Project Empress 021

 [Chapter 5 continued]

Bright searing light blazed all around Cara, as if the summer sun had fallen to earth. The noise, despite the protectors, was already quite the challenge, the roar reached her bones and marrow and shook her, synchronising her entire being to the old gods´ roar. But the light? Nothing had prepared her for that. She screamed and closed her eyes, but that wasn’t enough, the light pierced her eyelids with ease. 

The next thing she actively noticed was that Erika was holding her in her arms. She felt through the vibration that she was talking to her and felt a hand gently stroking her head. Slowly she got used to the glare and could open her eyes again, if only so much. Erika was looking at her, trying to gauge how she was doing. When she saw here eyes were open, she gestured to Care to leave the engine room. She helped her up and helped her past the bulkhead door. When they were back at the bottom of the stairs the door closed behind them. The light gone and the roar now the purr of a mountain sized cat, Cara slowly came back to her senses.

“No wonder these things ate the world…”, Cara said.

“They didn’t, it was us”, Erika said, before remembering Cara’s situation. “I’m sorry sweety, I didn’t think that the light would overwhelm you so much.” She hung her head, looking up to keep her eyes on Cara. “It’s mostly for show anyway. I call it ‘the dawn of the gods’. It is meant to inspire awe… but not like this.”

“I’m OK….”, Cara said, her voice slightly uneven, slowly finding her balance again. It reminded her of what Walter had said about the Animus. She knew that her body was fine, but her spirit? Right now it was something small and furry hiding under a stone, hoping against all hope that the predators around her didn’t find her. ‘I need to start reading that book’, Cara thought. 

She slowly got up. 

“Good”, Erika said. “You are a strong woman. I can see that. But let’s go back up to the bridge and get you a nice blanket and a hot cup of chocolate.”

Cara nodded, feeling a bit better, about herself and the world and a bit worse because Miss Snuggles was still in her suitcase waiting for her to stitch her back together.

When they returned to the bridge the ship had moved into the lock. The canal at this point did not change in elevation. The lock was mainly a security measure. Everyone who wished to enter or exit this part, had to enter this very confined space surrounded by four guard towers and more guards in one place than Cara had ever seen together in her whole time in Monasteria.

When she followed Erika onto the bridge, both Natalie and Wolfram looked at her. The moment they saw her face both pairs of eyes moved instantly towards Erika. Who despite having her back turned to them instantly felt it. 

“It was the light… it was a bit much.”

“The light?”, Wolfram asked.

“Cara”, Natalie moved towards her, put her hands on her shoulders with enough pressure to feel reassuring, but not so much that they would add to what ever it was Cara was carrying right now, “are you OK? Did she… give you a doubtlessly fascinating, yet incredibly detailed sermon about the machines down there?”

Erika, still working on the hot chocolate, shifted her stance a bit to give Natalie a very pointed side-eye.

Cara’s eyes started to shine again. “Yes”, she said, “did you know that there are seven different engines on this boat? And that they are forbidden technology but do not partake of the forbidden blood of the earth?”

Natalie’s eyes twitched a bit. “Yeees…?”

“Oh! I forgot to ask”, Cara turned to Erika. “How much power do the engines produce?”

Erika, whose expression was lurking ready to pounce and kill at the slightest provocation, stumbled over herself but bounced back not missing a beat, now all sunshine and heavenly choirs. 

“What a very good question”, she said, looking pointedly looking at Natalie and Wolfram, who both tried their best to not move at all.

Cara looked very proud of herself.

“The engine blocks produce about 2700 kW of power. And Juno the turbine again as much. Right now we have enough fuel to run the engines for about 3 hours and the turbine for one and a half.”

“Oooh…”, Cara said, finding her inner balance again. Erika came to her, a triumphant glance thrown at the utterly confused Wolfram and conflicted Natalie. She put put a blanket she had produced from under the table, next to the little fridge there, around Cara’s shoulders. “Now come with me so I can give you your chocolate, and tell you a bit more about the wonders of the god machines down in the engine room.”

