Project Empress 019

 [Chapter 5 continued]

Not long after, Cara and Natalie found themselves in a cabin with one large reinforced window with view of the channel and its other side, that was also lit in warm amber light. The cabin itself smelled of hardwood and fresh laundry. In front of the window was a large wooden desk. Cara noticed that it was connected to the outer wall with four heavy metal hinges. She suspected that the table could be pushed up to barricade the window in case of an emergency. Thick cables connected the two corners of the room. To their right was a narrow door leading to a toilet and another leading to a small shower which was made out of cast plastic. Whatever it was that Wolfram and Erika were doing, it obviously paid well. Next to the bathroom were more doors, wooden this time. A quick look behind them confirmed her suspicion: behind them was a wardrobe. What she found behind the third door was a bit of a surprise though. A full length mirror on the door itself but the really surprising thing was the electric kettle, the water tank, as well as a collection of tea and coffee making paraphernalia.

There was a couch to their left with more than enough space for two people to lounge, as well as a matching coffee table kept in space by chains which connected it to floor and ceiling. All in all it was a small room that refused to be confined by its dimensions.

“This looks really nice and I love the kettle”, Cara said, “but where are we supposed to sleep?”

Natalie didn’t say anything. She just walked to the couch and pulled it out, so that it touched the table. With a clank, a panel in the wall next to Natalie opened and a lever fell out of it. As Natalie began to pull repeatedly on the lever, the table began to move up towards the ceiling, while the back rest of the couch started to move up, at the same time starting to extend into the room. A bit later, the couch and table were replaced by a bunk bed. 

“And the best thing is this”, Natalie said, pushing the lever back in and pulling on something that Cara couldn’t quite see, but with a clinking noise, the table slowly returned back down while the bunk bed transformed into a couch again.

“Magic”, Cara said, eyes wide.

“Even better”, Natalie said, “technology.”

“Magical technology?”, Cara said.

“Fair enough”, Natalie shrugged and started putting her stuff into the wardrobe. “Put your stuff in here too. But not your weapons, they belong in the rack over there”, Natalie gestured with her thumb towards the door. There were several adjustable brackets to place swords, staves and all other manner of the weapons. 

“I would suggest to hit the sheets as early as possible. If we are lucky we’ll have maybe 6 hours of sleep ahead of us. By then we will have reached the last portal in Ludinchusen; once there is enough daylight we will rush through the Purgatory Gap. Once we reach the Datlem crossroads, we are safe and can take a victory nap.” 

“Victory nap, I’ll hurry up and get some training sleep done before then”, Cara said.

She put her stuff away. Hung her sword and defence stick on the door. She went to the bathroom, which, while incredibly tiny, was actually very well lit. She removed her make-up, then washed her face. The soap smelled of citrus and orange, the water was just the right kind of hot. When she straightened back up, she saw herself in the mirror. 

“That is a very good nap face”, she told her mirror image.

When she returned to their room, Natalie was already snuggled under her duvet, snoring softly. For a second Cara’s heart skipped a beat. She got the top bunk! Life couldn’t have been better.

A few minutes later, she was already drifting into the world of dreams where she was back in Walter’s garden, working on her moves and flow.

Cara was drifting through a comfortable darkness where there were no thoughts, no feelings, just warmth, when a blandly melodious marimba sound caught her attention. While the last note of the sound that had entered the cocoon shielding her consciousness was still reverberating, a mellifluous female voice added:

“Good morning passengers, this is Co-Captain Erika Hartmann Serafini speaking”, ‘Erika?’, Cara thought. That voice sounded nothing like she remembered it to sound… “This is your first and only warning”, the voice continued, “before the weak-up horns are sounded.” A brief pause. “You have been warned”, the announcement ended in a benevolent smile.

By now Cara was mostly back in reality, safely rolled into her big fluffy blanket that smelled like a warm spring morning. Her face sunken into a big soft pillow, only her nose and mouth looking out of it, the only point of contact to the cold early morning air. Not as good as the darkness from which she had come, but a close second. 

Her brain, having finished most of the necessary preflight checks, had now time to start wondering about the the warning they had received.

She felt the ‘wake-up horns’ before she heard them. Her entire body, the bed and the ship around her began to vibrate, followed by a deep mournful roar which shook her bones, her inner organs and probably her soul too. The roar emerged slowly from the depths of infra-sound making itself known to all the world.

Underneath her she could hear increasingly load protests coming from Natalie, her shouts, however, were caught in the currents of the roar and drowned.

As Cara’s eardrums started to tickle the sound suddenly stopped. 

Again the Marimba sounds. 

“Good morning”, a deeply satisfied male voice this time, “this is your other co-captain Wolfram Hartmann Serafini speaking. This has been your wake-up call. All hands, including our esteemed guests, the Ladies Natalie Laukkanen Lapointe and Cara Gibson Müller, on the bridge in 30 minutes.”

