Once they had rose through the eye of the storm, they were able to bypass the remainder of the storm. The Fist never re-emerged, so they took this opportunity to continue stretching the distance between them and their pursuers.

“Take a breather, everyone. We are in the clear,” Jaehyun announced over the General channel.

“This calls for omelets!” Lamond replied.

“Good! We’re starving! I hate dealing with storms in the air! Man wasn’t made to be up here like a durn bird!” Jethro started another one of his rants, but Jaehyun had turned off the speaker.

The crew gathered in the recently finished ship’s galley. Joe was tossing eggs and Lamond would slice them midair with a flourish. Jethro was munching an apple, watching the show. Navi and Jaehyun were the last to join the show. They took a seat at the bar lining the counter. Eggs finished, Lamond began tossing golden eggs and green onions into the air with a flourish.

“You all right?” Jethro nudged Navi who jumped.

“What do you mean?”

He peered at her out of the corner of his eye. “You know…that Commander bit. You okay, lass?” He took a swig of water from a tin cup.

She huddled into her scarf. “It’s…to be expected sometimes. Thank you for helping distract him.” She gave a tentative smile.

The big man harrumphed. “Some things just ain’t right. No need to thank me for common decency.”

“Why do some people treat Drathinians so strangely? Aren’t they citizens of the Empire too?” Joe leaned over to join the conversation. “I don’t understand it.”

Jaehyun sighed. “Whenever someone get conquered, it is—unfortunately—the bad habit of the victor to be anything but graceful. Throughout history, this has been the case for each region. It takes years for new territory to become accepted.” He got up to fill his tin with water. “And to help keep the defeated down, stereotypes and rumors are spread through the rest of the Empire.”

“But that’s just stupid!” Joe protested as Lamond passed out the plates piled with fluffy omelets and crispy bacon.

“Tell me about it!” Lamond agreed, taking an empty stool. “But it is, what it is for now.”

“Don’t worry. Navi! If that guy comes back, I’ll block him for you!” Joe declared. “Our military has better things to do than to bully people for silly reasons.”

This time the pilot stayed silent. He wished that were true, but he had been on the other side before. For the remainder of the meal, he stayed quiet while the others chattered away. The visit from Desen had left him shaken. For a little while, he felt like he had outrun his past, but here it was back to haunt him. “Your employer was all right with you being a marked man?” he heard the mocking voice echoing his thoughts. What did Navi know?

                                                            ___________________________

When the crew dispersed to their various stations, Jaehyun found himself following the noise of the ship’s engines. Rather than call her on the radio, he felt that this conversation would be better in person. From the main floor, he climbed down towards the belly of the skip. The walls reverberated as the water sped through the pipes, powering the pistons. With all the pipes and tanks surrounding him, he felt that he had climbed into the belly of a gigantic fish.

At the foot of the ladder, the path branched in several directions. To his left, he spied a shorter ladder off to the left leading upward—but not towards the main deck. He surmised that the other path led towards the engine room and water tanks. He opted to follow the second ladder. The roaring of the engines faded and he found himself climbing up towards a door with a small landing above him. There was a lantern besides the door illuminating the darkness. In the faint light he could see a small insect circling aimlessly. The bug seemed to catch sight of him and zipped towards his form on the ladder.

“Get! How did you even get in here?” he grumbled, swatting at the nosy thing.

The bug circled him once more, then disappeared into a crack on the door.

“Captain?” Navi’s voice cracked through a small speaker beside the door. “What are you doing down here?”

“We need to talk. May I come in?” Jaehyun wondered how she knew he was out here.

There was a pause. The light outside the door blinked once and the sound of a bolt being withdrawn echoed down the corridor. “You may come in.”

He climbed up and stepped onto the landing. He thought he knew where this room was in relation to the rest of the True North’s general layout, but could not be too certain. He opened the door and found himself in a spacious room with several portholes allowing daylight into the room. There was a large table set up in the middle of the room with several lights focused on it. The wall was lined with toolboxes, filing cabinets, a desk and cot attached to the wall. The other door across the room must lead to the laboratory. It was bright and comfortable.

Navi stood at the table with dark glasses. The table was strewn with screws, rivets and gears. She appeared to be soldering something small beneath a magnifying glass. Several more of those flies were buzzing around her head.

He took in the scene for a moment. “Why are your quarters larger than mine?”

“It’s my ship,” she replied, not looking in his direction. “There!” She pulled off her goggles and gloves before looking at him. “Did you need something?”

He finally had to ask. “Why me?”

She turned to him with an unreadable expression. For a long minute, they looked at each other. “Tell me why you left the military,” she said, turning back to fiddle with the tiny machine on the table.

The question made his throat feel like it was starting to close. For a while, he had forgotten about everything that had been driving him towards a dark end in the river. Her request brought everything back to the forefront of his mind. “That’s…”

“Yes?” she nodded encouragingly, sparks from her welding tool glittering in her eyes.

