They were all standing outside the ship now, looking up at it—Navi with pride, the others in amazement. The True North was an impressive ship. The form was that of a fish—the Celestial Koi. The ship was elegant. It stretched an easy forty feet from nose to stern. The tail doubled as the rudder with the ship’s propellers being incorporated into the pectoral, and ventral fins. The fins could rotate independently to allow the airship more mobility in the air—almost swimming. The windows of the bridge stretched across the face of the “fish”—from the front of the mouth to where the gill vents were located. The “eyes” doubled as lookout posts and gun turrets. The True North was a marvel of engineering and a thing of beauty.

Jethro scratched his beard. “Let me see if I’ve got this straight. You’re saying that you made this ship, the True North, from scratch?”

“Yes,” Navi had relaxed now that everyone was looking at her ship instead of her.

“That’s amazing!” Joseph whispered to her. She smiled gratefully back at him. Jethro continued his questions.

“She’s a delivery ship of experimental design…and this is her maiden voyage?”

“Yes,” she sighed.

“And you thought her first cargo run should be explosives?”

“I didn’t choose explosives. They were what was in the black bag,” she protested.

“And you seduced a drunk man to sign on to be your pilot?”

She frowned. “I didn’t seduce him. I asked him and he signed the contract. Besides, there is a clause against onboard romances on his contract.”

“What makes you think I’d want to romance you?’ Jaehyun snorted. She was at least a good foot shorter than his five-foot seven frame. In his eyes, she looked like a child. When it came to her ship, she tended to act like one—obsessed and convinced that it was the greatest.

“Stranger things have happened, wouldn’t you say, Captain?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Jethro waved her comment aside. “We’ll get to the specifics in a minute. But still, a drunk man?” He raised an eyebrow. “Flying an airship?”

“You’d be surprised at how well he flies even when he is inebriated,” she muttered in response. When would the inquisition be over? “And it was only to ensure he could still do it. I had it under control while he was recovering.”

Jaehyun flinched. Ever since this conversation started, he was working to recall everything about his last night in Five Down. Unfortunately, the details of that evening were a black. He swore he would severely limit his alcohol intake from now on. Navi’s protests interrupted his thoughts.

Jethro folded his arms. “Which leads me to the flying. You say you flew this ship for three days while he slept off the hangover? By yourself?”

Navi sighed and nodded. They had been sorting the details of her story for almost an hour now. Time was wasting. They still had a delivery to do. Joseph appeared beside her with a drink. She accepted gratefully while the big smith kept talking.

“How?”

“You have to sign a non-disclosure agreement before I can share details.” She squared up, looking the big smith in the eye stubbornly. He frowned.

“We’ll get back to that. You said you outran pirates in the middle of a storm in the Tahani Mountains?”

She pinched the bridge of her nose. “We’ve been over this at least four times! What about this don’t you understand?”

Jethro gestured to her and the ship. “It’s not so much about understanding as much as going over how ludicrous this sounds!” He looked at the other two. “You can hear it, right?”

Jaehyun rubbed his neck and sighed, avoiding Navi’s gaze. “It certainly is a strange tale. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t lived for part of it.” He finally turned to the mechanic. “But you are right. We are still wasting time going nowhere.”

“Thank you!” she threw up her hands in agreement. She turned to the smiths. “Now, about my ship—”

“What about my home?” Jethro interjected, folding his arms.

“And about that contract I signed while…incapacitated?” Jaehyun pulled out the document in question, flipping through it.

“Now, hold on a minute—” Jethro interrupted, starting another petty squabble between him and the pilot.

Navi pinched the bridge of her nose again. “All of our problems would be fixed if you just listened!” she hissed—not that they could hear her, or that she was trying to be heard. The roar in her head was starting back up as she attempted to negotiate with these men. She hated dealing with people for this reason. Machines were much easier. A part broke? You fixed it. You have a problem with someone? You waste time and resources trying to appease everyone! And even then, someone would always be unhappy with the outcome. Why would they not listen? She had solutions.

“So, what is your solution, miss?” came a gentle voice from beside her.

She looked up at Joe. His smile helped the roaring in her head settle down to a muted rumble. “It’s simple. Fix the True North. If we make our delivery, we get paid, then we can pay you. Jaehyun would be free to go wherever he liked. Everyone wins!”

