Voidhawk: The Elder Race

by Jason Halstead

  “What about them elfy ships?” Rosh asked.

  Dexter snapped his fingers triumphantly. “Was just thinking that!” He said to the big man. “Surely they must have spare sails aboard that we can use. Might need some tailoring, but Bekka’s shown she knows the way of it!”

  Feminine laughter filtered up from below, preceding the arrival of a smiling and laughing Bekka and Willa. They turned and saw Dexter and Rosh standing there and sobered up immediately, their grins fading.

  “We got her back, Captain,” Bekka said quickly, smiling in a subdued manner.

  Dexter nodded and grinned. “Aye, she’s in need of some work but you done a fine job. Now let’s see about getting her void-worthy again. Bekka, check with the elders when they get here and see about securing some sails for the ‘Hawk.”

  “Willa, I expect you helped with patching the hull?” Dexter asked her.

  She nodded, her eyes staying on him and refusing to look at Rosh.

  “Good job, she’s still floating. See about helping to restore the rest of her. If we need to replace anything you get it taken care of.”

  “Yes Captain,” she said, then she and Bekka both turned to hurry off the deck.

  Rosh watched her go, a look on his face of confusion and irritation. “Willa,” he called after her, making her stumble and catch herself. She turned back to face him but not until Bekka stopped ahead of her and looked back.

  “We’ll talk later, okay?” She asked him, smiling weakly.

  Rosh looked at her, eyes twitching, then he nodded and smiled back. “Okay,” he said.

  Smiling in relief, she and Bekka turned and hurried off the ship and headed for the ramp. Rosh watched them go then turned back to see Dexter watching him with a look of amusement on his face. “It was easier when she was spitting fire at me,” Rosh muttered.

  Dexter laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll have her doing it in no time!”

  Chapter 10 – Cycle of Life

  The Voidhawk shuddered underfoot. Dexter winced but betrayed no other sign of distress at the glancing impact with the bombard shot. There would be plenty more before the day was done.

  “Bring us to port!” Dexter called out, seeing one of the large elven warships heading straight at them. The Voidhawk was a small ship, compared to most of the ones in the field outside of the scouts, but it was also distinctive since it was not of elven or elder manufacture. In their case, distinctive was not a good thing. The Voidhawk had achieved a certain level of ill repute amongst the elven fleet of late. A much deserved enmity that Dexter supposed was the cause behind the warship singling them out.

  It had been nearly three full weeks since the Hawk had been found. The first week was spent re-supplying and making the ship void-worthy again. The next they’d set sail with the liberated ships of the elder’s fleet. Trouble had dogged them every step of the way. Now, at least, Dexter had a plan and a few tricks up his sleeve.

  “Jenna,” Dexter called loudly to his first mate. He winced when he saw her standing not three feet from him at the railing. “Have Kragor and the boarding party ready,” he told her.

  She looked at him a long moment, bordering on mutiny, then she nodded and turned to yell out the order to the deck below. That prompted a shifting of responsibilities as people made ready to take up the new tasks while others filled the open positions at the rigging and sails.

  “You sure about this?” Jenna asked softly. “You think he’s ready for this so soon?”

  Dexter glanced back to the deck, seeing his former first mate standing resolute and silent while Jodyne stood beside him. Jodyne was decked out in her fighting leathers, determined to not leave her husband’s side again. Willa and Tasha rounded out the small boarding party, though Dexter expected Kragor alone could handle any defenses the elves mounted.

  He thought back as he stared at Tasha, wondering again how she’d convinced him to join his crew…

  * * * *

  “Captain, might I have a moment of your time?” Tasha called up from the dock where she stood.

  Dexter glanced down at her briefly, then turned back to watch the bundle that was the Voidhawk’s new sail being carefully unrolled. Dexter grunted, waving absent-mindedly with his hand for her to come aboard and talk to him.

  Tasha hurried up the plank and stood beside him, watching the sail briefly since it held Dexter’s attention so thoroughly. She turned to face him then and saluted. “Captain, I’d like to sign on with your company…er, crew,” she said.

