“We definitely need to work on this plan,” Jerry mused.
“Do you want to call the next one down?” Herzer asked, aghast at the effort necessary to recover a downed dragon.
“Nope, you’re doing fine,” Jerry said. “That was entirely on Vickie’s hook.”
“Says you,” Vickie snarled as she reached the landing platform. “You were pointing me all over the sky!”
“That’s because you were overcorrecting,” Jerry snapped. “And when he waved you off you tried to land anyway. I was there, Vickie, don’t try to snow me.”
“Just because you got put in charge it’s going to your head!” the female rider snarled. “I don’t have to put up with this shit!”
“You can leave if you want,” Jerry said, coldly. “I’ll get you a boat back to shore. But Yazov stays and you’re not going to be flying a wyvern ever again in your life.”
“You can’t do that,” Vickie said, softly. “You know what that means to us!”
“And that, Vickie, is the point,” Jerry replied, much more calmly. “We need you. I don’t want you grounded. But you have to learn that there are things that you’re going to have to do to retain what is now a privilege, namely dragon riding. And if you’re going to be flying off of carriers, you’re going to have to learn to take steers. Or I’ll have you trucked back to Dragon Home and you can fly off of nice steady aeries that don’t move around.”
“Are we done?” Herzer asked. “Because we’ve only got so many hours of daylight left and I really don’t want to be waving torches around.”
“We’re done,” Jerry said. “Vickie stay up here and watch.”
“Which one do you want?” Herzer asked.
“Take Koo, the one just turning this way,” Jerry answered.
Herzer again pointed at the appropriate rider until he waved back then motioned him down. This rider, though, took the steers well. The ship had barely gotten back underway so the slower speed might have helped but the most important thing seemed to be that he reacted immediately to each of Herzer’s waved commands. He came in on final and Herzer waved him down, then the three of them hit the deck.
“That was a blast!” Koo yelled happily.
“I see what you mean,” Vickie said unhappily. “You can’t trust your instincts, or your beast’s, up there.”
“No, you can’t,” Jerry said. “And that means you have to turn over control to the guy with the flags.”
“That sucks,” Vickie said. “I don’t trust anybody that much.”
“You’ll have to,” Herzer said.
“And I bet there’s one that has even more trouble,” Vickie suddenly said with a malicious note.
“I think we’ll land Joanna last,” Jerry said, dryly.
The last wyvern, Donal, ridden by Vida Treviano, had pretty much the same problems as Vickie but Vida took the wave-off better, probably because he’d seen what would happen if he didn’t. He tried twice more but each time came in off-path and had to be waved off.
“Donal’s getting tired,” Vickie said. “I don’t think they can do it. I don’t know if I can do it.”
“Herzer, try to tell him to head for the beach,” Jerry said. “I have to get back there somehow and pick up Shep. I don’t know if Donal will be up for another try at landing by then or not. Hell, we’re going to have to ferry in and out, those of us that can manage landings, bringing out the verns.”
Herzer pointed his flags at Donal and then waved in the direction of land. He had to do it twice before Treviano either understood or was willing to agree. Finally, Donal turned to the south and headed for the beach.
“What happens if we’re out of sight of land?” Vickie mused.
“Water landing,” Jerry said. “And, yeah, if the water had been colder that would have been a problem. We need a better method of recovery for the dragons. Herzer, time for Joanna.”
“Okay,” Herzer said, “but the two of you get below. If she actually manages to hit this thing I’m not sure there’s going to be room for me much less you two.”
Herzer pointed the flags at Joanna until she waved a talon at him and lined up for a landing. She had good correction for the drift of the ship but she had a hard time maintaining height; she kept sliding under the glide path. Herzer realized when she was halfway down that the ship was just going too slow for her to easily land. She either had to start by pointing forward of the ship and hit the landing point as it passed through her glide or the ship had to be going faster so she could increase the glide angle without going into a stall. There wasn’t anything to do about it, now, but it bugged him that she had to keep flapping her wings to stay on the landing slope.
She had a good angle, though, on the final run. Herzer, looking up at the immense, and rapidly approaching, dragon realized that there was a very good chance that he was going to get squished like a bug. The platform wasn’t much larger than the body of the dragon and if she deviated in the slightest at the last she would land right on him. He put the thought out of his mind, though, and gave her final corrections. As she started to flare out on final he waved her down and dove to the ground.
The air was filled with blasts of wind but they went on far longer than they should. He jumped to his feet just in time to see Joanna, flailing wildly off to the left, dip her wingtip into the water and pinwheel into the bay.
“Joanna!”
Herzer wasn’t the only one bellowing but the dragon’s head quickly popped up above the light chop and shook from side to side.
“Sorry about that, Herzer!” the dragon bellowed. “Frankly, I lost my nerve at the last second. I was going faster than the ship and I didn’t think I’d be able to stop on that little platform. Oooh, this water’s cold.”
The dragon’s body submerged but her head stayed above the surface as she swam to the boat. Instead of using her wings, as the wyverns had done, she sculled her body back and forth like a snake. When she reached the side of the boat she disdained the recovery team, instead extending one claw-tipped wing and grasping the side of the ship. Using this leverage she got her forward talons dug into the wood of the bulwark and hoisted herself upwards.
Herzer was nearly pitched off the landing deck as the ship heeled hard over to one side. The dragon quickly writhed over the side, leaving a trail of splintered wood behind her.
“Sorry about that, Skipper,” Joanna said, sticking her head into the quarterdeck. “I think we need to work on the design of that area if we’re going to be recovering me very often.”
“I hope we won’t have to, Commander,” the skipper said, furiously. “That’s several thousand credits of damage!”
“Make the rail removable,” Joanna said, reasonably. “Reinforce the wood. Maybe give me some handholds. For that matter, maybe a lowerable ramp. If it’s good enough we might be able to use it for crashed wyverns.”
“We’ll see,” the skipper said.
“It’s not my fault if your ship’s a little fragile,” the dragon said, then shook herself hugely, spreading out her wings so that a fine mist settled over half the ship. “Ah, that’s better.”
Herzer had climbed down from the landing deck and looked around at the group at pri-fly and on the quarterdeck.
“What now, sirs?” Herzer asked.
“I have to get back to the shore,” Jerry said. “I need to see if Vida can land Donal. If not, we either go for a water landing or I’ll leave him on the beach and bring Donal out myself. If I bring Donal out someone else will need to bring out Shep.”
“I’ll go in with you,” Vickie said. “I need to figure out how to do this right.”