An Airship Named Desire (Take to the Skies Book 1) (5 page)

Raindrops clung to my eyelashes and streamed down my face like tears. A bitter smile twisted my face because I hadn’t cried in years—I’d learned at an early age the repercussions of showing weakness. Spade waved, but his other hand gripped the wheel. A fresh breeze cut through the thick tense air of the storm, invading my lungs. By the time I reached the helm, I slumped to the ground where they stood.

“Had enough of the storm, Bea?” Captain Morris leaned down while the edges of his trench dripped onto the floorboards.

“No, sir.” I perched with my elbows crutched onto my knees. “I love a wicked storm, gladly take another.”

The rain continued, but mere rainfall we could handle. Uncomfortable, yes, but nowhere near as dangerous as those ozone-crunching, climate-changing thunderstorms. I plucked my sodden shirt from my chest, and the material flapped back with a sloppy plunk. My nose wrinkled in distaste. After I’d just put on fresh clothing too. At the helm, Spade’s blue eyes focused straight ahead with an intense sort of focus.

“Rough patch, eh?” I called to him, much too lazy to stand.

“Aye.” His muscular forearms tensed back and forth with a rhythmic sway of the ship while he guided our path. I rummaged through my pack and pulled out my smaller pouch with the telescope. Peering through the eyepiece, I gazed off in the distance. Rain streaked through my vision, and droplets clung to the lens, but I could still see clear enough. My toes curled within my boots.

A Union Jack flag rippled in the distance.

Chapter Five

Shit. Shit. Shit.

The red against blue glared on the flag, and the hulking ship penetrated the expanse between us.

“Enemy ship on the horizon!” Jack, the overseer, called out. Blunt interference from the residual rain garbled his voice.

The monolith of a ship must have stayed hidden via cloud cover since the redcoats had enough tech aboard to track us through that storm. At the sight of the behemoth, a shudder rolled through me. I whipped my head towards the steering rig where Spade stood by the helm and Morris at the aether regulators.

“How far away are we from port?” Morris called to me. “Check in with Geoff as fast as you can and return here. We’re going to move faster than a hooker on a time crunch and leave this freighter eating our dust.”

I stifled my grin. The captain always kept calm, even under this siege which would begin in mere minutes. With a salute, I raced towards the navigation chambers. My feet pounded against the dewy floorboards, and drops of rain pattered across my back. 

Gusts of wind whipped past me, and the deck careened under my shaky view. I threw myself headlong towards the cabin, meters away. Geoff needed to plot our course and quick, because once we had our bearings, we’d have a better chance of outmaneuvering the Brits. Desire was smaller and faster than most ships among the skies, but speed didn’t matter if we had no direction. My hands fumbled with the doorknob. Aimlessness created more danger than any landlubber would understand since the skies abounded with storms and atmospheric pockets. After I got a grip, I yanked the door open and hurled myself inside.

Geoff sat at his desk, surrounded by stacks of maps. With his compass in one hand and a marker in the other, he scrutinized the map before him. I leaned against the wall and tried to appear calm—at least as calm as I could manage while puddles formed by my feet.

Even though my entrance had been anything but quiet, Geoff didn’t look up. A thick curl of chestnut hair swung over his eyes, and I resisted the urge to walk over and brush it from his face. He blew it away but didn’t stop maneuvering the compass. My heart beat faster watching him work, and warmth spread through my extremities despite the rain soaked cold. As much as we teased him, our ship would be a duck sans tail feathers without his navigation.

Besides, Geoff kept me sane. He’d introduced himself with a warm handshake and a gorgeous smile on the first day my life started over. Every time I’d gotten into trouble for running my mouth, he sat with me and helped me calm down so I didn’t land even more busywork from the captain. I coughed into my hand to get his attention. At the sound, his head swung up to greet me.

“Bea, please tell me you’re here to announce a change into balmy weather and a surprise beacon signaling a treasure trove.” He scratched away at the papers in front of him even while sparing me a glance.

I tried running my hands through my hair but gave up when the sodden curls molded together into one cohesive mass. Attractive.

“Of course not. I’m leveling an aether bomb’s worth of fun. How do you feel about enemy pursuit? The captain mentioned the words port and fast, so he sent me down to help. You point, I grunt, go push button.”

He lifted an eyebrow, and a laugh slipped from his throat.  “All right, we’re going to chart this course as fast as possible. Grab the Western Coast map for me. You can work through the preliminaries, and I’ll finish mapping our current trajectory.” As he spoke, the ship trembled.

