The First Sin

by Jessica Brawner

  “What keeps you in this game, Seamus?” Marie asked as they worked.

  Seamus looked up and blinked. “Come again?”

  “Well, I was just thinking about the crew the other day. We all know Tyler just follows the Captain around out of some sense of loyalty. He’ll be with her forever. Nina’s pretty closemouthed about her reasons. Henri – well, less said the better there. Why do you follow the Captain?” Marie asked.

  “Oh. I’m just in it for the money.” Seamus said shortly. “I’ve got a figure in mind. Once I save up, I’m going to go buy a castle in Scotland and retire.”

  Marie paused and held the heat gun away from the tiles. “Really? Just for the money?”

  Seamus grunted as he snapped a new tile in place. “Really. Jac’s the best there is, and she pays the best. Our recent dry streak excepted. Look at this job we’re on right now. Thirty thousand gold – there’s not another ship out there making that kind of payload.”

  “What if there was?” Marie asked. “Or what if someone offered you money to sell out?”

  “Well, then that would be a very interesting conversation.” Seamus replied. “I’d have to weigh my options.”

  Marie looked horrified. “You wouldn’t.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.” Seamus looked up at Marie. “I’m just keeping my options open.”

  Marie resumed sealing the tiles with the heat gun. “What if something happened to the captain? You’d bail?”

  “Probably. I’d certainly not be taking orders from anyone else on board this boat.” He chuckled in amusement. What, do you see yourself as Captain? I’d jump overboard before I took orders from you.”

  Marie aimed a playful kick at his head. “You wouldn’t have to. I’d likely push you,” she chuckled.

  “Well, see, then we’re in agreement. You should not be Captain.” Seamus laughed. “What about you? What keeps a slip of a girl like you here?”

  “Oh, I like the travel. And working on engines. And Captain gives me leeway to build my little clockworks.” She smiled. “It’s hard for a woman to find a job as a mechanic on an airship. Lots of crews still think it’s bad luck to have a woman on board. So long as the Captain keeps flying, I’ll stick around. I’ve no desire to settle dirtside.”

  “You’re young yet. I expect you’ll change your tune.” Seamus replied.

  Jacqueline

  Seamus and Marie had finished the hull. The cables were more challenging. I attached the end of a splice cable to my belt and slung a tool vest across my back. Seamus and Tyler hoisted me into the rigging using a sling. The heavy splice cable pulled at my belt, dragging behind me. As I came nearer to the grand poche I saw the broken cable swinging free. Splicing the cables took several hours of hot, exhausting work. The back of my neck itched with the feeling of being watched, but I could see no ships in the sky. When the last one was securely re-attached, we called it a day.

  Tyler built a bonfire on the beach while the rest of us brought out bread and cheese from the ship. While we had been splicing cables Niccolò, currently learning to cook, had fished off the stern of the ship while keeping watch. He had a nice catch of anchovies, and Henri showed him how to skewer the fish. Bottles of wine passed around the fire while we picked steaming hot fish off the skewers with our fingers. When darkness fell, I could feel some of my tension ebbing. We had not been followed or had provoked no new interest from Charles and his men. Nina offered a toast, "To good friends, and a good caper."

  "Salut!"

  Seamus started singing a low sweet tune, the story of a sailor led to his death by the sea. I joined in—It was an old song, meant to be sung as a duet with a descant, the female’s part, calling to the wives of the lost sailors. Nina followed the song with a slow, powerful one of her people. The unfamiliar language, and tempo invoked the exotic heat of the Sahel, the desert borderlands, and the unfamiliar. It sent chills tingling across my spine.

  We sang long into the night with the deep sky and a million diamonds smiling down from above. The fire sent crackling sparks dancing in a counterpoint to the soothing crash of the tide. Towards midnight, yawing, I looked around the fire at my friends, pondering how very fortunate I was. Nina eyes half closed, ebony skin dark against the night, leaned up against a piece of driftwood. She caught my eye and smiled. I raised my glass in her direction. Seamus stirred the fire meditatively, glancing now and again at the sleeping Niccolò, shaking his head in his gruff way. Henri and Marie were cuddled up under a blanket, and Tyler was sprawled, looking up at the stars. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for these people. I fell asleep on the warm sand, happy to be surrounded by friends and crewmates.