He swallowed, determined to get through this. “I… refused a direct order.” Why was that so difficult to admit? He knew he had done the right thing—he still did—and yet, the backlash of that one decision had unraveled all of the accomplishments of years. “I refused to fly for a mission.” It was not a mission. It was the sanctioned slaughter of a peaceful people—the nomadic Kitua tribes in the Northern grasslands.

How many missions had he flown without question? There was unrest to subdue and pirates to defeat. In those cases, he had not batted an eye. This time though, the orders were to push into Kitua territory and subdue their forces. The problem? They had no forces. The land was divided by nomadic villages. (Granted, there were a few wandering cities, but still no centralized power to speak of. The people they had encountered on recon missions had no idea that there was an Empire out there looking to subjugate its territories.

“Why?’ she prompted him gently, jostling him out of his thoughts.

“Because it was the right thing to do,” he replied, swallowing hard. His father, Lord Park, had disowned him immediately for bringing shame upon the family. The Parks were long revered for outstanding military careers with honors. To have his son court martialed then dishonorably discharged was unfathomable. How could the family hold up its head? Rather than weather the storm, Lord Park disowned him. He had to leave his mother and younger sisters behind—forbidden to see or have contact with them.

As a result, Jaehyun was ostracized from high society. All his former friends turned their backs and he was left to fend for himself. He had tried for months, but the loneliness and despair were threatening to devour him. He could feel his eyes burning.

“Do you regret it?” Ka-clank!

The noise derailed his train of thought. He refocused. She had her back to him and was replacing some of her tools into their toolbox. He did not know if she was giving him a moment to recoup, but he was grateful for the respite nonetheless. She glanced up at him. He had the feeling that somehow she had been following his entire train of thought. In her eyes, he did not see judgement.

“No.” And he truly did not regret it. He only wished he could have stopped the miliary from proceeding into the Kitua territories after his trial.

“That’s why it had to be you,” she said and went back to the table. “That and your pretty face.”

He coughed. “What?”

“Your aristocratic bearing and generally pleasant demeanor. Being a member of a recently subjugated nation does not gain one perks. They won’t talk to me. They won’t deal with me. They will with you, so I need you.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “And how long will you need me?”

She frowned at him. “Clause 16 of your contract states—”

He raised his hands. “I know what it says and I was not making advances. I was asking a serious question to my employer.”

“Oh, okay.” When she lowered her defenses, she looked even more like a child. Now she looked uncertain. “I’d really like you to stay on for as long as you want to fly. I hate changes and getting used to new people; however, I understand that things can’t stay the same forever. If you can make it to the end of your current contract, that would mean the difference between our current situation and moving to the upper rings.”

The rings she was referring to were how the larger cities of the Empire were built. To accommodate more and larger aircraft, the cities were build with multiple rings set at varying levels. It made docking aircraft easier and distinguished the social ranks.

It felt good to be wanted again. Jaehyun smiled, stretching his hand out. “I can do that then. We’ll see where things stand after that, agreed?”

“Agreed!” Navi gingerly shook his hand, then quickly released it.

The sun was beginning to set outside the window. Golden rays were lighting up the stateroom, highlighting the polished brass fixtures and glinting off the insect wings.

Jaehyun frowned. “What kind of insects are those?”

“They aren’t.” Navi reached up and one of the bugs landed on her finger. She extended it out for the pilot’s inspection. “They’re automata.”

Now that he could see up close, he could see the mechanical workings of the small insect. He had taken them for flies when instead they were bees. Their tiny eyes were—in fact—miniature lenses. He would see the gear mechanisms powering their wings. “They are so tiny! How do you get them to work?”

Navi smiled a little, bringing the insect back before her eyes. “Most automata follow a set series of actions. These were carefully created to signals that I give them.” Here she touched the single earring that she wore. “There is a transmitter in here that sends its messages to however many automata that I activate. It is similar to the automatons that Duke DeLeon is said to create. I have to wait until I meet him to verify the specifics.”

He snorted. “People like us won’t get to meet the duke.”

“Yet.” She smiled mysteriously, releasing the mechanical bee to rejoin its fellows. “You never asked why we are even flying the True North.”

“One shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, I believe the old saying goes.”

“If the gift might be—in fact—a leviathan, you may want to look.”

__________________________________

She had no idea how long she had been sitting in the dark. Hours? Days? Weeks? She tried to remember how she got here, what came before all this. It was as though the black was always there. There was no beginning or end to it. She could not move a single limb, could not feel anything. Sometimes, she thought her space had shifted. She could only tell by the sounds. The dark was wreaked havoc on her sense of up and down.

The only thing she could do was hear. She heard people walking past, talking amongst themselves in muted voices.

“Hello?” she would try to scream. “Help!” Nothing released her voice. No one came looking for her. She wanted to cry and the black swallowed even that. How much longer would she have to stay?