Chapter 42:
Blargetha sighed breathily at the sight presented below her. Their birthworld was beautiful, in spite of the horrific blight that was the fire kingdom. Having always been more or less immersed in the world of science, she hadn't really spent a lot of time on courtship in her youth, and that was before you got into the business of being a princess. Add in the fact that as a slime person, going outside their city was dangerous, and you ended up with a person unused to such natural beauty.
"We're not here to stargaze," muttered Minerva. "We need to recalibrate the thruster control program..." Rolling her eyes, Blargetha retorted, "we could also try to gain access to the control systems..."
The android woman glared at her. "Ever think of just stopping to enjoy the sights for one moment," Blargetha queried? "You were human at one time..."
Flushing, Minerva responded, "touche. However, further firing of the reaction control system depends on recalibrating the control program. We just don't have the time to relax. I'd rather correct the deficiencies with the attitude control system, but the hot-shop's still too heavily irradiated to pass through..."
"We could have one of the pups teleport the broken fuel rods into space," Blargetha suggested. The android-woman stopped in mid sentence and stared at her.
Taking the opening, the slime princess remarked, "nearly all of Jake the Dog's children with Lady Rainicorn are capable of teleporting themselves or other material to greater or lesser degree. They did shift this entire asteroid, after all."
Glancing away, Minerva admitted, "I'm... unused to thinking of such esoteric capabilities, Your Highness."
Time stood still, with the pair staring at each other. Blargetha could see Min wavering. Taking a breath, the Finn-Mom said, "I'll make you a deal. We get the calibration done, we'll have the Ark in the condition it needs to be for indefinite safe operation. We can explore a path forward after that and maybe enjoy some down-time."
"Deal," Blargetha agreed, as she returned to the console where she'd been working.
As the vast Ark crossed from the dayside of the planet into darkness, hundreds of miles below under the same stars, another figure stood enjoying the natural beauty of the world.
"I see why they like it," Olesia shouted. The night sky was spectacular, and the scent of the sea was strong, even down in the cabins below decks. Up on the ship's forecastle, the stinging spray drowned the senses with the taste of salt.
William, who'd existed in a state of terror since they'd come out on deck, fumbled for a reply. Folding her gloved hand around his, the plump woman declared, "I'm fine."
Taking a deep, deep breath of the moist air, the elemental murmured, "I'd wondered how that woman could have an elemental for her companion. Now, I see..."
"Baby, I love you," William murmured. Between the stress of their situation and his worry for her, it seemed to be the best he could come up with. Olesia minded it not at all, for that was the dynamic of a man and woman.
"Ships-ho," shouted the lookout from above! Olesia closed her eyes. After a moment's vertigo, she found herself drawn into a maelstrom of holy flame in the heart of a structure a half mile away.
Glancing out of the massive boiler, Olesia found herself confronted with the sight of dozens of flesh creatures, all shoveling coal. They came in every shape and size, and very few matched the form of the man who'd harassed William in Katherine's parlor.
Slaves. The word entered her mind unbidden. Still, it was something William needed to know. Returning to her own body, Olesia murmured, "slaves, William. There's maybe hundreds of slaves on those ships. They're..." "...stoking the boilers," he rumbled.
His expression changed minutely from one of worry to one of profound sadness. Olesia gripped his hand all the tighter. Regardless of the slaves on those ships, the folk of Stilt-Town were what mattered right now.
Blowing out a breath, Bill sighed, "ok... Let's do what we came to do..." Calming herself, Olesia nodded and twined her fingers with his.
Miles away, the captain of the Red Tide walked onto the bridge of his ship to find the crew were in fine fettle. Getting to sea was always good for the morale of the men, even if they were sailing into the teeth of a storm. Almost anything was better than suffering in the pressure-cooker that was their base in the capital.
"Where are we," the captain asked? Looking up from his charts, the navigator responded, "we'll be in the channel for the great lake by morning, sir."
"Alarm," shouted the lookout! The captain rushed forward, drawing out his binoculars. Much to his shock, he found a massive sheet of ice growing across the deck.
As he tried to comprehend what he was seeing, the sound-powered telephone on the wall began to ring. The officer of the watch rushed over to the phone to answer. He was just in time to see the deck hatch slam open as all the stokers and crew rushed out onto the deck. A couple of them were tearing their clothes off, in spite of the temperature.
"We can't stay," shouted the man on the other end of the line. "It's become scalding hot down here! Everything's red hot—even the deck!"
As the captain and his bridge crew struggled to figure out what was going on, a colossal bang shook the ship. And then, to the shock of the crew on the bridge, the ship split in half, with the bow folding backwards along the hull.
The captain shouted orders, trying to calm his shocked and frightened crew, but it quickly became clear that he was shouting at the air. Everyone else had already fled the bridge in a mad scramble to reach the lifeboats.
Olesia turned her attention from the now-sinking ship and towards the next boat in the line. Through her, William reached out and touched the iron of the ship's hull, draining heat from the steel until it was extremely cold and brittle. He fed that power into Olesia's grasp.
Taking that thread of energy, the plump princess channeled it into the rear of the ship, heating the steel there to a bright red glow. Almost before she'd finished, she could feel the boundary between the two regions splitting apart. Two down.
One by one, the pair worked their way along the line of ships, breaking them apart in the rough waters of the ocean, scattering the occupants into the bitterly cold sea. The bigger ships were particularly troublesome, requiring a great deal of effort to shatter.
