Dull blue overalls covered basic gray work clothes were a stark contrast from Lauren's matching neon pink gloves and protective goggles. Rusted steel panels pried from the back floor of the engine room revealed batteries that collected power from the overhead solar tarp; a burnt sulfuric odor rose from the pit. A crystallized acidic mess of battery seepage occupied the center of the battery pit.

Tray's boot tapped at the side of a burnt out battery to expose fizzing leakage that formed a brackish crust.

"Any idea what caused this?"

"Overcharge. A few of the batteries are dead, which meant I couldn't risk disconnecting the circuits when we were maneuvering. But this is my failure, I take full responsibility. I tried to get too much out of the remaining cells. Forcing good batteries to work in a circuit with compromised ones is a bad idea. The overcharged units burst, electrolyte leaked over the other cells and damaged them. I can patch it up to get the propellers and the rudders working, but only for a few minutes' worth. Enough to get us in the hanger."

"Patch it as best you can," Tray took a deep breath, "As long as we get in the hanger."

Lauren grunted as she lifted out a battery covered in corrosion.

"How long do you think it's been since these batteries were replaced?"

Lauren turned a little red, "You know I have to work with what I'm given; I've been telling you these units are too old for recharging for months!"

"I suppose I can't blame this on our rescue expedition. I'll tell Mr. Delant that the power storage finally gave out. That'll explain the lack of treasure."

Lauren tried not to wipe her forehead with acid stained gloves as she reconfigured connections on the few remaining batteries, "Too bad it won't explain our lack of depth charges, or the stowaway we picked up. How are you going to explain her? Are you going to tell them the truth; that she was wandering out in the open and somehow survived?"

"We could say we saw her airship go down. Managed to rescue her before it got swallowed up."

Lauren looked up, shaking her head, "Considering the charges we used, do you realize how much material we should have recovered from a downed airship?"

Tray swung his arm at the air behind him and cursed. After that sudden outburst he settled down with a sigh, "We'll come up with something."

Rocky outcroppings began to relieve the endless parking lot; the higher cliffs with steep vertical inclines had faces with visible bare stone. Horst thought it was a relief to see stone as he leaned back in the pilot's seat and sighed. Most of the non-essential tools on his panel were disabled by Captain's orders, including the main radio, the crane, the guns, and much of the interior lighting.

The GPS stopped functioning altogether. Horst figured something had burnt out, but they were only a few dozen kilometers from Manderee base. Every system scratched the last minutes of lifespan as the airship received favorable assistance from northeasterly winds. Horst reached over the control panel, careful not to affect the intake valves or the rudder controls. He picked up his faded portable headset, leaned back, and listened to slow motion rap tunes as yet another battery died.

"Gonna be years before I get to hear any good music."

A tennis ball bounced against the console. Horst caught it on the rebound with his left hand then tossed it over his shoulder. Larox caught it and bounced it against a flat panel to produce a series of soft thumps. The battery in horst headphones began to die completely; his music diminished. Thump. Horst removed the headphones and flopped them on the panel before glancing back to Larox with narrowed eyes. Thump.

"Almost home?" Larox asked.

"Not quite, all the equipment is shot, but at least this is familiar territory. Find anything out about the girl?"

"Her name's Lavinia, and... that's about it," He couldn't forget the hot coil wrapping him tightly; how Lavinia had punched it, and how it had cooled before crumbling into small pieces, "And... I-"

"Yeah, what, it's not like you to hesitate man."

"Nah, it's nothing important."

Larox stared out the window as he leaned over the console with one hand over top of the tennis ball. It squeezed between the paneling and his palm as he searched for the first sign of Manderee. The first sight of silver-gray glimmered in the distance.

"So you didn't get anything else out of her?" Horst asked, "Don't tell me the ladies' man himself has failed miserably!"

Larox spoke in low growl, "Nothing. She's not the talkative type. Lauren dressed her injuries and then she went right to sleep, so I got bored and left."

Horst took a last sip of water and tossed the empty bottle on the floor, "What are we gonna do with her, that's what I wanna to know. I'm sure the bosses are gonna find our story a bit out there, I mean, who the hell's gonna believe anyone is out that far from a base and still alive. Man, as long as we've been out, they're gonna think we went over to a base in the Rockies and picked her up. That spells trouble. I'm not looking forward to explainin' this! I'm not looking forward to watchin' Tray explain it!"

"Ya, I was thinking we shouldn't tell them the whole story. Save ourselves a few extra problems."

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"Sounds cool, you get with Tray on this?"

"Not yet, but I'm sure he's already thought the same thing, you two think alike."

Horst pulled back in his seat and turned to Larox, "Hey man, that's not a compliment. But if you were thinking the same thing I was thinking..."

Larox gave the tennis ball a toss at Horst's lap; It was caught it before it landed. As Larox left, Horst put his head back and his feet on controls as he sighed quietly.

-----

The door into the sleeping cabin opened, Larox found Lavinia lying on her side on his bed.

"Hey. We're approaching our base, would you like to see it?"

She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Larox supported her as she put weight on her bandaged ankle. On the observation deck, they saw the approaching fortress of Mandaree. Warm winds teased Lavinia's hair as the fleck of silver-gray became a giant aluminum bowl with a cityscape of low glassy domes.

The arc of the fortress was so wide it dwarfed the blacktop-covered hills around it. Curved walls were half a kilometer high and the base itself was several kilometers in diameter. The sun shone against the eastern side of the fortress while the western underbelly created a shadow against the plains.

