The skyship crew swung The Jupiter up close to the underside of the hull. Manisaurs hung from ropes and netting under the curving wooden hull. They slung more ropes around the outrigger, but the mast caused them some difficulty and Jupiter could see them arguing about how best to proceed.

Glowglobes hung beneath the hull made the sheets of falling rain glow in streamers of gold while thunder boomed between flashes of lighting. Rain poured from the scuppers of the skyship in long rivulets that arced into the dark of night either side of the hull. Jupiter saw glimpse of the skyship as an unsteady roof hung over the black void below. Wind flurries and swirls of biting rain blasted Jupiter from all directions. But it could have been worse. The huge skyship flew fast, pushed at the speed of the wind which reduced the apparent wind and sapped its energy. But wild whistling roars thrummed through him as the skyship screeched and vibrated like a frightened animal shaken and pulled like prey about to be devoured.

The crew hauled him up by a rope under his arms. Then untied and released from him the mainsheet that had saved him earlier. He swung suspended in space. The raging sea far below, lit by flashes of lightning often enough to remind him how very high they now were. The manisaur crew swung around bold now, oblivious to the height, confident of their handholds under the hull. Then Jupiter swung out into the night, dunked into the curtain of rain, and up into the side mast rigging. In this way, slung from these ropes, Jupiter transferred from under the hull, into the warm rain, then up to the base of the masts that emerged from the side of the wooden hull.

Jupiter grabbed hold of the netting there, intent on climbing up, but a manisaur pulled him back and maneuvered like a piece of delicate cargo. All the while Breeze swung nearby on ropes avoiding the crew who seemed to either ignore him, or to curse and kick at him.

Jupiter was not at all sure he liked this rescue after all.

Then he landed on deck like a fish, in a untidy pile as the rain beat down upon him. He struggled to his feet, shrugged off the encircling rope, and squeezed water from his hair even as he shielded his eyes from the flow of rain. Breeze slipped beside him, one arm around Jupiter’s legs.

Jupiter glared at the curious crew who stared at him in not an unfriendly manner, as if they were not sure of the creature they had pulled in. But he saw few smiles either… or that’s the impression he got from their subdued auras. He guessed they were not fans of water when it fell from the sky. Their fur-feathers were bedraggled, their crests pasted to their skulls. Somehow they seemed smaller, diminished, the sleekness of their plumage rain-slicked against their skin. It certainly made them less intimidating.

Then it struck him. The gems were still in The Jupiter.

‘Come on Breeze. We’ve got to get those gems.’

Jupiter dashed to the side of the hull, and swung down on the netting, Breeze close next to him. That got a reaction. Manisaurs mobbed him, blocked his movements.

‘Oh get away. I know what I’m doing.’

He wasn’t sure at all. But he did know that he wasn’t going to be treated like cargo. Jupiter weighed little, with hard wiry muscles honed by years of sailing. And from what he had seen there were nets and ropes all the way under the hull. His wet hands had puffed and softened from hours in the water, and he felt washed out and bedraggled himself. Determination gripped him then, and he clenched his fists as if to wring the softness and wet from them.

He pushed on down then, shouldering against the manisaurs who grabbed at him, and stopped his way. A cry rang out. Jupiter could not understand any words, but he got the gist of things.

’Let him be!’

Jupiter followed where the sound had come from. ‘Tamm.’ The rescued enemy manisaur was not in a position to order anyone about. Jupiter appreciated the thought though.

The manisaur crew surrounded the enemy manisaur if just now noticing him.

‘Hold,’ a command came from one of the crew. A pirate officer, the red sash across their chest showed as much. The crew held Tamm now but did not hurt him.

Jupiter knew the command referred to him as much as the crew but in the distraction Jupiter slipped lower. Breeze right beside. Together they swung down below the side mast rigging to get a view under the curving hull to where The Jupiter hung. Whether the pirate officer intended or not, the crew did not stop him.

The outrigger rocked about, still upright, with the mast pointed to the underside of the hull. But from the actions of the crew they were about to topple her sideways.

‘Breeze. We’ve got to get there. And quick.’

The imp scrambled along the netting, swinging like a monkey at times. Jupiter took a deep breath and followed through the rain, avoiding the bigger streams of water, and under the hull. Less swinging, and more scrambling though. Soon under the shelter of the curved hull, he swept his free hand through his hair, and slicked water from his face. He had returned again to the realm of yawning heights, of surging wind and spray, and of shattering lightning that lit the towering waves far below. Vertigo hit him, tugged him down down — but he shook it off and followed Breeze towards The Jupiter.

