‘What’s that noise?’ said Maggie.

They sat on the cart holding The Jupiter and gnawed at some hard solid cakes that reminded Jupiter of a dog biscuit. He had tried squeezing some fruit juice over to soften them, but it did not much help.

‘How do they eat these things? They must have jaws like vices.’

‘Shhh. There it is again.’ Maggie placed her hand on Jupiter’s arm. That bemused him, but he did listen. ‘It’s somewhere over the city…

‘Can’t hear… ‘ He froze. ‘Come on. Let’s see if we can see where it is coming from.’

They scrambled down and entered the dim gatehouse. Jupiter led Maggie up some creaking stairs, steep and offset like all manisaurs stairs Jupiter found it hard to climb up fast.

The old gatehouse had served as both living quarters, and lookout for the owner of the warehouse court. But now it smelled musty, the lower level had been converted to moasaur stables, though there were none there now. The distinctive sweet musky smell was not unpleasant but Jupiter found it overpowering at first.

Maggie coughed as he kicked up dust. ‘Sorry,’ he said.

‘I know, it’s just that your feet are in my face.’

‘You’d rather go first?’

‘No. This place is creepy.’ Maggie let out a snort to clear her nose. ‘I’ll let you find any monsters first.

Jupiter kept on up the stair at the next landing, and the next, until he reach the top floor. A pyramid shaped roof let onto four balconies behind barred vented double doors on each of four sides. He paused a minute to get his bearings.

‘This way.’ Maggie tugged at the closing bars on the doors and together they pulled it off. Once they stepped outside onto the balcony the fresher air felt like a tonic. They breathed deep of strange scents on the night air.

‘All this rush for nothing.’ Maggie sneezed.

‘What? You don’t like the view?’

Jupiter felt the claustrophobia of the courtyard release, replaced by this vantage over the city under a velvet sky strewn with bright stars. He held his breath. The droning noise came from up the slope, towards the mountains. Following on from the first sound, before it even ended, a second drone overran it. Then another until it sighed away and only an echo remained.

The continuous hubbub of harbour noise from Narushkam underlay the fading echo.

‘It’s like some weird deep voiced cow,’ said Jupiter. ‘You think it might be those huge farm animals we saw… above the city.’

‘Shh.’ Maggie poked him in the ribs.

‘What? Mystery solved I reckon.’

‘Look.’ Maggie pointed beyond the city to the stars low on the horizon. ‘I saw a star twinkling… but it can’t be a star. It seemed too regular.’

‘Where?’ Jupiter stood next to Maggie, his shoulder pressing against hers.

‘Above that spire, you see the line of the hills.’

‘One of the houses up there?’

‘No in the sky. There it is.’

Jupiter stared at the flash, and then a little to the side of it, where he knew his night vision sensed a little better in the corner of his eye. He focus his mind on that patch.

‘I see it.’ Jupiter focussed on it trying to work out what it might be.

‘What do you think it is?’ Maggie turned to him. Her whisper made it seem like they had discovered a secret.

‘It’s high enough in the sky to be a skyship.’ Jupiter shaded his eyes from the light of the port. ‘Might be just navigation lights.’

‘What?’

‘Ships… and airplanes, have flashing lights to signal their presence. Nothing remarkable in that.’

On tiptoes, Maggie craned her neck to stare at the city. ’None of the other skyships have those lights.’

‘They’re not moving.’

Maggie slipped along the balcony. It ran along three sides of the top of the gatehouse, like a lookout tower.

Jupiter caught up with Maggie. ‘What are you looking for?’ he said.

‘Who do you think are they signaling?’

‘This is all very James Bond.’

‘What… Who?’

‘Spies, and secret agents…’

‘Spies? We were told to keep a lookout for suspicious activity… back home. In Christchurch. In case the Japanese were invading.’

‘This is not a war.’

‘Isn’t it?’ She pointed. ‘There. To the left.’

Jupiter followed the dim outline of her arm and finger, then slid close to her again to match her viewpoint. He saw nothing at first, then just a flash. He reversed his gaze back to the city, and saw… A double flash, some colors, and then a more complicated flickering.

‘The manisaurs use signals like that,’ Maggie said. ‘We saw that when we entered the port.’

‘So. This is real strange.’ Jupiter sat down and studied Maggie. ‘But why are you so interested?’

‘Something flies from the hills, at night. These flashing lights. With the rebel attack tomorrow.’