  Dexter turned to face her, taken aback by her request. “Just like that?” He asked. She nodded. He frowned, then turned back to the slow deployment of the new sail. “You don’t know nothing about the void,” he mused. “I ‘spect you’re none too quick when it comes to sailing on water neither, are you?”

  She shrugged. “I can learn,” she said, then added as an afterthought, “quickly.”

  Dexter showed signs of ignoring her for a long minute, then he asked, “Why? Got a nice set up here; money and position.”

  She stiffened a little at his observation. “I’ve listened to you and your people talk. You tell tales of impossible things; places and peoples different and wondrous. You speak of the things you’ve done and they are good. You have a noble heart, Captain Silvercloud, and I would like to help you help others.”

  Dexter snorted. “Help others?” He asked rhetorically. She nodded, though it was unnecessary. “We help ourselves,” he said. “Just so happens that doing the right thing by us does the right thing by others too.”

  “Making you all the more noble, Captain.”

  He stayed silent, contemplating her words until something about the process of putting up the sail began to bother him. His eyes narrowed and he looked about, suddenly wondering what was amiss. Something was different or at least not what he expected to see. Then it came to him. The boy, Tarin, was carefully helping to unroll the sail. That was well enough, he supposed, except the job should have been done by Bailynn. An oath worthy of his sailing career burst from his lips.

  Tasha’s eyes widened in surprise at the sudden language. Dexter ignored her and instead walked briskly to the stairway down to the companionway and bellowed, “Where’s Bailynn!”

  Within moments he backed away as Bailynn and Jodyne climbed up onto the deck. She stood and let the Captain glare at her a long moment before he finally nodded at the sail, “What’s that boy doing?”

  Bailynn did not even look. “He wanted to help, Sir,” she said timidly. “Tarin said he wanted to learn how to do it, wondered if I’d mind if he-“

  “You know that boy?” Dexter hissed at her. “You know him real well, do you? His family? What he does for fun? Whether he drinks ale or milk? Does he snore or suck his thumb when he sleeps in his bunk?”

  “I…um… no Sir,” Bailynn said.

  “Dex,” Jodyne began, her tone matronly and disapproving.

  Dexter’s glare shifted to her and, for perhaps the first time that he could ever imagine, Jodyne backed down from him and glanced away. As much as it thrilled him, it unsettled him as well.

  “Jenna,” Dexter called out, distracting the elf from her job of having the sail put up. “Get that boy out of there, Bailynn’s back to help.”

  Jenna’s face remained neutral as she glanced over at them. She nodded and motioned for Bailynn to take Tarin’s post.

  “What was so important she couldn’t help put the sail up?” Dexter demanded, turning back to Jodyne.

  Jodyne glanced up at him, a defiant edge to her eyes. “She wants to learn to cook,” she said, her tone challenging Dexter to make a crack at it. Whatever had passed between them moments ago, Dexter saw she was more than ready to compensate for it.

  He grunted, unwilling to test her. “Good, see to it she spends the next several days being your monkey then as punishment.”

  Jodyne’s eyes narrowed, then she nodded. Without another word on either account, she turned and stormed back down to her kitchen below.

/>   “The boy, Tarin, he’s a solid boy. Smart as a whip,” Tasha offered.

  “I didn’t ask for how smart the boy was, now did I?” Dexter asked, rounding on her with anger in his voice. “You want to serve on this ship, you got a bit to learn, don’t you?”

  “I just-”

  “You just opened your mouth when you should have been keeping it shut,” Dexter berated her. “The Voidhawk’s a good ship to sail and a good ship to work on, but none of that happens with having a crew that don’t know when to keep their traps shut, got it?”

  Tasha opened her mouth to respond. She shifted her head slightly, then closed her lips instead and nodded.

  “Good, we’ll be ready in four more days,” he told her. “All of us, the ‘Hawk and the elders. Watch what they’re doing real close-like, when they’re done Jenna’ll show you a bunk. You’ll have a chest in their for your things. Not much room, but most of what you’ll need will be given to you.”

