“Captain Towerin, it is highly advisable for you to eat,” the golem said in a bland voice, pressing a plate that looked ridiculous tiny in its hands at him.

“Enough you pile of gizzard stones,” Captain Towerin growled pushing the plate away as he kept one hand on the helm. “I’d eat, when I’m good and ready.” He hadn’t had much of an appetite since he lost his two thirds of his crew. Towerin looked down at the gravity compass making a slight adjustment to port following the trembling needle contained within a glass sphere.

“Come on boss take a bite,” Ervin urged him. “It taste’s a bit like lobster.” As if to emphasize the point he cracked open more of the black shell licking the interior. Ever since the attack he hadn’t left his side. That was just like Ervin. He took his duties so seriously. Even if he was just lounging on the bridge, alternating between polishing his pistols and looking over the railing into the void. He been like that since he was a child.

“I can’t believe you’re eating it,” Towerin said shaking his head. He ignored the boss thing, placing both hands back on the helm.

“They wanted to eat us,” Ervin said tossing the shell overboard and grabbing another piece. “Besides after learning to tolerate your cooking, I can stomach anything.”

“Smart-ass,” Towerin said turning the wheel slightly again.

“Yes, boss,” Ervin said grinning.

“We don’t have much food on board,” Darwin added. He sat cross-legged on the deck, one of his wings in a splint. “We’re supposed to resupply in heaven, and then go back to Ingleport. Eating the bugs is the best option to stretch out our food.” He too hadn’t left the bridge much. He only left to check the engine room a few times a day.

Grimly, he knew they were right. At his insistence, they had more cargo than anything else. That included food stores. Not that it mattered if they didn’t get to the other gateway. Towerin glanced at the vast void around them. He was still amazed they were even alive. Though all they might have done was trade a quick death for starvation and suffocation. After the huge ‘thing’ had appeared, it was Darwin who saved them all. He had dashed into the engine room grabbing an extra diatomaceous crystal. He had hurled it at the eye using his angelic strength. Once it neared the creature he had shot it. The resulting explosion illuminated the void for the first since the beginning, causing the ‘thing’ to recoil. Whatever the mysterious force that had been that been holding them in place vanished. With no option left, Darwin had sent them off the gateway into the void itself. Here they could drift for all time unless they stumble across the other gateway. Towerin looked back down to the small gravity compass he hoped could find the pull from the other gateway. It was their only chance, remote as it was.

“Ervin take the helm,” Towerin said. “I want to go below deck.”

“Sure thing boss,” Ervin said leaving his plate on the deck. He hopped to his feet grabbing the helm. Trusting his son, Towerin descended the steps from the bridge onto the main deck. His ship once lively was now eerily empty. A mid-size cargo vessel he had a crew of forty when he left Ingleport for a routine trade trip to Heaven. Now he had less than a third remaining and he’d settle for simple survival. The many blood stains from the deceased staining the deck like crimson paint made him wonder if even that was expecting too much.

The day after the attack, all the surviving crew had solemnly lined up looking at the gathered piled of the dead. There hadn’t been many bodies. Most were already claimed by the void or eaten on the spot. They had warpped remaining deceased in their bed linings before offering them to void, while he had given a brief sermon. It all felt so empty, but he was the captain and he had his duty. Reaching the center of the ship, he glanced up admiring the celestial sails that pushed them through the ‘no space’ they now occupied.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Darwin said from just beside him. So lost in his own thoughts, Towerin didn’t hear him approach.

“I’m the captain. It’s entirely my fault,” Towerin said. “The crew trusted me with their lives, and it is my duty to see them home.”

“No one could have done any better,” Darwin countered.

“You did. I sat there terrorized by that… thing, while you did something and saved us all.”

“I wasn’t even sure it would work,” Darwin said joining Towerin gaze. He stared at the emptiness all around them.

“Aye, but you did something. That is what matters. You acted, I didn’t.”

“You can’t sit here and feel sorry for yourself. You still have a crew to get home. At the very least, you have to give it your all.”

“Your right about that,” Towerin agreed. “Let’s go down stairs. I need to think of a plan.” Towerin turned back around toward the raised bridge. Together the paired headed to a wooden door set just below it. They descended a flight of steps to the lower deck. The ship was divided into three sections. The rear half, where they were now, where there were two sub levels. The first was his quarters with a smaller spot for the first mate. Below that was the engine room, the heart of the ship. In the middle was the cargo hold which took up most of the free space. In the front were the crew quarters, and below that the food stores. Both of which were depressingly low.

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Thick metal doors guarded the heart of the ship. Towerin pushed them open and was assaulted by a persistent hum of power coming from all directions. Unlike the rest of the ship, the engine room was incredibly advanced with plumes of steam occasionally spurting out from dozens of pipework connections running along the walls. Fixated on the round spherical device in the center of the room from which all the pipes connect too, chief engineer Kempten stood patiently staring through a small glass window. An older man like Towerin, he had a constant distant look to his wrinkly features like he was in a permanent state of daydreaming. Anything couldn’t be farther from the truth. Despite his aged years, he had the sharpest wit and mind of anyone Towerin knew, except maybe Darwin. He wore a stained grayish jumpsuit with numerous pockets that match his thinning hair and long gray beard. It would be easy to dismiss the man. That would be a big mistake. Towerin had seen more than one fellow get clunked on the head with a wrench if he didn’t watch his tongue. He moved next to the man, Towerin ignoring the hot wet air as he too looked through the window into the engine itself.

