This might be a bit of a boring chapter, at least to avid Alek/Deryn shippers, since there isn't really any interaction between them, but have hope! They'll meet again! In the meantime, there's a subplot on the kettle, and soon enough, you can bet it will be whistling. :P

Deryn had gotten to doing her other chores more quickly since she began visiting Alek, and when those visits stopped abruptly, she found herself with a rare surplus of time. She had decided to use her time to get a little friendlier with the new officers on the ship. It never hurt to make a good impression, especially when one was a lowly middy. There were four of them: Mr. Taylor, a loudmouth whose head was full of yackum, Mr. Hall, the secretive man she had already met, Mr. Bennett, who was uptight and not very nice (a Clanker might say that his bolts had been screwed a little too tightly), and Mr. White, who actually had a deep tan. She tended to avoid Mr. Bennett, and Mr. Hall tended to avoid her, but the other two were amiable enough, or at the very least, they didn't consider her a nuisance like most of the Leviathan's crew did. She had enjoyed a short period of celebrity after rescuing Newkirk and being awarded a medal, but since her first mission ended in disaster, she was finding herself regarded as a pest once again. However, the newcomers hadn't yet adopted the opinions of the others, so they provided better company.

At the moment, she had cornered Mr. Hall, and was talking to him about the Huxleys. He had seemed quite eager to leave until the conversation arrived at that subject, which Deryn thought was strange, because by this time he ought to have known the beasties as well as he did himself. There wasn't much to them anyway, other than guts, sinews, and a fishy smell that even the boffins had never managed to get rid of.

"I must admit, I've never gotten used to the way they move," Mr. Hall confided.

Deryn gave him a sceptical look. "You're not a Monkey Luddite, surely. Otherwise you'd be some farmer out in the country where you didn't have to deal with any beasties, or at least, not as many."

The man was blank-faced for a moment before responding carefully, "My mother and father were uncomfortable around fabricated beasts. I dislike thinking I have a problem with the creatures, but perhaps their habits influenced mine." Why did this man speak so strangely? Deryn thought he sounded like an upper-class Englishman trying to imitate a thick Scottish accent like her grandmam had had. Surely that couldn't be the case, though. Unless he was mocking her. She gave him a narrow look.

"What is the logic behind the term Monkey Luddite, anyways?" the man continued. "Who would come up with such an odd word?"

"Well... I think it's sort of because of monkeys... and... I don't know!" Deryn protested. She knew what it meant, but she didn't know why the word was invented. She was no fancy-boots boffin like Dr. Barlow, and besides, he was older and all educated-sounding. Shouldn't he know? It should be her asking him, and not the other way around. This Mr. Hall certainly was odd...

"Mr. Sharp!" Dr. Barlow's voice announced behind her. She turned to face the woman, but instead she met thin air; there was instead a messenger lizard poking its head out of a nearby pipe. It continued angrily, "You've forgotten all about poor Tazza! He needs his walk, and you're fifteen minutes late! This is unacceptable, and if you dally any longer, I shall have to inform the captain!"

Deryn didn't bother with elaborate goodbyes. "Got to go!" she shouted urgently, taking off down the hallway at a run.

The insides of the airbeast were familiar to Deryn, and they passed in a blur. It felt like just seconds later that Deryn was leaning on Dr. Barlow's door, breathing heavily. She took a moment to compose herself before knocking, although she was still out of breath. However, on the second knock, the door swung open, and a sneaky little hand grabbed her collar and pulled her in. The door shut behind her.

"I'm terribly sorry about the messenger lizard," Dr. Barlow began. Tazza lay on a rug nearby, perfectly content and not at all in need of a walk. Deryn stared, openmouthed and obviously very confused. The boffin continued, "I had to find an inconspicuous way to get your attention, so that if anyone was around, they wouldn't know why I really called you. As you can see, Tazza does not need a walk, and I am not about to report you to the captain. Instead, I have a bit of an assignment for you, Mr. Sharp."