As time drew on, she could feel her husband starting to falter. William was losing focus, which only caused the process to take longer. Knowing that he was fighting the entity as much as their foes, Olesia decided to call a halt to the business.
Having her thoughts so intimately tied with William's was an amazing experience, one she almost didn't want to end. At the same time, she didn't want to lose him in a maelstrom of madness.
Releasing his hand, she broke contact. William shivered, his eyes popping open. "W-why did you stop," he asked? Her eyes suggested he knew why. "We destroyed a lot of their fleet," she said. "The rest should be manageable. Let's get back to Stilt Town."
Reluctantly, William agreed. Taking him by the arm, she turned and headed back down the deck to the pilot house.
Hundreds of miles to the south, Gordon Wells glared impatiently at his chief agent in the Jungle Kingdom. The game of the moment was to tie down Finn the Human's assets so they couldn't interfere with the operation in Coca Kingdom, and Idris Gatwa was failing by degrees.
"While I didn't expect you to actually succeed in harming her, given what we've already seen, I expected you to manage a better showing," Gordon declared. "I'm hearing rumblings that the whole business was a disaster."
"We didn't expect her to find the tunnel so quickly, Idris responded. "We had the whole thing carefully disguised, and we'd moved all the spoil out of the village, so there was no trace. We still don't know who revealed the tunnel to her, as the team who sabotaged the barrier are all dead."
Shaking his head, Gordon growled, "I want your guarantee that you have the problem handled!" Idris opened his mouth to respond, but only blood came spilling out.
As the hapless agent collapsed to the ground, a creature of sparkling pinkish-red crystal appeared. Raising a hand coated in gore, it revealed the formerly beating heart of Insight's point-man in Jungle Kingdom.
Before Gordon's eyes, the creature's crystalline visage dissolved, revealing the cold facade of Fionna. Her grey eyes burned into Gordon's, as she dropped the heart on Idris Gatwa's steaming corpse.
In icy tones, Fionna declared, "your time is coming to an end. We will find you. We will kill you all, if that's what it takes..."
Gordon broke the connection. Turning to his other lieutenants, he said, "liquidate operations in the Jungle Kingdom. We'll have to start over now." Fitz piped up, remarking, "we can't keep her in Jungle Kingdom, and we lack the resources for a definitive... solution."
Montoya responded, "the attack on King's Island starts soon. She'll be on her way there. By the time they realize where the real target is, our plan will already be in motion."
Finn's awful children were becoming more and more dangerous by the day. It was past time they started working on how to eliminate them.
Far to the north, a single boat approached the shore of King's Island with a lone figure aboard. The figure pulled hard on the oars, fighting the currents swirling around the dock Shiyan village's fishermen used. Finally, he was able to reach the end of the pier.
A surprised watchman came out of the little shack there and threw him a line. As he tied off the boat to the pier, the watchman scratched his head, remarking, "your father thought you were dead, Cao Bambang. Where've you been?"
"Away, old man," the youth replied. "I had some things I needed to look into." "Ah," said the watchman. "Well, I'll let your father know..." As the old man turned to go up the dock, Cao Bambang drew a knife and drove it into his heart from behind.
Catching hold of the old man's head, the treacherous youth covered his lips to muffle his screams. As the fellow fell forward with a dull thud, Bambang glanced down to find himself coated in blood. "Ow," he hissed, as he realized that in the struggle, he'd managed to slice open several of his own fingers.
Fighting off the pain, the went back to his boat and retrieved the lamp he'd been given. With blood making the thing slippery, he fumbled for several moments before he was finally able to get the thing switched on.
Minutes crawled by, and then there came the sound of motors. One by one, a series of large motorboats rushed up to the dock. As the first tied off, Eisthir stepped off and onto the dock. Taking in the sight of the dead man laying face down in a pool of his own blood, she remarked, "hey, buddy. Good job!"
Cao Bambang flushed and glanced away. He'd murdered another innocent person. Stroking his face, the little wax-person murmured, "buck up, buddy! There's still a lot to get done. When we're finished, you'll be allowed to take care of your own business."
The boats came in, unloading hundreds and hundreds of men. As each boat got emptied, the men were led up through Shiyan Village to the roads beyond. They had mere hours to reach their objectives before the folk of King's Island woke up.
As the last boatload of raiders walked into the darkness, Eisthir turned to Cao Bambang. With a sweet smile, she handed the young man a bag that jingled with steel tools. "Remember, buddy," said Eisthir. "If you can break the curse by breakin' that boulder, she's yours. There won't be anything standing in the way, since she won't be guardian of the village anymore."
With no further word, the little beauty turned and walked into the darkness, hiking after the last group of soldiers. When she'd gone, Cao Bambang found himself faced with his own inner demons and doubts.
He'd dreamed of making the village's guardian his wife. He'd imagined how he would win her heart. After the brutal rejection he'd gotten, he'd begun to doubt himself.
As he stood in the cool night air, facing his terrors, his hands began to shake. The sounds of the tools clinking together shook him out of his spiral. He had the tools in his hands. He could free Lady Imai from her bondage to the village. If she was no longer Guardian, she was free to pursue whatever relationships she wanted. Then, could he slay the Defiler, he, Cao Bambang, would have a chance.
Grimly, the young man strode up the dock. The boulder sat at the center of the village. He was certain to fail if he did nothing.
The Heart Kingdom just got punched in the face, and the wax-hustlers just got a dose from Fionna. Unfortunately, the rebels have made it onto King's Island. Wonder what the murderous son of the village headman has planned with that hammer and chisel...