“Joe-boy, keep that line steady!” Jethro bellowed over the transmitter.

Jaehyun winced at the sharp feedback that screeched over the speaker. Kzzcht! “You don’t have to yell. We can hear you just fine.” He watched the arrows on the ship’s meters. This would be a good height. “Navi, are you all right?”

Kzzcht! “I’m fine. I’ve done these types of repairs many times before.”

Jaehyun wondered about that. Currently Navi was hanging under the True North as it hovered above Jethro’s farm. His job was to keep the ship steady so that she would not be crushed—which was easy enough. Jethro and Joe were positioned in the eye turrets of the True North, managing the safety lines. Navi, through the use of a harness and special suctioned gear (designed herself, naturally) was managing the exchange of the landing gear on her own.

“That’s another question,” Jethro spoke up again. “How exactly did you manage to build and fly this ship on your own?”

Kzzcht! “It took me seventeen years of odd jobs and lots of scrounging in the scrap piles for this to come together. My family helped some too.”

“So, you have folks? Do they know that you’re out here with explosives?” the big man asked with a smile in his voice.

There was silence on the line.

Kzzcht! “Cut me a little slack on the harness lines, please,” she said finally, avoiding the question.

“Heh heh! Touched a nerve, did I?” The big man cackled over the speaker.

Kzzcht! “They know! Now, if you don’t mind, I have some work to do with a large piece of metal.” Her voice was clipped, precise. She was irritated.

“All right. All right. Maybe you could talk about your ship instead? –You know, since we signed your agreement and all.” It was evident Jethro had trouble staying quiet for long.

 Kzzcht! “What about it?” Unlike traditional airships, the North was completely steam-powered.

“How does your ship heat the water without a proper furnace?”

Kzzcht! “Drathinian wizardry,” she said wryly.

“Oh.” Jethro stopped asking questions after that.

While working to quickly repair the True North, the little group naturally had started to discover things about each other. The first was that Navi did not like to talk about herself. At all. The second was that Jethro had heard long ago that Drathinians dealt with strange magic and it gave him the heebie-jeebies. It seemed he liked Navi well-enough but any allusions to magic would send him scuttling off in a different direction.

“What kind of wizardry?” asked Joe. (The boy had no such reservations.)

“You shouldn’t get involved, boy,” Jethro warned him. “Once you dabble in that magic stuff, it attracts all sorts of unsavory other things.”

Kzzcht! “Like new business opportunities?” Navi sounded bemused. “Such dreadful

stuff!”

“That--!” Jethro sputtered. “That’s practical! ‘Sides, where else was I supposed to go?”

 Jaehyun interrupted. “How about we use this channel for ship-related work only? We can’t have our mechanic getting sucked into the ship’s engines because we get distracted. Navi, report on your repairs.”

Kzzcht! “The piece fits like a glove. I am attaching the retraction mechanisms and we should be good to go within twenty minutes.”

“Good to hear that. And what about your flight device? Are you sure it will get you to the ground in one piece?” A gust of wind sent the ship rocking some. Jaehyun steadied it and hoped the mechanic was still secure.

The men waited in their respective positions. Time seemed to crawl.

Kzzcht! “All right. I’m done! Test the landing gear and bring her down.”

Jaehyun flicked a switch. He felt a responding “clunk!” from somewhere below him.

Kzzcht! “The landing gear is in. Put it back out and land the ship. I’ll meet you on the ground.” Seconds later Navi flew across the sight of the bridge. Miniature rockets propelled her glider mechanism. She waved once, looped back around and flew down towards the farm.

Jaehyun readied the ship for landing by lowering the fan speed. The ship lowered gently towards the ground. With a feather-light touch, he adjusted the propellers to settle the ship. She landed easily on her newly installed footing. He powered the North off and activated the side door. Navi rejoined the men outside. She was grinning.

“Shall we go then?”

                                                            __________________________

The gruff master smith and the polished pilot became fast friends over this misadventure, while Joe took to Navi. She did not mind. He was good-natured and picked up on her oddities more readily than the other two men. When things got to be too much for her, he would insert himself into the conversation to draw attention away from her.

The next two days of flying passed by uneventfully. Jethro and his apprentice settled into their quarters easily. They spent their time outfitting the crew’s quarters with completed walls. (Navi had the foresight to carry extra material on board the North, so no stops were needed for repairs this time around. She was doing her best to avoid stopping altogether.)

On the dawn of Day 3, the city of Goya came into view. It was a metropolis and the site of a massive quarry and jewel mine—hence the explosive delivery.

Jaehyun called the air traffic tower. “True North here for a priority delivery. Requesting space to dock for delivery.”

Kzzcht! “True North, you say?” the air traffic controller sounded incredulous.

“That’s correct. This is the True North with a delivery, over.” The pilot frowned.

“Begging your pardon, but we had reports of the North making a distress call before vanishing three days ago. If you are that same True North—well!” The man clearly was a gossiper and was excited to spread the news of their arrival. “Please standby to dock at number 18 on the West side of the city. Your spot will have purple pennants. Welcome to Goya!”

Jaehyun pinged the Engine Room’s private channel on the intercom. “Navi, care to tell me what messages you sent out? And when?”

“Ah, they received word of our distress call prior to our crash landing. Good!” She sounded too pleased about this.

“Why are you pleased?”

“Because our reputation precedes us. We dodged pirates and made a crash landing—with witnesses—in an airship—full of explosives—and still made the delivery ahead of schedule. What’s not to be pleased about?”

“…did you plan this?”

“I’m good, Captain, but I’m not quite that good,” she sounded smug. He had the feeling that even the crash may have been planned. What was the end goal?

