follow it and see where it’s going,” Sage remarked. “I don’t like the fact that the first one you ran into was headed north, and this one’s also headed north, both in the direction of the Aerielands.”
“I didn’t put it up for a vote,” Talindra responded. “However, I will have our two strongest mind-speakers reach out to the StarFire and the Chimera and let them know what’s coming. Lona, contact Mira and Enesneth, try Chadoc.”
“Chadoc says that the submersible is running just out of sight of the Celantine, about five miles, submerged,” Enesneth reported. “The Electra is farther back, running on batteries so as to not create any smoke or steam.”
Everyone looked at Lona ,who appeared to be concentrating on the conversation between her and Mira Del Tor. Finally, she nodded, seemingly to herself, and turned to the ship’s three officers. “Commodore Sparo wants to know what kind of range you have on your helicopters, Natty?”
“We haven’t really tested them for distance,” the lieutenant replied. “Doctor Wicker seems to think that the engines he created for them would have a great deal of range, why?”
“And they are armed?” Lona asked, and her uncle nodded in affirmation.
“Lona, ask Mira to wait, and then fill us in,” Talindra instructed.
After a couple of seconds Lona looked at the others. “They are not sure, but they think that the Bolandrian’s large gyrocopter is shadowing them.” She paused. “If it is the Bolandrians, what they don’t know is that the Chancellor and the Director are not on board the Celantine. They’re on the Chimera, running underwater. The lesser prisoners of war are on the flagship.”
“Lona,” Tessa asked, “ask Mira for a heading from the StarFire to where they think the gyrocopter is and then one back to us.” Lona nodded and then relayed a series of coordinates. Tessa handed off the ship’s wheel to Tror and went to her mapping table. Her hands flew over the face of the ocean portrayed on the map for several minutes, and then she turned to the captain. “Lindy, if Desara’s guess is right, the other flying machine should be right around here.” She pointed to a place on the map.
“What’s there?” Talindra asked. “I didn’t see anything on the old charts.”
“There’s a small archipelago, five islands like fingers. They’re probably not big enough for anything but birds and sea lions, but they are there,” Tessa replied. Talindra gave her a doubtful look and started to reply, but Enesneth spoke up first.
“Trust her,” Esse emphasized. “I’ve seen her and Lona put things on maps that nobody else knew were there until we got there.”
“Same here,” Kip agreed. Talindra raised her eyebrows but didn’t say anything
“Zedra and I could fly up and check,” Lona offered. “In falcon form, I could do it in less than an hour and mind-speak back to Esse.”
“Too risky, Pumpkin,” her almost-father told her. “That aircraft is heavily armed, and, even with your armor that Berian made for you, we can’t put you at that kind of risk.” Lona started to make a pouty face, but Nathaniel took her shoulder and turned her toward him. “He’s right, Lona. You are the Crown Princess now. You’ll have plenty of chance to fly helping Tessa.” She nodded ruefully. “On the other hand, I’m sure this is the reason that Mira was inquiring about the helicopters.” He drew a line with his finger on the map. “Can we plot in a course like this so that we come up on the gyrocopter’s backside?”
“It probably has a tender, maybe even a dreadnought,” Anders proposed. “Modify your course so that you come out right about here.” He looked at Talindra and Tror. “The new engines, the ones that Tessa designed, are they operational?”
Tror nodded. “They’re called turbo fans, and they’re just waiting to be tried out.”
“Then build up speed with the turbo fans, and when they’re at cruising speed fire the boosters,” Nathaniel directed. “We should be able to get in position at least as fast as Lona could have, maybe even faster.”
“Tessa,” Talindra looked at the Sub-Commander. “Give me a set of six coordinates, successively leading to that point on the map.” She pointed where Anders had indicated. “Enesneth, communicate with the StarFire what we’re going to do. We’re going to come up behind the gyrocopter and any tender and then deploy our helicopters. See if that meets Commodore Sparo’s approval.”
“What about the dragon wraith?” Lona reminded them.
“Did you ask Mira about that?” Lindy replied.
Lona nodded. “She said they haven’t seen any sign of it.”
“Just like the last one, we see it and then it vanishes,” Kip said.
“We’ll keep our eyes open,” Talindra directed. “Tessa, the numbers. Just the first one if that’s all you have.”
Tessa handed her a sheet of parchment. “Here they are, Captain. I made a set of twelve, and you can adjust them how you see fit. Any combination will get us where Prince Anders indicated.”
Talindra raised her eyebrows. “Well done, although I shouldn’t be surprised at this point. Thank you. Lieutenant, Ensign, get your craft ready and then get back up here so we can work out the fine points of our plan.”