  Dawn was hard to ignore with the tide rolling in. There were cheerful groans all around as we climbed the ladder back to the ship.

  "Niccolò, change the ship name and colors back to The Indiana. Nina, let's get her in the air!" I said exuberantly. "Let's get back to Marseille."

  Charles

  The Bessie Quinn limped in to a protected cove on an island so small it wasn’t even on his navigation charts. From the deck of the Blue Raven Charles watched the crew for an hour, and the only mystery so far was the appearance of two crew members he hadn’t seen during his search of the ship. He judged them to be women from their slender forms. He and squadron leader Yusef kept a close eye on the group throughout the day, taking turns watching.

  The crew below spent the remaining daylight making repairs and doing what any normal crew would do after a hard storm. Once night fell, Charles ordered the airship closer and assigned men to take turns monitoring the crew throughout the night.

  In the morning he watched from far above as the crew of The Bessie Quinn ran up the French colors and changed the nameplate on the ship.

  Calling for his squadron leader and handing over the spyglass, Charles said. “We’ve got them now.”

  “Look there, Yusef. They’ve changed the name back to The Indiana. One of those two women is most certainly Captain Jac.”

  “Likely to slit your throat, that one is. Bloody pirate. I bet she’d do it from behind and in the dark too.”

  “I don’t think so, Yusef. She understands people. That’s probably why she excels at outthinking her opponents, but she has a code that she lives by. She likes to laugh, and wants to know the why of things. Why people do what they do, why the world works the way it does.”

  Yusef hmphed. “The stories about her…”

  “Are probably wrong.” Charles interrupted. “Because if they were right, then she’d have a hook nose with a wart and other distinctive features, and we wouldn’t have nearly so hard a time finding her.”

  Yusef conceded the point with a shrug. “Captain – what’s your plan?”

  “Now that we have confirmation on who they are, they will most certainly be heading for Marseille. It’s close, The Indiana is known to berth there, and they are still in need of repair. We can beat them to the port and see who they contact when they arrive. I’ll want a close set of eyes on that ship.”

  Yusen nodded. “Aye, Captain. I’ll inform the pilot to put on some speed.”

  The pilot caught the wind and they arrived in Marseille in record time. That’s where things began to go wrong. The pilot was a surly fellow and overconfident in his approach to the busy airfield. Misjudging the distance between two ships, he scraped the side of a rich merchant vessel in an adjoining berth, tearing off several hull tiles. While trying to correct course and avoid tangling the cabling of the two ships, he navigated into the path of another ship trying to dock.

  Charles watched, horrified, as the second, larger merchant vessel bore down on them. Pushing the pilot aside, he pulled the lever to increase the helium in the grand poche. The Blue Raven rose to the next lane above them, missing the merchant vessel by inches. Tapering off the helium and checking to ensure that no more mid-air collisions were imminent, he turned to look at the pilot with an icy stare. “I would expect a pilot in His Holiness’s service to know how to dock a ship.” />
  “You said you wanted us here fast. We’re here. No reason for us to bother about that merchant vessel, they can’t do anything to us. We’re here on Rome’s business,” the man said with a sneer. “I would expect you to know that. Captain.”

  Gesturing to Yusen, Charles said, “Confine him to quarters. Once we are docked, five lashes for impudence, another ten for causing an unnecessary accident. I will guide us into berth. Once we are tethered, have the men draw tarps up over the ship to hide our appearance and see if we can somehow change our outline a bit. Drop the colors as well. We don’t want to spook The Indiana and her crew.”

  Charles’s stomach roiled with anger and frustration as he took the helm and guided the Blue Raven into another free berth. He had no rapport and no trust with these men, and he knew it. The thought sobered him. And then he remembered that he was going to have to see the Airfield Master to pay for berthing and sort out the damage to the merchant vessel and he groaned again, dreading the upcoming encounter.

