“Watch the LSO,” Jerry said. “Don’t think. Let the LSO do the thinking for you.”
Herzer tried to control the dragon but he realized he was all over the sky. “I’m not up to this. Yet.”
“True,” Jerry replied. “My dragon.”
Herzer let go of the reins and watched the landing. Jerry’s handling of Shep was much smoother and in no time they thumped to the deck.
“I’m going to need a lot more time in the air,” Herzer said as they dismounted and the grooms took Shep below. He realized he was sweating even though he had done practically nothing. The landing had been physically debilitating.
“Yep, you are,” Jerry said. “And that’s going to be hard to arrange what with everything going on. I hope by the time we get to the Isles you’ll be qualified.”
As they sailed south it had become warmer and today it was, arguably, hot. Herzer thought about that as he mounted Chauncey and looked over the side. The water was a deep, cerulean blue, like liquid oxygen. The good news was that if he had to dump, the water was at least going to be warm.
But he put that out of his mind as he gave a thumbs up to the launching officer and looked forward.
He had gotten used to launchings at this point and paid much more attention to the dragon than the launching. Chauncey took the air easily, though, and he directed him into a spiral up and to the right.
“Just get up and into landing position,” Jerry had told him, so he spiraled the dragon upward until he had good altitude and directed it to the pattern.
Vickie was being recovered from a recon mission so he waited for her to land, Chauncey gliding at near stall speed on the light winds. He realized that the dragons were becoming more trained to the landings and was considering that aspect when he realized it was his turn to land. He turned on final and waved to the LSO, getting a wave in return. He checked the telltale on the masthead and prepared to correct for the wind being slightly off the starboard side. Joanna had gone for a swim and she was sculling along on her back, watching his approach. On the other hand, it looked like everyone in the ship had fallen out to watch the landing. The crew had gotten used to dragon-flights, but Herzer figured that the first time for a newbie was an event.
He put that out of his mind, too, and watched the directions from the LSO. Again, Chauncey seemed to anticipate some of his commands, as if he had gotten used to the orders as well. But, while this helped, it was still a bastard to make the landing.
He saw that cargo nets had been rigged to the rear and sides of the platform and that the recovery team was standing by. Although that was standard procedure as well, it made him chuckle faintly. If he overshot or dumped it, it was going to be heartily embarrassing.
He automatically corrected as he entered the dead air behind the sails and then he was on final. At what seemed well past the last moment, the LSO waved at the deck and Herzer pulled back simultaneously on all four reins, dropping Chauncey onto the deck like a rock.
He sat there, panting, and ignored the cheers, just quivering in reaction.
“Four line,” Jerry said, patting him on the leg. “But not bad. Hop her over to the catapult.”
“You mean I have to do that again?” Herzer gasped as the cargo nets were lifted up and out of the way.
“Welcome to maritime aviation,” Jerry replied with a chuckle.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Herzer did three more landings then switched from Chauncey to Donal. He stripped off the leather helmet the sailmaker had constructed as the wyvern was brought up from below and watched Koo coming in for a landing.
“Herzer,” Jerry called as the wyvern was hopping down the ramp. “Vickie’s on sweep. I want you to go up with her. You need to get some experience with unpowered flight.”
Herzer forbore to mention that he’d already had some on the way because he knew what the warrant was talking about. Figuring out how to stress the dragons as little as possible was as important in its own way as learning to land on the ship.
Herzer approached his new mount cautiously and let it get to know him. Like horses the dragons tended to get used to one rider, but since Treviano had decided he wasn’t up to landing on the carrier, Donal had been switched around extensively and it took the new rider phlegmatically.
Herzer mounted, hopped the wyvern onto the launch platform and again had the tremendous rush of the launching. He then pointed the dragon into a slow, upward spiral towards the distant dot of Yazov high above and forward.
It took nearly thirty minutes for him to reach her altitude and when he got there he discovered that Vickie had found a thermal and was coasting in a circle. Donal managed to insert himself into her vortex and followed the pattern of the other wyvern more or less automatically.
The dragon-riders had a complex set of hand signals that amounted to one-handed sign language and, rather than shout across the distance, Vickie made a querying sign.
Herzer thought long and hard and managed to dredge up the sign for “training” to which Vickie motioned an assent. She pointed down and to the east of the ship and off in the distance he could see a group of whales moving southward. Looking around he saw that the sea was patched with life. There was a large school of baitfish to the southwest that was being harried by birds and what looked to be much larger fish. He pointed to that and motioned at the wyvern with the sign for food but Vickie just shrugged. The ship had onboard facilities for catching fish, a large seine net that could be laid out by the ship’s boats as well as harpoons for larger game, but she clearly thought it a waste of time.
Very far off to the left there was a smudge of land that was probably the coast. It occurred to Herzer, for the first time, that despite the fact that they were paralleling the coast, they weren’t staying close in-shore and he didn’t know why. He was sure Commander Mbeki could tell him when he landed, assuming he remembered to ask. In the same direction there was a band of water that was a subtly different color than that which the ship was in.
Finally he just paid attention to the flying. Donal was gliding well, maintaining altitude with only occasional flaps of his wings and breathing easily. Herzer had already noticed that when the dragons tired they tended to heat up and breathe much more heavily. Donal was still cool to the touch and exhibiting no signs of trouble.
The ship had passed under their constant circle and Vickie made a gesture to the south so they dropped out of the thermal and glided in the wake of the ship. She was looking from side to side and finally found what she was looking for in a group of vultures that were coasting upward. The thermal was off the path of the ship, southeast of its present position, but not far from where it would pass. They banked gently in the direction of the vultures and before they had lost more than five hundred meters they entered the new thermal and spiraled upward on easy flaps of the dragon’s wings.
This pattern continued for, by Herzer’s estimate, another three hours until a flag at the mainmast of the ship commanded both of them to return. The ship turned towards the wind, which was from the northwest, and they made an easy landing, Herzer going first.
“Well, that was interesting,” Herzer said as he climbed off Donal and let him be led below. The sun was starting to set in the west and the deck of the ship was already shadowed, which was why they had called in the sweep riders.
“Anything to see?” Commander Mbeki asked.
“Not unless you count fish and whales,” Vickie answered.
“Big school of fish in towards land,” Herzer amplified. “Can I ask a question?”