Bridge, Glory Hunter, At Sea Far West of Esthirant
Captain Nicolo Karlin of the wooden kraken hunter ship, Glory Hunter, eyed the anemometer crystal gauge as it frequently updated its displayed numbers in face of the breeze that cooled the sailors on deck. Thus far, the winds were sufficient for the sails that propelled the ship, which meant he didn't have to activate the expensive wind rings submerged beneath the waves for magical propulsion.
Back at home, he owned the smaller cousins of the wind rings that performed their original purpose of creating wind to cool down the room. For millennia the wind rings had simply done so for the wealthy until some fellow accidentally dropped one into the water when it was active and discovered that the device also created water currents. By magically pulling the water, the wind rings also propelled the ship that they were solidly attached to. Thus far the most annoying thing about them was that the heavy rings had to be hoisted above the water to replace the wind gems at their centre whenever they got used up.
"Captain, we've spotted a kraken trailing the bait!"
Nicolo turned his attention away from the gauges to look through the window behind him. Kraken were notoriously aggressive creatures that loved to attack any decently large object that travelled on the surface of the water, so hunters had taken advantage of this tendency. The bait had the shape of two small ship hulls attached deckwise like a giant mollusc, and it bobbed up and down with the waves as it towed behind Glory.
He turned towards the helmsman. "Keep her steady."
"Aye aye, Captain."
Nicolo ran out the door and then up the right side stairs up to the upper deck on top of the bridge. The gunners were adjusting the lightning gun and ensured it was pointed at the water just ahead of the bait.
"First Mate, how close is it?"
There was a moment as the first mate read the flashing signal lamp from the spotter's nest above.
"About 1 km, Captain."
"Furl the sails to two-thirds!"
"Aye aye," chanted the riggers.
The ship slowed down, and the captain gave the order to ready the sails to be fully furled. Soon enough, there was a slash of water as the kraken came up to attempt to swallow the bait whole.
"Strike her down!"
There was about a full second as the lightning gun first activated a light gem to direct a high power beam at the partially visible main body of the beast. Then the lightning gem launched a large bolt of lightning that travelled along the beam and near-instantly shocked the kraken with a loud deep crack a split-second later. The kraken's limbs spasmed for a moment before lying nearly motionless around the bait, and a second lightning strike ensured the kill and the sails were fully furled before harpoons were launched from charge guns into its flesh.
The captain sighed in satisfaction as he felt the cool air around the barrel of the lightning gun, a sign of the immense expenditure of mana. The thick ropes of the harpoons were reeled in slightly to confirm the harpoons were secure. Now the Glory could tow the kraken back to port with yet another catch.
"Spotter's signalling something Captain," said the first mate.
The captain turned around in surprise. He barely read out the first few letters of Pao code before a curious whistling sound filled the air. It was soft but incessant at first, then gradually became louder and louder. He abandoned reading the message to his first mate to look for the source and then saw something grey literally buzz overhead with tremendous speed.
He shielded his eyes for a better view as the flying thing seemed to circle in the sky above, still making its annoying racket. It took a moment before he recognized that the object looked like a flying slider car, with two blinking discs on either side and a large blinking disc on top. It seemed impossible that any object the size of a slider car that was not a wyvern or dragon could fly like that, but he and everyone on his ship were seeing it with their own eyes. There were some markings on the object, but it was too high up to make out effectively.
After a couple of minutes, the flying slider, for lack of a better term, flew away to the east. Everyone remained in shock for a few moments before the captain ordered the sails to be raised to head back to port as normal.
Then about an hour later, the spotter signalled that an unknown grey fleet of eight ironclads had appeared on the horizon and was catching up to Glory Hunter.
Helicopter Deck, USS Wasp LHD-1, Gaining on Glory Hunter
Vlad watched the lonely figure doubling around the helicopter deck. As the jogging sailor ran towards him near the deck exit, he heard him slowly gasp out for the umpteenth time, "I will only… have two black balls… when I am… out of control in daytime."
