Chapter 139: I'm a Gigantic Pushover

…

"You screamed at the top of… youh…" Leynne trailed off as he stepped into the cargo hold from the port stairs. Both he and Dholit came to a stop just past the stairs as they stared in newfound surprise at the Gelto Link had found among their goods.

All fourteen Gelto.

Dubbl, who had helped Link remove them from the crates (and two from a single barrel, both who were now dripping water on the deck), had told them to line up two-by-two in the middle of the deck where the hold was least cluttered. She and Link stood to one side at the head of the lines with their arms crossed and glares aimed at Leynne and Dholit.

"Uh oh," Dholit uttered, turning her face away.

"What's, uh… what's going on?" Leynne asked.

"Stowaways," Link replied in a huff. "Fourteen Gelto stowaways. Hidden in your crates."

Leynne's jaw dropped open. "Ah you mad!?" he asked in a defensive outrage. "I had nothing to do with this!"

"We found them in your boxes, Leynne!" Link snapped back. "All of them! We even found two in a water barrel!"

"You, cluel, stubid man!" Dubbl accused him, pointing a finger.

"I didn't put anyone in a bahrel!" Leynne argued. "Look, I'll admit that I brought the crates aboahd, but I didn't know that anyone was inside them! They couldn't have been; I double-checked the crates two mohnings ago!"

"You, lia'!" Dubbl shouted.

"Just hang on, Dubbl," Link told her in a calmer voice. Then he looked back at Leynne. "If you didn't put them in there, why were most of them inside the goods crates you brought aboard?"

"How should I know!?" Leynne cried out. "Suh, Gelto ah exotic, but I've no business putting them in crates to be smuggled to the… sky…"

Leynne's trailing statement caused him and Link to realize the figurative irony of his words. As far as they were concerned, there was only one person on-board who would condone such irony.

Leynne slowly turned to Dholit as she was just beginning to slink down the stairs. "Freeze, Dholit," he told her in a venomous tone.

"I'd ratheh not, really," Dholit replied as she turned around to face him, her expression neutral.

"You brought that statue aboahd to distract us," Leynne accused her. "How long had you been befoh you joined the rest of us on-deck?"

"Can I explain?" Dholit asked, giving him a nervous smile.

"You're gonna have to," Link said as he took a couple steps toward them. "Otherwise, you're gonna be thrown in a grog barrel with the rest of them and dumped off at the next port."

"They'h looking foh husbands among the sky," Dholit said. "I agreed to take them theah, but I wasn't suah how you would respond. I thought that I might mention it once we reached Castle Island."

"I'm not opposed to taking passengers, Dholit."

"Yes, well… they don't have any money. They'h only yabbid, like me."

"You mean they'h hohmonal, raving, sex-driven lunatics that spend most of theih time following around a teenage aihship captain?" Leynne asked. Dubbl snorted and turned away.

Dholit grinned at him. "As a Gelto," she replied, "Link would be an adult."

"Just what exactly was your plan once we reached the sky kingdom?" Link asked.

"Well, I had hoped that my sistahs would be welcomed as representatives of anothah cultuah," Dholit said.

Leynne raised an eyebrow. "You expect Link to introduce them to the royal family," he concluded in a disbelieving tone.

Dholit let out a nervous laugh. "May not have been a pehfect plan…"

Leynne sighed and turned to look at Link. "I don't suppose Skyrideh regulation has a solution to this issue."

"The solution is to ditch them at the next port, if not outright turn around," Link replied. He glanced at the Gelto stowaways and saw that some of them had put on depressed expressions. He realized that they might know Hylian and that his response was a blow to whatever hopes they had. It made him feel a little guilty. So he made a show of looking around the cargo hold. "But, uh… I don't think we have enough empty barrels for all of them."

This drew confused looks from Leynne and Dubbl. "Link?" Leynne asked.

"I'm saying that we'll need another option," Link said. "For now, Dubbl, would you give them berths and…" He pointed at the wet Gelto. "… maybe see if you can get those two some fresh clothes?"

"Leniency, My Captain?" Dholit asked with a brighter smile.

"More like sympathy," Link answered. "It wouldn't do anyone any good if their first experiences in the sky were to be left homeless on Autumn Island."

"Ah," Dholit said with a nod. "Point taken." She watched as the other Gelto moved by. Then she put on a confused face as she addressed one, whom Link identified as the first one he had found. "Waba zhax? 'Inu nadmatikak wabnik."

Dubbl, who had shifted to the same side of the group as Dholit, immediately told her, "Zhidi 'imayn nwubali. 'Inu huxwlya'ak zhadi."

Dholit gave a soft laugh and shook her head. Link and Leynne exchanged glances as they wondered what the two had said.

…

~~Day 131 (Command, Day 94)

~~Dholit has smuggled fourteen Gelto onboard. Our supplies are gonna take a pounding until we reach Autumn Island tomorrow. I just hope that our branch office out there is open again. Earlier tonight, Leynne and Dubbl came up with a solution: in exchange for not being thrown off the ship, they will become airmen and work for the company so they have food, shelter, and the means to travel to wherever they like. It isn't perfect, but I like it a lot more than making them wander the streets of Autumn Island. Besides, for all I know, a few of them may be assassins like Layna, and I wouldn't want to put them out without worrying that I might wake up dead next week.

~~We didn't make it to a Sky Line due to how much distance we gained since we rose up. We'll be in the Sky Line early tomorrow morning and on our way to Autumn Island.