Glimmering aluminum beams extended from the blacktop to incline of the base. Tar strands clung against the fortress bottom as it rounded inwards into the earth, as if tethering the structure. Every support beam had thick tar clinging to the bottom half, as if it were trying to climb upwards. Low glassy domes laced with a web pattern of silver lines pressed against the outer edges of the bowl.

The top of the wall held a metal tower from which strings of coiled metal rose into the air like the strings of a kite. Whatever the strings were flying was too high to see clearly. Numerous windmills stood on narrow metal posts. Every building had at least one windmill at its pinnacle. Blades rotated at the topmost domes and across the fortress wall.

A silver skyscraper at the center dwarfed the other buildings. It narrowed into a tall spire, which held a rotating satellite dish at the pinnacle. Airships of various types, blimps, and other dirigibles with the markings of Clinker Corporation were tethered around the structure. Around the central skyscraper, a group of tall buildings resembled a cityscape, except there was little space between them.

The bottom stories of these buildings joined into one unit as if melting into the fortress terrain. Rooftops flowed into webbed glassy domes covered in solar panels. More airships hovered above the other buildings; they were smaller than the Corporation airships and some of the blimps sported faded designs. A collection of faded advertisements floated around the lower airspace.

Ubiquitous windmills and airships gave the city a carnival feel, as if the entire bowl wanted to break free from the aluminum supports and strands of tar to fly off.

Lavinia's eyes darted back and forth methodically as her expression neutralized. Larox just shook his head, almost walked away to go smoke, yet thought better of it. He led Lavinia back inside as they approached the main tower. The vessel would soon be disinfected.

Clinker Twenty-one reached its dock without complication. It was one of the few airships to have its own hanger within the lower section of the main tower. The rudder and the propellers were enabled so Horst could lower the vessel for the tower connection. Thin lateral rods extended from the tower's outer wall, using these poles, Lauren anchored the bottom of the airship while Horst kept it steady.

Once anchored to the bottom rod, the top rod penetrated a series of rings that arose atop the flat of the airship balloon just for this procedure. A strong electro-magnetic field surrounded the vessel for a few minutes as a safeguard to deactivate microscopic-robotics.

In the passenger cabin, Larox noticed that Lavinia loked incredibly pale and clung to her bed. It must have been too much for her, going out to the observation platform after what she'd been through. He sighed a bit, not knowing what to say, but kept close by. She perked up and the color returned to her face as the electro-magnetic field was lifted, though she still looked tired.

The sound of pumps engaging filled the hanger, all valuable lighter-than-air gas was sent to storage tanks for filtration and concentration. The innards of the airship would be filled with standard air for storage.

Tray was the first one to exit into the hanger, a huge space where cranes, robotic arms, and various attachments hung from the ceiling.

Bleary eyes stared his way upon his exit, they belonged to Edward Delant, a withered old man in a mobile wheel chair with an oxygen mask over his mouth. Two armed guards in white uniforms stood at his back, each adorned with security badges. They never looked particularly happy. Lauren and Horst quietly snuck out of the airship and walked toward tool benches at the far side of the garage while Tray faced their superior officer all alone.

"Well, well, well," Mr. Delant coughed, "My best group returns. What went wrong?"

Tray saluted, "My apologies sir, our batteries failed. I was at fault for trying squeeze too much life out of them."

"How many times must I tell you, this isn't a military. We all share in our fortunes and misfortunes equally, "Delant coughed and the wheezed, "Everyone is equal under my management. Just don't let it happen again."

"Umm sir, I mean Mr. Delant. We sort of came across another airship in our travels. We only managed to rescue one person before it went under. That's why we used so many depth charges. My apologies, sir. "

"What's that, a rescue, fairly noble I suppose. One expendable person is no excuse for wasting... valuable equipment, you usually know when something just isn't worth it Captain, have you gone soft on me? So who did you rescue?"

"Larox, bring her out!" Tray yelled.

Lavinia was sitting in Larox's arms, her hands around his neck as she looked down. Her calm blue eyes drifted low as her hair fell forward to cover the right side of her face. She glanced at the supervisor quickly before returning her attention to where Larox's hand was grasping under her knee.

Edward wheezed as he surveyed the rescue, "Fair enough, get her to processing for... for... task assignment. Does she have identification?"

"She claims her name is Lavina," Tray reported.

"Hasn't processing been shut down for ten years?" Lauren asked.

The old man waved a hand dismisively, "I'm sure something will work. You can keep her here till then. You'll have to provide for her."

"Hey, babysitting refugees isn't our responsibility, we have work to do!"

"Inspect the refuse container," Edward coughed a bit more violently, "Let's get this over with, I'm getting exhausted."

They took a look in the bin, sorting through the contents carefully and finding only dead batteries and garbage. They gave their supervisor the all clear. Edward rode out and waved everyone off with no further bother.

"Hey," Larox said quietly while patting Tray on the shoulder, "Don't sweat it, we're the most productive team here, right? Hell, most of the other groups only turn a profit once every ten tries."

Tray wasn't consoled, "You heard the man, you wanted her, so she's with you like glue until they tell me otherwise, and you'll be sharing your rations until she gets processed."

"And make sure you behave yourself!" Lauren added.

"Great, I hope you don't mean my room! Shouldn't Lauren bunk... Fine, I'll sleep in the blimp cabin."

He looked around. The garage was suddenly empty except for Lavinia, everyone else had either gone to their own quarters or left.

"Real nice! And why wouldn't I behave myself!"

Looking toward Lavinia's polite expression made him tune down to a groan.

"I know you guys are watching! Guess I just lost my room......."

"I'm sorry," Lavinia squeaked, "I didn't mean to be such a bother."