A/N: There was a comment on the last chapter asking if there was a list of everyone's species, and I'm here to inform you that there is! If you head to my tumblr ( starship-squidlet, which you should be able to reach by going to .com) and look at the masterlist (pinned post), scroll through the Newsies links until you find the one for Yo Ho, Hero! That will take you to the series masterlist, and towards the bottom of that post you'll find a list of all major characters and their species. Sorry that it's so convoluted! In the future, I may type up a new list and include it in another chapter, but for now, the one on tumblr will have to do! Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions or issues finding the list!
.*.*.*.*.*.
Jack felt his breath catch in the back of his throat as he took in the ship in front of them. The Banner's mast soared up into the hazy sky, her solar sails bundled in their furled positions. He could see a pair of bird-like people—Rito, if he had to guess, based on what he could see of their heads and wings—fluttering around between masts, checking the sails. A few other figures were visible on the deck of the ship, heads bobbing in and out of view as they moved around the deck.
"Wow," Elmer breathed the word out beside him. Jack glanced over and grinned at the sight of the younger boy's wide eyes and dropped jaw. "She's beautiful."
"Sure is," Race let out a low whistle. "Think she flies as smooth as she looks?"
"For as fancy as she is, she'd better," Jack laughed. "Come on, or we really will be late." He grabbed the others by their collars and gave them a gentle shove towards the ship.
At the foot of the gangplank, they were met by a short, stocky Canus with dark brown and grey fur, and oversized ears on either side of his head, slightly lower than what looked to be their normal position. He wrinkled his nose and glared at the three of them. "You must be Davey's recruits."
Jack, Race, and Elmer exchanged glances. "Uh… We were hired by a man named David, yeah," said Jack finally. "A week ago, down on the cargo docks."
The Canus sighed and straightened up. "I'm the captain of the Banner, Spot Conlon. Who are you?"
"Jack Kelly, Race Higgins, Elmer Kasprzak," Jack pointed at each of them in turn as he said their names.
"Any of you have experience working on a ship?" Spot asked, looking them up and down.
"My dad taught me how to fly a freighter when I was younger," said Jack. "He used to take me with him on supply runs to the moons."
"Otherwise, nope," said Race.
"Great," Spot sighed. "Well, come on. It's almost time to cast off." He turned around and headed up the ramp. The boys exchanged another glance, then followed the captain. On deck, Spot called out to the rest of the crew: "Alright, everyone! Fall in!"
In moments, the rest of the crew was lined up in front of them. Jack had been right—the two flyers were Rito, one with iridescent black feathers, with white rings around his eyes, and one with yellow, brown, and white. There was a Verpine, vaguely insectoid and very twitchy, and a small, wiry man that looked half-Felis, half-something more human. The final member of the crew, and the last to fall in line with the others, was a woman with lavender skin and a crest of gradient rainbow feathers running from the bridge of her nose to vanish behind her head, and more bands of feathers on her wrists and up her arms until they disappeared under her sleeves. She cocked her head and winked at Jack when she caught him staring at her, grinning openly when he flushed.
"JoJo," Spot cautioned. "Everyone, these are our new recruits, Jack, Race, and Elmer." He turned to face the trio. "This is the rest of the crew. JoJo de la Guerra"—the purple-skinned woman stepped forward and nodded, her feathers ruffling—"navigation. Romeo"—the half-Felis gave them a wave—"general crew. Specs"—the black-feathered Rito nodded—"lookout. Finch"—the yellow-feathered Rito bowed politely—"general crew. And Skittery"—the Verpine chittered faintly—"mechanic and general crew. They'll teach you the ropes—literally, and figuratively." He gestured up at two more figures, on an upper deck, staring down at them. "You three have met Davey already, and the kid with him is Charlie. Charlie's our boss. We all work for him. Davey too. But he's nice enough. Just… don't ask about the leg." Introductions finished, Spot turned on his heel and headed for the upper deck. JoJo smiled brightly at the new arrivals, then followed along after the captain.
The other members of the crew closed in around their new shipmates, grinning broadly.
"Well, well, well," Romeo, the shortest among the crew by a full head, crossed his arms and stepped forward to look up at the others. He bared his teeth in something between a smile and a snarl—even though he was clearly only half Felis, and therefore had far more humanoid features than full-blooded Feli, like Albert, his teeth were long, sharp, and far more cat-like than any human's—as he looked up at them. "So… you guys ever been aboard a sky-sailer before?"
