"JoJo; how's the ship holding up?"
They were almost a full day into their voyage, and the entire crew was on edge. The ship had risen from the sea and through the atmosphere with no issues, but, when JoJo had activated the hyperdrive to head for Anatori, a deep shudder had gone through the ship, shaking them all so hard that their teeth rattled, and they had lurched—rather than jumping smoothly—into the hyperspace window. Initially, the ship had continued to shake as it hurtled faster-than-light through the vacuum, but that had slowly died down to the occasional shiver by the end of the first hour. The occasional groan came from machinery deep inside of the ship, but the Banner seemed to be holding steady.
JoJo and Skittery flitted around the control consoles, checking readouts and watching gauges as they flew. Any interruptions from the rest of the crew earned snappy retorts and rude gestures from the pair, so they were largely left to their own devices. Specs and Finch were flying regular circuits of the sails, keeping their eyes peeled for early signs of tearing in the fragile solar fabric. The rest of the crew was assigned to monitor systems and climb up and down the rigging for closer checks on the sail fabric.
"Now's not a great time, Spot," JoJo snapped, several long seconds after Spot had initially asked the question.
"Just give me a quick update. Whatever you've got."
"Well, we're not dead yet. How's that?"
"... Great."
JoJo sighed and turned away from her console for a moment to glare at Spot. "Look, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself, but that Shray kid did a good job with this ship. Our systems are functioning well beyond their typical capacity. Our power consumption efficiency is off the charts. It's amazing. I'm genuinely impressed. Of course, it's taxing every system to its limit; we're well in the red pretty much everywhere. If the jump was going to last any longer, we'd probably blow the engines—and us with them—but… I think we'll make it in one piece."
"That's great," Spot said, letting out a sigh of relief he hadn't realized he'd been holding in.
"I mean, we'll have to undo half of the modifications as soon as we dock at the Hub. Otherwise the ship'll either shake apart or blow up on the next jump. The biggest thing is that capacitor we rerouted. We need to get a new one as soon as we dock; it could take a little while to hook up."
"You and Skittery can handle that, right?"
"Sure. No problem. It's a pretty simple fix. And once we get that done, we'll move on to the other more pressing modifications."
"Understood. Anyone else you want to have around to help out?"
"Finch and Specs are always good; they're good hands for repairs. Romeo too, if you want to leave him—he's more familiar with the ship than the new boys."
"Fair enough. I'll take Jack and Race with me to meet this contact. Elmer can stick around and help out too. He needs to learn sooner or later."
"Got it."
"Will we make Anatori in time?"
"Believe it or not, we might even be early," JoJo grinned. "Only by a few hours, sure, but still. Far better time than I ever expected to make."
.*.*.*.*.*.
Jack leaned against the ship's railing and stared up at the stars swirling past overhead. He hadn't had much sleep since leaving Haven—none of them had. JoJo had everyone constantly checking the ship's systems, making sure nothing was about to burn out and blow up. Jack had been informed that if that happened—even a small explosion—while they were in hyperspeed, it would break the hyperspace barrier, which would, in turn, overload the shields and rip the ship to pieces in the blink of an eye. JoJo's orders were that if any signs of overload were spotted, the entire ship was to be brought to a full stop: exit hyperspace and bring sublight engines to minimum operational levels, along with life support, shields, and other essential systems, while anything non-essential would be shut down completely.
So far, everything was going well. The occasional shudder would go through the ship and shake them all to the bone. Jack had managed to bite his tongue more than once when the tremors caught him in the middle of a word and rattle him so hard that his jaw snapped shut. But, over two days into the voyage, even those shudders had died down to only two or three an hour as the machinery settled into the demanding rhythm they demanded from it.
"Hi there."
Jack jumped and turned in search of the voice. He found Charlie standing a few feet down the railing, smiling at him. "Hi there," he laughed.
"I didn't mean to startle you," said Charlie, taking a step closer.
"No, it's alright; I just didn't hear you come up. I was… lost in the view, I guess."
"It sure is a pretty view," Charlie smiled fondly, looking up at the stars. "I love it too."