The sailor must have pissed off the Senior Chief during one of his lectures today. The number of sailors who ran around like Marines repeating some critical detail like a mantra had made a big impression on the diplomatic team over the past days at sea. At some point, every one of the team had asked why some Seaman was being punished, and the response inevitably given was the same. "Pissed off the Senior Chief."
Vlad smiled slightly as he returned to deleting the blurry photos he had of the alien seabird that had landed on the ship just as the sailor had begun his run. It was remarkable how similar the creature was to Earth's birds.
"Stop your jog, Seaman! Come here!"
Vlad looked up to see the Senior Chief himself standing about a meter away from him. The sailor slowed down considerably as he stumbled back.
"Rotodyne is coming back. Join the rest of your mates."
The relief was evident on the young enlisted's sweating face. "Yes, Senior Chief."
Once the Seaman was gone, the Senior Chief noticed Vlad and his camera. "I didn't take you for a bird watcher."
"It's not often one gets to observe alien birds. What did that sailor do earlier to warrant his punishment?"
"He told me an out-of-control ship at nighttime would be showing two black balls."
Vlad burst out laughing. "Well, how would anyone see anything black and hairy at night?"
The Senior Chief successfully stopped himself from laughing by coughing in response. Then, he solemnly shook his head. "I've seen too many people make this exact mistake over the years. I wonder if history is destined to repeat."
"Probably. Eventually an event today will rhyme will something from the past. Hopefully, it won't on our expedition." Vlad turned away and looked at the ocean as his face suddenly hardened.
"You really got screwed back then huh?" quietly asked the Senior Chief.
"Like by Ramsey Chalk with his Rules of Engagement in 1965."
"Ouch. Trust a DEMOCRAT to paint a target on your back."
"Hah. Terrible administrations will come and go as long as civilization continues."
The whistling of the rotodyne informed both of them that they had work to return to.
Wardroom, USS Wasp LHD-1
"We need to talk with the crew of that ship," said Howard to Captain Lasky and Rear Admiral (Lower Half) Barney.
"If we bring any of them aboard without isolating them, we'll have to quarantine the entire ship," said the Captain.
"Then we do so. You knew, Captain, from the moment we began Operation Demonstrate Democracy, that there might be a moment we shake hands with aliens on the deck of this ship. I say that moment should be now."
Captain Lasky looked pensive about it.
Howard looked to the Rear Admiral. Barney was the flag officer of the Expeditionary Strike Group. Surely he could help.
"I agree that eventually, we'll have to bring someone into the fleet for intelligence gathering," said Rear Admiral Barney.
Howard's hopes were raised. The Rear Admiral could order the Captain to take on the locals on board.
"But…" began the Rear Admiral.
Howard's hopes were crushed.
"If you want to bring the locals onto the Wasp, Mister Leach, Captain Lasky has full control over the safety of the personnel of his ship. Same goes for every other ship in the fleet. For this non-combat situation, I will not order my officers to jeopardize the safety of their crew. You need to convince him, not me."
Howard felt that Rear Admiral Barney was BSing him. Clearly, Barney was supportive, but ultimately the Rear Admiral prioritized covering his ass. He turned back to Captain Lasky.
"Okay, I understand that you're still in charge of this ship, but think about this. If it turns out that these human-looking aliens carry a disease that kills every one of us, then it means our America is doomed to anarchy. The locals are towing a dead sea monster along, and that means they know how to immediately turn what otherwise is a threat to us into a resource. If they're really as human as their appearance makes them look to be, they'll have a language that we are physically capable of learning. Then we can negotiate and trade to put food on the table back home. I implore you, Captain Lasky, to make the historic decision that will change our destiny forever."
Howard knew his words were convincing the captain once his eyes turned to get the silent opinions of his junior officers.
Captain Lasky sighed, "Very well then. I'll allow some of that alien ship's crew onto my ship, Mister Leach. Then the question becomes who amongst your team will accompany the boarding group on the RHIB to their ship." He turned to Barney, "Sir, for your own safety as our flag officer, I would suggest you change over your flags to another ship for at least two weeks until we are fairly sure no terrestrial disease was contracted."