"Well, that certainly seems to be the question of the day," Race retorted.
"The answer is 'no'," said Jack before Race and Romeo could devolve into an argument. "None of us have ever crewed a starship before, except for when I used to fly moon supply runs with my father when I was a kid. But we all have a lot of experience on cargo docks."
Finch and Specs traded glances and rolled their eyes so far back into their heads that they almost disappeared. "Working cargo docks is nothing like working a ship," Finch said.
Skittery chittered, a series of clicking noises that ended in what sounded vaguely like a laugh.
Specs clicked his beak in agreement, then turned to the others. "He says that if you think it'll be that easy, you're in for a rude awakening."
"Well, I'm sure it can't be more physically demanding than working on a dock," Jack retorted. "So why don't you just suck it up and show us what to do so we can all figure out how this is going to work?"
.*.*.*.*.*.
An hour later, they were all in position to cast off. Jack stood by the main mooring line anchoring the ship to the dock. Romeo, Specs, Finch, and Skittery were all up in the rigging, while JoJo stood at the ship's wheel next to Spot. Davey and Charlie were nowhere to be seen—Jack thought he had seen them heading into the cabin under the upper deck a little while earlier—and Race and Elmer had also been positioned around the ship, Race at the secondary mooring line, and Elmer precariously in the crow's nest.
Jack felt the engines roar to life under his feet, and the joy swelled back up in his chest again. His heart began to pound, and he couldn't keep a grin off of his face. The ship rose slightly with the soft roar of the engines, and Jack adjusted his grip on the mooring line, waiting for Spot's signal.
It wasn't long in coming. After a moment and a nod from JoJo, who was watching monitors and dials on the control panel beside her, Spot stepped forward to the railing in front of the wheel. "Gentlemen! Cast us off!"
As they had been instructed by Specs and Finch, Jack and Race untied the lines from where they were fastened and raced for the gangplank, clattering up it and onto the deck. Once there, Jack hit the control to pull back the gangplank, and they raced towards where the mooring lines were fastened to the ship to haul them onto the deck and coil them neatly out of the way.
The hoverfield under the ship was slowly retracted, allowing the ship to begin to lift on its own power, and Jack felt his heart lift with it. A breeze fluttered across the desk, blowing his hair back and out of his face. His grin broadened as they rose, lifting away from the Proserpina space decks. He stared expectantly up at the clouds, hardly even noticing as the transparisteel canopy began to rise from the sides of the ship to envelop them in a bubble. With another set of gentle whirring, the life support system kicked in, providing a new gentle breeze (of significantly fresher air) that swirled around the deck.
"All clear, Captain!" JoJo's call snapped Jack's attention back to the deck of the ship.
"Altitude?" Spot half-turned towards her to ask the question.
"Ten thousand meters and climbing," JoJo responded.
That high already? Jack gaped. He peered over the edge of the railing—as much as he could with the transparisteel bubble in place—and realized that they were, in fact, far higher up from the city and the planet's surface than he had guessed. In fact, the city was hardly visible beneath them with the heavy cloud cover that had begun to envelop the ship.
"Unfurl the main sail!" Spot called. Jack looked up and watched as Specs and Finch fluttered into motion, releasing the sail from the arm so that it tumbled into place. The solar cells began to glow dully, even with the general lack of UV light in the clouds. They brightened as the ship continued to rise, soaking in more and more sunlight. "Top sail!" Spot called. Skittery and Romeo unfurled the sail, then clambered down the rigging to the deck as Finch and Specs soared to the other arm to prepare to release the mainsail on the fore-mast on Spot's cue.
As they lifted out of the clouds, Jack had to shield his eyes as the light of the sun hit them before the transparisteel could tint to compensate. When he moved his hand again, he was surrounded by the starfield of outer space. The moons of Proserpina were visible in the distance, making their way around the planet. He could glimmer of the next planet in the solar system far off in the starfield, almost obscured by the bulk of the star—not that he looked directly at that; he knew better. Spot called out again, and Finch and Specs unfurled the final sail. All of the solar cells were glowing brightly at this point, the sails billowing without wind as the cells flexed towards the light.
The whir of the engines grew louder as the maneuvering thrusters kicked in, guiding them away from the planet. Sublight engines came next, and the Banner was on her way out of the system.