Natalie and Wolfram shared a short glance, shrugged stealthily and Natalie turned her attention back to the radio. “5 Minutes until the outer gate opens.”, she said.

“Right”, Wolfram said, checking the instruments in front of him, a lot more of them now lit, lamps blinking, needles twitching. “Engines are all green. All auxiliary systems are working. Batteries are all at 60% and charging. We are ready to go. How is the piracy forecast?”

Natalie was still concentrating on what she was haring over the headphones of the radio station. She had covered only one ear, while scribbling down notes on a piece of paper in front of her. 

“They say it’s good, I would say we are taking a risk. There was little activity lately. The old channel on our side has been swept only a few days ago by church militia. Datlem hasn’t had any trouble with pirates or ‘competitive traders’ lately.”

“Too quiet for too long. And no information about the last part.”

Natalie nodded. “The pirates are going to be hungry. This sounds like perfect conditions for an ambush. Are we going to get company for the trip?”

“No”, Wolfram said. “We are the only ship today and there are only a couple of ‘maybes’ who’d dare the trip in two days.”

“So they are all waiting for some other idiot to kick the hornets nest…”

“Looks that way”, Wolfram said. “Meh… It won’t be the first time. We aren’t that juicy a target. We don’t carry that much cargo and we have only unlabelled containers on the outside. And we have pushed our way through this part of the channels several times by now. We are far more trouble than we are worth.”

Natalie smirked. “Yeah, that’s what worries me. The fuckers out there are hungry and you are known as pirate breakers. Only idiots who are hungry for the fame would attack us.”

Wolfram exhaled, his breath turning into a long sigh. “Idiots are always the worst”, he grimaced. 

“I’ll go get my sword. Cara…”, she looked over at Cara, now snuggled into a warm blanket hugging her cup of chocolate while listening to Erika, utterly captivated by the various uses of algae. “I will get your weapons too…”, she said.

While Cara was deeply fascinated by the many ways precious resources could be won from algae, which in principle lived from the waste of the ship, her attention was for a moment distracted by a large cathode ray tube that slowly rose to the surface of the helm. She had heard of these wonders of the past, that had already been old when the century was still young. 

“Is that…”, she said pointing at it. Erika looked over her shoulder, nodding with a knowing smile. “Yes that is an ancient CRT, amber and black. No flicker. Appropriate resolution. Very robust.”

“What is it for?”

“We travel across the channels and rivers all over Europe and for special places, like for example the Purgatory Gap here…”, she let the words hang in the room.

Wolfram took over from there, “… we have detailed 3D maps which we can use to simulate the way we are going through. We pre-calculate the fastest ways through the Purgatory Gap in front of us. We are aren’t fast enough to outrun smaller ships. But the less time we spend in the Gap the less danger, and when we go full steam ahead, its significantly harder to board us.”

The monitor was now in its final position showing a very sparse wire-frame model of the lock and a schematic birds eye view of the channel system in front of them. 

Wolfgang started the auxiliary motors of the ship, manoeuvring slightly towards the port side.

“I have to line up the ship so that it matches the simulation, to get the best effect.”, he said.

Cara nodded. Taking everything in.

Natalie came back with a bouquet of weapons in her arms. She gave Cara her black sword and her defence stick. She put her own sword into its sheath, balanced her journeyman stick in her hand. 

“So, what’s the plan?”, Natalie asked.

“We will have at least 5 minutes until we reach the part where we reach the first old channel exit”, Wolfram said. “I would suggest you take the starboard side, Nat. Cara, you take the port side. Concentrate on the middle part of the ship where the containers are. That’s where the ship is at its most vulnerable. The fore and aft are heavily reinforced. Erika will stay up top,” he gestured towards the gangway on top of the container space. “From there she can help any of you if you should need assistance.”

“Aye, co-captain”, Natalie said. “Cara, how do you feel about the plan? If you want, I’ll take care of the port side with you and Erika takes care of starboard.”

Erika nodded. 

“I’m OK”, Cara said, still feeling guilty about her episode in the engine room. She was a trained swordswoman after all. Her sword and stick would both give her an advantage against a boarding party. The paths left and right of the containers were narrow, so even if she had several opponents, she could face them one on one.