  Jacqueline

  Chaos reigned at the port of Marseille. A fleet of small air transport ships were trying to leave port just as several large airships arrived requesting berths. Looking through my spyglass I could see several Air Controllers on the ground waving flags directing the incoming airships.

  A particularly animated ant caught my attention. The Airfield Master was gesticulating wildly, the large, feathered plume of his official hat bobbing madly in my spyglass. Though I couldn't hear him, he appeared to be yelling at the captain of another ship. I saw him jab the man in the chest with his finger and the man stepped back a few paces. “Must remember to bring the Airfield Master something pleasant when we pay our airfield fees,” I thought.

  "Nina, signal a request for berth. It looks like we're going to be stuck in the air for a while."

  Niccolò stood next to the railing, watching the scene below him in fascination. I pointed out the airfield controllers, and then the sights around Marseille through the heavy haze of smoke and soot. To the east giant clanks lifted stones to the cupola of a half-built cathedral. In the bay, the Chateau d’If was visible on its solitary island. The entire city was spread before us, bathed in the afternoon light. He was practically vibrating with excitement. "I've never been outside Rome before, Captain. Who knows what might be out there!"

  I smiled. "You'll see a lot more than just Rome. We'll be docking soon; you'll want to see how it's done."

  When the glut of airships thinned, the Airfield Master cleared us for docking. Nina lined us up with the large clank the Air Controllers directed us to and slowly lowered the ship into the cradle.

  The clank, moving slowly below the ship, lined us up with a causeway attached to stairs leading to the ground. When we neared the causeway, Tyler at the fore and Seamus at the aft threw ropes to the airfield workers. They tied us off and cranked a gangplank out from the causeway to the ship. Niccolò stood wide eyed, taking it all in.

  "Would you like to come with me to meet the Airfield Master?" I asked.

  He nodded, looking around, pretending to be worldly.

  The office clerk sitting behind a counter in the Airfield Master’s office looked up as we entered, a harried expression on his face. "Yes?"

  "Just here to pay our fees—and a gift for Eugene. Is he in?" I asked, holding out the monies and port papers first.

  The clerk rolled his eyes but took the money and made a cursory check of our papers, writing us down in the ledger. "He's in. I'll get him for you. Fair warning though, he's not in the best of moods. Some crazy airship out of Rome nearly caused two collisions today."

  "Ahh, so that's what was going on. I wondered." My heart skipped a beat, and my pulse quickened. Had Charles beat us to Marseille? Had he figured out who we were and what we were about? Had I underestimated him? I clasped my hands behind my back, instead of chewing on my thumbnail like I wanted to. The thought of Charles figuring out our plan was both exciting and worrisome. I had no desire to be caught with stolen goods, but a worthy adversary was always diverting.

  The clerk slid off his stool and stepped into the back room, murmuring briefly. When he re-appeared, he said, "You can go on in, Captain. But he has another meeting in twenty minutes."

  "Eugene!" I said heartily as I strode across the worn carpet. "I brought you a gift from Spain." A smallish man with a large presence, Eugene looked up at the sound of his name, his posture screaming annoyance at the interruption. On seeing a familiar face, he relaxed. His large hat marking him as the Airfield Master sat beside him on the desk.

  "Jac! I see you're back in town." He took the bottle of brandy. "Oh, this will be most welcome. Join me in a glass? Who is your young friend here?" The Airfield Master took out two brandy snifters and worked the cork out of the neck of the bottle.

  Niccolò, staring at one of the maps on the wall, jumped at the question. "Oh, um. Hello," he said, trying to make a bow.

  "This is my new cabin boy, Niccolò. He wanted to meet a real Airfield Master. And since I wanted to drop off the brandy as well, I brought him along."

  Eugene poured two glasses of brandy, paused for a moment and brought out a third, pouring a smaller amount for Niccolò. He passed the glasses around with a smile. "Well young man, you've now seen one. What do you think?"

  "Well, you're shorter than I thought you would be, looking down from above," he replied candidly.