True to form, the pirate crew kicked and hit out at Breeze, who set up an almighty racket in protest. This delayed things long enough for Jupiter to get alongside the boat. His sudden arrival caused a commotion from the crew. He took the advantage of their confusion to slip down a rope onto the hull of The Jupiter. He unzipped his wetsuit, squatted in the hull, and stuffed the gems back next to his skin.

The mud and grime had concealed the gems, and kept them from sliding into view. The crew could not guess what treasures he now saved. If they had known perhaps they would have robbed him even now. They were pirates. As a distraction Breeze taunted them, baring his beak and snapping like a mad thing. Jupiter wondered again how smart the imp was.

‘You’re making a bad impression on them Breeze. Keep it up fella.’

Jupiter did not know if he had saved all the gems he had taken from the flight works — how many hours ago now? He had no way to tell if some had been lost. But his wet suit still bulged in unlikely places. Zipped up he made to leave — but thought better of it. He secured the boom and sail to the deck, then lowered the mast. All the while the pirates had moved back and now watched him in resignation. Either fearful of Breeze, or perhaps not understanding at all what the strange human did with his crazy craft. Perhaps they thought it would not be their fault if anything went wrong now.

With the mast lowered, tied down to the the boom, and secured to the deck, Jupiter regarded the kheel.

Should he bring it back on deck? If the rest of The Jupiter was destroyed it would be bad, but to lose the kheel would be terrible. For him it had become almost the essence of his amazing craft, if not the soul, then at least the heart of what made it so special.

He decided then to trust the crew to secure it safe. He approached the manisaur he guessed might be the senior.

‘Secure my vessel well, and protect this part — this kheel. It is irreplaceable.’

‘Yes sir!’ The manisaur flashed accent with his aura. ‘We will sir.’

‘Very good then,’ Jupiter said. ‘Uh… carry on.’

He did not where he had learned it, but that navy talk seemed the right thing to say then.

As he made his way back towards the side of the skyship he saw that much of the crew had taken up positions along the sheltered edge of the hull to observe him. He nodded at them, while he and Breeze climbed unassisted back to deck.

‘You are a strange human,’ an officer said when he had regained the deck. ‘Come this way.’

Under the shelter of a sailcloth canopy they paused. Jupiter searched left and right.

‘Where is my man?’ Jupiter demanded. ‘The former navy officer.’

‘Ah.’ The manisaur turned on what passed for his heels and barked an order. A crewman brought forth Tamm, now held a captive.

‘Free him,’ the officer said. The crew were uncertain at first, but an aura flash made them release their prisoner. Tamm stepped up to Jupiter.

‘I stand with you.’

‘And I with you Tamm,’ Jupiter said. He smiled them. ‘You make me say the strangest things. Stop treating me with so much respect.’

The pirate officer regarded Tamm a brief time and then came to some conclusion.

‘But you are due respect,’ the officer said. ‘Few humans would have done what you did this night. To climb out under the hull in this storm. For the sake of a boat.’

‘If you knew the half of it…’

‘If that is half, then I wish to learn the rest.’ The officer stared at Jupiter, his attention upon him intimidating. ‘For instance how is it that you can make that boat of yours fly? And your command of mantas and imps is…’

‘Mantas?’

‘Yes. We observed a Nakharavi lift you over the chain at Shavaqa.’

Jupiter stared. He remembered the thump. ‘Nakharavi… a manta?’ He shrugged. ‘I guess I just have a way with animals.’ But he thought they must have been mistaken.

The officer regarded him again, and Jupiter felt all his bravado and luck crash upon him. He would be revealed as a simple fourteen year old from Otautahi Christchurch thrown way out of his depth.

‘Come. Your friends will want to see you.’

‘Friends?’

‘Yes. Two humans. A female, and the male Qhawana. They are with Red-Back.’ The manisaur gestured across the storm whipped deck towards an opening under a curved roof amidships.

‘Qhawana? Maggs is safe? Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘I thought I just did…’ But Jupiter and Breeze had dashed off through the rain towards their friends.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The arc of the superstructure created shelter from the rain, but the flash and crash of lightning still filled the space. Golden glow globes on the outside of the shelter lit the rigging and deck, but the interior remained dark and full of shadows. Jupiter felt uneasy as the deck shuddered and moved under him. Gusts whipped across the deck even as the skyship raced with the wind.