Cara moved towards the edge of her bunk and looked down, asking the bundle of duvets and pillows, under which she suspected her master to be: “Do you want to go shower first?”

“Mblll… brgllbrrrb… murgh… blllrmb…”, came the reply from inside the pile in the lower bunk. 

Cara thought about what she had heard for a moment. Not quite sure if she had interpreted what she had heard correctly, she tried: “So… I’m going to shower first…?”

“Grrb mpflll…”, the pile answered.

That was good enough for Cara. She threw her duvet back. Instantly regretted her choice as it was really cold outside. But now there was only one way to escape: forward.

She grabbed hold of the edge of the bed and flipped over the edge in an elegant arc.

That was the plan at least.

When she was six she could do that, no problem.

Her body reminded her of little details like, not being six for a long time now. And how it expected training, to see which movements should be kept and which shouldn’t. Also “OW!”, said Cara, first when her arms protested against the way they were being treated. Then from her feet as they scraped against the low ceiling. There was a short moment of clarity when the adrenaline kicked her body into high gear as she started her free fall. Punctuated in the end when she crashed into the floor below. Her duvet dripping over the edge of the bed laying itself over her, hiding her shame from the world. 

“Gnnnr brrr ng-heh?”, the pile asked.

“I’m good”, Cara said. Noticing that, indeed, she was. She had expected worse. Still hurt though. But that was something she had to add to her mental training list…

“Mmmmmrb…”, the pile said, a hand worming its way out of it showing a thumbs up, then quickly retreating from the cold.

Cara got up, opened her side of the wardrobe, got some fresh clothes out. She selected some functional underwear, unearthed her light weight protective gear that she could wear under her normal clothes and put that on the table. She then went digging for her make-up kit and with that and her underwear she went to the tiny shower room. A quick look told her that there wasn’t much space for her clothes, so as she undressed she threw her old clothes out. Hung the underwear on the hooks that were located high on the door and took a quick shower. The quick shower took her a bit longer than expected. The water came with a good pressure and could be set to a heat that was close to divine. For a moment she forgot about time. Then she suddenly panicked when she noticed that she had forgotten the existence of the universe. When she was done, she dried herself, solved the puzzle of getting into her clothes in a very tight space, followed by a quick look outside. Still no sign of Natalie. Just a pile furiously denying the existence of time. Good. She checked her clock. 10 minutes gone for the shower. She had to be quick, but would not leave her cabin without a proper face… Today she needed something more resolute. Eye shadow and lip-stick would have to wait, she could do that on the bridge while listening to the briefing. She hoped. 

She was done in a little over 5 minutes. When she got out, Natalie was still nowhere to be seen. 

“Master Natalie!”

“What..?”

It could speak. Good. 

“We have to be on the bridge in 14 minutes”, Cara said.

The reaction she got was not quite what she expected… “Fuck the bridge…”

As Cara put on her light carbon fibre and ceramics protectors, which covered her lower arms and legs, her chest and shoulders, she attempted to motivate Natalie to get up again. 

“12 Minutes, master Natalie.”

“Just another minute longer…”, Natalie said and turned around.

Cara put her pants on, chose a high necked long-sleeve shirt covering her armour.

“10 Minutes master…”, Cara said, now getting nervous for her master.

“Alright, alright”, Natalie said. Moving slowly out of bed, cursing the whole time. She started rummaging in her bag as, as Cara had put on another shirt, a sweater and her jacket.

“You go on ahead. I’ll be right there with you…”, Natalie half mumbled.

“Are you sure…”

“Yeah, yeah, I already know most of what they are going to say. Shoo, shoo, off you go.”

Cara nodded, not very convinced by Natalie’s words. She left their cabin, noticing a strange smell she could not place in the corridor, a bit sharp in the nose and like nothing she had ever smelled before.

She moved down the corridor to the staircase and went all the way up where, past a peculiar looking section, that didn’t have the faded carpet but was pure metal, until she reached the door at the end of it. She knocked.

“No need to knock”, she heard Erika’s voice from inside, “come in.”

She opened the door slowly and looked inside. Behind the door was a surprisingly large bridge that could comfortably house at least five people. Surrounded by windows in all directions, giving everyone a great view of the surroundings without having to endure the cold autumn wind. As she moved inside, the room smelled of polished metal and coffee, she noted that all the windows were reinforced by iron rails which held metal shutters.

“Come, join us”, Wolfram said. “You are either welcome on the bridge, then you can just come right in, or you aren’t and then Erika will let you know.” Erika just snorted at that. “Coffee?”

“If I may…”, Cara said trying without much success to maintain eye contact. 

“As much as you like. But remember the rule…”, Wolfram said.