“Aye, Captain,” Nathaniel saluted, and the two of them headed toward the stern.
Sage noted the frustrated expression on his friend’s face. “What’s the matter, Anders?”
The prince shook his head. “Sage, do you remember Connor saying that every time they try and move forward in Eldaria, something seems to get in their way; to prevent them from doing what they are called to do?”
“Yeah, so?”
Anders shrugged. “The same thing seems to be happening to us. We’re supposed to be an exploratory vessel, and every time we turn around, we’re getting pressed into combat. Not only that, but nobody sees dragon wraiths for hundreds of years, and within a few weeks’ time, the crew of this airship sees them twice. I don’t like it.”
“Are you suggesting we break off, return to our southerly trajectory?”
“I don’t know. I’m not the captain of this airship.”
“What would you do if you were?” A woman’s voice came from behind them. Sage and Anders turned to face Talindra, her arms crossed over her chest.
“As I said,” Anders told her, “I’m not the captain; you are. I just don’t like the fact that we can’t seem to get started on what we’re supposed to be doing. Since you asked, though, I would avoid getting involved in any further armed combat, and I definitely would not follow a dragon wraith.”
“Particularly,” Sage added, “one, or ones that don’t seem particularly interested in us.” He paused, “So far.”
“Duly noted,” Talindra responded. “However, since we have been in communications with the StarFire and Chimera, we are going to honor this commitment to the extent that we can. When it’s over, the five of us, myself, Nathaniel, Tessa, and the two of you are going to meet with Commodore Sparo, Snee, and probably my father, to clarify our role.” She started to turn away, then looked over her shoulder at them. “And, for whatever it’s worth, I agree with you about the dragon wraiths. Hopefully, if we leave them alone, they’ll leave us alone.”
“The new fans work really well,” Tror reported to Talindra as she returned to the bridge. “What was up with those two?” He nodded toward Anders and Sage.
“A valid point. Prince Anders feels that we are being prevented from doing our assigned mission, and I have to say I can’t disagree with him.”
“But?” her husband asked.
“But, you know I won’t go back on my commitment to Commodore Sparo to help out.”
Tror pursed his lips. “Lind, I know that when we took this assignment, I told you I wouldn’t second-guess you as Captain, and I won’t. However, I honestly feel that whoever is trying to kidnap Lona or Tessa, whichever, whether it’s the Bolandrians or somebody else, the more distance we put between Gewellyn Prime and ourselves, the better it will be and safer for our two charges.”
Talindra nodded slowly, then leaned her head against her husband’s shoulder. “I had no idea what we were getting into when Commander Alenia offered us this,” she smirked, “opportunity.”
“It will work out, Nin Mel. We’ll get this mission completed, and we can go back to trying to have an elfling.”
Talindra pecked his cheek and smiled. “I suppose I’d better get back to acting more Captain-ly. We can talk more later.” She looked at him as if she had just become aware of something. “You never fired the boosters, did you?”
Tror shook his head. “Look at the airspeed indicator, Melin er. I’m not sure what effect it would have on the envelope,” he pointed up toward the balloon, “if we put that much more pressure on it suddenly. The boosters were designed to be used with the old fans, and we’re moving almost twice as fast as that now.”
“Good choice,” she grinned. “An airship isn’t much of an airship without the big bag of air.” Her husband smiled in return.
“We’re ready to go on your command, Captain,” Nathaniel told Talindra as he and Silva came forward.
“XO,” she paused, “no, Natty, I’m asking as your friend not your commander. Do you think we should be doing this?”
“As your Executive Officer and Chief Pilot, I will follow your orders, Captain. However, as your friend, Silva and I both feel this may be ill advised. Why?”
“You’re not alone in that,” she confessed. “Anders, Sage, and even my husband, are having doubts. If you were in my shoes, what would we be doing?”
“Come here,” Nathaniel indicated the map table with his fingers. “Tessa, do you know approximately where we are right now?”
“At the speed we’ve been moving, following the waypoints I set out, we should be right around here.” She pointed to a spot on the map south of the archipelago. “If we were to gain altitude, we could probably see it by now.”
Nathaniel held up his hand. “Order full stop, Lindy, and stay at this altitude. We need to take Kip and Enesneth with us. Have Sarek and Salvo fill in for them. It’s time to put our new Drow partners to the test.”
