Family Heirloom

Bastion was a port city that had started ugly, grown up ugly, and remained ugly despite the city planner’s best efforts.  There was a garden, the streets were lined with lamps, and banners hung in the more upscale parts of the city.  It was like putting makeup on a pig.  Bastion was an ugly city and there was no avoiding that fact.  Skimmer captains flocked to it like flies to honey and along with the captains came their crew.  With the crew came the pubs and every other form of entertainment that an off-duty crew required.  With the skimmers came the repair docks, ranging from ones that had only one certified mechanic and a bunch of random peons to ones that only the richest shipping fleets could afford.  Those in turn brought warehouses, factories, and ‘mancy workshops.  All this combined to create a sprawl of urban mess that even banners and fancy lampposts couldn’t cover up.  Bastion was a very ugly city.

“Ah, breath deep and smell the fine air that is Bastion!” Langley declared.  Beside her, Crystal complied and fell into a coughing fit.

“Captain, you know what dry-dock we’re going to?” Ajiin asked.  

The four of them, Langley, Crystal, Sabreur, and Ajiin were gathered up on the top deck.  They were waiting for a sloop from the harbor control to come out and guide them in.  Bastion had a lot of skimmer traffic and so they practiced very strict controls on entering and exiting skimmers.  The capital of Alannis also used this practice but this was more because they had tight controls on the quality of people allowed to dock.  Papers were inspected and Cadre wanted lists were consulted.  Bastion did none of this, which is why they had so much skimmer traffic that it required a degree of coordination.

“I was thinking the one we went to last time,” she replied, “They did a good job and didn’t mind Sabreur and I barging in to take a look at the work every now and then.  They also waive the ‘mancer fee if you do the ‘mancy yourself.”

“And the usual rules for crew leaves apply?”

“Of course.  Crystal… I would like to talk to you for a moment though.”

The girl turned to her captain with a cheerful and naïve look on her face.  Langley twitched a bit.  On one hand, she really did want to let Crystal go off on her own and explore the city.  On the other hand, this was not the kind of city where someone like Crystal would do well.  She was far too trusting and there was no telling what would happen.  Langley had made the girl a part of her crew and thus was responsible for her to a degree.

That and Mihos would probably rip her soul into the underworld and spend the next four decades dunking it in acid if something happened to Crystal.

“Is Mihos going to accompany you in Bastion?”

“No.  He only pays attention to me when he feels like it.”

“Sabreur…?”  She turned imploringly at her brother.  He shook his head.

“You and I are going to be busy at the dry-dock.  Ajiin, can you spare the time to be an escort?”

“Captain, you asked me to find us a client.”

So that left few options.  Either Sabreur and her took Crystal with them, which was a recipe for disaster.  She’d get bored and wander off and the dry-docks were not the part of town to get lost in.  She couldn’t go with Ajiin as her craziness might make them lose a potential contract.  That meant she’d have to assign one of the crew to escort the necromancer and she’d probably have to give him a bonus for it as well.

“Are you worried about something happening to me?” Crystal finally asked.

“Yes.  There are bad parts of town around here.”

“Don’t worry.  I’ve been in cities and I know ‘mancy.”  She put one foot back and posed dramatically, grinning.

“You know necromancy.”

“I won’t be the only necromancer in Bastion.”

And she turned and hopped down to the ladder, humming.  Langley and Sabreur exchanged glances.

“There’s necromancers in Bastion?” Sabreur asked of his sister.

“Think the local government will honor the bounty?”

“That’s my cue to leave,” Ajiin said and hastily followed Crystal down to the helm.



Langley was cursing herself for an idiot all the way to the dry-dock.  They’d brought the Ark in about halfway to the docks and then rode in on the sloop that had met them.  It took an extra bit of currency to the pilot but that was standard procedure.  He’d drop them off at the dry-dock they were interested in, Langley would negotiate a price and make sure they had room for the Ark, and then make a relay to Ajiin to bring the skimmer the rest of the way in.  Sabreur would go talk about mechanics with the engineers and work crew.  Then they’d quietly slip off into the city until the destroyed gun was removed and the Ark was ready to have a new one installed.  In the meantime, the crew would all go elsewhere to wherever they haunted in this city, Ajiin would head off to talk to agents, and Crystal would go shopping.  Alone.  That last bit was the one that was turning Langley’s gut into a block of ice.