  “My armor?” She asked, her eyes widening.

  “Won’t be doing you much good when you’re hauling rope and shifting the sails,” he answered. “Won’t be much use unless we’re fighting, and we try not to get into that much,” Dexter added.

  She nodded again, then glanced at the plank leading to the shore.

  “We’ll be fighting plenty, right quick,” Dexter assured her. “We’re soon to be off and swept up in a war between the elves. It’s going to be messy, and we can use anybody that knows how to fight. You’re life’ll be longer and better down here. I can’t say when or ever if we’ll be back this way. I got no itch to come here again; seen too much of it this time.”

  She nodded again, not speaking and drawing a measure of respect from Dexter for her ability to remain quiet.

  “You want the bunk, it’s yours, but you don’t set foot off this ship unless I give the word. I’ll sail with you being green, but not with you being green and stupid.”

  Dexter studied her carefully, seeing how well she took his abuse. He nodded after a moment of staring at her calm face, then turned and walked away, heading towards the spiral staircase and wondering if he’d ever get the smell of seaweed out of his cabin.

  * * * *

  The smell was still there, though faint. Dexter scowled at the memory. He’d wanted to shock her a little, but the events that transpired made it real harsh for her. Tasha had taken a serious step down from running her own company to being nothing more than a deckhand. She was genuine though, he had to admit. She really did want to help. Even now, waiting for her chance to board the elven warship, her thoughts went to others before herself.

  “We screw this up, they won’t be looking to give us another shot at it,” Dexter reminded his first mate and consort.

  “You going to be giving orders, Sir, or just keeping me from doing my job?” She asked him, a twinkle of excitement and mischief in her eyes.

  “We’re all doomed,” he muttered upon seeing the look in her eyes. “Hold on wizard, she means to ram them.”

  “She wants to what?” Xander spouted, disrupted from his preparations near the ballista mounted on the forecastle. Jenna flashed him a grin and Dexter shook his head. “Captain, you can’t really allow-”

  “Hold on, bookworm!” Dexter cried out, grabbing the railing himself.

  Xander shrieked like a school-girl and grabbed the railing. Jenna was signaling and calling out orders to the crew, pivoting the Voidhawk so that it rolled up and above the elven warship. They were easily outside of the firing arc of the warship’s mounted weapons but it left them exposed to the fire from their long pistols as Jenna directed the ship in close enough to share the elves’ atmosphere.

  “Give them cover!” Dexter cried out, feeling himself growing lighter as the stronger gravity field of the larger warship threatened to overtake theirs.

  Xander let loose his hands briefly, grimacing all the while as though he expected to fall ‘up’ towards the enemy ship. He jerked the ballista up as far as he could and spoke a magical word that caused an ensorcelled taper on the bolt to glow red then erupt into sparks. He threw the lever, releasing the taut strings and sending the bolt sailing up into the upper rigging of the enemy ship. It seemed destined to miss the ropes and masts, and disappeared with a noise that was somewhere between a crack and a pop. Great thick vaporous clouds erupted from where it had been, falling towards the elven warship now as whatever caused the vapors succumbed to its gravity.

  “Away!” Dexter cried out, looking back to the others gathered on the aft deck.

  Kragor led the charge, distant light glinting off of the armored hide he wore. He ran to a long reinforced beam and jumped high off of it, then fell down and made it flex dangerously low towards the deck of the Voidhawk. Even from his perch on the other side of the ship Dexter could hear the timber groaning. It sprung back, proving that the green lumber had worked as Willa promised. The former dwarven first mate sprang away from the deck and shot through the mixed air of the ships towards the elves. Jodyne went next, followed closely by Tasha and then Willa.

  Dexter’s felt the air of a random bullet that passed near him then struck the deck. He ducked a little, but could not help but wonder how Rosh was handling Willa’s departure. The big man had moped and pined for her when they thought she was lost. Now this time he was being left behind while she played the part of a hero.