Jack nodded, and they lapsed into silence for a while. "Are you worried?" Jack asked finally.
"Hmm?" Charlie turned to him, head cocked to the side and eyebrows raised.
"About your sister. Sorry if that's too personal—you don't have to answer. I was just curious."
"Well… Of course I'm worried. I have no idea what Metalbeard might do to her. I'm afraid we won't get there in time to save her, no matter what Davey says about him being unlikely to hurt her because he's our uncle. But JoJo says that we'll make it to Anatori in time to meet Spot's contact, so… you know… that's given me a lot of hope, I guess."
Jack smiled. "I'm glad to hear it. You know, I may not know a lot about everyone here, but I really think that if anyone can get your sister back, it's this crew. They're some pretty impressive people."
Charlie grinned. "You haven't even seen Davey in a fight yet! He's pretty cool."
"No offense to Davey, but I kind of hope I don't ever have to see him in a fight. I've seen some of his other magic firsthand; I'd never want to be up against him. I'm definitely glad he's on our side."
"So am I," Charlie laughed.
"Three hours to Anatori!" JoJo's voice rang out clear as a bell from the control consoles, attracting the attention of everyone on deck.
"Time to get ready," Charlie grinned.
"Yeah; I have a feeling dropping out of hyperspeed is going to get hairy," Jack laughed.
"Good luck," Charlie called over his shoulder as he headed towards Davey and Spot, on their way to join JoJo at the consoles.
"You too," Jack called after him.
"Jack, let's go! It's time to check the sails again!"
Jack sighed and looked down on the callouses forming rapidly on his hands from the constant climbing around on the rigging. Yay. More ropes.
.*.*.*.*.*.
"How much longer, JoJo?" Spot asked.
"Five minutes."
Spot nodded. "All hands on deck!" he called. The crew swarmed up from where they'd been having a quick bite to eat down in the galley. Finch and Specs took off as soon as they reached the deck, soaring up towards the top of the mast. The others followed a little more slowly. Skittery and Charlie hurried up the stairs to join Spot and JoJo, while Davey remained on the lower deck, keeping an eye on everything going on above him, ready to jump in with a spell if needed. Spot hoped they wouldn't need him. "JoJo, give me a countdown from fifteen seconds."
"Yes, sir," said JoJo. "One minute."
Spot relayed the mark to the rest of the crew, his voice bouncing off the transparisteel bubble to echo back down at the ship's occupants. They all waited with bated breath as JoJo called out the final countdown, and then took the Banner out of hyperspace.
As they dropped out, the ship screeched to a halt. The inertial dampeners didn't compensate quite fast enough, and everyone was flung forward as if the ship had run aground—more like an impact than simply a drop out. Spot caught a glimpse of someone tumbling out of the rigging and heard Davey shout; by the time he scrambled up to take a look, Race was floating slowly towards the deck, looking completely terrified.
"Finch, Specs—check those sails!" Spot bellowed, and the Rito immediately took off, examining the sails as closely as possible as they flew. "JoJo, damage report?"
"Pending," JoJo snapped.
"Charlie, how's our power?"
"The dampeners took a big dent out of what was left of the reserves when they were trying to compensate for the drop, but it's already being replenished by the sails."
"Good. Bring weapons online. I don't want to risk being caught off guard now that we're in sublight."
"Weapons powering up. Full power in ninety seconds."
"JoJo? Do you have that damage report?"
"Yes, sir. Nothing serious. We have a burnout in the hyperdrive emitters. We'll need to fix it before we jump again. One of the power regulators. We were expecting this. I should be able to pick up the part in one of the Hub's repair shops, along with the capacitor we need to replace."
"Finch, Specs!" Spot called. "How are the sails looking?"
"All good, captain!" Specs called back.
"Good," Spot nodded, allowing himself a small smile. "Charlie, how are we for time?"
"You're due to meet your contact in… just over an hour."
"Good," Spot repeated. "Good." He turned around and grinned at Charlie. "Looks like we're about to get a break."