“He went to sleep about fourteen hours ago,” Victor told him. “And he slept through that storm. Do you think he’s all right?”

“I don’t know,” Lewis answered. “He seems to be breathing, so let’s just see how he is doing in the morning.”

“OK,” Victor said with doubt in his voice.

“Mr. Lewis! Time to wake up!” It was a small child’s voice that woke him from a sound sleep. He came to his feet looking for his pistol and banging his head on the bunk that was above the one that he was sleeping in. It took a moment to orient himself. When he looked around, he was in a small room with four bunks. Victor was swinging his legs off the top bunk on the other side. Fink was sleeping in the bottom one.

“Let’s go,” he said to Victor, who looked completely uncomprehending. Lewis realized he was speaking English and switched to the language that he had learned during his passage on the Star Skipper. “Sorry, let’s go see what’s going on.”

Melissa stood in the passageway, well back from the door. Her eyes got big when she saw the pistol in his hand. “It’s time to go to land, Mr. Lewis.”

He holstered the pistol and she turned and fled toward the other end of the passage. He turned to go back for his bags and bumped into Victor. They spoke to Fink as they gathered their stuff. He groaned and pulled his blanket over his head.

“Come on Fink,” Lewis spoke firmly. “Let’s go.”

“I’m sick mama, I don’t wanna go to lessons today,” Fink whined.

“Get up!” Lewis said loudly, throwing Fink’s boots onto his bed.

Fink peeked from under his blanket. “Crap! Crap!”

He fell out of bed and gathered his things, getting ready in one minute. Lewis and Victor made their bunks neatly. Fink tried to make his blanket behave, mumbling under his breath. When they reached topside Flynn had the lifeboat ready. Everybody climbed in with their backpacks and Flynn lowered the boat to the water. He climbed down the ladder, took the oars in hand and propelled them toward Haldon. When they rounded the cliffs Haldon came into sight, looming suddenly through the mist. It looked remarkably intact, with spires and tall buildings rising above the fog. Suddenly a ship appeared out of the bank of fog, steaming out to sea.

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“That’s the ferry, do you want to wait for tomorrow?” Flynn said to Lewis.

“Not if I can help it, do I have a choice?” Lewis answered.

“Let’s try!” Flynn replied, digging in with the oars and leaning back so he could pull harder.

The ferry was two hundred yards away when Victor started signaling, Flynn was picking up speed, trying to intercept her course. A whistle sounded loud and clear, and a great clank was heard across the water. The engines started to rumble and the steam increased as the ships propellers went to full reverse. When they were closer a sailor tossed them a rope, which Captain Flynn tied to the prow. The lifeboat suddenly changed direction as the rope yanked it onto a course which was bringing it closer and closer to the wake. Then the ride became very rough as the little boat bounced off the side of the ship repeatedly. A man on deck threw a ladder down and Victor climbed up. He talked to the sailors for a few minutes, and then motioned for the others to follow. Lewis and Fink climbed the ladder, waving goodbye to Captain Flynn as they reached the deck. Flynn untied the rope and fell back quickly. Melissa held on with one hand and waved at them with the other as the boat slipped around the ferry, rocking in the wake until it was out of sight. Lewis turned to look at the folks that were gathering on the deck, there were probably twenty in all. He saw that about half of them wore the brown uniforms of the defender’s navy, three officers strode forward. Lewis dug in his pocket for his papers, which he presented to the major at the front of the group. All was still while the major read Lewis’ letter from Sir Trun, then shuffled through the others.

“I’m Major Ryan. This is Lieutenant Chase and Lieutenant Junior Grade Breece. Chase is the C.O. of this ship and Breece is X.O.,” the major said. “What brings you into possession of one of our naval officers?”

Lewis told the story of what happened when he returned to Port Mist. They listened impassively, and when he was finished, Lieutenant Chase told them that breakfast was being served below decks if they were hungry.

They sat next to a middle aged couple from Fort Dillson. The man said that they were returning from a trip to visit their son, who was based in Dontil. His wife commented on the tension in Port Mist.

“I don’t think they feed their children well enough,” she added, with a profoundly sad expression.

Lewis met Major Ryan on the deck later that morning and they sat in deck chairs, looking out over the rail until Ryan spoke. “What business do you have in Fort Dillson?” he asked.

“I’m supposed to meet my team in Landee.” Lewis told him.

“So you are going to take the train to Far Side?” Ryan queried.

“That’s the theory,” Lewis answered.

Ryan told him about the train, in fact he told Lewis many things, for about four hours. Lewis volunteered very little information, mostly he listened. By the time they retired to lunch Lewis knew where Ryan lived and his chain of command, as well as a good many juicy gossip items about high society among the defenders.

After lunch Lewis sat on the deck and wrote down everything he could remember from the conversation. The ferry had a huge common room where the passengers slept on the floor. Lewis and company joined them until the X.O. came and loudly announced that they had arrived in Fort Dillson.