“Right, West Coast.” I stepped past his mess of compasses, chronometers, and rulers towards the hand-painted cabinet of our maps. Of course, the cabinet was covered in more roses, thank you, Isabella. Since our ship traveled all over the globe, we owned a definitive collection. Voluminous, yes. Well organized, no.

I rifled through the folders, but most of the maps blended into the same scribbles on parchment. Pinpricks of nervous sweat tickled my neck and commingled with residual raindrops. At least in here I’d get some solace from the storm, even though my heart raced with the excitement from the torrents on deck. Obviously I had some mental issues if I got off on that sort of mind-numbing danger. My slick fingers printed wetness onto the maps, and I cursed my lack of foresight because I’d ruin our papers within seconds if I wasn’t careful. Further in, I rifled past a United States map, so I stopped and lifted it. Bingo, West Coast. Pulling the paper out, I slapped it onto Geoff’s desk.

“Here it is.”

He placed down his marker and glanced over. “I’m almost done with the first half of our coordinates, so can you start calculating the direction of our entry? We’re going to ride an Eastern current there and should be able to use the drift to accelerate our engines.”

I blinked several times and pointed to myself. “Push button?” 

Geoff let out a sigh and passed me a lopsided grin. “Look Bea, get this to Spade, he’ll know what to do. That way we can at least start moving rather than drifting like an open target. I should be able to take care of the second part while we start sailing in the proper direction.”

Sometimes I loved that man. He handed me his scribbled over maps, and I folded up the paper, tucking it away into my side bag. Before I left, I bent down and gave Geoff a light peck on the cheek.

“Thanks, chief!” I waved goodbye and ducked out the door before I noticed his blush too much.

I started missing the shelter of the cabin the second the rain spat at my face with ill-tempered slaps. That leviathan of a merchant ship loomed closer, cutting through the space between us, but their cannons glinting in the distance proved more menacing than their proximity. A couple more meters and we’d be within their heavy artillery’s range.

“Captain,” I called out, scrabbling over the slick deck, “Firing ahead!” My voice scraped against my throat, and my leather bag slapped my hip. I had to get Spade our coordinates. If we didn’t move, they’d start using those cannons. But they wouldn’t blow us from the sky, would they? If they did, their precious cargo sunk with us.

Along the sides, their crew fired away, and the bullets peaked like fireflies before dropping down towards land. The tiny lights created a spectacular but deadly sight. A couple bullets pinged onto our deck, but most of their men fired for the sake of feeling accomplished. I snorted. Only fools wasted their ammunition. The ship veered closer, coming in parallel to line up their cannon sights for a clear shot. If they took aim, I wanted to be as far away from the side of the ship as possible.

I raced faster under the canopy of our overhead balloon. An aluminum frame and plasma shielding reinforced our balloon, but enough shots would knock us straight out of the sky. And no one survived those crashes.

A crack boomed in the distance.

I scrambled over to the nearest mast, clinging onto it for support. Like a disorienting punch, the cannon hit our ship, and the Desire’s body whipped back and forth. My heart soared into my throat, and for several horrifying seconds, my feet floated in the air while I desperately clung to the mast. Several folks who hadn’t found a sound structure slid from the force to smack against the sides of the ship. The deafening cannon’s roar kept me from hearing the crunch of their bodies. Thanks to Spade and the captain, the ship steadied again.

They needed the maps to catch Geoff’s stream. I raced towards the helm where our men stood steady—a feat in this turbulence. Jitters ran up and down my legs, but I pushed myself onward to the navigation bay.

My first thought would have been to fire back on the merchant ship and gun them down, but Morris made a better Captain for a reason. In outmaneuvering them, we’d save our ammunition for when it counted and cut down on the number of casualties. Not for the first time, a fierce pride for my Captain towered in my chest.

“Bea, how far are we?” Morris hollered from his perch. A crew member rushed by me with rope, ready to tie down our reserve masts.

“I’ve got Geoff’s work right here,” I said. “He’s getting the rest of it ready.” I took cover under the slats over the helm.

“A first mate who’s rubbish at navigating?” Morris grinned. “One of these days we’ll teach you, Bea.”

“You promoted me for my ruthless stubbornness and dog-headed determination, not my tech savvy. Plus, I’m a damn good shot.” From the merchant ship, a spark exploded in the distance.

