Jon and Emma stood at the prow of the Dusty Maiden watching out for signs of the Analaya. Once they spotted her—if they spotted her—their plan was to capture the barge and interrogate the senior Guardian aboard—at least Jon believed there was a senior Guardian aboard. Whether or not he or she had the information they needed was another matter.

Niles hoped they wouldn’t have to swing south for the Breabooth instead. It was a long way off and would take several days just to get into position where they might be able stage a potential ambush. But the very fact that they were ambushing Guardian sky barges gave Niles the shivers.

Forcing it off, he smiled, shaking his head. I’m practically a pirate captain now.

He looked back to the helm and saw Walter, remembering that Andrea was no longer with them. He was sorry to see her go, but nothing in his mind trumped saving the world. Niles would usually have given in to his pilot. But this... this was just too important for anything like that.

It was no good dwelling on things that hadn’t gone his way, so he tried to put Andrea from his mind. He had a job to do and he was going to see it through. The fate of the world rested on him and everyone aboard the Dusty Maiden. Then his thoughts drifted to Jon, his father’s friend, who was also a Guardian. He too had the same magical powers as Niles, powers he couldn’t explain.

Maybe Jon or Emma can tell me, he thought. It’s worth asking about. “Have you spotted her yet?”

Emma was peering through the binoculars when Jon said that they hadn’t seen the Analaya. “It’s going to be difficult with this amount of cloud coverage,” Emma said.

There was an unusual amount. Being the desert, it was as if nature were deliberately trying to foil their plans. “If we don’t catch her before she reaches Drymote,” Jon said. “We might as well turn around for the Breabooth.”

Emma made a noise of agreement.

“Then let’s make sure we do catch her,” Niles said. The clouds would serve as an excellent staging ground to ambush the Guardians.

They sat there for several more moments not talking as Emma continued looking through the binoculars. Then Niles decided to ask his question. “So, Jon,” he said. “You’re a Guardian...”

“I am,” he said, a slight bit of sarcasm in his voice.

Niles was hopeful Jon wouldn’t laugh at him—he was the captain after all, and such a thing would embarrass him in front of the crew. “Where do the Guardian’s powers come from? Where do my powers come from?”

“Ah,” Jon said with a smile on his face. “Our powers are a gift, Niles. From the gods. But the Guardian Order has learned how to channel the powers, using technology.”

“What do you mean?”

“Tiny microscopic machines inside your body,” Emma said. “A marriage of magic and technology.”

“I thought that kind of technology was heresy?”

“It is,” Jon said. “But there’s nothing we can do about it now.”

“It was before the war,” Emma said, “when the order introduced the technology into our bodies.”

“Now it seems rather permanent,” Jon added. “But thank the gods for the war.”

Niles frowned. “What? Why would you be thankful for that kind of death and destruction?”

Jon shrugged ad if he were explaining things to a child. Fortunately, he always seemed to be a patient man as far as Niles could tell. “Before the end of the world as we knew it—we lived in terrible times, Niles—and I would argue, worse than now.”

What in the worlds.

“How is that possible?”

“Oh, we had much more advanced technology. Life was easier. But we were slaves, Niles.”

“You mean the aliens had enslaved—“

“No no,” Jon interrupted with a raised palm. “Niles, there always comes a point when governments seek to exert their control over others—in our case, over all the world. Imagine being tracked everywhere you go—everything you do, think and want, is reported to a massive information archive.”

“And if you got out of line—they cut you off.”

“Cut you off?” Niles asked.

“Money,” Jon said. “Back then we didn’t deal in physical currency. It was all ephemeral—controlled completely by the power that were.”

“That’s disgusting,” Niles said, feeling a rise in his cheeks.

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“Yes,” Emma said. “It was that bad!”

“Thank the gods for the war!” Niles added, almost wanting to laugh at the irony of such destruction also breaking the word’s previous shackles.

Jon smiled and nodded. “Indeed.”

“So wait, everyone had these nono bastards in their blood?”

“Yes.”

“What changed?”

“The war,” Jon said. “The only reason Guardians still have the technology in their blood is because the Old Guard of the Order had hidden themselves away, shielded from the final effects of the war.”

“It was the aliens,” Emma said. “They wiped the surface of our world of technology.”

“Very little of it survived and all the nanotechnology was destroyed,” Niles said in way of explanation.

Jon nodded. “Except for what remained in the blood of the Old Guard hidden underground.”

So that’s what happened.

“But I don’t have this technology, do I?”

“Unfortunately, Niles, you do. This is the reason why Guardians were strictly forbidden to marry outside of the Order. It’s an old law—a good one in my view.”

“But my father was your friend.”

“Yes,” Jon said. “Even though I ardently support the law, what was, was and I believe discernment is necessary—but the order was too deaf to those pleas.”

“Now I understand.” It was like getting hit in the head with a scorg hook.

“We are fortunately,” Jon said. “After the war, there was an age of civil war within the Guardian Order. But our side—the side of freedom prevailed in our leader Anthony the Great, who enacted the separation of Guardian-born and normal folk—to maintain that we should never seek to enslave mankind again.”