"I'll follow your advice, Captain. I'll take Fort McHenry LSD-43 as my temporary flagship." Rear Admiral Barney turned to his aide. "See to the necessary preparations for that."
"Yes, Sir."
After about five minutes of discussion, Howard decided that the two non-medical doctors, Marine linguist PFC Sharps, and Foreign Service Officer William Harris would lead the moment of first contact. They would convince one to four people to return with them back onto the USS Wasp.
On Board an RHIB, Heading Towards Glory Hunter
Vlad found himself on one of two RHIBs in a bright orange life jacket holding on to a handle for his life as the boats sped along at 40 knots or 74 km/h, bouncing up and down harder than riding a horse at full gallop. The Expeditionary Strike Group was no more than two Earth nautical miles away from the wooden sail ship when they launched, though Vlad was still surprised when they had swept past the floating body of the enormous squid and slowed down just meters to port from the watching Caucasian like faces of the locals who had gathered on the rails above after only three minutes.
The other RHIB was further to port, with a mounted .50 cal machine gun ready to put holes into everything if the encounter took a turn for the worst. If Vlad's boat was attacked, they would be immediately driven away to safety with the better-armed RHIB covering than following after.
The sailing ship had a strange-looking deck cannon mounted above what appeared to be a more modern style wooden bridge placed at the rear of the ship. The cannon had aimed at them earlier, but now they were too close for it to depress enough to hit them.
"Doctor Banks, you should probably do your thing," whispered PFC Sharps, reminding Vlad that absolutely no one had said a word since they saw just how exactly human the sailing sailors looked.
"Oh, right then. Uh." Doctor Banks nervously tugged on the inflating string on her life jacket. "I think I'll start with English." She curled her fingers slightly and brought them around her mouth with palms facing out to gesture that she was about to speak. "Hello there, we…" She pointed at herself and then the rest of the boat's passengers, "are envoys of the United States of America."
She then pointed at the people on the ship. "Who are you?"
There was a moment of silence before a heavily grey-bearded man wearing a wide-brimmed with a lumpy top cloth hat replied in a language that sounded almost like Latin to most untrained listeners but had harsher tones more reminiscent of Dutch or German. He pointed at himself and said something, then followed it up by pointing at them and saying something that ended in an upward inflection, which was hopefully their equivalent of "who are you?"
Vlad racked his head. He felt as if the language of the man was familiar, but he could not recall what it was. He was beginning to feel that they would indeed have to spend all day out on the water under the new sun.
The man said something else with an upward inflection, and then he said, "Potesne loqui Lourine?"
It took a moment for Vlad's brain to tell him that he understood the man as he moved on to something else in what seemed to be another language. Grey Beard had just spoken Latin. "Do you speak Lourin?" Wait a moment, what was Lourin?
Doctor Banks had caught on to the sentence. She kept up her gesturing as she spoke the words that meant, "I speak Latin. Do you mean Latin?"
Confusion formed on Grey Beard's face. "Latin? It seems to me you're speaking Lourin," he replied in Latin.
Vlad glanced over at Sharps as they both became confused. The Marine was a European Cryptologic Linguist, and he told Vlad when they first met he learned Latin in high school.
"Perhaps, we call the language by different names. In that case, I think I speak Lourin. I am Professor Louise Banks. I hail from the United States of America."
"You and your home have unique names I've never heard before, Professor Banks. I am Captain Nicolo Karlin, and these gentlemen are the crew of my ship, the Glory Hunter. We hail from the Empire of Parpaldia."
"I see that your ship is towing a giant squid. Did you kill it?"
"You mean the kraken? Yes, we just killed it with the lightning gun up there." The captain pointed up at the weird cannon. "Why are you and your companions here Professor? I see you've brought along a small fleet of sailless ironclads."
"I would love to talk about that in detail. May I come up on board with my companions?"