‘Could be. Could be nothing too.’ Jupiter sat on the edge of the balcony and dangled his legs as he leaned on the bottom timber of the rail. He gnawed at his dog biscuit. ‘Nice place to sit though.’

‘Back home in Christchurch, especially when we’re at the beach… we keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Ships in the night, flashing morse code signals… just this sort of thing.’

‘How do you know morse code so well?’ Jupiter said. They had practiced together, but now he wondered at how good she had got.

‘We have to learn morse at school. It’s fun… like a secret way to talk to people. You can tap it out… but some of us flash our hands out. Open for long, closed for short… that sort of thing.’

Jupiter tried using his hand for flashing. They had used taps on a log before, and once blocking and unblocking a small flame. ‘Sure. All very interesting, except in the future no one will know it.’

‘But it is useful now. We need to practice it.’

‘Sure.’ Jupiter nodded. He suspected that Maggie liked being the expert for once, to be the teacher and he the student. He was younger than her, even if he sort of through of her as someone to protect.

Maggie and Jupiter spent then next half an our practicing their simple morse code signals until Jupiter grew tired. ‘Maybe it will be useful.’

‘It will be.’ Maggie insisted. ‘They seem to use a similar signal system here, but with colors. They may be used to it with the aura thing how their faces change color so fast.’ She paused. ‘Morse code is good for us. There’s no way we’ll learn their complicated system anytime soon.’

Jupiter shrugged not willing to talk further. He closed his eyes and they both fell silent a while. But Maggie stood and searched for the lights in the sky. A little while later she gasped. ‘Jupiter… there’s something else.’ Maggie toed him with her foot. ‘I can see the skyship now. The one with the flashing lights. It’s being towed.’

‘How can you tell?’

She said nothing, just pointed. Jupiter stood next to her and followed her gaze.

The shadow of the skyship blocked out a part of the sky, under it a light flickered as if in reply. Then came the deep bass note droning. ‘It’s one or more of those huge beasts,’ said Maggie. ‘I think… perhaps one of them is dragging a skyship down from the hills.’

‘So. Maybe they always do that.’ Jupiter yawned and moved back to his place on the balcony out.

‘Where is the wind coming from?’ Maggie moved about about to gauge the direction.

‘Yeah. There’s no wind,’ said Jupiter. ‘Explains why it is so hot.’

‘Why would the trade winds fail just now?’ Maggie said.

‘Perhaps a storm is coming…’ Jupiter fell silent. ‘Wait. What does that mean for the rebel attack?’ He stood in a rush.

‘Or it could be a skyship just coming into port in the calm and this is what they always do.’ Maggie moved to the western side, where the skyship flew, towards the sounds of lowing beasts that perhaps towed it.

‘We have no idea.’ Jupiter stepped next to Maggie and held his hand to the air. ‘But the storm… I think there is a storm brewing. If the rebels know about it they might bring their attack up.’

‘And the navy will know it too.’ Maggie turned her gaze to the east. ‘Can you see anything happening in the docks?’

Jupiter moved to the far end of the balcony above the the roadway. ‘Hard to see the navy docks from here. Not as good a viewpoint as further up the road.’

The clatter of many feet echoed along the road. Jupiter saw a pair of moasaurs come at a jog come into view from around a corner. They moved in a hurry up the road from the docks, fast enough that a moasaur stumbled, but regained its footing on the rutted cobbled roadbed. The animals stopped at the gate to their warehouse court, someone pounded on the knocker. The sole remaining manisaur, a sort of nightwatchman, wandered out to investigate.

Jupiter could not catch the words, but it seemed like an argument. Maybe about whether the arrivals could get in.

‘Come on. Let’s find out what’s happening.’

Just as they entered the dark of the gatehouse interior a shadow jumped out with a squawk and shoved Jupiter to the side.

Maggie cried out.

‘It’s okay. Just Breeze,’ said Jupiter. ‘You’ve got great timing dude. What’s up?’

‘Come… now… quick quick.’

‘Yeah sure. Hurry up and wait… and then it’s all rush rush…’ Breeze pulled at Jupiter. ‘Coming coming…’ Jupiter picked his way down the stairs, uneasy in the darkness. Maggie kept close behind. He held his mouth closed to the dust she kicked up.

Out in the courtyard the gateway had been opened and two moasaurs led in. The warehouse nightwatchman protested.

‘What’s happening? Who are you?’ Maggie said.

