Felix stood at the base of the ramp, boots sunk into the thin layer of snow which coated the clearing in the forest. A long blue scarf, which was wrapped many times around his neck, kept out the cold and the gentle snow. His heavy leather jacket, lined with white fur, was studded with golden insignia of his rank. He lifted brass-rimmed goggles away from his eyes, resting them on top of his leather helmet, and slipped his heavy earmuffs to one side, exposing one ear to the wind. The Light Elemental, that strange woman with heavy golden armor and a winged helmet, floated just to his side. Her long golden wings seemed to curve around him like a protective cocoon.

The carrier Captain approached, wearing civilian black. His long beard was very dark red, almost the color of blood, and whether or not he had hair under his short black cap Felix could not tell. The horses hauling the leading airplane snorted, and stopped short of the ramp.

"Requesting permission to board," Felix said. It seemed like the right thing to do. There was no precedent of the Quarian Air Force flying on an airship, the traditions and expectations did not exist yet. That was one of the main purposes of this mission, even if the raid itself failed.

"Permission granted, General Felix," the civilian replied. "I am Captain Kelly. Welcome aboard!"

The Light Elemental vanished in a flash of gold, returning, presumably, to the Elemental Plane of Light. Felix began his march up the ramp, followed by the train of horse-drawn carts. Eight airplanes total, with four enlisted men and a single commissioned officer per airplane. The flag of the Quarian Air Force fluttered above each cart, dull crimson with a circular crest that read "The Wind is Real." The aircraft carrier, just ahead below the ramp, was truly an abomination. Four cargo airships were strung together in a long train, capped with a rectangular wooden platform that would serve as the runway for the airplanes.

"Captain, please give me a tour of the carrier."

"Is this the first time you have seen the craft?"

"I saw it while it was under construction, and I have seen the schematics."

Captain Kelly stopped and pointed over the side of the ramp. "Do you see those coiled cables in between the airships? They are connected to heavy ballast, and they help prevent the heavy platform from toppling over when we start running low on coal."

Felix did see the cables. A heavy steel frame extended down from the wooden landing platform. The whole carrier was, in a way, an open rectangular box made from steel, with four airships inside, crowned with wood. The coiled cables were anchored to steel braces which floated just above the ground, connected to round concrete balls at the other end.

Upon reaching the top of the ramp, Captain Kelly snapped a hook onto a rope suspended from the wooden railing. "A lifeline," the man explained. "You will have your own lifeline soon. For now, try not to fall overboard."

The Captain led Felix down an iron ladder painted bright yellow, to a narrow gantry which connected all four airships. Below the landing platform, Felix had a better look at the individual airships. The gas bags were all connected with canvas tubes.

"Why are the airships connected?" Felix asked.

"Helium cycling. I will show you the pumps at present."

The Captain cranked open a bright yellow wheel and punched the oval metal door to the airship cabin inward. The interior was all harsh metal bulkheads painted an obnoxious blue-green color. The hallways were very narrow, just barely wide enough for two men to pass each other in opposite directions if they were both oriented sideways. Felix suddenly understood the traditional ban on women in the crew of an airship.

The way opened up into a dim room lit by gas lamps fixed on sconces. The glass around these lamps was thick and colored red, bathing the chamber in rusty light. A huge steam engine was placed against the far wall, unmoving. Giant piles of coal sat to either side of the gaping mouth of the furnace. The Captain followed one shaft to a bronze contraption built into the wall. Four long glass tubes stretched the length of the contraption, each with a thermometer within.

"There are four main gas bags in each airship. Depending on the location of the sun, one gas bag may become much hotter than the others. That could cause one bag to rise higher than the others, creating an imbalance. The helium needs to be constantly pumped around between the bags to prevent this. With all four airships in a line, some of the gas bags will always be in shadow. So the helium pumping system needs to be extended between the four airships."

The Captain led Felix up a ladder in the corner of the chamber, up into the body of the airship. Round circles of wood formed huge ribs that supported the outer canvas skin. The interior space seemed to glow with a dull gray light, filtered sunlight pouring through tiny holes in the canvas skin. Huge gas bags occupied nearly the entire space, with a junction between the four gas bags at the very top of the ladder. Two metal tubes led to a smokey glass station just aft of the ladder. A wind mage, with his teal hood crumpled about his shoulders, was seated on a cushioned chair within this little glass box, operating another brass contraption, covered in levers and gauges.

"This is the helium station for this airship," the Captain said. "Air is pumped in from the outside, where it passes through the helium separation chamber. The mage here uses the Realm of Wind to separate the helium from the surrounding air. There is an extraordinarily small amount of helium in the air, so the bulk of the air is pumped back through the back of the craft. There are tiny bleed tubes that feed the helium into the gas bags."

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"How often do you need to produce helium?" Felix asked.

"All the time, if we can. It is important to have a stockpile of helium in case the gas bags need to be vented during an emergency descent."

Felix nodded. The sky was unforgiving, and it made perfect sense to design an entire system around rare edge cases.

They descended to the cabin once again, and made their way forward to the flight deck. Roomy and lit by long windows, the chamber was dominated by a huge ship's wheel in the center. More levers and gauges, at least six stations for operators, and a table covered with navigation charts. Flower-like brass horns hung from the ceiling above the windows, facing the ship's wheel.