“I think we’re making a mistake,” she said to her brother.  He looked at her and frowned.

“Later.  Too many people.”

They were outside the office of the dry-dock supervisor.  Even through the walls they could hear the sound of machinery downstairs.  It was a comforting sound to Sabreur.

“She’s going to get into trouble.”

“I’m sure she can get herself out of it.  She’s survived for this long, after all.”

“With an avatar’s help-“

And the door opened at that point so Langley shut up.  The two were ushered into the office and sat down.  The supervisor had a file before him, the record of their previous visits to the dry-docks.

“Stormriders,” the man said, grinning, “We’re always glad to have Stormriders here.  You bring in a lot of business for us.”

Dry-docks were about the only place that was ecstatic to see the Stormrider crest.  It meant money.  Lots of money.  Because if they did good work the word would get out to the rest of the family and with the rate that Stormrider skimmers needed repair a dock could get rich off of the family.

“Well, we’ve got business now,” Langley said, “Lost a gun.”

“The body of it is scrap and the skimmer hull surrounding it is damaged as well.  We had a patch job done but it’ll need to be reworked to last,” Sabreur added.

“You got room for us?”

“Of course,” the supervisor replied, “Let me get some papers and I’ll show you to dock five where you can bring your ship in.  We’ll have some engineers look at the damage and then go to price negotiation from there.”

The man got up and after a moment of shuffling around the desk led them out into the hallway and downstairs to dock five.  Dry-docks were called that only because that was what they were called before the skimmer drive was invented.  Modern dry-docks were simply land-locked buildings with openings to the water.  A skimmer could come right onto the land and into the bay and then set itself down on supports.  Dry-docks allowed a skimmer to power down entirely and be out of the water when it did so.  Being so close to water also meant that skimmers would spend the least amount of time over land and reduce the strain on the engine.  Land-based skimmers had a completely different set of mechanics and ‘mancy than water-based skimmers or even the very unstable and experimental air-skimmers.  Alannis was the only continent that used land-based skimmers or air-based skimmers.  With the amount of ocean between nations water-based skimmers would be the norm for a very long time to come.

“This is the size of dock we used last time you brought your ship in,” the supervisor said, “If you want to go ahead and signal the Langley’s Ark I’ll go gather up the team that will be working on it.”

Langley nodded and pulled out a piece of string.  Established the relay, gave Ajiin orders, and in about another fifteen minutes she could see the Ark.  By that time the dry-dock had some sloops out to help guide it in and after another ten minutes the skimmer was ponderously trudging across shallows and into the bay.  The hum of the skimmer drive, usually a low sound in the background, was pitched at an incessant whine that was painful to the ears.  Skimmers were not made to be off of deep water.  If Langley had a better grasp on gravimancy she might know why but both her and Sabreur had taken just enough to do basic repairs that would keep the Ark running.  It would take a specialist to understand the skimmer drive.

“Well, that’s that,” she said as the Ark settled down on the supports and the team ran around securing the hull, “Go aboard and power everything down.  I’ll see that Ajiin gets the crew out of here and then escort the engineers to the damaged gun.”

“Right,” Sabreur said and the two broke for the Ark.

In the end, the repairs equaled out to an amount slightly less than what Langley had budgeted for.  She mentally allocated the rest to go into the bank in case something else went wrong in the near future.  The engineer working on her ship estimated that it would take two weeks to repair.  One week to repair the damage and get the gun ordered from anther skimmer builder in the city.  Another week to install, setup the ‘mancy that helped power it, and then test to make sure everything worked correctly.  

And in that period of time Langley was certain that something would go horribly wrong in Bastion.  After all, they were Stormriders and there was a necromancer running loose.  Multiple necromancers, if Crystal was to be believed.

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