The captain eyed everyone in the RHIB. It was clear to Vlad that he was performing a threat assessment. "You may come up with no more than two of your companions for your protection, Professor. I hope you find my offer acceptable."
Doctor Banks talked with the Lieutenant for a moment before the Lieutenant called for two armed seamen to join her.
"I accept your offer."
"Alright then." The captain spoke to the sailors in the earlier language and they threw over a rope ladder. "Climb up aboard."
Thank God the diplomatic team had planned well enough to spend a day learning to rope climb before leaving for Guam. Banks had otherwise no other climbing experience beyond rock walls and ziplining.
On the Deck of Glory Hunter
Doctor Louise Banks was hoisted over the side of the ship easily by two strong sailors. She could still barely believe that she was on a completely different planet that had an asteroid ring, was bigger than Earth yet shared the same gravity measurements, and speaking Latin with an alien human. At this rate Banks began to wonder if the United States had been transferred to a parallel universe rather than another galaxy or if life on Earth was not so unique in the universe.
She examined Captain Karlin more closely. He was probably in his late fifties, with what would be impolitely called a beer belly. His clothes were made from a wool-like material.
When she offered her hand, the captain shook it in a normal handshake.
"You have a firm grip, Professor. May I ask what are you a professor of?"
"Linguistics."
"Hmm, a linguist? I've never heard of anyone calling Lourin Latin before. Where is this United States of America you come from?"
"To the East, you may not believe me, but my country was not on this planet a few days ago."
The captain blinked. "That sounds like some penny story my nephew reads. Let me invite you to the bridge, where there is shade and I can offer some water."
Louise talked to her guards for a moment. "I'll have to decline the water, and my companions request you keep the door open."
"That can be arranged." Captain Karlin pushed in the door and then kicked a wooden door stopper into it. As she followed along with one of the seamen, she saw who appeared to be the helmsmen on a wheel. To her surprise, there were little black screens that bumped upward in a shape similar to giant cut emeralds. These were built in front of a large wooden console set in front of the wheel. To her further surprise, the screens showed Arabic numerals glowing neon blue and continuously changing from higher to lower numbers.
"Welcome to my humble bridge. Not as good as those of the First or Second Civilization Areas, but better than many out there. The wheel controls the rudders down in the water. This crystal gauge shows our speed. Another shows our heading. This lever controls the mana flow of the wind rings that propel the ship if the wind is too low to push the sails."
"Pardon me, mana flow? Do you mean power?"
"Well yes, you can call mana flow power. I must ask you why those launches of yours are so noisy. They have impressive speed, but are loud enough to scare all the fish away."
"You have launch boats?"
"Not me. I couldn't avoid such a vessel. Launches with wind rings are currently restricted for the Imperial Navy and their Imperial Marines. Do you know why your launches make such noise?"
"As far as I know, our boats are loud because their engines drive a propellor from the explosion of gas in the engine."
"An engine? Do you mean your boats run on mechanical means like Muan boats?"
"Umm, I suppose so? Are your wind rings not driven by an engine?"
There was a pause. "Do you mind just doing something for me? There's a crystal right behind you that turns on the cabin lights. If you just tap on it, you should be able to turn on the lights."
"Um okay." Louise looked behind her and saw there was indeed what appeared to be a smaller emerald shape screen mounted on the wall about the size of a rocker switch. She caught the questioning raised eyebrow of the Navy man and said, "The captain wants me to turn on the lights."
The seaman shrugged.
She tapped on it. Nothing happened. The room did not light up in any way. She tapped it again.
The captain whispered something in language numero uno.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?"
"Oh nothing right now, could your guard try tapping the button."
"He wants you to try tapping the light switch here."
The seaman obliged. Nothing happened after a few taps before he gave up and went back to his guard position.
"Okay," said the captain. "I'm just going to turn on the lights here just to make sure the crystal's working." He walked over and with a one-finger tap and release, an artificial yellow light flooded the room from what Louise noticed appeared to be a gem mounted on the ceiling. Another tap turned off the light, and the gem became a dull yellow.