The roofed space acted as a rallying point for the crew. But when the wind dashed rain sideways through the open sides there was no shelter at all. Jupiter at first only saw shadows ahead, but lit by lightning flashes he worked out the front section formed a bridge with a command crew. A large steering wheel, connected to a set of cogs and gears, was manned by two manisaurs who stood either side. Their gaze fixed forward as they adjusted the wheel.

So he had his eyes forward, studying the crew, when without warning someone pushed him to one side.

‘Why didn’t you get yourself killed?’ Maggie stepped up and shoved him in the chest again. Jupiter staggered back in bewilderment. ‘You were meant to sacrifice yourself for some noble cause.’ She gave him another push just as he managed to steady himself. This time she took hold of his wetsuit and shook him back and forth. ‘Wasn’t that what you were trying to do? It would have been easier if you just got it over and done with you silly fool…’

She sobbed then, and ended one violent shake by pulling him into a tight embrace. If anything that firm grip hurt more than the shoves.

To his horror Jupiter felt tears well, and then drip down his cheek. He should not have been so shocked at Maggie’s angry reaction but now her fierce hug pulled him off balance more than literally.

‘Squeeze me any harder and I’ll pop.’ He pushed her away and rubbed at the places where the gems had dug into him.

‘Don’t you ever do that again.’ Maggie’s fierceness still verged on anger.

‘No promises.’ Jupiter jumped as a crash of thunder and lightning burst almost overhead. ‘These people think I’m a hero of some sort.’

‘That’s what I mean. Heroes end up dead. The ones that don’t die… they probably faked everything.’

‘I survived, does that make me a fake?’

‘Almost for sure. Perhaps Breeze did it all.’

‘Breeze was pretty heroic. You should have seen him just now fighting off the horde of pirates intent on babying me and The Jupiter.’

‘See.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘That’s just what I mean. You make light of everything. Can’t you see this is dead serious?’

‘I thought you said this might all be a dream.’ Jupiter folded his arms. He didn’t know why she was attacking him. Shouldn’t she just be happy he had returned?

‘I don’t think so now… I could never be so imaginative.’ Maggie shook her head ruefully.

Jupiter grinned as he caught her eye. She smiled back even as she wiped tears across her own cheeks. ‘Unless…’

Their voices merged together as they sang… ‘We're all a little crazy…’

Breeze pogoed and bounced until they joined him in a wild dance as the three moved to the same tune. Then Maggie and Jupiter laughed.

‘Yeah.’ With an effort Jupiter pulled himself together. ‘This is all pretty unbelievable.’

‘Your mother was onto something I think.’ said Maggie.

‘But…’ Jupiter gestured at the others. ‘You see the problem we have now? They really do think we’re crazy.’

Maggie laughed once more and shoved him on the shoulder — gently this time. ‘Do you care?’

‘Not really.’ It relieved him Maggie had returned to her old self and not that overwrought — crazy person. He laughed again.

‘Me neither.’ Maggie wiped her face in her hands and sighed.

Behind Jupiter, lit by a swaying glowglobe, the human pirate Red-Back glared at him. Almost like he and Maggie had let the human side down somehow with their exuberant behavior. But the pirate had a twinkle in their eye and Jupiter grinned back. He suspected it was how Red-Back held their own laughter in. Sure enough Red-Back gave him a short nod in return.

He realized then that what he had thought a beard was instead a moko. The facial tattoo curled across Red-Back’s chin, and in swirl up their cheek to the ears. The fleshy part of both ears had been threaded with a complex curlicue of red and gold stone that seemed knotted into the ear somehow. He tried not to stare, but his gaze flicked to their eyes. And a sudden understanding flashed within him.

Red-Back was a woman. The moko appeared very similar to the tattoos Maori women had over their chin and lips. Similar, but nothing like a Maori’s either, only on the same part of the face.

She smiled, and he wondered why he had thought her so fierce. An officer stepped next to the woman. And although the officer wore the sash of a pirate, something military steadied their bearing. A strange situation became even stranger.

’So. You are the famous Upariqami…’ she said.

‘Jupiter,’ Maggie said as she bumped against him.

‘Joopahta… A captain’s name it seems he now deserves,’ Red-Back said. ‘If all he is said to have done is true.’

Jupiter unzipped his wetsuit to astonished reactions from those all around. The crew might even have believed Jupiter had somehow opened his skin, even though at some level they must have known it as clothing.

‘I have this as well.’ Jupiter reached in under his wetsuit, pulled out a gem, then rubbed it on his leg to clean some of the mud and grime off.

