Ingrid woke up after an uneasy night of periodic and unwelcome weightlessness. Ashe was standing in the corner, watching her.

"Are you watching me sleep?" Ingrid asked with a groan.

"Is that a problem?" Ashe said. "Vaska is not here doing naughty things."

"It's just like having a pet. Never mind."

She released the straps that held her tight against her bed, doffed her shift and hopped into the shower. Water flowed normally and fell down, although somewhat slowly. After she had showered and dressed herself in a pilot's uniform, the gravity on the airship began to weaken. Outside her room, she leashed herself to the new lifelines that have been installed all over the airship, and began the awkward journey toward the deck.

The Blade of Empire slowly ascended through the conduit of air between two little planets. Gravity seemed to be reduced near and inside the conduit, allowing the airship to float between the planets using its many propellers. The planet ahead was completely covered in ocean, and the planet behind was covered in dark purple and green swamps and jungle. The fighter jets on the deck needed to be tied down with chains to prevent them from drifting away during the gravity inversion in the center of the conduit. In fact, everything on the airship needed to be tied down or stowed. On the first day, the airship could not travel through conduits while the crew was sleeping. On the second day, the crew members had installed straps on all the beds to prevent them from floating away at night.

The hallways near the exit to the deck were packed with soldiers strapped to the wall. The sky outside was slowly rotating, bringing into view hundreds of little planets in the space above the airship. There was a large planet in the center of this universe, white and lined with countless long fractures, as if the planet was covered in ice. Ingrid regarded it through a nearby porthole.

"The Queen of Heaven must be there," Ashe said from Ingrid's shoulder. "If she had her palace on the upper pole, she could see all of the little planets she made. That's where I would build a palace."

The rotation also brought the rest of the fleet into view. Half a dozen other airships had already completed the inversion and were already descending ahead, while the rest of the fleet loomed in the conduit behind.

The rotation finished, and the ocean planet vanished from view. Gravity began to increase once more, which aided in the descent. Gravity slowly accelerated toward being normal. In just a few minutes the airmen in the hallways settled down on the ground and unhitched themselves from the lifelines. Ingrid followed them out onto the deck.

One pack of about twenty airmen bounced around on the deck toward a Falling Leaf with clean wings parked near the edge. The pilot leapt all the way up to the cabin and began strapping himself in. As soon as the cabin was locked, the airmen lifted the fighter jet off the deck with a coordinated heave, and casually tossed it over the side. Then they started patting each other on the back and laughing. One soldier ran up to her.

"Lady Ghost! Did you see?" the man asked.

"You... threw a seven-thousand pound fighter jet over the edge."

"Yes! With this gravity, we thought it might be possible. The first fighter jet to ever take off that way! We've made history!"

When Ingrid found her own Burning Leaf fighter she began to envy those men. It was parked in a corner trapped behind a triangle of other fighters. The kitchens could not cook food through the inversion, so dozens of other pilots sat around on the deck snacking on military rations as they waited.

A guardian has come, the High Daughter of Heaven said in Ingrid's mind. Ingrid snapped her head around in the sky to search for it.

Soldiers claimed to have seen one before. Giant humanoids, similar in size to the ones found in the Plane of Metal, except made entirely out of stars connected by thin blue lines, like a living constellation. One of them came into view from below, passing through the space between the ocean and purplish swamp planets, outside the conduit.

The guardian warns us that there are other humans in the ocean world ahead, the High Daughter said. They may seek to ambush us.

Ingrid sprinted across the deck to find the Air Sergeant. She was standing by the pack of soldiers who had thrown the fighter jet overboard. "I am docking your pay for the next two weeks on account of your lack of professionalism and airmanship."

"Sergeant!" Ingrid gasped. "Enemies may be hiding on the next planet. The guardian told me!" She pointed to the living constellation floating in the sky. "We need to tell the Admiral!"

"Affirmative," the woman said. She pulled a yellow-metallic crystal out of her pack, summoned a Colored Orb, and relayed the information to the Captain of the Fleet. After a brief pause the lights on the command tower began to flash constantly, and the air was filled with the sound of sirens.

"This is not a drill, all scouts prepare to scramble. This is not a drill..."

The scouts with Falling Leaf fighters took off first. They simply rolled off the side of the runway and used thrust vectoring to pitch the nose down. Ingrid returned to her own fighter jet. "High Daughter of the Queen of Stone!" she said. "How much weight can a Stone Elemental lift?"

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

About five thousand pounds of weight according to your understanding, the High Daughter replied.

"I think I know what you are planning," Ashe said. "You are going to make that woman angry. I approve of this plan."

"Spirit! Fortify me against the demands of the Elementals! High Daughter of Stone, allow me to summon four Stone Elementals!"

The four golems appeared behind her, near the absolute edge of the deck, away from the fighters. Like stacks of rock shaped into a humanoid form, they were a bit lopsided with one arm longer and thicker than the others. They only had a slight impression of being feminine in shape.

"Lift me up into my fighter!" she commanded. One of the Elementals held out its long hand and Ingrid stepped onto it. It slowly moved her up to the canopy. She rapidly summoned Fire, Water, Life, and Air elementals as she strapped herself in and locked the canopy.

"High Daughter of Metal! Allow me to summon a Metal Elemental to preserve the shape of the fuselage! High Daughter of Lightning! Allow me to summon Colored Orbs for communication, stability, and radar! Stone Elementals, gently lift me above the deck!"

