On the deck Dexter looked around at the people working and nodded. Only Aidan was standing still, staring into the twilight ruins. Dexter made his way to him and stood silent beside him.
“I used to be in the army,” Dexter said without preamble. “Well, navy really; the Federation Navy.”
Aidan turned to look at him, roused from his thoughts. “Who is that?” he asked without really caring.
Dexter pointed up towards the sky and the void beyond. “A nation of power-hungry humans that rule a part of the Void,” he explained. “Wasn’t even important enough to be a tool, though; barely a tooth on a gear.”
“Course that wouldn’t stop them from turning their back’s on me at a moment’s notice if they could benefit from it,” he added with a dark chuckle. “The greater good, they’d have said to Kragor and Jodyne… only real family I had then.”
Aidan nodded, understanding the concept and perhaps where Dexter was going with it.
“See them down there? Rosh and Willa?” the Captain asked, nodding down towards the unlikely pair trying different things — to no avail.
“Willa just joined us, I bought her from some slavers in Azmir,” he explained. “She was near dead with pain, sickness, and a rotting hand… not to mention what the guards done to her.”
“I bought her, took her to a priest an’ got her healed. Lost her hand all the same, but look at her now, full of life.”
“She is an unusual slave,” Aidan offered.
“Uh-uh,” Dexter said with a smile. “I’ll have no slaves on my ship. She’s free as you and me. You’re laws say that can’t happen, but on my ship, my laws hold true. No such thing as slavery here. She’s free to do as she pleases, even free to leave service to the Voidhawk if she wants.”
“You speak of blasphemy,” Aidan warned, though his tone was conversational and not damning. “I should arrest you or kill you for it.”
Dexter shrugged. “Maybe. Point is, she was nothing to us a couple weeks back. Then the other day the ‘Hawk got caught in some wizard’s weather and damn near tipped us over. She went sliding off, heading for a long fall when Rosh there jumped to save her.”
“He caught her and saved her, though damn near lost both their lives in the process,” Dexter told him, skipping the heroic details of the deed. “We was in rough weather and nearly down two deckhands. In my spot, what would you’ve done?”
Aidan looked at him for a long moment, then decided to humor him. “Discipline them both, but mostly the big man for abandoning his post and risking the entire ship and crew for a single life.”
Dexter smiled fiercely. “I thought about that,” he admitted. Aidan nodded approvingly.
“Didn’t do it though,” Dexter said, turning to look down at the two of them. Rosh kicked a rock in frustration while Willa held a few pieces of broken wood in her good hand.
“Why not?” Aidan asked.
“Why’d you run back into the ruins to rescue your people from the Perryn when you first landed?” Dexter asked him.
Aidan nodded in understanding.
“And why’d you go back to get your sergeant when he crossed the barrier?”
Aidan sighed. “Seems I make a poor leader.”
“I don’t see it that way,” Dexter said. Then he chuckled. “Then again, maybe I’m a lousy Captain.”
“Not to see and hear your crew,” Aidan said to him.
“Thanks,” he said. “Your soldiers thought the same of you.”
Aidan frowned. “What happened is a tragedy,” he said. “But it is one I understand. Life is cheap here, a few of us do our best to make it mean something and to help our men out.”
“To advance high in an Azmarian Lord’s favor a man must put aside his kin and his feelings; he must sell his soul. And even then, it is as easy as misjudging tomorrow’s weather to fall out of favor with the Lord in question,” Aidan explained. He let out a deep breath and shook his head.
“I understand what General Havamyr wanted now,” Aidan said and turned to share a haunted look with Dexter. “In unleashing this plague he will destroy his enemy. Once we are out of the way they will converge on their army, and once they are dead or destroyed, they will go toward Havamyr’s forces.”
“Seems like he might not have thought this through,” Dexter said, spotting a rather obvious flaw. Every bitten person would turn and swell the ranks of the living zombies.
Aidan shook his head. “They have been putting defensive works in for days now. I never understood why until now. Wizards, archers, and siege weapons will destroy these… things. Then, with no one left to defend against him, Havamyr will march in victorious.”
“You’re talking like you’re not a part of that army,” Dexter pointed out.
Aidan looked at him and smiled sadly. “With your airship broken, do you think any of us will survive this day?”
“This day? Yes,” Dexter said resolutely. “I won’t be speaking for tomorrow right yet, but I’m feeling good about it.”
“What plan do you have, Captain?” Aidan asked him.
Dexter smiled. “The way I see it, there’s less of them things now then there will be after we leave.”
“If we leave,” Aidan corrected.
Dexter waved his correction away. “Better if we kill them all now to keep whatever this thing is from spreading.”
“Just figuring on charging out there?”
Dexter chuckled. “It gets tricky,” he admitted. “With the air devils above us, we don’t dare cast off until we’re ready.”
“You’ve no plan yet?” Aidan asked him.
Dexter stared into the dark ruins and shrugged. “Not yet,” he admitted.
“Captain Silvercloud,” Aidan said, turning to face him. “I now know why you’re the perfect man for this sort of thing. You’re just crazy enough to try it!”
Dexter chuckled and clapped Aidan on the back. “When this is all over, we could use another good man on the ‘Hawk,” he offered.
Aidan stared at him, incredulous. He started laughing, softly at first, then louder and harder. Finally he shook his head and walked away with one hand to his stomach and the other wiping the tears from his eyes.
“Seems a bad time for laughter,” Bekka said to the first mate.
Jenna smiled and shrugged. “I can’t think of a better time for it,” she answered.
When Bekka looked up at her Jenna explained herself. “I don’t have the Captain’s knack for it, so I won’t try. But, when I spoke to him and told him of the fate that may be awaiting us, he rebuffed me. He told me we weren’t done fighting yet. He said… well, he gave me back my hope.”
“He turned you down?” Bekka asked with an understanding smile.
“Not because he wasn’t interested,” Jenna quickly replied.
“I should hope not,” the sorceress said. “A person would be a fool to pass up such an offer.”
Jenna stared at the bald half-elf. “Thank you,” she mumbled, still surprised at the compliment.
“He is special,” Bekka said, staring at Dexter’s back as he tossed some repaired lines up to Bailynn in the rigging for her to replace.
“Yes, he is,” Jenna agreed.
The night and the repairs wore on. Occasionally from below they heard some thrashing and the sound of something heavy thudding into the wall or barred door of the cargo hold, but mostly it was the noises that came from the living ghouls pressing against the invisible barrier from all sides. The main mast was repaired as best they could slightly past the midpoint of the night, and by the morning the other sails had been fixed as well.
Bekka was exhausted, but Dexter had a special project for her. Remembering something Kragor told him once, he figured if it worked in the solar wind, it should work with a wind made of air as well. He sent her off to work with scraps of cloth, some rope, and a crazy notion.
Xander practically stumbled around the deck, moving out of fear that if he stayed in one place too long he might pass out from sheer exhaustion. Jodyne plied him with strong teas to keep him awake and alert, but after a time they wore off and left him more drained than before.