The newly arrived manisaur turned to her. Smaller than the other manisaurs they had seen, it seemed all arms and legs and long ankles. In the dark they could not see the face but Jupiter could see enough to tell the auras flickered in rapid shifts… but there was not enough light to get any real sense of understanding like he had from other manisaurs.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

‘Hey. Slow down,’ Jupiter said.

‘You come with me now. With your cart, and your boat.’

‘And why? And who are you? And…’

‘I’m Ashayuvara. Clan Upariha. Come with me now.’

‘Ashyavar…’ Jupiter tried the name but gave up. ‘Who sent you?’

‘Tharumiyo, Trium Thalaqvaruk…’ The young manisaur warbled a complicated sequence, almost a song. But Jupiter still heard the meaning, the names, under it all.

‘That’s the old bird,’ said Maggie.

Ashayuvara stopped his flow of sounds. ‘Old…’

‘Never mind him…’ said Maggie. ‘Tharumiyo. What does he want?’

‘The human… Qhawana… asked me to bring you to him. And your boat,’ Ashayuvara bobbed his body while his head remained steady. ‘Tharumiyo commands it.’

‘Chaos. I’m not surprised though.’ Jupiter now helped Ashayuvara move the moasaurs into position at the front of the cart. ’Qhawana must have warned them.’

‘And that skyship?’ Maggie bundled up the last of the dog biscuits. Jupiter would have left them… or fed them to the moasaurs.

‘Probably nothing.’ He watched the young manisaur finish fixing the moasaurs into the last straps and get into the cart that held The Jupiter.

Maggie climbed in beside the manisaur to Ashayuvara’s wonder. ‘Seems madness to flash your light like morse code when attacking a city,’ Maggie said. The cart moved off out the gate.

Jupiter nodded his thanks to the old night watch manisaur who bobbled his body in reply. Jupiter had once more pushed the kheel onto his back when Breeze tugged at him. ‘Yes, yes. Coming.’ He strode through the gate after the trundling cart.

‘Come quick…’ Breeze gave a little warbling twitter that ended in a burp.

‘Nice. Is that fart sound your attempt at my name then?’

‘Yes… warble… twitter… burp…’

‘I thought so.’ Jupiter squeezed the imps hand. ‘Nice to see you again too frog face.’

Breeze made a squawk and climbed up Jupiter’s arms until he stood on the boy’s shoulders then pounded on his head in a quick staccato beat. ‘Ouch… ease up there,’ Jupiter protested.

‘Breeze…’ The imp gave a sighing whisper similar to the English name.

‘Sorry dude.’ The imp slipped to the ground and dragged him on even faster. ‘I’ll only call you Breeze from now on… at least in your hearing.’

The imp gave another sound a lot like a fart, then pounded away down the road. Jupiter jogged after him. The cart too sped up and rattled along at Jupiter’s heels. He just hoped The Jupiter would not be damaged by the rough treatment.

‘Faster, or we will miss all the action,’ Ashayuvara the young manisaur urged the team of moasaurs pulling The Jupiter.

‘Ashabarayu…’ Maggie said.

‘What?’ the manisaur said. ‘What did you say?’

Jupiter jumped up and onto the cart, then stood on the cart bed as if on the deck of a moving ship. A especially violent sway made him stumble and he reached out for the hull of The Jupiter. He found a place in the cart bed behind Maggie.

‘Your name?’

‘My name? Hopeful Growth.’

‘Oh. Somehow I heard. Ashayaba or something.’

‘Yeah. Me too…’ said Jupiter. ‘It must be the local language. It’s connecting the human language with the manisaur’s squawks somehow. But I’m not going to call him that weird English name.’

‘Ashe,’ Maggie said.

The manisaur cocked his head, then whipped his eyes back to the road as the moasaurs veered wide at the turn.

Once back on track the manisaur stared at her. His aura flashed. And then — ‘Hope. Yes some call me that.’

‘Where are we going… Ashe.’

‘To the battle… the raid. I would be at the raid now except for you.’

‘We thought the rebels would attack tomorrow.’

‘A storm is coming. Can’t you feel the wind?’

‘This crazy…’ The cart lurched, ‘…ride confuses the direction of the wind.’

‘The night air has stilled. The calm…’

‘Before the storm. Yes.’ Jupiter pulled his legs to his chest and braced himself.

‘The trade winds have dropped as the cyclone approaches.’

‘That explains…’ Maggie began.

‘Oh no.’ Ashe pointed. A skyship loomed above them, lower and trailing long ropes. ‘We’re close, but not close enough. We’re going to be too late.’

‘Is that one of the rebel…’

‘That is the rebel skyship. We’ve just got the one.’ Ashe urged the moasaurs on faster, but instead they slowed as the slope steepened.

Jupiter realized the skyship had not come lower. Instead the road the cart rushed along on had wound higher.

‘We’re not going fast enough.’ Jupiter climbed onto the hull of The Jupiter and slipped the kheel from his back. He worked to get the disk axle installed back into the mounting.

‘I should never have agreed to take this off,’ he said. He unthreaded the axle from the shackle key’s cord and tried to align everything and slot it home. But the rattling of the cart made it impossible. ‘Slow down won’t you.’

‘Slow? We need to go faster,’ Ashe said. ‘Why did I have to get you?’

‘Ashe… Stop. Please.’

‘You’re trying to slow me down on purpose.’ Ashe flicked the reins onto the back of the moasaurs to speed them on.

Jupiter glanced up. ‘Maggie. I can’t do it.’

‘What are you trying to do?’

‘If I can get the kheel spun up it will lighten the load…’

Out of the corner of Jupiter’s vision a shadow landed on the back of one of the moasaurs. The bird-like dinosaur-creature staggered and crashed into it’s team mate. The violent heave almost tossed Jupiter from the cart. The moasaurs pulled up to a stop.

‘Breeze,’ cried Maggie.

‘Get off. Crazy beast.’ Ashe raised his whip to flick at Breeze when Maggie grabbed it from them. ‘Saboteurs,’ Ashe cried. ‘You are the enemy after all.’ Ashe freed themself from Maggie’s grip and raised his arm to whip… but Breeze had gone.

Jupiter slotted the axle into place and spun the kheel to test it. He noticed it throbbed a little brighter as it spun, he felt it in his chest. The cart rocked forward again and Jupiter fell into the bottom of the boat with a thump.

‘Hey, Ashe,’ Jupiter shouted. ‘Take it easy.’

‘Easy? Saboteurs. Why… should it be… easy?’ The young manisaur whipped the moasaurs forward but they strained to get moving up the slope.

Jupiter spun up the kheel as fast as he could. His hand slapped the woven casing of the kheel and he wished then for a better way to speed up the spin. There was a limit to how fast a hand could make the kheel turn.

‘If I could make a gear and chain and some pedals…’ He thought of the America’s Cup boat the Kiwis had built with the cycle to pump the hydraulic activators, versus the Americans with hand grinders. ‘Who knows what we could do with the kheel spinning fast enough?’ Breeze jumped beside him.

‘Catch the beast,’ yelled Ashe. ‘That evil creature attacked my pull-animals.’ Ashe made a rapid untranslatable twittering warble — Breeze replied with a farting noise.’

‘Breeze is on our side,’ said Maggie.

‘Yours? Not mine.’ Ashe said. ‘It’s an imp then. Push it off the cart.’

Breeze joined Jupiter in spinning the kheel. But soon Jupiter realized the imp could spin the kheel faster than he could. Jupiter stepped from the hull and tested its weight. The cart bounced over a rut and The Jupiter jumped higher, then down as it hit the cart with a thump. As the cart rose once more the hull’s jounced even harder.

‘Ouch,’ said Maggie.

But the moasaurs were moving faster now the weight had lessened.

Jupiter tied the hull down tight to the cart as best he could while they rocked along. The cart got to the top of the slope where the docks were visible once more. Everything remained quiet.

With the hull of The Jupiter tied to the cart, and with Breeze’s frantic spinning, the cart bounced more, but slower. The kheel lifted the cart, making it lighter, but the inertia dampened their movements. The cart rode easier.

‘What a team!’ Ashe cried out to his moasaurs. ‘We’re almost flying down.’

‘I hate to tell you,’ said Maggie. ‘But in a way… we are…’

The cart’s movements were slow and languid, the wheel almost not touching the road except where the bumps were highest.

‘Jupiter…’ said Maggie. ‘There’s a corner. Don’t you think we should slow down?’

The moasaurs went one direction but the cart and The Jupiter just kept going. The cart spun, pulled to the side by the moasaurs turn, the cart slid sideways across the corner, hit the rutted cobbles, and crashed into the side of a building. Maggie cried out, Jupiter tumbled out of the hull onto the outrigger platform, and would have fallen to the ground but for Breeze who grabbed his arm.

