Thistle in the Sky | #NONC2022 | ✔

Chapter Twenty-One

The ship will come, repeated Gemi's thoughts. The ship will come. The ship will come.

She'd been repeating it like a mantra ever since they'd been blocked down here. Farah envied her belief. Even with few to no other options available, she still harbored more doubts than faith that the Nectamia would arrive and do anything useful to get them off the ship. She closed her eyes and fished in the mindspace for Kaz, but the cargo hold was just out of reach. Even for their extended connection. Kaz would have felt as the monster shifted. The tentacle in the cargo hold may have been among the ones moving. Kaz would have no way of knowing it was the fault of the wind; for all he knew, the monster might have found Farah and Gemi and captured them both in one good strike.

Gemi lifted the radio transmitter she held hugged to her chest and checked its dial for the hundredth time. Through connecting the tracking card with her other equipment, she'd been able to identify what frequency it transmitted at, and had set the radio dial there in the hopes that the Nectamia would take the clue and answer over the same channel. It was that or the common shipping frequency. Gemi dialed to that one again. The occasional blips of other communications popped like bubbles in the static, fading in and out, too far away to hear more than garbled syllables. Gemi switched back. She continued to do so at irregular intervals, fingers fluttering over the dial with impressive accuracy. Farah got the sense that more than serving a practical purpose, the exercise helped Gemi keep her anxieties under control.

The radio crackled.

Gemi nearly dropped it on the floor. Farah's hand shot out, but Gemi caught the receiver and clutched it with shaking hands. Both of them sat still as statues, eyes glued to the perforated speaker. Another crackle made them both jump. This time, it was followed by a voice.

"ZC 22 Nectamia to ZF 16 Ariomma. Can you hear me? Over."

It was over the private frequency. Gemi fumbled with the speaking button in her haste to reply. When she got her finger on it, she lifted the radio close enough to kiss it.

"ZF 16 Ariomma to ZC 22 Nectamia. Loud and clear. Are you close? Over."

"Close enough to ask what in Ilviari and Zemenish's names crawled out of the thin spaces and is sitting on top of your ship. How many of you are still alive? Over."

Gemi exchanged a glance with Farah, who shook her head grimly.

"Just three," said Gemi into the radio. "Two of us are trapped in the gondola. The third is in the cargo hold. All safe for now, until it starts moving again. Over."

"Give me a minute. Over."

The line returned to static. Gemi tried to ease her grip on the radio. She was clutching it so hard, her knuckles had gone pale.

The radio operator returned within a minute. "ZC 22 Nectamia to ZF 16 Ariomma. If that's a Tideless jellyfish like you said before, we can open fire and try to scare it off, but your ship will be in danger. We'll have to grab you fast. Can you get your third member to the gondola? Over."

Farah whispered, "If they distract it enough to get that tentacle out of the way, I can get Kaz."

Gemi nodded and turned back to the radio. "You'll need to open fire to distract it. But yes, then we might be able to. Over."

"Roger that."

There was another pause. Farah could picture the radio operator on board the Nectamia speaking with superiors on the other end of the line, confirming alignment of guns or angle of approach.

"ZC 22 Nectamia to ZF 16 Ariomma. Ready when you are. Over."

Gemi exchanged a nod with Farah. "We're ready."

Farah risked a glance out from under the desk. She couldn't see the Nectamia out the shattered windows; it must be approaching from their side of the ship. Gemi began to count in her head. At twenty-two, a crack sounded from the sky behind them. It was followed by a flash of orange light, then a boom from the top of the Ariomma. The tentacle on the stairs seized. The ship began to shudder like an earthquake's early signs as the slithering of a dozen tentacles filled the walls and hallways and envelope outside.

Another crack. The Nectamia was firing pyro shells: the kind that exploded in a fireball on contact. They were good for taking down airships—particularly damaged ones—but had a known use against swarms of Tideless jellyfish, whose instincts gave them fear of fire. The tentacle on the radio-room stairs began to withdraw. The monster was gathering its tentacles inward. All across the ship, Farah could hear them, crawling from holes and rooms, coiling up towards the caved-in part of the envelope. The tinkle of sliding glass filled the radio room as the extra weight began to tilt the floor.

A third shell exploded near the top of the ship. And just like that, the tentacle in the hallway outside whipped away.

"Go!" cried Gemi.

Farah froze at the realization of what she was about to do. The Nectamia was going to stage a rescue from the gondola. If they arrived before she returned with Kaz, only goodwill would keep Gemi from taking the escape route and leaving them to sink with the ship. If she threw in the fact that Farah was a thistle, and the one who'd pulled a knife on the Nectamia's first mate besides, that was all the ammunition she'd need.

"Farah, you need to get Kaz before it attacks again, or—"

"ZC 22 Nectamia to ZF 16 Ariomma. Your ship is smoldering. If you're not in the gondola already, you have three minutes; we can't risk staying any longer to wait. Over."

"Farah!"

"Will you wait for us?"

"Of course I will. I'll try to stall them if I have to."

She would have to trust Gemi's word. Snatching her shield, Farah sprang for the stairway. The hallway was empty. So was the mess hall, the stairway, and the second deck above. Farah reached the side catwalk and took off down it at a dead run. If the monster detected her now, there was nothing she could do about it. She'd scarcely reached the back of the ship when an almighty whoosh brought gusts of air churning in through every gap and pore of the ship. The Ariomma had caught fire.

The catwalk shuddered. Farah grabbed a girder as the ship righted itself with a groan. The monster had abandoned them. When the floor stopped rocking, Farah sprinted the last stretch to the cargo hold and thundered down the stairs. She flung open Kaz's crate, startling him. "On my back. We're on fire, and a rescue ship is here."

Kaz scrambled to his feet with her help. He bit back a whimper as she hoisted him onto her back, and hugged her tightly as they returned to the catwalks. Orange light leaked down through the gasbags overhead. The fire now crackled audibly. Farah hissed as a piece of burning material landed overhead. She scooted past before it burned through the last layer of goldbeater's skin still shielding them from the inferno. They had less than thirty ticks before the blaze reached this level of the ship, and she still had half its length to cover.

By now, the whole side catwalk glowed. At least the light made it easier to navigate than the night-darkness that still cloaked the sky outside. With the way ahead now level, Farah picked up her pace to a run. They made it to the docks as a great tearing sound blasted hot air after them from down the catwalk. The ship began to sink.