"I believe I've confirmed it. You're both manaless."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Manaless. Void cursed. Detached from the Aether." The captain's eyes seemed to become unsettlingly darker. "Giftless."
Louise heard two footsteps as she noticed the enlisted US Navy sailor had moved back slightly.
"Captain Karlin. I do apologize, but I still don't understand what you mean despite all the terms you've used."
"Don't apologize. I know enough about the Mu to know that being Giftless is not necessarily a curse. Being Giftless means one lacks mana and is thus unable to use the Gift, otherwise known as magic."
"Magic?!"
It took a moment for Louise to realize she had shouted the English form rather than the Latin word, magicae. She asked in Latin, "Do you mean magic as in making something appear from nothing?"
"Umm, not from nothing per se, though I get what you mean. I am very surprised this is the first time you've encountered magic before." He went and kneeled by a small chest in the room, opened it, and took out another yellow gem. "I have no strong talent for the Gift myself, but…" He held it out towards Louise and it began to dimly glow with some light.
"Those with the Gift can weave spells to use the mana contained in gems to create effects. People with a stronger Gift can weave spells that can vary the intensity of the effect, shape the directionality of effects, and various other properties. For example, the strongly Gifted can turn the regular yellow light coming from a light mana gem into a beam of blue light. The usage of mana will cool the source of a magical effect. Touch this gem and feel for yourself."
Louise pressed her palm against the gem. The gem was slightly cold to the touch.
The light from the gem dimmed to nothingness, and the captain placed it back into the chest. "The most exceptional of Gifted are capable of using mana directly from the Aether. Umm, I think the Aether can best be described as the collective pool of mana that exists in all things from living creatures to rocks and the air. Such direct usage is tiring and will leave one's body colder. With modern arcanology, spells can be stored in crystals as spellware to trigger effects to connected gems at will. However, one still needs the Gift to even trigger spellware."
Louise was glad she turned on her audio recorder when the RHIBs got close to the ship. She would not be able to remember the entire lecture.
"Well, that's all I can go on about magic. You'll have to ask a Magister if you want to learn about the Laws of magic or weaving spells or whatever else is learnt in the Schools of Arcanology. Now, you must tell me why you and your fleet have arrived on these waters."
Louise just stood there with her mouth open like a dumbass before she reacted. "It's going to be a long story. Do you have anywhere to sit, Captain Karlin?"
The captain smiled like a teacher watching a student. He gestured to a perfectly normal wooden stool in the corner. "Be my guest, Professor Banks."
Baking Under the Sun on an RHIB, Alongside Glory Hunter
For five minutes, Vlad had worked himself into an intellectual frenzy over the implications that the self-declared captain spoke Latin as a language, even if he called the language Lourin instead.
As both opposing sides became comfortable enough to begin chatting amongst themselves after an exchange of waves, he involved himself in an engaging conversation with PFC Sharps that slowly devolved into speculations of fantasy, science-fiction, and the power of God. For ten minutes they debated, and when they asked the other people on the boat they got various degrees of the sentiment: "The aliens speak Latin? That's crazy. This is definitely above my paygrade."
For the next twenty minutes after that, Vlad just sat silently in RHIB as he slowly felt himself cooking under the growing heat of the new sun as the wind reduced. The crew on the sailing ship seemed to put themselves back to work. Someone was visibly mopping the deck above them.
Finally, there was a sort of quiet commotion as the alien sailors seemed to gather around on the deck. There was assorted chatter before a voice seemed to repeat a single word multiple times. Doctor Banks and her two protectors appeared at the ship's edge with the apparent captain. The doctor raised her voice to be heard by both RHIBs. "Captain Karlin here has agreed to accompany us alone back to the USS Wasp to meet her captain and our envoy. The seamen with me will stay behind to guarantee his safe return."
In the Corridors of USS Wasp LHD-1
Captain Nicolo Karlin's eyes were initially wide as saucers as he was led aboard the ironclad troop transport ship of the Giftless people who called themselves Americans. He marvelled at the huge indoor dock that opened directly to the sea, filled number of weirdly shaped boats nestled within the big ship itself. He was taken past many extremely angular carriages or slider cars, with some monstrously huge iron models about two stories tall and maybe two road lanes wide.
