backstays. It thumped just forward of the ship's aftcastle.

And a red-clad officer emerged from the aftcastle. He picked up the rag from the deck and investigated for a moment. Then he turned toward the Grand Sails, prompting Link and Line to duck behind the thin frame of the crow's nest. They watched as the officer stepped onto the aftcastle, walked to the transom, and hailed an airman loitering around the Grand Sails' forecastle. There was a discussion (during which the airman had to haul himself out onto the bowsprit in order to hear), at the start of which the officer pointed up at the crow's nest.

"Ahoy in the crow's nest!" someone beneath Link and Line shouted. "What are you doing up there!?"

Line peered down through the opening in the floor. "Oh, crap, it's Luke," he hissed at Link. He glanced at the bucket. "I gotta get rid of this."

"Ahoy in the crow's nest!" Luke shouted. "Get your asses down here now!"

Link moved to the opening and started climbing down. "Good luck with that," he told Line.

"Wha—you traitor!" Line shouted.

"Ahoy on the shroud!" Luke shouted. "Is that you, Link!?"

"Yes, sir!" Link replied.

"Who's with you!?"

"Airman Line, sir!"

"What are you two doing up there!?"

Link glanced up at the crow's nest. "Watching Line make an idiot of himself, sir!"

"Screw you, Link!" Line shouted down at him.

"Line, get your ass down here!" Luke shouted. There was a moment of silence as Link finally reached the deck. Luke was already waiting near the shroud for him and asked, "What's he doing up there?"

"He's trying to get a couple of airmen on the Dawn's Ascent into trouble," Link explained.

Luke gave him a confused look. "With rags soaked in spoiled grog?"

Link turned and looked up just in time to see Line's bucket fly out of the crow's nest. "Yeah, I think he's running out of ideas again," he replied, watching the bucket fall over the starboard side. "Veeeeery fast."