Deryn suppressed a groan. What was that proverb? Out of the frying pan and into the fire. That was it. The moment she didn't have to spy on Alek anymore, here she was, getting a brand-new secret mission, and from Dr. Barlow, no less!

"No doubt you've seen the new men around the ship, the ones we picked up after the demise of the Esperance."

"Of course. Newkirk and I were the ones to bring them up, and I've been getting to know them ever since. You know, I think Mr. Hall is a Monkey Luddite!" Deryn replied conspiratorially.

Dr. Barlow didn't seem entirely amused by her observation. "I have been watching them as well, and it seems as if there is more to Mr. Hall than a simple fear of fabricated animals. Something about him is certainly unusual, but if I were to follow him around and try to figure it out, it would be all kinds of unacceptable. As such, I would like you to do it for me."

So now the boffin wanted her to spy, too. This wasn't her barking job! All she'd signed up for was to be a midshipman! She didn't need all this sneaky nonsense!

"Certainly unusual," a voice repeated from above. Deryn glanced up towards the ceiling, and predictably, there was the second loris, its big eyes boring down into hers. Great. A secret mission and an audience. "Dummkopf," it added. If Dr. Barlow hadn't been around to see, Deryn would have stuck her tongue out at the beastie right then and there.

Instead, she took a deep breath and replied, "I guess I could keep an eye on him. I've had some more free time lately, and I was talking with the Esperance's crew a lot, so it won't seem too strange if I take a particular liking to one of them and follow him around, will it?"

"If you're already familiar with them, then all the better," Dr. Barlow agreed with a catlike grin. "Now, you don't have to walk Tazza after all, so perhaps now would be a good time to get started on your little quest."

Deryn took the hint. "I'll see if I can track down Mr. Hall again, but it could take a while. He's a sneaky one for sure. Wish me luck!"

Once she was back out in the corridor, she set off on her new mission, but an unexpected anger was welling up inside her. Why was everyone pulling her this way and that, asking her to do whatever they didn't feel like doing themselves? The captain had wanted her to spy on Alek, and then Alek had pestered her unendingly about her secret, and now that she was away from him for good, here was Dr. Barlow, telling her that she had to go chasing around some new officer to spy on him. She was just a midshipman; why did she get stuck with all these jobs?

She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't hear Newkirk ambling up behind her, and when he addressed her, she almost jumped. "Newkirk, you ninny! And you keep telling me to watch where I'm going!"

"I didn't bump into you," he pointed out innocently. "I just said your name while I was behind you."

"Well, don't," Deryn snapped. Newkirk held up his hands in a gesture of non-violence. "Hey, don't shoot the messenger. I'm here on behalf of Alek. He's decided that it doesn't matter what your secret is, and that it's more important to stay friends. He thinks that you should start coming again. So do I," he added thoughtfully. "Things have been frightfully busy for me ever since you opted out of that one."

And there it was. Another request. She wasn't a puppet! How long would it take for everyone on this damned ship to realize that? "Sorry, but I'm not talking to him anymore," Deryn replied with more than a subtle hint of irritation. "I'll do what I can to help you, but I don't want anything to do with him."

Newkirk sighed and shrugged. "That's your problem, I guess. And his. If you could talk to Dr. Barlow about me not needing extra time helping with the messenger lizards, though, I guess I could make it a deal."

Stupid Monkey Luddites. "Done," Deryn said. "Now, I have to go, if you'll excuse me." In fact, she didn't even remember right away what she was supposed to do, but she had had enough of people trying to tell her what to do for one day. Maybe Newkirk could try again tomorrow, but she hoped he wouldn't. Every time he asked, there would be a risk that she would give in and say yes, and that would destroy her career as a midshipman for good.

Finally, she remembered that she was supposed to be watching Mr. Hall. She turned around and headed in a different direction; the sooner she had him figured out and Dr. Barlow stopped nipping her heels about it, the better.