Natalie raised her eyebrow, eyeing her but not saying anything. 

“Alright”, Natalie said, nodding at Cara.

“The gates are opening”, Erika said.

As Cara looked past Natalie, the large doors of the lock were slowly parting. Both in front of her as well as in the simulation. Like on the screen, Wolfram adjusted the course slightly to exit the lock with a slight starboard trajectory. 

When the gates were a bit more then half open, the simulation flashed three times.

Wolfram pushed the throttle controls forward, the Ruhig Blut very slowly starting to move. Cara could feel through her feet the roar of the old gods below, the lights on the bridge flickering a bit but then growing brighter than before. Several displays above the helm came alive with time readings all counting down. That’s how long the engines will last”, Erika murmured to her.

Now, after it had overcome its inertia and started to push against the water, the ship was starting to really get moving.

Wolfram pulled on the chain waking the foghorn the ship used to announce its presence. As its deep, powerful roar shook the towers around them, it dared anyone who could hear it to stand in their way as the Ruhig Blut accelerated into the Purgatory Gap.

Project Empress 020

 [Chapter 5 continued]

Cara followed Erika down the metal staircase, away from the daylight that came from the skylight above, down into a gloomy darkness which was dimly lit by strange LEDs from below. 

“They are grow lights”, Erika said, as Cara was still wondering about the strange colour of them. It was then that she saw ivy growing up the handrail. Slowly creeping towards the daylight above, while at the same time stretching towards the synthetic light below. It gave the plant a strange appearance, like it was desperately trying to escape the depths but with a strange force trying to keep it closer to the darkness below. Cara was so distracted by the strange plant that she had the feeling like she had been walking down this stairs for an eternity.

“How deep is this machine of yours?”, Cara asked feeling that by now they had to be below the ship, below the water in some unfathomable depth below the earth. 

“So very deep. If in front of us is Purgatory below us is just the cold damp world of the dead gods”, Erika said.

Cara shivered, regretting not having taken a scarf and stayed above with the others. They had tried to warn her. 

When Erika saw Cara’s reaction she laughed. “Don’t worry Cara, we are just below the waterline. Here are the batteries, the labs, the special stores and of course”, she paused dramatically; they had arrived at the  bottom of the stairs, there was just one reinforced steel bulkhead door, almost overgrown by the crawling ivy cast in a baleful green light. She opened the door with a flourish, letting Cara see what was behind it, “there are the dead gods sleeping.” Behind the door, slightly deeper than the floor were many different engines and machines Cara didn’t recognise, bathed in a strangely warm, amber light. The smell was half that of a chippy and the other half was that strange slightly sharp odour, that she could not identify. Here that smell was crisp and harsh. It smelled tempting, but like something that, when you got too close to it, would hurt you if you weren’t careful. Cara did not move forward.

“Come on”, Erika said, “the old monsters won’t bite you. They are tamed and very well behaved. Well mostly, block one is a spoilt little child sometimes. Aren’t you, Alekto Sinister?”, she said moving to the first engine on the left which she gently patted like one would a puppy. 

“What is all this?”, Cara asked. Upstairs Natalie and Wolfram shivered. Erika in front of Cara grinned broadly. “I’m so glad you asked”, she said, almost giddy with halfheartedly hidden enthusiasm. 

“These are the last V8s. Four Diesel and two petrol, with two-stage variable turbo chargers, I call them my little furies, the port furies and the starboard furies. 

And further back is Juno, our gas turbine.” Erika’s pride was now outshining everything else in the room.

“Diesel? Petrol!?”, Cara said, her voice croaked. “These are the forbidden fuels! If the church finds out you have them…”, Cara was at a loss for words. 

“The dead gods do not drink of the forbidden blood anymore. We feed them only the freshest elixirs.”

“I don’t understand anything you are saying”, Cara said, slowly walking back over the threshold. 

Erika was beaming even more than before. “Then let me explain. It takes weeks sometimes months to produce enough of the Essence on which these ancient engines run. The petrol engines run on what I distil from the liquid trees.”

