Chapter 20: Weather Eye

In the gloaming
Across Akashi Bay
Through the morning mists
Vanishing between the islands
I follow a boat with my thoughts.

~Anonymous, Kokinshu 409, trans. Thomas McAuley, wakapoetry . net

The island was barely more than a rock rising above the crashing gray waves of the Southern Ocean, at the eastern curve of the South Sandwich Islands. The narrow crescent beach was crowded with penguins. Their braying competed with the crash of the waves to be the loudest sound. Several large, white seabirds floated on updrafts above the island, punctuating the air with their shrill cries.

Wanda felt a peculiar deja vu as she looked around this spot she had seen through someone else's eyes.

The research ship was locked in sea ice in a semi-sheltered inlet. The ship was battered and streaked with rust. Its name—the Lutetia—was stamped in reflective yellow letters on the side.

Wong portaled to the deck. Strange, Wanda, and Vision flew to join him. The deck was tilted at an angle, and was slick with ice.

"This ship had a crew of ten, plus twelve scientists," Strange mentioned. "Do you know if any died onboard, Wanda?"

"No. They all fled. The ship was stuck and they were under attack by the mind lice."

"Then most of them must have died in the life raft."

"Yes," she confirmed. "It was horrible. When the mind lice appeared on the life raft with them, some of them jumped overboard. Some of them froze to death. Some of them..." She couldn't bring herself to say more.

"We should look for the ship's logs," Strange said, and flew toward the single-story superstructure.

"Wait. Let me go first," Wanda suggested.

She twisted her hand to summon a ball of energy as she crept toward the door. She turned the handle, but the door was very heavy, and with her insecure footing on the icy deck she worried she'd slip if she tried to yank on it.

"Vision, will you open it?"

"Of course." He sounded startled that she would ask him, but quickly flew to her side. He opened the door with ease.

And out of it burst the largest mind louse they'd seen yet. It more than filled the doorway, and shot toward Wanda with startling speed.

"No!" she yelped as she flicked her fingers toward it.

It was strong—older and stronger than the ones she'd destroyed before. It reached her, trying to slide into her mind, before she managed to snuff it out.

She stepped back, folding her arms, shivering from more than cold.

Vision looked at her with an expression of dismay. He lifted his hand as if he wanted to reach for her, but didn't.

Strange landed on the other side of her. "Are you okay?"

"Yes. I was half expecting it to be there, but I think that just made it worse when it was."

"Let's clear the ship before we do anything else."

The four of them searched the ship together, moving slowly around corners and into any new room. They found five more mind lice, and were able to defeat them by either Strange or Wong binding them while Wanda destroyed them.

"Are we clear?" Strange asked when they had gone several minutes without encountering any.

Wanda closed her eyes and plucked at the air, letting her guard down so she could expand her awareness throughout the ship.

"I think so."

They went to the pilothouse to search for a ship's log or any other record.

"Looks like they took everything with them," Wong said.

"Yes. Which means we'll have to do this the hard way," Strange said. "Vision, do you think you can break this ship out of the ice without causing any structural damage?"

"Of course." He was eager to be able to help. He phased through the window, flew down to the the ice, and went to work using his energy beam to melt the ice around the boat and his strength to break it up.

Wanda watched him from the window while he worked the ice on the starboard side. He seemed to be feeling better. She was happy about that. Even though it had fully sunk in that he wasn't her Vision, she couldn't help but care about him, not only because he was a Vision, but for his own sake. He was a man who didn't believe he could ever earn forgiveness or absolution for his crimes, but still devoted himself to trying to make his world better in any way he could. He'd been entirely alone for eight years, but hadn't let his loneliness poison him or embitter him. She admired him. Seeing him in so much pain, seeing him literally crumple under the weight of the guilt he carried, had torn her apart.

Her Vision had always been able to say just the right things to get her through her difficult times; she wished she could think of anything to say to this Vision now.

The ship jolted as it broke free from the ice. Wanda grabbed a rail below the window, Strange levitated into the air, Wong fell to the floor.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said, but made no attempt to stand up as the boat continued to rock back and forth looking for its equilibrium.

Vision rejoined them.

"What do we do next?" he asked.

"We have to retrace the vessel's trajectory, make a record of any mind lice we come across along the way, use our data to hopefully triangulate the Source."

"Forgive me for asking, but how do we do that without the navigation logs? And did you bring fuel to propel the ship?"

"No, but I am a wizard. I came prepared." Strange waved his hand, and a small glowing circle appeared in the air. He reached into it and pulled out an old book. He opened it to a bookmarked page, placed his hand on the ship's controls, and said something in a deep monotone voice in a language Wanda didn't recognize.

The boat instantly began to turn, to pivot in a motion that felt unnatural to anything floating on water.

"What did you just do?" Vision asked.

"I told the ship to retrace its path."

"You can talk to boats?" Wanda asked.

"Can you believe there's a spell for that?"

The ship floated out of the inlet into the open ocean, where the waves were higher and stronger. It turned to the southwest, and in minutes they were underway.

The sun broke above the horizon behind them. The sky ahead of them was still strangely dim, with a rusty orange hue. The view gave Wanda a strange sense of foreboding.

What was waiting for them ahead?

Author's note: I didn't make up the spell to talk to boats; the Sorcerer Supreme mentioned it in The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #27