Chapter 59: It Isn't a Ghost Ship…

…

~~Day 25.

~~It's nice being on a ship again, it really is. But I can't help getting the impression that my being here is a little confounding, maybe even a little insulting. My first encounter with Captain Albel certainly could've gone better. While Seaman Gold can be open to the prospect of a commanding officer younger than him, I think the captain would rather not hear that I used to command an airship for whatever reason. I certainly don't want to get in his way or anything. I just wish that he hadn't suddenly turned hostile on me the moment Leynne mentioned my former command.

~~We're moving east at a steady clip according to Seaman Bently, the seaman assigned to see to passengers' needs. According to him, so long as we don't see any problems, we should be at Kakucha Island by tomorrow afternoon or maybe early evening at the latest. The ship will remain overnight before returning to Hovela, so we'll have to move fast if we want a ride back.

~~On another note, I've just found out that Cale suffers from violent seasickness. It didn't set in until after a late lunch provided by the galley. Cale hasn't left his cabin since. I have to admit that I'm feeling a little uneasy myself, but that just may be because I was really hungry and kinda stuffed myself. Dholit volunteered to keep him company, and Irleen suggested taking his mind off the trip by teaching him some more Sorian. Since then, I've just been wandering the ship's weather deck by myself, making comparisons between it and ships I know. I'm surprised to find out that, in addition to the wooden exterior with tar waterproofing, the ship's hull has a layer of steel plates behind it. A seaman explained this as a means of protecting the ship from hull damage in case of pirate attack. Evidently, pirates do more to eradicate ship crews with grape shot rather than just fill the hull full of holes and risk sinking her. Their company discovered that the steel layer in the hull that protects the crew was useful as defense against gunfire. It's very fascinating, but I wouldn't trust that kind of construction on an airship; it could make the ship too heavy to fly. An airship's ballast can only support so much.

~~Now that I've mentioned that, I hope that whoever or whatever we find in the Ocean Realm will have some information on how to construct a ballast. So far, it looks like we have people to help us construct the other components of an airship, but we won't be going anywhere without a ballast. We'll need a tank, and then we'll need Loft Steam to fill the tank with. And I don't know where to find either.

…

Link had considered taking a look at the steamer's engine room before attending dinner. But after he saw the engine room just from the outside, he decided against it and stepped back onto the weather deck for another walk around the ship.

He found a surprise waiting outside.

In the two hours he had spent exploring below the weather deck and writing down his thoughts, the air outside had formed into a fog which prevented Link from seeing the bow from the door at the base of the bridge. Lights bobbed around near the bow, which Link took to be seamen wandering about the deck. He stepped out and closed the door as Seaman Bently had instructed him. He ventured a few steps away and glanced around. His first thought was that the haze which had cut off the Forest Realm for decades had returned, but it did not make sense that it would be so low. So what was this?

"Everythin' all right there?" Link looked over his shoulder as Seaman Gold approached him with a lantern in hand.

"Yeah, I suppose," Link replied. He indicated the fog with a hand. "What is all this?"

"That's just fog," Gold told him. "It's common in the evenin', though it's a little late in the year fer it."

"How late?"

Gold shrugged. "'Bout a month."

"So this is just—this is natural? It doesn't have anything to do with the haze that used to cover the realm?"

"Nah, it's natural." He shook a bag in his other hand, which rattled as if full of metal scrap. "I go'a take care o' somethin'. Don't get near the sides. If yeh fall in, we'll never be able tae find yeh."

Link nodded. "Okay, thanks," he replied before Gold walked away. Although he appreciated the warning, Gold could never know the depth of Link's fear of falling off a ship. It was a fear shared by anyone who had ever worked on an airship. Any airman would have no problem working near the bulwark; fear of falling was usually a good motivator to make sure that that airman kept himself secure to the ship in some way. It was bad enough that jumping over the edge of a ship was taboo among airmen. Link had heard stories of new, cocky airmen who had not heeded this taboo and decided to jump from the weather deck onto the dock below. One could never tell how close a ship actually pulled to the dock, nor where exactly the dock was, over a bulwark while running at it.

A deep, loud burst of sound startled him, and he glanced up at the bridge behind him. Captain Albel stood in front of the forward-slanted windows with a duoscope over his face, scanning the fog at the front of his ship. He had a hard time gauging the captain's face until he pulled the duoscope away. Narrowed eyes, shallow creases on the forehead… Link had seen that same look on Captain Alfonzo's face dozens of times whenever something bothered him. Was it the fog?

It must have been a habit he had picked up from serving Captain Alfonzo, because Link rounded the bridge and walked up the steps without knowing whether his intrusion on the bridge would cause problems or not. He found out regardless when he opened the door and stepped inside.

Captain Albel glanced at the door before returning his gaze out toward the bow. "Whacha wan', Lieutenan'?" he asked, his tone reeking of indifference.

Link shut the door and stood in front of it, hands hidden behind his stiff back as he tried to look obedient. "Just curious, Captain," he answered.

"When I go' somethin' fer ye t' 'ear, I'll le' ya know," the captain told him, eyes unwavering.

"Of course, sir," Link replied.

There was a moment of silence. Albel finally glanced back at Link when he noticed the distinct lack of a door opening and shutting. "Ye be tryin' me patience, boy?" he asked.

"I just want to know if there's anything I can do, sir," Link said.

Albel gave the window a quick look. "A'ead 'alf, steady as she goes," he grumbled to the helmsman before stomping over to the table at the back.

"A'ead 'alf, steady as she goes," the helmsman repeated as he grabbed a control lever next to his station. "Aye, sir!" The lever was connected to a drum-shaped base on top of a pedestal. He cranked it backwards from its position near the front until the arrow built into the lever pointed to the words "Half Ahead" on the side of the drum.

"C'mere, boy," Albel growled at Link, inviting him with a finger. Link approached the table. The single electric light on the bridge cast shadows in the corners of the room, making the captain hard to see until he leaned on top of the table. "Jus' wha' be ye on 'bou', boy?"

Link resumed his previous pose. "Nothing, Captain."

"Ye bother me. Ye tell me ye be a cap'n, bu' ye go' all them weapons an' thin's on ya like some kinda assassin."

"You want me to take them off, sir?" Link asked.

"I want t' know wha' be yer story, boy. Ye see, I go' me a 'ard time buyin' ye bein' a cap'n."

Link nodded. "I've been an airman for seven years."

"Tha' be yer idea o' a 'seaman'?"

"Yes, sir. About a month ago, I was promoted to 'Lieutenant'. Although technically I should've been made an executive officer, my company assigned me command of a cargo schooner, the Island Sonata."

"A sailing ship?"

Link nodded. "We don't have the resources to make steamer vessels like this. I was in command two days before the ship was shot out from under me."

Albel's frown lifted for a moment. "Aye, ye mentioned tha' b'fore."

"Have you ever noticed the storm in the air overhead? The one that seems to just hang there with no end?"

"I noticed it a few times b'fore."

"I sailed through it."

One of Albel's eyebrows rose. "Don't be much fun sailin' through a storm down 'ere."

"It's even worse up there. No solid ground to stop you, no ocean to catch you… winds likely to tear your sails apart… lightning all over the place… No, it's not very pretty.

"I was transporting the princess of Hyrule through that storm. And when I found out that the ship she was returning on might be in danger, I sailed after it."

"An' ye found the ship?"

Link let his surprise slip for a moment; that last question sounded more like the enthralled voice of a child getting a bedtime story than a seasoned captain about to throw him overboard. "No. I saw the ship on the horizon, but I started taking fire from an airship that had already captured them. First went my foremast, snapped in two! Then I caught another shot amidships, ripping off the bulwark on the starboard side. That second shot opened my ballast, and I and the only other person on the Island Sonata at the time had to take refuge in my cabin as my ship started falling out of the sky. I remembered catching a glimpse of the lightning setting fire to my sails before I stepped off the deck. We hit, and I blacked out."

Captain Albel had rested his elbows on the table as he listened. When Link stopped, he stood up. "I don't know if ye go' yerself a wild imagination or ye be tellin' the truth, boy," he said in an even tone.

"I've come to respect a ship's ranking officers, Captain," Link told him. "And I don't have any reason to lie about my life."

"Aye, tha' may be so, bu' I'll save it fer me own judgmen'. Fer now, I'll give ya the benefi' o' the doub'. So, if ye be a cap'n, why the gear?"

Link looked down at himself. "Oh. Just a few things I happened to pick up while I've been exploring the surface. Most of them have been pretty helpful." He watched Albel give a dubious nod. "Look, Captain. I just want to go home. I'm not after your command or anything."

"I be eyin' anyone who comes abaard me ship claimin' t' be a cap'n, an' I don't apologize fer it."

Link nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Bu' ye seem nice enough, so I won't be throwin' ya below. Jus' don't ge' in me way."

"Of course, Captain."

The door opened, and a seaman leaned inside. "Cap'n?" he asked.

Albel looked over Link's shoulder with a casual expression. "Wha' be it, Mister Avery?"

"Objec' off the starboard bow. Big one, too."

Both Link and Albel looked toward the windows at the same time. Then they strode to the front of the bridge and glanced to starboard, Albel placing the duoscope over his eyes again. The fog had grown darker around them, but a row of lights lined the Goddess's Tides' bulwark so the helmsman could see where the ship ended. Ahead of them, just off to the right, was a large shadow in the fog, barely discernible. It looked about as tall as the Goddess's Tides' bridge, but it was much wider.

"Send a 'ail t' it," Albel told Seaman Avery.
"Aye aye, sir," Avery replied before shutting the door.

"'Alf back, Mister Boxer," Albel told the helmsman. "Ease us t' por', jus' aside."

"'Alf back," Boxer replied as he cranked the throttle device next to him. "Aye, sir. Easin' tae por'." Link could feel the shift in the ship's speed just before the deck beneath him gave a shudder.

"Whacha think, boy?" Albel asked.

Link glanced out at the shadow again. It had shifted further to starboard, just enough that the ship was not at risk of running into it. It appeared closer, close enough that Link thought he could see a bowsprit at the front. It would indicate a sailing vessel, but… where were its sails?

"I think something's wrong," he admitted.

"Me, too," Albel replied. "Looks like a sailin' ship, bu' it be too small. An' where be its lights?"

The same loud sound Link had heard before sounded in two blasts. Two breaths later, it sounded two more blasts. The way the bridge seemed to rattle in response told Link that the source of that sound was above them.

"Positionin' speed, Mister Boxer," Albel said.

"Positionin' speed, aye, sir," Boxer replied as he cranked the throttle control again.

Albel frowned at the shadow after taking the duoscope away from his face. "Why don't ye be respondin', gal?" he told the window.

In the brief silence, Link could hear footsteps on the stairs outside. Seaman Avery opened the door. "Nothin', sir," he reported. "Everyone's gone quie' enough t' 'ear a cat walkin'."

"Can ye tell wha' she be?" Albel asked.

"Looks like a sailin' ship, sir," Avery said. "Bu' she don't 'ave sails. Could be a wooden steamer."

The ship's structure became clearer as the vessel came closer. And Link looked on with a surprised expression. He could see rigging holding onto the bowsprit. Or rather, what was left of it. It appeared that the forward half of the bowsprit had been ripped off. Rigging dangled off the bowsprit, most likely the forestays that used to be attached to the foremast. As the prow came into better view, Link could see portholes at the front. The glass had been shattered out of them. As the ship moved further, he saw a few yellow paint stripes following the direction of the hull planks. It reminded him of…

Airliners…

"I know what it is," Link said in a quiet tone.

"'Ave Martin 'ail them again," Albel told Avery. Link crossed the bridge quickly and caught the door, prompting Albel to ask, "Where be ye goin'?"

Link stepped out onto the platform outside the bridge and hustled down the stairs. Albel called out to him, followed closely by a surprised cry from Irleen as Link ran past them. He stopped at the bulwark, but what he really wanted to do was leap over the edge and onto the other vessel. What initially looked like the upper part of the deck turned out to be the square-rigged and fore-and-aft-rigged masts of a schooner brig. Somehow, they had not ripped free of the weather deck and simply collapsed over the top of it. The yards on one side of the foremast had speared into the deck while the other ones looked to have been snapped off. The main mast lay flat on its side, its sails missing. Perhaps the most frightening of all were the holes in the hull. Two large chunks of hull and deck were missing from the starboard side. They must have been distant shots to have broken holes like they had; Link remembered the same kind of damage the Smiling Gunner had done to the Island Sonata. And, just as he suspected, light from the Goddess's Tides shone over a metal tank that was just barely visible to Link at this low angle. Another hole about eye-height with Link stretched amidships.

If Link had any intuition, he knew what this was. And how it appeared here.

"Link!" Link did not turn his head to respond, but he could feel the group gathering behind him. "Link, what is it?" Irleen asked in Cale's Hovela accent.

Link swallowed to clear the lump from his throat. "It's… it's an airship," he announced.

"Wha?" Captain Albel asked.

"You'h kidding!" Irleen replied.

"Goddesses above," Cale remarked.

Link's eyes then widened. He immediately spun to find Albel. "We have to board her, Captain," he said.

"Why?" Captain Albel asked.

"Because theah could be someone aboahd," Irleen answered for him. "If anyone tried suhviving like we had, they could be sevehely injuhed."

"It's a slim chance," Link told the captain. "But we have to try."

Captain Albel looked over his shoulder at Seaman Avery. "Avery, tell Boxer t' heave-to; we be takin' a look."

"Aye aye, sir!" Avery replied before running back to the bridge.

"Bentley!" the captain snapped at a seaman standing on the other side of Cale and Dholit. The lanky man answered with a salute after nearly jumping out of his skin. "Go find the sawbones an' tell 'im t' cork it; time fer 'im t' earn 'is pay."

"Aye aye, sir, hold the doc's spirits!" Bentley replied before dashing in the same direction as Avery.

Albel looked towards the bow at some seamen staring at the wooden ship. "Kent, Bradley!" he snapped. "Drop anchor! Jeffery, Victor, Gondard, I wan' some ropes on tha' ship! Gold, keep yerself free!" He started clapping his hands impatiently, although seamen were already scrambling around the deck. "Move it, move it! I wanna be on tha' ship five minutes ago!"

"Can you tell what happened to it?" Cale asked.

Link glanced back up at the ship. "It looks like fire from another ship. Distant fire, like what sank the Island Sonata."

"Did it strike the ballast?" Irleen asked.

Link stood on his toes for a moment. "It's hard to say from here, but that's my guess. He—Irleen, could you fly up and take a look?"

"Suah."

"Wha' made ye think she was an airship?" Albel asked.

Link pointed at the hull. "You see those yellow stripes? I recognize them; it's a trademark."

"A trademahk?" Cale asked.

"Yeah. This looks like an Airliner vessel."

"Do you know which vessel?"

Link glanced back at the ship. Then he shook his head. "No. It looks like the ship's pennant is missing."

Albel looked over his shoulder and snapped at a passing seaman, "Charles, with me!" Then he addressed Link, "Over 'ere; we'll extend the plank."

Albel and Gold led them to one part of the deck closer to the bridge. There, Seamen Charles and Gold revealed panels in the deck which connected to a pair of grooves traveling toward the bulwark. They opened up these panels and lifted a pair of handles about waist-high. Then they waited for a moment as the airship threatened to pass them by. At the captain's order, they ran forward with the handles, sliding a metal plank from under the deck. The plank managed to reach the lower hole in the hull before the seamen were forced to stop. By then, Link saw that a line had been hooked to the bulwark of the other ship and anchored somewhere toward the forward part of the steamer. Albel ordered Charles and Gold to retrieve three more lanterns. By the time they returned, Albel, Link, Cale, and Irleen had been joined by the ship's doctor, a wide man with his advanced age showing through the sagging skin beneath his jaw and stark-white hair on his head. Link asked Dholit to stay behind, which she replied to by jeering about him wanting to protect her. It was true, of course, but the sarcasm in her voice told him it was just another means of irritating him.

The group took the plank one at a time due to its flimsy nature. Link was the first across with Irleen trailing behind him. The gear he wore made him feel a little stable, and he jumped off the end of the plank onto a solid deck. His feet made a splash, and he used his lantern to follow the source of the puddle he had just jumped in to a water barrel further along the wall. This directed his eyes to the ration packets piled in one corner and an iron stove covered in scattered crockery. The ship's kitchen, he presumed. It helped him conclude that the airship was a passenger vessel; no other kind of ship would have an iron stove and crockery on board unless it was cargo.

"What a mess," Irleen said, her voice now its familiar tone.

"Yeah," Link agreed. He stepped further in and found crates labeled "Food" on the opposite side of the room. The ship groaned horribly. "I'm surprised the hull was intact enough to float. You'd think the fall would've bashed it to pieces."

"Ooooh, you might be speaking too soon," Irleen replied.

Link turned around to find her as Gold hopped off the plank. He saw in his lantern light that the deck on the opposite side of the ship had collapsed, and there was a gaping hole in the hull showing the glow of the Goddess's Tides' light off the fog. "Oh yeah, too soon," he commented.

"Ship's galley," Gold commented as he looked around. "What're those? Ration packets?"

"Yeah," Link answered. He glanced around a wall near the hole in the deck and found it to be a partition. He held out the lantern to look around the other side. "Hallway aft over here." He carefully swung the lantern forward. "No stairs."

"'Bout where are we?" Gold asked.

"I can't be sure," Link said. "It's a passenger vessel; I've never worked on one before. And there's no standard for laying vessels out."

"Oh, my," Cale breathed as he stepped under the hole. He carefully slid off the end of the plank. "Find anything yet?"

"Yeah," Irleen replied. "Desolation."

"Cap'n," Gold called from the back of the galley. "There's a door 'ere." Link and Cale walked in his direction and watched him open it. He leaned in and looked around. "All clear."

"Irleen, could you fly ahead a bit?" Link asked.

"Sure, but I'm not going too far," she said, moving past Gold.

"Cale, stay here so you can tell the others where we went," Link said as Gold stepped through.

"Right," Cale replied with a nod, turning around just as Captain Albel dropped onto the deck.

Link followed Gold into the hallway and to a staircase in the middle of an empty room towards the end of the ship. "Why's this so empty?" Gold asked him.

Link turned around and leaned aside so that he could see the hallway behind Albel. "Well, this might've been a storage area for the passengers," he said. "Probably luggage or whatever the passengers wouldn't mind leaving in the open. If the cabins were at the front, the spare luggage would be useful for helping the ship maintain balance."

"Interestin'," Albel said as he glanced back down the hallway. "But then, ye couldn't 'ave the passengers on the deck."

Link pointed at the deckhead. "This passenger ship was a schooner brig," he explained. "Forward square-rigged sail, aft fore-to-aft-rigged sail. A little shaky, but pretty fast."

"How fast?" Irleen asked, hovering near the ascending stairs.

"A ship like this could've run circles around the Island Sonata."

"Sooo… what did the Island Sonata have going for it?"

"Maneuverability. And it could tack and sail upwind if it needed. Not to mention that it's front profile was minimal, so its engine would have a better run into the wind than other vessels."

"I be givin' ya this, boy," Albel told him. "Ye may not look it, bu' ye sure know yer ships."

"Which way should we go?" Gold asked, looking down the stairs.

"I'll wai' 'ere fer Charles an' the sawbones," Albel said.

"Let's check the deck above," Link said.

"Oooooh, weee, uh… we might want to look below, Cap'n," Gold said, already descending.

"How come?" Irleen asked. Link could only shrug at her and follow.

Link saw that they were entering the engine room. In front of them was the ship's boiler. A pair of shafts running past the stairs on either side showed where the propellers were connected to the engine. Machine parts littered the floor, both broken and intact. At first, Link was confused by the priority Gold had spontaneously assigned this deck.

Then he and Irleen took in sharp breaths simultaneously. Gold was hovering over a face-down body lying at the base of the boiler.

Gold touched the body a few moments. Then he turned and said, "'E's dead."

Link tried to swallow back the urge to throw up. He stepped closer until he had a clear view of the man's back. Yellow jacket and white, pressed pants… He nodded and looked away. "Yeah," he said. "It's the Airliners. The crash…" He took in a gulp. "The impact probably broke him over the boiler."

"At least it was quick," Gold said. He held up his lantern to get a better look at Link's face. "Yeh gonna be all right? Yeh look a li'l pale."