“Duck!” Morris roared and we wedged ourselves into the corner of the control bay. Spade clutched the wheel tight, knuckles as chalky as my mother’s best china. Even braced for impact, the cannon’s hit still disoriented us as white exploded before my eyes, and my ears rang with a tinny whistle. My body began sliding, and I groped the wooden frame next to me. Splinters dug into my shaking fingertips while I choked on my own breaths, sitting for several shaky seconds before my world stopped spinning around me.

“Schiesse, hull’s breached,” Morris spat. “Quick, pass me our trajectory. We need the fastest route out of here.”

I fumbled for the leather purse at my side. Nothing. Panic seized my veins and coursed through my system. Across the deck, crewmembers raced around, pulling on ropes or tossing buckets of water overboard. Several crouched into whatever corners they found, and some had joined in the gunfire since the behemoth of a merchant ship maintained its parallel position. I inhaled deep, but the breath barely calmed my shattered nerves.

“Bea, where is it?” Morris repeated. Scanning the perimeter wouldn’t help because we didn’t have that kind of time. The bag must have jostled free after that first cannon shot. With any luck, it’d still be there.

“Be right back, Captain.” Ignoring the flare of another cannon startup, I dashed headlong and retraced my tracks. Rain and wind muffled the string of curses from Morris. The world slowed around me, along with the surge of rain, and the crew rushing back and forth. Even the cannon heading straight for us lagged to a crawl. The deck careened a sharp left from the force of the shot.

When my feet gave way, I rebounded and jumped using the impact as leverage towards the mast. Droplets of rain burned in my eyes, so I groped for the wooden structure. The second my numbed fingers touched splinters, I loped my arm around the mast as the ship tilted, ready to carry me past the side.

A maelstrom of darkened blue and charred clouds swirled over the edge. My limbs seized up at the sight as torrents of fear surged through my shaking body. Below, my leather purse slid with the movement. I pinned the bag down with my foot to keep it from slipping out of my reach again before exhaling a sigh of relief. 

Our girl, Desire, righted, but the merchant ship readied their rope. They’d try boarding us any minute now and the captain and Spade needed a direction. Hell, we needed Geoff. I surged back onto my feet and with the leather strap wrapped around my hand, rushed for the helm.

Halfway across the deck, a hand clapped against my back. Surprised, I whirled around and almost clocked whoever stood behind me.

Geoff caught my hand.

“Bea, let’s get moving. Did you get the coordinates to Spade?” he asked.

I shook my head while waving the leather purse. “Trying to.”

We both ran across the wooden panels for the refuge of the helm. Our ship couldn’t withstand any more hits, and if we loitered any longer, we’d either have to start returning fire, or they’d board us. Their guards and officers lined the sides and took aim. Now from the ship’s closer vantage point, their bullets pinged against our railings. We ducked under the slats, joining with the captain and Spade.

“Sorry sir, here’s the coordinates.” I fished into the pocket and pulled out the papers.

“I’ll take them.” Geoff grabbed the paper and stepped up to the wheel. “Spade, stand relieved. I need you on the accelerators. If we’re going to make it through, we have to catch the polar jet. Jumping on mid-stream requires precise direction, since we’ll have to combat the hellish storms on the outside, so I’ll need each of you. Captain Morris, pump our aether to full velocity, we’re going to need our maximum amount of pressure for this maneuver.” The captain shifted over to the aether manipulator at once. “Bea, you’re our bearing taker, the high speeds of the jet stream will muddle our gyrocompass, so I need you to check it against this.”

He tossed me one of the regular compasses from his chambers. I bit my lip but didn’t argue. Navigation wasn’t my best suit, but we couldn’t afford errors and didn’t have time to grab anyone else. If we didn’t leave here fast, not only our cargo but our lives and ship would be forfeit.

I sucked in a deep breath and stepped between Geoff and Spade. Wind whipped through his hair and tossed strands into the air, but Geoff gripped the wheel and stared out at the bruised skies before us.

“We’re in your hands now.” Morris resumed his post by the aether manipulator. The enemy ship neared so close we could hear its boards creak.

“Bea,” Geoff asked, “What’s our immediate direction?”

I stared at the black compass and peered close for the exact leaning of the white arrow. “Thirty-three degrees North.” I had to shout for him to hear since the winds kicked up louder.

“Aiming sharp West,” Geoff called, “Veering left now. Captain, maintain pressure. Spade, on the count of three, push the accelerators.” He gripped the wheel, stationing his feet flat against the ground. “Three, two, one…Go!”

Geoff threw his body to the left and whipped the wheel along with him. Our ship groaned with the sudden effort, but Spade picked up the excess impetus by firing the accelerators. I peered at the compass.