by John Corwin
Cheers roared through the tiny room and I found myself unable to resist shouting along with them. Man, nothing beats a good inspirational speech.
I just hoped it was enough to see us through.
After a much-needed rest for the crew, it was training day for soldiers and sorters alike. I thought that most of the Mzodi were capable of filling in for navigators. After all, they'd spent most of their lives aboard flying ships, learning whatever role they wanted.
I was wrong.
Just like Arcanes, not all Seraphim were created equal when it came to magical power, physical abilities, or mental attributes, and it quickly became apparent to me why sorters were poorly suited to take over as navigators. Most of them didn't pump out the same kind of magical wattage as soldiers or navigators, but they were typically much smarter and more precise with their skills.
In other words, the sorters were the nerds of the Mzodi.
Tahlee identified two soldiers with enough raw power to charge the levitation foils and put them through an aviation crash course similar to what I'd endured. One of the sorters qualified as a backup soldier in case it came down to fighting, though Eor fought the reassignment of his people.
"We have a tremendous backlog of aethids to sort already," Eor whined. "I can't afford to lose anyone."
Tahlee stared at him coldly. "Sorting is the least of our priorities unless you can find one to address our personnel shortages."
"How dare you!" Eor sputtered. "The Mzodi would be nothing without sorters."
A look of delight crossed Shelton's face, probably because he thought Tahlee was about to smack Eor across the deck. The fiery first mate visibly checked her obvious desire to bitch slap Eor and turned to the rest of the crew standing nearby. "The parting ceremonies begin in one hour. I will see you then."
"It'll be a miracle if we survive this trip," Shelton muttered as the crew filtered away.
Adam leaned back on the railing and watched Eor vent his frustration to a fellow sorter. "I wonder if the problem of the manpower shortage could be solved by gems."
That drew curious looks from the rest of us.
Shelton shrugged. "Gems seem to be the answer to everything around here."
Elyssa's question beat mine to the punch. "How so?"
Adam took out his phone and projected the blueprint of the Falcheen. "This ship conforms with the configuration I've seen on every Mzodi ship—excepting, of course, the Evadora."
"Yeah, because it wasn't built by the Mzodi," Shelton said. "Do you think there's a better design?"
"Think of the navigators as rowers," Adam said. "Each one powers an oar independently which means that if one person is stronger than another, they're not using all available strength whereas the weaker ones are rowing with all their might."
"I think I see where you're going with this," Shelton said. "Centralized power?"
Adam waggled a hand. "Not quite. Think of it as linked power distribution."
Shelton snapped his fingers. "We link the levitation gems so they share power."
Elyssa frowned. "If you link the foils, that might also link the control commands so the foils can't be independently steered."
"That won't be an issue." Adam turned off the holographic image and lowered his voice. "Since we figured out how to hack the door gems, I dug into other gem enchantments to see how similar they are to Arcane enchantments."
"Holy ball sacks in a nut cracking factory," Shelton murmured. "Why didn't I think of that?"
Adam snorted. "Where the hell do you come up with these sayings?"
I winced at the imagery Shelton's exclamation evoked and steered Adam back on target. "So, do they?"
"Short answer, yeah." Adam pointed to the control rods for the levitation gems. "Those, for example are charmed to amplify magical power and direct it. If I programmed the control rods differently, I could tell them to ignore steering commands and only pass through power."
It seemed my analogy of gem sorters to nerds was even more spot-on than I'd realized. "Do the sorters program the gems with these commands?"
"Exactly," Adam said. "Plain aetherium without an enchantment basically does nothing."
"Even bloodstones?" Shelton asked.
Adam shook his head. "No, there are exceptions, and bloodstones are one of those strange gems that work even without an enchantment." He projected the image of the Falcheen again and drew marks between the levitation foils. "Using aethids as power distribution nodes, the levitation foils will share the power from all the navigators and take the strain off the weaker ones."
