by C. Litka
07
Sixty rounds out of DeArjen's Islands, everyone spent their off watch hours either sleeping or looking for the clouds that would mark the islands of the Saraime.
The Captain told me that we had benefited from the air currents going out, so that the voyage home would be longer, but she wouldn't put a number to that difference, which left us leaning on the bulwark searching the featureless brassy blue-green sky for a speck of white.
In the end, we did find that speck of white 71 rounds out of DeArjen's Islands and altered course for it, and the small islands sprinkled within the clouds. The islands we found were small, and seemingly uninhabited, and at first we thought they may have been just another isolated group like the Halfway Islands, as we put them astern within the round and continued on our original heading.
With everything running smoothly in the engine room, I stopped in my little office to brew a covered mug of tey, and then climbed up to the afterdeck, to cool off a for a few minutes. I walked over to the bulwark were BayLi was looking out on the Endless Sky, to catch a little of the slipstream. I set myself against the bulwark, thoughtfully downwind of her.
'Have you spied the Saraime yet?' I asked.
'I'm looking at that vague flaw in the sky,' she said, pointing ahead and down a bit. 'Doesn't it look a little lighter than the sky?'
I looked in the direction of where she was pointing.
'You see it, don't you?'
'Ah?' I said, not seeing it. Or maybe I did. I could imagine, anyway, a paler streak of sky in the direction she was pointing 'Could be clouds and then it could be wishful thinking. We'll know soon enough if they alter course.'
'Do you think we should tell them? They might not be able to see it from the bridge.'
'I think, Li, we should let them find it on their own. Our concern is the engines, theirs is navigation, and it's best to leave them to it. Besides, if that streak is a cloud bank, we seem to be running parallel to it, and so they'll see it sooner or later.'
She gave me a rather doubtful look.
'If it is the Varentas or any one of the major island groups it will be there for the next 20 rounds or more. They won't miss it.' And since she still looked doubtful, I added, 'If we don't alter course I'll mention it to the Captain at dinner.'
I didn't think they'd miss it, or ignore it even if it was a pretty iffy sighting. Neither Captain KimTara nor her mates were careless - and missing something as large as the tens of thousands of islands of the Saraime would not be a feather in their cap - though it was easy to imagine how it could happen? Therefore I was happy when I felt a tug of inertia that marked a change of course not long after I returned to my engine room.
The faint line did prove to be clouds and then a chain of small islands that we followed inwards for two more rounds, before spying the sails of a ship in the haze of the islands. We altered course to close with it and ask about our position.
I was off duty and on deck at the time, and as the speck became bigger - and once I could see the color of its sails - red - I began to wonder. And wonder enough to climb up to the bridge.
The Captain gave me a rather cool look that said "What are you doing here?" but said nothing out loud, as I joined her on the bridge wind deck.
'Could I have a look at that ship with your glasses?' I asked politely.
She gave me another cool look, but lifted the strap over her head and handed them to me.
In her glasses, the ship looked familiar. Not only did it have the traditional red sails, the ram-like bow, but I could just make out enough of the pattern in the decorative line along the hull to be confident that it was a Temtre ship.
'You might want to station some people at the rocket launcher,' I said, handing the glasses back to her.
She gave me another questioning look, but I said nothing more until she asked, 'Why?'
'That's a Temtre ship. They're sometime pirates. We don't want to give them any ideas.'
'What's it doing in the Varentas? They're Donta Island pirates, at least according to you.'
'True,' I said, and left it at that.
She watch as the Temtre ship casually let us get ever closer.
When they were less than a kilometer away, and we could see that the ship matched my description of the Temtre ships without glasses, she ordered the three rocket launchers - fore, aft, and by the smokestack manned. She then turned to me and said, 'Deal with your friends, Chief. Find our location. I'll bring out the charts.'
I didn't recognize either the ship nor its captain, as we closed within 30 meters of the boat. I'm sure they noted our manned rocket launcher, since they had crew casually standing around theirs as well, but we were likely too tough of a nut to risk trying to crack. We, on the other hand, were very unlikely to pose any danger to them. They recognized what we were, a freighter, and were curious as to why we were closing with them to allow us get this close.
I hailed them cheerfully, met with a wary reply, and began chatting - inquiring about DeKan and the other Temtre captains and ships I could name hoping to make a nice friendly impression. By this time Hissi had joined me, and was soon over, visiting with the Temtre Simlas aboard the Temtre ship. Only after gossiping for a while did I get around to inquiring as to our position, explaining that we'd been caught in a serrata in the Varentas and with our bridge damaged had been carried far off course with it. The makeshift repairs to the bridge made my story very believable, and after a bit of negotiating - we sent over several dozen bales of peat moss we didn't need now, in exchange for our position in the Donta Islands, we were dealing with the Temtres after all, and they give nothing for nothing. Having gotten our position - the name of the island group we were in - we parted ways with a friendly wave.
The Captain was clearly peeved about having missed her target by width of the Varenta Sea, but the rest of us were just happy to have gotten a toehold on home again, and had a long celebration over our dinner.
It took us five more rounds to reach the first of the major Dontas, Karena, and report our arrival to the S & D Line office there. We then sailed on to the line's home-port in the Dontas on Daedora. It took the better part of 30 rounds to clear the inquest and paperwork involved in the whole affair. In the end, the old Lora Lakes was once again laid up.