‘Thanks frog face,’ said Jupiter. Breeze just made a fart sound, and pulled him in to a hug. ‘Yes, yes… I’m fine.’ Jupiter pulled himself back to the kheel and gave it a big spin.

‘Jupiter.’ Maggie pulled at his arm until his gaze followed where she pointed.

The rebel skyship’s drift had slowed, one of the dangling ropes had snagged on the roof of one of the buildings. A swarm of manisaurs had swung down to free it. With a bang the rope broke away above them. The manisaurs fell to the roof top, while the skyship drifted on.

‘Someone cut the rope,’ said Jupiter.

‘They must be desperate.’

The cart’s bounces became higher and the leaps longer. Ashe looked back and Jupiter could almost imagine his confusion. He made a snap decision. ‘Maggs, come help me. I want to put the mast up again.’

‘You what?’

‘If we have to get away, I want to be ready to go once we reach water.’

‘But what if we have to pass under a bridge… or a archway?’

‘We’ll get to that… um bridge…’

‘Oh shut it,’ said Maggie. She and Jupiter wobbled the mast upright, one hand on the hull as they swayed along, one on the mast. Maggie braced herself as she held the mast for Jupiter to do the final tightening.

‘And now the sail.’ Jupiter clipped the boom into position and tugged at the halyard rope.

‘You’re crazy.’ Maggie said but she joined him at the mast.

Ashe thought so too. The manisaur burbled away incoherent for a while but Jupiter understood the gist. He and Maggie were crazy saboteurs bent on delaying him returning to save the rebel attack.

They rounded a corner and almost ran down a group of five manisaurs on the road. Instead of stepping to the side, the troupe piled onto the cart, and a big manisaur, almost the size of a gorilla, slid next to Ashe.

‘Get off,’ the big manisaur said. He pushed at Ashe.

But Ashe did not budge. ‘I saw that. You fell from the skyship?’

‘What of it?’ The big manisaur shoved at Maggie, she staggered, but caught herself before she fell into the cart bed.

‘They cut you loose did they? I am Ashayuvara. Stick with me. I’ll get you to Vanukam,’

‘What makes you think we’re going there?’ The deep gruff booming sounds made by the largest of the manisaurs were an octave lower than any Jupiter had heard before.

‘We are clan Upariha,’ said Ashe. ‘And fight for the rebellion.’

‘Oh, one of those are you?’ The manisaur crew laughed.

At first Jupiter thought they would be thrown off. But the big manisaur clapped Ashe on the back. ‘Drive on. And you…’ he motioned to his crew. The cart rocked into motion as Ashe cracked his whip. ‘Get this big thing off the cart, it will slow us down.’

‘No,’ yelled Maggie. She pushed the big manisaur. Shock flashed on the big one’s face. ‘It’s needed…’ Maggie shoved him again. ‘For the rebellion.’

‘It’s a secret weapon.’ Jupiter joined Maggie in fronting up to the new arrivals. He sprawled over the outrigger platform as if protecting it.

‘It’s a what?’ the big manisaur laughed, his aura flashes visible even in the low light. ‘That’s no weapon. Is that a boat? We have big ones… that fly.’

‘And so does The Jupiter.’ Maggie stood and her eyes almost flashed as she stared down the crew. The effect was almost ruined when she wobbled in the swaying motion of the cart. Instead the manisaurs ducked away a little, perhaps thinking she readied for attack.

Then the manisaurs laughed as they realized their mistake, and shoved once more at The Jupiter trying to dislodge it.

’Stop.’ Maggie pushed hard at the nearest manisaur. He staggered and swung to face her, anger flashing on his aura.

The big manisaur turned and saw Breeze for the first time. ‘An imp! What evil are you brewing up Aramqhami… agent of fate?’

A large bump made the cart jump and The Jupiter rose higher than usual. Jupiter felt himself almost airborne. The crew let out startled whistles and twitters.

‘Maggs. Get up here. Help me get the sail up.’ Jupiter braced himself and readied to pull the sail up the mast while Maggie climbed next to him, and lifted the boom clear of the hull.

The manisaurs had taken notice now paid no attention to the road and instead stared in wonder at the strange craft they rode with.

‘They’re not going to make it,’ the big manisaur said. All fight had gone out of the invading crew as they stared off to the distance.

‘Who’s not?’ Jupiter turned to follow their gaze.

