Stories tagged “Location-Heart's Desire”

  • On Patrol: Threatening Behavior

    “Captain?” I asked again. I grunted as a thick finger stabbed me in the chest. “You’ve got some explaining to do.” Firus said. Red blotching gave his bearded face a vaguely demonic look in the fuzzy lighting of the armory&...

  • On Patrol: Divergence, Convergence

    “I stopped talking to him when he starting toting the value of his ‘time-compass’. Worthless junk if you ask me, and I almost lost his friendship telling him so. Now what’s this claptrap about him sending you to watch my back?&#...

  • On Patrol: Weathering the First Storm

    “Well that explains a lot.” Firus mused. “I wondered why you were staying so close to me. I thought you were afraid.” “I am afraid.” I said, pacing back and forth in the cramped quarters of the armory. “I’...

  • On Patrol: The Calm

    We slipped back into our normal roles as if the conversation had never occurred. Firus grunted and broke eye contact immediately, rubbing a worn hand along the thick pipes that lined the ceiling and branched off in every conceivable direction like a fl...

  • On Patrol: Three Messages

    Neither rough weather nor problems with the crew marred the next leg of our journey and the days and nights passed without event. Despite the ease of passage, there was no time to loaf. The smaller crew and personal modifications meant more awareness a...

  • On Patrol: Ours is Not to Question Why

    I swore quietly under my breath, mind immediately flashing through the running tally of ship operations that were running sub-par or that would need servicing in the immediate future. The results were not good, but ultimately I couldn’t say that ...

  • On Patrol: Walk About

    Walking around the ship with no destination in mind gave me time to think. I felt wound up tight, my chest compressed like a spring and sitting in my cabin wasn’t going to help. If I didn’t do something all of that energy would come crashin...

  • On Patrol: Night Air

    It was near the changeover for the middle watch, and the guard on duty – Esmil? – nodded at me wearily before scanning the darkness for anything unusual. It was unlikely that he would, of course – we were on a course dead under thick ...

  • On Patrol: The Weight of Responsibility

    As the sun set far in the distance, the sky was filled with a myriad of colors- blushing, rose colored clouds where the last rays still caressed them, the pale blue of twilight that separated the day and the night, and the stars that were just waking u...

  • On Patrol: Man-to-Man

    I let the silence stretch a little longer, enjoying the experience and somewhat contemplating the answers I could give. “Yes,” I said a last, feeling suddenly weary. “they are. Ships that looked so invincible before, hanging in the sk...

  • On Patrol: We're Going to Delay the Reveal

    Almost on cue, Esmil lowered his spyglass and looked at me quizzically. I whipped my own telescope out from a pocket in my apron, and aimed it in the direction he pointed in. Banon opted to seize a nearby rifle and use the scope instead. “What do...

  • On Patrol: Extended Stillness

    Firus led me off the bridge and up towards the top decks, striding up the steps with purpose. “Miles. How are we for cannon?” No hesistation. “All the cannons are fine, sir. If that weren’t the case, we wouldn’t have taken...

  • On Patrol: Flames and Lightning

    “Not any more,” came Firus’ reply, ducking back down to grab a weapon for himself too. “But perhaps once upon a time. Now they’re just… bats. Fire that weapon, man! They’ll have you out of the basket if youR...

  • On Patrol: Night Lights

    I threw the flare overboard and finished the thing off with my revolver. Looking over, Firus was also locked in a struggle with another of the clockwork monsters – I intervened with a smash from the butt of the rifle. The other clockworks had see...

  • On Patrol: Melee

    I certainly wasn’t going to make it with half a pocketful of revolver bullets, so I seized a lightning-gun from a nearby locker. I preferred a good self-loading rifle, but lightning was less likely to make inconvenient holes in the ship. I gave t...

  • On Patrol: Engineering

    I took off at a nod from Firus and dodged my way to the portside gunnery bay, bracing myself before opening the door. The bay was wreathed in a swirling miasma of gun-smoke and steam that poured out of the doorway, along with a deafening cacophony of o...

  • On Patrol: Spit and Prayers

    I wasn’t much of an engineer, but even I could see the whole rotary feed assembly was jammed shut with a mess of wet powder. Muttering curses under my breath, I yelled into the speaking tube that the gun was going offline and yanked the disconnec...

  • On Patrol: No Mere Spectator

    The lower gunnery deck, where the big guns were loaded and fired, was in many ways a twin to the mess we’d just left. The chaos was slowing, though; everyone could feel the banking, everyone was preparing for a full broadside. “All hands! D...

  • On Patrol: The Hydra's Last Gasp

    I tried to make myself heard over the cheering, but it was a fruitless attempt. Mind spinning, I ran through the numbers – there couldn’t be much more than about ten ship-lengths of chain and the wreck already so far below us… Somebod...

  • On Patrol: Disorientation

    With an effort, I managed to get a hand into the front of my apron and extract a Palar clamp. Steeling myself, I let go of the railing with one hand and, after a moment, slammed the clamp into the steeply sloping deck with my other hand. The Palar̵...

  • On Patrol: Kinetics

    A mind does funny things when it thinks death is imminent. Bannon couldn’t have left more than an armspan or so of slack, but I still managed to consider my entire life so far (not too exciting), wonder what Firus would say about me (I wasn’...

  • On Patrol: Aftermath

    The adrenalin faded quickly after that, tiredness closing down my field of vision and turning the usually short journey to the bridge into a shambling mess. It was an arduous task even aided by the handrails lining each corridor, quickly devolving into...

  • On Patrol: Quietude and Night

    Later, Bannon met Firus on the bridge. Both men were intensely weary, but as veterans of the sky both had been through worse before. Darkness cradled the battered hull of the Heart’s Desire, offering sanctuary until dawn. Firus and Bannon regarde...

  • On Patrol: Recovery

    One thing at a time, I told myself. I opened a panel outside the showers with a key from the huge ring that I carried, revealing a ordered array of indicators, dials, fluid gauges all connected together by a maze of piping. Noting down the levels of a ...