Link swallowed again and nodded. "I ju—… I can't help thinking how easily this… that this might've been us."

"Yyyyyeah, that's a little more depressing than what I was just thinking," Irleen said.

"Why, what were you thinking?" Link asked her.

"Well, I wa—"

"Ssh!" Gold suddenly hissed. Link and Irleen fell silent for a moment, watching as Gold's eyes seemed to trace something in the air. "I 'ear movement."

Link's jaw dropped open. "You mean… someone's still alive?" he whispered.

"Come on, while 'e still is."

All three rounded the boiler and found an even larger mess. The crash had forced ash and unburnt coal out of the boiler and across the floor. A few more bodies were scattered around, one of them stuck on machinery hanging from the ceiling.

Of particular interest was the face-down body on the far end. Because one hand was grasping a piece of metal and dragging it against the deck.

"Irleen, go!" Link shouted.

"Right," she replied, zipping across the deck as Gold and Link began stepping around the bodies and metal shrapnel all over the floor. "Ħo, ħo! Kakònāh ahà!? Ħo!"

"What's that she's speakin'?" Gold asked.

"It's the Sorian language," Link replied. "I have a translator gem in my pocket, but it only works if she's close by. Otherwise, she's just talking to herself."

"Ħo! Ħōħōħō, ħō!" Link looked up to see her flying circles in the air. "Kanàtīpa ō! Nàtīpa ō! Līnca! Kaħònùl tā!"

"We're almost there!" Link called to her. His left foot became caught on one of the bodies as he stepped over, and he stumbled into the bulkhead. "Agh!"

"Easy there," Gold said, stepping over the last body. He dropped to his knees and carefully rolled the airman to one side. "Oy. Oy, d'yeh understand me?" Link was close enough to see the airman nod. "All right, just 'ang on." Gold rounded the man so he could better see his face. "I'm Seaman Gold, machinist fer the Goddess's Tides."

The airman let out a croak that sounded more like a door creaking open. He lifted a hand to Gold, and Gold took it. "J-Jared," the airman replied. "C-c-…c-Cloud Moon."

"Miss Irleen," Gold said. "Go upstairs, brin' the surgeon and Charles. Hurry."

"Got it!" Link barely caught her suddenly zip out of sight.

"Jared," Gold said. "Jared, listen to me." He put a hand on Jared's jaw and turned his head. For a moment, Link thought he had passed on. Then Jared suddenly took in a breath, startling both of them. "Jared. Stay with me."

"Ha… hard," Jared replied. "H-hurrrrrt…"

Gold tilted his head when he noticed something. He used his free hand to pull aside the collar of Jared's jacket. "That's a big bruise yeh got there. That from the landin'?"

"Y-yes," Jared said. "Hit b-back… on…" He pointed a crooked and shaky finger at the conveyor belt behind Link. "Bracing… d-didn't work."

"Jared, stay awake," Gold urged. "Listen. Listen tae me." He huddled closer to Jared. "Who attacked you? Who?"

"D-d-… d-…" Link could hear someone running down the stairs along with Irleen's faint voice. Or was it really faint? He could not tell; it felt like his heart was beating in his ears as he waited for Jared's response.

"D-devils…"

"Devils? Is that what yeh said?" Gold asked.

"Gold!" came a cry across the room. Link and Gold looked up as the surgeon and Charles stepped around the boiler.

Gold waved a hand. "C'mon!" he shouted. "'E's still alive!"

Charles laid out a stretcher, and the surgeon examined Jared before ordering Charles and Gold to place him on it. Both seamen carried Jared across the engine room while the surgeon kept him company, although it was hard to tell if Jared was unconscious or not. Link and Irleen trailed behind, following them up the stairs and through to the kitchen. Link had to wait until the plank was clear before he could follow them back to the steamer.

Link set foot on the deck and was about to follow them below before Captain Albel called out, "Wai' there!" Link spun to see if Albel had been calling to him. "Jus' wai' a sec!" Link turned back to the door in the side of the bridge, wanting desperately to follow. Instead, he simply stepped out of the way so Albel could board. "'O'd ye find?"

"An airman, Captain," Link replied. "He's seriously hurt, but it looks like he survived."