Her fighter began to rise vertically slightly. She pulled the landing gear up and waited for it to lock. The thrust was at idle, and the fighter did not move.

"Throw me backwards off the edge of the airship!" she commanded. The three fighter jets in front of her began to move forward according to her perception. She looked up and saw the deck below her moving as well. Suddenly she was thrown backwards over the edge.

"Stone! I dismiss you! Metal, I dismiss you!"

"That was well done," Ashe mused from her shoulder. "You need to get practice using all of your bonds."

Ingrid cleared the airship and was in freefall, but not in a flat spin. She pushed down on the stick and pushed the throttle forward to full. Thrust vectoring brought the nose down and airspeed rapidly began to increase.

"This is Blade Tower, Ingrid you were not cleared for takeoff."

"Noted," she replied.

The six other airships were below, and one of them had already reached the dense air near the surface of the ocean world. Ingrid flew near the edge of the conduit, away from the scouts that were scrambling to leave the decks of the airships. It only took a few minutes to fly to the end of the conduit and level off, with her nose pointed at the horizon of the little planet. Dozens of other fighter jets were swarming around through the sky, scouts searching for the enemy.

"The sky is clear," the scout commander reported. "No radar contacts."

Ingrid followed near a diamond formation of four scouts as they circled the entire planet searching for radar contacts. It took about an hour, and Ingrid took in the view of the other little planets nearby, the stars, and the Queen's massive iceball planet far above. By the time they returned to the fleet, seven ships had completed the descent and were now arrayed over the ocean. Fighter jets swarmed through the sky.

"High Daughter of Heaven," Ingrid said. "Can you ask the guardian exactly where the enemies are?"

She is very confused. You are very close to the enemies, and yet you do not see them. Why?

Ingrid looked around. The sky was empty except for friendly fighters and airships. The ocean was mostly flat, and somewhat clear. She rolled over and craned her neck back to look straight down at the ocean. Very faint, somewhat dark, and extremely dark ovals hid below the surface. Ingrid squinted, and felt a chill. Some sort of new technology? No... but that chill she felt would not go away. She activated her emergency communicator with the Admiral.

"Admiral, I think I see long, dark ovals under the ocean."

"I will relay this information to the Captain of the Fleet," Admiral Oleg replied.

She continued to fly inverted, the straps of her harness pressing hard against her shoulders. Ahead, directly below the lead airship, a dark shape pierced the surface of the water. A black, metallic tower, a very long deck, and rapidly-opening doors near the edges. Flashes of light appeared on deck as the water poured away, and more flashes appeared on the edges. Dozens, no hundreds of missiles began to fly up into the sky from the ocean, directly at the airship. Ingrid closed her eyes just before impact.

"Taking hits! We are under attack!"

Fighter jets began to form up and drop into nose-dives. The lights on the deck grew brighter as dozens of enemy fighter jets rushed down the "runway" on the top of the dark boat and took to the skies.

"Contacts! Enemy fighter jets, taking off from the deck of the boat!"

In the three mirrors over her head, Ingrid could see more dark shapes emerging from underwater. More missiles fired, and more fighter jets began to take off. She rolled upright and began searching for targets.

"No, let them do their job!" Ashe said.

"Well what am I supposed to do then?" Ingrid snapped. Her heart was racing, and her breath was unsteady. That chill she felt, it was still there. Stronger even.

"Find one that is just emerging! Get close, use Titania to blow up any Fire Elementals inside and on the deck! Once they have already emerged and launched their missiles, then the damage is already done. The bombers will take care of them, as will the other fighters."

"That... is a good idea," she admitted. A rapid turn brought more dark shapes into view, just below the surface. She pitched the nose down and entered into a nose-dive, pulling up just feet above the smooth, glassy surface of the water. Thank you, Natasha. It was not just teamwork that I needed to learn, but precision. The precision to do this.

Another of those boats began to break the surface of the water. Ingrid pointed the nose towards it and pulled up on the stick slightly, pulling herself clear of the height of the fighter jets on the deck. Water was pouring out of the air intake ports even as she rushed towards them. The doors on the sides began to open.

"Titania! Bind any contracts inside this vessel, and immediately detonate any Fire Elementals!"

It shall be done, Titania replied.

As she skimmed over the surface of the deck, just barely high enough to avoid impacting the fighter jets, she saw soldiers wearing some type of slick, rubbery gear helmets, cutting ropes that held the fighter jets to the deck of the ship. Water was pouring out of the engine exhaust ports even as the fires began to glow within. Those fighters began to explode.

Ingrid rushed past the dark tower at the end of the boat, out onto the open water. Behind her, the entire boat erupted like a volcano, splitting clean into two parts under the base of the tower and causing more explosions to appear out of the open doors.

"The Ghost! The Ghost just destroyed an entire boat!"

"Good kill! Good kill!"

She skimmed the water once again, searching around for more boats to surface. A dark shape appeared just below her and in front, far too close to react. The dark tower shattered the surface, launching a massive wave of water directly into Ingrid's nose.

IT HURTS! THE WATER HURTS! The Fire Elementals in her engine began to scream. She lost power, just a few feet over the water, and the engine made a whirring sound as it spooled down.

"Metal!" she cried, just a few feet above the water. "Fortify this craft against impact! Life! Protect me from the forces of impact!"

Just in time.

The nose smashed into the water and the cabin went dark.