“So as you see,” Emma added smugly, “the Guardian Order isn’t all bad.”

“Many a Guardian fervently uphold the values of Anthony the Great,” Jon added.

“So Guardians didn’t always have powers, then?”

“Oh no,” Jon said. “As I’ve told you, Niles, our powers are a gift of the gods. But the nanotechnology—this marriage of magic and technology as Emma put it, enhances our abilities. Where some of us might be weak, we are strong.”

“Some don’t even need the technology,” Emma said. “The truly gifted ones.”

Jon nodded, regarded Niles, his head slightly tilted. He seemed to be thinking. Then finally he said, “I admit, the Order isn’t perfect, but we need it.”

“Well, that Andros the Great—“

“Anthony the Great,” Emma corrected.

“Yeah,” Niles said. “That guy sounds all right—but I’ve had far too many run-ins with Guardians to truly believe that.”

“Well,” Jon said, “who do you think began the construction of walled cities? Who invented the sky barge? Who do you think—“

“We’d have adapted in other ways,” Niles said. “We don’t need the Order holding our hands telling us what to do and how to do it.”

“If I’m not mistaken, Niles, it’s the order that contracts out to cargo haulers like yourself.”

Damn—that’s true.

Niles crossed his arms. “If it wasn’t the Order it would be someone else and you know it. Admit it. We don’t need the Order to keep us safe. In fact the Order is trying to kill us so they can sit back and do nothing while our enemies come to destroy us.”

“I admit the council is made up of fools. They’re scared and don’t know what to do, but you can’t base the entire Order and its history on one present council body that—“

“I think I see her!” Emma said, pointing to the clouds. “The Analaya,” She looked at them excitedly. “There!” She was pointing slightly to port above the Dusty Maiden. She passed the binoculars to Jon and he began looking through them in the direction Emma had indicated.

Niles squinted, as he searched for the sky barge with his naked eyes. “Is it her?”

“I’m... not certain,” Jon said ponderously. Then he passed the binoculars to Niles.

The other sky barge was hard to see because it was obscured by a thin wisp of cloud, though it looked like it probably was a Guardian war barge. But any barge with a leather weave blanket draped over its canopy looked like a war barge. “Hmm.”

“Can you see what she’s called?” Jon asked.

“No,” Niles said, and then he looked back at Walter and called across the deck. “Take us a bit higher and just a few notches to port.”

“Aye, Cap.”

“After you do that, Walter, burn the props at full speed for about two minutes and shut her off so that other barge doesn’t hear us.”

Walter raised his arm in solute, acknowledging that he’d heard what Niles said just before moving down the companionway.

If they stayed out of sight and down wind, they wouldn’t be heard. I really do think like a pirate, he told himself.

The Guardian barge still hadn’t seen the Dusty Maiden yet, as far as Niles could tell, or else they would have been preparing for a fight. He intended for the Dusty Maiden to pass the other barge at a more even altitude so when the props were cut they would drift unheard and hopefully unseen, enabling them to get a good look at the other sky barge to make out whether or not she was the Analaya.

Jon and Emma kept their eyes on the other barge while Niles gave Walter direction. He could feel the barge ascending now that Sidney was belching more hot air into the gasbag, causing the drylium pockets to expand, therefore affording the Dusty Maiden more lift. “Alright, Walter, cut the props and let us drift. Just take us a bit more port and that should be perfect.”

After a brief moment Walter said, “All done, Cap.”

Niles sprinted to the prow of the deck. Jon was looking intently in the direction where the Guardian barge was last seen and leaned over the railing.

“Where is she?” Niles asked as the cool breeze filled his shirt.

“Not sure,” Jon said. “She drifted behind a cloud.”

“Dammit, we can’t lose her.”

“Wait... wait, I think I see her. Yes, there she is,” he said, pointing in the proper direction.

“Well?” Emma asked, her braids fluttering behind her.

The Dusty Maiden was drifting, the other barge positioned at her quarter stern because Walter overshot his objective—something Andrea wouldn’t have done. But, since they weren’t being propelled forward, the other sky barge would overtake their trajectory any moment, enabling them to get a good look at her broadside.

“It’s her. She’s the Analaya,” Jon said as the other barge became more parallel to the Dusty Maiden. “Here!” He handed Niles the binoculars.

It was the Analaya, her name plastered across the barge’s hull clear as day. Niles didn’t even need to assist his eyes to see.

“We need to be tactful when we take her,” Jon said.

Niles smiled sarcastically at Jon. Then he turned to the helm. “Alright, Walter, burn that furnace as hot as she’ll go before they spot us. And after sixty seconds I want you to go full burn on the props. See if you can position us directly on top of the Analaya without her taking notice of us.

His heart pounded inside his chest so hard it hurt. They had never done something so reckless as attacking a Guardian war barge before.

“What’s your plan?” Emma asked.

Despite his extreme nervousness, Niles was a confident captain. “Don’t worry,” he said, smirking “I’m a competent pirate captain.”