“Liquid trees?”, Cara said, imagining horrible melted masses of bark and leaf matter. 

“Yes. The navigation lights”, Erika said. “Both are tubes filled with nutrient broth in which algae grow. There is a light source in the centre, the filtered ships exhaust goes through them, feeding the algae with CO2. They also give the lights their colour. Red ones on the port side and blue-green ones on the starboard side. From the algae, once they die, I can produce the fuel for the petrol engines. What remains goes unto the pile that creates the gas for the Juno. And we recycle our oils and fat and actually get paid for taking old cooking oils on board”, Erika laughed. “We get paid for it”, she shook her head. “Anyway, that goes into the Diesel engines.” 

“Oh”, Cara said, slowly stepping back into the engine room, where the gods were sleeping. “Can I touch them?”, she asked Erika. 

“Now, yes, but later when they are running, no. So take advantage of the situation, because soon it will be too late.”

Cara slowly extended her hand, first poking one of the engines softly. When that didn’t strike her down immediately, she used the palm of her hand to feel the metal surface of it. It was hard to imagine that these compact metal things were what caused the Dies Irae, which almost led to the apocalypse. Cara had never been much of a religious person, she was to easily distracted. She was often confused by the parts of the doctrine that she could not fit together in a way that made sense to her, however she had always loved the stories during mass. And while they were intended as a dire warning, she always enjoyed the sermons about the almost apocalypse the most. 

These were the engines that had feasted on the blood of the Adversary…

“Are you sure we are safe with these?”, she asked her fear tinged with a growing splash of excitement. 

“As safe as we can get. I keep improving everything around the ship, to make it as efficient as possible”, Erika was now walking around the large engine room starting to work on various levers, connectors, running checks and activating devices. To Cara it all looked very exiting. Lights were coming on, started blinking and little electric engines came to life, pumping strange fluids through all matters of hoses and tubes.

“The Ruhig Blut, is not the largest freighter there is. We can transport far less than any other commercial vessel of this size, but there is no ship that can transport as large a variety of things as this ship. Passengers, liquid gas, coal, machines, life-stock, letters, plants, you name it we can transport it. With the help of the dead gods here, we can reach places with ease that other don’t dare even get close too. We also respect all decent people, we deal with moneterians, traders and gifters with equal ease. Some people say we waste resources. I say we invest in diversity and more importantly we invest in fun.”

“Fun?”, Cara said looking around. The tomb of the old gods felt as impressive as the catacombs of Monasteria, but fun…

Erika’s smile retreated into the shadows established by her eyebrows, lingering in it waiting for its moment. “You will see”, she walked back to a slightly raised platform where a strange looking seat was bolted in front of an array of control panels. She grabbed a pair of ear protectors and threw them towards Cara. She noticed to late and the ear protectors hit her as her hands closed around empty air, but she could pull a leg up before the protectors clattered to the ground, her arms darting down catching them in the last second. She looked up with burning ears, but Erika had turned around to get hold of an old telephone speaker. 

“Put them on”, Erika said. “You’ll need them soon.”

Erika grabbed hold of crank near the speakers cradle and turned it a couple of times vigorously. After a moment she said. “Si, caro mio, we are ready. How does it look up there? Perfect. We’ll get ready.”

She hung up. Turning back to Cara, her smile pouncing back into the limelight and turning into a triumphant grin, she said:

“It is not dead what can eternal lie,

for a machine is immortal.”

She turned back around to Cara still wondering about the strange words. Erika sat down, holding up her left hand counting down with her fingers.

5

Cara put her hearing protectors on.

4

She checked if they fit correctly.

3

She snapped her fingers around her head to test if they were working.

2

Cara nodded to herself steeling herself for what may come.

1

Around her all the engines came back to life all at once, with a throaty roar.

‘That wasn’t so bad.’, Cara thought, while in front of her Erika, her left hand held up again one finger pointing towards the ceiling, now waved her hand forwards, while her right pushed an array of levers forward.

The dead gods around Cara all leapt back to life with a unified deep roar full of fire and fury.

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.