Then he was taken through a long number of less impressive corridors filled with pipes and cables hanging everywhere. The sight was similar to one he saw on a public tour of a new Parpaldian ironclad. The tubular lights that hung on the exposed ceiling were very different though, shining much brighter than Muish light bulbs. He observed the route they took kept to the starboard side of the ship, and everyone walking here generally headed towards the fore. Puzzlingly, he observed the naval sailors appeared to wear multiple different kinds of uniforms. Many uniforms were blue as he knew was trendy amongst most modern navies, but for some unknown reason, many people wore solid tan or even a weird splattering of greens and browns. They all had colour-matching buttons that seemed to not be made from metal.
After climbing several flights of stairs that were disappointedly still as steep as the ones on Glory Hunter despite this ship's size, he smelled the ocean air again as he stepped out onto what appeared to be the deck. This deck strangely appeared to have small random raised bumps on it, and less strange it was painted over with coloured lines that reminded him of those on a wyvern carrier. Lined up on the deck he recognized the flying slider cars he saw earlier, with what he now recognized as blades folded up like a fan on top.
Two men dressed completely differently stepped towards him on the deck. A scruffy bearded fellow who was on the launch earlier translated for them from behind him as they introduced themselves.
"Captain Karlin, I'm Captain Lasky of the United States Navy. Welcome aboard the USS Wasp," said the man in tan with an insignia containing brimmed hat.
They shook hands.
"I'm Howard Leach, Lead Envoy of the United States expedition to your lands," said the much older man with what appeared to be Muish spectacles and a really short grey version of a suit.
After shaking hands, the American captain offered to take him to the wardroom. Nicolo accepted, wondering how large the wardroom would be.
His expectations were both exceeded and badly unfulfilled. The wardroom was indeed huge, larger than he imagined, but the floor was covered in a weird blue colour pattern material with many random scattered white dots instead of hardwood. The tables were uniformly green-topped in what might be wood, and the chairs were covered in what was maybe fairly bloaty blue leather. At least the chairs all had a large gold insignia of uniform size and shape on the back.
After everyone was seated, the lead envoy spoke up. "Captain Karlin, the United States of America is in a bit of a predicament. We would very much like your help to establish relations with your country."
What followed was a lengthy series of questions and answers given and gotten over a fairly non-bitter cup of no milk tea called green tea. Karlin explained how Emperor Ludius I ruled the Parpaldian Empire, and Chancellor Lupasa was the current leader of the government. He was pleased that like the Empire, the United States seemed to offer its people some say in government, but he was surprised that the common person went so far as to elect the supreme leader of the entire country. The closest analog in a ruling structure he knew of was that of the Magicareich Federation, but the Federation was led by a ruling council, similar to those of city councils, with a rotating leader chosen from amongst the council members.
He shortened his explanation of magic. Then he talked about subjects like what kind of transportation Parpaldians used. Mister Leach seemed very interested when he heard that slider cars hovered above the ground with some travelling much faster than any wyvern. Wyverns became a topic of their own.
Before he knew it, maybe an hour had passed, and he had agreed to try to negotiate over manacom a formal meeting with someone capable of professionally receiving the American envoys. Sheepishly, he explained that when he first saw the expeditionary fleet on the horizon he had already informed the port authorities, though they were far enough away that the fastest possible response would be from a Parpaldian Navy wyvern squadron based off a wyvern carrier.
At that moment, one of the light blue-dressed sailors came into the room and said something. Captain Lasky visibly swallowed before calmly replying, causing the sailor to get out. The American captain turned to Karlin. "Captain Karlin," he said through translation. "Please come to the bridge with me. It appears your navy has come to rescue you."
Author's Notes
Made several edits to add the character of Rear Admiral (Lower Half) Barney as flag officer of the Wasp Expeditionary Strike Group