"'E tell ya anythin'?"

"His name is…" Link caught the panicked vigor with which he was speaking and paused to slow himself down. "His name is Jared. He said that 'devils' shot the ship down."

"Ominous story as any," Albel commented to himself.

A nearby seaman spoke up, "Excuse me, Cap'n."

Albel turned to look at him. "Wha' be it, Mister Jeffery?"

"Sir, we 'ave the ship secure tae the Tides. An'… there's somethin' yeh should see."

Link and Albel followed Seaman Jeffery, trailed by a curious Cale who had just heard that last statement. At the stern of the Cloud Moon, Jeffery raised his lantern to show them the back end.

Link's breathing ceased all together at the sight of red words painted in a cruel script on the transom.

"'Skyriders are devils'," Albel read aloud. Then he asked, "Wha' be 'skyriders'?"

"I am."

Link spoke absently, so he was a little surprised by everyone around him spontaneously staring at him. When he realized what he had said, he turned completely to Captain Albel.

"I'm a captain for the Skyriders airship company. One of my fellow captains shot down this ship."

…

A while later, Link sat on a bench outside the ship's sickbay. The walls were painted a horrible grey, although that might just be his judgment mixing with his misery. He knew only a little of the history between the Airliners and the Skyriders, and he knew that they were two sides of one of the ugly company rivalries in the sky. But that was all it had been: a rivalry. Where the Skyriders charged a fair price for services, the Airliners were there to offer faster and cheaper services to spit in the Skyriders' faces. Not that it had been one-sided; Link remembered one day when some of his crewmates on the Grand Sails had cut an Airliner vessel's moors so that it would float away with part of its crew still at port. While Captain Alfonzo had openly scolded his crew to the satisfaction of many Airliner captains, his punishments had been relatively light compared to some of the punishments Link and Line had received by them just trying to be boys. But open hostility… Airships were armed to protect them from pirates. What Skyrider captain had turned his guns on another airship company?

The more Link thought about it, the more he found he just could not wrap his head around the logic. Maybe Airman Jared was wrong, and he had mistaken another vessel for a Skyrider ship. But… how did he know who had attacked in the first place? He was found in the engine room; he would have had to be there the whole time they were falling. It implied that the ship's captain knew he was doing something that would get a Skyrider ship to fire at them. But what? If he knew the area above well enough, most of the sky over the surface realms was deserted except for the Sorians on Forelight Island. No one had anything to protect in the sky above, never mind the Skyriders, whose home port was far to the northwest. Turtle Island and Autumn Island were the closest ports, but if Link was right about the Horizon's Eye being scuttled after arriving at Autumn Island, the only other viable option was Turtle Island. Since the airship had landed in the water, Link guessed that it could have simply flowed here with the ocean. What was going on above him?

Link heard a metal clack from the large door to the sickbay. Two seamen clad in blue, blood-stained gowns stepped out, followed by the surgeon. Link looked up in hope, wondering if he would get an answer.

But the surgeon, stopping in front of Link, merely bowed and shook his head.

Link's jaw dropped open, and he could feel his stomach simply fail to exist. The surgeon watched him for a moment before following the seamen down the hallway. Squeaking sounded a couple minutes later, and Link looked up to see Seaman Gold pushing a gurney out the door. A vaguely human shape rested on it, covered in a white sheet. Link's eyes traveled from the folded, yellow jacket lying atop the chest to Gold before he cast them down at his own lap. His whole body suddenly felt very cold, and he hunched up his legs so he could wrap his arms around them. He buried his face in his knees and began sobbing.

Captain Albel was walking the opposite direction down the hallway. He stopped and stepped aside for Gold, removing his bicorne as a show of respect to the deceased airman. Then he continued down the hallway with the hat under one arm.

When he stopped, standing over Link, he asked, "Firs' time losin' a man?"

Link sniffed. "No," he replied with an unsteady voice. He sniffed again. "And… and he wasn't even part of my crew."

"'E be a sailor still, sea or air."

Link took a bigger sniff. "The worst of it is I was only in command for two days," he said, lifting his head. "I've never seen so many people die before! I've—I've lost one airman from my own crew and someone else's! And that's on top of all the Sorians that lost their lives on another ship!"