“Natty, Silva, take these. They are larger scale maps for you to navigate by.” Tessa handed the sheets to the two pilots, and they headed back to the rear deck
“Stay low, as close to the surface as you can do safely,” Nathaniel mind-spoke to his fiancée. The two were already developing that capability so common among married elves. “I know you, Silva Bluehavens. Remember what Uncle Joe said, ‘There are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old bold pilots.’”
“Yes dear,” Silva replied with a slight mocking tone to her voice. “I’ll be careful, Nin Mel. I promise,” she added more earnestly. “Natty, ten o’clock high. My elf eyes say that’s it.”
“Two o’clock low,” Nathaniel indicated. “There is the tender, by the archipelago. That is one big airship. Bigger than a dreadnought.” He called to Enesneth, seated in front of him. “Esse, let the Starduster know what we found and have Lona relay it to the StarFire. Tell Talindra to keep that thing off our tails.”
“Done, Lieutenant.”
“Okay, you have control of the rockets using that sighting reticle in front of you. I have control over the rotary gun. Let’s see how good this gyrocopter really is.” The helicopters climbed until they were above the larger craft, and then on Nathaniel’s signal, they dove past the sides.
“Okay, that time they weren’t expecting us. Now they will be. They have two gunports on either side, and two, possibly three, in the nose. What did you count, Sil?” he mind-spoke.
“Confirm three on the nose,” she replied. “It looked like scatter guns on the side ports.”
“He’s banking left,” Natty described. “Keep coming around.”
“The tender is rising from behind the islands,” Kip, who was with Silva, reported.
“The StarFire is turning toward us,” Esse told Nathaniel. “Mira says that the Starlite and StarGazer are headed this way as well. The Commodore has ordered Talindra to not engage unless the Aeronaut, I mean Starduster, or our helicopters are threatened.”
“Let her know, we are threatened,” Natty told her as he banked the opposite direction from the gyrocopter. A stream of bullets erupted from its nose. “Okay, that wasn’t a cannon; they have a rotary canon in the nose.”
“He blocked me, Natty!” Silva mind-spoke. “He’s behind me now. Get rid of him, Melin er!”
“Hang tight, we’re coming!”
“What do you want us to do, Lieutenant?” Talindra mind-spoke.
“Distract the dreadnought. We’ve got our hands full up here,” Natty replied as the gyrocopter let loose another volley of fire.
“We’re hit, Natty! Kip is injured. That thing is still on our tail.”
“Not for long,” Nathaniel growled. “Two rockets as soon as you have the shot,” he told Esse. He swung the helicopter around.
“Got it!” She said as she hit the firing trigger. The two flames shot out from the sides of the ship, merging through the open door of the gyrocopter. It shook when they exploded, but kept flying after Silva and Kip. The Bolandrian pilot loosed another string of bullets at the second helicopter, and another gunner filled the hatchway vacated by the explosion. “Hard right!” Enesneth yelled and Nathaniel responded without reply, narrowly avoiding the fire of the scatter-gun.
“Get back to the ship, Silva,” Nathaniel commanded. “Do it, now, before you can’t.”
“Natty!” Silva protested.
“That’s an order, Ensign!”
“Yes sir,” she responded, the anger and fear evident in her voice.
“Esse, focus.” She nodded. “Tell Starduster to have Doctor Ciliren on the rear deck when they set down.” She nodded again and relayed the message.
“Lona says that Ciliren and Lianeth will both be there.” It was Nathaniel’s turn to nod. “What are you doing?” she looked at Natty, her eyes wide.
“As I said, let’s see how good this gyrocopter really is versus a real helicopter.” Moving back and forth, avoiding the gunfire from the larger ship, Nathaniel piloted towards the five fingers raising out of the ocean. Overhead, the Bolandrian super-dreadnought was no longer interested in the helicopter, but facing three of the five airships from the StarFire fleet as well as the Starduster.
“He’s almost on us, Natty!”
“I know. Hold on to your lunch, Esse!” He took the helicopter nearly vertical over the largest of the five fingers, and then dropped, nose-high on the opposite side. Overhead, the gyrocopter shot past them. “Oops! Your bad,” he said, as if to the pilot of the enemy ship. “We’re taking it out, now! Fire everything Esse!” Nathaniel pulled the trigger on the helicopter’s rotary gun as Enesneth released the other four rockets. Seconds later the Bolandrian gyrocopter exploded in a ball of flame. “That’s for Kipling and Silva,” Nathaniel said to the fireball. “Where’s their airship?”
“Mira and Lona both say it’s retreating, heading back to the east. Running away, evidently,” Enesneth told him. “Nathaniel, get us back to my husband and his sister, now.”
“Yes ma’am, we’re on our way.”