“The one who drinks the last cup”, Erika continued, “brews the next batch.” 

“Sounds fair”, Cara said, her voice a bit smaller than she had hoped it would sound. She walked over to the coffee maker that stood in the central space at the back of the bridge. The coffee maker was an old drip machine, she knew the model from catalogues. A dutch model that was known as the king of the drip machines. She got a bit exited. It had a strange look to it, which she soon discovered was, because the stainless steel body of the coffee maker was by now covered in a patina of coffee. 

“Oh, and we drink it sailor strength”, Wolfram added. “If you aren’t used to coffee, you should dilute it with water.”

“I’m good. I can handle my coffee”, a phrase Cara never had imagined she’d ever use. 

When she poured herself a cup, she knew why co-captain Wolfram had warned her. The liquid was slightly viscous. When she added an extra big helping of sugar she was sure that it did not sink instantly into the liquid. She added a good amount of cream, turning the coffee from event-horizon black to a very dark brown. When she pulled the spoon out of it she was a bit surprised that it still existed. 

She had taken her time, hoping that Natalie would finally appear, especially seeing that 35 minutes had already passed since the announcement. She turned around, facing the co-captains, fearing their stares, but Wolfram was looking out the window, the boat moving very slowly towards a large metal portal that cut off the canal in front of them, framed by high towers with armed guards on various levels of them. Mostly people with crossbows on the lower levels and longbows on the higher ones. But there were a few guards at the top which had pre-fall rifles.

“Er… master Natalie should be with us very soon…”, Cara ventured.

Erika looked up from the console where she had been prodding several buttons and gently tapping several gauges. 

“Ah, don’t worry about Nat, sweety, she knows the drill. We’ll get started and by the time we are through the basics she’ll either be here or…”

“Erika will make her be here”, Wolfram said nodding solemnly.

“Very much”, Erika said.

“So…”, Wolfram said, “as you have heard we are co-captains. I am the one who does the navigation, I got the helm and plan the cargo runs we do, that kind of things. And Erika…”

“I take care of the engines,” she said, “I keep an eye on the details and I am the one who takes care of security.”

“Once we go through that portal”, Wolfram said, nodding towards the lock behind him, “we will be in the Purgatory Gap, a lawless region between Sendaion and the channel cross at Datlem. It’s only about 20 miles from here, but even when you know the course and go full steam ahead, the Ruhig Blut will take about one hour to cross it. In that hour nothing may happen or we get attacked. There are several old canal parts that are just perfect for pirates to hide in. And over the years new side channels have appeared that weren’t there before. Along this route are Ludinchusen which has a constant beef with Monasteria and the mercenary city of Ulfloa, whose inhabitants will do anything for a quick buck”, Wolfram shrugged. “Whatever the case, once we are in the Purgatory Gap, you’ll listen to Erika. She has the command when it comes to protecting the ship, the cargo and you.”

“In that order,” Erika added. “You are our guests of course, but in the Purgatory Gap you are also our guards. We fight together and we make it together.”

Cara nodded, took a sip of her coffee to hide the fact that she didn’t know what to say now. The coffee kicked its way through into her system, starting at her mouth, not waiting to be swallowed. As Cara was working on not to choke on it, the door to the bridge opened up and a zombie which looked suspiciously like Natalie shambled in. 

“Need coffee”, the creature said and shambled past Cara, pouring itself a generous portion of the viscous fluid. Cara noticed that the creature that might be Natalie left enough for a small cup inside the coffee pot. 

“Ship, cargo and maybe us?”, the creature said. It sipped the coffee, its face doing things that no face should be able to do. It added copious amounts of sugar.

“Exactly”, Erika said, “and if you want I can show all the things that will power the Ruhig Blut through the Purgatory Gap”, she grinned. Wolfram behind her moved a step to the side to stand completely in the blind spot of his wife, and then started to shake his head, also shaking an empathetic no with his hand.

Behind Cara, the undead creature decided that it needed all the coffee.

“What do you say? Cara, Natalie?”

“Oh nooo… the coffee is all gone. I think I need to go brew a new one…”

“I’d love to go!”, Cara said.

Erika’s face outshone the light of the early autumn sun.

Wolfram’s face was a mask of terror, while behind Cara, the undead creature almost let its mug slip out of its hand.

“Great!”, Erika said. “You’ll love it. I have sooo much to show you”, she looked back at the lock. “The first portal isn’t even open yet, we have enough time for a tour, before we enter the Purgatory Gap. Come”, beaming, she took Cara’s arm, pulling her with her towards the door. 

As Cara was pulled through the door back down stairs into the bowels of the ship, she could swear that the undead, who might be Natalie, murmured: “Some of us will be in Purgatory much earlier…” There was a deep sadness in that voice.