‘Our crew mates. But the skyship is drifting. We had a tow from a team of gharumal. But the beasts slipped the tow rope somehow. With the storm coming there is no time.’

‘What can we do?’ said Ashe.

‘Unless you can fly… not much.’ The big manisaur sounded deflated now. He slumped on the cart next to his crew mates.

‘Well now that you mention it…’ said Jupiter. ‘We could…’

‘Do what?’ said Ashe. ‘Help?’ He gave the big manisaur a shove. The flash of aura directed at the young manisaur shocked even Jupiter but Ashe just raised his face and directed a blast back at the manisaur leader.

The warbling susurration Jupiter interpreted as a laugh. Then the rest of the crew joined in — even Breeze.

‘Well said youngling,’ the big manisaur said. ‘The flight-works. That is where our action is best directed.’

‘Then that is where we shall go. I am Ashe… Hope.’

‘And I am Ganarasha… the Hammer’s head.’

Jupiter had the doubled sense of both Ganarasha, and the meaning, overlaid with the guttural boom of the sound the big manisaur made.

‘But everyone just calls him Gan,’ the manisaur nearest to Jupiter said. A muted harumph came from another manisaur and Jupiter sensed amusement.

‘Gan…’ said Maggie. ’Iron.’

The connexion sense did not work without error… but Jupiter sensed the crew did not want their leader to know what they had said.

‘Get that thing off the cart,’ Gan roared.

Jupiter wondered what the crew muttered, and what amused them. A joke lay there somewhere in the manisaur’s name.

Gan directed a blast from his aura at his crew mates. ‘We will head for the shore and somehow get a vessel to the flight-works, or all is lost.’

Maggie caught Jupiter’s eye, and even without the aid of an aura he knew what idea she had before she voiced it.

‘But we’re meant to go meet with our friend,’ she said. ‘Qhawana.’

‘That Upariha human? You would do well to stick with us human,’ Gan boomed. ‘Old Bamrushi likes your sort.’

The crew laughed in their burbling manner. But Jupiter caught the name. ‘Bamrushi? Bergwash? He is with you?’

‘He was. Not so much now. But he will be again. That’s why there is a rebellion after all,’ Gan said. ‘A true leader is with us.’ He paused and eyed The Jupiter. ‘Now, crewmen. Get that thing off the cart. We have no time to waste.’

The crew began to cut the ropes Jupiter had used to tie the outrigger to the cart. The rope tension made the cords ping and fling the ends with a snap. The motion of the cart changed, Jupiter jumped onto the hull, Maggie huddled in the centre near the kheel. With one last bump the crew shoved The Jupiter back and off.

But Breeze had spun up the kheel to a whirring throbbing blur. But instead of falling back The Jupiter slid to the side, nosed up, and as the cart sped away down the slope The Jupiter flew alongside it. Jupiter heard the manisaurs erupt in an explosion of commotion as The Jupiter gathered speed and flew off.

‘Spin faster Breeze,’ Maggie said. ‘As fast as you can.’

Jupiter sheeted the sail in tight, hand tight against his chest, even in the almost still air the wind of their fall down the slope gave enough forward motion to fill the sail, start them off. Jupiter felt the beat within his chest. Under his hand the throb seemed to come from his pounamu niho necklace. Or the talisman. Or both. He had no time to wonder as he tried to keep the outrigger sailing.

He leaned back and forth in a jerking movement, their wind speed mounted, the nose rose, and they gained some height. The breath of wind increased, and so their speed. They began to outpace the cart as their speed mounted.

The crew squawked in surprise.

‘Now. This is flying,’ cried Jupiter.

‘What were you saying Gan?’ Maggie shouted to the stunned crew on the cart below. ‘We’re not the soft ones.’

The crew whooped and laughed in reply as they gazed up at the boat above them. It took a heartbeat — then Jupiter got the joke too. Gan stood up and roared with manisaur laughter along with his crew.

Gan meant iron. But Jupiter knew ang meant soft — the reverse of iron. Maggie had been quicker to understand the crew’s joke.

But Jupiter did not listen any more. Breeze’s cries had become deafening and he now leapt into Jupiter’s lap for his attention. And he had got it. The Jupiter headed straight for one of small outer pylons at the edge of the docks, but the wind had dropped away.

They were about to crash. Hard.

Jupiter had one thought before they hit — ‘I wish we had SailGP crash helmets.’