‘Zharaqsa‘, exclaimed the pirate officer. ‘Catalyst.’ The pirate stepped up to take the gem from Jupiter’s hand. ‘It is indeed. So. A successful raid then?’

‘It totally was.’ Jupiter pointed at the many bulges under his wetsuit.

The pirate rocked aback at this. ‘You have robbed the fleet it seems.’

‘Yeah. And I don’t even know what they are.’

‘Treasure, and power, and the ability for our ships to fly for many weeks,’ said Red-Back. ‘For this alone you would be well rewarded.’

‘We just want to go home,’ said Maggie. ‘Will you take us to Qhayanpa now?’

‘As reward?’ Red-Back considered. ‘You ask a high price.’

‘How do these things work?’ Jupiter had pulled more gems from his wetsuit until had filled his hands. He could not help notice the awe this somehow inspired in his audience.

‘Flight crystals are what make naval ships fly.’ The pirate officer took one from him in a casual manner, but Jupiter got the sense, all the same, of a reverence in the way she handled the gem.

‘One will lift a ship for months at a time.’ The officer weighed the gem and held it to the light. ‘And yet we conserve it as much as we can. Now though…’ They gestured for a crewman to pass him a leather rope bag.

Jupiter wondered how that value might equate to Earth money. He took the gem back and stared into it. Running a warship on fuel for months on end would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. To make it fly? Millions. He took the soft leather bag from the officer and placed the gems into it.

‘I know what the gems do.’ Jupiter wished he has a proper backpack to carry things in. Instead he had to make do, and held the bag at his side. ‘But how do they do it? Is it magic?’

The manisaur cocked their head and studied him. Perhaps magic did not translate. If he was honest with himself, the way The Jupiter flew, and these hovering skyships, all seemed magic. But there must be some science behind it. He knew it for certain. And for that information he now asked the question.

‘Show me,’ Jupiter stepped up to the manisaur. ‘If I am to provide you with so many gems…’ He held the bulging bag before him. ‘I should at least know what they are for.’

‘Follow me.’ Red-Back led them forwards, then down a set of stairs. glowglobes swayed against the walls here too. The moving shadows made him clutch the handrail tight at every step.

‘These glowglobes seem like magic too.’ Jupiter touched one as he passed and felt its coldness a contrast to the warmth of the light.

‘They’re everywhere.’ Maggie slipped beside him. ‘But Qhawana seemed shocked that Berg had one. On the island I mean.’

‘But not magic.’ The light seemed to swirl within the glass. ‘There must be some technology… I’d love to experiment. Take one apart.’

At the bottom of the stair they walked forward under low beams. To the left and right they saw the huge bracing structures that supported the masts.

‘Where’s Berg?’ Jupiter stared at the massive ribs that made up the hull of the skyship.

‘He’s not here. I don’t quite know what happened, or why.’ Maggie sighed. ‘Perhaps you will have more luck finding out.’

They reached what Jupiter thought the middle of the ship — the balance-point of the skyship’s mass. A curving lattice-work wall perhaps twenty meters across stretched left and right, and curved up and over. The lattice panels, cut from metal, had polygonal openings of different sizes and numbers of sides, but with no obvious pattern.

A green glow shone from within the curving wall.

They stepped up to the partial sphere. Jupiter and Maggie peered inside. Across the sphere a wooden floor cut just below the centerline. In the very middle of the sphere lay a metal polygon suspended by cables from the equator of the sphere, almost like the hub of a wheel. But nothing turned or moved. A glow from within the polygon lit the inside of the sphere an eery putrid green. As his eyes adapted he could make out shadowy gears and cogs under the equator around the edge of the wooden platform.

He saw too that the sphere stretched up and down across three decks, Almost like the yolk inside an egg, but a green unhealthy egg.

‘I don’t like this,’ said Maggie. ‘There’s something wrong here.’

‘I know what you mean. It’s like something died here, or is dying.’

They stepped back as one. ‘How is that possible?’ Jupiter pulled a gem from his wetsuit. ‘That this green thing could produce that… thing?’

‘They called it a catalyst.’ Maggie glanced at Red-Back, worry furrowed her brow. ‘There is something else going on. This is just a part of it.’

Red-Back stared back. ‘Now you know how precious this zharaqsa — catalyst is.’

‘But they will make more of them. Won’t they?’ Jupiter shook his head. ‘The navy. It’s just delayed for a time.’

They made their way back up the stair. Jupiter felt almost a relief to regain the deck, and the blasts of wind and rain from the storm.