  I bit my lip in amusement, and Eugene let out a hearty laugh. "Well, he's honest at least."

  Eugene lifted his brandy snifter in toast. "Saunte!"

  We all took a sip. I enjoyed the smooth richness of the drink. It had aged well. At the first sip, Niccolò gasped and coughed.

  "The trick, my young new friend, is to take small sips with your lips almost all the way closed. Let the brandy trickle in, rather than gulping. You will find it easier to swallow that way." Eugene chuckled and took another sip.

  Still coughing, eyes streaming, Niccolò nodded. "I will keep that in mind next time, sir! Thank you."

  "Any news or excitement hereabouts? I asked.

  "Nothing too exciting. Some idiot from Rome trying to command a prime berth 'on order of the Pope' and then nearly causing an accident."

  I shook my head in commiseration. "Some urgent news out of Rome?" I asked, keeping my face smooth, while my brain spun out different scenarios.

  "Gossip says some Vatican relic has been stolen. They're sending Papal Agents to all ports apparently. He wouldn't tell me what it was or who stole it, though. Apparently, I'm not important enough." Eugene chuckled. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about it?” He raised an inquiring eyebrow.

  I smiled serenely at him.

  "Fine by me, the less I know the better." He shook his head.

  We chatted for a few more minutes, then Cal knocked and poked his head in. "Your next appointment is here, sir."

  Niccolò and I rose and took our leave. "Bon saunte, Eugene. I'll come by to chat again when it's less busy."

  He grimaced at the impatient noises coming from beyond his door. "Any time Jac. It's always a pleasure."

  Outside, I pointed out the telegraph office to Niccolò. "I need to send some messages off. Head back to the ship. I'll be back shortly. Tell Tyler that a ship from Rome has been seen in port, and to be on the lookout. He and Nina will know what to do. We may have to change our plans."

  Niccolò nodded and took off at a trot across the airfield. At the telegraph office I wrote out a short message to David in our secret code.

  PORT OF MARSEILLE FOR A FEW DAYS STOP CAN YOU COME VISIT STOP ALL MY LOVE, JACQUELINE

  I sent it off to David's flat in Paris. With luck I would have a response by tomorrow.

  Jacqueline

  The next morning a familiar, cheerful male voice called out from the deck. "Permission to come aboard Captain?"

  My eyes widened in surprise and I stuck my head out the door of the common area. "David? How did you get here so quickly?"

  My lanky, dark haired, sometimes
lover stood on deck. "Well, my dear, I had been planning a trip to Marseille already. I was supposed to leave Paris today, but came down early when I got your message." His eyes twinkled, and his thick Colonial English accent warmed my heart.

  "Come in," I said, grinning brightly. "We were just about to have breakfast. You are welcome to join us. Nothing fancy I'm afraid, just croissants and fruit."

  When the crew saw David they elbowed each other, and Marie giggled. I shot her a look promising mayhem if she didn't behave. She swallowed her giggle and concentrated on her breakfast, darting gleeful glances in David's direction, much to Henri's chagrin.

  Nina, far less impressionable than Marie, smiled in welcome. David greeted each of the crew in turn, taking a moment to catch up and visit. He spent most of his time pursuing scientific and alchemical research in Paris, and I couldn't tempt him away from his laboratory for more than short stretches of time. His visits were a pleasure for everyone.

  “Captain, I’ll be taking care of that errand you wanted today, so I’ll not be onboard for most of the day.” Nina said.

  I nodded. “Be careful.”

  “Always am.”

  After breakfast I held out my hands to David. "Come, I have something I want to show you." We made our way up to my cabin. After the door was closed I turned to him, happy laughter bubbling out. "You are a good sport. That is the phrase, is it not?"

  He laughed and wrapped his arms around me. "It is good to see you, Jacqueline. I won't ask what you've been up to, as I'm fairly certain I don't want to know."

  I nodded. "You would probably find it interesting, but I don't think you want to be involved. Though we did acquire a new crew member."

  "Well, is she cuter than you?" he asked teasingly.