                                                            ______________________

“I can’t believe you made it! We thought you were dead!” said the awe-struck steward as the ship started the unloading process. Only Jaehyun and Navi came out to sign off on the delivery. “How did you manage to keep the explosives from going off when you crashed? That was first rate flying!”

“W-well, we do have a-an excellent captain,” Navi spoke quietly, nudging Jaehyun.

“Ah, yes. Thank you, sir!”

“And here is your promised payment,” he handed Jaehyun an envelope with the check. “We’ll be sure to keep the True North in mind for any future shipments!”

“Thank you, sir. We will be glad to assist,” Jaehyun smiled smoothly and bowed. “Pleasure doing business with you.” Navi bowed without a word.

“For someone hoping to build a reputation, you do a terrible job with people,” he glanced over at her. She scowled back at him. “What? It’s true.”

“I d-don’t care for dealing with people. Now, hand that over!” Navi attempted to grab the envelope. Jaehyun simply held it out of reach. “Give it back!”

She continued to jump and he continued to sidestep her efforts. “As captain, I feel that I should know what we were paid for a job like that…” He quickly opened the envelope and glanced inside. “Holy--!”

Bam! Navi suddenly kicked his leg out from under him. He stumbled, biting back a curse. It felt like a horse had just kicked him (and he had been kicked by plenty).

“Augh! You little--!” Before Jaehyun could react, Navi had snagged the envelope, stashing it away.

“You were getting paid according to the contract!” she huffed as she strode into town. “You don’t get to meddle in the affairs of the North beyond that.”

Jaehyun picked himself off the ground, dusting himself off. “Do I get to meddle if I stay on?”

She paused, looking back over her shoulder at him. “Are you staying?” Then she kept walking away from the docks.

“How does one with such short legs put on that kind of speed?” he wondered. He jogged to catch up.

                                    ________________________________

“You are from the True North, eh? The True North is the talk of the town!” The man was the next potential customer.

Jaehyun nodded, acknowledging the compliment. “Talk is nice enough, but talk doesn’t put bread on the table. I believe you have some business that needs doing?” He lifted an eyebrow, cooly redirecting the conversation.

Navi was impressed. Judging by the other’s man’s change in his posture, he too was impressed by the pilot. Had she opened her mouth, she was sure the deal would be soured. No one would take her seriously by herself. Even the job that had led them here only happened because she had pretended to represent someone else. Now that Jaehyun had signed on for half a year, the True North had the perfect face to represent them.

“My name is Finn Jacobson,” the man introduced himself, pulling out a folded sheet of paper. “I represent Coley & Sons and we have a specialized shipment we need sent out, Mr.…?”

“Park. Captain Park and this is my first mate and mechanic, Navilene Sitara,” Jaehyun gestured to each of them in turn.

“Whoa! You don’t see too many Drathinians in this line of work,” Jacobson exclaimed. “And certainly not so small.”

“Height is never the measure of a capable crewman,” Jaehyun smoothly interrupted, noticing Navi’s bristling. “And she is one of the best.” He patted her shoulder. “Without her, our safe landing with the napalm might have gone differently.”

Navi glanced over at him. He winked, then turned back to their prospective client. “Is that the manifest?” He gestured to the folded document.

“It is, but how can I be sure the True North has our best interests in mind?” The man was looking hard at Navi now. She found herself glaring at the table to keep from squirming under his scrutiny. (It was that or she would kick him in the head with her steel-toed boots.)

“Flying with explosives wasn’t enough?” Jaehyun raised an eyebrow, trying to draw his attention away from Navi.

“I want to hear the girl talk,” Jacobson nodded at her.

“The girl is my first mate and should be shown due respect,” Jaehyun straightened his posture and put forth his most aristocratic sneer. “I’m afraid it looks like you may be needing another ship for your job, Mr. Jacobson. Good day!” And he rose. “Come along, Sitara.” With that he strode from the room.

Navi fought to keep back the panic she was feeling. This job would pay nearly double what they just received. They could not possibly leave now!

“What are you doing?” she hissed, running after him.

“Giving the both of you lessons in how to deal with people,” Jaehyun whispered grimly as he marched away. “Wait for it…”

“Captain Park!” Mr. Jacobson was running after them.

Jaehyun made a show of slowing to a halt to regard the portly man. “Is there something else you need, Mr. Jacobson? We run a tight ship and an even tighter schedule, so please make it quick.”

The man wheezed. “I…wanted to apologize. I meant no disrespect to the lady.”

“Oh?” Jaehyun merely raised an eyebrow.

“Please accept my sincerest apologies, Miss Sitara!” Mr. Jacobson bowed deeply. “It was ignorant of me to diminish the respectability of your position and to doubt your capabilities.”

Navi was taken aback. “Ah, t-that’s--!” She looked at Jaehyun, who lifted both his chin and an eyebrow in an obvious “own this moment” gesture. She took a deep breath to settle her nerves. “Apology accepted, Mr. Jacobson—with a bonus, of course. We are business people after all and money talks best.” She glanced at Jaehyun who subtly nodded his approval.

“But of course!” The man pulled out a handkerchief and mopped his brow. “Won’t you please come back in so we can discuss the nature of this delivery? It is most important to us that it gets delivered quickly and safely.”

Navi felt a rush of pride for her ship as they turned to follow Mr. Jacobson. “Of course! The True North can handle any special requirements because we deliver…” Her mind went blank as to where she was going with this statement. “We deliver…” Her confidence started to plummet.

“Yes?” He turned to look back at her.

She looked to Jaehyun for help. He shrugged at her. She looked back at the man and squared her shoulders. “We deliver!” she said firmly.

With that, the True North booked its second job.