~
Federi peered over the sea, back to where the Silver Bullet was barely visible any longer. Drifting away, with the little hummingbird on it! For a second he had the impression of a sunlit dream that had graced his life for a while, vanishing into the distance. Snuffed out. Gone.
He shook his head.
“They’ll be alright,” said Shawn.
“Hope so,” muttered Federi. He studied the team on the deck that was getting set up for flying. Ronan and Rhine Gold, with Ailyss between them. Who meant nothing. He didn’t think she could be relied on to do anything beyond fight her own seasickness. At least he hoped that. Rushka. Rodriguez, for mercy’s sake! And Dr Jake! That meant that the jolly drives were unattended!
No, there was Marsden moving off below deck. Federi activated his wrist-com.
“Buddy, where are you headed?”
“Machine room, Federi. Our radar’s been sabotaged! Dr Jake says the receptors to the sensors have been damaged.”
Federi cursed, in Romanian. And then in Spanish, for added impetus. And rounded it off in Southern Free.
“We knew she’d try something, sometime,” Marsden placated.
“Ha! So now it wasn’t Paean?”
“We can’t really say, Federi. She gets into the machine room too. Although I suspect that she’d have poisoned the water instead. With something GM.”
Federi snorted. “And if it was the Cuban?”
“Rodriguez?”
“Not impossible, nu?”
“Nu,” agreed Marsden. “Nu indeed.”
“Check on the nuclear drives too, Jon,” said Federi. “Doesn’t feel easy, with a bomb in the making under our bums.”
Jon grunted acknowledgement. The kite sail went up past the Crow’s Nest and popped open with an explosive crack. It rattled the gypsy. He looked again at the flying team and let fly a curse.
“Oh, for the sake of vanishing lizards!” The whole blasted team slipping about on the deck was green! There was not one experienced hand amongst them! He pushed the code for the ship com, activating the powerful speakers that clung to the mast like fungal growth. “Guys, wrap your flying sheets around your hands twice the way I showed you! Hang in there! Wind’s going to steady out now!” The Solar Wind failed to achieve the necessary lift. The reason lay ahead. He fingered another sequence on his com. “Captain, veer to port – rocks ahead!”
“Well done, Federi,” came Captain’s response. “Keep your eye on the sea!”
They shouldn’t be attempting to fly this, thought the Tzigan with a frown. Too many rocks! “Captain, I’d rather be down there with the flyers.”
“Stay in the Crow’s Nest, Federi. Need you as a lookout. It’s crucial.”
Federi gazed down once more with misgivings. Shawn plucked his sleeve.
“What’s that?”
“Urgh,” said the gypsy, staring at it. It was a rogue wave. Some way off starboard. “Captain, rogue wave to starboard,” he muttered into his wrist-com, his eyes fixed upon the monster.
“WHAT?!” came the Captain’s response. “Freezing hells! I see her!” The Solar Wind turned to face the monstrosity. Federi gripped the rail of the Crow’s Nest and hung on, watching the monster lumbering ponderously towards the Solar Wind and her crew. He knew that Captain was going to try getting over the top – the safest course, seeing that she hadn’t finished building and was not yet at tipping point.
Not a terribly big rogue, if he compared it to the data. Forty-footer or so. But terrible enough. In a few seconds the sailors would be washed off the deck like so many matchsticks. The Solar Wind would almost certainly capsize, with the bottom of the wave lifting her keel clear. With the rigging closed she’d have a chance of righting herself, but with the rigging fully open like it was… their hope lay in the masts breaking off; but if that caught any of the sailors, with their feet under the straps…
Federi’s mind raced ahead, flashing him survival images. The thing would be to duck down into the Crow’s Nest with Shawn, hoping that the collision with the water wouldn’t kill them; and then to free Shawn first, and after that, go diving for the others, cutting them free of their lifelines… diving into the ship to free Marsden and Doc… and Wolf… and those idiots of the Coastal guard -
Shawn screamed, next to him. The wave doubled in height, suddenly. Its crest tipped and crashed down in a foaming whitecap.
That wasn’t something Captain could nip over any longer!
“Captain,” started Federi, his eyes fixed on that wave. The kite sail was hauled back in. The rigging swung. Captain had already understood. The Solar Wind was turning. They would try to outrun the wave.
