“Just steer us clear of them,” the skipper said. “As for recovery… the water’s warm,” he added with a grin.
“The air sure isn’t,” Jerry growled, but he was smiling. “We’ll do it, sir. But we will probably have to do water landings; I’m not comfortable with the way the ship is moving.”
“Do what you can, Jerry,” the skipper said, not unkindly. “I know you’re worried about the dragons, and their riders, but if we run up on an uncharted coral head, they’re all going to drown.”
“Gotcha, sir,” the warrant replied. “Well, I’ll take the first flight.
He was quickly in the air and before he had even reached cruising altitude the dragon was making the dips and swirls indicating shallow water. He angled to the east until he reached a point that looked to be about fifteen klicks off the port bow, circled, then headed south.
“We’re well out in the Stream, then,” Commander Mbeki said. “This is solid deep water on both sides and ahead of us for klicks, sir. If we had sonar we’d be looking at two hundred, maybe five hundred, meters of depth.”
“Yes,” the skipper said, “and it shoals out fast. Signal him to stay ahead of us looking for shoal water until he’s relieved. Signal him to look for mer, as well and to signal if he sees any sign of intelligent life.”
“Will do, sir.”
“Put a wyvern on standby for launch. If he sees anything I want to recover him as soon as he’s had a good look.”
It was no more than an hour later when Jerry went into a hover against the north wind. At an acknowledgement from the ship he signaled that there was a settlement below him. Then he signaled that there were several small boats.
“Recall him and launch the standby wyvern,” the skipper said. “Tell the rider to ignore the settlement and head southward. The mer are supposed to be somewhere around here. Oh, and send a messenger to General Talbot and tell him that we’re approaching the last reported position of the mer.”
The man who scrambled up the side of the ship was burned black by the sun with hands callused and gnarled from fishing nets. But he looked around him with lively interest as a midshipman led him to the quarterdeck.
“Colonel Shar Chang,” the skipper said, sticking out his hand. “United Free States Navy.”
“Bill Mapel,” the fisherman said. “This is one hell of a ship you’ve got here, Skipper.”
“Yes, it is,” the skipper replied with a grin. “We don’t have much information from down here. How is it?”
“Well, it’s not as good as it used to be.” The fisherman frowned. “I used to run a fishing charter on Bimi island before the Fall and it caught me here. We haven’t been starving, but the weather’s been a nightmare and finding your way around without autodirectors isn’t the easiest thing in the world. I’d never learned star navigation, none of us had, so if we lose sight of shore it’s a matter of making our way in and finding a spot we recognize. Storms, reefs, a torn sail, things we never even thought of before the Fall are all disasters. And they’re all taking their toll. We’ve had some problems with vitamin deficiencies, too, but since we started getting some fruit from Flora that’s less of a problem.”
“What are you trading?” Talbot interjected. “Sorry, I’m General Talbot, UFS ground force.”
“The general is also the duke of Overjay,” the skipper interjected.
“Duke?” the islander said with a grimace.
“Over my bitter objections,” Talbot said, “they’ve reinstituted a hereditary aristocracy. I at least got them to include methods of turnover.”
“How’s the war going?” Mapel asked. “There’s not much news.”
“It’s bad in Ropasa,” Commander Mbeki said. “New Destiny is Changing many of the people there against their will. But… it does give them some advantages.”
“In the short term,” Talbot snarled. “We’ve had to fight them and even captured some. They’re brutal, aggressive, strong and dumb. Personally, I’ll pass, thank you.”
“But surely they can be Changed back,” Mapel protested. “I mean, I wouldn’t want to Change but here we didn’t really need to. I can imagine in Ropasa that having enough farmers…”
“Their Change is under the seal of a council member,” Talbot said. “It will take her, or a quorum of Key-holders, to release the Change. Even they cannot release it.”
“Now that’s evil,” the islander snapped. “You’re sure of that?”
“My wife is a doctor, a fully trained one,” Talbot replied. “She was given enough power to investigate the Change. Most of them are bound to Celine’s security protocols. Bound by her name in a very old way of putting it. There is no way to release them, short of winning this war. So, since many of them are people who resisted them in the fight in Ropasa, if you fall into the hands of New Destiny… well, you know your ‘new destiny.’ ”
“Shit.”
“But on the subject of why we’re actually here,” Talbot continued. “Have you seen sign of the mer?”
“They’re not here, now,” Mapel replied after a moment’s thought. “They’ve moved to the Ber Islands because of the weather; they’re seminomadic. They told us they were leaving and we were sorry to see them go; they and the delphinos that cluster with them were helpful in finding fish.”
“How are you fixed for nets?” Commander Mbeki interjected.
“Not well,” the islander admitted. “Most of the ones that we have are cast-nets from pre-Fall. We don’t have good materials for making our own.”
“General?” the skipper asked.
Talbot grimaced but then shrugged. “We have some we brought with us, but they’re for trading with the mer. I can release a couple of the gill-nets to you. That should help. But I’d appreciate it if you could show the skipper the location that you think the mer have traveled to.”
“Easily,” Mapel replied. “And I really appreciate it.”
“I think that you’ll see some traders coming this way soon,” Commander Mbeki said. “You might want to think about what you can come up with in the way of trade goods. We’ll tell them that you need nets and suchlike.”
“Thank you, again,” Mapel said. “Now, if you’ve got a chart of the area I’ll point out where the mer went.”
After the islander had left they looked at the maps and the skipper snarled, angrily.
“That’s the other side of the Banks,” he said, pointing to the soundings marked on the chart. “There’s shoal water everywhere unless we go all the way around the Isles. The area they are in is on the edge of a deep, but everything to the north, west and south of them is shallow. They’re in a sort of crescent. It will take two or three more days, if we have fair weather, for us to beat around to where they are. There’s a passage through the shoals, but it’s just too damned shallow, and narrow, to dare trying it in the ship.”
“I’d suppose that makes sense if they’re trying to get out of the weather,” Talbot said with another grimace. “Jerry, do you think the wyverns can forage off of fish?”
“What are you thinking?”
“It’s silly for me to be impatient after this long,” Talbot admitted. “But I don’t want to spend another two or three days, if the wind holds, beating around the islands. On the dragons we can make it there in an afternoon.”
“We can,” Jerry admitted. “But they’ll be ravenous by the time we get there.”