  Dexter also wondered how another member of his crew was handling Willa’s sudden absence.

  * * * *

  Leaving the planet behind had been a simple task for the Voidhawk and the elder elves. Dexter hated landing on planets, there were often complications from weather and wind at different altitudes. Not so this time, it had been smooth sailing from the lake up to the edge of the void. Smooth sailing that, he knew, was too good to last.

  With nearly sixty ships around them, the Voidhawk’s crew was far from the first but also not the last to spot the elven fleet that emerged from surface of the moon. Some of the ships sailed erratically, but they all sailed and they outnumbered the elders nearly two to one.

  “A secret garrison force,” Jenna muttered.

  “Secret garrison?” Dexter repeated, not entirely sure what she meant in spite of his hunches.

  “There are secrets aplenty amongst the elves,” she said venomously. “It seems the location of this planet was one of them.”

  “Wait, the moon was with us when we got here?”

  She nodded, thinking for a moment before responding. “Elves that lived the same as the elders did, in isolation and banishment. They waited against the day that the elders might rise up from their prison.”

  “They imprisoned themselves too?” He asked, incredulous.

  She nodded.

  “Your people need to sit down and have a drink or two, methinks,” he muttered, then he turned to survey the situation again.

  “Make ready for battle!” He called over the deck loudly.

  The elders around them formed up ranks, having come to a similar conclusion. Their ancient ships sailed through the void as though they had not lost a day of practice, let alone 12,000 years worth. Dexter gave orders to bring the ‘Hawk up and behind the elder’s lines to give them a better vantage point and the opportunity to react if something occurred.

  Long before Dexter would have imagined battle would truly begin, the elders opened fire. Great spears of timber streaked across the void at speeds he thought unimaginable. Some hit and some missed, but those that hit shattered holes in hulls and collapsed entire sails. The target rich environment allowed for a great many to strike true, damaging or even critically injuring their targets.

  The return fire from the elves was less damaging, but it made up for it in volume. The Voidhawk was spared the onslaught from its position, but in moments the two fleets had closed enough distance to allow ships to merge atmospheres and begin to battle in earnest.

  “Gods of the void,” Xander whispered reverently from his position near Dexter and Jenna. The magical devastation being wr
ought between ships was amazing. Elemental magic as well as higher forms of sorcery danced amongst the combating ships, wreaking havoc and defending from said havoc in turn.

  “Captain, here comes some more!” Jenna snapped, pointing at four fresh elven ships that had emerged from the shadow of the moon. While late to the party, Dexter noticed the reinforced metal of their bows and the heavy armaments upon the ships.

  “Take us across their bow,” Dexter said.

  Jenna stared at the warships then turned to look at Dexter. He ignored her, signaling her that she had her orders. She turned to relay the necessary commands, sending the Voidhawk into motion above the three dimensional battlefield.

  “Captain, there are four of them,” Xander mentioned, dragging his gaze away from the awe inspiring display to the new targets. “Warships of a bygone age,” he added for emphasis.

  “We’d best be stepping lively then,” Dexter replied. He turned to survey his crew, noting how well they worked. “Got any tricks to start a fire on their ships, wizard?”

  “Many, but my spells won’t work across the void,” Xander said.

  Dexter grunted. “Keep your head down then,” he suggested.

  “Keep my head down?” Xander repeated, confused. Dexter had already moved away to stare over the edge at the battle below.

  “Captain, what’s your plan?” Jenna called as they began to close on the four vessels. All four had changed their course; they were now headed directly for the Voidhawk.

  “Keep ‘em busy until help shows up,” he said, returning to the railing.

  “That’s your plan?” She asked, staring at him with wide open eyes and parted lips.

  He shrugged. “Got something better?”

  She glared at him for several precious seconds then shook her head. With a resigned tone she said, “If we survive this, remind me to show you just what I think of your plan.”

  Dexter smiled. He expected she’d try to smack him in the head with a chamber pot. “Keep moving, don’t let them get a clear shot at us,” he told her.