At first glance the interior was incredibly simple, just a relatively empty chamber with two sunken depressions a short distance apart. In each sat a large purple crystals the size of a man’s torso that pulsed and thrummed with power. Towerin noted with alarm that the glow was much fainter than the last time he was in here.

“How long do we have?” Towerin said not meeting Kempten eyes.

“On these, boss?’ Kempten said in a sea savvy accent. “Not long. Two more days then we will have to replace them. We still got five more so I can give you three weeks or so.”

“What can we do to get more out of these?” Darwin said also looking inside.

“A few things,” Kempten said stroking his fingers through his beard. “We can lower the air levels a bit and shrink the field.” Towerin grimaced. Besides powering the ship for flight, the crystals also created usable air keeping it around the ship like a protective bubble. It was a captain’s worse nightmare to ever be reduced to resorting to such.

“Do it,” Towerin said without hesitation. “What else?”

“Well,” Kempten said hesitantly. “We could shrink the field to just inside the ship and have the golem take them helm. It don’t need any air.”

“The pile of Gizzard stones!” Towerin exclaimed. “The damn thing doesn’t have a half-wit to spare. We can’t trust it to steer.”

“I agree with the captain,” Darwin said. “Right now we are steering to the other gateway. Any misstep and we could miss the corridor.” Privately, Towerin wonder if even he could do it. There were two gateways connecting the world of Materia to Heaven and Hell. One in the ocean near Ingleport and the other in the near city New Haven almost on the other side of the world. The gateways acted as a link connecting the worlds and it was only through those narrow passages that anyone could reach Heaven or Hell. Otherwise there was just the emptiness forever. Right now with those things in the Atlantic gateway they were trying to reach the other one.

“I could do one more thing,” Kempten said hesitantly.

“Spit it out man,” Towerin said.

“We could take the diatomaceous crystal out of the golem. That could give us a few more days.”

A cascade of conflicting emotions rocked Towerin at the thought. He could see the sense in it. After all the golem was just a soul-less puppet. But, it did save him and many of his crew. Darwin offered nothing, waiting.

“Not right now,” Towerin finally said. “I won’t say no, if we are down to our last crystal, but I won’t kill the golem before then.”

“You wouldn’t be killing it boss,” Kempten counter. “It’s not alive. Hell spawn, you could just ask it to remove it for you and it would. But I see your point. I’ll get back to work now. If I massage the crystals just right we can get some extra juice out of them.” He turned back to the chamber Kempten reaching out to two nobs. The engineer slowly began to control the flow of power and the light emanating from the crystals steadied. Towerin left him to his task as he and Darwin headed up to his quarters.

His room was large compared to the cramp crew quarters with maps decorating the walls and swords hanging below them. He had several book cases where tomes of knowledge lay, most of them unread. In one corner he had a short cramp bed with crumpled blankets that haven’t’ seen much use in the last few days. In the center was a desk firmly secured to the floor like everything was. On it were a motley collection of small objects along with several parchments listing their inventory. Towerin sat behind his desk in a flimsy rocking chair as he handed inventory list to Darwin.

“That the goods in the cargo hold. Go through it and see if you can find anything useful. I’ll catch Heaven and Hell for it, but my crew comes first.”

“Yes captain,” Darwin said but didn’t leave. He instead sat down in one of two chairs facing the desk. Their long acquaintance left little mystery between the men. In some ways Darwin knew him better than his own son. Towerin sighed. He reached forward opening a drawer. There he took out a flask filled with amber liquor. He pulled the cork out with his teeth before taking a long pull. Towerin then handed it over to Darwin.

“Hellfire whiskey, burns all the way down,” Towerin said. “Say what you will about the demonic, but they sure know their liquor.”

“That they do,” Darwin agreed taking a smaller pull than Towerin. He shuddered all the way down to his wings, where a single feather came loose floating to the floor. “So go ahead and ask,” Darwin added handing the flask back.

“You always could read me like a book,” Towerin smiled taking another pull. “Fine. So what the in the blazes was that thing? I didn’t want to ask before in case it scared the lads.”

Darwin leaned back in his chair. “I don’t know. Legends have tales of powerful being roaming the void before the Materia was created. They’re called titans. Ancient fables tell that they were sealed away before the creation of our universe so they would not consume it. It looks like one got free and is trying to do just that.”

“What do you mean?”

Darwin looked darkly at Towerin and he felt his blood chill at his words. “I mean, it was in the gateway going in the direction of Miteria captain.”

“No…” Towerin felt all hope leave him. “Can it get through?”

“Doubtful,” Darwin said. “After the wars between Heaven and Hell end, a pact was made and limits were placed on the gateways by both sides. Only lesser demons and angels can pass through. The greater powers cannot come to Miteria at all. It doesn’t limit size but magical presence. That thing out there is massive, magically. It won’t be able to pass through. But the bugs and anything else with it most certainly can. Once through they will probably head to the nearest settlement… Ingleport.”