"And give us a much better chance of making it through this trip alive," Elyssa said. "I like it."
"This seems like an obvious enhancement the Mzodi could've made to their ships a long time ago," I said. "Why do you think they haven't?"
Adam shrugged. "Tradition, maybe? We'll find out when we talk to Illaena."
"I'll bet she doesn't like the idea one bit," Shelton said.
Something Adam had said a moment ago stuck in my mind. "Since aetherium is highly condensed aether, does that mean it could be used for energy?"
Elyssa's eyes brightened. "Like batteries?"
Adam pursed his lips. "That's a really good idea."
"The problem," Shelton said, "is how do you release the energy in a controlled manner?"
"True," Adam said. "Aetherium doesn't emanate magical energy."
"Well, it's something to think about," I said. "In the meantime, I think we should talk to Illaena about your linked power distribution idea."
Adam looked toward the bow where the ramp led to Illaena's cabin. "Yeah. I hope she doesn't bite off my head."
Shelton clapped him on the back. "I'm sure she'll only take off an arm if you jump back fast enough."
We made our way down to the captain's quarters and rang the gem. The wall misted away to reveal Illaena on the other side, confused wrinkles in her forehead. "What is it now?" She stepped outside the door.
Adam swallowed hard and delivered his sales pitch about the power sharing gems.
Illaena's expression never wavered during the explanation, her eyes tired and haunted.
"Overall," Adam said in conclusion, "I think this minor modification will keep the navigators from growing tired too quickly and optimize their efficiency."
"Make it so," Illaena said in a calm voice. "Tell Eor what you want and he will prepare the gems."
Adam blinked a couple of times, probably as confused as the rest of us about her quick agreement. "Uh, okay." He backed away slowly from the door. "I'm on it."
"You go ahead," I told the others. "I'll be there in a minute."
Elyssa raised an eyebrow but nodded and left with Shelton and Adam.
Illaena also raised an eyebrow. "Is there something else?"
"How did you lose your first ship?"
She flinched and her face tightened with apprehension. "I am surprised Eor has not told you. He enjoys pointing out the shortcomings of others." Her lips tightened. "In any case, it is no secret."
"I know you probably don't like talking about it," I said, "but I would like to know."
"Do you question my judgement?" She spread her hands. "Even after I have brought you this far?"
"At this point, it doesn't matter whether I trust your judgement or not." I shrugged. "We're stuck with each other for better or worse. I need to know how you'll react if we encounter a similar situation."
"In that case you have little to fear." Illaena folded her arms. "For many decades, I was the first mate on the Asta. When Captain Celissa decided to retire her command, she told Xalara I was an excellent first mate, but was too headstrong to make a good captain."
I grimaced. "Ouch."
"Yes, it was painful to hear, but I would not rest until I gained my own command." Illaena's eye twitched. "Xalara believed Celissa was too harsh and promoted me to captain. After several successful expeditions, I grew overconfident in my abilities and ordered the ship deep into the core of the Gr
eat Barrier Vortex." She shuddered. "We were caught in a violent downdraft. It tore apart the ship and dragged it into the ocean."
Illaena squeezed her eyes shut and exhaled. "Even to this day I don't know how I survived. I awoke in one of the escape skiffs, alone and in the middle of the ocean. I searched for survivors, but I had no food or water and had to abandon the search." Her eyes blinked open.
"That's why you resisted taking this mission." I kept my tone neutral, non-judgmental. "Taking on Voltis is like reliving your worst nightmare."
Vulnerability flickered through Illaena's eyes, quickly replaced by resolve. "I will not let overconfidence be my downfall again."
I opted not to put a friendly hand on her shoulder, because Illaena just didn't seem the type to appreciate that. I still gave her a pep talk. "If there's anything I've learned about being a leader, it's that you have to have faith in the people you serve with." I shrugged. "A captain is only as good as her crew, and I think you have a great crew."