This was taking too long! The wave was gushing and foaming like mad. And then, abruptly, it flattened out. White foamy suds laced the dark-green water. Turbulences boiled around them.
“Captain, veer to port!” Federi screamed into his wrist-com. There was a bleeding huge reef underneath! And the rogue was a lot flatter now, but she had picked rocks off it. Missiles. The Solar Wind swung. And pitched. And tilted. Spray shot up to them. The Solar Wind bobbed and danced upon the unpredictable currents and waves. White foam on green soufflé water. Reefs and shoals everywhere. The Solar Wind positioned herself nose-first at the rogue a second time; there wasn’t any time left for anything beyond that. The massive force of water pushed at the ship and lifted her high. Federi clung to the Crow’s Nest rim and muttered an old gypsy blessing on the buoyancy of compounding.
“What happened?” asked Shawn, white with fright. “Why was this thing suddenly so huge? – Wow, look at that trough!”
“Submerged reef,” said Federi. “Built the rogue up but broke its force, too.”
The Solar Wind skidded sideways down the mountain of water as it moved on. It was a single, a loner. No wicked sisters following it. They returned to their previous course.
The kite sail was hauled back to fold automatically into the launching catapult and shot up past them again, noisily snapping open over their heads. Federi glanced at the deck. Aargh! He ought to be down there! Ronan slipped and righted himself. Ailyss hung onto her flying sheet with one hand and the handholds with the other as instructed, looking miserable. She had a port brake sheet. The leading one. Blast! Was Jon suicidal? Ronan was doubling up behind her with a second port brake sheet. The less important leach one. Ah. Interesting. But to put the inexperienced Donegal into the position of correcting her mistakes?
Rhine Gold, at the port speedbar sheet, had at least flown one and a half storms by now, if you counted in that dead loss there after Panama. But to put him in charge of a speedbar? There was nobody else, realized Federi. Dr Jake, who hadn’t flown more than two or three storms yet because usually he was in the machine room, was doubling up for Rodriguez on the starboard side.
Rushka? She was highly experienced, in the sense that she had flown many storms; but she had never yet taken a full position. They had always conspired to double up behind her so she’d be shielded. Today there was nobody to double up for her. She was positioned centrally, at the controller, and all the remaining speedbar sheets had been linked into that.
What a team! It was sink or…
“Sing, Federi,” shouted Shawn Donegal.
Federi shook his head, staring down at the foamy waves that splashed over the deck, feeling cold inside. So they had an ace helmsman, the best on all of Earth’s oceans. But the sailors? And what about the Silver Bullet? Would the coastal guard’s vessel make it through these rocks?
“Captain,” Federi gasped into his wrist-com, “this is a bad idea. Let’s get through this on drives, nu? Let’s get out of the rocks, please?”
Radomir Lascek laughed. The mad Magyar coming through.
“Captain, listen,” shouted Federi, panicky. “The whole flying team is green!”
“Rushka’s done it before, Federi, an
d Rhine Gold,” said Lascek calmly. “They can instruct the others!”
“Just look at them, Captain! Hell, no, don’t look at them, veer to starboard! Aargh!”
The Solar Wind veered. Radomir Lascek emerged from the bridge. He shouted an order, and Dr Jake put down his flying line and took over the helm.
“Captain, that’s even worse!” yelled Federi. He watched how waves washed around the sailors’ knees; how the pitching of the ship threw the greenies off-balance and left them clinging to the handhold lines. Rushka had her hands full with that controller. The kite went down. He wasn’t even aware that he was shaking his head.
Lightning streaked across, cutting a raggedy pattern. The Solar Wind never got hit by lightning; compounding was a poor conductor, an unattractive target for the searching finger of electricity. But it didn’t do much to alleviate Federi’s primal fear. He was Tzigan. Tzigany lived in the open. They had respect for electric weather. So far, only wind and mayhem. It would get worse. Visibility was going to go bang. The clouds were so low, and so heavy, they were about to pop.
“Captain,” begged Federi, “get back on the bridge instantly! Let’s call it a day, blast it! Let’s just do this on drive power!”
“Tzigan!” the Captain’s voice came thundering over his com. “Hold your tongue! I’ll have no insubordination!”