The Captain pointed up at the horns. "There will be four pilots working together. The four airships will be flown independently, so these tubes needed to be installed to allow for communication. Wind mages amplify their voice to broadcast messages. I will fly in the rear airship, issuing orders to the others. Other than that, each craft is just like a boat. There are private quarters for the crew, a kitchen, and a water mage station. Food is stored between the gas bags, coal is stored below decks to provide ballast."

"What about heat?" Felix asked. "How do you prevent ice buildup on the outside of the craft?"

"The helium pumps can run through a chamber adjacent to the steam engine. The temperature in all four gas bags is carefully monitored. In practice, it is best to avoid flying through known icing conditions in the first place."

"What about the airplanes above the deck? The helium cannot possibly keep them warm."

"We use an extraordinarily advanced new technology to solve that problem," the Captain said with a grin. "I'll show you."

Up on deck, the airmen were busy hauling the airplanes off their carts. Felix found his own airplane tied to the deck, and the two horses were long gone, trotting down the ramp without their cart. Men with ropes were gently guiding the cart down the ramp as well, using gravity alone. The Senior Air Sergeant and three other enlisted men were busy unfolding a huge wool blanket.

"A blanket?" Felix asked.

"It is the best solution the engineers could design with such short notice. Snow and ice may build up on the landing deck. It cannot be helped. You and the other pilots will need to come up here periodically and use sorcery to clear the ice. In an emergency, all eight pilots can be deployed at the same time, but the engineers believe that it will only take two pilots to keep the entire deck free of ice. You will need to rotate pilots in and out yourself."

"As for the rotation, in the worst case we will need three eight-hour shifts, with two spare pilots. How long until we can depart?"

"Within the hour."

The wind was blowing toward the north, which was uncommon so close to the escarpment. A continent-sized high pressure system rested in the desert to the south, radiating cold wind in every direction. It had been supernatural in origin, brought into being by a High Daughter of the Queen of Water, by the command of the Purple Dragon. The Lord Paladin hoped that the high pressure system would be weaker out over the warm ocean.

The nose of the aircraft carrier was already pointed toward the south, into the wind. "Untie my craft," Felix commanded. "I am going to fly the pattern a few times before we are aloft."

"Yes commander!" the Air Sergeant said. "Once the horses are gone, we'll drag her aft."

The deck of the carrier was still too warm for the snow to stick, and as the morning progressed, the air warmed and the snow turned to a light rain. By the time the deck was clear, a small opening in the clouds overhead revealed a cool blue sky. Felix strapped himself into his airplane, stowed his leather helmet and goggles under his seat, and gripped the stick. Ailerons, elevator, and rudder were all free and moving in the correct sense.

He amplified his voice with wind magic. "Clear prop!" The soldiers moved away.

The metal engine was still cold from the night. Felix connected to all three Realms, and combined them into draconic sorcery within the engine, enough to warm the metal without spinning the turbine. The engine cowl temperature needle began to rise, starting in the white range labeled "Ice" until it ended in the green range labeled "Operation." He closed the glass canopy and locked it, then began to rotate the flaps control wheel until it would spin no further. With a surge of sorcery, the turbine began to spool, spinning the propeller and sucking in the cold air from outside.

Felix punched the throttle, and the craft lurched forward, bumping along the wooden planks of the upper deck. The airspeed needle began to rise, up into the white range labeled "Flaps." He did not even need to pull back on the stick, the nose wanted to rise, and the deck dropped away at about the halfway mark. Then he was out over the forest, with the snowclad trees rushing by on either side.

He yanked the stick to one side. The world outside seemed to roll around Felix, who was suspended unmoving within his tiny wooden cabin. A slight pull back on the stick, a tiny bit of rudder to counteract the adverse yaw, he turned perpendicular to the carrier and began the pattern. He leveled off with the airspeed in the green region, perhaps five hundred feet above the treetops, and pulled the flaps back up. A pocket of clear air opened to the north, revealing the smoke stacks, layered tenements, and massive Gondola Wheel in the city of Black River.

He turned to face the city, then took rapid glances over one shoulder toward the aircraft carrier. The soldiers were busy laying out cables on the deck. It was a small target to hit, and it would require perfect weather to take off and land. If the thing became lost in the clouds, it would be nearly impossible for a pilot to find it.

Lining up with the deck directly in the center of the propeller disk, Felix dropped the flaps again and dropped the engine to idle. The airspeed slowly crept back down into the white range as he approached. At the last second, just before slamming into the wooden deck, he pulled back on the stick slightly, held the nose steady, and stalled the airplane. The wheels slammed down, the tail-hook caught one of the cables, and then he was smashed forward into his harness. The airplane began traveling backwards a moment later, as the tension in the cable pulled on the tail-hook. He cut the engine power and the propeller creaked to a halt.

A banging sound on the glass canopy. The Air Sergeant was issuing commands to the enlisted men as they began to drag the wings around. Felix opened the canopy. The cabin had grown very warm during the flight, so the blast of cold air outside was unexpected. He clambered out.

"How was the flight, commander?" the Air Sergeant asked.

"I think it will be much easier once the carrier is underway," Felix said. "Then the difference in airspeed between the two craft is lower, the cable will be easier to hit with the hook."

"Are you going to try again?" the other man asked.

"No," Felix replied. "Tie my airplane down at the rear. Once we embark on the mission, I will fly the pattern a few more times. Then, the other pilots will need to start practicing."