Illaena's gaze seemed to shift from past to present as she met my eyes. "You are right, but sometimes I wish Cora was still here. She was no Mzodi, but I have never seen a person with such a connection to nature."
"Cora had an unfair advantage," I said. "In her home realm, she commanded the forces of nature."
"If only we had that unfair advantage for what lies ahead." Illaena backed into her cabin. "Let me know when Adam has prepared his linked gems. I must rest."
Before I could open my mouth to say, "Later tomater!" the wall misted back into place.
I went below and found the others in the main hold with the sorters. Eor's grumpy demeanor was nowhere to be found as he oversaw the enchantment of the power-linking gems.
"This should have been done to our ships long ago," Eor said. "I've suggested many retrofits, but the ship builders aren't interested in progress." He huffed. "They value tradition over progress."
"What about using aethids for energy?" Shelton asked.
Eor looked at him as one might a child who'd asked why water is wet. "Yes, you can use some for that purpose with the proper enchantment, but to power an entire ship would eat through every aethid in the hold in a few days."
Adam frowned. "I thought the aethids were so highly concentrated they'd last longer."
"Oh, it depends, of course." Eor motioned to a brown gem the size of a pumpkin. "Usually, the darker a gem the more highly concentrated the aether. A brown one would release—" He looked up and appeared to be running calculations by drawing invisible equations in the air with his finger. Finally, he blinked and focused on us again. "That gem would power just the levitation foils for three days."
Adam pursed his lips. "In other words, we could use it for emergency backup power."
"Yes, yes, but there's no apparatus to connect it to the foils." Eor threw up his hands. "Linking the levitation foils to share power is already enough work."
"What about linking each foil to its own emergency backup?" Shelton said.
"Easier, but since aethids are seldom used this way, I'd have to construct a new enchantment." Eor muttered something unintelligible. "It would only trigger when needed. That would mean…" He trailed off and once again seemed to go to the drawing board in his mind.
Shelton nudged Adam. "He's worse than you."
Adam snorted. "I map out everything with holograms."
I regarded the brown gem and my mind shifted back to the black stones Shelton and Adam had brought from the mountain earlier. "If darker aethids hold more energy, what about those black ones you found?"
Adam's eyes lit up. "Yeah, you're right!"
"Man, those things are so dense, they'd probably power the ship for a week." Shelton clapped his hands together.
"I cannot disagree," Eor said. "But for now, we must dedicate all our attention to the power distribution modifications."
Shelton and Adam went back to studying the black gems while Eor and the sorters worked on the new power design. Elyssa and I took a seat nearby since there wasn't much else to do. The ship crew had suffered so much loss and we still had far to go. I didn't want to put more pressure on Adam, but his ship improvements might be the only thing that got us out of here alive.
Chapter 20
By mid-morning the next day, the linking gems were in place. The experienced navigators ran several tests and seemed delighted with the new power-sharing layout. Even the new recruits noticed the difference.
"It gave me a headache yesterday," one of them said. "Today it is much easier."
Once the experienced navigators were confident the new design had no flaws, they gave the green light to Illaena.
Illaena looked supremely proud of her crew, even sparing a nod of acknowledgement to Eor. "You have done well." She turned to her first mate and issued an order.
"Onward to the core," Tahlee shouted, and the navigators thrust the Falcheen forward.
The rift between the elemental eruptions to port and the aether storm to starboard grew narrower during our progress until it felt as though the layers were pressing close enough to suffocate us.
A chain of skylets appeared ahead in the mist and Illaena directed the ship toward the one in the center, a hovering chunk of land about the size of Kdosh. It looked like an asteroid, pockmarked and ravaged with hundreds of impact craters. Unlike the mountain, this skylet wasn't comprised of aetherium.
A crater hosted a lake, but there was no vegetation or life to feed off its waters. The land beyond the water vanished into the aether nebula. Lightning arced against the skylet, blasting holes in the rock and leaving molten lava.
"Man, that place doesn't look too inviting." Shelton tugged on the brim of his hat as if it might ward off the elements.
Adam leaned over the railing. "Wow, those aether discharges are intense."
"You mean the lightning?" Elyssa said.
He nodded. "Regular lightning is electrical. This is raw unguided magical energy."
"It'll all kill you just the same," Shelton said. "Which begs the question, why in the hell are we headed toward it?"
I observed the grim set of Illaena's mouth and eyes and hoped the route Xalara had given her would get us through safely. "I'm sure the captain knows what she's doing."
Adam flinched as another bolt of aether exploded against the skylet. "This is gonna be tricky."
"We made it through that lightning hole," Shelton said.
"Because the discharges were concentrated at the lip of the hole," Adam said. "These strikes are so random we'll be dead before we even know we were hit."
Shelton pressed his hands over his ears. "Shut up, man! You're giving me a panic attack."
Elyssa squeezed my hand. "At least the rest of the crew looks confident."
Judging from the business-as-usual demeanors of the seasoned navigators and Tahlee, either they had confidence in Illaena's abilities, or they were totally fine with being obliterated by aether lightning.
The Falcheen swooped down toward the lake, and for a moment, I wondered if we were about to submerge. Instead, we parked right over the water, the bow facing what looked like the mother of all thunderstorms. Bolts of aether lashed out and pummeled the land not fifty yards from the tip of the ship's nose, revving my pulse and making me jump back.
Shelton took out his staff and clenched it.
"You look like you're ready to abandon ship," Adam noted dryly.
"Darned tootin'!" Shelton tapped the end of the staff nervously on the deck, the reflections of aether lightning playing back and forth across his eyes. "I might as well throw myself in a meat grinder if we're planning to go through that."
Illaena frowned and consulted the holographic map. Tahlee traced her finger along a line—presumably the route—and shook her head.
I walked over to them. "What's wrong?"
"These skylets have moved," Illaena said. "According to the map, they should be just inside the storm." She showed me the chain of floating land masses. "By flying the ship beneath them, the skyle
ts would have sheltered us from the lightning."
"There must be another way," I said, though I couldn't think of anything except moving laterally through the rift between the outer and inner layer.
Adam had apparently been listening and spoke. "I have an idea."
Shelton poked his head in the group. "What's wrong?"
"The route is gone," I said.
"So we make our own," Adam said. He turned to Illaena. "Do you have more of those spiky aethids you used to disperse the lightning in the tunnel?"
"Yes, but we will be flying blind," Illaena said.
"Not if we modify the charms on the stones." He held his hands out as if holding a ball. "The stones are charmed to soak up energy and hold it in. If we charm the stones to unleash it all at once, it should give us what we need."
"Do you know how much energy one of those aether discharges produces?" Shelton said incredulously. "You're turning those stones into massive bombs."
"That's the idea," Adam said. "Think of them as depth charges, but in the sky."
Shelton frowned. "That's the worst analogy I've ever heard."
"What do you expect these sky charges to do?" Illaena said.
"The stones will temporarily neutralize the aether." Adam made a circle with his hands and expanded them. "With any luck, it'll clear a path."
Illaena nodded at Tahlee who gave the order.
A few minutes later, two sorters hauled a net filled with large spiky aethids to the deck and set them next to the ballista mounted on the bow.
"The enchantments have been modified," one of the sorters said. "Be sure to launch them far from the ship, or they'll do more damage than good."
"Understood," Tahlee said.
Soldiers installed another ballista next to the first and loaded each with the sky charges.
"Hope this works," Adam said nervously.
Shelton grunted. "I just hope you don't blow up the ship."
Adam sidled closer to the crossbow and inspected the charges. "We'll need to fire them about five degrees to port and starboard."
Tahlee angled the trajectory of each ballista. "Like so?"
He nodded. "The moment they explode, we'll need to go as fast as possible through the opening and fire two more charges every thirty seconds."