…

~~Day 132 (Command, Day 95)

~~We made it to Autumn Island late this evening. Fortunately, our branch office was open again, so we got the supplies we needed to take care of fourteen extra mouths.

~~No, to be fair, the additional Gelto are doing quite well. Dholit and Dubbl have been leading Lwamm, Twali, Layna, and Biluf in showing the new girls some of the basic functions on an airship. It probably isn't much since they haven't had the training Line and I grew up with, but it should be just enough for them to get assigned to some of the company ships. Or they may even try being hired on as office workers. It wouldn't be too hard, I know for sure that at least two of them speak Hylian.

~~I decided to wait until morning to get to the Port. I don't want to arrive too early to find the office closed by the time we get there. That would leave me with fourteen Gelto wandering around Skyrider Port.

…

Joyce, one of the dedicated office workers for the Skyriders, rarely ever seemed surprised by anything. A few years of dealing with Link and Line whenever they had had shore duty had probably helped steel her against any airman's antics, even if they wanted to get a rise out of her.

So it was such a sight to see her speechless at the prospect of having to put together recruitment papers for fourteen women that even Link could not resist grinning at her. The middle-aged redhead stammered in silence as she took in the sight of the Gelto stowaways lined up before her desk with the sane of the two boys standing at the front of the line. The rest of the room was dead silent, as if Joyce's surprise had caused the rest of her staff to freeze in place to see what had happened.

Link bit down on his lips to help hide his amusement. Then he asked, "Uh… please?"

Joyce stared at the Gelto a bit longer. Then she asked, "Are you Link or Line?"

"Link," he replied with a confused frown.

"Oh. Have-have you lost your mind?"

Link sighed. "I know it's asking a bit much, but these women came up here trying to find a new life. I figured this would be the best place to start."

"Link, no ship in this company has women airmen," she pointed out.

"Mine does," Link replied, pointing to Dholit standing right behind him.

"Ah—" Joyce quickly clapped her mouth shut. She looked up at Dholit, back to the first Gelto standing in line, and then back to Link. "When?"

Link frowned. "I put in those personnel forms a month ago," he said. "Didn't you notice that I marked six of them as 'woman'?"

Joyce's eyes wandered as she recalled the forms. Then she blinked in surprise. "Oh. You did, didn't you?"

"Airman Dholit tells me that they're all very hard workers," Link said. "They'd like to prove it. Put them through the courses and get them assignments. Otherwise, they have to live out on the streets."

Joyce frowned at the Gelto. Then she gave a relenting sigh. "I suppose we've seen enough hardship around here since Autumn and Center Islands were attacked."

"Great!" Link replied, watching in delight as she pulled forms out of her desk. "Most of them have some knowledge of Hylian, but if you need help, I'll leave Airman Dholit here to help you fill their forms in."

"Wai—they don't speak Hylian!?" Joyce cried out. Link offered a helpless shrug. "Oh, boy…"

"Dholit," Link said as he turned to leave. He pointed a finger at her. "Be nice."

"Yes, My Captain," she replied.

Link stopped in his tracks before he could walk past her. "I mean it. This is about employment, not dating."

"Does My Captain mean to imply that I cannot take this situation with the gravity that it is due?" Dholit asked, her face shifting to her usual, sly grin.

Link glanced back at Joyce to see her grow even more confused. "Yes," he then told Dholit. "That's why I'm making it an order."

Dholit gave her head a side-nod. "Mm. Okay." Link took the response as the best he was going to get out of her and left the office.

Outside, Line pushed away from the wall. "How'd it go?" he asked.

"I think we'll be lucky if we ever get assigned any seasoned airmen in the near future," Link joked as both of them started down the hallway. "Joyce looked like she was gonna faint when I told her we have fourteen women to sign up to the Skyriders."

"You think any of them might get assigned to us?"

Link stopped at the junction in the hallway and turned to Line. "I wouldn't be surprised," he admitted. "It'd be easier to send them to the Island Symphony since we already have translators aboard."

Line gave a casual nod as his eyes wandered back down the hallway. "Just curious."

"Link."

Link turned his head in response to his name and saw Leynne approaching them from another hallway. "Hey, Leynne," he greeted. "You find the dockmaster's office?"

"Yes," Leynne replied as he joined Link and Line. He held out an envelope to Link. "I also have a letteh foh you."

"Oh," Link replied in mild delight as he accepted the letter. The sender's name read "Gilliam", and the stamp indicated the Castle Island Post Office. "Hm. Wonder what this is," he muttered to himself as he opened the envelope.

"The office attendant said that it has been waiting in heh office foh a month. It must have ahrived afteh we descended to the suhface."

"What postman goes down to the surface anyway?" Line joked while Link gave the letter a brief look.

"Uh oh," Link uttered.

Line put on a confused look. "What is it?"

Link heaved a sigh. Then he paraphrased, "We are invited to Castle Island for one month of training in appropriate presentation and deportment prior to the official ceremony with the Royal Family."

"I don't know I like the sound of that," Leynne commented. Line nodded in agreement.

"Then you'll like this part," Link told him. "'Al says get your asses out here, or else he'll kick them all the way back to the surface, boy'."

"Aw, man!" Line whined. "If Captain Alfonzo says so, then we gotta go."

"How come?" Leynne asked.

"Because he really will kick our asses all the way to the surface," Link replied.