“Makes sense to me.” He looked over at his master and Jaehyun still bickering, then back down at her conspiratorially. “Well, what else needs to be done? We’ve got the tools and not much else to do. Let’s get to work!” He grinned.

_________________________________

Jaehyun and Jethro had finally hashed out their stories and were seated on nearby stumps. They were sharing a pipe in the warm, summer sun.

"So, you're telling me the last thing you remember was drinking in a bar?" Jethro asked. “What were you drinking?”

"Galefire whiskey,” Jaehyun grinned at the big man. “Never again though. When I woke up this morning, I was on that ship with her telling me we were about to crash. I have no recollection of anything between those two times."

"If that's that worries you, I can tell you what happened," Navi said as she walked by with an armload of pipes. "I came up to you at the bar and said 'Captain, we have go now. We're needed in Goya.' You followed me to my ship and began flying it." She patted the metal siding before ducking around the corner. Then she poked her head back around. "Joseph, did you have a hacksaw at the workshop?"

"I got it!" the young apprentice said, carrying the item in question.

"Joe!" Jethro grabbed the back of Joseph's suspenders stopping him. "What the blazes are you doing?"

"I'm helping her fix the ship. We need them gone, right?"

"Well, yeah, but we don't help them for free!"

"Oh, it's not for free." Navi said reappearing to take the saw from Joseph. "You will get paid as soon as we make the delivery."

"Delivery?" Jaehyun asked. "What delivery?"

"The one we’re making in Goya. "

"We?" The irate pilot spoke up again. "I signed that contract under duress!"

"The two witnesses on the document and the notary would say you did not such thing. You came of your own accord. " She frowned. " Besides, it's not as though you had much else to do." Here she gave him a pointed look. He flinched and could not meet her gaze.

"It’s only one job, then you can go." She disappeared around a ventral “fin” of the North. The smith and the pilot followed her. "Joseph? Could you bring me the blowtorch, please?” she called. The boy hurried to oblige.

Jethro blocked him. "Hold up! Since when do you listen to strangers? And you," he pointed at Navi stopped working to look at him. "Who do you think you are just waltzing in here and destroying my livelihood? "

She sighed again, turning back to make measurements on the sheet of metal she was preparing to weld. "The longer we take, the lesser the chances of us getting paid. And if we don't get paid, you won't get paid. You don’t get paid, no house. I’m no carpenter, I’m afraid." She had to repeat it twice because her voice started to fail her. This much talking to people was wearing her out.

Jethro blustered in confusion. "But-?"

"Look, sir. This will go a lot faster if you help us get airborne," Navi wondered why all these men seemed so up in arms about something so simple.

"Who's to say that you'll be coming back this way?" Jethro folded his arms over his impressive chest. We don't know anything about you and we don't get as much business as I'd like out here. With the shop being gone and all, I'll get none. How am I supposed to make a living?"

"That’s easy,” Navi reaching into her back pocket and pulled out a small bundle of papers. She thrust it at the smith. “You’ll just have to come with us. Read these and see if the terms are to your liking. If so, sign and date them and we’ll get going.”

For the second time, the three men were dumbstruck. “Were you just…carrying around a contract all this time?” Jaehyun was peeking over the big man’s arm and scanning the document. “Were you planning on crashing into a smithy?”

“Well, no. It was your job to ensure we didn’t.” This last part was muttered under her breath.

“What was that?” Jaehyun turned to her. She turned back to the ship.

“Nothing!” She did not care for this excess of attention on her. Outside of her ship, she felt little and exposed. The thought of her ship helped bolster her resolve. “But I am putting together a crew, so I needed to be prepared. A smithy onboard would be great.”

“Well, what self-respecting smith’d agree to this?” he growled as he flipped through the contract. The further he flipped, the more he realized that any self-respecting smith would jump on a contract like this. There was little to argue over in regards to terms. His brain automatically saw the benefits to making his smithy more mobile. How did she have this already laid out? “Who says I would agree to this?”

“Do you have somewhere else to be?” she asked mildly, taking a look at his flattened house, then quietly went back to work.