’To take so much zharaqsa from the Empire is a great blow to their fleet.’ Red-Back smiled grim eyed and stern. ‘Many of their vanziyaq skyships were grounded in order to recharge their zharaqsa and so are now out of the fight. We do not know the status of the other vanziyaq that remain flying but in any event this is a cruel blow to them.’

‘Why did you find it so easy to attack their stores?’

‘You called it easy?’ said Red-Back. ‘It is a wonder you were able to evade both their patrolling galleys, and overcome the guard. But in part it is due to naraqha.’

‘Naraqha? — Impression?’ Maggie thought some more. ‘No. It means imprint.’

‘What’s that?’ Jupiter said in puzzlement.

‘Have you not noticed your sejrat’sha.’ Red-Back’s stared. ‘The turned-blade you brought with you?’ If her expression intended to intimidate, it almost worked.

‘My what?’ Jupiter, distracted, did not want to be on the wrong side of this pirate, so fierce was her face now. But he sensed an act. Perhaps the connexion worked here too.

‘The navel officer who now follows you.’ Red-Back gestured towards a group to one side. Tamm stood there with eyes only on Jupiter.

‘Oh him. There’s been something wrong with him… since I rescued him from drowning.’

‘That would do it.’ Red-Back nodded. She absently touched the woven ear ornament. ’He is sejrat’sha because you broke his naraqha. The imprint he had developed with his military troupe. In your rescue of him he came very near death. And so when you revived him he was reborn. He is newly imprinted. Now he is naraqhan and you are his naraqhami — the one imprinted upon.’

‘I have no idea what you are on about.’ Jupiter crossed his arms. He didn’t like the implications of Red-Back’s explanation.

‘I think I do,’ Maggie said. ‘I’ve seen something like this. When I was on holiday, the milkman at Woodend Beach had some chicks that followed him everywhere. Jumped on his milk wagon, pecked all about him in the grass as he walked. As they got older the hens got quite big, but they seemed to think he was just a bigger hen. It was quite strange, but also sad. Every few days there would be one less on his milk run. He killed them. He said he had imprinted them to make it easy for him to catch his dinner, did we want one ourselves? He thought it was a bit of a laugh.’

‘Sounds sinister, and unfair.’

‘I do not know what you say.’ Red-Back studied Maggie. ‘But much makes sense. To be naraqhan is to follow another with absolute loyalty. So the navy has little fear that they would be betrayed by their people. The flight-works are not common knowledge, and those that do know are bound by naraqha.’

‘But not humans?’

‘No. For that they have other means of protection. There is also a gas that fells all.’

‘Oh wow. That explains it.’ Jupiter paced back and forth thinking. He stopped and turned to Red-Back. ‘But it didn’t work on me. The gas did nothing.’

Red-Back stared at him. ‘You breathed the gas and lived?’

‘Yeah. Got Gan and even the imp. But seemed to just be a bit of a stink for me.’

‘You are lucky,’ Red-Back stared now. ‘For it means death for most.’

‘I guess being from Earth…’ Maggie said.

‘You are nuvra?’ Red-Back’s shock now was greater than her puzzlement before.

‘Yeah… that word again.’ Jupiter thought her reaction almost comical. ’We’re new arrivals from Earth.’

‘And yet you have tulanvarqa — connexion.’ Wonder now stretched across her face as if she too had a manisaur’s aura.

Jupiter grinned. ‘Yeah. We’re full of surprises.’

Red-Back walked away with a backwards glance.

‘Where is she off to?’ Maggie said.

Jupiter watched the pirate move into the shadows.

‘Qhawana. See the smile on his face?’ Jupiter nodded towards the old man.

Maggie laughed then. ‘Seems everywhere we go we upset things.’

‘So.’ Jupiter paused. ‘That would make us… zharaqvan.’

Maggie laughed at that. ‘Catalyst people? No… more like agents of change. You’re getting the hang of this Thaluk language. Finally.’

‘I try.’

Jupiter stepped close to Breeze and passed him the leather bag of gems.

‘Take this.’ Jupiter leaned near so his words were secret, even from Maggie. ‘And hide. Keep it safe from everyone. But come when we call.’

‘I… take… hide…’

Breeze moved away, then turned and paused.

‘I… come…’

For a heartbeat Jupiter could almost believe the imp wanted to say more. But then a crash of thunder rolled over them and both he and Breeze jumped as the bottom fell out of his stomach.

The skyship fell with a lurch.