Albel heaved a sigh. "Aye. 'Fraid it don't ge' any easier. I los' maybe twen'y or so in me years o' sailin'. Mos' o' 'em off this very ship under me own command."

Link gave a pause. "Maybe… maybe I shouldn't be a captain. I mean… look at me! You're the first person who doesn't just blindly accept that I commanded an airship, and you had a reason!"

But Albel shook his head. "Doub' an' loss be the two big ones fer a cap'n t' deal with. I won't be sayin' ye be lucky or anythin' like tha', bu' ye go' the luxury o' cryin' 'bou' it on someone else's deck. This time. No' many cap'ns ge' tha'."

Link nodded. "How do you deal with it?"

Albel's eyes glanced down either end of the hallway before he answered. "I tell meself tha' it be par' o' the job. Tha' there be danger in sailin'. Maybe even tha' one man los' means I still go' the res' o' me crew. Bu', really, I like t' bus' me knuckles on somethin' 'til I can't feel anythin'. Then I do wha' ye be doin' now: doubtin' meself and torturin' me own conscience. An' then, jus' t' make sure me boys ge' where I be comin' from, I snap me tongue like a whip fer 'bou' a week t' make sure no one 'as t' die again." Albel held up one hand to examine his scarred knuckles. "Every time, it feels like I ge' closer to sha'erin' me hands t' pieces."

Link bowed his head again. "I-I'm sorry. This… this all must look so stupid to you."

"Bein' a cap'n don't be 'bou' growin' callous. An' with tha' attitude, no one will ever believe ye be a cap'n."

Link wiped one eye off on his knee. "I guess I don't have what it takes then."

"Tha' be the sour taste on yer tongue talkin'. Ye don't be on a ship if ye don't 'ave the guts."

"I don't think I ever had a choice; sailing's been my whole life."

"Then ye bes' be gettin' yer ac' together, scum," Albel said with a tone shift toward hostile. "Somewhere up in those clouds, one idio' though ye 'ad wha' it takes t' be cap'n. I'll tell ya the secre' righ' now. A cap'n gets t' be cap'n by doin' wha' 'e 'as t' keep 'is crew alive an' kickin'. An' a cap'n does tha' by orderin' 'is crew t' do their jobs knowin' tha' may be the las' thin' you tell 'em." He paused for a moment as he contemplated Link's huddled form. "Take from tha' wha' ye wan'. Bu' the nex' time I see yer scum on a ship, I expec' ya t' 'ave a spine."

Link refused to respond, having nothing else to tell the captain who would so blatantly scold him for having feelings. Albel turned on his heel and walked back down the hallway towards the bridge.

At the same time, Dholit appeared in the hallway, trying to find Link. Upon seeing Captain Albel approaching her, she slid to one side. Albel stopped and eyed her for a moment. "Bes' be doin' yer thin', lass," he told her. "Maybe coddlin' will ge' 'im ou' o' me 'allway."

Dholit let him walk further away before hissing at him, "Taf xwabdhiyn addu saylot Liynk zasafat 'anw gayix tab coyyayxwot. Calfikw." She continued down the corridor until she was standing above Link in the same place Albel had been standing. She contemplated him a bit before asking, "How ah you doing, Link?"

Link tightened himself up. "Bad, Dholit," he told her. "I'm not in the mood."

"You ah nevah in the mood." Then she took a seat next to him. "But that is why I find that you ah always in the mood."

"A man died, Dholit," he said. "You could at least show some respect."

Silence.

"Link, look at me."

Link took a moment to respond. He lifted his head and turned to find Dholit's face close to his. Her mouth was drawn into an emotionless line, but her eyes told him that she was just as capable of taking a situation as seriously as he was. "Believe what you will about me," she told him. "But this is the wohst time to leave youh side. I've said it befoah; I can be anyone you want me to be. A loveh… oh just a friend. But I will not be away from youh side. As much as you may detest me foh it, I will not leave you like this."

Link said nothing. Instead, he buried his face into his knees again.

Then, after maybe half a minute of thinking about it, he set his feet back on the floor and leaned onto her shoulder. She waited until he was asleep before picking him up over one shoulder and taking him to his cabin.